will@cvradio.com
GRAND ISLAND Agricultural producers from across the state on Friday implored members of Nebraska's congressional delegation to protect crop insurance provisions in crafting a new farm bill while also urging them to attempt to convince the Trump administration of the value of increased trade.
All five members of the delegation participated in the back-and-forth exchange at an agriculture farm bill listening session at the Nebraska State Fair in Grand Island.
The discussion took on a sense of urgency due to growing concerns that center on misconceptions about the size and scope of federal agricultural support at a time of domestic budget cuts.
Eighty percent of the funding in the farm bill is for nutrition programs, as compared with 13 percent for crop insurance, Sen. Ben Sasse noted.
Sen. Deb Fischer said "it won't be easy" to protect the program, which expires in 2018, noting that the farm bill already is subject to "some targeting" in Washington as a federal program to eliminate.
"My top priority will be to assure an affordable and viable farm safety net," she said.
Crop insurance is "vitally important to the future stability of agriculture," Nebraska Farm Bureau President Steve Nelson said. Ninety percent of the state's crop production acreage is enrolled in the crop insurance program, he said.
And the fact is that "Nebraska farmers and ranchers have paid more into (the program) than they have taken out," he said.
"It's our most important risk management tool," Steve Ebke of Daykin, past president of the Nebraska Corn Growers Association, said.
Most members of a large panel of agricultural producers urged the congressional delegation to push the Trump administration on trade, calling for protection of the North American Free Trade Agreement and urging swift action to negotiate a bilateral agreement with Japan in the wake of President Donald Trump's abrupt withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
"Some people inside the administration are confused about how trade works," Sasse said.
As the farm forum unfolded inside the Bosselman Center, marching bands from Wood River, Stapleton, Elm Creek, Hastings and Neligh-Oakdale high schools performed on the fairgrounds along with Hedrick's Racing Pigs.
It was a typical State Fair morning except for the weather, with the noontime temperature hovering at 70 degrees.
Rep. Don Bacon, a member of the House Agriculture Committee, said he believes the committee will "work hard" to try to craft a farm bill replacement before the current program expires in 2018.
"Maintaining affordable crop insurance is the No. 1 concern I hear," he said. But the "biggest pressure point" will be concerns about the federal budget deficit and the national debt, he said.
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a former member of the Agriculture Committee, said the growing trend in farm program legislation is to provide risk management tools.
But "critics will focus on crop insurance," Rep. Adrian Smith warned.
State Agriculture Director Greg Ibach said agriculture is "the leading economic driver in the state" and trade is vitally important for Nebraska.
"We need to expand market access," Fischer told the forum.
"We need to push our president," Bacon said.
Like most Americans, I recognize that infrastructure serves as a core purpose of the federal government. Recently, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao visited Omaha to talk with Nebraskans about how best to fix our transportation. We both understand that building and expanding our nations infrastructure represents an investment in our economy, public safety and national security. Broadband connects us to information we use on a daily basis. Airports keep families in touch and connect us to the world. Roads are more than lines on a map. They are a vision for the future.
Together, Secretary Chao and I met with Nebraskans to hear how we can make transportation and infrastructure plans work for our state. In Omaha, we spoke with representatives from the Nebraska Department of Transportation, leaders from the trucking, rail and aviation industries and the construction companies that will build our infrastructure. This meeting allowed us to participate in a good conversation about current and future infrastructure needs.
This past May, the president announced his intention to implement a national infrastructure plan, and Secretary Chao and I have been working together to enact long-term reforms on how infrastructure projects are regulated, funded, delivered and maintained. We need to follow through on the presidents leadership. This fall, when Congress goes back into session, we look forward to working together to make the presidents plan a reality.
The expansion of our transportation system offers a great opportunity for Congress and the White House to form a partnership that improves the lives of Americans. This partnership can focus on doing more than just building roads and fixing bridges, however, it can also create a vision for streamlining the process for building future projects. We must acknowledge that process matters as much as funding does when it comes to developing and constructing successful projects. Americans are ready to start building. Its up to us in Congress and at the Department of Transportation to make sure they succeed.
In designing this plan, we must also acknowledge that rural and urban areas have different needs when it comes to transportation. The best way to effectively fill the demands of both areas is to empower those who will use transportation projects to be the ones who design and build them. We can do that by implementing an infrastructure funding package that utilizes current programs while giving states the flexibility to prioritize projects that they deem most important.
Innovation should also be at the forefront of any plan to fix and expand our infrastructure. Washington must consider new ideas and different approaches that will utilize technology. One of the best ways to do this is by expediting the permitting process. These ideas would stretch the taxpayer dollar further and deliver better results for the American people. Its the best way to ensure that we are building projects that will last.
Congress should also encourage targeted, strategic and long-term investments that strengthen safety, facilitate commerce and enhance the reliability of our transportation system. The best way to do this is to use the FAST Act as a foundation for more expansion, and thats what I will be pushing for in the Senate.
In 2015, Congress passed the Fixing Americas Surface Transportation, or FAST Act. It was our first long-term highway bill in more than a decade and used creative thinking to help fund transportation without going into further debt. For example, the FAST Act included a new national strategic freight program that provides every state with annual, guaranteed funding. By dedicating funding for rural and urban freight corridors, the program enhances the flow of commercial traffic and increases safety on our nations roads.
Infrastructure represents the future of America. I look forward to working with Secretary Chao as we design and implement a national infrastructure bill that effectively builds projects that will last for generations.
A self-funded retiree, Mr Hay said if he knew then what he knows now, he would have invested his money in the stock market or in properties in other states.
It's an old story, freshened anew by Hurricane Harvey: Republicans profess to hate "Big Guvmint" as a matter of principle -- until catastrophe hits a red state. Suddenly, they're fine with federal spending and completely dump their rhetorical boilerplate about the nanny state.
And hey, Texas is truly entitled to all the help it needs. It's just annoying that the Republicans currently begging for help are such hypocrites.
When New Jersey -- indeed, the entire East Coast -- needed massive federal aid in the wake of Sandy, Texas Republicans denounced it as "pork" and voted against it. But now that their own fiefdom has been devastated, it's supposedly a different deal. For proof, let's check in with Texas' most infamous performance artist, Sen. Ted Cruz.
In January 2013, when Congress readied a $50 billion Sandy recovery package, 36 Republican senators -- including Cruz and fellow Texas Sen. John Cornyn -- voted to reject it. Those are the same senators, who, in the wake of Harvey, wrote a letter begging the federal government "to provide any and all emergency protective measures."
This week, when Cruz was on MSNBC pleading for his "any and all" Harvey recovery package, he was asked about his thumbs-down Sandy vote. In response, he insisted that "the bill was filled with unrelated pork. Two-thirds of that bill had nothing to do with Sandy."
Cruz lied.
According to a report released four years ago by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, virtually all of that recovery money was targeted for damage caused by Sandy -- plus, in a few cases, to repair lingering damage from previous disasters. Some of the naysaying Texas Republicans (23 of 24 House members voted "no") had also complained that a slice of the Sandy money was earmarked for the Head Start program -- but, as the fact-checkers point out, "that was limited to facilities that had been damaged (by Sandy) in New Jersey and New York."
But hey, when Texas gets whacked, their impulse is to open the spigot. As Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin observed, "When something like Harvey comes long, the light ever so briefly goes on for the anti-government types ... When the tragedy is in deep-red Texas, not deep-blue New Jersey or New Orleans, suddenly the wonders of government become clear to them ... The crew that cheered Trump's proposed 11 percent cut to FEMA (government is bad!) will support billions of dollars in Harvey relief (my people are suffering!)."
This kind of thing is standard Republican (mis)behavior. I'll refresh your memory:
Tom Cotton, the Arkansas Republican senator, voted "no" on that Sandy recovery package -- but in 2015, he pleaded for federal money when his red state was hit by floods. Four Colorado Republican lawmakers voted "no" on the Sandy package -- but months later, they pleaded for federal money when their state was hit by floods.
In 2011, Oklahoma Sens. Tom Coburn and James Inhofe tried to cut FEMA's budget, and when the emergency agency temporarily ran out of money, Coburn voted not to refund it. Then, in 2013, both guys voted "no" on the Sandy package. But when their own state got hit by killer tornadoes later that year, they begged for federal aid. Coburn declared: "As the ranking member of the committee that oversees FEMA, I can assure Oklahomans that any and all available aid will be delivered without delay."
Then we have South Carolina. This one is a classic.
None of the senators or congressmen voted for the 2013 Sandy recovery package. House member Mick Mulvaney -- who now serves as Trump's budget director -- even insisted that if the federal government sent aid to New Jersey, there should be corresponding cuts elsewhere in the federal budget. But in 2015, when South Carolina was flooded by a killer storm, Mulvaney suddenly felt differently. He insisted that his state's relief money didn't need to be offset by budget cuts elsewhere: "There will be a time for a discussion about aid and how to pay for it, but that time is not now."
The star of that show was Sen. Lindsey Graham. He also voted "no" on the Sandy package, falsely calling it a "porkfest." But when South Carolina got flooded, he surfaced on CNN to say that the taxpayers needed to pony up, big time: "Rather than put a price tag on it, let's just get through this thing, and whatever it costs, it costs."
But that line of his -- "whatever it costs, it costs" -- sounds like the Cruz-Cornyn letter, which begs for "any and all" federal bucks. Hence, my definition of a big-government liberal: A conservative whose state has been hit by a climate catastrophe.
Rest assured when Congress votes on the Harvey recovery, Democrats won't whine about "pork" and budget "offsets." They'll vote to bail out Texas because they know it's the role of government to aid citizens in crisis. And the next time a climate disaster strikes a blue state, it would nice if Republicans park their hypocrisy and respond with the same generosity.
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car
I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
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Court records uncovered by Bloomberg reveal that 23 cell phones of Volkswagen employees, including its top U.S. lawyer and high-ranking executives, were either lost or erased as the diesel cheating scandal began to develop in late 2015.
Documents state that VW Group of Americas senior vice president for public affairs and public policy, David Geanacopoulos, lost his phone on December 1, 2015 travelling to Los Angeles International Airport.
In the months after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uncovered VWs diesel cheating, the cell phones of both VWs senior vice president of industry and government relations, Anna Schneider, and senior director of the automakers emissions test center, Matthias Barke, were erased of data.
Courts were made aware of the lost or erased phones in December 2016 and in the filing, the U.S. Federal Trade Commissions asked the judge to question VW officials about evidence and mobile phones being destroyed in the wake of the scandal.
It is alleged that the 23 phones were wiped or lost between September 2015 and February 2016.
In the filing, the FTC said In the context of the massive scandal at the center of this case, 23 lost or bricked phones is a bright red flag, especially when they include phones that belonged to important individuals.
Geanacopoulos says he made every attempt to find his phone after losing it. Meanwhile, both Barke and Schneider claim their phones were wiped of data after they entered the password incorrectly too many times.
In a statement, VW spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan said As we have stated previously, Volkswagen Group of America is not aware of any evidence that these mobile devices were intentionally wiped or lost. Nor has the Plaintiff produced any evidence that relevant data, including emails, were lost.
PHOTO GALLERY
The Acura / Honda NSX is truly an impressive machine but theres no hiding the fact that demand has tapered off since the supercar was launched.
While Honda recently announced plans to increase its allocations to the United Kingdom due to overwhelming demand, it seems the country is an outlier especially compared to Australia.
CarAdvice reports Honda confirmed they have only sold two NSXs in the country since the model was launched last year. To put that number into perspective, Audi has sold 21 R8 V10 plus models this year alone. The numbers dont look any better when you compare NSX sales to other vehicles such as the Mercedes-AMG GT or Nissan GT-R Nismo as the automakers have sold 72 and 21 units, respectively.
Despite the slow sales, Honda doesnt seem concerned as public relations manager Neil McDonald said the NSX is halo vehicle and it wasnt positioned, nor was it expected, to chase outright volume sales. McDonald went on to say [The] NSX has allowed Honda to raise the profile of the brand here through its hybrid technology, performance, exclusivity, and ultimately the type of driving experience that evokes memories of the original NSX, but through a 21st century execution.
As a result, Honda is happy with the response and notes three new orders are in the works. When that occurs, Honda will have more than doubled sales of the NSX in Australia.
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Opening a new era in cancer care, the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the first treatment that genetically engineers patients' own blood cells into an army of assassins to seek and destroy childhood leukemia.
The CAR-T cell treatment developed by Novartis and the University of Pennsylvania is the first type of gene therapy to hit the U.S. market and one in a powerful but expensive wave of custom-made "living drugs" being tested against blood cancers and some other tumors, too.
FDA called the approval historic.
"This is a brand new way of treating cancer," said Dr. Stephan Grupp of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who treated the first child with CAR-T cell therapy a girl who'd been near death but now is cancer-free for five years and counting. "That's enormously exciting."
CAR-T treatment uses gene therapy techniques not to fix disease-causing genes but to turbocharge T cells, immune system soldiers that cancer too often can evade. Researchers filter those cells from a patient's blood, reprogram them to harbor a "chimeric antigen receptor" that zeroes in on cancer, and grow hundreds of millions of copies. Returned to the patient, the revved-up cells can continue multiplying to fight disease for months or years.
Novartis didn't immediately disclose the therapy's price but it is expected to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's made from scratch for every patient.
"We're entering a new frontier in medical innovation with the ability to reprogram a patient's own cells to attack a deadly cancer," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.
This first use of CAR-T therapy is aimed at patients desperately ill with a common pediatric cancer acute lymphoblastic leukemia that strikes more than 3,000 children and young adults in the U.S. each year. While most survive, about 15 percent relapse despite today's best treatments, and their prognosis is bleak.
In a key study of 63 advanced patients, 83 percent went into remission. It's not clear how long that benefit lasts: Some patients did relapse months later. The others still are being tracked to see how they fare long-term.
Still, "a far higher percentage of patients go into remission with this therapy than anything else we've seen to date with relapsed leukemia," said Dr. Ted Laetsch of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, one of the study sites. "I wouldn't say we know for sure how many will be cured yet by this therapy. There certainly is a hope" that some will be.
Most patients suffered side effects that can be grueling, even life-threatening. An immune overreaction called "cytokine release syndrome" can trigger high fevers, plummeting blood pressure and in severe cases organ damage, requiring special care to tamp down those symptoms without blocking the cancer attack. Also Wednesday, the FDA designated a treatment for those side effects.
For many ALL patients, the new CAR-T therapy might replace bone marrow transplants that cost more than half a million dollars, noted Grupp, who led the Novartis study.
"I don't want to be an apologist for high drug prices in the U.S.," Grupp stressed. But if it's the last treatment they need, "that's a really significant one-time investment in their wellness, especially in kids who have a whole lifetime ahead of them."
Initially, Novartis' CAR-T version to be sold under the brand name Kymriah will be available only through certain medical centers specially trained to handle the sophisticated therapy and its side effects. Patients' collected immune cells will be frozen and shipped to a Novartis factory in New Jersey that creates each dose, a process the company says should take about three weeks.
While this first use of CAR-T therapy only is aimed at a few hundred U.S. patients a year relapsed ALL patients up to age 25 it's being tested as a treatment for thousands more. Kite Pharma's similar CAR-T brand, developed by the National Cancer Institute, is expected to win approval later this year to treat aggressive lymphoma, and Juno Therapeutics and other companies are studying their own versions against blood cancers including multiple myeloma.
Scientists around the country also are trying to make CAR-T therapies that could fight more common solid tumors such as brain, breast or pancreatic cancers a harder next step.
The fallout from the Takata airbag recall has hit Honda pretty hard as Reuters is reporting the company has agreed to a $605 million settlement.
According to the publication, the settlement covers a variety of claims including everything from allegations the company inaccurately represented vehicles as safe. Owners will also be compensated for out-of-pocket costs, such as lost wages, they incurred while waiting for their vehicles to be equipped with replacement airbags.
While other automakers have reached similar settlements, Hondas agreement is noteworthy due to its cost. As the report notes, the five other automakers settled for a combined cost of around $650 million.
Hondas settlement covers approximately 16.5 million vehicles in the United States. Of these, 11.4 million are currently under recall and 5.1 million of the vehicles may be recalled at a later date.
The settlement also calls on Honda to attempt to speed up the replacement of the faulty airbags which have been blamed for the deaths of at least 18 people. The recall contintues to be a global problem and it pushed Takata into bankruptcy earlier this year.
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Renaults design boss Laurens van den Acker said that hes surprised that rival companies havent still tried to compete with their budget brand Dacia.
Weve been surprised because we know the competition will come, sooner or later. We expected it to be there already, so its quite amazing theres still no straight competitor for the Duster in the market, said van den Acker to Autocar at the reveal of the new Duster.
Renaults commitment to keeping Dacias affordable helped the Romanian brand cement its place in the market. Renault has had incredible discipline not to raise prices. Even our German friends have brands that start to bump into the brand above, van den Acker added.
Dacia has been really good at keeping their promise. Not all the money saving comes from cars; its in the business model: where we produce the cars, the fact Dacia are sold off the back of the Renault network, often in the same dealership.
It you took Renault out, you couldnt sell Dacia as a separate brand; for another company to create a new brand, theyd have to create a new network, which is very expensive, and that would find its way into the [price of the] car. The Renault/Dacia business model is unique and perhaps thats why its hard to replicate.
PHOTO GALLERY
Four months after rival Apple received a similar permit, the worlds largest smartphone manufacturer, Samsung, is now cleared to test self-driving cars on California roads.
Samsung didnt state what specifically they would want to test in the U.S., however, according to Business Insider, they requested the permit in their pursuit of a smarter, safer transportation future.
However, while Samsung is part of a large conglomerate that makes everything from phones, TVs, washing machines, heavy machinery and plenty others, the South Korean company said it has no plans to enter the car-manufacturing business.
By entering the U.S. autonomous vehicle landscape, Samsung will automatically fight against both rivals as well as partners. Aside from Apple, Samsung will join Waymo in this endeavor, a company that supplies the Android operating system that runs on Samsung phones.
Earlier this year, Samsung gained a similar approval for testing autonomous cars in South Korea, where local media anticipate that their self-driving prototype will be a Hyundai, equipped with all sorts of cameras and sensors designed by Samsung.
Volkswagen passenger car boss Dr. Herbert Diess has revealed the company hasnt given up on its quest to become a major player in the United States.
Speaking with Bloomberg, Diess said We have a plan to become successful here in the United States in the next years as a relevant volume player. Success doesnt happen overnight and the executive admitted as much by saying We cant win America over in two years time. Its a 10-year plan, but we are committed.
His sentiments were echoed by Volkswagen of America CEO Hinrich Woebcken who revealed the company will launch at least two new or redesigned models in the United States every year. Woebcken declined to say what customers can expect but he did confirm a new crossover will be launched by 2020.
Theres no word on what the crossover is but Diess dismissed earlier reports suggesting the T-Roc wouldnt be coming to America. Instead, he said a decision hasnt been made.
The goal of the product onslaught is to transform Volkswagen into a relevant brand that isnt a niche player. If everything goes according to plan, Volkswagen will eventually increase its U.S. market share to over five percent.
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Photo: CTV A telecommunication fraud targeting Chinese foreign nationals emerged in the Lower Mainland.
A telecommunication fraud targeting Chinese foreign nationals emerged in the Lower Mainland and a joint task force has been created to address and co-ordinate information about the ongoing scheme.
Staff Sgt. Annie Linteau said numerous incidents were reported to police where intended victims reported being contacted by suspects claiming to be Chinese government officials. Victims were informed that they were implicated in crimes in China.
The suspects then coerced the victims into a series of actions, warning if they didn't co-operate, their families in China would be harmed. Simultaneously, their families in China were contacted by the suspects who convinced them that their family members were being held against their will, which led to a demand for money, said Linteau.
In each case, the suspects falsely claimed to be Chinese government officials. While the methods used to target the victims may change over time, the way to protect yourself remains the same. Anyone who receives such a message or phone call should not comply with any demands, end the conversation and report the incident to police immediately.
Senior leaders of the RCMP recently met representatives of the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China to share concerns over recent incidents, inform them of investigative actions to date and discuss outreach strategies.
The Chinese Consulate General in Vancouver reminds Chinese nationals in Canada, should anyone be involved in criminal investigation in China, the legal documents will be sent by formal written notice through Chinese Embassy in Ottawa or Consulates General in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and Calgary.
The diplomatic or consular agencies will not contact criminal suspect by phone, nor will they ask for personal banking information. Those having received such fraud phone calls are encouraged to report to police at 911 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
Culture Vulture TV's Leanne Allen is back with an Okanagan Top 10 of fun things to see and do for September.
Photo: UBCO
Stressed for back to school? Find a furry friend.
Research from UBC Okanagan finds just 20 minutes with a dog significantly reduces student stress.
Our research has proven that short animal therapy sessions significantly reduce both stress and a feeling of homesickness in students, says Faculty of Education assistant professor John-Tyler Binfet. Yet, that same session with a therapy dog significantly increases a students sense of belonging to their school.
Attending post-secondary school is for many the first time away from family, and comes with increased academic expectations and other demands.
For the past five years at UBCO, Binfet has offered a drop-in animal-assisted therapy program called B.A.R.K. (Building Academic Retention through K9s). His program was recently cited in Psychology Today as one of the most innovative, and largest, pet therapy programs at a post-secondary institution.
Binfet had students complete a brief survey on their stress levels, and results published this summer show that just 20 minutes with a therapy dog improves well-being.
According to a national survey of colleges and universities, more than 50 per cent of students in post-secondary environments report feeling hopeless, and of that group 40 per cent report high depression levels.
Photo: File photo Ben Stewart with former Premier Christy Clark.
The former MLA for Westside-Kelowna has officially thrown his hat into the ring for the BC Liberals in the upcoming by-election for the Kelowna West riding.
The former governing party of B.C. will nominate Ben Stewart in the riding previously represented by Christy Clark.
Stewart, founder and director of Quail's Gate Winery, was the MLA for the community from 2009 to 2013, before resigning his seat weeks after winning it and allowing Premier Christy Clark run in the riding.
Clark, the leader of the BC Liberal Party at the time, had lost in her own riding of Vancouver-Point Grey in the 2013 election, despite the BC Liberals taking office.
Following his resignation, Stewart was appointed B.C.'s special representative to Asia, to strengthen the ties that attract new investment to British Columbia, according to Clark at the time.
In the May 2017 election, Clark handily won her seat in the now-named Kelowna West riding, but the NDP, backed by the Green Party, formed government.
A month after saying she would stay on as leader of the BC Liberal Party and MLA for Kelowna West, Clark resigned.
"Representing the constituents of Kelowna West and serving British Columbia has been the honour of my lifetime, and Im humbled by the community's support and this opportunity to serve again, Stewart said in a press release announcing his candidacy.
The government has until Feb. 4, 2018 to call the by-eleciton.
Theres no excuse to delay, the people of Kelowna West deserve a great representative like Ben in the legislature, and John Horgan should give them a chance to vote right away, said BC Liberal interim leader Rich Coleman.
Stewart's formal nomination will take place Sept. 21 at the Westbank Lions Hall.
Shelley Cook ran for the NDP in Kelowna West in the latest election, while Robert Mellalieu ran for the Green Party. Neither party has announced a candidate for the upcoming by-election.
Castanet's Evening Update for Friday, Sept, 1, with news director Jon Manchester, in for Wayne Moore.
Photo: Contributed
Photo: The Canadian Press
It wasn't the best call Bear 164 has ever made, but this time the hefty grizzly just out of his teenage years got lucky. Traffic was whizzing along the Trans-Canada Highway east of Banff National Park around suppertime on July 28 when 164 decided he needed to cross.
A car believed to have been going 100 km/h slammed into the bear so hard it was no longer drivable.
"There was fairly significant damage to the front end of the vehicle. We were assuming we were going to have a dead bear on our hands and we'd have to go and recover the body," John Paczkowski, an ecologist for Alberta Environment and Parks, recounted Friday.
But then, as if some grizzly guardian angel was on duty, Bear 164 picked himself up and ran off into the trees.
The bear had been captured a little more than a year before, so parks staff waited for a mortality sensor on its collar to tell them of the bear's fate.
"If that collar stops moving for several hours ... the pulse rate and the beep that we hear changes ... which means the collar has fallen off or the animal has died."
But 164 was still moving the next morning and a conservation officer spotted him walking with just a bit of limp, but no signs of significant injury.
On Aug. 16, it was time to see how he was doing. Parks staff located him, darted him and replaced his old collar with a new GPS unit. "He was really in good shape when we had a look at him," Paczkowski said.
The grizzly, who's about seven years old, had almost doubled his weight to about 135 kilograms from when he was first collared 14 months earlier.
Paczkowski said male grizzlies can live to 20 or more years if they avoid traffic, but 164 lives a bit of a "high-risk lifestyle.... A traumatic experience like that would probably wisen him up to trying to cross the highway."
The board of Capital Area Transit voted 5-2 Thursday to issue a bid request for management services, quashing Cumberland Countys hopes of moving more rapidly to a merger with Rabbittransit.
Both of Cumberland Countys representatives to the public transit agency voted against the motion to issue a request for proposals, but were outvoted by representatives from Dauphin County and the City of Harrisburg, which have three and two board seats, respectively.
Cumberland County officials had pushed for CATs board to endorse a trial period in which Rabbittransit, a York-based public transit authority, would provide management and administrative services to CAT, as a precursor to the creation of a consolidated regional transit authority.
The decision on Thursday to not move forward with the proposal was viewed by Cumberland County as a stalling tactic by CATs more entrenched interests in Dauphin County and Harrisburg.
This is more evidence that theyre working in bad faith when it comes to regionalization, Cumberland County Commissioner Gary Eichelberger said. This is really the end of the line for the self-preservation faction in CAT to hide what theyre doing.
Cumberland County Commissioner Jim Hertzler agreed.
Were treading water here while the taxpayers lose money. This is another kick-the-can-down-the-road move, Hertzler said.
But Dauphin and Harrisburg officials continued to emphasize a more cautious approach. During Thursdays meeting, the board also unanimously passed a resolution to establish a regionalization committee, which will bring in representatives from Rabbittransit as well as from Lebanon Transit and the South Central Transit Authority.
Well know whos at the table and who isnt, said Chad Saylor, chief clerk for Dauphin County and one of the countys representatives to the board. Lebanon and SCTA, which covers Berks and Lancaster, have not given definitive answers on their interest in regionalization, Saylor said.
The problem is that Cumberland County has already made up their mind as to what they want to do, Saylor said after the meeting. This doesnt mean that a Rabbittransit merger is off the table, Saylor said, but it isnt the slam-dunk Cumberland officials want it to be.
I think its a very viable option, Saylor said. Its hard to not look at Rabbittransit and be impressed but theyre not the only option.
Regional
A regional merger of CAT would save its funding partners a projected $5.2 million over the next five years, due to PennDOT funding incentives. PennDOT, which subsidizes local transit agencies throughout the state, projects considerable savings of its own if it can induce local authorities to consolidate and reduce overhead costs.
A six-month trial of Rabbittransits management was the favored option for regionalization in a report that CAT had commissioned from David Kilmer, the current head of SCTA who led the merger of the Berks and Lancaster transit systems.
For Cumberland officials, this was more than enough forming another study committee was just circling back in the same direction. CATs board had already voted in March to pass a resolution to begin stakeholder meetings on regionalization, which appears to have resulted in calls for more meetings.
We already commissioned a study, and the result was specifically that trying Rabbittransit was the most viable option, said Scott Wyland, one of Cumberland Countys two CAT board representatives.
But Bruce Weber, one of Harrisburgs board appointees, argued that CAT could not jump ahead with Rabbittransit sans any formal search process.
Its our fiscal and moral responsibility to look for the lowest responsible bidder, Weber said. We dont have anything concrete from Rabbittransit yet.
If York can do it, maybe someone else can do it with better terms, said board chair Eric Bugaile, a Dauphin representative.
Two agreements are at issue, Weber said: the search for a merger partner or partners, and the need to find a new management contractor to run CAT in the interim. Since the departure of its former executive director and staff attrition this year, CAT has received management and administrative support form McDonald Transit, a Texas-based public transit consulting firm.
Extension questioned
CATs board also voted Thursday to extend McDonalds service contract for at least another three months until bid results come in. But Cumberland County asked why the new request for bids would be extended to McDonald and others, since management would ultimately need to be done by whichever agency CAT consolidates with, be it Rabbittransit or another agency.
I dont see the benefit of outsourcing management to someone outside of a neighboring county, said Mike Clapsadl, Cumberland Countys other board representative. Were not ultimately going to regionalize with a consulting firm in Texas.
CAT continues to struggle with service gaps and cost increases Cumberland County objected earlier this year to a budget that projected a 13 percent increase in administrative costs and an 8 percent reduction of service.
The agency continues to struggle with excessive overtime, but has recently filled seven of 13 open positions and was fairly close to staying within budget for the first month of the 2018 fiscal year, which started July 1, according to Tom Reynolds, the McDonald Transit consultant serving as CATs CEO.
The states auditor general, Eugene DePasquale, also supported the trial merger with Rabbittransit in a statement issued Wednesday.
Capital Area Transit is one of the most costly public transit agencies in the state and is clearly on some unstable ground, DePasquale said. As a resident of York County, I understand Rabbittransit is well-run and efficient. After a general review of the proposal at the request of the Cumberland County commissioners, I believe CAT and its riders could well benefit from the expertise offered by Rabbittransits management team.
DePasquales office had been asked by Cumberland County commissioners to audit CAT after controversy over disparities within CATs executive pension system, which Cumberland officials had slammed as overly generous and mismanaged.
Eichelberger and Hertzler said Cumberland County would consider all its options for continuing to press CAT for reform and to take up the Rabbittransit deal. Eichelberger said he preferred a harder stance.
We should be seeking to withdraw the county from CAT, Eichelberger said. I think theres something to be said for suspending all funding immediately. We already tried the high road and it was the road to nowhere.
Photo: Contributed Highway 24
Highway 24 closed in both directions 17 km east of junction with Highway 97 and Horse Lake road because of Forest Fire.
Horse Lake road is available as detour for non commercial vehicles. A Commercial vehicle detour is open through Prince George or Cache Creek.
Madison Erhardt
UPDATE: 6 a.m.
RCMP confirm the suspicious death of a man in West Kelowna Friday night.
Police continue to secure a scene and investigate the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the body in the Glenrosa neighbourhood.
About 8:15 p.m., RCMP responded to reports of shots heard on the 3400 block of McTaggart Road. Officers arrived to find a deceased male inside a vehicle.
The police investigation is in its early stages, as RCMP work to confirm the identity of the deceased, whose death is being treated as suspicious in nature, Cpl. Jesse ODonaghey said in a press release issued early Saturday.
RCMP will continue to secure the scene, gather evidence and canvas the residential neighbourhood for potential witnesses.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the West Kelowna RCMP detachment at 250-768-2880 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-222-8477, www.crimestoppers.net or by texting CRIMES (274637) ktown.
UPDATE: 11 p.m.
A heavy police presence remains on the street.
Castanet has learned that the possible shooting occurred on McTaggart Road.
The area continues to be blocked by emergency vehicles and caution tape.
UPDATE 10:17 p.m.
There are unconfirmed reports of gunshots fired and a possible body found in the driveway on Mciver Road.
Multiple police vehicles and ambulances remain on scene.
Caution tape was put along McTaggart and Mciver. The area remains blocked off.
"It is very scary to see this. You wouldn't think this would happen on such a nice street," a neighbour said.
ORIGINAL: 8:45 p.m.
Six police cars and two ambulances were reported seen on Mciver Road in West Kelowna.
A Castanet reporter is heading to the area.
More information as it becomes available.
Photo: BC Wildfire Service Wildfire burning near Cranbrook.
The Moyie Lake area near Cranbrook was partially evacuated Friday night due to a forest fire.
The Regional District of East Kootenay issued the order due to the Lamb Creek wildfire, which is burning about five kilometres northwest of the community. Moyie is 18 km southwest of Cranbrook.
The 220-hectare wildfire is in difficult terrain, containing volatile fuel types that will challenge fire suppression operations, the district says.
Thirty-five personnel were fighting the fire and building fire guards Friday, with the aid of six pieces of heavy equipment, five helicopters and airtankers.
Meanwhile, an evacuation alert was issued for the St. Mary's River area, 14 km northeast of Cranbrook.
A 250-hectare wildfire there had 12 personnel on site, with airtanker, helicopter and heavy equipment support. The cause of that fire is under investigation.
With increased wind activity in the Southeast Fire Centre, along with hot, dry conditions, the BC Wildfire Service anticipates an increase in fire activity over the long weekend.
Photo: CRD
Wildfire evacuations were ordered Friday in the Canim Lake area, northeast of 100 Mile House.
The Cariboo Regional District issued an evacuation order for the South Canim Lake area following tactical evacuation earlier in the day.
Residents were advised to evacuate via Canim Lake Road to 100 Mile House.
Evacuees are advised to:
Leave the area immediately.
Close all windows and doors.
Shut off all gas and electrical appliances, other than refrigerators and freezers.
Close gates (latch) but do not lock.
Gather your family: take a neighbour or someone who needs help.
Take critical items (medicine, purse, wallet, and keys) only if they are immediately available. Take pets in pet kennels or on leash.
Not use more vehicles than they have to.
Not use the telephone unless you need emergency service.
Evacuees should register with Emergency Support Services in 100 Mile House at the South Cariboo Recreation Centre (175 Wrangler Way).
Group lodging will be available at the Gibraltar Room in the Cariboo Memorial Complex. (525 Proctor Street).
Photo: Google Maps
A suspect is in custody following the serious assault of Trail senior.
Multiple charges have been laid against a 25-year-old Trail man, following a police investigation into several criminal incidents, including the assault of an elderly man.
RCMP said Friday they received a report of a man down in the middle of Bay Avenue near Highway 3B in downtown Trail on Aug. 22.
Police arrived to find an unconscious 78-year-old male, lying in the road, bleeding from the head.
The victim was taken to hospital in serious condition.
Photo: CTV
The 'Rainbow Railroad' has saved more than 30 people from persecution.
The charity partnered with the Canadian government to help dozens of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender refugees escape persecution in Russias Chechnya republic.
According to Kimalhi Powell, executive director of Rainbow Railroad, Chechen forces were abducting, torturing and murdering gay men.
Powell says the charity worked with the Russian LGBT Network to establish safe houses for 37 people looking to escape the country.
The group then worked with the Canadian government to secure emergency visas.
So far, 31 people have arrived in Canada.
Rainbow Railroad says it has helped more than 140 persecuted individuals escape to safe countries in 2017.According to a 2017 report by ILGA, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, 72 countries still criminalize homosexuality.
In some countries, such as Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Yemen, homosexuality is punishable by the death penalty.
Photo: Colton Davies
A white Dodge Ram, a silver Dodge Durango and an orange Dodge Ram came together Saturday in a three-vehicle accident on the Channel Parkway near Skaha Lake Road.
Penticton Fire Department Cpt. Graham Gouwe, said the accident happened at 2:20 p.m. between Skaha Lake Road and Green Avenue West.
It is not known at this time if anyone was injured in the fender bender.
- with files from Colton Davies
At first they thought it was the work of a very large and active rodent.
A hole had opened up on the boundary line between properties owned by Tom Faley and his neighbor in the Oaks development of South Middleton Township.
I got down on my knees and looked in, said Faley, recalling a memory from eight years ago. I dont think its a groundhog hole, he told his neighbor. I think its a dinosaur hole.
A retired Army colonel, Faley saw that a massive cavity had formed from just under the turf of the drainage swale to the rock layer below. It was a sinkhole requiring Faley and his neighbor to split the repair bill at about $1,200 each.
Faley moved into the Oaks in 1992. Since then, neighbors have reported about a dozen sinkholes to him, all but two of which surfaced before 2007. Part of his job as a township supervisor is to serve as a sounding board for resident concerns and complaints.
Sinkholes are a problem for anyone in our township and much of Cumberland County, said Faley, adding that the area north of the Yellow Breeches is particularly prone.
A history of holes
In 2013, a home was condemned as structurally unsound after a water main break opened up a sinkhole under Walnut Street in Boiling Springs. The township road crew in late March filled a sinkhole on Fairfield Street near the Trindle Inn. In mid-August, the public works department fixed a sinkhole on Alexander Spring Road.
More recently, a police officer on patrol in Upper Allen Township noticed a dip in the road in the eastbound lane of the 100 block of Cumberland Parkway in that township. That sinkhole forced the township police department to close the road for four days from Saturday, Aug. 26, to Tuesday, Aug. 29. The repair was complicated by gas and sewer lines that hung suspended over the gap that formed after the erosion of the soil and underlying limestone rock.
Over the years, sinkholes have developed at other locations throughout the township including Market Plaza Way, Friendship Park, Cumberland Parkway west of the most recent sinkhole and the area near the Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School.
Each year Upper Allen Township officials budget about $50,000 toward emergency road work that includes repairs associated with sinkholes, Township Manager Lou Frazekas said. Cost estimates on the latest sinkhole were unavailable by press-time.
Faley believes sinkholes tend to form in areas where water is allowed to sit. He cited the case of a neighbor who had three sinkholes develop in a catch basin on his property. The sinkhole Faley had to repair was in a storm water drainage system.
Prior to moving to the Oaks, Faley knew nothing about sinkholes. Between hearing about the problem from his neighbors and spending money on a repair, Faley has received an education.
Some companies offer sinkhole coverage in their homeowner insurance policies, Faley said. However, it only tends to cover the repair of sinkhole damage to the foundation, he said.
Limestone
Peter Sak, associate professor of geology at Dickinson College, said the vast majority of sinkholes develop in areas with limestone and carbonate bedrock. This rock is what remains of a prehistoric reef system of corals, sponges and other marine life deposited when central Pennsylvania was like Florida or Bermuda.
All rain water is naturally acidic, Sak said. The water percolates through the soil and bedrock interacts with and dissolves the calcium carbonate. This creates voids in the bedrock where water can flow into and collect, accelerating the process. The voids often develop in areas where there are fractures in the rock that intersect to create a greater flow path.
The weight of everything above becomes too great and it collapses upon itself, Sak said. The result can be sinkholes that appear on the landscape as smaller holes or as depressions.
Much of Cumberland County between North and South Mountains is underlain by karst geology, limestone bedrock that can be eroded to form subsurface ridges, towers, fissures and sinkholes. Geologists William Kochanov and Stuart Reese developed a map for the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources showing the density of karst features in south-central and southeastern Pennsylvania.
The map depicts a concentration of karst features along the Cumberland Valley corridor from the Susquehanna River on the east southwest through Franklin County to the Maryland border. Other concentrations extend from an area south of Harrisburg city through Hershey and Palmyra and into Lebanon County. Portions of central York County and north-central Lancaster County are also prone to sinkholes.
Fazekas said heavy rainfall this summer has saturated the ground, causing the flow of water in aquifers to back up, swirl and collect in geology prone to developing sinkholes.
The more rain, the greater the flow through bedrock and the larger the voids in the subsurface, Sak said. He said sinkholes can also develop in areas where there has been underground mining or locations where too much groundwater has been drawn from wells or diverted by development.
The best way to repair a sinkhole is to go for the throat.
Sinkholes occur when erosion in the underlying limestone or carbonate bedrock causes a collapse that opens up a void at or near the surface.
Typically they are funnel-shaped, said Andrew Kenworthy, a civil engineer who is a regional vice-president of Herbert, Rowland & Grubic Inc., a Harrisburg-based engineering firm serving clients in the mid-Atlantic states.
Soil and debris from the collapse moves through a gap at the bottom of the funnel often referred to as the throat, Kenworthy said. While every sinkhole has its own cause and influence, it is standard procedure to begin a repair by digging out the dirt down the center of the funnel to first expose the throat and then use large aggregate stone to clog the opening and stop the flow, he said.
Once the flow is stopped, workers can backfill the sinkhole with layers of smaller aggregate stone topped by soil, Kenworthy said. But first the larger stone is often covered with a layer of geotextile material that allows water to pass through, but keeps the soil and smaller aggregate stone separate from the larger aggregate stone.
You dont want the smaller material to work its way through the stone and down the throat, Kenworthy said. That has the potential for an additional void in the same area.
Tom Faley is familiar with how and where sinkholes form in South Middleton Township. In 1992, the retired Army colonel and township supervisor moved to a house in the Oaks development. Since then, his neighbors have reported at least 12 sinkholes to him, most of them occurring before 2007.
If you can find and seal that throat off then you are in business, Faley said. If you simply just fill it in and do not find the throat, get ready for reappearance in the future.
Sometimes a sinkhole repair involves the use of either clay backfill or flow-able fill concrete to create an impervious barrier that prevents water from soaking into ground, Kenworthy said. But you need to look at the entire area.
Water not soaking into the ground tends to flow somewhere else, and where it flows could be just as prone to sinkholes as the area being capped by the clay or concrete, Kenworthy said. You dont want to move it over to the next potential sinkhole location.
Precautions are taken before the start of any construction project to assess the subsurface soil and bedrock conditions of a building site.
The underlying geology of the entire United States has been documented on survey maps that provide information on soil types and known rock formations. The precautions start with a check of the survey maps.
The most common field method involves the drilling of core boring to get a detailed profile on the conditions under the corners of the foundation and at other critical locations along the perimeter of a building, Kenworthy said.
He said, if deemed appropriate, core borings could also be done in a grid pattern throughout the project site and at areas where significant cuts are expected in the excavation of soil and rock during the grading of the site.
Even with this precaution, the spread of core borings across a project site could easily miss a sinkhole prone area, Kenworthy said. This is because karst bedrock tends to have a lot of peaks and valleys that change over a short distance.
For added assurance, developers could pay to have a contractor conduct a broader scan of a project site using ground-penetrating radar, Kenworthy said. While this provides a more detailed and accurate profile of subsurface conditions, its also more expensive than core borings.
The developer can either spend more money on the front-end for a more complete scan or set aside more money on the back-end in the form of a larger contingency fund, Kenworthy said. Often the decision comes down to how much risk the developer and his backers are willing to accept.
Aside from identifying sinkhole prone areas, core borings and GPR can be used to pinpoint the location of bedrock outcroppings that could be expensive to break up and remove during the course of site preparation, Kenworthy said.
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The first step in thinking through a problem is to ask whether its a problem at all. Problems without solutions, the saying goes, arent problems. Theyre facts.
Some people argue that a nuclear-armed North Korea is less of a problem and more of a fact. Murderous doughboy Kim Jong Un will never give up his nuclear toys. And lets face it: He would be stupid to. Perhaps the one true lesson of the last half-century of geopolitics is that the only way ambitious criminal regimes can protect themselves from outside threats is to have a nuclear deterrent. That was probably one of the last thoughts to go through Muammar Gadhafis mind before the Libyan dictator was killed by a U.N.-backed mob.
Advocates of more strategic patience argue that we should just accept a nuclear-armed North Korea and rely on the time-tested policy of nuclear deterrence.
Its not a bad argument, but it has problems. Nuclear weapons have uses other than simply laying waste to cities. The chief one, as I already mentioned, is they take regime change off the table forever. Hence North Koreas primary demand: permanent recognition of the illegitimate regimes legitimacy.
Nukes also provide all manner of maneuvering room. For instance, Iran, another country with a horrible government, wants a nuclear arsenal very badly. While the Israelis are worried for understandable reasons that the Iranians might one day use it against Israel, thats not the only reason it would be bad for Iran to have the bomb. Iran wants to be a regional hegemon able to meddle far beyond its own borders. Having nukes makes that much easier because it raises the stakes of any military confrontation.
North Korea, the so-called Hermit Kingdom, does not have any territorial ambitions, nor is it much interested in interacting with the rest of the world. The regimes existence depends on keeping the population ignorant of just how terrible they have it compared with nearly every other country in the world.
But the North Korean regime is best understood as a monarchy that operates a criminal enterprise. It makes much of its money through counterfeiting, sex and drug trafficking, and numerous other schemes.
Among its biggest profit centers is extortion from the international community. For 25 years it has been taking bribes to delay its nuclear program, as President Trump rightly noted on Twitter recently. And, obviously, the regime lied every time.
North Korea has also exported nuclear and missile technology to rogue nations such as Iran and Syria. Who really thinks that Kim will give up his business model?
If it were easy, the wisest course of policy would be to decapitate the North Korean regime. But that wouldnt be easy at all. A conventional war would be over relatively quickly so long as China stayed out of it but not quickly enough to prevent the destruction of South Koreas capital and the deaths of millions of people, including thousands of Americans.
Another widely discussed solution would be to induce China to overthrow the regime and install a puppet government. China could probably do it relatively easily. It surely has lots of North Korean generals on the payroll already.
But there are problems with this, too. China would demand a high price: total removal of American forces in South Korea and a tacit acknowledgement that China is the uncontested hegemon of the region. Such a grand bargain would effectively transfer Americas dominance to China, Hoover Institution scholar Michael Auslin writes in the Los Angeles Times. No matter how the White House spun such a deal, world leaders would infer that the U.S. had gone hat in hand to China.
The impact on South Korean politics, never mind Japans, would be tumultuous at best.
So what to do? Well, the first thing is to recognize that there are no good solutions. But perhaps the least bad option would be to openly declare that America already considers the North Korean regime to be Chinas puppet, and that North Korean misdeeds are really Chinese misdeeds.
That would come at a price, too. But it would incentivize China either to rein in the North Korean regime or, eventually, get rid of it.
Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review. You can email him at goldbergcolumn@gmail.com.
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Lucy Gates Melody Horton Brett Lanzl Bobbi Jo Lazarus Cory Ouellette Joe Wall Previous Next
Elliott Davis Decosimo, one of the largest accounting, tax and consulting services firms in the Southeast, announces it has admitted six new shareholders into the company effective Friday.
Becoming a shareholder is a significant achievement in ones career, said chief executive officer Rick Davis. These individuals have been important to the growth of Elliott Davis Decosimo and help us live out our vision of being the leading firm in our markets. Our firms growth enables us to promote new shareholders. These promotions are truly a result of our continued success.
The six new shareholders are:
Lucy Gates, CPA, focuses primarily in the areas of corporate, partnership and state taxation. She is based in the firms Chattanooga office. I am very proud to become a shareholder at a firm where giving back to our communities is a part of our culture," said Ms. Gates. "One of Elliott Davis Decosimos values is service to others, and we live out this value by investing time and resources in strengthening our community relationships.
Melody Horton, CPA, provides comprehensive tax planning and compliance services to clients with multistate and international operations specializing in the manufacturing, distribution and technology sectors. She also extensively works with international companies to create efficient global tax strategies. Collaboration is vital to making good business decisions. It is key to fostering a vibrant culture as individuals learn from each other and many times achieve unexpected results, said ms. Horton.
Brett Lanzl, CPA, offers assurance and transaction advisory services, including merger and acquisition due diligence, to a diverse client base. He is based in the firms Greenville office. We have been able to build relationships and trust with our clients because we have a team of people who work with a sense of urgency and create real value," said Mr. Lanzl. "Our team works hard to understand and develop relationships with our clients to anticipate and satisfy their needs.
Bobbi Jo Lazarus, CPA, has more than 12 years of public accounting experience focusing on tax planning and compliance services specifically in the partnership and individual income tax return reporting areas with a specialization in the real estate industry. Working for a firm like Elliott Davis Decosimo allows me to have a very present home life without sacrificing my career aspirations has been critical to my success, said Ms. Lazarus.
Cory Ouellette, CPA, provides tax planning and compliance services to real estate clients and assists with partnership tax issues. Mr. Ouellette also has experience supporting clients with the development of project return calculations and financial models. As Elliott Davis Decosimo continues to grow, we encourage each other to think creatively and to look at issues from multiple angles," said Mr. Ouellette. "This creative thinking allows us to find solutions we didnt know existed.
Joe Wall, CPA, CFP, has more than 20 years of experience in public accounting and works with high-net-worth individuals, as well as businesses and the families who own them so they may attain greater financial independence and mitigate the dilutive effects of taxes. The modern closely held business needs more than a tax return prepared by a CPA," said Mr. Wall. "The business and the family or families behind it need guidance and a deep understanding of operations, markets, and the impact of taxes and regulations. Through Elliott Davis Decosimos specialty groups, clients can expect value added beyond routine tax compliance.
The two-story brick building at 7244 S. Prairie Ave. was once the home of Al Capone. The house on Chicago's South Side is for sale and the object of a petition to get it landmark status. (Heather Charles, Chicago Tribune)
Some real estate agents thought the brick two-flat at 7244 South Prairie Ave. in Chicago's Park Manor neighborhood would be a quick sell. After all, it was the place crime boss Al Capone and his family once called home.
But in 831 days on the market, there hasn't been a nibble despite a price drop from $300,000 to $225,000.
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That raised concern from Hinsdale real estate broker Christine Moscinski, who is a history buff on the side. So she sent out a tweet and started an online petition to "save" the six-bedroom structure that now houses two apartments.
"I need an investor or person experienced and interested in making it a historical landmark and museum before it's torn down," said Moscinski, who happened to stumble upon the listing last week. "It just fell into my lap, and I felt I needed to get involved. So I sent out a tweet and it just propelled. I think Al is behind all this."
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But the idea that the house is in danger of being torn down is news to the owner, 77-year-old Barbara Hogsette, a retired teacher who bought the building in 1963 and still lives there. She never had a conversation with Moscinski about her home.
Linda Bowman, the agent listing the home, said it is not a foreclosure and is not in danger of being destroyed.
This wouldn't be the first time someone has tried to gain landmark status for the house. In 1989, a group tried to do the same thing, according to Hogsette, but that effort failed amid protests from Chicago's Italian community, which didn't want to glorify the criminal.
Though it would have been nice to know what Moscinski was up to beforehand, Bowman and Hogsette are glad the petition has brought a lot of attention to the listing this week. Moscinski said she has gotten more than 1,500 clicks on her website, where she has a link to the home.
Bowman, though, is wary. She received a lot of interest in the property early on, too. But they were mostly gawkers who wanted to take a peek inside. She had to add a stipulation to the listing requiring potential buyers to show proof of funds before they could see the property.
The Capones bought the two-flat home with large bay windows for $5,500 in August 1923. They were among a wave of first- and second-generation European immigrants who moved to the South Side neighborhood during the Prohibition era.
During that time, Capone worked his way to becoming one of the city's most notorious crime bosses.
According to historians, Capone's home at the corner of 72nd Street and South Prairie Avenue was his safe haven. His mother, Teresa, and his wife, Mae, signed the original deed. According to a story that ran in the Chicago Tribune in December 1927, Capone once holed up in the house after police threatened to arrest him if he stepped outside.
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Capone went to prison in 1931, and he had moved to a home in Florida by the time of his death in 1947, but his mother continued to live in the Chicago house until she died in 1952.
Hogsette, who raised a son in the first-floor apartment and rents out the second floor, listed the house in 2008 for $450,000. She thinks the house is a good investment but says there aren't many remnants of the notorious gangster left after several renovations.
The gold-leaf cornices, which Capone imported from Italy, are still in place. But the 7-foot tubs, also imported from Europe, have been replaced because no one could find parts for them in the U.S. The original garage also still stands. Capone had one of the largest in the neighborhood in order to accommodate his big, fancy cars.
Still, every spring and summer, Hogsette gets a steady stream of people riding by to take a look.
"They want to take pictures or they want to come in and take a look," said Hogsette, adding that she wants to sell the house and move into an assisted living facility. "I've only allowed one couple in, and that was eight or nine years ago. They came all the way from Europe."
dglanton@tribune.com
Lisa Musgrave, of Palatine, left, has Robin Delapena, collections assistant and digitization specialist, look at a slide that is a double exposure. Volunteers at Chicago's Field Museum work in the back area of the museum helping digitize and archive specimens in the collections. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)
Conducting scientific research is often tedious and time-consuming, but someone had to do it.
Now, though, as many scientists have seen grant funding and resources shrink, they're exploring new ways of approaching their work, increasingly with the help of everyday amateurs and enthusiasts through what's known as citizen science.
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The term was popularized in the 1990s, but the concept isn't new. The Audubon Christmas Bird Count, for example, where volunteers across the country help conduct an avian census, started in 1900.
Yet the ease with which people can learn about opportunities, participate and share data through the internet and social media has vastly expanded the possibilities of citizen science. Smartphones have propelled it even farther, as participants can upload their data with the touch of a button.
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"I think it's really enabled citizen science to blossom and reach the place it is in today," said Jake Weltzin, an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "They can go out with their phone in their pocket, collect it right then and there for real-time models so we can know exactly what's going on."
Laura Trouille, senior director of Citizen Science at Adler Planetarium, said it's about engaging the public in a meaningful way and "working along with researchers who genuinely need their help."
"What's lovely is you don't need any special qualifications to be a citizen scientist," she said. "It's based on the fact that we all have this amazing ability to recognize patterns, and the researchers have data where they just need someone to recognize a pattern in it and let them know."
Chris Parson of Park Ridge was always interested in science and, after more than 20 years of selling women's apparel, he closed his shop at age 50, went back to school and got a master's degree in environmental studies. Now in his 70s, he spends his summers with Illinois RiverWatch, which trains volunteers to collect data on streams and rivers.
Parson also trains schoolteachers on projects they can incorporate in the classroom, like counting species of insect larvae, clams, leeches and other creatures that indicate water and habitat quality.
"I would say I'm a citizen scientist with the emphasis on citizen because I haven't taken a lot of biology classes and I haven't taken a lot of chemistry classes, but I really think that's the heart of RiverWatch," he said. "You collect scientific data in a rigorous way that will be useful to scientists by using people who are not (professionals)."
Matt von Konrat, head of botanical collections at the Field Museum, runs a "Collections Club" where volunteers process specimens and records, transcribe field notebooks and repackage plant specimens from the 1800s. Almost 10,000 people have generated 100,000 data points for the department, he said, which would have taken a post-doctorate candidate years.
"On one hand, we have all these specimens and we're trying to discover as rapidly as we can all this information," von Konrat said. "On the other hand, we're going through a massive extinction crisis and losing habitats faster than we can describe what's found."
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While some studies utilize forums like Reddit, other organizations have their own platforms and websites, like Zooniverse, a citizen science web portal that grew out of a crowdsourced astronomy project called Galaxy Zoo.
Darlene Cavalier founded SciStarter, another citizen science web portal as a way to catalog projects and allow participants to track how their data contributes. The website has grown from a small blog to an international network.
"I wanted to find a way to help more people find these opportunities," she said.
Though widely accepted now for certain types of data gathering and research assistance, citizen science met with plenty of skepticism over the years. Concerns about data quality were common, and it took years for the scientific community to recognize that citizen science could be useful beyond piquing the public's interest.
Trouille was among those skeptical at first. She was pursing a doctorate in astrophysics in 2008 when she heard about a Galaxy Zoo project.
The project involved a group of astronomers who had a data set of a million galaxies and needed people to classify each one as spiral, elliptical or two galaxies crashing together. Trouille herself had spent countless hours looking at such galaxy images and could identify them. But she questioned whether people with the same training and experience could do the same.
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"I saw it as a wonderful tool for outreach and I saw it as a great way to get the public engaged in science, but I had a lot of misconceptions about the value added to the science itself, that you could really get useful results to use directly in your research," Trouille said.
Her doubts waned as she learned more. For example, the results were based on consensus, meaning that if 45 people looked at the same image and 90 percent independently classified it the same way, that would give researchers a sense of confidence that the quality of the result was good.
"Now I totally see it does both," Trouille said. "It's a transformative tool for research."
Zooniverse has so far resulted in 120 peer-reviewed publications in its 10 years of existence, Trouille said. The first Galaxy Zoo article had a difficult time getting published because of the general skepticism about the research methods.
"Because it was in the field of astronomy, we have clearly made the case as a professional community that we know and understand how to do data quality and reliability," Trouille said.
Von Konrat said one of his biggest struggles is convincing his peers that citizen science is worthy. Sometimes researchers have misconceptions about the process or simply "have a very big ego," he said.
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"People said, 'There's just no way a schoolchild could generate this type of data,'" von Konrat said. "I think often we have an overinflated opinion of ourselves, and it's just a matter of thinking about how you can connect with different audiences and communities. There's so much that we can do with technology that is out there now that with creative thought and careful instruction, we can convey the significance of what people are doing."
People who participate in beach cleanups and bird counts can actually see their work translated into science when researchers use the data they collect, said Timothy Hoellein, an assistant professor of biology at Loyola University Chicago who recently released a study on litter in the Great Lakes. By mobilizing volunteers who are already trained in careful record keeping, he can build data sets that he couldn't create without them.
"They're not just cleaning a local beach, they're making a contribution toward science," he said.
In the earlier days of citizen science, volunteers would submit observations on cards by mail. But Weltzin said this created myriad problems, including having to wait until all the cards were returned, interpreting people's handwriting and inconsistencies in how things like dates were recorded. And following up with volunteers was also challenging and time-consuming.
"People would be contributing data for years and years and would never really get much for it," Weltzin said. "But now you can turn the information right around, check their data and they can look at their own data."
With apps like Nature's Notebook, operated by the USA National Phenology Network, which studies seasonal changes in the natural world, volunteers fill in fields that are preset, which clears up inconsistencies and minimizes errors. Push notifications on apps also provide researchers with a way to send reminders or updates to volunteers.
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"It's cheap, it's easy and it's quicker, and it's higher quality," Weltzin said.
Through such methods, an individual can report whether a lilac bush is leafing, and researchers can then compare it to local, state or regional results to see if the models they have created are accurate.
Last month's historic solar eclipse also provided many opportunities for citizen science.
One involved students conducting high-altitude balloon flights from 30 locations across the eclipse's path. The balloons sent live video and images from near space to the NASA website.
Another project involved citizens observing how animals responded during an eclipse. Participants downloaded an app and practiced making observations before joining the project and then submitting their observations before, during and after totality.
Very young children in particular can benefit from being involved in citizen science, because it can spark an early passion for science and expose them to both how exacting and how rewarding the work can be, said Alison Paul, the Field Museum's youth conservation action manager.
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"When it's done well, the outcomes are good for the participants, for the people who care to get jazzed up," Paul said. "It's also good for science and scientific knowledge and, ultimately, really good for nature, and the environment and the planet because we now have more of that knowledge."
Von Konrat said the future of the planet is dependent on scientific research and that "it's really important to share with communities (citizen science) can help address some really significant questions associated with climate change."
Parson says being an "ordinary Joe" citizen scientist has enriched his life. Now that he's learned how to gauge water and habitat quality, Parsons said he frequently walks into a stream and flips over a rock when he's traveling, just to take a look.
gwong@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @GraceWong630
Public meetings on a proposed Elgin charter school begin this month, launching the appeal of the Elgin School District U46 School Boards rejection of the proposal to open a math and science academy in the shuttered Fox River Country Day School. ( Rafael Guerrero/The Courier-News )
Public meetings on a proposed Elgin charter school begin this month, launching the appeal of the Elgin School District U46 School Board's rejection of the proposal to open a math and science academy in the shuttered Fox River Country Day School.
The Illinois State Charter School Commission announced dates, times and locations of both a public hearing and a commissioners meeting in Elgin. The state commission is taking up an appeal from the Elgin Charter School Initiative to reverse the decision that stalled the the Elgin Math and Science Academy proposal.
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The first hearing is scheduled for 5 p.m. Sept. 7 at the Centre of Elgin's Heritage Ballroom. Those wishing to speak can begin to sign up as early as 4 p.m. that day. The meeting will run until 7 p.m., according to the state commission.
Kerry Kelly, the Elgin Math and Science Academy president, said organizers have received interest on the school from another 100-plus families this summer. She said she is confident the proposal will get approved, noting they made improvements on their 2014 proposal, such as more details on special education, bilingual and financial services.
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"The commission looks at every individual proposal with fresh eyes," said Illinois State Charter School Commission Executive Director Hosanna Mahaley Jones.
Illinois State Charter School Commission also lists an Oct. 3 meeting at the Gail Borden Public Library. Commission meetings rotate throughout the state. Commissioner meetings run from 3 to 6 p.m. and are open to the public.
State law requires the charter school commission to vote on granting or denying an appeal within 75 days of when it was submitted. The process includes conducting a public hearing and commission meeting in that time frame. The Elgin Charter School Initiative submitted its appeal to the state in late July.
The Illinois State Charter School Commission has the authority to overturn a school district's decision and authorize a charter. Under this scenario, the state becomes the authorizer of the school, but the school district supplies the funding. The state commission currently authorizes eight charter schools, the majority of which are in Chicago.
Jones said both U46 and the Elgin Charter School Initiative will get a chance to make an opening presentation during the Sept. 7 meeting. After that, the public will have an opportunity to speak out, and the commissioners present may ask questions.
The commission will on average get two to four appeals per year, Jones said. About 90 percent of school district decisions on a charter proposal get upheld by the commissioners, she said.
The next two public meetings continue the year-long debate on whether the school commonly known as EMSA should open in the Elgin area. After submitting the proposal to U46 in the winter, the school board in April voted 6-1 to conditionally approve the charter school proposal, pending a contract. Elgin City Council also approved lease terms for the Fox River Country Day School site that would become EMSA, pending U46 approval of the charter.
But in June, the school board which included one new board member that was not there for the April vote reversed its decision and narrowly rejected the proposal altogether, stunning the charter group and supporters. A majority of the U46 board had several concerns with the contract that had been negotiated upon by the district and the charter group.
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The EMSA proposal has resorted to the appeals process before, when the school board rejected the charter school in 2014. State commissioners sided with U46 shortly after, rejecting the charter proposal as well.
Under the proposal, EMSA would open in 2018 as a K-3 school and about 200 students, with plans for expansion into grades 4-6 and the middle school level over the next few years.
raguerrero@tribpub.com
The hallways in between classes on Spirit Day at Loyola Academy in Wilmette on Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. The school would benefit from a new program that provides private school scholarships, with donors making contributions and getting tax credits for the scholarship program. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Private schools across the Chicago region and Illinois have shared a common problem for years: How to help struggling families afford tuition.
A ground-breaking state education funding law signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner last week may give those families and schools a lifeline in the form of a private school scholarship program that is already stirring controversy.
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Some fear the program will siphon tax money from public schools. But private school educators praise the new law, saying low to moderate-income families will have a chance at getting partial to full scholarships at religious and non-religious independent schools.
The five-year program that starts in 2018 could potentially grow to at least a half billion dollars in scholarships. Annual awards could be as high as around $13,000 for many students, though most scholarships would likely be far lower because tuition at parochial schools generally is less than that. Students in the lowest income brackets will have first dibs on the awards.
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"I think it really empowers folks of lower income groups to see that they have a choice when it comes to their kids' education," said Cardinal Blase Cupich, who heads the sprawling Archdiocese of Chicago and advocated for the private scholarship program while also supporting public education funding reforms.
The archdiocese pours millions of dollars into its schools, and nonprofits already give out scholarships for Catholic school students, Cupich said. "We, however, can only do so much," he said.
The private school scholarships "will be a great help for those kids who cannot pay (private tuition)," Cupich told the Tribune.
The private scholarships could be a boon for the Chicago archdiocese, which has seen dropping and flattening enrollment over the decades. This school year, about 78,000 students are enrolled in Catholic schools in Cook and Lake counties. It was almost 190,000 in 1980, according data from the archdiocese.
The scholarship program already faces schisms between public and private education school systems, teacher unions and advocates for school "choice," as well as among lawmakers in Springfield, many of whom reluctantly approved the private scholarships as part of a broad package of public school financing reforms.
In the lexicon of education, "choice" has become an incendiary word. Advocacy groups favor choice options, such as using public dollars called vouchers so parents can send kids to private schools. But critics say vouchers and so-called tax credit scholarship programs take away money from public schools. In fact, the Chicago Teachers Union called such programs an "assault" on public education.
Joe Birchard, left, and Armoni Dixon, both 16-year-old juniors, use a microscope in a biology class to look at differences in animal, plant and bacterial cells at Loyola Academy in Wilmette on Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
And now that Illinois has linked broad tax credits and private schools for the first time, some fear a slippery slope toward the privatization of public education and further disparity between those with the financial means for education scholarships or otherwise and those without.
The Illinois program is a tax credit plan. Corporate and individual donors can make contributions for private school scholarships and then get a 75 percent state tax credit, up to $1 million. That affects public education because state income taxes in large part are used for public schools in Illinois. When a donor gets a tax credit, it reduces their state income taxes, a portion of which would otherwise go into state coffers and then be sent to public school districts.
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And the numbers can add up. The cap on tax credits in the program is $75 million per year, meaning $100 million in donations would be needed to get to that cap. With the scholarship program extending five years, the credits could potentially rise to $375 million through 2023, based on $500 million of donations.
Whether donations will reach that amount is unclear, but private educators are hopeful.
At the Chicago West Side Christian School, co-principal Jeralyn Harris said, "I've been here 21 years and I've learned that schools in this area don't really serve all children well. Parents don't have a choice (to send kids elsewhere). Their income doesn't allow them to. They are stuck in whatever they can get in their neighborhoods."
When Chicago Public Schools closed several dozen grade schools a few years back, some students enrolled at the Christian school. Tuition, now at $4,000, was unaffordable for some families, even with donations raised by the school to offset costs, Harris said. Enrollment has dropped to 162 students, the lowest in several years.
West Side Christian supported a coalition of private schools and other organizations, including some trade unions and police and firefighter groups, in pushing for the private scholarship program.
"My biggest thing about this whole type of funding is that it's not taking away from public school students," Harris said. "CPS is struggling to manage its case load. If you have support from private schools ... then that is helping CPS."
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At Loyola Academy, a private Jesuit high school in Wilmette, about 30 percent of students enrolled get some level of financial aid and the school is expected to spend about $4 million this year on tuition assistance, said the Rev. Patrick McGrath, president of the academy.
McGrath said Loyola students come from 90 different zip codes, and about 40 percent of enrollment is made up of Chicago kids. "Some kids will get a full scholarship and some families are getting a little to get over the hump," McGrath said. The school raises money and has an endowment to generate income for tuition assistance.
That doesn't mean the academy couldn't use some help. McGrath was supportive of the scholarship plan and reached out to some lawmakers, as did Cardinal Cupich.
"It looks like a program to help Catholic schools, but it is really not just for Catholic schools," McGrath said. "I do believe it has a benefit to all kids. If a kid has that option (to attend a private school), why not let them pursue it?"
Even so, McGrath said, he was surprised the plan was approved by the General Assembly, given the various budget stalemates and other challenges in Springfield.
"I've lived my whole life in Illinois and I've been a school administrator for about 20 years, and I never thought it would make it through."
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Nearly 20 states, along with Illinois, now have a tax credit scholarship program, according to Jason Bedrick, director of policy at EdChoice, a nonprofit that advocates for school choice programs and tracks those initiatives across the country.
Bedrick said that one area where the Illinois program differs from most is testing.
The new Illinois law requires schools that accept scholarship students in the program to test those kids in the same way that public school children take state exams, starting in 2019-20. Public school students in grades three to eight take math and reading exams called PARCC, as well as state science exams in certain grades, including in high school. In addition, Illinois juniors now also take a college entrance exam as part of the roster of statewide exams.
It's not clear yet if those will be the exams taken by scholarship kids in private schools; an Illinois State Board of Education spokeswoman said the agency is still analyzing all parts of the law.
Kristyne Toomey, a 14-year-old freshman, gets some work done before a class at Loyola Academy in Wilmette on Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)
Advocates for the scholarship program weren't necessarily thrilled about the requirement for statewide exams. "It wasn't our preference," said Robert Gilligan, executive director of Catholic Conference of Illinois, which was active in working to approve the law. He said another type of assessment could have been an option.
Bedrick, of EdChoice, said the group recommends a menu of test options rather than imposing one test.
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"State testing mandates can create a strong incentive to follow the state curriculum," he said. "If that's what families want, they have hundreds of district schools to choose from. But often parents are looking for something different than what district schools are offering, so it doesn't make sense to require the same testing regime for both systems."
The new Illinois law requires that private schools report the scores on the exams, as well as track academic progress, so the state can compare the progress of the scholarship kids with public school students from similar socioeconomic backgrounds.
Still unclear is how many scholarships will be given out. Advocates estimated a range of 6,000 to 20,000 student scholarships in a given year. But that will depend on total donations each year.
Those numbers are far smaller than Florida's program, the largest tax credit scholarship program in the country. More than 100,000 students are getting scholarships this year, said Doug Tuthill, president of the nonprofit Step Up For Students scholarship funding organization. He said his program's tax credit is dollar for dollar, 100 percent not 75 percent of a donation in Illinois.
In Illinois, families won't get any of the donations. Nonprofit "scholarship granting organizations" will divvy up the scholarships. Donors can start getting tax credits Jan. 1, according to the new law.
The new law says the scholarship amounts would be either the average per-pupil operating expense for public schools which, according to ISBE data, was $12,973 in 2015-16 or the costs and fees at a private school, whichever is less. Students with disabilities could get double the scholarship amount, and English learners and gifted kids could also get more, about $15,000, if the analysis is based on average per-pupil spending in public schools.
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Priority goes to students who are in households with income no higher than 185 percent of the federal poverty level, which this year would be $45,510 for a family of four, according to federal data. Students who had a scholarship the year before or are a sibling of a scholarship student will also be given priority.
Families wanting scholarships for their kids cannot exceed 300 percent of the federal poverty level, meaning $73,800 for a family of four. Once a child gets a scholarship, the threshold can rise in ensuing years to 400 percent of poverty level, or $98,400 for a family of four. That increase allows family earners to accept pay raises while the children retain scholarship eligibility.
Students whose family income is less than 185 percent of the poverty level would get 100 percent of the scholarship amount. Students whose family income is between 185 percent but less than 250 percent between $45,510 and below $61,500 would on average get 75 percent of the scholarship amount.
And kids who family income is 250 percent or higher would on average get 50 percent of the scholarship.
Families should apply by March 31 to be considered for a scholarship based on priority. Those who apply after April 1 will not be considered based on priority.
To Stacy Davis Gates, the political/legislative director at the Chicago Teachers Union, all of the numbers mean less for public schools.
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"The constitutionality of this is precarious in our evaluation of it," Gates said about the new law. Union attorneys are now reviewing the language.
But school choice advocates, such as Tuthill of the Florida program, say tax credit scholarship programs have passed legal muster, and they often expand.
"Politically, once you start a program and get families on it, it's really hard to stop," Tuthill said.
Debbie Matthys began formulating her career choice when she was in first grade. She vividly remembers the anticipation of looking forward to each school day.
"My teacher was wonderful. She played the guitar and we sang every morning," said Matthys, who currently serves as School City of Hobart's director of curriculum and instruction. "She made such a positive impression on me that I wanted to continue her love of teaching."
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That she did.
After graduating from Chesterton High School, Matthys received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Purdue University in Elementary Education. While working full-time, she earned a master's degree from Purdue West Lafayette in Instructional Design and Educational Technology in 2006.
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"I'm proud to be a Brickie," she said. "I've had the opportunity to teach and lead the technology (that I continue to learn each year) to better support the community, students and staff of Hobart schools."
According to those working with Matthys, the former science teacher is passionate about providing students with opportunities to learn through diverse experiences.
Matthys will be honored on Friday with The Dunes Learning Center (DLC) annual Green Apple Award by education advocate and children's champion Jo Ann Engquist at the DLC's gala, In Your Hands: A Dunes Affair.
"Debbie embraces the Dunes Learning Center mission to 'inspire lasting curiosity and stewardship with nature' and champions environmental education programs that inspire curiosity, scientific literacy, environmental stewardship, and civic engagement for learners of all ages in Hobart schools," said Michelle Krueger, DLC marketing and development manager. "Last year, she worked with Dunes Learning Center to add these opportunities in third grade classrooms, extending the environmental education continuum in Hobart from third grade to 12th grade."
Matthys also currently is working with DLC to further expand these opportunities, so hands-on learning in nature with Dunes Learning Center ultimately starts in Hobart's Early Education Center, she added.
Matthys was aware of the Green Apple Award, but was very surprised when the DLC staff nominated her this year.
"They had asked me to come to Chelmer Farm to record an interview for potential sponsors. They asked questions about my vision and why I felt natural history and environmental education was a necessity and benefit for youth," she said. "I was happy to support them and offer my time. One of our elementary groups were there for a hike that day and I was able to teach a few lessons on the spot about the farm and farm animals to the students."
Afterwards, the DLC presented her with an invitation to their upcoming gala, mentioning that she won the The Green Apple Award.
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"I was shocked! It's ironic that they would nominate me, when it's been the Dunes Learning Center that has provided amazing authentic hands-on learning for our students," Matthys said. "The stewardship opportunities that the Dunes Learning Center has provided to our students are long lasting. Students in high school still remember learning and removing invasive species from the land, problem solving, working as a team to complete a goal and task. They develop an awareness of the impact of the environment has on them as individuals, community and the world."
The Green Apple Award was developed by Dunes Learning Center co-founder, Lee Botts, as a way to honor the educators who go out of their way to provide students with opportunities to learn from, and be inspired by, the unique natural and cultural resources of the region.
Hobart Middle School science teacher Crystal Kistler was the first to congratulate her friend.
"I think this is a phenomenal award, one that's long overdue," she said. "Debbie does so much for both the schools and the community in educating people on different topics. She's very involved in promoting environmental programs."
Sue Ellen Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Previous honorees of The Green Apple Award
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2011: Frank O'Bannon Elementary School in Hammond and the Richard Yates Elementary School in Chicago
2012: Union Center Elementary School and The Chicago Academy
2013: Thea Bowman Leadership Academy, Bill Payonck
2014: Duneland School Corporation, Flora Richardson Foundation and Duneland Education Foundation
2015: Lee Botts
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2016: Clark Middle School Structured Learning teacher and autism advocate, Tracy Chandler
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If you go
What: Dunes Learning Canter Annual Gala, In Our Hands: A Dunes Affair
When: 6 p.m. Friday
Where: Sand Creek Country Club, Chesterton, Indiana
Tickets are $100, with proceeds benefitting students participating in Dunes Learning Center programs.
For more information: call (219) 395-9555, or visit duneslearningcenter.org/events
More than $2 million will help fund music and arts at 20 public schools. CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports.
Four days before Chicago Public Schools opens classroom doors, Chance the Rapper made a theatrical appearance to announce that the $2.2 million raised by his nonprofit organization will be doled out to 20 schools for arts education programs.
"Quality education for public schools is the most important investment a community can make," the 24-year-old Grammy-winning musician and philanthropist told a boisterous crowd in the Harold Washington Cultural Center's auditorium Friday afternoon.
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Dressed in a black turtle neck and faded jeans, Chance joked with the audience, many members of which were students at schools that will benefit from his donations, about wanting to mimic Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' signature look for the announcement.
Each of the 20 schools will receive $100,000 over the next three years. Principals of the selected schools have committed to putting the funds toward arts programs for the length of the grant.
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The principals will be guided on budgeting and staffing those programs by CPS and Ingenuity, an advocacy organization that has worked with Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration on CPS arts initiatives. Principals will also regularly meet with members of SocialWorks, Chance's nonprofit organization.
The schools were chosen based on CPS ratings and how much the schools were affected by budget cuts, the musician said. But the "most important" criterion, Chance said, was the amount of "determination and vision" school principals displayed for their arts programming.
He cited the passion of Mahalia Jackson Elementary Principal Teresa Nagy. She intends to use the grant to create a dance studio in an unused classroom and teach ballet, hip-hop and modern dance. She also hopes to modernize the Auburn-Gresham school's auditorium, improving its acoustics and production capabilities.
At Spry Community Links High School, another school selected to receive funding, Principal Francisco Albert Borras intends to expand its visual arts program to include sculpting and pottery courses, and hopes to update the gymnasium for musical and dance performances.
Chance the Rapper holds a media event at the Harold Washington Cultural Center in Chicago on Friday, Sept. 1, 2017, to announce a donation to 20 Chicago public schools. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Principals were notified of their nominations for the grant last month. They were asked to find ways to create or expand arts programs to better resonate with students while at the same time sticking to budgets.
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Orr Academy High School Principal Shanele Andrews said in a statement that she intends to focus her grant on converting a classroom into a digital design laboratory where students will learn photography, media arts, graphic design and video production. She also hopes to repair and replace the school's existing visual arts supplies.
Chance unveiled his fundraising efforts in early March, when he donated $1 million of the $2.2 million, and through SocialWorks gave $10,000 each to 10 CPS schools. A second batch of $10,000 donations were given to 12 other schools later that month, when the Chicago Bulls donated $1 million to the musician's campaign.
Last month, Chance gave away 30,000 backpacks filled with school supplies at the Bud Billiken Parade, where he served as Grand Marshal.
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Before naming the schools on Friday, Chance lamented the violence that plagues the neighborhoods of many of the students who attend the selected schools. He said he hopes his fundraising campaign and the enhancement of arts programming can help create paths for success for those children.
"Each conversation, every contribution, every tweet brings this city and the nation a step closer to providing a well-rounded, quality education for each and every child," Chance said.
"Because despite the headlines we read and the stories we hear about kids in Chicago, and Atlanta, and Baltimore and Philadelphia, despite all these stories in so many cities across the nation, we also see beacons of hope."
meltagouri@chicagotribune.com
A 22-year-old woman was shot after a verbal altercation with a male offender in the 2500 block of South Spaulding Avenue early Sept. 3, 2017, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) (Chicago Tribune)
Chicago went about 11 hours without a shooting on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend before at least five people were shot in a four-hour period early Sunday, according to Chicago police.
Most recently, a man, 23, and a woman, 34, were shot multiple times just after 4:30 a.m. Sunday in the 900 block of North Central Avenue in the South Austin neighborhood on the West Side, police said. The pair was taken to area hospitals in serious condition. Details of the shootings were unknown and being investigated, police said.
The pair brought to 19 the number of people wounded in Labor Day weekend gun violence across the city since Friday afternoon. Two of the people were fatally shot.
Earlier on Saturday afternoon, a 15-year-old boy was shot on the South Side about 1:35 p.m. That was the only shooting reported for Saturday after sunrise.
The 15-year-old was in the 6900 block of South Paulina Street in the West Englewood neighborhood when someone shot him in the leg and arm, police said.
An ambulance responded to an address nearby in the 6800 block of South Paulina Avenue, and the teen was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn , where his condition was stabilized, said Chicago Fire Department Chief Curtis Hudson.
At least 13 people were shot, two fatally, in the inaugural hours of the holiday weekend between Friday afternoon and early Saturday morning.
To prepare for the historically violent holiday weekend, Chicago police added 1,300 officers to patrol the city, mostly on the South and West sides that bear the brunt of the shootings, and arrested about 90 people on felony and weapons charges in a six-week probe.
Other shootings Sunday:
On the West Side, a 22-year-old woman was shot in the shoulder after an argument with a man in the Little Village neighborhood about 2:40 a.m. Sunday, police said. The argument inside the gate of a home in the 2500 block of South Spaulding Avenue escalated when it became physical and shots were fired. The woman was taken to St. Anthony Hospital in good condition.
A 48-year-old man suffered a graze wound to his chin in the West Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side just before 1:55 a.m., police said. He was standing in the 4700 block of West Madison Street when he heard a shot and his chin started hurting. He went in a private vehicle to Stroger Hospital, where he was in good condition, police said.
On the Northwest Side, an 18-year-old man was shot in the right leg while standing outside in the Cragin neighborhood just after 12:30 a.m., police said. The teen was on the sidewalk in the 3100 block of North Luna Avenue when a gunman came up and started shooting. The teen was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in good condition.
Police were investigating. No arrests were made.
A simple stone sits along the sidewalk in Long Park along Ste. Genevieve Avenue.
Hundreds of vehicles pass the marker noting the toll booths for the plank road each day with many taking that route unaware they are traveling along the same road constructed more than 160 years ago.
In 1851, construction began on a plank road between Iron Mountain and Ste. Genevieve and would take two years to complete at a total cost of $200,000.
Five tollgates located along the route were also one way to help pay for the road.
A portion of the road ran on what is now Columbia Street and Ste. Genevieve Avenue in Farmington.
The Daughters of American Revolution, along with the Daughters of American Colonists, erected a marker along the route east of Farmington on Highway 32 noting the location of a toll gate along the plank road.
However, the location of the marker became unknown to some after the expansion of Karsch Boulevard. Thankfully, the marker was moved to Long Park along a portion of the plank road.
On Saturday, the Sarah Barton Murphy Chapter, NSDAR and Missouri State Society Daughters of the American Colonists are hosting a rededication of the marker at 11:30 a.m.
Tours of the Long House will also be conducted. A special selection of music will be played by Sheriff Dan Bullock and his band.
The completion of the Iron Mountain Railroad to St. Louis around 10 years after the plank road was completed led to the loss of Iron Mountain customers.
The road would be purchased by the county in 1902 and made toll free. Two years later, it was closed and replaced with a crushed rock road.
The most famous plank road ever built in the entire nation was hammered down right here in this part of the country, Jon Cozean said during a presentation to the Farmington City Council in July of 2018. The plank road is well remembered and never forgotten. It was the longest, most successful ... it ran through the center of town and played a major role in the growth of the Mineral Area, particularly in Farmington.
Today, thousands of travelers each day use the plank roads same route traveling between Iron Mountain and Ste. Genevieve, which follows what was once an Indian trail. We must never allow the plank road to be forgotten.
At some point, a portion of the sidewalk in the area of the marker in Farmington will be recreated to look like the plank road.
Four people were shot, one fatally, in the 8300 block of South Hermitage Avenue early on Sept. 2, 2017, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)
The woman bleeding from a gunshot wound to her thigh was holding her 3-year-old son on a porch in Gresham when Chicago police officers arrived.
A young police officer scooped up the boy and put him in a squad car so paramedics could tend to the injured mother, 23.
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The boy was not hurt. Officers strapped the small child into a car seat. He let out loud, panicked sobs that could be heard from outside the car. Two officers then drove the boy 5 miles south to a comforting setting his grandmother's house.
"I can't feel my leg, it's numb," the boy's mother said on the phone while arranging the child's drop-off.
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The boy was sleeping in a car parked outside a home in the 8300 block of South Hermitage Avenue about 1:20 a.m. Saturday when at least two gunmen began shooting at the porch, where his mother and three others were sitting, police said. The mother retrieved the child from the car after the shots rang out.
The offenders parked a white sedan behind the home. Three men got out of the car, ran up a gangway and jumped over a fence before shooting. They ran from the scene.
The quadruple shooting killed a 26-year-old man, who was shot in the chest and stomach. It also wounded a 25-year-old woman in the arm and stomach and a 23-year-old man in the shoulder.
The attack was one of eight shootings that marked the beginning of the long Labor Day weekend, which saw a total of two people killed and 11 others wounded from Friday afternoon to Saturday morning, according to police.
As officers hung crime scene tape around the porch in Gresham, people who heard their relatives were shot ran up to the scene.
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A woman, crying, sprinted toward an ambulance where one person was being treated inside. She was looking for her boyfriend, who was on the porch.
The man's father was also at the scene.
"He's probably going to be OK. C'mon. I'll meet you at the hospital," he said, trying to console her.
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The gunshots woke neighbors on the block. One woman perched on her steps in a robe, watching investigators.
Another came outside and pointed to a new camera system that was installed on a pole that held up the streets signs for Hermitage and 84th. She hoped it captured some footage. The bulbous camera, she recalled, was put up over the summer.
It could have been around the time a 24-year-old man was shot dead one block south on June 22, others said.
In that shooting, Antoine Alexander was sitting in a car in the 8400 block of South Hermitage Avenue when someone came up to him and opened fire. Alexander lived on the block where the shooting took place.
Tennessee, one of 10 states whose attorneys general had sued to stop the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, pulled out of the lawsuit Friday a victory for immigration advocates who have been pressuring states to stand down.
In a letter to Tennessee's two Republican senators, Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III said that his state would leave the lawsuit out of consideration of "the human element," referring to the hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients whose lives would be thrown into chaos. Some 800,000 young people who are in the United States illegally are protected from deportation under the program.
"Many of the DACA recipients, some of whose records I reviewed, have outstanding accomplishments and laudable ambitions, which if achieved, will be of great benefit and service to our country," Slatery wrote. "They have an appreciation for the opportunities afforded them by our country. . . our Office has decided not to challenge DACA in the litigation, because we believe there is a better approach."
That approach, wrote Slatery, was the Bridge Act, a bipartisan bill designed to make the deferred action program permanent for people who had arrived in the United States as children and had otherwise obeyed the law.
"Whether this particular legislation is a viable solution is a matter for congressional debate," wrote Slatery. "It is not a comprehensive answer to our immigration policy challenges, but it would be a very good start. As I have admired your careers over the years, I have perhaps been most impressed at how you take on difficult problems and lead us to a better place. I encourage your serious consideration of this proposed legislation."
Unlike most states, where voters elect the attorney general, Tennessee's chief law enforcement officer is appointed by the state's Supreme Court. The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition was quick to congratulate Slatery.
The White House said on Friday that President Trump would announce whether he plans to keep his campaign pledge to end the program on Tuesday, which is the deadline set by the states to file a lawsuit against DACA unless the president rescinds it. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and other Republican leaders in Congress on Friday urged Trump not to terminate it.
Leave the surge-pricing system for Uber and Lyft alone.
Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, chair of the Chicago City Council's Committee on Transportation and the Public Way, is so dismayed by the steep fares charged to customers by the popular ride-hailing companies during a recent three-hour CTA rail stoppage on the North Side that he's proposing a crackdown.
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On the morning of Aug. 15, thousands of Red, Brown and Purple line commuters were left stranded after a dead body was found on the elevated tracks near the Fullerton station. Those who were able to summon Uber or Lyft cars on their smartphones were, in some cases, reportedly charged more than $100 for rides downtown that normally would have cost about $13.
These price bumps are a feature of ride-hailing services, not a bug. By increasing fares at times and in places of heavy demand, the services attract extra drivers to the area, thus increasing transportation options.
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Of course, customers complain about it. No one likes to feel gouged, even when using a service that probably wouldn't otherwise be available were it not for the jacked-up rates.
Yet, outside of situations involving life-threatening emergencies, there's nothing immoral about charging what people are willing to pay for products and services. And there shouldn't be anything illegal about it, either.
Beale's proposal, part of a broader effort to regulate the ride-hailing companies that has cleared his committee, is to limit fares during unexpected periods of peak demand to 150 percent of the average regular fare.
If enacted, this limit will gratify those lucky enough to get Lyft and Uber rides during rain and snowstorms and the next snarl on the CTA.
But you don't have to be an economist to realize that the limit will inevitably mean fewer cars will be available at such times. Potential riders, riders willing to pay top dollar, will be left frantically waving their arms at already-occupied cabs or waiting in long lines for jammed buses or trains.
No matter how much Beale may grandstand on this matter, by limiting choice, his proposal is anti-consumer.
And it overlooks the role public pressure can and will play in reining in predatory pricing practices. In this case, Uber and Lyft, stung by bad publicity, issued refunds to riders.
Allowing a market to function unchecked is a more ethically difficult proposition in crisis situations, such as before, during and after hurricanes.
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Recent stories about Hurricane Harvey in Texas have described cases of bottled water selling for up to $99, gasoline being sold for $20 a gallon more than nine times the normal pump price and hotels tripling their normal rates.
Economists offer a persuasive argument that "dynamic pricing," as it's more gently called, is OK, even in disaster situations, because it discourages hoarding, prevents waste, extends supplies and shortens lines.
"Critical scarce resources will be allocated via the price mechanism in the order of greatest to least need," wrote George Washington University economist Steven Suranovic in a 2015 paper titled "Surge Pricing and Price Gouging: Public Misunderstanding as a Market Imperfection." "Only the consumers who independently judge that they will lose more by not purchasing the high priced products will buy the high priced goods. The others will wait until the price falls to a level for which it is in their economic interest to jump in."
I admit that feels wrong. Cold. Darwinian. Privileged. It would be a difficult point to make to a person who has lost nearly everything and is desperate for some clean water to drink or a dry room for the night.
But being desperate for the basics of survival is not the same as being eager to get to work on time or get home quickly from the ballgame.
As long as they're upfront about it, let drivers for Uber and Lyft and drivers for the traditional cab companies, for that matter charge what they will.
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The elitism of opposing single-payer health care
I'm weary of the accusation that those of us who oppose using public money to pay for private K-12 education are elitists who wish to deny to poor children the same educational options that our own children have.
I'm tired of it because it insinuates that believing in the idea of public education and the idea of propping up public schools rather than subjecting them to inevitable attrition are motivated by a corrupt and heartless interest in keeping poor children "trapped in failing schools," as the refrain has it.
In fact, many of us who are opposed to the program recently OK'd by the Illinois General Assembly to redirect up to $75 million a year of state income tax money into private-school scholarship funds have a sincere belief that public education can and must be saved, and that a lack of competitive pressure from publicly supported private schools is not the reason so many educators are having such a hard time teaching disadvantaged children.
I'm also weary of the accusation because many of those who advance it seem resigned, if not content, to deny poor children the same health care options that their own children have. They'd rather leave low-income kids trapped in a "failing," crowded Medicaid system than get behind a single-payer system that would allow them access to private clinics and hospitals.
Could it be that maybe both sides have honest disagreements about how best to meet the needs of poor children?
Why-o, why-o, free Arpaio?
When you're inveighing mightily against President Donald Trump's recent decision to pardon thuggish former Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio, as I trust you have been, be sure to say his last name correctly.
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It's "Ar-PIE-oh." If you say "Ar-PAY-oh," as several online sources suggest and many broadcasters do, Arpaio himself just might mock you the way he mocked Hillary Clinton for getting it wrong during a TV interview last year.
While I'm being pedantic, computer engineer Steve Wilhite, the inventor of the Graphics Interchange Format GIF now used for so many short, repeating online videos, insists that his brainchildren be referred to using the soft "g" found in such words as "gem" or "gin" or "gel."
So say it "Jif," as in the peanut butter, not "Gif" as in the word "gift" with the "t" lopped off.
Re: Tweets
The winner of this week's reader poll for the best quip on Twitter is @Belairviv for "Here's a thought: Let's build the wall out of Hillary's emails. No one seems to get over them."
If you'd like to receive an email alert each week when the poll is posted online, send me a message and I'll add you to the list.
ericzorn@gmail.com
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Twitter @EricZorn
Recent court filings in a 2014 shooting on Shamrock Court in Aurora portray a damaged marriage that culminated with a violent confrontation between Jermaine Baker and the man he believes began a romantic relationship with his wife six months earlier.
Kane County prosecutors shed light on those details in their effort to introduce prior domestic acts as evidence at Baker's scheduled December trial on attempted murder, home invasion and other charges.
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Baker's defense asked Judge James Hallock to prohibit any such references, but Hallock ruled that only details of alleged domestic abuse would be barred, unless the defense opened the door to it during the course of the trial.
Baker, 39, has pleaded not guilty and remains in Kane County Jail on $750,000 bail.
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According to court documents, Baker's wife felt compelled to take the other man up on his offer of an occasional place for her and her children to stay. Prosecutors suggest Baker's wife and the man became romantic about six months before the Aug. 27, 2014, shooting, but don't indicate when Baker became aware.
Assistant State's Attorney Joe Cullen wrote in his filing that Baker was "jealous and controlling," while also being unfaithful to his wife. Baker saw texts and calls from the man on his wife's phone, and even contacted the man to tell him to end the relationship, court documents show. Cullen went on to explain how Baker tracked his wife's car and secretly recorded her at times.
On the day of the shooting, Baker entered the man's home and confronted him with an ominous statement, according to Cullen's filing.
"Today's the last day of your life. You have two options, hang yourself or I'll blow your (expletive) brains out," Baker is quoted as saying to the man.
Prosecutors allege Baker shot the man in the head three times. Despite his injuries, the man was able to call 911. Hallock previously denied a motion to suppress statements Baker made to police during an interview.
Baker is scheduled to return to court Sept. 27.
Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News
There is new management running Leland Legends restaurant, in the first floor of the Leland Tower apartments, at Galena Boulevard and Stolp Avenue in downtown Aurora. (Steve Lord/The Beacon-News )
Leland Legends, a restaurant in the first floor of the Leland Tower apartments in downtown Aurora is under new management.
David Karademas, the owner of Leland Tower and developer of Leland Legends restaurant, struck a management deal with Michael Poulakidas and Ron Woerman, operators of The Spartan House on the West Side and O'Malley's Pub and Grill on the East Side of Aurora.
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They took over restaurant management Friday, after a quick few weeks of negotiation and preparing for the transition.
"I wanted to make sure that I was turning the keys over to someone that would be committed to providing something worthy of the Paramount patrons as well as maintaining a safe environment for my residential tenants," said Karademas in an e-mail.
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Karademas continues to own the restaurant, although Poulakidas said he and Woerman are managing "with the intent" of eventually buying the restaurant.
Karademas also continues to own the Leland Tower building, as well as the Graham Building and The Mayan apartments, both of which also are on Stolp Avenue.
Leland Legends was Karademas' first entry into the hospitality business. An apartment developer and owner in several places in Wisconsin and now in Illinois, he bought out the restaurant that was in the Leland Tower when he bought the building, and remodeled it into Leland Legends.
But in recent months he said he wanted to get out of the hospitality business at least for now. He was to have developed a restaurant in the first floor of The Mayan, the former Elks Club building, but for the time being will not do that, thanks to an amendment with the city on his development agreement.
He began looking for new management for his restaurant, resulting in the agreement with Poulakidas and Woerman.
"When I began almost four years ago I would never have hoped to attract such respected and established restaurant operators to downtown, and I am very proud that we were able to reach this point where doing business in downtown Aurora is once again viable," Karademas said.
Poulakidas said Friday he and Woerman plan no big changes to Leland Legends right away. He said they would "tweak the venue" during the next several weeks but would concentrate on keeping going "with what he has there."
"David has given that place a great foundation," he said. "It's been a little nerve-wracking because we're doing this pretty quickly."
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Poulakidas said they would concentrate on building the lunch crowd at the restaurant. One of Karademas' complaints about the business was that he would be flooded during Paramount events, turning down 100 people a night, but would get few patrons at other times.
Karademas also was unhappy the city was allowing a 5,000-square-foot restaurant in the downtown Arts Center that is to be developed across the street from the Leland Tower. Poulakidas said he has no such reservations.
"I have made my opinions known publicly before, that you can't have enough restaurants in downtown Aurora," he said. "The more restaurants, the more concepts, the better.
"But you have to know the city, you have to be able to cater to your market."
He said existing restaurants such as Ballydoyle's Irish Pub and Two Brothers have already helped create excitement downtown, as have the Paramount and the pending Arts Center.
slord@tribpub.com
Cowherd Middle School students get off the bus for the first day of classes at the Aurora school. Aug. 28, 2017. (Linda Girardi / The Beacon-News )
One week into East Aurora School District 131's new transportation program, some parents and district officials said the program was largely going smoothly.
Some buses have run a few minutes late and the district is still adjusting for traffic and ridership numbers, district spokesman Tom Jackson said. Some buses are running two routes because of a bus driver shortage at the transportation company, he said.
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"The way we talked about it all summer, I thought we were in for a lot of late buses and problems," he said. "But it's really been isolated, and most of the feedback we've gotten is that kids are getting picked up on time, kids are getting dropped off on time."
When school started for East Aurora students Aug. 28, buses for the first time swept through district neighborhoods to pick up all students who live more than 1.5 miles from their school. It was the first time in the district's known history that regular, everyday busing was provided for students.
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The district had already provided transportation for special education students, some preschool and kindergarten students and district students who attend the third- through eighth-grade John C. Dunham STEM Partnership School at Aurora University.
In future years, district officials plan to stagger school start times and have the same buses run multiple routes. They also plan to review scenarios such as dangerous street crossings that would make it hazardous for students who live within 1.5 miles of their school to walk to the building, which could make some of those students eligible for transportation.
During the first days of widespread busing, some commented on social media about busing issues or about traffic congestion. Others noted that minor problems were to be expected in the first few days, or that bus service for East Aurora was overdue. Some said they live within 1.5 miles of the buildings and wished they were eligible for transportation.
Rose Bee said in an interview her son, who is a freshman at East Aurora High School, has enjoyed taking the bus and has met friends. Before the district provided buses, her son would often have to wait to be picked up, even in cold or rain, while she picked up his younger siblings at other school buildings, she said.
"It's been absolutely great," she said. "It's been so wonderful. I am so happy about this."
Malarie Chambers, who has a daughter at Waldo Middle School, said the buses ran about 15 to 20 minutes late the first day, but she expected that as drivers learn routes and determine the number of students they are picking up.
After that, they ran on time, she said.
Chambers and her daughter had walked to school together when he daughter was in elementary school. This year, she said it's nice to have her daughter off to school on the bus so she can get to work.
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"I think it's running smoothly for being the first year in a district that's never had buses," she said.
Francine Olugbode has one son who is taking a bus to Cowherd Middle School, and another son who she drives to elementary school. This year, her older son's first at Cowherd, one of her children likely would have had to wait while she picked the other up. Parts of the route from Cowherd to her house are too dangerous to walk, she said.
Her son son enjoys taking the bus because he can see friends and meet new students, she said.
His bus ran about 10 minutes late the first day, but that was understandable, she said. Since then, she said he has been getting to school in time to have a snack and go to his locker before class.
"I love it and I'm so glad that they decided to do it," she said. "Even though it helped us out tremendously, I just think for the kids' safety, it's one of the best things that the schools, that the district could have done. Because it's important."
Jackson said administrators have heard from school principals that the busing program is "a success" and running the way it should.
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He estimated the number of students riding the bus is about what the district anticipated or slightly less, but said that could change. Families are likely testing out their transportation options during the first weeks of school, and sometimes district attendance rises after Labor Day, he said.
The district will watch the ridership changes and note traffic and make adjustments, he said.
"I can't tell you how surreal it is to be standing at the front of the high school and see buses rolling up and kids piling out of them with their headphones on and going into the school," Jackson said.
sfreishtat@tribpub.com
Twitter @srfreish
A house divided against itself cannot stand. - Abraham Lincoln.
Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. - Jesus Christ.
Lincoln quoted Jesus in 1858 while running for Senator of Illinois. The speech goes on talking about the evils of slavery and the need to abolish it. Lincoln said in the speech, I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.
Those around Lincoln did not want him to give the house divided speech. They felt that if Lincoln talked of a division, he would doom his chances of becoming a Senator. Lincoln believed what he was saying was the truth and therefore, should be said. Many of his colleagues also thought the country was divided, but they also felt winning the election was impossible if Lincoln pointed out the divide. Lincoln's Senate race and his debates against Stephen A. Douglas are still famous, but most people forget the results of the election Lincoln lost.
Except for the Presidential election of 1860 with Lincoln's victory, when states left the Union and the commencement of the Civil War, America has never seen so much division because of a national election.
The division in our nation seemed to explode when Mr. Trump was elected President. Has it exploded or has it been a simmering pot that finally hit its boiling point and overflowed?
Roman 1:20-32 reveals the heart attitudes involved in the decline of an individual; apply these principles to a group or a nation, and you can see the downward spiral of a nation.
One of the items on the list is, changed the truth of God into a lie (Romans 1:25). We kicked the Bible out of schools and started telling children before kindergarten that the universe evolved over billions of years, instead of being created by God in six days. By doing this, we have changed the truth of God into a lie. The same passage says in verse 22, Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, tie that in with Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1, The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. ... Take God out of something, and all that remains is a bunch of wise fools.
Some might say a tiny minority did the removal of the Bible from schools. If this is true, then why have the vast majority (if those against the Bible were a tiny minority, it only stands to reason those in favor of the Bible were a vast majority) not been able to change it in the more than half a century that has passed?
The truth is the majority (not a vast majority yet, I hope) of Americans are on the downward slope of Romans chapter one.
Before I get letters about the Electoral College for what I am about to say, let me say this. I understand the Electoral College, I know why we have it, and I am in one hundred percent in favor of it. The following illustration is only to show, that liberalism, not conservatism is the opinion of the majority of Americans.
Since the beginning of the century, only one of the Presidential elections has the more conservative candidate won the popular vote. In 2000, Gore won the popular vote, but Bush won the electoral college. Obama won the popular vote in 2008 and 2012. Last year Hilary Clinton won the popular vote, but Trump is President because he won the Electoral College. Only in 2004 with Bush's victory has the more conservative choice won the popular vote. Also, if you go back to the twentieth century, Bill Clinton won in 1992 and 1996. Except for Bush winning in 2004, you have to go back to 1988 for a conservative victory in the popular vote; nearly thirty years.
The third step, the last step, in the decline of a people as described by God starts with the phrase, And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Think of the general condition of America; does that phrase fit?
Below is step three of the three downward spiral.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them (Romans 1:28-32).
As of Sept. 11, the midday express service schedule on Metra's weekday Rock Island Line will revert to local service, ending a yearlong pilot program that offered midday express service between Blue Island and Chicago, according to Metra.
In 2016, Metra partnered with the Regional Transportation Authority on a pilot project to provide midday express service on the Rock Island Line. The service added three inbound express trains between Blue Island and Chicago and two outbound express trains, shortening travel time for suburban riders by 15 to 20 minutes. One midday express train will remain. Train 518, which departs Joliet at 2:21 p.m. and expresses from Blue Island Vermont Street to La Salle Street Station, will continue to operate.
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"Unfortunately, we weren't able to achieve ridership numbers that made the midday express service financially sustainable," Don Orseno, Metra's executive director and chief executive said in the news release. "We will continue to explore cost effective ways to enhance service on all our lines."
In addition to the discontinuation of the midday express service, Metra said there will be additional minor adjustments to the Rock Island weekday schedule starting Sept. 11, although no changes to the weekend schedule are planned.
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Metra said the weekday schedule changes are being implemented to facilitate passenger transfers and better reflect operating conditions. They include:
Train 406 will depart Joliet and all stations en route two minutes earlier to facilitate transfers to the Metra Electric Blue Island train at 6:55 a.m.
Train 600's scheduled arrival time at LaSalle Street Station will be adjusted to add three minutes. The train will now be scheduled to arrive at 6:07 a.m.
Inbound Train 718 will be renumbered as Train 618 and will depart Blue Island/Vermont Street at 3:23 p.m. and make all stops, arriving at LaSalle Street Station at 4:11 p.m.
Minor run time adjustments will be made to Train 413, which departs LaSalle Street Station at 4:57 p.m.
Elgin police Sgt. Mark Whaley has been suspended for 10 days without pay for driving a city-owned pickup truck last spring in Sycamore with unopened alcohol in the vehicle and after he had been drinking, Elgin police said.
According to a report prepared by Elgin Professional Standards Officer Jim Barnes, "the evidence in this investigation clearly shows, and Sgt. Whaley has admitted, that he violated police department procedures by operating a city vehicle less than eight hours after having consumed an alcoholic beverage, and by transporting an alcoholic beverage in his city vehicle."
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Whaley could not be reached for comment.
According to information provided by the city, Whaley's annual salary is $110,095, so he would be out more than $4,200 per the terms of the disciplinary action.
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Police Chief Jeff Swoboda said that 10-day suspension with no pay was appropriate discipline as the supervisor's behavior reflected poorly on the department. Whaley took full responsibility for his actions, Swoboda said, and he had never faced a suspension before.
Whaley continued to work as an Elgin police officer with no restrictions while Barnes conducted the investigation. Swoboda said he should have the specific dates for the time off without pay by early next week.
"Sgt. Whaley made poor decisions. He's being disciplined, and we're moving on," Swoboda said.
According to Sycamore police reports, Whaley, 46, was pulled over by Sycamore police early April 8 for suspicion of driving under the influence but was later released without charges, due to lack of evidence.
Whaley refused to take a field sobriety test before being taken to the the Sycamore police department, according to police reports. An unopened bottle of beer was found in the passenger compartment of the pickup, reports stated, and Whaley told police he had consumed one beer earlier in Sycamore.
At the time, former Elgin police commander Glenn Theriault was Sycamore's police chief. According to reports, another officer alerted Theriault of the arrest, and Theriault went to the police station.
Theriault was being placed on administrative leave April 10 as Sycamore, and Lansing-based REM Management Services investigated what happened that night, according to reports.
Theriault resigned June 5. According to reports, Theriault, who was making about $110,000 a year as Sycamore's chief, received a lump sum payment of more than $39,000, or the equivalent of three months of salary and four months of insurance coverage and an undisclosed amount of money to cover almost three months worth of accumulated vacation, sick time and comp time.
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According to Barnes' report, there was no indication that Whaley attempted to use his office to avoid arrest or prosecution and no indication Theriault conspired or otherwise acted with Whaley or Cmdr. Colin Fleury to intervene on Whaley's behalf. Fleury was on duty the day of the incident and Theriault had notified him of the situation in Sycamore, according to reports.
Theriault's denial is supported by a text message he sent to to a Sycamore police commander the night of the incident that reads, "I'll go in as well, just don't want them feeling unduly pressured by the former EPD guy/chief," the report states.
According to Barnes' memo, Elgin had asked for a final report from REM Management, but was told it was not made because Theriault resigned. Barnes had also asked to talk to Sycamore police who were on duty that night, but his request was denied, his memo states.
The law firm representing Theriault, Meyers & Flowers Friday said Theriault had no comment regarding Elgin's disciplinary decision for Whaley.
Freelance reporter Janelle Walker contributed.
mdanahey@tribpub.com
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Adam Frisch keeps calm waiting for all ballots to be counted in CD-3
At around 8:30 a.m. on Friday, hundreds of Muslims performed a prayer ritual at a mosque in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, to observe Eid al-Adha, known in China as Corban Festival, one of Islam's most important holidays.
They shook hands and wished each other well. After the prayers, some rushed to home to prepare the feast, while others visited markets around the mosque, buying deserts and fruit.
Corban Festival is a feast of sacrifice during which people slay livestock to share with their family or visit relatives and friends to send best wishes.
In Ningxia, Ma Tiangui, 65, an ethnic Hui, puchased a lamb a few days ago.
"My children and grandchildren return home for the festival, so I must prepare various delicacies for them," said Ma.
In the city of Kashgar, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Guzelnir Memet received lamb from the residential community and made stewed mutton.
In order to help poor families celebrate the festival, the local government has allocated more than 3 million yuan (around 460,000 U.S. dollars) to provide each of the city's 18,025 households living below the poverty line with 3 kg of lamb.
The festival is also celebrated by Muslims in other northwestern provinces such as Gansu, Qinghai and Shaanxi. China has more than 20 million Muslims, mainly Uygur, Hui, Kazakh, Uzbek and Tajik ethnic minorities, living in various regions.
Muslims in Ningxia, Xinjiang and Gansu enjoy a five-day holiday for the festival.
During the holiday, vehicles with seven or less seats are exempt from highway tolls in Ningxia.
Ma Xiaolong, a resident of Zhangjiachuan Hui Autonomous County in Gansu, slaughtered a lamb and offered it to poor elderly neighbours.
"I plan to travel with my family to Beijing by high speed train this year," said Ma. "They had never taken this new form of transport."
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An advanced supply vessel joined the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy Friday in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
Hulun Nur 965
Hulun Nur 965 is the first of a new type of comprehensive supply vessel independently developed by China using globally advanced technologies, according to military sources.
It is capable replenishing an aircraft carrier group or other navy fleet on the high sea, the source said said.
Shen Jinlong, commander of the PLA Navy, conferred the military flag and presented a certificate to the new ship.
There are big opportunities in e-commerce to boost trade between China and India.[File photo]
It's no exaggeration to say that cross-border e-commerce has been expanding at a remarkable pace in China in recent years, thanks to its higher standard of living combined with a greater exposure to, and knowledge of, foreign products and of course, convenience of online retail.
Indeed, the size and growth of the market makes every entrepreneur's mouth water.
Undoubtedly, China will become the world's largest market for buying and selling products online by 2020, with the total value of commodity sold by e-retailers to overseas consumers being likely to reach a whopping US$994 billion, according to an Alibaba and Accenture prediction.
In 2016, China eclipsed the U.S. to become the world's largest retail market with total sales of US$4.886 trillion (compared to US$4.823 trillion in the U.S.). Cross-border e-commerce is becoming an important way to develop foreign trade and to promote the Belt and Road Initiative.
During the opening meeting of the fifth session of China's 12th National People's Congress (NPC) on March 5, Premier Li Keqiang stressed the government would promote the liberalization and facilitation of international trade and investment, further encouraging cross-border e-commerce.
Since 2015, the government has issued several policies to encourage the growth of e-commerce imports by reducing logistics frictions, streamlining customs clearance and simplifying tax regulations.
Currently, China has 13 pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce where business is conducted on a "bonded import" or "direct purchase import" basis. More than 20 cities are undertaking e-commerce exports. At least 12 new cross-border e-commerce business parks have been built and have so far attracted about 330 enterprises.
Today, BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries are playing a growing role in the global economy. They are among the fastest growing as well as among the largest emerging markets economies today.
Currently, the five account for a total nominal GDP of approximately US$16.039 trillion. Their territories are home to some 3 billion inhabitants.
It is apparent that cross-border e-commerce is playing an increasingly important role in internationalization within each member state.
The 7th Meeting of the BRICS Trade Ministers was held on August 1-2, 2017 in Shanghai, under the chairmanship of Commerce Minister Zhong Shan. Strengthening e-commerce cooperation was one of the eight major points of consensus.
The event was one of the supporting activities of the 9th Annual Summit of BRICS to be held in the eastern Chinese port city of Xiamen from September 3 to 5.
A joint statement at the end of the meeting sought strong intra-BRICS cooperation in e-commerce. The ministers approved a BRICS E-commerce Cooperation Initiative and a BRICS working group on e-commerce will be set up to raise connectivity and trade facilitation to a higher level.
It is also encouraging to see that BRICS trade ministers agreed to oppose protectionism and safeguard the multilateral trade system. The five countries have the chance to boost trade, promote industrial upgrading, create jobs and help developing countries as well as small and medium-sized companies to integrate into the global value chain.
E-commerce cooperation is developing fast among all five BRICS countries. In the first half of 2017, China's imports from the other four members exceeded US$70 billion, 33.6 percent higher than the same period of last year. According to Ministry of Commerce, China will import more than US$8 trillion of products in the next five years, offering huge opportunities for BRICS countries.
According to a survey report on China's CBEC published in the China Daily on February 16, more than 15 percent of the Chinese population purchased goods from abroad worth US$85.8 billion in 2016. Chinese consumers are now enjoying Brazilian pine nuts, Russian candy and Indian handcrafts with just one click of a mouse.
India, with a 300 million strong middle class hungry for a variety of world class goods and services, is an ideal market to conduct e-commerce cooperation with China. A total of 70 percent of goods sold on India's e-commerce platforms are imported from China, which provides the "basis for cooperation," although the supply end from China is not yet convenient enough for Indian consumers on websites.
Chinese investors, including Alibaba, Tencent, Tiens Group are emerging as major ecommerce players in India. Chinese mobile phone brands, such as Lenovo, Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo are booming; Xiaomi is now the second highest selling smartphone in India.
Optimism is somewhat dampened, however, by the recent call to boycott Chinese-made products. It's unfortunate that India initiated 12 investigations against Chinese products in the first half of this year, a world record in regard to China.
Hopefully, India and China, despite some ongoing frictions in their bilateral relationship, will work together in maximizing the BRICS e-commerce opportunities and reach more reciprocal deals by deepening economic and trade cooperation.
Rabi Sankar Bosu, secretary of New Horizon Radio Listeners' Club, West Bengal, India
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
Participants in a BRICS Business Forum being held on Sunday as part of the 9th BRICS Summit are looking forward to President Xi Jinping making a keynote speech. Organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the forum will be an opportunity for Xi to share his philosophy of peace and development through cooperation.
The world economy is facing multiple challenges, primarily related to sluggish growth and trade protectionist policies of some developed countries.
BRICS, meanwhile, comprises some of the leading emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Creating unnecessary barriers to the flow of trade may hurt these economies, which need space to maximize exports and bring in foreign investment to continue their steady development and growth.
In his speech at the BRICS Business Forum, President Xi is expected to highlight the concerns and aims of his fellow developing nations to create a fair-trade regime. He may also urge the BRICS nations to boost infrastructure construction among themselves. The theme of connectivity is also likely to receive attention as a key element of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative.
Xi had already shared his thoughts with BRICS representatives in a recent meeting about how their group of like-minded nations can create a new golden era of progress and development if the members remain committed to a joint effort for win-win success.
He has been rightly urging the world leaders at different forums to make development and connectivity the first priority, as it is only through economic development and communication that issues like poverty and backwardness can be effectively tackled.
He may also offer glimpses of how China was able to fast-track its progress over previous decades to claim a leading economic position and pull millions of its poverty-stricken citizen out of destitution in the process and ensure they could lead a good life.
China has been able to provide an alternative model of development to the world under successive leaders. Xi's speech is expected to resonate with the Xiamen Summit theme of "BRICS: Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future."
BRICS is a sizable organization with about 43 percent of the world population and a quarter of the global economy through over US$16 trillion in combined GDP. Having just five members makes it slimmer. Being small in terms of membership gives it an additional advantage: the decision-making process should be easier as compared to larger groupings.
The group is unique in its construction, as it is amalgam of different cultures, regions, economies and political systems. It has been around for a decade and is now forging ahead towards a common goal of peace and development despite occasional distracting tension and strife.
The size and diverse structure makes BRICS an ideal body for the model of win-win cooperation as enunciated by President Xi on numerous occasions. He had already written to members of BRICS earlier this year that China would like to see them develop a consensus on a blueprint of cooperation to deepen the partnership for "brighter future."
BRICS has potential to become a vanguard for shared development. Yet, so far, it has been slow to achieve the ideal. The history of past summits shows that implementation process to transform collective decisions into practice must be fast-forwarded.
As the leaders come together in Xiamen, they should better come equipped with solution to the individual and collective problems hampering progress. They need to speak and listen; share and exchange. In the process they can institute a better system to execute decisions.
The world is passing through a critical stage of development. There are gigantic problems like global warming, threat of expansion of nuclear weapons, natural disasters and decades-old territorial and political disputes.
The global systems instituted decades ago to address disputes and ensure efficient and hassle-free economic governance are becoming archaic with the passage of time. BRICS, at the very least, can play a role in creating better fair trade rules.
The new problems of today demand new, human-friendly and quicker solutions. In the coming decades, survival will be possible only for those groups or organizations that can timely respond to individual and collective needs. Creative thinking and innovative solutions are demand of the day.
While we still have time to evolve response systems, organization like BRICS have both financial and human resources to develop firewalls against future shocks. The 9th summit with President Xi steering its course can play a groundbreaking role.
Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SajjadMalik.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
Flash
The U.S. security services intend to conduct a search at Russia's Consulate General in San Francisco on Saturday, which is a defiant move that creates a direct threat to the safety of Russian citizens and worsens the already difficult bilateral dialogue, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.
"With such provocative actions, the U.S. continues to burden the already difficult atmosphere of the bilateral dialogue, undermining opportunities for cooperation, including in the interests of solving pressing international problems," the ministry said in a statement.
The U.S. special services have decided to search the San Francisco Consulate General on September 2, "including apartments of the staff members who live in the building and enjoy diplomatic immunity, for which they and their families, including young children, even infants, were asked to leave the premises for 10 to 12 hours," the ministry said in the statement.
Calling the planned move an "invasion" into the homes of Russian diplomatic staff, the ministry accused the U.S. side of exacerbating the already battered bilateral relations.
On Thursday, the U.S. required Russia to close its Consulate General in San Francisco, a chancery annex in Washington and a consular annex in New York City by Saturday.
The ministry said the U.S. latest moves represent "a new extensive violation of international law", which even surpass the measures taken by Administration of Barack Obama in December 2016 expelling 35 Russian diplomats and seizing two Russian Properties.
"We strongly protest against Washington's actions that ignore international law and, as is common in diplomatic practice, we reserve the possibility of retaliatory measures. This is not our choice. They impose it on us," the ministry said.
The diplomatic row came at a low point of bilateral relationship between Washington and Moscow, as the two sides hold differences on a range of issues, including the war in Syria, the conflict in Ukraine, and U.S. accusations that the Kremlin meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, a charge Russia strongly denies.
Clean energy trend presents opening to boost ties with S.American nations
China Three Gorges Corporation, the world's largest hydropower producer, is stepping up efforts to make its Brazilian subsidiary a top-tier clean energy generator.
The company shows interest in clean energy cooperation with the South American country.
CTG also said it aims to generate some 15 percent of its revenue from overseas by 2020.
CTG Brazil, founded in 1993, has acquired 17 hydropower stations and 11 wind farms over two decades of operations in South America's largest country.
CTG Brazil is now the biggest private-sector clean energy company and the second-biggest private-sector power generator in Brazil, according to Li Yinsheng, its CEO.
Brazil, the world's second-largest producer of hydroelectric power, has been high in CTG's overseas investment portfolio.
China is also looking forward to more clean energy cooperation with Brazil in the coming decade, he said.
Analysts believe increasing consensus between the two countries is partly because the energy structure worldwide has been shifting from coal to cleaner alternatives like hydropower and wind power.
According to Joseph Jacobelli, a senior analyst of Asia utilities at Bloomberg Intelligence, China Three Gorges will likely continue investing in Brazil, given the trend toward clean energy.
"It is a logical extension of the strategy adopted by the power giant, given the large size of the (Brazilian) market and the potential growth when it comes to greenfield projects and also in terms of the availability of assets which can be purchased.
"However, challenges that Three Gorges might face include low GDP growth in the short term as well as currency volatility."
It will also give the company an opportunity to further diversify its portfolio, both in terms of clean generation sources and geography, he said.
Zhou Dadi, a senior researcher at the China Energy Research Society agreed with the assessment, but he also cautioned that thorough research of another country's economic situation, policy on foreign investment and energy complementarities are needed to ensure win-win cooperation.
After CTG's agreement to buy Duke Energy's 2,090-megawatt plant in Brazil for $1.2 billion by the end of last year, CTG Brazil's clean energy generation portfolio has increased by 2.27 GW, reaching a total capacity of 8.27 GW under its management and on proportional equity holdings.
In 2015, the company won 30-year concession rights to operate two major hydroelectric projects, the Ilha Solteira and Jupia plants in Brazil, with a total investment of $3.7 billion.
Li said the Brazil subsidiary's success is based on expertise and experience of the parent company, which now has a total capacity of more than 13 GW overseas, enabling it to become a major player in the global clean energy market.
CTG's overseas electricity generation reached 20 billion kilowatt-hours in 2016, mainly from clean energy including hydro power, wind power and solar power, with facilities scattered across the globe, including in Brazil, Greece and Pakistan.
According to Lin Chuxue, executive vice-president of CTG, the company is eyeing not only the clean energy markets in the West but those with abundant hydroelectric and new energy resources, including Africa and Latin America.
The Amazon area and the Parana region in Brazil have rich hydroelectric resources and hence have been a major focus of the company for years now, he said.
Wang Shaofeng, executive vice-president of China Three Gorges International Corporation, the overseas unit of the corporation, said in a previous interview that CTG plans to start from Brazil to expand into other South American countries like Chile, Peru and Colombia.
A row of excavators are seen at the Caterpillar booth at the CONEXPO-CON/AGG convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.[Photo/ Agencies ]
The China arm of Caterpillar Inc, the US-based maker of construction and mining equipment, as well as engines, has reached the sales milestone of 20,000 units of mini hydraulic excavators, and is ready to expand its capacity to better serve both the bullish local market and some overseas markets.
China is the world's largest market for mini excavators (the under 10-metric-ton class). Last year, some 40,766 units were sold in China, an increase of 31.1 percent year-on-year.
Mini excavators, each of which could retail for between 300,000 yuan ($45,510) and 400,000 yuan in China, account for more than 40 percent of the hydraulic excavators market.
Foreign-made CAT mini excavators were initially introduced into the China market in 2003.
Eight years later, Caterpillar's Wujiang plant in southern Suzhou started production of mini hydraulic excavators.
"Caterpillar China has striven to build an integrated system for its mini excavator business, covering local R&D and manufacturing as well as the provision of components and parts," said Chen Qihua, vice-president of Caterpillar and chairman of Caterpillar China.
About 30 percent of the products are exported to markets like Brazil, Southeast Asia, Europe and North America.
According to Chen, the planned expansion of the Wujiang plant would entail two new production lines, mainly for mini hydraulic excavators in the under 3-ton class, which would help boost both output and sales.
"The Wujiang plant's annual capacity will reach 20,000 units in the coming four years," said Chen.
The CAT mini hydraulic excavator is one of achievements of Caterpillar's Chinese R&D team, in collaboration with the company's global R&D team.
"A series of mini hydraulic excavators that meet the unique local requirements have been developed, with outstanding performance and superior fuel efficiency. These excavators have been well received in both domestic and overseas markets, reinforcing the reputation of 'Made in China' products," said Korey Coon, a global product general manager from the company.
Sun Hongbin, chairman of Sunac [Photo/CHINA DAILY]
Sunac China Holdings will slow the pace in acquiring land as part of its efforts to reduce its debt level, the company's management said on Friday.
Sun Hongbin, chairman of Sunac, said at its interim results news conference in Hong Kong that the company will follow more prudent land acquisition principles amid an overheated land market, while speeding up the construction of its ongoing projects, and increasing sales turnover to bring in more revenue.
Sunac targets to cut its net gearing ratio to 90 percent by next year and 70 percent by 2019 from a 260 percent net gearing ratio it recorded on June 30.
Gao Xi, Sunac company secretary and vice-president, said buying land and strategically investing in LeEco hurt the company's net debt ratio performance in the first half of this year. Debt ratio doesn't automatically represent the safety of a company's cash flow in the real estate industry, however, and Sunac had been keeping safe and ample cash flow, which mostly relied on property sales.
Sunac's land bank carried 101 million square meters, excluding the 13 Wanda cultural and tourism projects, as of August 25, across eight regions including Beijing, Northern China, Shanghai, Southwest China, Southeast China, Central China, Guangzhou-Shenzhen and Hainan, with an attributable land bank of 69.44 million square meters.
The company cash had reached approximately 92.4 billion yuan ($14 billion) and rigid interest-bearing liabilities due in the second half of the year will be less than 15.8 billion yuan.
The company in January announced it would acquire 8.61 percent of the issued shares of Leshi Internet, 15.71 percent of Leshi Pictures, and 33.5 percent of Leshi Zhixin, with total capital of 15.04 billion yuan. All payments had been made to LeEco. According to the company, the investment would not result in any change in total assets, total liabilities or net assets of the group.
Sun said that he appreciated the former chief executive of Le.com and LeEco Jia Yueting's entrepreneurial spirit and his foresight on internet TV business.
He thinks the foundation of LeEco's business is good and he aims to build up the company's business.
In July, Sunac also announced it would acquire Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties' assets91 percent equity interest in the 13 cultural and tourism project companies.
Kundapur Vaman Kamath, president of the New Development Bank, attends a session where New Development Bank holds its first green bond roadshow, in Shanghai, July 12, 2016. [Photo/VCG]
SHANGHAI - The New Development Bank (NDB), a multilateral financial institution set up by BRICS, will expand its loan operations to the private sector next year, its president said Friday.
Loans to the private sector are expected to account for 30 percent of the bank's business, NDB President K.V. Kamath said at the second NDB-BRICS Business Council (BBC) Dialogue in Shanghai, held during the BBC annual meeting, in the run-up to the 9th BRICS Summit in Xiamen, Fujian province in East China.
The NDB was set up with an initial authorized capital of $100 billion after leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa agreed on its establishment during the 6th BRICS Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil, in 2014. It officially opened in Shanghai in 2015.
Currently, the bank only offers loans to governments or public programs.
Kamath said the bank has operated smoothly over the last two years, and will need support from both public and private sectors to achieve success.
The NDB approved loans totaling $1.55 billion last year to seven programs on sustainable development and is expected to offer loans of $2.5 billion this year, according to Zhou Qiangwu, director of the International Economics and Finance Institute, a Ministry of Finance think tank.
JINAN - East China's Shandong province has approved a request to establish a refining conglomerate that will combine the country's largest independent oil refineries, known as teapots.
The founding shareholders of the new conglomerate are major teapots, including Shandong Dongming Petrochemical Group, according to a document issued Friday by Shandong Economic and Information Technology Committee.
The coastal province contains more than 70 percent of China's independent oil refineries, most of which are privately-owned.
With a revenue of over 88.6 billion yuan ($13.5 billion) last year, Shandong Dongming is China's largest teapot. Combined revenue of all the teapots in Shandong exceeds 492.5 billion yuan.
A trade group, representing major teapots in the province, sent a request to the government in July to establish the refining conglomerate.
According to the request, the individual independent refineries in Shandong could bind together under one flag to improve coordination in the face of fierce competition.
The teapots' international impact began to be felt toward the end of 2015, when the central government issued import quotas.
In the months since, the teapots have imported a huge amount of crude oil from overseas, including the Middle East, Latin America, Russia and the United States, sending shockwaves across the world energy market.
For several months of last year, the Port of Qingdao was congested with oil tankers waiting for weeks to unload crude imported by the teapots.
Passengers wait to board a monorail train of SkyRail in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, on Sept 1, 2017.[Photo/XINHUA]
Carmaker is confident of earning 30 billion yuan in revenue from the new sector next year
BYD, China's biggest electric carmaker, launched its first commercial monorail train service in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, on Friday.
Its SkyRail is also China's first straddle-type monorail system. BYD has intellectual property rights to its design and other aspects.
The SkyRail system has seven rakes that will ply on the 5.67-km, eight-station route.
Yinchuan plans to build a monorail network spanning 300 km in all in the future.
SkyRail's seven trains have three cars each. Each car can carry around 170 passengers at a speed of up to 80 kilometers per hour.
SkyRail construction started in April and was completed in only about four months at a total cost of about 600 million yuan ($91 million).
Wang Chuanfu, BYD chairman and president, said: "Mass transit systems are an indispensable solution to alleviate traffic congestion in cities. The launch of SkyRail demonstrates how BYD's innovative products can help alleviate traffic congestion in urban areas all over the world."
The carmaker has spent about five years and 5 billion yuan to develop the new system.
It tried out the first monorail system in October at its headquarters in Shenzhen. It plans to begin construction of more SkyRail lines in 20 cities across China next year.
Earlier this week, the company said it would build its first overseas monorail line in the city of Iloilo in the Philippines. That line is scheduled to begin operations in 2019.
Wang De'an, an analyst at Ping An Securities, said BYD will earn 5 to 6 billion yuan in monorail revenue this year and 30 billion yuan next year.
He said diversification into rail transport would open up new business opportunities for BYD and drive the company's development in the future.
According to the company's interim financial results, its net profit declined 23.8 percent year-on-year to 1.72 billion yuan in the first six months of this year.
Monorail is now among BYD's four key business sectors for the first time. Others are cars, mobile phone components and batteries.
Post-results, BYD's stock fell in both Shenzhen and Hong Kong. But after Friday's monorail launch, the shares appeared set to reverse the downtrend, closing a tad up in Hong Kong.
An employee scans a quick response (QR) code displayed on Alipay app at a store in Hong Kong, China. [Photo/VCG]
HELSINKI - Finland's biggest chain of department stores Stockmann agreed on Friday to install China's Alipay as one of its payment methods.
The move was considered a milestone for the Chinese mobile payment platform to be recognized in Europe.
The first sale ever done through Alipay at a Stockmann cashier desk was operated on Friday morning by the giant retailer's chief commercial officer Anna Salmi, who sold a pair of glass mugs to Yin Wei, chief financial officer of Finnish mobile payment company ePassi, Alipay's partner in Finland.
Yin spent a few seconds in scanning the barcode and confirming the payment before he took over the parcel from Salmi. "I hope this represents the future of payment method in Finland," he said.
As Yin explained, the money will be transferred in the background from the customer's Alipay account to ePassi and further to Stockmann.
Salmi said she was not surprised by the speed of the transaction, as she had seen it on internet before. What made her most excited was the fact that Alipay is much more than a payment method.
"For us it is part of the deal to help the customers with pre-know -- what's here, what we offer, what services that we have, hopefully at some stages even open a dialogue box where customers can get service," Salmi told Xinhua.
"It is about also managing the expectations, and getting those from the right level. (We) hopefully get some feedback as well through that channel. That will help us to develop our services to be more suitable for the Chinese tourists," she added.
The Chinese tourists have been the second biggest national group at Stockmann, following Finland's neighboring country Russia.
"With the speed that it has been growing, I think it's very meaningful for us, as Alipay is the key payment method for the Chinese tourists," said Salmi.
Now that the new system is in place, an internal training for the employees to adapt to the payment method will be carried out soon. Salmi predicted the overall launch of Alipay in the flagship department store in central Helsinki would start in the middle of September.
An effort to expand the use of Alipay more widely to other Stockmann shops in Finland and in the Baltics is optional, according to Salmi.
In a country where bankcards have been available since 1980s, Finnish citizens have been relying on bank cards and the banks are backing this traditional payment heavily. The situation seems challenging for emerging mobile payment players.
"Only lately the mobile payment has become a general payment thanks to our cooperation with Alipay," said Risto Virkkala, CEO of ePassi, noting that the cooperation has had its merchant network expanded rapidly as well.
While the Western Europe is still relying on the old legacy, Chinese mobile payment ecosystem has been developed from scratch to become quite mature.
"China is way more advanced in mobile payments," said Virkkala. He told Xinhua that he believed "the approach is now coming to Europe."
With some 600,000 customers and 30 percent market share, ePassi has become the biggest mobile payment operator in Finland with a vision to expand to the whole Nordic area as well.
In collaboration with ePassi, Alipay was first introduced to Finland last year, and the business was highlighted by a launching ceremony of the Single's Day global online shopping festival in Rovaniemi, an arctic tourist destination in northern Finland.
Early this year, Finland's national carrier Finnair activated Alipay on its flight from Shanghai to Helsinki, becoming the first airline to offer the online payment system onboard.
China has become the latest country to create neutron beamswhich can examine subatomic materials without damaging their structurean advance expected to lead to new discoveries in material science, clean energy and medicine.
The beams were first produced on Aug 28 at the China Spallation Neutron Source in Dongguan, Guangdong province, making China the fourth country in the world, after the United States, United Kingdom and Japan, to have a neutron beam source.
"This is a major milestone for Chinese scientists. The lab will help us solve some of the nation's most difficult scientific issues," said Chen Hesheng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the manager of the project.
"It will also help the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to upgrade its industries and support their high-end scientific research and development," Chen said.
The China Spallation Neutron Source cost 1.87 billion yuan ($280 million) and took around six and a half years to build. It will be fully operational next year and Chinese scientists from more than 70 projects and 22 universities have applied to use it. The facility would also be open to foreign researchers, he said.
Neutrons and protons are found at the nucleus, or the core of an atomthe basic building block of materials. While protons have a positive charge, neutrons have no electric charge, and have strong penetrative capability.
As a result, unlike X-rays, whose ionized radiation can rip through the atomic structures of biomaterials like proteins, neutron rays can just pass through the material without damaging the structures, Chen said.
However, some neutrons will hit the atomic nucleus in the material and "bounce" harmlessly away at an angle in a phenomenon called neutron scattering, hence creating the "spallation". Using detectors, scientists can count these scattered neutrons, measure their energies and the angles at which they scatter, and map their final positions.
This way, scientists can glean details about the nature of the examined materialsfrom its atomic arrangement to movements.
"This will help scientists discover new chemical mechanisms for producing clean energy, new material for more powerful electronics, or create stronger and more durable material for engines," Chen said.
Another promising application is creating new therapies to treat tumors that are difficult to operate on by hand, such as brain tumors, said Fu Shinian, a researcher at the academy's Institute of High Energy Physics.
The Boron Neutron Capture Therapy takes advantage of boron's properties to accurately latch onto cancer cells. Then doctors can shine neutron beams at the tumor, triggering the boron to kill the cancer cells while leaving surrounding cells intact, Fu said.
Despite these promising applications, creating neutron beams is no easy task. In China's neutron source, scientists have to accelerate a group of protons close to the speed of light, use them to smash into a target tungsten block, and knock the neutrons out of the target's atomic nucleus.
Then these neutrons are "sucked" into various branches and channeled into different lab equipment for research, said Chen. All of the equipment used to generate the neutron beams is more than a dozen meters underground, trapping the tiny amount of harmful radiation created in the process.
China's neutron source will be free to the public, only collecting a small fee from companies with special needs.
Inspection teams will be sent to 28 major cities to monitor actions
Residents in the smog-plagued northern region are expected to experience more days with good air quality in autumn and winter because of the harsh restrictions on emissions that came into effect on Friday, the top environmental authority said.
"China has enacted tougher controls against air pollution, decreasing the rate that airborne pollutants are being emitted," Liu Bingjiang, head of the air quality management bureau at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said on Friday.
For example, at least 3 million households from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the neighboring areas will use gas or electricity to replace coal for heating from mid-November to mid-March. Only 800,000 households did that last year, he added.
"I have confidence that we can have more good-air days in the autumn and winter considering these harsh controls," Liu said.
The major 28 cities in these regions will cut the number of days with severe air pollution by at least 15 percent year-on-year from October to March, of which Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang of Hebei province will see a cut of 20 percent, according to the governments' action plan.
The measures included punishment of polluting companies and irresponsible government officials, or shutting down polluting plants.
"Every city knows what they need to do," Tian Weiyong, head of the ministry's environmental supervision bureau, said on Friday.
The ministry will send inspection teams to the 28 cities to monitor the implementation of the plan and motivate local governments to do more, he said.
In addition, another 10 cities with severe winter air pollution will be visited by inspection teams from the central government.
"The leading officials will be held accountable for poor performance," Liu Changgen, deputy director in charge of central inspection from the ministry, said on Friday.
Accompanying the strong government measures, experts have conducted scientific research on the sources of emissions, making the controls more efficient.
"By the end of September, all the 28 cities will have the results of research into their emissions, which gives the decision-makers a clearer picture of their targets," said He Kebin, dean of Tsinghua University's School of Environment, adding that more research will be conducted to update the data and provide thorough surveys for governments.
BEIJING - China's diplomacy embodying President Xi Jinping's diplomatic thoughts has offered Chinese solutions to global challenges and garnered plaudits worldwide over the past five years.
"Major-Country Diplomacy," a six-episode feature documentary launched recently, has multi-dimensionally displayed China's brilliant diplomatic achievements under Xi's leadership since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012.
The five years have seen Chinese diplomatic efforts bear fruits, boosted by such innovative notions from Xi as building a community of shared future for mankind and the Belt and Road Initiative intended for the expansion of infrastructure and trade networks around the world.
Furthermore, there have been Chinese proposals for global governance reforms and Chinese wisdom presented in the country's new development and security concepts.
Xi's diplomatic efforts over the years, in line with China's increasingly significant role in global affairs, manifest the willingness, capability and unique characteristics of a responsible major country.
The world's second largest economy is moving closer day after day to the center stage of the global arena, taking an active role in various kinds of international affairs. More importantly, China's role in and solutions to regional hotspots and global issues have been greeted with widespread welcome amid a sluggish global economy and challenges to world peace.
As shown in the documentary, China always stands for peace, stability and justice, remaining committed to peace, contributing to global development and maintaining international order.
A win-win cooperation approach, as highlighted in each of the documentary's six episodes, supports China's diplomatic efforts regardless of the size and strength of its partners.
An expanding partnership in different forms involving some 100 countries and international organizations enables China to boast a diversified and multi-dimensioned diplomacy.
Xi's diplomacy has never deviated from the need to ensure common development and prosperity. China, while continuing its opening-up policy for its own growth, is never hesitant about sharing opportunities for development with other countries.
Hence China's different diplomatic approach promotes peace, development and prosperity en route to creating a community of shared future for mankind.
BEIJING - The 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress is expected to open on Oct. 18, where the new leadership for the next five-year term will be elected.
The congress is an important meeting to be held when China is striving towards achieving a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, and at a critical time in the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
The 19th CPC National Congress will analyze the present international and domestic situations, and draw out guidelines and policies that respond to the call of the times.
"Whether we can raise comprehensive, strategic and foresighted guidelines [at the congress] concerns the development of the causes of the Party and the nation, the destiny of socialism with Chinese characteristics as well as the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people," said President Xi Jinping, at a high-profile workshop in late July, which was regarded as setting the tone for the congress.
The CPC must explicitly declare "what banner to hold, what road to take, in what state of mind, what historic mission to shoulder and what target to achieve," said Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.
The answer was given at the tone-setting meeting. The Party will hold high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and have firm confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics to ensure the causes of the CPC and the nation are always advanced in the right direction.
At the congress, the Party's work over the past five years will also be reviewed.
Xi has hailed "the historic changes" in development over the past five "extraordinary" years, saying China's development is standing at a new historical starting point, and socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new development stage.
There is every reason to be confident about the country's growth. Last year, China contributed about 15 percent of global GDP, and GDP per capita reached 53,980 yuan (8,011 U.S. dollars).
Remarkable progress has been made in deepening reforms, enhancing the rule of law, improving the environment and building a strong army. The fight against corruption has also gained crushing momentum.
Such major achievements mean that after experiencing tribulations and hardships since modern times, China has made a historic leap from standing-up to becoming better-off to getting stronger.
Despite progress made in the past five years, the president repeatedly warned the Party against resting on its laurels, as the country still faces many daunting challenges, ranging from corruption to poverty and pollution.
China has set 2020 as the target year to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society, which requires the eradication of poverty.
To achieve this goal, it needs to lift more than 10 million people out of poverty every year.
However, it is the CPC's solemn promise to the people, and that promise must be kept, as it has been over the past decades.
Electricity is a major highlight of the 14 cooperative documents signed on Friday after a talk in Beijing between President Xi Jinping and his Brazilian counterpart, Michel Temer.
At the document-signing ceremony, which was witnessed by the two leaders, the State Grid, China's State-owned energy giant, was granted permission for construction of the second phase of the ultra-high-voltage direct current transmission project of Brazil's Belo Monte hydropower plant.
Additionally, China National Nuclear Corp signed a memorandum of understanding with Eletronuclear, a leading nuclear power company in Brazil.
Xiamen, a coastal city in Fujian province, has taken advantage of its geographical position to benefit from the Belt and Road Initiative.
The city now has three regular railway services linking it to Europe and Central Asian countries.
The longest railway service is to Hamburg in Germany, with the others heading to Moscow and Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan.
China's assessed contribution to the United Nations is likely to outstrip Japan's by more than 2 percentage points between 2019 and 2021, during which China's share is expected to reach 10.8 percent of the total, nearly 3 percentage points more than that in the 2016-18 period. That will make China, which contributes more than 10 percent of the UN peacekeeping budget, the second-largest contributor to UN funds.
The probable decline in Japan's contribution may hamper the country's pursuit of a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. But the changes are not unexpected because, according to the principle of "capability to pay" that governs the scale of assessment, China has become a more capable contributor.
Despite its slow growth, the Chinese economy is largely healthy and now accounts for 14.8 percent of the global GDP. In contrast, the much-touted "Abenomics" has added little impetus to the Japanese economy, hindering the country's capability to contribute more to the UN budget.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Harry Harris, commander, United States Pacific Command, is likely to be the next US ambassador to Australia. The Post and several other media outlets, highlighting Harris' tough past rhetoric aimed at China in the maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea, assume he will rally Australia to counter a rising China.
Even though Harris' record seems to justify the speculation, I believe it is an inaccurate job description for Harris, or anyone who takes up that post. His mission should be to improve US-Australia relations rather than drive a wedge between Australia and China, which have seen their relations grow by leaps and bounds over the past decades.
US-Australia relations took a hit in February after US President Donald Trump criticized Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on the phone over a refugee resettlement agreement former US president Barack Obama had made between the two countries. While the two leaders' meeting in New York in May seemed to have mended bilateral ties to a certain extent, leaked video showed Turnbull mocking Trump at the Australian parliament's annual midwinter ball in June.
CAMPOS DO JORD, Brazil - At a castle, a werewolf growls in a cage while a wizard casts spells to try to calm the beast down. Not to worry - it's just a normal day at Brazil's magic school.
The werewolf is an actor in costume and the spells presumably wouldn't work in the face of a real mythical beast. But anyone entering the Magic and Witchcraft School near Sao Paulo must leave disbelief at the castle gate.
Although inspired by the world of the Harry Potter books and films created by J.K. Rowling, where lucky children go to study at the magical school Hogwarts, the Brazilian version says its curriculum has a definite local flavor.
From its founding in 2015, "the idea was to adapt, not to copy exactly, the feel of Hogwarts", said Vanessa Godoy, 27, who is behind the idea in Campos do Jordao, located about 200 kilometers from Sao Paulo.
Clients at the school - which operates for occasional four-day sessions - are all fans of the Harry Potter series.
But since copyright laws limit what Godoy and her fellow wizards can do, they wave the creative magic wand and use Brazilian folklore to fill the gaps.
"We have our own stories. We get into a lot of the mythology because Brazil is a very magical country," she said.
Hogwarts-style classes are offered in Potions and Elixirs, Witchcraft and History of Magic, and of course there are dances, contests and a tournament based on quidditch, the high-paced game played on flying broomsticks in Rowling's novels.
But there are also things you'd only learn in Brazil, like the use of hairs from an indigenous mythical character known for protecting forests and scales from a siren if you want to activate a magic wand.
Learning these supposed secrets is not cheap: the four-day session at the castle - a real castle which normally is used as a hotel - costs 2,650 reais, or more than $800.
Clients range from 5 to 65 years old, with the majority around 25. They're judges, models, teachers, nurses and students, but all sharing a passion for the Potter phenomenon.
"To be here, you need to enter into the character. You are a student and you are learning to be a wizard. You need to respect the teachers and rules. This makes the experience more real," said Renie Santos, 22, who created the YouTube channel Expresso de Hogwarts.
"The students give a lot. A big part of the sense of immersion is thanks to them," Godoy added.
Agence France-presse
(China Daily 09/02/2017 page14)
ZHAI HAIJUN/CHINA DAILY
Recent catastrophic weather phenomena provide yet more strong evidence that global warming is very much a reality. Typhoons and hurricanes are among the uncontrollable forces of nature that afflict humankind from time to time.
However, scientists warn that these weather phenomena are becoming more frequent and more powerful. Two deadly superstorms late last month, thousands of miles apart, once more raised the question of whether humankind has contributed to this trend through greenhouse gas-induced climate change.
Typhoon Hato, which struck southern China, killing 18 people and forcing thousands to evacuate their homes, was the worst storm to hit the region in half a century. Days later, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, bringing with it what officials described as "unprecedented" flooding to the populous US state. The storm forced the closure of 10 oil refineries that employ tens of thousands of people and normally handle up to 2 million barrels a day.
Climate change skeptics routinely argue that such natural scourges long predate the era in which fossil-fuel burning is said to have accelerated global warming. Research, however, points to human activity playing a role. A US study published last year indicated that typhoons affecting heavily populated regions of East Asia had become up to 15 percent more intense and up to four times more frequent as a result of climate change.
Wei Mei, a marine scientist at the University of South Carolina and co-author of the study, said at the time: "The intensification is strongest for typhoons that tend to make landfall because of the stronger warming of the coastal waters near East and Southeast Asia." According to Wei, the typhoons striking the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Japan and the Korean Peninsula will intensify further because of the faster warming of waters of 20 degrees north.
An update earlier this year from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in New Jersey cautiously reported it was premature to conclude that greenhouse gas emissions had already had a detectable impact on Atlantic hurricane or global tropical cyclone activity. However, human activities may have already caused changes that are not yet detectable.
The GFDL said it was likely that by the end of the century manmade global warming would contribute to more intense and destructive storms and there was a better than even chance that there would be more of them.
Similar studies in the past prompted the debate on climate change and led to a near-global consensus, expressed in last year's Paris climate change agreement, on taking action to curb the temperature rise.
Climate change deniers are now in a minority, although they received a boost with the election of US President Donald Trump, a climate skeptic. He has suggested in the past that the data behind some climate change research might have been manipulated. There are now allegations of a cover-up of some researchto favor the climate change deniers. ExxonMobil, the world's largest energy company, is defending itself against accusations that it downplayed its own research indicating the existence of manmade global warming.
US legal authorities are looking into whether the company misled the public, an allegation which the energy giant denies. ExxonMobil says it now acknowledges that climate change is real and that it even urged Trump not to pull out of the Paris Agreement, which he nevertheless did.
It is now left to China and the European Union to take the lead to combat climate change, the issue on which the two have shown the greatest solidarity in a more than decade-old partnership.
Some argue that we may already have reached the point of no return, where no amount of reduction of greenhouse gases will prevent potentially catastrophic global warming. That may be overly pessimistic. But data suggesting last year might have been the hottest year on record, coupled with this season's superstorms, are reminders that time for action may be running out.
The author is a senior editorial consultant for China Daily. harveymorris@gmail.com
Central Tianjin and Haihe River, 2017. [Photo by Bruce Connolly/chinadaily.com.cn]
The Haihe River, flowing through central Tianjin, has long been a key element in the city's historic and in-creasingly rapid contemporary development. A walk along its landscaped banks illustrates how this North China Municipality has shaken off much of an earlier industrial legacy while transforming itself into a mod-ern attractive metropolis, attracting large numbers of visitors - as witnessed by the flotilla of tourist boats cruising the river night and day!
Chinese theater director Tian Qinxin's directorial production Turmoil. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Zhejiang province's Wuzhen is celebrated as an ancient water town but is also gaining acclaim as a contemporary stage for theater.
The fifth annual Wuzhen Theater Festival will host 100 shows of 24 productions from 13 countries, including Russia, Germany and the United States, from Oct 19 to 29.
This year's theme is "luminosity".
It's divided into five series - classics revisited, female perspectives, multimedia productions, physical theater and new voices.
Chinese theater director Tian Qinxin will be the artistic director. The position was previously held by Taiwan director and scriptwriter Stan Lai and Beijing-based director Meng Jinghui.
"The festival's success comes from offering as many productions with as diverse of styles as possible," Tian says.
She recently spent over a month in the hospital with acute pancreatitis.
"The festival creates the collaboration in a space with the artists and audience. That's where you get the meaning of theater - a collaborative, imaginative space."
Eugene Onegin by Russia's Vakhtangov Theatre will open the festival.
The work doesn't fully adapt the namesake novel in verse.
Director and writer Rimas Tuminas chose Tatyana's love for Onegin as the main theme. It's a story with a prologue and epilogue. Audiences are introduced to characters' memories and imaginations.
Lattice Semiconductor Corp will seek US President Donald Trump's approval for its proposed $1.3 billion sale to China-backed Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, Lattice said on Friday, gambling that Trump will approve the tie-up against the advice of US national security officials.
It will be the first such deal to hit Trump's desk and only the fourth time in three decades that a deal was put in front of a president after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) recommended against it. CFIUS scrutinizes deals for potential national security threats.
The move comes after Portland, Oregon-based Lattice and private equity fund Canyon Bridge, funded in part by China's central government, spent eight months trying unsuccessfully to persuade CFIUS to clear the acquisition.
If Trump approves the transaction, it would be unprecedented. US presidents, who have the final authority on such investments, have sided with the committee to block the past three deals. As a result, most companies have been reluctant to ask a president to go against the consensus of the country's national security establishment.
Critics of the deal, including some US lawmakers, worry the technology gained through the acquisition of Lattice could be used by China's military, but the companies have argued it poses no such risk.
"Lattice remains of the view that the proposed transaction does not raise any national security concerns that cannot be addressed by the comprehensive mitigation measures that Lattice and Canyon Bridge have proposed to implement," Lattice said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Canyon Bridge supports Lattice's decision and believes "President Trump will recognize the benefits this investment will provide - to keep and grow jobs in the US as well as expand Lattice's product portfolio," it said in an emailed statement.
The latest 75-day CFIUS review of the Lattice deal, the third since it was announced in November, ended this week with the panel informing Canyon Bridge and Lattice it would recommend that Trump block the acquisition if they take it to him for review.
Lattice makes programmable chips known as field programmable gate arrays, which allow companies to put their own software on silicon chips for different uses. It does not sell chips to the U.S. military, but its two biggest rivals, Xilinx Inc and Intel Corp's Altera, make chips used in military technology.
Canyon Bridge, based in Palo Alto, California, is a private equity fund whose major investor is China Reform Holdings Corp, an entity that invests money from China's central government and it has indirect links to the country's space program.
REUTERS
WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump plans to nominate House Representative Jim Bridenstine to head the country's space agency NASA, the White House said Friday.
Bridenstine was elected to Congress in 2012, serving on the House Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee.
Bridenstine was also a former Navy pilot flying the E-2C Hawkeye off the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, and it was there that he flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bridenstine, a Trump supporter, reportedly emerged as a favorite for NASA administrator immediately after Trump won the presidential election last November.
The Oklahoma congressman has called for a human return to the Moon before NASA embarks on a mission to Mars.
Currently, NASA is led by its acting administrator, Robert Lightfoot, who has been in that position for more than seven months, the longest time the space agency has been led by an acting chief in its history.
"I am pleased to have Rep. Bridenstine nominated to lead our team," Lightfoot said in a statement.
"Of course, the nomination must go through the Senate confirmation process, but I look forward to ensuring a smooth transition and sharing the great work the NASA team is doing," he added.
Xiamen summit expected to pave way for deeper cooperation, analysts say
Guests leave the opening ceremony of the BRICS Political Parties, Think Tanks and Civil Society Organizations Forum in Fuzhou, Fujian province, in June. [Photo/XINHUA]
The upcoming BRICS Summit is expected to pave the way for more practical cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries to inject impetus into global economic recovery, analysts said.
During the summit, which will be held in coastal Xiamen from Sunday to Tuesday, President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum and deliver a keynote speech, reviewing the progress that the BRICS countriesBrazil, Russia, India, China and South Africahave made in the past 10 years and looking to the future.
Xi will chair a small meeting of BRICS leaders, discussing the world economy, global governance, international and regional hotspot issues and national security and development. A larger meeting will focus on deepening cooperation and promoting cultural and people-to-people exchanges, as well as enhancing institution building.
Leaders from five other emerging markets and developing countriesEgypt, Guinea, Mexico, Tajikistan and Thailandwill attend the Dialogue of Emerging Markets and Developing Countries during the summit and engage in dialogue with the BRICS members.
The dialogue will focus on deepening cooperation and promoting common development, and a statement will be released on the outcomes achieved on implementing a sustainable development agenda, promoting South-South cooperation, building partnerships and improving global governance.
The BRICS leaders will also attend the opening ceremony of the BRICS Cultural Festival and Photo Exhibition, a meeting of the BRICS Business Council and a signing ceremony, which will be followed by a welcome banquet hosted by President Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan.
China wants to build stronger partnerships within and beyond the five BRICS countries during the Xiamen summit, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday.
China expects outcomes in several areas, including strengthening economic and security cooperation, increasing cultural and people-to-people exchanges and enhancing institution building, as well as promoting stronger partnerships with other emerging market countries and developing countries, he said.
"It is in the interests of all sides to strengthen cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries through the BRICS platform. Therefore, China has proposed the 'BRICS Plus' concept based on past experiences," Wang said while introducing the Dialogue of Emerging Markets and Developing Countries.
Ruan Zongze, executive vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said that through the dialogue between BRICS members and representatives of other developing nations, the China-proposed BRICS Plus mode aims to enlarge the "friends circle" of BRICS and build the world's most influential platform for South-South cooperation.
"BRICS belongs to not only the five member countries, but also the whole of developing nations and emerging markets," he said.
Wang Lei, director of the Research Institute for BRICS Economies at Beijing Normal University, said BRICS has become an important force to lead the world's economic growth and improve global governance.
New BRICS-led institutions, such as the New Development Bank, have become a helpful complement to current financial agencies including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, he said.
The members of BRICS represent emerging markets and are the voice of the world's developing countries.
Strong economic growth means the BRICS nations are now key players in the world economy and in global governance. Together, the five accounted for 23 percent of the 2016 global economy, almost double their share in 2006. The five have been the source of more than half of global growth in the past 10 years.
The emerging markets' cooperative mechanism was initially launched in 2006 with four membersBrazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa was admitted in 2010. The group's first summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2009.
China holds the rotating presidency of BRICS this year. In a letter sent on Jan 1 to Russian President Vladimir Putin, South African President Jacob Zuma, Brazilian President Michel Temer and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Xi called on BRICS nations to deepen their partnership for a brighter future.
In the letter, Xi said that the Xiamen summit will focus on the four aspects of deepening pragmatic cooperation for common development; enhancing global governance to jointly counter challenges; carrying out people-to-people exchanges to consolidate public support for cooperation; and promoting the building of a broader partnership.
BRICS cooperation will usher in its second "golden decade" as long as the five members make joint efforts for closer ties with the spirit of openness, inclusiveness, cooperation and win-win, Xi said while meeting with heads of the delegations for the 7th Meeting of BRICS High Representatives for Security Issues at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in late July.
On July 8, Xi called on the BRICS members to establish an open world economy, maintain a multilateral trade system and push forward open, inclusive, beneficial, balanced and win-win economic globalization, when he presided over an informal meeting of the BRICS leaders on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
While meeting with the BRICS foreign ministers in Beijing in June, Xi said that BRICS countries should push forward international order to develop in a more fair and reasonable direction. The BRICS members are facing similar tasks of maintaining stability of development, he said.
The BRICS countries' leaders should work together for an open world and firmly oppose protectionism in all forms, Xi said in his speech at the BRICS Summit in Goa, India, in October last year.
Marcos Caramuru de Paiva, Brazilian ambassador to China [Photo/CHINA DAILY]
China's strong economic growth allows it to play an important role in the BRICS, and its experience in development provides valuable lessons, said Marcos Caramuru de Paiva, the Brazilian ambassador to China.
China's economy grew by 6.9 percent in the first half of this year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Earlier this year, the government set a target for the economy to grow at about 6.5 percent.
Caramuru, who has been living in China for 9 years, said the country has strongly encouraged entrepreneurship and is constantly searching for new developments, "either in terms of technology or in terms of improvement in the capacity of different sectors of industry".
Another aspect of China's economic development the ambassador found interesting is infrastructure investment.
"The Belt and Road Initiative is precisely the idea that through building more infrastructure and connecting countries, we can encourage, in the long run, more trade and more investment," Caramuru told China Daily in an exclusive interview.
"It's a very pragmatic approach showing the way that countries could get together," he said. "But it has behind its concept the idea that 'yes, infrastructure pays off'."
He said multilateral development banks have reduced their enthusiasm for infrastructure over the past three decades but China is making "a very good point" by renewing such enthusiasm and "the general concept that only growth can help countries to reduce their levels of poverty and to improve the standard of living of the population".
Brazil is investing more in its infrastructure, and there is a chance for Chinese companies to participate, said Caramuru.
"We have a shortage of investment, and that is where China has an advanced position, like in logistics for example, or even railways and highways, and infrastructure in general, or ports," he said.
What's more, Caramuru said, China has contributed greatly to the BRICS by also "paying a lot of attention to people-to-people connections", and Brazil hopes to increase cooperation with China not only in trade and investment, but also "people-to-people interaction".
As the presiding country for the BRICS for 2017, China has held a number of meetings and events this year to enhance cultural exchange, including the BRICS Games in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in June and the second BRICS Film Festival in Chengdu, Sichuan province in August.
Speaking of the BRICS' role in the global economy, Caramuru suggested the BRICS reaffirm the commitment to free trade and trade integration among various countries.
He said the BRICS countries are not only improving integration among themselves, but also reaching out to other developing countries.
The fact that the BRICS' New Development Bank has set up an African regional center in Johannesburg in August shows the group's efforts to incorporate other developing countries into its initiative, which is "in the right direction", Caramuru said.
Marcos Caramuru de Paiva, Brazilian ambassador to China [Photo/CHINA DAILY]
Technicians from China and Brazil discuss engineering plans for constructing a hydro plant by CTG Brasil. [Photo/China Daily]
CTG Brasil - the unit of China Three Gorges Corporation, the world's biggest dam builder and operator - said it will continue to expand its footprint in Brazil to support long-term growth there.
CEO Li Yingsheng said CTG Brasil has a clear, long-term vision of its investments in the Latin American country.
"We will continue to analyze opportunities in clean energy that present a fair rate of return and acceptable risks," Li said.
These opportunities not only lay in hydro, but also in solar and wind power.
"We are particularly interested in participating in clean, large-scale and greenfield hydropower projects, as those are part of our DNA," Li added.
Since its launch in 2013, CTG Brasil has invested 23 billion reals ($7.27 billion) in asset acquisitions and system upgrades in Brazil.
In its most recent expansion there, it paid $1.2 billion last year to acquire the Brazilian operations of Duke Energy, with installed capacity of 2,090 megawatts.
In 2015, it won a 30-year concession to operate two major Brazilian hydroelectric projects, the Ilha Solteira and Jupia plants, for a total investment of $3.7 billion.
To date, it has built up an asset portfolio which includes 17 hydropower plants, 11 wind farms and a trading company.
Li said that with total installed capacity now of 8.27 gW, his group was Brazil's second biggest private energy generator.
The CEO said that so far his group has a very successful experience in operating its assets in the country.
"We have built a high-quality portfolio and are committed to pursuing improvements, in order to ensure that our assets can continue to play a key role in Brazil's energy matrix," Li said.
CTG Brasil said it will invest 3 billion reals to promote modernization of the Ilha Solteira and Jupia hydropower plants, which were built four decades ago. The modernization work started in March 2017.
The close relationship between China Three Gorges Corporation and Brazil started even before CTG was established in China in 1993.
Brazil's experiences in hydro plant construction inspired CTG a great deal in its initial development stage, Li said.
"Our decision to enter the Brazilian market in 2013 was based on a long-term view," he said.
The 2017 BRICS Business Forum to be held in Xiamen, Fujian province, attracts more than 1,000 leaders and representatives from BRICS and other countries' business communities. [Photo/China Daily]
Trade, investment, economic cooperation all key issues this year amid sluggish growth worldwide, Li You reports.
The 2017 BRICS Business Forum will kick off in Xiamen, a resort city in Fujian province, on Sept 3 and 4 during the 2017 BRICS Xiamen Summit, promoting dialogue as well as trade and economic cooperation among BRICS countries.
The acronym BRICS comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The forum will spark in-depth discussion on topics such as trade and investment, financial cooperation and development, connectivity, the 'blue economy' and regional economic growth.
It is organized by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, a national-level organization responsible for foreign trade and investment promotion.
More than 1,000 leaders and representatives from BRICS and other countries' business communities have been invited to the forum, making it a major event during the BRICS Xiamen Summit.
The key theme of this year's BRICS Xiamen Summit will be BRICS: Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future, which is made up of two concepts. One of the concepts is focused on building up a wider range of partnerships under the BRICS framework on the global stage, said Zhang Yansheng, deputy director of the expert committee of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.
"The second concept concerns how to generate a brighter future in the current economic environment. As we can see, there are two main streams of future perspective.
"One holds the opinion that the world is becoming more open and safe. The cooperative spirit has been evident in more and more situations, which has greatly benefited the BRICS economies, among others," Zhang said.
But economists are also frequently discussing the uncertainty facing the global economy. The issues of financial trade and investment protectionism, populism, isolationism and unilateralism still exist, Zhang said.
"In 2017, the global economy has showed clear signs of stable development. At the same time, we should notice the uncertainty that could change our international environment and economic layout," Zhang said.
Major Chinese computer-maker Lenovo has announced plans to enhance its technological cooperation with BRICS-based companies to explore new opportunities in the software and IT equipment market.
"Competition in the information industry is very fierce. Together, we expect to innovate in more key technologies, including artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing," said Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo's chairman and CEO.
The tech giant is also willing to take its advanced technology abroad, for example products related to intelligent manufacturing, to help promote local companies' digitalization, he said. Lenovo already has an established market presence in BRICS countries, with its personal computer ranking No 1 by sales in Russia from April 2016 to March 2017, giving it 23 percent of the market share. Its smartphones ranked within the top three in Brazil, India and Russia.
The company has four factories in India and Brazil, which together can produce more than 28 million pieces of intelligent equipment every year, with a combined output value of more than $4.5 billion.
Since India has become the third-largest market for smartphones, the company is determined to establish close ties with native companies and skilled workers to maintain a long-term competitive advantage, Yang said. The company's Indian factory's production lines went into operation in 2015. "We also stress the model of localization, to contribute to the economic development of those countries," he added. Lenovo's factories in BRICS countries has offered about 20,000 job opportunities for local people, according to Yang.
Many Indian college students work at Lenovo's factory. They have direct access to the senior managers to give advice or make complaints, Yang said.
"For example, they suggested installing a big screen to show the test schedule of all the personal computers, and we took their advice."
From April 2016 to March 2017, Lenovo's business in BRICS countries contributed 45 percent to its gross revenue, according to Yang.
"The cooperation has proven successful and I believe there is great potential for the future," he said.
Lenovo will attend the upcoming BRICS Business Forum, held from Sept 3 to 4 in Xiamen in East China's Fujian province, at the ninth BRICS Summit.
Yang said: "I'm looking forward to the meeting, which will bring new opportunities for international enterprises like Lenovo, especially in terms of further collaboration in innovative information technology."
China's State-owned China Merchants Group said it will promote its investments in construction and management of BRICS infrastructure projects at the forum.
The company will continue to launch infrastructure-related projects, especially in Brazil's and Russia's ports and cross-border economic zones, said Li Jianhong, chairman of China Merchants Group.
"We are looking forward to a win-win result, since the local governments have shown support in terms of attracting foreign investment," Li said.
As Russia's top trading partner since 2010, China has played an increasingly important role in boosting business and economic growth between the two. Under the new era - with cooperation and mutual development of major significance - the countries will further strengthen their ties and expand their work together in various fields. Sergey Katyrin, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, shares his views on joint projects and prospects for the future.
Which fields have China and Russia cooperated closely on before? Could you give some examples?
One example of the practical interaction is the continuing work on joining up the Eurasian Economic Union (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan treaty) with projects under China's Belt and Road Initiative.
An important part of this work is the establishment of a Eurasian high-speed transport corridor running from Moscow to Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Astana, Urumqi and Beijing.
The construction of new sections of high-speed railway lines is stipulated in the development of railway systems in Russia, Kazakhstan and China.
Construction of the high-speed railway section of the 770 km Moscow-Kazan line is suggested as the initial stage of this corridor, on Russian Federation territory.
Currently a Russian-Chinese consortium is conducting engineering design work for this line.
Supported by the BRICS interbank cooperation mechanism, how do you see the economic and trade development potential of China and Russia?
China has been Russia's leading trading partner since 2010. Last year the share of Chinese trade in Russia's total foreign trade turnover was 14.1 percent.
Official statistics show that the volume of accumulated Chinese direct investment in the Russian economy at the end of the first half of 2016 was $8.9 billion (up 2.9 percent on the same period in 2015).
With cooperation between BRICS countries becoming stronger, we have more opportunities to implement big multilateral projects. Russia and China should use these opportunities to work closely together.
Both Russian and Chinese investors are ready to invest in expanding output and creating new jobs, in order to further trade and investment ties between our countries.
What improvements can be made in the future to achieve better economic cooperation?
Despite attempts at some coordination of economic activity, including through the adoption of the BRICS Economic Partnership Strategy until 2020, the five countries differ in their trade policies. With goods and services, the BRICS countries use different approaches when applying tariff and non-tariff measures in their trade regulations. And a significant number of these measures affect trade between the BRICS countries.
These actions, of course, affect the volume of our mutual trade, which so far has not been showing impressive figures.
In this situation, calls to liberalize trade, increase market openness and facilitate access to them are getting louder.
We need a thorough analysis of existing barriers between countries, and the development of better regulatory practices and trade facilitation measures involving representatives of the business community, including SMEs.
In which fields will China and Russia have potential to cooperate in the future? What kind of efforts have been made by Russia to promote such cooperation?
In order to further increase mutual trade and achieve inclusive and balanced development, Russia and China must together seek new growth points.
They must create conditions for unimpeded trade, which in turn is one of the main engines of economic growth.
In this context, it seems promising to increase the volumes of nonprimary domestic exports to China, in particular food products.
Most Russian producers, especially companies in the Far Eastern Federal District, are ready to become reliable suppliers of such products.
A clerk dressed in traditional She ethnic costume hands out scented sachets at an international forum in Fujian province.[Photo by YOU QINGHUI/CHINA DAILY]
Fujian province, a core area of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, has launched a range of overseas shows and art exhibitions in recent years to promote Chinese culture along the ancient trade route.
As part of its going out strategy for the local cultural industry, the province's efforts in developing its cultural resources started more than three decades ago, when President Xi Jinping worked in the province.
Xi paid the same amount of attention to cultural and people-to-people exchanges as he did to economic and trade cooperation, pushing forward the province's reform and opening-up when he held several positions there between 1985 and 2002, according to a report by Fujian Daily.
President Xi proposed the initiative of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in 2013, marking the revival of the ancient trade route.
The Maritime Silk Road, which ran from China through Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean to Europe, took shape in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) and reached its peak during the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties.
Gulangyu Island in Xiamen, Fujian province, is a world cultural heritage site. [Photo by HU MEIDONG/CHINA DAILY]
Hongdong's operations in Mauritania offer employment opportunities for locals, establish end-to-end supply chain, Chen Meiling reports.
As the operator of China's largest pelagic fishery base, Hongdong Fishery plans to provide another 1,000 jobs in Mauritania next year.
In 2010, the Fujian province-headquartered fishery giant signed a 50-year contract to build a large-scale fishery base in Nouadhibou of Mauritania, a country in West Africa, with a $200 million investment.
"We are not like other companies who just come here, catch all the fish and leave," said Chen Zhongjie, board secretary of the company.
"We look to the long-term sustainable development of the local fishery industry," he said.
The base contains a complete supply chain, including processing, production of fish meal and oil, refrigeration and sale, Chen said.
Mauritania has rich fish resources, with more than 80 species and products, mainly including octopus, cuttlefish and cod, according to Chen.
"However there were only small sailboats and no processing factories before we arrived," he said.
Supportive facilities followed, including auxiliary equipment, refrigeration cabinets, shipyards, ice-making plants and oil depots, helping to form an end-to-end national fishery industry.
Domestic and overseas markets have huge demand for seafood. Many countries are facing the exhaustion of their of shore fishing resources, Chen said.
The company stresses sewage treatment and resource protection, according to Chen, and fish shorter than 70 centimeters will not be caught.
Hongdong's 169 ships can bring in 100,000 metric tons of fish every year, which are then exported to Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea.
Of the company's 2,000 overseas employees, about 1,800 are local people, he said. Their monthly salary is about 2,000 yuan ($303), about 20 percent higher than the local average level, he said.
Farmers from the She ethnic group go to a tea plantation in Lianjiang county, Fujian. [Photo by YOU QINGHUI/CHINA DAILY]
Renowned since ancient times for its oolong tea products, Anxi county in East China's Fujian province has seized the fresh opportunities generated by the Belt and Road Initiative to gain a bigger share of the international market.
Anxi started producing Tieguanyin, a premium oolong tea variety, in the 17th century. In 2016, the county exported 16,000 metric tons of oolong tea - one-third of the country's total - to more than 60 countries and regions, including the United States, Japan, Russia and the European Union.
In the first half of this year, the county exported more than 970 tons of tea through the Quanzhou Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, generating revenue of $9.38 million, doubling the figure during the same period last year, according to bureau statistics.
Anxi has more than 40,000 hectares of tea plantations, with tea output reaching 68,500 tons last year. More than 800,000 local residents are involved in the local tea industry, which generated an annual output value of 14.8 billion yuan ($2.25 billion) and provided 56 percent of the farmers' income in the county.
In September 2010, the inspection and quarantine bureau in Quanzhou - the city which administers Anxi county - helped with the county government to build a national demonstration zone for quality exports and certified organic products.
The move has significantly supported the county's tea exports and increased farmers' incomes, according to local officials.
Anxi was officially named a national demonstration zone for quality oolong tea exports by the General Administration of Quality Supervision and Quarantine in November 2012.
In October 2015, the county was designated a demonstration zone for organic products by the Certification and Accreditation Administration.
At the 2016 China Brand Evaluation Press Conference, held in December, the brand value of Anxi Tieguanyin was estimated at 142.4 billion yuan, topping all the tea brands in China.
"Local farmers' monthly income has grown by 30 percent since the demonstration zone was launched," said Liu Qiuling, general manager of the Songxiangyuan Organic Agricultural Park in Anxi.
Residents and tourists take a break at a park in Xiamen, Fujian province. [Photo by ZHU QINGFU/CHINA DAILY]
As the historical starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, Fujian province's universities are exploring opportunities to expand their ties with and presence in countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.
The institutions have founded new programs and centers, drawing academic communities from various countries closer together.
Xiamen University has established its first overseas branch in Malaysia. It is said to be the first of its kind to be entirely funded by a Chinese university and is an independent campus. Construction started in October 2014, with the branch welcoming its first batch of students in February 2016.
Zhu Chongshi, president of Xiamen University, said most of the students at the new branch are from Malaysia, China and other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Its goal is to become a comprehensive international university, according to Zhu.
"It is definitely not an easy job to set up an overseas branch," he said.
Malaysia is an Islamic country with multi-ethnic groups and a diversified culture, he explained. It is also different from China in terms of its political systems and laws.
"This reminds us to keep our eyes open all the time," he said. "Whatever decisions we make, we have to abide by Chinese laws as well as Malaysian laws."
The cultural and custom differences require teachers to adjust their teaching methods and take religious factors into consideration.
Zhang Bing, a teacher from Fujian Police College, said the school has trained nearly 400 policemen and law enforcement officers from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America since 2010.
Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine has held nearly 100 training sessions covering traditional Chinese medical knowledge, such as acupuncture, for foreign medical staff members from more than 10 countries since 1986.
Huaqiao University has run a Mandarin language training class for officials from Thailand for more than 10 years.
More than 600 officials have participated in the classes, including officials from many important government departments in Thailand.
More countries have planned to join similar language programs run by the university.
Zeng Lu, vice-president of Huaqiao University, said more and more institutions are motivated by the Belt and Road Initiative to go abroad. However, universities should seek an area, which is suitable for them to seek international cooperation, he said. For instance, not all the universities are qualified to provide language training.
"Many universities are promoting similar language training, which has caused cutthroat competition," he said.
Ye Yang, an official from the Department of Education in Fujian, said that in order to attract students from countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, the provincial government has earmarked a special fund to set up a special scholarship for students from these countries.
Statistics from the Fujian provincial education department showed that by August this year, there were 8,836 foreign students studying in the province with the help of Chinese government scholarships.
This year, Fujian province set aside 10 million yuan ($1.52 million) in funding for foreign students. A large part of the funding will go to students from countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. So far, 369 students from Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos and Singapore have benefited from the fund.
Jiangyin Port in Fuqing, Fujian province, handles more than 18.5 million metric tons of shipments in foreign trade in the first seven months of this year. [Photo by YOU QINGHUI/CHINA DAILY]
Xiamen, a coastal city in Fujian province, has taken advantage of its geographical position to benefit from the Belt and Road Initiative.
The city now has three regular railway services linking it to Europe and Central Asian countries.
The longest railway service is to Hamburg in Germany, with the others heading to Moscow and Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan.
The Hamburg line passes through Central Asia on its 16-day journey, which stretches a total length of 11,866 kilometers.
Rows of containers can be seen at the terminals of these railway services in Xiamen.
Since the services launched on Aug 16, 2015, the lines have become some of the busiest cross-border railways in China.
By Aug 15 this year, the total number of journeys reached 156, shipping a total of 4,400 containers with goods valued at 2.4 billion yuan ($363 million).
So far this year, the number has reached 52, carrying 1,568 containers with goods valued at 850 million yuan. Most of the goods are clothes and light industry products.
Jiang Jingdong is in charge of the operating platform of the Xiamen China-Europe Express. He said the service has linked the city with the central and western parts of China, as well as Central Asia and Europe.
Goods from Southeast Asian countries can also be shipped to Xiamen's seaport and then be loaded onto the rail express to Europe, saving a lot of time compared with transporting the goods by sea the whole way, he said. "This makes Xiamen an important link in the route, a transportation pivot."
In April 2016, a batch of goods from Taiwan was shipped to Xiamen and then transported to Europe through the rail service. In July this year, a second batch of goods from Taiwan also arrived in Europe via the railway. At the end of July, a batch of goods from South Korea and Vietnam also took advantage of the rail service for destinations in Europe.
On their return trips, the train brought back products from Europe such as beverages, biscuits, beers and infant formula.
At present, there is only one train service from Xiamen to Hamburg every week. "Given the robust demand, we are applying to add another weekly trip," Jiang said.
Xiamen aims to provide the service to other Southeast Asian countries in order to expand its client base, he said.
Compared with other transportation methods, the express railway can save at least half the time taken to ship products by sea and can reduce the costs incurred using air cargo by three-fourths.
As a crucial point on the ancient marine Silk Road, Xiamen has gained a reputation for its widespread waterways and flourishing overseas trade.
Xiamen Port, with an annual handling capacity of 9.61 million standard containers, is the 15th-largest terminal in the world and one of the four major shipping centers in China.
With 143 shipping routes linking with regions in North Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Africa and Southeast Asia, the port is key to enhancing business bonds with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.
Nowadays, the sea-rail combined transportation has enabled Xiamen to play an increasingly important role in foreign exchanges, local officials said.
Editor's note: As a dynamic city values innovation and sharing, Xiamen's economic development remains one of the best examples of China's reform and opening-up, starting from three decades ago. From a leading aircraft maintenance center to China's first automated container terminal, let's take a look at Xiamen's industrial transformation and upgrading through three projects based on air, sea and land.
Land: China-Europe (Xiamen) Freight Train Service
Containers at Haicang Area, Xiamen Port wait to be loaded onto the China-Europe (Xiamen) Freight Train, Sept 2, 2017. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]
Russia, a BRICS nation, is also one of China's largest trading partners. Xiamen's exports to Russia totaled 5.1 billion yuan, while imports from the country reached 1.9 billion in 2016, thanks to the regular freight train service between Xiamen and Moscow.
Major exports from the port of Xiamen to Europe include machines, electronic devices, clothing and high-end construction materials, while the freight train usually brings back food, wines from Europe and high-end timber from Russia, said Jiang Jingdong, executive director of Xiamen Haicang Logistics Investment Co, a major carrier of China-Europe (Xiamen) freight trains.
"Cross-border e-commerce customers from the Netherlands and Germany also are our customers," added Jiang. "We cover Central-Europe and Southeast Asian markets as well, and that distinguishes us from other China-Europe lines."
The first freight train to Europe from the city departed Haicang port, Xiamen, in Aug 2015. Traveling via Southwestern China's Chengdu city and passing through Northwest China's Alataw Pass in Xinjiang, the train passed through Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus before ending its run in the Polish city of Lodz.
BEIJING - China encourages businesses to invest in Brazil and participate in infrastructure development there, Vice Premier Wang Yang said on Saturday.
Wang made the remarks when addressing a seminar on investment and business opportunities in Brazil, an event held during Brazilian President Michel Temer's state visit to China.
"China encourages businesses to set up factories or industrial parks in Brazil. Both sides can explore partnerships in the production, purchase, storage, shipment, trade and processing of agricultural produce," Wang said.
China supports enterprises to engage in infrastructure development and operation in engergy, railway, road, port and telecommunication, Wang said.
He backed the China-Brazil Fund, launched in May with a total of 20 billion U.S. dollars, to finance major bilateral cooperation projects.
Wang said China respects Brazil's concerns for optimizing trade structure and will continue to import various kinds of products from Brazail.
China hopes Brazil will make it easier for Chinese exports to Brazil and welcomes more Brazilian investment in China, he said.
China-Brazail comprehensive strategic partnership is at an all-time high, particularly in trade and investment, Temer said in his speech.
Expressing optimistism about the development of the two countries, Temer said Brazil welcomes Chinese investment and will be committed to improving its business environment.
Kerrville, TX (78028)
Today
Partly cloudy this evening followed by increasing clouds with showers developing after midnight. Low 42F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..
Tonight
Partly cloudy this evening followed by increasing clouds with showers developing after midnight. Low 42F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
One God -- One Day -- One Africa (1GDA) World's Largest Continent Wide Gospel Outreach Reaching multitudes all over Africa simultaneously with one mega event
Contact: (ST) Rev. Siegfried Tomazsewski, C.E.D., One God One Day One Africa, Inc., (ST) +1 321 682 5196,
CORONA DEL MAR, Calif., Sept. 2, 2017 /
Ministries like Christ For All Nations, Iris Global, King Ministries and Global Outreach Day have already signed up to partner with 1GDA to accomplish this mega task.
1GDA are now inviting every church and ministry to join as prayer warriors, hosts, supporters and partners.
1GDA is calling all ministries and churches across Africa and internationally to rise up and stand together, that multiple millions will be reached for the Kingdom of God at this time!
Dr Heidi Baker, CEO of Iris Global, said, "Jennifer Wilde is a woman of passion, integrity, and vision. Even as her name, she is wild for God and will do anything to see His Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven. One God One Day One Africa is an evangelistic event focused on unity, mobilization, and lasting fruit."
Every Christian is invited to come and join in, spreading the Gospel and building Christ's Kingdom all over Africa in May 2019.
Former Christ for all Nations European Director Pastor Siegfried Tomazsewski (President of Calling Ministry), who has been working alongside Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke for over 18 years, is spearheading the operation. He has experience working on mass-crusades for may years along with a team under the professional leadership of Russell Abbot. Russel is the African director, based in Rwanda, that is organizing Gospel campaigns in Africa for Evangelist Jennifer Wilde.
The first stage outreach of 1GDA will start in May 2018 in 3 African countries simultaneously. For more details, join by signing up on
For Further information, please contact:
(ST) Rev. Siegfried Tomazsewski, C.E.D.
One God One Day One Africa, Inc.
Contact Number: (ST) +1 321 682 5196
E-mail:
Share Tweet Contact: (ST) Rev. Siegfried Tomazsewski, C.E.D., One God One Day One Africa, Inc., (ST) +1 321 682 5196, info@1GDA.org CORONA DEL MAR, Calif., Sept. 2, 2017 / Christian Newswire / -- Renowned evangelist and author, Jennifer Wilde, heard God saying "Now is the time" to act upon a vision she received 37 years ago. One God One Day One Africa (1GDA) was born as a ministry to fulfill God's desire to reach out to every possible country in Africa in May 2019 and every church and ministry can be part of this.Ministries like Christ For All Nations, Iris Global, King Ministries and Global Outreach Day have already signed up to partner with 1GDA to accomplish this mega task.1GDA are now inviting every church and ministry to join as prayer warriors, hosts, supporters and partners.1GDA is calling all ministries and churches across Africa and internationally to rise up and stand together, that multiple millions will be reached for the Kingdom of God at this time!Dr Heidi Baker, CEO of Iris Global, said, "Jennifer Wilde is a woman of passion, integrity, and vision. Even as her name, she is wild for God and will do anything to see His Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven. One God One Day One Africa is an evangelistic event focused on unity, mobilization, and lasting fruit."Every Christian is invited to come and join in, spreading the Gospel and building Christ's Kingdom all over Africa in May 2019.Former Christ for all Nations European Director Pastor Siegfried Tomazsewski (President of Calling Ministry), who has been working alongside Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke for over 18 years, is spearheading the operation. He has experience working on mass-crusades for may years along with a team under the professional leadership of Russell Abbot. Russel is the African director, based in Rwanda, that is organizing Gospel campaigns in Africa for Evangelist Jennifer Wilde.The first stage outreach of 1GDA will start in May 2018 in 3 African countries simultaneously. For more details, join by signing up on www.1gda.org/join . You could also visit and like the Facebook Page fb.me/1GDA.org For Further information, please contact:(ST) Rev. Siegfried Tomazsewski, C.E.D.One God One Day One Africa, Inc.Contact Number: (ST) +1 321 682 5196E-mail: info@1GDA.org
The Houston Independent School District on Saturday will start providing free meals for families affected by Hurricane Harvey at nine sites across the city, according to a news release from the school district.
"The Houston community needs our support now more than ever," says HISD Board of Education President Trustee Wanda Adams. "Thousands of families have been displaced from their homes and have suffered unimaginable loss and trauma. To even begin the recovery process, we must first address families' most basic needs, which includes access to food and water."
President Donald Trump announced Sunday as National Day of Prayer for Hurricane Harvey victims, national responders and recovery efforts, according to a press release from the White House.
The President urged in the statement that, "Americans of all faiths and religious traditions and backgrounds to offer prayers today for all those harmed by Hurricane Harvey."
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Authorities are searching for Houston-based realtor Crystal McDowell, who disappeared shortly before Hurricane Harvey hit.
The 37-year-old was last heard from on August 25, when she told her boyfriend Paul Hargrave she was going to pick up her two children from her ex-husband's house, which is 18 miles away from where she was staying in Baytown.
"She texted me to say road conditions were good around 8:30 a.m.," Hargrave said.
Hurricane Harvey hit 24 hours later, and McDowell has not been heard from since.
GAS STATION FIGHT: Gas poured onto man's car in heated fight at Dallas 7-Eleven
Now Playing: The day before Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, realtor and mother of two Crystal McDowell told her followers on Facebook to stay safe out there! Hours later, she would go missing herself Video: People
"We are hampered by some of the flood issues, but we are as aggressive as ever trying to locate and find Crystal McDowell," Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne told CBS News.
Hawthorne also stated that he is "very, very confident" that McDowell is not a victim of the hurricane.
A few days later, McDowell's car was spotted partially submerged in water outside of a Motel 6 in Mont Belvieu. Two people were seen inside of the car and were subsequently detained by police for questioning.
McDowell's uncle, Jeff Walters told CBS News that authorities do not believe the people inside the car are connected to his niece's disappearance.
BACK OPEN: City of Galveston, tourist attractions back open for Labor Day weekend
McDowell's children are currently in the custody of her ex-husband.
Crystal McDowell is 5'4" tall, weighing approximately 110 pounds with blonde hair and green eyes. Crystal works as a realtor in the Baytown area and was last seen wearing a black dress. If anyone has any information as to the whereabouts of Crystal please contact the Chambers County Sheriff's Office Criminal Investigations Division at 409-267-2500
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The calendar clicked over to a new month Friday, with rents and mortgages due again despite widespread flooding and displacement due to Hurricane Harvey's rampage along the Texas coast.
Some local landlords say they are willing to work with tenants who may have been forced into shelters or neighbors' spare rooms as well as those suddenly missing work and paychecks.
On Saturday, officials and clergy from The Metropolitan Organization plan to publicly call on Houston-area landlords to give renters a grace period of at least three weeks.
"TMO is convening this group because pastors and families are afraid of evictions for not being able to pay rent, due to a week without work caused by Hurricane Harvey," the community organizing group said in a statement. "This loss of income is devastating to families and evictions will exacerbate financial hardships and instability during this recovery period."
Allied Orion Group, with operates 68 apartment properties with 12,000 units locally, will waive late fees this month and possibly longer, chief operating officer Ian Douglas said. Allied also is forgoing the application and administrative fees for residents being relocated due to damages. Some are likely to be moved to new housing for months while their units are repaired, Douglas said.
"As far as late fees and all that goes, we're working with residents as much as we can to make sure they're taken care of," Douglas said.
"We froze all rents as of the rate that they were on the Friday before the storm hit," he added.
Houston-based Camden's 8,500 apartment units in 24 properties were largely spared in this week's flooding. The company is offering a break not just to residents of the 70 flooded units and others damaged by leaks.
"Since rents were due on Sept. 1, we have waived late fees for anybody in our system in September," CEO Ric Campo said.
"If you can't pay your rent on time for any reason, there are no late fees."
Not all leasing companies made the same offer. A representative of the Linda Vista apartment complex in northwest Houston, for example, confirmed that it would not waive late fees after a resident complained about it to the Chronicle. James Eaton said the flood conditions is delaying his employer from paying his salary. He said he explained the situation to the property managers but to no avail.
The local representative, who asked not to be identified, read from a statement and said she would forward a request for further comment to the corporate offices of BNC Equities in Dallas. The company did not follow up.
At Camden, which is in the process of moving affected residents to other units, contractors are expected to complete restoration of the flooded apartments within 45 days, Campo said.
The company is also finding lodging for more than 40 of its 450 employees whose homes were flooded.
The Finger Cos. sustained damage at 20 apartment properties including, some that were severely damaged and are still without power, president and CEO Marvey Finger said. The three-story Park on Memorial townhome property with 360 units near Buffalo Bayou was "wiped out" when water from the Addicks reservoir was released to avoid catastrophe upstream.
The company is working with residents on a case-by-case basis.
"We're very sympathetic," Finger said. "We are making substantial donations and we're taking care of our residents."
"I have a few projects believe it or not that were not touched," Finger said. "That's the rare exception."
Swapnil Agarwal, head of Nitya Capital, which owns more than 9,000 mostly older apartment units managed by Karya Property Management, said in a statement that it would not charge late fees before Sept. 11.
"Our staff is also working with all residents in helping them with FEMA assistance paperwork," the statement said. "We are also trying to work out a payment plan for tenants that have lost jobs or are not getting their paychecks on time."
Steve Moore, head of Villa Serena Communities, estimated that 20 percent of the company's 5,000 apartment units in Greenspoint area north of Houston were damaged. He's waiving late fees for one week.
"We're expecting everybody to pay their rent," Moore said. "If their unit is not habitable, we'll find them one that is."
Moore, a resident of Greenspoint, said his top priority is to get air conditioners working and properties repaired. He noted the Federal Emergency Management Agency has sent representatives to provide financial assistance to renters who need it.
For homeowners, Chase, Bank of America, BBVA Compass, Wells Fargo and Amegy are among the banks offering to waive or refund late fees for mortgage payments.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is encouraging banks to work with customers seriously affected by Hurricane Harvey, in some cases asking them to allow customers to skip loan payments, extend loan terms, and restructure loans.
Dean Gladden is about to venture downstairs into the Alley Theatre. But before he takes a step down, the company's managing director asks the group he's leading to turn on their cell phone lights.
"And I hope you're wearing the right kind of shoes," he says, alluding to the vaunted downtown theater's flooded lower level, where more than ten feet of water once pooled during Hurricane Harvey's catastrophic downpour that caused severe damage on the city's Theater District.
Productions across town have been postponed or cancelled as organizations prioritize cleanup and restoration. Here in the Alley Theatre, a playhouse with national acclaim, the future can't begin until the present damage has been inspected. It's a somber action, partly because the Alley is two years removed from a $46.5 million renovation that revamped much of this flooded area.
Gladden beckons his party. The tunnel that leads down to the Alley's Neuhaus Theatre is pitch black, so the first impression of the downstairs lobby area isn't anything you can see, but rather the swish-swish-swish of construction workers wading through the water, the patter of water droplets leaking from the ceiling and the smell.
What starts off as a sensation of the nose and throat soon turns into a full-body experience a dizzying mixture of rotting wood, rotting paper, infested carpet, swamp-soaked chairs, sewage, bacteria and humidity. The lobby had been entirely submerged in slimy, green-blue-black water since Sunday, allowing the walls and ceilings to soften and melt. Pinch your nose and you can still smell the rot through your mouth.
"As a managing director, you always think of the worst possible thing that can happen," Gladden says. "This is the worst possible thing."
Construction workers, wearing masks, tell the awestruck explorers to be careful and not to breathe in the air. These workers, from Blackmon Mooring and W.S. Bellows Construction, are led by Alley Theatre General Manager Ten Eyck Swackhamer in a separate tour to assess the work ahead of them. But Gladden's party marches on.
BEFORE AND AFTER: Photos of Harvey's destruction in Houston
The scene is difficult to convey with words. Walls have fallen down in chunks. The ceilings are all peeling downward, their shapes distorted like ice cream melting in summer. Some rooms have doors blocked by debris that can't be entered. Pianos and tables and large machinery are turned upside down, some stuck in strange, gravity-defying positions. Flotsam everywhere floats on the ground.
Some of the wreckage is hard to identify. Communications Director Whitney Spencer, shining her light toward the shadow of large and long rectangular box lying upside down in the Neuhaus Theatre, asks what it is.
"It's the first row of seats," Gladden says.
An entire row of seats has toppled over. Board President Butch Mach, taking long, deliberate strides, climbs up a section of seats. He swipes his finger on the top of a seat on the fifth row "It's dry here" and then the bottom.
"That's wet," Mach says. "So you can tell that's how high the water went. So hopefully the lights up on the ceiling and the control booth are dry yep."
Gladden isn't sure where the water came from. On Sunday, playwright Rajiv Joseph, in Houston for the upcoming world premiere of his play "Describe the Night" at the Alley, captured footage of Texas Avenue turned into a river, with water running nearly to the top of the steps to the Alley.
But the water didn't breach the main lobby, instead likely entering the basement from somewhere in the underground tunnel system the same water that annihilated the lower level of Birraporretti's, a nearby restaurant.
How the flooding happened is just one of the many questions without a complete answer today.
What's the schedule for recovery? Swackhamer, estimating 8 to 14 days of salvage work, expects a full schedule by end of next week.
How much is the damage worth? Though this is the first time contractors have been able to inspect the scene, Alley management knows it's in the several millions. Their complete renovation two years ago cost more than $46 million, but there are also other elements that add to the toll, like 68 years of production history lost in the destruction of the Alley's prop storage, that can never be recovered.
Later in the day, props master Karin Rabe would mention the tens of thousands of props that were destroyed.
"All of our luggage, foliage, rugs, china, typewriters, computers, books, paper props, kitchen items, lamp shades are all gone," Rabe says. "There were probably 20,000 pieces of china and 70 TV sets down there."
In the storage room, unseen amounts of props lay in waste. Mach wants to reach the back part of the room because he saw something he can't get out of his head. Earlier that day, he took a preliminary tour and found a lone doll lying on a table, her body splayed helplessly, as if she were acting a scene in a tragedy. To get to the room, the party takes a dangerous path.
On the ground of the laundry room, white detergent mixes with the mud water, creating a goop that almost makes some of the party trip. A rack has fallen over. Hundreds of programs for the Alley's recent production "39 Steps" have meshed into a single wet mound, right next to the Alley's entire collection of yet-to-be-printed tickets that have all nearly dissolved, forming a thick layer of white mush in the water.
The group forges on, wading past the broken machinery of the laundry room and into the back side of the Alley's vast prop storage room. An ornate Chinese vase filled with leaves and water sits upright here, everyone notices the upright objects right away.
Right next to it is the doll. It's a gem of a creation, a Victorian era doll featured in the Alley's beloved "A Christmas Carol." It's the doll that's given to the Scrooge, which later manifests into an eerily beautiful ghost. A steam clock, a giant candy cane, Scrooge's chair these other iconic "Carol" items also lay toppled in the water.
The smell changes room to room. The bathrooms reek of sewage, while the tunnel facilities have the acidic smell of kerosene, which had leaked from the generators into the water. The substance clings onto the pants and shoes of the visitors.
The party turns around when Swackhamer says electrical parts are still hot inside one of the rooms. He closes the door, shooing the party up the steps toward Birraporetti's. As workers sweep the water down the hallways, it gushes down the steps, causing one of the tour members to nearly trip.
"Look at this," Gladden says, pointing toward the break room. It's a champagne glass, filled with water, somehow standing perfectly upright four feet above the ground against the door. Its posture, in contrast with the chaos of the room, feels bizarre, even inappropriate.
"Looks like one of those undersea shots of the Titanic," Mach says.
From the random destruction of Hurricane Harvey, Gladden and Mach are finding the accidents the doll, the champagne glass worth remembering. They're not quite silver linings, nor distractions from the heartbreak, but rather ways to simplify and encapsulate a loss that, for now, defies comprehension.
Back outside, production manager Ray Inkel says he's invested in the objects of the Alley, but appears emotional when human loss enters the conversation. Two staff members were forced to evacuate their homes, Inkel says. His face reddening, he begins wiping his hands on his eyes. He's crying. Apologizing, he leaves the steps of the Alley.
Rabe looks on as he walks away. She agrees with his sentiment that the things never matter as much as people.
"It's stuff that has a lot of meaning, but it's all stuff. It can be replaced," she says. "We're here."
Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert awoke at 5:15 a.m. Friday and did the same thing he'd done to start every morning this week.
He grabbed his cell phone and checked the water level on the Brazos River.
"It's now," he thought.
Finally, the river cutting through the county seat of Richmond was starting to drop. After a week of watching and waiting, wondering how bad it was going to get for Fort Bend County's 700,000 residents, he finally had an answer. It wasn't as bad as it could have been.
Now Playing: This video posted by the Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management shows the Brazos River at U.S. 90 in Richmond on Sept. 1, 2017. The video was taken by the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue Roboticists Without Borders program. Video: Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management
"That is a moment of intense relief for me," Hebert said, "because that defines the danger zone."
As the river crested on Friday, Hebert said the worst of widespread flooding is over for the county southwest of Houston, where residents no turned toward recovery.
The same couldn't be said in Brazoria County, where the Brazos and San Bernard rivers continued to rise at a glacial pace, approaching their highest levels
Since Hurricane Harvey landed last weekend, bringing close to 50 inches of rain in some spots in the two counties, emergency personnel in the suburban Houston counties kept close watch on the Brazos River. The monstrous waterway, which crosses the region and empties into the gulf, rose a staggering 45 feet as the storm passed through, overflowing its banks. Anticipating widespread flooding, officials in both counties issued sweeping mandatory evacuations.
After rising for several days, the river crested in Richmond at 55.19 feet shortly before 1 a.m. Friday. It rose about half a foot above the record set during last year's Memorial Day flood.
FLOODING: Brazos River reaches record levels as it pushes forward
Slowly, it has begun to fall, bringing a boost of morale to those who had been living out of the old jail turned county emergency operations center, sleeping in cars, chairs and bunks. The river is projected to remain in "major" flood status, as defined by the National Weather Service, until Tuesday morning.
"This was and is a major disaster," Hebert said.
Still, he said, the crest meant good news.
"There is an end," he said.
That meant relief for residents like Brian House, 39, whose Sienna Plantation neighborhood near Missouri City was damaged earlier this week by an apparent tornado, which tore off parts of roofs, and then hit by flooding from heavy rains.
"I'm dry!" Brian House, 39, said Friday from his home, which he had just checked for the first time since leaving the area Monday.
Still rising in Brazoria
But to the south, the Brazos and neighboring San Bernard rivers hadn't yet topped out. The waters crept Friday toward the southeastern edge of the city of Brazoria, prompting the shutdown of a main road connecting the city to Highway 288. Officials in Lake Jackson also issued a mandatory evacuation order for two neighborhoods in the city's northwest corner.
The Brazos River has crested in Rosharon, along the Fort Bend-Brazoria County line, but federal projections show it will still rise another 1.3 feet farther south near West Columbia, cresting Monday morning at 32 feet. Areas to the east of the river, including Rosharon, Holiday Lakes and the Bar X neighborhood, have already taken on several feet of water.
"Just because it's crested in Rosharon does not mean that we've seen the highest water," Brazoria County Judge Matt Sebesta said Friday. "The crest is still moving through the county very slowly."
To the west, the San Bernard River near Sweeny is projected to crest at nearly 32 feet on Saturday morning, breaking its previous record height of 23.9 feet. A gauge measuring the river's height is no longer working, but federal officials continue to make projections based on physical observations and data from other locations.
It, too, is projected to remain in "major" flood status through the middle of next week, and possibly beyond.
LEVEE: Brazoria team works against the clock
Gregory Waller, a service coordination hydrologist for the National Weather Service, said geography near the Brazos River's southern end, combined with the unprecedented rainfall dumped by Hurricane Harvey, are causing it to drain slowly.
As the river approaches the Gulf, the land in southern Fort Bend County and Brazoria County flattens out, causing the river to move slowly. That gives time for rainwater which covered large swaths of the county in recent days to drain into the river from nearby creeks and bayous, Waller said.
At the same time, rainwater continues to mix with river water in areas where the Brazos River has spilled over its banks, adding to the height total.
"That's why it's still rising when others are falling," Waller said.
The remaining projections for Brazoria County aren't as bad as earlier forecasts, which called for an additional 2.5 feet of water in the Brazos River near West Columbia.
Local officials have been reluctant to conclude that the cities of Brazoria and West Columbia will be spared of major flooding along the Brazos River, but projections by the Texas Forestry Service show both municipalities should remain relatively clear from the river.
Robert Downen contributed to this report.
BEAUMONT, Texas - It was a dire scene when veterinarian Nick Moore opened the door: dozens of dogs, panting or seriously ill in the hot, dark rooms of a run-down kennel that had been partially flooded the night before by the remnants of Hurricane Harvey.
One dog was already dead. Six more were close to that, and at least a dozen were in critical condition. There were 128 dogs in all, plus 16 cats and a horse. There was no air conditioning, and many were too dehydrated to walk, much less drink or eat. Some were going into shock.
Moore had traveled with a friend and a truck full of veterinary supplies from his home in Georgetown, north of Austin, to the flooded landscape along the Texas-Louisiana border. In a crisis as expansive as the one wrought by Harvey - which left thousands of submerged homes across miles of rural East Texas and thousands of people to be rescued and placed in emergency shelters - he knew there would be animals left behind.
"Helping animals is what I do for a living, and it was four hours away," said Moore, 38, one of hundreds of volunteers mobilized in Beaumont on Thursday, though one of the very few with veterinary skills. "How could I not come?"
Cherry Braum owns the Hi Tower Kennels - really a low-lying house that had been converted into that purpose. When heavy rains started, she said, she had only 30 dogs in crates and cages here. But as the flooding began, surrounding her property up to the edge of her doorstep, dozens more, most of them rescued from a neighbor's place, came, too.
The Beaumont city police department had heard about the dogs, as well as more than a dozen horses and other animals stuck out there in the murky waters. But they were still in the midst of rescuing people and trying desperately to manage the fresh crisis of a city devoid of drinking water. So Moore, who normally works with horses, gathered the locations of stranded creatures from an officer in the animal services division and set out to see what he could do.
At Braum's kennel, he, his friend, Sam Darlington, and a general contractor got to work fast. They began inserting intravenous drips into the dogs that were going into shock, and they carried the most critical cases into the front room so they could be monitored.
Moore, 38, asked a group of young volunteers who showed up - two couples with minimal equipment but eager to assist in any way - to hold the bags of IV fluids and watch the dogs' progress. He handed one man his cellphone to post an urgent and specific request via social media: for crates, a truck and a dry place to take all these dogs fast. He had another help him start checking crates. Look at each dog's gums, he instructed. Dry gums mean the animal needs care immediately.
Moore and Darlington, who is 55, worked for more than two hours, their faces damp with sweat. "Pinch this down," Moore told volunteer Erica Berlinger, 31, as she held an IV drip. Put the dead dog in a garbage bag if there is one, he directed one man. "We don't want him in any water, in case what he's got is contagious."
As the sun began to dip low in the sky, the first batch of around a dozen new crates arrived, plus two new volunteers who run a dolphin boat cruise in Alabama. They began putting the crates together with zip ties.
"We're going to get these critical ones sorted out, and then we're going to go by boat to get more," Moore said, referring to some 200 dogs and horses believed to be at another flooded property nearby.
By then, he had been able to move more than 12 of the most critical cases to dry land down the street, though he knew that he would have to put some to sleep. He had also spoken to his receptionist back at Moore Equine Dental Services and heard that additional volunteers and supplies were on the way.
"In this business, you do deal with emergencies. But not like this, not in this scale," he said, water still covering acres in every direction. "As long as there's places to go, we're going to keep going."
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Juan Jacquez wanted to believe his relatives were safe.
He told himself they were at a hospital - maybe in San Antonio, far away from Houston's flooding - as he headed on Thursday to where they were last seen: in an overturned fishing boat in Greens Bayou.
Jacquez thought of his brother-in-law, Benjamin Vizueth, 33, and his mother's partner, Gustavo Rodriguez, 40, as missing - not dead - as he scanned the banks of the bayou in their northwest Houston neighborhood.
The water level had nearly returned to normal. Alligators swam by.
Jacquez, 28, was optimistic. He didn't expect to find a body. Until he saw Rodriguez's neon orange vest.
Vizueth and Rodriguez made headlines earlier this week after their rescue mission went wrong Monday. The pair headed out with Vizueth's two brothers, Jose and Yahir, 45, and a close family friend, Jorge Perez, 33, in Rodriguez's 12-foot long fishing boat to a flooded bridge over Greens Bayou on Wallisville Road to save residents of a nearby apartment complex.
Two journalists the U.K.-based Daily Mail newspaper, Alan Butterfield and Ruaridh Connellan, joined them.
The five men didn't personally know the residents of the apartment complex. But, as local first responders were overwhelmed with calls and as water filled two of the three floors of the building, the men saw neighbors in need, Jacquez said.
"They did it because they saw a whole bunch of people who needed help that nobody was rescuing," Jacquez said.
The men - all of whom had lived in the neighborhood about four years - saved two families on the way to the bridge. They brought them back to safety at Jacquez's mother's house.
But when they headed back to the bridge, their luck turned.
Greens Bayou had never been so full and the current had never been so strong.
The water level reached about 40 feet, Jacquez later estimated.
The motor of the boat, bobbing in the water, gave out. The water carried the vessel downstream, into a power line. The boat's seven occupants tumbled overboard.
Only three of them - the two journalists and Jose Vizueth - survived. They were electrocuted and clung to a tree for over 15 hours waiting to be rescued.
Jose Vizueth and the journalists were hospitalized Tuesday.
The Houston Fire Department found Yahir Vizueth and Perez's bodies the same day, floating in floodwaters downstream from the bridge.
But Benjamin Vizueth and Rodriguez initially missing.
Benjamin Vizueth was Jacquez's older sister's high school sweetheart, Jacquez said. The couple had two sons and a daughter. They, Vizueth's brothers and Jacquez had gone into Jacquez's family business together. They owned several car dealerships.
After watching his sister, frantic over the fate of her husband, Jacquez and a handful of other volunteers went out to the bayou on Thursday.
"I wasn't going to stand there, just waiting," Jacquez said. "It could have been a week, two weeks."
They started out on foot and found Rodriguez first, about a mile and a half south of the Wallisville Road bridge, near a bend in Greens Bayou.
They continued their search in a boat. About two hours later, up near the Wallisville bridge, Jacquez spotted a leg - from the knee to the foot - poking out from a pile of rubble along the bayou.
It was Benjamin Vizueth.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences have confirmed Rodriguez, Yahir Vizueth and Perez's deaths late Friday and Benjamin Vizueth's early this week.
A day later, Jacquez couldn't describe what was going through his mind when he saw Vizueth's body. He isn't sure what's next for his family.
But he doesn't regret searching the bayou. He just knew he had to find Benjamin Vizueth, for his sister.
As areas across southeast Texas emerged from Harvey's floodwaters, the death toll continues to creep upward.
Authorities in Walker County confirmed Saturday that a six-month-old was missing and had been swept away in gushing floodwaters on Aug. 27.
Firefighters had been working to rescue two men trapped in their pickup in the swollen waters of Winters Bayou on Highway 150 near New Waverly and Coldspring, and heard screams nearby.
First responders found a couple up a tree, seeking refuge from the water. They had been fleeing Houston flooding, heading for Louisiana, said Jimmy Williams, with the New Waverly Fire Department.
They became trapped in high water on Highway 150, and had to flee their pickup.
"The current was so fast, it ripped the baby out of their arms," Williams said. "So the baby was lost,"
It took New Waverly and Punkin-Evergreen Firefighters had to fight the waters for three hours before they were able to rescue the parents.
Authorities have been working feverishly - but unsuccessfully - ever since to try to find the baby.
"It's the worst," he said. "It's as bad as you can imagine."
Residents near one of the region's most dangerous toxic dumps are increasingly concerned that the raging San Jacinto River, swollen to record heights by Tropical Storm Harvey, could be degrading concrete caps covering the site, allowing cancer causing dioxins to escape into the water.
The San Jacinto Waste Pits, where waste from a nearby paper mill was buried, were at one time located on the banks of the river, but as the waterway changed course, they became submerged and have been the subject of concern and lawsuits for years.
Now, based on observations of the damage the flooded river is doing to concrete bunkers at the Interstate 10 bridge near Channelview, concern is growing about what might be happening to the caps covering the Superfund site itself.
Harris County officials, who successfully sued the current corporate owners of the pits over leaks in the cap, have demanded that the Environmental Protection Agency review the damage and leaks as soon as the heavily flooded area can be safely accessed by divers or robots.
The county attorney's office also requested this week that the EPA release surveillance video of the pits. But so far the EPA has not responded, according to information the Houston Chronicle obtained through a public records request.
"They potentially have a mess on their hands," said Assistant County Attorney Rock Owens. "Unfortunately, we will be waiting until the water recedes."
On Saturday, the EPA released a statement promising to inspect the site as soon as Monday if river conditions permit. The statement came hours after both the Houston Chronicle and the Associated Press reported on concerns raised by the county on behalf of citizens who live near the pits.
BREAKING: EPA says 13 Superfund sites flooded and/or potentially damaged by Hurricane Harvey
In the statement, the EPA said it had already conducted initial assessments of all 41 Superfund sites in the areas impacted by Hurricane Harvey "using aerial images, as well as direct contact with the parties responsible for the ongoing clean-up."
Thirteen of hazardous waste sites have been flooded - including the San Jacinto Waste Pits - "and/or are experiencing possible damage due to the storm - though only two have been inspected and determined that they do not require "emergency cleanup," the statement says. The EPA said it will send teams to inspect the remaining 11 Superfund sites as soon as conditions allow.
The San Jacinto Waste Pits contain cancer-causing dioxins and other industrial waste stored there in the 1960s and were officially designated for the Superfund clean-up program in 2008. The current owners of the site paid to cap the waste pits but the caps have leaked and been repaired and replaced several times and experts have long predicted they could be destroyed by a major hurricane.
"We are so concerned about that cap," said Gina Fields, a long-time resident who lives in a flooded area just a few miles upstream from the pits in Crosby. "If that water moved concrete barrier and bulldozers like it did and houses too we fear that cap is no longer there. And we're very concerned."
Staff from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a state agency that is coordinating with the EPA on storm response statewide, attempted to secure waste containers and drums at many dump sites before Harvey hit. But the TCEQ has suspended many pollution reporting requirements under the emergency declared by Gov. Greg Abbott, and the TCEQ office in Houston remains closed.
In the statement released Saturday, the EPA said it planned to move as quickly as possible to inspect the "temporary armored cap" that is designed to prevent hazardous material from migrating downstream" at the waste pits site. "Based on forecasted river conditions this inspection is planned for Monday, by boat. EPA has dive teams to survey the cap underwater when conditions allow."
"Despite misleading and inaccurate reporting, the facts are that EPA and TCEQ are working together, along with other local, state, and federal authorities and emergency responders around the clock to address the human health and environmental impacts of Hurricane Harvey and its effects, especially historic and devastating flooding throughout Southeast Texas," the statement said..
The EPA and TCEQ are working together to address widespread pollution problems after Hurricane Harvey that could pose potential risks for drinking water and public health at many sites statewide, according to statements released by both agencies.
Dozens of residents from the waterfront neighborhood just west of the pits already were forced to wade through flooded yards to reach rescue boats on the river's Channelview side, according to Jackie Young, an activist who grew up in the San Jacinto River community of Highlands. Young alerted county officials to the signs of damage to the bridge.
Young, who runs a grassroots group called Texas Health and Environment Alliance, was out of state when Hurricane Harvey closed airports and kept her in California. But she said she's personally heard from 30 evacuees forced to wade out to boats to evacuate neighborhoods nearest to the pits and emailed photos to county officials.
All across the Houston areas, residents and rescuers alike have been walking and driving through floodwaters contaminated by industrial runoff and by overloaded municipal treatment plants. Municipal water supplies so far are considered safe. But hundreds of homes in Channelview, Highlands and Baytown near the pits rely on vulnerable individual wells for their drinking water.
"The homes in the river bottom have come off their slabs and it's a very bad situation there as in many areas across the region," Young said. "But the residents knowing that the waste pits are there, sitting across from the area, they're worried. I feel there's a shortcoming in the response in figuring out if the environment is safe. We need them to move quickly on a sampling plan."
More than 600 people claim that their health, their property and their livelihoods already have been damaged from contact with river water tainted by dioxin, a potent carcinogen that is also linked to birth defects, according to allegations in a civil lawsuit that remains pending in Harris County.
Bob Allen, director of Harris County's pollution control services department, reopened his office in Pasadena on Monday with a skeleton crew of five and has been busy calling hundreds of area treatment plants and industrial users to track potential dangers and leaks across Harris County.
Not many operators at those sites have been answering their phones, he said.
But Allen told the Chronicle Friday that his staff would use computerized mapping to determine how many of the 150 people whose wells already have been tested for potential dioxin contamination were likely flooded during Harvey.
Young, the activist, said she hopes that water testing will be done as soon as possible so that residents can make informed decisions about the risk of returning to their homes or drinking from their wells. Ultimately, she wants to see the waste removed from the river entirely.
This year, the Environmental Protection Agency has been reviewing an action plan supported by Harris County leaders, Young and other activists that would finally remove poisons from the submerged river pits forever. Action on that plan is expected before the end of the year, though an EPA spokeswoman told the Chronicle that there is no firm timeline.
On Friday, Gina Fields, of the riverfront neighborhood Crosby, was helping rescue people and pets from flooded homes. "There should be no more debate," Fields said. "They need to remove those wastes from that river."
Late Saturday, a spokesman for MMC, one of two companies involved in the cleanup of the San Jacinto Superfund site, said that both the cap and berms around it appear to remain in place, based on a visual inspection conducted by contractors Friday afternoon. Stone material around the berms, however, has washed away. The company said further updates will be posted on www.sanjacintofacts.com.
The rising death toll from Tropical Storm Harvey has stressed the operations of the Harris County morgue, prompting officials to call for extra storage support.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences has capacity for 203 bodies. As of Friday afternoon, there were 134 bodies in storage, according to Tricia Rudisill Bentley, a spokeswoman for the agency.
In response, the state has provided a refrigerated truck for "extra storage capacity as ongoing search and recovery efforts continue over the next several weeks," Bentley said.
As of 9 p.m. Friday, the institute had confirmed 28 storm-related deaths in Harris County - all but one from drowning in floodwaters.
The demand for space has eased as the week has progressed and bodies have been released. On Thursday, the medical examiner's office sent 30 cases to funeral homes.
A week after the storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on the night of Aug. 25, local officials had reported more than 50 people were confirmed dead or feared deceased in the state as a result of Harvey and the catastrophic flooding the storm unleashed.
Volunteers among dead
The medical examiner's office on Friday night confirmed the deaths of two missing volunteer rescuers who were tossed into Greens Bayou after their boat struck a power line on Monday, sending an electrical jolt through the vessel.
Officials said the bodies of Gustavo Rodriguez, 40, and a 33-year-old man were found on the banks of Greens Bayou on Thursday.
Relatives and friends had hoped that Rodriguez and Benjamin Vizuet, 33, had managed to survive the incident, which killed two other volunteer rescuers: Jorge Raul Perez, 33, and 45-year-old Yanir Rubio-Vizuet.
The four were part of a group of five, accompanied by two journalists with the London-based Daily Mail, who ventured out Monday afternoon to rescue neighbors in the Northshore area. The boat disappeared while headed toward a wheelchair-bound resident's home.
The journalists, senior reporter Alan Butterfield and photographer Ruaridh Connellan, were found alive with the fifth volunteer, Jose Vizuet. The trio were clinging to trees along the bayou until they were rescued Tuesday and transported to a hospital for treatment, the Daily Mail reported.
Meanwhile, deaths that appear to be the result of medical emergencies during the storm continued to add up.
Among the recently confirmed storm deaths was Wilma Ratliff Ellis, 73. The medical examiner's office reported that she was found floating Monday during a Coast Guard rescue operation.
Her story had appeared to be a joyous one after she was rescued earlier in the day. Family members put the elderly woman on a boat when rescuers arrived with only one seat left, the (New Orleans) Times-Picayune newspaper reported. She was taken to a local high school, but remained without relatives because the boat never returned for other stranded family members. Ellis apparently wandered from the school and was swept away in floodwaters.
She was discovered floating face-down and lifeless by Joshua Lincoln of Madisonville and two other rescuers, who resuscitated her, the newspaper reported Monday. She was wearing a hospital bracelet at the time of the second rescue, said Ellis, who gave details of the incident.
The men dropped Ellis at a gas station where a local businessman promised to look after her, then left to continue pulling people from flooded homes.
Lincoln said he had received frantic calls on Wednesday from family members asking him to help locate Ellis. The medical examiner's office confirmed Thursday that she was pronounced dead at LBJ Hospital at around 6:30 p.m. Monday.
Officials also removed the case of another elderly resident, Ronald Zaring, from the list of storm-related deaths. The 83-year-old, having been evacuated from a Friendswood nursing home, died Tuesday of a heart attack while aboard a charter bus taking patients to Huntsville. He also had pneumonia.
Nine outside Houston
Other drowning victims confirmed this week include Calvin Oran Montalbano, 54, found Tuesday in a grassy area near the Eastex Freeway; Benito Cavazos Juarez, 42, found face-down in a parking lot on Tuesday after waters receded at the East Freeway and Holland Avenue; Martin Salazar, 49, found Wednesday on Preston Avenue in Pasadena after evacuating his home; Michael Tucker, 66, who was found Tuesday in 4 feet of water after leaving his residence; Keisha Monique Williams, 32, found Wednesday on Woodforest Boulevard in Houston; and Colby Henry Osorno, 24, found Thursday in the Greens Bayou/Houston Ship Channel area. Victor Manuel Acevedo, 67, found Monday in an alley on Arkansas Street in East Houston.
The medical examiner's office late Friday confirmed one other additional victim: Efrain Angel, 26, who was found Tuesday in a drainage ditch near Harris County Katy Park.
At least nine people outside the Houston area have also perished, and details have emerged about some of those deaths.
On Monday night, Joshua Aedan Feuerstein, 33, of The Woodlands was caught in rapid floodwater on Fish Creek Thoroughfare near the Woodforest subdivision, according to Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. Feuerstein became distressed and tried to get help, but rescuers and bystanders were unable to get to him before he drowned, authorities said. He is one three persons to die on Montgomery County. Two people were killed in Jasper County around late Tuesday when a tree fell on their truck as they travelled down FM 777. The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the deceased Wednesday as Russell Barnes, 51, and Ginger Barnes, 43, both of Alvin.
Jay R. Jordan and Margaret Kadifa contributed to this report.
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After Tropical Storm Harvey turned deadly last Sunday with its unrelenting rains and rising floodwaters, two former Army sergeants with Texas ties jumped to answer the calls for help.
Mounting footage of fetid brown water, photos of sobbing families and social media sirens alerted the world that Houston needed help. City officials requested anyone with a big truck or a boat to come evacuate victims.
Chris Goldman had those, plus two jet skis. The San Antonio native lives in Leavenworth, Ka., a 12-hour drive from Houston. On Monday night, Goldman, 33, hitched the jet skis to his Ford F250, equipped with a 6-inch lift and 37-inch tires, and wrote a message on Facebook, part of which read: "Looking for a couple co-pilots to roll with me. Prefer veterans as the situation is turning chaotic and desperate folks beginning to shoot at volunteers who don't pick them up. I personally can no longer just sit and watch the chaos."
Now Playing: Rescuers Chris Goldman and Bill Slayden used jet skis in a failed attempted to reach an evacuation at the Park Row apartment complex, which anticipated flooding from the Addicks reservoir on Tuesday. Video by Hunter Atkins Video: Houston Chronicle
His buddy Bill Slayden could not either.
The 48-year-old Woodlands resident arranged for Goldman to pick him up Tuesday morning. The two Texans had served 15 months together in Kirkuk, Iraq. Slayden had been Goldman's army platoon sergeant from 2006 into 2007. They had dodged roadside explosives daily and witnessed the country's first democratic election. They once thwarted 19 Iraqis from attacking an oil pipeline, and when zip-ties ran out, duct tape was used to detain them.
Slayden, a staid father of five, and Goldman, a charmingly crass life-of-the-party type with two kids and a military wife, do not seem like natural friends. The most extreme rain event in U.S. history reunited them for the first time in nearly a decade.
They wanted to feel like heroes again.
"It's the Texas way," said Slayden, who retired after nearly 24 years in the military. "We're not afraid to go help somebody."
Goldman, who had served nine years, loaded up his truck with a gun, a box of vacuum-sealed meals and fuel cans. He estimated the vehicle got 10 miles per gallon and cost him $400 in gas to reach Houston.
"I'm just winging it," he said Tuesday. "I've gone 40 hours straight without sleep. It's all about the Red Bull, bro."
Goldman is a day trader in Kansas, but the natural disaster gave him an opportunity to feel like he was back in the Army, on a mission.
"It's directly related," he said. "I can't speak for civilians, but I would imagine that a lot of these guys that have a boat, they want a cool story to tell their friends."
There had been weekend reports of individuals who rescued more than 100 flood victims. The former soldiers would not have tales of valor to share for most of their efforts Tuesday.
Goldman and Slayden targeted emergencies by using Zello, an app where users reported and plotted the location of hurricane victims. A red dot signified an ongoing crisis, while a white one meant a matter had been resolved.
They plunged into Harvey's wrath but could not drive the truck fast or close enough to reach the first emergency they spotted. They saw 30 people interlock arms in a human chain to withstand a whipping current and yank an elderly man from his SUV. Goldman said the car was swept away 15 second later. Then one man in the chain carried the victim in his arms a quarter of a mile to an ambulance.
As sunshine slowly broke through on Tuesday, it revealed a city teeming with civilian rescuers inspired by Houston's national cry for help.
"Everywhere we went, there was already boats there," Goldman said.
Zello showed hundreds of registered bass boats, dinghies, kayaks and other watercrafts. The volunteer organization Cajun Navy, which was founded in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina, used a channel called Texas search and rescue."
Goldman and Slayden deployed the jet skis in the early evening, off U.S. 90, where the overflow of Greens Bayou engulfed a stretch of the Sam Houston Parkway. They felt submerged cars beneath them, but no person there needed saving.
More often they ferried stragglers from one dry side of the highway to the other.
"My [expletive] is a taxi service," Goldman said.
Along the way, Goldman and Slayden met a comrade more gung-ho than them.
Wearing a wetsuit, a headlamp and a walkie-talkie buckled to his waistband, T.J. Henderson looked like he had trained his entire life for water rescues.
"I'm a Boy Scout," said Henderson, 33, from Port Arthur. "Most people are not prepared for anything like this."
Actually, he's an accountant and this was only the third time he ever had worn the wetsuit. "I'd do this for a living if I could," he said. "It's being alive at its best."
After pitching in at the Greens Bayou overflow, Henderson heard that an apartment complex near the Addicks reservoir was being evacuated because the city planned to open the levees. Buildings of stranded residents awaited help.
"This could be the jackpot," Henderson told Goldman and Slayden.
They arrived at the flooded intersection of Katy Freeway and Dairy Ashford 30 minutes later, in need of a cigarette break.
"This is the first five minutes in the last five hours we've spent not pursuing someone," Henderson said.
Earlier, Goldman had invited friends from his former softball team in San Antonio to join the mission. The intersection was the new rendezvous point. While one friend fixed a flat tire, several more showed up with hugs for Goldman, who had moved from Fort Hood two months ago.
"This guy knows everybody," Slayden said between drags. "He was the same way in Iraq."
While they socialized, an 18-wheeler with a flatbed trundled through the flood toward the evacuation, which unfolded nearly a mile away. Then another five drivers with boats and pairs of jet skis showed up, stealing the thrill of the chase from Goldman's crew.
When the group finally launched, the water, it turned out, was too shallow at one point for the jet skis to reach the residents.
On the drive out, Goldman peered out of the truck window at a family hoofing its way to an evacuation bus.
"How traumatic it must be for their kids to have the place where you're supposed to feel most safe your home you're being literally ripped out of it because of water," he wondered aloud. "How could I not help?"
The day ended with another failed attempt on way to the Barker Cypress dam. The National Guard warded off civilians because of a potential chemical contamination in the floodwater.
"Damn," Goldman said, "that was anticlimactic, bro."
The rescuers resettled in a parking lot near a Popeyes. Someone opened Zello. A woman and her children were trapped in a car. In Silsbee, Texas. More than three hours away.
It was all white dots within a 30-minute drive in any direction.
More cigarettes and fodder circulated. They wanted something in return for their sacrifices. They needed more than Red Bull to keep going another day.
"You want to make an impact, man," Goldman said. "Even if it's just one mission, one time, where you can say, 'Hey, I changed that person's life.'"
By Wednesday morning, Harvey was gone, but Goldman and Slayden persisted. Before 10 a.m., they bolted from Slayden's house to Spring Branch to assist an evacuation. Buffalo Bayou had overflown into areas surrounding Kirkwood.
Since floodwater had significantly receded elsewhere, they joined an army of helpers concentrated in Spring Branch. Blackhawks dropped off evacuees on a bridge, where Goldman and Slayden roared in on jet skis to transport them to dry land.
Slayden said they moved four people, a handful that carried more weight. He towed a boat with an older man inside. Goldman's jet ski hummed through sludgy waters until it clogged.
One woman hugged the intrepid duo. She called them superheroes.
They sensed gratitude from others who were too anxious to voice it. The former soldiers knew what that looked like.
"You could see it in their eyes," Slayden said.
"I got to see it a couple of times today," Goldman added, exhaling.
Come evening, they were storm chasers again. Red dots awaited them about 90 minutes away. Harvey was careening east.
"We're hauling [expletive] trying to get to Port Arthur," Goldman said from behind the wheel. "Apparently it's worse than in Houston."
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For the third time in as many years, a line of friends staggered out Stathy Demeris' house, its guts in their arms.
The third pile of sodden furniture at the curb. The third stack of nail-studded baseboards. The third heap of soggy drywall.
The lesson of Tropical Storm Harvey for Demeris and many of his Meyerland neighbors, who also flooded on Tax Day last year and on Memorial Day the year before that: There won't be a fourth.
"I'm not rebuilding. I'm done," Demeris said, his voice catching. "I can't. I can't take it anymore. I hate to say it, but I'm out of here."
As tens of thousands of Houston and Harris County residents drag their belongings to the curb, many are weighing what to do when the floodwaters come again: Sell? Seek government help to elevate their homes? Or take a buyout and walk away?
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said the county will consider increasing buyouts of homes that repeatedly have taken on water.
"Certainly, that's going to be part of the discussion, particularly homes that are in places that you look at and you say, 'Gee why was that built in the first place?'" Emmett said.
The Harris County Flood Control District has purchased 3,000 homes since it began administering a buyout program in the mid-1980s.
Today, those efforts fall under a Federal Emergency Management Agency program that aims to reduce payouts from the National Flood Insurance Program, which backs close to all the flood insurance policies in the country, by reducing the risk of flood damage to properties that repeatedly take on water.
Those without flood insurance - including 85 percent of Harris County residents - cannot participate.
"It was an expensive program," said Larry Filer, an economics professor at Old Dominion University. However, he added, "Cities will eventually realize the long-term savings outweigh the short term costs."
Homeowners must volunteer for the program and must qualify for funding based on a cost-benefit analysis. The primary efforts are buyouts and grants that help residents elevate their homes.
That process is underway for several dozen Meyerland residents. It may not be a cure-all, however.
After Tropical Storm Allison, Jeffrey Tarrand raised his Meyerland home 42 inches. Harvey matched that and then some, pouring another 22 inches across his floors.
Buying out all his neighbors probably would be too costly, he said. Improving Brays Bayou would be better.
A few streets over, Bernadette Yin, 45, was piling her possessions on her front lawn to dry out in the afternoon sun Friday.
Yin said she would like to elevate her house, but getting the required FEMA grant would be "like winning the lottery."
'I am so done'
A key challenge to preventing future flood damage is that 107,000 homes in Harris County sit in the floodplain, many of which were built decades before modern development rules.
"We are correcting the problem for areas that really shouldn't have been developed for the first time," said James Wade, the Flood Control District's property acquisition manager.
Wade said the district targets about 5,500 parcels, including some inside the city of Houston, for buyouts. Purchasing all of those would cost $600 million.
The district spent roughly $11 million after the Tax Day Flood to buy about 60 homes and is compiling a $20 million proposal to fund 100 buyouts, Wade said. That package could grow with the FEMA grants to come, Wade said, adding he anticipates Harvey will create a surge of homeowners seeking buyouts.
Jim Blackburn, an environmental lawyer, said the county's buyout efforts are "nowhere close to adequate."
"Are we going to be willing to spend more money locally to frankly fix this mess after Harvey?" said Blackburn, who has sued the county over how it development regulations. "We need more room for the bayous to flood, and the only way that we're going to open up the land is the remove that house, really the legacy development that's there.
Meyerland, largely, is not in the county's highest priority area because it does not meet the cost-benefit ratio, and many community members there have resisted buyout programs, Wade said.
"They don't want those areas to be checker-boarded," he said.
Becky Edmondson, a civic leader in oft-flooded Westbury neighborhood, shared that concern. She said her neighbors' views on requesting a buyout largely are driven by their age.
Those in their 40s have stripped their carpets and knocked out soggy sheetrock, ready to rebuild. Those in their 80s do not want to leave thomes they have lived in for decades.
"Sixty-year-old people," she said, "are like, 'I am so done with this.'"
Councilman Larry Green, who represents Westbury, said many residents there have inquired about buyouts in the last week. Green said he plans to raise the issue when discussions begin on how to allocate the city's recovery funds.
"Before, the neighborhoods weren't interested in buyouts," he said. "Now, they may consider doing that. Everything is on the table."
Edmondson, however, is not ready to endorse widespread buyouts.
"You don't really want every third house vacant. That doesn't really solve your problem. It just means somebody's not flooding," she said. "It needs a real plan. Does it make more sense to buy up everything in an area and create a reservoir to hold the Brays (Bayou) watershed water back?"
Probably not, said Jerry Wood, who spent many years in Houston's planning department.
After Allison, he helped produce a study recommending changes to the county's program to buy homes that repeated flooded, but the ideas ran afoul of restrictive FEMA rules and went nowhere.
Expensive options
Still, Wood said, buying out or elevating houses would be more efficient than spending billions to try to remake the region's floodplains - even though he is not wild about elevation grants.
"That's a very expensive step to take to make an old house a little more safe. Maybe keeping that house from flooding is costing as much as it would cost to buy two families out or to provide housing to get people out of Arbor Court," Wood said, referring to a federally subsidized apartment complex in the Greens Bayou floodway that flooded again Sunday, and whose owner said he is in buyout talks with the city. "There's no simple answer. Anybody who says 'all you need to do is -' should be slapped."
In northeast Houston's Lakewood Park, Robert Douglas recounted how he, his wife Tracy Hall, and their 12-year-old chihuahua had fled the floodwaters that had rushed under their back door, which looks over Halls Bayou, and left a water line five feet up the wall.
Their frantic calls to 911 went unanswered, so spent 90 minutes slogging through chest-deep waters to Mesa Drive, where they were rescued by a tractor trailer driver. The couple and friend Maryland Whittaker still are sleeping on air mattresses at their civic club's community center.
They flooded during Allison in 2001, too. But abandoning the neighborhood? No chance.
"He doesn't want to move. He's been knowing his neighbors for years and years," Hall said. "So, why can't we elevate it up five feet so that we can survive the next flood?"
Whittaker agreed.
"Where are we going to go," she said, "that's not flooded?"
James Osborne contributed to this report.
There is a totally unjustified assumption that there is an "it" for her to have gotten away with in your post.
Do you think five more congressional investigations might find something?
Are you admitting that all the Republicans involved in the previous congressional investigations were totally incompetent.
Small steps, that's one way to the truth.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is making a return visit to storm-ravaged Texas on Saturday, this time touching down in Houston, where floodwaters are just beginning to recede.
Unlike his first trip on Tuesday, the president is expected to meet with storm survivors.
The trip comes as the White House has signaled to congressional leaders that the administration is planning a $7.85 billion request as the first down payment for the recovery efforts from Hurricane Harvey.
"We're working on emergency funding," Trump told reporters after signing a proclamation declaring Sunday a "National Day of Prayer" for the storm victims. "We're doing everything we can, and we're working very well with (Gov. Greg Abbott), who has done a terrific job."
Trump's visit will be Mayor Sylvester Turner's first chance to talk to the president since the storm hit a week ago. Although Trump has been in frequent communication with Abbott and other elected officials in person and by phone, Turner said on Thursday he had not spoken with the president personally, although the White House had called earlier in the week.
On Friday, Turner said he expects to speak with Trump at least when he arrives to survey damage.
"I'm getting word that we will meet with him," Turner told the Chronicle after a news conference at the Houston Emergency Operations Center.
Trump's return signals not only the extent of the devastation that has taken some 50 lives but also the stakes for his 8-month-old presidency, which has been buffeted by legislative setbacks in Congress and discord over his handling of this summer's white supremacist clash in Charlottesville, Va. Administration and emergency management officials also have taken pains to distinguish the government response to Harvey from the debacle of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans 12 years ago. In Texas on Tuesday, Trump said he wanted the recovery effort in Texas and Louisiana to be a textbook case of government response.
Aid coming soon?
Houston U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee has predicted that the total bill from the storm and its aftermath will top $150 billion, while Abbott has said he expects a total federal relief package of at least $120 billion.
Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has said that congressional appropriations for the storm damage are likely to come in separate amounts as the cleanup progresses. The first of the Harvey relief spending requests could be taken up as soon as next week, when Congress returns from its August recess.
Trump's visit follows Tuesday's daylong trip in which he received briefings from top federal and state officials in Corpus Christi and Austin. It comes a day after Vice President Mike Pence's stopover in Corpus Christi and other points along the flooded Gulf Coast.
White House officials said the ongoing emergency rescue efforts and continued flooding in Houston on Tuesday prevented him from coming to the city. On Saturday, the president is expected to touch down at Houston's Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base and then move on to flood-affected areas in Lake Charles, La.
As details of Trump's storm relief request emerged Friday, Jackson Lee sent a letter urging the White House to allow FEMA to waive its reimbursement procedures, and provide advance financial disbursements to state and local governments. She said the move also would speed aid to nongovernmental organizations and displaced individuals recovering from the flood.
Donations pour in
Meanwhile, Abbott's political organization, Texans for Greg Abbott, announced that it will donate $100,000 to the Rebuild Texas Fund, which was established Friday by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation in collaboration with the OneStar Foundation. The Dell Foundation is contributing $36 million to the fund.
The announcement came a day after the White House said that Trump would personally contribute $1 million for relief efforts.
In advance of his trip Saturday with first lady Melania Trump, the president met Friday the leaders of several major relief nonprofits, including Gail McGovern of the American Red Cross, David Hudson of the Salvation Army and Kevin Ezell of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.
"These organizations and the many other nonprofits involved represent the generosity, determination and unbreakable spirit of the American people," Trump said. "When a disaster strikes, they work to help others in the time of need, which was over the last week, believe me."
Trump also praised the response of local officials and residents.
"The people of Texas and Louisiana were hit very hard by a historic flood," he said. "In their response, they have taught us all a lesson - a very, very powerful lesson: There was no outbreak in crime. There was an outbreak of compassion only - real beautiful, strong compassion. And they've really inspired us as a nation. To be honest, they've inspired the world because the world is watching."
The first lady added: "I just want to tell them to be strong and everything will be OK."
Jeremy Wallace contributed to this report.
Melania Trump has been taking a lot of heat on Twitter for her fashion choices as she departs for Houston with President Donald Trump to tour the flooding and devastation from Hurricane Harvey.
The First Lady could be seen on Tuesday boarding Air Force One wearing high heels, and Twitter erupted with criticism:
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When Barrett Blume realized the magnitude of Hurricane Harvey, he asked his friend Michael Mihalski, "You think we can do some good?"
For Blume, who owns a helicopter hog hunting business in Temple, Texas, his reaction to the storm, which has damaged almost 100,000 homes and taken the lives of at least 45 people, was to "drop everything and help these people."
In doing so, Blume, who's originally from Houston, assembled a militia of six helicopters and nearly 10 pilots from around the state. Mihalski, who runs a firearms shop in San Antonio, started a gofundme page for operating costs and supplies. They raised $30,000 in the first 24 hours, and today, it's up to over $60,000.
"We're going to be here to the end," Blume said. "My family -- they lost everything. My in-laws have over six feet in their house. My sister relocated to San Antonio. This is going to be a very long process."
Blume's hog hunting company is aptly named The Pork Chopper, and he's using his assembled band of pilots to aide in delivering supplies to shelters and to assist FEMA and Team Rubicon by guiding boats from the air, a mission they're calling #OperationWetSpot.
"We developed our own network on the ground," Blume said. "There are several guys in boats, trucks. They've been in since it started."
Now Playing: This video posted Tuesday by Southern Drone Solutions shows flooding along Royal Shores Drive and the surrounding neighborhood in Kingwood. Rescue operations were ongoing Wednesday morning. Video: JW Player
Eli Maloy is the chief pilot and owner of Bona Vida Aviation, a Fort Worth company specializing in aerial film production. From the cockpit of his chopper Friday morning, where he was flying two Red Cross employees, Maloy said all the pilots involved in Operation Wet Spot are "all good friends, and at a moment's notice, we're willing to drop everything and help."
So, twelve hours after Blume pitched the mission, Maloy was en route to Houston Executive Airport, where, for the past five days, each member has been sleeping in recliners, on couches, in chairs. "I slept on the floor last night," Maloy said. "I'm running on four hours of sleep."
A day earlier on Thursday morning, just as the guys were about to head out on that day's mission, Blume also felt the exhaustion creeping in.
"We're tired, ragged," he said, but, "the peoples' smiles, tears, hugs, appreciation keep us going. All the people on the ground -- they're in the shit. We're trying to assist them. We [need to] keep rested, and focused on accomplishing this mission and operating at 100 percent."
Undoubtedly, there's still work to be done, people to feed and rescue and homes to salvage, and Blume said he needs more hands. "It's getting worse. We're taking action quickly. We need supplies and staff. If you're not from Houston, we'll need your help."
Still, at the end of the day, Blume has full confidence in his cohorts and praised their can-do spirit in the saltiest of terms.
Late on Friday, the team set up a new gofundme page at www.gofundme.com/operationwetspot.
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President Donald Trump and the First Lady are making their second trip to the Gulf Coast Saturday to take another look at the flooding and devastation from Hurricane Harvey. The following is a running account provided by the press pool accompanying the president from Washington. It will be updated throughout the day so Chronicle readers can stay up on the latest.
Departure from Houston
Trump posed for many photos with the military personnel at Ellington Field. He gave extra attention to the Coast Guard. "I hear the Coast Guard saved ...almost 11,000 people by going into winds the media would not go into. Unless it's a really good story," he said as cameras snapped.
He and Mrs. Trump then walked back to the plane a couple of hundred feet away.
He spoke with McCaul and Cruz and Olson and put his right arm around McCaul. Olsen seem to have a list of requests and Trump engaged with him. Jackson Lee stood with Governor Abbott, a somewhat pained look on her face. The sun was very hot. Al Green was chatting with the First Lady and standing on Abbott's left, the last congressman Trump would encounter on his way up the steps.
Trump spoke with all of them before boarding. He shook Green's hand several times. Doubtful they talked impeachment based solely on the earnest expressions visible on their faces.
At the top of the steps Trump turned and waved and pumped his fist a few times.
Air Force One engines are starting to rev at 3:17pm CT. Next stop Lake Charles, La.
Return to Ellington Field -
Back at Ellington Field the president met at the steps of Air Force One with several federal lawmakers from Texas, including two of his biggest critics in Congress. Rep Al Green, who has called for Trump's impeachment, and Rep Sheila Jackson Lee, who has come close to calling for impeachment, and has called him incompetent.
Trump seemed to speak in a very friendly way with Green, and they shook hands several times. At one point Green put his hand on the president's elbow as they spoke. It all seemed very friendly. Trump also met with Texas U.S. Reps. Michael McCaul, Pete Olson, and Randy Weber. And Sen. Ted Cruz.
He chatted with McCaul, who has been under consideration for Homeland Security secretary and at one point put his left hand on McCaul's right shoulder.
Trump then walked over to several hundred people waiting, most of them in uniform, including Coast Guard, Texas National Guard and others.
The Texas lawmakers remained at the foot of Air Force One as the president shook hands. Governor Abbott was with them and could be seen chatting at length with Al Green in particular.
On the road back to Ellington -
Trump stopped in a neighborhood of Houston just outside Pearland. Intersection of Sagelink Dr. and Sagelink Ct. Mattresses, drywall land other debris, and trash bags, piled high at the curb of many of these homes, ranch style middle class.
Pool vans got stuck two blocks away and caught only the tail end. Trump was probably there for over five minutes.. Abbott and Cruz were there. Trump, holding hands with the first lady, was in a cul-de-sac and spoke. "These are people that have done a fantastic job holding it together," he said.
A man in a red "Trump is my president" T-shirt moved in and Trump invited him over for a photo. "You're going to be famous now," he said encouraging the man to take off his sunglasses, which revealed a pierced left eyebrow.
Motorcade rolled about 2:25 pm.CT. Next stop, we think, is Ellington Field for meeting with members of the Texas delegation in Congress.
Pearland exit -
Trump addressed hundreds of volunteers filling care packages with hygiene items food, and cleaning supplies. Diapers, sunscreen, bleach, cereal boxes etc. (remarks separately in pool #7 from Phil Rucker)
The hall inside First Church of Pearland was filled with tables piled high with supplies. Trump took the stage with Governor Abbott, the cabinet members traveling with him, and Senator Ted Cruz.
"They say 2 years, 3 years. I think because this is Texas you'll do it in six months, Trump said.
Lots of people were wearing "I (heart) my church" T-shirts as they worked. Chats before Trump spoke:
"It's amazing. It really highlights all the good efforts that so many people are making. I'm glad to see him," said Shanna Norris, 37, a consultant from Houston who attends this church. "It just really showcases the efforts of the United States and the community."
She doesn't think much of criticism Trump received for an official-oriented visit on Tuesday. "It's such a wide area. There's just a lot of devastation."
Kenny Mercado, senior VP at CenterPoint Energy, an electricity provider, was among the volunteers.
"It's wonderful to see. It's a tough time. It [Trump's visit] brings spirit, brings hope. This is a city that got a long long long journey ahead. There's still a lot of work to be done."
After Trump's remarks on stage, he and Mrs. Trump went outside, where a line of cars was waiting to collect supplies. They loaded about a half-dozen cars and trucks.
"Hey can you handle this?" Trump said to the first recipient, a man in a pickup truck who parked waiting for several minutes, as the president handed him a plastic American Red Cross bucket. "There's a lot of stuff in here," Trump said. "You're all set," he said after loading a few boxes in the flatbed and slapping the truck a couple of times.
"It's good exercise," Trump said as the man drove off.
The first lady handed him "Feed the Children" boxes to load into the back of a dented SUV whose driver kept a cell phone up and running through most of the process.
To the third driver, Trump said "Thank you. Take care of yourself."
Fourth car was another pickup. Trump closed the hatch himself after the loading was done and said "Use it well."
Fifth car was a woman in a black minivan. Trump leaned over to speak with her and she placed a hand on his forearm. The spoke at some length and the first lady loaded and then he loaded some boxes.
Motorcade left just after 2pm.
Remarks in Pearland -
President Trump delivered about five minutes of remarks inside First Church of Pearland in the Houston suburb of Pearland.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott introduced Trump, who spoke extemporaneously to volunteers and storm victims who had gathered at the church.
Trump began by praising Abbott: "I want to congratulate the governor. I want to congratulate everybody that's worked so hard. It's been an incredible five days, six days. It seems like it's been much longer than that, but actually it's going so well that it's going fast, in a certain sense."
Trump highlighted National Day of Prayer tomorrow. He said, "So many of you are faith based and I want to just tell you that tomorrow we have national prayer day." Trump added, "Tomorrow's a very big day, so go to your church and pray and enjoy the day."
Trump then went through praising dignitaries on stage with him, starting with Sen. Ted Cruz. Trump thanked Cruz "for working so hard."
Trump said, in reference to Cruz, "We have to push that stuff through, but we will. We signed some very big authorizations last night, and we'll get it through."
Then Trump motioned for his FEMA director: "Brock, come here a minute, Brock. What a job you've done!"
Trump commented, "The water's disappearing. We knew we have a long way to go, but the water's disappearing. And you look at the neighborhoods and you see it's we just saw it through there. Two days ago, even yesterday, they had water. Today it's all swept up and cleaned up. We've got a lot of hard-working people, I'll tell you that."
Trump praised Secretary Ben Carson and then Secretary DeVos, noting that she just had "a full-page story today in the Wall Street Journal."
Trump again commended Abbott as well as his wife, the first lady and, Trump said, "The real boss of the family."
Trump said, "They have worked so hard and the coordination between the federal and the state and the local has been terrific, and we're going to keep it going that way. If anything, I don't know if it gets better, but we're going to try to make it better."
He added, "The cameras are blazing and I have to say it, you have a great, great governor."
Trump spoke at length about the reforms at the VA under Secretary Shulkin before returning to the subject of Harvey and again congratulating Abbott.
Trump closed by talking about the recovery: "It's a long term. We're talking about, they say 2 years, 3 years, but I think that because this is Texas you'll prob do it in 6 months!" At that, the people in the church burst into loud cheers.
Inside First Church of Pearland, a pool reporter interviewed Elaine Ybarra, 41, who was holding her 10-year-old son, Chris, as they waited to see President Trump walk into the room.
Ybarra said, "It's quite humbling to have somebody of his stature come to this church."
She added, "Him being here and bringing global attention to everything that's going on here, he brings up prayers from around the world."
Ybarra said there was bad flooding on her street in her Pearland neighborhood in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, but she said her home was not damaged. She was at the church to volunteer to help storm victims.
After Pearland arrival -
From the White House at 1:55 pm - President Donald Trump Amends Texas Disaster Declaration:
"Today, President Donald J. Trump made additional disaster assistance available to the State of Texas by authorizing an increase in the level of Federal funding for debris removal and emergency protective measures as a result of Hurricane Harvey."
Trump in Pearland -
Arrived 130pm CT at First Church in suburban Pearland.
Motorcade passed a car dealership where most of the inventory had open doors, presumably to dry out. Neighborhoods here flooded, per local poolers from the Houston Chronicle.
Near the destination we crossed several culverts. The water was maybe five to seven feet below the high water line.
Gas station with $2.25 per gallon. Cheaper than pooler paid in DC two days ago by 50 cents.
Small clusters of people on the sidewalks waved and took pix. One group of 8 or so waved small American flags.
Thank you Trump and We love Trump hand drawn signs as we arrived in Pearland. Passes a fire station where a military high water vehicle was parked.
Trump comments at NRG Center -
Now Playing: President Donald Trump and the First Lady are making their second trip to the Gulf Coast Saturday to take another look at the flooding and devastation from Hurricane Harvey. Video by Jeremy Wallace. Video: Houston Chronicle
At the NRG Center in Houston, President Trump stopped by a lunch line where volunteers were distributing hot dogs, chips and apple sauce for lunch.
Trump saw a few uniformed military men and walked over to shake their hands.
One of the military men told Trump, "We voted for you"
Trump said, playfully: "You better. Who didn't in your world? Who didn't?"
Then Trump spotted a familiar reporter standing behind the military guys and said, "Look who we have! Come here. Everything good?"
Thus began an impromptu gaggle with the president.
Asked what his message was for the people of Texas, Trump said: "The message is that things are working out well. Really, I think people appreciate what's been done. It's been done very efficiently, very well, and that's what we want. We're very happy with the way everything is going. A lot of love. There's a lot of love."
Asked what families told him earlier, when he visited with kids and their parents in a play area, Trump said: "They were just happy. We saw a lot of happiness. It's been really nice. It's been a wonderful thing. As tough as this was, it's been a wonderful thing, I think even for the country to watch it and for the world to watch. It's been beautiful."
Trump tried to excuse himself, saying, "I'm going to be doing a little help over here."
But reporters had more questions. One reporter asked what people have said to him so far. The president said: "They're really happy with what's going on. It's something that's been very well received, even by you guys it's been very well received."
Asked whether he looked out the window of Air Force One and saw any flooding, Trump said: "The flooding? Oh, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of water, but it's leaving pretty quickly. But there's a lot of water, a lot of water, but it's moving out. But I think most importantly, the governor, the relationship with the governor, the mayor and everybody, it's been fantastic. And with the federal government. We're signing a lot of documents now to get money into your state. $7.9 billion. We signed it and now it's going through a very quick process."
NRG Center greetings -
The Trumps and their group spent almost 45 minutes at the NRG Center. There were many hugs and handshakes and many photos and selfies.
The first stop was the "kid zone," where kids, mostly young, were bouncing balls, playing board games, doing puzzles and making jewelry. One kid walked on plastic sand pails with rope, like short stilts.Some colored with crayons.
A woman shouted "Donald Trump!" as soon as he came into view. The press was in a pen, and dozens of amateur photographers joined us, trying to catch glimpses of the Trumps. They jostled for position with their cell phones. One shouted to no one in particular "It's Trump! There's Trump." Several Texas national guardsmen uniform were taking pictures, too, and they mostly shouted pro-Trump messages like "Thank you for coming Mr. President!" and "You rock!"
Trump began shaking hands and was quickly waylaid by a request for a selfie. Flotus, in an olive green "Texas" ballcap, worked the area separately for a while. She chatted with a young woman in a white T-shirt
Abbott had a very young girl on his lap.
Trump got into a scrum with three young boys, one with a plastic sword. One ran away, looking pleased but a bit shy, right after getting a hug from Trump, who had stooped down to give it. Trump briefly hoisted a little girl with tightly braided hair and gave her a quick embrace.
At one point the First Lady knelt on the floor, books in hand, in a group of several children but didn't seem to read to them.
Trump sat down at a round table piled high with Clue and Pictionary and other games. A young man was seated there, and three young girls. Abbott came over. HUD secretary Carson took the young man's phone and snapped some photos of him with the president.
Trump got up and spoke with Abbott and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and then shot two thumbs up, then one right thumb up, to the pool.
Some commentary in the press pen:
"This is the first time I ever been in this situation. Houston has been very organized," said Kevin Jason Hipolito, 37, an unemployed Houston resident whose first floor apartment near the Galleria was flooded. He was rescued from the roof of his Acura. He has been at the shelter for two days and is impatient for a housing voucher to go somewhere better. He shouted at Carson "Can you do something about that 72-hour rule?!" He was pleased that Trump showed up. "I'm a Democrat. It raises the morale. When he went to Corpus I was like man he just forgot about us. This shows a lot of support. It perks up morale."
Devon Harris, 37, a construction worker, was skeptical about the impact of a presidential visit. "Is he going to help? Can he help? I lost my home. My job is gone. My tools are gone. My car is gone. My life is gone. What is Trump going to do?"
On the far end of the NRG Center. a cavernous convention hall, the Trumps served lunch.
Robert Hendricks, 48, an electrical engineer standing on line, was dubious. "What's he going to do, use us as props to serve us lunch?" Still he said "it's good that he's showing his face."
Lunch is hot dogs, potato chips and Apple sauce.
Trump tweets - (Around noon) 'TEXAS: We are with you today, we are with you tomorrow, and we will be with you EVERY SINGLE DAY AFTER, to restore, recover, and REBUILD!'
NRG Center -
Motorcade arrived at NRG Center at 12:04 after 34 minute drive. One guy had a sign that said Not Our President as we pulled into the parking area.
The drive north on I-45 and then I-610 west passed no visible signs of flooding or storm damage. Businesses open. Traffic.
Signs near stadium said "No More Donations Accepted."
Just outside the airport, motorcade passed a church. People gathered. Signs read "We love Trump" and "Texans love stilettos."
Rolling on the ground -
The Trumps stopped and waved from the steps before greeting Gov. Greg Abbott, the state's first lady Cecilia Abbott, Mayor Sylvester Turner and others.
Trump still wearing black rain jacket, although the sun is beating down under partly cloudy skies and it's hot, and far more humid than in DC. First Lady is now in green khaki pants and a demin colored shirt, and walking shoes. The most notable footwear is FEMA director Brock Long's: neon blue sneakers.
Motorcade rolling at 11:30am CT.
Trump shared a smile and vigorous handshake with Turner after hugging Mrs. Abbott .Ben Carson and Turner were chatting as pool was hustled to vans.
Ellington Field -
Air Force One touched down at Ellington Field in Houston at 11:16 am CT. Taxiing.
Some bumps 5 miles out.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott expected at the airport and will be with the president during his visit.
On board:
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos
HUD Secretary Ben Carson
VA Secretary David Shulkin
Elaine Duke, acting Homeland Security secretary
Also
Tom Bossert, Joe Hagin, Hope Hicks, John Kelly, Rob Porter.
Andrews Air Force Base, outside D.C.
Rain fell steadily at JBA ahead of departure but had dropped to a drizzle by the time Marine One landed at 9:35 am eastern on a wet tarmac. Cold and dreary. The president, in dark pants and rain slicker, took an umbrella from an aide and walked under it with the first lady to the stairs, where he handed it off. He waved at the pool. Mrs. Trump, in tan/brown dress and high heels, walked up first. He stopped at the top, turned and waved.
Taxiing at 9:44 eastern, behind schedule, on way to Ellington field in Houston.
White House
Trump and the first lady emerged from the White House at 9:21 a.m. eastern. With a torrential downpour -- the remnants of Hurricane Harvey -- pelting Washington, Trump carried a big black umbrella to shelter himself and the first lady from the rain. Trump wore a black rain jacket, black slacks and brown shoes, while the first lady wore sunglasses, a tan rain coat and high-heel shoes. The president and first lady paused briefly before the press gathered in the rain, then turned toward Marine One.
The president ignored a shouted question about his plans for DACA before entering the chopper. Marine One was wheels up for Andrews Air Force Base at 9:23 a.m. Accompanying the president and first lady were Chief of Staff John Kelly, Trump's personal aide John D. McEntee II and Lindsay Reynolds, the First Lady's chief of staff.
AUSTIN - A texting and driving ban, sword-carrying rights and permission to hunt wild hogs from hot air balloons are just some of the many new Texas laws going into effect Friday.
Others ban a long-standing practice of allowing children under 16 years old to marry, give faith-based child welfare organizations authority to deny placing children with gay parents, and make it harder to fight insurance companies that give homeowners lower-thank-expected damage estimates.
Nearly 700 new laws go into effect Sept. 1, the biennial start state for most laws passed during the legislative session. Nearly 400 laws went into effect immediately after they were signed, and about two dozen kick in Jan. 1.
Most of the 673 new laws impact narrow groups of people, like relating to certain mental health screening, changing state agencies' power or designating Jan. 9 as Law Enforcement Appreciation Day.
But others have more wide-ranging application, including two that have already been halted at least temporarily by the courts.
More for you Officials: Likelihood of special legislative session grows as...
Senate Bill 4, the flagship law of this year's legislative session, allows law enforcement to ask for proof of legal residency at traffic stops and other routine detentions. The law also threatens jail time and hefty fines to local law enforcement officials who refuse federal requests to detain people suspected of being in the country illegally so they can be deported. A federal judge in San Antonio on Wednesday hit pause on the bill's implementation and granted a preliminary injunction preventing the law from going into effect.
Another law quickly challenged in the courts stems from lawmakers' decision to ban one of the safest second-term abortion procedures this year. Anti-abortion activists who pushed for the law refer to the procedure as "dismemberment" say the procedure is cruel, although abortion providers say the dilation and evacuation procedure is the safest way for women to end their pregnancy in the second trimester. A federal judge decided Thursday to temporarily halt the ban.
While the courts untangle the constitutionality of the challenged state laws, many others go into effect Friday. Here's a taste:
Texting while driving
Texting behind the wheel is now illegal in all of Texas. According to state law, drivers cannot "read, write, or send an electronic message while operating a motor vehicle unless the vehicle is stopped."
The offense comes with a fine of $25 to $99 for a first offense, which balloons to $200 to $500 of found guilty of multiple offenses. The law, however, allows a driver to use a phone to control a car's stereo system and to access a mapping app.
Texas was one of four states without a texting a driving ban after years of dead ends trying to get a ban both passed and signed by the governor. Last year, 455 people were killed and more than 3,000 seriously injured in Texas in vehicle crashes related to distracted driving.
Repeal of knife ban
Samurai swords, machetes, stilettos and other long blades are now legal to carry in public, shredding a previous state law that limited people to carrying blades no longer than 5.5 inches long. However, the law comes with a long list of location and age restrictions. Longer knives cannot be carried inside of places like schools, churches, hospitals and sporting events or by anyone under 18 years old without parental supervision.
"I think it's an OK law," said Hunter Follett, owner of Swords of Might, a Dallas-area sword shop "Swords have been carried for 5,000 years, but I don't want people going out in the streets who don't know what they're doing or don't have training in carrying a sword and potentially frightening people."
Hunting hogs from hot air balloons
Hunters can now shoot feral hogs and coyotes from a hot air balloon. Yes, a hot air balloon. The Legislature floated the idea to help eradicate the state's estimated 2 million wild hogs that have caused millions of dollars in damage to crops and wreaked havoc on farmland. The hogs are an invasive species with no other natural predator, which has allowed them to proliferate.
Shooting hogs from hot air balloons allows people to sneak up on the animals and adds to the aerial hunting industry. However, opponents have cautioned that federal agencies have lax regulations for commercial ballooning. Texas last year was home to the worst hot air balloon crash in history, killing 16 people outside of Lockhart.
Child marriage
A person younger than 18 can no longer marry in Texas unless a judge consents to the union, and no one under the age of 16 can get married anymore. Previously, the state allowed a child between 16 and 18 to marry with parental consent, and a judge would be needed to OK the marriage of a younger child. Texas had the second-highest number of child marriages in the country from 2010 to 2014, according to a Pew Research Center study. In that time, more than 7,000, children have married, according to Department of State Health Services.
Inappropriate student-teacher relationships
Principals and superintendents failing to quickly report cases of inappropriate relationships between teachers and students could face a state jail felony or a $500 to $10,000 fine. The Texas Education Agency reportedly opened more than 220 investigations into inappropriate educator relationships in fiscal year 2015-16. The law attempts to crack down on school districts unknowingly hiring teachers who were involved in improper student relationships at their past schools by creating new penalties to administrators who hide teacher misconduct.
Insurance claims, lawsuits
Homeowners may have fewer options to fight an insurance company that gives them a lower-than-expected damage estimate. The new law will make it very difficult for lawyers to collect fees against insurance companies and lowers the penalties companies have to pay if they fail to pay a legitimate claim "timely and fully." The law is intended to crack down on frivolous insurance lawsuits, but consumer groups say it will negatively impact homeowners, particularly those hit by Hurricane Harvey. Lawmakers say the law applies only to wind claims and does not govern flood insurance.
'Sincerely held religious beliefs'
Child welfare providers will be allowed to deny adoptions and other services based on their "sincerely held religious beliefs," allowing faith-based organizations to place a child in a religious school and refuse to contract with other organizations that don't share their religious beliefs. Opponents of the law argue it will lead to discrimination against LGBT people seeking to becoming foster or adoptive parents. Those in favor of the law refute those claims, saying faith-based groups must make referrals to other organizations.
Sandra Bland Act
A new law requires counties to divert people with mental health and substance abuse issues toward treatment instead of keeping them in jail. The law also makes it easier for inmates to receive bail if they have a mental illness or intellectual disability. The measure was named after Sandra Bland, a woman found dead in a Waller County jail after she was arrested during a traffic stop.
Special education cap
Texas education officials can no longer cap the number of students allowed to receive special education services. Stemming from a 2016 Houston Chronicle investigation that exposed the state's decade-old cap on the percentage of students allowed to receive special education services, denying tens of thousands of children with disabilities from services like tutoring and therapy.
David's Law
In an attempt to To counter school bullying, a new state law will make it a Class A misdemeanor to harass someone under age 18 through text messages, social media, websites or other electronic venues with the intent to cause them to harm themselves and commit suicide. The law which increases the penalty from a Class B misdemeanor also allows people to obtain temporary restraining orders against social media accounts used to harass or bully children.
No more "Lunch shaming"
Parents have more time to settle up their children's school lunch debt before the cafeteria worker stops serving hot lunches under a new grace period for students who show up without money. They can now continue eating hot lunches before they are given cold sandwiches.
New hate crime
Someone who attacks a person they knew to be a law enforcement officer could be found guilty of a hate crime. The same goes if someone damages a law enforcement officers' property. The change puts crimes against law enforcement in the same category as crimes based on a person's race, color, disability, religion, national origin, age, gender or sexual preference.
Hot car law
A new law offers new legal protections for people trying to rescue a child, elderly or disabled person locked in a vehicle. Under state law, "good Samaritans" are already protected from criminal charges if they break into a vehicle to rescue someone inside, but the new law protects good Samaritans from civil lawsuits if they have reason to believe the person is in imminent harm, has first notified law enforcement or 911, uses no more force than is necessary and remains with the individual in a safe location.
Paul Cobler contributed to this report.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the U.S. and others to avoid going down a "dead-end road" with North Korea on Friday, adding only dialogue without pre-conditions could resolve the crisis.
"Russia believes that the policy of putting pressure on Pyongyang to stop its nuclear missile program is misguided and futile," Putin said in an article published overnight by the Kremlin, ahead of the BRICS summit in Xiamen, China.
"The region's problems should only be settled through a direct dialogue of all the parties concerned without any preconditions. Provocations, pressure and militarist and insulting rhetoric are a dead-end road," he added.
...On Tuesday, Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile over Japan in a move which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described as an "unprecedented" threat to his country. U.S. President Donald Trump also criticized the missile launch, suggesting it was an act of "contempt."
...Russia's and China's ambassadors to the UN both said they were opposed to unilateral sanctions on North Korea. Instead, Moscow and Beijing repeated calls for the U.S. and South Korea to terminate their so-called war games.
On my news page,NORTH KOREA AND THE U.S. ARE ON BRINK OF LARGE-SCALE CONFLICT, PUTIN WARNS - North Korea and the U.S. Are on ?Brink of Large-Scale Conflict,? Putin Warns Russia's top diplomat urges US to offer deal to North Korea - Russia's top diplomat urges US to offer deal to North Korea | Fox News And,Putin says pressure on North Korea is both futile and a dead-end road - https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/01/put...korea-is-both-futile-and-a-dead-end-road.html From the last link:So, I ask myself wtf is going down? Tsar Putin lecturing King Trump? The entire cast of characters, worldwide, is, on balance, not to be believed. But that's the rub, knowing when to believe and when not to.
Copiii cu nevoi speciale din Stefan Voda au conditii de reabilitare mai bune, datorita UE si Fundatiei Soros Moldova
AKRON, Ohio - Many senior citizenss grew up in a time when a business deal was sealed with a handshake and trust.
According to the AARP, older people are quicker to believe promises and may not take action when they've been scammed. Because of this, criminals will target seniors, whether it's through scams or a phone call demanding money for an unpaid bill.
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh is declaring September Senior Safety Month and offered the following tips:
Sending money: Never send money or give out personal information such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers, dates of birth, or Social Security numbers to unfamiliar companies or unknown persons.
Grandparent scam: This is when a person receives a call from someone claiming to be their grandchild. The caller says they're in trouble - either they were arrested or in a car crash - and need cash quick. They will usually ask to have the money sent by purchasing gift cards. The caller also asks to not tell "mom and dad".
IRS scam: In this scam, a caller claims the person owes taxes and will be arrested if they don't pay immediately. Again, the caller will ask to make the payment by purchasing gift cards. The IRS never calls to demand an immediate payment.
Jury duty scam: This is when someone calls saying you missed jury duty and will be arrested if you do not pay a fine. Sheriff's deputies will not arrest someone for not going to jury duty.
Phone calls: Our advice is to not answer any call where you do not recognize the number. Remember, no agency will collect money through gift cards. Don't forget the power to simply hang up the phone when a stranger calls trying to sell you something you don't want!
Investments: Talk to family and friends or call your lawyer, accountant or banker and get their advice before you make any large purchase or investment over the phone with a stranger.
Companies: Check out unfamiliar companies with your local consumer protection agency, Better Business Bureau, the National Fraud Information Center, or other watchdog groups.
Prosecutor's staff will be at the following events to offer information to senior citizens:
BAINBRIDGE TOWNSHIP, Ohio - A woman answered her door 11:19 p.m. Aug. 27 to see a man with a gun. She called police, but then recognized him. He had shaped his hand like a gun as a joke when he arrived to pick up his younger sister from the home. Police spoke to all involved and determined that there was no weapon.
Theft, South Franklin Circle: Someone stole items from cars parked in the neighborhood. A Harris Farm Drive resident reported a theft Aug. 28. A woman reported another theft Aug. 25 from her car parked on Warren Court.
Fraud, Snyder Road: Someone charged $200 in Chardon using a woman's stolen credit card. The victim reported it Aug. 24 and said she believes the card was taken by a Fieldstone Riding Center student. Several employees had overheard a student talking about the theft. Police are investigating.
Suspicious, Snyder Road: While a woman answered her door 2:30 p.m. Aug. 24 and talked to a female solicitor, a man entered her home and went into her bedroom where her husband was sleeping. He awoke and the pair left quickly in a black four-door car.
Fraud, Bainbridge Road: After receiving a letter on Aug. 26 from EZ-Pass for a traffic violation he did not commit, a man contacted police. He was advised to contact the company to see if it was an error, and to go to the Geauga County sheriff's office if a report was necessary.
Found Property, Aurora Road: A bicycle was left at Speedway for several days, prompting a woman to turn it over to police Aug. 28. She saw a Facebook post where it was possibly stolen and attempted to contact the owner.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Wearing blue gloves, jeans and cowboy boots, Vice President Mike Pence helped clear tree limbs brought down by Hurricane Harvey.
Pence's disaster relief work in Rockport,Texas, stood in stark contrast to president Trump's first visit to the state days earlier.
The president had noted the size of the crowd greeting him but failed to acknowledge the people who had already died in the hurricane and the suffering of all those who survived. "What a crowd, what a turnout," Trump said, looking out on his supporters who gathered outside a Corpus Christi fire station where he would receive a briefing on the hurricane from government officials.
After Trump's failure to note the loss of life was reported and criticized in the media, Trump acknowledged the deaths before giving his speech on tax reform.
Pence's pitching in on cleanup efforts was the kind of personal response Americans expect from a president and that Trump has so far proven himself incapable of.
The Vice President routinely demonstrates he knows what the appropriate presidential tone is and how to strike it. He knows the situation calls for work gloves, not six-inch stilettos.
Trump has now joined other celebrities in pledging to donate $1 million toward hurricane relief. Because Trump has a reputation for having overstated his past charitable contributions and their source, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked if the money would come from him personally or other sources, like his company's charitable foundation. Robert Mueller would also probably like to know if the money is coming came from shady real estate deals with Russian oligarchs.
"I know that the president, he said he was personally going to give. I don't know the legal part of exactly that, but he said his personal money," responded Sanders.
It's been suggested that Trump donate the profits from the sales of the USA hat he was wearing in Texas, which is offered for purchase on his re-election campaign's online store.
The president returns to Texas this morning. This time he's expected visit areas that sustained major damage in Houston and meet with hurricane victims, not just government officials and staffers.
Let's hope on his second visit Trump follows Pence's footsteps, not those left by Melania's stilettos and expensive, pristine sneakers. And that he doesn't mistake filled relief centers and arenas for a Trump rally crowd.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - After four months, the Cleveland Clinic has named Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic its new president and chief executive. Mihaljevic will succeed Dr. Toby Cosgrove Jan. 1, 2018.
Mihaljevic, 53, currently serves as CEO of the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi and has been working in the United Arab Emirates for the past six years to get the site off the ground.
"I certainly hope I will be able to maintain and further our institutional trajectory," Mihaljevic said Friday during an interview with The Plain Dealer. "I've gained a very broad experience in every segment of healthcare management, and I believe that experience is going to serve me well in my future role of CEO of the Cleveland Clinic."
In January, Cosgrove will move to an advisory role, the specifics of which still are being determined by the board of directors and Mihaljevic, according to a news release. Mihaljevic and Cosgrove will complete a transition process through the end of the year.
"I will help with whatever he would like to have me do," Cosgrove said. "I am delighted at this point to have a successor named who is so capable. I'm looking forward to a very smooth transition."
The Clinic's board of governors and board of directors unanimously chose Mihaljevic for the position based on a recommendation by the nomination committee. He was selected from a pool of 15 candidates from both within and outside the organization, Cosgrove said.
"I think Tommy won it, not with promises," said Cleveland Clinic Board of Directors Chairman Bob Rich. "I think he won it on the strength of so many accomplishments."
Mihaljevic first joined the Clinic in 2004 as a cardiothoracic surgeon specializing in minimally invasive and robotically assisted cardiac surgeries.
He has led the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi since September 2015, where he oversees more than 5,000 employees.
The incoming CEO was born in Croatia and is a naturalized American citizen. He earned his medical degree from the University of Zagreb's medical school in Croatia and completed his residency in cardiovascular surgery at the Clinic for Cardiovascular Surgery of the University of Zurich in Switzerland before coming to the United States.
MEDINA, Ohio - Medina County Auditor Mike Kovack has fired longtime Deputy Auditor Kim Estes over transaction irregularities dating back more than three years.
Last Monday, a member of Kovack's staff uncovered the irregularities while looking for a transaction in Estes' workspace in the real estate department.
Medina County Auditor Mike Kovack
Seven checks for pro-rated taxes were discovered that had never been processed. There were also two cash transactions, according to a press release from the Auditor's Office.
Further investigation revealed 33 additional transactions totaling nearly $11,000 that were never fully processed, the press release said.
"We do not believe Medina County has lost any funds," Kovack said.
However, "Ms. Estes' negligence violates the high standards of Medina County employment policies, and of work expectations here in the Auditor's Office, and that's unacceptable," Kovack said.
"While we do not presently believe theft was involved, out of an abundance of caution we have contacted the Medina County Prosecutor's Office, Medina County sheriff and the state auditor's office to follow up on the review that we have already completed on these transactions," he said.
Estes was immediately placed on paid administrative leave when the irregularities were discovered and the county Auditor's Office began its internal investigation.
Kovack said he has reached out to the parties involved in the transactions to inform them of the issue and let them know that the transactions would now be fully processed.
"The public expects and deserves the highest level of public service from all of us in the Auditor's Office, so this is tremendously disappointing to me," he said.
Estes could not be reached for comment.
WASHINGTON -- Melissa Ackison, a Marysville, Ohio woman whose health insurance difficulties were featured by the Trump White House as proof of Obamacare's problems, plans to run for U.S. Senate in 2018.
A Republican, Ackison presents a second challenger to GOP front-runner Josh Mandel, who already faces businessman Mike Gibbons.
Mandel is Ohio treasurer and ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2012. Although he lost to incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, Mandel proved himself a strong fund-raiser and already has support from influential conservative groups as he tries to take on Brown a second time.
Ackison, a 39-year-old mother of four sons, owns a surveying and engineering company with her husband. She says she has experience that Mandel and Gibbons lack. She has run a healthcare staffing agency. She worked in human relations for companies dealing with domestic and international operations and has seen how the push and pull of trade affects both sides, including plant closings in the United States. She says she grew up on the west side of Columbus, with strong blue collar roots she still maintains.
"I don't think the other two have their pulse on the real-world issues facing Americans, she told cleveland.com.
Ackison's Trump-health care connection:
Ackison was in the limelight in July when President Donald Trump invited her to the White House to share her story about the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. She has also appeared with Vice President Mike Pence as he held listening sessions on health-insurance problems he and Republicans ascribe to Obamacare.
Ackison said she has a rare bone condition but was mistakenly denied coverage for a necessary surgery. Meanwhile her then-eight-week old son was omitted from her family's insurance plan and couldn't get routine but necessary immunizations -- at a time another child was still contagious from an infectious disease.
While she was offered the chance to pay for the immunizations out of pocket, she said she couldn't afford to because the cost of premiums and deductibles for her ACA policy had drained her finances. U.S. Sen Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, helped resolve the coverage issues.
Portman, however, endorsed Mandel in May.
"I've seen firsthand what happens when you have a major issue and there are no resources," Ackison told cleveland.com. And, she added, "I know what a free market looked like before the ACA."
Ackison's competitive position:
Mandel and Gibbons hold similar views on the ACA and other policies. Ackison maintains her experience would make her more effective.
She said that when running a staffing agency that hired people for nursing positions, she saw firsthand how government social-welfare benefits discourage work and ambition.
"A lot of these women were really capable," she said. But the value of their housing, food-assistance and other government benefits made it financially worthwhile for them keep their incomes low -- and they quit when they might otherwise exceed the government's income limits and lose government benefits.
"I couldn't compete with the entitlements they were receiving," she said. "That makes it very difficiult and it puts them in a position where they are making wise economic decisions but they are really held back."
The ACA Medicaid expansion is another example of government losing sight of its mission, she said. The "Medicaid welfare program is a more robust plan" than private sector plans, she said, and that conflicts with what should be a goal for more independence and private-sector solutions.
Many of her positions are at odds with those of Brown, the incumbent Democrat. Brown supports the ACA and says the government provided solutions when players in the private sector, from health insurers and the pharmaceutical industry to banks, let Americans down.
Ackison, whose oldest son is in the Army, said she expects to formally announce her candidacy Monday.
Responding to news of Ackison's enry, Mike Biundo, a senior adviser to Gibbons, said in a statement, "The addition of another candidate in the race shows how vulnerable Josh Mandel is because voters don't want another career politician. Mike Gibbons is the conservative outsider and businessman who will match up best against the career politicians Sherrie Brown and Josh Mandel."
NORTON, Ohio -- Three students are facing charges after a gun was found Friday at Norton High School, police said.
School officials notified the police department shortly before noon that a student may have a gun, police said in a news release.
The three students were taken into custody and removed from the school after officers found the gun. The news release does not say where the gun was found.
"The School Administration and the Norton Police Department believe this is an isolated incident and any threat of danger was terminated after finding the firearm and taking the students into custody," police said in the news release.
The students were charged with illegal conveyance or possession of a deadly weapon in a school safety zone, police said. They were taken to the Summit County Detention Center.
"During the investigation, it was discovered that the student did, in fact, have an unloaded handgun in his backpack. This student, along with two others involved, were immediately taken into custody by the Norton police and removed from school," according to an alert message that went out to parents from Dana Addis, Superintendent of the Norton Schools. "Our school district is committed to the safety of all of our students. And I always want to clearly communicate with parents about safety issues when they arise."
If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comments section.
Mueller Has Early Draft of Trump Letter Giving Reasons for Firing Comey
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and MAGGIE HABERMANSEPT. 1, 2017
WASHINGTON The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, has obtained a letter drafted by President Trump and a top political aide that offered an unvarnished view of Mr. Trumps thinking in the days before the president fired the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey.
The circumstances and reasons for the firing are believed to be a significant element of Mr. Muellers investigation, which includes whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice by firing Mr. Comey.
The letter, drafted in May, was met with opposition from Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, who believed that its angry, meandering tone was problematic, according to interviews with a dozen administration officials and others briefed on the matter. Among Mr. McGahns concerns were references to private conversations the president had with Mr. Comey, including times when the F.B.I. director told Mr. Trump he was not under investigation in the F.B.I.s continuing Russia inquiry.
Mr. McGahn successfully blocked the president from sending the letter which Mr. Trump had composed with Stephen Miller, one of the presidents top political advisers to Mr. Comey. But a copy was given to the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, who then drafted his own letter. Mr. Rosensteins letter was ultimately used as the Trump administrations public rationale for Mr. Comeys firing, which was that Mr. Comey had mishandled the investigation into Hillary Clintons private email server.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - For the first time in five months of combat in the Philippines, Ron Riedel was seeing Japanese soldiers that he couldn't kill.
Scam some souvenirs off them, perhaps, but no more shooting.
The small group of Japanese soldiers who stood before Riedel in August of 1945 were an advance party headed to negotiations in Manila regarding surrender of their forces, coinciding with Japan's capitulation that ended World War II.
Japan's official surrender was September 2, during ceremonies aboard the battleship USS Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.
In the days leading up to that event, the memories of combat were still fresh in Riedel's mind.
Riedel, 91, of North Olmsted, recalled that when the GIs met this first group of Japanese soldiers, the site had been pre-targeted for a just-in-case response.
Riedel said his commander advised, "If something goes wrong, I'm done, everything's over, so just flatten the place."
As it turned out, the only problem came when Riedel was eyeing the wristwatch that one Japanese soldier wore, and motioned that he wanted it. The man shook his head and mumbled, indicating, No way, GI.
Riedel bristled, and told the soldier, "If I had seen you yesterday, I'd have had that wristwatch for sure."
So Riedel had to be content with savoring the moment of victory. "Sure, we were elated. My gosh, yeah, going around patting each other on the back and shaking hands," he recalled.
It had been four long years of fighting since America went to war after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941.
At the time, Riedel was attending John Marshall High School. He knew very little about war from his father, who served overseas during World War I and brought back a bunch of souvenirs, and stories of combat that he wouldn't share.
After Riedel's older brother went into the service - one of four brothers who served during World War II or the Korean War - Riedel was drafted after he dropped out of school and found himself headed for the Philippines with the Army's 38th Infantry Division. There, he celebrated his 18th and 19th birthdays.
The "Cyclone Division" was also nicknamed the "Avengers of Bataan," referring to the U.S. defeat when the Japanese invaded the Philippines in 1942, resulting in the infamous Bataan Death March when American POWS were abused and killed en route to prison camps.
The Japanese were steadily retreating when Riedel's unit arrived, but the enemy still fought fiercely in the mountainous terrain.
Riedel, a gunner on a 60mm mortar, remembered, "You'd run into different snipers along the line, caves, things like that.
"The worst part of it was when you'd have to send in the guys with the flamethrowers," he added. "That was bad. When the Japs come out of a cave and they're all burned up, and then, aw, you have to put them away."
He will not discuss further details of the fighting other than to say, "What you have to do, you have to do, and some of the things just aren't nice. That part I don't like to get into."
The prevailing attitude among GIs was kill or be killed, according to Riedel. "We were brainwashed, too. They were just Japs, just Nips, you know.
"The slogan at our division was 'kill-'em-and-count-'em college. All students majoring in Jap extermination,'" he added. "It had to be done, and I guess you have to look at it as better him than me."
Only later, when he got to know Japanese soldiers as POWs, "you found out they were actually human beings," Riedel said. "They probably got family at home. They're over there and not all of them, I don't think, really wanted to be there."
Some of that sentiment had entered his mind when he heard about the atomic bombs that had been dropped on Japan, prior to the surrender.
"We just couldn't believe that they had something like that and that we were using it," he said. "After we used it, you'd think, oh my God, what did we really do? All the children, old people, women, and aw, just the devastation. It was awful.
"We had the hot and cold about it, at least I did, emotionally," he added. "I was glad that it happened, but yet I was so sympathetic for the people that it had to be done."
With the bombs came the happy realization that the war was almost over. "Now we were going home. We could see that the end really coming fast at that time," Riedel said.
(The end came a bit longer for one of his enemies, Hiroo Onada, the last Japanese soldier to surrender in the Philippines, who hung on for 29 years until giving up in 1974. He died at age 91 in 2014.)
Riedel returned to Cleveland where he married Audrey (now deceased) in 1948, and they raised a daughter, Bonnie Lee.
He worked at a nursery then started a landscaping business. After that he was a foreman in the parks department for Fairview Park until he retired.
Memories of the war never bothered him.
Talking about certain things, however, can be choking-up hard. "Sure, what's the use, you know?" he said. "Talk about the good things, you know? What we might have accomplished, things like that."
The good things are represented by the souvenirs he brought home, including a variety of artistic items - such as ashtrays crafted from artillery shells, and bracelets from mess tins -- made by Japanese POWs for him when Riedel was a guard at a prison camp on Corrigidor.
There's also bag of silver pesos that were once part of $16 million in coins that banks in the Philippines sank on a barge in the ocean so the money wouldn't be seized by the Japanese. Riedel swapped a Japanese canteen for the pesos from Navy salvagers who were recovering the treasure.
Sure, there was a hard part to his experience, "seeing your buddies getting blasted around," Riedel said.
Yet there was a best part, too, in hearing "the surrender news, and knowing it was really going to be over."
Hot and cold, as he said of his reaction to the atomic bombings.
"There was a lot to be learned, and a lot to be said about it," Riedel observed.
"But you wouldn't want to wish it on anybody."
SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- One man was hospitalized after a house fire Friday night in Shaker Heights.
The fire broke out around 9 p.m. on Sutton Road near Milverton Road, according to Nick Pishnery, a dispatcher for Eastcom that includes Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights and University Heights.
The American Red Cross was called to assist two families, eight people total, he said.
Firefighters from Beachwood, University Heights, Cleveland Heights, Warrensville Heights and South Euclid responded to the scene, he said.
When the call came in, there were visible flames inside the three-story home, Pishnery said.
The man's condition was not immediately available.
If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Friday's crime and courts comments section.
FOCUS ON DEFENSE CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA AND OCEANIA
CORNWALL, Ontario Planning is underway to open a medicinal marijuana packaging and processing facility within city limits.
Sweetleaf Medicinals Inc. is the latest brainchild of Michael Langburt, and aims to offer business services to companies operating within the cannabis industry. Currently, Langburt and his team are seeking a space for their operation.
With hopes of opening shop behind Hood Packaging at 1800 Vincent Massey, Langburt says that rezoning the space is the first hoop they must jump through. Having met with the citys Planning Advisory Committee (PAC) to further discuss the details involved, Langburt says that there are a lot of factors to be considered.
Weve presented our model, but were still not sure whether it will be accepted, said Langburt. This is the first of many steps we will have to take along the way. Theres a lot of licences that come into play.
Mary Joyce-Smith, Division Manager for Planning Services says this case is reminiscent of a 2015 proposal to approve a bylaw allowing a medical marijuana facility to open in Cornwall. While the 2015 project never got off the ground, Joyce-Smith says that the city is using the case as a reference point for Sweetleaf.
Essentially, we are following same protocol and specific zoning bylaws for medical marijuana that we saw in 2015, said Joyce-Smith. Many of the same issues will be revisited.
It may be a long road ahead for Sweetleaf, but Langburt says he is willing to follow the rules to see his vision through.
Weve got some good things ahead, and were hoping we can move forward with the citys help, said Langburt.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) announced today it has been awarded an additional, $630 million- contract for the supply of LRSAM air & missile defense systems for four ships of the Indian navy. The type of ships was not released but are likely to be Project 15B Visakhapatnam-class missile destroyers, scheduled for commissioning from 2018 through 2024.
The system was successfully tested last week in India as part of operational interception trial aboard Indias naval missile destroyer INS Kochi. The test validated the integration of the missile and the associated fire control system with the indigenously developed ship-borne combat management suite. INS Kochi is one of three Kolkata class missile destroyers the first class of ships to receive the LRSAM air defense system. Last month India ordered the system for its new aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant.
Each system comprises at least one launcher, carrying eight missiles, a command-and-control system, and a tracking radar. The Indian Navy plans to procure 12 LRSAM systems at a cost of more than $2 billion. The Indian Air Force has also ordered a land-based derivative of the system, known as MRSAM systems, at an additional cost of $2 billion while the Indian Army plans to purchase a different land-based version of MRSAM, at a cost of $1 billion. In addition, IAI is offering the Indian military a new, Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air (QRSAM) variant of Barak-8 addressing the Armys requirement for mobile air defense.
The contract will be carried out, for the first time, with Indian government company Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), which serves as the prime contractor on the project as part of Indias Make in India policy. IAI and BEL have established the cooperation in 2012, under a memorandum of understanding (MOU). The MOU provides a framework for BEL-IAI cooperation, under which BEL functioned as the Lead Integrator and produce major sub-systems. IAI continue to act as Design Authority and produced sub-systems as a main sub-contractor of BEL. Another main subcontractor, Bharat Defence Ltd. (BDL) is also positioned to benefit from the program, BDL will supply the Barak-8 missiles from a new production line established in Hyderabad. BDL is working with the missile integrator RAFAEL, which is the Design Authority for the interceptor.
Storage News
Arcserve CEO Stepping Down Next Week, Chairman To Serve As Interim CEO
Joseph F. Kovar
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Arcserve CEO Mike Crest is leaving the company to pursue "another growth opportunity," the company announced on Friday.
The resignation of Crest (pictured), who has been CEO since Arcserve was spun out of CA Technologies in 2014, is effective on September 8, after which the Minneapolis-based company's Chairman Dave Hansen will take over as interim CEO.
Arcserve is already looking for a permanent replacement for Crest, the company said.
[Related: Arcserve Acquires Zetta, Looks To Be Comprehensive Cloud Data Protection Vendor]
Neither Crest nor any other Arcserve spokespeople were available to provide more details on a company press release.
In a prepared statement, Hansen said, "Mike was a tremendous asset in laying the foundation for our robust future, and we understand his decision to pursue another growth opportunity."
Crest, in a prepared statement, said it was an "enormous privilege" to lead Arcserve as it grew from a start-up into a major data protection vendor. "The company is founded on the principles of empowering businesses through the best backup and availability technology, and it will undoubtedly enjoy continued success," he said.
Before joining Arcserve, Crest spent nearly four years as the senior vice president and general manager for CA Technologies data management business. In total, Crest spent 14 years in executive positions at CA. Hanson, in addition to his role as Arcserve chairman, is also an operating executive at Marlin Equity Partners. Arcserve's spin-out from CA resulted when Marlin bought Arcserve for an undisclosed sum.
Arcserve has been doing a good job with its products and with its channel partners in its three years as an independent company, said Chuck Iten, western regional director at Productive, a Minneapolis-based solution provider and long-time Arcserve channel partner.
"We're up on Arcserve sales," Iten told CRN. "The company's Arcserve UDP data protection appliance is strong. New customers like it and a lot of legacy Arcserve partners are adopting it."
In its new leader, Arcserve will need to find someone who can continue the positive channel relationships that Crest started, partners said.
"Overall, I would say the channel relationships are a lot stronger now than when Arcserve was a part of CA," Productive's Iten said. "We're now seeing some employee turnover, and so we will be looking for signs of stability from Arcserve. But overall, I've got nothing but good to say about the company."
WASHINGTON Connecticut dreamers are steeling themselves for disappointment over the announcement expected Tuesday on whether President Donald Trump will maintain or tear up DACA, the Obama-era policy that has given these young immigrants a ray of hope for the future.
We are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst, said Carolina Bortolleto, of Danbury, communications and grant manager for Connecticut Students for a Dream. Were trying to reassure people and that no matter what happens, we are resilient and will keep on fighting. Our community is more than just a work permit.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that Trump would make a long-awaited decision about DACA on Tuesday the day attorneys general from 10 red states threatened to file a lawsuit if the White House does not rescind the policy.
We are working on the best decision possible and will announce it Tuesday, said Sanders. This is not a decision the president takes lightly.
Asked about the future of DACA and dreamers at a White House meeting, Trump said: We love the dreamers. We love everybody ... We think the dreamers are terrific.
DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, President Barack Obamas policy that gave legal status and work permits to approximately 800,000 young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. About 8,000 of those are in Connecticut.
A negative decision would subject dreamers to deportation. A positive one would ensure their continued legal status, at a minimum.
Trump won the White House in part on a promise to deport anyone in the U.S. illegally and build a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border. But he has agonized publicly over the dreamers, who had no choice in whether to come here, and know no home other than the U.S.
Conservatives have pressed him to end the program, citing the lack of a statute authorizing accommodations for dreamers under U.S. immigration law.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a staunch immigration hard-liner, reportedly has told Trump he cannot defend the administration against a lawsuit by the conservative state attorneys general.
But some Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, have either supported DACA extension or urged caution or delay in repealing it.
There needs to be a legislative solution, Ryan said in a Wisconsin radio interview. We want to give people peace of mind.
Congress so far has failed to pass legislation protecting dreamers. And with both House and Senate in Republican hands, it remains to be seen whether a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans could push a measure through.
In the meantime, Bortolleto is not holding her breath.
People dont know what to expect, and the psychological warfare is making everyone very anxious, said Bortoletto, 29, who came over in 1998 with her twin sister and parents from Brazil.
As for Trumps expression of love for dreamers, Bortoletto said: I dont trust anything he says.
dan@hearstdc.com
The Shelton Fire Department and Derbys St. Vincents de Paul Helping Hands of the Valley Thrift Shop and Food Bank are hosting a donation drive for hurricane relief.
The city of Shelton was able to acquire an 18-wheeler truck to fill with donations that will be driven directly to Houston, Texas, on Saturday, Sept. 9.
The Australian defense department selected AeroVironments Wasp AE small unmanned aircraft system for use by the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The Australian order will deliver mini-drones within a period of three-year period, and support the systems for ten years. The contract is worth A$101 million(USD 74.6 million), of which the about half (US$36.5 million) will be the original manufacturers share.
This is the largest Australian order for Wasp-AE to date. In 2014 XTEK placed an initial order worth A$7.7 for Wasp AE for the evaluation and training of Australian forces. The current order will support full-scale fielding of the systems.
The Wasp AE weighs 2.8 pounds, operates for up to 50 minutes at a range of up to five kilometers and delivers live, streaming color and infrared video from its pan-tilt-zoom Mantis i22 AE gimbaled payload. Launched by hand and capable of landing on the ground or in fresh or salt water, the Wasp AE provides portability and flexibility for infantry, littoral or maritime reconnaissance operations.
AeroVironment is working closely with Australian partners XTEK, GD Mediaware and Sentient Vision to modify and introduce the WASP AE solution for Australian requirement. XTEK and AeroVironment will provide local maintenance, training, and field support to serve the immediate needs of ADF while expanding AeroVironments global support capabilities.
Following his arrest this week for illegal manufacture of marijuana items, Mark Craig Rose, 61, has been suspended from his job as an emergency room doctor with Samaritan Health Services, officials with the hospital confirmed Friday.
As a result of his arrest on August 29, Dr. Mark Rose has been suspended as an employee of the emergency department at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital pending further investigation, wrote hospital spokesman Ian Rollins in a statement.
Law enforcement officials arrested Rose on Tuesday at his home in the 2700 block of Marshall Drive in Corvallis, where they reported finding an inactive lab designed to produce a concentrated marijuana extract called Butane Honey Oil and three 55-gallon drums of marijuana. The activities involved a legal substance but are criminal because of the quantity the suspects possessed, and because the group was manufacturing BHO without a state license, authorities said.
Records also indicate that Rose owns the property at 36585 Crackerneck Drive in Scio, where agents discovered an active BHO lab and about 6.5 pounds of BHO. As a result of both raids, officers seized 200 pounds of marijuana, a quantity of Ecstasy, and user amounts of methamphetamine.
Rose was originally booked into the Linn County Jail for charges related to the Scio raid, but was later transferred to the Benton County Jail. He faces two counts of manufacturing marijuana items, two counts of delivery of marijuana, and two counts of possession of more than 4 ounces of marijuana. Rose posted bail on Thursday and will be arraigned in Linn County Circuit Court on Sept. 21.
Rose, who graduated from Oregon Health and Science University in 1983, could face disciplinary action from the Oregon Medical Board, according to Executive Director Kathleen Haley. Any medical doctor accused of a crime has 10 days from his arrest to inform the board.
We will open an investigation, said Haley. If there is an immediate risk to the public, we could suspend his license.
Haley said the board will also consider the relationships Rose has maintained with his patients, as well as whether his conduct (on the job) is unprofessional. Based on those factors, Haley said the board could revoke his license, or decide to take corrective action, which could involve a mutually agreed-upon disciplinary sanction.
Most of our cases settle, said Haley.
Terry Lee Bowman, the suspect in a Thursday incident at Oregon State Credit Union branch in Albany, was arraigned Friday in Linn County Circuit Court on one count of first-degree theft.
The charge came less than 24 hours after Bowman was arrested after entering the Albany Oregon State Credit Union branch at 1394 Clay St. SE, and demanding that money be placed into a black bag, according to Albany Police Lt. Alan Lynn.
Bowman was arrested for theft and bank robbery, a federal crime, but was only charged with theft, said Linn County prosecutor Julia Baker, due to time constraints in filing charges.
"We have to make a charging decision by 11 a.m.," Baker said. "At the time, the evidence we had showed that he went into the bank and came out with money, so there definitely was a theft."
Bowman made off with a little more than $2,000, Baker said. She added that Bowman always could be charged with new crimes if new evidence emerges.
Because of Bowman's criminal record, Baker advised the court she would be seeking an enhanced sentence for the crime. Bowman has prior convictions for robbery in Alaska in 1997, and on Monday was sentenced in Linn County Court for burglary and possession of body armor.
The court set Bowman's bail at $50,000. His next court appearance will be at 8:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 11.
Pa. Dems could flip the House of Reps. Here's what that might mean
Very few British politicians have emerged with honour in the aftermath of last years Brexit referendum.
Nigel Farage, without whose pressure on the Tory Government the public would never have been given a vote on the issue, has turned himself into a media personality and sycophant-in-chief to President Donald Trump.
Labours brave and widely respected Leave campaigner Gisela Stuart has stood down as an MP.
Shamefully, Jeremy Corbyn has betrayed working-class Labour voters (and his own one-time anti-Brussels instincts) by calling for Britains continued membership of the Single Market and European Court of Justice.
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Only one major political figure has behaved nobly and should be saluted for the way he has upheld the interests of Britain ever since the start of the referendum debate. Who is he? The much-maligned Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson
For their part, leading Tories who campaigned for Remain, led by Chancellor Philip Hammond and Home Secretary Amber Rudd, are trying to sabotage Brexit by striking a shabby compromise deal with Brussels.
Only one major political figure has behaved nobly and should be saluted for the way he has upheld the interests of Britain ever since the start of the referendum debate.
Who is he? The much-maligned Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson.
But, tragically, despite such integrity and principle, he has become the object of a vicious and orchestrated Westminster whispering campaign. Its aim is to get him driven from office in the Cabinet reshuffle expected later this year.
Mr Johnson is accused of incompetence, egotism and a failure to master detail.Yet none of these accusations is remotely true.
Indeed, diplomats and Foreign Office staff say his ability to master a brief is far more impressive than any of his most recent predecessors as Foreign Secretary.
The truth is that Mr Johnsons enemies want him out because he has single-handedly taken on the inherently pro-EU British Establishment, who are determined to stop Brexit happening in defiance of the wishes of the majority of the British people.
Johnson stands as one of very few members of the Cameron government to remain true to his beliefs.
Nigel Farage, without whose pressure on the Tory Government the public would never have been given a vote on the issue, has turned himself into a media personality and sycophant-in-chief to President Donald Trump. Shamefully, Jeremy Corbyn has betrayed working-class Labour voters (and his own one-time anti-Brussels instincts) by calling for Britains continued membership of the Single Market and European Court of Justice
This is in contrast to so many senior Tory colleagues who have been forced to champion Brexit despite having been diehard Remainers until June last year. Even some high-profile Leavers, such as Michael Gove, seem to have lost the stomach for battle.
Since the referendum result, Mr Johnson has consistently fought a lone battle in Cabinet to ensure that the May Government keeps its promise that Brexit means Brexit.
It is a hard job and one that has been made much harder because of the appallingly unpatriotic behaviour of former colleagues such as George Osborne and David Cameron.
I have little doubt that Osborne, eaten up with malice and a desire for revenge, having been sacked by Theresa May, lies behind some of the most vicious attacks on the Foreign Secretary.
Indeed, the pro-EU former Chancellor, a key architect of the contemptible Project Fear during the referendum campaign, appears to have entered into a demeaning alliance of convenience with Blairite pro-Europeans who are hell-bent on wrecking Brexit.
I have little doubt that George Osborne, eaten up with malice and a desire for revenge, having been sacked by Theresa May, lies behind some of the most vicious attacks on the Foreign Secretary
Mr Johnsons most deadly enemies, however, are some of his Cabinet colleagues. They are appalled by his vehement calls for a clean Brexit whereby total separation from the EU is achieved in March 2019. A phalanx of senior ministers such as Mr Hammond wish Britain to retain membership of key European institutions well beyond that date.
Their strategy, though, is flawed. Britain can only retain trading relationships with the EU if we agree to remain subject to the supervision and control of Brussels. This soft Brexit solution would be nothing less than a national humiliation.
Indeed, it would be far better to remain a full member of the EU than agree to this unsatisfactory halfway-house deal.
Its no coincidence that Mr Hammond and his allies played leading roles in the Remain campaign. I have no doubt that their ultimate plan is to retain Britains EU membership.
So far, despite her visionary Lancaster House speech in which she said the UK cannot possibly remain in the Single Market and that no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal, Mrs May has not come down on either side in this epic Cabinet battle.
This leaves Boris Johnson as the most senior voice in government staying true to the 17.4 million Britons who voted to leave the EU last year.
For that he should be championed not be the target of a political assassination hit squad.
In February, John Bercow, the preening Commons Speaker, announced that President Trump would not be welcome to speak to Parliament.
Yet Bercow fawned over Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi when she came to Britain to address both Houses.
And this weekend, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has been criticised after her troops went on the rampage against her nations minority Muslim population, and thousands have been forced to flee into Bangladesh.
What sanctimonious hypocrisy by Bercow!
Mandelson is not such a business mandarin
It has been a hallmark of Lord (Peter) Mandelsons post-ministerial career that he has hawked his services across the world, picking up big cheques along the way.
His links stretch from Russia to China, across Asia and to wealthy Arab nations. But he seems to take less interest in British businesses.
As part of this portfolio, Mandelson joined the senior advisory board of the investment group Sapinda, run by the German Lars Windhorst.
Over recent years this flamboyant financier has suffered two bankruptcies and stood trial on 35 charges of fraud, embezzlement and breach of trust in Berlin. After a plea bargain, prosecutors agreed to drop the fraud charges if Windhorst paid an 850,000 fine, repaid 2.1 million to an alleged victim and admitted a breach of trust offence, for which he got a years suspended jail sentence.
It has been a hallmark of Lord (Peter) Mandelsons post-ministerial career that he has hawked his services across the world, picking up big cheques along the way
Mandelsons advice does not seem to have helped Windhorst.
Sapinda has had a dreadful past 12 months, though in all fairness it should be noted that the worst of the firms tribulations have taken place since his departure. Its main investments plunged in value. A high-profile investment in video games was soured by reports that employees, creditors and even prize-winners had not received money due to them.
Windhorst has now resigned from Sapinda. Mandelson had already quit the board.
At the very least, Mandelsons relationship with Windhorst throws doubt on his own judgment. Throughout his career he has suffered cruel slurs on his reputation. To avoid this happening again, he would be wise to volunteer a full account of his relationship with Windhorst.
Lord Mandelson did not answer my questions to him yesterday.
May's election call to push through Brexit
Theresa Mays wish to stay Prime Minister after the next election has been widely misinterpreted by Westminster observers, who claim her decision means she could still be in No 10 in 2024.
But I am convinced she aims to stay as PM only until 2021. I understand Mrs May has confided to advisers that she may call the next election in 2019.
This fits with her realisation that a Brexit deal will have to be put before Parliament. If all goes to plan, a big Tory majority will push it through the Commons. She would then step down around 2021.
Hundreds of skirts made by mid-Willamette Valley residents in August were piled on tables at Richs Sewing & Vacuum in Albany on Friday.
There were skirts with polka dots, stripes, plaid prints and even Hawaiian and Batman patterns.
I kind of had a personal goal of 500. We hit 529, said Daniel Rich, store manager.
And all of the skirts will help children in need.
Richs Sew & Vacs community service project this year will benefit Skirting the Issue, a nonprofit that provides clothing for foster girls who dont have anything to wear in school. CASA of Linn County will distribute the skirts.
Most of the skirts about 350 came to the Albany store. Rich said that the rest were turned into the Salem location of the business.
This is the 18th year of the community sewing project, and Rich said it was one of the most successful for his business thanks to an estimated 100 participants. They ranged from local middle school students to locals just a bit older living on the Mennonite Village campus.
Though the business held community sewing days in Albany in mid-August, many of the skirts were sewed at residents homes and then brought to the store.
We had one lady do 50 skirts by herself, and others did one or two, Rich said.
This is a big thing. We just facilitated it. Its the community that did the labor, he added, as he looked over the stacks of skirts.
Danish Crown Princess Mary looked radiant as she visited children at a support centre in Copenhagen.
The 45-year-old beauty looked effortlessly chic in a flowing floral dress cut just above the knee.
Princess Mary was attending BrneTelefonen, a Children's Telephone Support Center, to celebrate the organisation's 30th anniversary on September 1.
A series of touching images have captured Crown Princess Mary's (pictured) radiance as she visited children at a support centre in Copenhagen
Princess Mary's button up dress complemented her flowing brown locks which she wore down with a pair of gold hoop earrings
Princess Mary was attending BrneTelefonen, a Children's Telephone Support Center, to celebrate the organisations 30th anniversary on September 1
The 45-year-old beauty looked effortlessly chic in a flowing floral dress cut just above the knee
While in attendance she named the assembly hall the Tine Bryld Hall after the social worker who initiated the centre.
BrneTelefonen has helped more than 43,000 children and adults throughout the last year.
Princess Mary's button up dress complemented her flowing brown locks which she wore down with a pair of gold hoop earrings.
The elegant Princess met with children and was photographed being gifted a colourful bunch of flowers from an adorable child.
BrneTelefonen has helped more than 43,000 children and adults throughout the last year.
The elegant Princess met with children and was photographed being gifted a colourful bunch of flowers from an adorable child (pictured)
Princess Mary spoke with team members within the organisation and commended them on their work with children
Should you require evidence of the utter contempt in which senior NHS officials hold the public, look no further than a peer review scheme being rolled out next week.
The new plans require GPs to seek approval from a panel, made up of other doctors, before being able to refer patients for all non-urgent hospital appointments.
This means that referrals for things such as X-rays, hip and knee surgery, and cataracts may be rejected by a group of people who have never seen the patient. They also will not review the patients medical notes, but instead base the decision on the referral letter.
Should you require evidence of the utter contempt in which senior NHS officials hold the public, look no further than a peer review scheme being rolled out next week
The patients GP will retain responsibility and make final decisions, but this is still a kick in the teeth for GPs and shows the thinly-veiled loathing NHS bosses have for clinicians these days.
They are an irritation, what with all their referring patients on to other doctors, and NHS bosses will do anything they can to neuter them because they have the best interests of patients rather than a balance sheet at heart.
This comes as it was announced this week that the NHS will pay 100 million to agencies to recruit 3,000 GPs from overseas amid a growing recruitment crisis hitting the profession.
Is it any wonder our home-grown doctors dont want to be GPs when they apparently cant even be trusted to know when a patient needs to see a specialist?
By and large, the GPs I know are dedicated and hard-working.
They do their absolute best despite some pretty testing circumstances and they care deeply about their patients. They also know them better than any panel does: after all, its their job to assess patients and decide the best course of action.
The peer review scheme flies in the face of this. And its yet more red tape.
The new plans require GPs to seek approval from a panel, made up of other doctors, before being able to refer patients for all non-urgent hospital appointments. This means that referrals for things such as X-rays, hip and knee surgery, and cataracts may be rejected by a group of people who have never seen the patient. (File photo)
The last thing GPs need is yet another layer of bureaucracy. It defies belief that when doctors on the front line are having to contend with so much, they are given yet another set of hoops to jump through. This is only going to cause frustration and anger.
So why bother doing it? If you listen to the official line, the purpose is to support GPs and ensure that patients dont make unnecessary trips to hospital.
Please! Who are they trying to kid? It is clear that this is going to delay patients getting treatment, increase the risk of things deteriorating or something serious happening and result in misery and yet more headaches as doctors and patients negotiate yet more paperwork and box-ticking.
And to add salt to the wound, because the NHS is devolved, it will happen only in England.
So what are we saying here is that English GPs cant be trusted to make clinically appropriate referrals, but those in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland can. Is that really the case?
Lets be honest, we all know whats really going on here. This isnt about ensuring evidence-based medicine or that patients get the best possible care. This is about one thing: money. The real purpose of these panels is to reduce the number of hospital referrals, isnt it?
Of course. But rather than insulting our intelligence by trying to give it to us as something else, something for our benefit, why cant the NHS officials and the Government just be honest and straight with us about the real motivation behind this.
Why cant they just stand up and say that there isnt enough money, that we are reaching a crisis point in the NHS, and it has now got to the stage where they are trying to find ways to prevent people getting treatment for non-urgent problems?
We actually need them to say this. We need them to clarify the problems the NHS is facing so that we can have a serious debate about the future of our healthcare.
This debate will never happen while were not told the real reasons behind schemes like this.
With the 20th anniversary of Princess Dianas death this week, theres been much discussion about her legacy. As a doctor, there is no doubt in my mind what this is for me.
For the younger generation, its hard to imagine quite the fear that HIV/Aids generated.
I remember at primary school being told that under no circumstances should we share drinks containers in case we caught it from them, and there being much discussion about whether it was safe to use the same toilet seat. It was truly petrifying.
With the 20th anniversary of Princess Dianas death this week, theres been much discussion about her legacy. As a doctor, there is no doubt in my mind what this is for me. For the younger generation, its hard to imagine quite the fear that HIV/Aids generated
Yet in April 1987, Princess Diana was photographed touching an HIV positive man on a visit to a hospital. It was reported around the world.
In one single gesture, she showed that this was a condition that needed our compassion and understanding, not fear and ignorance. Medical sociologists now credit her taking up the plight of those with HIV with a shift in public opinion around the disease.
In this way she did more than any other individual or charity in tackling the stigma in those dark, scary times.
Midlife crisis? No, just part of living
We all know the scenario: a man in middle age suddenly divorces his loyal, long-suffering wife, starts dating a woman half his age, buys a Porsche or motorbike and gets a hair transplant.
Diagnosis? Midlife crisis.
This week, economists claimed to have definitive proof it is a real, bona fide phenomenon. They undertook an analysis of data, and found a dip in happiness in middle age.
But Im not convinced this is really evidence of a midlife crisis and not the result of other factors, such as changes to working patterns, relationships or health at this age.
While it is has caught on in the public imagination, psychologists actually question the existence of the midlife crisis, and I share this scepticism.
The research supporting it is very weak. The term midlife crisis was coined in 1965 by Elliot Jaques, a Canadian psychoanalyst, to describe challenges during the normal period of transition and selfreflection that many adults experience from ages 40 to 60.
Theres no doubt middle-aged people question their lives. As their children become more independent, and with years of marriage behind them, they might look at their career and realise its stagnating.
Or maybe they have drifted away from their partner. Or they realise time is running out to do the things they really wanted to. They look around and ask what its all for, and revaluate the choices they have made that resulted in where they find themselves.
But the idea that this only happens to people in middle age is, I think, a myth. People of all ages find themselves, at different points in their life and for different reasons, asking big, philosophical questions about what the point of it all is and what they want to do with their lives.
Working with adolescents, I often met youngsters asking these exact questions faced with which A-levels to do and whether to go to university. Many were overwhelmed and felt at a crisis point. Its perfectly normal.
Similarly, when I worked in geriatrics, older people would often be very contemplative, questioning their lives, appraising the choices they made and figuring out what to do with their remaining time.
The truth is we go through our lives having periods of introspection and reflection, evaluating what weve done and what we want to do.
Its a normal, everyday part of life, and its no more likely to happen in midlife than at another time.
A second opinion that can save lives
Recently, I went to a talk by the charity Brainstrust about brain tumours and the difficulties patients face in getting accurate diagnoses.
I was astonished and horrified to hear that in 80 per cent of cases, the diagnosis changes after a second opinion is sought. This means that either the type of tumour was wrong, or how advanced it is was incorrect.
Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40. More than 11,000 people are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour every year in the UK.
A change in diagnosis like this can have a profound and fundamental impact on the type of treatment that should be offered for the best chance of survival.
Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40. More than 11,000 people are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour every year in the UK
The reason such a large number of diagnoses were initially incorrect is that diagnosing, staging and grading brain tumours is incredibly complex.
Thanks to advances in scanning and biopsy techniques, we now understand that there are more than 120 different types of brain tumour and have developed specific treatments for many of them.
But because of the vast number of types of tumour, doctors may have seen a particular type only a handful of times.
It is, therefore, essential that those with a diagnosis of brain tumour have their scans and medical notes reviewed by more than one team, and preferably by people who are experts in that particular type of tumour.
But how do you do this if youre somewhere rural? Or elderly, or infirm and cant readily travel to a large teaching hospital?
While Im often sceptical of claims that technology is the answer to medicines problems think of the complete waste of money that Labours abandoned 12 billion NHS IT programme turned out to be a new social enterprise backed by Brainstrust called Trustedoctor is trying to address the problem. I think they may be on to something.
Patients are able to upload their medical records and scans. Expert neurosurgeons, neurologists and pathologists whom the patient can choose are then able to review the notes and talk to the patient over the internet and provide a second opinion, meaning the patient doesnt even have to leave their front room.
Clinicians are free to charge for their time if they wish, but so far about half are working pro bono. Trustedoctor hope to expand the service to other types of cancer in the next year.
What a brilliant idea, that will have a real impact on patients lives.
SON OF THE NIGHT by Mark Alder (Orion, 18.99)
SON OF THE NIGHT
by Mark Alder (Orion, 18.99)
Following on from Son Of The Morning, here be angels and demons, royals and commoners, as supernatural powers jostle with medieval kings and queens for supremacy.
Its the Hundred Years War, but recast with England as a hotbed of Luciferian heresy and France trying to expel its demons.
Charles of Navarre half man, half cat demon has lost the Battle of Crecy for France and is plotting his political survival, while Englands Queen Isabella is weaving spells to redeem the soul of her murdered lover.
This will involve entering hell itself to negotiate with Satan, here made Lucifers gaoler.
It all adds up to a brilliantly rendered tale of supernatural skulduggery with swords and codpieces, plots and plagues. It is delivered with humour, gut-churning detail and the narrative drive of a charging knight.
THE LAST DOG ON EARTH
THE LAST DOG ON EARTH by Adrian J Walker (Del Rey 7.99)
by Adrian J Walker (Del Rey 7.99)
Very few dystopian novels push all the way through to the horrors explored here.
Fewer still reach these heights of lyricism, humour and decency, and none that I know of do it through the eyes of a dog and his near-catatonic owner.
Britain has been torn apart by civil war. Reginald, marooned in his tower block with his rescue dog Lineker, sets off on a mission to return an orphaned girl to the authorities.
At first, Lineker sits at the heart of the story, offering strong opinions on subjects as bizarre as the pomposity of wolves.
But the joy of the book lies in the astonishing emotional journey each character makes, with every human and canine weakness exposed, explored and, ultimately, forgiven.
BROADCAST
BROADCAST by Liam Brown (Legend Press 8.99)
by Liam Brown (Legend Press 8.99)
A successful vlogger, David Callow defines the shallow, self-satisfied metropolitan, as hordes of cyber-fans follow his every move on the internet.
With his banalities noted and purchases setting off new trends, it is little wonder that he is asked to participate in an online experiment.
Thanks to a clever little microchip implanted in his brain, his every thought and emotion is streamed live across the world. What, as they say, could possibly go wrong?
This is a short, sharp and shocking update of the Faustus myth, with the devil played by a Silicon Valley gazillionaire, Xan Brinkley.
While the lack of detail leaves some of the descriptions a tad short of pixels, Broadcast delivers a brilliant, ice-cold rush of horror as we follow our hero into a nightmare entirely of his own making. Truly a morality tale for our digital age.
Daniel Barenboim: A Retrospective Out now
The Complete Sony Recordings (43 CDs plus 3 DVDs)
Rating:
Back in 1954, the legendary German conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler described the 11-year-old Daniel Barenboim as a phenomenon; not only his musical but also his technical abilities are staggering.
Furtwangler expressed the hope that he will be able to fulfil his early promise. As Barenboim approaches his 75th birthday, its safe to say that he has both as a conductor and as a pianist.
This set a snip at about 80 takes us back to the very beginnings of his adult career.
In his 20s, Barenboim was recording all the Beethoven piano sonatas (some at sight) for EMI, and all the Mozart piano concertos, directing them from the keyboard.
A 13-year-old Barenboim (above) rehearsing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1956. In his 20s, Barenboim was recording all the Beethoven piano sonatas (some at sight) for EMI
For Sony (then CBS) he cast his net more widely, and primarily features as a conductor, with exceptional performances of surprising things such as the Tchaikovsky Fourth Symphony from 1971, and Rodrigos Guitar Concerto (with John Williams) from 1974.
This box happily concludes with a brilliant 2014 New Years Day Concert from Vienna, also on a two-and-a-half-hour DVD.
There is some Mozart here; violin concertos with one of his mentors, Isaac Stern, and his lifelong friend Pinchas Zukerman.
For EMI the 24-year-old Barenboim recorded a well-remembered set of Beethoven piano concertos with the 82-year-old Otto Klemperer at the helm. While here, the 33-year-old Barenboim partners the then 88-year-old pianist Arthur Rubinstein, in a 1975, not-so-well-remembered Beethoven cycle, which includes an especially fine account of the Fourth.
What will surely intrigue most collectors are the eight Elgar albums Barenboim recorded in his early 30s, having fallen for the composer, under the influence of his then-wife, the cellist Jacqueline du Pre, and the renowned Elgar conductor Sir John Barbirolli.
Daniel Barenboim: A Retrospective out now. This box happily concludes with a brilliant 2014 New Years Day Concert from Vienna, also on a two-and-a-half-hour DVD
Barenboim was even prepared to give blood for Elgar. I attended the live performance that preceded the very fine 1976 recording of the Violin Concerto included here, also with Zukerman.
Barenboim was so carried away at one point that he brought his left hand crashing down on the conducting stand and blood spurted everywhere. But in true showbiz tradition, Barenboim carried on.
He has recently returned to Elgar, with Berlin recordings of the two symphonies. These may show more maturity but I still love his earlier Elgar efforts. You may be able to read the original LP sleeve notes containing a host of patronising observations from American critics. This goes to show what an extraordinary decision it was for the young Barenboim to take up with such enthusiasm a composer whose reputation was then in the doldrums.
A fascinating set, and a real tribute to one of the finest and most versatile musicians of our time.
Prom 60: Oslo Philharmonic conducted by Vasily Petrenko
Royal Albert Hall, London
Rating:
There was some surprise four years ago when Vasily Petrenko, chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, also took on the Oslo Philharmonic. The Norwegian orchestra had made waves under the inspiring leadership of Mariss Jansons, since when it faded badly. What could Petrenko to do to match Jansons?
On the evidence of this enthusiastically received Russian Prom, quite a lot. The orchestra played silkily through the opener, Stravinskys 1919 reworking of music from The Firebird, with fine wind solos and an excellent solo horn in the finale. Jansons would not have been embarrassed by the quality of the orchestras response to Petrenkos clear, unfussy beat.
Things got even better with Rachmaninovs Fourth Piano Concerto, dazzlingly well played by the Norwegian virtuoso Leif Ove Andsnes. Living in the US and depressed by the way his music was received, Rachmaninov agreed to make hacking cuts, which surprisingly remain. This mutilated piece also isnt helped by the big tune in the slow movement resembling that old music-hall favourite Two Lovely Black Eyes!
The concert concluded with arguably Shostakovichs weakest symphony: No 12 The Year 1917. Petrenko is a Shostakovich specialist and gave the piece an appropriately brazen performance, showing off the virtuosity of his orchestra. But the empty rhetoric, widely condemned at its premiere in 1961, sounds even more bombastic today.
1. Follies
Its 30 years since Stephen Sondheims musical, with a script by James Goldman, about a reunion of past performers of a musical revue, was seen in London. This has a cast of 37, including the glorious Imelda Staunton (star of recent Sondheim hits Sweeney Todd and Gypsy), Tracie Bennett and Janie Dee as the old showgirls singing such numbers as Losing My Mind, Broadway Baby and Im Still Here. Smells like a hit.
Now in preview; opens Sept 6, Olivier stage, National Theatre.
Dominic Dromgoole has created a new company, Classic Spring, and kicks off a Wilde season with the lesser seen A Woman Of No Importance
2. Labour Of Love
The transfer of prolific playwright James Grahams brilliant Ink, about The Sun newspaper and Rupert Murdoch, is at the Duke of Yorks theatre from September 9. Also in the West End is his new play, Labour Of Love, set in the post-industrial world of the Labour heartlands around Mansfield where Graham grew up. Martin Freeman plays a Labour MP who cares about modernisation and electability, and Sarah Lancashire is his constituency agent who focuses on principles and community.
Sept 15 to Dec 2, Noel Coward Theatre, London.
3. People, Places &Things
Duncan Macmillans potent and sobering play about addiction, a hit for the National, begins a UK tour. Lisa Dwyer Hogg plays the angry addict actress who knows she needs to be fixed and checks herself into rehab, only to discover that its a complex and never-ending process.
Tour begins Sept 22 at HOME, Manchester, and continues until Nov 18.
Rory Kinnear is in Young Marx. Young Marx is set in 1850 in Soho, where Europes most feared terrorist, Karl Marx , broke, restless and horny, is determined to show his despairing friend Engels (Oliver Chris) a good time
4. Venus In Fur
Natalie Dormer, Games Of Thrones Margaery Tyrell, stars as an actress auditioning for the lead role in an adaptation of Venus In Furs, the 1870 novella by Austrian Leopold von Sacher-Masoch that gives American David Ives sizzling 2010 sex comedy its title. Dormer starred in Patrick Marbers Strindberg adaptation, After Miss Julie, and the pair are working together again. Expect sparks, steam and high jinks.
From Oct 6, Theatre Royal Haymarket, London.
5. A Woman Of No Importance
Dominic Dromgoole, former artistic director of Shakespeares Globe, has created a new company, Classic Spring, and kicks off a Wilde season with the lesser seen A Woman Of No Importance, in which an earnest young American woman and a naive young man attend a bizarre house party. A top-notch cast includes Eve Best, Eleanor Bron, William Gaunt, Anne Reid, Sam Cox and Emma Fielding.
From Oct 6 until Dec 30, Vaudeville Theatre, London.
6. Albion
Mike Bartlett is undoubtedly one of our most exciting contemporary playwrights. His clever and controversial King Charles III, exploring ideas about a post-Elizabeth II monarchy, was among the best plays of the past decade. His latest, Albion, about England today, is also directed by the brilliant Rupert Goold. It concerns a family alone in a country house filled with memories and includes a big role for the wonderful Victoria Hamilton.
From Oct 10 until Nov 24, Almeida Theatre, London.
7. Imperium: The Cicero Plays
Mike Paulton, who adapted Hilary Mantels Cromwell novels for the RSC, has turned his attentions to more political power struggles in Imperium Part 1: Conspirator and Part 11: Dictator based on Robert Harriss Cicero trilogy, revealing Rome at its most brutal and bloody. Richard McCabe plays Cicero in Greg Dorans epic staging. From Nov 16 to Feb 10, Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.
8. Hamilton
Lin-Manuel Mirandas musical, Hamilton, about the history of America told through the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, an orphan, and the hip-hop, rap and R&B music of today, is already one of the most successful Broadway shows ever. The first tickets for the UK production, which reopens the revamped Victoria Palace theatre, were snapped up in seconds, so start camping out for returns.
From Nov 21, Victoria Palace, London.
9. Young Marx
A new play by Richard (One Man, Two Guvnors) Bean, produced by a new theatre company (led by the two Nicks, Hytner and Starr, the former director-producer team at the National) in a new 900-seat theatre. Young Marx is set in 1850 in Soho, where Europes most feared terrorist, Karl Marx (Rory Kinnear, above), broke, restless and horny, is determined to show his despairing friend Engels (Oliver Chris) a good time.
From Oct 18 to Dec 31, The Bridge, London.
Natalie Dormer and David Oakes will star in Venus In Fur
10. Network
A new adaptation of Paddy Chayefskys Oscar-winning 1976 film brings together some formidable talent. The writer is Lee (Billy Elliot) Hall, the director is Ivo (View From The Bridge) van Hove, and Bryan (Breaking Bad) Cranston is in the hot seat as the TV anchorman who unravels onscreen.
From Nov 4, Lyttelton stage, National Theatre.
Mayhem Sigrid Rausing
Hamish Hamilton 16.99
Rating:
The bare facts are gruesome, and well known. On July 9, 2012, one of the worlds wealthiest men, Hans Rausing, the heir to the Tetra Pak fortune, was arrested for erratic driving on Wandsworth Bridge in London.
They had met in rehab in the late Eighties, when Eva (above) was helping fellow addicts. They were in recovery when they married in 1992
Having discovered drugs and a crack pipe in his car, the police searched his vast house in Knightsbridge. They found one of the doors on the second floor sealed with duct tape. Inside, clothes, bottles and rubbish were scattered over the floor.
A flatscreen TV lay on top of a mattress, and under the mattress was a tarpaulin. Wrapped inside that tarpaulin was the rotting corpse of a woman, identifiable only from a fingerprint on her left thumb and the serial number of her pacemaker.
The corpse of Hanss wife Eva had lain there for two months. Hans had been a drug addict, on and off, for nearly 30 years, and Eva for only a little less. They had met in rehab in the late Eighties, when Eva was helping fellow addicts. They were in recovery when they married in 1992, and had three children together by 1999. In 2000, they relapsed, and that relapse would last 12 years, until Evas death. In 2007, their four children, the youngest aged six, went to be looked after by Hanss elder sister, Sigrid Rausing, and her husband, Eric.
It transpired that Hans had, in his own words, been unable to confront the reality of her death I tried to carry on as if her death had not happened. When the smell had grown too strong, he had sealed the door with duct tape. The couples servants were none the wiser: for some time, they had been forbidden from entering.
Hans Rausing was charged with preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body and driving under the influence of drugs, and given suspended sentences on both counts. He has since moved house, and remarried.
Hans Rausing (above) was charged with preventing the lawful and decent burial of a body and driving under the influence of drugs. He has since moved house, and remarried in 2014 to Julia Delves Broughton (above)
And there this sad and bizarre story well documented at the time would have ended for the general public, its details fading with the years. But now Hanss sister who happens to be the owner and editor of the prestigious Granta publishing house and literary magazine has chosen to tell her own version of events.
The book, Mayhem, comes with approving quotes from literary grandees Adam Nicolson (astonishing), Siri Hustvedt (fierce, lyrical, lucid) and Andrew Solomon (brave, elegant and inspired), all of whom have, as it happens, contributed pieces to Granta.
It follows that Mayhem is set to stand as the authorised indeed, only public version for years to come. Its publication will also serve to resurrect a tale that was painful for those involved, not least Evas family, who have no such literary platform. Where posterity is concerned, it is the writer who holds all the cards. As the poet Czeslaw Milosz once wrote: When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished.
This is not to say that Mayhem is in any way a cynical book: just that it is necessarily partial. You dont want the media to own the story of your life, Sigrid Rausing writes, early on. Later: If you do not tell your stories others will tell them for you, and they will vulgarize and degrade you I write knowing that writing at all may be seen as a betrayal of family; a shaming, exploitative act. She then adds: Anyone reading this who thinks so, please know that I thought it before you.
Quite so, but this does not make it any less true. Mayhem revolves almost entirely around Sigrid Rausing herself: she offers only the sketchiest portrait of her brother before his addiction took hold, and virtually none at all of Eva. Of Hans as a child, she notes that there was a touch of something different about him; I am not sure what. And of Eva at the time of their marriage, nothing more than this: Eva looks American, blonde hair flying in the wind, confident and strong.
Mayhem revolves almost entirely around Sigrid Rausing (above) herself: she offers only the sketchiest portrait of her brother before his addiction took hold, and virtually none at all of Eva
There is a curious lack of detail throughout the book. Some of this is for legal reasons, but there is nevertheless a pervasive why me? tone to the narrative, as though the tragedy was largely hers.
Her style is a sort of quasi-poetic hesitancy, often delivered in one-line paragraphs:
The depressed mind doesnt echo. It is mute.
I correct myself: my depressed mind didnt echo.
What do I know about the minds of others?
I found this stop-start style arch and irritating, but I can imagine others finding it sincere and touching. I notice that I am hesitant to begin the story. I write around it, she says on page 27. Then why not start it again, cutting out anything unnecessary? In a curious way, she never really gets round to it, taking refuge in self-questioning and highbrow allusion Freud, Strindberg, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Orwell, Ginsberg, etc, etc rather than supplying the reader with anything more particular. She finds it hard to make even the most commonplace observation without roping in a literary bigwig to lend it sanctity: Every woman has to invent herself, as Simone de Beauvoir said.
Such criticism might seem heartless, given all that Sigrid Rausing has gone through, but Mayhem is a very literary sort of memoir, self-referential and sonorous, all the time suggesting an intellectual honesty that it never quite delivers. I suspect Rausing was influenced in her style by Joan Didions The Year Of Magical Thinking, which was about the sudden death of her husband, but it lacks that memoirs cool precision, its thirst for the truth.
I try to finish the text, but something is missing, she writes at the end of the book. I fear I have redacted too much real life was so much more painful and confusing and stressful than this book. Just because she has voiced this fear does not mean that it is not true. Too many questions remain unanswered. What does she think of her brother now? What does he think of her book? What do his children think? And does she feel sorry for Eva and Evas family?
This last question is crucial, given a heartfelt statement released last month by Tom Kemeny, the father of Eva. He says that he asked Sigrid for 18 months not to publish her book and that his request to write a foreword as a short tribute to Eva was ignored. He points out that the book offers a cold, hollow and unsympathetic depiction of our beloved daughter. His family find it incomprehensible, he says, that in 224 pages there is not one kind word about our beloved daughter, Eva.
Too many questions remain unanswered. What does she think of her brother now? What does he think of her book? What do his children think? Does she feel sorry for Eva (above) and Evas family?
This is true: Rausing only ever focuses on Eva when she has spiralled out of control, and is sending Sigrid spiteful emails full of craziness, self-pity and anger. At one point, Eva makes a wax doll of Sigrid, and attempts voodoo. True to form, Sigrid intellectualises this assault. The old world is still in us, she writes, knowingly, the narcissism of magic contains the delusion of omnipotence.
But she is writing of a woman who, for all her drug-addled faults and weaknesses, is desperate to get her children back. Though Sigrid claims elsewhere t hat she is not judgmental, she can be very cold. Hans and Eva loved their children; I know that. But isnt that also a cliche of parenting. Whats the point of love if drugs come first?
Evas father argues that it was Sigrids decision to separate Eva from her children that was the last straw. We feel that Eva would be alive today if the children had not been taken from their loving mother the unbearable pain of being separated from them ultimately led to her death in our opinion.
For her part, Sigrid argues that the social services were threatening to take them into care, and to separate them, and that, as their aunt, she took the only responsible course. I never doubted our intentions, she writes. We tried to help Hans and Eva. That help, however, was interpreted as an exercise of power, an oppressive force; a colonising impulse; a family takeover.
Tom Kemeny, on the other hand, sees the whole book as an attempt to justify Sigrids years of legal manoeuvring can you imagine the pain it causes a child to read a book written by his aunt and legal guardian that claims his deceased mother did not love him?
Mayhem is a book almost impossible to judge in any conventional terms. It may well be, as its champions claim, brave, fierce, lyrical and astonishing. It certainly contains elements of all these things. But it remains a partial account, often obscure, angry without ever quite identifying the source of that anger, an attempt at a masterpiece, finally dwarfed by life itself.
The Great British Bake Off
Tuesday, Channel 4
Rating:
Strike: The Cuckoos Calling
Sunday & Monday, BBC1
Rating:
Victoria
Sunday, ITV
Rating:
We are weak. So weak. We were outraged when The Great British Bake Off went to Channel 4. We commended Mel and Sue and Mary for not following the dough and being loyal to the BBC.
We trashed Paul as a traitor; a traitor to himself, the nation and also his nan and his dog, probably. We said we would boycott it from now on. But we weakened.
We watched, and truthfully? We were disappointed. We had enjoyed occupying the moral high ground.
Noel Fielding, Sandi Toksvig, Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith in The Great British Bake Off
We wanted GBBO to have lost its way and for Paul to pay for his treachery to himself, the nation and also his nan and his dog, probably. But it was fine. The show is as it ever was, and weve been denied our schadenfreude.
We had to cancel our Schadenfreude Parties and send everyone away. (Sorry, therell be no schadenfreude tonight.) As for Mel and Sue and Mary, who are they again? This treachery must be catching.
The series has returned with three new presenting faces Prue Leith, Sandi Toksvig, Noel Fielding but C4 hasnt otherwise messed with the format, which is so strong it turns out the presenters dont much matter.
Say Strictly ditched Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly. Would that matter? Its the format that is key.
And, presenters aside, this looked the same, sounded the same, was the same. Same challenges, same bakers ranging from the disastrous (poor Chris) to the astonishing (Flo and her watermelon cake).
True, Sandi and Noel are awkwardly stiff, and their scripted entrance via hot-air balloon was naff, but even this couldnt buckle the format.
And dont we expect a bit of naff, anyway? As for the ads, preview programmes dont come with ads, so I cant say how interrupting they are.
Record and fast-forward, thats my advice. Channel 4s advertisers wont be happy but we all had to cancel our Schadenfreude Parties.
Lets make them suffer somehow.
The new crime drama Strike: The Cuckoos Calling opened with a supermodel, Lula Landry, returning from a showbiz party to her glossy penthouse late at night, changing her clothes so we could see her in bra and pants for Gods sake, why?; what relevance did that have? and opening the door to someone. Next thing we know shes dead, lying face down in (super-fake) snow.
Did she jump from her balcony or was she pushed? Suicide, say the police. No, murder, says her adoptive brother. Wasnt this every episode of Quincy, M.E. there ever was? Suicide, the police would say. Murder, Quincy would say.
No, suicide. No, murder. No, suicide. No, murder.
Thats my memory, anyway. Adapted from the novel JK Rowling originally published under the name of Robert Galbraith, this stars Tom Burke as Cormoran Strike, the private eye who is approached by Lulas adoptive brother and asked to investigate her death, which he insists is murder, while the police are saying? SUICIDE!
Strike is a world-weary war veteran who lost a leg in Afghanistan and is estranged from his rock-star father. He lives from a holdall in his Soho office, which has mess everywhere and only rancid milk in the fridge.
He needs the love of a good woman, and here she is in the form of Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger), the temp who starts tidying the moment she arrives in the manner of good women everywhere. (I expected more of Rowling, frankly, but there you are.)
The whole gumshoe shtick feels supremely dated, as does the lame dialogue, as does the storytelling. It is plodding. Plod, plod, plod, it goes, while clues have CLUE! written all over them.
That soundproof balcony door wasnt going to go away, was it? It concludes tonight and one hopes Lula was pushed just at the moment she was about to jump. Murder AND suicide. That, at least, would be new.
Victoria, ITVs big ratings hit, has returned for a second series, and it is Downton Abbey, essentially. There is an upstairs and a downstairs and now Diana Rigg, cast as the Duchess of Buccleuch, mistress of the robes, has arrived as the Maggie Smith of the piece. Like the Dowager Countess of Grantham, she is caustic. She was not impressed with Buckingham Palace.
In my day, she said, it was only a house, but at least it was clean.
You get the drift. This is a soap. But so was Downton and so, perhaps, is Poldark. They are all superior soaps, in that the production values are high and they all do just enough to avoid insulting our intelligence, yet they are soaps nonetheless.
But while Downton had Lady Mary and Matthew at its heart, and Poldark has Ross and Demelza, are we really meant to believe this Queen (charmingly played by Jenna Coleman) would have the hots for this Albert (Tom Hughes)?
Isnt he just a bit too prissy and rather thick? Still, it is visually gorgeous, and well probably watch it all. But then we are weak
Il Piccolo Mondo
85 High St, Bottisham,
Cambridge CB25 9BA
Rating:
'Last time I was here, 40 or so years back, this was a Sunday school, and I was supposed to be learning prayers. Or some other scripture-based confection. Bill, as you can probably tell, is not exactly touched by the Holy Spirit.
He grew up in Bottisham, a small village a few miles southeast of Cambridge. And it was here, in the hall adjoining Holy Trinity Church, where some poor sap tried valiantly to instruct him in the ways of the Lord. God help them both.
The Bottisham Sunday School has gone the way of all flesh, to be replaced by Il Piccolo Mondo
Il Piccolo Mondo is that rarest of things a genuinely good Italian restaurant
Still, Christianitys loss is my gain. Because how else would I know that the Bottisham Sunday School has gone the way of all flesh, to be replaced by Il Piccolo Mondo, an Italian restaurant that charmingly combines robustly executed regional classics with the occasional drizzle of old-school Giovanni Toro Britalian.
Like a risotto with smoked salmon in a cream and brandy sauce. One to get those dreary purists throbbing with unrighteous indignation.
That musty ecclesiastic fug of old books, blind faith and Brasso is long gone, replaced by the scent of grilling fish and fowl. And on the walls, where once hung, I like to imagine, brusquely framed exhortations to Love Thy Neighbour, sit jolly blown-up photographs of the Colosseum by night, alongside slightly gloomy snaps of Bottisham Sunday School classes long past (no sign of Bill) and a pair of Venetian masks.
Excellent peppery oil arrives with decent bread, but is ruined by an insidious stain of balsamic vinegar. God I hate cheap balsamic vinegar. Im not exactly cock-a-hoop about the expensive stuff either. But theres good chewy bresaola, arriving with chunks of mango.
Again, those in thrall to authenticity (whatever the hell that actually means) would splutter on their Soave. But the fruit is sweet and ripe and does exactly what sweet and ripe fruit does when paired with rich and salty cured meat.
Calamari wears a light batter, and is fried, in clean oil, with a steady hand. Extra points for lots of those lovely tentacles too, proof the cephalopods werent merely shaken out of some vast and frosty catering sack. Sardines are fresh and sweet, their silvery skin charred by the grill. And the childrens tomato pasta is sublime.
Scottish fillet steak (left); king scallops in garlic (right)
Airdried beef fillet with marinated artichokes and parmesan
The sauce is fresh and lithe and lovely, with a sonorous umami depth. While the pasta is better still, a sort of home-made spaghetti that teeters on the right side of undercooked. Exactly as al dente should be. Not only does it taste wonderful, as good as Ive eaten anywhere, but buys us four blissful minutes of silence, where legs remain unpinched and insults unthrown.
Ten out of ten, says Lola, with little hesitation. Freddy tries valiantly to disagree with his sister, that being his default setting. But its impossible.
Two thumbs up, he eventually admits.
Our pasta is equally enticing. A bolshily sexy spaghetti alla puttanesca, so splendidly salty and lasciviously fishy that it would make a whore blush. Again, the pasta is both beautiful and beautifully cooked.
FROM THE MENU Bresaola con mango 8.50 Calamari fritti 7.95 Saltimbocca di vitello 18.95 Spaghetti puttanesca 13.95 Strozzapreti 13.95 Advertisement
As it is with the strozzapreti with veal ragu, slow-cooked and savoury, studded with fresh peas. Simple, but quietly immense. Saltimbocca looks as dreary as a monks underpants, but the veal and Parma ham are hewn from superior beasts, and the whole thing sings merrily of sage, lemon and white wine.
The only bum note is the turbot, a generous slab, but a little overcooked and under-seasoned, the bane of all fish cookery. Oh, and pretty much every dish comes garnished with a big green bush of curly parsley.
Good to see the old English boy back, in place of his more suave flat leafed Continental cousin. But I just cant see the point. If youre going to put something pretty on the plate, make sure its there for a reason, rather than mere verdant window dressing.
Still, Il Piccolo Mondo is that rarest of things a genuinely good Italian restaurant. And nearer to Kings, Cambridge than Kings Cross. Add in a well-priced, carefully chosen wine list, and the sweetest of service, and you have a Cambridgeshire cracker.
In the old days, says Bill over proper espresso, Bottisham never had more than a chippie. Things have certainly moved on. The Sunday school may be long gone. But the hallelujahs remain, albeit in assuredly edible form.
Lunch for two: 40
What Tom ate this week
Sunday
Good to be back home from Oz. Roast chicken, roast potatoes and gravy. Then a decent wild-boar vindaloo for dinner from Potli, with chana masala and blistered naan.
Monday
To the Tuscan coast to stay with my friend Luca. The most exquisite dinner at La Macchia, his new club on the beach. Carpaccio made with local beef from Chianina cattle. Then lemon risotto with red prawns. World-class.
Tuesday
Lunch of mussels and cured anchovies at LUltima Spiaggia, a beach club. Then to dinner at Frantoio in Capalbio, where we eat cured wild boar, acquacotta soup and a great slab of Chianina, cooked rare.
Wednesday
Lunch of wild-boar ragu, deep-fried courgette flowers, grilled scamorza cheese, roasted rabbit and panzanella salad at Il Tortello in Pescia Fiorentina. Then back to La Macchia for more of that risotto.
Delhi is being swept by a deadly swine flu wave that has left hundreds ill and claimed dozens of lives.
While the government has received reports of 2,177 cases, with five deaths over the past two months, Mail Today has been told by top hospitals in the city that the toll is many times higher.
In 2009-10, the H1N1 swine flu pandemic spread from central Mexico to 74 other countries including India, killing an estimated 284,000 people, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Delhi: swine flu has claimed many lives
The respiratory illness originated in pigs, but is now a human disease spread by coughing and sneezing.
Symptoms are similar to those produced by standard, seasonal flu fever, cough, sore throat, body aches and chills.
Vulnerable groups include pregnant women, children under five, the over-65s and those with serious medical conditions.
Indian health professionals tend to a patient at a swine flu ward (stock photo)
Just five hospitals in the city have witnessed at least 43 deaths.
At Delhi's AIIMS, a senior doctor said about 40 confirmed cases of swine flu have been recorded with at least 11 patients dying of the disease in the past two months.
'This year, we are witnessing the H1N1 cases in alarming proportions in Delhi. Our hospital has at least 200 positive cases of swine flu and 13 people died due to the disease,' Dr AK Gadpayle, director of RML Hospital, said.
Women wearing protective masks
The medic continued: 'In fact, four paediatric patients who are in the ICU have been diagnosed. We have dedicated ICU beds and a large amount of drugs, syrups, vaccines and masks to deal with the disease.'
Swine flu is more aggressive this year, at a time when vector-borne diseases such as dengue, malaria and chikungunya are also stalking the city, Dr Gadpayle added, while asking residents to stay cautious.
According to medical researchers, the H1N1 virus in circulation this year is of the Michigan strain.
Suspected swine flu patients with masks queue to have check up (stock photo)
In previous years, Delhi has been hit by the California strain.
Sir Ganga Ram Hospital confirmed three swine flu deaths and 233 positive cases.
Neighbouring BLK Super Speciality Hospital also reported three H1N1 deaths this monsoon.
'We were of the view that cases will decrease, but in the past two weeks a lot of patients have been being diagnosed with influenza A (H1N1) virus.
'Three patients died. It is the first time that we are treating swine flu cases in monsoon at such a large scale,' said Dr RK Singal, head of internal medicine at BLK hospital.
He added: 'One of the major reasons is erratic rains and intense humidity in the city. People should avoid crowded places and maintain good hand hygiene.'
The crippling outbreak in 2009-2010 affected around 50,000 people in the country and claimed the lives of more than 2,700.
'The actual number of deaths is much higher than the official figure of five. Cases are underreported,' said a doctor at a private facility.
An Indian health worker wearing a protective mask shows the swine flu medication
Dr AK Rai, director of the government-run Safdarjung Hospital, said there were 33 confirmed cases of swine flu and 13 patients had died of the disease.
He said treatment was being provided based on health ministry guidelines and cases are rising because of more aggressive surveillance than previous years.
A senior doctor at Fortis Hospital in Shalimar Bagh also reported two swine flu deaths so far this season.
Indian patients lie in the fever ward at the Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi (stock photo)
Some of the same antiviral drugs that are used to treat seasonal flu also work against H1N1 swine flu.
Oseltamivir (Tamiflu), peramivir (Rapivab), and zanamivir (Relenza) seem to work best, although some kinds of swine flu do not respond to oseltamivir, according to experts.
Recommendations on the prevention of the virus's spread include using standard infection control, such as frequent washing of hands with soap and water or using alcohol-based hand sanitisers, especially after being out in public.
Transmission is also reduced by disinfecting household surfaces.
Billions of pounds are being spent on installing 'smart' energy reading meters in homes that will leave householders out of pocket.
Energy firms are hoping to fit all 26million homes with these new monitors in an 11billion project launched three years ago and ending in 2020. But experts fear the scheme is a waste of money with meters vulnerable to hackers.
The devices do away with estimates for bills and meter readings, as usage is read remotely by the supplier using radio waves.
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Power crazed: 'Gaz' and 'Leccy' appear in a series of TV ads for the meters
The smart meter also comes with a hand-held display that can sit in the kitchen and show how much energy a home is consuming.
Television adverts featuring 'Gaz' and 'Leccy' relentlessly promote the virtues of the smart meter. But they are not as consumer-friendly as Gaz and Leccy are letting on.
TRUE COST OF A SMART METER
Every household, whether they want a smart meter or not, is being forced to fork out 420 to help fund the 11billion smart meter project. The cash is being pickpocketed from our energy bills rising up to 10 per cent this year to an average 1,150.
Gordon Hughes is professor of economics at the University of Edinburgh and a former senior adviser on energy and environmental policy at the World Bank.
He says: 'The introduction of the smart meter is a dog's breakfast. At best it is misconceived and an astonishingly expensive project. For those claiming it will bring major savings, I say they need to grow up.
'Studies confirm that after just a couple of weeks the novelty of a smart meter wears off and people go back to their old energy usage habits.
'A smart meter might end up shaving one per cent off a utility bill a tenner a year.'
With the cost per household of the project estimated at 420, it will take decades for smart meters to provide savings to households.
Alex Henney also believes the introduction of smart meters is a waste of money. He is a former government adviser on energy privatisation and ex-director of London Electricity.
A dog's breakfast... misconceived and astonishingly expensive Gordon Hughes, Professor of Economics
In a written statement to the Parliamentary Energy and Climate Change Committee four years ago a year before smart meters started to be installed he wrote: 'The British roll-out of smart meters is one of the most incompetent, one of the most expensive, and definitely the most complex.
'The project is likely to be a shambles with negligible consumer benefit.'
Henney stated civil servants 'cooked the books' to give meters a net benefit of almost 5billion but independent analysis found it would end up costing the nation at least 4billion.
Even the Government's own savings projections look poor value for money. It claims meters may provide households with initial savings of 23 a year.
But 13 of this annual saving is expected to come from the money that energy companies will pocket by no longer having to send meter reader workers out to come and visit.
The rest of the meagre savings are predicted to come from homeowners looking at their energy display monitors and realising the cost of many energy-sapping devices around the home.
For example, televisions that still burn up electricity when left on standby.
POTENTIAL TARGET FOR HACKERS
There are fears that the new smart meters can be hacked, giving criminals the opportunity to raid people's bank accounts and plan burglaries.
Jim Gee is head of forensic and counter-fraud services at accountancy firm Crowe Clark Whitehill.
He is also visiting professor and chair of the Centre for Counter Fraud Services at the University of Portsmouth.
He says: 'As with all wireless technology, there is a risk that smart meters will be hacked. It is not a question of making them secure but of providing greater resilience.
'Hackers use viruses that can adapt and mutate over time to break in to smart meters. Even the latest technology is vulnerable.'
He adds: 'There is a line of code in smart meters that can be deciphered.
'Fraudsters could then commit billing fraud, leading to money being taken out of households' bank accounts.
'Hacking a smart meter also enables a fraudster to discover when you are out, making it a tool for a burglar deciding when is the best time to break in.'
Gee, co-author of a recent fraud report that shows cybercrime costs the economy 193billion a year, believes arsonists could even take advantage of flaws in the technology.
He says: 'There have been instances where fires have been caused due to sudden increases of power to a home. Smart meter technology could possibly be abused in this way.'
Earlier this year the BBC Watchdog programme investigated whether there were links between fires caused at 18 homes after smart meters were fitted.
QUICK MONEY SAVER:CUT YOUR BILLS YOURSELF? If you want to shave money off your energy bill, there is a quick and easy alternative to installing a smart meter you could try first. Reviewing your energy contract regularly to ensure they are on the cheapest deal will make sure you never get stuck on an expensive tariff. Even moving every other year will save you significant amounts. If you are one of the millions of people who have NEVER switched (i.e. stuck with your original supplier), then you should save a big chunk of cash. A tenth of switchers saved 616 in the first half of 2016, according to energyhelpline. You only need to be interested in the tariff that is going to be cheapest where you live, so do your own postcode comparison in minutes using the tool above - or here - to find the best price. Read more about other quick tricks to make sure you are getting the best deal on your household bills here
RISK OF FALSE METER READING
A smart meter enables energy companies to read usage wirelessly using radio wave signals through a 'national communication network'.
Yet industry insiders are concerned the technology is not foolproof and the wrong meter or reading could still be taken by an energy firm.
Earlier this year some meters in Britain supplied by energy provider SSE gave false readings due to a computer glitch
Research by scientists at the University of Twente, in the Netherlands, found meters can in some cases produce readings up to six times too high though the ones it tested were not used in the UK.
The issue was caused partly by LED bulbs and dimmer switches distorting the shape of the electric current read by the meter.
Earlier this year, some meters in Britain supplied by energy provider SSE gave false readings due to a computer glitch.
One stated a household was consuming more than 30,000 worth of gas and electricity in a day.
SSE did not bill the customer for the mistake. A spokesman for SSE says: 'The issue affected a small group of meters and was investigated as a matter of urgency.
'We continue to monitor the performance of our meters to ensure they are operating correctly.'
But Hughes fears such assurances are not enough. He says: 'It is most difficult to make a system of this kind genuinely secure. It could be a real menace if it is ever connected to the internet.'
The professor believes part of the problem is that smart meters are being forced on the industry by the Government without proper consideration of the commercial implications.
For example, the wirelessly controlled smart meters are not the same for each provider, making it hard for consumers to switch energy firms. A further layer of confusion is added if meters are installed by a third party.
Famed for his plug-in household appliances, Sir James Dyson could be the next big thing in electric cars.
His high-tech firm, best known for vacuum cleaners, has been hoovering up top car industry talent and experts from the world of autonomous technology. And I'll bet when the design arrives, it'll be sleek, radical and definitely won't suck.
Dyson has remained coy about its secret project, but never once denied the intensifying speculation, with bosses simply saying they're 'ruling nothing out'.
Mover and shaker: Sir James Dyson is said to be eyeing a mini motoring revolution
A Dyson spokesman said teasingly this week: 'We have historically recruited from a wide range of backgrounds, and are developing a multitude of technologies. We plan to recruit an extra 3,000 engineers and scientists by 2020 and are working with more than 40 universities globally.'
MINI has unveiled the first pictures of its electric car to be launched at this months Frankfurt motor show. Could Dyson prove a strong rival?
And all this just as Mini reveals its own all-electric vehicle ahead of this month's Frankfurt Motor Show, and as Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin among many prepare to launch new all-electric and hybrid cars.
Dyson, best known for vacuum cleaners, has been hoovering up top car industry talent and experts from the world of autonomous technology.
Industry experts believe Dyson aims to create a British version of the U.S.'s Tesla a non-traditional 'disruptor' to take on existing car-makers. Computer giant Apple is also said to be developing a self-driving car.
Last year, Aston Martin's product development director Ian Minards who created several Bond cars was poached by Dyson. He was followed last month by Aston's long-serving head of purchasing David Wyer.
The Government, which says all cars must have an electric element by 2040, let the cat out of the bag last year.
It announced that it was funding Dyson to develop a new battery electric vehicle at its HQ in Malmesbury, Wilts, to 'secure 174m of investment in the area, creating over 500 new jobs, mostly in engineering'.
Dyson has bought a solid-state battery company and recruited computer experts from Silicon Valley and also people with knowledge of self-driving cars.
Aston Martin chief executive Dr Andy Palmer jokingly told me he wouldn't set up a household appliance division in retaliation, and added he wasn't concerned by the competition.
WHO COULD RUN A DYSON AUTOMOTIVE DIVISION? Intriguingly BMWs current global director of sales and marketing Dr Ian Robertson who has overseen much of the German car-giants electrification and autonomous car programme is a non executive director of Dyson. In line with BMW rules that board members must retire at 60, BMW has already officially announced his replacement and glide-path from the company. The energetic and youth-full looking 59-year-old steps down from his current post at the end of the year, though he will remain as a BMW Group ambassador for the UK, with his official retirement from June. Forward-thinking: Dr Ian Robertson has overseen much of BMW's electrification and autonomous car programme Announcing Robertsons retirement last month, Dr. Norbert Reithofer, chairman of BMW AGs supervisory board said of the only Brit on the BMW main board: For almost a decade on the board of management of BMW AG, Ian Robertson has shaped the image and future direction of the BMW brand and the BMW i and BMW M sub-brands. Even through challenging economic times, he enabled the continuous growth of the company by achieving one sales record after the other. I would like to thank him for his accomplishments and am pleased that he will remain with the company as a BMW Group Ambassador for the UK, one of our most important markets and production locations. Forward-thinking Robertson is already on record welcoming more electric vehicle rivals creating a virtuous circle of battery-powered volume noting: It will be good for all of us. There will be greater volume potential, more charging infrastructure, more consumers exposed to electric vehicles, more excited customers talking about it: the more the merrier! Who better to drive an electric Dyson revolution?
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If you're out shopping and run out of cash with only your car keys to hand, this could prove a godsend.
Upmarket French carmaker DS part of the Peugeot-Citroen group has joined with Barclaycard to create what they claim to be the UK's, and possibly the world's, first 'contactless' car-key payment system.
Instead of tapping a debit card on the payment machine, just wave your key (above). The same radio frequency identification technology used in electronic car keys to open doors and start the engine will debit your account.
At first, it'll only be available to customers who order the DS3 Connected Chic model, from 15,775, during September. And you have to be a UK-registered Visa or MasterCard debit or credit card holder.
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Porsche's new Cayenne family SUV has been working out hard at the automotive gym to look slimmer, sleeker, more powerful and toned in time for its world debut and official unveiling at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
The third-generation 4x4 four-door is longer, leaner and 65kg lighter than its predecessor equivalent to the weight of one potential passenger.
Priced from 55,965, the most powerful of the two petrol engines available accelerates from 0 to 62mph in 4.9seconds, with a top speed of up to 164 mph.
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Ford and Domino's Pizza have joined forces to develop driverless delivery vehicles. Clearly Ford is very hungry for a slice of the self-driving car market.
Women bosses make up such a tiny portion of chief executives at top firms that they are even outnumbered by men called 'Dave'.
An investigation by The Mail on Sunday has revealed there are just six female chief executives in the FTSE100 Britain's biggest companies by value listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Meanwhile, eight of the firms are run by men called Dave or David including supermarket bosses Dave Lewis at Tesco and David Potts at Morrisons, and David Thomas at builder Barratt Developments.
Only one woman, Alison Cooper, who runs tobacco company Imperial Brands, ranked among the 25 best-paid Footsie chiefs
The survey revealed one female boss in the top half of the table; Alison Cooper, the 22nd highest-paid Ceo on 5.5 million, who runs tobacco firm Imperial Brands.
The remainder, including Alison Brittain at Costa coffee chain-owner Whitbread, were at the bottom of the list.
Even when they do break through, women are likely to earn significantly less than the men.
The half dozen trail-blazing female bosses took home an average annual pay and bonus package of 2.6million. For the 94 men, the average was 4.5million.
Or, as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development puts it, women leaders accounted for 6 per cent of the index in 2016, but received just 4 per cent of the pay.
Only one woman, Alison Cooper, who runs tobacco company Imperial Brands, ranked among the 25 best-paid Footsie chiefs.
She came in at number 22 with an annual pay and bonus of 5.53million.
Cooper, 51, a mother of two, is one of the few women to have reached the boardroom in the male-dominated tobacco industry, and since she took over in 2010, Imperial shares have gone up 74 per cent.
Jet-lagged: EasyJet's Carolyn McCall was the lowest paid female Footsie boss despite shares rising 202 per cent
The remaining female chief executives were confined to the bottom third of the Footsie salary list.
'Men are more forceful on salary because they are in the boys' club,' said Justin Urquhart Stewart of Seven Investment Management.
'They are likely to have a group of mates who serve on pay committees and benefit from the locker room chat on pay and perks.'
Alison Brittain, boss of Whitbread, left, and Veronique Laury, CEO of Kingfisher
He added that he expected to see more women at the top in future because they were more flexible and skilled at handling change.
He said: 'At the risk of a stereotype, women can multi-task.'
The lowest paid female Footsie boss of 2016 was easyJet's Dame Carolyn McCall, who came 93rd in the rankings.
McCall, 55, won plaudits for her time at the budget airline despite patches of turbulence.
Liv Garfield, 41, left, boss of Severn Trent, is the youngest female FTSE boss. Right: Moya Greene, the Canadian boss of Royal Mail
A mother of three teenagers, she puts her success down to having to be 'hyper-organised'.
After arriving at the airline in 2010, the former boss of the Guardian media empire delivered seven years of successive profits, and on her watch the shares have risen more than 200 per cent.
Though her pay was fairly modest last year at 1.46million, she earned 6.2million in 2015, and has made about 30million in her time at the company.
David Potts, chief executive of Morrisons
From left: David Atkins of Hammerson, David Sleath of Segro and David Hathorn of Modi
McCall is one of the best-regarded executives of either gender in the Footsie and recently won the plum job of chief executive at ITV.
When she takes over at the broadcaster next year, it will be on a lower base salary and pension than her predecessor Adam Crozier, but on a higher long-term incentive plan that could deliver a maximum of 25.2million over five years, slightly more than his potential reward.
Liv Garfield, 41, was the youngest female Footsie boss when she took over at water firm Severn Trent in 2014, having made her name at BT.
A Yorkshire-born mother of two and a Cambridge graduate, she has seen shares rise by 27 per cent since she arrived but she is only number 70 in the pay table.
Dave Lewis, chief executive of Tesco
Shares in Whitbread, the owner of Premier Inns and Costa Coffee, have fallen since former banking executive Alison Brittain, 52, took the helm in 2015. But she still commands admiration from City experts, who say she's turning the business around.
Urquhart Stewart says: 'She has done a brilliant job but has yet to see that reflected in the share price.'
Brittain is 67th in the pay table and says, despite her credentials, men sometimes 'try to talk over me'.
Moya Greene, 63, the Canadian boss of Royal Mail, took over a business that was challenged by difficult trade union relations, fierce competition in the parcels business, set against the demise of traditional letters with the advent of texting and email. With a package of less than 2million a year, she is 82nd on the pay list.
David Thomas of Barratt Development
Royal Mail's share price has been volatile since the flotation in 2014 at 330p and the company dropped out of the FTSE 100 last week.
Even so, Greene is highly respected and with good reason. The group was suffering losses of 49million a year when she joined, but this year made a 712million operating profit.
She has just joined the board of easyJet, where she is tipped to take over from Carolyn McCall a timely return as a Footsie boss.
In 87th place is Veronique Laury, 52. The mother of three and former showjumper, counts home renovation as her main hobby appropriately enough for the boss of Kingfisher.
She has renovated three houses in her native France, earning herself the nickname 'Madame Bricolage' or 'Mrs DIY'.
David Bellamy, chief executive of St. James's Place Wealth Management
She hasn't yet been able to renovate Kingfisher's share price, which is down 7 per cent since she took the helm in 2014 though analysts say it has done better than some rivals in a troubled sector.
The female bosses who graced the Footsie in 2016 have recently been joined by another, Emma Walmsley, 48, at pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline.
Full details of the mother of four's rewards will not emerge until next year, but her overall package is expected to be 25 per cent less than that of her predecessor Sir Andrew Witty.
Britain's biggest banks have paid their bosses more than 177million in the decade since the financial crisis.
Chief executives at Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds have pocketed vast sums while millions of families have struggled in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
The bank chiefs have shrugged off money laundering and mis-selling scandals, taxpayer rescues and fraud probes to keep their gravy train going. Ten years on from the run on Northern Rock in 2007, some are even being paid more now than they were before the crisis.
Chief executives at Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds have pocketed vast sums while millions of families have struggled in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
Critics said it was 'business as usual' at Britain's leading banks while households and businesses have suffered.
HSBC doled out 64.8million to chief executives between 2007 and 2016 despite being branded a 'financier to drug gangs' by US senators after a string of money laundering scandals.
Barclays has given its heads 40.8million while they presided over the Libor rate-rigging scandal and organised a deal which has triggered fraud charges.
Lloyds, which was rescued with 20.5billion of taxpayers' money and was at the heart of the PPI mis-selling scandal, handed out 47.1million. And NatWest owner Royal Bank of Scotland, which was granted a 46billion bailout, has lost 53.7billion since the crisis and faces a decade without a dividend.
But chief executives still lapped up 23.9million. Senior MPs last night said it was a damning indication of how little the City has changed.
RBS chief executive Ross McEwan has made a personal 9.3million since 2014, while Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-Osorio has earned 38.4m during his time in charge.
Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said: 'It's absolutely extraordinary that when these large banks are having to pay vast fines for systematic misconduct, their chief executives are paying themselves such staggering sums.'
Labour MP John Mann said: 'These massive payouts show that it has been business as usual at the biggest banks.
'They have clearly learnt nothing from their greed in the past.' Banks have slashed costs and shut thousands of branches to stay afloat, cutting access for rural families and pensioners. Ten branches a week are shutting across Britain in 2017, in addition to more than 1,000 closures in the previous two years.
RBS chief executive Ross McEwan, 60, is waiting for details of a massive US fine over toxic mortgages sold before the recession and has admitted that until the issue is resolved there can be no payout to shareholders.
Barclays: Former chief executive Bob Diamond quit in disgrace over the Libor rate-rigging scandal after pocketing 13million, and current boss Jes Staley is facing a probe which could cost him his job for trying to unmask a whistleblower but has earned 4.5million so far.
It has not stopped him making a personal 9.3million since 2014 when he took over from sacked predecessor Stephen Hester.
Lloyds has fared better since its rescue and is now back in private hands but its bill for selling worthless payment protection insurance is 18.1billion and counting.
The bank is also accused of covering up a massive fraud at the Reading branch of HBOS, which it took over in a disastrous deal in 2008. A group of bankers was jailed for deliberately destroying successful businesses and spending the proceeds on prostitutes.
Former Barclays boss John Varley was paid 12million between 2007 and 2010, while current HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver has pocketed 44.1million for his years' work.
Current boss Antonio Horta-Osorio, 53 - who was last year caught having an affair on a business trip - has earned 38.4m during his time in charge.
Barclays avoided a bailout thanks to a rescue from Middle Eastern investors, a deal which has led to fraud charges against the bank and former boss John Varley, who was paid 12million between 2007 and 2010. He denies the charges.
His successors have included Bob Diamond, who quit in disgrace over the Libor rate-rigging scandal after pocketing 13million, and Jes Staley, who is facing a probe which could cost him his job for trying to unmask a whistleblower but has earned 4.5million so far.
HSBC, meanwhile, was fined 1.2billion in 2012 for laundering money on behalf of Mexican drug cartels. Current chief executive Stuart Gulliver, 58, once said he hoped his legacy would leave HSBC seen as a 'moral and decent' lender.
Although critics would argue that now seems a faint hope, Gulliver has still pocketed 44.1million for his six years' work.
A schism is emerging among pro-Brexit economists over how Britain should attempt to negotiate trade deals after leaving the EU single market.
The dispute could have a major effect on the future of manufacturing and farming in the UK.
Gerard Lyons a former economic adviser to Boris Johnson believes Britain should maintain tariff barriers on imports in order to keep some bargaining chips when negotiating trade deals with other countries.
At loggerheads: Gerard Lyons, left, and Professor Patrick Minford
He also argues that the UK needs to employ transitional arrangements to protect key sectors such as manufacturing and agriculture, which could otherwise be threatened by cheap foreign competitors.
His views put him at odds with Professor Patrick Minford, his former colleague on the Economists for Brexit body and a one-time adviser to Margaret Thatcher.
Minford insists the UK should ditch external tariff barriers in order to slash the price of goods and deliver an estimated 135 billion annual economic boost.
However, Lyons fears that such a 'big bang' approach could harm certain sectors and tie Britain's hands when negotiating future deals.
Lyons told The Mail on Sunday: 'The debate now is about whether you immediately go to this new framework or whether you go in a gradual way.
'And I think given that so many things are also changing elsewhere in the UK's policy framework it makes more sense to adopt a gradual approach, keeping tariffs in place.'
He added that Britain needs to be 'mindful' that adjustment could be painful.
EU farmers are protected by relatively high tariffs, so a zero-tariff policy could see a flood of imports making life hard for those working in British agriculture
Lyons has outlined his preference in a book co-written with fellow Brexiteer Liam Halligan, due to be published later this month.
The disagreement is likely to be highly significant for farmers and manufacturers in particular.
EU farmers are protected by relatively high tariffs, so a zero-tariff policy could see a flood of imports making life hard for those working in British agriculture.
Lyons said: 'Having tariffs existing in place will be a useful part of future negotiations.'
A Muslim group is hoping to buy a Victorian-era church built in 1872.
The stone building near Redfern train station, in central Sydney, is up for auction on Wednesday next week, with bids of at least $2 million expected.
The Uniting Church is selling the property as a Tongan congregation moves to Marrickville, a few suburbs away where there is more space and parking.
The Islamic Society at the University of New South Wales is appealing for donations to help them put in a bid for the 145-year-old church.
An Islamic group wants to buy this church in Sydney built near the end of the Victorian era
Bilal Dannoun is asking the Muslim community to pitch in to help buy an historic church
A Muslim group based at the University of NSW is hoping to convert this space into a mosque
Marriage celebrant Bilal Dannoun is asking fellow Muslims for donations to buy a church built when Queen Victoria still reigned.
'ISOC UNSW is actively looking for a place of worship to help the Muslims in the eastern suburbs to find a permanent place,' he said on Facebook.
'They currently have around $587,000.00 so they are able to bid at the auction and pay the 10 per cent deposit.'
Selling agent Peter Vines, from CBRE South Sydney, says the heritage-listed building at 118 Regent Street, Redfern, is expected to sell for between $2 million and $2.5 million.
This beautiful church built in 1872 could be turned into a mosque if local Muslims buy it soon
Uniting Church spokeswoman Lisa Sampson isn't concerned about a Muslim group eyeing the 360 square metre building
Marriage celebrant Bilal Dannoun wants Muslims to pool their funds to buy a 145-year-old church
'The location and the heritage nature of the building make it exceptionally unique,' he said.
Uniting Church spokeswoman Lisa Sampson isn't concerned about a Muslim group eyeing the 360 square metre building.
'It's an opportunity to preserve what was a beautiful space,' she told Daily Mail Australia.
'I don't think there's a preference on who the next people who take it over.'
Mr Vines said there was likely to be strong competition at the auction, scheduled for September 6.
'There are different religious denominations looking at it as well as owner-occupiers for commercial premises,' he said.
'The creative industry are crying out for everything that was retro and heritage because it's got original features.'
Census 2016 shows that almost half of Australia's Muslim population lives in Sydney.
The number of Muslims living in greater Sydney rose by 5.3 per cent in 2016 to 253,436 - which is 40 per cent of the total population of 604,000 living in Australia in 2016.
Islam is also Sydney's fastest growing religion.
A man who shot dead his elderly partner before turning the gun on himself had hinted at his murderous intentions during a dinner with his lover.
Former lawyer Charles Bisucci killed 70-year-old Marilyn Burdon at her $2million mansion in the inner city Melbourne suburb of Kew on Monday.
The 69-year-old's lover, Karen Cattapan, has spoken out about hints he made during a dinner with her just days before the murder-suicide.
A man (pictured) who shot dead his elderly partner before turning the gun on himself had hinted at his murderous intentions during a dinner with his lover
Former lawyer Charles Bisucci killed 70-year-old Marilyn Burdon (pictured) at her $2million mansion in the inner city Melbourne suburb of Kew on Monday
According to Ms Cattapan, he said 'bang bang bang bang' during their conversation, but had no idea he planned to shoot Ms Burdon, The Herald Sun reported.
Friends of Bisucci - who had a history of mental and financial problems - believe he had a hidden gun stash.
David Clifton said his long-term friend was 'unpredictable and irrational' and had a 'few screws loose', but did not think he was a killer.
Bisucci had been the subject of at least two police raids in which guns were seized.
The 69-year-old's lover, Karen Cattapan (pictured, right with Mr Bisucci), has spoken out about hints he made during a dinner with her just days before the murder-suicide
According to Ms Cattapan (pictured), he said 'bang bang bang bang' during their conversation, but had no idea he planned to shoot Ms Burdon
His shooting licence was cancelled and he was charged with firearms offences.
Another friend, Michael Walsh, revealed Bisucci had stayed with him after fighting with Ms Burdon.
'He always said he was never going to go to prison, so I think once he shot her he thought there was no way out for himself,' said Mr Walsh.
Both Ms Burdon and Ms Cattapan knew about Bisucci's relationships with the other, but friends said the love triangle caused 'constant friction'.
Bisucci, who was estranged from a teenage son, was deregistered as a lawyer in 2005 after being charged with misconduct.
The bodies of Bisucci and Ms Burdon were discovered in separate rooms of the luxury house on Princess Street (pictured)
The bodies were found in the multi-million dollar Kew mansion (pictured) owned by Ms Burdon
He then worked as a telemarketer and relied on Ms Burdon for financial support but friends say he was always in debt.
Family and friends of both women had warned them to stay away from the unstable gun-lover.
The bodies of Bisucci and Ms Burdon were discovered in separate rooms of the luxury house on Princess Street.
'She was a beautiful mother and grandmother who loved her family passionately. She enjoyed all manner of pursuits and interests and always liked to have fun,' Ms Burdon's family said in a statement on Tuesday.
Bisucci worked as a telemarketer and relied on Ms Burdon for financial support and lived at her home (pictured)
The Queen has said she is 'deeply saddened' by the devastation wreaked on Texas by Hurricane Harvey.
In a message to President Donald Trump, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh sent their condolences to the families of the 39 people known to have died.
Tens of thousands of people have been forced from their homes and have lost their possessions in the widespread floods which followed the heaviest tropical rainfall ever recorded in the continental US.
The Queen has said she is 'deeply saddened' by the devastation wreaked on Texas by Hurricane Harvey
Tens of thousands of people have been forced from their homes and have lost their possessions in the widespread floods which followed the heaviest tropical rainfall ever recorded in the continental US
The Queen said: 'I was deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and the devastation following the recent terrible floods caused by Hurricane Harvey.
'Prince Philip and I send our sincere condolences to the victims of this disaster, to those who have lost loved ones, and to those who have seen their homes and property destroyed. My thoughts and prayers are with those affected.'
Around 364,000 people have already sought federal emergency aid in the wake of the hurricane, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) said.
The storm initially made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Texas on August 25, before going back out to sea and becoming a tropical storm for days, flooding Texan cities including Houston before moving on to the neighbouring state of Louisiana.
Sarah Champion was dismissed from the shadow front bench last month for saying that Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men exploiting white girls
The Left is turning a blind eye to sex grooming gangs for fear of being branded racist, a sacked Labour MP has said.
Sarah Champion was dismissed from the shadow front bench last month for saying that Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men exploiting white girls.
In her first interview since then, the former shadow women and equalities secretary said the floppy left was failing vulnerable children with its silence.
In a newspaper piece last month, the MP said: Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls.
She quit her role after the piece caused an outcry among her Labour colleagues.
After her resignation Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - an MP in Islington, north London - said his party would not blame or demonise any particular group.
He accused the paper of inciting Islamophobia and stigmatising entire communities. But Labour was accused of stifling free speech.
The Rotherham MP used an interview with The Times yesterday to highlight differences in attitudes between the capital and Labours northern heartlands.
She said a liberal fear of being branded racist was preventing those on the Left from speaking out.
She said: If Im on the floppy left, to be accused of racism is probably the worst thing you can call me. That fear will motivate me to step away from a lot of topics Id maybe tackle head on if I didnt have that phobia.
Her constituency Rotherham was home to one of the most high-profile grooming scandals.
After her resignation Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - an MP in Islington, north London - said his party would not blame or demonise any particular group
She said many Labour members and politicians based in London had never been challenged by a reality thats different from their largely tolerant, multicultural world.
London is not representative of the UK and its definitely not representative of the north of England in relation to race, she said.
Rotherham and many post-industrial towns are still segregated.
She added: The multicultural policies that I, through my working career, grew up with, and which Jeremy Corbyn grew up with, need a translation to come outside London.
Miss Champion stressed: Its not that Yorkshires racist, its that Yorkshire is very blunt and doesnt sugar-coat anything.
In Rotherham, peoples frustration is that if they all knew what was going on, why didnt the people who were meant to protect them do anything about it?
Miss Champion made her comments about British Pakistani men in a Sun column last month. She then resigned and made an apology for what she called her extremely poor choice of words.
Rotherham was one of many English cities, including Rochdale, Oxford and Newcastle, which have been home to grooming gangs.
Lord Bramall and Lady Brittan have received a reported 100,000 in compensation from Scotland Yard over its doomed VIP sex abuse probe.
The Metropolitan Police raided their homes during the 16-month Operation Midland inquiry.
Both D-Day veteran and former head of the Army Lord Bramall, and the late ex-home secretary Lord Brittan's wife have since been compensated.
The force faced a storm of criticism over the 2.5million investigation into claims made by a single accuser, known only as 'Nick', of a high-level paedophile ring linked to Westminster.
Lord Bramall and Lady Brittan have received a reported 100,000 in compensation from Scotland Yard over its doomed VIP sex abuse probe
It closed without a single arrest and, after a scathing review found there were 'numerous errors', the Independent Police Complaints Commission opened an investigation into a detective chief inspector and two junior detectives over allegations they may have misled a district judge in order to obtain search warrants.
A spokeswoman for the Met said: 'We can confirm the Met has reached a settlement with Lord Bramall and Lady Brittan.'
But she declined to confirm the amount of the award and said she had no information on any settlement with former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor, who has been a fierce critic of the force since the probe collapsed and he was cleared.
The Daily Telegraph said the figure paid out was 100,000 and the settlements included confidentiality clauses.
Former Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe apologised to those named during the probe, while Lord Bramall spoke of his anger that his wife died before he had been cleared.
And Lady Brittan hit out after it emerged police decided her husband had no case to answer but failed to tell him before he died of cancer.
A shipwreck could be to blame for a chemical cloud which forced coastline evacuations across East Sussex last weekend.
Some 150 people were treated for stinging eyes, sore throats and vomiting after the noxious haze reached the shore from Eastbourne to Birling Gap, near Beachy Head, on Sunday.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said it was examining whether the emissions came from a vessel, previously unreported lost cargo or known shipwrecks, as it continues to investigate.
Some 150 people were treated for stinging eyes, sore throats and vomiting after the noxious haze hit the shore from Eastbourne to Birling Gap (pictured), near Beachy Head, on Sunday
Various people on social media shared their experience of the strange cloud. Dan Sankey said: 'Beautiful afternoon at Birling Gap cut short by some weird mist, burning everyone's eyes'
An MCA spokesman said: 'As part of our investigations we are considering a number of possibilities, such as discharges from a vessel, previously unreported lost cargo, and emissions from known shipwrecks.
'We have identified approximately 180 vessels that passed through the English Channel off the coast of Eastbourne on Sunday August 27.
'We are working with all relevant environmental and public health regulators to conclude these investigations. We have no further information at this stage.'
In the past, chemicals have drifted across the English Channel from European industrial units.
In 2013 concerned locals in Kent, Surrey and Sussex raised the alarm about smelly air wafting in from the sea.
Beachy Head Lighthouse was surrounded by the eerie mist that caused worrying symptoms
It was revealed a factory in Rouen, France, had accidentally released the harmless gas, mercaptan, which had wafted across the English Channel.
The unpleasant stench, which wafted further west as the day developed, became known as 'le pong'.
But the Met Office has said weather models indicate that the chemical haze was unlikely to have come from northern France.
Sussex Police said those who required treatment experienced 'mostly minor' effects from the gas.
Students have been caught offering hundreds of dollars online for people to do their homework for them.
Cheating pupils are offering up to $1,500 for their assignments to be completed for them, including work that goes towards their HSC grades.
And remarkably a teacher has allegedly been caught 'bidding' to take on pupils' work for cash, the Saturday Telegraph reported.
Students have been caught offering hundreds of dollars online for people to do their homework for them
High school pupils and university students have been caught using the Airtasker website, which lets users offer cash to people looking to do their odd jobs.
One female university student reportedly offered up to $1,500 for help completing her journalism diploma.
According to the Saturday Telegraph's report, a teacher is facing a Department of Education investigation for making several 'bids' to do students' work for them.
'I am a teacher myself and have completed many of these,' she reportedly wrote on the site in a reply to a student looking for help with their media course.
In another offer she said she 'can get this done for you asap' and said her 'knowledge in this area is enormous'.
She later told the Telegraph that the assignments were for her own 'research', before saying she had not admitted the account was hers.
High school pupils and university students have been caught using the Airtasker website, which lets users offer cash to people looking to do their odd jobs
Some of the offers are more paltry, with students offering as little as $15 for help.
One boy, called Joseph, said he would give $42 to anyone who could write a 1000-word speech on multiculturalism.
A NSW Education Standards Authority spokesman said cheating was 'unacceptable'. The Department of Education is investigating.
Airtasker CEO Tim Fung said the website tried to root out people attempting to cheat, but admitted it was 'difficult to distinguish between tutoring/proofreading and cheating'.
A faulty Hotpoint tumble dryer was the probable cause of a fire that killed two people as they slept, a coroner ruled yesterday.
The finding believed to be the first time a Whirlpool appliance has been linked to a death in court comes only months after the company warned almost three million families not to use their machines due to safety concerns.
Last night there were demands for a total recall of the dryer after experts blamed it for a blaze that killed restaurant manager Doug McTavish, 39, and chef Bernard Hender, 19, at their flat.
Whirlpool was also criticised by the coroner for its response to 40 previous dryer fires since 2009.
Experts blamed the dryer for a blaze that killed chef Bernard Hender (left), 19, and restaurant manager Doug McTavish (right), 39, at their flat
Landlord Garry Lloyd Jones, 50, who survived the blaze, told the inquest the dryer had been switched off when he went to bed, but he woke to find 'flames coming out of it'.
Firefighters saw flames 18 inches high when they arrived at the flat in Llanrwst, North Wales, in October 2014 as the machine dried towels from the restaurant where the men worked.
An independent expert appointed by insurers pinpointed 'untoward electrical activity' in the door switch as the probable cause.
Whirlpool, which owns Hotpoint, Indiset and Creda, is in the process of replacing or repairing an estimated four million potentially faulty machines across the UK after identifying the safety issue in November 2015.
In February the company made a U-turn on previous advice saying the dryers were safe to use as long as they were not left unattended.
Whirlpool had flown in experts from America to contest the claims at Ruthin County Hall, Denbighshire, and said the fire could have been started in the flat's light switch or in an iron.
A faulty Hotpoint tumble dryer was the probable cause of a fire that killed two people as they slept pictured a Hotpoint tumble dryer (file photo pictured)
But assistant coroner David Lewis ruled yesterday after a five-day inquest that 'on the balance of probabilities', the door switch of the dryer was the cause.
Mr Lewis also rejected the firm's theory that the fire could have started by spontaneous combustion in the towels after the drying cycle had finished.
Giving a narrative verdict, he said he found Whirlpool's experts 'to be less than compelling'.
Mr Lewis said he was considering whether to make a 'prevention of further deaths' warning and gave Whirlpool two weeks to make submissions to him.
Alex Neill, managing director of home products and services at Which? said: 'In the face of the tragic deaths of these two men, Whirlpool can no longer continue to ignore its responsibility for the safety of its customers and must now conduct a full product recall of the potentially lethal tumble dryers in people's homes.'
A Hotpoint fridge freezer was identified as the source of the devastating Grenfell Tower fire that killed 80 in June.
A Whirlpool spokesman said last night: 'We extend our profound condolences to the families and friends of Bernard Hender and Douglas McTavish.
'Safety is always our number one priority. We treat all incidents extremely seriously and we have a robust process that continuously reviews the safety of all our products. We will carefully review and consider the coroner's findings.'
A mannequin that was used to snare a suspected serial killer who is accused of murdering homeless men is set to go on display in a Las Vegas museum.
Metropolitan police had a trick up their sleeves when it came to catching Shane Schindler, 30, who they believed bludgeoned to death two men earlier this year.
Officials staged the mannequin to be dressed like a homeless person, leaving him on the ground in a vacant lot near where the two homeless men had been killed.
Schindler was arrested when he was filmed attacking the dummy in February, and was sentenced to spend between eight and 20 years behind bars in August.
Now, police are putting the mannequin on display at the Mob Museum for the event called Metro Police Sting: Operation Decoy Dummy, on September 19.
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A Las Vegas museum will display the mannequin that was used to snare a suspected serial killer accused of murdering homeless men. It will be at the Mob Museum for the event called Metro Police Sting: Operation Decoy Dummy, on September 19
Shane Schindler is accused of murdering two men earlier this year. He was arrested after he was filmed attacking the mannequin in a lot where the men were killed. Pictured: Schindler (left) in a mug shot and (right) in a selfie where police claim the murders happened
Metropolitan Police Department Captain Andy Walsh said the reason for the display is because he and the department owe the community an explanation in the case.
Walsh will be at the event to answer questions during a panel discussion, along with a prosecutor and a homicide detective, reported the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Speaking to the paper, he said the museum night will be a chance for him to 'talk about the story and remind people that two men theyd never heard of lost their lives on the street corner one night for no reason other than they didnt have a house to sleep in.'
Walsh added: 'When we did it, we didnt ask for permission. I knew it was my responsibility as captain in the community to do this. If we sat back and waited for information to be developed, we could have had a third murder.'
'It received a lot of media attention when we did it, but it was something that was obviously not traditional.
'It involved a lot of risk and a lot of coordination. And once we got to the point where the mannequin was attacked, it involved a whole separate set of challenges.'
Officials staged the mannequin to be dressed like a homeless person, leaving him on the ground in a vacant lot near where the two homeless men had been killed
Schindler was filmed on February 22 removing his ball peen hammer from a plastic bag (left) to strike the mannequin on the head twice (right)
Schindler's ball peen hammer was confiscated at the scene where he hit the mannequin
Schindler was caught by police who were investigating the murders of Daniel Aldape and David Dunn, two homeless men who were beaten to death in January and February.
Another homeless man was assaulted months earlier and survived but did not get a glimpse of his attacker.
Suspecting a serial killer with a specific taste for homeless men, Las Vegas Police detectives laid out the dummy on February 22 and covered the back of its head to make it appear as though it were a real person.
They watched on surveillance footage as Schindler, a Michigan native, approached it with a plastic bag.
He watched the dummy for several seconds then calmly removed his weapon from the bag and launched at the dummy.
After striking it twice in quick succession, he walked slowly away. Police swooped on him seconds later and took him in to custody.
The 30-year-old Michigan native wore a black hoodie and dark trousers to carry out the attack
Footage shows Schindler appear to pull a small sledge hammer from a white plastic Little Caesars Pizza bag (pictured) and take two quick steps towards the head of the dummy
The man was booked into jail, but later released. Police set up a surveillance team which followed him to the Henderson Motel following his release.
When they got there, they searched his room, and found a receipt for a hammer that had been returned to Harbor Freight, and confiscated a second hammer, reported the Review-Journal.
They also confiscated his cellphone, and on it saw two selfies of Schindler laying on his back near where the two murder victims were found dead of head trauma.
As part of a plea deal with prosecutors, Schindler will not face charges for those killings.
He has never admitted to either of them but confessed after his arrest that he believed the mannequin was a person when he attacked it.
Police said it was 'good for the community' that the suspected serial killer was off the streets
Police believe Schindler was responsible for bludgeoning the two sleeping homeless men to death and injuring a third.
However cops admit they have no hard evidence to prove this but in June, Schindler pleaded guilty to murdering an inanimate object.
Walsh spoke of his relief earlier this year that Schindler had taken the plea deal.
'This is good for the community, that he's taking this deal. He's off the streets'.
An illegal immigrant appeared in court today charged with supplying hundreds of SIM cards to jihadis to set up social media accounts in what is the first case of its kind in the UK.
Iraqi Kurd Rabar Mala, 32, allegedly provided 437 cards and phone numbers to ISIS so that they could have a platform to post propaganda online.
For more than a year the alleged IT specialist activated the cards in Britain and passed them onto ISIS members in Iraq and Syria.
At Westminster Magistrates' Court wearing a grey jumper and tracksuit bottoms he denied possessing property for the purposes of terrorism.
Iraqi Kurd Rabar Mala, 32, allegedly provided 437 cards and phone numbers to ISIS so that they could have a platform to post propaganda online
Prosecutor Kathryn Selby said: 'This defendant is charged with an offence that has never been charged in this jurisdiction previously.
'Essentially the defendant had over 400 SIM cards were found at a property when police officers went into his home address.
'Of a period of offending was at least a year, he was activating those SIM cards, he activated those cards in this country.
'They were then passed to individuals based in Iraq and Syria to enable them to set up accounts on social media to enable them to publish material said to be supportive of IS, or Daesh.'
Ms Selby said Mala was 'an illegal overstayer' who was turned down when he applied for leave to remain 2008.
Mala was arrested after terrorism officers executed warrants at addresses in Warrington Sunday August 20.
Armed police stormed two properties in a counter-terrorism operation earlier this month following an investigation by the North West Counter Terrorism Unit.
Detectives spent days searching the properties, which are located a mile apart in the north of the town.
The alleged IT specialist activated the cards in Britain and passed them onto ISIS members in Iraq and Syria
At Westminster Magistrates' Court wearing a grey jumper and tracksuit bottoms he denied possessing property for the purposes of terrorism (file photo)
Police say he is not linked to the Manchester Arena attack. Deputy Senior District Judge Tan Ikram remanded him in custody and sent the case to be heard at the crown court.
He said: 'I send this case to the Central Criminal Court, your next hearing date will be 21 September.'
Mala, of Gough Avenue, Warrington, denies possession of property for purposes of terrorism under Section 16 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
He was remanded in custody to next appear at the Old Bailey on 21 September.
Nearly 200 firefighters battled against a raging blaze at a five-story commercial and residential building in New York City on Friday night.
The fire started shortly before 7pm at a building in Tribeca. Smoke and flames could be seen shooting from the roof of the structure.
Fire officials speculate that if they hadn't arrived in a timely matter the blaze could have been much worse, as they believe there is ammunition in the basement from an old shooting range.
Around 200 firefighters were sent out to battle the flames, with 11 later sent to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries.
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Nearly 200 firefighters battled against a raging fire at a five-story commercial and residential building in New York City on Friday night
Fire officials speculate that if they hadn't arrived on time, the blaze could have been worse, as they believe there is ammunition in the basement left behind from an old shooting range
Eleven firefighters were later sent to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries, such as smoke inhalation and cuts
There are no immediate reports of injuries from anyone inside the building and authorities don't believe there was anyone on the upper floors
Officials believe ammunition is in the basement of the building, which could have been from a target range, reported NBC New York.
The building used to house the upscale Downtown Rifle and Pistol Club in the 1990s, which drew 'stockbrokers, lawyers, doctors and other professionals who come straight from work, in jacket and tie', according to an old New York Times piece.
There are no immediate reports of injuries from anyone inside the building and authorities don't believe there was anyone on the upper floors.
Those who were brought to a local hospital were taken for smoke inhalation and minor scrapes and lacerations.
Fire Chief Chief Roger Sakowich added: 'It started on the first floor we believe in the duct work in the restaurant.
'That duct work ran up through the middle of the building. As the fire continued up it broke out on each floor.
'Since the basement was not involved in the fire we didn't bother to search it yet.'
The building, which has retail space on the first floor and apartments above, is located at the corner of Murray and Church streets
A witness said: 'The flames started low and then they climbed so fast to the top. And then there was like crazy black smoke like way high up'
The building used to house Downtown Rifle and Pistol Club in the 1990s, which drew 'stockbrokers, lawyers, doctors and other professionals who come straight from work'
The building, which has retail space on the first floor and apartments above, is located at the corner of Murray and Church streets.
The blaze erupted on the second floor and windows on the fourth blew out around an hour after the fire had started, reported the New York Post.
A witness said to ABC 7: 'The flames started low and then they climbed so fast to the top. And then there was like crazy black smoke like way high up.'
Another added: 'I just smelled mad smoke coming into through the door. It started to billow out through the windows on the sides.'
Firefighters swooped in and bashed in around 80 remaining windows in order for the building to ventilate.
The fire started shortly before 7pm at a building in Tribeca. Smoke and flames could be seen shooting from the roof of the five-story structure
The smell of smoke carried all the way to Brooklyn as the building burned just one block away from City Hall
Officials said they believe the fire was started in the restaurant's duct work and traveled up
Authorities said 44 units and 198 firefighters responded to the fire.
One of those officials was treated for minor injuries, with an additional 10 being sent to the hospital later on in the night.
The smell of smoke carried all the way to Brooklyn as the building burned just one block away from City Hall.
Amazon is involved in a new row with publishers after one of its most senior bosses told them that they should simply drop their prices if they want to sell more books.
David Naggar said the books industry must follow the example of self-published authors and slash prices to rock bottom levels to build up interest.
The US giant uses a complex computer algorithm to recommend books to customers, taking account of how many people have looked at a title before, how many have bought it, and what sort of reviews it has received.
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Amazon's publishing boss has told traditional book shops to drop their prices if they want to be competitive
Mr Naggar, Amazon's publishing chief, said: 'I look at price as a tool for visibility. You can either spend a lot of money on marketing or you can invest it in a super-low price until they get the flywheel going of the recommendation engines and this is just for Amazon.
'What self-published authors will do is they will publish a book and sell it for 99p right out of the gate Publishers [with new authors] could much more afford to do that than self-published authors.
'If I have two books in front of me and I don't know either author, and one book costs 9.99 and the other is 2.99, which one am I going to take?'
But publishers were furious. Stephen Lotinga, chief executive of The Publishers Association, said that 'Amazon feel they have us over a barrel' because it controls so much of the books industry.
'Amazon have a vested interest in lowering prices as much as they possibly can because it helps them maintain their market share,' he added. 'Effectively, they're saying, 'In order to promote your book, we're going to dictate the price'.
Publishers were left furious after Amazon told traditional book shops to drop their prices
'Our members are running a different business model than self-published authors are. They invest a lot of money in authors and feel that they price their books appropriately. We are not seeking to sell very low [priced] commodities.'
Amazon is the world's biggest online bookseller, with an estimated 80 per cent share of the ebook market in the UK.
It also has a publishing arm, producing books by bestselling authors such as Catherine Cookson as well as self-published writers. It has frequently clashed with other publishers before. In 2011, the boss of Waterstones, James Daunt, branded Amazon as a 'ruthless, money-making devil'.
And in 2014, Amazon boycotted Hachette in a stand-off over the price of ebooks. It did not stop selling the publishing house's titles altogether, but it would not let US customers pre-order key books, making it much harder for them to get on the bestseller lists. They later resolved the feud.
Karen Ristevski's 'ice-addicted' stepson is suing Channel 9, saying their claim that he demanded $200,000 to tell his story was untrue.
Mrs Ristevski's body was found in a shallow grave at Mount Macedon, Victoria in February after she disappeared in June last year.
Her stepson Anthony Rickard is now suing Channel 9 over what he says were false claims the network made on A Current Affair, according to the Herald Sun.
Karen Ristevksi disappeared in June last year, and her body was found in a shallow grave
Her stepson Anthony Rickard is suing Channel 9 over claims that he demanded $200,000
Mr Rickard claims Channel 9 offered him money to appear on television, but then ran a story saying he was demanding money to tell his side of the story.
On the show, the report said Mr Rickard wanted money for drugs and was 'trying to find a fortune' to 'profit from his stepmother's disappearance'.
Rickard is now demanding damages and an apology, and for the reports on Channel 9's website and Facebook page to be taken down.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel 9 for comment.
Mr Rickard has previously denied murdering Mrs Ristevski but admitted they had not seen eye-to-eye.
Mr Rickard has denied murdering Mrs Ristevski but admitted they didn't always agree
Mr Rickard wants an apology and damages from the network after a story on A Current Affair
Mrs Ristevski, 47, was last seen leaving her home on Oakley Drive in Avondale Heights in Melbourne's northwest following an argument about money with her husband on June 29.
Mrs Ristevski's husband Borce was named by his lawyer Rob Stary as the chief suspect in his wife's disappearance.
Officers searched for the missing mother for almost nine months before her body was found wedged between two logs, near where a local man claimed he saw two people resembling Borce and his brother, Vasko, in the days after she vanished.
Borce Ristevski (right) leaves a press conference after pleading for information on his wife
A 16-year-old boy has been arrested in Texas for allegedly using a hammer to kill a 14-year-old girl who wanted to buy marijuana from him and then leaving her body in a landfill site.
On Friday, authorities in Bedford released court papers indicating that the juvenile was being held on $250,000 bond after he was arrested at O.D. Wyatt High School in Fort Worth.
Kaytlynn Cargill, 14, disappeared while walking her dog and was found two days later dead in a landfill died of 'homicidal violence', a medical examiner has determined.
Cargill went missing on June 19 near her parents' apartment in Bedford, Texas and was killed in what the Tarrant County Medical examiner ruled was a homicide.
Kaytlynn Cargill, 14, went missing on June 19 near her parents' apartment in Bedford, Texas and was killed in what the Tarrant County Medical examiner ruled on Thursday was a homicide. Police announced Friday they arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with her murder
The arrest warrant states that Cargill and her alleged killer were involved in a drug transaction, NBC 5 television is reporting.
Investigators uncovered text messages indicating that Cargill sought to obtain marijuana from the juvenile at the time of her disappearance.
Cargill went to the juvenile's apartment, where he is alleged to have used a hammer to kill her.
Forensic investigators found blood spots inside the apartment as well as the hammer itself.
Kaytlynn's body was found in a Texas landfill two days after she was reported missing. Investigators believe she was killed by a 16-year-old boy from whom she wanted to buy marijuana
A worker at the Arlington landfill (pictured) discovered a body. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner later confirmed the body found in the landfill was Kaytlynn
Neighbors said the teen was last seen near the Oak Creek Apartments (pictured)
Subsequent DNA tests showed Cargill's blood was on the hammer, the documents state.
'Members of the Bedford Police Department have met with and informed Kaytlynns family of the juveniles detention,' the department said in a statement.
'The juvenile was detained earlier today and has been taken to the Tarrant County Juvenile Detention Facility in Fort Worth.
'We want to take this opportunity to reassure our community that they are not at risk.'
Police have defended their decision not to issue an Amber Alert at the time of Kaytlynn's disappearance, and said there was no evidence to indicate the girl was abducted or that there was any further risk to the community.
Kaytlynn last seen near her home around 6.20pm on June 19 leaving to take her dog for a walk, according to the Bedford Police Department.
A tractor is seen above at the landfill site where Kaytlynn's body was found
The arrest warrant states that Cargill and her alleged killer were involved in a drug transaction
Investigators uncovered text messages indicating that Cargill sought to obtain marijuana from the juvenile at the time of her disappearance
A neighbor told WFAA he saw the teen tie her dog's leash to a fence and ask friends to watch the animal, but she never returned.
'I didn't hear any yells and it happened right behind my balcony,' said neighbor Zach McDaniel. 'I heard no yells, no helps, no nothing.'
Police say friends of the girl gave 'different stories' when she first went missing.
When Kaytlynn was reported missing, authorities said they had no reason to believe that she was in any danger, nor did they have any reason to suspect foul play.
Cargill went to the juvenile's apartment, where he is alleged to have used a hammer to kill her
Forensic investigators found blood spots inside the apartment as well as the hammer itself
The girl's body was found two days later, by a worker at the Arlington landfill about four miles away.
That landfill contracts to receive waste from Bedford and several other smaller municipalities near Arlington.
An obituary for Kaytlynn said that the teen loved animals and played softball and volleyball at school
'Kaytlynn was an optimist, with a heart bigger than anyone will ever know. Her energy and spirit shone through and was infectious to everyone around her,' the obituary said.
Subsequent DNA tests showed Cargill's blood was on the hammer, court documents state
Police have defended their decision not to issue an Amber Alert at the time of Kaytlynn's disappearance
Blundering ministers and officials in Whitehall have been wasting more than 4.6million of taxpayers money every day.
Over a year, 1.7billion was squandered on botched projects, accounting mistakes, faulty overtime payments and compensation payouts.
Equivalent to blowing 54 a second, the sum would be enough to train 100,000 nurses, pay the wages of 91,000 soldiers or recruit 87,700 police officers.
The waste included more than 1.2million spent on severance payments to 54 people working on the controversial HS2 high-speed railway line.
Almost 2.1million was spent on deportation flights for failed asylum seekers whose journeys had to be cancelled at the last minute because of court rulings.
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Another 1.6million went up in smoke because the Department for International Development ordered too many medicines to help tackle the Ebola outbreak in Africa between 2014 and 2016.
And a Whitehall department ended up with a 750,000 bill after a Cartier diamond ring vanished from the British Museum in London.
Meanwhile, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport shelled out 4.2million to the owner of a painting by the German neoclassicist Johann Zoffany that was destroyed in a fire at the National Trust property Clandon Park in Surrey in April 2015.
The payment for the picture, entitled The Mathew Family at Felix Hall, Kelvedon, Essex, was the largest ever made for a lost or damaged work of art in Britain under the Governments indemnity scheme, which insures works on loan to public venues.
The figures, which cover the 12 months to last March, were calculated from the accounts of Whitehalls 20 departments. They come at a time when public services are being cut and social care funding is in crisis.
A Whitehall department ended up with a 750,000 bill after a Cartier diamond ring vanished from the British Museum in London
The Whitehall loss list covers sums of 300,000 or more the threshold that triggers an official explanation of how the cash was spent.
Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake said: These figures expose a staggering level of incompetence.
People will be furious to see that while their local schools and hospitals are facing cuts, every day millions of pounds of taxpayers cash is being thrown down the drain. Ministers have got to crack down on the scandalous waste happening right under their noses across government departments.
James Price, of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: People will be absolutely astounded to see so much of their money wasted by the Government on mistakes and bad projects.
The biggest money-waster was the Department for Work and Pensions, which wrote off 412million. This included 335million on overpaying benefits that officials were unable to claw back from claimants, including double-paid 10 Christmas bonus payments totalling 395,000.
The biggest money-waster was the Department for Work and Pensions, which wrote off 412million
The ministry also blew 2.9million on a project in the belief that it would eventually be paid for by the EU, only to realise too late that it did not qualify for Brussels money.
The newly formed Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy was the second most profligate department, wasting 388million.
This included 97million that one of its quangos, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, had to pay to two US firms after botching a contract for cleaning up old nuclear power stations. Defence chiefs lost 263million, including almost 90million when they decided to scrap Operation Soothsayer, a project to develop a state-of-the-art system for tapping into enemy communications.
The Ministry of Defence also took a 3million hit to its finances after the 1.1billion nuclear submarine HMS Ambush was damaged when it collided with a merchant ship in a training exercise off the coast of Gibraltar in July last year.
The 2.1million wasted on cancelled flights for failed asylum seekers was at the Home Office. Officials booked seats before legal challenges were launched against deportation.
Taxpayers have forked out 7.3million on scrapped flights in four years.
The Home Office was also fined more than 366,000 by the Treasury after the chairman and panel of the child sex abuse inquiry were handed six-figure packages without authorisation.
Some 35.2million was written off by the Department for Transport for tolls it failed to collect from motorists using the Dartford Crossing, partly because its number-plate recognition equipment was not up to scratch.
Police have made an urgent appeal for help tracking down a 29-year-old woman who mysteriously vanished from her home two days ago.
Cara Crisostomo was last seen at her home on Proctor Crescent in Keilor Downs, north west of Melbourne, on Thursday at about 6.30pm.
Victoria Police officers are increasingly desperate to find Ms Crisostomo as she has no contact with her family or friends since her disappearance, which is unusual.
Anyone who sees her is urged to call Keilor Downs Police Station on 9365 3333.
Can you believe it's hunting season already? Seems a little hot, don't you think? For bow hunters, it's now or never if they're putting an elk in the freezer this year. But in this heat, getting that elk into the freezer without the meat spoiling is going to be quite the challenge, straight up impossible for those of us who hunt solo. Even getting a deer processed in time is going to be hard.
Hunting in this weather is stupid and wrong; the risk of wasting meat is too high. We're out there to feed our families. I for one don't need the worry that I'm feeding my family rotten meat and it's been getting worse every year. The rifle hunters don't have to deal with that worry, bow hunters shouldn't either.
The summers are getting hotter and lasting longer, it's a simple fact. The only constant is change. The time come for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to change the hunting seasons to match the change in weather.
Jeff Gent
Brownsville (Sept. 1)
A principal who denied having heard about a mother's complaint her son was told he could wear a dress to school has been contradicted by education officials.
Mother-of-four Cella White - who appeared in the Coalition for Marriage ad opposing gay marriage - claimed her 14-year-old son was given the option of wearing a dress to school.
But John Albiston, the principal of Frankston High in Melbourne's southeast, said on Thursday the mother's claims were untrue , the incident 'never happened' and he first heard of the complaint from the media last year.
'I met with Ms White once in 2015 and she raised concerns about the Safe Schools program but the first time I heard the claim about her son was in the media.
'We checked with our staff and it never happened,' he said.
Now Mr Albiston's denials have been brought into question by the education department, who say Ms White contacted them more than a year ago over the issue, prompting a follow-up with the school, The Australian reported.
Mother-of-four Cella White (pictured) - who appeared in the Coalition for Marriage ad opposing gay marriage - claimed her 14-year-old son was given the option of wearing a dress
John Albiston, the principal of Frankston High (pictured, stock image), said on Thursday the mother's claims were untrue and the incident 'never happened'
'Ms White was brought to a meeting with Department staff in January 2016 by the Australian Christian Lobby,'a Department spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
'In that meeting she suggested that her son had been told he could wear a dress. After checking with the school we are confident this conversation did not take place.'
Ms White first made the claims on Q&A in 2016, saying the incident happened during her son's science class.
She repeated them in the 'No' vote advertisement, where she said: 'The school told my son he could wear a dress to school next year if he felt like it'.
Ms White (pictured) first made the claims on Q&A in 2016, saying the incident happened during her son's science class
Mr Albiston then denied it, saying not only did the incident not take place, but the Victorian mother never contacted the school about it either.
But Ms White has been backed up by another parent, who says it is well known that students are told they can wear the uniforms of the gender they identify as.
The school supports the Safe Schools Coalition which was responsible for the controversial 2014 Gender Is Not A Uniform project.
The school supports the Safe Schools Coalition which was responsible for the controversial 2014 Gender Is Not A Uniform project (pictured)
The education department said promotional posters produced as part of the project showing boys in dresses were not being used in schools at present.
Coalition for Marriage - who produced the 'No' ad - has linked Safe Schools to the same-sex marriage debate.
They say Ms White's complaint is 'consistent with the Safe Schools program as used in Victoria, which includes an entire resource devoted to students being able to wear uniforms of whatever gender they choose.'
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Frankston High School for comment.
An elderly man who was set on fire in his Queensland home has been revealed as a notorious drug lord with links to crooked cops, bikie gangs and a murder cover-up, according to court documents.
Victor William Graveson was doused with petrol and set alight in an alleged attack in Alexandra Hills, east of Brisbane at 9am on Friday.
He ran from his home engulfed with flames before he was seen and aided by shocked onlookers who helped extinguish the fire.
Victor Graveson (right) was set on fire while he slept in his home east of Brisbane
Police have charged David Charles Edgerly, 34, with attempted murder.
He did not appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Saturday and was remanded in custody until he faces court again on Monday.
Graveson was linked to a murder cover-up on a drug farm near Bundaberg in 1993, according to the Courier Mail.
A man has been charged with attempted murder after Graveson was set alight in his home
The farm was then raided by police, and they found 200kg of cannabis leaves, 7000 plants and a marijuana crop worth about $20 million were discovered.
Graveson was one of five people arrested after the drug raid.
In 1995, Queenslands Supreme Court heard that Graveson was a criminal mastermind, with links to a prostitution ring and outlaw bikie gangs who he supplied drugs to.
Graveson ran from his home engulfed in flames and shocked onlookers helped put the fire out
Graveson was jailed for 10 years in 1996 for his role in the production of the cannabis crop.
He has also been photographed partying with crooked cops and strippers in the late 1980s and early 90s.
Graveson was imprisoned in 2008 for meth possession.
After he was set on fire, police said the man has burns to 80 per cent of his body suffered during the alleged attack just after 9am at the property on Teesdale Road.
He was rushed to Royal Brisbane Hospital in a critical condition with life-threatening injuries.
An elderly man is fighting for his life after being set on fire at his Queensland home
Police say the man has burns to 80 per cent of his body suffered during the alleged attack just after 9am at the property on Teesdale Road
The 65-year-old was doused with petrol and set alight in the alleged attack in Alexandra Hills on Friday morning
The attack allegedly occurred while Graveson was sleeping in his house, south of Brisbane.
'We're sure some kind of flammable liquid's been used he's been set alight,' Inspector Dave Farley said.
'At this stage we understand there may have been a couple of witnesses but those statements haven't been obtained at this stage.'
Another man, 34, is assisting police with their investigations after taking himself to hospital also suffering from burns to his arms.
The injuries are minor and he is known to the elderly victim.
Police say they are waiting to speak with witnesses but confirmed the man has suffered significant burns
This the shocking moment a racist woman launched an appalling tirade of abuse at Muslims who were paying their respects at a cemetery as part of Eid rituals.
Footage taken in Dewsbury, west Yorkshire, on Friday shows a blonde-haired middle-aged woman abusing worshippers.
In the 29-second clip posted to Facebook, the racist is seated in the passenger side of a red Mini and can be heard shouting 'F*** off! You f***ing p****! Come on, film me you f***ing black c****! You British f***ing p****.'
A racist woman (pictured) launched a tirade of appalling abuse at Muslim worshippers in Dewsbury, west Yorkshire
In the 29-second clip, the racist woman (pictured) can be heard shouting 'F*** off! You f***ing p****! Come on, film me you f***ing black c****!'
The shocking abuse took place in broad daylight and the woman even urged onlookers to film her.
The footage has been viewed more than 10,000 times since it was posted on Friday and viewers have slammed the racist's behaviour.
Shabana Hussain Ali said: 'How disrespectful, outside a graveyard of all places. What goes around comes around. Disgusting vile women.
'When we drive past a graveyard we were taught to say a prayer for the deceased - bare minimum turn the radio off as a mark of respect. Then at the other end of the spectrum you get this.'
Elise Swansborough said: 'Disgusting, nasty woman.'
The shocking racist attack took place in broad daylight and the woman even urged onlookers to film her
Residents in Adelaide woke to a huge tremor in the early hours of Saturday morning, but what caused the rumble remains a mystery.
Geoscience Australia first reported a 1.4-magnitude quake near Mount Compass.
Hours later the report was updated saying there had not actually been an earthquake.
Adelaide residents woke to a huge tremor in the early hours of Saturday morning
Geoscience Australia first reported a 1.4-magnitude quake near Mount Compass
Residents felt two tremors at 2.05am and again at 2.15am.
'No noise whatsoever. I just felt the really harsh shudder and it felt like it was coming through in a line from west to east,' local resident Laurie told ABC News.
'It ran for five or six seconds and then was gone.'
Geoscience Australia said the rumble may have been caused by thunder in the area.
There were storms in Adelaide overnight and some residents were left without power.
'We had a power failure since the earthquake at 2am,' wrote Adelaide resident Heather Eckermann.
'It's now 6am and still no power.'
There were reports received form over 600 residents of a disturbance, Geoscience Australia said.
The Adelaide tremor was not an earthquake, so what was it?
There were storms in Adelaide overnight and some residents were left without power
The fate of two contested statues of Confederate heroes in Charlottesville, Virginia is in the hands of a judge who is not expected to rule on the matter for at least another three weeks, it was learned on Friday.
Judge Richard E Moore of Charlottesville Circuit Court declined to issue a ruling on whether a lawsuit seeking to block Charlottesville from removing the statues could proceed, The Washington Post reported.
In February, the city of Charlottesville voted by a narrow 3-to-2 margin to take down statues of General Robert E Lee and another military hero from the South, Thomas Stonewall Jackson.
The statue of Lee was the focal point of a protest by a thousands of white nationalists last month which turned violent when one of them rammed his car into a crowd of anti-racist counter-demonstrators, killing one of them.
In February, the city of Charlottesville voted by a narrow 3-to-2 margin to take down statues of General Robert E Lee (above) and another military hero from the South, Thomas Stonewall Jackson
Mayor Mike Signer talks to reporters in front of the statue of Thomas Jonathan 'Stonewall' Jackson that is covered in a black tarp as it stands in Justice Park
A week after the violence at Charlottesville, the mayor called on the governor to convene an emergency meeting of state lawmakers to allow the city to remove the statue of Lee (seen left covered with plastic). The image on the right shows the statue of Jackson also covered
A few weeks later, a number of conservative organizations, among them the Virginia chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the statue removals.
On Friday, lawyers for the city made their case to Moore, asking that the lawsuit be dismissed and that the statue removals be permitted to proceed.
The courtroom was reportedly filled with nearly 100 people who were eagerly anticipating a ruling by the judge.
They listened as a number of pro-Confederacy witnesses told the judge about the importance of the statues in preserving their heritage.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs also argued that a longstanding state law prevents local governments from removing Confederate monuments.
The original law, which dates back to over 100 years ago, forbids any county from taking down Confederate monuments.
In 1997, an amendment to the law stated that cities and municipalities were also barred from removing the statues.
The pro-Confederacy alliance is arguing that the 1997 statute should apply retroactively to a city like Charlottesville which wants to remove the two statues that were erected in the 1920s.
Charlottesvilles attorneys argued that the city was exempt from the 1997 amendment because the statues were built 70 years before it was approved.
The statue of Lee was the focal point of a protest by a thousands of white nationalists last month which turned violent when one of them, James Alex Fields (left) rammed his car into a crowd of anti-racist counter-demonstrators, killing one of them, Heather Heyer (right)
People placed flowers at a memorial for Heyer and the other victims at the intersection where Fields, a white supremacist, drove his car into a crowd of counter-protestors
Moore told the assembled gathering that he would need at least two or three weeks to decide on the case, but that might be overly optimistic, he warned.
The judge also urged both sides of the argument to stop sending him letters and making phone calls to his offices.
Moore said that his office and that of his clerk have been inundated with messages from people trying to sway the judge.
Thats not how our system works, nor should it work, he said.
Moore said the lobbying efforts were counterproductive, a distraction, and worse than a waste of time.
I need to remind everyone courts are not bound to public opinion one way or the other, he said.
In our system, its improper for people to contact a judge and try to influence the outcome of a case.
A week after the violence at Charlottesville, the town's mayor called on the governor to convene an emergency meeting of state lawmakers to allow the city to remove the statue of Lee.
Mayor Mike Signer said recent clashes over race and the Confederacy had turned 'equestrian statues into lightning rods' and urged Virgina Gov. Terry McAuliffe to convene a special session of the General Assembly.
He said the city must respond 'by denying the Nazis and the KKK and the so-called alt-right the twisted totem they seek'.
Despite the urgent call from the mayor, McAuliffe's spokesman Brian Coy said the governor will not call a special session while the issue is being decided in court.
Hillary Clinton has opened up about her 'dark days' with Bill in a new memoir but doesn't mention Monica Lewinsky by name as the once-presidential hopeful admits that she stayed with the former president because she loved him.
Although the couple has been married for more than 40 years, Hillary acknowledged that is wasn't all smooth sailing, it was revealed on Friday.
She said that there were times she was 'deeply unsure about whether' her marriage to Bill 'could or should survive', according to a leaked expert of her new memoir.
The 69-year-old described her time during the Monica Lewinsky scandal as her 'dark days' but abstained from adding details, quipping 'you know all about them'.
The former presidential candidate also discusses her failed campaign in her explosive tell-all, What Happened, which will be out on September 12.
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Hillary Clinton, 69, has opened up about her 'dark days' with her husband Bill Clinton in her new memoir, it was revealed on Friday
The once-presidential hopeful admits that she stayed with the former president because she loved him but doesn't mention Monica Lewinsky (right) by name. She didn't divulge details of the scandal, adding 'you know all about them'
A leaked excerpt of the book, obtained by RadarOnline, reads: 'We've certainly had dark days in our marriage. There were times I was deeply unsure about whether our marriage could or should survive.'
The memoir also reveals Hillary's thoughts on her 2016 presidential run, including her thoughts on President Trump.
In another chapter of the book, Clinton explained what was going on in her head when Trump lurked behind her during a presidential debate in St. Louis, Missouri.
'It was incredibly uncomfortable he was literally breathing down my neck,' Clinton said. 'My skin crawled,' she recalled.
Hillary noted that the October 2016 debate came just days after the release of a shock audio tape in which Trump was heard bragging about groping women.
CREEP IN THE BACK: In the first excerpt from her new book, Hillary Clinton tells what she was thinking when Donald Trump was hovering too close to her at the second presidential debate
Clinton steamed: 'What would you do? Do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren't repeatedly invading your space? Or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly: "Back up, you creep, get away from me."'
Another excerpt tells how she almost fell victim to bad branding and fresh embarrassment as she created a new political organization in the aftermath of her election loss.
Hillary Clinton's newest tome will hit bookshelves on September 12
While eventually settling on the name 'Onward Together,' Clinton's original name for the group was 'Our American Future,' until a pal pointed out that the acronym for the group would be 'OAF,' a word for a rough or clumsy man.
'Luckily, a friend of mine pointed out that the acronym of Our American Future would be OAF,' Clinton wrote.
'I imagined the headlines: "Hillary Clinton Lurches Out of the Woods: Here Comes OAF,"' she joked.
'We needed a new name, stat!' she recalled thinking.
'After a quick brainstorm, we came up with a better option that combined my campaign slogan, "Stronger Together," with "Onward!" the exhortation I'd been using to close personal notes for years. (What can I say? I'm a sentimentalist.)' she noted.
Clinton, herself, will be speaking out, not just in the pages of the book, but on a 15-city book tour being called 'Hillary Clinton Live.'
Tickets at some of the Canadian dates are going for $1,200 American dollars each.
While her first stop, in Washington, D.C. at a venue that's one block from President Trump's hotel and two blocks from the White House tickets sold out within minutes, with some prize seats now being sold on StubHub also for $1,200.
Hurricane Irma has been upgraded to a Category 3 once again but the storm could strengthen into a Category 5 by next week when it is expected to hit land.
US and European models disagree on whether Irma will slam into the Carolinas or rock Florida and Cuba with its sustained wind speeds of 115mph as of Friday night.
The computers agree that the storm will continue to intensify, although it has seen fluctuation and was briefly downgraded to a Category 2 on Friday morning.
Although experts aren't sure exactly where it will hit yet, Irma is set to be powerful as the natural disaster is expected to strengthen into a Category 4 by Tuesday.
Hurricane Irma has been upgraded to a Category 3 once again on Friday but the storm could strengthen into a Category 5 by next week when it is expected to hit land. Pictured: NOAA satellite image released on Friday morning
US and European models disagree on whether Irma will slam into the Carolinas or rock Florida and Cuba with its sustained wind speeds of 115mph as of Friday night
Pictured: Map of where Hurricane Irma is in the Atlantic Ocean as of Friday night
The National Weather Service placed the storm far out in the Atlantic as of late Friday night, with sustained wind speeds of 115mph and moving west at 14mph, headed towards the Leeward Islands.
Meteorologist Troy Bridges said to News 6: 'The American models take it to the Carolinas by next Sunday (Sept. 10).
'The European models have it going to Cuba and possibly threatening South Florida. It's just too early to tell.'
The hurricane weakened a bit on Friday at 11am, downgrading from a Category 2 but returning to its previous strength by 5pm on Friday, reported Click Orlando.
Irma was first upgraded to a Category 3 on Thursday - a day ahead of schedule - after it was already upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 2 earlier that day.
Irma is set to be powerful as the natural disaster is expected to strengthen into a Category 4 by Tuesday. Pictured: Map of how Irma is expected to grow within the coming days
Irma was first upgraded to a Category 3 on Thursday - a day ahead of schedule - after it was already upgraded from a tropical storm to Category 2 earlier that day. Pictured: Irma on Friday
THE HURRICANE CATEGORY SCALE As storms pick up wind speeds, they increase from tropical depressions to hurricanes. In increasing order, the categories are: Tropical depression: around 38mph Tropical storm: 39-73mph Category 1: 74-95mph Category 2: 96-110mph Category 3: 111-129mph Category 4: 130-156mph Category 5: 157mph and over Advertisement
National Weather Service forecaster Eric Blake warned: 'Irma is forecast to become a major hurricane ... and is expected to be an extremely dangerous hurricane for the next several days.'
Hurricanes are ranked on a sliding scale from 1 - the weakest - to 5. A Category 3 hurricane has wind speeds of 111-129 miles per hour.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm with sustained wind speeds of 130mph.
And while the hurricane will take at least a week to cross the Atlantic on its trek westwards, it will increase in speed and danger as it does so.
It's expected to grow into a Category 4 hurricane - with wind speeds of 130-156mph - on Tuesday.
'Irma is likely to become a major hurricane well before it reaches the Lesser Antilles [islands],' said AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski. They are located around 200 miles southeast of Puerto Rico.
'All interests in the eastern Caribbean will need to monitor the progress of this evolving and likely dangerous tropical cyclone.'
Irma is now the ninth named storm this busy hurricane season.
National Weather Service forecaster Eric Blake warned: 'Irma is forecast to become a major hurricane ... and is expected to be an extremely dangerous hurricane for the next several days'
As well as marking the day when Irma could hit the Carolinas, September 10 will also mark the peak of hurricane season. On average 35 percent of storms occur during that month.
The storms also become more potent, thanks to warmer waters in the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration forecasters said the Atlantic Ocean's 2017 hurricane season will likely be above normal, with 11 to 17 named storms, five to nine hurricanes and two to four major storms.
Students at a Sydney catholic school are taking a stand against the church's staunch views on gay marriage by sticking pictures of rainbows over the crest on their school uniform.
A 17-year-old year 11 student posted photographs of the colourful political movement online - praising her peers for standing up for the 'yes' vote.
The young woman took to Twitter to share the coloured crests.
'Our school posted a statement from the bishop saying vote no for #marriageequality so we all stuck rainbows over our school crest instead,' she said.
Students at a Sydney catholic school are taking a stand against the church's staunch views on same sex marriage
They have used rainbows to cover their school crest to support marriage equality
Hours later she added more photos to the collections showing 'everyone else spreading the love'.
The first post was liked by more than 1,700 people despite the student only having about 200 followers.
On Saturday the teenager explained why she had posted the photographs.
'This little movement we had was not against our school it was against the Bishop's stance on the matter and we did it to make sure that everyone feels welcome in our school and knows they will not be judges,' she wrote.
She revealed the movement was started by some year 12 students who made the rainbows and put them on a table alongside some sticky tape and a note which read 'please take one'.
The stand happened on Friday after students saw a call to 'vote no' in their school newsletter
The rainbows were made by year 12 students and worn by most of the senior students
'I hope that you can all know we weren't trying to shame out school it was a fight for what is right against the Bishop and Catholic School Board,' a student said
'I really do think my school is a really supportive, welcoming place and I am grateful to be able to attend.
'I hope that you can all know we weren't trying to shame out school it was a fight for what is right against the Bishop and Catholic School Board.'
The initial post was met with congratulations and thanks.
'Thank you! People like you and your friends make me feel better about the world,' one person said.
'Oh you kids... subtle resistance is the most upsetting resistance,' said another.
'You are all fabulous and awesome and wonderful and brilliant! Please pass that on to all your classmates,' another supporter wrote.
This comes as the postal vote for gay marriage looms closer. Ballot papers will start arriving in the mail from September 12. Voters will have until November 7 to post them back.
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As the world holds its breath in anticipation of a possible nuclear test, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hosted a photo event in Pyongyang for a group of the country's youth troops, state media in the isolated country reported on Saturday.
The photo shoot was announced in the midst of a number of reports that the Pyongyang government is on the verge of carrying out a sixth nuclear bomb test, possibly timed to coincide with the anniversary of the founding of the North Korean state - September 9 - next week.
Kim took photos with participants in the fourth conference of 'active secretaries of primary organizations of the youth league of the Korean People's Army (KPA),' according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
According to The Korea Herald, the photo session took place at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun.
The palace doubles as the mausoleum for his grandfather Kim Il-sung and father Kim Jong-il.
The KCNA did not specify the date of the event but it's believed to have been held on Friday.
Kim 'warmly congratulated the secretaries of primary organizations and young officials of the youth league of the KPA who fully demonstrate the resourcefulness and bravery of youngsters at the posts standing guard over the homeland and at major sites for building a socialist power,' KCNA said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves at a photo session with attendants in the fourth Active Secretaries of Primary Organization of KPA Youth in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang on Friday
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hosted a photo event in Pyongyang for a group of the country's youth troops, state media in the isolated country reported on Saturday
The photo shoot was announced in the midst of a number of reports that the Pyongyang government is on the verge of carrying out a sixth nuclear bomb test
The test will possibly timed to coincide with the anniversary of the founding of the North Korean state - September 9 - next week
According to The Korea Herald , the photo session took place at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun
The palace doubles as the mausoleum for his grandfather Kim Il-sung and father Kim Jong-il of the ruling Kim dynasty
The KCNA did not specify the date of the event but it's believed to have been held on Friday
Kim 'warmly congratulated the secretaries of primary organizations and young officials of the youth league of the KPA who fully demonstrate the resourcefulness and bravery of youngsters at the posts standing guard over the homeland and at major sites for building a socialist power,' KCNA said
Meanwhile, there is keen global attention on the possibility of additional provocations by his regime.
Satellite images have emerged suggesting North Korea is ready to carry out a sixth nuclear bomb test amid fears it could coincide with the state's anniversary next week.
The overhead pictures of Punggye-ri nuclear test site, in the country's north east reveal Kim Jong-un could order a test blast 'at any time with minimal advance warning', experts say.
And there are fears that the tyrant may chose September 9, North Korea's Day of the Foundation of the Republic, to carry out the trial.
The same date was chosen last year by North Korea to conduct its fifth nuclear test, marking the 68 years since Kim Il-sung came to power.
Satellite pictures released by 38 North show minor movements at Punggye-ri - suggesting that the site remains on 'standby'.
The think tank said: 'As long as the site remains in standby status, we cannot rule out that a sixth nuclear test could be conducted at any time with minimal advance warning.'
But it added that the images do 'not provide observable corroborative evidence that the DPRK is about to conduct another underground nuclear test immediately.'
Instead, 'the DPRK has, since April 2017, continued to maintain the site at a high state of readiness such that it could conduct a test on short notice, whenever the political decision is made to proceed with another test or tests.'
It comes as tensions continued to rise between North Korea and the US following Pyongyang's test firing of a missile over Japan.
Yesterday, South Korean and Japanese jets joined exercises with two supersonic U.S. B-1B bombers above and near the Korean peninsula in the wake of the test launch.
The overhead pictures of Punggye-ri nuclear test site, published by 38 North, reveal Kim Jong-un could order a test blast 'at any time with minimal advance warning', experts say
The satellite images suggest North Korea is ready to carry out a sixth nuclear bomb test amid fears it could coincide with the state's anniversary next week
The facility in north eastern North Korea remains on 'standby', according to experts
It comes as tensions continued to rise between North Korea and the US following Pyongyang's test firing of a missile over Japan
Kim Jong-un raised the stakes in its stand-off with the United States and its allies by firing an intermediate-range missile over Japan
The drills, involving four U.S. stealth F-35B jets as well as South Korean and Japanese fighter jets, came at the end of annual U.S.-South Korea military exercises focused mainly on computer simulations.
'North Korea's actions are a threat to our allies, partners and homeland, and their destabilizing actions will be met accordingly,' said General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces Commander, who made an unscheduled visit to Japan.
LONG-RANGE ROCKETS READY 'IN MONTHS' France's foreign minister said on Friday that North Korea would have capability to send long-range ballistic missiles in a few months and urged China to be more active diplomatically to resolve the crisis. 'The situation is extremely serious... we see North Korea setting itself as an objective to have tomorrow or the day after missiles that can transport nuclear weapons. In a few months that will be a reality,' Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio. 'At the moment, when North Korea has the means to strike the United States, even Europe, but definitely Japan and China, then the situation will be explosive,' he said. Le Drian, who spoke to his Chinese counterpart on Thursday, said everything had to be done to ensure a latest round of United Nations sanctions was implemented and urged China, Pyongyang's main trade partner, to do its utmost to enforce them. 'North Korea must find the path to negotiations. It must be diplomatically active.' Advertisement
'This complex mission clearly demonstrates our solidarity with our allies and underscores the broadening cooperation to defend against this common regional threat.'
North Korea has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and has recently threatened to land missiles near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.
On Monday, North Korea, which sees the exercises as preparations for invasion, raised the stakes in its stand-off with the United States and its allies by firing an intermediate-range missile over Japan.
On Thursday, its official news agency, KCNA, denounced the military drills in traditionally robust fashion, calling them 'the rash act of those taken aback' by the missile test, which it described as 'the first military operation in the Pacific.'
President Donald Trump, who has warned that the U.S. military is 'locked and loaded' in case of North Korean provocation, reacted angrily to the latest missile test, declaring on Twitter that 'talking is not the answer' to resolving the crisis over North Korea's weapons programs.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was quick on Wednesday to stress that a diplomatic solution remained possible, but on Thursday he told reporters he agreed with Trump that Washington 'should not be talking right now to a nation that is firing missiles over the top of Japan, an ally.'
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders reiterated at a regular briefing on Thursday that all options - diplomatic, economic and military - remained on the table.
Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera spoke to Mattis by telephone and agreed to keep putting pressure on North Korea in a 'visible' form, Japan's defence ministry said. Japanese Prime Shinzo Abe said he and visiting British Prime Minister Theresa May agreed to urge China, North Korea's lone major ally, to do more to rein in North Korea.
The United States flew some of its most advanced warplanes in bombing drills with ally South Korea on Thursday, a clear warning to North Korea. Above, two U.S. Marine Corps F-35 fighter jets participating in the live-fire drill
Two U.S. B-1B supersonic bombers and four F-35B stealth fighter jets joined four South Korean F-15 fighters in live-fire exercises at a military field in eastern South Korea that simulated precision strikes against the North's 'core facilities'
May and Abe also discussed the possibility of adopting a new U.N. Security Council resolution on North Korea, a British government source said.
The 15-member U.N. Security Council on Tuesday condemned the firing of the missile over Japan as 'outrageous' and demanded that North Korea halt its weapons programmes. But the U.S.-drafted statement did not threaten new sanctions.
Japan has been urging Washington to propose new Security Council sanctions, which diplomats said could target North Korean labourers working abroad, oil supplies and textile exports.
However, diplomats expect resistance from Russia and fellow veto-wielding power China, particularly given that new measures were only announced on Aug. 5 after North Korea tested its first two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July.
A U.S. ban on travel by Americans to North Korea comes into effect on Friday, a step announced after the death of a U.S. student shortly after his release from a 15-year prison sentence in the country, where three other Americans are still detained.
China repeated a call on Thursday for restraint by all parties.
The B-1Bs were flown in from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam while the F-35Bs came from a U.S. base in Iwakuni, Japan
Defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang told a monthly briefing China would never allow war or chaos on the Korean peninsula, its doorstep, and military means were not an option.
'China strongly demands all sides to exercise restraint and remain calm and not do anything to worsen tensions,' Ren said, adding that Chinese forces were maintaining a normal state of alert along the North Korean border.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the situation on the peninsula was serious.
'The current tense situation on the peninsula isn't a screenplay or a video game,' she told reporters.
'It's real, and is an immense and serious issue that directly involves the safety of people from both the north and south of the peninsula, as well as peace and stability of the entire region.'
Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos sought legal advice about his citizenship status three days after insisting he was not a Greek citizen.
Despite making a statement saying he has never held Greek citizenship following a Daily Mail Australia report, Senator Sinodinos obtained the advice of a Sydney law firm.
The federal cabinet minister and Liberal Party powerbroker altered his Statement of Registrable Interests to include the pro bono legal advice he received from Arnold Bloch Leibler.
Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos (pictured) sought legal advice about his citizenship status three days after insisting he was not a Greek citizen
Senator Sinodinos altered his Statement of Registrable Interests to include the pro bono legal advice he received from Arnold Bloch Leibler (pictured)
'Arnold Bloch Leibler (Lawyers) provided me with pro bono legal advice as part of the due diligence I conducted to ensure there was no question regarding my citizenship status,' he wrote on August 24.
A spokesperson for Senator Sinodinos told Daily Mail Australia: 'The Minister sought confirmation through his lawyers to ensure there was no misunderstanding about his position.'
'This was done well in advance of the publication of your article. The obtaining of that legal advice was declared in accordance with declaration guidelines.'
Under Greek law, the child of a mother or father born in Greece 'acquires Greek citizenship by birth'.
Cabinet minister Arthur Sinodinos is the fourth cabinet minister to be under citizenship cloud
The NSW Liberal senator has declined to say if he renounced his Greek citizenship by descent
The law in Greece gives the child of a Greek mother or father automatic citizenship by descent
In his maiden speech to the Senate in November 2011, the Industry Minister paid tribute to his late parents Dionysos and California Sinodinos, who hailed from the Greek island of Cephalonia.
However, when asked by Daily Mail Australia, the Liberal minister's spokesman declined to say if the New South Wales senator, born in Newcastle north of Sydney in 1957, had renounced any dual Greek citizenship
'The minister was born in Australia and has never taken Greek citizenship,' he told Daily Mail Australia last month.
The spokesman declined to answer questions on whether Senator Sinodinos holds dual Greek citizenship through his parents, which would make him ineligible to sit in federal parliament under section 44 of the Australian constitution.
State of origins: Arthur Sinodinos (left) and his cabinet colleague Barnaby Joyce (right) are under a citizenship cloud
'We are happy to stand by our statement,' he said.
After Daily Mail Australia published the story, Senator Sinodinos released a statement saying that he had never held Greek citizenship.
'Categorically, I am not a dual citizen,' he said.
'I have never held Greek citizenship. My citizenship status has never been in question.
'I have recently confirmed with the Government of Greece that I have never held Greek citizenship.
'I was born in Newcastle and have lived all my life in Australia.'
However, the Greek Embassy says the children of Greek parents get citizenship as an 'inherent right'.
'In accordance with Greek Law, the Greek citizenship is an inherent right of persons born to a parent who is a Greek citizen,' its website says.
'As such, Greek consular authorities do not 'grant Greek citizenship'.'
Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce announced he was a dual New Zealand citizen from having a Kiwi father
Matt Canavan resigned as resources minister in July after learning he was a dual Italian
His NSW Liberal Senate colleague Concetta Fierrvanti-Wells, who is also a minister, told Daily Mail Australia she renounced her dual Italian citizenship in July 1994.
Unlike Senator Sinodinos, she provided documentation to show she no longer held Italian citizenship through having Italian parents.
Nicholas Venizelakos, who practises as a barrister in Athens and as a solicitor in Melbourne, said it was compulsory for Greek migrants to register their children's births with the Greek consulate, from the 1950s until the 1980s.
The Venizelakos Lawyers and Notaries principal, who has 30 years' legal experience in Australia and Greece, said it was very likely that Senator Sinodinos' late parents registered their son's birth to avoid incurring a fine from the Greek government.
'He maybe didn't know about it,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.
'Sometimes, there are situations where the kids, they don't know that they have been registered as a Greek citizen.
Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (left) provided documentation to show she renounced her dual Italian citizenship in July 1994. Arthur Sinodinos (centre) maintains he was never Greek.
Arthur Sinodinos was sworn in as Industry Minister in January 2017 by Governor-General Peter Cosgrove
'It was compulsory the Greek migrants, where they came here, they were obliged within three months from the date of their birth of their children to register them at the Greek consulate.'
Mr Venizelakos said this situation had happened 'frequently not regularly' in Australia during the 1950s when Senator Sinodinos was born.
'Many Greeks didn't know that their parents registered their birth in Greece and they had Greek nationality,' he said.
Greek citizenship can only be revoked by a minister in Greece, and parents can register the births of their children at any time after the three-month grace period.
This makes Senator Sinodinos the fourth Turnbull Government cabinet minister to be under a dual citizenship cloud during the past four weeks.
Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan quit as resources minister in late July after discovering his mother had applied for Italian citizenship on his behalf in 2006, when he was 25.
Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce revealed he was a dual New Zealand citizen by descent, from having a Kiwi-born father.
Scott Ludlam resigned as Greens senator in July after finding out he was a dual New Zealander
However the Tamworth-born Agriculture Minister has declined to resign as Nationals leader and from cabinet.
His Nationals deputy Fiona Nash revealed two days later that she was a dual British citizen by descent from having a Scottish father, but like her boss she hasn't quit the cabinet.
The High Court is determining if Mr Joyce and his Nationals colleagues Nash and Canavan are eligible to remain in federal parliament.
South Australian senator Nick Xenophon has announced he is a dual British citizen by descent
MAGNIFICENT SEVEN SO FAR 1. Scott Ludlam resigned as a Greens senator on July 14 after learning he was a dual New Zealander 2. Larissa Waters quit as a Greens senator on July 18 when she discovered she had dual Canadian citizenship 3. Matt Canavan resigned as resources minister on July 25 after learning his mum applied for Italian citizenship for him in 2006 4. One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts on August 9 referred his possible dual British citizenship to the High Court 5. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce announced on August 15 he was a dual New Zealander from having a Kiwi father - before recanting 6. Nationals deputy leader Fiona Nash on August 17 told the Senate she was a dual Brit from having a Scottish dad 7. Nick Xenophon confirmed on Saturday he had dual British citizenship from having a father born in Cyprus, a British colony when he born in 1959 Advertisement
Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters quit as Greens senators in July after learning they were dual citizens of New Zealand and Canada, respectively.
One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts' own party referred him to the High Court last week to decide if he was a dual British citizen when he nominated as a candidate during the 2016 federal election.
South Australian senator Nick Xenophon confirmed at the weekend he is a dual British citizen by descent because his father Theo Xenophou hailed from Cyprus, which was a British colony when his son was born in 1959.
However, he has declined to resign from the Senate as the High Court considers whether he can stay in parliament.
Senator Sinodinos resigned as an Abbott government minister in December 2014 after he was called as a witness to help the Independent Commission Against Corruption investigate infrastructure company Australian Water Holdings.
The ICAC earlier this month announced they had made no adverse findings against Senator Sinodinos.
The Liberal Party powerbroker, who had previously been former prime minister John Howard's chief-of-staff, returned to the ministry in January 2017.
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The man charged with starting the fire, John Ballenger (above), made his first court appearance in Butte County Superior Court on Friday
California Governor Jerry Brown on Friday issued an emergency declaration for a wildfire burning in the northern part of the state, the same day the man accused of starting the blaze was charged with arson.
The so-called Ponderosa Fire has burned 3,715 acres and destroyed 30 homes in Butte County, prompting authorities to issue evacuation orders to residents of some 500 homes in the area, officials said.
It was 40 percent contained on Friday, up from 30 percent the day before.
The blaze is burning east of the town of Oroville, about 85 miles north of the state capital of Sacramento.
The declaration will free up additional resources to battle the blaze, which erupted on Tuesday from a campfire that was started outside a designated area.
The man charged with starting the fire, John Ballenger, made his first court appearance in Butte County Superior Court on Friday, District Attorney Michael Ramsey said in a telephone interview.
Ballenger is charged with two counts of arson and was ordered held on a $1million bond, Ramsey said.
Ballenger could face up to seven years and eight months in prison if convicted.
Ballenger was appointed a public defender and is due back in court to enter a plea on Wednesday.
California Governor Jerry Brown on Friday issued an emergency declaration for a wildfire burning in the northern part of the state.
A firefighter is seen above battling the Ponderosa Fire east of Oroville, California on Tuesday
The so-called Ponderosa Fire has burned 3,715 acres and destroyed 30 homes in Butte County
The fire has also prompted authorities to issue evacuation orders to residents of some 500 homes in the area
It was 40 percent contained on Friday, up from 30 percent the day before
The blaze is burning east of the town of Oroville, about 85 miles north of the state capital of Sacramento
The declaration will free up additional resources to battle the blaze, which erupted on Tuesday from a campfire that was started outside a designated area
The public defender's office could not be reached for comment.
Ballenger was camping on property his family owns, Ramsey said.
'He had a campfire burning 24-7,' the district attorney said.
Meanwhile, another wildfire broke out on Friday, more than 400 miles south of the Ponderosa blaze, in a north Los Angeles neighborhood.
A tanker is seen above dropping retardant while battling the Ponderosa Fire east of Oroville
Fire retardant is a substance that is used to slow the spread of fire or reduce its intensity
Chemicals used to fight fires may include water, water enhancers, or specially-formulated fire retardants
The 500-acre blaze triggered the closure of a section of the 210 Freeway as it tore through brush, and authorities also told residents of 200 homes in the area to evacuate because of approaching flames, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart.
In Montana, Governor Steve Bullock on Friday declared a state of disaster due to wildfires as dozens raged across tens of thousands of acres during one of the worst fire seasons in state history.
Bone-dry conditions, high winds and triple-digit temperatures pose 'an imminent threat' to residents, Bullock said in the disaster declaration, which would allow the state to mobilize additional Montana National Guard troops and tap other state resources to combat the blazes.
Police have seized 58 goon bags destined for illegal sale in Alice Springs.
Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services posted a picture to their Facebook page on Saturday.
The image shows the boot of a blue car full of sacks of cask wine.
Police have seized 58 goon bags destined for illegal sale in Alice Springs
'Alice Springs police seized 58 casks of wine yesterday from a residence in Gillen, allegedly destined for secondary supply in and around Alice Springs,' Police wrote on Facebook.
Members from the Southern Investigations Division raided an Alice spring property on Friday.
They found the goon sacks, which had been taken out of the boxes and placed into the back of a vehicle ready for distribution.
'This is an excellent outcome for the community, as this amount of alcohol being used for illicit supply would have had an immediate impact on community safety,' police said.
Police have urged anyone with information to call Crime stoppers on 1800 333 000.
There are restrictions in Alice Springs and Central Australia around times and days you can buy takeaway alcohol.
All bags will be banned from pop superstar Ariana Grandes Australian concerts due to fears of a repeat of the terrorist attack which killed 22 people in Manchester.
Grande, 23, will be bringing her Dangerous Woman tour to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane next week and no bags are allowed to be brought in to the venues.
Fans will only be allowed to carry essential items in clear plastic bags.
Ariana Grande is performing at three concerts in Australia beginning next week
22 people died and 119 were injured during a terror attack at her concert in Manchester
Grande (right) and Miley Cyrus perform at the One Love benefit concert at Old Trafford
On the International Convention Centre Sydneys website it states the concert is strictly a NO BAG event.
Should you need to carry personal items, a clear plastic carry bag where contents are visible is acceptable.
Twenty-two people - including seven children were killed and 119 injured when suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a nail bomb as concert-goers began leaving Grande's concert at the Manchester Arena on May 22.
Grande organised an inspirational One Love benefit concert at Old Trafford on June 5, raising about $16 million for victims of the terror attack.
Ariana was joined by the likes of Katy Perry, Coldplay, Miley Cyrus and Liam Gallagher for the concert. All artists performed for free.
Grande later surprised young fans injured in the attack with a visit to Royal Manchester Childrens Hospital.
Grande organised the One Love concert to raise money for the victims of the terror attack
All bags will be banned at Grande's three Australian shows due to security fears
Australian Liberal MP Gareth Ward has refused to name the website he used to order a masseur which landed him in an extortion attempt in New York this week.
But Mr Ward said CCTV footage will clear him of any 'special massage' allegations.
Mr Ward, who represents Kiama, south of Sydney, told Daily Mail Australia he was staying at the Intercontinental Hotel near Broadway on Tuesday night when he allegedly called for what he believed was a masseur.
Australian politician Gareth Ward has denied he requested a 'special massage' while staying at a hotel in New York this week (pictured left with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian)
But what was supposed to be a moment of holiday relaxation, turned into a 'terrifying' blackmail attempt, he said.
'Look I contacted someone who I thought was a masseur and when he came to my hotel - he brought a friend - it became clear they wanted more. I made it clear that was not what I wanted and asked them to leave,' the legally blind 37-year-old said.
'They became aggressive and pulled out their phones and began recording and demanding money.'
Mr Ward said he told the men he would get them the money and took the lift to the lobby, where he told the clerk while the pair 'bolted.'
'I was terrified, absolutely terrified.'
Mr Ward said he reported the incident to police, who are now investigating.
Mr Ward said he reported the incident to police, who are now investigating. Above, a standard room at the Intercontinental Hotel
Mr Ward, who represents Kiama, south of Sydney, told Daily Mail Australia he was staying at the Intercontinental Hotel near Broadway on Tuesday night when he allegedly called for what he believed was a masseur
But what was supposed to be a moment of holiday relaxation, turned into a 'terrifying' blackmail attempt, he said (Mr Ward is pictured right)
It is believed the men asked for $1,000 in cash, according to the New York Daily News.
The New South Wales politician is believed to have told police he is afraid a scandal could hurt his chances in the next election, sources said.
Mr Ward reportedly checked out of the hotel on Wednesday.
He has said a number of times that he 'didn't do anything wrong.
'I'm just trying to hold it together, to be honest. I haven't done anything wrong. I was the victim of a crime. I know how it looks. It just wasn't the case,' he told The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Ward (pictured) said when it became clear the men wanted more than a massage, he told them he wasn't interested
There are flight safety fears after almost 100 engineers, including some Qantas engineers, were suspended over a training scandal.
The engineers responsible for making sure planes are safe to fly were caught up in the scandal at Parafield Airport campus of TAFE South Australia, The Australian reports.
One engineer, whose licence has been suspended, told the publication the failure to teach high standards has possibly endangered lives.
There are flight safety fears after almost 100 engineers were suspended over a training scandal (stock image)
The engineers responsible for making sure planes are safe to fly were caught up in the scandal at Parafield Airport (pictured) campus of TAFE South Australia
'This mess has affected lots of people and Australia is lucky it has not ended in a major aircraft disaster,' the engineer said.
Affected engineers are reportedly losing up to $1000 a week in wages and will potentially miss future job opportunities.
A Qantas spokeswoman told the publication it would not recognise engineers from TAFE SA during the Civil Aviation Safety Authority investigation, a scandal which first came to light in April after a routine audit but was not made public.
While the TAFE runs a maintenance training organisation along with three other institutes in the country, their courses outline that being an 'engineer carries a lot of responsibility'.
The investigation and reviews of all material taught to students will continue for the next few weeks.
A young child was gunned down by killers dressed in police uniforms in an attempted assassination of a Pakistani politician.
Two gunmen opened fire on opposition lawmaker Khawaja Izharul Hassan as he left a mosque today in Karachi.
Hassan was meeting and greeting people after Eid prayers when the killers, riding on motorbikes, fired a number of shots.
Two gunmen opened fire on opposition lawmaker Khawaja Izharul Hassan as he left a mosque today in Karachi
The politician, a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-P), which represents the Urdu speaking population, was uninjured.
One of the attackers was shot during a chase, police officer Pir Mohammad Shah has said.
He told Geo News: 'They were wearing helmets and were garbed in police uniforms.'
The killers were dressed in police unforms, MQM-P leader Faisal Sabzwari tweeted after the deadly attack
The killers were dressed in police unforms, MQM-P leader Faisal Sabzwari tweeted after the deadly attack.
Five people were injured, Radio Pakistan reports.
MQM leader Farooq Sattar condemned the shooting and criticised federal and provincial governments for not providing adequate security to opposition politicians despite threats from banned sectarian militant outfits.
'I strongly condemn this attack on Khawaja Izharul Hassan,' Farooq said.
'My party colleagues and myself are facing threats from banned sectarian militant outfits and other organisations but federal and provincial governments have failed to provide us adequate security.'
At least two people are suffering burns to their faces after a gas explosion at a restaurant in Waterloo.
The gas explosion happened at about 6.30pm Saturday night at a Chinese restaurant on Lachlan Street.
A 35-year-old man suffered burns to his arms and face and was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital.
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A terrible gas explosion (pictured) left two men with serious burns to their faces and arms
Two men, 29 and 35, were injured during the explosion at a Chinese restaurant in Waterloo
Roads were closed around the area, but has since reopened at Waterloo (pictured)
A 29-year-old man has serious burns to his face and right arm and was rushed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
Six fire trucks are on scene and have the blaze under control, which reportedly left substantial damage to the restaurant.
Lachlan Street, Waterloo,between South Dowling Street and Bourke Street were previously closed to traffic but have since reopened.
Four people have been arrested for abusing a 10-year-old girl who police say was dragged along dirt roads by a rope attached to a car.
The girl's mother Leslieann Raeder, 34, her boyfriend Gary Bubis Jr., 37, his sister Brandy, 18, and her boyfriend Shawn Whaely, 23, all face charges.
Police say they have been tormenting the little girl at her home in Albion, New York, since April.
They were arrested when she finally escaped to a neighbor's house this week.
The girl's mother's boyfriend Gary Bubis Jr., 37, (left) his sister Brandy Shraver 18, (center), and Brandy's boyfriend Shawn Whaley, 23, (right), are all charged with assault. Her mother is not pictured
According to sheriff's deputies, the girl was fed one meal a day that was covered in hot sauce. She had resorted to sneaking food in order to survive.
She was also made to run for the adults' amusement, Oswego County Sheriff's deputies said.
If she did not go fast enough, they would bump her with the car they were following her in or tie her to it with a rope and make her run faster, the police said.
Before making her run, the adults loaded her up with heavy backpacks - two strapped to each shoulder, one on her back and one on her front.
They allegedly kept the girl outside without access to water or a bathroom and beat her with a tightly wound newspaper if she did not fall in line with their twisted orders.
The abusive practices were passed off as punishments and disciplining techniques.
'Her offenses amounted to sneaking food, trying to get food. This is awful. This whole thing is just awful,' he told CNY Central.
The alleged abuse took place in the girl's home in Albion, New York, and had been going on for months, according to police
The adults made the girl run along dirt roads like this one, following her with a car which they bumped her with if she did not go fast enough and then tying her to it to make sure she could not stop, police said
'I still can't wrap my brain around it,' Oswego County Undersheriff Eugene Sullivan said, describing the case as the worst he'd seen in recent memory.
The girl's mother is the only one facing child abuse charges. She has been charged with Endangering the Welfare of a Child.
All others were charged with assault in the second degree. Bubis is also accused of harming a three-year-old who police say he scalded with hot water.
The 10-year-old lived in the home with the three-year-old and a 12-year-old but police say she had been singled out.
All three children are now living with other relatives.
The National Trust will publish details of hunts in the run up to a vote to ban sport on its land.
The move has angered the Country Alliance who say it will make it easy for animal rights activists to sabotage legal trail hunts.
They fear posting details of times and locations on the National Trust's website will increase the risk of violent disruption.
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The National Trust will publish details of hunts in the run up to a vote to ban sport on its land
This comes as the charity is holding its annual general meeting next month where members will vote on a motion calling for an outright ban on all hunting on National Trust land.
The motion is being put forward by the League Against Cruel Sports.
Countryside campaigners accused the National Trust's leadership of being influenced by social media campaigns by anti-hunt protesters.
The alliance's chief executive Tim Bonner told The Telegraph publishing hunt details was 'another example of an organisation that has drifted an awfully long way from its roots'.
A National Trust spokesman denied the claims and said it 'deplored' intimidation and abuse.
The move has angered the Country Alliance who say it will make it easy for animal rights activists to sabotage legal trail hunts
The call for a ban is supported by an online petition signed by 136,000 people, although nearly 68,000 are reportedly based outside the UK.
Since the ban on traditional hunting in 2004, large numbers of hunts have adopted trail hunting, where an animal scent is laid for a pack of hounds to follow.
Those wanting to operate over National Trust land are required to enter into a 'licensing' agreement.
The trust said yesterday that the terms of the licences had not been reviewed for several years and that it had 'lost confidence that everything possible was being done to ensure that the law was everywhere being upheld'.
Among the new requirements is a ban on using 'animal-based scents' in trail hunting.
Eric Taylforth, a National Trust tenant farmer in the Langdale Valley who hosts four huntmeets a year, said the website requirement would 'paint a target' for saboteurs. 'It can be very intimidating,' he said.
A National Trust spokesman said hunts had always been required to provide details of their meets, when asked, under the terms of the licence. 'The proposal to put the information in one place, where those who wish to avoid running into a hunt - of which there are many - or those who wish to watch the spectacle can find out the details, is a response to a malfunctioning system.'
Pictured: Kevin Daffurn, 30, was found dead by two holidaymakers on Friday
A British tourist has been found dead in mysterious circumstances after allegedly going on a 'carjacking spree' that forced a female passenger to leap from her moving vehicle as he drove off.
Two tourists discovered the body of 30-year-old Kevin Daffurn near the roundabout in the popular resort of Los Cristianos just after 6pm, just a day after he arrived in Tenerife on holiday.
Four hours earlier Kevin is suspected to have driven drove off in a Spanish woman's Mitsubishi before trying to take two other vehicles following a motorway crash.
Police hunting the carjacker, who fled the crash scene on foot, did not immediately link the two.
But late last night it became apparent the dead man - found barefoot and wearing only shorts and hotel wristband - was the 30-year-old father from Knotts, North Lanarkshire in Scotland.
Police have been waiting to formally quiz Mr Daffurn's two friends, who told officers he was a 'conflictive' person after drink and drugs.
A Foreign Office spokesman told MailOnline they were in touch with Spanish police and would be issuing a statement shortly.
A police source said: 'Initially when the man's body was found, it wasn't thought that it was connected in any way with the earlier incidents.
Two tourists raised the alarm after spotting Kevin Daffurn's body near a roundabout in the resort of Los Cristianos just after 6pm yesterday. Pictured above, Mr Daffurn with his fiancee
Tragedy: Spanish police say they are investing the incident after the father from Scotland was discovered dead
A police source said Mr Daffurn tried to steal a car and a motorbike, before stunning witnesses by jumping over the central reservation and fleeing the scene on foot
He said: 'Subsequently, because of the proximity to the crash scene and the clothes he was wearing, it was confirmed he was the same person responsible for the carjacking, motorway crash and two other attempts to steal cars stuck im the tailback he caused when he had his accident.
'Investigators are still awaiting the results of the autopsy but the the inexplicable actions of this man obviously give rise to suspicions that he was out of his mind on drink and possibly drugs.
'Police were told by his friends during a quick verbal interview that he was a very conflictive person after alcohol.'
The bizarre series of events began just before 2pm yesterday in the south of Tenerife called San Eugenio Commercial Centre.
A woman in a Mitsubishi was injured after leaping out of the vehicle as it was driven off by a thief who jumped into the car when her husband got out briefly leaving the key in the ignition.
The carjacker crashed shortly afterwards on the TF-1 motorway which runs from the island capital Santa Cruz to the major tourist resorts in the south.
He then tried to steal another car and a motorbike stuck in the tailback resulting from the accident, before stunning witnesses by jumping over the central reservation and fleeing the scene on foot.
The bizarre series of events began just before 2pm yesterday in the south of Tenerife called San Eugenio Commercial Centre. Pictured above, a social media post believed to be from one of Mr Daffurn's friends
Some four hours later two holidaymakers spotted a man's body on waste ground by a roundabout leading to Los Cristianos. There were no visible signs of any injury.
Initial reports in one local Spanish-speaking newspaper - when his identity was still unknown - said he had no ID documents on him but was aged 30 to 40 and could have been dead 'for between three and four days.'
Mr Daffurn had only flown to Tenerife the day before his death and is thought to have gone on an all-night bender instead of returning to sleep at his hotel.
On the evening before the tragedy one of his friends is thought to have posted a bottle of popular spirit Jagermeister.
And a family member wrote on the photograph: 'Have a great time, please come back in one piece the lot of u.'
It is not yet clear where he was intending to go with the Mitsubishi he had stolen, although he is thought to have been heading in the direction of his two-star apart-hotel near Playa de Las Americas, called Laguna Park.
The police source said: 'The carjacking and events that followed were crazy. It was like something out of a film.
The TF-1 motorway in Tenerife near to where the 30-year-old man was found dead
He said: 'The driver of the Mitsubishi had stopped outside the shopping centre and got out of the car for a moment but left the keys in the ignition.
'The woman in the passenger seat leapt out of the vehicle fearing she was possibly being kidnapped. She is Spanish. She suffered bruises and some other injuries and was taken to hospital but fortunately she was not seriously hurt.
'That happened just before 2pm yesterday/on Friday outside San Eugenio Shopping Centre and the motorway incident at 2pm.
'The tourist crashed the car, then tried to steal another car and then a motorbike and ended up running along the hard shoulder before jumping over the central reservation as traffic came to a standstill in the chaos.'
'He could have been trying to get to his hotel but at the moment it's not really clear.'
Los Cristianos, Tenerife, where a 30-year-old British man who has been found dead was due to be staying
He added: 'The dead man arrived in Tenerife on Thursday with two British friends. They will be formally interviewed shortly so investigators can try to piece together all his movements from the time he reached the island to the time he died.'
Island newspaper La Opinion de Tenerife reports the wannabe car thief pushed several bags of shopping through a womans car window as she was stuck in a tailback resulting from a crash he had just caused in another stolen vehicle - before jumping in the vehicle and sitting down beside her.
The unidentified driver abandoned her car and ran away screaming for help. She was said to be in such a state that police had to calm her down when they arrived.
The paper ran the article under the heading: Woman flees after a man gets into her car with several bags of shopping.
After leaving the car and trying to steal a motorbike, the tourist ran off on foot towards the spot where he was later found dead.
The woman who jumped out of the first car is said to have been injured in the process and was saved from being hit by an off-duty police officer.
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These incredible pictures offer an amazing snapshot of a moment in time that has long since passed.
An auctioneer discovered the 130-year-old picture album buried away and gathering dust in a house in Perth, Australia.
When he opened its fraying pages he found a breathtaking treasure trove containing hundreds of images of an unknown adventurer's travels around the globe.
They chart his journey during 1886 and 1887 around Tasmania, New Zealand, Honolulu, America and Canada.
Among the 114 prints are unbelievable scenes showing the Statue of Liberty the year after it was finished, before and after photographs of a volcanic eruption in New Zealand and the Golden Gate at San Francisco before the bridge was built.
The long-lost album was spotted by auctioneer Nick Burns and it is expected to fetch thousands of pounds when it goes under the hammer.
Incredible pictures have emerged of one man's adventures around the world - from the 1800s. The 130-year-old album was discovered by an auctioneer on a house visit in Perth, Australia. The unknown adventurer took snaps in a range of iconic locations, including this one of the Houses of Parliament in Ottawa, Canada
The photographs offer an incredible glimpse of a time gone by. Descriptions of the images and the date they were taken have then been neatly inscribed on each photograph before being placed in the album. This one, which shows elevated railways in New York, was taken on May 20, 1887
The pictures must have been taken by local photographers and would have been bought - at some expense - by the man who made the trip. This black and white snap is of Wall Street - the heart of the American financial system. It was taken in May 1887 and shows stockbrokers going about their day
The traveller remains unknown but the album contains several groups of people which are understood to include the adventurer, who is thought to have been in his 20's. This group show was taken at Manitou, Colorado and shows five smartly dressed men posed on a rock in front of a waterfall
Among the 114 prints are unbelievable scenes showing the Statue of Liberty the year after it was finished, before and after photographs of a volcanic eruption in New Zealand and the Golden Gate at San Francisco before the bridge was built. This picture, taken in January 1887, is a group shot in New Zealand
Other highlights of the album include a Maori tribe, images of Wall Street, New York, a road built on the side of a river going to Tasmania and people sledging in Canada. This picture was taken in New Zealand in January 1887. A group of smartly dressed men and women are seated in a clearing having what appears to be a picnic
The album was a family item, recovered locally, and he is believed to have been from Perthshire. Bids are expected to come in from around the world for the photographic album. This picture shows the dramatic landscape of the Yosemite Valley in California. A lone shack stands at the end of a trail in the foreground of the image
The album has a pre-sale estimate of 1,000 to 2,000 but is expected to go much higher. It is being sold on September 5, the first day of a two-day sale, at Lindsay Burns and Company, King Street, Perth. This incredible shot shows a hotel in New Zealand, before the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera
Nick Burns, the auctioneer who found the pictures, said: 'When I saw the album sitting on a sofa I instantly thought it was something interesting and I wasn't let down. The pictures are fantastic, a photographic record of scenes that are no longer there.' This image shows a tree-lined path in Honolulu, Hawaii, in April 1887
This amazing picture captures the scene in the Royal Gorge in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado. A fisherman is perched precariously on the edge of a rock, just meters away from a railway track. The snap was taken in April 1887. When the album is auctioned, it is expected to fetch at least 2,000
Men who smoke too much marijuana could face fertility problems because the drug makes sperm 'mellow' causing it to 'swim in circles'.
Cannabis - which is the most widely-used illegal drug in Britain - tends to leave users feeling chilled out and relaxed.
But now researchers have revealed that it has the same effect on sperm and regular weed smoking can cut counts of the cells by as much as a third.
Dr Victor Chow, of the University of British Columbia in Canada, said: 'The weight of the evidence is that marijuana probably has a negative impact not only for sperm counts but sperm function.'
Researchers have revealed that cannabis has a relaxing effect on sperm leaving it 'mellow' and potentially cutting counts of the cells by a third
Previous studies have shown that marijuana can affect fertility by cutting sperm count and suppressing ovulation in women.
The exact way in which that happens has not yet been made clear but the new research appears to shed more light.
But fertility problems are not the only danger of smoking marijuana.
The drug can increase the heart rate and affect blood pressure - while increasing the risk of a pregnant woman's baby being born smaller than expected.
It was also recently revealed that pot can affect the way a smoker's knees, elbows and shoulders move when they are walking.
Cannabis - which is the most widely-used illegal drug in Britain - tends to leave users feeling chilled out and relaxed (stock photo)
The study, from the University of South Australia, found that there are differences between the way marijuana users and non-users walk.
Those who smoke the drug tend to have stiffer shoulders, more flexible elbows and quicker knees - which move faster than those of non-users.
While differences in movements were detected, there were no significant differences between the balancing abilities and neurological functions.
The study's authors are calling for more research that can determine exactly how marijuana affects movements, as the drug continues to be legalized in the US.
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Violent clashes have broken out in Kashmir, with Indian police and paramilitary forces firing tear gas and pellet guns at hundreds of protesters who were throwing rocks at them.
The unrest was reported in Srinagar, Anantnag and Sopore following Eid prayers on Saturday.
The violence follows the detention of separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, who have been placed under house arrest.
It comes on the day when a 10-year-old boy was shot dead in Pakistan during an attempted assassination of an opposition lawmaker.
The unrest was reported in Srinagar, Anantnag and Sopore following Eid prayers on Saturday. A clash is pictured in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir
The violence follows the arrest of separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, who have been placed under house arrest
Police used tear gas as they were pelted by rocks, flares and other missiles as tensions heighten in Kashmir
Dramatic images show groups of youths clashing with security forces in the streets of Srinagar.
The fresh violence come a week after a day-long gun battle last Saturday, which left at least 10 dead as militants stormed a police facility in a pre-dawn attack.
The militants, believed to be three in number, detonated grenades and fired automatic assault rifles to gain entry to the police headquarters in southern Pulwama district which also houses families of some officers, director general of police S.P. Vaid said.
One police officer was killed in the initial assault, while three paramilitary troops were injured and evacuated to a nearby hospital, he said.
Kashmir has been divided between Indian and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both claim the territory in full
Rebel groups have for decades fought the more than 500,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the restive territory, demanding independence or a merger of the former Himalayan kingdom with Pakistan
The clashes are the latest in a recent spate of violence between Indian authorities and separtists
'Three more police officers and four CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) soldiers were killed later during the attack,' Vaid told AFP.
Two attackers were killed and government forces were searching for the third attacker, believed to be holed up in the compound, he said.
All the families in the compound were evacuated and the militants had taken no hostages, police said in an earlier statement.
Authorities cut off mobile internet services in the district to prevent residents from organising anti-India protests as a tactic to help the militants escape.
In recent months, residents, sometimes entire villages, have increasingly hit the streets and thrown stones at soldiers when rebels are trapped in military cordons to help them escape.
BOY, 10, KILLED DURING BOTCHED ASSASSINATION A ten-year-old boy was gunned down by killers dressed in police uniforms in an attempted assassination of a Pakistani politician. Two gunmen opened fire on opposition lawmaker Khawaja Izharul Hassan as he left a mosque today in Karachi. Hassan was meeting and greeting people after Eid prayers when the killers, riding on motorbikes, fired a number of shots. Two gunmen opened fire on opposition lawmaker Khawaja Izharul Hassan as he left a mosque today in Karachi The politician, a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-P), which represents the Urdu speaking population, was uninjured. One of the attackers was shot during a chase, police officer Pir Mohammad Shah has said. He told Geo News: 'They were wearing helmets and were garbed in police uniforms.' The killers were dressed in police unforms, MQM-P leader Faisal Sabzwari tweeted after the deadly attack. Five people were injured, Radio Pakistan reports. The killers were dressed in police unforms, MQM-P leader Faisal Sabzwari tweeted after the deadly attack MQM leader Farooq Sattar condemned the shooting and criticised federal and provincial governments for not providing adequate security to opposition politicians despite threats from banned sectarian militant outfits. 'I strongly condemn this attack on Khawaja Izharul Hassan,' Farooq said. 'My party colleagues and myself are facing threats from banned sectarian militant outfits and other organisations but federal and provincial governments have failed to provide us adequate security.' Advertisement
Security forces fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators after sporadic protests broke out close to the police facility, an officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Government forces have stepped up counterinsurgency operations since the start of the year and have killed at least 136 rebels, including most of the top commanders of rebel groups operating in the disputed territory.
Kashmir has been divided between Indian and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both claim the territory in full.
Rebel groups have for decades fought the more than 500,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the restive territory, demanding independence or a merger of the former Himalayan kingdom with Pakistan.
Tens of thousands, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting.
Kashmir Muslim protesters throw stones at Indian police and paramilitary forces during clashes in the downtown area of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir
A man with his face covered with a mask hurls a weapon at police during the violence in Srinagar today
Nine men have been thrown off an early-morning Ryanair flight to Madrid after one of them shouted 'Allahu Akbar' 'as a joke'.
The flight, which had been due to leave Zaventem airport in Brussels at 7am this morning, was delayed for several hours with all the passengers being ordered to get off after the scare.
Police have confirmed the incident to the local news channel VTM Nieuws which says the nine men were all of Belgian nationality.
A Ryanair flight was delayed by more than two hours and nine people were kicked off after a man shouted Allahu Akbar as a joke. File image
They were getting on board the Ryanair plane to head for Madrid when one of them was heard shouting 'Allahu Akbar' and indicating there was a bomb on board.
Peter De Waele of the federal police told the news channel: 'The flight commander refused to take these nine people. One of them was a foolish joker and called 'Allahu Akbar' ('God is great')'
All the luggage had to be taken off as the bomb squad was called in with sniffer dogs.
Nothing was found and the plane was eventually allowed to leave at 9.25am.
The flight was scheduled to take off from the Zaventem airport in Brussels around 7am this morning
The 'joke', said the police, had not been appreciated by either the airline or the passengers, many of whom had been extremely worried by the threat.
One of the men at least will face prosecution as it is an offence to cause a false bomb scare. A full investigation is underway and a preliminary report has already been sent to the local prosecutor's office.
A Ryanair spokesman said: 'The crew of this flight from Brussels to Madrid (2 Sep) requested police assistance after a number of passengers became disruptive prior to departure. Police removed and detained the individuals before the aircraft departed to Madrid.
'We will not tolerate unruly or disruptive behaviour at any time and the safety and comfort of our customers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority.
'This is now a matter for local police.'
In March 2016, both the Brussels-Zaventem airport and the city's metro were the subject of separate terrorist attacks that killed 32 people.
A man whose internet date turned out to be a convicted murderer has told of his horror after the naked maniac stabbed him in the neck as he slept.
Mark Cavanagh was recovering from the heartache of losing his long-term partner to an illness when he reached out to Steven Lund, 63, online.
But unbeknownst to him, Lund was a wanted man after breaching the terms of his release when he was let out of prison early after murdering a lorry driver.
Mark said he had absolutely no idea about his lover's past and said he appeared adventurous and charming, surprising him at his flat in Ardwick, Manchester one evening.
A man who thought he had met the man of his dreams on a dating website was left fighting for his life after his lover turned out to be a convicted murderer
Steven Lund (left), 63, was jailed for 27 years this week after subjecting Mark (right), 51, to an horrific knife attack in his flat in Ardwick, Manchester
But he awoke in bed to find Lund standing over him, glaring at himself almost trance-like with a knife after he had slashed his throat.
Wearing just a towel and covered in blood, Mark fought him off in a desperate struggle that ended up in a corridor of his flat complex then ran out into the street to beg for help.
A graphic CCTV image captures the extent of the horror as Mark fights for his life.
Evil Lund then calmly got dressed and walked away, leaving Mark for dead as a stranger gave him CPR.
Lund - who was jailed for life for murdering a lorry driver in 1980 in almost identical circumstances - had been freed from prison on licence but had breached the terms of his release and was a wanted man.
The manipulative liar told Mark in their online chats that his wife had died from cancer.
He said he owned a picturesque house in Ullswater, Cumbria, and drove two Jaguars - all cruel fabrications conjured up to lure loving Mark into his trap.
Mark recalled the horror and bravely revealed how he hoped to rebuild his life to one day find genuine love. He also issued a chilling warning to others over online dating.
Lund, who used many aliases and has convictions for fraud and deception, posed as 'Stewart'. 'I just wanted to see if I could meet someone,' Mark recalled.
'I think it was the first time I had decided to do something like that since my partner's death. I thought that I would give it a go and was looking for someone to commit to a relationship. I had dated but there had been nothing serious or deep.
'I remember there were three pictures on his profile. One was of him in Llandudno, Wales. I remember seeing the pier. He created a detailed back story and told me a pack of lies.'
He awoke in bed to find Lund standing over him, glaring at himself almost trance-like with a knife after he had slashed his throat
Wearing just a towel and covered in blood, Mark fought him off in a desperate struggle that ended up in a corridor of his flat complex then ran out into the street to beg for help
They exchanged messages. Lund told Mark he was 56. Mark, who works with the NHS in patient rehabilitation, said he liked him: 'He said he was outgoing and adventurous and said that he liked to go on holiday,' he recalled.
'We had chatted about his life. He said he had lost his wife to throat cancer three years ago so I mentioned my partner passing away. It wasn't about sex at all. My intentions were to find a partner and he said that his intention was the same. I thought he just wanted to meet someone and settle down. That's how he came across - like me.
'There was nothing that you could predict. I was just that unlucky person.'
Lund surprised Mark by arriving in Ardwick one night just 48 hours before the attack on December 21, 2016. They had only started to chat online days earlier.
Mark admits that he shouldn't have given him his mobile phone number. Lund continued to make contact.
'I got back from work and the next minute my phone rang,' he said of the night of the attack. 'He said he knew that I was in because the lights came on. He must have been hanging around.'
They had dinner and watched a film, drinking orange juice and coffee. 'We went to bed, had consensual sex and fell asleep,' Mark said
Mark needed 32 staples to his neck and was in hospital for two weeks. Lund fled to Great Yarmouth, where he was arrested
They had dinner and watched a film, drinking orange juice and coffee. 'We went to bed, had consensual sex and fell asleep,' Mark said.
'I woke up and it was like someone had pinched my neck hard at the back. He was stood over me next to the bed. I asked him what he was doing and he said his nails were too long and they had caught my neck. I felt a warm sensation and I saw the knife. I shouted at him and said 'what have you done to me?'
'He was glaring at me like he was in a trance. He was telling me not to panic. I got up out of bed and he had me in a headlock. He had the knife and was just slashing at my neck. I pushed him away and ran to the front door.
We started to grapple in the hall. There was that much blood that I couldn't get a grip. He put his fingers in my mouth and pulling at my jaw.
'I was naked and bleeding to death. Mark said he managed to get a towel but the attack continue and Lund said he would kill him. 'I was shouting and screaming and banging on the walls.
'He was glaring at me like he was in a trance. He had the knife and was just slashing at my neck.
It was just sheer panic.
'I did not know what had happened to my neck but I did think that he was going to kill me. Adrenaline kicked in and I knew that I had to stop him.
'I was fighting him off with the towel and pushing him back,'
Mark said that Lund suddenly went back into his flat. He took his chance and ran outside, managing to reach a Tesco store at around 6.30am where the alarm was raised and he was treated.
He needed 32 staples to his neck and was in hospital for two weeks. Lund fled to Great Yarmouth, where he was arrested.
Mark told how he's slowly making a recovery. He attended last weekend's Pride festival in Manchester but said he's still wary of others.
He called for more to be done to improve security of online dating sites and urged others to be wary.
'I was not about sex,' Mark said. 'It was about trying to find a life partner. I will just have to learn to trust again. I am not interested in seeing anyone at the moment but I hope that changes. Hopefully it will.'
Seven white balloons were released at a Sydney family day to commemorate the life of schoolboy Julian Cadman, who died in the Barcelona terrorist attack, and raise funds for his parents.
The seven-year-old's mother, Jumarie, was left hospitalised in a critical condition when the pair were caught up in the chaos on the popular tourist spot Las Ramblas in mid-August.
Staff at western Sydney's Prodigy Martial Arts in Seven Hills, where Julian trained, organised Saturday's special fundraising event.
Students released the white balloons in a park next to the martial arts centre to symbolise each year of Julian's short life. Julian's instructor, Peter Vass, released seven butterflies.
White balloons were released at a Sydney charity day to remember schoolboy Julian Cadman (above) who was killed in the Barcelona terror attack in August
The balloons were released at the family day by seven of Julian's young friends (above)
'Julian we're thinking of you and we love you,' an organiser told the crowd.
A friend of the young boy, Alex, put on a martial arts display at the fundraiser and said he felt Julian's eyes guiding him through his act, Nine News reports.
'Thank you for watching over us during our performance, everything here is for you,' he said as he gazed up at the sky.
Julian's friend, Alex (above), said he felt Julian's eyes guiding him through his martial arts performance
The seven balloons floated into the sky to symbolise each year of Julian's short life
The western Sydney community came together in the park to enjoy martial arts demonstrations, a jumping castle, food, drinks, face painting and a charity auction.
Organisers who pulled the event together in one week raised more than $30,000 through auctions and raffles.
One bidder won a date with former taekwondo champion and current Home and Away actor Jake Ryan for $550.
His involvement in the day was a particularly meaningful one, with him likening the Prodigy Martial Arts to his family, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Students released the white balloons in a park next to the martial arts centre to symbolise each year of Julian's short life
Staff at western Sydney's Prodigy Martial Arts in Seven Hills, where Julian trained, organised Saturday's special fundraising event
'I grew up with these guys, were like family to me, which is why its so important we are together,'
He was joined by his co-star Sam Frost, who said she couldn't comprehend how Julian's family was coping.
'It was such a sad tragedy, you cant help but feel awful for their family and friends,' she said.
Taekwondo Olympians Ali and Safwan Khalil, Hayder Shkara and Carmen Marton, Australia's first world champion, were also on hand to auction off training sessions.
'Its so important we show love, unity, respect and tolerance,' Mr Marton said.
Home and Away stars Jake Ryan (right) and Sam Frost (left) attended the event to show their support
Signed jerseys from Liverpool FC and the Newcastle Jets, accommodation and a luxury Sydney Harbour cruise were also offered to raise money for the Cadmans.
Saturday's event was one of several fundraisers for the seven-year-old's family with the Wiggles planning two charity concerts at the Evan Theatre at the Penrith Panthers club on September 12.
The Wiggles this week revealed long-serving blue Wiggle Anthony has a personal connection to the Cadman family.
A Facebook post from the musical group revealed: 'Anthony and his family grew up across the road from Julians grandparents and Anthony and his six brothers and sisters attended Julians school, St Bernadettes, in Lalor Park.'
Family friend Scott Bowman has also established a GoFundMe page which, as of Saturday evening, has raised more than $245,000 for the Cadmans.
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Passionate Australians wanting to keep the country's historical statues in place took to Hyde Park in protest, despite few threats to remove them.
Responding to the statues that were vandalised last weekend, 60 people marched from Lachlan Macquaire statue at Hyde Park, Sydney, to the Captain Cook statue on Saturday.
Party for Freedom president Nick Folkes told Daily Mail Australia vandalising the statues was poor taste and they wanted to bring people together to celebrate Australia's history rather than ridicule it.
Passionate Australians wanting to keep the country's historical statues in place marched in Hyde Park (pictured Saturday)
Run by Party for Freedom, the march took place through Hyde Park despite anyone threatening to remove the statues
The march was in response to the vandalised statues last weekend where 60 people marched from Lachlan Macquaire statue to the Captain Cook statue (pictured)
Party for Freedom president Nick Folkes told Daily Mail Australia the graffiti hit statues was done out of poor taste
'We don't support re-writing history, we respect our colonial heritage and no nation is perfect,' Mr Folkes said.
'The lefties, they've lost the plot ... they want to see a race war ... we've see what happened in the Islamic State, there are parallels there.'
Last week former prime minister Tony Abbott claimed statues of Captain James Cook would be torn down if Bill Shorten became prime minister, Fairfax Media reported.
'You can just imagine all the statues of Captain Cook being taken down, all the statues of Governor Phillip being taken down ... [it would be] political correctness on steroids,' Mr Abbott told 2GB's Ben Fordham.
Shouting 'save the statues' throughout the march, Mr Folkes said Australians should be proud of their heritage because you can't change the past.
'You know, should we start knocking down Roman statues because they kept slaves,' he said.
'Knocking down statues won't achieve anything.'
The people in the march used flags including the Union Jack (far left) and a neo-nazi flag (black with white circle in centre)
'We don't support re-writing history, we respect our colonial heritage and no nation is perfect,' Mr Folkes told Daily Mail
The march took place Saturday (pictured), a week after the same statues were targeted by vandals with graffiti
March was aimed at drawing attention to historical statues (pictured) which Mr Folkes said the country should be proud of
People involved in the march walked with a showcase of flags, including a neo-nazi flag and the Eureka Flag (pictured)
The protesters took to waving a variety of flags through the park including a Eureka Flag (blue with white cross and stars), a neo-nazi flag (black with white circle) and Australian flags.
The march comes a week after anti-Australia Day graffiti was spray painted onto several historical statues across Hyde Park including Captain Cook, Lachlan Macquarie, Queen Elizabeth and ANZAC Memorial.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last week condemned the 'cowardly act' and compared it to the behaviour of Joseph Stalin.
'After all contention and controversy enliven history... Yes, there are many dark chapters of injustice, hardship and cruelty,' Mr Turnbull wrote on a Facebook post.
'But we do not advance the clear eyed telling of the truth as we see it today, by trying to obliterate the reality of the different perspectives of times past.'
Statues (pictured) were spray-painted with political slogans referring to debate over the date of Australia Day last weekend
A statue of former NSW governor Lachlan Macquarie (left) was targeted by vandals as was a Captain Cook statue (right)
Mr Folkes (pictured) told Daily Mail Australia he was sick of people ridiculing the country's past, admitting while the history is not perfect a lot of good came from British settlement
The graffiti attacks came just days after Indigenous broadcaster Stan Grant called for the Captain Cook statue inscription to change.
Mr Folkes told Daily Mail Australia he was sick of people ridiculing the country's past, admitting while the history is not perfect a lot of good came from British settlement.
'It's sad it's come to this,' he said.
'We're going to follow this debate in Australia and see where it goes.'
The sister of London Bridge terror victim James McMullan has spoken out about the 'preventable' death of her brother and blasted the Government for having 'blood on its hands.'
James McMullan, from Hackney, was last seen outside the Barrowboy and Banker pub, before the attackers brought carnage to London Bridge in June.
Now mother-of-one Melissa McMullan has emotionally remembered her 'generous' 32-year-old brother.
Melissa McMullan (right), the sister of London Bridge terror victim James McMullan (left) has blasted the Government for having 'blood on its hands'
The 30-year-old said: 'All I could think was that he might have died on his own. That's the worst thing the idea that he died on his own without anyone holding his hand to tell him they loved him and telling him everything was OK,' according to the Mirror.
Ms McMullan is also very critical of the Government for its failure to prevent the deaths.
She says: 'All three of the terrorists were known to the police. James's death - all the deaths - were preventable.'
Mother-of-one Melissa McMullan has emotionally remembered her 'generous' 32-year-old brother
The London Bridge massacre mastermind Khuram Butt, 27, was indeed known by police and MI5 and in 2016 he even appeared on the Channel 4 film The Jihadis Next Door.
But in the two years before Saturday's terror attack he slipped down Britain's 3,000-strong terror watch list.
Ms McMullan added: 'I don't even see his killers as human. They were animals.'
Eight people were killed and 48 were injured after a van struck pedestrians on June 3, before the three assailants began stabbing victims in and around Borough Market.
Eight people were killed and 48 were injured after a van struck pedestrians on June 3, before the three assailants began stabbing victims in and around Borough Market
After the attack, Ms McMullan told Sky News: 'This morning we received news from the police that my brother's bank card was found on one of the bodies from Saturday night's brutal attack.
'They are unable to formally identify him until the coroner's report begins tomorrow.'
She added: 'We would like to send our condolences to the relatives and loved ones of all the people who lost their lives. Our thoughts are with them also at the time.
'We would like to thank the members of the services who did their utmost to serve and protect the population of London from these deranged and deluded individuals.
'While our pain will never diminish, it is important for us all to carry on with our lives in direct opposition to those who wish to destroy us and remember that hatred is the refuge of small-minded individuals and will only breed more.'
Donald Trump has agreed with South Korean President Moon Jae-in (pictured) to revise a joint treaty capping the development of the South's ballistic missiles
A treaty which limits the number of ballistic missiles which South Korea is allowed to stockpile looks set to be revised in response to the threat from Kim Jong-un.
US President Donald Trump has agreed with South Korean President Moon Jae-in to revise a joint treaty capping the development of the South's ballistic missiles.
Trump also gave 'conceptual' approval to the purchase by the South of billions of dollars of US military hardware, the White House said.
The South wants to raise the missile cap to boost its defences against the reclusive North, which is pursuing missile and nuclear weapons programmes in defiance of international warnings and UN sanctions.
'The two leaders agreed to the principle of revising the missile guideline to a level desired by South Korea, sharing the view that it was necessary to strengthen South Korea's defence capabilities in response to North Korea's provocations and threats,' South Korea's presidential Blue House said.
Donald Trump gave 'conceptual' approval to the purchase by the South of billions of dollars of US military hardware
The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States
Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States.
North Korea sharply raised regional tension this week with the launch of its Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific.
That followed the test launch of two long-range ballistic missiles in July in a sharply lofted trajectory that demonstrated a potential range of 10,000 km (6,000 miles) or more that would put many parts of the US mainland within striking distance.
North Korea has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and has recently threatened to land missiles near the US Pacific territory of Guam.
North Korean despot Kim Jong-un defends its weapons programmes as necessary to counter perceived US aggression
South Korea's development of its ballistic missiles is limited to range of 800 km (500 miles) and payload weight of 500 kg (1,100 pounds) under a bilateral treaty revised in 2012.
South Korea has said it wants to revise the agreement to increase the cap on the payload.
The two countries agreed to the cap as part of a commitment to a voluntary international arms-control pact known as the Missile Technology Control Regime, aimed at limiting the proliferation missiles and nuclear weapons.
The two leaders pledged to continue to apply strong diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea and to make all necessary preparations to defend against the growing threat by the North, the White House said.
The White House did not mention the voluntary bilateral agreement but said the two leaders agreed to strengthen their defence cooperation and South Korea's defence capabilities.
Trump 'provided his conceptual approval of planned purchases by South Korea of billions of dollars in American military equipment', the White House said.
Trump, who has warned that the U.S. military is 'locked and loaded' in case of further North Korean provocation, reacted angrily to the latest missile test, declaring on Twitter that 'talking is not the answer' to resolving the crisis.
North Korea defends its weapons programmes as necessary to counter perceived US aggression, such as recent air manoeuvres with South Korean and Japanese jets.
Former Colombian guerrillas who fought a war which killed more than 200,000 people are now hoping to contest elections after laying down their guns.
The former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has now launched a political party called the Revolutionary Alternative Common Force.
It marked its transition to a political party with a concert in Bogota's central square.
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The former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has now launched a political party called the Revolutionary Alternative Common Force
FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, known by his nom de guerre Timochenko (left) and Ivan Marquez attends the Constituent Congress (right)
The decision by the group to preserve its famous FARC Spanish acronym raised eyebrows, given many Colombians associate the word with decades of bloodshed
FARC ended its part in a decades-long war that has killed more than 220,000 people under a 2016 deal which granted amnesty to most of its fighters.
The decision by the group to preserve its famous FARC Spanish acronym raised eyebrows, given many Colombians associate the word with decades of bloodshed.
Whether the ex-rebels can convince Colombians, many of whom revile them, to back the new party remains to be seen.
The FARC will hold 10 automatic seats in Congress through 2026 under the terms of the accord and may campaign for others.
FARC ended its part in a decades-long war that has killed more than 220,000 people under a 2016 deal which granted amnesty to most of its fighters
The FARC will hold 10 automatic seats in Congress through 2026 under the terms of the accord and may campaign for others
Both legislative and presidential elections are set for 2018 and the party plans to reach out to ideological allies to try to form a coalition, without abandoning its Marxist commitments to land reform and social justice, the group said.
'We are continuing, via an exclusively political path, our historic goal and aspiration for a new order of social justice and true democracy in our country,' said secretariat member Ivan Marquez at a closing event for the group's six-day conference to inaugurate the new party.
'We want our ideas to be available for a transitional government of reconciliation and peace for the elections in 2018, whose foundation will be a great democratic coalition,' Marquez said.
The formal party launch, featuring musical performances and a planned speech by FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, took place in Bogota's colonial Bolivar Square on Friday in front of a crowd of thousands.
The formal party launch, featuring musical performances and a planned speech by FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, took place in Bogota's colonial Bolivar Square
Crowd members shouted 'Long live peace!' at the launch event in the Colombian capital
'Long live peace!' shouted the crowd, as FARC members on stage displayed banners reading 'Welcome to political life.'
'We don't want one more drop of blood for political reasons, we don't want any mother to spill tears because her children suffer violence,' Londono said. 'That's why we don't hesitate to extend our hands in a gesture of forgiveness and reconciliation. We want a Colombia without hate.'
Londono said the party would focus on fighting corruption and poverty, especially in rural areas, and that politics would not be easy.
'Our first step now is to present to Colombia our political party, its strategic program, our proposal for political action,' Londono added.
The FARC's often old-fashioned Marxist rhetoric strikes many as a throwback to their 1964 founding, but concrete proposals for reforms to complicated property laws could get traction with rural voters who struggle as subsistence farmers.
FARC leaders have repeatedly expressed fears that members could be targeted for assassinations in a repeat of the 1980s killings of some 5,000 members of the rebel-allied Patriotic Union party, which grew out of a failed peace process with the government.
Two doctors have been accused of sexually assaulting medical students doing placements at a Darwin hospital.
The Royal Darwin Hospital says it has stood down the male doctors-in-training following allegations from two female Flinders University students.
'There were two doctors, two incidents,' the hospital's director of medical services Alison Maclean told reporters on Saturday.
Two doctors have been accused of sexually assaulting two medical students (stock image)
'They (the doctors) were in the same division but the incidents don't appear to be related.
'At the moment we have not referred the matter to the police because we still don't have the names of the students or when the incidents occurred.'
One of the suspended doctors was completing extra training at the Royal Darwin Hospital while another had been working there for about four years.
The hospital found out about the alleged assaults on Wednesday and reported them to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
Student placements in the alleged perpetrators' division were also suspended amid an investigation.
'We're pretty confident that our culture is not something that promotes this sort of behaviour. In fact, we come down on it very heavily,' Ms Maclean said.
The Royal Darwin Hospital (pictured) has stood down two male doctors (stock image)
'We are hoping that Flinders University will encourage the students to make a referral to the police.'
The students complained to a medical insurer, which approached Flinders University.
The university said student safety was paramount, and welcomed the Top End Health Service's strong and swift response to the complaints.
APHRA said it was looking into possible regulatory action against the doctors.
Another 'sonic' attack against US diplomats at the embassy in Havana is feared to have taken place in August.
The newest incident is said to have affected another three diplomats, bringing the total number of people harmed to 19.
It comes after a spate of attacks between November 2016 and April 2017 which left 16 diplomats suffering severe health problems.
Some lost their hearing and others suffered mild brain injuries as a result of the undetected attacks which authorities fear took place at their homes or nearby.
It is not clear where exactly the most recent incident occurred.
The incident is said to have taken place in August. Pictured, the US Embassy in Havana
All are being investigated by the State Department which fears it may discover more yet.
'We can't rule out new cases as medical professionals continue to evaluate members of the embassy community,' state department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Friday.
Two Cuban diplomats were expelled from Washington after the attacks came to light.
They are feared to have been caused by a subtle sonic device which can cause deafness.
The embassy in Havana reopened in 2015 after decades of hostility between the US and Cuba.
Diplomats complained of symptoms including severe headaches and dizziness.
They are believed to have taken place either inside or near their residences.
Britons arrested during dawn raids in Magaluf which resulted in huge cocaine and cash seizures were hauled to court today.
Several women were among those led into the court building in the Majorcan capital Palma for their first appearance before an investigating magistrate.
Civil Guards aided by officers from Britain's National Crime Agency arrested more than a dozen suspects on Thursday in Magaluf and Palma.
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Britons arrested during dawn raids in Magaluf which resulted in huge cocaine and cash seizures were hauled to court today
Several women were among those led into the court building in the Majorcan capital Palma for their first appearance before a magistrate
Operation Tatum, led to the seizure of 3.5 kilos of cocaine worth around 150,000 as well as speed, cannabis resin, and more than 100,000 in cash
Of the 14 people held by heavily-armed detectives, who wore balaclavas and were supported by a police helicopter, around 10 are thought to be British.
The operation, called Operation Tatum, led to the seizure of 3.5 kilos of cocaine worth around 150,000 as well as speed, cannabis resin, and more than 100,000 in cash.
Around two kilos of cocaine were found in the boot of a car parked in a garage in Palma and more of the class-A drug was found inside a shoebox.
Police, who have described the suspects as members of a 'criminal organisation' selling drugs in Magaluf party strip Punta Ballena where most holidaymakers in the summer are British and Irish, were due to reveal more details at a press conference today.
Local reports said the gang was selling around eight kilos of cocaine a month and smuggling drugs into Majorca on speedboats they used to go to Barcelona and back in the same day.
Several people working as club and bar reps in Punta Ballena, whose job involves enticing customers in for drinks, are thought to be among those arrested.
Police allege the suspects were part of a gang pushing drugs to holidaymakers on the Magaluf strip
More than 100,000 in cash was seized in dawn raids (pictured)
Operation Tatum was linked to a major drugs bust last summer in Majorca called Operation Daju, which resulted in the arrest of five Brits and seizure of 4.8 kilos of cocaine
Luxury watches - including Rolex and Cartier (pictured) were also seized in the raids
They are expected to be remaned in custody after their hearings, held in private, pending an ongoing judicial investigation. Further arrests have not been ruled out.
Operation Tatum was linked to a major drugs bust last summer in Majorca called Operation Daju, which resulted in the arrest of five Brits and seizure of 4.8 kilos of cocaine.
The suspects held then included Nelson Delgado, 29.
The Portuguese-born DJ, who moved to the UK as a child, had sex in his cell at Aylesbury Young Offenders Institution with prison officer Kelly-Anne McDade.
The names of the British suspects (one suspect pictured) never emerged
At the time he was serving an indeterminate sentence for aggravated burglary and assault after attacking a couple in their own home.
McDade, 31, when their child was born in February 2009, had to resign after she was caught on CCTV opening Delgado's cell door when all cell doors should have been locked for the night in August 2008.
She was jailed for 30 months at Aylesbury Crown Court in November 2009.
Delgado later moved to Spain and was jailed for two and two months in August 2015 for a 2013 Halloween Night knife attack on three men at a bar in Magaluf's party strip Punta Ballena.
His brother Fabio was also arrested along with a club rep called Ryan Carl Fleming, then 25.
They were remanded in custody after appearing before a judge in a closed hearing pending an ongoing criminal probe. The names of the other Brits detained at the time never emerged.
It was not immediately clear today whether or not they are still in prison awaiting trial and how the judicial investigation against them has proceeded.
A teenager who survived a serious car crash has posted a glowing tribute to Facebook about how her makeup lasted through the horror accident.
Alice Brewer, 19, told Daily Mail Australia she survived the car crash at 100km/h leaving her car 'beyond recognition' which also 'totalled two cars'.
Ms Brewer was told by doctors the corset she was wearing saved her life, leaving her with a broken sternum and a collarbone 'pushed into the shape of a plus sign'.
Alice Brewer (pictured) posted to Facebook page, Urban Decay Cosmetics, that she was in a car accident which 'totalled two cars' but her makeup luckily survived the impact
Ms Brewer said the setting spray made her makeup 'survive better than [her] bones did'
Ms Brewer's post quickly went viral on Facebook with many people wanting to buy the product
Despite the nasty car accident, which happened two weeks before her 19th birthday, Ms Brewer shared a post to Facebook looking at the brighter side of things.
The Victorian woman shared a photo online celebrating the durability of the make-up she was wearing which 'survived better than [her] bones did'.
'I had an airbag in my face plus I have super oily skin and by the time that photo had been taken, my makeup had been on for 12 hours,' Ms Brewer told Daily Mail Australia.
'I obviously cried a lot because I thought I had killed someone and the pain was pretty bad.'
The post shared to Urban Decay Cosmetics quickly gained more than 7000 likes with many people saying they needed to invest in the $49 magical makeup product.
Ms Brewer and her boyfriend were driving to see the fairy penguins at Phillip Island, Victoria, at the time of the accident which left her suffering the worst injuries out of all the people involved.
Ms Brewer said she has oily skin, had been crying after the crash (car pictured) and was smacked in the face with an airbag but 12 hours later, her makeup was still in prime condition
Ms Brewer (left) suffered a broken sternum and a collarbone after the nasty crash (right)
'I love Urban Decay, I use a lot of their eye shadows, setting sprays,' Ms Brewer (pictured) said
With make-up that outlasts a nasty car crash, the 19-year-old's biggest tip is to ' blend 'til your arm gets sore'
Despite injuries which require surgery next week, Ms Brewer asked her boyfriend to capture the moment her Urban Decay Cosmetics De Slick setting spray outlasted the terrifying crash.
'I love Urban Decay, I use a lot of their eye shadows, setting sprays,' Ms Brewer said.
'I just hope Urban Decay send me a care package so I can conceal all my bruises and scars.'
Planning to take a gap year next year before studying to become a doctor, Ms Brewer said make-up was a hobby.
'My biggest tip is just blend 'til your arm gets sore,' she said.
Three women who were accused of staging car accidents in order to collect cash settlements were arrested last month on several charges.
Police began receiving reports back in December 2016 about the suspicious incidents that took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, and involved suspects Amanda Miller, 19, Sophia Nicholas, 28 and Barbara Miller, 38.
The trio would reportedly pretend to be victims of car crashes and lure people in for assistance, when they would proceed to rob them of money, their identity and other belongings, according to KTNV.
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On Aug. 13, police arrested Amanda Miller, 19, Sophia Nicholas, 28 and Barbara Miller, 38, for staging accidents and robbing their victims
Authorities reported at least 35 instances where the women asked strangers to exchange personal information or give them rides to a new location, when they would steal money from their car or purse.
The women would use tactics that involved one distracting a 'victim while another suspect would take any valuable items from the victim's vehicle.'
Other times, 'one suspect would damage the victim's vehicle while the victim was being distracted, or the victim would be shown previously existing damage to the suspect vehicle,' the newspaper reports.
'The suspects would then attempt to get a cash settlement from the victim on the spot. In one case, the suspects coerced the victim into driving them to another location to retrieve cash.'
The women were arrested after Amanda Miller was taken into custody at Kohl's near Charleston Boulevard and Durango Drive
Authorities reported at least 35 instances involving the trio in Las Vegas
The trio was taken into custody Aug. 13 and transported to the Clark County Detention Center for the scams.
Amanda Miller was booked on charges of staging accident scenes, burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary, and possession of a person's ID being used to commit forgery.
Barbara Miller was booked on burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary, grand larceny, and other related crimes.
Nicholas was booked on charges including conspiracy to break or tamper with vehicle and conspiracy obtained by false pretense and grand larceny.
Vicki Harris, one of the women who fell victim to the scammers, since released a statement asking others who may have been involved in similar instances to come forward.
'Do not pull over for them, and if there is any slight chance that they think they may have been hit, pull over somewhere that's well-lit with a lot of people around,' Harris told KTNV.
Harris said one of the women arrested spotted her outside the North Las Vegas airport back in May and attempted the scheme on her.
Police are looking for other suspects said to possibly be responsible for the crimes.
Authorities have asked victims or anyone with further information to contact Spring Valley Area Command Patrol Investigations Section at 702-828-2640.
They may also report anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers.
General John Kelly, the level-headed war veteran hired to bring order to Trump's unruly White House in July, may be already planning his exit strategy.
According to The New York Times, Kelly has been both shocked and appalled by his new boss's style of management and claims to have never been spoken to so badly in his entire 35 year career.
Aides have begun guessing not if he will leave but when, with some saying it could be as soon as next month.
According to those who spoke anonymously, Kelly was particularly outraged by an outburst by the president after a rally in Arizona last month.
Aides had tried to advise the president afterwards that he ought to focus less on politics and more on day-to-day governing, an attempt the president did not take kindly to.
White House Chief of Staff General John Kelly complained that he had never been spoken to so badly in his entire 35 years of service after being scolded by Trump in one bust-up last month, White House aides say
Kelly bore the brunt of his rage, they said. Afterwards, he reportedly told them he would not tolerate being spoken to with such vitriol again.
Unlike the long-list of younger aides who have been unceremoniously fired and swapped out by Trump since his inauguration, Kelly, a four-star Marine general with a stern, no-nonsense approach to public service, is in no need of career enhancement.
His decision to join the floundering administration was born more out of duty to his country than of his allegiance to the president, sources say.
Since being sworn in on July 31, he has implemented a strict new order.
Ivanka Trump now checks in with him first before going to see her father to discuss policy issues and Kelly has restricted what the president reads.
According to the Times, he has stopped Trump's daily print-out of articles by far-right media outlets Breitbart news and The Daily Caller.
Trump insists he is thrilled with his new Chief of Staff. He tweeted this on Friday, a month after Kelly was sworn in
The president still seeks advice from ousted Chief Strategist Steve Bannon but Kelly now listens in on their calls, aides claimed. The pair are pictured in January before the White House chaos began
Kelly took over from Reince Priebus at the end of July. He is seen with the president in the Oval Office on January 20
Since Trump took office, very few members of his original team remain in place
He listens in to some of the president's phone calls to friends and former aides including Steve Bannon, the Chief Strategist Trump fired in August.
There is no indication Trump is disappointed with his new Chief of Staff's performance.
To the contrary, he regularly shares plaudits for him on Twitter, his favorite medium, where he assures fans Kelly is doing 'a great job'.
Kelly, unlike almost every other member of the administration who has been fired or who has resigned, says nothing to the media.
Omarosa Manigault is said to have angered the new Chief of Staff by giving the president negative news stories which trigger his outbursts
He made a stern point of cracking down on leakers immediately after taking office, vowing to White House staffers on one of his first days in the role that it would not be tolerated.
Critics of Kelly fear he is keeping the president from taking advice from his closest friends.
Among them is Roger Stone, a long time adviser to Trump.
He told the Times: 'It is inevitable that a guy who will not be contained and does not want to be handled or managed was going to rebel against the latest manager who wanted to control him.
'Ultimately Donald Trump is his own man, and hes going to resist all the control and regimented systems Kelly is trying to impose.'
Another head for the Trump chopping block may be Omarosa Manigault, a former Apprentice star and current adviser.
Separate sources told The Daily Beast this week that Kelly is angered by Manigault's habit of giving negative stories to the president which can trigger his rage.
A new mother has endured crippling pain after a suture needle was left inside her uterus following cesarean section surgery.
Nineteen-year-old Thi Nguyen gave birth to her son, Vincent, at Fairfield Hospital in Sydney's west on Wednesday.
But following her operation, she was forced to go straight back under the knife so a specialist doctor could retrieve a small needle left behind by the previous operating team, Nine News reports.
The new mother's husband, Steven Nguyen, said he was kept in the dark throughout the procedure, complaining that none of the doctors communicated with him over what had occurred.
'No one told me anything,' he said, with him forced to wait for Thi to inform him of the situation herself.
Mr Nguyen said friends had come to welcome the arrival of his new son, and he eventually asked at reception for an update on his wife's condition.
'I've received an apology from the specialist only, but it wasn't the specialist's fault, she was the one who fixed it. But the doctors; no word.'
Mrs Nguyen is Vietnamese and therefore ineligible to have her medical expenses covered by Medicare.
And Mr Nguyen, an apprentice refrigeration mechanic, was understandably frustrated, saying: 'She could have easily recovered a lot quicker, but...it's a mess.'
Thi Nguyen was left in crippling pain after a needle was left inside her uterus following cesarean section surgery to deliver her son, Vincent
The 19-year-old gave birth to her son, Vincent (above), at Fairfield Hospital in Sydney's west on Wednesday. But her husband was kept in the dark over her going straight back into theatre
The South Western Sydney Local Health District has released a statement which clarified that the cause of the incident was in fact a product fault, and not a clinician error.
In relation to Mrs Nguyen's case, it said: 'we apologise if our communication was inadequate and we are currently reviewing this as a matter of priority.'
But the incident wasn't an isolated, with a similar situation occurring the following day to another new mother at Fairfield.
Unlike Mrs Nguyen, the suture needle was not left inside the patient.
The hospital's Chief Executive and Director of Medical Services Amanda Larkin explained: 'There was a following incident the next day, we then were made aware that potentially there was an issue with the product, that's when we took it off the shelf.'
Mr Nguyen complained that none of the doctors communicated with him over what had happened to his wife following the birth of his son
Doctor Harry Doan argued the incident could happen 'at any particular time, to any particular surgeon' regardless of their experience.
The product has been made unavailable to hospitals in the South Western Sydney Local Health District, and both incidents have been reported to the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
The Clinical Excellence Commission was also made aware and has since issued a safety alert across the State to have the 'identified batch' removed.
Fairfield has reportedly said it is open to any claims for compensation from Mr and Mrs Nguyen.
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President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump flew to Houston on Saturday morning for their second trip to Texas since Hurricane Harvey ravaged the state.
Their first stop was the NRG Stadium in Houston, where thousands are evacuating after being forced out of their homes by the devastating floods brought by Harvey earlier in the week.
Together they gave out Red Cross meal boxes, shook hands and took selfies with some of the thousands who are being forced to take shelter.
President Trump was jovial and upbeat, kissing the heads of babies and holding hands with little boys who strode up to him for a hug. Before taking their places to give out food, the notoriously germaphobic president proclaimed 'my hands are too big' as he struggled his fingers in to a pair of latex gloves.
Melania, who received criticism for the glamorous outfit she chose to travel to Texas in earlier in the week, was defiant with her wardrobe choices on Saturday.
She first emerged from the White House in a $1590 Ralph Lauren dress and $650 pair of Manolo Blahnik heels before changing on board Air Force One into a denim shirt, jeans and sneakers.
After spending time with evacuees at the stadium, the pair went on to a church in Pearland where Trump heaped praise on Texas governor Greg Abbott and congratulated him on doing a 'terrific job' since Harvey hit.
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First Lady Melania Trump and President Donald Trump disembark Air Force One after arriving in Houston on Saturday
President Trump and Melania Trump were greeted by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Texas Governor Greg Abbott and his wife Cecilia
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Chennault International Airport in Lake Charles, Louisiana, following a visit with those helping with the impacted of Hurricane Harvey on Saturday
Trump later tweeted: 'Just got back to the White House from the Great States of Texas and Louisiana, where things are going well. Such cooperation & coordination!'
'The water is disappearing, we have a long way to go, but the water is disappearing. Yesterday we had water and today it's all swept up and cleared up. That's a lot of hard working people, I'll tell you that.
'You have a great governor and a great first lady of Texas. Special people,' he said, gesturing towards Abbott and his wife Cecilia.
'They have worked so hard and the coordination between the federal, state and local governments has been terrific. We're going to keep it going.'
He strayed from the topic briefly to congratulate Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on a 'full page story' in the Wall Street Journal and heaped praise on Ben Carson for his work with Veteran Affairs.
Before leaving the church, he said the clear-up from Harvey may take 'two or three years'.
'They say two years, three years. Because this is Texas you'll probably do it in six months,' he said, winning roaring applause from the congregation.
'I think for a lot of places maybe it never gets done. I think in your case it'll get done very quicky,' he went on, adding that it was 'a real honor' to be with them.
He was joined on stage by Senator Ted Cruz, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Governor Greg Abbott and his wife Cecilia, and a handful of others.
After his speech, the president and first lady went outside to load waiting cars and vans with cases of bottled water. Trump, 71, was hands on, lugging the heavy cases from the ground to the lined-up vehicles.
Senator Ted Cruz leaned back in order to get the perfect snapshot of President Trump and some supporters on Saturday
At a church relief center, President Trump commended Senator Ted Cruz (pictured) along with Texas Governor Greg Abbott for their orchestrated response to the disaster
First Lady Melania Trump later posted photos of the day on Twitter, writing: 'Spent today with the wonderful families helping each other after #HurricaneHarvey'
President Trump followed his wife's suit later on and posted a video of his visit, writing: 'Together, we will prevail in the GREAT state of Texas. We love you! GOD BLESS TEXAS & GOD BLESS THE USA'
Trump praised Governor Greg Abbott for doing a 'terrific' job in dealing with the catastrophe
After giving his speech at the church, the president and first lady loaded supplies of food and water on to the back of waiting trucks
Melania was keen to get involved with the heavy lifting and helped her husband as they dished out supplies
The president spoke with residents as they made their way through a drive-thru at First Church in Pearland on Saturday
The president and first lady deliver supplies from the American Red Cross and Feed The Children to Harvey victims
The pair left the White House at 9.20am to make their way to Joint Air Base Andrews where they boarded Air Force One shortly afterwards.
Melania, heeding none of the criticism she received earlier in the week for wearing towering stilettos for the journey, stuck with sky scraper heels again.
She paired her snakeskin pumps with a khaki dress and wore her signature pair of sunglasses. An aide toted two Louis Vuitton bags carrying a change of outfit for her.
After touching down at Eliot Field in Houston, she emerged in a denim shirt, jeans and a pair of sneakers, adding a hat with the 'Texas' stitched on the front.
President Trump was dressed in a more weather appropriate outfit of a rain coat, shirt and dark trousers. He carried an umbrella for the pair as they made their way across the South Lawn to board Marine One.
Immediately after arriving in Texas, the pair went to the NRG Stadium where thousands are sheltering to give out food.
They went to immediately visit evacuees at the NRG Stadium in Houston where the president picked up and kissed a little girl to the delight of the first lady
He was tender in his treatment of the little girl whose beady hair bands appeared to get in his eye
President Trump greets a little boy at the NRG Stadium in Houston on Saturday during his visit to the city
The president was particularly taken with the children taking shelter at the evacuation center, paying special attention to them as he made his way around
One little boy walked right up to the president and hugged him. Trump, without batting an eyelid, returned his embrace
The president sat down with another little boy who was playing in the stadium where thousands have been forced to take shelter
Trump signed the wall with a sharpie while the first lady played with children nearby
Trump was warm and jovial, kissing babies and chatting to young children who have been forced to recuperate at the stadium with their families after having their homes wiped away by the storm.
They dished out lunch boxes containing hot dogs, potato chips and apples to lines of hungry evacuees and posed for selfies with fans before leaving the stadium to move on to Louisiana.
Before making his exit, Trump told gathered reporters that the people he spoke with were 'very happy' and said that though the hurricane itself was 'tough', the unified response of the country was 'wonderful'.
He made brief reference to his request for an additional $7.9 billion to give the victims of the hurricane.
'We're signing a lot of documents now to get money into Houston. We signed it and now it's going through a very quick, hopefully quick process,' he said.
It is his second visit to Texas where at least 44 are dead and 32,000 are in evacuation shelters as a result of Harvey which has been heralded as the worst natural disaster to have ever hit the US.
Floods have destroyed entire neighborhoods in Houston and Beaumont and Port Arthur in south east Texas.
There are areas of Louisiana which have also been affected. Local authorities are working round-the-clock to rescue anyone still stranded and recover the bodies of those who were unable to escape.
The president posed proudly for photographs with evacuees in the stadium, some of whom were forced to flee a week ago
The president and first lady sort through books and toys at the NRG Stadium in Houston on Saturday. The president was upbeat and said it was 'wonderful' to see so many Texans in high spirits
First Lady Melania Trump plays with two little girls at the NRG stadium in Texas on Satruday
The pair handed out food to a line of evacuees and took pictures with some fans who had lined up
Evacuees at Houston's NRG Stadium take photographs with the president and first lady on Saturday
A volunteer helps the first lady pack a meal box at the NRG Stadium in Houston on Saturday
Melania Trump gives out food to evacuees at the NRG stadium in Houston on Saturday
The president poses for a selfie with a family of evacuees at the NRG Stadium in Houston on Saturday
They were also welcomed by residents in one affected neighborhood which is now clear of flood water
The pair listen to an aid worker at the church drive-thru on Saturday in Pearland, Texas
Trump poses with a fan in a neighborhood of Houston, Texas, which was affected by the hurricane
During their brief visit to Houston, the Trumps also met with members of the Texas delegation before making their way to Louisiana at around lunchtime.
There, they will take part in a meet and greet with members of the Cajun Navy, a civilian organization comprised of volunteers with boats who have saved thousands since Harvey hit last week.
The couple will fly back to Washington DC afterwards and will arrive back at the White House at 9pm.
On Tuesday, Trump faced criticism for their upbeat visit to the state where he addressed a crowd of supporters in Corpus Christi and met with Governor Greg Abbott but did not visit one of the evacuation shelters in place.
He steered clear of Houston, where the hurricane was ongoing at the time, and instead went to Corpus Christi.
The president was optimistic with his public message as the worst of the storm hit. He marveled at the size of it but assured Texans the 'good news' was there was 'talent' on the ground who would be equipped to cope with the catastrophe.
The pair paused briefly outside the White House before making their way on to the South Lawn
The pair emerged from the White House shortly after 9.20am and made their way across the South Lawn, battling heavy rain along the way
Melania, heeding none of the criticism she received earlier in the week, wore a pair of towering snakeskin stilettos
An aide carried Louis Vuitton luggage for the first lady which contained her change of outfit
The president and first lady approach Marine One on the White House South Lawn on Saturday, September 2
The pair moved quickly from the helicopter on to Air Force One at Joint Air Base Andrews, battling wind and rain along the way
The president waved at gathered photographers and reporters before boarding Air Force One at around 9.30am
The first lady boarded first, giving what was likely the last glimpse of her glamorous outfit before changing on board
Melania faced criticism earlier in the week when she emerged from the White House to fly to Texas in a pair of towering stilettos. She changed on Air Force One and emerged later in a pair of sneakers
Since then, the reality of the hurricane's devastation has set in. There has been sharp criticism of the federal response to it from experts who were involved in handling the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and some fear not enough will be done to repair the damage caused.
The president has donated $1million of his own money to relief funds and the government is asking for $7.9 billion in emergency aid for those impacted.
Trump asked for the increase on Friday to replenish the dwindling FEMA fund which had an existing $7 billion. The additional $7.9 billion is likely to be swiftly approved by Congress this week.
Republicans are planning to use it as an example of why the federal borrowing limit should be increased. Democrats do not want to see the $19.9 trillion debt limit go up and say that Harvey relief money should be dealt with separately.
More than 430,000 homes have already registered for FEMA aid since Harvey hit. On Friday, Trump declared a national day of prayer to take place on Sunday in honor of the hurricane's victims.
The estimated cost of the damage will be in excess of $110 billion. Experts earlier said it could reach $160 billion.
Huge swathes of Texas remain underwater after the floods which Harvey brought at the start of the week
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A Sydney family is offering new owners of their 1960s home a $25,000 bonus if they retain its quirky pink bathroom.
The Millers are relocating to Byron Bay, but can't fathom the thought of their Lane Cove home's Barbie-style bathroom being ripped up.
They snapped up the home in 2013, with the bathroom's pink tiling, blue bathtub and sink, and mosaic floor being a major draw.
The Millers are offering the new owners of their 1960's home a $25,000 bonus if they retain its quirky pink bathroom for five years
And they have vowed to pay its new owners cash in five years time if they honour their wish to keep the beloved bathroom pink.
The three-bedroom home is set to be auctioned on September 23, with a price guide of $2.3 million, the Weekly Times reports.
But Hugh Miller, a cinematographer by trade, will be heartbroken if his treasured palace is stripped of its original charm.
The family are relocating to Byron Bay, but can't fathom the thought of their Lane Cove home's barbie-style bathroom being ripped up
They snapped up the home in 2013, with the bathroom's pink tiling, blue bathtub and sink, and mosaic floor a major draw card
He said he loved the pink tiles and he's be 'devastated' if the bathroom was demolished.
'We're hoping that if someone lives with the bathroom for five years they'll fall in love with it too.'
'I remember discovering it for the first time. It was like finding something at a yard sale just beautiful and perfectly preserved.'
They have vowed to pay its new owners cash in five years time if they honour their wish to keep the beloved bathroom pink
The three-bedroom home is set to be auctioned on September 23, with a price guide of $2.3 million
He's got a pretty big soft spot for 60's/70's Australian architecture and expressed his disappointment in so much of it being destroyed in the modern day.
'It's rare for home buyers not to tinker with something these days, which is a shame. I don't think enough quintessential Aussie architecture is being preserved.'
The extravagant offering is the first Architecture Australia director, Peter Georgiev, has heard of, with him labeling it a 'bizarre stunt'.
Mr Miller says he will be heartbroken if his treasured palace is stripped of its original charm
'I love the pink tiles. I'd be devastated if the bathroom got demolished,' Mr Miller said
Mr Georgiev said the 1960s was a particularly adventurous era for Australian architecture, and while it often hadn't been given the respect it deserved, he thought Mr Miller's plan was quite drastic.
He was skeptical of how practical it would be for new owners to keep the bathroom in the exact same state for five years, questioning what would happen if plumbing work needed to be done.
Meanwhile, selling agent Simon Harrison revealed how divisive the feminine washroom was among potential buyers.
He's got a big soft spot for 60's/70's Australian architecture and doesn't like that so much of it has been destroyed
'It's rare for home buyers not to tinker with something these days, which is a shame,' he said
He said half the people who had seen it wanted to change it around, and the other half wanted to keep it the same.
Hughes sister, Cathy, says he has always been drawn towards items of a certain vintage, Nine News reports.
'He loves vintage cars, he's got vintage fans you name, it he collects it and he feels really passionately it shouldn't be knocked down,' she said.
A five-year-old Pakistani girl has been killed after she was hit in the head by a bullet fired by Indian troops across the border in disputed Kashmir.
Villagers were celebrating Eid when the killing happened.
The victim was walking outside her home when she was hit in the head by the stray bullet.
The young girl was shot dead in Polas village, close to the border with India, by a shot fired between the two countries
The girl was shot dead in Polas village, which is at the Abbaspur sector on the Line of Control, the de facto border dividing Kashmir between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India.
'A five-year-old girl was walking outside her house when a lone bullet fired by Indian troops pierced through her head,' local government official Tahir Mumtaz told AFP.
The girl was rushed to hospital but died on the way, he said, adding that villagers held a protest rally and condemned the firing on the day they were celebrating Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice.
Another government official Sardar Sajid confirmed the casualty.
Kashmir has been divided between Indian and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both claim the territory in full.
The neighbours regularly exchange mortar fire across the border despite signing a ceasefire in 2003.
Tensions reached dangerous levels last September, with both sides blaming one another for cross-border raids.
There have since been repeated outbreaks of firing across the frontier, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries including of civilians.
In November, at least nine people were killed when Indian cross-border fire hit a passenger bus in the Neelum Valley, the same region where four Pakistani troops were allegedly killed.
Rebel groups have for decades fought the more than 500,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the restive territory, demanding independence or a merger of the former Himalayan kingdom with Pakistan.
Tens of thousands, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting.
An American firm has been accused of cashing in on the Grenfell Tower tragedy by selling counterfeit t-shirts at double the price without giving any money to charity.
Australian firm RedBubble is selling almost identical designs to the now-famous Grenfell t-shirt design created by Londoner Charlie Crockett, 34, in the aftermath of the fire.
After witnessing the horror firsthand, Charlie felt compelled to do something so he reworked one of his creations intended for popstar Rita Ora to raise money for survivors of the disaster.
Pictured: Charlie Crocketts (left), 34, came up with the iconic Grenfell t-shirt design in the days following the disaster in June and began selling clothes to raise money for survivors. But an American company has been imitating the design for almost double the price (right) with the proceeds purely for profit
But he quickly realised a US company had created a number of strikingly similar motifs and were selling them for up to 25 ($32), more than double the cost of one of his shirts at 10 ($12.95) each.
MailOnline can reveal the profits of RedBubble's clothes are not going to charity or to the survivors of the fire which claimed up to 80 lives.
Mr Crockett and others filed a cease and desist notice to stop the firm using the designs last month but haven't received a response.
A customer who bought one of the tops from the overseas company without realising complained and received a full refund.
But bizarrely RedBubble asked her to give the tee away to charity.
The real deal: Charlie Crocker was creating clothes for Rita Ora around the time of the Grenfell tragedy and tweaked the design to make the now iconic logo which has been worn by Stormzy and Simon Cowell
Mr Crockett described the firm's decision to cash in on the disaster as 'distasteful'.
It doesnt seem like there are any morals involved here, its just about making money, he said.
They seem to have gone to a lot of effort on taking out Google adverts, its not a nice way to make a living.
An estimated 80 people died in June after a fire tore through the 42-storey block on the Lancaster West Estate in North Kensington, London.
Counterfeit: RedBubble and Love and Supply has been using similar creations including the one above with a picture of the tower which Mr Crockett said they wouldn't use as it was 'distasteful' in light of what happened
'Tasteless': RedBubble's designs include the tower block with a pair of angel wings and a halo
Mr Crockett was there on the morning when the tragedy occurred and said he can remember hearing screams and cries from those inside as the police called for those outside to 'stay back'.
My mum called me at 3.30am in the morning and I jumped on my bike because I couldnt get through to my sister who lives nearby.
I tried to get as closed as I could and I panicked, you couldnt get very close because there were loads of fire engines and police shouting to stay back.
All I saw was bellowing smoke and bright orange from the flames. Luckily my sister and her family had been evacuated but with the adrenaline of it all I couldn't sleep for ages.
In the days that followed, Mr Crockett said he felt compelled to do something to help after seeing the incident turn the neighbourhood he grew up in upside down.
Anger: Twitter users have contacted RedBubble asking them to take down the fake designs but have received no replies
I was working with Rita Oras stylist before Grenfell for some t-shirts for her dancers and upcoming tour.
'I just swapped the word out on the t-shirts for Grenfell and it seemed to work well,' Mr Crockett said.
He came up with the idea of printing clothing as way to raise much-needed funds for the survivors of the atrocity which killed an estimated 80 people in June in the days following the disaster.
His now world-famous design - showing the words GRENFELL embossed on a tube sign - has now been worn by the likes of Stormzy, Rita Ora and Cara Delevingne.
The shirts are priced at 10 and sold on Mr Crockett's website. He said all of the proceeds go directly to charity.
Mr Crockett said his message to the people at RedBubble is: Isnt there a better way of making money? I dont think those people care so much.
There are lots of betters ways in this world to get rich without selling counterfeit charity t-shirts, its pretty low.
One Airbnb host truly pushed the bounds for a tight fit.
New York City is fining a landlord $11,000 after a tenant in his Bushwick, Brooklyn building allegedly crammed 34 guests into nine rooms.
George Lebovits of Monsey, New York, bought the unit - that houses three families - last year and told the New York Post that he was renting the building to a friend of his son, Erika, on a month-by-month basis.
New York City is fining a landlord $11,000 after a tenant in his Bushwick, Brooklyn building allegedly crammed 34 guests into nine rooms
George Lebovits of Monsey, New York, bought the unit - that houses three families - last year and told the New York post that he was renting the building to a friend of his son, Erika, on a month-by-month basis
Erika has been listing the place on Airbnb charging guests $85 to $115 a night to stay in a 'beautiful apartment in the heart of Brooklyn,' in 11 post. That amounts to up to $3910 a day.
Every room in the apartment was furnished with bunk beds and mattresses on the floor and fit approximately three to five people in a room, according to the listings.
An inspection from the mayor's Office of Special Enforcement found '34 short-term guests in nine furnished rooms,' on Monday.
Erika has been listing the place on Airbnb charging guests $85 to $115 a night to stay in a 'beautiful apartment in the heart of Brooklyn,' in 11 post
Every room in the apartment is furnished with bunk beds and mattresses on the floor and fit approximately three to five people in a room, according to the listings
New York City issued six violations for overcrowding, lack of sprinkler, and more. The Department of Buildings then declared a 'full vacate order' on the building
New York City issued six violations for overcrowding, lack of sprinkler, and more. The Department of Buildings then declared a 'full vacate order' on the building.
The 68-year-old landlord said to the New York Post he 'no idea she was doing something that's illegal,' and plans to demolish the property after he padlocked it.
Fines could reach up to $54,200, which there is a hearing for to determine the amount.
Airbnb have been locked in a battle with New York City and hotel associations about what is being called illegal rentals.
The company released a statement to DailyMail.com condemning the host's action.
'There is nothing more important to us than the safety of our hosts and guests. This host and listing have been permanently banned from our platform,' they said in the statement.
'All hosts, whether they are a home-owner or an official bed and breakfast, must affirm that they follow all safety laws and regulations.'
A female shopper has captured the moment when two families fight over an outdoor furniture which was offered during a sale.
The brawl was recorded at Melbourne Aldi supermarket at Plenty Valley in South Morang just before 8.30am on Saturday by a bystander named Maria.
Both families were fighting over a three-seat corner wicker sofa which cost $349 per set.
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A female shopper has recorded two families fighting over furniture at Melbourne Aldi
The $349 three seat sofa was a hit among shoppers who didn't know the store had more sets
'There was a lot of swearing and they were saying: 'I was here first, it's mine',' Maria told 7 News Online.
The 0.38 video starts with people rushing into the store as soon as it opens.
It then moves on to a group of shoppers crowding each other at the outdoor furniture section.
'I was here at seven, on my own,' a woman yells out.
Maria told the website that the fight was pointless as there were more sets of that particular sofa held at the back of the store.
She added that the fight ended as soon as the manager intervened and told the both sides to leave the premise if they wanted to continue on.
They were fighting to get their hands on the three-seat corner wicker sofa which was on sale
The manager of the Aldi store finally steps in to break the fight between the two families
Ambitious plans to create a high-speed 'flying train' in China have been unveiled - but experts have voiced their skepticism.
The idea has been put forward by The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, which says the trains will have a top speed of 2,500mph - three times the speed of sound.
Under the plans, the South China Morning Post reports, capsules will fly along reduced-pressure tubes.
The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation says the trains will have a top speed of 2,500mph - three times the speed of sound
Professor Zhao Jian, from the Beijing Transport University, told the publication that the human body would only be able to cope with the speeds for a short time, and said: 'In that case, are the passengers going to be astronauts only?'
And one Weibo user, quoted by the South China Morning Post, joked: 'Can the government please invent technology to solve traffic jams first? It takes me an hour to drive from the fifth to the third ring road.'
In an editorial piece in state-owned newspaper The Paper, the company behind the plans wrote: 'The corporation has built rich experience and accumulated technological know-how through major projects, and it has the capabilities in simulation, modelling and experimentation for large-scale projects, as well as the world-class design capability for supersonic aircraft, all of which lay the important ground for the super-fast train project.'
The trains are set to rival the Hyperloop concept put forward by Elon Musk, which would see trains without wheels propelled by air, and is mooted to have a top speed of 700mph.
Passengers screamed in horror as punches were thrown on a plane after a 'mortal drunk' woman started 'kicking off'.
In a video of the brawl, men and women aboard the Newcastle to Alicante Ryanair flight can be seen scrapping over the tops of seats.
Arms can be seen flailing in both directions as fellow passengers attempt to stop the unseemly fracas.
In a video of the brawl, men and women aboard the Newcastle to Alicante Ryanair flight can be seen scrapping over the tops of seats
Arms can be seen flailing in both directions as fellow passengers attempt to stop the unseemly fracas
The woman who recorded the video - 30-year-old Lucy Norris from Blyth - told The Mirror that the plane was just about to land when a passenger began 'kicking off'.
She added: 'She was shouting, screaming and making a show of herself. She had been rude to a few people on the flight and I think she was mortal drunk.'
As the conflict went on, other passengers could be heard shouting at the belligerents to calm down.
One man screams 'Ow, man' while what appears to be a flight attendant intervenes to end the violence.
Because the flight took off at just 10.55 in the morning on Thursday, Ryanair said it justifies the airline's call for changes to the sale of alcohol at airports.
The firm's head of communications, Robin Kiely, said it was important to introduce a two-drink limit for each passenger and also a ban on alcohol sales before 10am.
Ryanair said the fight justifies the airline's call for changes to the sale of alcohol at airports. The firm's head of communications, Robin Kiely, said it was important to introduce a two-drink limit for each passenger and also a ban on alcohol sales before 10am
He added: 'It's incumbent on the airports to introduce these preventative measures to curb excessive drinking and the problems it creates, rather than allowing passengers to drink to excess before their flights.'
Mr Kiely also said that the aircraft landed on time and one passenger was met by police on the ground after flight crew reported the disturbance.
The passenger has been banned from flying with Ryanair.
The American Association of Retired Persons suggests the average working American accumulate 10 to 12 times their current annual income by the time of retirement.
Likewise, the organization says people should aim toward a goal of $1 million or more in savings in order to live comfortably after they discontinue work.
Retirees should have 'at least 100 percent of their pre-retirement income each year for at least the first 10 years after,' managing principal at EisnerAmper Wealth Advisor, Dan Yu, said in a statement.
While the numbers may seem daunting in the big picture, experts say the goal may be achievable if people are responsible with their finances and plan for their future.
With average target savings being $1million, how long should retirees expect the money to last?
Here's how long the average target retirement savings of $1million can last in different states
The American Association of Retired Persons suggests the average working American accumulate 10 to 12 times their current annual income by the time of retirement
GoBankingRates.com calculated the predictions by averaging the total needed expenditures for retirees aged 65 and up. From there, they multiplied that number by the living index cost for each region to give a careful estimate.
Here's what the report showed:
California
$1 million will last: 16 years, 5 months
New York
$1 million will last: 17 years, 1 month
Connecticut
$1 million will last: 17 years, 4 months
Oregon
$1 million will last: 17 years, 7 months
New Jersey
$1 million will last: 18 years, 6 months
New Hampshire
$1 million will last: 19 years
Washington
$1 million will last: 21 years, 1 month
Pennsylvania
$1 million will last: 21 years, 11 months
Colorado
$1 million will last: 22 years
South Carolina
$1 million will last: 22 years, 3 months
Illinois
$1 million will last: 23 years, 1 month
Arizona
$1 million will last: 23 years, 2 months
Wisconsin
$1 million will last: 23 years, 3 months
West Virginia
$1 million will last: 23 years, 6 months
Montana
$1 million will last: 22 years, 10 months
Utah
$1 million will last: 23 years, 10 months
Louisiana
$1 million will last: 23 years, 10 months
Ohio
$1 million will last: 24 years, 2 months
Kansas
$1 million will last: 24 years, 7 months
Alabama
$1 million will last: 24 years, 9 months
Texas
$1 million will last: 24 years, 9 months
Florida
$1 million will last: 22 years, 4 months
Arkansas
$1 million will last: 25 years, 6 months
Michigan
$1 million will last: 25 years
Mississippi
$1 million will last: 26 years, 4 months
A Home Office employee who allegedly assaulted detainees at a G4S-run immigration centre has been suspended.
The private security firm said yesterday nine of its staff had been suspended pending an investigation into Panorama allegations.
The BBC show spoke of 'chaos, incompetence and abuse' at the Brook House Immigration Removal Centre near Gatwick Airport in west Sussex, where drugs are allegedly 'rife'.
Undercover filming from Panorama revealed what conditions at Brook House are like as it faces accusations of not treating detainees with dignity
Now sources confirmed that a Home Office worker has also been suspended while allegations are investigated.
A Home Office spokesman said: 'We condemn any actions that put the safety or dignity of immigration removal centre detainees at risk.
'We are clear that all detainees should be treated with dignity and respect and we expect G4S to carry out a thorough investigation into these allegations and that all appropriate action be taken.'
Panorama claims to have undercover footage showing officers 'mocking, abusing and even assaulting detainees' at the facility.
A Home Office worker has been suspended after accusations of abuse, assault and mocking of detainees at this immigration removal centre
The centre is one of two run by the private security firm, which also runs five prisons in England and Wales
Brook House, which can hold 508 adult men, is one of two G4S immigration centres in the UK.
Some men had been held there for more than two years in 'stark and impersonal' residential units with unsatisfactory sanitary facilities, the latest inspection revealed.
But overall the report by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Peter Clarke in March said it was an 'encouraging' inspection.
Detainees have complained of 'stark and impersonal' conditions in the residential units
The BBC went undercover to film in Brooke House, which stands accused of having unsatisfactory sanitary facilities
It is the latest in a number of scandals to hit the security company, which is also runs five prisons in England and Wales.
Panorama uncovered alleged abuse and mistreatment of youngsters at a G4S youth detention centre in Kent last year.
Young inmates being allowed to watch sexually explicit content on television at Medway Secure Training Centre resulted in an inadequate Ofsted rating.
Riots hit HMP Birmingham, also run by G4S, in December 2016, and were some of the worst in a UK jail in years.
The Panorama episode is due to air on BBC One at 9pm on Monday.
The single largest Lego set ever sold just so happens to be from a galaxy far, far away.
A newly updated Ultimate Collectors Series Millennium Falcon Lego ship hold 7,541 pieces with a staggering $800 price tag. It is also the single most expensive set the company has ever sold.
The ship is incredibly detailed too. It comes with swappable deflector dishes that match with the original trilogy and Force Awakens variants of the ship.
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A newly updated Ultimate Collectors Series Millennium Falcon Lego ship hold 7,541 pieces with a staggering $800 price tag
It is also the single most expensive set the company has ever sold
Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels and Peter Mayhew all on the Falcon
An original model of the Millennium Falcon
The highly decorated model also includes accurate interior sections to show just how crucial each piece is.
10 Lego figurines - Han Solo, C-3P0, Leia, Chewbacca, BB-8, Old Han, Finn, Rey, and two porgs - are included in the set, allowing hopefuls with the ability to have original characters and current ones from the saga on the ship.
The heads of the original Han and Leia also come with a variant look with air respirators, perfect for re-creating scenes like the mynock - a lego mynock is included - attack in Empire Strikes Back.
The ship is incredibly detailed too. It comes with swappable deflector dishes that match with the original trilogy and Force Awakens variants of the ship
10 Lego figurines - Han Solo, C-3P0, Leia, Chewbacca, BB-8, Old Han, Finn, Rey, and two porgs - are included in the set, allowing hopefuls with the ability to have original characters and current ones from the saga on the ship
Lego also announced on Thursday that they were also selling a 1,106-piece Lego BB-8 model, which comes out on September 1st for $99.99
Only costing $500, the original deluxe Falcon set that was released in 2007 had only 5,195.
And while the Ultimate Collectors Series model eventually discontinue, the Falcon is still heavily sought and cost between $2,000 to $3,000.
Lego also announced on Thursday that they were also selling a 1,106-piece Lego BB-8 model, which comes out on September 1st for $99.99.
The maker of a much ridiculed $400 juicer is apparently partying away at the 'Burning Man' festival in Nevada as his business said it was preparing to lay off employees and shutter its doors for good.
A spokesperson for Juicero said in a statement Friday that the company will be 'suspending the sale of the Juicero Press and Produce Packs immediately' and offering customers a full refund, according to online publication Eater.
The product, which can be controlled remotely through wifi, was originally priced at $700.
Doug Evans (pictured) parties at Burning Man in Balck Rock Desert, Nevada as his company closes for business
His company, called Juicero, was ridiculed on the Internet for selling a $400 juicing machine
Founder of the Silicon Valley start-up Doug Evans, meanwhile, was pictured at Black Rock Desert partying it up at the Burning Man art and music festival in Nevada, which is scheduled to run until September 4.
In an Instagram message, Evans posted a picture of an unidentified man holding a flame propelled instrument, with the caption 'Fire breathing bike dragon' written to the side.
In another message, Evans posted a picture of a man 'disappearing into a windstorm,' due to to heavy sand gusts that covered the festival in dust earlier this week.
Bay area venture capitalists invested over $120 million into the idea, hailing the machine as the 'Keurig for juice.'
But the product came under scrutiny earlier this year when consumers discovered they could simply use their hands to squeeze juice out of a bag instead of putting it through the $399 Juicero machine.
The Juicero is a machine that squeezes packets of pre-cut produce to make healthy juices.
Juiceo told employees it would be going out of business in statement published on Friday
The company became an object of ridicule for its expensive price and the fact that customers could squeeze the juice by hand
Venture capitalist in the Bay area of northern California sunk a $120 million into the product
The packets ranged in price from $5 to $8 and could not be purchased unless customers already owned a Juicero machine, which costs $399.
In a last ditch effort to save the company earlier this year, Juicero executives vowed to make a cheaper version of the product
But a test by Bloomberg showed that squeezing the packets by hand was nearly just as effective - and actually faster - than using the machine.
Reporters were able to wring out 7.5 ounces of juice from the packets in a minute and a half while the machine squeezed out 8 ounces in two minutes.
Soon after Bloomberg published its findings, the company became a social media punch line, being ridiculed for its extravagant pricing.
In a last ditch effort to save the company earlier this year, Juicero executives vowed to make a cheaper version of the product, saying that the price for the machine and packets were 'not realistic,' according to Fortune Magazine.
The company subsequently fired 25 per cent of their sales and marketing team in July.
The company also said in the statement that they wanted 'to express the deepest gratitude to our employees who have poured their hearts and souls into developing, launching and growing Juicero over the past 3 years.'
It was Prince Harrys birthday surprise for his girlfriend Meghan Markle a romantic trip to a secret hideaway with a stunning view of the African bush, overlooking the sparkling Boteti river.
On Meghans first-ever wildlife safari, the couple watched the sun set behind a spectacular vista of acacia thorn trees and green-backed herons fishing in the river.
The pair were photographed last month as they arrived at Maun airport in Botswana, smiling excitedly as they crossed the tarmac, Harrys arm affectionately around his girlfriends shoulder.
The Royal couple stayed at Meno a Kwena, where Harry brought his first love back in 2007
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After that the lovebirds disappeared from the public gaze, but The Mail on Sunday can reveal they headed straight for the exclusive Meno a Kwena tented bush camp, a two-hour drive east of the airport.
Harry, 32, had chosen his beloved Botswana for this special visit, not only to celebrate Meghans 36th birthday but also to mark their first year together. The fact that he chose a country which holds such a special place in his heart will fuel speculation that he may have decided to propose to Meghan on the trip.
After confirming the couple had stayed there, we booked in to the 650-a-night camp, to see what it was like.
There are few more romantic destinations in the world. We were told that one of the first sights that greeted Harry & Meghan was a herd of dozens of zebra appearing in front of their luxury tent, cooling themselves in the water.
Harry first visited the country when he was just 13, two months after his mother Diana died, and has made many return visits. In January he agreed to become patron of Rhino Conservation Botswana. At the time he said: Ive been lucky enough to visit Botswana for more than 20 years and Im fortunate to be able to call it my second home.
Bush camps such as Meno a Kwena around the Maun area are popular with glamping tourists en route to the Okovango Delta region, rich in wildlife. Driving Meghan from the airport with his bodyguard on the eve of her August 4 birthday, Harry kept their destination a mystery to the end, promising only that it would be unforgettable.
The secret love shack where the pair stayed overlooked the Boleti River in Botswana
Meghan would have had her first surprise at a roadblock where all travellers must get out of their vehicles and walk across a disinfectant mat to protect the area from foot-and-mouth disease.
At Meno a Kwena, where the Prince is known so well that all the African staff call him by his first name, the pair had a light lunch on arrival, then headed to their tent.
From their luxury accommodation they were able to watch the wildlife at close quarters. They called for room-service dinner and drinks to enjoy under the stars, away from the other guests at the camp, and also breakfasted in their quarters, soon after sunrise.
Harry and Meghan mingled with staff at the camp and walked hand-in-hand up the sandy path
They greeted the staff and enjoyed lunch with a glass of wine, one observer told us. Later they went up the sandy path away from the main camp, hand-in-hand, to their prime spot overlooking the river.
Harry was widely expected to propose during their three-week holiday in Africa, but it is not yet known if that happened, or if he has sought consent from the Queen.
Harry brought his first love, Chelsy Davy, to the same camp in 2007 when they slept under the stars and took game drives through the Central Kalahari reserve.
On this latest trip, Harry did not take advantage of the sunset river cruises, game drives, or sessions on the camps floating hide, all of which are all on offer to guests in the nine tents.
Tent Five at the resort, containing a day bed and outdoor shower overlooking the Boteli River
The staff had arranged for Harry and Meghan to stay in safari tent 5, with its king-size bed, open-air shower and hand-carved furniture. Teak chests and explorers trunks dotted the bedroom, with kilim rugs on the floor.
But its biggest attraction is the spectacular veranda offering a breathtaking view of a broad bend in the Boteti river where elephant, zebra and wild buck come to drink each evening.
The river had been dry for more than 20 years, but came teeming back to life in 2008 when millions of gallons of water came gushing through from the Okovango Delta due to a shift in tectonic plates.
Harry visiting the resort with his then girlfriend Chelsy Davy, who is pictured hugging him after he landed at the camp
Harry has witnessed the extraordinary change for himself. On his earlier visits to Meno a Kwena the name means teeth of the crocodile he was told how water pumps had been installed to help keep wildlife alive.
But now the river is a mighty sweep of running water again as Harry and Meghan would have witnessed as they ate supper on the veranda, with its dining table, buckskin rugs and day-bed offering a comfortable vantage point
At night, lions roared close by, and on Meghans birthday she woke at dawn to a noisy orchestra of pied kingfishers and barred owls and the sight of the spectacular African fish eagle swooping on its prey. Its the mating season for all our birds, explained a source. That makes it very noisy to wake up to we hope they didnt mind too much.
The couple stayed only one night at Meno a Kwena, leaving mid-morning for the Okavango Delta.
The NHS has covered up thousands of suspect deaths in hospitals across England, sparking calls for an urgent inquiry, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
According to the expert who helped to expose the Mid-Staffordshire hospitals scandal where hundreds died due to poor care health chiefs have systematically excluded up to 19,000 unexpected deaths from official statistics over the past five years.
Professor Sir Brian Jarman says his shocking findings mean there are dozens of potentially unsafe hospitals that should be investigated over high death rates, but which are being overlooked.
Last night, Liberal Democrat Health spokesman Norman Lamb demanded that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt look into the claims as a matter of urgency.
Mr Lamb, who was a Health Minister in David Camerons Coalition Government, said: These revelation are deeply disturbing. I am writing to Jeremy Hunt and to NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens asking for Prof Jarmans analysis to be assessed as a matter of urgency and for a full response to be provided.
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The NHS method classifies just ten trusts in England (shown in blue) as having death rates above the expected range in 2016. But under Prof Jarman's analysis, another 24 (in red) should also be classified as having high mortality rates
Why these hospitals should be investigated over 'avoidable' fatalities His familys lawyer described the death of Kayden Urmston-Bancroft (pictured) as entirely preventable Avoidable death #1 Little Kayden Urmston-Bancroft died of a heart attack last year after doctors at a hospital where death rates are now under scrutiny failed to operate on him for three days. His familys lawyer described Kaydens death as entirely preventable. The 20-month-old had a life-threatening hernia and was due to have an operation to rectify the problem after being admitted to Royal Manchester Childrens Hospital, above, in April 2016. His grandmother, Julie Rowlands, claimed Kayden was put in a room and left. He subsequently went into cardiac arrest and died two days later. All we got, nearly every day, was, Hes not having the operation today, she said. Surgeons claimed managers had prioritised hitting waiting-time targets for pre-planned operations over emergency care. The Trust has been ranked as having normal death rates for the past five calendar years. But under Prof Jarmans analysis, it should have been classed as having high death rates in 2012 and 2016. 'Brilliant mum': Deborah O'Hara with her daughter Caitlin, now 22 Avoidable death #2 When mother-of-three Deborah OHara died in June 2015, three days after a cancer operation at University Hospital Coventry one those highlighted by Professor Jarman her husband Andy believed his wife had been the victim of tragic bad luck. But the 45-year-olds untimely death had been caused by a surgical error, which hospital bosses neglected to reveal to Mr OHara or the coroner. He found out three months later when told by journalists. Mrs OHaras death came when the NHS Trust which runs the hospital was classed as having an expected mortality rate. However, under Prof Jarmans analysis, it should have been ranked as having a higher than expected death rate. During the six-hour operation, consultant urologist Dr Andrew Blacker mistakenly clamped a large artery, causing a lack of blood supply to Mrs OHaras bowel. At her inquest last December, Mr OHara said he and his family had lost a lovely wife and a brilliant mum. The Trust apologised to the family. Advertisement
The concern is that, if Prof Jarman is right, possible causes of unexpected deaths will go unnoticed, leaving NHS patients unacceptably at risk.
Prof Jarman reached his alarming conclusions after studying official hospital death rate figures using an internationally accepted method a method used as standard in health systems across Europe and the United States.
He calculated that there were 32,810 unexpected deaths in English hospitals over the past five years. But using the NHSs preferred method, only 13,627 were classed as such a difference of 19,183 deaths.
In addition, the method Prof Jarman used, which is recommended by the UKs Association of Public Health Observatories, classified 34 hospital trusts across England responsible for 87 acute and community hospitals as having significantly high death rates last year. By contrast, the NHS method counted just ten trusts, covering 18 hospitals, as having death rates above expected levels.
When Prof Jarman raised concerns about the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust in 2007, he was ignored by the Department of Health but it became one of the most shocking NHS scandals in history.
Now he says NHS officials are fudging the figures, resulting in potentially fatal problems on hospital wards being ignored. He added: If you use internationally accepted criteria, then 34 hospital trusts have high death rates.
But because the NHS is using what might be called a fudge factor, they are only identifying ten.
As a result, we dont know if anybody is taking any notice of these other 24 potentially unsafe hospital trusts. This is worrying because there might be serious clinical problems, and issues with patient safety, that are not being addressed.
Prof Jarman said the NHS had used the internationally recognised system, called Byars confidence intervals, in the past.
Until January 2012 it was used in tandem with another method called overdispersion which aims to give hospital trusts more leeway before being classed as having high death rates. But the Byars method was then dropped, with bosses at NHS Digital, the Health Services statistics body, saying it was confusing to have two systems running at once.
They chose the overdispersion method which results in far fewer hospital trusts being classed as having significantly high death rates. Under that system, a trust is regarded as having a high death rate only if its measure, called the Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator, or SHMI, is about 12 per cent or more above the national average.
In contrast, the Byars method, which Prof Jarman applied, is much stricter, classing anything with a SHMI of more than six or seven per cent above the national average as significantly high.
Disturbing parallels with the Mid-Staffs scandal Investigator: Sir Brian Jarman Ten years ago Professor Sir Brian Jarman, sent a series of mortality alerts to health bosses about what was then a little-known part of the NHS in the middle of England. Its name? Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust. He and his colleagues at the Dr Foster Intelligence Unit were concerned that death rates at Mid-Staffs, as it became known, were considerably higher than average. How much higher? About 27 per cent. When we published that, the Department of Health insisted that people take no notice of our data, Prof Jarman recalled last night. We asked them, Why not?, but we never got a proper explanation. But he and his team were on to something big. Soon afterwards, personal reports of the shocking care that patients at Stafford Hospital had received started emerging. Added to the death rate data, the reports led to an investigation by the Healthcare Commission, the watchdog at the time. Its report, and subsequent official inquiries, revealed a culture pervading all levels of the Health Service, where criticism of the NHS was ignored or suppressed with lethal consequences. Advertisement
NHS bosses argued the approach they chose was the more suitable of the two, as it better reflected the difficulties in comparing death rates among hospitals which serve very different areas.
Some serve populations that are poorer and sicker than others, meaning that if the quality of hospital care is the same they are likely to have higher death dates.
Hospital mortality rates are adjusted to take into account these underlying demographic differences, to create a level playing field. However, NHS Digital argues that these differences produce so much statistical noise, that many more hospital trusts need to be given the benefit of the doubt.
Prof Jarman said: I object to the system NHS Digital is using, because they are applying a method which really just reduces the number of high death rate hospital trusts. He claimed even advocates of the NHS approach admitted it was not based on hard science.
And he said that if a trust was reclassified as having a normal death rate, then hundreds of deaths previously classed as unexpected would suddenly be recast as normal too.
Worryingly, Prof Jarmans painstaking research shows a clutch of hospital trusts with consistently high death rates are flying just below NHS Digitals radar.
Among them is United Lincolnshire NHS Trust, officially categorised as having a high death rate in 2015 only during the five-year period from 2012 to 2016. But under the Byars system it would have been marked as a high death rate trust in four of those five years. United Lincolnshire, which runs four hospitals in Lincoln, Grantham, Boston and Louth, was put in special measures for an unprecedented second time in April, after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found a deterioration across a number of services.
Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, officially rated normal in four of the five years, would instead have been classed as high in all five years under the Byars method.
The latest CQC reports for this trust, published in July 2015, gave it a requires improvement notice the second lowest ranking after inadequate.
Last night Shadow Health Minister Justin Madders urged hospitals to be open with their patients about the quality of services.
He said: Jeremy Hunt has claimed transparency as his watchword. He ought to do much more to reassure the public that safety and quality at every local hospital is as good as it can possibly be.
But Professor David Spiegelhalter, president of the Royal Statistical Society, defended NHS Digitals approach. Prof Spiegelhalter, who was a member of the team that selected overdispersion, said it rightly gave some additional leeway to hospitals, to allow for the inevitable problems of fairly comparing mortality rates.
He added: The formulaused to calculate mortality rates is meant to take into account all the real-life differences between populations served by different hospitals, such as age and degree of illness. But it can never do that perfectly.
Ignoring these comparison problems, as Prof Jarmans system did, was therefore unjustified, he said.
Dr Richard Andrews, associate medical director of United Lincolnshire Trust, said: We dont accept Prof Jarmans interpretation of our mortality figures.
Professor Simon Constable, medical director of Warrington and Halton Hospitals, said its mortality rates had been falling over the past two years and were now within the expected range.
Ministers can't sweep these statistics under the carpet, writes NHS campaigner Fiona Bell
Imagine for a moment that a fifth of NHS hospitals in England were officially classed as having abnormally high death rates. It would be scandalous.
People would wonder if their local hospital was up to scratch. And they might question how well the NHS was coping after years of financial restraint.
You can see how the powers- that-be might not be too keen on publishing statistics like that. You can see how they might choose to use a method that minimised the number of hospital trusts classed as having high mortality rates.
And that is exactly what Prof Jarmans excellent analysis has exposed.
He has discovered that, using an internationally accepted statistical method, 34 hospital trusts across England last year had mortality rates above the expected range.
By contrast, using its own method, NHS Digital classed ten trusts as having high death rates.
This official method meant a hospital trust could have a mortality rate that was 11 per cent above the national average, and still be classed as normal.
Is this right? Or does it risk sweeping under the carpet very real problems at a significant number of our hospitals?
I know what I think.
Since my grandfather died in 2009, having suffered no fewer than 17 falls at Wansbeck and Blyth hospitals in Northumberland, I have campaigned to improve NHS care. Before he died, he made me promise: Dont let what happened to me happen to anyone else.
Sadly, so many times over the past decade I have heard the hollow promise that lessons will be learned from some entirely preventable tragedy; or the empty pledge of greater openness and transparency after a cover-up.
In fact, Jeremy Hunt has tried to make transparency the byword of his long spell as Health Secretary. Hes sold himself as the man who will not let another Mid-Staffs happen on his watch.
But Mr Hunt and his mandarins risk burying their heads in the sand if they blindly accept statistics that appear to show that all is well in our hospitals.
And if they cant see the truth of whats going on or dont want to then thats a dangerous thing.
Pennsylvanian officials are worried about a resurgence of the 'creepy clown' phenomenon that swept the globe last year and it may be because of the movie 'It'.
The Pennsylvania State Police released a community bulletin outlining concerns of the strange costumed folk popping up this month.
'With the fall of 2017 upon us, it is anticipated that similar "creepy clown" sightings could be reported starting as soon as September,' the statement said before mentioning the release of It on Friday as being a possible reasoning.
The Pennsylvania State Police released a community bulletin outlining concerns of the strange costumed folk popping up this month
'With the fall of 2017 upon us, it is anticipated that similar "creepy clown" sightings could be reported starting as soon as September,' the statement said before mentioning the release of It on Friday as being a possible reasoning
'The movie, which is adapted from a Stephen King novel by same name, portrays an evil demon who takes on the shape of a clown named Pennywise, "that stalks kids from within the sewers and killing them when they least expect it."'
Across the country, clown sightings kept parents, children and even schools on high alert as dozens were arrested for their part in the chaos.
But this isn't the first wave of sightings with the 80s showing a plethora of creepy figures spooking normal folk left and right.
'The movie, which is adapted from a Stephen King novel by same name, portrays an evil demon who takes on the shape of a clown named Pennywise, "that stalks kids from within the sewers and killing them when they least expect it."' Tim Curry as the original Pennywise
It said at least a dozen arrests were made last year in response to the scaremongers who left ordinary people terrified with incidents including chasing people and confronting them in car parks.
The officers are asking that people report suspicious activity to local police.
They've also created a 'See Something, Send Something' app to help 'combat terrorism and other criminal activity.'
Internal Met Police report states that Detective Inspector Julian King and Detective Constable Phil Dial failed to follow the most basic leads
Two detectives are to face a misconduct probe over their handling of an investigation into an allegedly false rape claim.
Eleanor de Freitas, a talented but vulnerable student, told police she had been assaulted after a night out with Alexander Economou, the son of a British-based Greek shipping tycoon.
But after officers said there was not enough evidence to prosecute him, he launched a determined effort to see her taken to court for perverting the course of justice.
Just days before she was due to stand trial in April 2014, 23-year-old Ms de Freitas, who suffered from bipolar disorder, hanged herself.
Two detectives are to face a misconduct probe over their handling of an investigation into an allegedly false rape claim. Eleanor de Freitas (l) told police she had been assaulted after a night out with Alexander Economou (r), the son of a British-based Greek shipping tycoon
Mr Economou later sued Ms de Freitas father for libel after the pair engaged in a war of words, although he lost the case.
Now it can be revealed that the two Scotland Yard detectives who handled both Ms de Freitas rape allegation and the case against her are facing a public misconduct hearing after Mr Economou, 38, lodged a complaint.
An internal Metropolitan Police report, seen by The Mail on Sunday, states that Detective Inspector Julian King and Detective Constable Phil Dial failed to follow the most basic leads and left Mr Economou to gather evidence himself to show that the rape claim was false.
The report says officers failed to collect CCTV images showing the pair kissing in a lingerie store after the alleged assault. They neglected to check thousands of texts, too.
The report states that when Mr Economou alleged that Ms de Freitas had perverted the course of justice, officers told him to go away and obtain the evidence before police would be willing to record the allegation, whereas the correct position should have been to record the allegation in order that it could be investigated.
It says their behaviour amounts to misconduct. The Metropolitan Police did not comment on the case against the officers.
Christopher Peacey, 93, was a boy sailor aboard the HMS Prince of Wales when it was sunk by Japanese torpedo bombers off Singapore in 1941
When the Royal Navys vast new 3billion aircraft carrier is officially named HMS Prince of Wales this week, it will be a very emotional moment for at least one man at the ceremony.
For 93-year-old Christopher Peacey was a boy sailor aboard the last vessel to bear that name when it was sunk by Japanese torpedo bombers off Singapore in 1941.
It was an awful end for a state- of-the-art battleship that had been dubbed unsinkable.
The ship went down with 327 men on board, and left hundreds more clinging to wreckage. Some were attacked and maimed by sharks during an agonising wait to be rescued.
Mr Peacey one of just seven remaining survivors of the sinking on December 10, 1941 said: We proved sitting ducks for their bombers that morning. I felt bombs striking the ship, then a torpedo struck the propeller shaft and we took on a lot of water.
The ship started listing and was obviously going down. Me and my mates were among the last to get out alive. Terrified of a shark attack, I swam across the oily sea to a liferaft.
'From there I watched in horror as our ship went down, taking with her all those poor souls. Ive lived with that memory all my life.
Mr Peacey, from Gosport, Hampshire, had also been aboard the Prince of Wales in August 1941 when it played another key role in the Second World War.
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The ship (above) went down with 327 men on board, and left hundreds more clinging to wreckage. Some were attacked and maimed by sharks during an agonising wait to be rescued
At 920ft long and displacing 70,000 tons, the new Prince of Wales (above) dwarfs her predecessor
The Royal Navys vast new 3billion aircraft carrier, which will officially be named HMS Prince of Wales this week, is a sister ship to HMS Queen Elizabeth (above)
It was on the battleship, off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, that Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin Roosevelt met to sign the Atlantic Charter, the crucial first step towards US support for Britain.
Mr Peacey said: For days beforehand the boy sailors scrubbed decks and polished all the brass aboard the ship for our illustrious visitors and, when they came aboard, I got myself a prime spot to see them greet each other.
I remember the great sense of excitement shared by the crew. It is hard to think that only a few months later, the magnificent ship and so many sailors would be lost.
It will be a very emotional day for me when the new Prince of Wales gets her name. I am proud to have been invited to the event. It will bring back so many memories. I was just one of the lucky ones so many of my friends perished.
The new vessel, a Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier, will be officially named by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall at Rosyth, Scotland, on Friday.
At 920ft long and displacing 70,000 tons, the new Prince of Wales dwarfs her predecessor.
It was on the battleship, off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, that Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Franklin Roosevelt met, to sign the Atlantic Charter, the crucial first step towards US support for Britain
A sister ship to HMS Queen Elizabeth, she will carry as many as 40 jets after she launches in 2019 although the expense has proved controversial at a time of defence cuts elsewhere.
Mr Peaceys battleship measured 745ft, displaced 43,000 tons and was built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead.
Launched in 1939, she engaged the German battleship Bismarck in the Battle of the Denmark Strait in May 1941 before being sent to the South China Sea.
Mr Peacey, now a grandfather- of-two, recalled that when it docked in South Africa en route, the local newspaper headlines said The Unsinkable Ship Arrives. It was nice to read but I knew, and I think most of the crew knew, that any ship was capable of being sunk even the Prince of Wales.
It was a new class of battleship, the King George V Class. It had a top speed of 28 knots [33mph], which was rapid in those days, and had the firepower of ten 14in guns.
She was sunk alongside HMS Repulse, a First World War battlecruiser. Churchill called the incident his most direct shock of the war, as they were the first major ships to be sunk by aircraft alone.
Last night, Royal Navy Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Ben Kay said: We are delighted that veterans from the old HMS Prince of Wales battleship are able to be involved with the naming ceremony.
This is a fitting occasion when we are able to recognise the service and sacrifice of our forebears and pass on their ethos to a new generation of sailors.
It was a gruesome death that raised disturbing questions about the tide of foreign money flowing through British banks and property.
When bankrupt property tycoon and fixer Scot Young, 52, was found impaled on railings after falling from a fourth-floor luxury flat in Central London, many people including his adult daughters believed he had been murdered, possibly by Russian gangsters.
And today The Mail on Sunday can reveal that in a final phone call to his estranged wife Michelle just weeks before he died, Young gave a chilling premonition.
Scot Young went on to date American model Noelle Reno before he was found impaled in central London and his family suspected Russian gangsters were involved
In a heated conversation, Young said he was a dead man if Michelle continued to investigate his former business deals and even offered her 30 million if she stopped.
This newspaper has also seen startling new evidence that appears to vindicate Michelles claim that the man who liked to describe himself as the secret millionaire was sitting on a pile of cash hidden from the authorities in a complex web of offshore accounts.
She has also discovered that millions of pounds have been transferred out of accounts possibly linked to him since his death.
A dossier compiled by a team of specialist forensic investigators hired by Michelle reveals a troubling financial relationship between her late former husband and exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was found hanged in his ex-wifes 20 million mansion in Ascot in March 2013.
Michelle, 52, and the couples daughters Scarlett and Sasha had been left all but penniless when the marriage ended in 2006. Young went on to date American model Noelle Reno.
Believing that Young had a property portfolio and assets in excess of 400 million, Michelle began what was dubbed Britains biggest divorce battle, becoming a figurehead for wives claiming their husbands had hidden their assets.
Mortgage Square in central London, where Scot Young fell from his death and was found impaled
In December 2009, Mrs Justice Black awarded Michelle 27,500 a month in maintenance, plus a further 6,000 for school fees and rent. Young promptly made himself bankrupt.
By 2012 he was under constant scrutiny by his wife and her teams of detectives, who filmed him carrying huge wads of 50 notes and recorded his phone calls.
It led to Young being jailed for six months for what a judge called a flagrant and deliberate contempt for misleading the court about his finances.
In the weeks before his death the one-time fixer for the super-rich secretly moved large amounts of money between offshore accounts and was convinced that shadowy figures connected to his business activities were going to kill him.
Young told this to the police and several friends, becoming so agitated that he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act with symptoms of anxiety, panic attacks and paranoia.
Four days before his death, he checked into St Marys Hospital in Central London, claiming he had relapsed due to his excessive use of cocaine.
At lunchtime on December 8, 2014, he discharged himself from hospital. Three hours later he was found dead.
Scot and Michelle Young had not spoken for eight years when, in November 2014, he called out of the blue and began what would be their final conversation, which was secretly recorded by Michelle.
A transcript shows he began by apologising for f****** up their marriage and acknowledged that she had been a good wife. He then wanted to talk about the 400 million she thought he had.
Michelle Young believed her husband was sat on money in offshore accounts and hired private investigators who linked him to a Russian oligarch who was found hanged
Michelle interrupted him to say that her team of investigators had found 800 million and evidence to show lots of activities and a lot of money. When Young reminded her that the courts had awarded her 20 million, Michelle accused him of fraud, money laundering and misrepresentation.
After a pause, Young asked hypothetically if she would be willing to draw a line in the sand if he gave her 20 million tomorrow.
He suggested they put aside their rancour and work together as friends. The former deal-maker for Russian billionaires and British tycoons insisted that he could work something out, and they needed to meet face to face and iron things out.
He said: I will give you 5 million a year plus interest for four years, and if I am late on one of the 1 million payments, then you can bankrupt me.
Michelle declined the offer. Instead, she threatened to expose his links to a notorious crime family and even threatened a private criminal prosecution.
When she suggested that he could get 15 to 20 years in jail, Young increased his offer to 30 million for an end to the hostilities and urged her to accept it, because its the best deal youll ever get.
You wont get a penny if I go to jail, he told her. Shouting at her in frustration, he demanded: Do you want a f****** deal or not?
Michelle told him she was 28 million in debt to her creditors, which included the money she had spent tracing his assets.
Young urged her to use your loaf you put investigators on my tail and Im a dead man.
Noelle Reno, who dated Scot Young in happier times, before the secret millionaire fell to his death and was found impaled
Later, he yelled: Youre going to end up with sweet f*** all. OK, Michelle. Ive tried to be nice, Ive promised both girls that I would try a compromise, but youre just being greedy.
Although the police and coroner ruled that there was no evidence of foul play, his daughters believe he was thrown head-first through the window.
So, too, does Michelle, who claims he may have been bumped off by third parties who wanted the secrets of his complex business dealings and the location of his vast wealth to die with him.
The dossiers, which have been passed to Scotland Yard, lay bare an astonishing web of bank accounts and companies apparently linked to Young in the British Virgin Islands, Panama, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Latvia.
Deposits were made from similar trusts in Cyprus and Mauritius, with credits appearing from Russian benefactors.
In order to conduct his complicated offshore transactions, Young used Mossack Fonseca, the law firm whose leaked documents were at the heart of the Panama Papers shady money scandal.
Young also became involved with a sham property deal called Project Moscow.
By getting involved with Russian money, channelling investments to the project through offshore accounts that effectively masked the involvement of the controversial Berezovsky, Scot Young was playing a dangerous game and one that Michelles investigation threatened to expose.
Soiree: Bell Pottinger boss James Henderson with Heather Kerzner attending Lisa Tchenguiz's party hosted by Fatima Maleki in Mayfair on March 24, 2017 in London
Om a balmy June evening, Heather Kerzner, flanked by her handsome fiance James Henderson, looked every inch the accomplished hostess.
Divorced for several years from her billionaire ex-husband, South African magnate Sol Kerzner, she and Henderson, one of Londons most consummate PR men, were looking forward to their own wedding this November.
As a modern-day dowry, she had invested a large sum into his firm, Bell Pottinger. Heather was convinced it would prove an astute investment, and that the pair could forge a working, as well as a romantic, partnership.
No wonder they were all smiles as they greeted guests to the firms annual summer party at Lancaster House, an event that has become a regular fixture on the capitals social calendar. But beneath the gilded surface loomed a scandal over Bell Pottingers actions in South Africa, where it is accused of inciting race hate.
That scandal erupted this weekend when Henderson sensationally resigned as chief executive.
It is the latest explosive chapter in a saga that, as The Mail on Sunday reveals, is gripping the City and Londons high society.
And it is a debacle that has pitted Lord Bell, the wily elder statesman of the PR world, against Henderson, his one-time protege turned nemesis.
While Bell, 75, is famed for his willingness to act for even the most notorious dictators and pariahs, including the late General Pinochet of Chile, Henderson has had a more conventional career concentrating on City spin-doctoring.
Henderson, 52, and Heather found themselves at the centre of the storm after the firm was accused of helping orchestrate a fake news campaign on behalf of the Guptas, one of the South Africa's most powerful business dynasties
He has also acted for the Duchess of York and helped Madonna in her custody battle for her son Rocco.
The Bell Pottinger debacle has reverberated far beyond London, creating full-on political upheaval in South Africa, a country still traumatised by its apartheid years and deeply sensitive to racial issues.
Henderson, 52, and Heather found themselves at the centre of the storm after the firm was accused of helping orchestrate a fake news campaign on behalf of the Guptas, one of the countrys most powerful business dynasties.
This included sexual slurs against journalists, rent-a-crowd protests and paying Twitter users to spread propaganda. Henderson, while saying much of what has been alleged is not true, admitted that enough of it was well founded to cause deep concern.
I have to take responsibility for what happened because I was running the ship, he said. I did continually ask questions and debate whether we should keep the account. I had the account under constant review, but I trusted people.
Back at the party in June, however, there was no inkling he would be handing in his resignation in just a matter of months.
Heather, wearing a dazzling lurex dress with a silver top and a diamond pattern fringed skirt, glided among the eclectic mix of guests. They included the Duchess of York and media figures such as ITV political editor Robert Peston and Sky anchorwoman Kay Burley.
The accusations included sexual slurs against journalists, rent-a-crowd protests and paying Twitter users to spread propaganda. Henderson, while saying much of what has been alleged is not true, admitted that enough of it was well founded to cause deep concern
One man, however, was notably absent: Lord Bell, better known as Tim Bell, who made his name as Mrs Thatchers favourite PR man and who founded Bell Pottinger. On previous occasions, Bell and Henderson, whose respective PR companies had merged several years earlier, had hosted the event jointly. But this summer, the pair were at daggers drawn.
Bell admits he was instrumental in bringing in the contract at the heart of the row a lucrative 100,000-a-month deal from a South African company called Oakbay. It is controlled by the Gupta family, who have close ties to South African President Jacob Zuma.
However, Bell pins the blame for the mess on Henderson. In order to further the interests of the Gupta clan, Bell Pottinger is said to have stirred up racial unrest over white monopoly capital the term used for the dominance of South African business by a few wealthy white interests.
This is a sensitive subject in a country where many black people continue to live in hardship. The motive is said have been to deflect attention away from the Guptas activities and their closeness to Zuma. Bell Pottinger is said to have set up fake Twitter accounts to target prominent white businessmen, some of whom were also Bell Pottinger clients.
Several, including luxury goods group Richemont and South African banking group Investec, dumped the firm. Henderson ditched the Oakbay account in April this year, but not before it had become a fully-fledged scandal in the tinderbox of South African politics. Although Henderson had no personal involvement, he has fallen on his sword in a bid to salvage the business. Henderson confirmed his resignation when contacted by The Mail on Sunday. I hope we can make amends with South Africa, he added. If, for example, they can use our great skills to help charities there.
As for Bell, even before the Gupta affair erupted, sources say there has been bad blood between him and Henderson for some time.
The two used to socialise together and Bell was invited to the 21st birthday party of Hendersons twins, Atalanta and Felix, two years ago. He is not, however, on the guest list for Kerzner and Hendersons wedding, a family affair to be held in London.
Relations between the two men were showing signs of strain long before the row over South Africa. Having become the biggest shareholder in Bell Pottinger and taken on the mantle of chief executive, Henderson is said to have become exasperated because he felt Bell was not bringing in enough business to justify his pay and expenses.
The Bell Pottinger debacle has reverberated far beyond London, creating full-on political upheaval in South Africa, a country still traumatised by its apartheid years and deeply sensitive to racial issues
James was the chief executive and the biggest shareholder but when he got on a plane he turned right into the cheap seats, whereas Tim turned left into first class, said one observer.
Bell left the firm last year and set up a new practice called Sans Frontieres. He says he helped bring in the Oakbay account after travelling to South Africa to meet representatives of the company.
But he said yesterday that he warned against taking on the account as soon as he returned to London from Johannesburg after his first meeting with Oakbay in January, 2016.
Bell said this was because it represented a conflict of interest with other South African clients which the firm already represented. I did the first meeting, I made the first submission and we were awarded the account. But I also said, as soon as I came back from South Africa after that first meeting, that we shouldnt take the account because it was a conflict of interest with our other South African clients, Bell said.
They [the other directors of Bell Pottinger] are guilty as charged for what they did. I pointed out what was wrong with it and I resigned the account in spring 2016. The Gupta situation happened under James Hendersons watch. I had nothing to do with it whatsoever. Henderson did not know how to handle it. He got nailed and he cannot blame me for it.
I left the company in August last year they forced me out.
But The Mail on Sunday has seen correspondence where Bell is enthusiastic about taking on Oakbay after his visit to South Africa, which he describes as a great success. Bell also denied any suggestion that he failed to cover his costs while employed at Bell Pottinger.
Thats complete rubbish. I have always covered my costs: the Sultan of Brunei paid me 500,000 a year, the government of Bahrain pays 2.5 million a year, he said.
Henderson said: I am very concerned that under my watch, this was allowed to happen. Heather and I have a major stake in the business, so as an investor I am there in the background to help the business do well.
It has been a devastating time for Henderson, both professionally and personally. Not only has he seen a 30-year career torpedoed over a client he never even met, he is also responsible for risking his fiancees capital. After taking her stake this spring, she is the largest shareholder and between them the couple own around 40 per cent of the company.
The pair, who have six children between them, were introduced by the Duchess of York in the autumn of 2015 at a charity dinner for Children in Crisis. The debacle is particularly mortifying for Heather because of her South African connections through her former husband. I have a huge affection for South Africa and South Africans even after Sol and I were divorced, she said yesterday.
The Gupta brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh settled in South Africa in 1993 from India, setting up Sahara Computers. Since then they have built up a conglomerate with interests from mining to the media
I would never invest in a company that would do anything to harm South Africa or its people. The impact on both of us has been horrendous. It is devastating.
When she invested in April, Heather believed a line had been drawn under the affair as Bell Pottinger had parted company with Oakbay. Over the summer, however, a cache of emails from the Gupta empire was leaked, including ones from Bell Pottinger regarding its work.
Heather added: James has been a terrific CEO. Ninety-nine per cent of the work they do at Bell Pottinger has been great. In hindsight I wish they had never taken that account.
As his loyal fiancee says, Henderson does have a glittering CV. Having started his career with City firm College Hill, he founded his own firm, Pelham, where he built an impressive franchise in the energy sector, before merging with Bell Pottinger in 2010.
His work has encompassed huge business deals, such as working for Russian oil giant Rosneft and advising the Lloyds of London insurance market in the aftermath of 9/11.
He is the consummate fixer and protector, a PR whose integrity is exceptional, said one client who remains loyal.
Although his prowess as a rainmaker, bringing in big clients, is not in question, some doubts hang over his performance as a manager. A report from law firm Herbert Smith Freehills into the South African debacle, expected to be published tomorrow, is likely to criticise his oversight.
It is a bitter chapter for a man who has won widespread respect as one of the most foot-sure spin doctors in London. He now faces the biggest PR task of his entire career the battle to restore his own reputation, though with his formidable track record, there is little doubt he will bounce back.
Let's face it. A holiday in the Lake District isnt exactly the easiest thing to sell to pre-adolescent children old enough to complain about the weather.
Yes, there are bracing mountain walks, chocolate-box villages, proper pubs and real beer all ideal for me, but Im not convinced my 13-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son will buy it.
But then I hear about Another Place, The Lake the new 40-room resort hotel from the people behind popular Watergate Bay on the North Cornish coast, where we have stayed in the past and were bowled over by the latters cliff-top location and buzzy, family-friendly vibe.
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Well placed: Another Place, The Lake, is a new 40-room resort hotel on the shores of Ullswater
My children were obsessed with Watergate Bays indoor infinity pool with its floor-to-ceiling windows and eagles-eye views over the beach to the surfers beyond.
And you know what? When we arrive at Another Place to spend five nights on the shores of Ullswater, a few miles outside Penrith, the first thing the children discover is an almost exact replica of the Cornish pool, complete with those same wrap-around windows.
What these clever people have done (as in Cornwall) is take an old, down-at-heel hotel and given it a total makeover, adding a roster of endless activities to suit intrepid adults and raring-to-go youngsters. Its a gold-medal formula.
On arrival, in a brace of shakes, we are kitted up in wetsuits and find ourselves paddle-boarding merrily towards the peaks at the southern end of the lake.
Luckily, were under expert instruction, but that doesnt stop one of our party taking an unscheduled dip while attempting a super-fast 180-degree tail-turn. Me, actually. Cue hoots of laughter all round.
Theres kayaking and sailing, too, with availability and weather conditions chalked up daily on a massive blackboard in the New England- style reception.
The blackboard is just one of the ingredients lifted from the Watergate Bay menu.
Kayaking is just one of the activities on offer (stock image)
Another is the Living Space a relaxed dining area thats all tongue-and-groove panelling and Farrow & Ball colours where parents work their way through vast goldfish-bowl-sized gin and tonics while taking on their children at Scrabble, cards or dice game Perudo.
Our supremely comfortable family room has wood panelling, jute flooring and thrilling views. And getting the children up reasonably bright and early is never a problem, not least because they cant wait to pour a malted waffle mixture into special machines at breakfast then douse the lot in Nutella.
To work that off, one morning we head to Glenridding to make an assault on Helvellyn, Englands third highest mountain, via knife-like Striding Edge ridge. This is a serious undertaking.
Fatalities are not uncommon here, although as many as 500 people a day attempt it in the summer, some in no more than trainers. When our turn comes to make the final ascent, thick cloud rolls down menacingly and we wimp out, opting for a memorable picnic at Red Tarn just below the summit instead.
This being the Lakes, walking is in unlimited supply. The 20-mile Ullswater Way, which circles the Lake Districts second largest lake, is on the hotels doorstep and can be enjoyed in bite-size chunks, perhaps via the Aira Force waterfall before boarding the Ullswater steamer for a leisurely cruise.
For something more challenging, we venture further afield to the peaks above beautiful Buttermere, and to Coniston to tackle the famous Old Man fell that towers over it.
My wife and I love these outings, but every so often one of the children pipes up: Are we going back soon? What they mean is, will they soon be back in that fabulous pool?
Happy children, happy holidays. And it helps that several of the staff have been imported from the Cornish mothership to ensure the same high standards pertain.
We thought the view from Watergate Bay was pretty much unbeatable, but, as we sip our flat whites from the comfort of our poolside loungers, we all agree that this one runs it mighty close.
Oscar winner Russell Crowe has been denied the biggest award of them all.
Speaking to Nova FM's Fitzy and Wippa on Thursday, the 53-year-old revealed he'll be spending this Father's Day alone.
'My children are busy this weekend,' he told the hosts of the celebration, which is held on Sunday September 3rd in Australia.
Not this year: Russell Crowe has confirmed he'll have to spend Father's Day (Sunday Sep 3 in Australia) alone, revealing to Nova's Fitzy And Wippa on Wednesday that his sons are 'busy'
The Australian icon shares sons Charles Spencer, 13, and Tennyson Spencer, 11, with ex-wife Danielle Spencer.
Surprised by the announcement of their absence, co-host Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald probed: 'What, they haven't planned anything for you?'
Russell seemed slightly disappointed, yet understanding, adding: 'My children are busy this weekend, so it will just be me and the dog.'
Quoting Ned Kelly, he added: 'Such is life.'
Can't make it: The Australian actor who lives in Northern NSW ,shares sons Charles Spencer, 13 (R)and Tennyson Spencer, 11 (L) with ex-wife Danielle Spencer, who live in Rose Bay
The star, who lives on a large farm near Coffs Harbour in Northern NSW, recently purchased the Cattle Dog, named QueBlue.
His two sons currently live in Sydney's Rose Bay, with his former partner Danielle, where he lived until they split in 2012.
Last year, a source alleged to Woman's Day that he was 'jealous,' that her new partner Adam Long was spending more time with his kids than he does.
'Just me and the dog': Russell, 53, seemed slightly disappointed, yet understanding, adding: 'My children are busy this weekend, so it will just be me and the dog'
QueBlue! The star, who lives on a large farm near Coffs Harbour in Northern NSW, recently purchased the Cattle Dog, named QueBlue
All is not lost! The 53-year-old is still regularly seen with his 'pride and joy' kids, who often accompany him to South Sydney Rabitohs matches
'Its never easy to watch someone move on and be happy with someone else, but everyone knows Russell has and will always love Danielle,' the source reportedly said.
The 53-year-old is still regularly seen with his 'pride and joy' kids, who often accompany him to South Sydney Rabitohs matches.
The Hollywood star even took most of the past year off acting to spend more time with them in Australia after only seeing them for about 30 days in 2012.
But according to the magazine, he is worried that the growing attention on his exs new relationship will affect the boys, whom he has always tried to shield from the public eye.
Taylor Lautner was spotted leaving Craig's restaurant in Los Angeles on Thursday night with a pretty blonde
She is Lauren Scruggs, the wife of E! News host Jason Kennedy, who she tied the knot with in 2014.
The blonde beauty was a model before she walked into an airplane's spinning propeller in Texas in 2011, losing her left eye and severing her left hand.
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Date night? Taylor Lautner was spotted leaving Craig's restaurant in Los Angeles on Thursday night with Lauren Scruggs in tow
Their outing comes less than two months after Taylor's split with his former girlfriend of eight months, actress Billie Lourd.
'They arent together anymore but they are still friendly,' a source told People of their break up in July.
'Shes really focused on her work right now.'
The pair started dating after meeting on the set of Scream Queens, with Taylor supporting the actress through the tragic deaths of her mom Carrie Fisher, 60, and grandma Debbie Reynolds, 84, just one day apart in December.
Taking a step back... The 25-year-old actor was careful to maintain a distance from his companion as they left the popular West Hollywood eatery together
Keeping a distance: The former Twilight hunk trailed behind the blonde beauty as they exited the hot spot and made their way over to a nearby car
Seeing other people... Their outing comes less than two months after Taylor's split with his former girlfriend of eight months, actress Billie Lourd
But it appears as though the Cuckoo actor may have now moved on.
Taylor cut a casual figure on his dinner date stepping out in black sweatpants and black and red sneakers.
He also wore a patterned black T-shirt.
'They arent together anymore but they are still friendly,' a source told People of Taylor's split with actress Billie Lourd
Hot date: The model looked stylish in a pair of baggy blue patchwork jeans. She also wore slip-on black mules and an off-the-shoulder fitted black top
Keeping it casual: Taylor cut a casual figure on his dinner date stepping out in black sweatpants and black and red sneakers
Meanwhile, his companion looked stylish in a pair of baggy blue patchwork jeans.
She also wore slip-on black mules and an off-the-shoulder fitted black top.
The blonde bombshell wore her hair loose and carried a nude colored leather handbag on one shoulder as they made their way home.
Los Angeles sweltered Friday under temperatures past 100F.
But Selma Blair looked ready for autumn when she was photographed out in town that day, having slid into a largely black ensemble.
The 45-year-old had slipped on a stylish pleated dress with short, frilled sleeves and a knee-length hem, plus a black-rimmed pair of cat-eye sunglasses.
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Smile and wave: Selma Blair looked ready for autumn when she was photographed out in Los Angeles on a sweltering Friday, having slid into a largely black ensemble
She'd added a splash of contrast by way of a large sea green purse hanging from the crook of her right arm, accessorizing further with bracelets, a ring and a watch.
The actress is currently dating silver fox Ron Carlson - a producer - as DailyMail.com had revealed in January after she'd been spotted with him on occasion.
Selma's got a now six-year-old son called Arthur Bleick by her relationship with fashion designer Jason Bleick, whom she'd dated from 2010 until 2012.
Simply chic: The 45-year-old had slipped on a stylish pleated dress with short, frilled sleeves and a knee-length hem, plus a black-rimmed pair of cat-eye sunglasses
Before that, the Requiem actress had spent another two years married to musician Frank Zappa's son Ahmet Zappa, the pair having held their 2004 wedding at the now late Carrie Fisher's house in Coldwater Canyon, per People at the time.
As her Instagram page showed August 9, Selma's recently been filming Heathers, an hourlong TV series rebooting the 1988 comedy movie of the same name.
According to a report from Variety, Selma's cigarette-puffing stripper has - eyeing an inheritance - married an 82-year-old and become stepmother to one Heather Duke.
Garnishing the look: She'd added a splash of contrast via large sea green purse hanging from the crook of her right arm, accessorizing further with bracelets, a ring and a watch
Heather Duke had, in the film, been portrayed by none other than one Shannon Doherty, who according to Variety will have a guest-starring role on the show.
The original viciously funny movie had starred Winona Ryder and Christian Slater as high school students, he roping her into a murder spree of their classmates.
On the show, Winona's character Veronica Sawyer will be played by Victoria Cox, whereas Christian's successor as Jason 'J.D.' Dean is going to be James Scully.
They quietly married in mid-July.
And on Friday, Kate Mara supported husband Jamie Bell at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado.
Jamie's movie, Film Stars Dont Die in Liverpool, debuted at the four-day event, according to Variety.
His biggest fan: On Friday, Kate Mara, 34, supported husband Jamie Bell, 31, at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado
Kate looked effortlessly cool in a white T-shirt layered under a gray hoodie and beige leather jacket.
The actress, 34, paired her top half with a set of black pants and sneakers. She accessorized with a chain purse and shades.
Jamie, 31, looked handsome in a gray T-shirt layered under a bomber jacket. The actor completed his look with jeans and Converse-like shoes.
Chic: Kate looked effortlessly cool in a white T-shirt layered under a gray hoodie and beige leather jacket
Dapper gentleman: Jamie looked handsome in a gray T-shirt layered under a bomber jacket. The actor completed his look with jeans and Converse-like shoes
The couple attended the Telluride Film Festival for the debut of Jamie's biographical drama, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool.
Jamie stars as young actor Peter Turner, who begins a romance with Annette Bening's character Gloria Grahame.
The film is based on the true story of the late actress who starred on stage, film and TV.
Work: The couple attended the film festival for the debut of Jamie's biographical drama, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool. Actor Scott Cooper, 47, was also present
Calling the shots: Greta Gerwig, 34, came out for Lady Bird, which she wrote. Rebecca Miller, 54, was there in support of Arthur Millier: Writer, a TV documentary which she directed
Actress Greta Gerwig, 34, came out for her film, Lady Bird, which she wrote.
Rebecca Miller, 54, was there in support of Arthur Millier: Writer, a TV documentary which she directed.
Gary Oldman, 59, was there for his film, Darkest Hour. The biographical drama tells of a trial of Winston Churchill. Gary stars as Winston.
Big deal: Gary Oldman's film, Darkest Hour, is set to premiere at the festival. The biographical drama tells of a trial of Winston Churchill. Gary, 59, stars as Winston
Strike a pose: The happy couple smiled for the camera
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She's the in-demand Australian actress who has previously hinted at a move to the United States.
And Marta Dusseldorp, 43, has listed the terrace she owns with actor husband Ben Winspear, for a 12-month lease at $1700 per week.
Located in the Sydney suburb of Paddington, the A Place To Call Home star's terrace was described by listing agents Phillips Panzer and Donnelly as being both traditional and contemporary.
Short term: Marta Dusseldorp, 43, has listed the terrace she owns with actor husband Ben Winspear, for a 12-month lease at $1700 per week
The Daily Telegraph reported that the property cost the couple $2.125 million in 2013.
It features high ceilings, ornate cornices and kauri wood floors and french doors that lead to a picturesque leafy courtyard.
Located close to the trendy Queen Street shipping precinct, the terrace also features four bedrooms with the master bedroom opening onto an iron lace balcony, and two recently renovated bathrooms with heated floors upstairs.
Best of both worlds: Located in the Sydney suburb of Paddington, the A Place To Call Home star's terrace was described by listing agents Phillips Panzer and Donnelly as being both traditional and contemporary
Tranquil: It features high ceilings, ornate cornices and kauri wood floors and french doors that lead to a picturesque leafy courtyard
There are also multiple working marble fireplaces and downstairs boasts formal living and dining areas.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia in 2016, the Janet King star revealed that after a trip to Los Angeles in February that year she felt 'nurtured' and was surprised at the apparent lack of ageism in Hollywood.
'I was in LA in February and I felt completely nurtured, appreciated and they were really excited to have me there,' she said.
Handy: Located close to the trendy Queen Street shipping precinct, the terrace also features four bedrooms with the master bedroom opening onto an iron lace balcony, and two recently renovated bathrooms with heated floors upstairs
Warmth: There are also multiple working marble fireplaces and downstairs boasts formal living and dining areas.
'I kept saying "I'm over 40," and they were like "yeah, we know and look at all the work you've done.'
While hinting at a possible move with a coy "we'll see," Marta added that she was surprised with the amount of opportunities that exist in Tinseltown for actresses over 40.
'They're certainly writing roles for us and it means that people want to see that,' she said. 'It doesn't matter how old you are any more, it's the feeling I get...maybe I'm naive.
'There's certainly the great actresses of our time that have led the way...the Meryl Streeps who, nothing keeps her down. Cate [Blanchett] similarly.'
Investment: The Daily Telegraph reported that the property cost Marta and husband Ben Winspear $2.125 million in 2013
She's forged a successful acting career in Hollywood after first finding fame Down Under.
And while Tammin Sursok has made a life for herself in Tinseltown alongside filmmaker husband Sean McEwen, the former Home and Away actress has plans to return to Australia.
Speaking to Today Extra this week, the 34-year-old actress said they will come back Down Under so three-year-old daughter Phoenix can grow up less 'stressed about her body image'.
'I want her to feel free and not so stressed about her body image': Pretty Little Liars star Tammin Sursok reveals plans to spend more time in Australia for her 3-year-old daughter Phoenix
Tammin, who recently celebrated her sixth wedding anniversary, told hosts David Campbell and Sonia Kruger she was very aware of Hollywood's negative influences.
'I had this big epiphany recently ... Los Angles can be so ''careful'' rather than carefree, it's just a very stressful environment,' she explained.
'We were actually in Santa Barbara and [Phoenix] was running on the beach without her shoes on and I was like I want that for her.'
Stressful: Tammin, who recently celebrated her sixth wedding anniversary, told hosts David Campbell and Sonia Kruger she was very aware of Hollywood's negative influences
'So we have plans to pretty much spend probably 50/50 [in Australia]': Tammin said the family would split their time between Australia and LA
Living in Australia would mean Phoenix could grow her self-confidence and body image, she argued.
'I want her to feel free and not so stressed about her body image and beauty and all those things that don't instill strength and compassion, resilience, fortitude, all those kinds of stuff,' Tammin explained.
'So we have plans to pretty much spend probably 50/50 [in Australia].'
Better influences: Living in Australia would mean Phoenix could grow her self-confidence and body image
Tammin's desire to spend more time in Australia comes as she revealed plans to conceive a second child.
'I want to have another baby at 23rd of September ... we're going to try on [that date] ... that is when we're having sex to have a baby,' she told Hit105's Stav, Abby & Matt with Osher on Wednesday.
'There's an app and it tells you exactly what day you should have sex on, I just have to make sure I'm not mean to my husband because he's not going to want to have sex.'
She's the former Bachelor villain who has become a regular fixture on the Melbourne fashion and social scene.
And on Saturday, Emily Simms has taken time away from her demanding schedule to enjoy a holiday in the Philippines with her beau Pierre Ghougassian.
The 34-year-old took to Instagram to share a Boomerang edited clip of herself in a bright red bikini.
'They are lovely coconuts!' The Bachelor's Emily Simms, 34, has shown off her fun side in a tiny red bikini while holding up two coconuts in front of her breasts
Showing off her fun side, the makeup artist is seen holding up two coconuts in front of her breasts and does a little shimmy on a beach in El Nido, Palawan.
The sunglass-clad Emily captioned the post: 'I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts.... (filled with rum...).'
A cheeky follower commented: 'Love this! They are lovely coconuts!'
Smitten! The busty beauty has been in the archipelago nation since mid-August enjoying a romantic holiday with her boyfriend Pierre Ghougassian from a few luxury resorts
Keeping cool: She has posted quite a few photos of herself in bikinis sauntering through the clear blue waters in a tiny two piece
The brunette beauty has been in the archipelago nation since mid-August, taking in the sun and sea, and sharing snaps from few luxury resorts on social media.
She has posted quite a few photos of herself in bikinis sauntering through the clear blue waters in a tiny two piece.
After a few days on the popular tourist island of Boracay, the couple travelled to the picturesque island of Palawan.
Bikini babe: The makeup artist appears to have been enjoying the sun and sea, as well as kayaking through lagoons in El Nido, Palawan
Staying at the BUKO Beach Resort on El Nido, they enjoyed lazing by the pool and water activities including kayaking through lagoons.
This romantic getaway comes after she debuted her relationship with Pierre through Instagram on her birthday in May this year.
Emily first came to fame in season three of The Bachelor after she walked out on Sam Wood without saying anything during a rose ceremony.
They confirmed their sizzling new romance in July after enjoying a romantic holiday to Greece together.
And it seems things are going from strength to strength for Lucy Mecklenburgh and boyfriend Ryan Thomas as they put on a loved up display while attending a glam wedding together in Lake Como, Italy on Friday.
The former TOWIE star, 26, looked sensational in a series of jaw-dropping ensembles as she joined Coronation Street actor Ryan, 33, to celebrate their friends' nuptials in the idyllic location.
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Stunning: Former TOWIE star Lucy Mecklenburgh, 26, looked sensational in royal blue as she attended a friend's wedding in Lake Como, Italy on Friday
The look of love: the brunette beauty gazed at her actor boyfriend Ryan Thomas in an intimate image shared to Instagram with the caption, 'with my favourite'
While the pair initially kept their blossoming relationship under wraps, stunning Lucy wasn't afraid to publicly declare her love for Ryan in a romantic Instagram photo showing them lovingly gazing at each other during the lavish Indian wedding reception.
Standing in a beautiful and elaborately decorated room, the couple only had eyes for each other as they took a moment to themselves among the breathtaking scenery of the venue.
Alongside a love heart emoji, Lucy simply captioned the snap: 'With my favourite.'
Quick change! Lucy later flaunted her washboard abs in a mesmorising orange creation as she posed with the beautiful views of Lake Como in the background
So in love! The cute couple shared a quiet moment together at the end of the night while sitting together and watching the sparkling lights of the beautiful region in the distance
The brunette beauty looked incredible as she flaunted her washboard abs in a royal blue long sleeved crop top and matching full volume petticoat, embellished with intricate gold detailing.
She pulled her dark tresses back into a slicked bun and added a pair of statement dangling gold earrings to up the glam factor.
On the make-up front, the reality favourite looked sensational, opting for a flawless base to show off her clear complexion, a pretty pink pout and a dramatic smokey eye.
The ex reality star turned fitness fanatic slipped into a second stunning outfit as the celebrations continued, again flashing her enviable abs in a cropped top teamed with beautiful orange patterned fabric on her lower half.
A beautiful day for a wedding! Lucy beamed as she gave onlookers a look at her wedding make-up, opting for a flawless base, smokey eyes and a pretty pink pout
Time to dance! The star boogied on the dance floor while boyfriend Ryan filmed her, looking like she was having the time of her life at the reception
For this look, the star kept her short dark hair loose and styled in soft waves, again choosing a pair of statement long earrings, this time in silver.
She shared another intimate snap with boyfriend Ryan, this time showing them sitting by the side of the lake with Ryan's arm protectively wrapped around his girlfriend while she nuzzled into him.
Lucy posted the photo alongside a string of three heart emojis.
A room with a view: Lucky Lucy got ready for the wedding with a stunning view from her hotel balcony
Lucy also shared a glimpse of her getting ready for the wedding while sitting next to a balcony offering panoramic views of beautiful Lake Como.
Also attending the glam wedding of pal Adam Kamani - whose family own the likes of Pretty Little Thing and Boohoo - was Ryan's brother, Emmerdale actor Adam Thomas, who looked dapper as he posed with wife Caroline.
The couple, who just married themselves, looked blissfully happy as they stood with the lake in the background for a photo uploaded to Instagram by Caroline with the caption: 'Mr and Mrs Thomas. Newlyweds.'
Newlyweds: Ryan's brother Adam Thomas and his new wife Caroline were also at the wedding and posed for a cute snap with Lake Como in the background
Meanwhile, TV viewers are now witnessing the moment Lucy and Ryan first met, as their reality show, Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls, has just started airing on Channel 4.
Filmed back in April, the survival show caught the moment the smitten pair shared their first kiss on the beach after being thrust together under extreme circumstances.
And it looks like the bond between the two quickly built, as a preview clip featured Ryan saying: 'We need each other.'
Lucy and Ryan went public with their relationship during Wimbledon in July after sending tongues wagging after uploading photos from the same destination while on holiday.
Nevada's raucous Burning Man festival has welcomed the likes of Paris Hilton, Katy Perry and now, Kyle Sandilands.
And during an off-air segment on Friday, the KIIS FM star was proud as punch to debut the '$1,700 leather hat' that will comprise the majority of his skimpy outfit.
That was until the entire studio, including co-host Jackie O Henderson, burst into uproarious laughter after seeing what it looked like.
Proud! On Friday, Kyle Sandilands was proud as punch to debut the '$1,700 leather hat' that will comprise the majority of his skimpy Burning Man desert festival outfit
'This is my new $1,700 leather hat,' the 46-year-old announced with a grin, during a Kyle and Jackie O show commercial break.
When the entire studio began laughing, Kyle refused to let the reaction hurt his confidence, keeping both the hat and his wide-eyed expression.
'Look how proud he is,' Jackie O managed, in between laughter-induced deep breaths.
'You should make that your new look!'
'You should make that your new look': That was until the entire KIIS FM studio, including co-host Jackie O Henderson, burst into uproarious laughter after seeing what it looked like
Can't be stopped! When the entire studio began laughing, Kyle refused to let the reaction hurt his confidence, keeping both the hat and his wide-eyed expression
'It's a big Willy Wonka,' said the shock-jock of the ornate leather top hat, 'And it's just about all I'll be wearing!'
That comment was enough to stop the laughter reverberating around the studio, replaced instead with concern.
'No top, and very small pants,' he promised, as Jackie O's face now looked like she had seen a ghost.
Tables turned: But when the 46-year-old announced the hat was 'just about all he'd be wearing' at the Nevada desert festival, laughter turned to concern
Distilling their concern, he clarified: 'Of course I'm going to be wearing a f**king top and pants!'
Burning Man festival is an installation art and culture celebration, held every year at Black Rock Desert in Nevada.
Kyle is believed to be attending the festival, which is currently in progress, with his girlfriend, Imogen Anthony.
They became fast friends on the 2017 season of Channel Ten's I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here.
And Bachelor star Keira Maguire reunited with model gal-pal Tegan Martin as the pair chowed down on ice cream in Sydney's Taste of Coogee event on Saturday.
Never one to shy away from flaunting her busty assets on social media, Keira left little to the imagination, wearing a low cut white singlet that exposed a generous amount of side-boob.
Melting moments: Bachelor star Keira Maguire reunited with model gal-pal Tegan Martin as the pair chowed down on ice cream in Sydney's Taste of Coogee event on Saturday
Racy: Keira, never one to shy away from flaunting her 'assets' on social media, left little to the imagination, wearing a low cut white singlet that exposed a generous amount of sideboob and nipple
Casual: Keira matched her revealing top with a pair of high-waisted distressed blue jeans and a pair of white sneakers
Keira matched her revealing top with a pair of high-waisted distressed blue jeans and a pair of white sneakers.
She enhanced her outfit with a pair of tinted sunglasses, some subtle bling around her neck and a light pink Gucci handbag that she had slung over her left shoulder.
With her flaxen curls falling freely to her shoulders, Keira also wore a light rose shade for her lip and a light application of blush to accentuate her cheekbones.
Style: She augmented her outfit with a pair of tinted sunglasses, some subtle bling around her neck and a light pink Gucci handbag that she had slung over her left shoulder
Sun kissed: With her flaxen curls falling freely to her shoulders, Keira also wore a light rose shade for her lip and a light application of blush to accentuate her cheekbones
Pretty in pink: Tegan, meanwhile decided on a look that was a tad more demure that her reality star cohort
Tegan, meanwhile decided on a look that was a tad more demure that her reality star cohort.
However, she did flash an ample amount of her svelte and well-toned legs in a pair of blue denim shorts.
The former Miss Universe paired this with a hot pink blouse with frills on the sleeves and a pair of white Converse sneakers.
Perfect pins: However, she did flash an ample amount of her svelte and well-toned legs in a pair of blue denim shorts
Yum: Both Keira and Tegan looked in their element as they tucked in to elaborate iced confections from Sydney-based business Pimp My Chimney
Both Keira and Tegan looked in their element as they tucked in to elaborate iced confections from Sydney-based business Pimp My Chimney.
As the pair took receipt of their ice cream, that sat atop the traditional Hungarian dessert Kurtoskalacs, they could barely contain their joy as they devoured their sweet treats.
At one point, Tegan was seen holding both hers and Keira's ice creams and as she bit into her berry-topped creation offered a look that suggested she may eat Keira's, too.
Happy! As the pair took receipt of their ice cream, that sat atop the traditional Hungarian dessert Kurtoskalacs, they could barely contain their joy as they devoured their sweet treats
He's been enjoying a long distance relationship with his new girlfriend Jasmine Yarbrough.
And on Friday Karl Stefanovic, 43, arrived on the Gold Coast with Jasmine, 33, ahead of Father's Day weekend.
The pair appeared in high spirits as they stepped off the plane and into the sunshine of Jasmine's hometown.
On the move! Karl Stefanovic arrives on the Gold Coast with girfriend Jasmine Yarbrough ahead of Father's Day weekend
The loved up pair, who were first spotted together canoodling on a boat in February, couldn't hide their wide grins as they disembarked from the plane.
Jasmine wore a stylish leather jacket and $310 mules from her shoe label, Mara & Mine.
Karl looked casual, leaving several buttons of his checked shirt undone for the warmer temperatures.
Happy: The loved up pair couldn't hide their wide grins as they disembarked from the plane
Smiles all round: Jasmine and Karl were clearly thrilled to be reunited with each other
Landed: The couple stepped off the plane and into the sunshine of Jasmine's hometown
Ready for the weekend: Karl looked casual, leaving several buttons of his checked shirt undone for the warmer temperatures
Karl left the Today desk early on Friday to go to a Father's Day function, with colleague Ben Fordham taking over from him at 7.25am.
'This bloke has got to go and do Father's Day breakfast, you go that, I'll look after things,' Ben said as he switched places with Karl.
'Thanks guys,' Karl replied, waving goodbye to his colleagues as he left the studio.
Relaxed: Karl appeared in high spirits as he waited in line for his car hire
Short stay? It is not known how long Karl's trip to Jasmine's hometown is for and Daily Mail Australia has reached out to the Today host's representatives for comment
Getting their wheels: After disembarking from their plane the pair headed over to a car hire service
Early mark: Karl left the Today desk early on Friday with Ben Fordham taking over from him
After disembarking from their plane the pair headed over to a car hire service, picking up a flash black Audi for their trip away.
It is not known how long Karl's trip to Jasmine's hometown is for and Daily Mail Australia has reached out to the Today host's representatives for comment.
Karl split from his wife Cassandra Thorburn last September after 21 years of marriage.
Repping her brand! Jasmine wore a stylish leather jacket and $310 mules from her shoe label, Mara & Mine
Riding in style! Karl rented a flash black Audi for their trip
The former children share three children together - Jackson, 17, Ava, 12, and 11-year-old River.
Jasmine and Karl first met on a yacht party in December, making their public debut as a couple at Fashion Week Sydney in May.
Another week, another J-Rod confab with a billionaire.
This Friday, Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez spent a bit of time in Omaha with Warren Buffett, as 47-year-old Jennifer's documented on Instagram.
Last weekend, they'd flown private into Las Vegas with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft to see Floyd Mayweather box against Conor McGregor.
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Out in Omaha: Jennifer Lopez posted an Instagram photo on Friday night of herself and her boyfriend Alex Rodriguez playfully trying to pull a wallet away from Warren Buffett
J-Lo's posted an Instagram photo on Friday night of herself and her boyfriend playfully trying to pull a wallet away from Warren, who turned 87 this Wednesday.
The besuited Warren, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $77.6 billion, played along with the act, though like J-Lo and A-Rod he was smiling for the camera.
While erstwhile New York Yankee A-Rod had, like the Berkshire Hathaway CEO, worn a black suit, J-Lo had worn a splashily colorful tiny jacket over a tight blue getup.
'Secrets': Her Instagram Story's also played host to an image of her beaming at the camera as Warren appears to whisper into her ear, holding a hand up to obscure his mouth
'Out here in Omaha having a laugh with this amazing guy...,' captioned Jennifer, adding a laughing emoji before: '#WarrenBuffett #wisdom #fundamentals #keepitsimple #dowhatyoulovewithpeopleyoulove #energyintelligenceintegrity #dontforgetwhereyoucamefrom #inspirational #downtoearth #HappyBirthdayBuffy'.
Her Instagram Story's also played host to an image of her beaming at the camera as Warren appears to whisper into her ear, holding a hand up to obscure his mouth.
'#WarrenBuffett' read underlined gold text that slanted around the bottom left bit of the frame, and underneath that, peach text vamped: 'Giving me all the secrets'.
J-Rod have been dating since at least March, and they've been seen getting cozy in locales including France, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Miami.
'Going Home': A-Rod's posted a few images to his Instagram Story on Friday of the couple on a flight, including one of J-Lo in a striped sweater, smiling whilst sat in her seat
He'd been married from 2002 until 2008 to Cynthia Scurtis, whilst she's previously tried matrimony to three men: Ojani Noa, Cris Judd and Marc Anthony.
J-Lo and Marc have got nine-year-old twins called Maximilian and Emme, whereas Cynthia and A-Rod have two daughters: 12-year-old Natasha and nine-year-old Ella.
A-Rod's posted a few images to his Instagram Story on Friday of the couple on a flight, including one of J-Lo in a striped sweater, smiling whilst sat in her seat.
She's draped herself in a blanket and worn her hair up, having popped on spectacles in an image 42-year-old A-Rod's captioned: 'Going Home' in green and blue text.
Family chat: In another photo he's put up in his Story, he can be seen in his own blanket, wearing a black hoodie and smiling down at his phone above the caption: 'Tashi Ella'
Restful: One more photo shows J-Lo seemingly fast asleep on the plane, the blanket drawn over her shoulders as she leans to one side on a pair of white-cased pillows
In another photo he's put up in his Story, he can be seen in his own blanket, wearing a black hoodie and smiling down at his phone above the caption: 'Tashi Ella.'
One more photo shows J-Lo seemingly fast asleep on the plane, the blanket drawn over her shoulders as she leans to one side on a pair of white-cased pillows.
Come Saturday, J-Lo posted another photo from the Omaha trip, this one of her cozying up to Warren as they sat at a table that held a cake topped with candles.
'Happy Birthday to you....#MrWarrenBuffett,' she's written in her caption, chucking in multiple festive emojis, including of a full cake, a cake slice and a balloon.
That same day, A-Rod posted an Instagram video of J-Lo and Warren at the same table, she singing Happy Birthday To You before he vaunts her performance as 'better than Marilyn Monroe,' who'd famously sung the song to John F. Kennedy.
87 years young - what an honor to spend quality time with you. #goat #icon #omaha A post shared by Alex Rodriguez (@arod) on Sep 2, 2017 at 12:20pm PDT
'Happy birthday to you': Come Saturday, J-Lo posted another photo from the Omaha trip, this one of her cozying up to Warren as they sat at a table that held a cake topped with candles
He was beloved in his role as Constable Sam Farrell on the 1990s TV series E Street.
But Simon Baker wishes he could put his soap opera days behind him as he's 'embarrassed' by the role.
'It was terrible. I was terrible. It was embarrassing,' the 48-year-old told Stellar magazine.
Over it? Simon Baker wishes he could put his soap opera days behind him as he's 'embarrassed' by it
He went on to say that Australians raise it, but otherwise he no longer hears much about the role.
'People don't bring it up much. I mean, it was nearly, what are we? It was nearly 30 years ago,' he told the publication.
Of his acting skills at the time the star said: 'I was embarrassed. Anyway, thanks. Good old Australia, always bring up the past.'
Also quoted in the interview was Simon's former E Street co-star Melissa Tkautz said she was sure he would succeed.
'He has a smile that can light up a room, he is a beautiful human being he was back then, and Im sure he is now,' the Real Housewives of Sydney star said.
Old days: He was beloved in his role as Constable Sam Farrell on the 1990s TV series E Street
Of his acting skills at the time the star said: 'I was embarrassed. Anyway, thanks. Good old Australia, always bring up the past'
Loves him! Simon's former E Street co-star Melissa Tkautz said she was sure he would succeed. 'He is a beautiful human being he was back then, and Im sure he is now' she said
Simon joined E Street it's final year to become the show's intended heartthrob as several major characters had left.
While the soap tanked a year after he began he get to work with his future wife Rebecca Rigg on set.
Simon headed to America in the mid-90s and went on to incredible success after being cast in his breakthrough role in crime drama L.A. Confidential in 1996.
Loved up: While the soap tanked a year after he began he get to work with his future wife Rebecca Rigg (pictured) on set
Crime drama: He is best known for his lead role as Patrick Jane in the crime series The Mentalist, which concluded in 2014
On 14 February 2013, Simon was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He is best known for his lead role as Patrick Jane in the crime series The Mentalist, which concluded in 2014.
She's recently had her divorce finalised after she was left heartbroken when her husband Romain called it quits on their marriage.
And Joanna Krupa put the drama into her appearance when she made a leggy exit from Good Morning TVN's studios in Warsaw, Poland on Saturday.
Oozing sex appeal, The Real Housewives of Miami star, 38, showcased her model-honed legs in a soaring split scarlet mini dress.
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Leggy lady: Joanna Krupa, 38, showcased her sensational legs in a soaring split scarlet mini dress as she left Good Morning TVN's studios in Warsaw, Poland on Saturday
The Polish-American beauty also put her gravity-defying cleavage on display in the plunging neckline of the racy ensemble. Layering up, Joanne smartened up her attire with a sophisticated black blazer for a sleek look.
The beauty walked with confidence in pointed sky-scraper stilettos, following her riveting television appearance.
Going for a more natural look, she tucked her poker straight golden locks behind her ears and put the focus on her pretty face.
Accentuating her model looks, the glamorous beauty wore smokey eye make-up and a pale lipstick to plump out her pout.
Killer figure: The Polish-American beauty also put her gravity-defying cleavage on display in the plunging neckline of the racy ensemble
Her outing comes after the Playboy vet revealed she is relieved she froze her eggs.
In a recent interview, she told Life & Style Magazine: 'Thank goodness I froze my eggs, I would honestly be freaking out right now if I didn't.
'You dont want to wake up one day and be like, "My god, what was I thinking?" You never know what life will bring. What if that moment comes when you cant have kids?'
Wow: The beauty walked with confidence in pointed sky-scraper stilettos, following her riveting television appearance
As for romance, Joanna and Romain announced their separation last December but finalised their divorce August 17.
The Poland-native said she was caught off guard when Romain decided to call it quits of their marriage of four years.
Joanna told DailyMail.com: 'You gotta keep going, you can't hide under a blanket or underneath your bed and just be like, "I give up on everything." You just gotta keep going.'
'I'm a hard worker, I'm very independent, so I think the fact that I have always had my own career, that really helped me as well.
How to accessorise: The model smartened up her attire with a sophisticated raven blazer for a sleek look
'And thank goodness I never gave up my career for a man because you know what, maybe right now I would not be in the situation that I am.
'I still believe in love and finding the man I will still have kids with. You never know what life can bring.'
But Joanna appears to be mending her heartache with new rumoured boyfriend Nicco Santucci, 50.
Model looks: The glamorous beauty wore smokey eye make-up and a pale lipstick to plump out her pout
Eagle-eyed onlookers spotted the pair out toasting to his birthday earlier in August at a celebrity hot spot.
They were first romantically linked when they enjoyed a romantic dinner in each other's good company.
At the time, a source told US Weekly: 'Joanna and Nico are feeling it out and like each other. They've been hanging out.'
A second source added: 'They've been inseparable and enjoying their time together, and they spent Mother's Day together.'
She's been a Hollywood screen icon for more than 40 years and Susan Sarandon has demonstrated she still knows how to make an entrance after arriving in style for the Venice Film Festival.
The 70-year-old film legend made sure all eyes were on her when she rocked up to the prestigious film festival wearing an enormous hat and flaunting her very unique sense of style.
Beaming and waving for the cameras, the Thelma and Louise actress looked youthful and carefree as she disembarked from a boat and posed for photos by the waters on Saturday morning.
Making an entrance! Hollywood screen legend Susan Sarandon, 70, displayed her quirky sense of style when she arrived for the Venice Film Festival on Saturday morning
Keeping her face protected from the sun, the Oscar-winning actress wore a massive hat and sunglasses as she greeted photographers and fans during another busy day at the 74th annual Venice Film Festival.
She cut an eye-catching figure in brightly patterned loose fitting trousers featuring a wave of purple, blue, pink, white and yellow accents, teamed with a billowing white blouse.
Choosing to shun the usual red carpet favourite of stiletto heels, the classic movie star instead went for comfy flat platforms with a cork sole.
Adding a touch of glamour to the look was a pretty gold chain around her neck with the word 'honey' written on it, and stacked bangles on both wrists, alongside a gold watch.
Hats off to you! The Thelma and Louise icon shielded her face from the sunlight with a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses
Leggy display: Fellow Academy Award-winning actress Julianne Moore, 56, looked sensational in a unique sparkling mini dress and sky high heels
Susan embodied vintage Hollywood glamour when it came to her hair and make-up, opting for a flawless base that highlighted her incredible complexion.
She kept her make-up minimal, popping on a pretty pink blush and coral lipstick, and styled her red locks in soft waves around her shoulders.
Keeping all of her essentials gathered together in a simple black clutch handbag, the actress also held a black jacket in her hand in case the temperatures dipped during the day.
The award-winning star was joined at the festival by flame-haired beauty Julianne Moore, 56, who put on a leggy display in an unusual embellished mini dress featuring the image of an historic figure in battle.
Vintage Hollywood glamour: stunning Susan's elegant entrance to the film festival conjured up memories of old Hollywood glam and decadence
Keeping it comfy: the Oscar winner shunned high heels in favour of flat cork soled platforms
Fellow Academy Award winner Julianne flaunted her sensational gym-honed legs in a thigh-skimming sparkling long-sleeved black frock.
The pretty shimmering dress was dominated with a colourful and unusual image of a warrior brandishing a weapon above his head.
Julianne teamed her head-turning mini dress with a pair of sky high black ankle strap heels featuring a metallic strip across the toes.
Nice to see you! A beaming Julianne waved for the cameras as she arrived for another busy day at the 74th annual Venice Film Festival
The star wore her trademark red locks in a sleek, poker straight style with a side parting and, like Susan, opted for a classic and minimal make-up look.
She chose to make her lips the focal point, painting her pout a bold red which stood out against her flawless skin.
Popping on a pair of sunglasses, the Still Alice actress waved for the cameras as she made her way from a boat to inside a building near the marina.
Natural beauty: the Still Alice actress chose a flawless base to highlight her clear complexion, adding a slick of red lipstick to glam up her look
Julianne was later seen attending a photo-call for new movie Suburbicon, directed by George Clooney. She stars in the film alongside Matt Damon and Oscar Isaac.
Suburbicon peers into the dark racial tensions of 1950s suburbia, which director Clooney believes is deeply relevant to Donald Trump's America.
Speaking at the festival to the Press Association, George said: 'It's a pretty angry film. There's a lot of anger out there. I think that's reflected in the film. I found it interesting to talk about building walls and scapegoating minorities.
'I think that's always an interesting topic but particularly when I was hearing these conversations on the campaign trail.
Star-studded: Julianne was later seen attending a photo-call for new movie Suburbicon, directed by George Clooney, which she stars in alongside Matt Damon (above)
Taking centre stage: Clooney was seen in high spirits as he spoke animatedly at the photo-call
Getting involved: The Oceans Eleven star seemed to wolf whistle at one point during his appearance
Latest project: Speaking at the festival to the Press Association about Surburicon, George said: 'It's a pretty angry film. There's a lot of anger out there'
High spirits: George was flanked by his close pal and acting talent Matt, along with Julianne who dazzled alongside her peers and beaming from ear-to-ear
'I thought: It's always good to look back and remember that nothing really is new and every time we're shocked, we forget that we've had this behaviour time and time and time again.'
He was seen in high spirits as he spoke animatedly at the photo-call, seeming to wolf whistle at one point during his appearance.
George was flanked by his close pal and acting talent Matt, along with Julianne who dazzled alongside her peers and beaming from ear-to-ear.
Meanwhile, it had been day number two at the film festival for both Susan and Julianne, who made equally stylish appearances for the cameras on Friday.
Family night out: Susan joined sons Miles Robbins and Jack Henry Robbins for a glitzy reception to highlight documentary Human Flow which examines the effect of human migration worldwide because of events such as famine, war and climate change.
Keeping up with George: Julianne joined George Clooney on the red carpet on Friday to promote their crime comedy Suburbicon, which also co-stars Matt Damon
Flirty frock: the star looked sensational in an ebony minidress, with featured a semi sheer neckline and a feathered hem
Susan attended a party on Friday evening in honour of the documentary Human Flow, which is one of the movies in contention this year.
She looked beautiful as she joined sons Miles Robbins and Jack Henry Robbins for a glitzy reception to highlight the effect of human migration worldwide because of events such as famine, war and climate change.
Julianne, meanwhile, has been on the trail for her latest movie, Suburbicon, which co-stars George Clooney.
She joined the new dad for a photocall on Friday, looking sensational in a flirty ebony minidress, with featured a semi sheer neckline and a feathered hem.
Suburbicon is a crime-comedy film about a peaceful suburban community which hides a dark criminal underbelly.
George once again teamed up with the Coen Brothers and also serves as director on the film, due to be released on October 27.
Creative guestlist: Artist Ai Weiwei was also spotted at the event
Suave: He looked dapper in a relaxed suit and dressy trainer style shoes
When the PR queen steps out of the spotlight, her kids step in.
Roxy Jacenko's children were looking very fashionable on Saturday, after the 37-year-old posted an image to her Instagram showing off her children Pixie, six, and Hunter, three, in adorable, sassy poses.
'Stylish duo,' the PR maven captioned the snap, with a laughing emoji at the end.
'Stylish duo': Roxy Jacenko's children were looking very fashionable on Friday, after the 37 year old posted to her Instagram showing off her children Pixie, six, and Hunter, three in adorable, sassy poses
It appears that Pixie and Hunter did not head off on holiday with their mum and father Oliver Curtis, 32, and may have stayed with Roxy's mum Doreen while their folks were at Hamilton Island this week.
One fan in the Instagram comments quipped: 'When mum's away the kids will play!'
Roxy and Oliver however did arrive home that same day after their romantic island jaunt.
Pixie flaunted her newfound sass while she wore a tied up pink t-shirt imprinted with 'Polo' on the front, while sporting cut off denim shorts and her strawberry blonde hair draping over her shoulders.
Sibling love: When the PR queen steps out of the spotlight, her kids step in
Hunter on the other hand amusingly looked like he wanted the photo shoot to stop, motioning his hand in a 'high-five' while wearing a blue striped shirt with khaki shorts.
The mini fashionista's both wore a very flashy pair of sunglasses each.
Turning six!: Pixie in particular has had something else to flaunt after celebrating her birthday earlier this week
Pixie in particular had reason to be in a good mood after celebrating her birthday earlier this week.
As a belated birthday gift from her stylish mother, she received a stunning necklace from Shannakian Fine Jewellery.
Finer things: Roxy s daughter Pixie has inherited her mother's taste for the finer things in life
Taking to Instagram on Thursday, Roxy shared an image of Pixie receiving her luxurious gift from the high end accessories purveyor.
'YES YES YES', she captioned the image, adding a heart emoji.
She has been wowing on the red carpet while attending the 43rd Deauville American Film Festival in France of late.
And on Saturday, Laura Dern, 50, had all eyes on her as she was honoured at the annual event - receiving her very own beach locker room on the Promenade des Planches.
The actress was recognised for her work in Blue Velvet, Inland Empire and Wild at Heart and looked nothing but radiant as her name was unveiled during the ceremony.
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Stunning: Laura Dern, 50, had all eyes on her as she was honoured at the annual event - receiving her very own beach locker room on the Promenade des Planches
Laura favoured a sophisticated shirt dress as her outfit of choice, with the elegant frock sheathing her slender frame and featuring a bold printed pattern all over.
Its fitted top boasted long-sleeves and a nipped in waist, before billowing out around the movie talent's legs and Laura teamed her tailored number with her locks in blonde tousled tresses.
Flaunting her youthful looks, the Jurassic Park star favoured subtle make-up that accentuated her natural beauty and came complete with bronzed cheeks a nude lipstick across her lips.
Laura was seen beaming as she interacted with mayor Philippe Augier who presented her with an American flag, as she stood behind the personalised fence of her beach locker room.
Beautiful: The actress favoured a sophisticated shirt dress as her outfit of choice, with the elegant frock sheathing her slender frame and featuring a bold printed pattern all over
Proud: Laura was beaming as she interacted with mayor Philippe Augier who presented her with an American flag, as she stood behind the personalised fence of her beach locker room
During the ceremony, that took place in the northwestern sea resort of Deauville, Laura happily flaunted her honour.
She follows in the footsteps of a string of celebrities who too have received the same honour, including the likes of Will Ferrell, Stanely Tucci, Daniel Radcliffe, Jessica Chastain, Orlando Bloom and Keanu Reeves.
The Promenade des Planches is seen as the Deauville US Film Festival's very own version of Hollywood's Walk of Fame which sees celebrities attributed with stars to mark their acting talent.
Prestigious: She follows in the footsteps of a string of celebrities who too have received the same honour, including the likes of Stanely Tucci (above), Daniel Radcliffe and Orlando Bloom
Honour: The Promenade des Planches is seen as the Deauville US Film Festival's very own version of Hollywood's Walk of Fame which sees celebrities attributed with stars to mark their acting talent
It's said Laura, who is set to feature in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, was referred to as a 'Lynchean muse par excellence' by festival organisers.
Woody Harrelson, Darren Aronofsky, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Rodriguez and Robert Pattinson are also said to be receiving honours at the event.
The honour comes after Laura was seen gracing the red carpet at the festival on Friday, looking worlds away from her character in movie The Good Time Girls, as she stole the spotlight in a sartorially savvy ensemble.
Taking centre-stage: Laura stole the spotlight in a sartorially savvy ensemble at the 43rd Deauville American Film Festival in Deauville, France on Friday
The Big Little Lies actress stunned in a chic ivory minidress boasting whimsical feather detailing in shades of blue and black at the opening ceremony - where she scooped an achievement award.
Laura, who is mother to two children - 16-year-old Ellery and 12-year-old Jaya - showed off her age-defying beauty in the quirky outfit.
Letting her statement dress do all the talking, the California actress rocked a pair of black barely there heels with diamond-encrusted accents. Sweeping her golden locks into an elegant chignon, she framed her striking features with dewy make-up.
Looking good: The Big Little Lies actress stunned in a chic ivory minidress boasting whimsical feather detailing in shades of blue and black at the opening ceremony - where she scooped an achievement award
Eternally youthful: Laura, who is mother to two children - 16-year-old Ellery and 12-year-old Jaya - showed off her age-defying beauty in the quirky outfit
Having a whale of a time: The actress appeared to be in great spirits as she beamed on the red carpet
Between her roles in the new series of Twin Peaks, Big Little Lies and her upcoming turn in Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Laura is in the midst of a serious career high.
But her latest released role might be her toughest yet and sees the mother-of-two taking on the role of a vicious prostitute living in the wild west who sets out to exact murderous revenge on a group of men who have wronged her.
In the short film The Good Time Girls, Laura plays Clementine, who has a score to settle with a group of cowboys passing through town, calling on the help of some other women to set a violent and bloody trap for the villains.
Flawless: Sweeping her golden locks into an elegant chignon, the Jurassic Park star framed her striking features with dewy make-up
Letting her statement dress do all the talking: The California actress rocked a pair of black barely there heels with diamond-encrusted accents
Who, me? The mother-of-two looked baffled during her animated acceptance speech after being honoured for her movie roles
The film is the directorial debut of Courtney Hoffman, who is best known as a renowned costume designer, having worked on the likes of Quentin Tarantinos The Hateful Eight and Matt Ross Captain Fantastic.
Also starring in the film are Alia Shawkat of Arrested Development and Annalise Basso of Captain Fantastic.
At the start of the short clip, Clementine is heard describing her childhood, while she is seen shooting a rifle at an unknown victim who she is confidently striding towards.
Western chic: Laura Dern, 50, takes on the role of a murderous prostitute in the feminist Western The Good Time Girls
Vigilante vixens: The actress's character, Clementine, takes refuge at a brothel, where she lays a trap for a group of violent outlaws
Sweet Clementine: The manipulative woman lies in wait for her prey, who are quickly won over by her feminine charms
'I was born in a whorehouse,' she explains on the voiceover. 'Beds knocking walls was my lullaby.'
She then adds: 'Nothing comforts me more than the sound of men grunting and panting,' while her as-yet faceless victim can be heard moaning with pain in the background.
Taking final aim, she shoots her rifle at the man, as he screams 'no' - before the scene cuts to a flashback from earlier that same day.
Brazen beauty: After killing his fellow gang members, Clementine and her accomplices take out Rufus in a brutal and bloody way
Tall, dark and mysterious: The prostitute and her accomplices get a visit from four members of the Rufus Black gang, led by a vicious lead of the same name
Young Australian actor Nicholas Hamilton isn't foreign to playing a terrifying character.
The 17-year-old opened up to the Herald Sun on Sunday about his starring role in the terrifying remake of Stephen King big screen adaptation of IT, where he plays town bully Henry Bowers.
'He's a really interesting character,' he told the publication.
'He's a really interesting character': Young Australian actor Nicholas Hamilton isn't foreign to playing a terrifying character
'You see a lot of characters in movies who are just bullies and just there to be the antagonist and mess with the main character.'
'So that's cool to play with. I have always found it easier to unleash a psychotic or an angsty side to me more than I like to release a comedic or charming side.'
The film has become one of the most hotly anticipated of 2017, mainly due to the fact that Bill Skarsgard's portrayal of the demonic Pennywise has been frightening audiences well before the film's release on September 8.
Director Andy Mushcietti employed method acting for the flick, intentionally keeping Bill away from the teenagers he terrorizes on screen.
That way, their fear would be very real when they came face to face on set with the wicked clown.
Bully! The 17 year old plays town bully Henry Bowers in the terrifying remake of Stephen King big screen adaptation IT
Scary! Director Andy Mushcietti employed method acting for the flick, intentionally keeping Bill away from the teenagers he terrorizes on screen
Nicholas, who was born in Alstonville on the New South Wales north coast, spoke of the first time he met the famed Swedish actor on set without his makeup.
Nicholas admits actor Bill looks much more terrifying in the white face paint and raggedy robes in the film.
However the teenager was nervous meeting the Atomic Blonde star and found 'the two-hour process of putting him in the whole Pennywise get-up' rather 'strange' and found it 'scary'.
Town bullies: A remake of the 1990 tele-movie starring Tim Curry, the film has been in the works since 2009
A remake of the 1990 tele-movie starring Tim Curry, the new film as been in the works since 2009, after former director of the film Cary Fukunaga dropped out early on in the movie's production.
IT tells the story of a group of children who live in the small fictional American town of Derry, who fight against an immortal shape-shifting clown, who disguises himself as the children's worst fears.
There's a secret weapon helping Olivia Newton-John in her battle with her second breast cancer diagnosis.
On Sunday, the 68-year-old spoke for the first time about the importance of medical marijuana in her treatment and why Australia needs to take California's lead.
'Its an important part of treatment, and it should be available,' the Grease star told The Daily Telegraph.
'It should be available': On Sunday, Olivia Newton-John spoke for the first time about the importance of medical marijuana in her second battle with breast cancer
The actress, who learned in May that breast cancer had returned and metastasized to her lower back, insisted the natural remedy is working wonders.
Olivia also praised California's steps to legalise cannabis, making obtaining it far easier than in back home in Australia.
It also helps that her daughter, Chloe Lattanzi, grows the divisive substance on a farm in Oregon.
Important: 'I use medicinal cannabis, which is really important for pain and healing... 'Its a plant that's been maligned for so long, and has so many abilities to heal,' the 68-year-old said
Behind: Olivia also praised her current home of California's steps to legalise cannabis, making obtaining it far easier than in back home in Australia
'I use medicinal cannabis, which is really important for pain and healing... 'Its a plant that has been maligned for so long, and has so many abilities to heal,' she said.
Olivia acknowledged the Australian government's legalisation of cannabis for medical use, but knows that widespread implementation is a long way off.
Then there's her current home of California, that went a step further in the last election, voting to legalise marijuana for both medical and recreational use.
More help: It also helps that her daughter, Chloe Lattanzi, grows the divisive substance on a farm in Oregon
Olivia pledged to the publication that she'll do what she can to 'champion its use' in Australia.
She added: 'Its an important part of treatment, and it should be available. I use it for the pain and its also a medicinal thing to do the research shows its really helpful.'
The Grammy winner announced her cancer had returned this past May upon postponing a planned concert tour.
A long way off: Olivia acknowledged the Australian government's legalisation of cannabis for medical use, but knows that widespread implementation is a long way off
Olivia's pledge: Olivia pledged that she'll do what she can to 'champion its use' in Australia, insisting that it 'should be available'
While she first cited back pain due to sciatica, her doctors later confirmed that her breast cancer had metastasized to her sacrum.
'In addition to natural wellness therapies, Olivia will complete a short course of photon radiation therapy and is confident she will be back later in the year, better than ever, to celebrate her shows,' her reps said in a statement at the time.
The songstress initially was diagnosed with cancer in 1992, undergoing chemotherapy and a partial mastectomy, and subsequently, a breast reconstruction.
Helping hand: She added: 'Its an important part of treatment, and it should be available. I use it for the pain and its also a medicinal thing to do the research shows its really helpful'
Jane Seymour is one of the most respected actresses in the business but she's also a working mother of four children.
And those two world collided when she found herself 'lactating' on her heartthrob Richard Chamberlain during her audition for the 1983 miniseries The Thorn Birds.
Shortly after giving birth to first daughter Katherine, Jane, 66, had the mishap, telling Stellar: 'My milk came back in, all over Richard!
Busy: Jane Seymour is one of the most respected actresses in the business but she's also a working mother of four children
'Somehow I lactated onto his bare chest! It was not good quite a puddle, you would say. It was the most embarrassing thing,' she said.
Jane was so embarrassed by the accident that she's never been able to bring herself to watch the drama series and believes she lost the role as a result.
'I have never seen it. I was so devastated that I never watched it,' she says.
Jane has however gone on to have a brilliant career and remained ageless in the process, shunning surgery as much as she can.
She told breakfast show Hooten and The Lady: 'I'm all about aging naturally, I'm a great believer that this is my blank canvas.
Oops: Those two world collided when she found herself 'lactating' on her heartthrob Richard Chamberlain (pictured) during her audition for the 1983 miniseries The Thorn Birds
Shortly after giving birth to first daughter Katherine, Jane, 66, had the mishap, telling Stellar: 'My milk came back in, all over Richard! 'Somehow I lactated onto his bare chest! It was not good quite a puddle, you would say. It was the most embarrassing thing,' she said (Richard is pictured in The Thorn Birds in 1983)
Cringe! Jane was so embarrassed by the accident that she's never been able to bring herself to watch the drama series and believes she lost the role as a result (pictured in 1978)
The beauty added: 'I need all my muscles to move. Sometimes I play grandma, sometimes I'm a lover!'
This comes years after she admitted to having breast implants in 2007 before going topless for a film role.
At the time she revealed that after giving birth to twins 11 years ago, she decided to have implants, although they were unusually small by Hollywood standards.
He's probably forgotten: 'I have never seen it. I was so devastated that I never watched it,' she says (Richard pictured in 2017)
'My plastic surgeon had to special order them,' she told People Magazine.
She also disclosed that she had a 'minor' eyelift, adding: 'It was more than a decade ago. Genetically, I had baggy eyes and photographers said they didn't want to spend money endlessly having to eradicate them.'
Shannon Beador was rushed to the hospital on Friday.
The Real Housewives of Orange County star was on her way to her daughter Sophie's driving test when she discovered her nose was bleeding.
'Then it started gushing out of my nose, down my throat, and out of my left eye. Sophie had to call 911,' Shannon, 53, captioned a pic of her in the ER room.
Health scare: Shannon Beador, 53, was rushed to the hospital on Friday after her nose started bleeding on way to her daughter's driving test
'I was sitting in the DMV parking lot with blood spewing out everywhere. Was in the hospital all afternoon, but everything is ok now,' the blonde beauty continued.
In the graphic snap, Shannon is holding bandages up to her nose as her hand is covered in medical tape and blood can be seen dried under her eye.
Southern California was experiencing hotter than normal temperatures which could have been the cause as Shannon wrote: 'Probably because of the dry weather here.'
As she recovered, the mother of three felt guilty for putting her 16-year-old daughter in that position.
Darling duo: Shannon recovered from the health scare and16-year-old Sophie passed her driving test
'Poor Sophie. I feel horrible for traumatizing her today,' she added.
Despite the health emergency, Shannon announced that Sophie made it to her test and passed with flying colors.
'I made Sophie stay at the DMV and had someone meet her so she could still get her license. She passed!!'
Reality star: Shannon joined the cast of Bravo's Real Housewives for season 9 and is currently in the midst of a weight struggle storyline
Shannon also shares twin daughters Adeline and Stella with her husband David.
Shannon joined the cast of Bravo's Real Housewives for season 9 and is currently in the midst of a weight struggle storyline.
Real Housewives of Orange County airs Monday nights at 9 p.m. only on Bravo.
They've spent the week enjoying a romantic getaway in Italy.
And on Sunday, Georgia Love left her partner Lee Elliott for some much needed girl time.
Celebrating her friend's hens party, the 29-year-old flaunted her enviable assets as she posed sandwiched between two of her friends.
Girls gone wild? On Sunday, Georgia Love left her partner Lee Elliott for some much needed girl time
'Already knew about the food, wine and weather and can now officially add hens parties to the list of things Italians do best in the world,' she captioned.
Wearing a Jetts Swimwear one-piece that featured cut-outs, Georgia showcased her long and lean legs whilst enjoying One Fire Beach.
Protecting her eyes from the summer sun, the TV journalist added a pair of sunglasses and a bandanna to her look.
She had a good day: 'Already knew about the food, wine and weather and can now officially add hens parties to the list of things Italians do best in the world'
Taking to Instagram Stories later in the day, the stunner joked she and her beau had packed on the pounds after their per-nuptial celebrations.
'An actual portrait of me and Lee today, post bucks and hens parties,' she captioned.
Also taking to the social media platform, yesterday, Lee posted a loved-up photo of himself and Georgia standing in front of stunning cliff-side city backdrop.
Stunner: Standing in the middle of a beach, Georgia wore a floral maxi dress for the shot and had her brunette locks styled effortlessly out
'Need I say more?' he captioned wearing a chambray shirt and white shorts.
Standing in the middle of a beach, Georgia wore a floral maxi dress for the shot and had her brunette locks styled effortlessly out.
There has been speculation that the genetically blessed couple will be return back to Australia as an engaged couple.
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Earlier in the day he spoke out about his latest directorial debut, branding it 'an angry movie for an angry country'- his own.
But George Clooney was all charm as he arrived at the premiere of Suburbicon with his stunning wife of three years Amal, 39, on Saturday.
The Hollywood actor, 56, kicked off the annual 74th Venice Film Festival in style, arriving to the star-studded event by speedboat.
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The name's Clooney, George Clooney: George Clooney - who donned a Giorgio Armani suit for the evening - was all charm as he arrived at the premiere of Suburbicon with his stunning wife of three years Amal
Loved up: The duo put on a cosy display on the carpet, with George planting a tender kiss on wife Amal's cheek as she held his face lovingly
Dressed in an impeccably tailored black Giorgio Armani suit, he embellished his crisp white shirt with a black bow tie, his silver hair swept into a side parting.
He was only upstaged by a glamorous Amal, who slipped her curves into an elegant lilac gown, boasting a corset style neckline.
The human rights lawyer, 39, accentuated her slender midriff in the cinched in piece, which flowed out into a floor-skimming full skirt.
Wearing her raven bob into a perfectly blow-dried side parting, Amal sported bold brows and lashings of mascara, completing her look with statement beaded earrings from Lorraine Schwartz and a bold red lip.
Their appearance comes after they welcomed twins Elle and Alexander on June 6th, and the family have been splitting their time between their Berkshire mansion and Lake Como.
Turning heads! The human rights lawyer, 39, accentuated her slender midriff in the cinched in piece, which flowed out into a floor-skimming full skirt
Flashlights! The glamorous duo posed on the red carpet for the dozens of photographers, also dressed in glamorous black attire
Glamour: The Hollywood actor, 56, kicked off the annual 74th Venice Film Festival in style, arriving to the star-studded event by speedboat
Stealing the spotlight! He was only upstaged by a glamorous Amal, who slipped her curves into an elegant lilac gown, boasting a corset style neckline
Speaking at the photocall back in Venice, Italy earlier in the day, George said his latest directorial effort, Suburbicon, is an angry movie for an angry country - his own. It's a twisted tale of darkness at the heart of the American dream.
'A lot of us are angry - angry at ourselves, angry at the way that the country is going, angry at the way the world is going,' Clooney told reporters Saturday in Venice, Italy, where 'Suburbicon' is competing for the festival's Golden Lion prize.
'It's probably the angriest I have ever seen the country, and I lived through the Watergate period of time,' he added. 'There is a dark cloud hanging over our country right now.'
New parents: Their appearance comes after they welcomed twins Elle and Alexander on June 6th, and the family have been splitting their time between their Berkshire mansion and Lake Como
Cosy display: The duo held hands as the gave their best poses for the waiting photographers at the annual event
Lovely in lilac! Amal towered above dapper George, accentuating her stature in a pair of delicate silver sandals as she walked the red carpet
Flawless: Wearing her raven bob into a perfectly blow-dried side parting, Amal sported bold brows and lashings of mascara, completing her look with statement beaded earrings from Lorraine Schwartz and a bold red lip
Not holding back: Speaking at the photocall earlier in the day, George said his latest directorial effort, Suburbicon, is an angry movie for an angry country - his own. It's a twisted tale of darkness at the heart of the American dream'
Meanwhile star of the film Matt Damon and his wife Luciana Barroso looked incredible as they put on an affectionate display while attending the Suburbicon screening at the Sala Grande on Saturday night.
Luciana, 41, drew attention to her fabulous figure in an emerald green silk dress, while Matt, 46, looked dapper in a Giorgio Armani tuxedo.
Luciana's Marchesa dress was cut asymmetrically to expose part of her decolletage, and featured a ruffle design at her midriff to draw attention to her tiny waist.
She styled the dress with a pair of moss green tassel earrings, and worked her curly raven tresses into an up do.
'A lot of us are angry - angry at ourselves, angry at the way that the country is going, angry at the way the world is going,' Clooney told reporters Saturday in Venice, Italy, where 'Suburbicon' is competing for the festival's Golden Lion prize
'It's probably the angriest I have ever seen the country, and I lived through the Watergate period of time,' he added. 'There is a dark cloud hanging over our country right now.'
'We wanted it to be funny, we wanted it to be mean,' he said. 'But it is certainly angry, and it got angrier as we were shooting', George said of the film
Delving deep: George's satirical film noir stars Matt Damon and Julianne Moore as residents of a seemingly idyllic - and all-white - 1950s suburban community that erupts in anger when a black family moves in
'Unfortunately, these are issues that are never out of vogue in our country,' Clooney said ahead of the film's red carpet premiere
The Argentinian-born beauty drew attention to her eyes with bronze smokey eye make-up, and emphasised her stunning features with bronzer and frosted nude lipstick.
The Bourne identity star met Barroso - then working as a bartender - in April 2003 while filming Stuck On You in Miami.
The couple have three daughters: Stella, six, Gia eight, and Isabella who just turned 17 this month. Luciana also has an 18-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.
Matt stars as Gardner Lodge in the film, who must navigate the town's dark underbelly of betrayal, deceit and violence.
Star of Suburbicon: Actor Matt Damon - who wore a Giorgio Armani suit for the evening - put on a suave display as he posed with wife Luciana Barraso on the red carpet
Seen here in Surburicon: Saturday was Damon's second time on the Venice red carpet this week. He also stars in Alexander Payne's 'Downsizing,' in which - as so often - he portrays a likable everyman
Loved up: They put on a cosy display for the camera, as she nestled affectionately into her main man
Driving them green with envy: She accessorised her emerald green gown with a pair of eye-catching earrings
Also at the red carpet premiere was Julianne Moore, who stars as Matt's on-screen wife Nancy Lodge and also his sister in law.
The stunning flame-haired beauty, 56, turned heads in a Valentino 2017 gold dress, embellished with glitter encrusted tassels.
She teamed the plunging piece with a black body, wearing her hair in a sleek side parting as she showed off her natural beauty under minimal make-up.
Speaking about the film's storyline recently, which tackles racial tensions, she said of today's society: 'The only way they will (do well) is if the generation before them is doing that as well.'
Addressing the controversy surrounding the Civil War statues which kicked off the violence in Charlottesville, she added: 'In the U.S., people are arguing about monuments. They must be removed. You simply cannot have these figures from the Civil War in town squares and universities for our children to see.'
Star of the film: Juliane Moore looked stunning in a glitter-encrusted sparkling Valentino gown as she posed on the red carpet
With director George and fellow actor Matt: Julianne stars as Matt's on-screen wife Nancy Lodge and also his sister in law
Golden girl! The stunning flame-haired beauty, 56, turned heads in a Valentino 2017 gold dress, embellished with glitter encrusted tassels (pictured left with director husband Bart Freundlich
Loved up: The genetically blessed pair have been married for 14 years and share children Liv and Caleb
Leading lady: Julianne made sure to smoudler on her arrival - she is currently on the promo trail for new movie Surburbicon
Happy: She was pictured clutching onto the hand of her beau as they graced the red carpet together
Centre of attention: Julianne's dazzling entrance certainly caused a stir at the festival
America's divisions give an unnerving timeliness to 'Suburbicon.' The satirical film noir stars Matt Damon and Julianne Moore as residents of a seemingly idyllic - and all-white - 1950s suburban community that erupts in anger when a black family moves in.
It fuses a script by the Coen brothers with a narrative about racial divisions inspired - in a negative way - by Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
'I was watching a lot of speeches on the campaign trail about building fences and scapegoating minorities,' Clooney said.
That set Clooney and writing-producing partner Grant Heslov to thinking about other points in United States history when forces of division were in the ascendant. They remembered 1957 events in Levittown, Pennsylvania, a model suburban community where white residents rioted at the arrival of a black family.
Glitzy: Iron Man 3 actress Rebecca Hall, 35, (left) turned heads in a daring black gown slashed to the top of her thighs while Alessandra Mastronardi (right) put on an elegant display in a floor length maroon dress
Leggy: Fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni made a head turning entrance in a white plunging mini dress with a billowing train
They fused that idea to an unproduced script by Joel and Ethan Coen about a similar white-picket-fence community where a crime goes horribly wrong in farcically bloody ways.
The images of white rage in the movie feel unnervingly contemporary, recalling last month's rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia.
'Unfortunately, these are issues that are never out of vogue in our country,' Clooney said ahead of the film's red carpet premiere. 'We are still trying to exorcise these problems. We've still got a lot of work to do from our original sin of slavery and racism.'
'I grew up in Kentucky and they would come to my hometown to do Civil War reenactments and they'd go to the townspeople and you got to pick if you wanted to be a Union or a Rebel soldier. You wanted to be the Rebel, it was fun. You didn't really understand the history of the Confederate flag.
Pictureseque: Actress Rebecca Hall and Morgan Spector made quite the duo as the posed for pictures on the red carpet
Ethereal: Chiara boasted a stunning emerald necklace (left) while another red carpet goer stunned in a fairy inspired frock
What a sandwich! Julianne was joined by her handsome co star and director Matt and George in a lively display
'Now, if you want to wear it on your t-shirt or hang it off of your front lawn have at it, good luck with your neighbors. But to hang it on a public building where, partially, African American taxpayers are paying for it? That cannot stand and we have to come to terms with those things.'
On one level, 'Suburbicon' is a comedy, in which the best-laid plans of Damon's scheming corporate executive go bloodily astray. Damon and Moore practically explode with suburban repression, and there's a delicious turn by Oscar Isaac as a prying insurance investigator.
Saturday was Damon's second time on the Venice red carpet this week. He also stars in Alexander Payne's 'Downsizing,' in which - as so often - he portrays a likable everyman.
But Damon also can play the psychopath, as he demonstrated memorably in 'The Talented Mr. Ripley.' In 'Suburbicon,' he's a bland suburbanite who becomes a monster.
Turning heads: Chiara showed off a hint of her silhouette in the semi-sheer trailing frock
Vision in maroon: Katsiaryna Shulha oozed understated elegance in a purple velvet gown
Pals: Julianne and Matt cut glamorous figures as they strolled along the red carpet
Head-turner: Romina Pierdomenico favoured an eccentric turquoise blue gown that boasted a plunging neckline and thigh-grazing layered skirt
Show-stopper: It featured a dramatic train that billowed out behind the beauty from one shoulder
Beauty: Romina favoured a subtle make-up look that came complete with defined brows and a nude lipstick - she wore her locks in poker straight style
Sensational: Katsiaryna Shulha opted for an embellished pink floor-length dress that boasted a full skirt and a sultry cut-out across the chest
Picture perfect: She was joined on the red carpet by a suit-clad male companion who wrapped his arm around her waist
Flawless: Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta oozed elegance in a pastel-hued layered dress that included a floral pattern all over
Stand-out: Vogue star Tina Kunakey caught the eye in a stunning white feathered Armani Prive frock that came complete with a plunging neckline and pearl detailing at the back
'I don't really get to play the bad guy a lot, but I do get a nice range of roles,' Damon said.
He recalled Payne telling him, 'I like you because you don't look like a movie star.'
'And I know exactly what he meant,' Damon said. 'I look kind of like an average American person, so I think directors get to have fun playing with different variations of what that might mean.'
For all the bloody fun in 'Suburbicon,' the social concerns Clooney displayed in previous films he directed - including 'Good Night, and Good Luck' and 'The Ides of March' - are never far from the surface.
The Clooney Foundation he runs with his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, gave $1 million in the wake of Charlottesville to the Southern Poverty Law Center to combat hate groups.
Clooney said he was anxious that 'Suburbicon' not be a polemic or 'a civics lesson.'
'We wanted it to be funny, we wanted it to be mean,' he said. 'But it is certainly angry, and it got angrier as we were shooting.'
Close: (From left to right), composer Alexandre Desplat, actors Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, and George Clooney
Always a gentleman: George held the door open for his leading lady, as they arrived in a chauffeur driven car
Grand entrance: Earlier in the day they had taken a speedboat along the Venice canal to the plush venue
Beautiful: All eyes were on Amal as her actor beau helped her step out of their car in front of adoring crowds
Stars: Director George Clooney, from left, actors Julianne Moore, Matt Damon and composer Alexandre Desplat pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Suburbicon' during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival
New release: In Surburbicon, Matt Damon and Julianne Moore star as residents of a seemingly idyllic - and all-white - 1950s suburban community that erupts in anger when a black family moves in
Beautiful: Roberta Ruiui looked gorgeous in a monochrome bandeau gown that featured quirky 'Love' ribbon detailing
They've been making a series of glamorous appearances since touching down in Venice for the 74th annual Film Festival.
And Matt Damon and his wife Luciana Barroso looked incredible as they put on an affectionate display while attending the Suburbicon screening at the Sala Grande on Saturday night.
Luciana, 41, drew attention to her fabulous figure in an emerald green Marchesa silk dress, while Matt, 46, looked dapper in a tuxedo.
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Loved-up: Matt Damon, 46, and his wife Luciana Barroso, 41, looked incredible as they put on an affectionate display while attending the Suburbicon screening at the Sala Grande on Saturday night
Luciana's dress was cut asymmetrically to expose part of her decolletage, and featured a ruffle design at her midriff to draw attention to her tiny waist.
She styled the dress with a pair of moss green tassel earrings, and worked her curly raven tresses into an up do.
The Argentinian-born beauty drew attention to her eyes with bronze smokey eye make-up, and emphasised her stunning features with bronzer and frosted nude lipstick.
Happy: The genetically gifted pair - who have been married for 12 years - looked absolutely incredible as they smiled and posed for photographers
The genetically gifted pair - who have been married for 12 years - looked absolutely incredible as they smiled and posed for photographers.
The main star of the movie Downsizing, which is a drama with a science-fiction premise and a humanist heart, Matt ensured to pull out all the stops on the red carpet.
The hunk was undeniably suave in a slick black suit, which he teamed with a crisp white shirt and bow-tie.
Attractive couple: The hunk was undeniably suave in a slick black suit, which he teamed with a crisp white shirt and bow-tie, while Luciana's dress was cut asymmetrically to expose part of her decolletage
However, it was Luciana who stole the spotlight in her sexy gown which hugged onto the contours of her sensational curves.
The Bourne identity star met Barroso - then working as a bartender - in April 2003 while filming Stuck On You in Miami.
The couple have three daughters: Stella, six, Gia eight, and Isabella who just turned 17 this month. Luciana also has an 18-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.
A twisted tale of darkness: Speaking at the photocall earlier in the day, George Clooney, who directed Suburbicon said his latest directorial effort, is an angry movie for an angry country - his own
Speaking at the photocall earlier in the day, George Clooney, who directed Suburbicon, said his latest directorial effort, is an angry movie for an angry country - his own. It's a twisted tale of darkness at the heart of the American dream.
'A lot of us are angry - angry at ourselves, angry at the way that the country is going, angry at the way the world is going,' Clooney told reporters Saturday in Venice, Italy, where 'Suburbicon' is competing for the festival's Golden Lion prize.
'It's probably the angriest I have ever seen the country, and I lived through the Watergate period of time,' he added. 'There is a dark cloud hanging over our country right now.'
America's divisions give an unnerving timeliness to 'Suburbicon.' The satirical film noir stars Matt Damon and Julianne Moore as residents of a seemingly idyllic - and all-white - 1950s suburban community that erupts in anger when a black family moves in.
Robert Peston went public with his writer girlfriend Charlotte Edwardes yesterday and I can reveal their relationship is so serious they have bought a dog together.
The pair have been rumoured to be dating since last year but have so far avoided being photographed and never confirmed a romance beyond saying they are 'close friends'.
Early in their relationship, the media power couple even deleted flirtatious Twitter exchanges after I gently asked if they were dating.
Yesterday the Peston On Sunday presenter was all smiles when we met at Pup Aid 2017 in London's Primrose Hill, near Robert's Muswell Hill home
Holding hands:The pair have been rumoured to be dating since last year but have so far avoided being photographed
But yesterday the Peston On Sunday presenter was all smiles when we met at Pup Aid 2017 in London's Primrose Hill, near Robert's Muswell Hill home. He even introduced adorable grey-haired lurcher Merlin as 'our dog'.
When I asked if owning Merlin with Charlotte, 45, might suggest their relationship is so serious an engagement could be on the cards, 'Pesto', 57, only giggled and shrugged.
But judging by the kisses they exchanged all day, he is entirely relaxed in Charlotte's company and with her three young children, two of whom joined them yesterday. With Merlin in tow, the four were a picture of familial bliss.
They left together in the direction of Regent's Park, with Robert and Charlotte hand-in-hand. At one point, she affectionately rested her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arm around his waist, a gesture he returned while holding Merlin's lead in his other hand.
When I asked if owning Merlin with Charlotte, 45, might suggest their relationship is so serious an engagement could be on the cards, 'Pesto', 57, only giggled and shrugged
Friends who were concerned for the ITV political editor's wellbeing after his wife Sian Busby mother to his son Maximillian, 16 died from lung cancer in 2012, will be delighted to see him so happy.
Charlotte and Robert have known each other since 2003 and Robert has said of her: 'She is brilliant and funny, and we are very close.'
Lizzie Cundy suffered a wardrobe malfunction at the same event the price tag of her 20 extra small Zara dress was still attached. I pointed out the error to the TV presenter, pictured with dog Amber.
Lizzie giggled: 'I thought I felt something itching under my arm! I'm pleased I got into an extra small though.'
Lizzie Cundy suffered a wardrobe malfunction at the same event the price tag of her 20 extra small Zara dress was still attached. I pointed out the error to the TV presenter, pictured with dog Amber
Julianne Moore made a red carpet appearance befitting her leading lady status as her latest film premiered at the 74th annual Venice Film Festival on Saturday evening.
The legendary actress, 56, looked stunning in a bold Valentino gown as cross genre movie Suburbicon launched at the historic Italian citys Salo Grande on day four of the celebratory event.
With a plunging front, the sweeping floor-length dress ensured Julianne commanded attention after arriving hand in hand with director husband Bart Freundlich.
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Glamorous: Julianne Moore made a red carpet appearance befitting her leading lady status as her latest film premiered at the 74th annual Venice Film Festival on Saturday evening
Distinctive black edging added a touch of contrast, while its glittering overlay shone beneath the red-carpet lights as she posed for photos before making her way inside.
Allowing her dress to take centre stage, Julianne opted for a notable lack of accessories on the night, with subtle green hoop earrings proving to be her outfits most prominent addition.
Soft make-up, selected from a natural colour palette, added to her look, while her trademark ginger hair was effortlessly maintained with a simple side-parting.
Here she comes: The legendary actress, 56, looked stunning in a bold Valentino gown as cross genre movie Suburbicon launched at the historic Italian citys Salo Grande on day four of the celebratory event
Striking: With a plunging front, the sweeping floor-length dress ensured Julianne commanded attention after arriving at the star-studded premiere
Happy couple: Julianne arrived hand in hand with director husband Bart Freundlich
The actress was joined at the event by co-star Matt Damon and Suburbicon director, who arrived with respective wives Amal Clooney and Luciana Barroso.
Speaking about the film's storyline recently, which tackles racial tensions, in relation to current events in Charlottesville and its Civil war statues, Julianne said: 'The only way they will (do well) is if the generation before them is doing that as well.'
'In the U.S., people are arguing about monuments. They must be removed. You simply cannot have these figures from the Civil War in town squares and universities for our children to see.'
Tasteful: Allowing her dress to take centre stage, Julianne opted for a notable lack of accessories on the night, with subtle green hoop earrings proving to be her outfits most prominent addition
Colleagues: (L-R) Suburbicon director George Clooney, Julianne Moore, co-star Matt Damon and French composer Alexandre Desplat
Fancy meeting you here! Julianne looked delighted as she greeted old friends George and Matt on the red carpet
Subdued: Soft make-up, selected from a natural colour palette, added to her look, while her trademark ginger hair was effortlessly maintained with a simple side-partin
America's divisions give an unnerving timeliness to Suburbicon.
The satirical film noir stars Julianne and Matt as residents of a seemingly idyllic - and all-white - 1950s suburban community that erupts in anger when a black family moves in.
It fuses a script by the Coen brothers with a narrative about racial divisions inspired - in a negative way - by Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
Suburbicon goes on general release in the United States from October 27 and in the United Kingdom November 24.
Screen couple: The satirical film noir stars Julianne and Matt as residents of a seemingly idyllic - and all-white - 1950s suburban community that erupts in anger when a black family moves in
Millie Bobby Brown made quite the appearance on Saturday.
The Stranger Things was spotted arriving at the Sao Paulo airport in Brazil in a very unusual outfit.
The 13-year-old British-born thespian had on a sweatshirt with a pool scene on the front and added some very cool futuristic-looking sunglasses.
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Star power: Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown, 13, was spotted arriving at the Sao Paulo airport in Brazil on Saturday
Millie Bobby pulled her luggage behind her as she looked comfortable in the graphic white sweatshirt and grey slacks.
She recently turned heads at the MTV Video Music Awards after party when she changed from her dazzling frock into a stunning two-piece outfit.
And in the most recent edition of New York magazine, the young cast of the hit Netflix show are interviewed.
The article covers how the young thespians realize that they are famous, but consider their day-to-day life unchanged.
Cute as a button: British-born thespian looked casual chic in an age appropriate sweat outfit and futuristic sunglasses
Hollywood: She took the world by storm as Eleven in Stranger Things
'Its definitely been affected by the show a big bunch, but its not different,' said Millie. 'Im still the same person.'
'A lot of people consider us famous, but I think we all hate the F-word,' said Gaten Matarazzo, who plays Dustin.
'All we are is people doing our job, and our job happens to be in the public eye a lot,' he continued.
Friends: Millie Bobby pulled her luggage behind her as she looked comfortable in the graphic white sweatshirt and grey slacks
The cast tried to remain grounded and connected with each other on set by resorting to pre-internet activities, much like their characters living in the 1980's.
'We play cards, we play Monopoly, we play games in the school trailer. As soon as were working, were kind of like those 80s kids again,' said Brown.
The first season of the show followed a group of friends who go searching for their missing buddy with the help of a telekinetic stranger. All while combating a mysterious monster, a strange dimension, and a covert government operation.
Season two focuses on the missing friend who has been found and has brought some excessive baggage back with him.
It premieres this October right in time for Halloween.
Blac Chyna well known for her bombshell curves and penchant for wild wigs.
And the hair daredevil showed off another set of new tresses as she arrived at LAX on her way to an Atlanta party on Saturday.
The mother-of-two kept cool during the steamy Los Angeles day while sporting silver and blue tresses along with a classic Adidas tracksuit in navy.
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Blue hair, don't care! Hair daredevil and party girl Blac Chyna showed off another set of new tresses as she arrived at LAX on her way to an Atlanta party Saturday
Chyna, 29, flashed a pearly white smile as she arrived for her flight wearing a triple striped track suit zipped up to her neck.
Subdued white sneakers rounded out the former stripper's look along with a handsome gold watch and plenty of other bling.
The starlet, given name Angela Renee White, made a statement with her icy blue tresses which were a dramatic contrast to the bouncy, blonde curls she rocked on Snapchat this past Wednesday.
Three stripes, you're out! The mother-of-two flashed a pearly white smile as she arrived for her flight wearing a triple striped track suit zipped up to her neck
Clean kicks: Subdued white sneakers rounded out the former stripper's look along with a handsome gold watch and plenty of other bling
Do blondes have more fun? The starlet's icy blue tresses which were a dramatic contrast to the bouncy, blonde curls she rocked on Snapchat this past Wednesday (above)
Chyna also posted a close up video of her studded Gucci sunglasses and mermaid perfect locks.
The ex of Tyga could be seen listening to Lil Kim's 2000 hit How Many Licks as she captioned the post 'Loving these Gucci frames.'
She made room for a bit of spon-con in the post, thanking and tagging a South Philly eyewear emporium.
Making a splash! Chyna also posted a close up video of her studded Gucci sunglasses and mermaid perfect locks
Shady lady! The ex of Tyga made room for a bit of spon-con in the post, thanking and tagging a South Philly eyewear emporium for her shades
Head in the game: The ex of Rob Kardashian bopped her head to Lil Kim's 2000 anthem How Many Licks
Before heading off to Georgia for her event, Chyna shared a shoutout for the Labor Day weekend celebration with her 13.4million Instagram followers.
The Washington DC native, who is currently linked to rapper Mechie, captioned the ad with all the necessary info for Atlanta party-goers.
Writing 'This Saturday night #PRVLGD and #KCEBars 1st Annual All White Party @OpiumAtl.'
Party in Atlanta! Before heading off to Georgia for her event, Chyna shared a shoutout for the Labor Day weekend celebration with her 13.4million Instagram followers
Flying high! Later, the starlet posted some snapshots while flying in style with pal Dave East
Party hard! Chyna frequently takes gigs hosting high class parties with her rapper friends
Later, the starlet posted some snapshots while flying in style with pal Dave East.
Chyna frequently takes gigs hosting high class parties.
Next week, she'll be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for ladies night at the The Eight Night Club.
He's endured a long list of legal and personal woes over the years.
But Matthew Newton has finally reached a place of contentment, according to his famous mother Patti.
'He is in a very good place,' the 72-year-old told 3AW's Nightline program this week, but refused to weigh in on rumours he has tied the knot with fiancee Catherine Schneiderman.
'He's in a good place': Patti Newton, 72, told 3AW's Nightline that son Matthew, 40, has 'never been happier' but refused to weigh in on rumours he has tied the knot with fiancee Catherine Schneiderman
'I have never known Matthew to be happier and we are happy that he is happy,' Patti revealed to 3AW's Nightline.
'I don't care what anyone says, if he is happy we are happy, and he is in a very good place, so what more could you want?' the Logie Award-winner continued.
Patti however refused to weigh in on rumours Matthew has tied the knot fiancee Catherine Schneiderman.
'I don't talk about Matthew's private life because it is his life,' she stated.
Patti continued: 'If he is happy we are happy, and he is in a very good place, so what more could you want?'
Keeping mum: The matriarch however refused to weigh in on rumours Matthew has tied the knot fiancee Catherine Schneiderman (pictured), telling 3AW's Nightline: 'I don't talk about Matthew's private life because it is his life'
Rumours had been swirling in recent months, that Matthew walked down the aisle with fiancee Catherine, who is the daughter of New York attorney-general Eric Schneiderman.
And Matthew Newton all but confirmed the happy news as he stepped out in New York wearing what appeared to be a wedding band last Wednesday.
Clutching a bag of groceries and chatting on his mobile phone, the star cut a low-key figure in his blue business shirt, loose-fitting blue jeans and sunglasses.
He drew attention however to a band on his wedding finger.
Proof? Matthew all but confirmed the happy news as he stepped out in New York wearing what appeared to be a wedding band last Wednesday
The sighting comes just days after New Idea claimed that Matthew and Catherine recently exchanged 'I dos' in an intimate New York ceremony.
'[Matthew] rang his parents prior to the big day and invited them but with Bert's health being a little strained in recent months they decided a long-haul flight to New York might not be a great idea,' a source was reported as saying.
'This is the best news ever for Bert and Patti ... they're just so happy for Matthew.'
Headlines: Matthew has endured a long list of legal and personal woes over the years. Pictured with Patti and and sister Lauren Newton
The insider added: 'Matthew's battled a lot of demons over the years, but he finally feels like he's found his place in the world in New York with Cat.'
Catherine and Matthew first sparked engagement rumours in October, after she stepped out wearing a diamond ring.
Matthew relocated to the US in 2012, and is now believed to be leading a sober life.
He reportedly told a Sunday Telegraph insider in April this year, that he 'hasn't touched a drink in five years.'
Katie Price's estranged husband Kieran Hayler has revealed all about his sordid affair with their children's nanny Nikki Brown, admitting he had pursued her behind his wife's back, as he had 'wanted a fix'.
The former stripper, 30, was publicly dumped by Katie, 39, after he admitted to the six-month affair, three years on from revelations he had bedded two of the former glamour model's best friends; Jane Poutney and Chrissy Thomas.
Now, in an interview with The Sun, Kieran, who wed Katie in January 2013 and shares two children with the star, has spoken about his latest infidelity, revealing: 'This wasn't a big love affair... I'm a sex addict and needed a thrill.'
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Unhappy ending: Katie Price's estranged husband Kieran Hayler, 30, has revealed all about his sordid affair with their children's nanny Nikki Brown, with the sex addict saying 'I just wanted a fix'
Kieran confessed: 'I didnt fancy Nikki. If our nanny had been 80 Id probably have tried to manipulate her into having sex too.'
The father-of-two admitted to bedding the nanny five times throughout their six month affair, which began in August last year and ended in February. He revealed their first sex session took place in the utility room after he initiated a kiss.
Kieran also claimed there was no passion in the pair's steamy encounters, revealing they didn't even take their clothes off during their romps and that he had manipulated the nanny to get her into bed.
He said: 'It didnt matter who it was, I just wanted a fix. If it wasnt her it would have been someone else. It was a means to an end, the thrill of the chase.'
Fling: The father-of-two admitted to bedding the nanny five times in their six month affair, which began in August last year and ended in February, with their first sex session taking place in the utility room after he initiated a kiss (Nikki pictured above)
No going back: Kieran also said there was no passion in the pair's steamy encounters, revealing they didn't even take their clothes off during their romps and that he had manipulated the nanny to get her into bed
'It is sick, but the fact she knew Katie added to the thrill,' he continued. 'That is why I had sex with her friends previously. I know that is dreadful.'
Kieran said in the immediate aftermath of their sex session, he had scrubbed himself in the shower, feeling 'dirty and horrid', and returned to being a loving husband without discussing what had happened with Nikki.
But weeks later they found themselves alone again with Kieran taking the opportunity to bed the nanny in the laundry room or family bathroom - despite him knowing next to nothing about Nikki besides the fact she was from the local area.
He also claimed he was embarrassed to have slept with Nikki and that he is heartbroken to have betrayed his wife yet again.
Mail Online has contacted a representative for Katie for comment.
Meanwhile, Katie was spotted looking pensive during a spa retreat in Lancashire.
The star escaped to the Luxury Hall resort along with a female pal, and looked pensive as she sported sunglasses and a white robe during a stroll in the gardens.
She is currently on a UK tour of her one-woman show.
Distance: Kieran said in the immediate aftermath of their sex session, he had scrubbed himself in the shower, feeling 'dirty and horrid', and he returned to being a loving husband, without discussing what had happened with Nikki
Escape to the country: As Kieran sat down for his interview, Katie escaped to the Luxury Hall Spa in Lancashire
Getaway: The star looked pensive as she hid behind sunglasses while on the road for her one-woman show
Downward spiral: After initially believing he was cured after sex addiction therapy, Kieran said he was thrown into a depressive state in August 2016 after finding out Katie had been flirtatiously messaging DJ Tom Zanetti, and decided to cheat again
Denial: Nikki, however, has said Katie's claims were 'complete lies' and vowed to clear her name
Nikki, meanwhile, has denied claims she and Kieran were embroiled in an affair.
Speaking to MailOnline earlier this week, the nanny insisted: Im going to clear my name. I'm not going to be just somebody else that she's disposed of. It's not going to happen. She's vile.'
Nikki, who had been a guest at Katie and Kieran's vow renewal ceremony in the Maldives, continued: 'It's all just a complete lie. There were no intimate emails. I have the emails. If she'd have sent the emails to the press, they'd have seen there's no intimacy in them emails. It's all a little story that comes from her head.
Kieran, meanwhile, has previously admitted to two affairs with two of Katie's former best friends. Despite initially vowing to leave her husband at the time his infidelities surfaced in 2014, a then heavily pregnant Katie chose to take him back and give their marriage another go.
Hitting back: Nikki continued to MailOnline: 'I'm not going to be just somebody else that she's disposed of. It's not going to happen. She's vile. It's all complete lies'
Oh dear: Kieran, meanwhile, revealed Katie had uncovered emails from him to Nikki in which he called her his best friend, but admitted that was part of his manipulation process and that he hates himself for what he has done to his wife
She supported Kieran as he sought treatment for a sex addiction, but for Kieran, he was fighting a losing battle.
After initially believing he was cured and stating he no longer 'craves' sex, Kieran said he was thrown into a depressive state in August last year, after finding out Katie had been flirtatiously messaging DJ Tom Zanetti, and decided to cheat again.
Kieran revealed Katie had uncovered emails from him to Nikki in which he called her his best friend, but admitted that was part of his manipulation process and that he hates himself for what he has done to his wife.
He is now determined to cure his addiction once and for all - and win Katie back- and revealed he is back in therapy, costing 300 an hour. He claimed the pair still love each other, but he is now sleeping in the spare bedroom of Katie's home.
All over: Kieran is now determined to cure his addiction once and for all - and win his wife back- revealing he is back therapy, costing 300 an hour, but he is sleeping in the spare bedroom of Katie's home
Kieran said he 'hates' Nikki for 'lying' about their affair and revealed both his mother and Katie's had listened in as Nikki allegedly confessed to bedding Kieran, after Katie had rang the nanny to get proof.
While Katie has continued with her working commitments and embarked on her speaking tour across the UK, brushing off her marital woes, Kieran has been caring for her five children and was spotted taking Katie's daughter Princess, 10, to a Little Mix concert.
He was also seen liking his estranged wife's photos on Instagram.
His comments on his six-month affair come after Katie had told The Sun she was 'gutted' to find out Kieran had cheated on her again, but was determined to keep their split 'amicable' for the sake of her children.
She explained she caught him sending intimate emails to Nikki, saying: 'For a year I was basically paying her to f*** my husband.'
Shock split: Katie, who forgave Kieran after he admitted affairs with her close friends Jane Poutney and Chrissy Thomas in 2014, told The Sun she was 'gutted' to find out Kieran had cheated on her again
End of the fairytale: Katie, who has been married to Kieran for more than four years said she had cried and screamed 'like a lunatic' as her husband confessed
'They had sex everywhere except in our bedroom, they even did it in the kids bathroom.'
Katie, who has been married to Kieran for more than four years said she had cried and screamed 'like a lunatic' as her husband confessed.
She said: 'When I confronted him he denied it at first, even when I said shed admitted it. I was crying, asking, "How could you do this to me again?"
But Katie revealed that seconds after he admitted his third affair, Kieran had accused her of cheating by sending texts to other men behind his back.
She brushed off the texts and said they had merely been a 'self-defence mechanism', as she suspected Kieran had been sleeping around.
Minutes after news broke of Kieran's infidelity and Katie's plans to leave him, the distraught Loose Women star tweeted a series of broken heart emojis.
Heartbreak: Minutes after the news broke of the divorce, a distraught Katie tweeted a series of broken heart emoticons
Loved up: Katie said: 'I was gutted. For a year I was basically paying her to f*** my husband'
The couple share two children, son Jett, four and daughter Bunny, three, together.
Katie is also mother to Harvey, 15, with Dwight Yorke and Junior, 12 and Princess, 10, from her previous marriage to Peter Andre.
This will be Katie's third divorce, as she previously wed Peter Andre in 2005, splitting with the Mysterious Girl singer in 2009 and had married ex Alex Reid from 2010-2011.
Katie and Kieran married in the Bahamas in January 2013, just five weeks after they first met, and while Katie had been pregnant with their son Jett.
The former couple met through Katie's best friends Gary Cockerill and Phil Turner.
Turbulent: She added: 'They had sex everywhere except in our bedroom, they even did it in the kids bathroom'
Look of love: This will be Katie's third divorce, as she previously wed Peter Andre in 2005, splitting with the Mysterious Girl singer in 2009 and had married ex Alex Reid from 2010-2011
Following their beach wedding they headed to Weston-Super-Mare in March to bless their wedding and welcomed Jett five months later.
The couple's seemingly sturdy marriage was rocked to its core in 2014 when Katie discovered Kieran and Jane becoming intimate on a sun-lounger during a group holiday to Cape Verde - after which she had knocked out her rival's tooth.
Katie and Jane had known each other for 20 years when the 10-month affair came to light, and the latter was even maid of honour at Katie's weddings to Alex Reid and Kieran.
After Katie rumbled the pair's affair, and made Kieran undergo a lie detector test, she took to Twitter to announce she was divorcing him.
Days before she had revealed she was six-months pregnant with daughter Bunny.
Couldn't make it work: The couple's seemingly sturdy marriage was rocked to its core in 2014 when Katie discovered Kieran and Jane becoming intimate on a sun-lounger during a group holiday to Cape Verde - after which she knocked out her rival's tooth
She later made the shocking revelation that Kieran had bedded another close friend, former glamour model Chrissy Thomas, who Katie had known since she was 18.
The affair revelations continued as Katie detailed in her autobiography Reborn that Kieran used to meet Jane in a carpark for unprotected sex and that the pair had romped in her horse stables after she held a onesie themed New Year's party.
After initially announcing she was leaving her third husband, Katie had a change of heart and revealed Kieran was a sex addict who was hooked on the thrill and was seeking professional help for his addiction.
She also claimed she would have left the plasterer turned farmer at the time of finding out about his cheating if she hadn't been pregnant.
Puckering up: She later made the shocking revelation that Kieran had bedded another close friend, former glamour model Chrissy Thomas, who Katie had known since she was 18
Candid: The affair revelations continued as Katie detailed in her autobiography Reborn that Kieran used to meet Jane in a carpark for unprotected sex and that the pair had romped in her horse stables after she held a onesie themed New Year's party
Despite a therapist initially branding Kieran 'untreatable' and then barring the couple from touching one another for two months, Kieran said the therapy helped him conquer his demons.
Last year he shocked fans when he unveiled a giant tattoo tribute to his wife, depicting her as an underwear-clad angel in the leg inking.
He told OK magazine: 'The pain I went through was nothing compared to the pain Kate went through when I cheated on her.'
Kieran chose a snap of Katie taken at the launch of her ASDA lingerie launch in 2008 as his inspiration, but decided to add wings as he sees her as his 'guardian angel'.
He explained: 'After all the issues that have gone on between me and Kate, I wanted to portray her as a guardian angel.
'She has helped me through my troubles and I wanted to show her that I think she is an angel to me. Its like shes always looking over me.
Public outburst: After initially announcing she was leaving her third husband, Katie had a change of heart after she revealed Kieran was a sex addict who was hooked on the thrill and was seeking professional help for his addiction.
Affair: Kieran cheated on Katie with her best friend Jane Poutney (Jane pictured next to Katie at a premiere months before the affair was made public)
Although, Katie vowed that she would 'forgive but never forget' and regularly sent her husband photos of Jane to remind him of the hurt and pain he had caused her.
In May, Kieran had appeared on Loose Women alongside Katie and her co-stars and their partners, and admitted he 'will never be cured' before tenderly kissing the forgiving wife.
The embattled husband announced that, having sought therapy for his compulsions, he now 'does not crave' sex, with Katie admitting it is now her 'on him'.
Back in February, meanwhile, Katie said 'I trust him and for our wedding anniversary this year, I always said 'I never forgive, I never forget', I have actually said to him 'I now forgive you.
'I do forget because I got to a point where I don't have to worry about him. He's changed so much, he's proven himself and the best I could do is stay with him.
Tribute: Last year Kieran shocked fans when he unveiled a giant tattoo tribute to his wife, depicting her as an underwear-clad angel in the leg inking saying she had 'saved him'
Unforgivable: Kieran had appeared on Loose Women alongside Katie in May and insisted he no longer 'craves' sex, thanking Katie for sticking by him despite his infidelity
'There was lots of other things that went on... this week he's gone on Instagram, which for us is a big step. Since he got caught, he had to come off everything, him and the therapist [agreed it], because on these sites people can direct message you, anybody can, so he's back on that [now].
'I'm smiling now because everyone said, 'Leave him, leave him'. It's easier to walk away but it takes a strong person to stay. And I did stay.
'It's alright people saying 'well make a go of it', but you have to make an effort.'
Despite putting on a brave face through the couple's turbulent relationship, Katie had been dropping hints that all was not well within the couple's marriage in the lead up to Kieran's confession.
At the beginning of August, she joked about 'not having her wedding rings on' in a racy Instagram video, going on to say: 'I'm not girlfriend material, I'm wifey material but well, we won't comment on that...'
Trouble: At the beginning of August, Katie dropped hints of trouble with Kieran, as she joked about 'not having her wedding rings on' in a racy Instagram video
A TIMELINE OF KATIE PRICE'S TURBULENT LOVE-LIFE 1996-98: Katie, then a surgery-free 18-year-old glamour model hooks up with Gladiators star Warren Furman. They get engaged but split in 1998. 1998-2000: Katie moves onto Another Level singer Dane Bowers. The pair date for two years but endure an acrimonious break-up. Katie admitted having an abortion during their relationship and called him 'the love of my life' 2000-2001: After Dane Katie starts seeing footballer Dwight Yorke after meeting him in a London club. During their romance Katie falls pregnant with son Harvey, although Dwight initially refuses to acknowledge the baby is his. 2001: While pregnant with Harvey Katie beds Pop Idol finalist Gareth Gates, then 17, taking his virginity. She said afterwards 'I just wanted to be loved' 2002: After Harvey's birth in May 2002, she hooks up with Matt Peacock who went on to be briefly wed to Jodie Marsh 2003-2004: Katie gets into a relationship with Scott Sullivan, who coincidentally shares the same birthday as her. He proposes with a diamond ring on a teddy bear's paw and she accepts but she is about to enter the I'm A Celebrity jungle 2004-2009: Katie falls madly in love with Peter Andre when they meet on i'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and the pair get married in 2006. The pair will welcome two children Junior, 12 and Princess Tiaamii before they split in 2009 2009-2011: Admitting she was on the 'rebound' Katie starts dating cage fighter Alex Reid a mere eight weeks after her split from Pete. Following a whirlwind romance the pair wed in Las Vegas in January 2010 but the marriage falls apart less than a year later 2011: Katie enjoys a brief fling with rugby ace Danny Cipriani 2011-2012; Katie falls for Argentinian model Leandro Penna after meeting him at Elton John's Oscars party in LA. Revealing she bedded him on the first night, the pair went on to get engaged before they split in 2012 2012: Katie meets part-time stripper and plasterer Kieran Hayler, who is nine years her junior. The pair exchange vows a mere five weeks later when Katie is already pregnant with the couple's first son Jett 2014; Katie takes to Twitter to announce the couple are divorcing after she found out about Kieran's affairs with her friends Jane Poutney and Chrissy Thomas. She later reconciles with him 2017: Katie announces the pair will divorce Advertisement
After her cheeky live video, Katie headed onto the Loose Women panel where she appeared to make a dig at her ex for cheating on her with two of her best friends.
Speaking in a discussion about infidelity, she announced: 'Once a cheat, always a cheat'.
Katie made the comment about cheating while discussing how important it is to have a 'spark' in a relationship.
'When you're in love you shouldn't be complacent. All my relationships ended despite having the spark. I want a happy home, not an eggshell home,' she said.
'For some people it's all about sex, but it's not. I think once a cheat always a cheat,' she added.
Taking a swipe: Later in the day following the live stream incident Katie appeared to make a sly dig at Kieran's deceitful past as she declared on Loose Women: 'Once a cheat, always a cheat'
Keeping up appearances: Katie showed no signs of marital distress as she made a confident appearance on Loose Women, but didn't have her wedding ring on
Things first appeared to be rocky between herself and Kieran when she was seen flirting up a storm with Love Island 's Chris Hughes - having come face-to-face with the reality star on Loose Women following his exit from the ITV2 dating series.
And Katie reportedly continued her flirty antics by sending a series of 'inappropriate' private messages to Chris on Twitter.
Chris later told Closer magazine: 'She's a little bit full on! She's funny, but interesting. She tried to message me on Twitter a little bit, but I just didn't reply.'
Flirting up a storm with the hunk, the mother-of-five seemed to have ignored warnings from both her husband and Chris' girlfriend Olivia Attwood, leaving Coleen Nolan to intervene.
Pucker up! Things appeared to be rocky when she flirted up a storm with Love Island's Chris Hughes and reportedly continued the flirtatious exchange via Twitter DMs
As Coleen repeatedly told Katie 'you're married!' the former glamour model brazenly announced: 'If I wasn't married you would be my type on paper, 100 percent to a tee!
She added: 'It's like, "Will I be able to pull again?"' before swiftly adding: 'Not that I want to! But she's [Olivia] got you, lucky girl! And I'm married!'
Unable to resist flirting some more, Katie added: 'He thought I was 31, but I'm 39... and I'm a MILF!'
Her comments came after Katie had hit back at a video from her husband Kieran that had been sent into the show, warning her to be on her best behaviour.
Rumour has it: Katie and Kieran were also alleged to have recently gone through a rocky patch after she was discovered sending a series of flirty texts to DJ Tom Zanetti
Kieran sent in a strict message to his wife and encouraged her to think about the vow renewal that was aired on Monday's episode of their reality show.
But Katie laughed off his pleas, shooting back: 'Reality TV is filmed in advance, we renewed our vows months ago, not last week!'
Katie and Kieran were also alleged to have recently gone through a rocky patch after she was discovered sending a series of flirty texts to DJ Tom Zanetti and faced reports that she was deliberately pushing Kieran 'to the brink' so that he will quit their marriage - meaning she can cash in on a series of post-divorce interviews and magazine deals.
'It's becoming clear Katie's increasingly unhappy in her marriage and is looking for a get -out clause to end things without appearing like the bad one,' a source told Closer magazine.
'She seems to be pushing Kieran to the brink so that he'll leave her and she can then ride the wave of being the poor victim left at home with five kids to look after,' the source added.
'Chilling back at the villa': Kieran did his best to dispel the split rumours on social media, sharing a shot of him cuddling Katie while she laid in his lap
Family affair: The couple had put on a defiant display as split rumours circulated
The claims came after Katie first set tongues wagging in October last year, after being pictured leaving a hotel in Newcastle with Geordie Shore star Scotty T.
Scotty rubbished claims the pair had 'hooked up', insisting he only drove her to a salon so she could top up her tan.
'She's genuinely just my pal. I literally took her for a sunbed at my friend's salon and that was it,' he told Radio Aire, although he did then confess that the fact Katie was married 'wouldn't stop' him from sleeping with her.
'She's a lovely girl, I've not seen her recently but I would get in touch with her,' he claimed. 'She's fit! You can write that! Write that I think she's fit and I totally would s**g her.'
Former loves: Katie enjoyed a short-lived marriage to cage fighter Alex Reid, which ended in 2011 after 11 months
In the past: Katie was previously married to Peter Andre from 2005 till 2009 - after they met in the I'm A Celebrity! jungle
Engagement: Katie was engaged to Argentinian model Leandro Penna who she met at Elton John's Oscars party in 2011 but split at the end of 2012
Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Technologies, has a net worth of $22.9 billion, making him the 37th wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine
US billionaire Michael Dell and his wife Susan announced Friday an initiative to raise $100 million in private funds for Hurricane Harvey recovery.
The Dells, both Houston natives, told ABC's "Good Morning America" program that they were donating $18 million to kick off the fund, and for every $2 raised by others over the US Labor Day holiday weekend, they will match the donation with a dollar of their own.
"Susan and I were both born and raised" in Houston, said the CEO of Dell Technologies.
He expressed dismay at seeing the neighborhood where he grew up "underwater on television and -- literally, I saw a street I rode my bike on every day riding to school."
His wife Susan said that growing up, their families vacationed in the hurricane-ravaged coastal cities of Corpus Christi and Rockport.
"We want to basically bring the power of private contributions to the recovery efforts," she said.
Her husband has a net worth of $22.9 billion, making him the 37th wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine.
The nomination drew fire from two US senators from Florida who questioned the Oklahoma representative's qualifications to lead such a complex and highly technical agency
US President Donald Trump announced Friday he plans to appoint James Bridenstine, a former navy pilot and Republican congressman, to head the US space agency NASA.
Bridenstine, 42, who backed Trump during the US presidential campaign, had long been considered the favorite for the job of NASA administrator.
But the nomination drew fire from two US senators from Florida who questioned the Oklahoma representative's qualifications to lead such a complex and highly technical agency.
Senator Bill Nelson, the ranking Democrat on the committee that oversees NASA, told the news site Politico the agency's new leader should be "a space professional, not a politician."
Marco Rubio, the state's other senator and a Republican, said the choice of Bridenstine "could be devastating for the space program."
"I would hate to see an administrator held up -- on [grounds of] partisanship, political arguments, past votes, or statements made in the past -- because the agency can't afford it and it can't afford the controversy," he told Politico.
Bridenstine, who was elected to Congress from Oklahoma in 2012, is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
According to the trade publication SpaceNews, Bridenstine has been a big proponent of giving the private sector a larger role in space.
The space agency is involved in all aspects of space exploration, as well as in Earth observation missions from space and in the development of new aerospace concepts.
Since the end of NASA's space shuttle program in 2011, the United States has had to rely on Russia to ferry their astronauts to the International Space Station.
NASA is currently developing a heavy launcher and capsule capable of taking astronauts to Mars in 2030 and beyond.
But it faces competition from billionaires like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, who runs SpaceX and Tesla.
NASA's proposed 2018 budget comes to a little more than $19 billion.
Bridenstine's experience is mainly in the military, as a pilot who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as a member of the naval reserves has flown counter-drug missions in Central and South America.
He served as executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium. He is also a member of the Oklahoma Air National Guard.
He has degrees from Rice University and Cornell.
In 2016, there was a wave of arson attacks targeting schools in Kenya, such as this one at Itierio Boys High Scool in the southwestern county of Kisii
Seven teenage girls died in a fire at a Nairobi school dormitory on Saturday, and 10 others were injured, according to Kenya's education minister.
"We have lost seven students in this unfortunate incident," said Fred Matiangi on visiting Moi Girls High School, a prestigious government school in the capital.
"We have to get to the bottom of this matter. Police and other teams of investigators have already begun the probe and I can assure you stern action will be taken," said Matiangi, who is also acting interior minister.
The school, which has more than 1,000 students, will remain closed for two weeks while the investigation takes place.
Police are trying to establish if the blaze is linked to a wave of school fires in 2016 when over 100 schools countrywide were hit by arsonists in a period of three months.
Some 150 students and 10 teachers were charged over the fires, with a variety of motives pinpointed by authorities and the local press.
These included vengeance from a "cartel" linked to the country's former exam-setting body, which used to profit handsomely from selling papers and answers before being dismantled.
Other possible motives were student anger over changes to the school calendar as well as Matiangi's tough approach to reforms.
A woman mourns at the grave in the Wadi al-Salam cemetery in Iraq's Shiite holy city of Najaf of a loved one killed in the conflict against the Islamic State group, on September 1, 2017
The Valley of Peace cemetery in the Shiite holy city of Najaf is filled with mourners paying tribute to "martyrs" who have fallen in battles to expel the Islamic State group from Iraq's cities.
In keeping with religious tradition, Kazem al-Aibi has already visited the tombs of relatives in his home village for the Eid holidays which started Saturday for Iraqi Shiites.
But this year he also made his way to the Wadi al-Salam (Valley of Peace) cemetery in Najaf -- one of the world's largest -- to sit by the white tombstone of his son killed fighting IS jihadists.
Mohammed joined the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary units, or "popular mobilisation" forces dominated by Iranian-backed Shiite militias, to battle IS alongside the Iraqi military and police.
A man mourns at the grave in the Wadi al-Salam cemetery in Iraq's Shiite holy city of Najaf of a loved one killed in the conflict against the Islamic State group, on September 1, 2017
Like tens of thousands of other Iraqis, Aibi's son signed up after a call from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's highest Shiite religious authority, to take up arms and reverse the lightning 2014 advance of IS in north and west Iraq.
Mohammed left his village in Maysan province, in the Shiite heartland south of Baghdad, to join the Hashed and fought in several battles before he fell in Al-Miqdadiyah, hundreds of kilometres (miles) away from home.
- More 'martyrs' each day -
Wearing a black and white keffiyeh headscarf, the father wept openly in the cemetery which serves as the final resting place for millions and where more and more "martyrs" are being buried each day.
An Iraqi man kisses the grave at Iraq's Wadi al-Salam cemetery in the Shiite holy city of Najaf of a fighter killed fighting the Islamic State group
Iraqi security forces, for their part, have so far not disclosed their losses.
In the fourth year of war against IS, Iraq has announced a string of victories, most importantly the recapture of the country's second-largest city, Mosul, and the expulsion of IS this week from the town of Tal Afar.
The apparently irreversible advances on the battlefield, supported by US-led coalition air power, give at least some solace to Kazem al-Aiba.
"Inshallah (God willing), after Tal Afar and Mosul, all regions and towns will be liberated," said the man with a neatly trimmed moustache and wearing a spotless white jalabiya gown.
All around him, men and women of all ages jostled for space in the alleyways of the cemetery in the city which is a Shiite pilgrimage destination for its shrine of Imam Ali, the revered son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammed.
Black-veiled women showing only their faces and men, often sobbing, busily clean the tombstones with water and cloths, or decorate them with flowers and posters glorifying the anti-IS fighters.
Many families have opted to have their fallen in the ranks of the Hashed forces buried in the Valley of Peace as an honour, rather than in their plots in home cemeteries.
Tombs marked "martyr" have multiplied, as have the posters of "hero fighters" showing the fallen men carrying their guns.
Outside the cemetery, where there were long lines of vans, cars and motorcycles, Abu Hussein said he had also come to visit his son's grave and was proud of "the sacrifice" he had made to retake Tal Afar.
"Ridding even a square centimetre of Iraq of the jihadists is a great victory for all Iraqis," said the man in a long black jalabiya and a keffiyeh around his neck.
The festival comes as renewed violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state forces thousands of Rohingya -- a stateless ethnic minority -- to seek refuge in Bangladesh, with many drowning as they attempt to cross the border river in makeshift boats
Scores of Rohingya Muslim refugees offered Eid prayers on Saturday in Bangladesh, many of them recent arrivals fleeing a surge in communal violence in neighbouring Myanmar.
The festival comes as renewed violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state forces thousands of Rohingya -- a stateless ethnic minority -- to seek refuge in Bangladesh, with many drowning as they attempt to cross the border river in makeshift boats.
It is the bloodiest chapter yet in a bitter five-year crisis that has torn apart Rakhine along ethnic and religious lines, displaced the Rohingya in huge numbers and heaped international condemnation on Myanmar's army and the government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
"I had everything at my home... but now I've become a refugee. There's nothing much to celebrate. Yet it is our duty to perform the Eid prayer," said 39-year-old Makbul Hossain who made the dangerous crossing from Rakhine to the Bangladesh border town of Cox's Bazar last week.
Goats, sheep and cows are slaughtered worldwide to celebrate the major Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Adha, which is known as the Feast of the Sacrifice.
"I used to sacrifice my own animals during Eid," said 60-year-old farmer Deen Mohammad.
But he was forced to flee for his safety after the latest round of violence erupted late August when Rohingya militants swarmed police posts, killing 15 officials and burning villages.
"When the fighting started I left my homestead with everything. I am penniless here," he told AFP, breaking down in tears.
Amid monsoon rains, small-scale festivities were under way in refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, where many have taken cover in schools that have closed for Eid.
The Rohingya are reviled in Myanmar, where the roughly one million-strong community are accused of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Since violence broke out, the UN has estimated 40,000 people -- mostly women and children -- have fled to Bangladesh, while nearly 400 people have died in the fighting between Myanmar troops and Rohingya militants, according to the army chief.
Around 20,000 more have been stranded at the no man's land between the two countries' borders.
Rakhine has been the crucible of religious violence since 2012, when riots erupted killing scores of Rohingya and forcing tens of thousands of people -- the majority from the Muslim minority -- into displacement camps.
Indian and Pakistani troops regularly exchange fire across the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir, despite signing a ceasefire in 2003
A five-year-old Pakistani girl was killed on Saturday after she was hit in the head by a bullet fired by Indian troops across the border in disputed Kashmir, officials said.
The incident took place in Polas village at Abbaspur sector on the Line of Control, the de facto border dividing Kashmir between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India.
"A five-year-old girl was walking outside her house when a lone bullet fired by Indian troops pierced through her head," local government official Tahir Mumtaz told AFP.
The girl was rushed to hospital but died on the way, he said, adding that villagers held a protest rally and condemned the firing on the day they were celebrating Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice.
Another government official Sardar Sajid confirmed the casualty.
Kashmir has been divided between Indian and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both claim the territory in full.
The neighbours regularly exchange mortar fire across the border despite signing a ceasefire in 2003.
Tensions reached dangerous levels last September, with both sides blaming one another for cross-border raids.
There have since been repeated outbreaks of firing across the frontier, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries including of civilians.
In November, at least nine people were killed when Indian cross-border fire hit a passenger bus in the Neelum Valley, the same region where four Pakistani troops were allegedly killed.
Rebel groups have for decades fought the more than 500,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the restive territory, demanding independence or a merger of the former Himalayan kingdom with Pakistan.
Tens of thousands, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting.
Members of the Islamic State group and their families are bussed towards Deir Ezzor province on August 28, 2017 under a deal to end three years of jihadist presence in the Syrian-Lebanese border area
Lebanon's Hezbollah movement on Saturday accused US-led forces of stranding a convoy of Islamic State fighters and civilians headed for Syria's Deir Ezzor province under an evacuation deal.
The convoy carrying hundreds of IS fighters as well as civilians was meant to travel from the Lebanon-Syria border to jihadist-held territory in eastern Syria under a deal Hezbollah helped broker.
But the US-led coalition has pounded the road to Deir Ezzor with air strikes to prevent the convoy reaching the IS-held town of Albukamal on the Iraqi border.
Hezbollah, which has defended the deal to remove IS fighters from the Lebanese frontier, said US-led forces had effectively stranded most of the convoy's 17 buses in the Syrian desert, beyond government reach.
"They are also preventing anyone from reaching them even to provide humanitarian assistance to families, the sick and wounded and the elderly," the Hezbollah statement said.
The convoy left the Lebanon-Syria border region on Monday, but Hezbollah said six of the buses remained in Syrian government-held territory.
The deal, brokered by Hezbollah with the support of its Syrian regime ally after a week-long offensive against IS, has been fiercely criticised by US-led forces and the Iraqi government.
The international coalition fighting IS has said it is unacceptable for jihadists to be transported to the border with Iraq, where pro-government forces this week ousted the extremist group from the northern city of Tal Afar.
In a statement overnight, the coalition said it had sent a message to Damascus through Syria's ally Russia to say that "the Coalition will not condone IS fighters moving further east to the Iraqi border."
"The Coalition values human life and has offered suggestions on a course of action to save the women and children from any further suffering as a result of the Syrian regime's agreement," it added, without providing further details.
The coalition said it would not strike the convoy, but acknowledged hitting IS fighters and vehicles "seeking to facilitate the movement of IS fighters to the border area of our Iraqi partners."
Hezbollah accused US forces of hypocrisy, saying they had previously allowed IS fighters to flee territories in Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has described the deal as "unacceptable" and an "insult to the Iraqi people".
In Lebanon some criticised it for allowing fighters suspected of killing Lebanese citizens to escape on "air-conditioned buses."
Deir Ezzor in Syria's east is one of the jihadists' last remaining strongholds, where they hold most of the province and parts of its capital of the same name.
Muslim pilgrims circumambulate the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine, at the centre of the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca on August 27, 2017
With global oil prices flailing, Saudi Arabia is turning to another natural resource: billions of dollars gained from religious tourism as the kingdom hosts the annual hajj pilgrimage.
Shops line the packed esplanade of the Great Mosque of Mecca, one of the holiest sites in Islam, lowering their awnings only at prayer time and re-opening their doors minutes after the mosque empties.
Saudi authorities have reported 2.35 million Muslims are participating in this year's hajj, the pilgrimage to the western Saudi Arabian city of Mecca that forms one of the five pillars of Islam.
Of those, around 1.75 million pilgrims from 168 countries arrived from abroad, according to the state-run SPA news agency.
Even at the foothills of Mount Arafat, where Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed delivered his last sermon, carpet merchants were scouting for customers among the faithful.
Buses are seen after dropping Muslim pilgrims off near Mount Arafat southeast of the Saudi holy city of Mecca on August 31, 2017
"The money spent by pilgrims this year could be from 20 to 25 billion riyals (5.3 to 6.7 billion dollars)," said Maher Jamal, head of Mecca's Chamber of Commerce and Industry -- an estimated 70 percent increase from the previous year.
Jamal told AFP the jump in revenue stemmed from a 20 percent increase in the number of pilgrims compared with last year.
Each of them contributes on average thousands of dollars to the kingdom's domestic economy, spending money on food, lodging, souvenirs and gifts.
- 'Religion and commerce' -
The increase in numbers is no accident but rather part of the ambitious Vision 2030 plan aimed at diversifying the Saudi economy, which was dealt a serious blow after oil prices plummeted in 2014.
A young girl looks on as Muslim pilgrims pray at the Grand Mosque in Mecca on August 29, 2017 on the eve of the hajj pilgrimage
According to historian Luc Chantre, whose research focuses on hajj during colonial times, "even before the advent of Islam, Mecca was a place for merchants".
"It was an area of international exchange, where religion and commerce were always linked," Chantre told AFP. "Until the discovery of oil, the hajj was Saudi Arabia's primary source of revenue."
Saudi Arabia -- the world's top crude oil exporter -- has announced a plan to shift the kingdom's economy away from oil dependency toward other sources of revenue, including religious tourism.
The Vision 2030 plan aims to draw six million pilgrims to hajj annually. In addition, the kingdom hopes to attract 30 million pilgrims to umrah, a lesser pilgrimage that can be completed during the rest of the year.
Years before the 2030 targets were unveiled, work was already under way to expand the capacity to accommodate as many pilgrims as possible during the five-day hajj.
The past decade has seen cranes rise above the Great Mosque for projects including the expansion of the holy mosques of Mecca and Medina, an underground metro line and new flooring built around the Kaaba -- a black masonry cube which pilgrims circumambulate through now-air conditioned or ventilated corridors.
The expansion projects have been met with some criticism for distorting the ancient sites, sparking major safety concerns along the way.
In September 2015, a construction crane crashed over pilgrims congregating at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, leaving more than 100 people dead.
Later that month, the hajj saw its worst ever disaster when a deadly stampede along the route killed around 2,300 people.
The stampede drew fierce criticism, in particular from rival Iran which reported 464 of its citizens killed.
After refusing to send pilgrims in 2016, Iranian authorities say more than 86,000 of their nationals are taking part this year.
On Friday, as pilgrims carried out the last major ritual of the pilgrimage, Saudi authorities held a televised press conference to report that the 2017 hajj had passed without major health or safety upsets.
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is part of an opposition alliance formed ahead of the 2018 vote, in a bid to unseat the nation's 93-year-old leader Robert Mugabe
Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai hailed on Saturday the decision by Kenya's top court to order a new presidential election as a "step towards democracy".
Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has made three failed attempts at the presidency, losing all of them to long-ruling leader Robert Mugabe.
"This is an unprecedented decision in the whole of Africa and I think it's a good step towards democracy," Tsvangirai told thousands of supporters at a rally organised by an alliance of opposition parties.
"If it happened in Kenya it can as well happen in Zimbabwe," he said.
In 2008, Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the first round of voting but failed to secure an outright majority, leading to a run-off. He later pulled out of the second round, due violence against his supporters.
The MDC is now part of an opposition alliance formed ahead of the 2018 vote, in a bid to unseat the 93-year-old Mugabe.
In 2008, Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat the nation's president Robert Mugabe in the first round of voting but failed to secure an outright majority
The Saturday rally in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, was the first gathering of the alliance since its formation last month.
Tsvangirai told supporters that there should be "clear reforms" in place ahead of the next election to avoid disputes.
Past elections in Zimbabwe have been marred by violence, intimidation and charges of electoral fraud.
Kenya's Supreme Court nullified on Friday the results of last month's presidential election which handed victory President Uhuru Kenyatta, citing irregularities in the electronic transmission of vote results.
The landmark ruling ordered fresh election be held within 60 days.
Cambodian opposition party leader Kem Sokha (C), seen in July 2017, is the leader of the CNRP which has been battered by court cases, bans and threats against its key figures
Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha was arrested early Sunday accused of treason, the government said in a statement, the latest in a flurry of legal cases lodged against critics and rivals of strongman premier Hun Sen.
His surprise arrest raises the stakes as Hun Sen's political opponents, NGOs and the critical press are smothered by court cases and threats ahead of a crunch general election next year.
Hun Sen is determined to extend his three decade rule and withstand the burgeoning popularity of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).
The government statement alleged "a secret plan of conspiracy between Kem Sokha, his group, and foreigners that harms Cambodia," adding he was arrested early Sunday.
"The above secret conspiracy is the act of treason," the statement said, without giving further details of the alleged crime.
Kem Sokha is the leader of the CNRP which has been battered by court cases, bans and threats against its key figures.
He was handcuffed and "taken away by 100-200 police without warrant after they raided his home," his daughter Kem Monovithya said in a Twitter post.
On Saturday night, a pro-government website -- Fresh News -- alleged that Kem Sokha had discussed overthrowing Hun Sen with support from the United States.
It did not provide any evidence for the claim.
Last week the US expressed "deep concern" over the state of Cambodia's democracy after the government there ordered out an American NGO and pursued a crackdown on independent media.
Among the media in the firing line is the well respected Cambodia Daily, which often criticises the government.
It faces closure on Monday if it fails to pay a $6.3 million tax bill, a threat it says is a political move to muzzle its critical reporting.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - An independent review team is releasing its final report on a deadly inmate uprising and hostage-taking at Delaware's maximum-security prison.
The report to be released Friday was ordered by Gov. John Carney after inmates seized a building at Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna in February and took several prison workers hostage, setting off a standoff lasting nearly 20 hours.
Correctional officer Steven Floyd was killed before authorities used a backhoe to breach a wall and rescue a female counselor. Two other guards who were taken hostage had been released earlier after being tormented and beaten by inmates.
FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2007 file photo, Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna, Del., remains on lockdown following a disturbance. An independent review team is releasing its final report on a deadly inmate uprising and hostage-taking at Delaware's maximum-security prison. The report to be released Friday, Sept. 1, was ordered by Gov. John Carney after inmates seized a building at Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna in February and took several prison workers hostage, setting off a standoff lasting nearly 20 hours. (Suchat Pederson/The Wilmington News-Journal via AP, File)
In a preliminary report released in June, the independent reviewers described the Vaughn facility as dangerously overcrowded, critically understaffed, and poorly run and managed.
A criminal investigation into the incident is still ongoing.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local):
3:20 p.m.
A Syrian monitoring group and an Arab TV station say a Syrian government pilot whose plane was downed in rebel territory in the country's east has been released by the rebels.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the pilot was released Friday, along with over 30 other captured soldiers.
The pan Arab Al-Mayadeen TV station also reported the pilot's release. The pilot was captured in mid-August after the rebels shot down a government warplane in a desert area where Syrian troops and their allies are on the offensive. The government is seeking to dislodge U.S.-backed rebel forces from the area. It is also on the offensive there to secure its access to the largely Islamic State-held Deir el-Zour province.
According to the Observatory, the deal included the release of detainees held in government prisons.
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2:30 p.m.
French President Emmanuel Macron said his country is pushing for a diplomatic initiative for peacebuilding in Syria.
Following a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Paris, Macron said Friday his proposal of a new international contact group on Syria would include Lebanon and other countries of the region that receive Syrian refugees.
Macron wants to organize a meeting of "investors" in Paris at the beginning of next year to help mobilizing public and private financing for refugees-related projects.
He also proposed a summit next year about the return of Syrian refugees to their country, a "key issue" for the stabilization of the region.
He said Syrians currently living outside their country will have to play a "major role" in the future process of political transition in Syria.
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11 a.m.
Syrian President Bashar Assad has traveled to a town recently captured from Islamic State group militants to attend Eid al-Adha prayers.
Syria's state media says President Bashar Assad prayed Friday in Bilal mosque in Qarat, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Damascus. Qarat fell during a joint offensive between Syria's army and Lebanon's Hezbollah. The Lebanese army carried out a separate but simultaneous campaign on the other side of the border, securing the shared frontier for the first time in years.
The offensive was followed by a controversial a Hezbollah-negotiated deal to transport the remaining militants to an IS-held town in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border in exchange for revealing the fate of missing Lebanese fighters.
The deal angered Iraq and the U.S., which launched airstrikes, disrupting the deal.
HARTLY, Del. (AP) - Police say a car crashed into a horse-drawn carriage in Delaware before fleeing, killing one man.
Delaware State Police say the man operating the carriage was attempting to make a left turn near Hartly Thursday evening when a car traveling the opposite direction collided with the carriage. Police say the man and his wife were ejected from the carriage.
Police say the car then fled the scene. Police described it as a dark-colored car that may have considerable damage to its front bumper, hood and window.
Police say 55-year-old Ervin D. Miller of Hartly was pronounced dead at the hospital. His wife is in critical condition.
Police say the horse became detached from the carriage, ran from the scene and was later found at the couple's home.
ELKO About 300 runners and walkers participated in this years Color Chase 5K presented by the Ruby Mountain Relay, said race director Anne Simmons.
Participants left the Elko County Fairgrounds at 8 a.m. and raced to color stations near the Elko Convention Center, Elko Area Chamber of Commerce, Elko County Courthouse and Great Basin College. They were splashed in yellow, green, orange and purple powders before returning to the fairgrounds and receiving extra packets of color.
Simmons explained this year the routes direction was reversed.
The Color Chase takes about 35 volunteers to monitor each color station, Simmons said, quite a bit less than the recent 184-mile Ruby Mountain Relay.
The racers are also invited to walk in the fair parade, Simmons said, and do a big throw in front of the announcers, just for fun.
Kyra Wilson, 10, of Elko participated in the Color Chase with her family, and went through the purple station twice to get more color thrown on her.
I love running, getting color on me and spending time with my family, Wilson said.
Elko County Commissioner Jon Karr said he and his family participated in all of the previous Color Chases, and planned to join the parade later in the morning.
Its our kickoff for the fair, Karr said. Its fun for the whole family.
Piper Price, 7, completed the race with family and friends, throwing extra color packets on herself and others after crossing the finish line. She said the event was fun for her because of all the color.
I enjoyed throwing colors, Price said, adding it was her first time running in the Color Chase.
A fundraiser for the Northern Nevada Autism Network, the Ruby Mountain Relay race series has raised more than $50,000, Simmons said.
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis says that when he was 42 he had sessions weekly with a psychoanalyst who was female and Jewish to "clarify some things."
It wasn't specified what the future pontiff wanted to explore. The revelation came in a dozen conversations Francis had with French sociologist Dominique Wolton, writing a soon-to-be-published book.
La Stampa, an Italian daily, quoting from some of the conversations on Friday, said Francis went to the analyst's home. Francis was quoted as saying: "one day, when she was about to die, she called me. Not to receive the sacraments, since she was Jewish, but for a spiritual dialogue."
FILE - In this Saturday, June 3, 2017 file photo, Pope Francis attends an audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. Pope Francis says that when he was 42 he had sessions weekly with a psychoanalyst who was female and Jewish to "clarify some things." It wasn't specified what the future pontiff wanted to explore. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
"She was a good person. For six months she helped me a lot," Francis said.
Francis then was a Jesuit official in his native Argentina ruled by military dictatorship.
In the conversations with the French author, Francis speaks highly of the positive influence women have had on his life.
"Those whom I known helped me a lot when I needed to consult with them," Francis is quoted his saying.
The 81-year-old pope also speaks of his state of mind now. "I feel free. Sure, I'm in a cage here at the Vatican, but not spiritually. Nothing makes me afraid."
What bothers him, he ventured, are people with straitjacket point-of-views.
He singled out "rigid priests, who are afraid to communicate. It's a form of fundamentalism. Whenever I run into a rigid person, especially if young, I tell myself that he's sick."
But Francis concludes that "in reality, they are persons looking for security."
In past remarks, the pope has indicated he struggled with how to use authority in his first roles of leadership as a Jesuit.
The Catholic Church used to project a sense of mistrust regarding psychoanalysis.
But over time, the diffidence seems diminished.
Updated Vatican guidelines for use on seminaries in training future priests describe psychologists as valuable in assessing the psychological health of candidates.
BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) - The Latest on a preliminary hearing for Penn State fraternity members charged after a pledge died (all times local):
12:20 p.m.
A prosecutor says she will seek to have involuntary manslaughter charges reinstated against eight members of a Penn State fraternity.
Attorney Jason Dunkle, representing Ryan McCann and Lucas Rockwell walks out of the Centre County Courthouse after closing arguments for the brothers of Beta Theta Pi charged in the death of Timothy Piazza, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 in Bellefonte, Pa. A Pennsylvania judge says he'll rule Friday morning on whether there's enough evidence against Penn State fraternity brothers in the death of a pledge to send the case to trial. (Abby Drey/Centre Daily Times via AP)
District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller says she may also seek to refile felony charges of aggravated assault. Defense attorneys say they will oppose such efforts.
A judge Friday threw out the most serious counts against Penn State fraternity brothers in a pledge's alcohol-related death last February.
He ordered the now-shuttered Beta Theta Pi fraternity and 12 of its members to stand trial on a range of lesser charges, from reckless endangerment to alcohol violations. Two other defendants previously agreed to stand trial.
A lawyer for one of the defendants said the ruling takes the teeth out of the state's case.
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11:30 a.m.
A judge has ordered 12 members of a Penn State fraternity to stand trial in a pledge's death but has thrown out the most serious charges, including involuntary manslaughter and felony counts of aggravated assault.
District Justice Allen Sinclair dismissed charges against four frat brothers.
He issued the ruling Friday after a seven-day preliminary hearing. Two other students previously agreed to have their cases go to trial.
Security camera footage from the since-closed Beta Theta Pi fraternity captured 19-year-old Tim Piazza of Lebanon, New Jersey, falling several times in the hours after he and other pledges were run through a drinking gauntlet. Doctors said he had consumed a toxic level of alcohol.
He suffered for hours from severe head and abdominal injuries before his frat brothers called an ambulance the next morning. He died a day later, on Feb. 4, of injuries including a fractured skull and damaged spleen.
Defense lawyers say Piazza's death was tragic but unforeseeable.
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12:30 a.m.
A judge is set to announce whether he's keeping alive charges against Penn State fraternity members linked to the death of a pledge whose agonizing night after a fall down stairs was captured by security cameras in February.
District Justice Allen Sinclair says he'll decide Friday whether prosecutors put on enough evidence to send the charges against the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and 16 former members to county court for trial.
His decision follows a hard-fought, seven-day preliminary hearing on allegations a night of hazing and heavy drinking caused the Feb. 4 death of 19-year-old Tim Piazza of Lebanon, New Jersey.
Some defendants face charges of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault, while others face less serious charges. Two defendants waived the hearing.
From right, Evelyn Piazza, attorney Tom Kline and Jim Piazza and walk toward the courthouse before a preliminary hearing resumes for members of a fraternity facing criminal charges over the death of Timothy Piazza, at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa. Piazza, a 19-year-old sophomore, suffered severe head and abdominal injuries last February, after consuming a dangerous amount of alcohol and fell repeatedly. Help wasn't summoned until the next morning, and he later died at a hospital. (Phoebe Sheehan/Centre Daily Times via AP)
FILE - In this May 15, 2017, file photo, Evelyn Piazza, center, seated with her husband James, right, and son Michael, left, speaks during an interview in New York. The Piazza's talked about Timothy Piazza, 19, a brother, son and Penn State sophomore who died in February after he was put through a ritual at his fraternity house and forced to drink dangerous amounts of alcohol in a short amount of time. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
Attorney Tom Kline, left, walks with the parents of Timothy Piazza, Jim and Evelyn Piazza, toward the courthouse before a preliminary hearing resumes for members of a fraternity facing criminal charges over the death of their son, at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa. Piazza, a 19-year-old sophomore, suffered severe head and abdominal injuries last February, after consuming a dangerous amount of alcohol and fell repeatedly. Help wasn't summoned until the next morning, and he later died at a hospital. (Phoebe Sheehan/Centre Daily Times via AP)
Michael Schiavone, a brother of Beta Theta Pi, arrives for the seventh day of preliminary hearings Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017, at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa. District Judge Allen Sinclair said he may decide by the weekend whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence to hold a trial for former members of the now-closed Penn State fraternity charged in connection with a pledge's death. (Phoebe Sheehan/Centre Daily Times via AP)
Beta Theta Pi President Brendan Young arrives for the seventh day of preliminary hearings Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa. District Judge Allen Sinclair said he may decide by the weekend whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence to hold a trial for former members of the now-closed Penn State fraternity charged in connection with a pledge's death. (Phoebe Sheehan/Centre Daily Times via AP)
District Judge Allen Sinclair arrives for the seventh day of preliminary hearings Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa. Sinclair said he may decide by the weekend whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence to hold a trial for former members of the now-closed Penn State fraternity charged in connection with a pledge's death. (Phoebe Sheehan/Centre Daily Times via AP)
District Judge Allen Sinclair arrives for the seventh day of preliminary hearings Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa. Sinclair said he may decide by the weekend whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence to hold a trial for former members of the now-closed Penn State fraternity charged in connection with a pledge's death. (Phoebe Sheehan/Centre Daily Times via AP)
State College police Detective David Scicchitano arrives for the seventh day of preliminary hearings Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 at the Centre County Courthouse in BellefontePa. District Judge Allen Sinclair said he may decide by the weekend whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence to hold a trial for former members of the now-closed Penn State fraternity charged in connection with a pledge's death. (Phoebe Sheehan/Centre Daily Times via AP)
District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller arrives for the seventh day of preliminary hearings Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa. Sinclair said he may decide by the weekend whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence to hold a trial for former members of the now-closed Penn State fraternity charged in connection with a pledge's death. (Phoebe Sheehan/Centre Daily Times via AP)
Beta Theta Pi brother Luke Visser, center, arrives for the seventh day of preliminary hearings Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte Pa. Sinclair said he may decide by the weekend whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence to hold a trial for former members of the now-closed Penn State fraternity charged in connection with a pledge's death. (Phoebe Sheehan/Centre Daily Times via AP)
Defense attorney Frank Fina arrives for the seventh day of preliminary hearings Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefont Pa. Sinclair said he may decide by the weekend whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence to hold a trial for former members of the now-closed Penn State fraternity charged in connection with a pledge's death. (Phoebe Sheehan/Centre Daily Times via AP)
Beta Theta Pi member Nicholas Kubera arrives for the seventh day of preliminary hearings Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte. District Judge Allen Sinclair said he may decide by the weekend whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence to hold a trial for former members of the now-closed Penn State fraternity charged in connection with a pledge's death. (Phoebe Sheehan/Centre Daily Times via AP)
Beta Theta Pi brother Gary Dibileo arrives for the seventh day of preliminary hearings Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte Pa. District Judge Allen Sinclair said he may decide by the weekend whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence to hold a trial for former members of the now-closed Penn State fraternity charged in connection with a pledge's death. (Phoebe Sheehan/Centre Daily Times via AP)
Beta Theta Pi brother Parker Yochim arrives for the seventh day of preliminary hearings Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa. District Judge Allen Sinclair said he may decide by the weekend whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence to hold a trial for former members of the now-closed Penn State fraternity charged in connection with a pledge's death. (Phoebe Sheehan/Centre Daily Times via AP)
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A federal panel is recommending that President Donald Trump reject or suspend the pending $1.3 billion sale of Portland, Oregon's largest tech company to a Chinese-backed investment firm.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States ruled against the deal Friday, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported (http://bit.ly/2evDArA). The deal has been under scrutiny since it became clear that the newly-formed private equity firm, Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, that Lattice Semiconductor announced it would sell to in November is funded by the Chinese government. The transaction could threaten national security, lawmakers have said.
Lattice manufactures a relatively low-tech class of programmable computer chips that can be adapted for a variety of uses. It had 1,000 employees worldwide at the end of the last year, but that number dwindled after Lattice sold a division in India and a round of layoffs.
Lattice Semiconductors hopes the federal panel will change its recommendation or the president will take a different course.
"Lattice and Canyon Bridge plan to continue to engage in further discussions with CFIUS and the President to explore measures that may resolve any outstanding national security concerns and that could allow the parties to proceed with the transaction," Lattice wrote in a securities filing Friday.
Former presidents have followed four similar recommendations the federal panel has made since 1990. Trump has 15 days from the panel's ruling to decide whether he will follow the recommendation.
"We believe President Trump will recognize the benefits this investment will provide - to keep and grow jobs in the U.S., as well as expand Lattice's product portfolio," Canyon Bridge wrote in a separate statement.
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Information from: The Oregonian/OregonLive, http://www.oregonlive.com
NEW YORK (AP) - A settlement in a legal battle over President Donald Trump's first attempt at a travel ban will impact fewer than 20 people, federal authorities said Friday.
Under the deal announced Thursday in federal court in New York City, the government agreed to notify people who were denied entry into the United States under the ban that they could reapply for visas with the help of a Department of Justice liaison.
Civil rights groups sued over the treatment of hundreds of travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries who were processed at U.S. airports over a chaotic weekend in January when the ban went into effect.
The DOJ said in a statement Friday that it will be contacting fewer than 20 people who tried to enter the U.S. but were turned away.
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gerlent said there's no way to verify that number.
"That's a huge problem," Gerlent said. "Everyone, including the press, just has to trust the government."
A federal judge blocked the initial ban in a ruling upheld by a circuit court. Rather than pursue an appeal, the administration said it would revise the policy.
In June, the Supreme Court found that the narrower order could be enforced if those visitors lack a "credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States."
PHOENIX (AP) - Authorities say a man was arrested and removed from a Southwest Airlines flight about to depart from Phoenix to Denver after he repeatedly ignored requests to fasten his seat belt and shoved a flight attendant.
Police say 58-year-old David Clyne Dutson of Tucson was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor assault Wednesday night at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
A police probable-cause statement says all passengers were taken off the flight after Dutson refused to leave the plane and then police arrested him.
Dutson was released from jail Thursday after making an initial court appearance, during which the case was dismissed, but in a way that could allow it to be filed again.
Court records don't list a defense attorney who could comment on the allegation and there's no phone listing under his name.
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on the recovery of a car and two bodies from a the Kings River in Central California (all times local):
11:30 a.m.
California authorities say they've recovered a car stranded in a raging river for more than a month believed to hold the bodies of two exchange students from Thailand.
Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims told the Fresno Bee on Friday (http://bit.ly/2gq1SjV ) that a recovery team used a hoist to drag the car ashore. They'll next remove the bodies.
Authorities say on July 26, the car crashed off a 500-foot (152-meter) cliff and plunged into the Kings River in central California.
They say that only now has the dangerous river calmed enough to make the attempt safe for the recovery team.
Mims says a helicopter lowered the team members, who pulled the car 100 feet (30 meters) from the middle of the river.
Mims briefed relatives of the crash victims who traveled to California.
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12 a.m.
Authorities will attempt to recover two bodies from a car that plunged off a cliff more than a month ago in central California and became lodged in a dangerous river.
Officials say they believe the two dead are vacationing exchange students from Thailand.
Tony Botti of the Fresno County Sheriff's Office says Friday's recovery attempt comes as the river raging with mountain snowmelt has calmed enough to be safe.
Authorities say that on July 26 the car drove off the road and crashed 500 feet (152 meters) below into the Kings River. Investigators linked the car with the students, who never returned from their trip into the mountains.
Authorities say they will revisit the scene for a second car submerged in the river nearby and believed to hold a missing Chinese couple.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump and immigration (all times local):
3:55 p.m.
The White House now says Tuesday is the day the president will announce a decision on the fate of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders points to a reporter as she takes questions during a news briefing at the White House in Washington, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
That's the deadline set by a group of Republican state lawmakers who have threatened to challenge the program in court.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells reporters the details of President Donald Trump's decision are "being finalized as we speak."
She says Trump "loves people" and wants to make sure the decision is made correctly.
The White House has offered several different timelines for the announcement. Trump himself had said it would happen sometime over the weekend, or later Friday.
He later told reporters the announcement would likely come Monday at the latest.
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1:30 p.m.
President Donald Trump says he'll announce a decision on the fate of hundreds of thousands of young people who were brought into the country illegally as children Friday afternoon or over the weekend.
He's telling reporters: "We love the dreamers, we love everybody."
Trump's remarks came as he signed a proclamation declaring Sunday a national day of prayer for the victims of Harvey.
At issue is the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The DACA program has given nearly 800,000 young immigrants a reprieve from deportation and the ability to work in the country.
Trump called the program illegal "amnesty' during his campaign but has been torn since he took office.
He's faces a September 5 deadline from Republican state lawmakers trying to force his hand.
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1:20 p.m.
House Speaker Paul Ryan and another Republican are urging President Donald Trump not to rescind federal protections for immigrant children whose parents brought them to the country illegally.
Ryan was asked about Trump's rumored move to roll back protections for such children on Wisconsin radio station WCLO. Ryan said, "I actually don't think we should do that."
Ryan says, "This is something that Congress has to fix."
And Utah GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch sent out a statement in anticipation of a Trump announcement on Friday saying he's urged Trump not to revoke former President Barack Obama's efforts to protect "individuals who entered our country unlawfully as children through no fault of their own and who have built their lives here."
CROSBY, Texas (AP) - Silvia Casas' eyes welled with tears Friday as she surveyed the damage from Harvey to what once was a working class, mostly Hispanic neighborhood near Crosby, Texas.
Large trees with their roots reaching into the air were pulled from the ground by Harvey's floodwaters. Recreational Vehicles were crumpled like tin cans. Entire houses were picked up and moved 20 or 30 feet from where they once sat, leaving piles of wood and splintered debris and PVC pipes sticking from the ground as the only reminder of once-familiar structures.
Near a 30-foot high pile of debris, once houses and treasured belongings now stacked against a telephone pole, someone had hung a painting of the Virgin de Guadalupe from a tree branch. Around the corner, a sinkhole had swallowed two cars and was filled with brown, mucky water.
Silvia Casas tours the wreckage of their family home near the San Jacinto River in Crosby, Texas, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. The working class neighborhood was completely destroyed Harvey's flood waters, which had receded enough Friday for residents to return and view the wreckage. (AP Photo/Jason Dearen)
A neighborhood stray dog, fed by everyone, weathered the flood by standing on the Casas' roof. Their cinderblock house was one of the few structures that wasn't thrown by floodwaters, but inside, a pile of furniture and splintered belongings sat in the middle of the floor, under a ceiling pocked with peeling paint from the floodwaters.
Silvia stopped to survey the outdoor kitchen that used to stand on the side of the house where several generations would gather.
"This is where we gathered as a family..." Silvia said before choking up. "We're going to miss this place."
A week after Hurricane Harvey roared into Texas, the Casas are among thousands of people seeing their devastated homes for the first time. An estimated 156,000 dwellings in Harris County, or more than 10 percent of all structures in the county where Crosby is located, were damaged by flooding, according to the flood control district.
The community where the Casas family lived doesn't have an official name. It is about 6.5 miles southwest of the Arkema Inc. chemical plant in Crosby that flooded earlier this week, causing a fire and explosion that evacuated a 1.5-mile radius around the plant.
Silvia and Rafael Casas said their family got no official evacuation warning when the floodwaters came last Friday. They were told to leave when they lost power, but the lights stayed on. Their home was in the area that was affected by the release of water from two dams that were in danger of overflowing.
"On Friday, someone, maybe with the city, came and told my parents they were going to open the dam, and that's it. They were supposed to come back and alert people when they opened it (the dam) up, but they never did," Rafael Casas said.
He said the person told him that someone would return and let them know whether to evacuate or cut off the power to this whole area, which would be a sign that they should leave.
"But they never came back and they never cut the power."
Luckily, the family decided to leave anyway.
Robey Bartee was happy to leave the George R. Brown convention center on Friday where he spent six days after Harvey along with thousands of other evacuees. Bartee loaded his belongings into a relative's for the 11-mile drive to the old, wood-frame house where he lived with his late wife in East Houston.
What he found was worse than he expected. The house reeked of spoiled meat that went bad while the power was off. The carpet squished with each step. A line of grass and debris showed about a foot of water filled his den and was deeper in a sunken bedroom. His furniture was wet. The wallboards were soft.
Hurricane Rita flooded the same house in 2005, he said, but Harvey was worse.
"This one just wiped me out," said Bartee, 66, a retired city employee. "I didn't completely have to start over on the first one. I was able to save a lot of things and pick up the pieces and go along. But this one here, I don't know what pieces to pick up."
There were bright spots: Both of his old cars started despite being submerged in water for days, and a neighbor had cold bottled water. But Bartee said he plans to go back to the shelter and find another home, as much as he hates the idea.
Back near Crosby, Mary Ann Avila was thinking the same thing as Bartee once she saw her destroyed home. The only room left standing was her daughter's bedroom.
She sobbed as she walked around picking up items left behind from the flood.
"It's completely gone," she said. "I don't know what else to do. Rebuild? Probably not. In 2 years it'll be the same thing again. I don't think I can start over, not here," she said through tears. "I have a house, I just don't have a home."
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The version of the story corrects the first name of Robey Bartee.
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Reeves reported from East Houston.
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Follow Jason Dearen on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JHDearen
Rafael and Silvia Casas tour the wreckage of their family home near the San Jacinto River in Crosby, Texas, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. The working class neighborhood was completely destroyed Harvey's flood waters, which had receded enough Friday for residents to return and view the wreckage. (AP Photo/Jason Dearen)
A painting of the Virgin de Guadalupe hangs from a tree branch Friday, Sept. 1, 2017, in a Crosby, Texas, neighborhood wiped out by Harvey's floodwaters. Residents returning to the working class mostly Hispanic neighborhood Friday for the first time found their homes moved from the foundations, large trees with their roots reaching into the air and recreational vehicles crumpled like tin cans. (AP Photo/Jason Dearen)
Robey Bartee discusses his experiences with Harvey after returning for the first time to his flooded-out home in Houston on Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. Bartee was happy to leave a shelter where he spent nearly a week, but the damage to his house was worse than he expected and he plans to return to the shelter. A line on the wall shows how high floodwaters reached. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)
DETROIT (AP) - Mike Clevinger pitched six sharp innings and the Cleveland Indians swept a day-night doubleheader, routing the Detroit Tigers 10-0 Friday for their ninth straight win.
The AL Central-leading Indians won the opener 3-2 on Francisco Lindor's tiebreaking single in the ninth inning.
Roberto Perez homered and drove in three runs to back Clevinger (8-5).
Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Mike Clevinger throws during the fourth inning of the second game of a baseball doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Clevinger allowed three hits, struck out six and walked one. Buck Farmer (3-2) took the loss.
The opener was tied at 2 in the ninth when pinch-hitter Jay Bruce tripled with one out off Shane Greene (3-3). Lindor singled through the drawn-in infield.
The Tigers loaded the bases with two out in the ninth inning against closer Cody Allen (2-6), who had allowed the tying run in the eighth. Joe Smith took over and retired Miguel Cabrera on a line drive to Lindor at shortstop for his first save.
RED SOX 4, YANKEES 1
NEW YORK (AP) - Doug Fister dominated for seven innings and the Boston Red Sox backed him with three home runs to beat the Yankees and extend their AL East lead.
Eduardo Nunez, Andrew Benintendi and Hanley Ramirez each homered as the Red Sox opened a 5 1/2-game edge over New York.
Fister (4-7) gave up doubles by Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge to begin the first inning, and little else. He allowed four hits, struck out five and walked one.
Sonny Gray (8-9) gave up all three homers.
ORIOLES 1, BLUE JAYS 0, 13 INNINGS
BALTIMORE (AP) - Jonathan Schoop doubled home Manny Machado in the 13th inning as Baltimore outlasted Toronto.
It was the eighth win in nine games for the Orioles, a surge that's put them just 2 1/2 games behind the New York Yankees for the top AL wild card.
Machado led off the 13th with an infield hit off Aaron Loup (2-3) and Schoop followed with a liner to right-center.
Jimmy Yacabonis (1-0) worked the 13th for his first major league victory.
CUBS 2, BRAVES 0
CHICAGO (AP) - John Lackey pitched seven crisp innings, Javier Baez's daring baserunning paid off again and the Cubs beat Atlanta for their fifth straight win.
Lackey (11-10) allowed three hits, struck out five and walked none while improving to 6-1 with a 3.83 ERA in nine starts since the All-Star break. The 38-year-old righty retired his last 16 batters.
Pedro Strop and Brian Duensing worked the eighth before Wade Davis finished the four-hitter for his 28th save in 28 chances.
Anthony Rizzo added two more hits as NL Central-leading Chicago won for the 11th time in its last 14 games. He batted .355 with seven homers and 30 RBIs in August, powering the Cubs to a 17-12 record and a major league-best 191 runs for the month.
Atlanta lost for the fifth time in seven games, wasting a solid start by Mike Foltynewicz (10-11).
BREWERS 1, NATIONALS 0
MILWAUKEE (AP) - Jimmy Nelson scattered three singles and struck out 11 over seven innings, and Milwaukee beat Washington.
Neil Walker, obtained from the New York Mets on Aug. 12, homered in the first inning off Tanner Roark (11-9).
Nelson (11-6) tied his career high in strikeouts. Rookie Josh Hader struck out the side in the eighth inning and Corey Knebel struck out the side in the ninth for his 32nd save in 37 chances. Knebel has not allowed a run in his last 19 outings.
ROYALS 7, TWINS 6
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Mike Moustakas homered for the first time since mid-August, Brandon Moss also went deep and Kansas City held off Minnesota.
The Twins had won four in a row. They remain one game behind New York for the top AL wild-card spot.
Melky Cabrera tied a season-high with four hits for the Royals, who won for just the second time in eight games.
Kelvin Herrera allowed a two-run single to Joe Mauer in the ninth, but Scott Alexander struck out Eddie Rosario with the bases loaded for his second save.
Jason Hammel (7-10) got the win. Dillon Gee (1-2) took the loss.
PHILLIES 2, MARLINS 1
MIAMI (AP) - Philadelphia was shut out for seven innings by major league newcomer Dillon Peters but rallied for two runs in the ninth and extended Miami's losing streak to five.
Brad Ziegler (1-3) took a 1-0 lead and a 13-inning scoreless streak into the ninth, but Maikel Franco doubled and Jorge Alfaro tied it with a single. Andres Blanco's groundout scored another run.
Philadelphia rookie Rhys Hoskins went 0 for 3 with three strikeouts, ending his 13-game hitting streak.
Juan Nicasio (3-5) made his Phillies debut a day after being claimed on waivers. He retired Giancarlo Stanton to end the eighth and Hector Neris got his 18th save.
REDS 7, PIRATES 3
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Adam Duvall drove in two runs to lead Cincinnati over Pittsburgh.
Asher Wojciechowski (4-3) earned the win in relief after moving to the bullpen from the rotation. He pitched two scoreless innings. He is 2-0 with a 1.74 ERA in 10 relief appearances this season.
Gerrit Cole (11-9) was touched for five earned runs and six hits in six innings after pitching five innings in a 1-0 victory over the Reds in his last start.
Here's your look at highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see.
This week's gallery includes nursing home residents in Texas waiting for rescue in a flooded common room; Rohingya refugees crossing into Bangladesh; and Athens' Acropolis hill illuminated at twilight.
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Evacuees wade down a flooded section of Interstate 610 as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017, in Houston. The storm brought five straight days of rain totaling close to 52 inches (1.3 meters), the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental U.S. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
This gallery contains photos from the week of Aug. 26-Sept. 1, 2017.
See the latest AP photo galleries: https://apimagesblog.com
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Follow AP photographers on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP/lists/ap-photographers
Follow AP Images on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Images
Visit AP Images online: http://www.apimages.com http://www.apimages.com/
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This gallery was produced by Patrick Sison in New York.
A Rohingya ethnic minority refugee from Myanmar carries a child in a sack and walks through rice fields after crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the border near Cox's Bazar's Teknaf area, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. Myanmar's military says almost 400 people have died in recent violence in the western state of Rakhine triggered by attacks on security forces by insurgents from the Rohingya. Advocates for the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, say hundreds of Rohingya civilians have been killed by security forces. Thousands have fled into neighboring Bangladesh. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Young cadets and schoolgirls attend a ceremony on the occasion of the first day of school at a cadet lyceum in Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. Ukraine marks Sept. 1 as Knowledge Day, as a traditional launch of the academic year. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A boy offers Eid al-Adha prayers at the sport center in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice, to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage by slaughtering sheep, goats, cows and camels to commemorate Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son Ismail on God's command. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)
Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) display PAC-3 surface-to-air interceptors at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Fussa, on the outskirts of Tokyo Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017. The pre-planned training took place the same morning North Korea fired a missile over Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
In this photo provided by Trudy Lampson, residents of the La Vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson, Texas, sit in waist-deep flood waters caused by Hurricane Harvey on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017. Authorities said all the residents were safely evacuated from the facility. (Trudy Lampson via AP)
African migrants stand on the deck of the Aquarius vessel of the "SOS Mediterranee" and MSF (Doctors Without Borders) NGOs, in the Mediterranean Sea, southwest of Malta, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017. Over 200 people rescued from the sea during previous days are being transferred to Italy. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
People in period costumes talk outside the Friedenstein Castle at the Baroque Festival in Gotha, Germany, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017. For the past 14 years, Gotha remakes itself into a 18th Century city for the annual festival. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)
Genice Gipson comforts her lifelong friend, Loretta Capistran, outside of Capistran's apartment complex in Refugio, Texas, on Monday, Aug. 28, 2017. "We got to be strong, baby," Gipson told Capistran. Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Rockport, Texas, 20 miles south of Refugio. (Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
Opposition leader Raila Odinga arrives at the Supreme Court in downtown Nairobi, Kenya Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. On Friday, the Supreme Court nullified President Uhuru Kenyatta's August election win and called for new elections within 60 days, shocking a country that had been braced for further protests by opposition supporters. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey surround homes in Port Arthur, Texas, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
125 YEARS AGO
August 27, 1892: The hay crop is all up. Bruce has about 200 tons; Fernald 350; Dewer 175, and the others in like proportion.
Valentine Walthers drove in 46 head of horses for shipment to Missouri from Huntington Valley Wednesday. Two of his daughters Sophie and Louise and his oldest son came in with him. The horses were loaded Thursday afternoon and Mr. Walthers and his son accompanied them East. They go direct to St. Louis.
Thos. Hunter and family, Arthur Bixel and family and Minnie and Ed Litton have gone on a camping trip to the Owyhee.
Joe Taber returned from the north on Monday in time to take in the picnic at Bruces. He thinks Nevada is the best, after all.
100 YEARS AGO
August 27, 1917: The Elko people who went to Jarbidge Saturday to meet with the people of that camp relative to the Red Cross work, were given an enthusiastic welcome and after the meeting a dance was given in their honor. The Elko party consisted of three autos, and besides the president of the Elko Red Cross branch, Mrs. Otto T. Williams, were Otto T. Williams and two sons, Yale and Otto, Mr. and Mrs. John Henderson, daughter Marjory and son Jack C.B. Henderson, Judge Taber and Prof. Jensen. At the meeting, all the Elko people gave short talks, Mrs. John Henderson explaining in detail to the Jarbidge ladies the work of the Red Cross in preparing bandages and the regulation knitting of garments for the soldiers.
George M. Bower was in from Lamoille Saturday. He has leased his ranch to his two sons, retaining the old home for an abiding place, and will keep himself busy tending to the bees, for which he is famous throughout the state.
100 YEARS AGO
August 30, 1917: The city dads have ordered a 40-foot tall tower which will be erected on the ground adjoining the fire house on Railroad street. On the top will be placed the fire bell, instead of on the court house cupola, as was at first planned by the county commissioners, when they originally ordered the fire alarm system. The tower will also be used as a means of drying the fire hose.
The city council has recently purchased a Ford truck for use on the streets and to keep the chain gang busy. When the county commissioners made it a rule to charge the city 75 cents per day, per person, for merely lodging the prisoners, and in addition to this charge them for their meals, it behooved the city dads to get busy and make the city prisoners work for their board and keep. Today there are five city prisoners in the county jail and all they have to do is to eat and sleep and thank the officials for a soft time. But as soon as this truck arrives then the prisoners will be taken out under the personal charge of some man to be appointed by Supervisor Brennen, and the streets will be cleaned up, the truck hauling the garbage to the city dumping ground on the other side of the river.
August 31, 1917: For some time now the Southern Pacific company at this place have been pumping their own water for use in their engines, where formerly they were supplied by the Elko Water company. But since the increased business of the road demanded more water and the growing town made inroads on the reservoir supply of water of the local company, the railroad was notified that the water company could be unable to supply them. So the company started up their pump, which has been idle since 1907 and the water is now furnished from the railroad well alongside the track near the old ball park. There are on an average 42 trains passing through daily, each engine taking 4,000 gallons of water, making the daily consumption by the railroad of 328,000 gallons, or about 10 million gallons per month.
75 YEARS AGO
August 27, 1942: Would you like to kiss a queen? Its just as simple as buying a government war bond. In fact thats the answer. All you have to do to earn a kiss from the queen of the fair, Miss Barbara Ogilvie, or any of her attendants, the Misses Polly Nelson, Barbara Mabee or Berna Potter is to buy a government bond. Either of these lovely ladies will trade a kiss for the price of a bond, even if its only a $25 bond. The opportunity will be afforded during the fair, at a special booth, where an attendant from the Nevada Bank of Commerce will make your bond immediately availableand whats equally importantthe kiss will also be immediately available.
The United States fish and wildlife service will have two deer on exhibit at the Elko County Fair. They will be in the steer pens.
August 28, 1942: The meat markets of Elko have collected from housewives 867 pounds of fat since the campaign was started in Elko a few days ago. What can be done in this regard, is illustrated by two patriotic citizens. 196 pounds of fats were turned in by Archie Dewer of Lee, and 100 pounds was turned in by Mrs. Josephine Edison of the Star Tungsten Mine. If each family in Nevada would save one pound of fats a month, sufficient glycerine could be recovered to fire 40,000 thirty-seven mm. anti-air craft shells per month.
September 2, 1942: The businessmen of Elko have again contributed $1,000 toward the races at the Elko County Fair, Sam Martin, committee chairman for several years announced today. The money contributed by the merchants has been used in the Inaugural, Au Revoir Handicaps and in the Merchants Sweepstakes races. Martin said the businessmen of the city were exceptionally liberal again. He was aided by Ted Lunsford in collecting money.
50 YEARS AGO
August 28, 1967: By unanimous action of the Nevada Fish and Game Commission, the name of the Ruby Valley Fish Hatchery has been changed to Dr. Harry M. Gallagher Fish Hatchery. The surprise announcement was made by Chairman Wayne E. Kirch of Las Vegas yesterday before more than 300 people who attended the dedication. The total cost of the completed installation will be about $700,000. The facility will be the largest trout producing installation in the state of Nevada. The annual production is anticipated to be 200,000 lbs. of reared fish. Rainbow, brook and brown trout also kokanee salmon will be raised for distribution throughout the fishing waters of the state.
Charlie Nazer, veteran decorator from Salt Lake City, is here again for the Elko County Fair. Street banners are up and store fronts are being decorated by the old pro. He has been coming to Elko for this and other events for the past 37 years. And he admitted today that he is 85 and a half years old. He is still going strong and says of all the celebrations he attends there is none more pleasing to him than the Elko County Fair.
September 2, 1967: The first structure of the four-part Elko Watershed Project was started on Eight Mile Creek Friday. It was dedicated by Sen. Alan Bible, who was presented by Mayor Frank Weinrauch. The watershed is located primarily to the northwest of the City of Elko, with one small section being on the south side. In 1969 the flood retarding dam on 5th Street and South Side will be constructed. The 5th Street structure will be an earth fill dam. It will be L-shaped, 1,050 feet long and 33 feet high. There will be an ungrated, concrete pipe through the dam which will dewater the structure in less than 18 days. The South Side flood retarding dam will be an earth fill structure, 750 feet long and 27 feet high. The Kittridge Creek Multi-purpose Dam, to be located 5 miles north of Elko, will be constructed in 1968. The Eight Mile flood retarding structure, started today, is an earth fill dam, 1,500 feet long and 66 feet high. These structural works of improvement will provide 85 percent protection to the city for flood control.
25 YEARS AGO
August 27, 1992: In commemoration of Elkos 75th anniversary as an incorporated city, the Elko County Fair and Livestock Show is offering a special contest this year to find out who makes the best old fashioned apple pie in the county. Alice Goicoechea, chairman of the fairs home arts division, announced the contest and reported Elko Mayor Jim Polkinghorne and his wife, Marge, are offering $25 cash to the best baker.
Eighteen students from northern Eureka County started junior and senior high school in Battle Mountain this week instead of going to classes in Carlin as they had in the past. The Eureka County school board voted this summer to send the students to Battle Mountain rather than continue to pay tuition to Elko County. The decision came after Elko County raised its tuition rate. Eureka is sending roughly 15 Pine Valley and Emigrant Pass children to Carlin again this year, however.
August 29, 1992: After Noahs Ark child-care center provides proof of insurance coverage, the company will be able to use outside playground areas at Northside Elementary School and Elko Grammar School No. 2, Elko County School District trustees decided Tuesday night. The child-care centers have been using the playgrounds through an informal arrangement with the schools, and the principals have reported no problems. Superintendent of Schools Paul Billings said the agreement will also require adult supervision of the children.
VENICE, Italy (AP) - Affable, handsome George Clooney was all charm at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, but don't be fooled.
The actor says his latest directorial effort, "Suburbicon," is an angry movie for an angry country - his own. It's a twisted tale of darkness at the heart of the American dream.
"A lot of us are angry - angry at ourselves, angry at the way that the country is going, angry at the way the world is going," Clooney told reporters Saturday in Venice, Italy, where "Suburbicon" is competing for the festival's Golden Lion prize.
George Clooney, left, and Amal Clooney pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Suburbicon' during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Sep. 2, 2017. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP)
Clooney was joined by his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, on the Venice red carpet Saturday. The couple are parents of twins, born in June, and have an Italian home nearby on Lake Como.
At a news conference earlier in the day, Clooney said the U.S. now is "probably the angriest I have ever seen the country, and I lived through the Watergate period of time."
"There is a dark cloud hanging over our country right now," he said.
America's divisions give an unnerving timeliness to "Suburbicon." The satirical film noir stars Matt Damon and Julianne Moore as residents of a seemingly idyllic - and all-white - 1950s suburban community that erupts in anger when a black family moves in.
It fuses a script by the Coen brothers with a narrative about racial divisions inspired - in a negative way - by Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
"I was watching a lot of speeches on the campaign trail about building fences and scapegoating minorities," Clooney said.
That set Clooney and writing-producing partner Grant Heslov to thinking about other points in United States history when forces of division were in the ascendant. They remembered 1957 events in Levittown, Pennsylvania, a model suburban community where white residents rioted at the arrival of a black family.
They fused that idea to an unproduced script by Joel and Ethan Coen about a similar white-picket-fence community where a crime goes horribly wrong in farcically bloody ways.
The images of white rage in the movie feel unnervingly contemporary, recalling last month's rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"Unfortunately, these are issues that are never out of vogue in our country," Clooney said ahead of the film's red carpet premiere. "We are still trying to exorcise these problems. We've still got a lot of work to do from our original sin of slavery and racism."
On one level, "Suburbicon" is a comedy, in which the best-laid plans of Damon's scheming corporate executive go bloodily astray. Damon and Moore practically explode with suburban repression, and there's a delicious turn by Oscar Isaac as a prying insurance investigator.
Saturday was Damon's second time on the Venice red carpet this week. He also stars in Alexander Payne's "Downsizing," in which - as so often - he portrays a likable everyman.
But Damon also can play the psychopath, as he demonstrated memorably in "The Talented Mr. Ripley." In "Suburbicon," he's a bland suburbanite who becomes a monster.
"I don't really get to play the bad guy a lot, but I do get a nice range of roles," Damon said.
He recalled Payne telling him, "I like you because you don't look like a movie star."
"And I know exactly what he meant," Damon said. "I look kind of like an average American person, so I think directors get to have fun playing with different variations of what that might mean."
For all the bloody fun in "Suburbicon," the social concerns Clooney displayed in previous films he directed - including "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "The Ides of March" - are never far from the surface.
The Clooney Foundation he and wife run gave $1 million in the wake of Charlottesville to the Southern Poverty Law Center to combat hate groups.
Clooney said he was anxious that "Suburbicon" not be a polemic or "a civics lesson."
"We wanted it to be funny, we wanted it to be mean," he said. "But it is certainly angry, and it got angrier as we were shooting."
George Clooney signs autographs upon his arrival at the premiere of the film 'Suburbicon' during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Sep. 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
Director George Clooney and his wife Amal Clooney pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Suburbicon' during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Sep. 2, 2017. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP)
Actor George Clooney, center, poses with actors, Julianne Moore, right, and Matt Damon during the photo call for the film "Suburbicon" at the 74th Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
Actor George Clooney smiles as he arrives on a motorboat during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. (Ettore Ferrari/ANSA via AP)
Actor George Clooney waves to photographers as he arrives on a motorboat during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. (Ettore Ferrari/ANSA via AP)
Actor George Clooney leaves on a boat during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. (Ettore Ferrari/ANSA via AP)
Actor George Clooney smiles as he leaves on a boat during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. (Ettore Ferrari/ANSA via AP)
Director George Clooney and his wife Amal Clooney pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Suburbicon' during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Sep. 2, 2017. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP)
Actress Julianne Moore poses for photographers as she departs an interview during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. (Photo by JDejan Jankovic/Invision/AP)
actress Julianne Moore waves as she leaves on a boat during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy, Friday, Sept. 1, 2017. (Ettore Ferrari/ANSA via AP)
Actor George Clooney poses during the photo call for the film "Suburbicon" at the 74th Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
Actor Matt Damon poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Suburbicon' during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP)
Actress Julianne Moore poses during the photo call for the film "Suburbicon" at the 74th Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
Director George Clooney, from left, actors Julianne Moore, Matt Damon and composer Alexandre Desplat pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Suburbicon' during the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Saturday, Sep. 2, 2017. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP)
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - Barcelona says it rejected a last-minute offer from Liverpool to sell midfielder Philippe Coutinho for 200 million euros ($237 million) the Spanish club on Friday, the final day of the transfer window.
Club official Albert Soler said on Saturday that "at the last hour, after weeks of offers and negotiations, Liverpool offered us a player that we were interested in for 200 million (euros)."
Soler said Barcelona turned down the offer because "Barca is a club owned by its members and it would have been irresponsible to put it at risk."
Brazil's Philippe Coutinho, center, runs with the ball as Ecuador's Juan Cazeres, left, looks on during a 2018 World Cup qualifying soccer match in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Barcelona acknowledged weeks ago that it was interested in signing Coutinho from the English club.
It had reportedly offered Liverpool a similar sum to the deal that it reached with Borussia Dortmund for France winger Ousmane Dembele last week. Dembele's transfer cost 105 million euros ($124 million) with add-ons that could take the final price to 147 million euros ($173 million).
Liverpool's proposal of 200 million euros for Coutinho would have brought it close to the world-record fee of 222 million euros ($262 million) that Paris Saint-Germain paid Barcelona to trigger the buyout clause in Neymar's contract last month.
Barcelona had said it wanted to buy "one or possibly two players" before the close of the transfer window in Spain on Friday, but it made no acquisitions after the signing of Dembele on Aug. 25.
Brazil's Philippe Coutinho, center, celebrates after scoring his side's second goal against Ecuador during a 2018 World Cup qualifying soccer match in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Sinn Fein has rejected a DUP bid to restore the Assembly and resolve division over cultural issues.
Leader in the North Michelle ONeill said establishing a powersharing administration that may collapse after a matter of months over the same problems would only fail the people.
She claimed Arlene Fosters latest proposal to break the political talks stalemate was nothing new and had been made knowing it would be rejected.
Michelle O'Neill, second left, speaks after Sinn Fein rejected the DUP bid (Siobhan Fenton/PA)
The Democratic Unionist chief called for a common sense solution appointing Stormont ministers alongside a time-limited process for making progress on the red line issue of an Irish language act and Ulster Scots.
Mrs ONeill said: This parallel process has been discussed and disregarded throughout the course of all the negotiations we have had to date.
The intervention demonstrated unionists had not listened to or acknowledged the reasons for Martin McGuinness resignation from the head of devolved government which prompted its suspension earlier this year, she said.
Mrs ONeill said: Establishing an Executive that may collapse after a matter of months on the same issues will only fail all our people. Lets agree to quickly conclude talks on implementation and rights, that is the only way to build a sustainable Executive that will last.
Powersharing has been in deep freeze since early this year when late Sinn Fein deputy first minister Mr McGuinness resigned in protest at the DUPs handling of a botched green energy scheme which risks landing the taxpayer in millions of pounds of debt.
Talks aimed at restoring the institutions are due to resume on Monday led by the British and Irish governments, with some prominent DUP MPs warning a return to direct rule from Westminster could be looming.
DUP leader Arlene Foster said she was making a 'common sense' offer (Brian Lawless/PA)
Sinn Fein claims the DUP has failed to embrace principles like equality and respect. Democratic Unionists argue that any deal should not be one-sided and devolution should be immediately restored to protect faltering health and education systems.
Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney said Mrs Fosters intervention was a genuine effort to show leadership and reach out towards compromise.
In a major speech in Belfast on Thursday night, DUP leader and Tory ally Mrs Foster said laws should be introduced to address cultural and language issues within a time-limited period.
She warned unless agreement can be found between the Stormont parties direct rule from London could be speedily reintroduced. She said: I am putting forward a common sense solution that can give us the Executive we need and resolve outstanding issues.
Mrs Foster called for ministers to return to posts so that decisions can be made and Northern Ireland can have a government again.
But we also agree to bring forward legislation to address culture and language issues in Northern Ireland within a time-limited period to be agreed. If we fail to do that in a way that commands cross-community support then the Executive would cease to exist.
Rescuers have ended the search for survivors under the rubble of a collapsed apartment building that killed 33 people in Indias financial capital Mumbai.
Workers had been using earth-moving machines to lift concrete slabs and cement blocks, but there was no-one left missing after the debris was cleared by Friday afternoon, said firefighting officer Bhaskar Pawar.
The 117-year-old building was declared unsafe six years ago but nine families were still living there.
A policeman makes an announcement on a loudspeaker at the site of building collapse in Mumbai (Rafiq Maqbool/AP)
A nursery school had also continued to operate on the first floor, though it was not yet open when the building collapsed on Thursday morning.
Officials said torrential rains that caused city-wide flooding this week had probably triggered the collapse.
Among those killed was a 20-day-old boy.
Rescue workers recover the body of a victim (Rafiq Maqbool/AP)
Police are still trying to identify the victims but said workers may have been present in ground-floor warehouses when the building fell. Three fire officers were among the 13 being treated for injuries at a Mumbai hospital.
Thousands of buildings in Mumbai are more than a century old, their foundations weakened by years of heavy rains during the June-September monsoon season.
Thursdays collapse was the second Mumbai building to fall in recent weeks, after a four-storey building toppled in the citys suburb of Ghatkopar last month and killed 17.
The body of a victim is carried out from the site of a building collapse in Mumbai, India (Rafiq Maqbool/AP)
Building collapses are common in India, largely due to shoddy construction materials or lax oversight of regulations.
With property and rental prices high in Mumbai, some builders have added unauthorised extra floors.
This weeks floodwaters are receding and some public buses have begun running again.
Pakistani children play in an underpass filled with rainwater in Karachi (Fareed Khan/AP)
Since the start of the monsoon season this year, floods have engulfed cities and wide swathes of countryside in the South Asian countries of India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
At least 1,000 people have died and flooding has damaged businesses and infrastructure, swamping farmlands, triggering landslides and washing away tens of thousands of homes.
An estate agent who was kidnapped by killer Michael Sams in 1992 has died at the age of 50 after a short battle with cancer.
Stephanie Slater was kept captive by Sams for eight days after being held at knifepoint during a house viewing in Birmingham, but was freed after the payment of a ransom.
Ms Slater later helped to convict Sams of the 1991 murder of 18-year-old Julie Dart by giving evidence at Nottingham Crown Court, telling how she was held blindfolded in a makeshift "coffin".
Michael Sams (PA)
Then aged 26, Ms Slater told the court in 1993 that she had attempted to befriend her kidnapper in an effort to make it more difficult for him to harm her.
In a statement issued through West Midlands Police, her best friend Stacey Kettner paid tribute to her.
Ms Kettner said: "We have had a unique and epic friendship for over 25 years and shared so much together, good and bad times.
Stephanie Slater arrives at Nottingham Crown Court with her father Warren in 1993 (John Giles/PA)
"I know that she truly never got over the events that changed her life so dramatically in January 1992. Its been an honour and a privilege to be Stephanies best friend.
ITV reporter Keith Wilkinson, a friend of Ms Slater who made a documentary about her ordeal, said she died after being taken ill near her home on the Isle of Wight.
Mr Wilkinson told ITV News that she never got over what she went through and suffered terrible nightmares and great trauma.
Michael Sams' house in Stuton on Trent (Claire Mackintosh/EMPICS)
"I was very upset when I heard Stephanie was seriously ill," he said. The last time I saw her on the Isle of Wight to do some filming a few years ago, she was quite upbeat and positive.
"She could sometimes be hysterically funny and had many passions. She was mad about space and astronomy and once we took her to do some filming at Jodrell Bank radio telescope, which she absolutely loved."
Mr Wilkinson added that the crimes committed against Ms Slater also had an awful impact on her parents.
Some of the ransom money recovered by police investigating the kidnap of Stephanie Slater (PA)
After her ordeal, she worked with police forces across the country to help them understand how to treat kidnap victims, also working with victims themselves to help them overcome their experiences.
A police spokesman said: West Midlands Police would also like to pay tribute to Stephanies courage and bravery over the years and for the work she did in helping police officers and victims by sharing her experience.
Speaking in 2011, Ms Slater said of her kidnapping: "Before this happened, I had a boyfriend, a job and a company car. I had loads of friends and a great social life. But he (Sams) took everything and destroyed the next 20 years of my life.
Stephanie Slater flanked by her parents Warren and Betty (David Jones/PA)
"But now I am ready to begin again. Most people begin their lives in their 20s or 30s but those years of my life were destroyed."
Her adoptive mother died several years ago and her adoptive father died last year.
Sams, now aged 76 and originally from West Yorkshire, was given a life sentence in July 1993 after being found guilty of the murder and kidnap of Ms Dart and two attempts to blackmail police.
The 1.35 billion Queensferry Crossing has closed to traffic as it prepares for up to 50,000 people walking over it at the weekend.
Tens of thousands will cross the Forth between Edinburgh and Fife on Saturday and Sunday before the landmark bridge is officially opened by the Queen, along with the Duke of Edinburgh, on Monday.
The crossing will remain closed to traffic until Thursday, with vehicles re-directed back to the Forth Road Bridge during this time.
Queensferry Crossing closes to traffic ahead of weekend walkers
REMINDER
On Friday 1st Sept ALL traffic on @FRC_Queensferry will divert back to @forthroadbridge until Wed 6th Sept@policescotland Traffic Scotland (@trafficscotland) August 30, 2017
Up to 50,000 people, who won tickets for the weekend walk, will make the crossing between 9am and 5pm on both days.
The chance to walk the bridge has been described as a lifetime opportunity as it has no pedestrian walkway.
Local schools and community groups will be allowed to walk over the structure on Tuesday before it closes to pedestrians.
The crossing will re-open to traffic early on September 7 with a 40mph speed limit, which will be later raised to 70mph when it joins the M90 motorway.
Queensferry Crossing opening celebrations - travel advice:https://t.co/MopH4CQAsg pic.twitter.com/3YgXJcei56 The Forth Bridges (@TheForthBridges) September 1, 2017
Stein Connelly of Traffic Scotland said: With the events to celebrate the opening of the bridge we are expecting an increase in the volume of traffic around the area in the next few days.
All changes are clearly signed and road users are being directed to the Forth Road Bridge.
These are once in a lifetime events and we really appreciate peoples patience when they are taking place.
We would urge everyone to carefully consider their travel plans. If they are not attending the events we would appreciate them avoiding the area where possible as delays are expected.
They should leave extra time for any journey and they should check all of the available sources of information for the latest travel times before they leave for their destination.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin helped England Under-21s secure a creditable 1-1 draw with their Dutch counterparts in their Euro qualifier in Doetinchem.
Calvert-Lewin gave Aidy Boothroyds men the lead in the 21st minute, with slick build-up play from Ademola Lookman creating the chance for the Everton striker.
Calvert-Lewin took his chance wonderfully, latching on to Lookmans pass before steering a pinpoint shot low into the bottom left corner.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Read how our #YoungLions kicked off their @UEFAUnder21 qualifying campaign with a point in the Netherlands: https://t.co/krlpo2tOMV England (@England) September 1, 2017
Impressive though the move was, the visitors were left shaking their heads 12 minutes later as they rued a defensive lapse that resulted in the equaliser.
A well-judged cross came in from the left and Gervane Kastaneer was allowed to ghost into the box unmarked to nod home.
Frantic scrambled defence from England prevented the hosts from scoring a second as half-time approached.
And it was Holland who had the bet chance of the second half when a shot was cleared off the line.
The Yellow Pages telephone directory, through which fictional author JR Hartley managed to find an out-of-print book, will no longer be printed after 2019.
Its owner Yell announced on Friday the famous weighty tome will enter its final print run, with the first of 104 editions being distributed in Kingston, south-west London, from January next year.
The last of the yellow books will be delivered in 2019 in Brighton, where the first edition was published as a classified section in 1966.
From Yellow Pages being the UK's No.1 printed classified directory, today https://t.co/6x7CuIFtT3 is the UK's No.1 online business directory https://t.co/2rfwNhAkzc Yell (@Yell) September 1, 2017
Yell, owned by the Hibu Group, said the decision marked the companys transition to a purely digital business.
As part of the move, Yell said it aims to help a million businesses be found on its online directory by 2020.
Richard Hanscott, CEO of Yell, said: After 51 years in production Yellow Pages is a household name and were proud to say that we still have customers whove been with us from the very first Yellow Pages edition in 1966. How many brands can say theyve had customers with them for over 50 years?
We're looking forward to a bright digital future at Yell as we announce the start of the final print cycle of Yellow Pages https://t.co/MVCia8RVmq Yell Business (@YellBusiness) September 1, 2017
Were proud of the transformation weve made from print to digital. Like many businesses, Yell has found that succeeding in digital demands constant change and innovation.
Were well placed to continue to help local businesses and consumers be successful online, both now and in the future.
The Yellow Pages was rolled out across the country in 1976 and became a ubiquitous feature in British households.
Its best-known TV advertising campaign, in 1983, featured JR Hartley using the directory to search through antiquarian booksellers for a copy of his book Fly Fishing.
Norman Lumsden
The rise of internet search engines such as Google posed new challenges and the web directory was launched in 1996.
In an attempt to modernise the theme and revive Yells flagging fortunes, they launched a 2011 advertising campaign showing a DJ using its online service to find a dance track.
Pope Francis has paid tribute to former Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-OConnor.
Francis said he was deeply saddened to learn that the 85-year-old has died after a battle with cancer.
The pontiff sent a message of condolence to Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the current Archbishop of Westminster.
I hasten to offer my heartfelt condolences to you and to the clergy and faithful of the Archdiocese, he wrote.
(Jonathan Brady/PA)
Recalling with immense gratitude the late Cardinals distinguished service to the Church in England and Wales, his unwavering devotion to the preaching of the Gospel and the care of the poor, and his far-sighted commitment to the advancement of ecumenical and interreligious understanding, I willingly join you in commending his noble soul to the infinite mercies of God our heavenly Father.
Cardinal Murphy-OConnor, who became leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales in March 2000 before retiring from his role in 2009, was admitted to hospital last month.
He died peacefully surrounded by his family and friends, according to Cardinal Nichols. A spokeswoman for the Catholic Church in England and Wales added he died at 3.15pm on Friday.
Cardinal Nichols said his abiding memory of his predecessor was his infectious laughter and his sense of fun, as well as his love of music and the piano in particular.
World number one Karolina Pliskova saved a match point before battling into the fourth round of the US Open with victory over Chinas Zhang Shuai.
Pliskova, who reached the final last year, had been pushed to three sets in her previous round by qualifier Nicole Gibbs and admitted afterwards she was feeling the pressure.
She was in deep trouble at a set and 5-4 down, with Zhang serving for the match, but she fought off a match point with a fine forehand and recovered to win 3-6 7-5 6-4.
Karolina Pliskova
Blessed to make it through to the 4th round and continue my 2017 #USOpen fight in INSPIRATIONAL #NewYork, City of Dreams! #WTA #Acequeen pic.twitter.com/6JrGD6tkSh Karolina Pliskova (@KaPliskova) September 2, 2017
Pliskova took over the number one ranking after Wimbledon despite falling in the second round and has not hit top form since.
Zhang more than played her part in this contest, using the angles well to drag Pliskova all over the court and matching her powerful opponent from the baseline.
She looked set to claim the scalp when she broke in the ninth game of the second set and then created a match point but Pliskova trusted in her weapons and powered a forehand down the line.
Still on Track: No.1 seed @KaPliskova survives Zhang with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory to reach US Open 2nd week. https://t.co/AONBpi5anD #USOpen pic.twitter.com/BavE5kUQgq US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 2, 2017
The top seed then levelled at 5-5 and broke the Zhang serve again to take the set.
Still it was not straightforward, with 27th seed Zhang going up an early break in the decider, but Pliskova gradually made her extra clout count and with her 33rd winner came the relief of a place in the last 16.
Elko Daily Free Press asked Gov. Brian Sandoval about two of the states pressing issues during his Elko visit Aug. 31.
Marijuana
Although Sandoval said he opposed the ballot question on legalizing marijuana during the general election, many of his constituents have a different opinion.
At least with regard to the ballot question, the people of Nevada have spoken, so I want to make sure its the most strictly regulated business in the state, he said.
He explained taxation helps with regulating the business, and some of the funds will go to supporting public education.
To understand how to navigate the discrepancy between state and federal law, Sandoval said he recently met with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
My understanding is that as long as we are doing it in a lawful way, it should be OK, he said, explaining that the rollout of new businesses has gone smoothly so far.
Sage grouse & mining
A supporter of mining Sandoval said he is keeping a close watch on sage grouse policy to make sure it doesnt negatively affect the industry.
I know how important it is to the economy here in Elko County but also to the rest of the state, he said.
Sandoval said he had a recent conversation with Ryan Zinke, secretary of U.S. Department of the Interior, to ensure protection of the mining industry.
Boris Johnson has warned Aung San Suu Kyi that the treatment of the Muslim Rohingya people is besmirching the reputation of Burma.
Tens of thousands of people have fled into Bangladesh in an effort to escape the violence in western Burma, according to the UNs refugee agency.
Burmese security officials and insurgents from the Rohingya are accusing each other of burning down villages and committing atrocities in Rakhine state.
Rohingya refugees
Strongly condemn attacks on Rohingya Muslims during Eid. Myanmar gov must abide by int'l law to protect civilians & achieve reconciliation. (@MBA_AlThani_) September 2, 2017
Almost 400 people have died in the recent outbreak of violence.
In a message to the countrys de facto leader Ms Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her pro-democracy activism, the Foreign Secretary urged her to use all her remarkable qualities to end the violence.
He said: Aung San Suu Kyi is rightly regarded as one of the most inspiring figures of our age but the treatment of the Rohingya is alas besmirching the reputation of Burma.
Genocide is unfolding in Myanmar. The Rohingya must be protected. If this video doesn't shake you, nothing will. pic.twitter.com/NxVjtfJ1v5 Dr. Craig Considine (@CraigCons) September 2, 2017
She faces huge challenges in modernising her country. I hope she can now use all her remarkable qualities to unite her country, to stop the violence and to end the prejudice that afflicts both Muslims and other communities in Rakhine.
It is vital that she receives the support of the Burmese military, and that her attempts at peacemaking are not frustrated. She and all in Burma will have our full support in this.
Brendan Taylor and Samit Patel rose to the fore as Nottinghamshire clinched a domestic limited-overs double by beating Birmingham Bears in the NatWest T20 Blast final at Edgbaston.
The pair came together in the evening twilight with the Royal London One-Day Cup champions reeling on 30 for three and contributed a 132-run partnership to help the Outlaws to 190 for four.
Sam Hains second T20 fifty against Nottinghamshire this year gave Birmingham hope but the impressive Harry Gurney ended his resistance for 72 from 44 balls as the Bears subsided to 168 for eight at their home ground, for a 22-run defeat.
The moment @TrentBridge added the #Blast17 to their @OneDayCup title win
What a season it's been for Notts #FinalsDay pic.twitter.com/qmTd7FVaT5 Vitality Blast (@VitalityBlast) September 2, 2017
Gurney, included ahead of England seamer Stuart Broad, demonstrated his worth with four for 17 to help Nottinghamshire to their first T20 title.
Taylor (65) and Patel (64no) were the architects in a final that pitted two teams from the North Group against each other after Nottinghamshire had defeated Hampshire after Birmingham had seen off Glamorgan.
However, Nottinghamshire were up against it early on after a triple strike from Chris Woakes.
REACTION | Samit Patel praises a resilient Notts Outlaws side following their triumphant T20 campaign: https://t.co/2L2Ic6Xyb3 pic.twitter.com/ZlcHzEEEQS Nottinghamshire CCC (@TrentBridge) September 2, 2017
He proved his class after Nottinghamshire were put in, capitalising on a hint of movement early on to kiss the top of Alex Hales off stump before Tom Moores top-edged to midwicket three balls later.
To the delight of an increasingly boisterous crowd, Woakes had his and Birminghams third wicket in his next over when Riki Wessels tickled a scoop to wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose.
At 30 for three Nottinghamshire were in trouble but three stylish fours from Taylor in an Aaron Thomason over ensured they did not stagnate, before he and Patel consolidated.
MATCH REPORT | Notts Outlaws complete the white ball double with convincing win over Birmingham Bears. READ: https://t.co/kptzTFUCES pic.twitter.com/KgqYaeJw2K Nottinghamshire CCC (@TrentBridge) September 2, 2017
They were watchful to the frontline bowlers but Patel cast off the shackles with a big maximum over midwicket to cap a 15-run over off Grant Elliott.
The pair continued to match hard running with the odd boundary as the stand developed, Taylor raising his bat first before Patel reached his half-century off the next ball in the descending darkness.
Woakes was brought back to stem the tide but was carved over deep cover for six by Patel. And although Colin de Grandhomme finally made the breakthrough with his first ball, the stage was set for Daniel Christian.
Your @NatWestT20Blast final man of the match: Samit Patel pic.twitter.com/JlMeEMZkxp Nottinghamshire CCC (@TrentBridge) September 2, 2017
The Australian belted the final four deliveries from Olly Stone for four-six-six-four to lift his side to the highest total of the day, eclipsing Birminghams 175 for nine against Glamorgan.
Patel continued to be in the thick of the action when his direct hit from mid-off ran out Birminghams semi-final hero Ed Pollock, leaving the Bears two down after Gurney had castled Sibley with a slower ball.
Adam Hose and Elliott were dismissed for single-figure scores as Notts started to tighten the screw, with Birmingham left needing almost 12 runs an over at the halfway stage.
Hain had been playing almost a lone hand as he brought up a 27-ball half-century with a fantastic straight hit for his third six having earlier twice cleared the ropes off Patel from successive balls and he found a willing ally in De Grandhomme.
The New Zealander put the ball into the stands to lift morale but then chopped on to the returning Gurney, who took pace off the ball, to depart for 27.
With three overs to go, Birmingham were five runs ahead of their opponents at the same stage of their innings and while Hain was there the de facto hosts had a chance.
But he seemed to be struggling with a leg injury and when he spooned Gurney to cover in the penultimate over, the writing was on the wall.
Gurney had his fourth when Thomason (26) edged behind as Birmingham were left a fanciful 29 to win from the final over.
MADRID, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Mid-sized Spanish bank Unicaja has paid back 604 million euros ($718 million) in state aid handed out to one of its businesses at the height of the country's financial crisis, it said on Friday.
Spain had to request 41 billion euros in rescue funds from Europe in 2012 to help several banks crippled by losses after a property market bubble burst, pushing the economy to the brink of collapse.
Banco CEISS, which was later snapped up by Unicaja, was among lenders which received bailout funds from that EU package, in the shape of bonds that could be converted into capital.
Spain's government has been trying to claw back some of the state aid in recent years amid an economic rebound, though much of the money poured into recapitalising and cleaning up the banking sector may never be recovered.
As well as the EU rescue package, billions of euros of state money and funds from Spain's deposit guarantee fund -- which is financed by the banking sector -- were distributed via asset guarantee schemes and various forms of capital injections to try to help lenders cope with loans that turned sour.
Just over 60 billion euros of money spent on cleaning up the sector is likely lost forever, the Bank of Spain estimated in June.
Many of the small savings banks hit hardest by the crisis were later swallowed up by larger rivals for next to nothing when they were on the verge of failing. Spain's banking sector shrank from more than 50 lenders to around a dozen.
Unicaja listed on the stock market in June this year, and earmarked the proceeds to repay the state aid. It had to go public by 2017 as a condition of the EU funds pumped into CEISS.
The Spanish government's best bet to recoup more bailout funds is Bankia, the lender which received the biggest slice of aid, 22.5 billion euros.
The bank is majority controlled by the state through FROB, the government's bailout fund.
The FROB started selling down part of its stake in 2014, turning a profit, and has recently appointed an adviser to place another chunk of the bank in the market, possibly in the coming months. ($1 = 0.8412 euros) (Reporting by Sarah White; editing by Jesus Aguado/Keith Weir)
BEIRUT, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Syrian army are seeking a new route for a convoy of Islamic State fighters and their families bound for the jihadists' stronghold in eastern Syria, a commander in the military alliance backing Syria's government said.
The convoy of 17 buses carrying about 300 lightly armed fighters and 300 civilians has been stuck in Syria's eastern desert since Tuesday, with a U.S.-led coalition using air strikes to stop it from entering Islamic State territory.
"Work is under way to change the course of the convoy for a second time," the commander said.
The fighters traveling on the buses surrendered their enclave straddling Syria's border with Lebanon on Monday in a truce deal that allowed them to join their jihadist comrades on the other side of the country.
It angered both the U.S.-led coalition, which does not want more battle-hardened militants in an area where it is operating, and Iraq, which sees them as a threat because the convoy's proposed destination of Al-Bukamal is close to its own border.
The Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, helped by Russia and Iran-backed militias including Hezbollah, is fighting Islamic State as it pushes eastwards across the desert.
A Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said dozens of the Islamic State fighters had left the stranded convoy in an attempt to reach IS-held Deir al-Zor province by themselves.
The commander in the pro-Assad military alliance denied news reports that said a hundred of the jihadists had already reached Islamic State territory there.
The coalition has sworn to continue monitoring the convoy and disrupting any effort it makes to cross into jihadist territory, but will not bomb it directly because it contains civilians.
It has asked Russia to tell the Syrian government that it will not allow the convoy to move further east towards the Iraqi border, according to a statement issued late on Friday.
On Wednesday, the coalition said its jets had cratered a road and destroyed a bridge to stop the convoy progressing, and had bombed some of the jihadists' comrades coming the other way to meet it.
Hezbollah and the Syrian army on Thursday changed the route of the convoy from Humeima, a hamlet deep in the southeast desert, to a location further north, but coalition jets again struck near that route, the commander said.
"It was considered a threat, meaning there was no passage that way," the commander said. On Friday, coalition jets ran mock air raids over the convoy, the commander added.
"It caused panic among the Daeshis. The militants are scared the convoy will be bombarded as soon as it enters Deir al-Zor," the commander said, using a plural form of the Arabic acronym for Islamic state to refer to its fighters. (Reporting by Laila Bassam; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Helen Popper)
By Prak Chan Thul and Matthew Tostevin
PHNOM PENH, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Cambodia's main opposition leader Kem Sokha was arrested and accused of treason on Sunday and a leading independent paper said it was being forced to shut down as Prime Minister Hun Sen's government intensified a crackdown on his critics.
Hun Sen said Kem Sokha had been plotting with the United States, increasing his anti-American rhetoric as Cambodia heads towards elections next year in which the authoritarian leader's grip of more than three decades is at stake.
The U.S. State Department expressed concern at the arrest of Ken Sokha and action against the media. It raised doubt over whether the Southeast Asian country can hold a fair election.
Hun Sen, 65, a former Khmer Rouge cadre, who is now one of China's closest regional allies, said Kem Sokha had been arrested for treason in which the United States was implicated.
"It's an act of treason with conspiracy with a foreign country, betraying his own nation. This requires arrest," Hun Sen told a group of garment workers, according to the pro-government Fresh News website.
Kem Sokha, 64, has led the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) since his predecessor resigned in February, saying he feared a government plan to shut it down. Kem Sokha was taken from his home in handcuffs after a night-time police raid.
The opposition party lost to Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party in local elections in June, but it did well enough to increase expectations of a close contest in the 2018 vote.
The government released a video on its Facebook page in which Kem Sokha appeared to tell a group of supporters about a strategy to win power which he said had the support of "the Americans" rather than an immediate plot to topple Hun Sen.
In the video, Kem Sokha said the Americans had hired academics to advise on strategy to change Cambodia's leaders.
"And if I follow such a tactic and strategy and if I could not win, I do not know what else to do," he said.
The opposition party made no immediate comment on the veracity or content of the video. Earlier, it said Kem Sokha's arrest was politically motivated and violated the law because of the immunity granted to elected lawmakers.
The party called for his release and urged the international community to intervene. If Kem Sokha is found guilty of any offence, it could allow the government to shut the party under a new law.
Kem Sokha made no immediate comment and it was not clear if he had been charged or had legal representation at this stage.
ATTACKS ON U.S.
The government has stepped up attacks on the United States and last month ordered the expulsion of the U.S. State Department-funded National Democratic Institute pro-democracy group. Earlier in the year, it suspended joint military exercises with the United States, which has voiced fears over the human rights situation.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the charges against Kem Sokha appeared to be politically motivated. Her statement did not directly address Hun Sen's accusations against the United States.
Nauert also highlighted recent steps by the Cambodian government against independent media and civil society, saying they "raise serious questions about the government's ability to organize credible national elections in 2018 which produce an outcome that enjoys democratic legitimacy".
In a sign of the pressure on the media, The Cambodia Daily said it was ceasing publication after the government ordered it to pay a crippling $6.3 million tax bill by Monday.
The English-language paper, founded by an American journalist, was known for critical coverage of issues such as corruption, human rights and the environment.
"After 24 years and 15 days, the Cambodian government has destroyed The Cambodia Daily, a special and singular part of Cambodia's free press," it said in a statement.
During Hun Sen's rule Cambodia emerged from the devastating Khmer Rouge genocide to enjoy record years of economic growth of above 7 percent, but disaffection has been increasing and he only just won the 2013 election against a unified opposition. (Additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Washington; Editing by Andrew Bolton)
By Helen Murphy and Luis Jaime Acosta
NORTHWESTERN JUNGLES, Colombia, Sept 2 (Reuters) - C olombia's ELN guerrilla group said a Russian-Armenian citizen it held hostage for six months was killed in April while trying to escape, a startling admission that risks throwing current peace talks with the government into jeopardy.
In a rare interview, a commander of the National Liberation Army, Colombia's last active guerrilla group, said that ransoms from kidnappings were necessary to keep its fighters in the field and that peace would be impossible without state funding to feed and clothe the rebels.
The ELN seized Arsen Voskanyan in November. The group claimed that he was collecting endangered, poisonous frogs in the jungles of the northwestern department of Choco and accused him of wanting to smuggle wildlife overseas.
After his lengthy captivity, Voskanyan was shot when he grabbed a hand grenade in a bid to escape, according to the ELN commander, who would only give his nom-de-guerre Yerson.
"He's dead," Yerson told Reuters in a remote area along the banks of a river that sees frequent combat between the leftist rebels, government troops and right-wing paramilitaries.
"The grenade exploded ... several of our boys were wounded, the entire unit of five boys. He fled, he was shot and killed ... The issue of his body will be negotiated," he said, adding that the death took place within his unit. Yerson supplied no evidence to back up his assertions.
Another person with knowledge of the matter also subsequently confirmed that Voskanyan had been killed.
Reuters could not independently confirm the circumstances surrounding Voskanyan's death.
Colombia's government said it knows nothing of the ELN's claim and the last it knew was a statement from the ELN that said he had escaped.
"The responsibility is with the ELN," the senior official said, asking not to be named.
The Russian Embassy in Colombia, Colombia's High Peace Commissioner and the Foreign Ministry in Moscow did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The ELN's practice of kidnapping civilians is a key issue at peace talks now taking place in the Ecuadorean capital of Quito. As a result, Voskanyan's death may complicate negotiations to end 53 years of war with the ELN.
Yerson and his troops said they are not optimistic agreement can be reached because neither side will give ground on kidnapping.
The ELN has refused to stop taking hostages for ransom, launching bomb attacks and extorting foreign oil and mining companies while talks are ongoing. The government has said it will not move forward on issues like a bilateral ceasefire until it does.
Talks with the ELN are being held as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), until this year the biggest rebel group, has demobilized, formed a new political party and ended its part in a civil war that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions over five decades.
ELN HAD SAID HOSTAGE ESCAPED
His face covered by a thin black balaclava and wearing a beret and camouflage fatigues, Yerson, 35, said he has been fighting in Colombia's jungles and mountains "for many, many years."
Flanked by two fighters carrying semi-automatic rifles as other rebels watched on, he questioned the government's willingness to make sufficient concessions but said he would adhere to the wishes of his leadership if a peace deal was reached.
The ELN has sought peace before, holding talks in Cuba and Venezuela between 2002 and 2007, but experts have said those discussions were dogged by lack of will on both sides.
Yerson is the commander of the Ernesto "Che" Guevara Front, that fights under the command of the ELN leader known as Uriel who commands the Western War Block Omar Gomez. He declined to say how many rebels fight in his unit.
The ELN - which has kidnapped hundreds of Colombians and foreigners for economic and political gain - previously said in a statement that Voskanyan escaped injured after a struggle that left several fighters wounded as they tried to release him to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Inspired by the Cuban revolution and established by radical Catholic priests in 1964, the ELN was close to disappearing in the 1970s but steadily gained power again.
By 2002 it had as many as 5,000 fighters, financed by "war taxes" levied on landowners and oil companies. It is now believed to have about 2,000 fighters, but Yerson, who would not confirm the number, said the group is heavily recruiting.
Considered a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, the ELN has stepped up attacks on economic infrastructure this year, hitting oil pipelines and power lines repeatedly.
President Juan Manuel Santos, who meted out some of the most crushing military blows against the FARC and earned a Nobel Peace Prize last year for his efforts at peace, has had less success with the ELN, which moves in mobile units of four or so fighters.
The ELN has said it may declare a temporary ceasefire to honor Pope Francis during his visit next week to Colombia. (Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Mary Milliken)
LONDON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May's deputy urged Conservative lawmakers late on Saturday to back the government's EU repeal bill, warning them not to help the opposition Labour Party, which is planning to seek several changes to the legislation.
On Thursday, British lawmakers will hold their first full parliamentary debate on legislation dubbed the Great Repeal Bill, which will sever the country's ties with the European Union with the chance to table amendments at a later stage.
"Starting the new parliamentary session with the Withdrawal Bill shows that it is now the job of all MPs, including my former colleagues on the Stronger In campaign, to respect the will of the people and get the best possible deal for Britain," Damian Green was quoted as saying by the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
"No Conservative wants a bad Brexit deal, or to do anything that increases the threat of a Corbyn government." (Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Bill Trott)
By Helen Murphy and Luis Jaime Acosta
NORTHWESTERN JUNGLES, Colombia, Sept 2 (Reuters) - C olombia's ELN guerrilla group said a Russian-Armenian citizen it held hostage for six months was killed in April while trying to escape, a startling admission that risks throwing current peace talks with the government into jeopardy.
In a rare interview, a commander of the National Liberation Army, Colombia's last active guerrilla group, said that ransoms from kidnappings were necessary to keep its fighters in the field and that peace would be impossible without state funding to feed and clothe the rebels.
The ELN seized Arsen Voskanyan in November. The group claimed that he was collecting endangered, poisonous frogs in the jungles of the northwestern department of Choco and accused him of wanting to smuggle wildlife overseas.
After his lengthy captivity, Voskanyan was shot when he grabbed a hand grenade in a bid to escape, according to the ELN commander, who would only give his nom-de-guerre Yerson.
"He's dead," Yerson told Reuters in a remote area along the banks of a river that sees frequent combat between the leftist rebels, government troops and right-wing paramilitaries.
"The grenade exploded ... several of our boys were wounded, the entire unit of five boys. He fled, he was shot and killed ... The issue of his body will be negotiated," he said, adding that the death took place within his unit. Yerson supplied no evidence to back up his assertions.
Another person with knowledge of the matter also subsequently confirmed that Voskanyan had been killed.
Reuters could not independently confirm the circumstances surrounding Voskanyan's death.
Colombia's government said it knows nothing of the ELN's claim and the last it knew was a statement from the ELN that said he had escaped.
"The responsibility is with the ELN," the senior official said, asking not to be named.
The Russian Embassy in Colombia, Colombia's High Peace Commissioner and the Foreign Ministry in Moscow did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The ELN's practice of kidnapping civilians is a key issue at peace talks taking place in the Ecuadorean capital of Quito. The fact that Voskanyan was killed as talks progress and the ELN failed to inform the government may complicate already tricky negotiations to end 53 years of war and make the need to agree a ceasefire more pressing.
"It makes it urgent to get a bilateral, verifiable ceasefire as soon as possible so this doesn't keep happening," leftist Senator Antonio Navarro Wolff, who once belonged to now-demobilized urban guerrilla group the M-19, told Reuters.
Yerson and his troops said they are not optimistic a peace agreement can be reached because neither side will give ground on kidnapping.
The ELN has refused to stop taking hostages for ransom, launching bomb attacks and extorting foreign oil and mining companies while talks are ongoing. The government has said it will not move forward on issues like a bilateral ceasefire until it does.
Talks with the ELN are being held as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), until this year the biggest rebel group, has demobilized, formed a new political party and ended its part in a civil war that killed more than 220,000 people and displaced millions over five decades.
ELN HAD SAID HOSTAGE ESCAPED
His face covered by a thin black balaclava and wearing a beret and camouflage fatigues, Yerson, 35, said he has been fighting in Colombia's jungles and mountains "for many, many years."
Flanked by two fighters carrying semi-automatic rifles as other rebels watched on, he questioned the government's willingness to make sufficient concessions but said he would adhere to the wishes of his leadership if a peace deal was reached.
The ELN has sought peace before, holding talks in Cuba and Venezuela between 2002 and 2007, but experts have said those discussions were dogged by lack of will on both sides.
Yerson is the commander of the Ernesto "Che" Guevara Front, that fights under the command of the ELN leader known as Uriel who commands the Western War Block Omar Gomez. He declined to say how many rebels fight in his unit.
The ELN - which has kidnapped hundreds of Colombians and foreigners for economic and political gain - previously said in a statement that Voskanyan escaped injured after a struggle that left several fighters wounded as they tried to release him to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The killing of Voskanyan may turn already dire public perception further against the ELN, analyst Ariel Avila told Reuters.
"The impact will be on public opinion and in the questioning of the talks," he said.
Inspired by the Cuban revolution and established by radical Catholic priests in 1964, the ELN was close to disappearing in the 1970s but steadily gained power again.
By 2002 it had as many as 5,000 fighters, financed by "war taxes" levied on landowners and oil companies. It is now believed to have about 2,000 fighters, but Yerson, who would not confirm the number, said the group is heavily recruiting.
Considered a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, the ELN has stepped up attacks on economic infrastructure this year, hitting oil pipelines and power lines repeatedly.
President Juan Manuel Santos, who meted out some of the most crushing military blows against the FARC and earned a Nobel Peace Prize last year for his efforts at peace, has had less success with the ELN, which moves in mobile units of four or so fighters.
The ELN has said it may declare a temporary ceasefire to honor Pope Francis during his visit next week to Colombia. (Additional reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Mary Milliken and Bill Trott)
"If the struggle against the SAITM continues in the same manner, the only option left is to topple the government. I have decided to commit my last phase of life to win this battle", former Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) chairman Prof. Carlo Fonseka said yesterday.
He said that he had confidentially referred a letter to former president Mahinda Rajapaksa when he was in power forewarning the current crisis over South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM).
Speaking to the media outside the Welikada Prison after visitng Medical Faculty Students' Action Committee Convener Ryan Jayalath who is currently in remand custody, Prof. Fonseka said he had referred this letter to former president Rajapaksa after he was appointed SLMC chairman in 2012.
The SAITM which was established in 2009, later changed its name for medicine from management. At that time, I felt that the SAITM would negatively affect the health sector of the country. Therefore, I referred a confidential letter to Mr. Rajapaksa, he added.
He said that Mr. Rajapaksa upon receiving the letter, had directed the issue to former higher education minister S.B. Dissanayake and had directed Prof. Fonseka to monitor its proceedings. He also said that Mr. Rajapaksa had then reacted in a justifiable manner to the letter sent by him.
He said that he had taken every possible step to avoid the functioning of the SAITM in this manner since the beginning and added that he was never afraid of Mr. Rajapaksa during the period of former government; Mr. Rajapaska has dealt with me in a kind manner. He would never go against any decisions of mine, he added. (Kalathma Jayawardhane)
Former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Brazil, General (Retd.) Jagath Jayasuriya yesterday rejected the war crimes allegations levelled against him and said the then Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka in a written document had exempted him from responsibilities of all military operations.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Mirror he said: After all, General Fonseka was known to declare that it was he who did everything to bring the war to an end.
I have the official document sent by Army Commander Fonseka during the latter part of the war, saying I have no responsibility for military operations, he said.
Q: Why did you seek a change of career from military to diplomacy and did you actually flee Brazil as reported by the foreign media amid war crime law suits?
A: I was selected as the Ambassador to Brazil at the end of my tenure as the Chief of Defence Staff. I took up the post and assumed duties in August 2015 for a term of two years. You dont find many Sri Lankans in Brazil but the embassy with its staff did several projects to promote Sri Lanka in South America. We were able to hold the first ever Vesak Festival in Brazil with the support of other Asian countries. In June, this year I wrote to the then Foreign Secretary Esala Weerakoon saying that my tenure has been completed and if Im being re-appointed as an Ambassador, I requested for that appointment be made to an Asian Country. On July 10, I received a reply saying the completion of the tenure has been approved and asked me to return before August 31. On August 7, I shipped my luggage and departed on the 27 from Brasilia. I Arrived in Sri Lanka on August 29 via Sao Paulo and Dubai.
Q: Were you aware of the lawsuit filed against you before you left Brazil and why you think they had waited till the end of your tenure to make allegations?
A: I was not aware of the lawsuit. It only upon my arrival in Sri Lanka that I got to know about the news when charge d'affaires of our embassy contacted me in the morning of August 29. He said media personnel are contacting the embassy to get a comment on this matter. Also, no one has filed a lawsuit in a court as reported by the media. The lawyer who had prepared the document had simply handed it over to the Federal Police of Brazil. In the document, they have requested the police to launch an investigation against the Sri Lankan Ambassador, to deprive diplomatic immunity of the Ambassador and to declare him a 'persona non grata' in the event the Sri Lankan government refused to cooperate with a probe.
The timing of the allegations is also questionable. Why wait till my tenure ended? They could have easily prepared this when I was still the Ambassador. I have questions as this could be an attempt to sling mud at me personally, to deprive me of a further appointment as an ambassador or based on some other hidden agenda.
Q: What do you have to say about the allegations levelled by the International Project of Truth and Justice (IPTJ) headed by Yasmin Sooka against you in connection with the torture that taken place at the Joseph Camp in Vavuniya?
A: Neither Sooka nor anyone else came there. All these allegations are those they bring up time to time changing the name of a person. This time they have levelled the same set of charges against me. Earlier, Kamal Gunaratne and Shanvendra Silva were targeted. There is no authenticity or any basis for these charges which are being made for the survival of some elements.
Q: Earlier this week, Justice Minister Thalatha Athukorale said she would take measures at a government level to remove any international or foreign barriers against you. Has she approached you?
A: If she has said so, it should be appreciated. Foreign travelling is something which would be affected by these allegations. Once, I had to move my transit point from Miami, US to Canada as I was not given clearance even for transit via the US when returning from Brazil. My wife was cleared for transit but not me. My daughter is in Australia and my son is in Hong Kong. The way some media reported the incident had affected them as well. I have to visit them from time to time. Embassies are reluctant to issue a visa even when there are mere allegations even without any basis. This is something Im really concerned about.
Q: Would you be taking up the issue with the Government especially the Foreign Affairs Ministry?
A: Yes. I already have an appointment with Foreign Ministry Secretary Prasad Kariyawasam on Monday to handover official documents of ending my tenure as the Ambassador. I will raise this issue as well. I also spoke to the Presidents Secretary and sought a meeting with President Maithripala Sirisena.
Q: Are you satisfied with the measures being taken by the government to address war crimes allegations being levelled against the military occasionally?
A: No. Im not satisfied with the action taken by the government so far. It should settle this issue before any other matter and settle this once and for all. It has been eight years since the end of the war but still baseless allegations, the same set of allegations, keep surfacing from time to time. (Lahiru Pothmulla)
International cocaine smugglers are increasingly turning to Sri Lankan as a transit hub in Asia, authorities say, after they made a series of seizures of the drug, some smuggled in containers of sugar from Brazil, Reuters news agency reported.
Sri Lankan customs have seized six shipments of high-purity South American cocaine in 14 months, including Asias largest-ever haul of the drug in December, at its main port.
Sri Lanka is becoming a hub for cocaine as it is a risk-free location with less legal restrictions, a top police official who is aware of investigations into the smuggling told Reuters this week.
We dont believe that these containers came here mistakenly. Why are these cocaine containers not going to any other country which imports Brazil sugar?
About 1,770 kg, or $140 million worth of cocaine, had been seized in Sri Lanka, of which 840 kg was found in five sugar shipments from Brazil.
A 928 kg seizure - the largest cocaine haul in Asia - was found in a container of timber on a Colombian ship bound for India.
Police could not say if Sri Lanka was the final destination for any of the cocaine but a government minister said he believed all of the drugs were bound for elsewhere.
Sri Lanka is a transit point for mass-scale drug dealers, Minister of Law and Order Sagala Ratnayaka told Reuters.
He cited Sri Lankas location at the center of Asia, but declined to speculate on where the drugs were heading, while adding that it would be unfair to label Sri Lanka Asias new cocaine hub.
Sugar importers have stopped buying from Brazil, citing problems with customs clearance following increased scrutiny at the port.
Customs spokesman Sunil Jayaratne said the smugglers were also believed to sometimes transfer shipments to small boats at sea before bringing the drugs ashore.
After reaching here, they go out in small boats, they use fishing boats, Jayaratne told Reuters.
The senior police official said the gangs were looking to mask their shipments to Australian and European markets by bringing them into Sri Lanka, then sending them on in Sri Lankan containers.
South Asian counter-narcotics agencies have traditionally focused on heroin and synthetic drugs and the recent cocaine seizures were a surprise, a U.N. anti-drugs official said.
This is very confusing as to why this amount of cocaine is transiting through Colombo, Shanaka Jayasekara, program coordinator for United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Colombo told Reuters.
He said Colombo port had possibly been identified as an easy trans-shipment point as containers are not checked.
Sri Lanka does not have a market for cocaine, he said, adding the final destination of the drugs could be Europe.
The first thing that comes to mind about Gurinder Chadhas Partition-1947 is why does a film need two English names even though one is for its Hindi version.
Chadha has based the film on two books Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierres much-popular Freedom at Midnight (1975) and another lesser known book by Narendra Singh Sarila - Shadow of the Great Game: The Untold story of Indias Partition (2006).
Although Sarilas work is lesser known among popular books, it is valued more in academic circles and was translated in Hindi by reputed publisher Rajkamal, which published it in 2008 (even before Harper Collins published its Indian edition in 2009).
Its first edition was published by Carroll and Graf publishers New York in 2006. There are a number of books on Partition and some much more important than these two, but Chadha wanted to make a feature film and not a documentary. So, she perhaps chose the text which has some dramatic elements in it, just as Freedom at Midnight.
Gurdas Maan earlier made a film on this books narration of Boota Singhs tragic story, Shaheed-e-Mohabbat in 1999.
Chadhas film was released in the UK in March 2017 as Viceroys House and in India as Partition-1947 in Hindi in August this year to mark the 71st year of Partition and to coincide with the opening of Partition Museum in Amritsar on August 17.
The film begins with the arrival of Lord Mountbatten in India to oversee the grant of Independence under the new Labour government of the UK which came to power following the defeat of Conservative Winston Churchill in 1945.
Churchill was considered diehard anti-India and critical of even Mahatma Gandhi, generally a favourite of British rulers. Churchill had made nasty remarks even on the 1943 Bengal famine, which had killed lakhs of people.
Sarila was the secretary (or ADC) to Lord Mountbatten and the film is made in a way from Mountbattens perception.
The film portrays Mountbatten as a humanist and pro-Indian person, but his role to divide India at breakneck speed without bothering about consequences (of massacres among communities) does not make him the person in history as has been shown in the film and related books, which have been written on the testimony of Mountbatten himself.
Mountbatten was related to British monarchs and has no political experience, he remained a high navy officer before and after being the last viceroy and first governor general of post 1947 India.
The film is otherwise moving and brings tears to the sensitive viewers as has happened with Fatima Bhutto and myself and another Sikh gentleman watching the film in Chandigarh during the same show.
But dispassionate analysis of the events in the film and in history does not absolve Mountbatten, Congress leaders and Mohammad Ali Jinnah of the worst crimes against humanity in history. Nearly one million Hindu, Sikhs and Muslims killed each other in communal clashes, more than 14 million suffered the worst conditions of migration in the scorching heat and rainy weather of August, not to mention the untold tortures and crimes against women of all three communities.
Chadhas own ancestors suffered during Partition and her concern is well taken, but her sense of historical depiction of events is flawed.
In fact, the man Cyril Radcliffe who was asked to divide India and Pakistan by drawing just a line on the map felt guilty himself and did not charge any fee for the dirty work he was asked to do.
It is revealed in the movie that the plot was already hatched by the Churchill government and the boundary lines were drawn by him in 1945 itself - the same were to be drawn by Radcliffe, it was ensured. The secret papers were shown to both Radcliffe and Mountbatten, who is being shown to be devastated by the conspiracy of Churchill and yet fulfils the colonial design to keep Soviet Union away from the post-partition political game. To create Pakistan as the new colony of US imperialism since Nehru was showing pro-Soviet tilt in his thinking.
But a feature film needs a story and a hero and heroine. So, Partition has Jeet, played impressively by Manish Dayal, and Aalia, played equally well by Huma Qureshi. A Hindu boy and a Muslim girl, who fall in love and meet in the end like most films with happy endings.
But all that come after lot of Partition-related pain.
Interestingly, Raja Samar Singh Sarila, son of Narinder Singh Sarila, has played the role of his father as Mountbattens ADC in the film.
A lot of creative literature, paintings and films have been dedicated to Partition and will continue to be done. Perhaps Indo-Pakistan joint venture in Punjabi, Khamosh Pani or Garm Hawa, may have scored better than any other films on the subject till date.
Partition-1947 could have been more impressive, had it focused more upon the last five years. The film fails to bring to notice the one positive attempt to avoid Partition made by the Cripps mission, first in 1942 and then in 1946 as Cabinet mission led by Stafford Cripps, who was a leftist among Labour leaders and had offered the federal scheme of India. If one looks at it after 70 years, the federal India proposed by Cripps was the best option in those days to avoid Partition. It could have saved million lives and many millions suffering.
The Mountbattens biggest criminal act was to force Partition in just two-and-a-half months - from June 3 partition plan of Mountbatten to August 14, 1947 (birth of a new nation Pakistan).
He had time till June 1948 and there was no need to rush through. The best time, if at all there were any, could have been November 1947 or April 1948 - the weather conditions would have improved and the armed forces too would have been properly trained to stop massacres.
In fact, Dr BR Ambedkar was in favour of Partition but with peaceful mutual migration of communities. Alternately, Jinnah and Nehru could had been stricter in not allowing any mass migration of communities and both countries could have lived with minorities in more peaceful manner after 1947.
But a film is a film and it must have a story. So, Viceroy's House has communal tensions in its own staff, who fight in front of him, though may not be to that extent as has been exaggerated in the film, making an excuse for Mountbatten to hasten the Partition process.
He did it, but history can not absolve him of shirking away his responsibility of not controlling violence under his command. Most of the violence took place from August 1946 - Muslim League direct action call to August-September 1947.
Ironically, Mountbatten did not die naturally as he was assassinated by Irish nationalists at the age of 79. And they claimed it to be just revenge from British colonialists.
Chadha though has an eye for detail, which she uses in this film effectively. The film was not allowed to be shown in Pakistan on the pretext that Jinnah has not been shown in a good light, which is partly true.
The Reserve Banks annual report that came out on Wednesday (August 30) has revealed that 99 per cent of the demonetised currency has ingeniously been brought back into the system. If the intended goal of demonetising high value notes was to wipe out black money, it has come a cropper. Coupled with the GDP figures for the June-ended quarter that was out yesterday (August 31), the cumulative impact of these developments should come as a huge setback to the Modi government.
The use of demonetisation as a policy instrument, unheard of elsewhere in the world and a harebrained idea as it turns out, should finally be assessed for what it is a grand failure on all counts. Narendra Modi has been trying his level best to distinguish himself from his immediate predecessors as a risk taker, but with unintended consequences. It is rumoured that the decision to undertake a project of such a grand scale as demonetisation was taken by half a dozen people, none of whom were real economists.
The alleged brain behind the idea, S Gurumurthy, is a chartered accountant and wannabe economist. He is also a well-known critic of globally recognised economists who have occupied top policy-making posts in recent times ranging from the Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) to the ex-RBI governor. On the evidence, like most of the regressive ideas of the Swadeshi champions, this too ended up as a disaster.
Fictional detective Sherlock Holmes would often say that it is a fallacy to theorise before you have all the evidence. Post November 8, if the right-wing intelligentsia and Sangh fellow travellers bought into the idea of demonetisation, few economists really endorsed it. (With the exception of Jagdish Bhagwati.) However, as it happens with every move, partisan politics played out and analysts and political parties took positions according to their ideological persuasions.
As things stand today, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs speech in the Rajya Sabha, within a fortnight into the proclamation of the unofficial financial emergency, has proved to be prophetic in hindsight. With an unusually aggressive attack on the policy, Dr Singh tore into the government by describing it a monumental management failure and a case of organised loot and legalised plunder of common people. Partisans took turn to condemn or hail the former Prime Minister, who is also a widely-respected economist, as he predicted a two per cent drop in national income (GDP) on account of the exercise.
When common people were massively affected and more than a hundred lost their lives in the bargain, it was dubbed as a small sacrifice that would permanently change the economy and the country as a whole. If the validation of the policy by people at large were to be the clinching factor, the election results in Uttar Pradesh for the BJP would prove to be a ringing endorsement. Perhaps, that was the intended target of the policy more than anything else.
If 2016 began by commentators demanding reforms of the Modi government and asking tough questions on job creation, crony capitalism and black money stashed abroad, the narrative soon shifted to the disruption provided by demonetisation post November. As Modi successfully recast his image as a pro-poor messiah and a change agent, aided by massive propaganda, the feeble attempts of the opposition to mount a counter-narrative fizzled out.
When the government realised that most of the demonetised currency would make their way back through the banking system, goalposts were shifted. The narrative of a cashless economy/less-cash economy and digitalisation swiftly replaced the initial goals. However, as new data suggests that digital transactions have gone back to the pre-demonetisation level, even that claim has fallen apart.
As for the claims made on checking counterfeit currency, the figure of 41 crore in the RBI annual report remains a small trickle in the larger scheme of things. Moreover, the contention that the new currency is tough to duplicate has also been busted convincingly. So has the claim on ending terror financing.
The latest contention - that of the tax base going up - is also dodgy as the figure of a 25 per cent jump is less than a 27 per cent jump in previous years. All in all, apart from the limited political agenda of the ruling party, the policy has proved to be a massive flop show. If one were to take into account the massive turbulence witnessed across the length and breadth of the country owing to the ill-advised policy, it should be recorded as a historical blunder, bordering on criminal.
When the India-US nuclear deal negotiations hit multiple roadblocks in 2007-08, a diplomat quipped about George W Bushs relative success on his engagements with India, compared to his predecessors. The diplomat explained that Bush would end up asking elementary questions and offer simple solutions to complicated problems. (Before the advent of Trump, George W Bush was the toast of the American press and had attained legendary status for his gaffes.)
Similarly, Modi has for long been known as an efficient administrator of Gujarat for his out of the box thinking and quick decision making. He is also famous for not going through files and instead arriving at decisions solely based on Powerpoint presentations and briefings, apart from his gut instinct. But when it came to taking a decision on demonetisation, these supposed virtues would not have stood him in good stead.
According to economists like Prof Arun Kumar, the hit taken by the informal sector would reflect only in the next few months and quarters as no quantifiable data are available. If poor GDP numbers and the slump in manufacturing can also be blamed on the lack of private investment and destocking on account of GST, the fact that demonetisation has turned out to be a colossal failure has now got to be finally accepted by the government.
The incoming vice-chairman of the NITI Ayog, Prof Rajeev Kumar has been tying himself up in knots trying to explain away the supposed benefits of demonetisation. In a rare slip of the tongue, he suggested on India Today that he knew of friends who had used the Jan Dhan accounts of their domestic helps and others to launder their money. Now a part of the government in his new role, where is the accountability?
In the same vein, he goes on to criticise the former finance minister P Chidambaram for his contention that the policy turned out to be a scheme to turn black money into white. Rajeev Kumars response to that was even more baffling when he suggested that if everyone got an equal opportunity to launder their money under the scheme, Chidambaram had no reason to complain.
The damage the 10-week troop Doklam standoff inflicted on the already frayed India-China relationship will not be easy to repair. Indeed, the China-India divide over the border, water, trade, maritime and other issues, including transportation and economic corridors, may only widen. There is also the risk that the end of the face off could prove just a temporary respite from border tensions before confrontation flares anew.
Rival
Chinas record under communist rule shows that it has at times retreated only to open a new front in the same area or elsewhere. Still, India like Japan before it has shown that if a neighbour is willing to stand up to China, it can be made to back away. Doklam is a defining event: For the first time since Chinas success in expanding its control in the South China Sea, a rival power has stalled Chinese construction activity to change the status quo on a disputed territory.
Beijing was left with little choice but to negotiate a deal after India showed that it would not be cowed. Repeated Chinese warnings to India to back down or face dire consequences fell on deaf ears. Eventually, Beijing was forced to eat crow when it agreed to terminate the face-off through mutual disengagement of troops. Two factors forced Beijings hand. It wished to save the September 3-5 BRICS summit in Xiamen, China. More importantly, it wanted to safeguard President Xi Jinpings reputation in the run-up to the critical party congress this autumn. Had the standoff with India dragged on, it could potentially have taken a toll on Xis standing.
Despite Chinas overall military superiority, India, with its terrain and tactical advantages, was in a stronger position in the tri-junction area. It could have prolonged the face-off until the onset of the harsh Himalayan winter, thus casting a cloud over the Chinese party congress. A protracted standoff would have exacted increasing diplomatic costs for Beijing, given that India had dared to stand up to it, thus denting Chinas reputed pre-eminence in Asia.
By reaching the deal, India effectively let China off the hook and did Xi an important favour at a time when he is focused on the party congress, which is expected to see him emerge as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. For New Delhi, salvaging Prime Minister Narendra Modis China visit for the BRICS summit, unfortunately, became an important consideration, although that grouping has increasingly come under Chinese sway. But Beijing is unlikely to return the favour, and Indias decision to let China escape a strategic predicament of its own making could come back to haunt it.
China has tactically retreated because, beyond declaring war on India, it was running out of options. But without the distraction of a looming party congress, China could seek revenge for Doklam at a time and place of its choosing. Next time, the PLA is unlikely to make the mistake of encroaching onto an area where India enjoys the military advantage. It will choose a place where it can spring a nasty surprise and dictate terms to the Indian army.
Vigilance
With India already facing increasingly persistent PLA efforts to intrude into its borderlands, eternal vigilance holds the key to Himalayan peace. Army chief General Bipin Rawat has cautioned that the country cannot be complacent because Doklam-style encroachments are likely to increase in the future. But while China uses the disputed long border with India as a justification to probe Indian defences and intrude where possible, India remains perennially in a reactive mode.
A grim reminder of the larger challenges in the bilateral relationship is Chinas breach of legally binding obligations to supply India with hydrological data on upstream river flows in Tibet in order to facilitate flood forecasting and warnings. Beijing has offered no explanation for its failure this year to honour bilateral accords that require it to transfer data on specific rivers to India annually from May 15 to October 15. Had China been in Indias place, it would have linked the breach of commitment to the downstream floods and deaths. But India has been quiet.
Warnings
Timely transmission of data would have helped generate flood warnings, thus saving lives and reducing material losses in the Northeast. The data denial apparently is designed to punish India for boycotting Xis May 14-15 one belt, one road summit in Beijing. When Beijing fails to honour formal bilateral agreements, will it stick to the Doklam deal? In 2012, China and the Philippines agreed to a deal to withdraw naval vessels from around the disputed Scarborough Shoal. China gave the impression it was withdrawing its ships, only to return and capture the shoal.
The India-China standoff at Doklam, Bhutan for 75 days witnessed a brazenly aggressive media campaign by Beijing. In the controlled environment the Chinese media functions within, three publications are of greater import Peoples Daily is the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party.
The Xinhua News Agency is also government-controlled. The Global Times does not have an umbilical connect with the government but functions under the Peoples Daily and reflects the opinions of the more orthodox party members who have an influence on policy formulation.
On July 24, 2017, Xinhua quoted Wu Qian, spokesperson for the ministry of national defence as saying: "The Chinese border troops have taken initial counter measures at the site and will step up targeted deployment and training."
Xinhua called it an Indian incursion in Chinese territory there was no reference to the fact that the disputed area is under Bhutanese possession.
As July led to August, the pitch was shriller with the Chinese recalling the humiliating military defeat it had inflicted on India in 1962. Peoples Daily invoked its editorial of September 22, 1962 to remind India of that defeat. The Global Times made it more repugnant for Indians when it published the article "Time for a second lesson for forgetful India".
The tirade thereafter was persistently venomous. The aim all along was to deride Indians with hawkish threats of war. Indian and the China havent fired a bullet at each other since 1967 at Nathu La, a mountain pass along the Indo-Chinese border.
The Indian press has responded on both aggressive and sane lines. However, in India's case, with its free press, articles published are not indicators of the government stance except where they quote a government official or minister.
The Chinese objectives of such a psychological warfare by the media were apparently based on the premise that such statements would serve to cower India and also influence Indian public opinion. Possibly, the Chinese expected to generate apprehensions in the minds of Indians regarding the risks of challenging the incursion.
Beijing's other objective was to lower Indias prestige in the region as well as globally. As far as any influence it has had on the perceptions of the Indian leadership, the facts on ground prove to be otherwise.
In terms of influencing public opinion, it made no measurable dent. As far as Indias standing in the region and the rest of the world goes, the fact is Indians having stood their ground has led to a positive image.
On August 7, 2017, the Global Times almost declared war when it ran the article China will probably take action in two weeks, India tense. China Daily further upped the ante with its article, India should come to its senses while it has time.
The Xinhua News Agency also released a comical video, Seven Sins of India. It literally mocks India in a depiction that was childish and downright dumb, with a sparsely bearded turbaned man, representing Indians at the centre of the narrative.
It led to a deluge of responses because of the utter lack of sensitivity. Most major media outlets carry negative comments. The Guardian and CNBC found it to be racist. The Washington Post found it bizarre.
The New York Times wrote, Hoping to move away from the dull propaganda of an earlier era, the ruling Communist Party has in recent years turned to rap songs, animations and comedy skits to convey talking points. But many of those forays have been criticized as strained and over the top.
The video was posted on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube all three are blocked and beyond the reach of Chinese citizens. No doubt, the BBC felt, The video appears to be solely targeted at a foreign audience. It is delivered entirely in English and...
If it was targeted at foreign audiences, it failed to do anything more than depicting China as playing adolescent pranks.
James R Holmes, professor of strategy at the US Naval War College, summed it up comprehensively when he stated that India is "behaving like a mature power". Holmes remarked that China was being "an adolescent throwing a temper tantrum."
The Chinese do not seem to understand that psychological operations need to be far better planned and continuously refined post the media campaign is launched.
They dont seem to perceive the fact that unlike the media of free democracies, their press is considered as good as Beijings pronouncements. In information operations, of which psychological operations is a core function, the objectives have to be clearly laid out and the messaging needs to drive the narrative towards that goalpost.
Today, messages that would ruffle the sensitivities of the audience are shunned. The effect of the rather coarse Chinese overdrive has led to other nations leaning more firmly to support India without Indians having to exert themselves.
The Chinese do not seem to understand that psychological operations need to be far better planned and continuously refined post the media campaign is launched. Photo: Reuters
Media is not a weapon per se. As a wide spectrum delivery, media includes television, print, internet et al. Its the information package that we deliver through the media that is the weapon.
Its not a hard weapon that blows up in your face when you spread the newspaper beneath your nose or switch on the TV.
Its a soft weapon that has the power to influence. Ideally, the target audience should start aligning with the originators views. A message with that kind of power to influence needs to be carefully structured to firstly reach the target audience, be understood by them, not assail their sensitivities, convincingly convey its contents and be based on truth.
Being truthful is all the more important in a transparent media-driven world.
The other reason for such an amateurish approach on part of the Chinese media could also be a disconnect between Xi Jinping and his media managers. Had they known that China will not respond to Indians digging in at Doklam by undertaking offensives either in Sikkim or in other sectors, they might have kept the decibel levels low.
Chinas internal power struggles may have resulted in the media not being in sync with Beijing's strategy. The 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is scheduled in October, 2017 and the occasion for confirmation/changes in the current leadership.
Though Xi is expected to sail through, the unsuccessful foray at Doklam after all the rhetoric in the media does create unsavoury ripples for him in the Congress.
Notwithstanding the possible effects of Chinas internal squabbles, the Chinese messaging has been more aligned to warmongering vituperative, and insensitive to the point of being insulting.
Foreign audiences have found the flaring Dragon is certainly not the reflection of a nation striving to become a global power they would be comfortable with.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is regarded as upright and approachable. His wife Amruta, vice-president of a bank, is a modern working woman. She refused to give up her job despite in effect being Maharashtras first lady. Mrs Fadnavis displayed her independent spirit by shooting a music video with Amitabh Bachchan.
Handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah to run Maharashtra, Fadnavis has tackled the states Byzantine politics with finesse. The BJPs lumpen alliance partner Shiv Sena has been muted, the NCP neutralised and the Congress marginalised.
In recent weeks though, Fadnavis has stumbled badly. Corruption charges against senior ministers in his cabinet have been brushed aside pending an inquiry. But the most extraordinary mistake of Fadnavis tenure occurred last week.
A senior judge of the Bombay High Court, Justice Abhay Oka, was heading a division bench hearing a PIL against the Maharashtra government for diluting the law on silence zones around Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra.
This followed a sudden amendment by the Fadnavis government on August 10, 2017 that effectively removed all earlier restrictions on noise decibel levels in the vicinity of hospitals, schools, colleges, courts, and institutions of religious worship. The Bombay High Court, in a progressive judgment in August 2016, had ordered that all such sensitive locations be regarded as silence zones within a radius of 100metres.
Under pressure from religious groups principally those celebrating the Ganpati festival which began on August 25 and ends on September 5 the Fadnavis government amended the Noise Pollution Rules 2000 on August 10, 2017, just 15 days before the Ganpati festival began. The link did not escape the Bombay High Court.
Hearing a clutch of petitions against the governments sudden amendment, the court said its earlier order of August 2016 on silence zones would stand. It rejected the governments amendment of the Noise Pollution Rules 2000. The amendment was also widely criticised by activists as regressive and pandering to religious sentiment.
If the governments egregious amendment of August 10, 2017, is allowed to stand as it currently does the entire city would be stripped off all its silence zones. In an unprecedented move, the government last week, citing bias, sought the recusal of Justice Abhay Oka who had stood firm against accepting the governments amendment diluting the Noise Pollution Rules 2000.
Even the states attorney-general, Ashutosh Khumbhakhoni, conceded in open court when seeking Justice Okas recusal: If it was personally up to me, I would have taken a different stand.
Justice Oka then told the attorney-general that he would not recuse himself, in effect challenging the government to force his recusal through the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, Manjula Chellur.
Chellur immediately obliged the state government and transferred the case to another bench, leaving citizens groups aghast. Senior lawyers pointed out that this was possibly the first time in the Bombay High Courts history that the state government had sought the recusal of a judge.
The division bench hearing the case led by Justice Oka was replaced by a new division bench comprising Justice Anoop Mehta and Justice Girish Kulkarni.
Lawyers representing citizens PILs against the governments amendment on silence zones were scathing in their indictment of the governments motives. Birendra Saraf, counsel for the NGO Awaaz Foundation, said: This is nothing but to make the Ganpati festival a fait accompli. This is done because the government wants to get popularity by playing loud music during Ganpati.
On August 26, the Advocates Association of Western India (AAWI) passed a resolution: The managing committee strongly condemns the government of Maharashtras tactic in alleging bias against Justice Abhay Oka at a point of time where the matter was substantially heard. The Bombay Bar Association weighed in with its own strong condemnation of the governments action.
Chief Justice Manjula Chellur, confronted by growing public anger, reversed her decision on August 27 (a Sunday). She reinstated Justice Oka and reconstituted a larger three-judge bench headed by him which will now hear the case on an urgent basis. The government meanwhile apologised to Justice Oka and unconditionally withdrew its allegation of bias against him.
On Friday, September 1, the new larger bench led by Justice Oka held the government's amendment of Noise Pollution Rules 2000 unconstitutional and restored all original silence zones in a stinging rebuke to the Fadnavis government.
Religious sentiment vs. public interest
The Maharashtra governments failed attempt to bully the judiciary is part of a larger attempt to place religious sentiment ahead of public interest. The cattle slaughter ban, for example, plays to religious sentiment but eventually results in animal cruelty. It is unlikely to survive ongoing legal scrutiny.
The mismanagement of arson and violence following the arrest of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in Haryana revealed how even religious cults exercise political influence. The CBI court proved both the strengths and limitations of the judiciary: it ordered the arrest of Ram Rahim but could not prevent the jail administration from initially providing him with a VVIP room and a personal lady companion described ingeniously as the Dera leaders adopted daughter. His sentencing to 20 years in jail underscores how the judiciary, for all its faults, serves as a guarantor of last resort.
In Mumbai an upright judge like Justice Abhay Oka, who stood up to the government and upheld the public interest, found his chief justice succumbing to government pressure to force his recusal before submitting to public pressure and reinstating him.
Fadnavis is travelling down a slippery slope. Once you give in to religious sentiment there will be no end to claimants seeking exemptions and favours that allow private interests to override the larger public good.
Noise pollution is a serious issue. The Maharashtra governments amendment of Noise Pollution Rules 2000 will embolden religious organisations to flout long standing norms. The move, for example, to lower the volume of the daily pre-dawn azaan, calling the faithful to prayer, will suffer a setback. Mosques use loudspeakers every morning at 4.45am in thickly populated residential areas. Most Islamic countries have banned the use of loudspeakers for the daily azaan. India must do so too.
Chinas Hualong Hui Autonomous County in Qinghai province recently removed loudspeakers used for azaan in over 300 mosques. China may not set a good example in most areas but this is one move which India should emulate.
However, with the state government caving into Hindu sentiment over ear-splitting noise levels during the Ganpati festival, taking action on muting azaan volumes is unlikely.
Editor:
Back on Friday, August 11th, the Free Press posted an article titled; Fire captain takes off for new career. The article was about a man who was retiring from the Elko Fire Department and was moving to Kanab, Utah where he was going to provide aviation tours in his own personal plane.
On Monday morning, August 15th, Im outside and I hear an aircraft flying overhead and I finally locate the plane and watch it awhile. Climbing and climbing, circling and circling, and from what I see, I think it is someone out for a morning spin and then I thought about the story in Fridays paper and thought to myself that maybe thats who it was.
You know currently, we read and hear about so much racial hate, violence and killings, which often doesnt leave a lot of space for Dreams. Dreams are and can be for real but you must try to make that Dream become a reality, not through false hopes or corrupt ideology but what is in your heart for that Dream.
Learning about the strength and power within your ancestral culture, traditions, customs and beliefs, can provide you with a strong path to follow but you must refrain from darkening that destiny with alcohol and drugs.
Dont fall prey to peer pressure, dont fall prey to foolhardy scams and cons, but learn about yourself, what you like, what you desire and what your ambitions are and do not follow people who have always led an unsteady lying life.
Life can change fast, one minute we are watching an historic total eclipse, the next we are watching tragedy in Texas, which is why each and every one of us must make an effort to help our young people grab a hold of reality, a reality that does not exist in alcohol and drugs.
The retiring fire captain is sincerely pursuing an ambition, a prime example to follow and in this day and age where your political world is in upheaval and chaotic, our youth, our future generations need justified role models and good people.
Larry Kibby
Elko
Congratulatory messages on Artsakh Independence Day
SERZH SARGSYANS CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE ON ARTSAKH INDEPENDENCE DAY Dear Compatriots, I congratulate you on the Independence Day of the Republic of Artsakh. This very day twenty-six years ago, the Armenians of Artsakh proclaimed their independent statehood. They were able to rise like a phoenix from the ashes and ruins of the war and present themselves to the world with a heroic army, functional state institutions, serious economic progress, exemplary educational and cultural institutions, and finally, a well-organized society, which holds on to its national traditions, but at the same time is modern and capable of localizing all the good that mankind boasts in science and culture, economy, politics, and other areas. Over the past twenty-six years, Artsakh has evolved successfully to become a solid, free and democratic State. The peace-loving Artsakh has not only the necessary fighting capacity, but it is also viable and competitive. The defenders of Artsakh are good at fighting and they know what they are fighting for. The armed forces of Artsakh are defending the safety of not only Artsakh, but also Armenia and, at large, the entire Armenian nation. Last Aprils hostilities, which were initiated by Azerbaijan, demonstrated once again the impossibility of a military solution to the Artsakh issue. That shady enterprise was doomed to failure as the Defense Army is strong with Armenia and the whole Armenian nation at its back. On this glorious day, we bow to the memory of those who perished for the sake of Artsakhs freedom. Long live the free and independent Artsakh! Long live the Republic of Artsakh! Congratulatory Address of President Bako Sahakyan on the Artsakh Republic Day Dear compatriots, On behalf of the Artsakh authorities and myself personally I extend to all of us the warmest congratulations on the September 2, the Day of the Artsakh Republic. 26 years ago our people took the historical decision to determine their own destiny and build a free, independent, democratic, legal and social state. During those years together with our sisters and brothers from Mother Armenia and the Diaspora we have managed to realize numerous strategic programs, which day by day bring us closer to attaining our cherished national goals, further strengthen and develop our country. I am confident the civilized and progressive world will sooner or later recognize this equitable and lawful resolution of the Artsakh people, will not hesitate to admit the prevailing realities that demonstrate our adherence to universal human values and commitment to international norms and principles. I am confident since our people have proved through their painstaking work and dedicated service of their brave sons that they are able to build, make prosperous and safeguard their ancestral Fatherland, their independent statehood. Dear compatriots, I once again congratulate you on this memorable day and wish peace, good health and all the best to you, welfare and prosperity to our people and Homeland. Stepanakert, September 2, 2017.
Karabakh clan received permission to plunder Artsakh (video)
26 years ago on September 2nd, 1991, when Artsakh was declaring its independence , it was more independent than today, Unfortunately, a part of Artsakh, which denied its essence, which we call a Karabakh clan, are those people, who have forgotten who they are; today they are providers, who bring the philosophy of world purse into Artsakh. When we get rid of that clan, the independence will be fully achieved, says Ashot Manucharyan, member of Karabakh Committee. The declared independence was confirmed in several months, by the referendum held on December 10, but it hasnt been recognized by any state. According to Ashot Manucharyan, all this is the result of arbitrariness of big international players, They dictate us, but we shouldnt obey; Artsakh can do that, if it is independent, it shouldnt obey Karabakh clan, as that clan received a permission to plunder Artsakh and for that it must obey their orders. For almost 3 decades Artsakh is constantly a military zone, In the integrity of life as well it is constantly a front, because when your values are taken from you and you are still physically alive, it doesnt matter you exist or not; you arent you. Ashot Manucharyan is angry about the reaction of the Armenian side to the main 6 points for the Karabakh conflict resolution process presented by the OSCE Minsk Group former U.S. Co-chair Richard E. Hoagland, There is concession by three points in that statement, and no political, state figure touched upon it, but no one there is illiterate, simply they understood that it is dangerous, as the seniors, who write those documents, can punish them. Ashot Manucharyan doesnt consider the discussions on deployment of peacekeepers in Artsakh to be serious- at this moment it isnt beneficial for superpowers.
Trap for journalists: secret change (video)
In February, 2014 the news that President Serzh Sargsyan took treatment course in South Korea for vaccination of stem cells shook the Armenian media outlets. After three years, starting from January 1, 2017, the Armenian media outlets have to be responsible for such and similar information containing personal data. Serzh Sargsyan is an official and is obliged to be accountable to the population of Armenia for each step, Taguhi Tovmasyan, Editor-in-chief of Zhoghovurd daily, cannot understand how the existence of such a law is possible. There is no media in the whole world without bothering the authorities. In Armenia the government will defend itself from the media outlets, which bother them, with another law. In December, 2016 in one day the National Assembly removed the third provision of Article 1 from the law on Protection of personal data, according to which the restrictions of processing of personal data prescribed by this Law shall not cover the personal data being processed exclusively for journalism, literary and artistic purposes. What is personal data? Lawyer Gevorg Hakobyan notes 6 kinds of personal data- ordinary, available for public, biometric, special, referring to the personal life etc. Only in the first two cases there isnt necessity to get the persons permission, whose data the journalist or any other citizen processes, When we deal with biometric or special category, in these cases the processing isnt allowed at all unless it is notified to the personal data protection agency. There is no need to receive agreement, but the law defines the necessity of notification. Arpine Hovhannisyan, former Minister of Justice, reminds that the 3rd provision of Article 1 entered into force with her initiative, when she was a lawmaker of the 5th convention NA. When the provision of that beneficial law for journalists was removed, she was already a Minister. She was personally explaining why journalists and writers shouldnt have privileges while processing the personal data of other people, It is very widespread around the world, when people are paid for gathering personal data about other people and later that information is used for different purposes, explains Arpine Hovhannisyan, who is already the Deputy Speaker of the NA. Liana Sayadyan, Deputy Editor of Hetq online media outlet, didnt know about the elimination of the third provision of Article 1 of the law on Protection of personal data for two months. Then the editorial staff of Hetq received a letter from one of the heroes of one publication, who demanded to remove the personal data from an article published a few years ago. The editorial office didnt have to do that, as the law didnt have retrospective power, but the editorial did it. The journalist, though, understood that investigative journalism appeared in a trap, This change fully rules out investigative journalism in our country, as we deal with the personal data of officials, who are engaged in public activities; narrower circle of protection should operate in their case, but it restricts us and ties our hands. Lawyer Gevorg Hakobyan was among the first people, who learnt about the change in the law on Protection of personal data. He even cannot remember how he noticed that change, Its very interesting that there is no justification why it has been done. In fact, the change was carried out secretly. No journalist was aware that the parliament discussed such a change. Only the Government and the parliament were aware of it. No law can enter the parliament without discussing it with the interested parties. Whats more the journalistic organizations and the media outlets also must have been aware of the change, says Ashot Melikyan, Chairman of Committee on Protection of Freedom of Expression. Why werent the media outlets aware of this change even on the day when this change was being presented from the parliaments rostrum? Arpine Hovhannisyan explains, The decision was made to regulate the issue in an urgent regime with the first and the second reading, taking into consideration also that fact that soon more serious changes will be initiated connected with the concept of journalism. The specialists, though, are shocked by the fact that the Agency of Protection of Personal Data of the Ministry of Justice also wasnt aware of the change. Why should it have been aware of the change? expresses her surprise Deputy Speaker of the NA Arpine Hovhannisyan, who was still a Minister, when the law was changed, The agency is my agency. What do you understand by saying their agreement? They are my subdivision. Shushan Doydoyan, Head of the RA MoJ Agency of Protection of Personal Data, told A1+, When we are asked, we give our opinion, in this case our assessment, our opinion wasnt asked. Consequently we didnt express any opinion. The experts are convinced that this change is a bomb put under the media outlets; journalist will have to come to an agreement with their heroes before making reportages about them, In this case, Ashot Melikyan, Chairman of the Committee on Protection of Freedom of Expression, notes, In fact, especially the lawmakers, who are being criticized, will tell not to have any connection with their personal data and them in general. In Armenia investigation appeared under the blow. The authorities can see no problem even here. If the investigation pursues public interest, if the investigator used sources available for the public or his or her hero isnt against that socially unavailable sources are used, nothing threatens to the investigation. Liana Sayadyan is surprised- in that case what is the meaning of this change, if the journalist carries out the investigation according to the provisions of the law on mass media, where it is clearly mentioned that the journalist has no right to enter the personal territory of someones life. According to the new law, the journalist, who publishes personal data, endangers not only himself or herself but also his or her computer. According to this change, the Agency on Protection of Personal Data has a power to go and clarify whether in this or that editorial office the personal data is protected appropriately. And it grants them an opportunity to log in journalists database and computers, notes Liana Sayadyan. Arpine Hovhannisyan doesnt think that the journalists must be scared of this change. Soon they will also change the law on Mass media, which will clearly state who the journalist is, In that case, when we clearly understand who the journalist is, what the aim of the journalism is and what it means to be engaged in journalism, this regulation will naturally, with all its privileges and restrictions, refer to the media outlets. Media outlets and all those, who will try to process personal data illegally, will face two months detention or up to AMD 500 000 fine. Even Arpine Hovhannisyan thinks that this amount of the fine is huge, Anyway we should touch upon the size of accountability. The fact, that Armenias judicial system isnt transparent, isnt doubted, so the provision on detention can also become a tool in the hands of the authorities to take revenge on this or that media outlet. They aim at putting the media outlets in such a hard financial situation so that it be either closed or start admitting their rules and become a media outlet, which will remove any information with one phone call or ban any information, says Taguhi Tovmasyan, Editor-in-chief of Zhoghovurd daily. The law on Protection of personal data is already in force. Still this law hasnt dealt a blow to any journalist or media outlet. But the journalists are sure the answer to the question Why was the third provision of Article 1 removed from the law wont be late.
RICHMOND Dominion Energy got a one-two punch Friday from state regulators: First came a report saying the monopoly utility is holding as much as $133 million it would be required to return to customers but for the 2015 rate freeze law. Next was a ruling that severely curtails a pricey plan to recoup from customers the cost of putting more power lines underground. The second decision could raise the ire of state lawmakers who have supported Dominion's plan.
In 2015, the Virginia State Corporation Commission rejected as too expensive Dominion's $2 billion plan to bury about 4,000 miles of outage-prone tap lines, which would have cost ratepayers about $6 billion over the life of the project. Last year, the commission approved a scaled-down pilot, allowing the utility to recover $122.5 million from ratepayers to bury about 412 miles of lines.
In the meantime, the General Assembly passed and Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed a law instructing the commission, which regulates utilities, to cast a more favorable eye on undergrounding projects, directing that it should presume they are in the public interest and that the associated costs are "reasonably and prudently incurred, " though that presumption is "rebuttable."
This time around, Dominion was seeking approval for cost recovery for a second phase of 244 miles of lines, which could have ultimately cost ratepayers $270 million factoring in financing costs and the utility's rate of return.
The commission determined that its staff and the Consumer Counsel Division of the Attorney General's Office had successfully knocked down the case for the program on a cost-benefit basis.
"The proposed new underground facilities are not cost beneficial and, in addition, the costs associated therewith are not reasonable and prudent," the commission wrote in an order Friday.
Of note, the commission found that Dominion was not considering cost as a factor in determining which facilities should be put underground and that some undergrounding facilities for a single customer would cost others more than $476,000 over the life of the project.
Challenging the company's case that the program would dramatically improve its ability to restore power after storms, the Consumer Counsel Division testified that Dominion's phase 2 projects "would improve the company's existing distribution system reliability performance by at most .00002 percent if the phase two conversions eliminated all outages on the converted lines."
"There is no evidence that any other electric utility in the country has implemented an undergrounding plan at such a high cost its customers," the commissioners wrote, referencing the eventual $6 billion price tag.
The commissioners, however, did find it "reasonable and prudent" to continue the pilot project, allowing Dominion to recoup about $40 million of the phase 2 cost.
There's just one complication for the utility giant, though: It has already completed phase 2, and the SCC's order took care to remind Dominion it had incurred the cost before seeking approval to recover the money from ratepayers.
"The commission notes that Dominion initiated its phase 2 underground conversions prior to the 2017 legislation creating the rebuttable statutory presumptions addressed herein," the order says. "Dominion also initiated phase 2 without prior commission approval and with full notice that any costs it voluntarily chose to incur therefor may not be recoverable through rates."
A Dominion spokesman said the company would review the order before deciding how to proceed.
We are extremely disappointed in today's SCC decision," Dominion spokesman David Botkins wrote in a statement. "The strategic underground program is one our customers have said they want and one that has been overwhelmingly endorsed by the General Assembly. The ability to restore power more quickly after a storm benefits all of our customers. We are reviewing today's order to determine our next steps."
Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, a longtime lawmaker who is among the top recipients of Dominion campaign cash, carried the undergrounding law in the past session and was incensed that the commission didn't take the hint.
"I don't know what it is with those people," he said. "The biggest complaints I get and the only complaints I get about utilities is when we have a storm or an outage. Those people at the SCC can't get it through their heads that this what the General Assembly wants. ... They're not looking out for the consumer, they're screwing the consumer."
He pledged to revisit the subject in next year's session.
"I don't know what it takes," he said. "Probably that legislation has to be written in the form of a two-by-four."
* * *
To what degree the historically utility-friendly legislature can bludgeon the commission into submission, particular the SCC's ability to review and set base electric rates, is currently before the Virginia Supreme Court.
In 2015, the General Assembly, raising the specter of the Clean Power Plan, then-President Barack Obama's signature initiative to cut emissions from power plants, passed a law suspending biennial rate review for Dominion until 2022 and for Appalachian Power until 2020.
A group of large industrial utility customers is challenging the law before the Supreme Court. Opponents charge that the law was never about environmental compliance costs, rather it was about locking in rates that were already too high and restricting the ability of the commission to fulfill its constitutional duty to set rates and return overearnings to customers.
That seems to be borne out by the other report the commission issued Friday, which included a review of earnings last year for Dominion, which has about 67 percent of Virginia electric customers, and Appalachian Power.
The commission's staff found that Dominion earned a return on equity of nearly 12.9 percent last year. That exceeds both the 9.6 percent return the commission approved for Dominion's riders, or charges that pay for transmission lines, new power plants and other costs, and the 10 percent return approved by the commission in its last review of base rates in 2013.
Depending on which rate of return is used, that works out to about $221 to $252 million in excess revenue. Had Dominion not expensed nearly $174 million in coal ash cleanup costs, its excess revenue would have been between $396 million and $426 million, the commission said.
Because of the way excess earnings and customer credits are calculated, the commission can only credit customers' bills for about 70 percent of Dominion earnings that are a certain level higher than the allowable return determined by the commission.
That means that if rate review was not frozen, Dominion customers would be due between $133 million $176 million depending on which rate of return was used.
"While the report acknowledges the low rates our customers pay, we disagree with the way it calculates our allowed earnings and how it accounts for some of the significant real-world costs we incur," Botkins, the Dominion spokesman said in a statement. "The report also does not acknowledge the sizeable investments we have made in Virginia in solar energy as well as other enhancements."
The SCC report notes that Dominion's average bill for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours was $90.59 in 2007. This year, it was $117.20, though the commission noted both Dominion and Appalachian Power's rates were "fairly competitive" with peer utilities.
For Sen. J. Chapman Petersen, a Democrat from Fairfax City who unsuccessfully fought to reverse the rate freeze law during the last session, the report Friday was additional proof that the state's regulated utilities are pocketing money they aren't entitled to keep.
"It simply proves what we suspected all along," he said, also vowing to revisit the fight in the next session. Everything I filed last year that was even mildly controversial will be coming back."
RICHMOND Nearly a million Virginians are expected to travel this Labor Day holiday weekend, according to estimates from Gov. Terry McAuliffes office.
Joining a majority of those travelers who will put rubber to the road this weekend will be thousands of law enforcement officers patrolling Virginias highways for reckless and impaired drivers. Statewide, 200 local law enforcement agencies, along with the Virginia State Police, are expected to conduct about 150 sobriety checkpoints and 520 saturation patrols through Labor Day, according to a statement from the governors office.
Its already proved to be a deadly year on Virginias highways. The state police said that over the past week, 15 people including drivers, passengers, pedestrians and a 9-year-old bicyclist have died in crashes across the commonwealth.
As of Friday, there have been 529 reported traffic deaths in Virginia, compared with 477 this same date last year.
The fact that we have lost 50 more lives in traffic crashes this year than in 2016 should be of major concern for all Virginians, especially as we head into the heavily traveled Labor Day weekend, Col. W. Steven Flaherty, Virginia State Police superintendent, said in a statement. State police will have all available troopers out on patrol for the extended holiday weekend, but we need every driver and passenger committed to also doing their part to make their travels as safe as possible.
State police, local police departments and sheriffs offices, as well as the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, AAA Mid-Atlantic and the Virginia-based Washington Regional Alcohol Program, are working together on two annual campaigns aimed at lowering risky-driving behaviors: the Checkpoint Strikeforce Campaign and Operation Combined Accident Reduction Effort.
While I want every Virginian to enjoy their Labor Day weekend, they must do so without endangering themselves or other travelers on our roads, McAuliffe said in a statement. As in years past, this strikeforce campaign ensures that individuals who choose to break the law and drive under the influence will be caught and be prosecuted.
Penalties for driving under the influence include a mandatory ignition interlock installation on the vehicle, fines up to $2,500, license suspension up to one year and jail sentences also up to one year, the governors office said.
Last year, Virginia saw a drop in traffic deaths during the four-day weekend, which began for authorities on Friday morning and continued through midnight Monday. In 2016, there were eight traffic deaths, half as many as the 2015 Labor Day weekend when there were 16, state police reported.
State police also investigated 707 total traffic crashes, stopped 8,676 speeders and 2,772 reckless drivers, and cited 739 safety-belt violations and 210 child safety seat violations during the 2016 holiday weekend.
Nationally, one-third of all traffic fatalities involved drivers who were impaired a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The statewide efforts focus on men aged 21 to 35, who accounted for nearly one-third of those killed in alcohol-related crashes in the state last year.
School prepares us for life, right? As the new school year begins, Id like to bring our attention to an issue that affects schoolchildren on many levels: school lunch menus.
Its common knowledge that eating healthily not only prevents childhood obesity, but also increases childrens attention spans in class, their ability to process information, and their overall health.
Please explain to me how starting the day with breakfast pizza (whatever that is), sausage or egg and cheese biscuits, or pancakes, Monday through Friday, is going to provide children with the nutrients they need to learn and do well at sports. I am directly quoting the menu for elementary school students on the Albemarle County Public Schools website.
Where are the healthy options like non-sugary cereal, toast, or scrambled eggs?
OK, so maybe lunch is healthier? Last time I checked, crispy or popcorn chicken means fried. A meatball sub, cheeseburger, pizza, or nachos does not suddenly become healthy because broccoli is served on the side.
Charlottesvilles French sister city, Besancon, certainly provides healthy lunches for schoolchildren. When I was an English teaching assistant at a public school there, my students lunch options included sauteed veal, stewed rabbit, or oven-roasted pork loin, served with mostly organic vegetables.
Oh, and a glass of wine for the teachers.
I presented my French students with the lunch menu from my alma mater, Albemarle High School, and asked if they would like to switch. Their reactions?
But those foods arent healthy!
We would get fat!
I challenge the Albemarle County School Board to make public the nutritional value of all school meals, as compared with values recommended by an independent body of nutritionists; and to incorporate healthier items into cafeteria meals, such as fibrous breakfast cereals, whole grains, lean meats, and olive oil. Even more, why not have mandatory cooking classes to teach all students how to shop for, prepare and cook a healthy meal?
Its not just about tackling and preventing childhood obesity. Its about equal opportunity for all students to have the right nutrition to do well in school, in sports, and in their future careers.
Alexandra Osvath
Albemarle County
References:
besancon.fr/gallery_files/site_1/346/351/8347/menu_sept-oct_2017.pdf
Editor's note: This letter was edited on Oct. 2 to correct the author's name.
Hyderabad: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has assured the Telangana government that the GST Council would discuss the issue of lowering tax structure on public projects as requested by the state.
According to an official release from the Chief Minister K Chnadrasekhar Rao's office, Jaitley, who also hold the portfolio of Defence, agreed for transfer of defence lands to the state for the purpose of construction of new secretariat and expansion of roads.
Rao on Saturday met Jaitley in the national capital.
Telangana had earlier requested the Centre to transfer defence-owned Bison Polo ground in Secunderabad for the construction of new state secretariat.
"Jaitley informed the CM that the Centre is willing to handover Bison Polo Ground for the construction of a new Secretariat and required lands for the expansion of Karimnagar and Medchal highways.
"The Finance Minister also assured the CM that the GST Council would take up the issue of lowering tax slab on government projects in the next meeting," the statement said.
Rao hoped that the Council would have favourable view on the state's request on GST slab for the government projects such as 'Mission Bhagiratha', 'Mission Kakatiya' and other irrigation projects.
'Mission Bhagiratha' is a drinking water project of the Telangana government.
Axis Bank said the Reserve Bank has asked it to finalise the resolution plan for 12 accounts by December 13.
New Delhi: Axis Bank on Friday said the Reserve Bank has asked it to finalise the resolution plan for 12 accounts by December 13, failing which insolvency proceedings will have to initiated against them.
In a regulatory filing, the private sector lender said it has a total exposure of Rs. 2,492 crore in these 12 accounts.
Of this, total fund based outstanding of the bank was Rs. 1,843 crore and non-fund based outstanding was Rs. 649 crore.
"The Reserve Bank of India has issued directions in their communication dated August 28 advising banks to finalise and implement viable resolution plan in select accounts by December 13, 2017, failing which, insolvency proceedings should be initiated in all the accounts mentioned and accordingly mandated provisions should be made by March 31, 2018," Axis Bank said.
It, however, did not disclose which companies were on the list.
It said around 75 per cent of the outstanding was secured and the provision held for this outstanding was Rs. 862 crore.
The Axis Bank stock closed 1.4 per cent up at Rs. 507.65 on BSE.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asked tax officials to not just raise tax demands but ensure it is also realised as honest taxpayers shouldnt pay for misdeeds of the dishonest. Mr Modi asked the tax officials to use data analytics to track undeclared wealth and fix clear targets for improving tax administration by 2022. Inaugurating the second edition of the Rajaswa Gyan Sangam the joint conference of direct and indirect tax officials Mr Modi expressed his dismay at the huge pendency of tax-related cases in adjudication and appeal.
He said big sums of money that is locked up in these cases, could have been used for the welfare of the poor. He asked officers to come up with an action plan during the Rajasva Gyan Sangam, to eliminate pendency. The Prime Minister asked officers to use data analytical tools to proactively track and determine undeclared income and wealth. He said that though efforts to increase tax revenue are made by officers each year, the estimated amounts of tax that should accrue to the system, are often not realised.
Mr Modi asked officers to come up with a time-bound solution to tax raised and not realised, and asserted that the honest shouldnt continue to pay the price for the misdeeds of the dishonest. In this regard, the Prime Minister also suggested a complete rework of the human resource management in the tax departments to strengthen the data analytics and investigation wing. He exhorted the officers to improve their work-culture, to incorporate both a sense of urgency, and measurability, in their performance.
Mr Modi asked the officers to fix clear targets to improve the tax administration by 2022. He said that the government is working towards creation of an environment which shatters the confidence of the corrupt, and instills confidence and among the honest taxpayer.
Mumbai: Rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahims work permit has been unanimously terminated by the The Cine and TV Artists Association (CINTAA), according to a report by DNA.
The self-styled godman has long been part of Indian cringe-pop with his slew of self-glorifying films, mostly christened MSG- The Messenger of God. The association decided to terminate his permit owing to serious criminal convictions and accusations including rape, homicide and money laundering.
Earlier, Ram Rahim had been sentenced to twenty years of imprisonment in relation to the infamous 2002 rape case on August 25. He has been lodged in the Rohtak jail ever since.
As the punishment was announced by CBI special judge Jagdeep Singh, the 50-year-old had broken down, seeking forgiveness with folded hands while squatting on the floor, refusing to leave.
Meeks has since graced runways across the world in his new role as a professional model. (Photo: Youtube screengrab/ Viral Mojo)
Who knew that getting booked for thievery could turn into such a blessing in disguise? Well it turned out that something similar happened to this model whose striking mug shot landed him a career on the catwalk!
As reported by Huffington Post, Mekhi Alante Lucky, hailing from North Carolina has signed with St. Claire Modeling after a photograph from a 2016 arrest went viral.
The 20-year-old intrigued and dazzled internet users with his multi-coloured eyes caused by a rare genetic ondition called heterochromia, as per Yahoo News.
Speaking to BuzzFeed, the agencys manager Damania OBryant said that she instantly knew that he was perfect for the agency and she hope to bring Lucky to New York Fashion Week soon.
According to records, Lucky was arrested by police in Raleigh in April 2016 for posseing a stolen vehicle and evading arrest. He also has two misdemeanour charges for interfering with emergency communications and resisting an officer.
Meeks has since graced runways across the world in his new role as a professional model.
Katies condition means that she has to be fed via tube and has already endured numerous surgeries. (Photo: Facebook/ Angie Renfroe)
Nine-year-old Katie Renfroe has an abnormally large brain and head that has doctors so baffled that they say that the rarity of it has left them being unable to identify what causes the condition.
The little girl cannot walk or talk and suffers from seizures, needing brain surgery at just nine months old.
Initially, Katie was diagnosed with growth development disorder megalencephaly which causes overgrowth of the brain, but medical experts later had to change their minds.
The girls mother Angie, from Florida has now been told that the condition is so rare that it could be names after Katie.
Speaking to The Daily Mail she said that Katie is very rare and while she has not been diagnosed with anything and the doctors are still trying to find out what she has.
According to Angie, she was about six months pregnant when the doctors told her that her child was going to have megalencephaly, however, doctors now claim that they do not know what is wrong with her and say that if they discover what it is, they will name it after the nine-year-old.
When Katie was first born, the family travelled to Hollywood, Florida, to visit Doctor Roman Yusupov, a specialist in paediatric genetics and craniofacial disorders.
But unfortunately, he was unable to diagnose the girl and has continued to monitor her progress since then.
Katies condition means that she has to be fed via tube and has already endured numerous surgeries.
Katie attends a school for children with disabilities but she is able to work on the computers and interacts with the class with the help of her favourite teacher.
Prime suspect Amith Kumar was arrested within a month of the murder. Two others, Shankar Rishidev and Upendra Rishidev, who assisted Amith were arrested on Friday. (Representational image)
Hyderabad: The Medchal police arrested two persons on Friday from Bihar who were involved in a brutal murder of a labourer three years ago.
Prime suspect Amith Kumar was arrested within a month of the murder. Two others, Shankar Rishidev and Upendra Rishidev, who assisted Amith were arrested on Friday. The three had brutally murdered Amiths cousin Anil Kumar Kamath, due to a dispute.
Police said Amith and Anil were labourers. In July 2014, the decomposed body of a person was found buried in an open layout in Medchal. Only the toes were visible. With the help of clothes he was identified as Anil. A missing case had been filed with Medchal police around 20 days ago.
Following clues given by his family police found that Anil had a dispute with Amith over the Rs 1.85 lakh Amith had borrowed from him. As Amith suffered losses in his business and considering Anil as a stumbling block for his business, Amith decided to kill Anil Kumar and took the help of Shankar and Upendra.
As per the plan, Amith picked up Anil Kumar from his workplace and came to an open plot very close to Amiths room. On the way they purchased alcohol. The day before this the suspects had purchased knives to kill Anil, police said.
After getting drunk Amith attacked Anil with a beer bottle on the head and after he collapsed they slit his throat and stabbed him.
After Anil died they dug a pit and buried him. Amith was arrested within a month but the other two were absconding. Based on clues, a team went to Bihar and apprehended them. They were brought to the city on transit warrant and produced in court, Petbasheerabad ACP A. Srinivas Rao said.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked a trial court at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh to complete the trial of case relating to the gangrape of 11 tribal women of Vakkapalli village in six months.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M.M. Shantanagouder dismissed the appeal filed by police personnel against an order of the magistrate who took cognisance of the complaint from women victims.
Appearing for the women tribal victims advocate Vrinda Grover alleged that the police personnel were delaying the trial and the victims are waiting for justice.
Advocate Grover wanted the court to dismiss the appeal seeking to quash the charges.
Nine new ministers will take oath at the cabinet reshuffle on Sunday. (Photo: PTI | File)
New Delhi: With all eyes set at the cabinet reshuffle on Sunday, nine new faces are expected to be introduced in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs - Ashwini Kumar Choubey from Bihar, Shiv Paratap Shukla from Uttar Pradesh, Virendra Kumar from Madhya Pradesh, Anantkumar Hegde, Raj Kumar Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Satya Pal Singh, Alphons Kannanthanam will take oath on Sunday.
The new ministers will be taking oath at 10 am on Sunday.
Six ministers have resigned ahead of Sunday's re-shuffle.
The rejig in the Union Cabinet is the third since 2014 after Narendra Modi took oath as the Prime Minister.
After assuming office in May 2014, Modi expanded his council of ministers twice - first on November 9, 2014 and then on July 5, 2016.
Satyapal Singh one of the nine minister to be inducted in Modi government said, "I have not been officially informed, but whatever is party and PM's decision I am ready for it."
The current strength of the council of ministers, including the Prime Minister, is 73 and the maximum number of ministers cannot go beyond 81.
According to a constitutional amendment, the limit cannot exceed beyond 15 per cent of the total strength of the Lok Sabha which is 545.
Chennai: Over 70 lakh subscribers of state-owned Arasu Cable TV Corporation will now able to enjoy their favourite television shows and serials in digital form.
Four months after getting Centres nod for Digital Addressable System (DAS), the Tamil Nadu Government on Friday launched digitization of the Arasu Cable TV and announced that it would be providing set-top boxes for free.
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami launched the scheme, a pet project of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa who had vigorously pushed for digital licence for the state-owned Cable TV from 2011-2016, at the Secretariat by distributing digital set top boxes to few beneficiaries.
The Arasu Cable TV subscribers would now be able to view 180 channels at just Rs 125, way cheaper when compared to the private Direct-to-Home (DTH) service providers who charge at least 60 to 80 per cent more for same number of channels.
Local cable operators, who will charge one-time activation fee of Rs 200 for each connection, would distribute the set-top boxes to the customers.
Consumers have the option to choose from four packages, all of which includes both pay and free channels. While customers can watch 180 channels by paying Rs 125, they will be able to watch 230 channels for Rs 175, 260 channels for Rs 225 and 300 channels for Rs 275, an official release said, adding that customers will have to pay Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 18 per cent as applicable.
Currently, the Corporation is provided a package of 100 channels to subscribers at a cost of Rs 70 per month, the lowest rate anywhere in the country.
Arasu Corporation, which was previously operating on MPEG 2, has upgraded its transmission to MPEG 4 technology, officials said, adding that the free STBs would be distributed to the customers in the next three months.
Arasu Cable TV Corporation was launched by the then DMK Government in 2007 to end the near-monopoly of the Sun TV Network in the cable TV market after the infighting within the ruling DMKs first family came to the fore.
However, the Corporation lost much of its sheen following patch up within the family. When J Jayalalithaa came back to power in 2011, she not just revived the corporation but expanded its network and reach by introducing several schemes.
Late J Jayalalithaa had submitted several memorandums to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his successor Narendra Modi on the issue during her meetings with them.
Tragedy continued to descend upon Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital, as number of deaths are increasing day by day. (Photo: AFP)
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Saturday arrested accused Dr Kafeel Khan from Gorakhpur over the death of nearly 70 children at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College's Hospital.
After Dr Kafeel Khan made the headlines, he was removed from the post of the Nodal Officer for the Department of Pediatrics of the hospital.
Khan is the third accused so far in the case.
The court has ordered non-bailable warrants against seven accused including Dr Kafeel Khan and Dr Satish.
STF's DIG Manoj Tiwari confirmed the development.
The report of the Chief Secretary's Committee, was presented to state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and catered towards suggestions and improvements for the better working conditions in hospitals in Gorakhpur and other districts.
The committee included Ashok Kumar - Secretary of Health and welfare, Mukesh Mittal - Joint Secretary and Dr Hem Chandra, the Medical Superintendent.
In a press release issued earlier, the government stated that all recommendations of the probe committee have been accepted.
It further said that the committee has recommended registration of criminal cases against former principal of BRD Medical College, Dr Rajeev Mishra, Dr Satish, in-charge of oxygen supply and head of anesthesia department, Dr Khan, in-charge of the 100-bed AES ward; and Pushpa Sales.
Reportedly, Khan was involved in stealing of oxygen cylinders for his private clinic from the BRD hospital.
On August 13, state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that he is tremendously affected by the death of over 70 children, while reiterating that a probe will be instigated and the guilty will be severely punished.
Tragedy continued to descend upon Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College hospital, as number of deaths are increasing day by day.
According to data procured from the BRD hospital, in five days - from August 7 to August 11, a total of 60 deaths occurred in the hospital.
Chennai: Hailing Indian democracy, Union Minister Smriti Irani on Friday said it gave 'wings' to dreams of humble persons to make it big, citing the achievements of leaders like President Ramnath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Minister for Textiles and Information and Broadcasting also said people have respect, "grudgingly or ungrudgingly," for those who had come from the humblest of the backgrounds and made a mark with their contribution.
The Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat recalled Modi's childhood days of selling tea in a railway station in that state, referring to his humble background. She was addressing students of Vels University at a "Sankalp se Siddhi" programme near here.
"How many students can imagine that such a child (Modi), whose mother had to work in others' houses cleaning utensils and working hard to make ends meet, a child who even sold tea at a railway station, could one day become prime minister of this country?", she asked. "The fact that our democracy gives wings to such dreams brings hope to so many people across the nation is one thing we all as Indians can be extremely proud of," she said. Irani said that as a woman she was proud Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan was a woman. The country's President was from the "marginalised community," she added.
Irani said besides the President, who had risen through the ranks by sheer dedication and hard work, the Vice- President was born to a farmer's family. The minister recalled that Modi was born in a village "which barely had electricity" and he had "resolved" to ensure that the benefits people deserve did not go to middlemen. He "leverages" technology, she added.
On the various initiatives of the three-year-old NDA government, Irani said the 'Jandhan Scheme' was launched with the aim of ensuring every poor person had a bank account.
So far, close to 300 million people have new bank accounts under this scheme and it was almost equal to the population of the U.S., she said.
"Imagine a whole nation within our nation devoid of a simple thing like a bank account," she added. These 300 million-odd people managed to open bank accounts with the cooperation of banks, Central and state governments, she added.
The Mudra scheme, where loans ranging between Rs 50,000-Rs 10 lakh were given without collateral for entrepreneurs to start a business, had covered about 80 million beneficiaries, she said.
Even 20-30 years back, only the rich could afford to start a business, Irani said. Such things were "possible when government and people come together," the minister added.
Hailing the sacrifices of freedom fighters on the occasion of the 75th year of Quit India movement, she urged the students to contribute towards a prosperous India.
Irani hailed the contribution of the armed forces, especially in guarding the nation.
Later, the students took the 'Sankalp Se Siddhi' pledge, vowing to make India free from menaces like corruption, casteism and communalism.
Irani asked BJP State president Tamilisai Sounderrajan, also present at the event, to administer the pledge to the students in Tamil and the latter followed suit.
NEW DELHI: With the CBI claiming that there is enough material against Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P. Chidambaram, in the INX Media corruption case, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant him permission to go abroad.
Additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, submitted documents in a sealed envelope to a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and said, "There is a good, cogent reason for the issuance of a look-out circular (LOC) against him. It is not a simple case or that of one company but it involves jugglery of accounts and properties abroad."
The apex court posted the hearing in the matter for September 11, accepting Mr Mehta's submission that Karti Chidambaram should not be allowed to travel abroad at this stage.
On August 14, the apex court had stayed a Madras high court order allowing Karti Chidambaram to go abroad and made it clear that he will have to appear before the CBI for questioning.
Subsequently, however, he was quizzed at the CBI headquarters in Delhi on August 23 and 28.
Karti Chidambaram did not appear before the CBI in response to summons issued on June 15 and July 4 and moved the high court to quash the FIR.
On June 16, the CBI had issued an LOC to prevent Karti Chidambaram from leaving India. On August 10, the high court stayed the LOC and allowed him to go abroad on August 16 and return on August 31. The CBI filed an appeal in the apex court against this order.
The CBI registered an FIR against Karti Chidambaram and others on May 15, 2017, for alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance granted to INX Media for receiving overseas funds in 2007 to the tune of `305 crore, when his father was the Union finance minister.
Appearing for Karti Chidambaram, senior advocate Gopal Subramanium submitted, "What is the subject matter of enquiry is not me but my father who happened to be the then finance minister giving FIPB approvals to a company in 2007. It is alleged that one of the conditions had been violated."
The Karnataka police had started searching for the boys as soon as they got information and had also informed Hyderabad police about them after getting a clue that they might have reached here. (Representational image)
Hyderabad: Three class V students, aged between 8 and 10, who went missing on Thursday from Bidar in Karnataka, were found by the Sultan Bazaar police in the wee hours of Friday.
The boys were found near Andhra Bank at around 4 am. They are Laksh, 9, Karan, 8, and Vineeth, 10. One of the missing boys, Laksh, is related to Karnatakas municipal and village development minister Eshwara B. Khandre.
The Karnataka police had started searching for the boys as soon as they got information and had also informed Hyderabad police about them after getting a clue that they might have reached here. The Karnataka minister flew to Hyderabad immediately in search of them.
They left without informing leaving us all worried. Police teams were deputed to trace them, said Mr Khandre.
We were told that they hail from Bidar and that they came to Hyderabad in a bus after their parents scolded them, said Sultan Bazaar inspector P. Shiva Shankar Rao.
We immediately informed the Bidar police who in turn told the minister. We brought them to the station and kept them with us, the inspector added.
After receiving information I boarded a flight from Bengaluru, reached Hyderabad and found the boys safe, added the minister.
The minister was very impressed by the job done by Hyderabad police.
I am very happy and impressed with the police here. Everyone, including the inspector, ACP and constables were very helpful. They treated the kids well and I will make sure that the Karnataka government sends an appreciation letter to them. I also want to personally thank the Hyderabad police commissioner, Mr Mahender Reddy,Mr Khandre said.
The kids were handed over to the authorities from Bidar on Friday.
TTV Dhinakaran said Tamil Nadu CM Palanisamy and deputy CM O Panneerselvam had 'betrayed' AIADMK and people of the state. (Photo: File)
Puducherry: Sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran on Saturday demanded that the President intervene in Tamil Nadu as an "extraordinary situation" is prevailing in the state.
Dhinakaran, who is involved in a power tussle with Chief Minister K Palanisamy, met the MLAs loyal to him who have been staying here for nearly two weeks.
After the meeting, he said the legislators had not been herded and asserted that they were staying in Puducherry on their own volition.
Dhinakaran told reporters that an "extraordinary situation" was prevailing in Tamil Nadu.
"The President (Ram Nath Kovind) and Governor should intervene in this extraordinary situation. We will wait for two more days and then decide next course of action," the party's deputy general secretary said.
He had come to Puducherry to hold discussions with his camp legislators, he added.
The DMK, Congress and Left parties had met President Kovind on August 31, demanding a floor test for the incumbent Palanisamy government in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
They had earlier knocked on Rao's doors with a similar plea.
To a question, Dhinakaran said his side has not sought an appointment with the president.
The former MP said he wished to meet the MLAs but could not do so due to his busy work schedule.
The MLAs had been staying in Puducherry ever since they left Chennai following their meeting with Rao on August 22 where they had told him that they had lost confidence in Palanisamy and had sought his removal as chief minister.
He said both Palanisamy and his deputy O Panneerselvam had "betrayed" AIADMK and people of the state.
"A chief minister appointed by us has betrayed people and the party by joining hands with Panneerselvam who had earlier betrayed the party," he alleged
"How can a man who has betrayed a party that made him chief minister serve the people," he said while referring to his camp's demand for the removal of Palanisamy.
On the governor informing a team of opposition leaders recently that he cannot intervene in AIADMK's "internal affairs", Dhinakaran said "we know why he said so," but did not elaborate.
"Our MLAs are revolutionaries. They will not back down," he added.
Indicating that his flock was united, Dhinakaran refuted reports that some of them had left the Union Territory or had wanted to leave.
He said none of them had been herded at the Puducherry accommodation and said they had even left their homes and families for the cause they had taken up.
"They are independent here," he said.
They rued not being able to serve their respective constituencies, Dhinakaran said, adding "but people in Tamil Nadu know they are here to protect their party and their government."
Responding to a question on the suicide of 17 year-old medical aspirant Anitha at Ariyalur in Tamil Nadu, he said the state "does not need NEET at all".
The girl had scored 1176 marks out 1200 in Class XII exams and if there was no NEET exam, she could have got admitted to a medical course, he said.
Asked if the issue called for the resignation of Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, he said Palanisamy and Panneerselvam should quit.
"Let them resign and we will set things right," he said.
He said people of Tamil Nadu will not accept anything "imposed" on them and referred to the anti-Hindi agitation of 1960s, a DMK-led initiative.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar conducting an aerial survey of flood affected areas, in Bihar. (Photo: PTI)
New Delhi: The crucial Cabinet reshuffle, to take place on Sunday morning, hit its first hurdle when the Janata Dal (United), which recently joined the NDA, indicated on Saturday that it is not likely to join the Modi Cabinet.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said in Patna on Saturday, There was no talk of JD(U) joining the Union Cabinet. No talks were held on the issue (between the BJP and JD-U).
Till Friday there were clear signals that two JD(U) MPs would be joining the Union Council of Ministers.
BJP chief Amit Shah met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday evening to finalise the reshuffle, and there were indications that besides the JD(U), Shiv Sena is also unlikely to join the government. Chances of the AIADMK, which recently merged its two factions, joining the Cabinet also appeared to be dim.
Mr Modi and Mr Shah have held a series of meetings before the reshuffle, which is expected to be the last and largest before the 2019 general elections.
In the lead up to the reshuffle, six ministers have resigned so far Kalraj Mishra, Bandaru Dattatreya, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjiv Kumar Balyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahindra Nath Pandey. The fate of water resources minister Uma Bharti hangs in the balance.
Hyderabad: Completely reversing early speculation, developments late on Saturday indicated that neither BJP general secretary P. Muralidhar Rao from Telangana state nor Mr Kambhampati Haribabu and Gokaraju Gangaraju from AP would find a place in Sundays reshuffle of the Narendra Modi Cabinet.
When contacted, Mr Haribabu said he did not have any information about his induction and he had not received an invitation.
Before leaving for Delhi on Saturday night from Visakhapatnam, Mr Haribabu said his visit to the Capital had nothing to do with the Cabinet reshuffle.
The BJP source said the seat vacated by Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya, as desired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, would not be filled from Telangana state at least for some time.
Sources said a few administrative lapses including alleged corruption in the labour ministry had led to Mr Dattatreya being asked to step down from the Council of Ministers.
Regarding picking a Union minister from Telangana state, sources said the names of Mr Muralidhar Rao who hails from Karimnagar, Rajasthan water resources adviser Vedire Sriram who hails from Nalgonda and BJP Legislature Party leader G. Kishan Reddy had come up.
But it would be difficult to accommodate any of them to the Rajya Sabha from another state, though there is a clear vacancy in Rajasthan due to the resignation of Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu before he took oath as Vice-President.
Sources said TS would remain unrepresented for some time, which may leave the gate open to find a new political partner in the NDA.
Sources said Sundays reshuffle would be confined to the BJP, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had decided to keep a few slots for the JD (U), AIADMK and other friendly parties.
Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday said Union finance minister Arun Jaitely had assured that the Sept-ember 9 GST Council meeting in Hyderabad would positively consider the Telangana state governments request to reduce GST on projects of public importance to 5 per cent.
Projects such as Mission Bhagiratha, Mission Kakatiya, irrigation and power schemes are being taxed at 12 per cent now.
Mr Jaitley also said the government was ready to hand over the Bison Polo Ground to construct the Secretariat, and land in the Secunderabad Cantonment to widen roads and construct flyovers on the highways to Medchal and Karimnagar.
Mr Rao said the Centre had recognised the importance of having a new Secretariat and expansion of Rajiv Rahadari, Medchal highways.
Union Minister for Road Transport and Shipping Nitin Gadkari with NCP chief Sharad Pawar at the foundation stone laying ceremony of a project of National Highways Authority in Pune. (Photo: PTI)
New Delhi: The crucial Cabinet reshuffle, to take place on Sunday morning, hits its first hurdle when the Janata Dal (United), which recently joined the NDA, indicated on Saturday that it is not likely to join the Modi Cabinet.
There has been talk in the saffron camp that one of the mantris was asked to go for his alleged links with an ongoing scam.
Before the six resignations, there were 72 ministers in Mr Modis Council of ministers. Of these, 24 were Cabinet rank, 12 ministers of state (independent charge), and 36 ministers of state. The total strength of the Council of Ministers cannot exceed 81.
Like Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray also said in Mumbai that he had received no information from the BJP. He claimed that he had got information about the Cabinet reshuffle from the media. I have not enquired about it... I have neither received any communication from anybody nor are we hungry for power, he said.
In the case of the AIADMK, however, their internal squabbles are proving to be the stumbling block in its joining the government. AIADMK leader M. Thambidurai, who met Mr Shah on Friday, might be a likely representative from the party along with P. Venugopal and V. Maitreyan if the party decides to join the NDA. There has been no official statement from the party yet. The BJP president on Friday attended a coordination meeting with various RSS outfits in Vrindavan, and he and Mr Modi were giving final touches to the changes on Friday.
More than half-a-dozen ministers are expected to make way for new faces in the reshuffle, while the portfolios of some minister may be changed.
Speculation was rife that highways and surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari could get the defence portfolio following Mr Gadkaris visit to Mr Modis Race Course residence late on Saturday evening.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at the three-day annual meeting of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh at Keshav Dham, Vrindavan near Mathura on Saturday. (Photo: PTI)
Lucknow: The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh will now spread its footprints in rural areas by reaching out to farmers. The RSS also favours reaching out to stone-pelters and bringing them back into the social mainstream.
Discussions in this regard are being held at the ongoing RSS conclave in Mathura where it has been decided to set up shakhas at the panchayat level and hold chaupals in every village to hear out problems of the farmers.
We believe that farmers vote as a group and not on caste lines. Their problems are specific to their profession, irrespective of their caste. We need to increase out interaction with them, listen to their problems, acquaint them with modern techniques in agriculture and even take agricultural scientists to the villages, said a Sangh functionary.
The Kisan Sangh, an affiliate of the RSS, has been entrusted the responsibility of setting up shakhas at the panchayat level. The Kisan Sangh leaders from across the country were categorically told to increase their presence among farmers which will automatically consolidate the Sangh presence at the village level.
The Kisan Sangh has been asked to start holding workshops in every village and help solve the problems faced by farmers in their agricultural work and work as a bridge between farmers and the governments.
The Sangh leaders will also keep the farmers informed about the various schemes and steps taken by the Modi and BJP governments in states to improve their situation. Efforts will also be made to bring rural women into the fold through the Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, the womens wing of the RSS.
The Kisan Sangh will also encourage farmers to keep cows and set up joint cow shelters in villages.
The Sangh, in its discussions, was of view that if the BJP has to ensure a record-breaking victory in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it must increase its footprints and approach those classes of society that had so far been alienated.
In another major development, the Sangh leaders felt that efforts should be made to reach out to misguided youth including the stone-pelters in Kashmir.
Sanskar Bharti leader Uday Joshi said that in order to bust the terror network in the Valley, it was necessary to bring stone-pelters back into the social mainstream. He said that these youths were easy fodder for terrorists who misguided them and used them against the country.
The Sangh advised the government to start the healing process and build bridges with such youth.
The Centre has sent notices to mobile phone makers in China and other countries to know about the procedures followed by them for data security. (Representational image)
Hyderabad: Only 15 to 20 phone companies out of 36 have responded to the government's directive to share information about security measures they have taken to ensure that data on users is not compromised.
Recent reports regarding leaking of data from phones to unauthorised third country servers and parties led to this step.
The Centre has sent notices to mobile phone makers in China and other countries to know about the procedures followed by them for data security.
Over 21 phone makers including leading brands like Oppo, Gionee, Xiaomi and Vivo have been asked to submit a detailed response.
A special announcement made by Ajay Kumar, Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology stated that 10 percent of the IT budget in all ministries will be henceforth used for cyber security which is a new initiative. He said the increase in cyber security crimes will awaken the need of over two million people for security. He also said that an estimated two million people would be required in the cyber security area. Engineering colleges have been asked to work along with the ministry to run cyber security courses.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government's decision to relax the distance norm for bars in hotels of four-star and above classification has invited criticism from various quarters. The restriction for liquor shops within 200 metres of worship places, education institutions and SC/ST colonies has been relaxed to 50 metres for bars in hotels with four-star, five-star, five-star deluxe and heritage classifications. Hotels of four-star and above classification were enjoying such a relaxation till 2011.
While Excise Minister T.P. Ramakrishnan justified the decision as a measure to support tourist centres, sources said that a dozen hotels of four-star and above categories, including two in Thiruvananthapuram city, would get the immediate benefit of the relaxation. Additional chief secretary Tom Jose, who is in charge of the excise, issued the order extending the relaxation the other day on the basis of a policy decision taken by the LDF. Excise commissioner Rishi Raj Singh gave a recommendation in this regard citing request from star hotel owners.
Archbishop Soosa Pakiam and Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran said at a joint press conference that a strong agitation will be launched against the government's decision. A convention of anti-liquor outfits will be held on September 12 to decide the agitation if the government did not withdraw from the move, they said. Archbishop Soosa Pakiam also said that they would also strongly oppose the decision to lift the power of local bodies to grant NOC to liquor outlets. Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged that the relaxation was the outcome of an unholy nexus between the bar lobbies and LDF.
He also alleged moves to extend the relaxation to three-star hotels in due course. Sources said that it was in 2011 that the then UDF government decided to extend the distance norm for bars in four-star and above category hotels to 200 metres from 50 metres. The fresh relaxation would be applicable only to four-star and above category hotels applying for bar licences. Some new hotels in these categories were unable to get bar licences owing to the 200-metre distance norm. Justifying the decision, government sources cited that even at present many bars are functioning very close to educational institutions, worship centres and dalit colonies as they got the bar licences much before the 200-metre distance norms came into effect.
Hyderabad: The arrest of balladeer Yepuri Somanna by the Suryapet police and his handcuffing at the Tirumalagiri police station due to alleged pressure by MLA Vemula Veereshams wife Pushpa, has drawn flak from all quarters. The police was forced to release Somanna on bail after his images went viral on social media.
Meanwhile, he lodged a complaint with the police that MLA Vemula Veereshams wife Pushpa had abused him mentioning his caste. The police is yet to act on the complaint. Somanna said the government is conspiring to kill him as he is raising his voice against its anti-people policies.
A case of harassment filed by his wife Swarupa in 2013 was pending against him. While the case was in trial a NBW was issued against him as he did not appear in court.
In addition to this, Somannas second wife lodged a complaint against him recently. Acting on the complaint police registered a case and arrested him. At the police station he was handcuffed and made to sit on the floor. The handcuffs were tied by a chain to the cell.
In the video which went viral Nakirekal MLA Vemula Veereshams wife Pushpa was seen shouting at Somanna. After the video went viral police released Somanna on station bail. However, their act drew wide criticism.
TPCC chief N. Uttamkumar Reddy said the incident shows the government's reaction to those who criticise it. The state is under police rule. Why was an MLA's wife at the police station at the time of his arrest? The government should speak on this illegal detention, said Uttam Kumar Reddy.
TTDP working president A. Revanth Reddy said that Somanna left a government job and had been raising his voice for the poor. He had been questioning the government about its anti-people policies and this has become an eyesore for them. This shows how human rights are violated and also that the Constitution does not apply in Telangana, he said.
Meanwhile, repeated calls to Suryapet police officials to know their reaction were not answered.
Kakinada: The Telugu Desam (TD) scored a massive victory in the Kakinada Municipal Corporation elections, grabbing the civic body after a gap of 25 years, continuing the trend that began with the Nandyal Assembly bypoll last week.
The party contested 45 of the 48 wards in the city and won 32. Alliance partner BJP won three of the nine wards it contested.
Three rebel TD candidates also won the polls that were held on Friday.
The Opposition YSRC managed to get 10 divisions. At one point of time it looked like the party would not cross the double-digit mark.
The Congress which won the polls thrice in succession from 1995 to 2005 could not muster even 100 votes in each division.
The elections were held to the KMC for the first time after 2010. The TD won a total of 69,534 votes, the YSRC 50,944 and the BJP 7,813 votes. The Congress won a total of 602 votes in 48 wards, the CPI 177, CPM 78 votes, Bahujan Samaj Party 215 and independents, 19,219 votes.
Deputy CM Nimmakayala Chinarajappa attributed the win to the trust that the voters had in Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidus governance and the development and welfare activities of the government. He said that the party had not expected this thumping win. He said that the people of Kakinada have not accepted YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddys leadership.
Kakinada MLA Vanamadi Venkateswara Rao (Kondababu) said the TD government has done a lot to develop Kakinada city in the past three-and-a-half years.
The JD(S) is upset that ruling coalition partner Congress was not following the coalition rules and let it down several times. JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda and state president H.D. Kumaraswamy have expressed their displeasure against Congress, as the seven expelled MLAs have been inducted into the party
Bengaluru: With the term of incumbent Mayor G. Padmavathi coming to an end on September 28, Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (S) are busy making various calculations.
The JD(S) too is upset that the ruling coalition partner Congress was not following the coalition rules and let it down several times.
JD (S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda and state president H.D. Kumaraswamy have expressed their displeasure against Congress, as the seven expelled MLAs have been inducted into the party.
The JD(S) has been an expert in driving hard bargain and last time it succeeded in getting the post of deputy mayor and crucial standing committees, sources pointed out.
This time around the JD(S) may aim to bargain for Mayors post. For Congress it is crucial to be in power in BBMP, as the assembly elections is round the corner and they need to project Bengaluru in good light to voters. If the Congress concedes, the JD(S) may get mayoral post. The mayors post has been reserved for Scheduled Caste, sources added.
Mayor Padmavathi told Deccan Chronicle that the developments at the Assembly or Vidhana Soudha level cannot be compared to the BBMP administration or affairs. The JD(S) has been getting what they want and the relationship between the senior leaders of the both the parties is good. The JD(S) will surely support Congress and its candidature, she said.
The BJP, which has majority in the BBMP council with 101 seats, too is trying hard to control the BBMP affairs. Even if the coalition between JD(S) and Congress beaks up the party still needs five more seats. Though the BJP can woo independents it is unlikely they would join BJP, sources added.
However, the BJP is treading cautiously. The state government may not provide timely financial support and even upset the garbage disposal in the city to bring disrepute, added sources.
Instead, the party will try to highlight the maladministration during the Congress and JD(S) coalition regime during Assembly elections, said BJP sources.
Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday said Union finance minister Arun Jaitely had assured that the September 9 GST Council meeting in Hyderabad would positively consider the Telangana state governments request to reduce GST on projects of public importance to 5 per cent.
Mr Rao left for Delhi on Friday night; his visit ahead of the Union Cabinet reshuffle fuelled speculation that the TRS may be joining the NDA government. TRS sources said Mr Raos trip was scheduled to undergo eye surgery and to meet Union ministers to take up issues concerning the state.
A CMO release issued on Saturday stated, The CM has discussed the issue of defence lands and reduction of GST on public utility projects with Mr Jaitley. The finance minister told the CM that the Centre would consider favourably the two requests made by the state government.
According to the CMO, Mr Jaitley informed the CM that the Centre was ready to hand over the Bison Polo Ground for the construction of the Secretariat as well as land required for widening of the Medchal highway and Rajiv Rahadari.
He said that the Centre has examined the request made by the state on the matter and decided to hand over the required land, the CMO release said.
The CM thanked Mr Jaitley for agreeing to hand over defence land and his assurance to consider positively the reduction of GST. He hoped that the GST council will also take a favourable decision on the GST reduction in September 9 meeting.
Government chief adviser Rajiv Sharma and Chief Ministers principal secretary S. Narsing Rao accompanied Mr Rao when he met Mr Jaitley.
The government is seriously considering raising the retirement age of Central Group A officers from 60 to 62 years. Apparently, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) has received several suggestions on the advantage of utilising the acumen of senior babus on the verge of retiring for another two years. At the same, sources say, the government is reluctant to reduce the retirement age of babus other than Group A from 60 years to 58 years. It seems to be concerned about the possible financial burden likely to be added as pensions, gratuities and other dues of the retiring employees in addition to the salaries to be paid to the new recruits. Some observers see in this an indication that DoPT does not have a proper succession plan to ensure the smooth takeover of operations by younger recruits or that the retirement age needs to be readjusted upwards.
Frequent transfers
Transfers, though disruptive, are accepted as a normal part of babudom. But frequent transfers can be frustrating. In Karnataka, frequent transfers have driven a section of senior bureaucrats to lodge a formal protest with chief secretary Subhas Chandra Khuntia, who also heads the state civil services board. Sources report that the last straw was the latest round of transfers ordered by the Siddaramaiah government. Some of the babus ordered out have spent less than six months in their post.
There are many examples, sources say. Prominent among those transferred are P. Manivannan, who was posted as secretary, social welfare department, late last year. Munish Moudgil is back as commissioner, survey, settlement and land records, after he was abruptly transferred from the post last year after a fallout with the previous chief secretary.
The housing department has had three secretaries in the past six months or so. The situation is so bad, sources say, that some babus are even contemplating moving to the Centre on deputation or even abroad for an academic course. Though the Supreme Court in 2013 had suggested fixed tenures for bureaucrats and an independent body to deal with abrupt transfers, the state took three years to constitute the board, but clearly has little influence on the decisions of the political authority.
New cadre policy in offing
In every interaction with babus Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been encouraging them to go out in the field and not restrict themselves to files to learn about decision-making. Its not known how many babus have felt inspired to act on his suggestion, but there is a new radical move by the government which babus may not be able to opt out of. The Modi government has formulated a new policy for cadre allocation for IAS, IPS and other officers, aimed at ensuring national integration in the countrys top bureaucracy. Officers of all-India services the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service and Indian Forest Service will have to choose cadres from a set of zones instead of states.
At present, officers of the three services are allocated a cadre state or a set of states to work in. They may be posted on Central deputation during the course of their service after fulfilling certain eligibility conditions. According to sources, the existing 26 cadres have been divided into five zones in the new policy proposed by the department of personnel and training. The new policy will seek to ensure that officers from Bihar, for instance, will get to work in southern and northeastern states, which may not be their preferred cadres. The policy is likely to be put into effect from this year.
When Indias chief justice, J.S. Khehar, set up a constitution bench of five judges to hear petitions on triple talaq during the courts summer recess, many asked what sense of urgency warranted this unusual course. In his August 22 judgment, with Justice S. Abdul Nazeer concurring, he gives his reason: The whole nation seems to be up in arms. This is manifestly untrue. From the whole, Justice Khehar descends on a section. There is seemingly an overwhelming majority of Muslim women, demanding that the practice of talaq-i-biddat which is sinful in theology be declared as impermissible in law. A section of Muslims did clamour against it. The next sentence is disturbing. The Union of India has also participated in the debate. It has adopted an aggressive posture, seeking the invalidation of the practice by canvassing that it violates the fundamental rights embodied in the constitution.
After becoming Prime Minister, Narendra Modi set about implementing the Bharatiya Janata Partys triple agenda uniform civil code, abolition of Article 370 on Kashmirs autonomy and building a Ram temple on the ruins of Babri Masjid. On each he decided to accept half a loaf initially and take the judicial route. Sympathisers filed petitions on all three in the supreme court. Unfortunately, the chief justice yielded to Modis aggressive posture, only to flog a dead horse. The animal had died of multiple stabs by high court rulings and a coup de grace by the supreme court in Shamim Aras case in 2002. It ruled that the correct law of talaq as ordained by the Holy Quran is that talaq must be for a reasonable cause and be preceded by attempts at reconciliation between the husband and wife by two arbiters appointed by both sides. It cited the high court rulings and held, We are in respectful agreement with the abovesaid observations.
The two Quranic safeguards render triple talaq void. The courts will determine whether the reason for divorce was reasonable. But that would leave the Sharia in place. Then attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi was emphatic that not only triple talaq but two others talaq-i-ahsan and talaq-i-hasan were unconstitutional. One judge pointed out that, in that event, Muslim men would have no remedy for divorce. Rohatgi replied in the affirmative, but assuring that Parliament would enact legislation within no time. No government can give such an assurance on legislation and despatch. Was Rohatgi speaking on instructions or was he on a frolic of his own? In either case, the motive is revealed not reform but repeal of Sharia by legislation.
Khehar and Nazeer hold that Sharia is not subject to fundamental rights. This was the view of personal laws also taken by the Bombay high court in 1952 in a judgment that has been followed since. But Khehar held that the triple talaq is protected by the fundamental right to practise religion. It has a stature equal to other fundamental rights and interference in matters of personal law is clearly beyond judicial examination. Yet, the two proceeded to direct the Union of India to consider appropriate legislation on triple talaq. Meanwhile, they are satisfied in injuncting Muslim husbands from pronouncing the triple talaq for six months. If the legislative process begins before that, the injunction will continue until the law is enacted. Supreme Court Justice R.F. Nariman delivered his judgement, in which Justice U.U. Lalit concurred. He cited Shamim Aras case but held that since triple talaq is instant and irrevocable any attempt at reconciliation ... cannot ever take place, so it is arbitrary. But as mediation precedes talaq, the court can examine its reasonableness. It cannot be violative of the fundamental right contained under Article 14 (right to equality). A judgment based on palpable error cannot stand.
There are thus two judgments in conflict, each by two judges. The fifth, Justice Kurian Joseph, disagreed with both in a judgment of compelling logic. Shamim Aras case is the law and high courts followed it. The Quranic verses are clear and emphatic. Triple talaq violates Sharia and is not protected as a part of religion. Fundamentally, What is held to be bad in the Holy Quran cannot be good in Sharia. There was thus no triple talaq in Sharia for him to hold unconstitutional. The order of the court says: In view of the different opinions recorded by a majority of 3:2, the practice of talaq-i-biddat instant triple talaq is set aside. Judgments and orders are set aside how can courts set aside a practice? There is no majority judgment to support the order. The result? A waste of time.
By arrangement with Dawn
Nellore: Isro scientists suspect that a problem in the pyro mechanism explosive bolts used to separate the heat shield was responsible for the failure of the IRNSS-1H satellite to separate from the PSLV rocket after its launch from Sriharikota. This kind of failure is rare, an Isro scientist said, stressing the need for in-depth analysis to detect the root cause of the anomaly. Former Isro group head Chivukula Ravindhranath said that the heat shield (also called fairing) separation on launch vehicles is generally very reliable, and scientists dont even consider this type of failure as a possible risk.
He said everything related to heat shield separation has a back-up system except for the explosive material used in the bolts. Usually, a number of tests are performed on the heat shield to guarantee successful separation. The heat shield is an encasement that protects the satellite in the rocket. Once the rocket is in orbit, the heat shield separates and releases the satellite in space.
The heat shield normally separates as a result of the bolts that explode and split the fairing into two halves and pushes these away from the rocket to avoid damaging the satellite. Mr Ravindranath says there have been instances of a total failure of a mission when the heat shield of the rocket failed to open. On November 30, 1970, an Atlas Centaur rocket launched in the US failed to release the satellite as a faulty explosive latch prevented the heat shield from separating. In August 2009, the Science and Technology Satellite-2 (STSAT-2) on South Koreas Space Launch Vehicles (KSLV-1) maiden flight failed to achieve orbit because the rockets payload fairing did not separate as planned.
On March 4, 2011, the Glory Satellite Mission of USAs Taurus XL Rocket failed as the heat shield did not separate. The previous launch attempt of an Earth science spacecraft, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory on board a Taurus XL rocket also failed to reach orbit on February 24, 2009, as the fairing did not separate. Chinas Long March 2E had a mishap as its heat shield broke up while the vehicle was reaching supersonic velocity at about 7 km on December 22, 1992. Even though the shroud opened too early, and the satellite was destroyed, the remaining upper section of the booster was strong enough structurally to sustain the flight. The upper stage entered orbit as planned, but without its payload.
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Whitson, along with fellow Expedition 52 Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA and Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos will undock their Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft from the space station and land in Kazakhstan at 9:22 pm EDT.
Record-breaking NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is set to depart the International Space Station (ISS) and return to Earth after completing a 288-day long mission, the US space agency said.
Whitson, along with fellow Expedition 52 Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA and Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos will undock their Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft from the space station and land in Kazakhstan at 9:22 pm EDT.
On Friday, Yurchikhin will hand over station command to NASA's Randy Bresnik. Whitson is completing a 288-day mission that began in November 2016, spanning 122.2 million miles and 4,623 orbits of Earth her third long-duration stay on the outpost.
At the time of their landing, she will have accrued a total of 665 days in space over the course of her career, more than any American astronaut, placing her eighth on the all-time space endurance list.
Yurchikhin and Fischer, who launched in April, will complete 136 days in space. Yurchikhin will return to Earth with a total of 673 days in space on his five flights, putting him in seventh place on the all-time endurance list.
As a result of the impacts of Hurricane Harvey, NASA is reviewing return plans to Houston of Whitson, Fischer and the science samples landing in the Soyuz spacecraft.
The crew will participate in standard post-flight medical evaluations.
While living and working aboard the space station, the Expedition 52 crew pursued hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard humanity's only orbiting laboratory, NASA said.
At the time of undocking, Expedition 53 will begin aboard the station under the command of Randy Bresnik. Along with his crewmates Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency), the three-person crew will operate the station until the arrival of three new crew members.
Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA and Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos, are scheduled to launch on September 12 from Kazakhstan.
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For hospitality interior design firm Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA) principal, David Haughton, the earliest memories of a beautifully designed place stem from his backpacking trips across different continents. When visiting Gaudis Sagrada Familia and Guell Park in Barcelona, and the Taj Mahal as a backpacker in 1987, I witnessed the beauty that these architectural wonders are, he recalls. These simple inspirations find way in his works. HBA boasts of designing a wide selection of resort spaces from Four Seasons Seychelles, Park Hyatt Maldives, Jumeirah Maldives and Eagle Island Botswana. With works under construction for their new project on Anzara Nusa Lembongan, Intercontinental Hotel and New World Grand Bali Resort (all in Bali), David gives an insight into what goes into building these architectural structures.
A deck at Kanhura Maldives
David is a firm believer of organic designs. According to him, design should follow a certain module that makes it unanimous with the human body that it should all feel like one element. Nature forms my inspiration, since it presents our connection with humanity, he states. The architect also believes that design in itself is an extremely personal and subjective journey. We continue to evolve ideas through found objects, models, drawings, painting and photography. These are improvisational tools in which we question our existence in the world through visual language and knowledge.
David likes to combine various methods of approach to design a space. He says, We usually begin our storytelling with collages of images related to the indigenous people and ways of life for each region, then follow through with planning and sketches. Im a very hands-on designer, so I encourage my team to build models for major focal points. Having resided in Bali for over 20 years now, David explains how he takes inspiration from the local environs of the place. All these years have given me the chance to explore the history and spiritual beliefs of this place, he says, adding that the Balinese prioritise their spiritual relationship with their temple architecture.
The Europe Hotel & Resort in Ireland
He begins with explaining the idea behind some of their most popular projects. We begin with examining the local space for each property the elements that make up the surroundings of the property. Then work on a concept that will fit the region best, he says. Of course, client goals and expectations are priority, but not before the needs of the guests, he adds. With a couple of projects lined up in the pipeline, David is most excited for his first luxury sailing Phinisi project. The Phinisi project is a 125 feet traditional live-on-board yacht project and will be the beginning into further Maritime design specialty, he says, adding that he hopes to provide patrons with a fusion of marine architecture and interiors.
Lawsuit settlement will allow unknown number of foreigners from seven Muslim-majority countries to work with justice department on new application. (Representational Image | Photo: AP)
Washington: Foreigners who were barred from entering the US during Donald Trumps first attempt to ban travel from seven Muslim-majority countries will get government help reapplying for visas under a lawsuit settlement reached on Thursday.
Civil rights lawyers and the Trump administration announced the deal during a conference call in federal court in Brooklyn, one scene of the legal battle over the treatment of hundreds of travellers who were processed at US airports over a chaotic weekend in January.
Under the terms of the settlement, the government agreed to notify an unspecified number of people overseas who were banned that they can reapply for visas with the help of a Department of Justice (DoJ) liaison for a three-month period. In return, the plaintiffs said they would drop all their claims.
We are pleased with the settlement and that this chapter in the fight is done, said Lee Gerlent, an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney.
Gerlent said it was unclear how many people would benefit from the settlement because the government has refused to disclose the total.
A Department of Justice statement read, Although this case has been moot since March, when the president rescinded the original executive order and issued a new one that does not restrict the entry of Iraqi nationals, the US government has elected to settle this case on favourable terms.
The ACLU, along with the National Immigration Law Center and the International Refugee Assistance Project, sued on behalf of two Iraqi nationals after the Trump administration implemented a policy on 27 January that barred entry of visa holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. One of the plaintiffs was Hameed Khalid Darweesh, a translator who has done work for the US military, who was detained at John F Kennedy international airport.
A federal judge blocked the ban eight days later in a ruling upheld by a circuit court. Rather than pursue an appeal, the administration said it would revise the policy.
In June, the Supreme Court found that the narrower order could be enforced if those visitors lacked a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.
In this July 26, 2017, frame grab from video taken from a police body camera and provided by attorney Karra Porter, nurse Alex Wubbels is arrested by a Salt Lake City police officer at University Hospital in Salt Lake City. (Photo: AP)
Utah: A nurse at a Utah hospital said this week she was assaulted by a police officer after declining to give him a sample of an unconscious patient's blood because he had neither a warrant nor the patient's consent, local media reported.
Alex Wubbels showed videos from police officers' body-worn cameras of her arrest at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City to a news conference on Thursday where she said her first duty was to her patients, the Deseret News reported.
The footage, filmed on July 26, shows Wubbels dressed in blue medical scrubs and consulting with colleagues for several minutes before presenting waiting police officers with a printout of the hospital's policy on sharing blood samples to test for alcohol or drugs.
She tells the officers that under the policy, which she says was agreed to, by the Salt Lake City police department, she would need a warrant, the patient's consent, or the patient would need to be under arrest.
"I'm just trying to do what I'm supposed to do, that's all," she says, noting they meet none of the criteria.
A hospital supervisor, speaking through Wubbels' cellphone, tells the officers they are "making a huge mistake" in threatening a nurse.
One officer, identified in media reports as detective Jeff Payne, becomes angered and grabs at Wubbels.
"We're done," Payne says. "You're under arrest."
Payne drags Wubbels outside as she screams.
"Somebody help me!" she says as Payne handcuffs her hands behind her. "You're assaulting me! Stop! I've done nothing wrong."
The patient was a truck driver who arrived comatose at the hospital after being badly burned in a crash with a vehicle being driven by someone fleeing police, the Deseret News reported.
Karra Porter, Wubbels' lawyer, said at the news conference that the nurse followed the law and the police were wrong.
Brandon Shearer, a sergeant at the police department, told KUTV News that Payne had been suspended from collecting blood but was otherwise not being disciplined while an internal investigation was under way.
A police department spokesman, Richard Chipping, said there was no further comment.
The University of Utah issued a statement saying it supported Wubbels "and her decision to focus first and foremost on the care and well-being of her patient." The hospital said it had also created a new policy with police that would preclude officers from arriving at patient care units in person for blood.
On Tuesday, N Korea fired a missile, prompting Trump to insist that 'all options were on the table' in a threat of pre-emptive action. (Photo: AFP)
Washington: The US and South Korea on Saturday vowed to strengthen their alliance through defence cooperation to fight the threats posed by North Korea with President Donald Trump giving a "conceptual approval" to sell Seoul American military equipment worth billions of dollars.
On Tuesday, North Korea fired a missile over Japan, prompting Trump to insist that "all options were on the table" in an implied threat of pre-emptive military action.
Trump in a phone call with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in discussed a coordinated response to deal with the "destabilising and escalatory behaviour" of North Korea, the White House said.
"Trump and Moon pledged to continue to apply strong diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea and to make all necessary preparations to deter and defend against the growing threat posed by North Korea," it said.
The two leaders agreed to strengthen the alliance through defence cooperation and to strengthen South Korea's defence capabilities.
"Trump provided his conceptual approval of planned purchases by South Korea of billions of dollars in American military equipment," the White House said.
In a separate call, Trump spoke with President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan to discuss the two countries' 25-year relationship and his recently announced South Asia strategy.
"Trump expressed appreciation for Kazakhstan's regional and global leadership, including its upcoming tenure as Chair of the United Nations Security Council in January, and congratulated President Nazarbayev on hosting the Astana Expo 2017," the White House said.
Trump also spoke with President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia.
"President Trump stressed the importance of Colombia doing its utmost to eliminate the production and trafficking of illegal drugs," it said.
Gagandeep Singh, a software engineer student from Punjab, had been living in Washington state since 2003. He was also working as a taxi driver.
A 22-year-old Sikh software engineering student has been stabbed to death in his taxi allegedly by an American student who was upset over not getting admission into a university, media reports said.
Gagandeep Singh, a third year student who was also working as a taxi driver, was allegedly attacked by the 19-year-old passenger he had picked up at Spokane International Airport in Washington State on August 28, NBC affiliate KHQ reported.
The Bonner County Sheriffs Office in Idaho identified the defendant as Jacob Coleman, who was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Singh.
Coleman is said to have flown from Seattle to Spokane to start as a new student at Gonzaga University in Spokane, but upon arrival he was denied entry, according to a statement from the sheriffs office.
But he became angry and began to have homicidal thoughts, police said, after claiming he was denied entry to Gonzaga University, a private Catholic school in Spokane.
The university said it has no record of an application from Coleman and that it was cooperating with law enforcement, the report said.
Coleman reportedly left, hailed a taxi and asked Singh to drive him to a fictitious friends house in Bonner County, Idaho.
Coleman later admitted that during the journey he became homicidal and bought a knife during a stop at a shop, police said.
Singh later stopped his car in the city of Kootenai after realising he had been sent to an erroneous location. Thats when Singh was stabbed multiple times with the knife Coleman allegedly bought at the store, according to the sheriffs office and a criminal complaint.
Singh, originally from Jalandhar in Punjab, had been living in Washington state since 2003.
He was talking to my mom, he was a little nervous, his older brother Balgit Singh said. That was the last call from our family. So my moms like well, if he already paid you just drop him off another 10 miles.
A statement from China's foreign ministry on Saturday says the minister also urged his Japanese counterpart a day earlier not to consider unilateral sanctions in response. (Photo: PTI)
Beijing: China says its foreign minister is advising Japan not to impose sanctions unilaterally on North Korea after it launched a test missile that flew over Japan before falling into the Pacific Ocean.
The test-firing on Tuesday has intensified fear and reignited a debate in Japan about revising its defense plan after decades of pursuing more pacifist policies.
A statement from China's foreign ministry on Saturday says the minister also urged his Japanese counterpart a day earlier not to consider unilateral sanctions in response.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said "unilateral sanctions are not in line with the spirit of the (UN) Security Council resolutions, and there is no basis in international law for them, (therefore) Japan should not make a misjudgement."
India and China have not ruled out a Modi-Xi meeting during the BRICS summit. (Photo: PTI)
Xiamen (China): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Xiamen on Sunday for the BRICS Summit, where he is likely to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, days after the two countries ended their 73-day standoff in the Doklam area.
The three-day summit in Xiamen, a South-eastern Chinese city in Fujian province, will begin on Sunday even as authorities declared a high alert with Typhoon Mawar expected to hit the coastal region.
The summit will be the first gathering when the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will meet after New Delhi and Beijing decided on "expeditious disengagement" of their border troops in the disputed Doklam area on August 28.
It is likely to provide Modi and Xi their first face-to-face opportunity to discuss the standoff, which had started on June 16 after the Chinese military tried to build a road India feared would allow Beijing to cut off its access to North-eastern states.
India and China have not ruled out a Modi-Xi meeting during the summit. India's External Affairs Ministry has said it was a common practice to arrange bilateral meetings on the margins of such multilaterals, while the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said it will make arrangements "if time allows".
Ahead of the summit, China has also said BRICS was not an appropriate forum for India to raise the counter-terrorism record of Pakistan, its "all weather" ally.
While External Affairs Ministry Spokesman Raveesh Kumar on Friday refused to "preempt" as to what Modi will speak during his intervention at the Summit on Monday, sources said India is expected to flag concerns over terrorism strongly.
At the BRICS Summit hosted by India in 2016, Modi had described Pakistan as a "mothership" of terrorism worldwide and sought decisive global action against terror outfits. The summit was also expected to discuss the course of the BRICS grouping of emerging economies for the next 10 years as it has completed its first decade in existence.
The Xiamen city, which is geographically close to Taiwan and separated by a narrow strip of Taiwan Straits, has been decked up for the high-profile summit. China has projected high expectations from the Xiamen summit, which will be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, South Africa's Jacob Zuma and Brazil's Michel Temer.
The BRICS nations are key players in the world economy and in global governance. Together, the five accounted for 23 per cent of the 2016 global economy, almost double their share in 2006.
They contributed more than half of world economic growth in the past 10 years, becoming the strongest engines of the global economy. BRICS countries account for 44 per cent of world population and have abundant natural and human resources.
In a commentary, China's state-run Xinhua news agency said these BRICS countries have shown no fear of the lacklustre world economy but demonstrated to the world what they can achieve more by staying united.
Established in 2006, the economic bloc has been making steady progress since as its five members have been cementing cooperation, building trust and seeking mutual benefits.
"Although the mechanism has seen ups and downs over the past years and each member faces its own set of challenges, they are like five fingers: short and long when extended, but a powerful fist when clenched together," the commentary said.
China has invited leaders from five other emerging markets - Egypt, Guinea, Mexico, Tajikistan an Thailand to the summit under its "BRICS Plus" concept.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the five countries were not permanent invitees but they will participate only in 2017.
He compared their presence to India's invitation to BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic) leaders for 2016's Goa summit.
Tal Afar had become the next target of the US-backed war on the jihadist group following the capture of Mosul. (Photo: AFP)
Erbil, Iraq/Baghdad: Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder al-Abadi declared victory over Islamic State militants in Tal Afar and the entire province of Nineveh on Thursday, despite continued fighting in the small town of al-Ayadiya.
Tal Afar had become the next target of the US-backed war on the jihadist group following the capture of Mosul, where it had declared its caliphate over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Tal Afar has been liberated, Abadi said in a statement. We say to the Islamic State fighters: wherever you are, we are coming for you, and you have no choice but to surrender or die.
The defeat in Mosul, Ninevehs provincial capital, marked the latest in a string of territorial losses for the group. However, the militants still control areas on both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border.
This includes Hawija, a city between Mosul and Baghdad that Iraqi officials have said will be the coalitions next target.
The Iraqi army dropped millions of leaflets over Hawija on Thursday, warning residents it was preparing an offensive to recapture the city from Islamic State, the military said in a statement.
The leaflets urged residents to stay away from militants headquarters, to drop weapons and turn themselves in to avoid being killed.
Iraqi forces had been waiting to clear al-Ayadiya, 11 km (7 miles) northwest of Tal Afar, before declaring complete victory in the offensive. Islamic State militants had retreated to the town.
Divisions from the Iraqi army and federal police, backed by units from Shiite paramilitaries, retook al-Ayadiya on Thursday, military officers told Reuters, after several days of unexpectedly fierce fighting.
However, pockets of resistance remained and Iraqi forces were still working to clear the remaining militants from the town.
We have to make sure that no more terrorists remain hiding inside the towns houses, Army Lieutenant Colonel Salah Kareem told Reuters.
Two military officers whose units are leading the fight in al-Ayadiya on Thursday said scattered groups of militants were still hiding in houses and using tunnel networks to move through the town.
Four soldiers were killed and 10 more wounded as clashes continued in parts of al-Ayadiya on Thursday night, despite the announcement hours earlier by the prime minister.
Three soldiers were killed on Thursday evening and seven more wounded when a woman detonated a suicide vest, Kareem said
Soldiers thought the woman was a civilian trying to escape the fighting, but as soon as she came close to the soldiers, she blew herself up and killed three, an army officer said.
In a separate incident, an Islamic State sniper killed a soldier and wounded three others during a search.
We are still being shot at by snipers and coming under heavy gunfire from Daesh fighters, Kareem said.
Iraqi forces will intensify their operations on Friday, to dislodge the militants still entrenched inside scattered houses, army officers said.
Hundreds of additional troops had been sent into al-Ayadiya on Wednesday, as Iraqi forces came under increasing pressure to clear Islamic State fighters before the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid on Thursday evening. The battle was unexpectedly tough, with house-to-house fighting in the centre of town.
If reclaiming the town was harder than expected, the larger battle for Tal Afar was easier. The citys rapid collapse on Sunday after just eight days of fighting lent support to Iraqi military reports that the militants lack sturdy command and control structures west of Mosul.
Up to 2,000 battle-hardened militants were believed to be defending Tal Afar against around 50,000 government troops last week. It was unclear how many had retreated to al-Ayadiya.
US Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend congratulated the Iraqi forces on achieving a stunningly swift and decisive victory in Tal Afar.
This is Iraq liberating Iraqis, he told a Pentagon teleconference from Baghdad.
Townsend added however, that a quick victory in Tal Afar did not necessarily mean the fight to retake Islamic States remaining territory would be easy.
While I would like to say that we would see this elsewhere in Iraq and Syria, we are not really planning for that, Townsend said.
We pledge to you, our people, that we will continue to liberate every inch of Iraq, Abadi said in his statement.
Tens of thousands of people had fled Tal Afar, a city with a pre-war population of about 200,000, in recent months. The United Nations estimated that 20,000 people had fled the city and its surrounding areas between Aug. 14 and 22 alone.
Civilians who fled Tal Afar in recent weeks told Reuters they had faced months of starvation and brutal treatment by the militants, who threatened them with death if they tried to escape.
Islamabad: Pakistans National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Friday suggested freezing all assets of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his children. NAB Lahore also recommended to include Nawaz Sharif, Hassan, Hussain and Maryam Nawazs names in the Exit Control List (ECL).
The bureau demanded an investigation against finance minister Ishaq Dar for having assets more than his income. It has proposed to place him on the ECL, which would prohibit him from leaving the country. The Lahore office had previously recommended putting all members of the Sharif family on the ECL. The Supreme Court on July 28 disqualified Mr Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children.
Oil companies on Friday effected a steep price hike of Rs 7 on a cylinder of subsidised cooking gas (LPG). The hike comes within a month of the government announcing its resolve to eliminate subsidy on LPG by the end of the current financial year.
With this increase, a subsidised 14.2 kg LPG refill will cost Rs 487.18 in Delhi, Rs 489.99 in Kolkata, Rs 489.97 in Mumbai and Rs 475.26 in Chennai.
The new price for the subsidised 14.2 kg cylinder in Bengaluru will be Rs 485.50.
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had asked the state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) to raise the price of subsidised cylinders by Rs 4 a month.
Following the instruction issued in May, the OMCs hiked LPG price by Rs 32 a cylinder in July, the steepest in six years. A household is entitled to 12 subsidised LPG cylinders a year. For consumption beyond 12 cylinders, the government stops subsidy transfer.
Kerosene, ATF
The price of non-subsidised LPG or the market price of cooking gas has also gone up by Rs 73.50 to Rs 597.50 a cylinder. The rates had dropped by Rs 40 in August.
Price of kerosene oil sold through public distribution system (PDS) was also hiked by about 25 paise a litre and that of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) by 4% to Rs 50,020 a kilolitre from Rs 48,110.
Fifteen days after being booked in connection with the death of 30 children allegedly owing to shortage of oxygen, suspended former in-charge of the Encephalitis Ward at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur Dr Kafeel Khan, who had been absconding, was nabbed on Saturday.
According to the police sources Kafeel, who suspected to have fled to Nepal, was apprehended from the house a relative at Sahajanwan area in Gorakhpur district.
A non-bailable warrant (NBW) had been issued against Khan and seven others after they absconded following registration of cases against them. The special task force (STF) of the state police had conducted raids at the possible hideouts of the doctor but he could not be apprehended.
Sources in the police, however, said that Khan was arrested from the house of his relative in the state capital on Friday night. He had been hiding there after registration of a case against him. Khan has been charged with laxity and criminal negligence.
Police sources here said that a massive manhunt had been launched to nab the other culprits.
Earlier the principal of the medical college Dr Rajiv Kumar Mishra, who was suspended after the incident, and his wife Dr Purnima were arrested by the STF from Kanpur town.
30 children, mostly new born, had died allegedly owing to shortage of oxygen at the hospital in a period of 36-hours on August 10 and 11.
As many as six Medical college officials, including its principal, were suspended. FIRs have also been lodged against six officials in this connection.
It is loud and clear from the data compiled by the Reserve Bank of India on the note ban and by the Central Statistical Organisation on Gross Domestic Product the demonetisation exercise, ostensibly undertaken to wipe out black money, has been a disaster. It resulted only in pain to millions of citizens without the promised gain to the economy or to the people, contrary to what we were told on November 8, 2016 and in the months since. With almost 99% of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore in demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes returning to the banks, the governments expectation of a windfall of Rs 4-5 lakh crore from the exercise has been dashed. On the other hand, the cost to the economy is evident, not least from the sharp fall in GDP growth rate to 5.7% in the first quarter of 2017-18, the slowest in Prime Minister Narendra Modis three years in office, and against 7.9% in the same quarter of the previous fiscal.
True, the note ban could not have been the only reason for the GDP slowdown, but it made things worse for the economy with a back-breaking impact on India Inc. Job-oriented manufacturing barely expanded at 1.2% in the first quarter of the current fiscal against a heady 10.7% in the same period last year. Construction growth slipped a further 2% and mining remained buried in the negative zone. The entire exercise has also resulted in the RBI almost halving its dividend to the government, which had budgeted it at around Rs 58,000 crore. So, when former finance minister P Chidambaram puts the loss to the economy, due in great part to demonetisation, at Rs 3 lakh crore, he is not exaggerating. The problem is, the Modi government continues to defend the indefensible, shifting arguments and goalposts. Lives were lost, trade and industry got a rude shock, millions lost jobs and livelihoods, but the Modi government has nothing to say on the disaster it has caused. For the BJP, winning the Uttar Pradesh election in the wake of demonetisation is the measure of its success.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has started arguing that confiscation of black money was not the objective of demonetisation, rather it was aimed at gathering data about unaccounted money to enable tax authorities to go after it. Then, how come the government pleaded before the Supreme Court that demonetisation would yield a Rs 4-5 lakh crore windfall, which even the RBI blindly endorsed? Does it mean that every time a government wants to detect black money, it should impose a note ban? Should the whims and fancies of those in power be so callously imposed on 1.3 billion people?
A Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant, believed to be involved in the murder of Lieutenant Umar Fayaz, was killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir's Kulgam district on Saturday.
A police official said that Ishfaq Padder, a hardcore LeT militant was killed in a brief gunfight with a joint team of army's 62 Rashtriya Rifles and special operations group (SOG) of Jammu and Kashmir police in Tantraypora village of Kulgam, 71 km from here.
He said that the operation was carried out after specific input about the presence of some LeT terrorists in the area. Padder is believed to have been involved in the killing of 22-year-old Lt Fayaz in May this year. The bullet-riddled body of the young Kashmiri army officer was found in Harmen area of Shopian in south Kashmir on May 10, hours after he was abducted by militants from Batpura village where he had gone to attend his cousin's wedding.
Meanwhile, clashes between stone pelting protesters and security forces broke out in various parts of Kashmir post-Bakrid prayers on Saturday as authorities placed separatist leaders under house arrest.
Reports said soon after Eid prayers, stone pelting youth clashed with security forces in Anantnag town of south Kashmir. Reports of similar clashes were also received from Kulgam, Sopore and some areas of Pulwama districts. The police used tear gas to disperse c the owd at some of these places.
Police didn't allow moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar, who is also head priest of Kashmir to deliver traditional Eid sermon at Eidgah in old city by placing him under house arrest. Hardliner Syed Ali Geelani was also barred from offering Eid prayers while pro-independence JKLF chief Yasin Malik was arrested on Friday evening.
For security reasons, several ministers, senior civil and police officers offered prayers at the district police lines masjid in Srinagar. In the backdrop of lynching of a senior police officer by a mob outside the Jama Masjid in Srinagar in June, Jammu and Kashmir Police had advised its personnel and VIPs not to offer Eid prayers in public places.
Clashes broke out between groups of youths and security forces at few places in Kashmir valley after Eid prayers today, police said. Clashes were reported from Srinagar, Anantnag and Sopore in the valley after the culmination of congregational Eid prayers at these places, a police official said.
He said immediately after the prayers were over at the Eidgah here, a group of youths started pelting stones at security forces who were deployed there to maintain law and order.
Security personnel used tear smoke shells to disperse the protestors, the official said, adding that there were no reports of any one getting injured.
Similar clashes also took place near Janglat Mandi in Anantnag and near Jamia Masjid in Sopore towns in south and north Kashmir respectively after the prayers, he said.
Youths were pelting stones at the forces when last reports came in, he said. The official said security forces exercised maximum restraint and so far there are no reports of any casualties.
While the police yesterday arrested JKLF chief Yasin Malik, chairmen of both factions of the Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, were kept under house arrest this morning. They had announced that they would join Eid prayers at Eidgah here.
US President Donald Trump has announced he plans to appoint James Bridenstine, a former navy pilot and Republican congressman, to head the US space agency NASA. Bridenstine, 42, who backed Trump during the US presidential campaign, had long been considered the favorite for the job of NASA administrator.
But the nomination drew fire from two US senators from Florida who questioned the Oklahoma representative's qualifications to lead such a complex and highly technical agency.
Senator Bill Nelson, the ranking Democrat on the committee that oversees NASA, told the news site Politico the agency's new leader should be "a space professional, not a politician."
Marco Rubio, the state's other senator and a Republican, said the choice of Bridenstine "could be devastating for the space program."
"I would hate to see an administrator held up -- on (grounds of) partisanship, political arguments, past votes, or statements made in the past -- because the agency can't afford it and it can't afford the controversy," he told Politico.
Bridenstine, who was elected to Congress from Oklahoma in 2012, is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
According to the trade publication SpaceNews, Bridenstine has been a big proponent of giving the private sector a larger role in space.
The space agency is involved in all aspects of space exploration, as well as in Earth observation missions from space and in the development of new aerospace concepts.
Since the end of NASA's space shuttle program in 2011, the United States has had to rely on Russia to ferry their astronauts to the International Space Station.
NASA is currently developing a heavy launcher and capsule capable of taking astronauts to Mars in 2030 and beyond.
But it faces competition from billionaires like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, who runs SpaceX and Tesla.
NASA's proposed 2018 budget comes to a little more than USD 19 billion. Bridenstine's experience is mainly in the military, as a pilot who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as a member of the naval reserves has flown counter-drug missions in Central and South America.
He served as executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium. He is also a member of the Oklahoma Air National Guard. He has degrees from Rice University and Cornell.
The Supreme Court has reiterated that personal information of employees cannot be disclosed under the Right to Information Act unless it involved larger public interest. Such a disclosure, instead, would cause unwarranted invasion of privacy.
A bench of Justices R K Agrawal and Abhay Manohar Sapre described an application made by C S Shyam, an employee of Canara Bank at Mallapuram, seeking details like individual staff's date of joining, designation, promotion earned and transfer orders as wholly misconceived.
The court noted that the principle of law enunciated in the 'Girish Ramchandra Deshpande vs Central Information Commissioner' (2013) and the 'R K Jain vs the Union of India' (2013) would apply in the case.
The details disclosed by a person in his income tax returns are personal information which stand exempted from disclosure under clause (j) of Section 8(1) of the RTI Act unless involves a larger public interest, the court had then ruled.
Applying the principle, the bench said the information sought by Shyam of individual employees was personal in nature and secondly, it was exempted from being disclosed.
Neither he disclosed any public interest much less large public interest involved in seeking such information of the individual employees, the bench said.
His plea was rightly rejected by the Public Information Officer and Chief Public Information Officer of the Bank. It was wrongly allowed by the Central Information Commission and the High Court, the bench said, allowing the Bank's appeal.
A 22-year-old Sikh software engineering student has been stabbed to death in his taxi allegedly by an American student who was upset over not getting admission into a university, media reports said.
Gagandeep Singh, a third year student who was also working as a taxi driver, was allegedly attacked by the 19-year-old passenger he had picked up at Spokane International Airport in Washington State on August 28, NBC affiliate KHQ reported.
The Bonner County Sheriff's Office in Idaho identified the defendant as Jacob Coleman, who was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Singh.
Coleman is said to have flown from Seattle to Spokane to start as a new student at Gonzaga University in Spokane, but upon arrival he was denied entry, according to a statement from the sheriff's office.
But "he became angry and began to have homicidal thoughts," police said, after claiming he was denied entry to Gonzaga University, a private Catholic school in Spokane.
The university said it "has no record of an application" from Coleman and that it was cooperating with law enforcement, the report said.
Coleman reportedly left, hailed a taxi and asked Singh to drive him to a fictitious friend's house in Bonner County, Idaho.
Coleman later admitted that during the journey he "became homicidal" and bought a knife during a stop at a shop, police said.
Singh later stopped his car in the city of Kootenai after realising he had been sent to an erroneous location. That's when Singh was stabbed multiple times with the knife Coleman allegedly bought at the store, according to the sheriff's office and a criminal complaint.
Singh, originally from Jalandhar in Punjab, had been living in Washington state since 2003.
"He was talking to my mom, he was a little nervous," his older brother Balgit Singh said on Tuesday. They had spoken over the phone. "That was the last call from our family. So my mom's like 'well, if he already paid you just drop him off another ten miles.'"
He said they lost contact with him soon afterward and called 911, KREM2.com reported.
There have been a number of attacks targeting Indian-Americans and Sikhs in the recent months in the US.
In July, two Sikh Americans were killed in two separate incidents in one week in California.
In March, a 39-year-old Sikh man was shot in the arm outside his home in Kent, Washington, by a partially-masked gunman who shouted "go back to your own country".
The government is mulling tweaking the minimum support price mechanism for procuring farm producing contending that it had distorted cropping patterns and put excessive focus on the cultivation of wheat, rice and sugarcane.
Last month, the NITI Ayog had suggested migrating to the price deficiency mechanism in which the farmer will be paid subsidies if the price of his crop slipped below the threshold price fixed by the government.
However, the government think tank has suggested that the farmer would be entitled to payment of a maximum of 10% difference between the threshold price and the market price.
A key demand of farmers across the country has been fixing MSP as per the formula suggested by noted agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan. In a report submitted to the government in 2006, he had recommended fixing MSP at 1.5 times the cost of cultivation incurred by the farmer.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made the implementation of the Swaminathan Committee recommendations an electoral promise but has been unable to deliver on the MSP front.
This week, Raju Shetty, a prominent farmer's leader and Lok Sabha member from Hatkanangle in Maharashtra, snapped ties with the NDA contending that Modi has been unable to keep his promises to farmers.
MSP has distorted cropping patterns, with excessive focus on the cultivation of wheat, rice and sugarcane in the procurement states at the expense of other crops such as pulses, oilseed and coarse grains, the NITI Ayog said in its Three Year Action Agenda released recently.
It said the MSP regime also discriminated against eastern states where procurement was minimal or non-existent.
According to the Ayog, the 'price deficiency payment' system could help remove distortion in the MSP mechanism to some degree.
Under the new system, each farmer would have to register his crop and acreage sown with the nearest market-yard and payments could be made to his bank accounts if market price fell below the floor price fixed by the government.
Pakistan's former president Asif Ali Zardari said today he will appeal against the judgment in the 2007 Benazir Bhutto murder case as he was "not satisfied" with the verdict that acquitted five Pakistani Taliban suspects.
Bhutto, the Pakistan Peoples Party chief and a two-time prime minister, was killed along with more than 20 people in a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi's Liaquat Bagh during an election campaign rally on December 27, 2007. She was 54.
The anti-terrorism court (ATC) this week acquitted five Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan suspects due to lack of evidence in the case.
It, however, sentenced two senior police officers to 17 years in jail and declared former dictator Pervez Musharraf a fugitive and ordered authorities to seize his properties.
A joint investigation team had implicated Musharraf in the case, saying his government did not provide adequate security to Bhutto during the rally despite her repeated requests.
"We are not satisfied with the verdict, we will appeal against it," Zardari was quoted as saying by Geo News in Nawabshah in Sindh Province after offering Eid prayers.
After the ATC judgment on Thursday, Bhutto's daughter Aseefa Bhutto Zardari had tweeted: "There will be no justice till Pervez Musharraf answers for his crimes."
Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has rejected the ATC judgment as "disappointing" and has said the party will explore legal options to challenge the verdict.
It has said that acquitting al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects despite evidence was shocking.
Government of India has agreed to give defence lands in Secunderabad for the construction of new state secretariat and for expansion of Medchal Highway and Karimnagar Rajiv Rahadari.
The Telangana government which was scouting for suitable land for construction of a new secretariat sought the Bison Polo Grounds, adjacent to parade grounds of the Armed forces from the defence ministry.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has met Union Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi on Saturday in this regard. The Defense Minister said that the Centre is ready to hand over the 60 acres Bison Polo Grounds land for the construction of a new State secretariat as well as lands required for the expansion of roadways.
He said that the Centre has examined the request from the state on the matter from all angles and decided to hand over the required land. The state government has offered 573 acres of land in Jawahar Nagar in lieu of the Polo grounds. The defence ministry after valuation of the defence lands also asked the state government to pay additional Rs 93 crore for Polo grounds.
The Chief Minister thanked the Union Minister for agreeing to hand over defence the lands to the state government. He said the Centre has recognized the importance of having a new Secretariat and expansion of Rajiv Rahadari, Medchel highways.
With this, the three-year search of the Telangana government for suitable land for new government complex and a cultural centre has ended. The Chief Minister was categorical in saying that the new state requires a state of the art secretariat at one place, bringing all scattered government offices under one roof. The opposition parties particularly Congress has been opposing the move.
Army has ordered an inquiry into the allegations of disappearance of a civilian, who happens to be a relative of Jammu and Kashmir Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Abdul Haq Khan.
We have initiated an inquiry (into disappearance of civilian). The matter is under investigation and action will be taken accordingly, a defence ministry spokesman told reporters.
The inquiry comes in the back drop of allegations by the locals of Lolab area in north Kashmir's Kupwara district that a youth Manzoor Ahmad Khan went missing after he was arrested by the army three days back.
The Minister had on Saturday visited Devar, Lolab area of the frontier district where people staged protest against Manzoors disappearance. He assured them that in next two days the missing youth would be tracked down and asked the people to maintain calm.
According to the residents, the soldiers of a local army unit at Devar, Lolab detained three civilians on Thursday over the suspicion that some militants had taken refuge at their residences. Out of the three, two were released on Friday, but the whereabouts of Manzoor are still not known, they said.
Senior superintendent of police Kupwara, Shamsher Hussain said that they were looking into the matter. "The mobile of the missing youth is switched off and we are trying to trace him. The accusation of the family is being looked into," he said.
The case of loot against Hardik Patel registered at Patan last week, for which he was arrested along with his close aide Dinesh Bhambaniya, took an unexpected turn as the complainant claimed that he had not named Hardik at all.
I had given exact names of people who attacked us. We had said that they belonged to a section of Hardiks supporters. We have not filed any complaint against Hardik and neither can we. He is like my younger brother and I shall stand by him whenever he wants, Narendra Patel, the key complainant said in a video message on social media. He is also reported to have filed an application with Gujarat High Court stating that Hardik was not involved in the incident.
According to the details of the case as shown on Patan police website, Narendra Patel, who is PAAS convenor for Mehsana district, had stated that he and his associate Dilip Savaliya were seated near Navjivan Hotel for snacks when Hardik arrived at the scene with his supporters. He said that Hardik and his men got in altercation with Dilip and him (Narendra).
Later, Hardiks supporters abused and attacked them, snatching a gold chain worth Rs 30,000 and broke their mobile phone worth Rs 10,000 by throwing it, before leaving the venue. Later, when they (Dilip and Narendra) reached Pragati Maidan, Dinesh Bhamaniya threatened them with dire consequences.
The state police on August 28 swooped down on Hardik and arrested him from Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway in a dramatic fashion near Anand and handed him over to Patan police. He, along with Dinesh, was sent to three-day police remand and later under judicial custody.
The stance by Narendra Patel comes a day after another close associate of Hardik and co-accused in a sedition case - Ketan Patel - received pardon from the City Sessions Court of Ahmedabad as he turned approver.
Ketan, who is out on bail, was granted pardon on the condition that he would fully cooperate with the investigation by turning an approver in the case for the successful prosecution of other offenders. Hardik and his three aides Ketan, Dinesh and Chirag Patel were charged with sedition and criminal conspiracy by Ahmedabad Police after large-scale violence post-Patel Mega Rally held in the city on August 25, 2015.
The state government did not oppose Ketans request in the court as Ketan was willing to reveal details of the conspiracy related to the case and turn approver.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said he was looking forward to productive discussions and positive outcomes at the upcoming BRICS summit in China, noting that it has to make important contributions in upholding peace and security and address global challenges.
"I look forward to building upon the results and outcomes of the Goa Summit. I also look forward to productive discussions and positive outcomes that will support the agenda of a stronger BRICS partnership under the chairmanship of China," the PM said in a statement.
Modi leaves for Xiamen tomorrow to attend the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS)summit on September 4. The visit comes days after India and China managed to end the 73-day long Dokalam standoff. From Xiamen, he will travel to Myanmar on August 5 for a three-day visit.
About his first bilateral visit to Myanmar, Modi said both countries will look at strengthening existing cooperation in areas of security and counter-terrorism, trade and investment, infrastructure and energy, and culture.
On BRICS, the Prime Minister said he will have the opportunity to meet leaders bilaterally on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit.
Replying to a specific question, the Ministry of External Affairs yesterday did not rule out a possible meeting between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the summit, saying it is a common practice to arrange bilateral meetings on the sidelines of such multilaterals.
India had hosted the previous BRICS summit in Goa last year.
"India attaches high importance to the role of BRICS that has begun a second decade of its partnership for progress and peace. BRICS has important contributions to make in addressing global challenges and upholding world peace and security," the prime minister said.
The prime minister said he was looking forward to engage with leaders of nine other countries, including BRICS partners, in an Emerging Markets and Developing Countries Dialogue, being hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 5.
"We will also interact with the BRICS Business Council represented by captains of industry from all five countries," he said.
On his Myanmar visit from September 5-7, Modi hoped it will help in charting a roadmap for closer cooperation between the two countries.
He said both countries will review developments in bilateral ties with a focus on "extensive" programme of development cooperation and socio-economic assistance India is undertaking in Myanmar.
Both sides will also explore new areas of cooperation.
The prime minister said he was looking forward to paying a visit to the famed heritage city of Bagan, where the Archaeological Survey of India has done "stellar work" in renovating the Ananda Temple, and where it will be undertaking further restoration work on a number of pagodas and murals that were damaged in last year's earthquake.
Modi had visited Myanmar in 2014 to attend the ASEAN- India Summit.
The prime minister will meet President U Htin Kyaw and hold talks with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Myanmarese president and Suu Kyi had visited India last year.
"I am also keen to meet and interact with the Indian-origin community of Myanmar, whose history goes back more than a century.
"I am confident that the visit will open a bright new chapter in India-Myanmar relations and will help in charting a roadmap for closer cooperation between our governments, our business communities and at the people to people level," Modi said.
Cracks appeared to have widened between the two major factions fighting for the cause of a separate religion tag to the dominant Lingayat faith in Karnataka.
"There is a conspiracy to sabotage the movement for separate religion status to Lingayat faith," Lingayat Mahasabha Vedike general secretary Shivanand Jamdar alleged.
On Friday, another group All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha had issued a statement claiming the backing of the highly respected Siddaganga mutt pontiff centenarian Shivakumar Swamiji.
The Mahasabha demanded that the separate religion be known as Veerashaiva Lingayat but the Lingayat Mahasabha Vedike said it should be Basava Dharma, since the Lingayat faith revolves around the preaching of 12th century AD social reformer Basaveshwara.
Shivakumar Swamiji of the influential Siddaganga Mutt holds a sway among Lingayats.
Jamdar said he and Kudalasangama Panchamasali Peeta pontiff Basava Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swami and others called on Siddaganga Swamiji to clear the air.
"Siddaganga pontiff is very clear. The Swamiji says that the Mutt identifies itself with Basaveshwara's ideology and they cannot exist without it," said Jamdar.
Ahead of the assembly elections, due early next year, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah had raked up the long- pending demand of Lingayats for a separate religion tag to their faith.
It was seen as an apparent bid to cut into the support base of the BJP which banks significantly on the dominant Lingayats, numerically the largest community.
Unsure of the political impact of pushing the issue further, the ruling Congress, however, seems to have become cautious in recent days.
BJP strongman and former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa is a Lingayat and the party has steered clear of the issue so far.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will induct nine new faces, including BJP leader from Karnataka Anantkumar Hegde, in the council of ministers at Sunday's swearing-in ceremony to be held on Sunday morning.
Another leader from South to be inducted into the Union Cabinet is Alphons Kannanthanam, a retired IAS officer from Kerala famously known as Delhi's "demolition man". Modi has given preference to his state of Uttar Pradesh in the cabinet reshuffle as he has opted for former union home secretary Raj Kumar Singh, former Mumbai police commission Satpal Singh and Shiv Pratap Shukla to reinforces his team. Along with them, Ashwini Kumar Chaubey of Bihar, Virendra Kumar of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan's Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and diplomat Hardeep Puri too will fill up vacancies that arose after six ministers were asked to resign to take other responsibilities. Besides, three more slots were vacant post-Manohar Parrikar was shifted to Goa as CM, Anil Madhav Dave's death and M Venkaiah Naidu was elevated to become Vice President of India. Their portfolios were shared by other ministers.
Like finance minister Arun Jaitley was holding the additional charge of the defence ministry, science and technology minister Dr Harsh Vardhan was looking after environment ministry and rural development minister Narendra Singh Tomar was also taking care of urban development and textiles minister Smriti Irani stood up for information and broadcasting ministry.
Since late Thursday night, six ministers - Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjeev Balyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Kalraj Mishra, Mahendra Nath Pandey and Bandaru Dattatreya - had put in their papers giving the directions of BJP president Amit Shah.
In identifying these fresh names, Modi, said government sources, attempts to accomplish the "power of 4Ps for P" which stood for "Passion + Proficiency + Professional & Political acumen for Progress". The BJP leader who will be inducted into the government is going to be strategically placed in key ministries, especially focusing on last mile delivery directly to the people. They come from varied walks of life, bringing in their unique professional perspective and proficiency to the Council and any of them also bring rich administrative and governance experience, said government sources.
Of the nine leaders from the BJP, only Puri and Kannanthanam are not members of either of two Houses of parliament. The two will have to become an MP in six months time after they take the oath. Due to the exit of Naidu and Parrikar, there are two vacancies in Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan and UP respectively.
However, portfolios for new faces and of some existing ministers is expected to be announced after the oath taking exercise slated at 10.30 am at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday.
Union Cabinet's re-making exercise became a challenge for Modi as who will be the new defence minister remained unclear till Saturday evening after surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari's expressed his reluctance to move on in the cabinet.
Senior ministers Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari went into huddle at Rajnath Singh's house late last night in this regard. Suspense stretched since the same lot of senior union ministers again met at Singh's residence on Saturday.
Though Suresh Prabhu had offered to quit for train mishap, there's also still no clear word on who will be the next railway minister
The BJP two important NDA allies -- Shiv Sena and JDU -- interestingly stated Saturday that they have no information about the Sunday's Cabinet rejig and are hearing about it only through the media. "We have no information, no talks about it. We got information only from media," Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar told reporters in Patna. Shiv Sena chief Udhav Thackeray echoed similar views in Mumbai. "I have got news about the Cabinet expansion only from media. I have not enquired about it (from the central BJP leadership). I have neither received any communication from anybody nor are we hungry for power," Thackeray stated in Mumbai.
The tussle between the Mamata Banerjee government and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha turned into a war of words between West Bengal and Sikkim on Saturday following a police raid on a GJM meeting on Friday.
The West Bengal Police said their Sikkim counterparts deliberately blocked them from conducting the raid at a hotel in Namchi area, where they said GJM supremo Bimal Gurung was holding a meeting.
"We tried to reach the hotel, but were met with sporadic gunfire. A commotion took place, and we believe Gurung managed to slip out from the rear exit of the hotel. We had arrested several of their leaders, but the Sikkim Police intervened and did not allow us to proceed," a senior police officer, who was part of the joint CID and police team, said.
South Sikkim Senior Superintendent of Police Pratap Pradhan said over the phone that there were procedural shortcomings on the part of the West Bengal Police.
"We have found a body, identified as that of Dawa Bhutia (34), a resident of Pedong in Kalimpong, with bullet wounds near a forest stretch at Sadam, close to Namchi. A case of murder under IPC Section 302/34 has been registered against the superintendent of Kalimpong. They did not inform us about anything... there were no warrants or transit remand documents with them. We could not just allow them to swoop into our state and do what they want," Pradhan said.
West Bengal Tourism Minister Goutam Deb has termed the Sikkim Police's move "unconstitutional".
"Is the Sikkim government not aware of the fact that our police were pursuing a person charged under sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act? How can they block this move and come to the aid of a fugitive? This only shows that the Pawan Chamling government is directly assisting the GJM," Deb said.
Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Saturday said he will not use zero-traffic clearance, a protocol that he is entitled to as the Home minister, in order to prevent inconvenience to motorists.
I have asked the officials not to provide zero-traffic clearance for me. I dont want to cause any inconvenience to motorists in Bengaluru, Reddy told reporters. Reddy was made the Home minister on Friday.
Currently, the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Governors, Union ministers, Chief Ministers and Home ministers are entitled to zero-traffic clearance. Signal lights are switched off and traffic is stopped to ensure their safety, as per the protocol.
On reports that he is not comfortable with retired IPS officer Kempaiah being his advisor, Reddy said he was open to take advice from any person.
Even Opposition leaders are free to advise me, he stated, adding that he has enough experience to handle the Home portfolio.
The chief minister is learnt to have asked the Home minister to take measures to ensure law and order in communally sensitive Dakshina Kannada district. The BJP is planning a bike rally to the district from across the state to protest against the killing of RSS activist recently.
Ask Parameshwara (state Congress president) about it. This is how Chief Minister Siddaramaiah reacted on Saturday on seeking to know the reason for Parameshwara not attending the swearing-in ceremony of new ministers on Friday.
Initially, Siddaramaiah sought to downplay the issue, saying that the KPCC chief could not attend the ceremony as he was away in Delhi. But when media persons pointed out that Parameshwara was very much in Bengaluru on Friday, a visibly upset chief minister asked media persons to pose the question to the state Congress president.
Parameshwara and many senior Congress leaders kept off the ceremony as they were upset with Siddaramaiah for not taking them into confidence while selecting candidates for expanding the council of ministers. Siddaramaiah decided to induct Gundlupet MLA Geetha Mahadeva Prasad, who is the widow of late H S Mahadeva Prasad, instead of Tiptur MLA K Shadakshari. It was done without informing the state Congress president and other senior leaders of the state unit, sources in the state Congress said.
Parameshwara is also upset with Siddaramaiahs decision to make former union minister C M Ibrahim a MLC in the recently held byelection. The KPCC chief was lobbying to get the seat to his close follower G C Chandrashekar.
Sources said a majority of the leaders who attended Fridays ceremony were close followers of Siddaramaiah. Many senior party leaders and Cabinet ministers, including Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa and Energy Minister D K Shivakumar, kept themselves away from the ceremony held at Raj Bhavan. Shivakumar was eyeing at the Home portfolio, but the chief minister chose to give it to Ramalinga Reddy.
Parameshwara was, however, not available for comments. Shivakumar denied that he was upset with the chief minister. I am not upset with anybody. I am a straight fighter. There is no confusion in the party, he told reporters.
Beer yoga, which involves balancing a bottle and sipping on the brew between postures, is catching on discreetly in the city.
Fitness enthusiasts have heard of Iyengar yoga and power yoga; beer yoga now offers a casual variant of the ancient Indian wellness discipline that a group of practitioners describe as fun but no joke.
In Germany, where beer yoga originated, it is called 'bieryoga' and promoted for 'everybody who is curious and over 16'.
In Bengaluru, organisers of a beer yoga event in June reportedly cancelled it, anticipating opposition, but not everyone is discouraged.
Beer is popular in Bengaluru, and the city is often referred to as the pub capital of India. In recent years, it boasts of a host of microbreweries.
"Many people love beer and they love yoga too," said Mehgish Ali, instructor coordinating an aerobics and beer yoga session in the second week of September in Bengaluru. "It is a fun activity."
Similarly, a German website for Emily and Jhula, who describe themselves as certified yoga instructors and passionate beer drinkers, says, "BeerYoga is the marriage of two great loves beer and yoga. Both are centuries-old therapies for the body, mind and soul."
In their view, "The joy of drinking beer and the mindfulness of yoga compliment each other, and make for an energising experience."
'Cheers. Stay sober'
Beer yoga encourages practitioners to balance a beer bottle on the head and the knee while settling into postures. They are allowed to take sips between asanas.
The prescribed intake is not more than two pints during a session that could go on for two hours.
Proponents say beer yoga helps reduce stress, relaxes the body and induces sleep.
Do they mix well?
Traditional practitioners are sceptical, and say beer does not mix well with yoga as it hampers concentration.
"I don't know how if it helps as I haven't done it. But it goes against the tenets of yoga," said Dr Shivakumar, a yoga instructor for 10 years.
The intention of yoga is concentration, but beer dulls the senses, he said.
A doctor offered a different perspective. "Beer and other drinks may act as muscle relaxants, but drinking too much may lead to depression," said a neurosurgeon practising in Bengaluru.
He concedes drinks help people overcome inhibition and join activities they wouldn't attempt when sober.
Leader of the Opposition in Legislative Council, K S Eshwarappa has demanded the state government to ban the Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD) and Popular Front of India.
"Police probe has revealed that a district unit president of KFD is involved in the killing of Sharath Madiwala, a RSS worker in Dakshina Kannada district. Therefore, the government now has evidence to impose a ban on these organisations which are involved in the murder of workers of Hindu organisations," Eshwarappa said here on Saturday.
Replying to a query on the ordinance on promotion for Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes employees, Eshwarappa said that the government was trying to fool employees by issuing the ordinance.
He said that the newly inducted Excise Minister R B Timmapur should step down immediately as he faces the charge of availing travel and dearness allowance from Council by submitting false information.
Mayor G Padmavathi was seen manning the control room and visiting rain-affected areas on Saturday. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) control room was flooded with many distress calls from citizens.
BBMP received phone calls from Bommanahalli, Koramangala, HSR Layout, Shanthinagar and Domlur relating to tree falls, water-logged roads, water entering homes. Residents in Koramangala 4th Block were angry that despite assurances from civic agencies, Friday night saw a repeat of the flooding. Many spent sleepless night as water gushed into their homes, damaging furniture, bedding and appliances.
Bangalore Development Minister K J George took note of the torrential rainfall at around 11.30 pm on Friday and rushed to the control room at BBMP headquarters and received the phone calls of the citizens till 2.30 am. Later, the Mayor visited the BBMP office at 3 am and received phone calls.
The embankment of Begur lake was destroyed leading to flooding in areas downstream, BBMP officials said. Padmavathi, who toured the rain-affected areas, was flooded with complaints. Residents alleged that the snails pace work of remodeling of stormwater drains by the Palikes engineers resulted in inundation.
Padmavathi also visited rain-affected areas like Begur lake, Mico Layout, HSR Layout and Vishwapriya Layout in the southeastern part of the city.
Three trees fell near Varthur lake. Trees were also uprooted in Indiranagar, Domlur, Shanthinagar, Kaval Byrasandra, Kacharakanahalli, Viveknagar, Malleswaram, Rajajinagar, Kundalahalli and Subramanyanagar, a control room officer said.
Getting a building plan approved is set to become a hassle-free affair as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is revamping the process with a new software, in line with the state governments effort to enable ease of doing business.
It was seven years back that the civic body installed an Online Building Plan Approval System (OBPAS), through which citizens could submit building plans for approval online. The new system will take the entire process online, BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad said.
The present system is only partially online, making citizens prone to harassment. Only submission of plans is online whereas approval at different levels is offline due to which there are no fixed timelines. In the new system, specific time-frames will be fixed at each level, he said.
Explaining how the new process will work, Prasad said, There are at least five stages in the plan approval process. The file goes through an assistant director, deputy director, joint director, special commissioner and finally, it reaches me.
We will now fix specific timelines for the plan to be cleared at each level. If it is not adhered to, the system will lock and go to the next level. Citizens will also receive SMS and email alerts letting them know if any clarification is required.
Streamlining building plan approvals is a reform the state government has initiated after Karnataka slipped to the 13th position in the ease of doing business ratings, last year, down from 9th in 2015.
The Karnataka Municipal Corporations Common Building Bye-Laws 2017 has proposed self-certification (or deemed approval) of building plans. All urban local bodies in the state will have to come up with software to make plan approval process online, Town and Country Planning director L Shashikumar said.
The BBMP also plans to link the new building plan approval system with its Geo-spatial Enabled Property Tax Information System (GEPTIS).
The new software is undergoing trials and will be ready in 15-20 days, Prasad said.
Vidyadhar S Wodeyar, principal architect, Arch Plan Architects, hailed the BBMPs acknowledgement that the present system caused harassment to citizens.
The existing building bye-laws states that a plan is deemed approved if it is not cleared in 30 days. However, officials usually find some fault and extend it by another 30 days. I hope the new system addresses this loophole, Wodeyar said.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) may order closure of 800 engineering colleges across the country next year in order to ensure quality of education in engineering colleges. These are colleges with less than 30% enrolment of their capacity for five years.
According to Anil D Sahasrabudhe, chairman, AICTE, less than 30% enrolment reflected badly on the quality of education in these colleges and the closure was inevitable to ensure quality of teaching at engineering colleges.
"The decision to close about 800 colleges was taken after much deliberation based on the analysis of data of these colleges in the last few years. Students studying in these colleges would be shifted to nearby colleges that have sufficient student strength, he said.
Infrastructure is inadequate, while quality of teaching is not up to the mark in these colleges, affecting the learning process, he said.
Out of 10,363 engineering colleges across the country, a large number of seats fall vacant every year. The number of vacant seats in colleges in Karnataka alone for 2017-18 is over 29,000.
Single entrance unlikely next year
He said that there would not be a single entrance test across the country for admissions to engineering colleges along the lines of NEET for medical course from 2018-19.
"The Class XII curricular of all states need to be realigned so that they are on par with the NCERT syllabus before the introduction of a common examination," he said.
"Students will largely benefit from the single entrance test. Those who have performed better in the test will have the option of applying to all good colleges across the country," he said.
Students in Karnataka should write multiple examinations to vie for a seat in an engineering college at present.
The Common Entrance Test (CET) ranking decides admissions for government and government-quota engineering seats.
Private and deemed universities conduct their own entrance tests.
Students are forced to appear for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for admissions to the Indian Institutes of Technology, National Institutes of Technology and other Centrally funded technical institutions.
Managements of private colleges allocate seats based on the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (ComedK) rank.
31 August 2017 (Moyers and Company) Donald Trump and his administration are rolling back a number of regulations and initiatives as well as cutting offices, budgets and staff and were following it in our While He Was Tweeting series. As coverage of Trumps Twitter feed crowds out these stories, heres a look at some of what the Trump administration has been up to so far. Our team has not been able to cover everything, but were doing our best, and we appreciate your input. Be sure to let us know what you think on the BillMoyers.com Facebook page.
Dismantling post-Great Recession Financial Crisis Protections
The Trump administration is looking to dismantle many of the protections put into place after the 2008 financial crisis, including the Dodd-Frank reforms and the Elizabeth Warren-created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement
In June, Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. In doing so, the US joined Syria and Nicaragua as the only two countries not participating in the agreement.
Slashing Jobs at the Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), headed by fossil fuel ally Scott Pruitt, plans to cut over 1,200 jobs by September. And in a blow to the integrity of the science used by government agencies, the EPA dismissed nearly all of the members of its Board of Scientific Counselors.The administration also closed the Office of International Climate and Technology, which worked on clean energy projects with other countries.
Delaying Protection from Pollutants
The EPA proposed delaying for two years an Obama-era rule that would have cracked down on pollutants from drilling operations that contribute to climate change and endanger peoples health. [more]
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Rio Tinto completes sale of subsidiary Coal & Allied Industries Ltd
Rio Tinto PLC said today that it has completed the sale of its wholly-owned subsidiary Coal & Allied Industries Ltd to Yancoal Australia Ltd.
Yancoal will take over management of Rio Tinto's thermal coal business in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales from today.
According to the mining giant, it will receive total consideration of $2.69 billion for the sale, along with customary adjustments for net debt and net working capital at completion. The $2.69 billion comprises $2.45 billion in cash paid today and a further $240 million of unconditional guaranteed royalty payments.
The first royalty payment of $10 million was made today and an additional $100 million will be received by the end of this year, according to the company. It added, a further $90 million is expected before the end of 2018, and under the terms of the sale, Rio Tinto also may receive an additional royalty linked to the coal price capped at $410 million.
According to Rio Tinto the consideration received will be allocated to general corporate purposes, and the group's capital allocation framework will be applied.
As all Hunter Valley coal operations transfer to Yancoal from today, Rio Tinto's guidance for thermal coal production in 2017 has been revised to between 13 million and 14 million tonnes, from 17 million to 18 million tonnes previously.
According to Rio Tinto, the taxable gain on the disposal of the assets was expected to be largely offset by carried forward capital losses in Australia.
''Therefore the cash tax payable is expected to be relatively low compared to the quantum of the taxable gain,'' the company said in a statement.
China-backed Yancoal beat Glencore in a bidding war for the assets.
Analysts at Investec said that tax on the sale was expected to be low, given carried forward losses, leaving Rio in a very comfortable position.
New research, led by the University of Southampton and involving a team of international scientists, suggests that an extreme global warming event 56 million years ago was driven by massive CO2 emissions from volcanoes, during the formation of the North Atlantic Ocean. The study, published in Nature, used a combination of new geochemical measurements and novel global climate modelling to show that the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was associated with a geologically rapid doubling of atmospheric CO2 in less than 25 thousand years - with volcanoes squarely to blame. The PETM is the most rapid and extreme natural global warming event of the last 66 million years. It lasted for around 150 thousand years and global temperatures increased by at least 5C - a temperature increase comparable with projections of modern climate beyond the end of this century. While it has long been suggested that the PETM event was caused by the injection of carbon into the ocean and atmosphere; the ultimate trigger, the source of this carbon, and the total amount released, have up to now all remained elusive. It had been known that the PETM roughly coincided with the formation of massive "flood basalts" - large stretches of ocean floor coated in lava, resulting from of a series of huge eruptions. These occurred as Greenland first started separating from north-western Europe, thereby creating the North Atlantic Ocean, the vestiges of which are still continuing in miniature in Iceland today. What has been missing is evidence linking these huge volcanic outpourings to the carbon release and warming that marks the PETM. Dr Marcus Gutjahr, who led the study while a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Southampton, and is now at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel Germany, explains, "In order to identify the source of carbon we first generated a new record of the change in ocean pH (a measure of its acidity) through the PETM, by measuring changes in the balance of isotopes of the element boron in ancient marine fossils called foraminifera." The geochemical facilities at the University of Southampton is one of few locations in the world where this kind of work can be carried out. Foraminifera are tiny marine plankton that live near the sea surface and the chemical makeup of their microscopic shells records the environmental conditions of the time when they lived, millions of years ago. Professor Andy Ridgwell from University of California, Riverside continues, "Ocean pH tells us about the amount of carbon absorbed by ancient seawater, but we can get even more information by also considering changes in the isotopes of carbon, as these provide an indication of its source. When we force a numerical global climate model to take into account both sets of changes, the results point to the large-scale volcanism associated with the opening of the North Atlantic as the primary driver of the PETM." The team found that the PETM was associated with a total input of more than 10,000 petagrams of carbon from a predominantly volcanic source. This is a vast amount of carbon - some 30 times larger than all the fossil fuels burned to date and equivalent to all current conventional and unconventional fossil fuel reserves. In their computer model simulations, it resulted in the concentration of atmospheric CO2 increasing from 800 parts per million to above 2000 ppm. The Earth's mantle contains more than enough carbon to explain this dramatic rise and it would have been released as magma, pouring from volcanic rifts at the Earth's surface. Professor Gavin Foster from the University of Southampton says, "How the ancient Earth system responded to this carbon injection at the PETM can tell us a great deal about how it might respond in the future to man-made climate change. For instance, we found that Earth's warming at the PETM was about what we would expect given the CO2 emitted and what we know about the sensitivity of the climate system based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. However, compared with today's human-made carbon emissions, the rate of carbon addition during the PETM was much slower, by about a factor of 20." Dr Philip Sexton from the Open University in Milton Keynes continues: "We found that carbon cycle feedbacks, like methane release from gas hydrates which were once the favoured explanation of the PETM, did not play a major role in driving the event. On the other hand, one unexpected result of our study was that enhanced organic matter burial was important in ultimately drawing down the released carbon out of the atmosphere and ocean and thereby accelerating the recovery of the Earth system. This shows the real value of studying these ancient warming events as they provide really valuable insights into how Earth behaves when its climate system and carbon cycle are dramatically perturbed."
Donegal ICSA has offered its assistance to any farmer in the region affected by recent flooding. Following an emergency flooding meeting, the Donegal ICSA committee has agreed to be of assistance in any way possible.
According to Donegal ICSA chairman Malcolm Thompson, this will include organising fodder for affected farmers. Mr Thompson pledged to lobby the Minister for Agriculture for emergency funding for those worst affected. In addition to emergency support the Minister must make every effort to deliver Disadvantaged Area and other rural development payments such as GLAS, on time this year. Early payment of BPS money will also be critical.
ICSA is very concerned at the impact of the appalling weather in the region. Some farmers have been extremely badly hit with loss of livestock and damage to infrastructure. However, many more are now very worried about harvesting crops and getting remaining silage made. Donegal ICSA is committed to doing all it can to help.
Mr Thompson also said that he would be inviting the ICSA president Patrick Kent and rural development chairman Seamus Sherlock to Donegal to see the damage for himself.
A father and daughter are due to be tried at the circuit court, for alleged assault charges in Ballyshannon.
Inspector Denis Joyce told Ballyshannon District Court that the DPP had agreed to proceed with the cases on indictment to the circuit court.
He asked the court to extend time for service of the Book Of Evidence.
54-year-ol Gerard Brady, Laughill, Belleek, County Fermanagh is charged with assaulting Rebecca Kennedy causing her harm at Market Street, Ballyshannon on February 5. He is also charged with assaulting Simon Ferris, and using insulting, threatening and abusive behaviour at the same venue and date.
28-year-old Guanitta Brady, Bates Park, Greenisland, County Antrim is charged with assaulting Rebecca Kennedy causing her harm at the same venue and date. She is also charged with assaulting Simon Ferris and using insulting, threatening and abusive behaviour at the same venue and date.
Both defendants were remanded on continuing bail until September 20.
The court was also told that three other defendants would be dealt with in the district court.
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Sounthone Sayachac, who chairs the commission, highly valued the enormous achievements that the Vietnamese people have obtained over the last 72 years under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, especially after more than three decades of reforms.
She described those attainments as a great encouragement for the Lao people during their national development and protection.
She expressed her delight at the consistent support that the two Parties, States and peoples have given to each other over the past years, stressing that the countries Solidarity and Friendship Year 2017 is a good occasion to remind the people of their traditional relations.
Sounthone Sayachac, Chairwoman of the LPRP's External Affairs Commission (L), presents flowers to Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Ba Hung to congratulate on Vietnam's 72nd National Day (Photo: VNA)
On behalf of the Lao Party, State and people, Sounthone Sayachac once again appreciated the assistance that the Vietnamese Party, State and people have given to their Lao counterparts.
Amid unpredictable global developments, hostile forces will unceasingly seek ways to damage the two countries relations. Therefore, Vietnam and Laos should coordinate more closely to reinforce their ties, she emphasised.
At the meeting, Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Ba Hung thanked the LPRP commission chairwoman for her sentiment towards Vietnam and good assessments of the country.
He voiced his hope that the LPRP and relevant agencies will continue working closely with his embassy to successfully organise celebrations of the Solidarity and Friendship Year 2017, thereby helping people understand more about the bilateral friendship and develop Vietnam-Laos comprehensive cooperation.
He also thanked the Lao Party, State and people for supporting Vietnam over the past years, adding that he hopes the two nations will bolster coordination to build a strong ASEAN Community and promote peace and stability in the region and the world.
The same day, leaders of some Lao ministries and sectors also visited the Vietnamese Embassy to deliver congratulations on the 72nd National Day of Vietnam./.
Samsung on Wednesday unveiled its Galaxy Note8 smartphone, positioning the oversized handset as the ideal choice for those who want to do bigger things. The new Android-powered devices larger Infinity Display features nearly bezel-less full-frontal glass and an edge-to-edge screen.
The Note8 comes with an improved S Pen that will allow users to communicate in what the company described as more personal ways.
The Galaxy Note8 is both water- and dust-resistant, and it supports fast wireless charging. Under the hood, it features 6 GB of RAM, an Octa Core 2.36-GHz Quad + 1.7-GHz Quad 10nm processor, 65 GB of storage, and expandable memory.
Although the handset is built around a 6.3-inch Quad HD+ Super OMOLED screen with a truly wide 18.5:9 aspect ratio, it still can be considered a true handset, as it can fit in most users hands reasonably well.
The S Pen allows users to send handwritten notes and even create animated GIF files from videos. Samsung has touted this functionality as a true step up from traditional text messaging.
The S Pen is more than a stylus, as it features a 0.7mm tip that is far more precise that the styluses that were used with Palm and other devices a decade ago. It also is truly connected to the device. It has 4,096 levels of pressure, and thus can respond to the touch of the pen tip more accurately. It has eraser functionality as well.
Another touted improvement in the Galaxy Note8 is its Always On Display, which allows users to receive and read notifications without unlocking the device.
Preordering for the Galaxy Note8 began on Thursday. It will be available from major carriers, or as an unlocked version. The unlocked handset will retail for US$929.
Dual Cameras
Among its feature highlights are the Galaxy Note8 rear cameras as in plural. It is the first handset to feature two 12-MP rear cameras with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). These cameras offer both wide-angle and telephoto lenses, which give users greater control of the depth of field. Users can adjust the bokeh effect in preview mode, as well as after a photo is taken. The wide-angle lens has a Dual Pixel sensor with rapid autofocus functionality, capturing sharp images in low-light conditions.
The camera further offers a Dual Capture mode: Both cameras are utilized to take two photos simultaneously one a close-up using the telephoto lens, and the other a wide-angle shot of the same subject.
In addition to the dual rear cameras, the Galaxy Note8 has an 8-MP Smart Auto Focus front-facing camera that can be used for video chats as well as selfies.
Premium Smartphone
With its key features including the three cameras and large display the Samsung Galaxy Note8 clearly is meant to be a premium smartphone. However, it isnt exactly the companys newest flagship product.
With Samsung, we look first at the hardware; the display is gorgeous, said Ramon Llamas, research manager for wearables and mobile phones at IDC.
It feels good in the hand, and it is a great looking device, but it is really the software that makes this thing hum and there it isnt revolutionary, he told TechNewsWorld.
The Galaxy Note8 is just moving it further in the same direction, added Llamas.
Still, the Note8 appears to be the clear direction of what Samsung believes the premium smartphone design should look like, observed Wayne Lam, principal analyst for mobile electronics at IHS Markit.
By extending their Infinity Display design language from the Galaxy S8 and S8+, Samsung is evolving to maximize the screen real-estate of the device while keeping the handset ergonomic enough for everyday use, he told TechNewsWorld. The inclusion of the dual OIS cameras are interesting, and should offer improvements to telephoto videos and photo stabilization.
Price Point
The issue will be whether even the core Samsung customer will embrace the handset, given that it is a premium device without any key revolutionary benefits or improvements. What it does add may be too little even for the core audience.
All these innovations come at a price, and the cost of the Note8 will be the most expensive version of the series more so than the ill-fated Note7, added Lam.
Yet, Samsung is appealing to the hard-core Note users, he suggested.
This demographic values utility and performance over other things, Lam noted, whereas Apple tries to appeal to all smartphone users with their zen-like simplicity and designs.
The next iPhone the 10th anniversary model could give Samsungs Note8 a run for its money.
This is true even though its appealing to a different demographic really, according to Lam. However, from a price point perspective, they are both attracting the same customers.
Past Debacles Forgotten?
It remains unknown whether Samsung can put the Note7 disaster in the past for good.
With each device that comes out, that debacle with the exploding batteries is further in the rearview mirror, said IDCs Llamas.
They did everything they could to restore trust, and that was a key part of the presentation that introduced the Note8, he added.
They are reminding everything that they are a key innovator in this space, so will Samsung sell millions of units? The answer is yes, added Llamas. Theyll sell millions worldwide but we should remember again that this isnt their true flagship device, just a shift to a more premium handset.
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At the ceremony, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Son, Consul General of Vietnam to Khon Kaen province, said that over the past 72 years, the people of Vietnam, inside and outside the country, under the leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, have been united to overcome all difficulties, and gained great achievements in the construction and defense of the country.
He also reported the domestic situation to the overseas Vietnamese, especially in the economic and diplomatic aspects. Over the past few years, the traditional friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Thailand has been growing and deepening. Both sides have exchanged high-level visits, bringing the traditional friendship and strategic partnership to a new level.
The Consul General also appreciated the positive contributions of Vietnamese-Thai community in Northeastern Thailand to the development of local economy as well as towards the homeland. Especially, the overseas Vietnamese have preserved and promoted Vietnamese culture as well as strengthening the teaching and learning of Vietnamese language in Thailand.
On behalf of the local authority, Mr. Phongsak Preechawit, head of Khon Kaen province sent best wishes to Vietnam and affirmed that the overseas Vietnamese are the bridge to link the relationship between the two countries more closely.
On the same day, the General Association of Vietnamese-Cambodians marked the 72nd anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day in Phnom Penh.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Chau Van Chi, Head of the General Association of Vietnamese-Cambodians, reviewed the magnanimous history of the nation over 72 years. At that time, under the ingenious leadership of President Ho Chi Minh, the people of Vietnam stood up to win a resounding victory, eradicated the yoke of feudal and colonial regimes, and gained the ownership of the country.
He expressed that the Vietnamese Cambodian community is excited with the strong development of the country and always trusts the leadership of the country of the Party and the government of Vietnam.
At the ceremony, Vietnamese Ambassador to Cambodia Thach Du said that achieving the current great results is due to the efforts and sacrifices of the entire Party, the people and army, including overseas Vietnamese.
On this occasion, the Ambassador proposed that the Vietnamese Cambodian community in collaboration with the embassy and the representative agencies, should do better policies for war invalids, martyrs, families with meritorious service to the revolution.
At the same time, they continue to support and contribute effectively to the work of repatriation of the remains of martyrs of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers in Cambodia./.
Ambassador Doan Xuan Hung affirmed that the Vietnamese Party and State always attach great importance to developing the strategic partnership with Germany.
A similar event was held in Canadas capital of Ottawa with the participation of over 200 people.
Vietnamese Ambassador to Canada Nguyen Duc Hoa said the relations between the two countries have been thriving since they established diplomatic ties in 1973.
Celebration of Vietnam's National Day in Germany (Photo: VOV)
Currently, Vietnam is the biggest trade partner of Canada in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with two-way trade reaching nearly 5 billion USD, he noted.
Nearly 7,000 Vietnamese students are pursuing education in Canada, which is expected to increase in the coming time, he said.
On September 2nd, 1945, President Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence, declaring to the world the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Over the past 72 years, the country has gained significant achievements in various fields such as economics, trade, defense-security, external affairs, and international integration./.
With the launch, Jetstar became the first low-cost airline to offer direct service between Vietnam and Japan.
The airline operates four round trips per week using the 180-seater Airbus A320 on the two routes. One-way tickets have been sold from mid-June priced from USD68.18, exclusive of taxes and fees.
A Jetstar Pacific aircraft (Photo: Jetstar Pacific)
Nguyen Quoc Phuong, Jetstar Pacific Director General, said that more than 20,000 tickets for both routes have been booked so far. The two first flights reported an occupancy of over 90 percent.At present, there are about 16,000 Japanese people living and working in Vietnam, while around 180,000 Vietnamese are living and working in Japan.Last year, Vietnam welcomed more than 740,000 Japanese tourists, and the number is expected to grow, especially with the launch of the low-cost air services.
Jetstar Pacific, a member of Jetstar Group, one of the Asia Pacifics largest low-budget carriers, is flying on 37 domestic and international routes. It has two major stakeholders Vietnam Airlines and Qantas Airways./.
"USDJPY dropped sharply from the upper 110 area yesterday, suggesting the recent range high near 111 will remain intact. We see firm support on dips to the 109 zone, however, and note that a high close on the week would be broadly USD-constructive (bullish outside range week)."
Tensions ease once again over Missile Test; risk on returns
As the threat of impending war on the Korean peninsula once again eases, the volatility in risk continues unabated. Reactions to North Korean aggression have been extremely curious of late as the initial reaction in markets seems to suggest a very real and present threat, while the subsequent unwinding of the flight to havens suggests that the bulls see very little there to alter the status quo.
Perhaps one of the things that is limiting market fears for military intervention remains Chinas commitment to straddling the divide between North Korea and the US/Japan/South Korea.
Although Chinas desire to keep North Korea stable is well documented, as they fear a number of things from a regime change (among them a refugee crisis flooding across the border as well as the fact it would place American troops right there on the border), the giant Asian economy has been clear that it is not tolerant of North Koreas struggle for nuclear capability and has participated in sanctions and applying political pressure on Pyongyang.
China has been clear that it would defend North Korea from initial aggression in the US, but would not step in if Un was the initial aggressor.
With sirens blaring and calls to find shelter in Northern Japan, it is unsurprising that many investors in Asia sought the safety of the Japanese Yen. For those who believe that things are going to get worse, more downside in USD/JPY seems inevitable.
Economists at UniCredit believe that the weight of probability suggests continued downside in the pair, regardless of rising tensions on the basis of the new trend for Dollar weakness,
We believe the bias will remain for further JPY strength and the risks to our USD-JPY target of 107 by year-end are to the downside. Currently, the yen is benefiting from demand for safe havens on the back of the flaring up of tensions with North Korea; but even if these tensions subside, we think it unlikely that JPY will be wounded in any meaningful way. In fact, the broadening USD-bearish market stance should provide further downside pressure.
How much risk is already in the price of the JPY?
Gauging how much North Korean threat has been absorbed into the price is not an easy task. With markets increasingly ignoring comments from President Trump and choosing instead to focus on the more conciliatory comments from US officials overseas, it is clear that people are hopeful that things will find a peaceful conclusion, or at least retain the status quo. The threat of short, sharp bursts of risk off still remains; what will be interesting is when we have a similar event and the JPY is unmoved.
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Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller on Friday told the Express-News the statewide gas panic was short term, as the state moved to reverse flow of pipelines stretching from Gulf Coast refineries, barge in fuel, and shut down pumps spewing gas contaminated by the storm.
We have plenty of fuel, he said. We have a pipeline that goes from our refineries up to Oklahoma and weve reversed that pipeline. Now we have fuel coming back into Texas instead of leaving.
The TDA regulates all fuel pumps in Texas to monitor fuel quality and prevent consumers from being shortchanged. Miller often jokes that his phone number is on every fuel pump.
He said a first barge load of fuel was being unloaded Friday at one of the ports, and two more were coming Saturday.
Theyll be plenty of fuel, weve just got to get it back out and get it distributed, he said. I think this is going to be short-lived, 48 to 72 hours tops.
He added that the federal government lifted restrictions to allow fuel from 23 or 24 states to more easily reach Texas.
Weve got plenty of fuel just if you see one of those big tankers coming down the road, well, scoot over and let it by, he said.
With fuel on its way, the pressing problem for the agency was going to be the quality of the fuel. About 40 complaints were lodged as panic of a shortage spread Thursday night, and by midday Friday the TDA had gotten at least 100 more.
We are constantly getting complaints on the fuel quality, water in the fuel, debris in the field, he said. Any time you backwash a pipeline like that youre going to have some sediment and different things come loose in the fuel. Any time you have 4 to 5 foot of water sitting on the underground storage tanks for four or five days youre going to get some condensation and water back in the fuel.
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Miller said hed also given refineries a temporary waiver on some of the Environmental Protection Agency requirements to allow the refineries to more quickly get gasoline to market.
I gave them an exemption for a couple of weeks so we can get that fuel back online, he said.
lbrezosky@express-news.net
San Antonio-based Frost Bank said all but four of its 33 Houston region branches which closed for Hurricane Harvey have reopened as of Friday.
Weve got to be the only large bank that has that many branches up and running following Hurricane Harvey, Frost spokesman Bill Day said.
Nearly all of the branches suffered at least some damage. Three branches that remain closed suffered pretty severe water damage, Day said. Two of the branches are inaccessible so bank officials havent been able to assess the damage. They are the Energy Corridor Financial Center at 15455 Memorial Drive, which Frost only opened a month or so ago, and the St. Lukes OQuinn Medical Tower Financial Center at 6634 Fannin St.
Also closed is Frosts Clear Lake Financial Center at 1234 Clear Lake City Blvd. The branch sustained heavy flooding, Day said.
Frosts branch in The Shops at Houston Center at 1200 McKinney St. reopened Friday morning but had to shut down because there were no working elevators or escalators, Day said.
All eight of Frost Banks branches in the Corpus Christi area are reopened.
Frost Bank has not yet been able to do a formal assessment of its loan portfolio in areas affected by Harvey, Day said.
On Thursday, Moodys Investor Service said in note mentioning Frost and some other a couple of other regional banks in Texas that the destruction from Harvey will stall loan production and increase the most exposed banks loan-loss provisions and problem loans.
Compass Point Research & Trading said in a note earlier this week the projected loss for Frost Bank parent Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. appears to be manageable. Compass forecast a pretax loss of $53.4 million for the bank holding company.
Also on Friday, Frost Chairman and CEO Phil Green said the Frost Bank Charitable Foundation would donate $1 million to charities assisting the areas most affected by the storm.
This is by far the largest gift the Foundation has ever made, Green said in a statement.
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The foundation was funded with money from last years disposition of the Frost Bank Tower and other downtown San Antonio properties by Frost for $57.6 million. About $4.4 million went to the foundation, the Express-News reported last year.
Frost also said it will match up to $100,000 in employee contributions to help Frost employees who sustained property damage.
Frost is the largest regional bank based in San Antonio. It had $30.2 billion in assets at the end of June.
pdanner@express-news.net
Up to 500,000 cars in Houston were severely damaged or destroyed in the floods that engulfed much of the city over the last week, according to preliminary estimates from Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book.
At least 300,000 vehicles will likely be total losses, Atlanta-based Cox Automotive, the parent company of Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book, said Friday.
The estimated damages range from $2.7 billion to $4.9 billion, according to Cox Automotive.
By measure of vehicle damage, Hurricane Harvey is likely the worst natural disaster in our countrys history, Cox said in a statement.
Between 5,000 and 10,000 new cars at Houston dealerships may have been ruined by flooding, Houston Automobile Dealers Association President Wyatt Wainwright estimated Friday.
With a median price of about $35,000 each, the new-car damage ranges between $175 million and $350 million.
Of the 180 new-car dealerships in the Houston area that are members of the association, 12 were closed Friday and the status of five were uncertain, Wainwright said. We cant get an answer from them, he said.
But the rest of the new-car dealerships were open, some with partial damage and some with no damage to their vehicles. The ones that were open were struggling to get their staff to work with many streets still flooded and some employees who lost homes or vehicles in the more than 50 inches of rain, Wainwright noted.
For the dealers who were flooded completely, it will take a while for them to get back on their feet, Wainwright said.
The dealers have insurance for their damaged new vehicles. The new cars that are totaled by adjusters likely will be scrapped, Wainwright said. Its all unfolding, he said.
But another kind of flood is headed toward Houstons car dealers, Wainwright said.
Were about to have a crush of folks who are desperate for transportation. We hope to fill that void, he said.
Jeff Martin, executive director of the Austin-based Texas Independent Automobile Dealers Association, said he did not have an estimate on the number of total cars damaged by flood across the storm area.
When looking at Victoria to Beaumont, the numbers will be significantly higher. From Rockport, to La Grange, Dickinson and Pearland and Beaumont, a lot of cars were lost in those areas, Martin said.
Used-car dealers are most worried about the cars they have financed. If the vehicles were damaged or destroyed by floods and were not insured by the owners, some used-car owners may not continue making payments, Martin said. Even if the cars were not damaged, people who lost their jobs wont be able to continue payments, he added.
Non-payment of car loans will have an economic ripple affect across the region, Martin said. Its going to be big. Banks and credit unions will be dealing with this, too, he said.
The extent of the damage in the Houston and storm area will affect the value of new and used cars and trucks in other areas, including San Antonio, said Tim Cliver, Red McCombs Automotive chief operating officer.
Our volume (of shoppers) will increase because we are close. We will feel the spike, just as they would if we had an issue here. With the supply down, the demand will be up, Cliver said.
The auctions will bring more money, he said, explaining that when people trade in cars, their old vehicles go to auction and then to used-car lots.
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Theres no better time to trade in a car. People will want to buy trade-ins, Cliver said. What I have on our lots were bought on market pre-flood. Customers are to going to buy something. Theres not that many to go around.
New-car prices in San Antonio likely will stay constant, but new-car makers may issue rebates in the storm-affected areas to help hurricane victims, Cliver said.
The manufacturers are working feverishly to supply the storm-affected areas, he said.
Cliver said owners of damaged autos should act quickly. The faster they get to their insurance company with a claim, the faster they will get a check, he said.
Autos flooded only to the seats may be salvageable and could be resold, with the car titles branded by the state as flooded or salvaged, Cliver explained.
Autos flooded up to the dashboard, however, will have ruined electrical systems. Theres no fixing them. They are usually scrapped, Cliver said.
If unscrupulous dealers or owners sell damaged cars with titles not properly branded as flooded or salvaged, they could face legal action from buyers. Theres some recourse for buyers, he said.
dhendricks@express-news.net
Robert Kubica still believes in his chances of making a full comeback to Formula 1, although when and with which team remains uncertain.
The Pole is an interested visitor in the Monza paddock this weekend, working as a consultant for Sky Italia but basing himself at the Renault motor home.
"Months ago, I promised someone I would be back in the paddock, either as a driver or for TV," Kubica said.
"I prefer to be in the car but this is a good step forward with respect to what has happened. A few years ago I would not have imagined it."
Kubica undertook a preparation and assessment program earlier this year in order to gauge his ability to drive an F1 car six years after sustaining severe injuries in a rally crash which halted his career as a Grand Prix driver.
The program culminated when he tested a new-spec Renault at the post-Hungarian GP in-season test at the Hungaroring before F1's summer break.
A week ago in Spa, Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul admitted that further evaluations would likely be necessary to judge Kubica's ability, prompting speculation that the 32-year-old could be handed an FP1 outing this year with the French outfit.
"I would like to have another chance to drive," admitted Kubica.
"You have to have your feet on the ground and your head free but the last months have been fundamental in lifting my doubts about being able to drive at a high level in formula one.
"I don't know what will happen, but so far it was nice. I am not yet a driver because I do not race, but there are good chances," he added.
"I'm convinced that I could do well and that I can drive these cars at a high level despite my limitations. At the same time I have learned that you have to enjoy what life gives you every day."
Kubica's manager, Alessandro Alunni Bravi, revealed that the Hungary had also generated interest from other F1 teams and other categories of racing.
"The result of the test was much more positive than everyone was expecting, also in the F1 paddock," Bravi told Autosport.
"So there is some interest around him, in F1, out of F1,' said Bravi.
"What we can say after the test is that now Robert has no doubts, and he can drive an F1 car without limitations.
"The next step is still unknown. We are still looking around, and trying to understand which is the best step for him.
"It's just a matter of finding the opportunity, and finding the team that would really be convinced to have him."
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Jose Zamudio, who picks up day labor in a Dallas suburb for as much as $15 an hour, is considering moving to help Houston rebuild after Hurricane Harvey. Theres just one caveat.
If Im seeing police are picking up a lot of people or there are a lot of immigration raids, Id leave for another state, said Zamudio, 35, an undocumented immigrant who left behind his wife and three children in the Mexican city of Celaya about 15 months ago.
Hurricane Harvey hit as a Category 4 storm and then spent days inundating southeast Texas, the worst recorded rainfall in the continental U.S. Now, its about to put the effects of President Donald Trumps anti-immigration rhetoric and actions to the test.
For months, the labor market has been tightening as the economy accelerates and Trump and his allies in Texas crack down on undocumented workers. Retail, service and especially construction companies have to search high and low to fill openings. Houstons cataclysm is the extreme expression of the trends: The city faces one of the biggest reconstruction projects in American history as the federal government arrests increasing numbers of the immigrant workforce that flocks to disaster remediation, and as courts weigh Texass new toughest-in-the-nation immigration law.
Bayous call
Gathering a workforce to repair the flooded city will have repercussions throughout the nation as framers, drywall installers and laborers head to southeast Texas, attracted by the work created by a hurricane and floods that damaged 100,000 homes.
Its an enormous distraction to have to figure out how you deal with this, said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America trade group. A lot of projects will be delayed elsewhere.
Bill Beardall, executive director of the Equal Justice Center in Austin, Texas, which will represent poor and undocumented workers in the rebuilding, said he expects a Wild West of unregulated labor markets.
It will take shape to do the urgent cleanup work of pretty dirty, nasty, contaminated kinds of places in the immediate post-rescue environment and that will phase into the reconstruction effort, which will also need low-wage workers, said Beardall, also a University of Texas law professor. He expects workers and contractors to arrive from out of state, both legitimate and fly by night, creating an environment of wage theft and unsafe working conditions.
Rounded up
The fierce competition for people handy with hammers will be intensified by the dwindling number of foreigners who can provide cheap and easily shed labor.
Nationally, arrests of undocumented immigrants rose 40 percent in the first half of 2017, compared with the same period last year, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Arrests of non-criminals more than doubled. The number of immigrants fell in tandem: From Feb. 1 through the end of July, officials apprehended 56 percent fewer people at the Mexican border than in the same time period last year, 122,542 compared to 279,058.
Even legal immigrants arent untouched. A program that allowed seasonal workers to re-enter annually languished for seven months this year. So-called Dreamers brought to the U.S. as children and given temporary legal status by former President Barack Obama now wait months for renewals that they need to keep drivers licenses and jobs. Trump is considering ending the program and deporting those residents.
The effects have been felt across disparate sectors of the labor market, including poultry processors and meat packers, onion farms, racetracks, restaurants and hotels, as well as construction.
It was as challenging year, yeah, said Wendy Northcross, chief executive of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, where the hospitality industry raced to replace thousands of immigrant workers who normally return on seasonal visas each summer.
Texas crackdown
The construction labor force, meanwhile, is tight. Workers were scarce even before Trumps immigration crackdown. A July survey by the National Association of Home Builders in Washington showed 77 percent of builders reported a shortage of directly-hired framing labor, and 85 percent reported a shortage of framing subcontractors.
Twelve years ago, after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, Hispanic labor helped rebuild, enabled by the decision of former President George W. Bushs administration to ignore their legal status. Ads seeking a similar workforce for Houston willing to work 12 hours a day, six days a week, according to one are already on Craigslist.
But the political and the economic climate has changed.
Texass new immigration law threatens local officials with firing or a year in jail, and municipalities with fines of up to $25,500 a day, for failing to fall in line with Republican lawmakers goal to step up immigration enforcement. The law was opposed by the states biggest cities, including Houston. It was set to go into effect Sept. 1 until a federal judge blocked it this week, in a legal battle that continues.
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Even before the storm and the crackdown, Texas faced a shortage of concrete workers, electricians and wall-board installers, according to a survey by the Associated General Contractors. For concrete workers, for instance, two-thirds of Texas contractors reported a shortage, compared with 51 percent nationwide.
Rich opportunity
David Orlando, Houston division president for Red Bank, New Jersey-based homebuilder Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., expects to lose contractors to the rebuilding effort because he cant pay as much as the insurance industry. He said costs are likely to rise as competition increases.
We have a fairly large base of trade labor and I will remind them of where their loyalty is, he said. When the remodeling work dries up, were still here.
While there will be a powerful incentive to overlook immigration laws, the crackdown could make workers wary, said Beardall of the Equal Justice Center. The undocumented, many supporting families at home, face the decision of whether to risk their tenuous livelihoods for a rich payday.
Ismael Sanchez, 40, who moved to Texas from California about a decade ago, hasnt returned to Guatemala to see his wife and two children in four years. Instead, he sends home about $500 a month. Hes torn between moving to Houston for Harvey work and fleeing.
Because of this law, Ive been thinking of leaving Texas, he said.
Zamudio comes early to a day-labor station in Plano, near Dallas, waiting to pour concrete or do landscaping in heat that can top 100 degrees.
We came here to work, nothing more, he said. Were not here stealing or fighting. Were doing the work that nobody from here wants to do and, even so, they want to run us off. I dont understand it.
AUSTIN Texas is shipping in gasoline from three neighboring states and reversing a pipeline carrying fuel to Oklahoma, as a panicked run on gas stations in the wake of tropical storm Harvey has left hundreds of stations dry statewide.
The bottom line is that the state of Texas will have plenty of gasoline showing up at gasoline stations, said Gov. Greg Abbott, at a press briefing at the state operations center in Austin on Friday. Dont worry, we will not run out and we will be back into our normal pattern before you know it.
Abbott announced that refineries in Corpus Christi and Red Rivers are coming back online and said the state has been working literally overnight, nonstop to ensure adequate supply. Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico have begun shipping gas into the Dallas, Fort-Worth area and surrounding counties. In addition, a pipeline carrying gasoline from Texas to Oklahoma has been reversed, keeping the fuel instate. The Port of Corpus Christi is now open with barges loaded with fuel coming in Friday and in the coming weeks.
Abbott said drivers can help in the effort by yielding to tanker trucks on the highway.
The best thing they can do is when they see one of those tanker trucks filled with gasoline, move out of that lane, and that way they can get down the road faster, he said.
We have a bunch of gasoline coming in.
Officials say the state has enough fuel and have urged panicked drivers not to fill up their tanks unnecessarily, whichcan create a run-on-the-bank scenario.
Texas Railroad Commission Ryan Sitton tweeted Friday morning that there there's gas. We just have to get it (to) pumps.
When people panic and fill up unnecessarily, makes it harder, he wrote.
Though some cities ravaged by Harvey have begun the rebuilding efforts, including cities such as Corpus Christi, others are facing more flooding. The Neches River continues to rise in Beaumont, where already it is roughly 7 feet higher than record levels.
It will continue to remain at or near that high for about the next week, Abbott said. This flooding poses an ongoing threat to Beaumont and the surrounding area.
Evacuees continue to flood the 258 emergency shelters across the state. Overnight Thursday, nearly 42,400 Texans spent the night in a shelter, with roughly 6,000 of those in state parks. Another 3,000 sought shelter in Louisiana, Abbott said.
Already about 440,000 Texans have applied for assistance from FEMA, and the federal organization has approved more than $79 million in aid, Abbott said.
Abbott said the state will not need a special session to deal with the storm damage, saying the resources being deployed should be enough to address the needs from now until the next legislative session begins in 2019. He also said the state will be able to tap the states $10 billion savings account, known as the rainy day fund, as needed.
Also Friday, Abbott announced the launch of the RebuildTX Fund with the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation for present-day relief and long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts. The Dells will match $1 for every $2 donated through midnight Monday, for the first $36 million. The goal is to raise $100 million by the end of the Labor Day weekend. To contribute, go to www.rebuildtx.org
amorris@express-news.net
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In the cool quiet of the early morning, long before the sun rose Friday over San Antonio, the statue of an unknown Confederate soldier was hoisted from its pedestal in Travis Park, lowered on a flatbed trailer and hauled off to storage along with two Civil War battle cannons that had decorated the downtown block.
Unlike the removal of Confederate statues in other locations across the country, there were no organized protests when city crews took down the Travis Park statue about 2 a.m. A group of about eight people standing behind a police barricade started cheering loudly and yelled, Hey hey, ho ho, the racist statues got to go.
The removal of the 117-year-old statue, approved Thursday in a 10-1 vote by the City Council, marked a significant victory for grass-roots activists and others whod fought for years to bring down the monument, which they said was a constant reminder of hatred, racism and the oppression of their ancestors.
Mario Salas, a former councilman who had been a strong advocate for the monuments removal, called the council vote and subsequent removal a major accomplishment.
Im still in a state of euphoria, Salas said Friday. It was a major accomplishment. It just left me breathless.
It was one of several recent victories, he said, but the work is far from over.
He noted that already Bexar County has removed a plaque dedicated to the Confederacy, and that this week, the North East Independent School Districts board of trustees voted unanimously to rename Robert E. Lee High School.
Salas, who said he was active in the civil rights movement, said he was enthused to see so many active young people fighting for the removal of the Travis Park statue. He said research is underway to identify other symbols of racism in San Antonio.
During debate on the matter Thursday, Councilman Clayton Perry, the lone dissenting vote on removal, and Councilman Greg Brockhouse asked when the push by activists would stop.
Brockhouse, who decried that the council was sidestepping the prescribed process for handling such cases, said Friday that he ultimately voted his conscience on the removal but worried that the councils decision may have opened the body to a flood of requests that could create chaos.
In my comments (on the dais Thursday), I was trying to be very clear that it has to end, Brockhouse said, referring to the movement to remove symbols and names that memorialize a painful part of the nations history that many find offensive. This cannot continue in perpetuity when youre going down a list of everything you find offensive in the world.
The proposal to remove the statue was first initiated by council members Roberto Trevino and William Cruz Shaw, both of whom received slur-filled hate mail for their position.
In a Facebook post Friday, Brandon Burkhart called Shaw a corrupted ingrate and castigated the council for voting Thursday days after Hurricane Harvey devastated portions of the Texas coast and unleashed historic flooding on Houston. Perry and Brockhouse also argued that the city should delay the vote until after relief efforts had subsided.
Burkhart who lists himself as vice president of the organization This Is Texas Freedom Force, a group that is protectors of all things Texas fighting for Texas & Texans (sic) rights alleged that by voting to remove the statue, the council caved to special interest projects that he described as a small group of racist (sic).
Dont get comfortable in your City Council seat though, we are coming to unseat you and your fellow Councilmen Trevino & the Mayor come hell or high water, Burkhart wrote.
Jonathan David Jones, an African-American grass-roots activist who has offered testimony at council meetings about police reform and body cameras, said an amalgamation of activist groups in San Antonio are working together to fight for meaningful community change. And, he said, theyre not done.
The monument thing its a small thing to a lot of people, he said. To us, to our ancestors, its a big deal.
They can celebrate, he said, but soon they must return to fighting white supremacy and systemic racism, including issues such as the temporarily halted Senate Bill 4, the anti-sanctuary cities bill that was supposed to take effect Friday.
Councilwoman Ana Sandoval said the work to bring down the statue and place it in the appropriate historical context will be for naught if the council doesnt charge forward on other policies that address other systemic issues of inequity in San Antonio.
The statues removal would be little more than a gesture if we as City Council members fail to implement policies and make budget choices that bring opportunity to all of our communities, she said. We can start by ensuring the city invests in streets, sidewalks and other infrastructure more equitably in San Antonios vulnerable and too-often-ignored neighborhoods.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the focus now must be on ensuring that the community moves forward.
Whether people are celebrating the removal of the statue or mourning it, now is the time to refocus our efforts on being good neighbors. There is a big difference between glorifying the Confederacy and displaying the artifacts of history in a proper context, he said. We will have that conversation in the near future and can talk then about the differences between statues honoring men for their commitment to democracy and the founding of our nation and those erected to honor men solely for their dedication to an immoral and indefensible cause.
jbaugh@express-news.net
Twitter: @jbaugh
Staff Writer Sarah Ravani contributed to this report.
The rising death toll from Tropical Storm Harvey has stressed the operations of the Harris County morgue, prompting officials to call for extra storage support.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences has capacity for 203 bodies. As of Friday afternoon, there were 160 bodies in storage, according to Tricia Rudisill Bentley, a spokeswoman for the agency.
In response, the state has provided a refrigerated truck for extra storage capacity as ongoing search and recovery efforts continue over the next several weeks, Bentley said.
As of 9 p.m. Friday, the institute had confirmed 28 storm-related deaths in Harris County all but one from drowning in floodwaters.
The demand for space has eased as the week has progressed and bodies have been released. On Thursday, the medical examiners office sent 30 cases to funeral homes.
A week after the storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on the night of Aug. 25, Houston officials reported more than 50 people were confirmed dead or feared deceased in the state as a result of Harvey and the catastrophic flooding the storm unleashed.
The medical examiners office on Friday night confirmed the deaths of two missing volunteer rescuers who were tossed into Greens Bayou after their boat struck a power line Monday, sending an electrical jolt through the vessel.
Officials said the bodies of Gustavo Rodriguez, 40, and Benjamin Vizuet, 33, were found on the banks of Greens Bayou on Thursday.
Relatives and friends had hoped that Rodriguez and Vizuet had managed to survive the incident, which killed two other volunteer rescuers: Jorge Raul Perez, 33, and Yanir Rubio-Vizuet, 45.
The four were part of a group of five, accompanied by two journalists with the London-based Daily Mail, who ventured out Monday afternoon to rescue neighbors in the Northshore area. The boat disappeared while headed toward the home of a wheelchair-bound resident.
The journalists, senior reporter Alan Butterfield and photographer Ruaridh Connellan, were found alive with the fifth volunteer, Jose Vizuet. The trio were clinging to trees along the bayou until they were rescued Tuesday and transported to a hospital for treatment, the Daily Mail reported.
Meanwhile, deaths that appear to be the result of medical emergencies during the storm continued to add up.
Among the recently confirmed storm deaths was Wilma Ratliff Ellis, 73. The medical examiners office reported that she was found floating Monday during a Coast Guard search and rescue operation.
Her story had appeared to be a joyous one after she was rescued earlier in the day. Family members put the elderly woman on a boat when rescuers arrived with only one seat left, the (New Orleans) Times-Picayune newspaper reported. She was taken to a local high school, but remained without relatives because the boat never returned for other stranded family members. Ellis apparently wandered from the school and was swept away in floodwaters.
She was discovered floating face-down and lifeless by Joshua Lincoln of Madisonville and two other rescuers, who resuscitated her, the newspaper reported Monday. She was wearing a hospital bracelet at the time of the second rescue, said Ellis, who gave details of the incident to CNN and MSNBC.
The men dropped Ellis at a gas station where a local businessman promised to look after her, then left to continue pulling people from flooded homes.
Lincoln said he had received frantic calls Wednesday from family members asking him to help locate Ellis. The medical examiners office confirmed Thursday that she was pronounced dead at LBJ Hospital at around 6:30 p.m. Monday.
Officials also removed the case of another elderly resident, Ronald Zaring, from the list of storm-related deaths. The 83-year-old, having been evacuated from a Friendswood nursing home, died Tuesday of a heart attack while aboard a charter bus taking patients to Huntsville. He also had pneumonia.
Other drowning victims confirmed this week include Calvin Oran Montalbano, 54, found Tuesday in a grassy area near the Eastex Freeway; Benito Cavazos Juarez, 42, found face-down in a parking lot Tuesday after waters receded at the East Freeway and Holland Avenue; Martin Salazar, 49, found Wednesday on Preston Avenue in Pasadena after evacuating his home; Michael Tucker, 66, who was found Tuesday in 4 feet of water after leaving his residence; Keisha Monique Williams, 32, was found Wednesday on Woodforest Boulevard in Houston; and Colby Henry Osorno, 24, was found Thursday in the Greens Bayou/Houston Ship Channel area.
The medical examiners office late Friday confirmed one other additional victim: Efrain Angel, 26, who was found Tuesday in a drainage ditch near Harris County Katy Park.
At least nine people outside the Houston area have also perished, and details have emerged about some of those deaths.
On Monday night, Joshua Aedan Feuerstein, 33, of The Woodlands was caught in rapid floodwater on Fish Creek Thoroughfare near the Woodforest subdivision, according to Montgomery County Sheriffs Office. Feuerstein became distressed and tried to get help, but rescuers and bystanders were unable to get to him before he drowned, authorities said. He is one of three people to die on Montgomery County.
Two people were killed in Jasper County around late Tuesday when a tree fell on their truck as they traveled down FM 777. The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the deceased Wednesday as Russell Barnes, 51, and Ginger Barnes, 43, both of Alvin.
Jay R. Jordan and Margaret Kadifa contributed to this report.
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PORT ARANSAS Two weeks and three days before Harvey battered the Texas Coast, local government leaders met with scientists in this island community to talk about what might happen if a powerful hurricane struck the area.
The storm scenario was one of many weather disasters discussed at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute event, labeled Resilient Texas.
About 75 people spent all day talking about sea-level rise, nuisance flooding and ways to study and plan for the potential impact on small Gulf Coast cities.
No one at the time could have known how prescient the conversations were.
Last week, what seemed far away, abstract and academic became viscerally real when Harvey slammed into Port Aransas and made landfall near Rockport the night of Aug. 25. In two days, it had developed from a tropical depression into a Category 4 storm.
The storm brought winds of at least 130 mph and storm surges of 3 to 6 feet above predicted levels in Seadrift, Port O'Connor, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Copano Bay, Port Aransas, and Bob Hall Pier, the National Weather Service reported.
The fierce winds toppled power lines and ripped apart buildings, while floodwaters surged into homes and businesses. Boats were flipped and tossed in the marina like toys.
A single-derrick drillship bounced around the channel near Port Aransas, sinking a tugboat before smashing into a jetty packed with sensitive scientific instruments at the UT science institute.
Harvey has taken its place among the most catastrophic natural disasters in American history, dumping more rain than any other previously recorded. As it moved out of East Texas into Louisiana and across the Upper South this week, it left in its wake about 50 dead and tens of thousands of people displaced.
The storm has damaged an estimated 176,000 homes and apartments along the Gulf Coast and Southeast Texas, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt of Houston said the damages could exceed $175 billion.
The whole thing was a bizarrre experience for Kiersten Stanzel, a 37-year-old research associate at the nearby Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve. She was one of those who had spoken at the Resilient Texas event on sea-level rise, storms and how to prepare for them.
Like most, Stanzel fled the area, which was under mandatory evacuation orders. She, her husband, and their 16-month-old weathered the storm in their house in Victoria.
By mid-week, Stanzel had returned to the condo shed purchased in Port Aransas before her marriage. Two feet of water had inundated the condos lower level.
She was one of the luckier ones many houses, restaurants and shops in Port Aransas and Rockport were destroyed.
The whole things been surreal and overwhelming, she said.
Since getting her doctorate in 2007, Stanzel has spent years working with officials in towns like Port Aransas, Rockport and Aransas Pass to prepare for the worst, often by gathering people around a table to talk about the what-ifs.
Lets talk about a storm, she said, describing these meetings. Everybody think back, those who lived here, lets talk about, say, Celia.
That Category 3 hurricane slammed the Coastal Bend in 1970, the last serious storm to do so.
What if it happened again? What mechanisms do you have in place to respond? Stanzel said.
Despite the devastation to property, loss of life from Harvey was about as minimal as anyone could hope for where the storm initially hit, with officials reporting only one death in Aransas County. Most of those killed died in heavy flooding in Houston and East Texas.
I think a lot about those people in Rockport who I sat around the table with the mayor, the mayor pro tem, city council members, she said. Theyre so dedicated to trying to learn more, trying to be better prepared. I hope what we did helped them in some way.
She has no way of knowing if it did. Right now, the towns are just barely beginning to recover.
As of Friday, Port Aransas remained without power, though water service was restored late Wednesday, with help from crews from the San Antonio Water System. Piles of wood, insulation and garbage are everywhere, with the heavy stench of sewage and dead fish hanging over the place.
Still, anyone who needs food, water, fuel, clothing or medical care can find it in Port Aransas and Rockport. Volunteers, state and local law enforcement and the National Guard have set up distribution points where food trucks serve hot meals and people pick up bottled water by the case.
In the heat of a late August day, homeowners, volunteers and contractors started stripping out flood-damaged drywall and chainsawing fallen trees.
In the policy world, the concept of resilience in the face of extreme weather sometimes centers on the built environment seawalls, drainage systems and writing building codes. On the coast, storms like Harvey are significant but rare events. More common but less severe are issues like repeated flooding and heavy downpours.
Researchers and urban planners often think about ways to move structures out of areas that flood frequently, preserve wetlands and other natural buffers and make sure structures are designed to withstand an ever-increasing list of threats.
Stanzel recognizes that whats happening now is an example of human resiliency neighbor helping neighbor with relief pouring in from across Texas and around the U.S.
Youre seeing the resiliency of the people, she said. I think the people here have an inherent resiliency already.
Volunteers pitch in
By midday Thursday, Port Aransas City Hall was a hive of activity, with local officials, police, firefighters and volunteers going in and out, solving one incremental problem after another.
Two men from Austin showed up that afternoon, ready to donate two front-end loaders to the recovery cause. A stranger in far-away Boston brought 9,000 gallons of gasoline to the island, one local official said.
It just chokes you up to see all the people who have come here from Dallas, Brownsville, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Justice of the Peace Duncan Neblett Jr. said. Just to show up and say, What can I do? Ive got a tractor, a trailer full of water, just point me.
The building also was serving as a sort of social hub in this place where work, family and friends seem to overlap.
John Nixon, a shrimper and friend of Nebletts, showed up, telling stories of how he, his wife and other family members rode out the storm in a 92-foot catamaran named Pollyanna that Nixon built himself.
During the night, a blast of wind hit the boat and they lost all instruments except for one GPS, Nixon said. They ended up being blown all around the network of bays and channels and had to call the U.S. Coast Guard to help find their location the next day.
It was a pretty hairy damn experience, Nixon said. What got me is that it wasnt supposed to do that. Four days (before) it wasnt even a depression.
Neblett was setting up his courtroom in a small office. They needed to start processing evictions, he said, because some renters refused to leave homes and apartments that were damaged, flooded and are full of mold, sewage and other hazards.
In one example, locals found a woman in her 80s who refused to leave Monday, despite her home being covered in sewage. Neblett said his office was getting Adult Protective Services involved to help her.
Though they had plenty of resources, hard work and quick, creative thinking are driving the relief effort. Two of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of volunteers were Nueces County Clerk Kara Sands and Nueces County Tax Assessor-Collector Kevin Kieschnick.
The two arrived in Port Aransas early last week, hoping to save court and tax records from the flooding. Seeing the devastation, they put official duties aside and have been returning daily to help with the relief. They let a reporter tag along.
One of their many tasks Thursday involved a white box truck from the Elections Department, typically used to haul voting machines. Kieschnick jumped in the drivers seat, struggling slightly with the strange transmission system, which had no park setting.
It didnt take him long to figure it out. I grew up farming, he said later.
As Kieschnick drove, Sands handled logistics on the phone. The two drove the truck to a set of townhomes near the marina owned by Bryan Gulley, a local oral surgeon, and his wife, Shannon.
The homes had sustained minimal damage, so the Gulleys turned them into a staging area where volunteer donations could be dropped off and then moved to places where those in need could pick them up.
Donations were coming in from all over, including Kentucky, Dallas and Pleasanton, Shannon Gulley said.
Everybody wants to help so badly, and I knew that with having these nine garages empty that we would be able certainly to hold some of those things and get them to the right people, Gulley said.
Kieschnick and Sands filled the box truck with cases of bottled water and cleaning supplies, then dropped them off at a National Guard distribution point before heading off to the next mission.
We just pitch and help whatever we have, Sands said.
All the while, Kieschnick, an avid fisherman who studied meteorology for a time in college, had his eye on the next storm. By Thursday, a tropical depression in the Atlantic had developed into Hurricane Irma, a Category 3 storm now approaching Puerto Rico.
Irmas making me nervous, Kieschnick said.
Growing threat
Most computer models are showing Irma ultimately headed for Florida and the Eastern Seaboard rather than to Texas. Still, it serves as a reminder that eventually, the next storm will come.
While theres no proven relationship between the number or frequency of tropical cyclones and global warming, climate scientists have linked Hurricane Harveys intensity and record-shattering rainfall to a warmer climate.
Warmer-than-average ocean temperatures have led to greater evaporation, fueling the storms intensity. Warmer air also holds more moisture, which explain the staggering rainfall in Houston, with more than 50 inches an average years worth reported at some gauges.
Besides storms, cities and towns all along the Gulf Coast remain at risk for the nuisance flooding that comes from sea-level rise.
As the Earth warms due to human burning of fossil fuels, the oceans are rising because of thermal expansion and the melting of ice sheets, mostly in Greenland and Antarctica, said John Englander, an oceanographer and sea-level rise expert who also spoke at the Resilient Texas event in early August. Before the industrial era, sea levels were stable for thousands of years, he said.
Englander has worked as a consultant for places like Annapolis, Maryland, and Miami, cities whose waterfronts often flood even on clear, sunny days.
In early August, he talked to the Port Aransas audience about the five factors that lead to coastal flooding storms, rainfall, runoff, extreme high tides and rising sea levels, what Englander calls the slow game-changer.
By 2060, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that average high tide levels will rise by a little more than 3 feet at current warming rates. That would frequently inundate whole neighborhoods in Rockport and Port Aransas, a NOAA mapping tool indicates.
Unlike storms that come and go, sea-level rise is a one-way street, Englander said.
The difference of sea level is it wont go down, because youd have to refreeze the ice sheets, he said. As the planet gets warmer, that wont be likely for a long time.
A tide gauge in Galveston that has recorded water levels since 1908 shows a rise of a quarter of an inch per year, or 2.1 feet over 100 years, said Philippe Tissot, an associate research professor at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, another Resilient Texas speaker. He called the Galveston data the gold standard for sea level data in the Gulf Coast.
Here in the Coastal Bend, were getting quite close to that area where its going to start increasing every decade or so, he said. Were not tremendously affected yet, he added, though he said some areas experienced a little nuisance flooding last year.
Over the coming months and even years, its worth considering the longterm threats as locals rebuild the areas that suffered damage, Tissot said.
I think we should ask the question, Can we rebuild a little better? he said.
As the community planner for the city of Rockport, Amanda Torres wants that conversation to happen eventually, after some normalcy has returned to the area. Shes been working on these issues for Rockport and in her prior role as planner for Aransas Pass.
A native of nearby Ingleside, Torres said shes passionate about good planning and management of parts of the city prone to flooding. She recently participated with other towns in the area in creating a flood plain management plan.
Doing so is crucial in a rapidly growing area, where people often want to build near the water in places that have a 1-in-100 chance every year of flooding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which manages the National Flood Insurance Program, calls these Special Flood Hazard Areas.
We have been growing tremendously, Torres said. Were just a popular destination, especially for retirees. A lot of the places where these people want to build is along the coast, along the Special Flood Hazard Area. You have a nice pretty water view but there are other hazards involved in that.
One of her goals is to help reduce flood insurance premiums for Rockport by working with FEMA. Local governments that participate can reduce residents premiums by up to 45 percent, the agency states.
Torres said shes grateful for the chances to talk about storms, flooding and resiliency with scientific experts and other local governments. Though the recovery effort will likely take months at least, she thinks it might help to have these connections when things settle down.
Although this has been absolutely awful, this is another opportunity for us to be better and be better because this happened, Torres said.
bgibbons@express-news.net
Twitter: @bgibbs
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By now, slowly but surely, it should be dawning on the alt-right and white supremacist factions of America that their alarming hate speech has indeed altered the ideological course of this country.
Just not in the ways they would have hoped.
This weeks removal of a Confederate monument in downtown Travis Park, along with a unanimous vote to change the name of Robert E. Lee High School just three days earlier, show how the recent resurfacing of outright racism has only accelerated the pace of progress.
Two years ago, efforts to remove the monument and change the name of the high school went nowhere. Back then decades ago in politics a councilman who tried to start a conversation about what to do with the citys Confederate monuments was met with resistance by the mayor, and trustees of the North East Independent School District overwhelmingly rejected a renaming of the high school in a 5-2 vote.
What changed?
In June, Ron Nirenberg became mayor, defeating Ivy Taylor and ushering in a more proactively progressive era on council. (The councilman who failed to gain traction with Taylor lost his seat to Cruz Shaw, who redoubled the effort to remove the monument with Nirenberg.)
The election brought little change to the NEISD board; just one trustee, who declined to run for re-election, was replaced.
More than local reshuffling, though, a profound shift has occurred in the national consciousness.
On June 17, 2015, when Dylann Roof shot and killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, a benumbed nation could be forgiven for discerning yet another deranged mass shooter rather than a new, unmasked manifestation of American racism.
The unmasking, though, had actually begun one day before the massacre, on June 16, 2015, when Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president. In doing so, he accused Mexico of bringing their worst people to America, including criminals and rapists.
The rest is history.
Roofs murderous strain of racism caused a backlash against Confederate symbols, including the statue in Travis Park and the name of Lee High School. At the same time, Trumps casual bigotry emboldened an underbelly of white supremacists to celebrate their noxious views with more fervor than before.
The culmination came seven months after Trumps unlikely inauguration, when white nationalists rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia, against the removal of a Confederate statue there. The August rally sparked violent clashes that turned deadly when a white supremacist drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters.
At Thursdays council meeting, Councilman Clayton Perry tried to delay the expedited vote on removing the monument in Travis Park, citing bureaucratic obligations.
I know theres a sense of urgency because of the violence that happened in Charlottesville, he said on the dais. And Ill tell you what, we have no place here in San Antonio for hate. But we cant do knee-jerk reactions. We have processes.
Since Charlottesville, though, the specter of racial violence had crept into the local debate.
Shaw received threatening letters, some addressing him with the n-word. In the end, these racist threats were all Perrys colleagues would need to justify rejecting any further delays to the vote.
After all, who would expect council to respect processes over human life?
NEISD trustee Sandi Wolff cited a similar dynamic in Tuesdays vote to rename Lee High School.
We are in very different times today than we were two years ago, said Wolff, who had voted in 2015 against renaming the school.
Among opponents to the renaming, the level of intensity and aggressiveness was so much higher now, she said. Some of the students said that they feel unsafe. And the parents of the children reached out to us as well. It was more a sense that this is volatile.
At the same time, supporters of renaming the school were more intense, as well.
The students are more determined than they were two years ago, Wolff said. As an educator, thats what I was most impressed by. They were organized, they were engaged, they were educated about it and they came with a plan.
bchasnoff@express-news.net
A history nerd who stole a stone from a historic abbey in South Wales returned it after claiming it was giving him ''bad luck''.
Man returns stone to Welsh abbey after being haunted by headless ghost
The Abbeycwmhir Heritage Trust received the small rock in the post with a letter from the unnamed thief who said he was giving it back because he was haunted by a headless ghost, who he believed to be that of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last native Prince of Wales, who was buried there after his death in 1282.
According to Metro.co.uk, his message read: ''I am so sorry for taking, borrowing, stealing this piece of the old Abbeycwmhir.
''I have been an avid follower of the Welsh Kings and their history and so I took this rock.
''Ever since I have had the most awful luck as if Llewellyn himself was angry with me.
''So I am sending it back. I will not leave my name or address, just a heartfelt sorry from an Australian fan.''
Heather Graham has split from her boyfriend Tommy Alastra.
Heather Graham
The 47-year-old actress and the film producer called time on their relationship in July, after one year of dating, according to Us Weekly.
Although neither of them have commented publicly on the split, Heather has unfollowed her ex on Instagram and there was no sign of her at the premiere of his new movie 'Jackals' last week.
However, he reportedly attended with his ex-girlfriend Taylor Cole and a source said: "They looked pretty cosy."
Meanwhile, Heather - who announced her directorial debut 'Half Magic' earlier this year - recently hit out at sexism in Hollywood.
She said: "Women in general have a tougher time [in Hollywood]. There are fewer parts for women than there are for men. And I think it is because there are not as many women in power. It is run by men."
And she is keen to take greater control of her career by directing more movies.
She said: "As an actor you are just focusing on one thing, which is your character and you just want to do the best job.
"As a director you are looking at wardrobe, what you want the set to look like, how will I shoot this? You hire people, set the tone. It feels more like a nurturing parent. Directing is more fulfilling."
Sir Bruce Forsyth provided "enormous support" to Arlene Phillips when she was sacked from 'Strictly Come Dancing'.
Arlene Phillips
The former judge was devastated to be let go from the BBC show eight years ago and revealed that the late presenter Bruce - who passed away last month at the age of 89 - reached out to offer his support.
She told the Daily Mail: "He got in touch and was very upset. It meant so much to me. I first met him when his daughter Julie came to the Italia Conti school in London where I was teaching. He was a real family man and a phenomenal dancer.
"I'll never forget him backstage on Strictly revving himself up like a car engine so that when he went on stage he was full of energy. I think he liked me because I was a fighter, someone that was determined to break the mould. That was what Bruce always wanted to do."
Arlene, 74, has also praised former head judge Len Goodman for his decision to step down from the panel.
She said: "'Strictly's not his life. He's having a great time with his wife Sue and he's a grandfather now.
"I'd hate to have to fly between London and Los Angeles [where Len has a 3 million contract with 'Dancing With The Stars'] every week for 10 weeks. I don't blame him for leaving.
"The thing is, at least when I was doing the show, there wasn't a 'Strictly' family for the judges. They kept themselves apart. Len and I never really associated and I don't think Craig Revel Horwood did with him either. Bruno Tonioli travelled to America with him for 'Dancing With The Stars' but... Anyway, the great thing about 'Strictly' is that the show survives beyond any one person."
Cambodian Prime Minister (PM) Hun Sen has promised the nations garment workers to lower water tariffs and house rents charged by landlords and said workers have to continue in job for 25 years to get the benefit of a pending pension plan. He said this recently while addressing around 10,000 factory workers at the Vattanac II industrial park near Phnom Penh.Asserting that the Phnom Penh water supply authority would very soon cut the rate it charges landlords renting rooms to garment workers in the city, he said the landlords, in turn, will have to lower the price at which they sell water to their tenants from 1,200 riel to 800 riel.
Cambodian Prime Minister (PM) Hun Sen has promised the nation's garment workers to lower water tariffs and house rents charged by landlords and said workers have to continue in job for 25 years to get the benefit of a pending pension plan. He said this recently while addressing around 10,000 factory workers at the Vattanac II industrial park near Phnom Penh.#
The Cambodian PM has been meeting factory employees and workers in the last few weeks, promising populist benefits in what is seemingly an effort to garner backing for the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) from a voter base long perceived to be sympathetic to the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), according to media reports in Cambodia.Such benefits include free bus rides in Phnom Penh for two years, free health insurance and medical check-ups, higher maternity pay and a monthly minimum wage of at least $160 for 2018. (DS)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk India
USAIDs East Africa Trade and Investment Hub has started an initiative to train 2,000 Kenyan youth for full-time sewing machine operator jobs. The trained youth will help tackle the problem of skilled labour that hinders Kenyas apparel industry growth. Large apparel firms, such as Mombasa Apparel and Africa Apparel EPZ, are hosting the training centres.The initiative is being implemented by USAID grantee Career Readiness Social Initiative Limited, a local subsidiary of the McKinsey Social Initiative, according to a USAID press release. It will help sustain Kenya's apparel exports to the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which was renewed recently till 2025.
USAID's East Africa Trade and Investment Hub has started an initiative to train 2,000 Kenyan youth for full-time sewing machine operator jobs. The trained youth will help tackle the problem of skilled labour that hinders Kenya's apparel industry growth. Large apparel firms, such as Mombasa Apparel and Africa Apparel EPZ, are hosting the training centres.#
The first groups started the eight-week training in Mombasa and Kilifi counties on August 21 and in Nairobi on August 28. More training centres will come online soon.The curriculum focuses on technical skills and soft skills, such as effective communication and time management. The workforce training program will be rolled out to other countries in East Africa. (DS)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk India
Metsa Fibre has played an important role in three development partnerships that have been successful in project evaluations and secured multiannual funding from the EU. The concepts in the partnerships include new technologies to produce lignin-based products and pulp-based textile fibres. The projects aim to prove the commercial viability of these concepts.Operating within the EUs research and development networks demand perseverance and world-class competencies. The EU funding now granted to us is a clear indication of the high quality of Metsa Fibres research and development activities and the new concepts. It also indicates their relevance in respect to finding solutions that help mitigating some of the greatest challenges facing society, such as population growth and resource scarcity, says Niklas von Weymarn, vice president, Research at Metsa Fibre.
The Biomotive project aims to develop new environmentally friendly biomaterials to be used in car parts, for instance. Metsa Fibres role in Biomotive is to develop a new production method for pulp-based textile fibres. In addition to clothing, textile fibres are also used in technical textiles, such as the seats of vehicles.
The LigniOx project focuses on the utilisation of lignin in products with high added value. The project advances a technology developed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, in which wood-based lignin is separated from the black liquor generated in pulp production.
LigniOx and Biomotive are four-year projects operating under the Bio-Based Industries PPP instrument.
The projects aim to strengthen and diversify the future bioproduct portfolio and ecosystems of Metsa Group and Metsa Fibre, which is part of Metsa Group. The Bioproduct mill entity, started up in mid-August 2017 in Aanekoski, Finland, already now includes innovative production plants that produce bioproducts on an industrial scale. A new biocomposite demonstration plant will start up at Metsa Fibres Rauma pulp mill later this autumn. The biocomposite plants is owned by Metsa Fibres partners. (SV)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk India
Shima Seiki Mfg., Ltd., one of the leading computerised flat knitting machine manufacturer and pioneer in complete garment manufacturing from Wakayama, Japan, has released a new i-Plating option on select models in its line of computerised knitting machines. The new plating technique allows for expanded patterning options with greater efficiency.Unlike conventional plating techniques, i-Plating offers so-called inverse-plating capability in which alternate yarns are both shown on the fabric surface in any specific pattern or design, producing jacquard-like patterns in plain jersey stitch.
Shima Seiki Mfg., Ltd., one of the leading computerised flat knitting machine manufacturer and pioneer in complete garment manufacturing from Wakayama, Japan, has released a new i-Plating option on select models in its line of computerised knitting machines. The new plating technique allows for expanded patterning options with greater efficiency.#
I-Plating goes a step further, overcoming current limitations in inverse-plating by offering this capability within the same course and for individual needles for better efficiency and patterning capability.The new plating technique, i-Plating, is offered exclusively as a factory-installed option on SVR093SP and SVR123SP computerised flat knitting machines. Both machines feature special loop pressers for producing inlay patterns that yield novel knit-weave hybrid fabrics. By combining i-Plating with inlay capability on SVR093SP and SVR123SP, a whole new world of patterning becomes available for truly diverse knit design. (GK)
Fibre2Fashion News Desk India
NEW ORLEANS, LA--(Marketwired - September 01, 2017) - Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until October 27, 2017 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Vitamin Shoppe, Inc. (NYSE: VSI), if they purchased the Company's shares between the expanded period of March 1, 2017 and August 8, 2017, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
What You May Do
If you purchased shares of Vitamin Shoppe and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit http://ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-vsi/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by October 27, 2017.
About the Lawsuit
Vitamin Shoppe and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.
On March 1, 2017, Vitamin Shoppe announced that it expected to deliver "[f]ully diluted earnings per share in the range of $1.95 - $2.20" during fiscal year 2017. Subsequently, on May 10, 2017, the Company slashed FY17 guidance by more than 45% and then on August 9, 2017, revealed it was taking a goodwill impairment charge of $168 million and as a result, a GAAP loss per share of $6.73 in 2Q17.
On this news, the price of Vitamin Shoppe's shares plummeted.
About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
KSF, whose partners include the former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.
To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.
Contact:
Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner
lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com
1-877-515-1850
206 Covington St.
Madisonville, LA 70447
Ukraine is likely to receive the fifth tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by the end of this year after the fourth revision of the EFF program, analysts of Morgan Stanley investment bank believe.
"In general, we believe that the state's focus on reforms and the willingness to cooperate with the IMF remain, although they will compete more with populism in 2018. We expect the fifth tranche at the end of 2017," reads an analytical review from the bank.
Morgan Stanley said the delay of land reform until 2018 is not so fundamental for the IMF, because it is not among the necessary requirements for obtaining the next tranche. However, the fund expects Ukrainian authorities to introduce pension reform this autumn, privatization of state enterprises, the adoption of anti-corruption measures and an increase in gas tariffs scheduled for October 1.
Among the positive signals for the IMF analysts indicate the expected presentation of the candidacy for the post of head of the National Bank, which is to be held by the end of September.
In Sharat Kataria's 2015 romantic comedy Dum Lagaa Ke Haisha, Bhumi Pednekar made an unconventional debut as an overweight, self-respecting woman who earned more than her dejected husband, played by Ayushmann Khurrana. While she was the bread earner of the house, patriarchy relegated her to a secondary position in the household.
Two years later, when Ayushmann and Bhumi reunite for RS Prasanna's romantic comedy Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, the discrimination has not changed, though the arena has. The grounds are now performance in the bedroom. Though it is Bhumi's character Sugandha who is sexually healthy, Ayushmann's character Mudit suffering from erectile dysfunction often places the blame on her.
Throwback to 2012, when Ayushmann made his debut as the titular character in Shoojit Sircar's romantic comedy Vicky Donor, his reel wife (played by then-debutante Yami Gautam) was established as infertile. However, not even for a second, Vicky's sexual capabilities were questioned. In fact, he was hailed as a sperm-churning machine.
While that discrimination can be attributed to creative liberty or demand of the script, Prasanna subtly addresses this gender discrimination, as far as sexual capacity is concerned, as an underlying theme of Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, when seen through the eyes of its female protagonist Sugandha.
Picture this: Sugandha, self-admittedly, has perennially been surrounded by women. From school to college to tuition to hobby classes, she has always been strategically planted in environments devoid of testosterone. It is little surprise that such a woman would lack the practical experience of reacting to men or distinguishing between healthy flirting and cat-calling.
Though she instantly connects with Mudit and gets involved to the extent of resorting to pre-marital sex (a big deal for secluded women like her), she is turned off by his restrained approach. While Mudit refrains from coming clear on his sexual disorder to his to-be wife, Bhumi is left to figure out possible reasons on her own.
In such cases, an underexposed girl like her is expected to doubt her own sex appeal. While she comes to terms with her prospective husband encountering a 'gents problem', she attributes a major chunk of that to her perceived lack of ability to arouse him.
Thus, in an attempt to seduce him, she watches female porn DVDs to learn the moves, tricks and trades of the bedroom game. Though she disapproves of the icky tactics and props in the porn stars' arsenal, she observes and tries to incorporate the same into her own set.
In a hilarious yet extremely significant scene, she invites him to a park (since PDA is partially acceptable there). She follows it up by playing audio porn on a speaker, sucking out plums rather seductively (despite her complaints of them being sour) and repeating the dirty talk rather unconvincingly.
"Come to me, baby," she repeats, as tears roll down her cheek. Within seconds, Bhumi switches her comic act of a misplaced simpleton to a heart-rendering act of a victim of patriarchy. She continues to repeat the dirty talk as the realisation, of losing herself for the sake of sexual appeasement, dawns upon her.
It is right then that Mudit feels the turmoil that Sugandha is going through. He realises that she has been blaming herself for being sexually inadequate in some way which is causing his rather thanda performance in the bedroom. He also discovers the extent of investment she is willing to make for him to regain his lost confidence.
It is this realisation that snowballs into a rant towards the climax, directed towards his family who refuses to come to terms with the sexual disorder of their young lad and blame the girl for the sexual inactivity in him. Mudit goes on to deliver a monologue, where he dispels one patriarchal notion at a time.
He echoed the same thought in an exclusive interview to Firstpost, when he declared that masculinity is not just about getting it up. It also encompasses how one treats women. It was not long ago when we saw in Leena Yadav's film from last year, Parched, that Radhika Apte's husband abuses her for being infertile while she eventually discovers him to be impotent. She then feels sexually liberated to become pregnant with another man who does not make her feel sexually inadequate.
Another instance was in Ajeeb Daastan Hai Ye, Karan Johar's short film from the 2013 anthology Bombay Talkies. Randeep Hooda, a gay man married to a straight Rani Mukerji, fakes sexual advances in order to please an unsure Rani who dresses rather raunchily every day in a desperate attempt to sexually excite her dormant husband. But when she finds out that he is gay, she stops wiping the incessant tears rolling down her cheek and embraces her worn out, no-make-up face. She caresses her hair and admires herself in the mirror at the epiphany of her sexual adequacy.
In a similar vein, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan revolves around a 'gents problem', but it it as much about the lady, who has to bear the brunt of not only sexual pleasure but also the patriarchy's rebukes of having some evil part to play in the conspiracy. Because it is convenient to assume that out of a million sperms, at least one would make it. Little do they know, that they have a 'long' way to go.
On 31 August, the Bombay High Court directed a lower court to proceed with the trial against actor Sooraj Pancholi, accused of abetting the suicide of his actor girlfriend Jiah Khan in 2013. A division bench of Justices R M Savant and Sandeep Shinde was hearing a petition filed by Jiahs mother Rabia Khan seeking appointment of advocate Dinesh Tiwari as special public prosecutor in the matter.
Rabia in her petition claimed that she did not want the prosecuting agency CBIs counsel to conduct the trial on behalf of the prosecution as she did not agree with the CBIs conclusion that Jiah had committed suicide. Rabia has been claiming that Jiah was murdered by Sooraj.
The high court posted Rabias petition for hearing on 11 September but said, We make it clear that proceedings in the trial court not stayed. The trial can go on against the accused person. Jiah had committed suicide on June 3, 2013. Her then actor boyfriend Sooraj was arrested for abetting her suicide on 10 June, 2013, but released on 2 July the same year after the HC granted him bail.
The case was transferred to the CBI by HC in July 2014 on Rabias petition that police was not probing it properly. However, when the CBI filed a charge sheet in the case and booked Sooraj on abetment charges, Rabia again petitioned the court seeking a Special Investigation Team to be set up to probe the case afresh. Rabia was against the CBIs concurrence with the findings of Mumbai police that it was a case of suicide and not homicide.
The high court had then dismissed her petition seeking an SIT to be set up. Later, the Maharashtra government appointed advocate Dinesh Tiwari, who had initially appeared for Rabia, as special public prosecutor in the case. This was challenged by the CBI in the high court which said it would appoint its own counsel. The government had earlier this month informed the HC that it has withdrawn its order appointing Tiwari as prosecutor in the case.
New Delhi: The CBI on Friday filed a chargesheet in Rs 3,726 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case against former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi and eight others. The agency submitted the 30,000-page chargesheet before special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge Arvind Kumar.
Tyagi's cousin Sanjeev alias Julie, then IAF Vice Chief JS Gujral and advocate Gautam Khaitan are among four Indians named in the chargesheet which mentioned Khaitan as the "brain" behind the deal.
Others named are Italian defence and aerospace major Finmeccanica's former chief Giuseppe Orsi, former AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini and three European middleman Christian Michel, Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.
Orsi and Spagnolini have already been sentenced by an Italian court for bribing Indian officials to get the contract from India illegally.
"How the bribe money reached India, how several firms, through which the money travelled, came into existence and that Sanjeev was known to alleged European middleman Carlo Gerosa is mentioned in the chargesheet," an official said.
Tyagi, who was Indian Air Force chief from 2004 to 2007, his brother Sanjeev and Khaitan were allegedly involved in irregularities in the procurement of 12 AW-101 VVIP helicopters from Britain-based AgustaWestland. They were arrested in December last year by the agency in connection with the case.
The CBI, which registered an FIR in the case on 12 March, 2013, has alleged that Tyagi and the other accused received kickbacks from AgustaWestland to help the manufacturer win the contract. The FIR mentioned charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI said the company was favoured in lieu of illegal gratification accepted through different companies in the name of consultancy services.
Tyagi, the CBI has alleged, took bribes of several crores, through middlemen and a complex route of companies in several countries, from AgustaWestland to change the specifications of the contract - reducing the operational flight ceiling from 6,000 metres, as originally proposed, to 4,500 metres and bringing down the cabin height to 1.8 metres.
The twin modifications were allegedly meant to rig the deal in favour of AgustaWestland, which eventually walked away with the order to supply 12 choppers for the Communication Squadron of the Indian Air Force for ferrying the President, the Prime Minister and other VVIPs.
Sources said that they mapped the trail of bribes which AgustaWestland paid to bag the deal of Rs 452 crore or 12 per cent of the total value of the deal, out of which Rs 414 crore came to Indian officials.
The CBI probe revealed that several payments were made to the Tyagi brothers by European middlemen Haschke, Gerosa and Michel as part of the alleged bribery.
A day after Anitha, a 19-year-old Dalit student from Tamil Nadu, committed suicide after allegedly not getting admission into a medical college due to very low marks in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the Naam Tamilar Katchi on Saturday demanded the scrapping of the all-India medical entrance test, India Today reported.
Naam Tamilar Katchi, a party led by Tamil nationalist Seeman, said that the Centre must not make NEET the sole criteria for admissions into medical colleges. The fringe Tamil nationalist outfit also said that rules regarding the medical entrance test must be relaxed for students belonging to the Tamil state education board, the report noted.
Chennai, Tamil Nadu: Naam Tamilar Katchi members pay tributes to #Anitha and stage protest over her death, demand scrapping of NEET. pic.twitter.com/uHweqxZbPz ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
Anitha had scored 1,176 marks out of 1,200 in the plus two exams under the Tamil Nadu state board, but could score only 76 out of 700 in NEET. The Dalit student was at the forefront of Tamil Nadu's fight against the medical entrance test. The girl from Ariyalur district had also impleaded herself as a respondent in the NEET case in the Supreme Court, arguing that the entrance exam will shatter the dreams of several students from rural Tamil Nadu, The News Minute reported.
#Anitha managed to study in difficult circumstances. She was concerned about NEET. What wrong had she done,who will answer?: Anitha's father pic.twitter.com/7oibWB86Ie ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
In a late night statement on Friday, Chief Minister E Palaniswami announced a solatium of Rs 7,00,000 to the family of Anitha. He also promised a government job to a family member of Anitha in line with their educational qualification.
Tamil Nadu health minister C Vijayabaskar told reporters that he was deeply pained by the death of the girl. Education minister C Sengottaiyan expressed grief and anguish and said steps were being taken to prepare students for any competitive exam. He said such instances must never be repeated.
The case has now taken a political turn with major parties in the Dravidian heartland demanding an end to NEET.
In a statement issued, former Union minister and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss blamed the central and the state governments for the tragedy. Expressing his condolences to Anitha's parents, he said the state government and the central government should accept responsibility for her death as they had initially assured that Tamil Nadu will get a one-year exemption from NEET. The PMK leader said he was not able to understand as to why Anita who took up the cause of rural students against NEET would commit suicide.
DMK working president MK Stalin expressed concern over the death of the girl and called the government "inept". "Students are the future of the nation and they should never attempt to do such things," he said while asking the state government to own up responsibility for the death.
Actors Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan also condoled the death of the teenage girl. Speaking to reporters in Chennai, Haasan said, "We have lost a good doctor." Haasan said those who should fight against NEET were indulging in horse trading, in a veiled reference to the divide in the ruling AIADMK. The actor also said those who were praising NEET have now vanished.
VCK chief Thol Thirumavalan, a Dalit leader, expressed anguish at the death of the girl and said no student should attempt ending their lives as there were a lot of opportunities to pass examinations. After Anitha suicide, some student organisations held a protest in Chennai. However, police took the agitators into custody and later released them. The protests, nevertheless, continued on Saturday with activists of the Revolutionary Students and Youth Front (RSYF) and Student Federation of India (SFI) protesting against the suicide of the Dalit student.
Chennai: Protest by Revolutionary Students and Youth Front (RSYF) members over the death #Anithaa; Protesters detained by Police. pic.twitter.com/JKwA3vtrmn ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
Tamil Nadu: Students' Federation of India members protest at Chennai's Mount Road over death of #Anitha's who appealed against NEET in SC. pic.twitter.com/UrodJMpK6P ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
With inputs from agencies
Patna: The flood situation continued to improve in Bihar with no fresh casualty in the past 24 hours and the number of relief camps reduced to half at 54.
The toll in this year's stands at 514 for the past three days, the state's disaster management department said in a release.
The water level is receding at several places much to the relief of the affected people, it said.
The relief camps have come down to 54 from 107 reported on Friday, the department said.
The number of people taking shelter at relief camps too has come down to 25,383 against 57,109 on Friday and 1.10 lakh people were given cooked food at 272 community kitchens against 1.20 lakh people having food at 318 community kitchens till 24 hours ago.
Meanwhile, donations worth Rs 43.03 lakh were made in the Chief Minister's Relief Fund on Friday. State Rural Works Minister Shailesh Kumar handed over a cheque for Rs 1.01 lakh to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Shailesh Kumar also gave a cheque of Rs 15 lakh on behalf of his department in the Chief Minister's Relief Fund.
The chief minister thanked persons and organisations for their donations for relief and rehabilitation works for the flood-affected people and implored them to be more sensitive towards them.
As many as 1.71 crore people spread across 19 districts of Bihar have been hit by this year's flood.
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"A process has been set in motion for the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan around 10 am on Sunday," the official said.
It will be the third such exercise since he took over in May 2014. The reshuffle is expected to take place before Modi leaves for China on Sunday afternoon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will undertake a reshuffle of his council of ministers at 10 am on Sunday, a top government official said.
Cabinet reshuffle may be held at 10 am on Sunday before Modi leaves for BRICS summit, says govt official
"We have no information, no talks about it. We have gotten information only from the media," Chief Minister of Bihar and JD (U) leader Nitish Kumar said when asked by the press about the cabinet reshuffle. Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi was also unaware of the rejig. "Only the Prime minister and the leaders in Delhi can answer these questions (about the cabinet reshuffle)," Sushil said.
Nitish Kumar says JD (U) has no information about cabinet reshuffle
The buzz in the power corridors in the National Capital suggests that he could well be the new defence minister of the country. If the prime minister indeed springs that surprise then it would be a huge elevation for Javadekar. As defence minister, he would not only be the custodian of the external security of the country but also part of the so-called big four ministers the ministers who occupy four most critical ministry as per the pecking order in the government located on North Block and South Block on the Raisina Hills.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi possibly reshuffles his Council of Ministers on Sunday morning, Prakash Javadekar could turn to be the biggest newsmaker of the day.
Prakash Javadekar may be new defence minister, Suresh Prabhu likely to get environment
Reports also indicate that many ministers are on edge, fearful of receiving that fateful phone call. Sanjay Singh's piece in Firstpost details how one Union minister had to take the same flight back to New Delhi as soon as he had landed in Patna. He apparently received the instruction from Amit Shah. Two things are immediately apparent. One, Shah's clout as the party chief is enormous. We may have to go back to late Congress president K Kamaraj to find a parallel, as Shekhar Gupta writes in The Print . Second, the discourse around Cabinet reshuffles has totally shifted from the need to accommodate allies to give them a share of the power pie to a SWOT analysis of ministers based on their performance. This augurs well for Indian democracy.
It is being said that this is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's last throw of the dice before the 2019 general elections and he needs to root out non-performers from his cabinet to plug the loopholes before seeking another mandate. Media reports have indicated that professional agencies were pressed into service to do a comprehensive assessment of ministers' performance and the 3 September exercise, Modi's third, is the logical conclusion of that effort.
No more making room for allies, Cabinet reshuffle is now based on performance audit
Yechury posted a picture of six BJP MPs five of them ministers tweeting identical messages calling demonetisation a success. The two-term Rajya Sabha MP commented that such an occurrence points out that reshuffles in the Cabinet does not really matter as everything is dictated by the central command a reference to the prime minister and BJP chief Amit Shah.
Ahead of the much-awaited Cabinet reshuffle on Sunday, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury took to Twitter to take potshots at the Narendra Modi Cabinet.
Nitin Gadkari will meet the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah at 7.30, reports News18. Gadkari is currently the Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping.
PIB confirms that the swearing-in ceremony and cabinet reshuffle is scheduled at Rashtrapati Bhavan around 10 am on Sunday
Media reports speculate that Sushma Swaraj may leave the Ministry of External Affairs and move to the defence ministry. According to News18, this decision could be made during the meeting between Amit Shah and Narendra Modi at the prime minister's 7, Lok Kalyan Marg residence. Nitin Gadkari is also reportedly expected to attend the meeting.
The exit of Bharti and Rudi clearly suggests that Modi considered performance as key criteria. Both these ministers were in-charge of two flagship projects Skill India and Namami Gange which had been very close to Modis heart. Three years down the line, they have not shown tangible results.
By all indications, the size and scale of Sundays cabinet reshuffle exercise is going to be big. Modi government has only 18 months left in office to deliver on its promises.
"It is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's prerogative who should be given what responsibility. He is the one to decide on tomorrow's cabinet reshuffle," says Nitin Gadkari.
NDTV reports that Arun Jaitley is likely to retain finance portfolio. It's sources also corroborate reports that Nitin Gadkari is likely to get promoted. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, whose current term has been mired by derailments and controversies, may get a new portfolio. According to Firstpost report, sources say that he might get the environment ministry's responsibility. Health minister JP Nadda is also likely to be shifted to another portfolio, while Ravi Shankar Prasad might get a new profile, NDTV adds.
Nine new ministers to be inducted tomorrow in the cabinet reshuffle reports Hindustan Times. News18 states that BJP president Amit Shah might not join the council of ministers. ANI adds that the list of leaders that might be inducted are Ashwini Kumar Choubey (Bihar), Shiv Pratap Shukla (Uttar Pradesh), Virendra Kumar (Madhya Pradesh), Anant Kumar Hegde, former IFS officer Hardeep Singh Puri, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, ex-Mumbai Police chief Satya Pal Singh, Alphons Kannanthanam and Raj Kumar Singh.
Nine ministers to be inducted in cabinet reshuffle tomorrow
The new batch of ministers is highly qualified, with a number of them having professional as well as doctorate degrees. They come from diverse social and economic backgrounds, as well as from across the country stretching from Uttar Pradesh to Kerala and Karnataka; and Rajasthan to Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
Given the task at hand, all the new ministers are likely to be strategically placed in key ministries, especially focusing on last mile delivery directly to the people. The new ministers come from varied walks of life, bringing in their unique professional perspective and proficiency to the Council of Ministers. Many of them also bring rich administrative and governance experience.
Making a careful choice in the talent pool available among his colleagues, the prime minister chose the new ministers with a clear mandate to deliver on his vision of a New India.
All you need to know about 9 new faces likely to join Narendra Modi's Council of Ministers
A Lok Sabha MP from Buxar in Bihar, Ashwini Kumar Choubey is member of the Parliamentary Committee on Estimates and Standing Committee on Energy. He is also a member of Central Silk Board. He has been elected for five consecutive terms to the Bihar Legislative Assembly. He has held important portfolios including health, urban development and public health engineering as a Cabinet minister of the Government of Bihar for eight years.
Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony at 10.30 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Modi has called all the new ministers at his 7 Lok Kalyan Marg residence for a breakfast meeting at 9 am, NDTV reported.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi to meet new ministers at 9 am
Shiv Pratap Shukla is a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh and a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development. Shukla served as a Cabinet minister in the Uttar Pradesh government for eight years, and is known for his work in rural development, education and prison reform during his tenure. He was also elected as a Member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly for four consecutive times in 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1996.
According to NDTV, former civil servants RK Singh, Satyapal Singh and Alphons Kannanthanam are likely to be made Ministers of State in the Narendra Modi's Council of Ministers.
Speaking to NDTV, Union minister Nitin Gadkari, who is speculated to take over the railway ministry said, "It is the prime minister's prerogative to allocate portfolios. New ministers will be inducted and PM Modi will take a decision on this".
There are six outgoing ministers from the Cabinet, including Kalraj Mishra (MoS MSME), Rajiv Pratap Rudy (MoS Independent Charge of Skill Development), Bandaru Dattatreya (Labour), Faggan Singh Kulaste (MoS Health), Sanjiv Balyan (MoS Water Resources) and Mahendra Nath Pandey (MoS HRD). Pandey was recently named BJP chief of Uttar Pradesh.
Who are out of the Modi Council of Ministers?
Meanwhile, News18 reports that Dharmendra Pradhan, Nirmala Sitaraman and Piyush Goyal may be elevated to the Cabinet rank.
While defence ministry generally goes to a political heavy weight, who becomes a part of the Cabinet Committee on Security. Speculations are rife that Nitin Gadkari or Suresh Prabhu may get the portfolio. Whether external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj be chosen to head the ministry will also be seen.
According to News18, Kannanthanam's selection is part of Amit Shahs plans to bring Catholic Church in Kerala closer to the NDA. The report notd that Shah has been making overtures to the Church for support. It is significant that Kanjirappally, from where Kannanthanam was elected as a MLA in 2006, is dominated by Syrian Christians.
JD(U) confirms none of the members will be made ministers
The Congress also accused the Centre of being "selective" and "opportunistic" in dealing with opposition leaders under investigation in cases of corruption.
Ahead of a reshuffle of the Union Cabinet, the Congress on Saturday raised questions on whether the ministers who may be removed or have resigned have any link to corruption cases that are being probed.
During his multiple stints in Parliament, Virendra Kumar has amongst others been a member of the Parliamentary Committees on Labour and Welfare, Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Privileges, Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Virendra Kumar is a Lok Sabha MP from Tikamgah, Madhya Pradesh. He has had a distinguished career in public service as a six-term Lok Sabha MP. Kumar is the chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour, and has been chairman of the Joint Committee on Office of Profit and a member of National Social Security Board.
Not only Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Nirmala Sitharaman, but BJP's minority face Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will also be made a Cabinet minister.
Amid the Cabinet reshuffle, Nana Patole, BJP MP from Bhandara-Gondiya, hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that he does not like being questioned by anyone. Modi doesnt like to take any questions and had got very angry when I raised some issues about the OBC Ministry and farmer suicides at a meeting of BJP MPs. When Modi is asked questions, he asks you if you have read the party manifesto and are aware of various government schemes. The Indian Express quoted Patole telling a gathering in a meeting.
Narendra Modi does not like to be questioned, says Maharashtra BJP MP
According to media reports, there are 4P passion, proficiency, professionalism and political acumen that is determining who will be part of the new Narendra Modi Council of Ministers.
News18 quotes Sources close to Nitin Gadkari as saying that the Union minister wants to continue with current portfolios surface transport and shipping. However, he is also believed to have said that any added responsibility is welcome.
During his multiple stints in the Parliament, he has been a member of multiple Parliamentary Standing Committees including the likes of finance, home affairs, human resource development, commerce, agriculture and external affairs. Hegde has also been a member of the Spices Board of India for four terms.
Anantkumar Hegde is a Lok Sabha MP from Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka. He is a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs and Human Resource Development. Having been elected as an MP for the first time at the age of 28 years, Hedge is now a fifth term Lok Sabha MP.
Hardeep Puri likely to be made MoS Commerce or Defence, say reports
Shiv Sena is unhappy and will not attend today's oath ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan, News18 reports.
Singh has served in multiple roles of responsibility including Defence Production Secretary and Joint Secretary Home; as well as heading home, industries, public works and agriculture among other departments in the Bihar government. He is known for his contributions to schemes for police and prison modernization, and laying down a framework for disaster management.
Raj Kumar Singh is a Lok Sabha MP from Arrah, Bihar. He is a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committees on Health and Family Welfare, Personnel, Pensions and Public Grievances and Law & Justice. Raj Kumar Singh is also a former IAS officer of the 1975 batch, Bihar cadre. He rose up the ranks to become the Home Secretary of India.
Union minister Uma Bharati will not attend the swearing in ceremony. According to NDTV, the firebrand leader will remain in Lalitpur.
"Thank you for the wishes. Media, friends have played a huge role in my success," Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi tells CNN-News18.
Puris four-decade career in diplomacy spans the multilateral arena, included critical roles of ambassador and permanent representative of India to the United Nations, ambassador to Brazil and the United Kingdom and permanent representative of India to Geneva. As the head of the Indian delegation to the UN Security Council, Hardeep Puri had served as Chairman of the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the UN as well as the president of the United Nations Security Council.
Hardeep Puri is a decorated former IFS officer of the 1974 batch, known for his experience and expertise in foreign policy and national security. Puri is the President and Chairman of Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) think tank, and he was also the vice-president of International Peace Institute, New York.
Swearing-in to begin once Narendra Modi and Ram Nath Kovind come to Rashtrapati Bhavan
JD(U) likely to be inducted into Modi Cabinet later, says NDTV
Suresh Prabhu likely to get power or environment ministry, say TV reports
The JD(U), Shiv Sena have all been ignored. This could be because favouring one over the other could've highlighted the fault lines. It is notable that Shiv Sena is sulking over not getting a ministerial berth and Nitish Kumar, too, has denied any plans of attending the function on Sunday.
In Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, Piyush Goyal and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi's Cabinet berths, the narrative is reinforced. Two things emerge. One, the BJP is trying to dispel the notion that it is doesn't have talent within its ranks. Two, the NDA might be grappling with internal wranglings.
New faces to be sworn-in and elevation of four ministers of state into the Cabinet have all been a strictly BJP-only affair. The nine new faces are a mixture of BJP MPs and bureaucrats.
Dharmendra Pradhan first to take oath as Cabinet minister
Piyush Goyal second person to take oath as Cabinet minister
Naqvi is an articulate face and has never made anything controversial statements.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi's elevation as a full-fledged member of the Narendra Modi Cabinet could be a message to the Muslims, who have variously felt left out of the new power equation in Indian politics. There were no Muslim Cabinet ministers in Modi regime after Najma Heptullah resigned to take up the Governor's post.
Rajya Sabha MP Shiv Pratap Shukla is the first one to take oath as Minister of State. Shukla has been a minister in BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh.
Choubey, who has been a health minister is the Nitish Kumar government in the past, is a Brahmin strongman from Bihar. He is currently a Lok Sabha MP from Buxar.
BJP's Veerendra Kumar is a six-term MP from Tikamgarh and an important Dalit face of the BJP.
Singh is a first-term MP from Arah, Bihar. A former Home Secretary, Singh is popular for once arresting LK Advani during the 1990 Rath Yatra.
Anantkumar Hegde, the Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Kannada, was one of the youngest MPs in the 11th Lok Sabha in 1996. Hegde is a five-term MP, who became a giantkiller by defeating Margaret Alva.
A former envoy to the United Nations, Hardeep Puri was one of the top diplomats of India. A 1974-batch IFS officer, he is reported to be made a MoS defence or commerce.
Shekhawat is a first-term MP from Jodhpur. A popular figure on social media, he began his career as a farmer leader, affiliated to the RSS.
A former IPS officer, Singh was the Mumbai Police commissioner before taking the political plunge in 2014.
Alphons Kannanthanam is a former IAS officer of the 1979 batch, Kerala cadre. He is also a practicing advocate. Alphons became famous as Delhi's "Demolition Man" when he was the commissioner of the Delhi Development Authority, having cleared DDA areas of encroachment removing around 15,000 illegal buildings.
After the elevation of four MoS to cabinet rank and the induction of nine new MoS rank ministers, the swearing-in ceremony is over.
Naqvi's elevation means that Union Cabinet will have representation of a Muslim member. He has been consistent, non-confrontationist and up to mark as MoS parliamentary affairs and minority affairs.
Piyush Goyal has impressed Modi and Shah by his performance in his ministry and by his organisational work. His elevation to Cabinet rank would make it possible for him to hold more important portfolios and also have a greater say in Maharastra politics.
After Venkaiah Naidu's exit from active politics, Nirmala Sitharaman has the potential to emerge as the BJP's face in South India (other than Karnataka). She hails from TamilNadu. Sitharaman also enjoys confidence of Modi, Arjun Jaitley and Amit Shah.
Pradhan has proved his worth by Ujjwala scheme but one of the main reasons behind his elevation to Cabinet rank is to give him required profile to make him party's chief ministerial face in Odisha.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pick of four ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Sitharaman and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is performance based but the politics of it is interesting.
According to The Economic Times , Rajyavardhan Rathore and Jitendra Singh are being considered for more significant assignments idue to their record as diligent and competent ministers. The report added that Rathore and Jitendra, who is MoS in PMO, have impressed the BJP leadership with their work culture.
One option could be Piyush Goyal, who is expected to take the over. Speculation is that he might get additional charge of Railways.
Suresh Prabhu won't remain Railway minister as he took to twitter to announce farewell. There is no clarity yet on who will take up the job. Nitin Gadkari is apparently reluctant to take it up so late and owning up its failures.
An official statement from Rashtrapati Bhavan on allocation of portfolio is expected before the prime minister leaves for China in the afternoon. On past occasions November 2014 and July 2016 shuffling of ministries and allocation of portfolios was very late in night. This time around, however, it is different.
But the bigger news would be when the portfolios and reshuffle is announced. Doubts over the defence and railway ministries would finally come to an end which could also start an interesting spiral for other ministries.
Nine new ministers of state have been sworn-in and four ministers of state (Independent Charge) have been elevated to Cabinet rank. Sources within the government told Firstpost that the entry and promotion was based on Modi's 4P formula: Passion + Proficiency + Professional & Political acumen - for Progress.
Kannanthanam and Puri are presently not members of Parliament and are likely to be elected to the Rajya Sabha within the stipulated six months.
PTI notes that a highlight of the third reshuffle of the Modi cabinet in as many years is the induction of people with proven administrative ability like Puri, R K Singh, Satyapal Singh and Kannanthanam, underlining the Prime Minister's efforts to give a fresh impetus to governance.
Kannanthanam and Puri need to be in Parliament in next six months
PTI notes that three of the BJP MPs being inducted Kumar, Hegde and Shekhawat are from Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan respectively where Assembly polls are due next year.
Three ministers in the Council of Ministers with an eye on Assembly elections
"Nitish Kumar was open to consider the proposal of joining the cabinet as he himself said but there was no consensus within other constituents of the NDA till the last minute. Shiv Sena was perhaps demanding more share and AIADMK government in Tamilnadu was also far from stable. These are the reasons why the PM and Amit Shah chose to limit the rejig within BJP," he explained.
A top leader of the JD(U), considered close to chief minister Nitish Kumar, claimed there was absolutely no differences with BJP or within the party over joining the Union Cabinet.
JD(U) brushes aside news of differences with BJP over Cabinet reshuffle
Piyush Goyal is slated to be the next railways minister.
According to reports, Arun Jaitley will continue to handle two key portfolios of defence and finance even after the Cabinet reshuffle. Even though it is a speculation, experts question BJP's decision of not appointing someone else for a vital ministry as the defence.
According to News18, Suresh Prabhu is likely to swap ministries with Piyush Goyal. So we can expect Prabhu to become the new power ministry while Goyal may be the new railway minister.
TV reports suggest that there won't be any change in the portfolios of Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh. These three along with the prime minister are part of the Cabinet Committee on Security.
If Puri is a Sikh, then Alphons is a Christian from Kerala, who first made his mark in national capital as vice-chairman of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA). His entry into Modi's ministry is expected to provide BJP some leeway in Christian community in Kerala.
Puri has an excellent record as a diplomat and was also associated with Ajit Dovals Vivekananda Foundation. During his student days, Puri's thought process was closer to that of BJP (the then Jan Sangh) but his lateral entry as minister in third and possibly the final expansion of the Modi government by itself is a big story.
Hardeep Singh Puri and Alphons Kannanthanam are not members of any House of Parliament and the onus is now on party leadership to help them enter Rajya Sabha before expiry of mandatory six months period .
After Shiv Sena, JD(U) too says it was a 'BJP reshuffle'
Hardeep Singh Puri likely to be new MoS, Defence: News18
According to News18, Arun Jaitley is likely to be relieved of the additional charge of the defence ministry as he wants to focus on the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections.
Kumar is known for his simplicity and is often seen taking a lift from anyone in the town to reach his destination.
The 63-year-old is passionate about the cause of cow protection and is closely associated with the successful management and functioning of the Gau Seva Sangh Sanstha in Sagar town of Madhya Pradesh.
Associated with the RSS from childhood, Virendra Kumar is a six-time Lok Sabha member from Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh and the BJP's Dalit face.
Virendra Kumar is known for being a grassroot politician
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is a Lok Sabha MP from Jodhpur, Rajasthan. He is a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on finance and chairperson of the fellowship committee. A technology-savvy, progressive farmer; Shekhawat is one of the most followed political leaders on Quora globally.
After the Cabinet reshuffle, Arun Jaitley will be off to Japan, reports NDTV
In 2004, Pradhan was elected a member of the 14th Lok Sabha from the same constituency and held the seat till 2009, before he lost the subsequent poll. He was also a member of the Odisha legislative assembly between 2000 and 2004.
His father, Debendra Pradhan, was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and an MP from Odisha's Deogarh constituency.
'Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana', of providing LPG connections. 48-year-old Pradhan, who has emerged as the party's most prominent face in Odisha, is also praised in the government circles for having made the 'Give It Up' plan, on people giving up subsidised cooking gas voluntarily, a success.
Pradhan's rise comes on the back of his performance as a Minister of State of Petroleum and Natural Gas, which is spearheading Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet scheme,
Others who took oath in Hindi were Shiv Pratap Shukla, Ashwini Choubey, Virendra Kumar, Anant Kumar Hegde, R.K. Singh, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Satya Pal Singh, all of whom became Ministers of State.
Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the three others who became cabinet ministers, took their oath in Hindi.
Sitharaman has been promoted to the cabinet while Puri and Kannanthanam became Ministers of State.
The three ministers who took oath in English were Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, former diplomat Hardeep Singh Puri and former bureaucrat Alphons Kannanthanam.
All but three ministers took oath in Hindi on Sunday during a swearing in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in which nine new ministers were inducted and four Ministers of State were elevated to the Cabinet.
Three ministers took oath in English, rest in Hindi
Nirmala Sitharaman. who earlier held the independent charge of the commerce and industry ministry, has become the first independent woman defence minister of India. Indira Gandhi had held additional charge of portfolio in between 1980 and 1982.
Suresh Prabhu is the new commerce and industry minister, while Hardeep Puri is now Minister of State, Urban Development.
Suresh Prabhu is the new commerce minister, Hardeep Puri is MoS, Urban Development
Not less than four out of nine new faces have bureaucratic background and it is a testament to the fact that PM is concerned about the gap in perception and performance. Bureaucrats typically bring in sectoral expertise and are well-trained in the system, but Prabhu's travails with Railways shows that the it could be a double-edged sword. Very often technocrats, who follow policy rather than making them, could become subservient to the system instead of overhauling it.
Among the key takeaways from Narendra Modi's Cabinet Reshuffle so far as we wait for the allocation of portfolios, Suresh Prabhu's departure would rank lower than Prime Minister's push for inducting bureaucrats and technocrats into his team.
Prabhu's departure from Railways shows pitfalls of having bureaucrats as ministers
Smriti Irani, who held the additional charge after the elevation of Venkaiah Naidu as the Vice-President of India, will now retain the I&B portfolio. However, India is likely to get a new textiles minister.
Uma Bharti, who held the water resources and Namame Gange ministry since 2014, will now be the new drinking water and sanitation minister. Bharti did not attend the swearing-in ceremony on Sunday as she was in Lalitpur, Varanasi.
Uma Bharti will now handle drinking water and sanitation portfolio, say reports
Dharmendra Pradhan, who had the independent charge of the oil and petroleum ministry, will now be the new skill development minister, replacing Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
RK Singh, the former home secretary, will now hold the independent charge of the power ministry, which was earlier handled by Piyush Goyal, who has got a promotion as the new railway minister.
Alphons Kannanthanam is a former IAS officer of the 1979 batch, Kerala cadre. He is also a practicing advocate. Alphons became famous as Delhi's "Demolition Man" when he was the commissioner of the Delhi Development Authority, having cleared DDA areas of encroachment removing around 15,000 illegal buildings.
Rajyavardhan Rathore is now minister for Sports and Youth Affairs (I/C)
Nitin Gadkari, who is already handling the portfolios of road and surface transport along with shipping, will now also be heading the water resources ministry. Initially there were speculations that he may be given the charge of the railway or defence ministry.
Known to have a deep focus on rural India, Hegde is the founder president of Kadamba, an NGO working in the field of rural development, rural health, SHGs, rural marketing and other rural welfare programmes.
Ashwini Choubey is also credited to have raised the slogan "Ghar - Ghar me ho Shouchalaya ka nirman, Tabhi hoga Ladli Bitiya ka Kanyadaan", and has helped construct 11,000 toIlets for Mahadalit families.
On the other hand, persons who have held official positions in the government have become a more prominent part of this ministry. These include police officers, a former home secretary, and an officer who made a name for the no-nonsense demolition of illegal buildings in Delhi.
Another signal from this reshuffle again subtle, and so largely unnoticed is that figures who were prominent in the Advani and Vajpayee years are on shaky ground. Several of those who were dropped, including Kalraj Mishra, Bandaru Dattatreya, and Rajiv Pratap Rudy, were prominent in that period.
Satya Pal Singh is a Lok Sabha MP from Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh. He was a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on home affairs and Chairperson of the Joint Committee on Offices of Profit.
Former IPS officer Satyapal Singh, who was inducted into the Modi Council of Ministers, will now be a minister of state in the ministry of Human Resources Development as well in the Nitin Gadkari-led Water resources ministry.
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the Lok Sabha MP from Jodhpur, who was a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on finance and chairperson of the fellowship committee, will now be a MoS in the agriculture ministry. Radha Mohan Singh continues to be the Cabinet minister for agriculture.
Vijay Goel, who earlier held the independent charge of the sports and youth affairs ministry, will now be a MoS in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs as well as the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
While referring to his two brief stints as the defence minister, News18 quoted finance minister Arun Jaitley as saying, "It was a great experience."
Initially, a MoS in the ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Giriraj, the Newada MP, now gets the independent charge of the ministry. Initally, Kalraj Mishra was hadnlig the ministry.
Nirmala Sitharaman who landed the crucial defence portfolio in a major rejig of the Modi government on Sunday credited her elevation to a Cabinet rank minister to "cosmic grace" and support from party leadership. "Somebody who has come from a small town, grown into the party with all the support of the leadership, and if given such responsibility, it just makes you feel sometimes that cosmic grace is there. Otherwise, it is impossible," she told reporters after taking the oath.
Parrikar, who served as defence minister from 2014 to 2017, returned to state politics after the Goa Assembly elections earlier this year. Finance minister Arun Jaitley was holding additional charge of the key ministry.
Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Sunday congratulated his party colleague Nirmala Sitharaman on being appointed the country's first full-fledged woman defence minister.
"Very significant landmark in this reshuffle is that we now have Nirmala Sitharaman as the new Defence Minister," Arun Jaitley said. "It is a case where a minister performs well and earns a higher responsibility for herself. "I am sure, now that I have an extremely competent successor in Nirmala Sitharaman, she will carry the road forward," he added about her role as the defence minister. Jaitley will continue as the Minister of Finance; and Minister of Corporate Affairs. Jaitley also added that he'll be leaving tonight for Japan as it would not be "logistically possible" for the new defence minister to attend the two day security dialogue.
Arun Jaitley says Nirmala Sitharaman taking oath as the defence minister is a 'significant landmark'
"I resigned as railway minister on moral grounds; Piyush Goyal will take prime minister Narendra Modi's dream forward," Cabinet Minister Commerce and Industry Ministry Suresh Prabhu tells News18
Suresh Prabhu reacts to Piyush Goyal taking oath as the new Minister of Railways
Shukla and Pandey are Brahmins, and the moves are being seen as efforts by the party to keep the community in its fold for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma in Uttar Pradesh is also a Brahmin.
The 65-year-old Shukla, who belongs to Gorakhpur the citadel of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath joined the Union council of ministers just days after Mahendra Nath Pandey from Ghazipur, also in eastern Uttar Pradesh, was made state BJP chief.
The induction of Shiv Pratap Shukla as a minister highlighted the importance of the Brahmin vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party, they said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet reshuffle on Sunday turned the spotlight on Purvanchal or eastern Uttar Pradesh and the BJP's efforts at balancing regions and caste equations, political leaders in Lucknow said.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj is member of the CCS, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is responsible for decisions on external and internal security. Its other members are finance minister Arun Jaitley and home minister Rajnath Singh.
With the appointment of Nirmala Sitharaman as the new defence minister on Sunday, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), will now have two women ministers.
With Nirmala Sitharaman as new defence minister, central security committee to have two women
Hegde in March last year had sparked a controversy over his reported remarks allegedly linking Islam to terrorism, and is facing a case under IPC in this regard.
A five-time Member of Parliament from Uttara Kannada Lok Sabha constituency, having entered the Parliament at the age of 28, he is currently the member of Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs and Human Resources.
A hardcore RSS member and a controversial politician Anantkumar Hegde has emerged as a dark horse to find a ministerial slot.
In other words Prime Minister Narendra Modis expression of high confidence in the abilities of Raj Kumar Singh, Alphons Kannanthanam (both IAS), Hardeep Singh Puri (IFS) and Satya Pal Singh (IPS) is also in some ways the prime ministers expression of low confidence in the regular bench strength comprising of entry level cadre of politicians. This has caused certain unease among a section of party leaders.
Induction of four retired bureaucrats, two of them not even MPs, among nine new ministers who took the oath of office at Rashtrapati Bhavan with stress on "performance" and "last mile delivery" speaks volume about the lack of talent pool in the party.
Scarcity of talented legislators in BJP lays bare after Kannanthanam, Puri become ministers
It is a risky gambit. For, the need to gird up the defence preparedness has been widely felt in the wake of Chinas belligerence over the Doka La stand-off, which ended amid tremendous tension just about three days before the reshuffle. Metaphorically speaking, the defence minister will need to move mountains.
The most startling aspect of the Narendra Modi Cabinet reshuffle is that a minister who has just been promoted to Cabinet rank has been given the defence portfolio. It normally goes to one of the most senior politicians in the government, but the new defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, is listed just above the minister for minority affairs at the bottom of the list of Cabinet ministers.
Narendra Modi's bet on Nirmala Sitharaman sounds risky, but could be key to defence modernisation
"This is new drama being enacted by the BJP. The people have lost hope and are angry with the government. In place of politicians, retired bureaucrats are being relied on more in the expansion and an attempt is being made to propagate the agenda of RSS," she said in a statement. The expansion reflects the tensions in the BJP and in the NDA, she added.
The expansion is an attempt to divert the attention of the people from the "failure of the government on burning problems like poverty, unemployment, Ganga cleaning" as well as promises made by the BJP during the Lok Sabha polls, Mayawati said.
The expansion of the Narendra Modi cabinet at the Centre is an attempt to divert the attention of the people from the government's "failure" in tackling burning issues the country is facing, BSP chief Mayawati said on Sunday.
He also termed the expansion "maximum government and minimum governance". "This reflects that the prime minister does not trust his political colleagues," Tewari added. PTI
Talking to the media, Tewari claimed Modi was "strangely disconnected" from the Cabinet reshuffle exercise. "It seems that (BJP president) Amit Shah is the prime minister," he said, referring to reports that claimed Shah summoned ministers and asked them to resign before the rejig.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari described the nine new ministers as a "senior citizens' club", pointing out that while the median age of a person in the country was 27 years, the average age of the new entrants was 60.44 years.
Her surprise nomination to the post of defence minister means two things that she has acquired the supreme confidence of the prime minister and her integrity factor which was considered the most critical thing for occupying this post in the Modi regime is beyond doubt in eyes of her two political bosses. At another level, her big bang promotion means that the writ of the Prime Ministers Office would run large in the defence ministry.
Nirmala Sitharaman is new defence minister: PMO writ likely to remain large in her ministry
Defence Minister designate Nirmala Sitharaman calls on Home Minister Rajnath Singh after being sworn in as the union cabinet minister. She will take charge of the ministry after Arun Jaitley concludes his security dialogue in Japan
But partys master strategist Amit Shah had other plans in his mind when he pitched for Alphons, who is currently a member of the BJPs national executive committee, for the ministerial berth. Shaw saw in him a potential candidate who could win a seat for the party from Kerala in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
It had expected either state president Kummanam Rajashekharan or Suresh Gopi, partys lone Rajya Sabha member, to be in the ministry when they made a strong bid for representation to the southern state in the Narendra Modi government.
The induction of bureaucrat-turned politician Alphons Kannanthanam into the Union cabinet has come as a big surprise to the state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Alphons Kannanthanam is part of Narendra Modi's 2019 plan, but BJP's Kerala unit feels otherwise
Sixty-year-old Naqvi, a Shia from Uttar Pradesh, is the lone Muslim face in the council of ministers of the Modi government. He has been handling the twin portfolios of Minority Affairs (Independent Charge) and Parliamentary Affairs. PTI
Pradhan and Naqvi retained their portfolios of Oil and Gas and Minority Affairs respectively.
The second big gainer Piyush Goyal, entrusted with the Railways portfolio, is widely credited with astutely steering the Centre's rural electrification agenda and turning around the coal sector as a Minister of State with independent charge for power, coal, new and renewable energy and mines.
Sitharaman's stunning elevation from commerce ministry to Defence grabbed the lion's share of attraction in the latest round of reshuffle.
The elevation of Dharmendra Pradhan and Nirmala Sitharaman, Rajya Sabha MPs from Odisha and Karnataka, is also reflective of the BJP's political calculation in these poll-bound states.
The BJP-led government on Sunday promoted four ministers, largely seen as performers, to the cabinet, which also got a Muslim face with the induction of Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
Four Ministers of State upgraded to cabinet rank in reshuffle
This sluggish implementation is the ostensible reason behind transport minister Nitin Gadkari, considered one of the top-performing ministers, getting the additional charge of water resources ministry, sources say.
Faced with the herculean task of fulfilling the BJP-led government's promise of cleaning the Ganga, the Centre needed nothing short of a silver bullet to meet the deadline for the project, which some allege, is being implemented at a snail's pace.
On Sunday, Sitharaman became India's second woman defence minister and the first woman to be made in-charge of this key ministry full time. "Somebody who has come from a small town, grown into the party with all the support of the leadership, and if given such responsibility, it just makes you feel sometimes that cosmic grace is there. Otherwise, it is impossible," Sitharaman told reporters here after taking oath as a Union Minister.
Nirmala Sitharaman became the first woman to be a full-time defence minister in India on Sunday. Her journey in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) started as a spokesperson and grew in rank soon with her speaking style and debating skills.
Sources in the BJP said that members of their alliance might join the government later as there was still a scope for expansion of the Union Council of Ministers. They, however, added that a decision on the allies joining the government would be taken later. PTI
JD(U) spokesperson KC Tyagi said his party was not invited to join the government. The Shiv Sena too was unhappy with its non-inclusion in the Cabinet, stating that the NDA was "almost dead" and that BJP remembered it only when it needed some support.
The third reshuffle in the Modi Cabinet turned out to be an all-BJP affair as its allies were not a part of the exercise. It was expected that its new partner, the JD(U), would get representation in the central government, but it turned otherwise.
No new member from allies, Cabinet reshuffle an all-BJP affair
Kumar as a representative from the region became an obvious choice especially after Union minister Uma Bharti, a BJP stalwart from Bundelkhand and a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh who once dominated the region, moved out of the state and got elected as an MP from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh in 2014.
BJP's top leadership chose Virendra to ensure a caste and regional balance in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, ahead of the Assembly polls in the state next year.
Why was Virendra chosen over others?
This sluggish implementation is the ostensible reason behind transport minister Nitin Gadkari, considered one of the top-performing ministers, getting the additional charge of water resources ministry, sources say.
Faced with the herculean task of fulfilling the BJP-led government's promise of cleaning the Ganga, the Centre needed nothing short of a silver bullet to meet the deadline for the project, which some allege, is being implemented at a snail's pace.
Amidst all the trumped up excitement, will someone please note 13 MORE children died yesterday in Gorakhpur?
"Agriculture in distress, Health in crisis, but ministers remain," said Chidambaram on Twitter. "Amidst all the trumped up excitement, will someone please note 13 more children died yesterday in Gorakhpur?" he said in another tweet.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday attacked the retention of Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh and Health Minister JP Nadda in the Union Cabinet, saying both the areas are in "distress and crisis".
Asked if he was expecting a ministerial berth in the reshuffle, the former Union Home Secretary said, "Whether I was expecting to become a Minister? No. Whether I was expecting this portfolio? No. Both came as surprises." IANS
"We have objectives. The Ministry will attain its objectives on time. We have to electrify (the unelectrified villages) within a set time frame," Singh said hours after taking oath of office and secrecy as Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
Newly inducted Power, New and Renewable Energy Minister Raj Kumar Singh on Sunday said his Ministry will attain its objectives on time and said he was certain to come up to the expectations of his leader.
Ministry will attain its objectives to electrify villages on time, says RK Singh
Moreover, both the MPs are highly educated, comparatively younger and have been considered for significant assignments in keeping with their tech-savvy nature and popularity among youngsters, he added. PTI
Rathore (47) and Shekhawat (49) are Rajputs, and the moves are being seen as efforts by the party to keep the community in its fold for the upcoming state assembly elections as well as the general elections scheduled in 2019.
Both the parliamentarians were given roles in the rejig as the party had received negative publicity in the Rajput community after gangster Anandpal Singh was killed in police encounter, a BJP insider said.
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore replaced Vijay Goel in the Sports Ministry, while also remaining the MoS in the I&B Ministry. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has been inducted as MoS in agriculture. This highlights the importance of Rajput vote for the BJP, they said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet reshuffle on Sunday turned the spotlight on BJP's efforts at balancing caste equations in Rajasthan, party leaders in Jaipur said.
On Sunday, Sitharaman became India's second woman defence minister and the first woman to be made in-charge of this key ministry full time. "Somebody who has come from a small town, grown into the party with all the support of the leadership, and if given such responsibility, it just makes you feel sometimes that cosmic grace is there. Otherwise, it is impossible," Sitharaman told reporters here after taking oath as a Union Minister.
Nirmala Sitharaman became the first woman to be a full-time defence minister in India on Sunday. Her journey in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) started as a spokesperson and grew in rank soon with her speaking style and debating skills.
Sources in the BJP said that members of their alliance might join the government later as there was still a scope for expansion of the Union Council of Ministers. They, however, added that a decision on the allies joining the government would be taken later. PTI
JD(U) spokesperson KC Tyagi said his party was not invited to join the government. The Shiv Sena too was unhappy with its non-inclusion in the Cabinet, stating that the NDA was "almost dead" and that BJP remembered it only when it needed some support.
The third reshuffle in the Modi Cabinet turned out to be an all-BJP affair as its allies were not a part of the exercise. It was expected that its new partner, the JD(U), would get representation in the central government, but it turned otherwise.
No new member from allies, Cabinet reshuffle an all-BJP affair
The Governor also extended her good wishes to the nine ministers who were inducted into the Union ministry and others who were promoted during today's cabinet reshuffle. 58-year old Nirmala Sitharaman became the first woman to become a full-time Defence Minister of the country.
Manipur Governor Najma Heptulla congratulated Nirmala Sitharaman on becoming the new defence minister of the country. She also expressed happiness that a woman has been given such an important post as that of defence Minister.
He also said that the state government would extend all cooperation to implement various central schemes in the state. PTI
A state government spokesperson said that the chief minister exuded confidence that with the new faces in the Union Council of Ministers under the able leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the speed of country's development would be enhanced.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday congratulated the new Union Cabinet ministers and ministers of state who took oath.
Kumar as a representative from the region became an obvious choice especially after Union minister Uma Bharti, a BJP stalwart from Bundelkhand and a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh who once dominated the region, moved out of the state and got elected as an MP from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh in 2014.
BJP's top leadership chose Virendra to ensure a caste and regional balance in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, ahead of the Assembly polls in the state next year.
Why was Virendra chosen over others?
"I had been demanding for the past over two years that Rathore should be made the sports minister. Recently, I had a chance to meet BJP chief Amit Shah over dinner and I told him that Rathore was the most deserving person to be given the job. Mr Shah had then told me that he will definitely look into it," 85-year-old Milkha told PTI in Chandigarh. PTI
Wishing Rathore the very best for his new stint, the 'Flying Sikh' said, "Having Rathore at the helm means one can expect better results. He knows inside out and what it takes to win medals at the highest level."
Legendary athlete Milkha Singh hailed Olympics silver medallist shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore being made the sports minister, saying Indian sports can get better results under his charge.
The much-awaited reshuffle in the Narendra Modi cabinet will take place on Sunday in which about half-a-dozen ministers are expected to make way for several new faces, including those from the BJP's allies.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will undertake the third and probably last major recasting of his council of ministers before the next Lok Sabha polls in 2019 and the exercise is being seen as a balancing act between his thrust on merit and demands of realpolitik.
"A process has been set in motion for the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan at around 10 am on Sunday," a top government official said.
While four junior ministers - Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjiv Kumar Balyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahendra Nath Pandey - had resigned on Thursday ahead of the rejig, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya is also learnt to have resigned on Friday. The party had asked them to quit.
Two cabinet ministers, Uma Bharti and Kalraj Mishra, have also offered to resign, said BJP sources amid speculations that there may be a few more exits.
Mishra met the prime minister on Friday and offered to quit, a source close to him said.
Bharti, who is the water resources minister, said only Shah or anyone on his behalf can speak on the issue.
"The media sought my reaction on reports in circulation since yesterday. I have said that I have not heard the question, will not hear nor will I answer it," she tweeted.
Shah had met Modi on Thursday and the two leaders are understood to have finalised the changes in the council of ministers.
Arun Jaitley, who currently holds the charge of two heavyweight portfolios finance and defence may retain only one, sources said.
Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, seen as one of the more capable ministers, can be given more responsibility.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who had taken moral responsibility for a string of train accidents and indicated his willingness to resign, may be moved to another ministry, the sources said.
Other incumbents, including Steel Minister Birender Singh, may be moved to other ministries.
BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav, party's vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Prahlad Patel, Suresh Angadi, Satyapal Singh, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Anurag Thakur, Shobha Karandlaje, Maheish Girri and Prahlad Joshi are being talked about within the party as among the probable ministers.
Power Minister Piyush Goyal, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha are seen among "good performers" in the government, a party leader said, adding that some of them can be elevated.
With the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) also likely to join the government, its leaders RCP Singh, who is its parliamentary party leader in the Rajya Sabha, and Santosh Kumar are the likely picks from the new NDA constituent.
AIADMK leader Thambidurai had met Shah on Thursday, and he, besides party leaders P Venugopal and V Maitreyan, may be the likely representatives from the Tamil Nadu party if it decides to join the government. However, the southern party has not confirmed it so far.
There are also talks of a greater representation from existing allies like the TDP and the Shiv Sena.
The current strength of the council of ministers, including the prime minister, is 73 and the maximum number of ministers cannot go beyond 81.
According to a constitutional amendment, the limit cannot exceed beyond 15 percent of the total strength of the Lok Sabha, which is 545.
While there are some vacancies, a number of senior ministers are also holding dual portfolios.
Besides Jaitley, Harsh Vardhan, Smriti Irani and Narendra Singh Tomar are handling additional charges.
After assuming office in May 2014, Modi expanded his council of ministers twice first on 9 November in 2014 and then on 5 July in 2016.
With inputs from agencies
New Delhi: Ahead of a reshuffle of the Union Cabinet, the Congress on Saturday raised questions on whether the ministers who may be removed or have resigned have any link to corruption cases that are being probed.
The Congress also accused the Centre of being "selective" and "opportunistic" in dealing with Opposition leaders under investigation in cases of corruption.
"The prime minister and the government of India must share the names and departments of persons who have been specifically named," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.
The Congress leader also called for preliminary investigation and regular cases against such people.
Singhvi said it is but natural that continued silence would be interpreted as complete lack of accountability or more appropriately as "selective accountability, as opportunistic accountability".
"I think this selectivity and opportunism is something that can very easily be a charge which can be avoided by the government by sharing with the country the details.
"But, definitely clear criminal legal action is called for," he said.
Attacking the government for targeting the Opposition leaders, the Congress leader said if you are in the government, in the council of ministers and close to the ruling party or dispensation, "then there is one kind of accountability which begins with the number zero".
"If you are not, then there is a different kind of accountability which may even exceed 100 percent," he added.
In the run-up to the third reshuffle of the Narendra Modi Cabinet, speculations are rife as to who will be inducted as a Union minister and who will be shown the door. One of the several names that are making the rounds in the media is that of Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam's health and finance minister.
According to several reports quoted by Assam Tribune, Sarma, one of the senior-most leaders in Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal government, is likely to be made Minister of State for Defence.
However, Sarma, who was a senior member of the Congress party before parting ways with the then chief minister Tarun Gogoi in 2015, took to Twitter to quash the speculations.
Pl do not speculate my induction in Central Ministry.I am not even an MP. Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) September 2, 2017
The Assam Tribune report also said that Meghalaya leader Conrad Sangma, son of former Lok Sabha speaker PA Sangma, may also be inducted into Modi's Council of Ministers.
The much-awaited Cabinet reshuffle-cum-expansion is set to take place on Sunday. Ahead of the rejig, Ministers of State Rajiv Pratap Rudy (Skill Development), Sanjeev Balyan (Agriculture) and Kalraj Mishra, who is the Cabinet minister for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises, have resigned.
A few others have also been asked to resign from their posts. Among them are Uma Bharti and Radha Mohan Singh, Giriraj Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Bandaru Dattatreya and Faggan Singh Kulaste, all of whom hold the MoS rank. They are believed to have been nudged by BJP president Amit Shah to put in their papers, informed sources said. Birender Singh, who previously held the rural development portfolio, is likely to be axed from the steel ministry.
According to sources close to Firstpost, Prakash Javadekar, the current human resource minister is expected to get the coveted defence portfolio, which is currently held as an additional charge by finance minister Arun Jaitley. On the other hand, railways minister Suresh Prabhu, who offered to resign after a series of rail accidents, is likely to be accommodated in the Cabinet as environment minister.
With inputs from IANS
Some 700,000 tonnes of steam coal to be supplied from U.S. to Ukraine by year end
A ship loaded with 62,000 tonnes of steam coal last week departed the port of the American city of Baltimore and should arrive in Yuzhny port in Ukraine by mid-September, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Valeriy Chaly has told the ZN.ua portal.
According to him, the relevant contract for the supply of coal was signed between the U.S. company XCoal Energy and Resources and Ukraine's state-owned Centrenergo on July 14 this year.
"According to the terms of the contract, it's worth expecting the delivery of 700,000 tonnes of anthracite steam coal from the United States by the end of the year. It was planned that the volume of the first batch will be 85,000 tonnes. But the shippers managed to quickly find a slightly smaller vessel for 62,000, I was present there during the loading along with the American high officials. The vessel with American coal last week left the port of Baltimore, it will take about three weeks to go to Ukraine, therefore we can expect its arrival in Yuzhny port by the middle of September," the diplomat said.
According to him, Centrenergo has full information about the supplies of this anthracite coal to Ukraine.
Patna: A day ahead of Sunday's reshuffle and expansion of the Union Council of Ministers headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bihar's ruling JD(U) said it is yet to get an invitation to join the BJP-led NDA government.
Janata Dal(United) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday told the media here that his party is yet to get an invitation to join the Union Council of Ministers. "We have learnt about the JD(U)'s entry into the Union Council of Ministers through the media. We have not received any proposal so far," Nitish Kumar said.
The chief minister said if his party gets any proposal to join, then he will take a call.
According to JD(U) leaders, the party is hopeful that two of its nominees would be inducted into the Cabinet.
Interestingly, since last week the names of a few JD(U) MPs were doing the rounds for likely induction into the Union Council of Ministers.
Local Hindi dailies have reported that JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP RCP Singh, considered close to Nitish Kumar, will be the new Union railway minister. Besides, the names of state JD(U) president and party Rajya Sabha MP Vashisht Narain Singh, party Lok Sabha MP from Purnea parliamentary constituency Santosh Kushwaha and party MP from Nalanda parliamentary constituency Kaushalender Kumar were also doing the rounds as likely to be inducted into the ministry.
The JD(U) has only two Lok Sabha MPs from Bihar. The party contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls against the BJP and was routed due to the Modi factor then. The JD(U) in 2013 had broken its 17-year-old alliance with the BJP.
The JD(U) faction led by Nitish Kumar on 19 August joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the party's national executive meeting in Patna.
Delhi seems to be drowning in its own waste, with all three major landfill sites operating way after their shelf life. Two people were killed on Friday after a portion of the Ghazipur landfill in East Delhi caved in and several others are still trapped.
The height of the garbage heaped at the Ghazipur landfill site is barely 20 metres short of Qutub Minar, the world's largest brick minaret. Although commissioned in 1984 and having long outlived its utility, the landfill continues to take in over 2,200 MTD (metric tonnes daily) of garbage from East Delhi Municipal Corporation areas. The height of the dump reaches 50 metres above ground level.
The situation at the other two garbage dumps of Delhi is no better. The Okhla landfill was commissioned in 1996 and gets 1,200 MT of waste per day. Its height is even greater than the Ghazipur landfill. Okhla dump stands at 55 metres above ground level.
The third is the Bhalaswa landfill under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation. It was commissioned in 1994 and gets 1,850 MT of solid waste per day. The height reaches 45 metres above the ground. They have all exceeded their height stipulation by 15-20 metres and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee had declared them inoperable. However, the civic bodies argue that they have "no other option" but to use these sites and they are being "continued at the risk of human life", according to PTI.
The judiciary, including the Delhi High Court, has rapped the civic bodies repeatedly over the situation, but the corporations cite unavailability of land and blame the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for not providing land.
All these three landfills reached their shelf life around 2006 but are still used to dump garbage by Delhi's municipal corporations.
The Bhalaswa garbage dump has been on fire for days now and as The Hindu reported, the Delhi Fire Services pressed two tenders into action but maintained that it was a usual landfill fire. The smoke emanating from such fires is poisonous because the waste degenerates into methane after a while, which is one of the most potent greenhouse gases. It seems like a Ghazipur in the making. With little fires and height almost reaching the Ghazipur landfill, it should be the top most area of concern for the municipal corporations.
It still serves about 50 percent of Delhi's population and people living near the Bhalaswa landfill decry government apathy as they battle with serious health concerns. Pushpa, member of Lok Shakti Manch organisation in Bhalaswa, told Firstpost that they had approached everyone from the lowest rungs to the chief minister to turn their attention towards the dire living conditions of the people living close to the landfill.
She said BJP's Vijay Bhagwat, who won the MCD polls from Swami Sharda Nand Colony, which is near the Bhalaswa colony, visited the colony and said, "I don't ever want to come again to this gandi basti (dirty village)."
Bhalaswa, which is a resettlement colony adjacent to the landfill, has its own set of problems which none of the authorities are ready to pay heed to.
The landfill site, as Pushpa said, is built on a low lying area and hence there is no outlet for dirty water. It turns into a major health hazard for the thousands living in just 12-and-half square metre houses in the colony.
The numerous fires just adds to their woes. It gets difficult for them to breathe because of the poisonous smoke. The groundwater is so polluted that people in Bhalaswa are getting sick with each passing day. "Resettlement means shifting people to a place with all facilities. But we were dumped in a place where there is nothing," Pushpa added.
While the AAP claims to have repeatedly brought up the matter with the municipal corporations, it has failed it respond to Firstpost's complaint or even acknowledge the grievances of the people living in Bhalaswa. Pushpa and others from the colony tried to contact the chief minister to seek his help but they are yet to hear from him.
Firstpost tried contacting various authorities to flag this issue as well but so far, we have only been stuck in a bureaucratic circle.
The North MCD has not yet responded to our complaint and when contacted, Firstpost was asked to call again within shift timings (9.30 am to 5.30 pm). The call was made at 5.10 pm.
Firstpost also tried to raise the issue with Surender Singh Khrub, who won the MCD elections from Bhalaswa, but he is yet to respond to the complaint. When the grievance was sent to the chief minister's office, it was forwarded to the state health ministry and then to the principal secretary. The secretary did not bother to respond and when his office was called, after much hesitation, Firstpost was asked to contact the additional secretary or the CMO again.
BJP, which is facing flak for the Ghazipur landfill cave in, conceded that the landfill needs to be shifted to a different location. Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said, "No doubt it's serious concern, talked to L-G about shifting landfill. Also asked compensation for those who died." Tiwari has, however also been evading questions on who should take responsibility for the Ghazipur incident.
While the people living near the Bhalaswa landfill fight for basic facilities and their right to life, their complaints and grievances get muffled in the political blame game.
With inputs from PTI
Despite incessant child deaths due to encephalitis in Gorakhpur over the years, no separate comprehensive program has been initiated to fight the menace. This shows the callousness of the government in dealing with an issue seen as a national tragedy.
The endemic that has claimed thousands of lives, mostly children, captured national attention when over 60 children, many of whom were infected with encephalitis, died due to lack of oxygen in Baba Raghav Das Medical College from 7 to 11 August.
The tragedy struck again after that, from 27 to 1 September, claiming another 35 lives in various wards of the hospital including 9 in the encephalitis ward.
There is no denying the fact that encephalitis is a killer disease in Gorakhpur and its adjacent areas. According to India Today, encephalitis claimed 25,000 lives in Gorakhpur in the last four decades. The article also says that last year, 224 children died due to the endemic in Gorakhpur till September last year. This year, the number was 175 till 29 August.
These deaths occurring through four decades should have been enough to compel the government to introduce a holistic scheme to eradicate the disease. But these deaths seem to have been treated as common facts which surface every monsoon.
A source in the BRD Medical College said, At present, there are 344 children admitted in the hospital. The admitted children are suffering from severe pneumonia and severe infections. During the months of July, August and September, we see a trend of similar number of children infected with the same disease being admitted in the hospital.
Rajesh Mani, Director of Manav Sewa Sansthan, Gorakhpur, told Firstpost that the efforts to fight the disease has always been curative.
Facilities of treatment were increased, but hardly any effort has been made to prevent it. As a result, the number of people getting infected rose, creating more and more pressure on the existing medical facility, he said.
He further added that past experiences have proved that only curative measures are not enough to fight the menace a separate effort including preventive and promotive measures are also equally needed.
The earlier state government introduced 100 encephalitis treatmernt centres in Gorakhpur and Basti areas. But these centres never became effective because they failed to earn the trust of the people, he said. He added that in most cases, the doctors were never present in the centres. In some cases, doctors would rather refer the patients to hospitals than treating themselves, even if they were present.
Many children receive treatment in dying condition. This is the reason of high fatality rates. Encephalitis needs immediate treatment, he said. Normally, Acute Encephalitis is seen as a vector-borne disease that spreads through mosquito bites.
But Dr RN Singh, a health activist in Gorakhpur, told Firstpost that contaminated water is now the main reason behind the spread of the endemic in Gorakhpur.
Earlier, we saw Japanese Encephalitis being spread by mosquito bite. But that has been prevented to a great extent by vaccination. At present, at the most, 9 percent of the encephalitis patients are afflicted with JE virus, he said.
In the years 2005 and 2010, massive vaccination drive against JE was taken was initiated in Gorakhpur, covering around 65 lakh and 75 lakh people. In 2013, the two-dose vaccine strategy was introduced, with a suggestion that the first dose (JE-1) be given between the ages of nine and 12 months, along with measles-containing vaccine (MCV-1) while the second one (JE-2) should be administered between the ages of 16 and 24 months, along with diphtheria/oral polio vaccine booster and MCV-2, reported The Print.
The numbers of people affected by encephalitis increases during monsoon as Gorakhpur is also a flood-affected area. But the Uttar Pradesh government is yet to formulate a comprehensive strategy to fight the menace.
Singh said that to win this battle, special attention is required for water-borne diseases, which was never present among the policy makers. In India, we do not have a special programme for water-borne diseases. The program to fight vector-borne disease is also entrusted with the additional responsibility of fighting water-borne diseases, he said.
Encephalitis is the only communicable disease which has a fatality rate as high as 30 percent. Nineteen states in India are affected by this deadly disease.
Let alone other states of India, Gorakhpur, which is one of the worst-affected areas in India, did not see a separate program for water borne disease in the last 40 years. Rather, the disease was taken as only as a seasonal affair, said Rajesh Mani.
He added that the primary health centres and community health centre are needed to be equipped to an extent that the disease can be diagnosed and treated in its early stage, in the absence of which people travel long distance to BRD Medical College or other medical facilities, wasting the crucial period of treatment in travelling long distances.
According to an IndiaSpend study in Uttar Pradesh, the number of public health centres (PHCs), the frontline of the governments healthcare system, decreased 8 percent over 15 years to 2015, a period when the states population increased by more than 25 percent.
A source in the hospital said, The conditions of many of the children brought to the hospital are so severe that even the highest order of health facility is not able to help them survive.
BRD Medical College caters to the medical needs of more than four districts in a radius of 300 kilometres.
As this Hindustan Times article suggests,If the symptoms are not treated within hours of the first few appearing, 30 percent of those affected die.
Experts say that high malnutrition could also be a triggering factor of deaths of children suffering from encephalitis and this issue should also be looked into while chalking out a comprehensive plan to fight the disease.
As per National Family Health Service data, Gorakhpur, almost 1 in 2 children under five is stunted and that it is one of the districts in the state with high levels of wasting, so there is a high chance that the children were also malnourished. Its important that whenever there are child deaths, the role of under nutrition be ascertained as part of the investigation it is an underlying cause of close to 45% of child deaths globally, says Purnima Menon, a nutrition expert with International Food Policy Research Institute.
There is no doubt about the fact that the present dispensation in Uttar Pradesh cannot be blamed for the errors of omission committed by earlier governments. But the present deaths should be seen as an imperative to formulate a holistic policy to fight the menace of encephalitis.
Mumbai: DMK Working President MK Stalin asserted on Saturday that his party would never come to power in Tamil Nadu through the "back door" despite there being tremendous political uncertainty in the state.
He insisted that the AIADMK government may collapse any time.
"DMK is not hankering after power. We will not come to power through the back door because a proper government cannot be run in such circumstances. The DMK will never work against democratic norms," he said at a function here.
However, Stalin said there was tremendous uncertainty in Tamil Nadu because of the crisis in the ruling party, raising questions over the stability of the government. "There will surely be a change. Whether the government will last a year or months or even days is the issue. If it falls any moment, there should be no surprise," he said.
He was speaking at the birthday celebrations of a local DMK activist in Mumbai after unveiling a statue of saint-poet Thiruvalluvar in the megapolis.
New Delhi: East Delhi mayor Neema Bhagat on Saturday announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh each to the kin of two persons who died after a portion of a mountainous garbage dump in Ghazipur caved in.
The giant dump at the Ghazipur landfill site stood 60 metres high, nearly as tall as a 15-storey building, before a portion of it gave in on Friday because of heavy rains in the national capital.
A car, scooter and two motorcycles were swept away by the resulting momentum of the garbage and slush, and thrown off into a canal. While Raj Kumari (32) and Abhishek (22) died, five persons were injured in the incident.
The landfill site falls under the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC).
Bhagat, who met the family members of the deceased, said, "The landfill site had reached its saturation point in 2002".
She announced an ex gratia of Rs 1 lakh each to the families of the deceased from the mayor's fund.
The Ghazipur landfill is the oldest of its kind in the national capital. It was started in 1984 and is spread over 29 acres.
According to officials, permissible height for a garbage dump is 20 metres. Every day, 2,500 metric tonnes of garbage is dumped at the site.
The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force on Saturday arrested Dr Kafeel Khan from Gorakhpur in connection with the deaths of many children in BRD Medical College. The development comes after additional sessions judge Shivanand Singh issued non-bailable warrants against seven of the nine people, including Khan, named in the FIR.
It was a major breakthrough, IG Special Task Force Amitabh Yash told PTI while adding, "Khan was apprehended on Saturday at around 9 am from Gorakhpur, and he is being handed over to Gorakhpur Police.
Khan was the nodal officer of BRD Medical College's paediatrics department.
#GorakhpurTragedy: Uttar Pradesh STF arrests accused Dr Kafeel Khan from Gorakhpur. ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) September 2, 2017
Following the deaths, mostly of infants, cases were registered under various sections of the IPC, Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Medical Council Act against nine persons. The FIR was registered in Lucknow's Hazratganj police station and the case was later transferred to Gorakhpur.
Khan, who was initially hailed as a hero for saving the lives of many children, was later terminated from his services by the hospital. He faces charges of negligence and financial irregularities. He was also the member of the supplies department that managed stocks and storage of equipment.
Khan has also been held responsible for not apprising Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath about the about the payment default by the hospital or the erratic oxygen supply issue. According to a report in The Indian Express, Khan was also found guilty of not adhering to norms of the Indian Medical Council and had gone on leave without proper permission the day the oxygen supply was cut off in the hospital.
BRD college principal Dr Rajeev Mishra was also believed to be colluding with Khan. They both managed the deals with the oxygen supply company and received a commission on every hospital purchase, India Today reported.
Rajeev and his wife Poornima Mishra were also arrested by the STF in Kanpur and sent to 14-day judicial custody. They were brought to Gorakhpur on Wednesday and presented before the anti-corruption court on Thursday. Rajeev was also suspended by the Yogi Adityanath's government following the spike in the number of deaths.
The arrests come in the wake of the probe report by a high-powered committee headed by Chief Secretary Rajeev Kumar, which indicted Mishra and others in the tragedy.
With inputs from agencies
Ahmedabad: The City Sessions Court here on Friday pardoned Ketan Patel, a key aide of the Patidar quota agitation spearhead, Hardik Patel, in a sedition case and allowed him to turn approver.
Additional Sessions Judge S H Oza granted pardon on the condition that Ketan, who is out on bail, will fully cooperate in the investigation by turning an approver in the case for the successful prosecution of the other offenders.
Following the large-scale violence in Gujarat after the Patel community's mega rally in Ahmedabad on 25 August, 2015, the city crime branch had arrested Hardik, his aides Ketan,
Dinesh Bambhania and Chirag Patel and charged them under IPC sections 124A (sedition) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
In July this year, Ketan had moved the sessions court with a plea for pardon and expressed his desire to turn an approver in the case.
In its response, the Gujarat government, represented by Special Public Prosecutor H M Dhruv, had informed the court that the government had no problem if Ketan was willing to reveal the details about the "conspiracy" related to the case by turning an approver.
Granting him pardon, the court noted that it was necessary for the prosecution to prove the conspiracy angle while dealing with IPC sections 124A and 120B.
Further, it observed that though there were evidence against all the accused, only an accused, and not an
outsider, would know how the "conspiracy" was hatched.
The chargesheet in the case was filed by the city crime branch in January, 2016.
As per the chargesheet, Hardik and his aides, who were part of the agitating body, the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), were involved in "inciting" the youths of the Patel community to resort to violence as part of their "conspiracy" to put undue pressure on the government to accept their demand to give reservation to their community under the OBC category.
The chargesheet had also claimed that despite knowing that it was not possible for the government to accept the demand, Hardik and others deliberately indulged in "seditious activities".
It had also claimed that when the police were trying to `maintain peace in the society, Hardik and his aides continued their efforts to trigger hatred and disaffection towards the government by giving "inflammatory" statements before the media, as part of their "conspiracy" to disturb the peaceful atmosphere.
Jammu: A Border Security Force jawan was on Friday killed in sniper firing by Pakistani troops from across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmirs Poonch district, an official of the force said.
Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Kamaljit Singh (50) suffered bullet injuries in "enemy fire" from across the LoC around 17.45 hours on Friday, the BSF official said.
Singh, who was deployed at a forward post in the Krishna Ghati sector in Poonch, was given first aid. He died while being taken to a military hospital, he said.
The ASI hailed from Malkana village in Punjabs Bathinda district. He had joined the force in 1988, the official said.
"The BSF stands in solidarity with the bereaved family of the martyr and remains committed to their well being", he said.
The year 2017 has seen a sharp increase in ceasefire violations by Pakistan.
Till 1 August, there were 285 such violations by the Pakistan Army while in 2016, the number was significantly less at 228 for the entire year, according to the Army figures.
Srinagar: Militants on Friday opened fire on a police bus on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in the Pantha Chowk area, killing a policeman and injuring three others.
The bus carrying personnel of the Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police came under fire from the militants in the evening. The vehicle was going from Bemina to Zewan, a police official said.
Four policemen were injured in the attack. They were rushed to the army's 92 base hospital at Badami Bagh cantonment, where head constable Kishan Lal succumbed to his injuries, he said.
The condition of the three others is stable, he said.
Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) Head Vasyl Hrytsak has suggested legislatively prohibiting Ukrainian lawmakers, politicians, and public figures from visiting Russia.
"It will clearly help us in our work. I support the president's initiative. I would go even further, I would introduce a legal prohibition and criminal liability for visits to the aggressor state by lawmakers, politicians, and public figures," Hrytsak said in Kyiv on Saturday, replying to reporters' request to comment on the decision to impose biometric control measures on Russians entering Ukraine in 2018.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's order on introducing biometric control for foreigners, including Russian citizens, entering Ukraine in 2018 was published in the Uriadovy Kurier governmental newspaper on September 2 and, therefore, entered into effect.
Jammu: Jammu and Kashmir deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh Saturday condemned the killing of a policeman in a militant attack in Srinagar, and asserted that terrorism and separatism sponsored by Pakistan would come to an end soon.
"We condemn it (the killing of the policeman) in the strongest possible words. This is real face of terrorism, which is thrust upon us by Pakistan. Pakistan has no respect for the auspicious day (of Eid)," Singh told reporters.
Singh attended a function in Jammu to pay tributes to head constable Krishen Lal, killed in the militant attack on a police bus on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in the Pantha Chowk area on Friday.
"While Muslims are praying to God for restoration of peace in Jammu and Kashmir, these people, who are demons, at the behest of Pakistan are killing people and engineering bloodshed," he said. Singh said, "Krishen Lal has sacrificed his life for the nation. His blood will not go in vain. Definitely the sacrifice will be avenged." "We are avenging the killing of every innocent whether it is Lt. Umar Fayaz, who sacrificed his life for the nation or other people," Singh added.
Lt. Umar Fayaz was abducted and killed by terrorists in May 2017. "There will be peace and law & order soon," said Singh. "Killing people who are coming in the way of the terrorists is not Islam, whose religious leaders doesn't approve it. They are killing the people in the name of Islam, and it is condemnable," he added.
Singh also warned Pakistan of serious consequences, if it did not stop cross-border firings and attacks on civilians. "Terrorism and separatism in J&K is going to end soon. It is a proxy war, the enemy is not visible. This is why we are very much on alert 24/7," Singh added.
He claimed that separatists were feeling the pressure as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) stepped up its investigation. Talking to reporters, inspector general of police (Jammu) SD Singh Jamwal also condemned Friday's attack.
"I assure you all that we will give befitting reply to all the challenges and our police force will emerge stronger. Pakistan has made a terrorist environment here. We have faced many challenges of this kind for the past 30 years," Jamwal said.
Singh, Jamwal and National Conference MLA Devinder Singh Rana laid wreath on the mortal remains of Krishen Lal. His mortal remains were later consigned to flames at his native Jajjar Kotli in Jammu.
Srinagar: The Centre's narrative that militancy is breathing its last in Jammu & Kashmir does not have many takers in the Valley. People say killing militants without resolving the issue for which they take up arms is a fruitless exercise. In July, Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh said militancy is on its last leg in the state and the government is committed to ridding the region of violence. According to South Asian Terrorism Portal, 165 militants were killed in the state in all of 2016 while this year, 135 have been eliminated in the first eight months alone.
A police officer posted in southern Kashmir told Firstpost that top militant leaders such as Lashkar-e-Taiba's Abu Dujana, Hizbul Mujahideen's Riyaz Naikoo and Sabzar Bhat have been gunned down this year. As many as 14 'commanders' of militant outfits have fallen to the bullets of Indian security forces. The officer said only a few militants are at large and they shall be taken down soon.
Residents of areas considered hotbeds of militancy say there are almost no breaks in the security forces' search operations. Mohammad Ashraf, a resident of southern Kashmirs Tral, which has gained a reputation of being a militant bastion, said the area witnesses some sort of encounter almost every day. Sharing how it's common to hear of a militant or two getting killed, he said it seems the forces have been asked to fight till all the armed rebels are eliminated.
Treating symptom, ignoring cause
Notwithstanding the security forces' unrelenting hunt and strike rate, people of Jammu and Kashmir believe it is not the answer to the militancy problem. If one militant is killed, another 10 youngsters are ready to tread the same path," separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told Firstpost.
He said even if all the militants are killed, the discontent would remain, leaving scope for more people to take up arms. He said youngsters join forces with militants because they see oppression and suppression everywhere. The Mirwaiz said poverty, constant presence of security forces and the ever-looming suspicion on the state's youth doesn't help.
Azam Inqiliabi, a former militant who was also the chief of an umbrella organisation of militant outfits, United Jihad Council, said the phrase "militancy will die" has been echoing in the Valley for 28 years. He said the youth of the state are frustrated that the Kashmir problem still lies unresolved.
Sheikh Showkat Hussain, dean of School of Legal Studies at Central University of Kashmir, shared this sentiment. She said statements about the end of militancy have been made in the past too but little has changed. Militancy in the state is attached to and exists because of a certain cause. Till this cause remains, militancy too remains, she said poignantly.
A former militant from Srinagars old city, who did not wish to be named, said militancy has become a part and parcel of Kashmirs society. He said it will be difficult to erase it without addressing the core issue. However, he admitted that the number of militants is much less compared with what it was during the peak of insurgency in the 1990s. He said if arms and ammunition were available now as readily as they were back then, many more youth would be joining militancy.
Civil society activist and a professor at Kashmir University, Hameedah Nayeem, blamed the government for the youth taking to guns in Kashmir. She said most Kashmiris don't favour violence but the military approach drive the youngsters up the wall.
Militancy in Kashmir is a reaction to the approach adopted by the Government of India. It is provoking the youth of Kashmir to tread the path of violence. As long as the Kashmir issue remains unresolved and coercive measures are taken, militancy will remain very much intact, she said.
(Umar Shah is a Srinagar based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.)
Kochi: A court near in Kochi on Saturday allowed Malayalam superstar Dileep to get a two-hour break from jail to take part in his father's remembrance day prayers on Wednesday morning.
The Angamaly Court which heard his petition on Saturday, despite strong opposition from the prosecution that this would set a bad precedent, allowed him to take part in the function that would be held at two places near in Kochi amidst full security cover.
His father passed away in 2008.
On Tuesday, the Kerala High Court for the second time in a row denied bail to Dileep in the actress kidnapping case, in which he is accused of being the key conspirator.
The abduction of the actress was carried out by Pulsar Suni in February, police said. A week later, Suni and all the accomplices in the crime were arrested.
The police probe team arrested Dileep on 10 July after it was able to get evidence linking him with Suni.
New Delhi: India said on Friday that it has not changed its policy on refugees or illegal immigrants and the issues concerning Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar has several aspects.
"As to refugee policy, I don't think there is any change in India's long-stated policy. Insofar as illegal immigrants are concerned, that is also a very long-stated policy and based on Indian law which we will continue to follow. There is absolutely no change," Sripriya Ranganathan, Joint Secretary, Bangladesh and Myanmar, in the Ministry of External Affairs told the media here in response to a question about the Rohingyas.
At a special press conference along with External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first visit to Myanmar and China, she said the Rohingya situation in Myamnar's Rakhine state had a variety of aspects - developmental, humanitarian and security aspect.
A report prepared by a committee headed by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan which had correctly highlighted these, she said.
"What we have been trying to do, ever since the problem acquired the proportions that it has is to encourage the government to find ways of stimulating socio-economic development in the area (Rakhine).
"If there is active economic activity in the state, many of the problems will be at least be reduced," she said, adding that India was working in that direction.
Asked about last year' surgical strikes in the northeast, she said it is very well-known that the actions that were carried out by the Indian Army were carried out along the border.
"It is a difficult border on which the exact location of boundary can sometimes be difficult to make out. I don't think there is any misunderstanding between us and government of Myanmar on what we sought to do and what we will continue to do.
"The problem of the activities of insurgents who are trying to take advantage of this kind of geography to work against Indian interests is something which has remained a matter of discussion between leadership of two countries," she said.
Ranganathan said there is full confidence on both sides about each other's good intentions "and the desire to prevent any hostile activities from taking place from Myanmar soil into India".
About Modi's first state visit to Myanmar, she said he will arrive there on 5 September and will be accorded a ceremonial reception. He will subsequently meet President U Htin Kyaw and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
During his visit, Modi will also meet Indian community and and pay tributes at shrine of the exiled last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.
Ranganathan said important agreements in the pipeline were in sectors like maritime cooperation, health, development cooperation projects, culture and capacity building.
Noting the bilateral trade is $ 2.2 billion, she said India has invested $750 million in Myanmar by way of private and public investment and the development programme was quite sizeable with commitment of $1.75 billion, mostly by way of grants and aids.
"Myanmar is a very, very important partner for us in our Act East policy and Neigbhourhood first policy. It is our gateway to ASEAN," she said.
Following the tragic death of renowned gastroenterologist from Bombay Hospital Deepak Amrapurkar who fell into an open manhole when the torrential downpour lashed Mumbai on Tuesday, the failure of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to prevent such mishaps has angered many citizens.
The state of affairs in the civic body even attracted the ire of the Bombay High Court, which on Friday issued a notice to the BMC over the death of the doctor and sought a reply within two weeks. In the face of growing public outburst, the BMC also formed a one-member inquiry committee to investigate the matter and submit its report in 15 days.
As the cry for justice for Amrapurkar becomes louder, his family can seek legal recourse to at least punish those due to whose negligence a bright medical career met with an untimely and sad end.
Legal remedies for the family
As per legal norms, private parties can sue state officials both under civil and criminal laws. One could file a civil claim for monetary damages as well as a complaint seeking criminal prosecution. However, as far as the procedure for such cases is concerned, the rules that would apply in filing a case against a government servant are different from those that would apply if it were a private party.
Criminal prosecution
For example, while causing a person's death due to negligence would not amount to homicide, it could still be punishable under 304A IPC which prescribed a maximum sentence of two years of imprisonment for causing the death of a person due to negligence.
In fact, as recently as February 2017, the Supreme Court sentenced real estate baron Gopal Ansal to one year of imprisonment under the same provision, for causing the deaths of the victims in the Uphaar Cinema fire in which 59 people died.
Government servants can also be held accountable under the same provisions as well. However, for a government servant to be held criminally liable for doing (or not doing) something in the discharge of his/her official duty, a prior sanction would be required from the government without which the courts could not even start prosecution against such a person.
This would be a different situation if it was, for example, a government servant who had caused his neighbours death by being negligent about the repairs and maintenance of his own home as it was not executed during the discharge of his official duties. Here, the government servant would be prosecuted in the same manner as any other citizen.
To summarise, to prosecute those officers who were directly in charge of that area, one would first need the government to first conduct an inquiry and consequently recommend prosecution of the individual if they so require.
To illustrate, in July 2017, a general body meeting of the BMC deliberated upon the possible criminal prosecution of civic officials responsible for two separate incidents: The Ghatkopar building collapse and the death of a news anchor in Chembur who was hit by a falling coconut tree. In both instances, it was found that the mishaps could have been easily avoided were it not for the corruption, indifference and incompetence of the government servants in charge.
Demand for compensation
Apart from criminal prosecution, the family of the victim could further file a civil claim for damages against the concerned officers, the BMC and the state government. This would, however, be a long-drawn affair as civil claims require evidential proof during the trial. One would have to, although to a limited extent, prove that that damage was directly attributable to the governments negligence and breach of duty.
Since trials can take a considerable amount of time, the high courts can award compensation to be used by the family in the meantime as this would be considered a "constitutional tort".
Constitutional tort is defined as the violation of one's constitutional rights by a government servant.
One could sue the government for damages as this would be considered a breach of the fundamental Right to Life protected by our Constitution.
Joining the pending PIL
Amrapurkar's family should further, if they havent already, be represented independently before the Bombay High Court in the PIL filed by the Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association.
The PIL filed by the traders' body claimed that Amrapurkar fell into the open manhole as there was no Danger sign or barricade near it, The Indian Express reported, a gross negligence on part of the BMC.
According to The Times of India, the plea demanded registration of a criminal case under section 304A (causing death due to negligence) of Indian Penal Code against civic commissioner Ajoy Mehta and other officers of the Storm Water Drains department and a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to be given to any charitable organisation.
While this would not recompense the family for their loss, it would add momentum to the existing PIL and hopefully, this would produce some tangible results. Judicial oversight of the dismal state of infrastructure required to deal with heavy rainfall and floods in Mumbai is desperately required.
In a case recently taken up by the Bombay High Court on its own motion, the BMC was severely rebuked for the death of over 20 people in this monsoon alone attributed to potholes and collapsing roads. Since the government and local authorities have failed miserably year after year, it is quite appropriate for the judiciary to step in and fill this vacuum as it has done so in several other instances when there is inaction of the executive or the legislature.
Brilliant career cut short
Amarapurkar's body was found two days later near the Worli seashore after he fell into a manhole on a flooded street in Lower Parel. The police later recovered his umbrella from near the site.
The deceased was in a car on his way home to Ameya Cooperative Housing Society on Appasaheb Marathe Marg, Prabhadevi, when he found himself stuck in traffic due to waterlogging. He told his driver to drop him near the Elphinstone Road station and he would walk home since it was a short journey.
When Amrapurkar failed to reach home, members of his family showed his photograph to people along his supposed route. A missing complaint was later lodged and a search operation with the help of fire brigade and BMC personnel was started to find Amrapurkar which finally culminated to a tragic end.
Torrential rains had pounded Mumbai throughout Tuesday with rains equivalent of 11 days of average daily monsoon coming down in 12 hours, the highest in a day in August since 1997.
The author is a Delhi-based advocate.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Myanmar on 5 September on his first bilateral state visit during which both sides are expected to ink a number of agreements and deliberate on key issues including exodus of Rohingya community.
Ways to deepen security and defence cooperation, implementation of India-assisted development projects and the issue of cross border activities by certain insurgent groups along the India-Myanmar are likely to figure during Modi's talks with leadership of the country during the three-day visit.
On 6 September, the prime minister will hold wide-ranging talks with state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi covering entire expanse of bilateral relationship, Sripriya Ranganathan, joint secretary in-charge of Bangladesh and Myanmar in the external affairs ministry, said.
She said the spate of violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state and exodus of the ethnic Rohingya minority will figure in the talks.
The prime minister will travel to Nay Pyi Taw, the capital city of Myanmar, from China where he will attend the annual BRICS summit. On 5 September, Modi will meet Myanmar president Htin Kyaw who is also hosting a banquet for the prime minister, Ranganathan told reporters.
From Nay Pyi Taw, Modi will proceed to an ancient city of Bagan where India is involved in development cooperation project, Ranganathan said.
He will then travel to Yangon where he will have a series of engagements including interaction with the Indian community.
In Yagon, the prime minister will visit the Shwedagon pagoda and will go to martyr's mausoleum to pay tribute to General Aung San, the Burmese nationalist leader who was assassinated. General Aung is father of Suu Kyi.
Modi will visit a famous Hindu temple and shrine of Bahadur Shah Zafar.
Ranganathan said the visit will be an occasion for India to not only review the ongoing development cooperation partnership but also to focus on new areas of engagement. "We regard this visit as an important visit and one in a series of ongoing interaction which we hope will continue in future," she said.
Asked about the Indian Army's action last year along the India-Myanmar border, Ranganathan said there was no misunderstanding between the two countries over the issue.
"I think it is very well known that actions were carried out along the border. It is a difficult border. It is a border on which the exact location of the boundary sometimes may be difficult to make out.
"I do not think there is any misunderstanding between us and the Myanmar government on what we sought to do," she said. Myanmar is one of India's strategic neighbours and shares a 1,640-kilometre-long border with a number of northeastern states including militancy-hit Nagaland and Manipur.
She said there is full confidence on both sides about the intention of the governments.
There is concern and desire on both sides to prevent any hostile activities against India from soil of Myanmar, Ranganathan said.
She said the problem of the activities of the insurgents along the India-Myanmar remained a matter of discussion between the leadership of Indian and Myanmar.
She said the Kaladan project and the trilateral high-way project will be discussed during the prime minister's visit.
India would also convey to Myanmar about the kind of project it has on its priority list and whether it would like to partner with India in their execution. "We will be guided by Myanmar government in its choice of projects," she said.
India has an overall commitment of $1.75 billion for developmental programmes in Myanmar.
"Myanmar is a very very important partner in our Act East policy and neighbourhood first policy," said Ranganathan.
On the exodus of Rohingya community, she said, "The issue of the Rakhine state is a matter of great concern. There has been a prominent attack recently and a large no of people have lost their lives. We have reached out to Myanmar government after the attacks on what can be done."
Chennai: Political parties and pro-Tamil outfits on Saturday staged state-wide protests over the suicide of a 17-year-old girl who had moved the Supreme Court against NEET-based medical examinations.
They sought immediate withdrawal of the entrance exam.
The CPM and its student and youth affiliates, SFI and DYFI, staged a road blockade in Chennai over the suicide of the Dalit girl. The party's state unit secretary G Ramakrishnan and many others were detained, the police said.
Similarly, VCK party workers were held when they staged a road blockade at Kilpauk in Chennai.
A students' outfit tried to picket the government Multi-Super Speciality Hospital at Omanthurar Estate on the main road and its members were detained. The protestors raised slogans against the central and state governments on the issue of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).
At Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli district, a "wailing protest" was held by women members of pro-Tamil 'Naam Tamizhar Katchi'. Protests were also held at Coimbatore, Salem and Rameswaram by students' and youth outfits who demanded justice for the girl and sought immediate withdrawal of NEET.
Daughter of a daily wage earner, Anitha dreamed of becoming a doctor. She was found hanging at her house in a village in Ariyalur district on Friday. She was reportedly upset after it became known that Tamil Nadu will not be exempted from the ambit of NEET.
The apex court had last month asked the state government to start counselling for admissions to MBBS and BDS seats in the state based on NEET merit list.
It had given the directive after Centre told the court that it was not in favour of a recent ordinance passed by the state to exempt it from NEET this year.
Political leaders including DMK working president MK Stalin and VCK founder Thol Thirumavalavan and actors Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth, among others, had condoled Anitha's death.
The state government had announced relief of Rs 7 lakh to her family, besides offering a government job on compassionate grounds.
Political parties and other outfits in Tamil Nadu are opposed to NEET, saying it will affect rural students.
Early this year, the state Assembly had unanimously adopted two resolutions to ensure for the continuation of medical admissions in the state based on Class XII marks and not through an entrance exam, as envisaged by NEET.
When the Supreme Court on 30 August declared the Right to Privacy a fundamental right, and included a persons sexual orientation under it, the LGBTQ community in India was taken by surprise that the same court which re-criminalised Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code in 2013 now extended support to their identity.
With Section 377, it is as though the government has a right to check what we do in our bedrooms which is a violation of our privacy. Earlier, wed try to find loopholes within Section 377, but with this verdict, the court is telling us not to lose hope. We can now take the conversation forward, said Alex Mathews, a 28-year-old communications officer at an NGO and drag artist who identifies himself as queer.
For Anjali Gopalan, the executive director of Naz Foundation (India) Trust, who are the original petitioners in the case against Section 377, the verdict brought about a great sense of relief and happiness. We are very happy with it. Its a huge step for the LGBTQ community for at least there is a judgment that protects them in some way. Even though homosexuality hasnt been de-criminalised, the Right to Privacy gives them some form of protection, she said.
Ankur Chakraborty, 22, identifies himself as gay and gender non-conforming and also performs as a drag queen Randy Scarhol. He admitted he was surprised about sexual orientation being included under the Right to Privacy and was happy as it would make it easier to debate Section 377. I didnt expect them to include it at all and say what you do in your bedroom is private. At the same time, I have mixed feelings towards this too for Section 377 still exists which criminalises homosexual intercourse while right to privacy protects our sexual identity. Two contradicting laws exist at the moment but we are definitely one step closer to striking down Section 377, he said.
The Right to Privacy judgment affirms the constitutional rights of the LGBTQ community in India. It iterates two things. First, that sexual orientation is an essential part of privacy. Justice DY Chandrachud wrote in his judgment, which was signed on by three other judges: Discrimination against an individual on the basis of sexual orientation is deeply offensive to the dignity and self-worth of the individual. Equality demands that the sexual orientation of each individual in society must be protected on an even platform. He further wrote that the Right to Privacy and the protection of sexual orientation lie at the core of the fundamental rights guaranteed by Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution.
Second, the judges held that the decision by the Supreme Court in Suresh Koushal versus Naz Foundation (2013), that re-criminalised homosexual consensual sexual acts, was erroneous and that the two reasons, (namely miniscule population and less than 200 prosecutions n 150 years) cannot be regarded as a valid constitutional basis for disregarding a claim based on privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution, explained Mohammed Afeef, a Bengaluru-based lawyer. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul also concurred with the other judges. Out of the nine judges on the bench, five explicitly stated that an individuals sexual orientation was protected under the Right to Privacy.
I keep thinking that if this judgment was present a couple of years ago, Professor Siras of Aligarh Muslim University would never have committed suicide. It would have never taken place, rued Gopalan. Srinivas Ramachandra Siras, a homosexual Marathi professor at Aligarh Muslim University, was suspended after media persons entered his house without his permission at night and filmed him with his partner in 2010. A few months later, he killed himself. His story was later adapted into a film by Hansal Mehta called Aligarh.
Microbiology student Anahita Ananth, 19, who identifies herself as bisexual, was equally surprised by the judgment. I didnt expect them to include sexual orientation under Right to Privacy. It felt good because as a country, its a huge step forward. But I am sceptical about it as well as Im not sure if this ruling would change the mindset of people in the society. It doesnt guarantee that people arent going to stigmatise the LGBT community for having alternate sexualities, she said.
But Ankur Chakraborty feels differently about it.
The law being altered makes a huge difference. Right now, Section 377 provides a legal backbone to a heteronormative society causing of a lot of queer-phobia. But once a ruling like the Right to Privacy, or striking down of Section 377 does takes place, the backbone is broken, which will have a huge impact on the community. Notions will take time to change for people wont wake up one day and suddenly be okay with gays, lesbians, transgenders and bisexuals, he said.
The way forward
At present, there is a curative writ petition seeking to strike down Section 377 pending in the Supreme Court which will be heard by a five-judge Constitution bench. In light of it, to what extent will the right to privacy judgment affect that?
I think itll definitely enhance our argument because the Supreme Court had said that privacy didnt matter in this case in the last judgment where they reversed the Delhi High Court judgment to re-criminalise homosexuality, said Gopalan. All were asking is a reading down of Section 377 and to not include consenting adults under its purview, she added.
For lawyer Mohammed Afeef, the Right to Privacy judgment will definitely affect the curative writ petition against Section 377. He explains that every judgment has two parts: An Obiter Dictum which is a judges expression of his opinion uttered in court or in a written judgment, but not essential to the decision, and therefore not legally binding as a precedent and a Ratio Decidendi; the rule of law on which a judicial decision is based or the principle that the judgment upholds, which becomes the binding precedent.
In the case of Right to Privacy, the court was faced with the question of what privacy is and what are its contours. The court then impregnated the right with content, and including sexual orientation within privacy was an essential part of that exercise. Therefore, I think this inclusion of sexual orientation within privacy should be read as legally binding, said Afeef.
However, the judges comments on the Suresh Koushal versus Naz Foundation (2013) judgment describing it as erroneous were not essential in determining the Right to Privacy as a fundamental right. This means that it is very likely to be categorised as Obiter Dictum and will at the most, have a persuasive effect on the curative writ petition, he further explained.
That being said, even what I perceive as legally binding, ie inclusion of sexual orientation into privacy, can be read differently by the bench hearing the curative, no certain conclusion can be reached before the hearing, clarified Afeef. It depends on interpretation. There are various instances in the past where judges have found a way out of what seems to be legally binding and pursued a different line of reasoning.
The Right to Privacy, however, does create a fresh ground of challenge, that Section 377 is violates the fundamental Right to Privacy. It makes for a strong case. If, even after this, the court doesnt alter Section 377, it will face a lot of criticism, said Afeef.
It remains to be seen how the Constitution bench will view the case in light of the Right to Privacy judgment.
Gangtok: The South Sikkim district police on Friday alleged that the West Bengal Police had, posing as tourists, entered its jurisdiction, shot dead a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supporter and arrested four leaders of the outfit.
South Sikkim superintendent of police Pratap Pradhan said West Bengal CID officials had entered Sikkim posing as tourists, gunned down a GJM supporter from Kalimpong in the Sadam area and arrested four leaders of the party.
He added that the district police officials intervened and when they found that the West Bengal CID had no arrest warrant or legal sanction to carry out the operation inside Sikkim, they did not allow it to take away the four men they had taken into custody.
Pradhan said the South Sikkim police had no official communication regarding operations being conducted by the West Bengal police in the district.
"While the West Bengal CID has claimed that they entered Sikkim in pursuit of suspects whose names featured in FIRs in West Bengal, they did not have any documents to prove it...The Sikkim Police has asked the West Bengal police to get a court order if they want to take the arrested men with them," he added.
The Sikkim police, the SP said, had also filed an FIR against those who killed the GJM supporter in "cold blood".
"Corroborating evidence indicates that the person was shot at by West Bengal police officials," he added.
Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling had earlier voiced support to the ongoing protest called by the GJM in the Darjeeling hills for a separate state of Gorkhaland.
When contacted, West Bengal additional DGP (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma refused to comment on the issue.
Ahmedabad: In a bid to reach out to the party's young supporters in poll-bound Gujarat, the BJP's youth wing will organise an interactive session in Ahmedabad on 10 September, to be addressed by party chief Amit Shah.
The event, being organised by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), is likely to see over one lakh participants, who will interact directly with Shah through video-conferencing facilities to be provided across 100 centres in the state.
Party's state in-charge and national general secretary Bhupendra Yadav told this to reporters on Sunday.
Shah will address the participants from Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Auditorium in Ahmedabad.
"On 10 September, BJP's youth wing, under the leadership of its state president Rutvij Patel, will organise 'Adikham Gujarat' (Steadfast Gujarat) town hall programme. The event will be held in 100 centres across the state in which over one lakh youths will take part," he said.
"Party's national president Amit Shah will take questions from the young participants and address them through video conferencing facility from Ahmedabad," Yadav added.
"Through the programme, the BJP will connect with the party's youth supporters to take forward the concept of 'New India' propagated by prime minister Narendra Modi and seek their commitment to the party," he said.
BJP state president Jitu Vaghani said that young supporters will also be able to place their questions through social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, as well as through WhatsApp on mobile number: 7878182182.
A website, www.adikhamgujarat.com, will also be launched on Monday for the same, he said.
The decree of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on the introduction of biometric control for foreigners, including Russian citizens, entering Ukraine from 2018 has been published in the Uriadovy Kurier government newspaper.
The decree on the implementation of the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine dated July 10, 2017 "on strengthening control over the entry into Ukraine, departure from Ukraine of foreigners and stateless persons, compliance with the rules of their stay in the territory of Ukraine" comes into force from the date of its publication.
According to the document, the government was instructed in a month term to take measures to improve the legislation regarding the stay of foreigners in Ukraine, including citizens of the Russian Federation.
New Delhi: The Congress is the BJP's main challenger in Gujarat in the Assembly polls later this year and there is no place for a third party including Hardik Patel's outfit, says state chief minister Vijay Rupani.
The Hardik Patel-led Patidaar Anamat Andolan Samiti has already lost steam, claims the chief minister.
"The people of Gujarat have never accepted the third front in the state. It is only BJP and Congress who are seen to be the main competitors," Rupani told IANS in an interview.
He was asked about the emergence of third parties with Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor of Gujarat Kshatriya Thakor Sena and Aam Aadmi Party seeking to make their presence felt in the state.
Rupani said the Patidar agitation for quota, which was led by Hardik Patel, will not have any impact in the Assembly elections.
He said the Patel community was largely with the BJP and the government had taken steps to meet their demands concerning education and jobs.
He said if non-Congress parties come together it will only boost the prospects of the BJP.
He said the party has performed credibly in the civic elections in the state which were held after the Patidar agitation.
Rupani has said that the defections in the Congress ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections last month had hit the Opposition party.
"The defections in the Congress has helped us. And I feel that the split has broken Congress back in the state," he said.
He also refuted the allegations of the BJP playing a role in the defection of Congress MLAs. "All the words that we are behind the split in the Congress are false."
"The defections in Congress started immediately after Ashok Gehlot was made the state in-charge. We don't have any role in that," he said.
The Rajya Sabha election for the third seat from Gujarat had gone to the wire with Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, eventually emerging the winner. Congress MLAs, considered loyal to former chief minister Shankarsinh Vaghela, had left the party ahead of the elections.
The election also saw cross-voting by Congress and NCP legislators.
Rupani said he seeks guidance from prime minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah on issues concerning the state and saw nothing wrong in it.
"Modiji has got a lot of experience as the chief minister of the state. Even Shah has got the experience of being in the government for over 13 years, so I don't see any crime if I consult them over the development issues," Rupani said.
Rupani said the BJP will win over 150 of the 182 seats in the assembly polls to be held later this year.
"When Modiji was the chief minister he got 122 seats in last assembly elections. And this time (when he is the prime minister) we are hopeful that we would get over 150 seats in the Assembly elections."
The BJP has been in power in the state for about 20 years.
Asked about the major decisions taken by him since he became chief minister about a year back, he said, "In the last one year, I have taken over 475 decisions for the state. When I became the chief minister I said it clearly that the government would be transparent, decisive, sensitive and progressive."
Referring to the recent floods in the state, Rupani said, "I took the government to the doorstep of flood-affected people. I camped there for five days and announced a package of Rs 15,000 crore for the people. This shows the government is sensitive to its people."
He also said that his major decisions include the Seva Setu scheme, in which the government officials visit the villages and meet their demands such as getting certificates.
"Under this scheme we have already provided service to over 70 lakh people," he said.
Replying to a question on his party's slogan of Garje Gujarat' (roaring Gujarat) Rupani said, "Garje means singhnaad (roar) and we used this slogan for development. We gave this slogan because we want Gujarat to develop in a confident manner."
He said Gujarat had suffered during the 10-year rule of the Congress-led UPA and the BJP was seeking to bring about accelerated development of the state.
"It happened for the first time that the state government filled the vacancies of over 80,000 in several government departments. About 18,000 people were selected in police jobs. And there was complete transparency in giving the job."
Crediting prime minister Narendra Modi for expeditious decisions on the Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam, he said, "17 September is his birthday and we want to give him the Sardar Sarovar dam which was completed due to his efforts."
He accused the Congress of delaying the work of the Sardar Sarovar dam project.
"The foundation stone was laid by then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1961 and till 1998, work did not start on the project."
He said the BJP governments had taken decisions to get the work completed.
Rupani said that he has brought a strict law against cow slaughter and taken measures to prevent schools from charging exorbitant fees.
Asked about the attacks on dalits in his state last year, Rupani said, "There is no lawlessness in the state. After the news came to us about the beating of the dalits we took immediate action against the accused. They are behind bars for last one year. And also formed a fast track court for the same."
Ahead of the much-awaited Cabinet reshuffle on Sunday, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury took to Twitter to take potshots at the Narendra Modi Cabinet.
Yechury posted a picture of six BJP MPs five of them ministers tweeting identical messages calling demonetisation a success. The two-term Rajya Sabha MP commented that such an occurrence points out that reshuffles in the Cabinet does not really matter as everything is dictated by the central command a reference to the prime minister and BJP chief Amit Shah.
Ministers reduced to tweeting identical messages handed over to them centrally. Their reshuffle doesn't matter. pic.twitter.com/MLpeZKDGUv Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) September 2, 2017
Yechury, who was denied a third term in the Upper House, also drew parallels between the ill-fated ship Titanic and the Modi Cabinet, while dismissing the talks of a reshuffle. The CPM leader also called the NDA government a disaster.
Talk of reshuffle in the cabinet is akin to shifting chairs on the decks of the Titanic. The disaster that the Modi govt is, won't change. Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) September 2, 2017
The stage is set for a reshuffle and expansion of the Union Council of Ministers on Sunday with two ministers having resigned and nine others understood to have been asked to quit to pave the way for entry of new faces.
Ministers of State Rajiv Pratap Rudy (skill development) and Sanjeev Balyan (agriculture) have resigned, while a few others have been asked to resign from their posts, ahead of the reshuffle on Sunday morning.
"A process has been set in motion for the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan at around 10 am on Sunday," officials said.
Cabinet ministers Uma Bharti, Radha Mohan Singh and Kalraj Mishra, Ministers of State Giriraj Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Bandaru Dattatreya and Faggan Singh Kulaste are believed to have been nudged by Shah to put in their papers, sources told IANS. Birender Singh, steel minister, is also likely to face the axe.
Minister of State for HRD Mahendra Nath Pandey, who was on Friday appointed as the Uttar Pradesh BJP chief, is also on the way out of the ministry.
Sources also told Firstpost that HRD minister Prakash Javadekar is likely to be elevated to the defence ministry while Suresh Prabhu, who offered to resign after a series of rail accidents, is likely to be allotted the environment ministry.
Rudy said it was the decision of the party and he had resigned. Balyan said he was asked to resign and he would always follow the party directives. However, Bharti was evasive when asked if she had resigned. "I have not heard your questions. I have no right to speak on the issue. Only those who have been authorised by the party chief can speak," she told reporters.
With inputs from IANS
tech2 News Staff
German multinational engineering and electronics firm Bosch on Friday offered electrified solutions for greater mobility in cities across India.
"As mobility requirements are needed most in urban sprawls, we are ready to offer our electrified solutions for the Indian market," Bosch Group Board Member for Asia-Pacific Peter Tyroller told reporters here. With 40 cities across the country having over a million people, the company foresees electrification as a future growth area in the Indian subcontinent.
"We plan to move into first series production in the Indian market after 2018 to provide electrified solutions adapted to the local needs," said Tyroller. Noting that India was a great incubator for an electric future, he said that small-vehicle segments would drive the transition to mass electrification, as urban dwellers seek affordable alternative to conventional standards.
"We also have a range of comprehensive solutions for two-wheelers. We will increase the regional competence for electrified solutions," said Tyroller. The company's electrified solutions aim to address the country's individual mobility requirements. As the Indian supplier base is fragmented for electromobility solutions, the company plans to bridge the gap and have the first mover advantage.
Bosch's Indian arm will draw upon its global lineage to offer local customers a complete value chain in electromobility. "The Indian government's initiative to have an all-electric fleet by 2030 and its Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid & Electric vehicles (FAME) programme offers us a competitive edge," said Tyroller.
The company has developed an integrated electrification system, including motor, control unit, battery, charger, display and app that can power light two, three and four-wheeler electric vehicles. "Our electrification systems can be integrated with any light vehicle and help manufacturers with their go-to-market strategy," added Tyroller.
Electro-mobility will play a key role in meeting the requirements of intra-city travel. An electric scooter will be more relevant for a person looking to run household errands in and around his society.
(With inputs from IANS)
tech2 News Staff
US President Donald Trump is expected to nominate House Representative Jim Bridenstine as NASA's new administrator as soon as September 5, the media reported.
"Several space industry sources, speaking on background, said they anticipated a formal nomination of Bridenstine to run the space agency on 5 September, the day after the Labor Day holiday," said spacenews.com, an American news site covering the space industry, on Friday, Xinhua reported.
"That schedule could slip, though, depending on other events and general uncertainty about the timing of administration decisions."
The website said Bridenstine has been active on space issues in Congress and was also a staunch supporter of Trump's candidacy in the general election.
The Oklahoma Congressman has called for a human return to the Moon before NASA embarks upon a mission to Mars.
Currently, NASA is led by acting administrator, Robert Lightfoot, who has been in that position for more than seven months.
Meanwhile, Asteroid Florence, named in honour of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the founder of modern nursing, is set to pass by Earth at 8.05 am ET. "While many known asteroids have passed by closer to Earth than Florence. They were estimated to be smaller," said Paul Chodas, Manager of NASA's Centre for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
(With inputs from IANS)
IANS
An e-tender worth Rs 300 crore, billed to be the largest ever in the IT sector in Kerala's history, was floated on Saturday, said an IT official.
The e-tender for 60,250 laptops and 43,750 multimedia projectors was published in the state's eTender portal, said K. Anvar Sadath, Vice Chairman and Executive Director, Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), formerly IT@School Project of the Kerala government.
KITE is the first Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to be funded from the Kerala Infrastructure and Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) established by the Kerala government to support projects worth Rs 50,000 crore in various sectors in the coming five years.
Under the IT project, 4,775 government-aided schools will be covered under a programme where high-speed fibre-based broadband internet would be made available in all classrooms.
This programme is a "holistic integration of components like capacity-building, digital content, connectivity, infrastructure, resource portal and e-Governance", said Sadath.
He said the tender insists on stringent conditions as it has to ensure hassle free support for schools for five years and KITE will establish necessary support mechanisms.
"A common web portal and call centre would also be set up to register complaints. A fine of Rs 100 per day will be levied if the complaints are not addressed. The Technical Committee and Project Management Unit will oversee the whole process," added Sadath.
The deployment of equipment to schools is planned in three phases. In the first phase, 30,000 laptops and 20,000 projectors will be delivered in November-December 2017. The rest will be delivered in the second phase in January-February 2018 and the final phase in April-May 2018.
tech2 News Staff
The pre-registration process for the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 smartphone has started in India.
The device was unveiled at a Samsung Unpacked event in New York on 23 September and scheduled for a 15 September release in the US and UK. 22 September is to be the release date of the phone in Australia. Sadly, the company made no mention of its plans for India.
The registration page simply asks for your contact details and a mini-survey of sorts.
The commencement of the pre-registration process does indicate that the device will be launched in India soon, but the Samsung is still mum on that front and the Samsung website reveals no more information than that which we already know.
The device is the successor to the Note 7 and shares its internals with Samsung Galaxy S8. The Note 8 offers a 6.3-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1440 x 2960. The display is HDR-10 compliant, meaning that it supports a wider colour gamut than the average display.
The internals include a Snapdragon 835 or Exynos 8895 platform (depending on region). This is supported by 6 GB of RAM and 64/128/256 GB storage options.
In the camera department, you can find Samsung's first, dual-camera system featuring dual 12 MP sensors, one with a 26 mm f/1.7 lens and the other with a 56 mm f/2.4 lens. Both sensors feature support for OIS and PDAF. The front camera is an 8 MP f/1.7 unit. The rear camera can record 4K video at 30 fps and can record as fast as 240 fps at 720p.
This is also among the few devices on the market with support for Bluetooth 5.0.
Being a Note device, the phone supports the Samsung S-Pen and incorporates a number of features that ease the process of taking notes. The OS has also been tweaked to take advantage of the S-Pen and large display.
Samsung has opted to go for a small, safe, 3,300 mAh battery this time around. This is understandable, but still disappointing as even the smaller Galaxy S8+ features a larger battery.
The US price of the device is $930. An India price hasn't been officially announced at this time.
Reuters
Audio specialist Harman International wants to nearly treble annual sales by 2025 by partnering with tech groups such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft, as well as its new owner, Samsung, its chief executive said on Friday.
CEO Dinesh Palliwal, in an interview at the IFA consumer electronics fair, said he had set an internal goal to make Harman a $20 billion business within eight years, up from around $7.3 billion currently, through a mix of internal growth and bolt-on deals.
He declined to name specific targets but said that acquisitions could come in the fields of artificial intelligence, voice recognition, machine learning and the internet of things.
The aim is to expand the three parts of its business: consumer and professional audio products, along with its biggest operation, automotive audio and parts supply.
Six months after Harman was acquired for $8 billion by Samsung Electronics - the largest overseas deal ever for the South Korean group - Palliwal said his firm would retain a distinct strategy and a strong measure of independence from the parent.
This week Harman introduced in Berlin new audio speakers that talk to Google Home and Amazon Alexa, the top voice-controlled digital assistants on the market. Harman is also demonstrating speakers that can be run by voice commands from Microsofts forthcoming Cortana assistant that are set to be released later this year.
What is the long-term strategy? To continue to be agnostic; to provide excellent product, Palliwal said. People want choice and they do not want to sacrifice the quality of sound. This is where Harman comes in.
Such voice-activated products which can steer music systems, dim the lights, tell jokes or activate a security system hook up their owners to the so-called internet of things without them having to type instructions on a smartphone or a computer keyboard.
Harman is also working to provide Samsungs digital assistant, Bixby, with the worlds best, enabled, smart, intelligent speaker, Palliwal said, but it wont replace the others, he said, referring to working with rivals such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
Nay Pyi Taw: The first consignment of high speed diesel from India will reach Myanmar on 3 September, Parami Energy Group CEO Ken Tun has said.
Ken Tun told Mizzima News that his group is importing the diesel under a joint venture agreement with India's Numaligarh Refineries or NRL.
Two trucks, each loaded with 4,000 gallons of high speed diesel or HSD, will reach Moreh on 3 September, he said on the sidelines of a seminar on 'Myanmar in BIMSTEC'.
Moreh is a town located on the India-Myanmar border in the Indian state of Manipur.
"They will be formally received by Parami Energy officials in Tamu (in Myanmar, on the border crossing with Moreh) and the event will be viewed on screen by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and other ministers and officials of her government," Ken Tun said.
Modi arrives in Myanmar on 5 September on a three-day visit from Xiamen in China, where he is going to attend the BRICS summit.
Ken Tun said Parami Energy will import between 10 to 20 trucks of High Speed Diesel from NRL every day for three months before India takes a call on whether to go for a pipeline to transport diesel to Myanmar,"We will see whether the demand stabilises and then check if the volumes are big enough to justify construction of a pipeline to bring down transport costs. If we have a big demand, a pipeline is the only way we can compete with others who import petroleum products by sea," Ken Tun told Mizzima.
He said 40 per cent of Myanmar's daily consumption of 200,000 barrels of High Speed Diesel is in Mandalay and other parts of northern Myanmar.
"It makes business sense to source this supply from northeast India," Ken Tun said.
The Numaligarh Refinery is Assam's biggest among the four in the northeastern state.
"Initially, tankers will be used to take diesel from Numaligarh by road to Myanmar. We might explore possibilities of laying a pipeline to export diesel at a later stage if technically feasible," a senior NRL official said, unwilling to be named.
Myanmar requires some 5 million tonnes of diesel annually and the oil-rich state of Assam can easily meet the demand, he said.
"It would be a profitable business proposition, and eventually we might think of exporting other petroleum products," the senior official of Assam's state-owned Numaligarh Refinery said.
He said natural gas could also be imported from Myanmar to India using a separate pipeline.
"Between four to six trillion cubic feet of gas reserves were discovered recently in Myanmar. It would be economically cheaper to wheel back gas (through a pipeline) from Myanmar for use in India," the official said.
Ken Tun said Parami Energy was also looking at importing electricity from northeast India, like Bangladesh is doing at the moment.
Xiamen: The three-day BRICS summit is set to begin on Sunday in China's southwestern city of Xiamen where India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are likely to meet on the sidelines.
Although economic, security and other multilateral issues will figure in the annual meet of the five-member grouping, a probable one-on-one between Modi and Xi will be a focal point, especially after the protracted military standoff along the Sino-India border in Doklam.
"Since the (Doklam) dispute has been resolved, the Xiamen meeting (bilateral meet between Modi and Xi) will be a turning point," Wang Dehua, an expert at one of China's top think tanks the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told IANS.
Wang, who was one of the Chinese experts threatening India with war during the standoff at Doklam, said "there was no reason for India and China to be hostile to each other".
"I always advocate 'Chindia' which is integration of China and India. I think it is a turning point. If we work together, the world will listen to us," Wang said.
The troops of India and China were locked in an over two-month standoff over stopping construction of a Chinese road by the Indian Army in Doklam, at the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan.
The dispute, which had begun to threaten the success of the BRICS summit, was resolved on Monday.
"It's good news that Modi is coming, but the reasons causing such kind of stand-offs increase strategic mistrust," Hu Shisheng, director of the Institute of South and Southeast Asia and Oceania Studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told IANS.
Asked about the issues he expects that will figure in the meet, Hu said: They (Modi and Xi) should give a kind of signal that this standoff does not happen again."
When questioned what if Modi raises India's concerns over terrorism emanating from Pakistan, Hu said: "This is the time of recovery. They will meet in the general way to discuss bilateral issues."
"It will take some time to recover from the damage," he said referring to the face-off.
China has ruled out discussion on India's concerns over terrorism emanating from Pakistan at the summit.
This is one of the thorny issues between India and China.
Beijing's Belt and Road project, whose key artery the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor passes through a disputed Kashmir area claimed by India, is another sore point between the two nations.
Issues like counter-terrorism and the global financial crisis will also come for up discussion.
The proposed BRICS rating agency will be one of the key issues at the 9th meet of the grouping, which will be chaired by Xi.
The five-member bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa was formed in 2006. They comprise 42 percent of the world's population, have 23 percent of global GDP and 17 percent share in world trade. The theme of the ninth BRICS summit is `Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future'.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said he is looking forward to "productive" discussions at the BRICS summit, which is set to start in Xiamen, China, from Sunday.
In a statement posted on Facebook and Twitter, the Prime Minister also mentioned his visit to Myanmar after the BRICS summit, and hoped it would deepen bilateral cooperation.
India attaches high importance to BRICS, which has begun a 2nd decade of its partnership for progress and peace. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 2, 2017
Prime Minister Modi will be in China for the BRICS summit from 3-5 September, and will be in Myanmar from 5-7 September.
"India had the privilege of hosting the previous Summit in Goa in October last year. I look forward to building upon the results and outcomes of the Goa Summit. I also look forward to productive discussions and positive outcomes that will support the agenda of a stronger BRICS partnership under the chairmanship of China," Modi said.
"We will also interact with the BRICS Business Council represented by captains of industry from all five countries. In addition, I look forward to engaging with leaders of nine other countries, including BRICS partners, in an Emerging Markets and Developing Countries Dialogue, hosted by President Xi Jinping on 5 September," the prime minister said.
Modi said he will also meet leaders bilaterally on the sidelines of the summit.
Modi is likely to have a meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit, which comes shortly after a period of increased tension following a two-and-half month long standoff between their forces in Doka La, along the Sikkim border, and a scuffle between their troops in Ladakh on 15 August.
"India attaches high importance to the role of BRICS that has begun a second decade of its partnership for progress and peace. BRICS has important contributions to make in addressing global challenges and upholding world peace and security," Modi said.
In another post he mentioned his visit to Myanmar, and said he is looking forward to meeting President U Htin Kyaw as also foreign affairs minister Aung San Suu Kyi.
Modi said during the visit, the two sides will review developments in bilateral relations, especially the extensive programme of development cooperation and socio-economic assistance that India is undertaking in Myanmar. New areas to work together will also be explored.
"We will also look at strengthening our existing cooperation on security and counter-terrorism, trade and investment, skill development, infrastructure and energy, and culture," Modi said.
The prime minister added he is looking forward to visiting the famed heritage city of Bagan, where the Archaeological Survey of India has renovated the Ananda Temple, and will be undertaking further restoration work on a number of pagodas and murals that were damaged in last year's earthquake.
"I will end my visit in Yangon, where I look forward to visiting various historical spots that symbolise the shared heritage of India and Myanmar. I am also keen to meet and interact with the Indian-origin community of Myanmar, whose history goes back more than a century," he said.
"I am confident that the visit will open a bright new chapter in India-Myanmar relations and will help in charting a roadmap for closer cooperation between our governments, our business communities and at the people-to-people level," Modi added.
Cairo: An international medical aid group has called on Libyan authorities to end arbitrary detention of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, slamming conditions inside detention facilities in the North African country as "dire," ''unhealthy" and "abusive."
Doctors Without Borders, known by the French acronym MSF, said in a statement Friday that medical conditions in detention centers in Tripoli, where the United Nations-backed government is based, are either caused or aggravated by "squalid detention conditions and ill treatment."
The European Union earmarked tens of millions of euros to improve conditions for migrants inside Libyan detention centers.
But the group says international funding to Libya is not the solution and fears the narrow focus on improving facilities legitimizes the arbitrary detention system that harms and exploits people without recourse to the law.
Washington: US President Donald Trump has announced he plans to appoint James Bridenstine, a former navy pilot and Republican congressman, to head the US space agency NASA.
Bridenstine, 42, who backed Trump during the US presidential campaign, had long been considered the favourite for the job of NASA administrator.
But the nomination drew fire from two US senators from Florida who questioned the Oklahoma representative's qualifications to lead such a complex and highly technical agency.
Senator Bill Nelson, the ranking Democrat on the committee that oversees NASA, told the news site Politico the agency's new leader should be "a space professional, not a politician."
Marco Rubio, the state's other senator and a Republican, said the choice of Bridenstine "could be devastating for the space program."
"I would hate to see an administrator held up on (grounds of) partisanship, political arguments, past votes, or statements made in the past because the agency can't afford it and it can't afford the controversy," he told Politico.
Bridenstine, who was elected to Congress from Oklahoma in 2012, is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
According to the trade publication SpaceNews, Bridenstine has been a big proponent of giving the private sector a larger role in space.
The space agency is involved in all aspects of space exploration, as well as in Earth observation missions from space and in the development of new aerospace concepts.
Since the end of NASA's space shuttle program in 2011, the United States has had to rely on Russia to ferry their astronauts to the International Space Station.
NASA is currently developing a heavy launcher and capsule capable of taking astronauts to Mars in 2030 and beyond.
But it faces competition from billionaires like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, who runs SpaceX and Tesla.
NASA's proposed 2018 budget comes to a little more than USD 19 billion.
Bridenstine's experience is mainly in the military, as a pilot who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as a member of the naval reserves has flown counter-drug missions in Central and South America.
He served as executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium. He is also a member of the Oklahoma Air National Guard.
He has degrees from Rice University and Cornell.
Lupin warns of more pricing pressure as fourth-quarter profit halves | Reuters By Zeba Siddiqui | MUMBAI MUMBAI Indian drugmaker Lupin Ltd expects to launch over 30 products in the United States this year, but warned revenue growth would remain muted due to growing pricing pressure and competition in the world's largest healthcare market."We've talked about medium single digits of price erosion in the past and I think we are now (seeing) high single digits," Managing Director Nilesh Gupta told Reuters after Lupin reported a quarterly profit that halved from a year earlier.The country's third-largest drugmaker has been working on building a pipeline of high-value complex generic drugs in the United States to offset growing competition in plain generics. But a consolidation among drug distributors has hit generic companies' ability to negotiate on prices, and price hikes have also become harder to justify amid regulatory scrutiny."Competition is increasing and (distributors) are getting more powerful than ever before," Gupta said. The company expects to launch more than 30 drugs this year, most of which would be small to medium-sized opportunities, with bigger, more lucrative launches planned for 2019, he added
Houston: A 24-year-old Indian student who died after he was rescued from a swollen lake in the hurricane-hit US state of Texas, has been cremated in Houston.
Nikhil Bhatia, a PhD student at the Texas A&M University, was rescued from the Lake Bryan, where he along with another Indian woman student Shalini Singh had gone swimming, last Saturday.
According to their friends and some witnesses, the two were swimming in the lake when a sudden current of water pushed them deeper.
Bhatia, from Jaipur, along with Singh, 25, from New Delhi, was admitted to a hospital in a critical condition.
Bhatia died on Wednesday while Singh continues to be in a critical condition, according to officials at the Indian Consulate in Houston.
Singh was pursuing Masters degree in public health from the same university.
The funeral of Bhatia took place on Friday in the presence of his mother and close friends.
According to the consulate office, Bhatia's mother Suman Bhatia will returning to India on 4 September and will carry his ashes with her.
Bhatia, originally from Jaipur, had completed his schooling from Jaipur and did his engineering in Vellore.
He recently graduated from Texas A&M University in water management and hydrological science and had enrolled in a Phd programme for the fall session.
Bhatia was the only child of Suman, a lecturer in a government college, and Pradeep Bhatia, a defence staffer.
Around 13 million people were battling "catastrophic" flooding and torrential rains in the storm-ravaged Texas where Hurricane Harvey has wreaked havoc, claiming at least 47 lives.
According to local community leaders, at least 100,000 Indian-Americans live in and around Houston area have been badly hit by the hurricane.
India's Consul-General in Houston Anupam Ray has been closely monitoring the situation.
Hurricane Harvey was the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Wilma in 2005, ending a record 12-year period with no hurricanes of Category 3 intensity or higher making landfall in the US.
Samarra: Suicide bombers killed seven people and wounded 12 in an attack on a power plant north of Baghdad on Saturday, an Iraqi security official said.
Armed with grenades and wearing explosives belts, three attackers entered the facility in Samarra, about 100 kilometres north of the capital, at 2 am, the official told AFP.
"They attacked the plant's workers, killing seven and wounding 12, according to an initial assessment," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Security reinforcements then arrived on the scene, killing two of the bombers and evacuating the employees.
The attack comes as Iraqi Shiites mark the first day of the Eid al-Adha feast.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State jihadist group frequently carries out suicide bombings in Iraq.
In 2014, Islamic State captured almost a third of Iraqi territory in a lightning offensive. It now only holds two pockets of territory in the country.
Karachi: Pakistani police says two gunmen targeting an ethnic party lawmaker after Eid prayers instead gunned down two others, including a child, in the southern port city of Karachi.
Police officer Pir Mohammad Shah said lawmaker Khawaja Izharul Hasan escaped uninjured in the attack Saturday but the child and a police officer were killed.
Shah said one of the attackers was also gunned down by police during a chase.
Hasan belongs to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which represents the Urdu speaking population. He was meeting and greeting people after Eid prayers when gunmen struck in a north Karachi neighborhood.
The party was divided after its self-exiled founder, Altaf Hussain, uttered anti-Pakistan remarks in London in 2016. He is wanted in many criminal cases back home.
New Delhi: President of Switzerland Doris Leuthard has reaffirmed her country's support for India's fight against black money.
"The Swiss government, the federal council, is committed to support India's fight against black money also like automatic exchange of information of fiscal matters," Leuthard said while addressing the launch event of "70 Years of Swiss Indian Friendship" in New Delhi on Friday night.
"And we hope this year to have cleared the approval of that agreement," she said.
India and Switzerland signed an agreement for automatic exchange of financial information in November 2016.
On Thursday, following delegation-level talks headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Leuthard, both countries agreed to enhance cooperation in the fight against tax fraud while acknowledging the need for a global level playing field for implementation of the international standards on tax transparency.
A joint statement issued said that "both leaders emphasised their willingness to further enhance cooperation in the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion".
Leuthard also said that trade and investment between the two countries have been growing and high-level bilateral visits have become more frequent.
Modi visited Switzerland in June 2016 in what was the first prime ministerial visit from India to that country in several decades. Swiss presidents have earlier visited India in 1998, 2003, and 2007.
"Over 200 Swiss companies are present here in India having created more than 100,000 jobs," Leuthard said.
"Switzerland is number seven when it comes to trade and 11th biggest foreign investor in India," she stated.
"Vice-versa, India has around 140 companies with offices in Switzerland, making Switzerland the seventh largest recipient of Indian investment," she added.
Stressing that the protection of these mutual investments is important, she said that Switzerland was working to renew the investment protection agreement with India.
She said that Switzerland was also working with its European Free Trade Area (EFTA) partner countries for a free trade agreement with India.
The Swiss president also said that there were many subjects of common interest between Switzerland and India "like skilling our workforce, railways, building environment-friendly cities and communicating high-tech research to everyone".
In Friday's event, eminent personalities, including Father of the Green Revolution MS Swaminathan, were honoured as Swiss-Indian Friendship Ambassadors. The others were Sushil Premchand, Barbara Maim, Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava.
While 94-year-old Swaminathan is a close collaborator with the Swiss Development Cooperation on food security and climate change for over 10 years, Premchand is a former president of the Swiss-Indian Chamber of Commerce and is considered a strong pillar of the India-Swiss business community.
Maim, a Swiss citizen based in Bengaluru, is a co-founder of the Swiss start-up Minsh, a community messaging system and private social network.
Echanove and Srivastava are co-founders of the Urbz platform in Geneva and Mumbai and are engaged in projects involving architecture, design, planning, anthropology, pedagogy and technology.
India and Switzerland signed their friendship agreement on 14 August, 1948.
Xiamen: Ahead of the BRICS Summit in Xiamen city, China on Saturday issued a high alert in the southeast for Typhoon Mawar, which is expected to hit the region on Sunday.
Authorities activated a national disaster alert and response mechanism for Mawar to help provincial civil affairs departments prepare for relief work, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The typhoon, the 16th storm to hit China this year, could hit the three-day BRICS Summit in the coastal city from Sunday.
Xiamen lies in Fujian province, geographically close to Taiwan and separated by a narrow strip of Taiwan Straits.
The storm is expected to whip up wind gusts of 80-115 kmh along the Chinese coast as it moves onshore. Near and east of where the storm makes landfall will also be subject to storm surge flooding.
On Friday, China's meteorological centre issued a blue alert, which is two grades lower than the highest alert level.
China National Commission for Disaster Reduction and ministry of civil affairs has asked civil affairs department officials in southern provinces including Fujian and Guangdong to remain on duty round the clock.
Residents have been advised to stock up on their daily necessities.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to arrive in Xiamen on Sunday. The BRICS summit brings together the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
Washington: The Pentagon is planning to conduct more regular patrols in the South China Sea as many as two to three a month to assert freedom of navigation in disputed waters claimed by China, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The newspaper said the aim is to create a more consistent posture to counter China's maritime claims, rather than a more ad hoc approach favored during Barack Obama's administration.
US officials declined to say where or when the new patrols would be made, but said the plan developed by the US Pacific Command calls for two or three so-called "freedom of navigation" operations a month over the next few months.
Future patrols also could include US military aircraft as well as US Navy warships, the journal said.
There have been three "freedom of navigation" operations since president Donald Trump took office in January the last one by the USS John S McCain, a destroyer that collided with a cargo ship days later off Singapore, killing 10 sailors.
During the Obama administration, the US Navy conducted four such operations in the South China Sea, where China has asserted its claims by building artificial islands and establishing runways, ports and other facilities on them.
China claims nearly all of the sea, through which $5 trillion in annual shipping trade passes and which is believed to sit atop vast oil and gas deposits.
Its sweeping claims overlap with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei all ASEAN members as well as Taiwan.
Washington and Beijing have seen their relations grow increasingly fraught since a promising summit between Trump and China's Xi Jinping in April.
Washington: The United States and South Korea agreed Friday to strengthen Seoul's defences and Washington gave a nod to billions in arms sales to the country, the White House said, days after North Korea fired a missile over Japan and threatened further launches.
In Seoul, the presidential Blue House spokesman confirmed that United States president Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in agreed to enhance the country's deterrence against North Korea by boosting its missile capabilities.
Pyongyang fired an intermediate-range Hwasong-12 over Japan early on Tuesday, which it said was a mere "curtain-raiser" for the North's "resolute countermeasures" against ongoing US-South Korean military drills.
It came as United States and South Korean forces were nearing the end of the 10-day annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint exercises, which the North regards as a rehearsal for invasion.
Trump has insisted that "all options" are on the table in an implied threat of pre-emptive military action, while on Thursday United States heavy bombers and stealth jet fighters took part in a joint live fire drill in South Korea intended as a show of force.
Trump and Moon spoke on the phone Friday about North Korean's "continued destabilising and escalatory behavior," the White House said in a statement.
"The two leaders agreed to strengthen our alliance through defense cooperation and to strengthen South Korea's defense capabilities.
"President Trump provided his conceptual approval of planned purchases by South Korea of billions of dollars in American military equipment."
Park Soo-hyun, the spokesman for Seoul's presidential office, said the leaders had reached an agreement in principle to loosen "to the extent hoped by the South Korean side" limits on the South's ballistic missile capability.
Under a bilateral agreement with the United States, Seoul is currently restricted to ballistic missiles with a maximum range of 800 kilometres (500 miles) and payload of 500 kilogrammes (1100 pounds).
The South wants the maximum warhead weight doubled to one tonne, and the Pentagon has said it was "actively" considering the revision.
Signed with the United States in 2001 the year South Korea joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) the agreement initially limited Seoul to rockets with a range of just 300 kilometres, due to United States concerns about triggering a regional arms race in Northeast Asia.
However, after a long-range rocket test by North Korea in 2012, Seoul managed to negotiate the near three-fold increase in the range limit to 800 kilometers, putting North Korean military facilities which were previously out of range within reach, as well as parts of China and Japan.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years after a series of missile tests by Pyongyang.
Calls are also mounting in South Korea for Seoul to build nuclear weapons of its own to defend itself as nuclear-armed North Korea's missile stand-off with the United States escalates.
The South, which hosts 28,500 American troops to defend it, is banned from building its own nuclear weapons under a 1974 atomic energy deal it signed with Washington, which instead offers a "nuclear umbrella" against potential attacks.
Park said the two leaders reaffirmed the need to bring Pyongyang back to dialogue by applying maximum sanctions and pressure.
However, Trump said after the latest missile test that negotiations with Pyongyang were "not the answer".
Yangon: The World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended food aid in Myanmar's violence-scorched Rakhine state, as the humanitarian situation deteriorates with a surging death toll and tens of thousands both Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Buddhists on the move.
Relief agencies, including WFP, have repeatedly been accused by Myanmar authorities of allowing their rations to fall into the hands of Rohingya militants, whose attacks on police posts on 25 August sparked the current violence.
Around 120,000 people most of them Rohingya Muslim civilians have relied on aid hand-outs in camps since 2012, when religious riots killed scores and sparked a crisis which is again burning through the state.
Over the last five years Rakhine state has been cut along ethnic and religious lines, but the current violence is the worst yet.
Aid agencies are routinely accused of a pro-Rohingya bias and the sudden flare-up of unrest has renewed safety concerns, prompting relief work to be pulled back.
"All WFP food assistance operations in Rakhine State have been suspended due to insecurity... affecting 250,000 internally displaced and other most vulnerable populations," the WFP said in a statement.
"We are coordinating with the authorities to resume distributions for all affected communities as soon as possible, including for any people newly affected by the current unrest."
The Rohingya, branded illegal immigrants in Myanmar and mostly denied citizenship, make up the vast majority of the dead and displaced since 2012.
In the ongoing bout of violence, 40,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, according to the UN.
Tens of thousands have been turned away by Bangladeshi border officials, while scores have died trying to cross the Naf river which divides the two countries in makeshift boats and even on flotsam.
On Friday, Myanmar's army chief said nearly 400 people have died in the violence, among them 370 Rohingya militants, while 11,000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, Hindus and other minority groups have been internally displaced.
Myanmar authorities have rejected help offered by foreign aid groups for the displaced ethnic Rakhine, according to a statement by the European Commission's relief assistance department.
As army clearance operations continue, ECHO (European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations) said access to northern Rakhine remained "cut off".
Meanwhile an "anti-UN/NGO propaganda campaign on Myanmar social media continues", the statement added.
'Humanitarian catastrophe'
Accounts from Rohingya survivors in Bangladesh and Buddhists who fled to Sittwe, the Rakhine state capital, indicate the death toll may be much higher.
The worst-hit areas are off-limits to reporters. But unverifiable testimony has trickled out, telling of tit-for-tat mass killings and villages being torched by the army and the militants.
As violence spins out of control, food and medical relief have been stopped to many already languishing in basic camps, according to Pierre Peron, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"Humanitarian aid normally goes to these vulnerable people for a very good reason, because they depend on it," he said in a statement, adding disruption to the relief chain "has a very real human impact."
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres on Friday warned the spiral of violence could lead to a "humanitarian catastrophe" and urged Myanmar's government to provide security for aid agencies to reach those in need.
Shortly before his comments, aid groups were again spotlighted by army chief Min Aung Hlaing, whose office said WFP-labelled food and medicines had been found with dead militants.
The militants are fighting under the banner of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), who say they are defending their minority group from persecution by Myanmar.
The ARSA emerged as a force in October last year when their attacks killed Myanmar border police, prompting a crackdown by security forces which the UN says may have amounted to ethnic cleansing.
Yangon: The World Food Programme has suspended food aid in Myanmar's violence-scorched Rakhine state, as the humanitarian situation deteriorates with a surging death toll and tens of thousands both Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Buddhists on the move.
Relief agencies, including WFP, have repeatedly been accused by Myanmar authorities of allowing their rations to fall into the hands of Rohingya militants, whose attacks on police posts on 25 August sparked the current violence.
Around 120,000 people most of them Rohingya Muslim civilians have relied on aid hand-outs in camps since 2012, when religious riots killed scores and sparked a crisis which is again burning through the state.
Over the last five years Rakhine state has been cut along ethnic and religious lines, but the current violence is the worst yet.
Aid agencies are routinely accused of a pro-Rohingya bias and the sudden flare-up of unrest has renewed safety concerns, prompting relief work to be pulled back.
"All WFP food assistance operations in Rakhine State have been suspended due to insecurity... affecting 250,000 internally displaced and other most vulnerable populations," the WFP said in statement.
"We are coordinating with the authorities to resume distributions for all affected communities as soon as possible, including for any people newly affected by the current unrest."
The Rohingya, branded illegal immigrants in Myanmar and mostly denied citizenship, make up the vast majority of the dead and displaced since 2012.
In the ongoing bout of violence, 40,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh, according to the UN.
Tens of thousands have been turned away by Bangladeshi border officials, while scores have died trying to cross the Naf river a natural frontier between the two countries in basic boats and even on flotsam.
On Friday, Myanmar's army chief said nearly 400 people have died in the violence, among them 370 Rohingya militants, and 11,000 ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, Hindus and other minority groups have also been internally displaced.
Accounts from Rohingya survivors in Bangladesh and Buddhists who fled to Sittwe, the Rakhine state capital, indicate the death toll may be much higher.
The worst-hit areas are off-limits to reporters. But unverifiable testimony has trickled out, telling of tit-for- tat mass killings and villages being torched by the army and the militants.
As violence spins out of control, food and medical relief have been stopped to many already languishing in basic camps, according to the Pierre Peron, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"Humanitarian aid normally goes to these vulnerable people for a very good reason, because they depend on it," he said in a statement, adding disruption to the relief chain "has a very real human impact."
Several of the largest banks operating in Houston are making it easier for customers affected by Hurricane Harvey to access one of the most essential things in an emergency: cash.
Banks like JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and BBVA Compass have announced plans to waive fees, including those for using ATMs outside of their networks to help their customers in the path of the hurricane. The storm, which made landfall on Aug. 26 has dropped more than 30 inches of rain.
JPMorgan Chase, which is the largest bank in the Houston metro market by deposits, will waive ATM fees in Houston and other affected areas through Sept. 10. It also will waive or refund late fees on mortgage, credit card, business banking and auto loan payments. The same goes for overdraft or monthly service fee charges.
Wells Fargo, which is the second largest bank in the Houston metro market, also will waive out-of-network ATM fees for its customers. It said it would also reverse late fees and other charges on all of its consumer products.
Bank of America says it will automatically refund fees incurred by consumer and small-business customers in the areas impacted by the storm.
Frost Bank says it will waive overdraft and non-sufficient fund fees incurred between Aug. 28 and Sept. 8 for customers in Houston and Galveston, Texas. Fees already incurred would be refunded.
The bank said its customers in the affected areas can use any ATM without incurring a fee, and that it would waive the fees for non-customers using its ATMs in the region.
BBVA Compass Bank and Comerica are extending the ATM courtesy to non-customers, too. In addition to waiving fees for its customers using other ATMs, they both said they wouldnt charge non-customers in the affected areas to use their ATMs, either.
Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America each have pledged $1 million to relief efforts. Wells Fargo also will allow its Go Far Rewards customers to redeem their points for donations to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Customers can do so through Sept. 12 by going to GoFarRewards.wf.com or calling 877-517-1358.
What you can do
To find out if your bank or credit union will waive fees or make other accommodations, call the customer service number on the back of your debit card or visit the institutions website or social media pages.
Several banks have set up special phone numbers for banking customers:
Chase 888-356-0023
Bank of America 800-432-1000
Frost Bank 800-513-7678
If youre in an area impacted by Harvey, look to technology to help make banking a bit easier. As long as you have battery power and data access, you can use smartphone banking apps to to accomplish some of your financial tasks, like:
Transferring money.
Depositing checks.
Sending money to friends or relatives.
Determining if your branch is open.
The U.S. Energy Secretary has approved up to 4.5 million barrels of crude oil to be released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in response to the impact from Tropical Storm Harvey, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy said on Friday.
That marks an additional 3.5 million barrels on top of the 1 million barrels of oil approved as of Thursday.
"In response to the impacts from Hurricane Harvey, the U.S. Secretary of Energy has authorized the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to negotiate and execute emergency exchange agreements for up to 4.5 million barrels of crude oil from SPR's West Hackberry and Bayou Choctaw sites," Jess Szymanski, a Department of Energy spokeswoman, said via email.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington DC; Writing by Devika Krishna Kumar in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Actor and director George Clooney says his latest film Suburbicon is a movie for an angry America, inspired by Donald Trumps presidential campaign.
The Oscar winner, who was in Venice, Italy, for the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, said his latest directorial effort is an angry movie for an angry country his own.
"A lot of us are angry angry at ourselves, angry at the way that the country is going, angry at the way the world is going," he told reporters Saturday in Venice, where "Suburbicon" is competing for the festival's Golden Lion prize.
MARK RUFFALO CALLS FOR TRUMP TO BE REMOVED FROM OFFICE AS HE MARCHES AGAINST WHITE SUPREMACY
"It's probably the angriest I have ever seen the country, and I lived through the Watergate period of time," Clooney added. "There is a dark cloud hanging over our country right now."
Clooney said the movie is a comedy that started to get more and more furious as shooting went on.
"We wanted it to be funny, we wanted it to be mean," he said. "But it is certainly angry, and it got angrier as we were shooting."
The film, which stars Matt Damon and Julianne Moore, revolves around a couple who live in a seemingly idyllic and all-white 1950s suburban community that erupts in anger when a black family moves in.
It fused a script by the Coen brothers with a narrative about racial divisions inspired in a negative way by Trump's presidential campaign.
The genesis of the screenplay [came when] I was watching a lot of [Trump] speeches on the campaign trail about building fences and scapegoating minorities, and I started looking around at other times in our history when weve unfortunately fallen back into these things, and I found this story that happened in Levittown, Pennsylvania, Clooney said.
EYES WIDE SHUT ACTRESS: I CAME OUT AS A CONSERVATIVE IN HOLLYWOOD. HERES WHAT HAPPENED
Clooney was an avid supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Clooney and his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, hosted a fundraiser for Clinton in San Francisco and Los Angeles in April 2016, according to The Guardian.
A pair of tickets for the event were sold from $33,400 to $353,400. Clooney admitted the money he raised for Clinton was obscene after some 200 supporters for Clintons opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, showed up to the event to protest it.
Yes, Clooney told Chuck Todd on NBCs Meet the Press, I think its an obscene amount of money. I think, you know, that we had some protesters last night when we pulled up in San Francisco and theyre right to protest. Theyre absolutely right. It is an obscene amount of money.
The Sanders campaign when they talk about it is absolutely right. Its ridiculous that we should have this kind of money in politics. I agree, completely.
Clooney based a lot of Suburbicon on the true story of William and Daisy Myers, a black couple who moved to Levittown, Pa., in 1957 and were taunted by the towns residents, according to the Daily Beast. The couple had rocks thrown at their windows and received threats over the phone.
When you talk about Making America Great Again, America being great everyone assumed was the Eisenhower 50s, and it was great if you were a white, straight male, but other than that it probably wasnt so great, Clooney said.
Its fun to lift up that curtain and look underneath that thin veneer and see some of the real problems that this country has yet to completely come to terms with.
Clooney was asked if he was considering running for president in the future.
Would I like to be the next president? Oh, that sounds like fun. Can I just say that Id like anybody to be the next president of the United States? Right away, please, Clooney joked.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Chris Blinston, a former contestant on Spikes Ink Master, was arrested this week for allegedly choking his 13-year-old daughter.
Blinston, who was a contestant on the shows sixth season in 2015, was arrested and charged with felony domestic battery by strangulation, according to TMZ.
SIR TOM JONES POSTPONES US TOUR DUE TO HEALTH ISSUES
Blinstons daughter reportedly confided to her therapist Tuesday that the Florida tattoo artist choked her twice after an argument. A police report followed the claim.
Blinston reportedly held his daughters neck leaving her incapable of breathing for about 10 seconds, according to the police report. After Blinston released her, his daughter said: You just choked me, after everything thats gone on the past two days, youre choking me!
Blinston reportedly became angry again and strangled her a second time leaving her unable to breathe for about 7 seconds. Blinston reportedly called the young girl a mental skank and threatened there would be hell to pay if she informed anyone about the incident.
SERENA WILLIAMS GIVES BIRTH TO GIRL
Police said they saw bruises and marks on her neck when they interviewed Blinstons daughter, TMZ reported. The report also stated that Blinston weighs about 100 pounds more than his daughter.
Blinston posted the $6,000 bond needed for bail on Friday.
According to his website, Blinston is known for his award-winning artwork, and his dedication and commitment to volunteering. The website also stated that Blinston owns a tattoo shop in Coral Springs, Fla.
Tragedy struck a family in Alaska last week from an unlikely source: their refrigerator.
The propane-powered appliance at their cabin near Big Lake started leaking carbon monoxide, causing the death of a 10-year-old boy and sickening other family members, the Alaska Dispatch News reported.
When Sarah Klebs daughter Caroline complained of a headache last Saturday, followed by her son, Gavin, vomiting, she assumed the family had caught the flu.
Instead, carbon monoxide -- an odorless gas -- had leaked into the cabin from the refrigerator, investigators later determined.
Sarah and Caroline recovered, but Gavin died.
The cabin did not have a carbon monoxide detector installed.
Click here for more from the Alaska Dispatch News.
Hunting and fishing have long been at the cornerstone of Americas outdoor heritage, with countless men and women participating in these cherished activities since our nations founding.
Since the advent of modern fish and wildlife conservation, sportsmen have played a key role in funding conservation efforts at the national, state, and local levels. The reasoning for this is simple, and can be credited to Americas original conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt, an avid hunter, fisherman and NRA Life Member.
President Roosevelt recognized that our natural resources need to be responsibly utilized. To that end, he championed wildlife management based on scientific principles, an approach that serves as the foundation of our entire system.
Importantly, President Roosevelt also recognized that hunters and anglers were the lynchpin to the systems success and serve as our nations greatest resource defenders.
The revitalization of Americas wildlife resources marks the greatest conservation success story in history, ensuring that Americas wild spaces and the fish and wildlife species that rely on them can be enjoyed by all.
For the past eight years unfortunately, the Roosevelt model has been undermined by an out-of-control federal government. This is why the appointment of Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior was celebrated by Americas hunting community and those who care about our wildlife resources. If there ever was an Interior Secretary cut from the Roosevelt mold, its Ryan Zinke.
A lifelong advocate of hunting and fishing, Zinkes public service career has been focused on protecting our natural resources while recognizing that hunting and fishing are critical to our ongoing success. He clearly understands that without sportsmen at the center of the equation, fish and wildlife are at risk. Thats why he prioritized hunting and fishing access from day one at the Interior Department and his comprehensive review of national monument designations was so critically important to Americas sportsmen.
Throughout the review process, he has kept hunters and anglers front and center and we should all applaud his tireless effort on our behalf. Those who claim that the Secretary does not have our pro-conservation interests at heart are either misinformed, lying, or both.
Zinke knows that Americas hunters and anglers are the backbone of successful fish and wildlife management in the United States. In 2016 alone, $1.1 billion in hunter and angler excise revenues was invested by the 50 state fish and wildlife agencies to fund wildlife projects benefitting all wildlife -- game and nongame species alike.
But he also understands that its not just finances where Americas hunters and anglers make a difference. Within our own local communities, hunting and angling is an important tradition thats often passed down through the generations and enjoyed by the entire family, helping to forge life-long support of wildlife conservation and the full appreciation of our fish and wildlife resources.
Ryan Zinke knows of this deep appreciation because its how hes lived his entire life. And its precisely why his monument review was so important to sportsmen and our cherished traditions.
None can claim greater dedication to wildlife conservation than our nations hunters and anglers. Sportsmen embody President Roosevelts ever-living wildlife management philosophy -- which is also embraced and championed by Secretary Zinke -- responsible hunting and fishing are at the core of conservation. Under Zinke's leadership, our precious wildlife resources will be effectively managed to protect them for current and future generations.
The following in an open letter to the violent extremist group Antifa.
To the hatemongers of Antifa:
Youve had quite a run spreading violence across our nation in the past few months. And while you claim your name means youre anti-fascist, youve shown by your actions that youre really anti-American and anti-freedom.
Youve assaulted hundreds of President Trumps supporters at rallies. Youve vandalized property in the nations capital after the Trump inauguration. And youve gone on an arson rampage because you were upset that former Breitbart News Senior Editor Milo Yiannopoulos was supposed to speak at the University of California, Berkeley.
In Charlottesville, you arrived on the scene with clubs and shields, prepared to commit violence. Instead, your sick plans were superseded by the monstrous behavior of neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members and other right-wing extremists as lunatic as you are. But they dont have much of the liberal media working as agit-prop wings for them every day, like you do.
If theres anything you Antifa members hate its free speech, the Bill of Rights and the United States of America. In this, you have a lot in common with the fascists you denounce, as well as communist tyrants.
Last Sunday, near your operational headquarters in Berkeley, you proved again that you are a nest of Marxist vipers. You went on yet another violent rampage, attacking innocent conservative men and women who were holding a peaceful rally.
Thats your modus operandi: intimidation of anyone you deem your enemy through organized violence. You believe you are always right, those you disagree with you are always wrong, and as a result you are justified in physically attacking them to shut them up.
If theres anything you Antifa members hate its free speech, the Bill of Rights and the United States of America. In this, you have a lot in common with the fascists you denounce, as well as communist tyrants.
You so-called anti-fascists are really nothing more than communists yourselves, arent you? Im sure its no coincidence that your banner resembles the German Communist Party flag from the 1920s.
No doubt you believe that youre on a roll and that through further assaults and intimidation youll be able to change the political climate and remake our nation into Soviet American Union.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Heres whats going to happen:
Your group is going to be destroyed either by law enforcement, or by average Americans, or by both.
At the end of the day, you will be piled on the ash heap of history with a myriad of other thugs, authoritarian movements and tyrants from the past.
Youve had a field day picking on college millennials and unarmed reporters. Youve cold-cocked Trump supporters with rocks and attacked conservative women with pepper spray. And all the while, local police were forced to look on helplessly, under orders from liberal mayors who support the resistance.
Newsflash for you: You havent actually met the real resistance yet, but with your determination for violence and bloodshed you probably will.
The real resistance consists of millions of veterans, patriots and hard-working Americans who are sick and tired of Antifa violence and suppression of free speech. Many of these patriots would rather die than let the Bill of Rights be trampled on and incinerated by domestic terrorists like you.
Of course, you could just stop being violent, stop suppressing free speech and go home. Then we could all live peacefully as free men and women in the greatest country on earth.
But history has taught us that people like you are not going to stop. Therefore, youd be wise to heed the words of the Bible and Matthew: Those who live by the sword die by the sword.
You might want to put down your copy of "Rules for Radicals," take off your goggles and masks, and think about that.
More and more Americans are on to you. Despite your name, we know you are outlaws who embrace violence and hatred of America in the same way as the communists, the Nazis, Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Some leftist activists are attempting to fund their pet projects by taking advantage of the generosity of the American people and our desire to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Instead of soliciting badly needed donations for delivery and assistance to people in need, these activists are seeking donations to groups and political action committees dedicated to social justice causes unrelated to the immediate needs those trying to recover from Harveys devastation.
As they struggle against the devastation left by Harvey, the courageous people of Texas and local, state and federal emergency responders have brought out the best in our country. People from around our nation are donating millions of dollars for hurricane relief efforts to help many thousands of storm victims including many who are now homeless, jobless and without most of their possessions.
Yet some on the left want to raise money for their own favorite causes by linking them to hurricane relief efforts. The most prominent is Womens March organizer Linda Sarsour, who last week tweeted her followers to Donate to the Harvey Hurricane Relief Fund and included a link to a website called Texas Organizing Project.
The site says the mission of the group is to promote social and economic equality for low to moderate income Texans through community and electoral organizing.
The specific link Sarsour blasted out to her 230,000 Twitter followers went to a donation page that states: Your donation is vital to ensuring that we have the resources we need to organize and fight for Texans devastated by Hurricane Harvey!
It also goes on to say: Together we will organize and advocate for our devastated communities, shining a spotlight on inequalities that emerge in the restoration of lives, livelihoods, and homes, amplifying the needs of hard-hit communities, and providing legal assistance for residents wrongfully denied government support.
A statement on the Texas Organizing Projects Facebook page stated originally that All donations made here will only be used to organize in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Thank you! and was later edited out (this can be viewed by selecting the view edit history tab on the post).
Nowhere does it state on the donation page that any money donated will go to immediate victims in need of food, shelter or supplies. This was largely ignored by mainstream media outlets, several of which have glamorized Sarsour and the Womens March.
The reporting on this was left to conservative media. This allowed Sarsour to frame criticism of her efforts as a racist, partisan attack. In a follow-up tweet she said: Texas Organizing Project is not my PAC, but who cares about facts when you are white supremacists obsessed w/ smearing women of color. The rest of our media casually looked the other way.
The most interesting thing about Sarsours statement here is not that she is accusing reporters of racism (she does this pretty much every day), but that she is in fact admitting these donations are going to an activist PAC, not to relief efforts for hurricane victims.
The Womens March itself sent out a link asking for donations to organizations which, again, do not seek to provide hurricane victims with direct necessities in the wake of the storm. Instead, the organizations claim they have longer term goals of providing assistance to marginalized communities around the Houston area.
MoveOn.Org sent out a similar tweet the next day. Will you chip in to the #HurricaneHarvey relief fund? with a link to its own website. MoveOn states that donations will go to the Texas Organizing Project as well.
Another bit of shady fundraising came from journalist, activist and Black Lives Matter supporter Shaun King who directed his Twitter followers to an unsolicited Amazon wish list.
When questioned of the origins of the list by another Twitter user, King responded: Families in Texas made the list. Goes directly to an office. They have trucks and will deliver to areas of need. Kings offer was also signal boosted by actress Jessica Chastain who told her Twitter followers to buy everything.
The reason to be skeptical of Kings personal efforts, instead of directing his followers to a verified charity, is simply because weve seen this kind of thing with him before. Author and Editor-at-large for the Daily Beast Goldie Taylor called King out on the website for millions in missing donations meant to go to Black Lives Matter and Haitian orphans.
This was on the heels of an argument between King and prominent activist DeRay McKesson, when McKesson questioned funds raised on Kings behalf for an organization called Justice Together.
Houstons mayor, Sylvester Turner, has also set up his own charitable organization in response to the hurricane, though once again its unclear as to where any money donated would go or how it would be used.
NPR, linking to the groups website titled The Greater Houston Community Foundation, describes it as connecting donors with a network of nonprofits and innovative solutions in the social sector.
The websites state goal is even less detailed. The link was tweeted out several times by the Texas Democrats account, among others, while describing it as from The City of Houston
The Lilith Fund, an organization that claims it will help people in Texas pay for an abortion sent out a tweet asking for emergency funds.
We created an emergency fund for #HurricaneHarvey survivors facing (additional) barriers who are seeking abortion care, the fund says, linking to a website page that simply states EMERGENCY FUND FOR HARVEY SURVIVORS.
As the old saying goes, never let a good crisis go to waste.
These left-wing organizations arent going to stop politicizing tragic events and its apparent by now that the media arent interested in exposing the stars they have spent long months building up.
All this shows that its important to follow longstanding advice before you donate your hard-earned dollars to a charity: make sure that what sounds like a worthy cause really is a worthy cause. Usually a Google search will give you the information you need.
Being careful about who you donate your money to is the best way to fight back against those who believe their pet causes are never put on hold. Even when the best of America is showing its face.
Newly disclosed evidence that then-FBI Director James Comey began working on a statement to reject criminal charges against former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton months before she and other key witnesses were interviewed by the FBI shows that President Trump was right to fire Comey.
The evidence proves that Trump and his supporters were correct to say throughout the presidential campaign that Washington operates on a rigged crony system that serves the interests of the powerful and rewards corporate globalists to the detriment of the American people.
As evidence of the rigged system, voters sided with Trump during the campaign in often citing Clintons apparent immunity from consequences regarding her unsavory acts as secretary of state, especially her hidden emails on a private server, as well as corrupt Clinton Foundation dealings.
Given what we learned in recent days about Comey, the investigation he oversaw of Clinton represented the very worst of the rigged process. Instead of acting as an impartial, honest fact-finder on behalf of the American people, Comey behaved like a partisan hack.
The former FBI directors reprehensible behavior both during and after his tenure surely validates the judgment of President Trump in firing a man totally unfit to oversee our most revered law enforcement agency in our nation.
The new evidence is revealed in a letter sent Wednesday to FBI Director Christopher Wray from Republican Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. The letter is a bombshell, and didnt get anywhere near the media attention it deserves.
The evidence disclosed by Grassley and Graham comes from the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency that investigated whether Comey violated the law when he was FBI director. The investigation was closed after Comey was fired. The new evidence shows that Comey drafted a memo exonerating Clinton of wrongdoing as early as April 2016, even though Clinton was not interviewed until July 2016.
As Grassley and Graham correctly stated in their letter: conclusion first, fact-gathering second thats no way to run an investigation.
In fact, after Comey wrote his nothing to see here draft absolving Clinton of wrongdoing, the FBI still interviewed a total of 17 key officials. In addition to Clinton herself, State Department Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, who was appointed by Clinton and served under her, was also questioned. Mills received a very unusual immunity agreement from investigators.
How is it possible that Comey had ascertained, at such an early date, that the evidence would not incriminate Hillary Clinton? Such a prejudicial judgment certainly reveals a shocking level of bias and a dangerous willingness to engage in partisan politics.
Understandably, President Trump reacted to the new evidence with indignation, tweeting Friday: Comey exonerated Hillary Clinton long before the investigation was over a rigged system!
Many Americans had already concluded that Comeys investigation of Clinton was a sham. The majority in a July 2016 Washington Post/ABC News poll disagreed with Comeys decision to not seek an indictment against her.
The American people were poorly served by an FBI director who shirked his duty as a public servant. They thankfully delivered their verdict on Clintons suitability for the Oval Office at the ballot box last November.
Adding insult to injury, Comeys deceptive practices extended beyond his FBI tenure. Once he was fired by President Trump, he again showed his true colors by leaking confidential information to the media with the expressed intention of triggering a special counsel investigation
Comeys pattern of unethical bias, plus his personal ties to Special Counsel Robert Mueller going back many years, seriously tarnish Muellers standing.
Donald Trump triumphed in 2016 because he promised to drain the swamp in Washington. Sadly, the swamp has proven resilient, from Capitol Hill to James Comey in obstructing the presidents transformational agenda.
In the end, the will of the people must prevail and smash a rigged system that has stolen the dignity and prosperity of Americans.
Editor's note: This is a letter from Tim Knesek of La Grange, Texas, about how his community was hit by flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey and how he volunteered to help those in need. It is written to his adult daughter, Jordan, who lives in the New York City area and works for Fox News. She was visiting her parents when the storm began to hit.
My Jordan,
Oh how our little Mayberry has changed since you left. Hurricane Harvey pounded La Grange for two days before you had a brief window to make your flight back to the city. Unfortunately, Harvey was not through with our town and others in its path.
I returned from the airport after dropping you off and was surprised when I drove by church and found the parking lot empty. In past years, we had been a primary point for those seeking shelter from storms.
Second Baptist was the point church for this year, so I went by and volunteered to prepare breakfast for evacuees on Wednesday. Little did I know that the Lord had other plans for our church.
The Colorado River was projected to crest at 49 feet Monday, with some flooding anticipated. Sunday was the first night we slept well, as I had stayed up watching the storms path for nights before. Thats probably why I didnt hear the additional six inches of rain that fell that night.
Our final tally was over 28 inches of rain from Friday night through Monday morning. The additional rains would push the crest of the river over 54 feet.
MAX LUCADO: WHAT HARVEY TEACHES US AS CHRISTIANS
It was 5:56 a.m. Monday when I got a text on my phone. Scott from church put out a cry for help. The evacuation area had now expanded to include the Care Inn Nursing Home. Fifty patients were headed to St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church for shelter.
By the time I arrived, all the patients had been transported to our church and we were headed to the nursing home to collect needed items because it was taking on water. Gods people had breakfast cooking by the time I arrived at church followed by an entertaining game of bingo led by Brother David.
It must have seemed like one heck of a field trip for those folks. The administrator found room at another nursing facility out of town and by 3 p.m. the last patient had been moved. People taking care of people Im pretty sure God was proud of his children that day.
Many commented from miles around that day on the beauty of a double rainbow painted in the sky. Funny how God has a way of showing his presence when we need it most.
Monday evening your mom and I walked downtown to the rivers new edge. The water charted its new path running through houses and businesses as if it was its natural course.
Many commented from miles around that day on the beauty of a double rainbow painted in the sky. Funny how God has a way of showing his presence when we need it most.
A group of us from work and church now had the task of serving 42 of Gods children taking up residency at Second Baptist. We had plenty of servers, so I ventured out into the crowd to talk with folks and listen to their stories.
It was my conversation with an elderly couple that I remember most. They had moved to La Grange to take care of the ladys mother. The husband had a stroke about a year ago, but seemed to have recovered fairly well.
They were selling their trailer house on Monday and planned to move back to New Mexico.
But that dream floated down the river Monday along with many others. They had a small boy with them their grandson. Their daughter gave birth to him while in prison and they had raised the boy since he was a day old.
I told that boy to take care of his grandparents. He was the only gift left for them after years of living. I sure hope that little boy becomes president one day
The city opened the flooded area for clean up Thursday morning. This is where I spent my afternoon Thursday and Friday, helping clean up the floods destruction. You would not believe the number of people, tractors and dumpsters that lined the streets.
FEMA will help out in the long run to get these folks back on their feet, but today it was Gods unpaid army showing up to rebuild. Kind of sad it has to work this way, but it is tragedy that many times bring out our best.
The waters that flowed through did not discriminate in their path. Nor did the people trying to put these lives back together.
It will be different when you return. We lost about 300 homes in the flood. Some people will return, but others will not. Many who lost everything were the very people who could afford it the least. Mostly, they worked in service-related jobs to help make our lives better.
Have no worries about our town. La Grange has given much to build the lives of many. Now those lives, along with many others, will rebuild what has been taken by the flood.
Yes, the town will be different when you return. We will be stronger for what we have endured.
God bless and hope to see you soon.
Love you!
Dad
Disasters bring out the best and worst in people.
There are big-hearted celebrities like Sandra Bullock, J.J. Watt, Kevin Hart and others working hard to aid the flood victims. (Please donate here!)
There are reporters like CNN correspondent Ed Lavandera who rescue those in need, remembering that they are first and foremost human beings, not just journalists.
But for many in the media, the storm is just one more chance to rain on President Donald Trumps parade. One more chance to remind ordinary Americans that they hate Texas, Texans and anyone connected to Trump. Politico and Charlie Hebdo were the worst of the pack, but there were far too many outlets and cartoonists trying to use a disaster to further their own agenda.
Politico tweeted out a cartoon from Pulitzer winner Matt Wuerker on Wednesday and it was met by a storm of controversy. The image depicts a Confederate flag-wearing man being rescued from a house emblazoned with a giant Texas flag with the word Secede written on it. A Gadsden flag (stating DONT TREAD ON ME, used in the American Revolution and by some modern tea party groups) is being covered in the floodwaters nearby. The man shouts: Angels! Sent by God! The rescuer responds: Er, actually Coast Guard sent by the government.
The Washington Posts Aaron Blake summed it up nicely. It's almost a caricature of what you'd expect a liberal cartoonist to draw in response to conservative Texans relying upon the government in their time of crisis. The Confederate flag T-shirt. The Gadsden Flag. The reference to being saved by God (which seems extremely dismissive of Christianity). The Texas secession banner. It's all kind of ... predictable?
Yes, predictable. Because we expected it and it happened. Left-wing Politico discovered that many people dont actually hate the storm victims and promptly deleted the tweet. Only one problem: the cartoon is still available on the Politico website while people have died in Texas from that very same flood.
Wuerker released the obligatory phony statement to try and fend off his numerous critics. He claimed: It of course was not aimed at Texans in general, any more than a cartoon about extremists marching in Charlottesville could be construed as a poke at all Virginians. Except, of course, the people dying or losing everything from the flood are Texans in general.
Wuerkers whole Twitter account is filled with attacks on conservatives, including a retweet of a similar cartoon and one showing a photo of high-heeled swim fins for Melania Trump. That second one reflects on yet another Politico use of the flood for political gain. (See below.)
Politico wasnt the only clueless, hateful outlet to push a cartoon making fun of flood victims. Charlie Hebdo, the controversial French publication, did its part. Its cover depicted a bunch of drowning Nazis saluting, with only their limbs and the tops of Nazi flags showing. The headline? God Exists! He Drowned All Neo Nazis of Texas!
This might be a good time to remind Charlie Hebdo staffers that the only reason they arent goose-stepping today is thanks to a ton of Americans who risked everything including some who gave their lives to liberate France from the Nazis in World War II. Many of these heroes came from Texas including one of the most-decorated American soldiers of World War II, Audie Murphy.
2. Lets Play Politics With Peoples Lives Part II: When CNN correspondent Rosa Flores shoved a microphone in the face of one flood victim, she got more than she bargained for. But yall sit here, yall trying to interview people during their worst times like thats not the smartest thing to do, said the angry woman. She went on to toss a few four-letter words at CNN before it cut the segment. Just as Ed Lavandera showed the sensitive side of journalism, this showed the insensitive.
There was a lot of that.
MSNBCs amazingly biased Katy Tur (D-J school) complained that it was too early for President Trump to go to Texas. She went on that there's real concern that his going there is going to have to divert, at least a little bit, some resources away from the rescue effort and toward him. CBSs openly left-wing morning co-host Gayle King wondered if it was the best time for him to come?
Then when the president got to Texas, both Morning Joe and CNN complained he didnt have enough empathy. Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski followed her usual froth-at-the-mouth line that there was something wrong with the president. CNNs Jeff Zeleny whined that there was very little in terms of empathy from this president.
Then there was Slate, with a headline just complaining about stories of heroism. Why Its Misleading to Say That Houston Showcases America at Its Best. The subhead to the story added: Natural disasters shouldnt be used for the purpose of national mythmaking.
Pretty sure those thousands of heroes and volunteers arent myths. But Slates integrity sure is.
3. Hurricanes Must Mean Global Warming: Weather coverage is reliable. A lack of major storms must mean climate change. The first major storm to make landfall in more than a decade? Climate change again. Its the perfect answer to every question.
The horrendous flooding in Texas meant journalists moved from the first strategy to the second. And they did so with ease. So many that it was impossible to tell the journalism from the opinion. One claimed, theres a connection between rising global greenhouse gas levels and the extreme weather now being inflicted. (Journalism, allegedly). Now we have a moral duty to talk about climate change. (Opinion).
Apparently, we dont have a moral duty to discuss how the Galveston hurricane of 1900 was far and away the most deadly in American history with between 6,000 and 12,000 dead. But that wouldnt be climate change, so journalists wont discuss it.
CBSs Manuel Bojorquez also pointed the finger also at Houston development while interviewing one climate change alarmist. He says when Harvey came ashore, the storm laid bare another problem decades in the making: The massive paving over of the areas natural wetlands and prairies, explained Bojorquez.
Of course, if one wanted to push an agenda, its worth noting that Houston has been led by Democratic mayors for 35 years. A point Bojorquez didnt bring up.
4. Chinese Water Torture Journalism: Journalists would love it if Russia or some similar big story took down the Trump administration. Failing that, they have chosen the time-honored method of the Chinese Water Torture. The goal is to damage President Trump with a series of mindless, minor stories.
We had two wonderful examples this week. First, the outrage over the First Lady Melania Trumps shoes. Yes, Im embarrassed to type that. Even more embarrassing were the comments coming from journalists who used the shoes as a symbol for what many see as the disconnect between the Trump administration and reality.
The number of heels who whined about heels could have filled a shoe store The Daily Beast, Politico, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Vanity Fair. Refinery29 writer Maria Del Russo called Melania flood watch Barbie.
And Vogues Lynn Yeager was much mocked for her criticism of the first lady. But what kind of message does a fly-in visit from a First Lady in sky-high stilettos send to those suffering the enormous hardship, the devastation of this natural disaster? she wrote. Conservatives on social media skewered Yeagers own lack of sartorial excellence. Firebrand Milo Yiannopouloss critique was so harsh I wont even quote it. But it was well-earned.
Then there were the Finns. During a press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, Trump made the unforgivable mistake of mixing up two journalists sitting next two each other. The two women were both blonde and almost identical height, but the mix-up became international news.
The Washington Post carried an Associated Press story that led with: It appeared to be a case of all blondes look alike for President Donald Trump, and USA Today went with, Well, mistakes happen.
These all harken back to the standard liberal ways to attack conservatives. All conservatives must be: stupid, crazy, racist or evil or some combination all four. The heels story was an attempt to make the Trumps look heartless and therefore evil, and the goal of the Finns pieces was to make Trump look stupid.
Its been a media strategy that dates at least to President Reagan. Weve just never seen it deployed on this extensive a scale before.
5. Goodbye Columbus, Hello Aztec Sacrifice: Nothing says tolerance like ripping someones heart out in a ritual sacrifice. Welcome to the City of Angels. So intent are liberals there to express their disdain for European culture, they now want to celebrate a barbaric native culture.
And The Los Angeles Daily News helped them do it. The City Council just approved replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day (just rolls right off the tongue). During that debate, the Daily News wrote a story citing one man and pointing to his own indigenous identity connected to the Aztecs.
The story went on about his Aztec ties for four full paragraphs, never mentioning some of the pesky details about the Aztecs like human sacrifice on a massive scale. Just last month, NPR posted a story on its website headlined: Aztec 'Tower Of Skulls' Reveals Women, Children Were Sacrificed. Pretty sure Journalism 101 would cover that in the who or what questions.
Hurray For Hollywood: F*** Donald Trump seems all the rage on the Left Coast. It was played off camera during MTVs Video Music Awards and nearly forgotten rapper Eminem chanted his version of it, F*** Trump, leading a concert audience in England to do the same. Meanwhile, hateful former celebrity Kathy Griffin unapologized for her crazy beheading Trump photo. The theoretical comedian even launched a Laugh Your Head Off tour, probably replacing her, I Have No Talent dates.
The left isnt done bashing Texas and the South. The new B movie Bushwick depicts a world where Texas has seceded from the United States and, for some reason, secessionist troops travel all the way to Bushwick in Brooklyn to invade. (Why not pick Philly and at least get some cheesesteaks?) I dont blame the idiot creative minds behind the movie. I blame the media people who already love it, in the midst of a disaster in Texas.
The New Yorkers Anthony Lane began his clueless review of this movie with: Some films have all the luck. Because depicting Texans as awful villains while they are being heroic rescuing men, women and children and even pets is so trenchant.
In another example of bashing of conservatives, CNN is using Labor Day to release The Reagan Show, a new anti-Reagan movie. The ads show Reagan saying: Together we will make America great again. Given how anti-Trump CNN is, this could reach Acosta-level stupidity.
JINAN, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- East China's Shandong Province has approved a request to establish a refining conglomerate that will combine the country's largest independent oil refineries, known as teapots.
The founding shareholders of the new conglomerate are major teapots, including Shandong Dongming Petrochemical Group, according to a document issued Friday by Shandong Economic and Information Technology Committee.
The coastal province contains more than 70 percent of China's independent oil refineries, most of which are privately-owned.
With a revenue of over 88.6 billion yuan (13.5 billion U.S. dollars) last year, Shandong Dongming is China's largest teapot. Combined revenue of all the teapots in Shandong exceeds 492.5 billion yuan.
A trade group, representing major teapots in the province, sent a request to the government in July to establish the refining conglomerate.
According to the request, the individual independent refineries in Shandong could bind together under one flag to improve coordination in the face of fierce competition.
The teapots' international impact began to be felt toward the end of 2015, when the central government issued import quotas.
In the months since, the teapots have imported a huge amount of crude oil from overseas, including the Middle East, Latin America, Russia and the United States, sending shockwaves across the world energy market.
For several months of last year, the Port of Qingdao was congested with oil tankers waiting for weeks to unload crude imported by the teapots.
As the floodwaters slowly recede in Texas, the liberal media continue to relentlessly attack President Trump, despite the tremendous job he is doing to deal with Hurricane Harvey.
The president deserves a great deal of credit for working with congressional leaders to help fund recovery from the killer storm. Late Friday night the White House asked Congress for $7.85 billion to fund the continuing federal response to the hurricane. President Trump has also pledged $1 million of his own money to help victims.
Yet media attacks harp on criticism of President Trump for his conduct on his first visit to Texas not long after Harvey hit.
ABC News, a supposedly impartial source of information, ran with the following headline: Trump thanks Texas officials for hurricane response, barely addresses victims.
CNNs headline was similarly backhanded: Trump wins praise in Texas, but keeps empathy at bay.
A Newsweek reporter chose to defend his fellow media members, claiming reporters are rescuing people in Texas even as Trump attacks the media.
Others shifted to climate change, blaming President Trumps pro-growth policies for the devastating flood damage.
The first line of a New York Daily News story read: When it rains under President Trump, the protections will be poor.
A Los Angeles Times editorial urged the president to recognize climate change is a global threat in light of Hurricane Harvey. As if hurricanes and floods havent existed for centuries.
Now that the tragedy in Charlottesville has left the front page, the liberal media can no longer so frequently exploit the despicable actions of white supremacists to smear President Trump. So journalists are using their stories on Hurricane Harvey to propagate their anti-Trump agenda.
Far too little attention is paid to the fact that the president expressed his support for Harveys victims, saying his heart goes out even more so to the great people of Texas. And even before that, the president mobilized federal resources and provided much-needed leadership under difficult circumstances. He continues to do this.
In addition, President Trump and his wife made a second visit to Texas Saturday, landing in Houston.
Imagine if President Obama received the same negative media coverage after the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, when he failed to name radical Islam as the cause of the carnage. Not a single mainstream news headline read: Obama thanks first responders in Orlando, fails to mention radical Islam.
The same goes for the 2015 San Bernardino shooting or the infamous Benghazi attack in 2012. Not once did President Obama forcefully condemn radical Islamic terrorism by name, which never drew fire from the liberal media.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, ABC News opted for a puffy human interest angle. A 2012 headline read: Obama meets with parents who lost sons in Sandy.
The liberal media purposely positions President Trump in a lose-lose situation. The same media that attacked President George W. Bush for visiting post-Katrina New Orleans too late blames President Trump for visiting post-Harvey Texas too early.
MSNBC whined about real concern regarding the presidents trip, suggesting it diverts valuable resources from the rescue effort.
No one in the White House is immune. First Lady Melania Trump was widely criticized for wearing high heels as she boarded a helicopter on her way to a flight to Texas. This despite the fact that that she changed into sneakers once the plane touched down.
The New York Times devoted several stories to Mrs. Trumps high heels and alleged naivete. One snarky headline read: Melania Trump, off to Texas, finds herself on thin heels. The attacks became so outrageous that even Trevor Noah, the liberal host of The Daily Show, stood up for the first lady.
The mainstream media should be ashamed. When the press exploits a natural disaster to score political points, it ultimately does a disservice to the victims who have lost everything in Hurricane Harveys floodwaters. Our attention should be focused on them, the first responders, the continued rescue effort and federal aid being provided not anti-Trump zingers and high heels.
Countless videos have revealed truly awe-inspiring heroism on the streets of Houston and other parts of Texas. Americans of all backgrounds are helping each other stay safe. Ignore the fake news, watch these videos and pray for the people of Texas.
Give Texas what it needs. It has endured a disaster without precedent. Washington must move quickly, generously. There should be no The relief bill must be offset by cuts in federal spending. There should be no larding it up or loading it down with extraneous measures. This is an emergency.
This is no time to threaten government shutdowns. Its no time to be dilating on debt ceilings. This is the time to know as never before that everything that holds us together as a nation must be strengthened wherever possible, and whatever sinks us in rancor avoided and shunned.
Give Texas everything it needs, and do it right quick.
Most Americans, including Texans, dont have more than a few hundred dollars in available savings. Most live close to the edge, paycheck to paycheck. Most homeowners in Houston dont have flood insurance. When theyre lucky enough to get out of the shelter, theyll return to houses that are half-ruinedwet, moldy, dank, with no usable furnitureand with kids coming down with colds and stomach ailments from stress or from standing water that holds bacteria and viruses. It will be misery for months. When the trauma is over, therell be plenty of time for debate. Do we need to hold more in reserve for national disasters? Do local zoning laws need rethinking? All worthy questionsfor later.
To continue reading Peggy Noonan's column in the Wall Street Journal, click here.
In May 2014, a broad collection of thinkers and politicians gathered in Washington to celebrate a new conservative manifesto. The document called for replacing stodgy old Reaganite economics with warmer, fuzzier handouts to the middle class. Donald Trump must have missed the memo.
The president formally opened the tax wars on Wednesday with his speech in Missouri challenging Congress to meet his principles for reform. The media almost uniformly applied to the speech its favorite (though misused) descriptor: populist. But the real news was that Mr. Trump wants to make Reagan-style tax reform great again.
The left saw this clearly, which explains its furious and frustrated reaction to the speech. Trumps New Tax Scam: Selling Plutocracy as Populism, ran a headline in Vanity Fair, bemoaning that Trickle-down is back, baby. Democratic strategist Robert Shrum railed in a Politico piece that the plutocrat Mr. Trump was pitching a tax cut for corporations and the top 1 percent yet was getting away with a perverted populism. Trump voters had been tricked into voting against themselves, and now Mr. Trump was pulling a similar con with taxes.
Nonsense. Mr. Trump is selling pro-growth policiessomething his party has forgotten how to do. And theres nothing very populist about it, at least not by todays political standards. The left has defined the tax debate for decades in terms of pure class warfare. Republicans have so often been cast as stooges for the rich that the GOP is scared to make the full-throated case for a freer and fairer tax system. It was precisely the rights desire for a more populist tax policy that gave us the Reformicons and their manifesto for buying off the middle class.
To continue reading Kimberley Strassel's column in the Wall Street Journal, click here.
Unusual health attacks on U.S. diplomats in Cuba continued as recently as August despite previous assessments that the activities had stopped in the spring, the U.S. said on Friday.
"We can confirm another incident which occurred last month and is now part of the investigation," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
The U.S. is continually revising its assessments of the extent of the attacks as new information is obtained, Nauert said. An investigation has not been completed.
The announcement that the attacks in which a potential covert sonic device caused a series of issues, including permanent hearing loss comes after the union representing American diplomats said that mild traumatic brain injury was among the diagnoses given to diplomats victimized in the attack.
The American Foreign Service Association said additional symptoms had included brain swelling, severe headaches, loss of balance and "cognitive disruption."
U.S. officials had previously said that the attacks had started in fall 2016 and continued until spring 2017. Last week, Nauert had said at least 16 Americans associated with the U.S. Embassy in Havana had been affected, but that the "incidents" were no longer occurring. The tally of U.S. government personnel affected jumped to 19 following Fridays revelation.
The revised assessments suggested that U.S. officials were still a long way from a full understanding of what transpired in the unexplained attacks. U.S. investigators have been searching to identify a device that could have harmed the health of the diplomats, believed to have been attacked in their homes in Havana, but officials have said no device had been found.
"We can't rule out new cases as medical professionals continue to evaluate members of the embassy community," Nauert said. She added that the embassy has a medical officer and has been consistently providing medical care to those who have reported incidents.
We hold the Cuban authorities responsible for finding out who is carrying out these health attacks, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last month.
But Cubas Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement August 9 denying the allegations.
Cuba has never, nor would it ever, allow that the Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic agents or their families, without exception, the ministry said in a statement. Moreover, it reiterates its willingness to cooperate in the clarification of this situation.
Two Cuban diplomats were kicked out of the Washington embassy by the State Department following news of the incidents.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Trump administration announced last year its plan to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) which provides a level of amnesty to certain undocumented immigrants, many of whom came to the U.S. as children with a six-month delay for recipients. But a federal appeals court ruled against the proposal in early November, declaring the government couldn't immediately end the program.
The Executive wields awesome power in the enforcement of our nations immigration laws, the ruling said. Our decision today does not curb that power, but rather enables its exercise in a manner that is free from legal misconceptions and is democratically accountable to the public.
Trump had initially set a March 5 deadline for the program and called on Congress to pass legislation pertaining to the young immigrants. But the deadline came and went, with no congressional action but several lawsuits challenging the administration's decision to end the program.
FEDERAL APPEALS COURT RULES AGAINST TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ON DACA
Federal judges in New York and Washington also have ruled against President Trump on DACA.
President Trump has repeatedly blamed Democrats for inaction.
Heres a look at the DACA program and why the Trump administration wants to dismantle it.
What is the DACA program?
The DACA program was formed through executive action by former President Barack Obama in 2012 and allowed certain people who came to the U.S. illegally as minors to be protected from immediate deportation. Recipients, called Dreamers, were able to request consideration of deferred action for a period of two years, which was subject to renewal.
Deferred action is a use of prosecutorial discretion to defer removal action against an individual for a certain period of time, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stated. Deferred action does not provide lawful status.
Individuals were able to request DACA status if they were under the age of 31 on June 15, 2012, came to the U.S. before turning 16 and continuously lived in the country since June 15, 2007.
Individuals also had to have a high school diploma, GED certification, been honorably discharged from the military or still be in school. Recipients could not have a criminal record.
It did not provide legal status.
How many people are affected by DACA?
Nearly 800,000 youth, called Dreamers, are under the program's umbrella.
Daniel Garza, president of the conservative immigration nonprofit Libre Initiative, told Fox News that DACA offers a reprieve from a life of uncertainty for innocent kids who didnt break the law.
Its rather disappointing to think they could return to a state of anxiety and fear, he said.
What did the Trump administration do?
The Trump administration announced in September 2017 that it planned to phase out DACA for current recipients, and no new requests would be granted. But a lower court order required the administration to continue accepting renewal applications for those under the DACA program, and the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's request to intervene.
Since the announcement, Trump had offered to work with lawmakers on a solution for the hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. who fell under DACAs umbrella of protections. But at the same time, he has repeatedly blamed Democrats on social media for lack of a solution.
Earlier this year, Trump released his four pillars of immigration reform, which included a provision for legal status for DACA recipients and others who would be eligible for DACA status. The White House estimated that total to be 1.8 million people. The Senate rejected the plan.
Republicans and some Democrats opposed Obamas directive establishing DACA from the start as a perceived overreach of executive power.
Obama spoke out on social media after the Trump administration announced a plan to dismantle the program, stating that it's "self-defeating ... and it is cruel" to end DACA and questioned the motive behind the decision.
Do any DACA recipients serve in the military?
Despite some rumors circulating online to the contrary, Dreamers were eligible to serve in the U.S. military since 2014 when the Pentagon adopted a policy to allow a certain amount of illegal immigrants to join.
In fiscal year 2016, 359 DACA recipients had enlisted in the Army which is the only branch to accept immigrants of this category.
Fox News' John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Department of Justice said in a court filing Friday it has no evidence that former President Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower, despite President Trumps assertions.
The statement was made in a Friday court filing related to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by American Oversight, a liberal watchdog organization founded by former Obama administration officials.
Both the FBI and NSD confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described the March 4, 2017 tweets, the DOJ wrote in the court filing, obtained by Fox News.
In March, the president accused the former president of secretly wiretapping the building in New York City where he lived and worked.
Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory, the president tweeted. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
Obama, through a spokesman, has denied wiretapping Trumps building.
Spokesman Kevin Lewis said in March "neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false."
During a congressional hearing in March, then-FBI director James Comey said he knew of no evidence Trump Tower was wiretapped.
"With respect to the presidents tweets," Comey said, "I have no information that supports those tweets. We have looked carefully inside the FBI."
In its filing on Friday, the DOJ said the FBI confirmed it didnt have such records by consulting with personnel knowledgeable about Director Comeys statements and the surveillance activities of the FBI.
Citing the filing, the liberal organization accused the president of lying.
The FBI and Department of Justice have now sided with former Director Comey and confirmed in writing that President Trump lied when he tweeted that former President Obama wiretapped him at Trump Tower, American Oversight executive director Austin Evers said in a statement.
FORMER OBAMA STAFFERS LAUNCH TRUMP WATCHDOG GROUP, ENCOURAGE INSIDERS TO REPORT WASTE AND FRAUD
In March, House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said members of the intelligence community "incidentally collected" communications from the Trump transition team during legal surveillance operations of foreign targets.
But Nunes said he was unsure whether the surveillance occurred at Trump Tower -- as the president has suggested.
Trump reacted by saying he felt somewhat vindicated by Nunes comments.
Fox News Alex Pappas, Lillian LeCroy and Cody Derespina contributed to this report.
President Trump spent Saturday touring areas heavily damaged by Hurricane Harvey, saying hes witnessed a lot of love from residents recovering from the devastation while warning it will likely take the affected communities years to rebuild.
Trump begun his day in Houston, where flooding has devastated Texas' most populous city.
The president, along with first lady Melania Trump and other officials, then traveled to Lake Charles, Louisiana, which was also hit by the storm.
We have a long way to go, but the water is disappearing, Trump told a crowd at a church in the Houston area.
The president, joined by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, acknowledged recovery efforts could take "two years, three years."
But he then quipped: I think because this is Texas youll probably do it in six months.
The president on Saturday also visited NRG Stadium, the home of the Houston Texans, that has served as a recovery center for hurricane victims.
Trump, speaking to reporters, said he has been satisfied with the recovery efforts so far.
Really, I think people appreciate whats been done, he said. Its been done very efficiently, very well, and thats what we want. Were very happy with the way everything is going."
He added: "A lot of love. Theres a lot of love.
In Houston, the president handed out lunches of hot dogs, chips and apple sauce to people at the shelter. He was also seen giving hugs and playing with kids.
"What are you building?" the president asked one child at a table full of toys.
As the president toured the destruction, the White House said Trump had made additional disaster assistance available to Texas by authorizing an increase in federal funding for certain eligible costs.
'We have a long way to go, but the water is disappearing' President Trump
Trump authorized a 90 percent federal cost share for debris removal and a 100 percent federal cost share for emergency protective measures. The original disaster said the federal government would fund 75 percent of certain costs.
Before leaving Texas, the president stopped in a Houston neighborhood, where debris were piled outside ranch-style homes.
"These are people that have done a fantastic job holding it together," he said.
At Ellington Field, where Air Force One awaited Trump to take him to Louisiana, the president greeted and praised members of the Coast Guard and Texas National Guard.
He was also seen briefly speaking on the tarmac with members of Texas congressional delegation, including Democratic Reps. Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee, two Texas lawmakers who have previously called for Trump's removal from office.
In Lake Charles, the president was briefed on the storm response at a National Guard Armory and met with Democratic Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards.
This is the president's second trip to the storm affected area. Earlier in the week, the president met with local officials and emergency responders on Tuesday in Corpus Christi and Austin.
At the time, the White House suggested the president was keeping his distance from Houston so he wouldnt interrupt local recovery efforts.
As for federal aid, the president has urged Congress for roughly $7.9 billion, in the immediate aftermath of the storm, which hit the Texas Gulf Coast on Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane. However, he now plans to ask for as much as $14.5 billion, according to the New York Times.
Congress returns Tuesday from August recess, with assurances from Republican leaders of the GOP-controlled House and Senate that they will promptly start work on the presidents request.
As families & communities begin long recovery from Hurricane Harvey, House will act quickly on @POTUS request for emergency relief funding, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., tweeted Friday evening.
And another top House Republican told Fox News within hours of Ryan's tweet that the chamber would begin such efforts when members return Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also vowed Friday to move fast on Trumps request for federal assistance after Harvey, whose record 51-plus inches of rain flooded much of southwest Texas, including Corpus Christi, Houston and Beaumont.
Working closely with the President and the House of Representatives, the Senate stands ready to act quickly to provide this much-needed assistance to those impacted communities, and support first responders and volunteers, the Kentucky Republican said in a statement.
Congress didnt approve funding for Hurricane Sandy until several months after the storm slammed the East Coast in October 2012, a delay that has been repeatedly revisited in the days after Harvey and one that Congress, particularly GOP members, appear eager to avoid this time.
The week in pictures
At least 47 people have died from the storm, and an estimated 72,000 have been rescued, according to reports.
Trumps initial funding request will be only a small part of the total amount likely needed from the federal government. Estimates of the amount needed exceed $50 billion, with flood evacuations continuing and cleanup expected to take years.
The destruction from Harvey could rival or exceed the damage from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which cost taxpayers $110 billion.
The congressional efforts would begin with a separate appropriations bill that would send roughly $7.4 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $450 million to finance disaster loans for small businesses.
Trump is scheduled to meet Tuesday with Ryan, McConnell and the Democratic leaders of the both congressional chambers -- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California.
The Republican leaders are also making plans to use the aid package to win speedy approval of an increase in the federal borrowing limit.
Congress also has to approve a federal spending package by Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown. Trump appears to be easing off his vow to shut down the government if money is not included to fundi his U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Fox News Alex Pappas and Joseph Weber and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Pennsylvania Republican who was one of presidential candidate Donald Trumps earliest backers on Capitol Hill has been nominated to be the nations drug czar.
The Trump administration announced Friday that President Trump has tapped U.S. Rep. Tom Marino to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
In Congress, Marino has worked to expand access to treatment for people struggling with opioid addiction.
The 64-year-old Marino lives near Williamsport, Pa., and is a former county prosecutor who served as U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania's Middle District under President George W. Bush.
Marino was the first Pennsylvania congressman to endorse Trump in the presidential primary contest. He was also the fifth GOP congressman overall to back Trump, Politico reported.
The congressman told Politico at the time that Trump had overwhelming support in his district because hes the man for the unprotected ... not the protected, not for the Wall Street people, not for the D.C. insiders, but for the hard-working taxpayers.
Marino was previously nominated for the drug czar role, but withdrew from consideration in May because of an illness in his family.
In 2016, Marino was part of a GOP effort to look into whether Hillary Clinton committed perjury when she testified before Congress about her private email server, Fox News reported.
The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.
President Trump has announced the names of dozens of likely nominees for top administration jobs, including two House Republicans, setting up another possible round of special elections that will against test the presidents political strength and give Democrats another opportunity for an upset win.
GOP Reps. James Bridenstine, of Oklahoma, and Tom Marino, of Pennsylvania, were among the 42 names released late Friday by the White House.
Bridenstine, if confirmed, would lead NASA, and Marino would be the director of the Office of National Drug Control, or White House drug czar.
"Congressman Marino has a lifetime of experience protecting American families as a U.S. attorney and in Congress, and is immensely qualified for this new role," Republican strategist Joe Desilets told Fox News on Saturday. "As a public servant and as a man, Tom has the highest ethical and moral standards. I look forward to him serving in this new role."
Neither Marino nor Bridenstime has publically commented on Trumps intentions to nominate them.
But at least one Democrat in the Senate, which holds the presidential confirmation hearings, has expressed concern about the Bridenstine nomination.
The head of NASA ought to be a space professional, not a politician, Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson told Politico.
Bridenstine and Marino are in solid conservative districts. But the special elections would give Democrats another opportunity to win a Republican-held House seat after failing a handful of times this year, despite their best efforts to capitalize on Trumps low approval ratings.
Democrats are so far winless in the four 2017 opportunities to gain a House seat in a conservative district in special elections to replace a GOP member appointed to the Trump administration.
Perhaps the most stinging defeat occurred in Georgia when establishment favorite and political newcomer Joel Ossoff lost to former Secretary of State Karen Handel for the seat of Republican Rep. Tom Price, now the Health and Human Services secretary.
The changing demographics of the suburban Atlanta district, endorsements from the upper echelons of the Democratic Party and millions in outside money was supposed have the collective potential for victory.
But Handel prevailed in a late-June runoff in what became the most expensive House race in history.
Democrats also lost in bids for GOP Houses seats in Kansas, after Rep. Mike Pompeo was confirmed as CIA director; in Montana after Rep. Ryan Zinke became Interior secretary and in South Carolina when Rep. Mick Mulvaney became White House budget director.
They also lost a race in August for the open seat of retiring Utah GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz, though amid long odds. They have another outside chance in December, in the Alabama special election for the Senate seat of Republican Jeff Sessions, now U.S. attorney general.
In Congress, Marino has worked to expand access to treatment for people struggling with opioid addiction.
The 64-year-old lawmaker served as U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania under President George W. Bush.
Marino was the first Pennsylvania congressman to endorse Trump in the presidential primary contest. He had previously withdrawn his name from consideration in May, citing a family illness.
Bridenstine is a pilot in the Navy Reserve. He was elected to Congress in 2012 and serves on House Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
U.S. officials seized three Russian diplomatic posts in San Francisco, New York and Washington D.C. Saturday after the Trump administration ordered the occupants to leave within 48 hours.
A senior State Department official said U.S. officials and Russian Embassy personnel conducted joint walkthroughs of the three buildings before they were formally turned over to the Americans.
"These inspections were carried out to secure and protect the facilities and to confirm the Russian government had vacated the premises," the official said in a statement emailed Saturday to reporters by the State Department on condition the official not be named.
The official also denied Kremlin claims that American officials had threatened to "break down the entrance door" to one of the facilities, and that the FBI was "clearing the premises."
Russia has been incensed by the move to shutter its consulate in San Francisco and trade offices in Washington and New York, actions the U.S. took in retaliation for Moscow's decision last month to force the U.S. to cut its diplomatic personnel in Russia to 455.
Moscow has accused the U.S. of violating international law by shuttering the facilities, a charge the U.S. disputes.
On Saturday, Russia's Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the U.S. deputy chief of mission in Moscow, Anthony Godfrey, to deliver a formal protest note calling the purported trade office search an "unprecedented aggressive action."
The Foreign Ministry also posted video on Facebook that it said showed FBI agents inspecting the consulate general building in San Francisco. In the video, a man in a tie knocks on several numbered doors and enters what appears to be apartment units, taking a quick glance inside before declaring everything in order.
There was no additional comment from the U.S. about whether the FBI was involved in the inspections. The State Department declined to answer additional questions about whether the premises might be searched for intelligence-gathering purposes now that the Russians have left.
A day earlier, black smoke was seen billowing from the chimney at the consulate as the Russians rushed to meet the Saturday deadline, and workers could be seen hauling boxes out of the stately building.
The U.S. did appear to bow to one Russian complaint -- that they were given a mere 48 hours to vacate homes used by diplomats and their families. Softening the original order, the U.S. said it had made "separate arrangements" to give families "sufficient time" to pack their belongings and vacate apartments on the consulate grounds.
In the meantime, the State Department will control all access to the properties, along with the responsibility for securing and maintaining them, the official said.
The closures on both U.S. coasts mark perhaps the most drastic diplomatic measure by the United States against Russia since 1986, near the end of the Cold War, when the nuclear-armed powers expelled dozens of each other's diplomats.
And it comes amid some of the broadest strains in their relationship ever since. The two countries have clashed over the wars in Ukraine and Syria, but most significantly over American allegations that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to boost President Donald Trump's chances of victory. Investigations continue into whether Trump's campaign colluded with Moscow.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
How bad has gun violence gotten in Sacramento, Calif.? City leaders now plan to pay gang members $1.5 million for a cease-fire.
Following a fatal shooting last weekend in a city park, the Sacramento city council unanimously approved a controversial program called Advance Peace in an effort to address a recent spike in violence.
The program offers gang members cash stipends for graduating from school and generally staying out of trouble.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg requested that the vote be moved up in response to the park shooting, which left one person dead and four injured, Fox 40 reported. The vote was supposed to take place in two weeks.
"Let's get going on doing everything we can to save innocent lives," Steinberg told Fox 40.
The $1.5 million in cash stipends to gang members will come from the citys general fund. A similar program is being used in Richmond, Calif., and Stockton is considering it.
In Sacramento, the city council voted 9-0 in favor of the program, but the language of the contract has not been finalized.
However, critics remain skeptical that the plan will be effective.
"How's the vote going to change anything? It's up to the community to change. You know what I mean? It's just senseless," Allen Brown, a friend of Ernie Cadena, 49, who was killed in the park shooting Sunday, told Fox 40.
A jury in Georgia reached a verdict Friday, convicting an Atlanta woman of murder after she claimed during the trial that she had shot her ex-boyfriend in self-defense.
Victoria Rickman shot Will Carter at least 10 times in the back on Sept. 13, 2013, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
The two-week trial debated whether Rickman was protecting herself, or if she intended to commit murder from the beginning. The jury determined it was the latter.
Rickman claimed Carter raped her. But prosecutors argued that her story was false, and that she killed Carter because he had refused to drop a battery charge against her.
The couple had a volatile history that included both being charged with committing violence against the other, the newspaper reported.
Rickman will be sentenced at a later date.
Click here for more from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Another cop was placed on administrative leave with pay in the handcuffing of a Utah hospital nurse who refused to take blood from an unconscious patient.
Salt Lake Citys mayor and police chief apologized Friday to Utah Hospital nurse, Alex Wubbels, who is seen in body cam video screaming help me after Detective Jeff Payne handcuffed and dragged her out of the hospital over her refusal to take the blood sample from the patient, a car-crash victim, on July 26.
The video has caused outrage since it was released Thursday.
Payne was placed on paid leave and prosecutors on Friday announced a a criminal investigation.
Police said Friday a second officer was also placed on paid leave. That officer has not been formally identified, but officials have said they also were reviewing the conduct of Payne's boss, a lieutenant who reportedly called for the arrest if Wubbels kept interfering.
Mayor Jackie Biskupski said Friday she was alarmed at what the video shows, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
What I saw is completely unacceptable to the values of my administration and of the values of the Salt Lake City Police Department, the mayor said, according to the paper. I extend a personal apology to Ms. Wubbels for what she has been through for simply doing her job.
The video shows Wubbels, an Alpine skier who participated in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics, calmly explaining to Payne why she could not draw blood from the patient.
She tells him that blood can only be drawn if the patient is conscious and gives consent or is under arrest. Otherwise, she tells Payne she needs to see a warrant, citing a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Payne is then seen threatening to arrest Wubbels.
I either go away with blood in vials or body in tow, Payne is seen saying.
Wubbels is then heard explaining the situation to the supervisor. She tells Payne that her supervisor agrees with her and says to him, Sir, youre making a huge mistake because youre threatening a nurse.
With that, Payne is seen placing Wubbels under arrest and physically shoving her out the door as she screams.
The video shows Wubbels yelling, Help! Stop! I did nothing wrong! while being handcuffed.
Payne was attempting to get a blood sample from William Gray, a reserve officer in Rigby, Idaho, who was burned after being involved in a head-on crash with a pickup truck driver who was fleeing police, the Washington Post reported. The driver died in the incident.
Payne wrote in a police report that he grabbed Wubbels and took her outside to avoid causing a "scene" in the emergency room. He said his boss told him to arrest Wubbels if she kept interfering.
The detective left Wubbels in a hot police car for 20 minutes before realizing that blood had already been drawn as part of treatment, her lawyer, Karra Porter, said. Wubbels was released without being arrested.
Payne initially remained on duty although he was suspended from blood-draw duties.
Christina Judd, a spokesperson for the Salt Lake City Police, said the department was alarmed by what they witnessed in the video.
PHOTOSHOPPED KKK HOODS ON HIGH SCHOOL CLASS PICTURE OUTRAGES PARENTS
Judd said the department was working to investigate what went wrong and is seeking to repair the unfortunate rift it had caused between officers and nurses.
I cant sit on this video and not attempt to speak out both to re-educate and inform, Wubbels told The Salt Lake Tribune. Police departments need to be having conversations about what is appropriate intervention.
Her bosses have stood by her.
"University of Utah Health supports Nurse Wubbles and her decision to focus first and foremost on the care and well-being of her patient, said Suzanne Winchester, the hospital's media relations manager. She followed procedures and protocols in this matter and was acting in her patients best interest. We have worked with our law enforcement partners on this issue to ensure an appropriate process for moving forward.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A 16-year-old has been arrested on charges of murdering a 14-year-old Texas girl with a hammer after a drug deal and throwing her body into a landfill.
Kaytlynn Cargill went missing June 19 and was found dead days later in the landfill in Arlington, Texas just 10 miles away from her family's home in Bedford.
Medical examiners ruled the cause of death was homicidal violence, Fox News reported. The girs blood was detected on a hammer that was found in the suspect's house, authorities said.
DNA evidence and cellphone records also linked the suspect to the dead girl, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
After an almost three-month search, the 16-year-old was arrested Friday at O.D. Wyatt High School in Fort Worth and charged with murder, the New York Daily News reported.
The suspect, who is believed to have been an acquaintance of the dead girl, was being held at the Tarrant County Juvenile Detention Facility in Fort Worth on $250,000 bond, Bedford police said.
The girl was reported missing in June after she failed to return from walking her dog near the familys apartment. Her family searched for the girl before notifying the Bedford Police Department that she was missing.
Court documents claim the girl was involved in a drug deal that night, planning to obtain concentrated doses of cannabis for $300.
Text messages obtained by authorities revealed the girl tried to meet the suspect to get the drugs and had asked someone described as Source 1 in court documents to look after her dog while she bought the marijuana, the Daily News reported.
The so-called Source 1 claimed the girl did not return to get her dog back and ignored text messages.
Cargill's blood was found in the suspects residence, including on a hammer, door frame, bathtub, and patio ledge, court documents showed.
One week after Hurricane Harvey churned into the Gulf Coast, Texas firefighters battled a massive blaze at a Houston chemical plant and building while residents continued to struggle to find drinking water and plan funerals for some of the 42 people who died in the storm.
Firefighters in Houston were battling a blaze at a building that was still surrounded by the storms floodwaters on the citys west side.
KTRK of Houston reported that firefighters were being hampered by burglar bars on windows around the building, which appears to be multi-family dwelling.
Parts of west Houston are still inundated from the release of floodwater from nearby reservoirs that are designed to catch storm runoff.
In Beaumont, Texas, home to almost 120,000, people waited in a line that stretched for more than a mile to get bottled water after the municipal system failed earlier this week.
Thick black smoke and towering orange flames shot up Friday after two trailers of highly unstable compounds blew up at Arkema, a flooded chemical plant in Crosby, the second fire there in two days.
HURRICANE IRMA EXPECTED TO STRENGTHEN IN ATLANTIC OCEAN THIS WEEKEND
The Environmental Protection Agency and Texas environmental regulators called the health risks minimal in Crosby, but urged residents downwind to stay indoors with windows closed to avoid inhaling the smoke.
President Trump announced plans Friday to make his second visit to the region devastated by Harvey. On Saturday, he would be in Houston and Lake Charles, La., to survey the damage. The White House said he would have time during the visit with the first lady to talk to residents.
Earlier Friday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced that ongoing releases of water from two reservoirs could keep thousands of homes flooded for up to 15 days. He told residents that if they stayed and later needed help, first responders resources could be further strained.
Turner pleaded for more high-water vehicles and more search-and-rescue equipment as the city continued to look for any survivors or corpses that might have somehow escaped notice in flood-ravaged neighborhoods.
FLAMES, SMOKE AT ARKEMA CHEMICAL PLANT NEAR HOUSTON
Turner also asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide more workers to process applications from thousands of people seeking government help. The mayor said he will request a preliminary aid package of $75 million for debris removal alone.
The storm had lost most of its tropical characteristics but was dumping heavy rain as far north as Indiana. National Weather Service meteorologists expect Harvey to break up and merge with other weather systems over the Ohio Valley late Saturday or Sunday.
Figures from the Texas Department of Public Safety indicated that nearly 87,000 homes had major or minor damage and at least 6,800 were destroyed.
Far out over the Atlantic, Hurricane Irma was following a course that could bring it near the eastern Caribbean Sea by early next week. The Category 2 storm was moving nearly 13 mph and no coastal watches or warnings were in effect.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sweltering heat and humidity will add further strain to recovery efforts in Texas and Louisiana prior to the arrival of cooler air later next week.
Temperatures will peak in the upper 80s and lower 90s F along the western and central Gulf Coast each afternoon through Tuesday.
High humidity levels and times of sunshine will push AccuWeather RealFeel Temperatures into the upper 90s to low 100s. Humidity levels will be even higher where floodwaters remain.
Little relief will come after dark as it will remain warm and muggy with AccuWeather RealFeel Temperatures hovering in the 80s F.
Those who remain without power and air conditioning can head to an open shopping mall, library or shelter to seek relief from the heat. Drink plenty of clean, bottled water or properly boiled water to prevent dehydration.
On Friday, the United States Marine Corps announced on Twitter that members of the Marine Corps Reserve are searching flooded neighborhoods throughout the Houston metro area for residents that still need rescuing.
The dangers of poisonous snakes, alligators and other creatures will linger in the floodwaters as rescue crews continue to search inundated neighborhoods and residents try to gather belongings.
Recovery efforts may be slowed for a time as spotty thunderstorms erupt early in the week.
However, if a tropical disturbance over the western Gulf of Mexico gathers strength and drifts northward, downpours could be enhanced.
A dramatic change in the weather pattern will bring much-needed relief to the area later in the week.
High pressure will provide the impetus for a bout of autumnal weather as it surges southward out of central Canada across the Great Plains and then into Texas and Louisiana at midweek, AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Mike LeSeney said.
Humidity will drop to unusually low levels along the Gulf Coast with temperatures falling to around 10 degrees Fahrenheit below normal.
Showers and thunderstorms will accompany the leading edge of this push of cool, dry air and bring a threat of rain to southeastern Texas, including Houston, LeSeney said.
These thunderstorms will be more widespread when compared to the storms earlier in the week. Fortunately, they will cross the area swiftly, limiting the threat for any new flooding.
As the quieter weather settles in at late week, all interests along the Gulf Coast and Eastern Seaboard should monitor the progress of Irma as it tracks closer to the United States.
The city of Wilmington, Del., continued sending pension checks to a widow's bank account for nearly 20 years after her death, with the outlay of cash totaling nearly $73,000.
Spousal payments that began in June 1974 didn't end until June 2016, even though the woman died in November 1997, the News Journal reported. The overpayments totaled $72,966.60, according to a city audit obtained by the newspaper.
City Treasurer Velda Jones-Potter said because there were no Social Security records available, the womans death went unnoticed by Comserv, a third-party vendor that the city paid to cross-reference data on a semi-annual basis.
"In this case, it's apparent that her death was not reported until many years after it occurred," Jones-Potter told the News Journal.
Comserv has since gone out of business, and its unclear whether Wilmington will be able to retrieve the money it lost.
John Rago, deputy chief of staff for policy and communications for Mayor Mike Purzyck, who took office in January, told the News Journal that city officials were retracing the steps to determine exactly what happened.
He did not specify whether the investigation would examine if someone was accessing the deceased woman's pension fund.
Meanwhile, the city treasurers office has its own system for detecting whether pension recipients have died -- such as checking newspaper death notices or noticing mail that gets bounced back. However, in this case, there was no indication that the person was dead," acting City Auditor Tamara Thompson told the newspaper.
Click here for more from the News Journal.
A soldier missing after a Black Hawk helicopter crashed off the coast of Yemen on Aug. 25 has been declared dead, the U.S. military said late Friday.
Army Staff. Sgt. Emil Rivera-Lopez was a member of the elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the Night Stalkers, when the helicopter went down, official said.
The Pentagon said Rivera-Lopez, 31, was killed during a training incident, off Yemen where the US has been supporting Yemeni and Emirati forces battling al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as well as a Saudi-led coalition against Iranian-backed Hauthi militants.
A statement issued by U.S. Central Command said five other service members who were aboard the craft were rescued.
The U.S. military has conducted over 80 air strikes in Yemen since late February. Dozens of US special operations forces have supported ground operations in recent weeks.
Earlier in August, Yemens U.S. ambassador said the country did not need a U.S. military presence, but still required U.S. diplomatic help.
We need the U.S. government to continue to lend its political and logistical support to the legitimate government and the Arab coalition, Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak told Fox News in an exclusive interview. This will, in turn, help reinstating the government institutions, which will curb AQAP operations and lead to its demise."
The brutal Yemeni war between the Houthi rebels and Saudi-led coalition is about to enter its fourth year.
At least 25 U.S. service members have been killed in aircraft crashes since July.
Fox News Hollie McKay and Lucas Tomlinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Palestinian terrorist organization officially on the terror lists of the European Union and the United States has been cleared to field candidates in Germany's upcoming parliamentary election.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an Iran-backed terror group, was given a green light this week to campaign as a political party in Septembers parliamentary election, the Jerusalem Post reported.
A German Interior Ministry spokeswoman told the Post that the ministry will not comment n whether it plans to ultimately ban the PFLP, which intends to run with the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany.
The PFLP has been linked to numerous terror incidents, including a series of multiple-plane hijackings in the 1970s and the killings of numerous Israelis over the years. In 1997, according to Legal Insurrection, the group also hijacked a Lufthansa plane in an unsuccessful attempt to liberate Germanys left-wing Baader-Meinhof terrorists.
More recently, the group was linked to the Juen death of a female Israeli police officer in Jerusalem, German newspaper Die Welt reported.
Volker Beck, a Green Party member of Parliament, slammed the reluctance to tackle the groups activities in Germany.
The problem is that a terrorist organization [such as the] PFLP can do what it wants and how it wants because it is not banned, he told the Post, adding that this allows the group to campaign during elections.
The Interior Minister must finally issue a ban of the PFLP in Germany, Beck urged. He also signed a letter demanding that Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere ban Hezbollah and the PFLP in the country.
The German Interior Ministry recently shut down the most influential website of Germanys militant left and raided the properties of the site owners over its incitement to violence, Fox News reported.
Russia's foreign minister has criticized a move by Moldova to call for the removal of Russian troops from a pro-Russia separatist region at an upcoming U.N. meeting.
Moldova's Radio Chisinau on Saturday cited Sergey Lavrov as saying the move was "inspired from abroad," an apparent reference to the U.S. and the European Union. Lavrov said it could destabilize the region.
Russia has 1,000 troops and 500 peacekeepers stationed in Trans-Dniester, which broke away from Moldova in 1990, fearing reunification with neighboring Romania. About 1,500 people died in a 1992 civil war there.
Moldova's ambassador to the U.N., Victor Moraru, recently asked the U.N. to discuss Russian troop withdrawal from Trans-Dniester on the sidelines of the Sept. 12 General Assembly in New York, something Russia opposes.
North Koreas recent test firing of a missile over northern Japan has officials in Tokyo rethinking the countrys long tradition of pacifism.
Some Japanese leaders say it's time for a new approach to national defense, one that can include limited pre-emptive strike capabilities and the purchase of additional missiles.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the government considered developing a pre-emptive strike policy earlier this year. But facing no immediate threats, the taboo debate quickly faded amid several domestic government scandals.
Then on Tuesday, North Korea fired a missile over Japan -- and reignited Tokyo's conversation about defense.
"Should we possess pre-emptive strike capability?" the liberal-leaning Mainichi newspaper asked Wednesday, the day after the missile test. "But isn't it too reckless to jump to discuss a 'get them before they get you' approach?"
The ruling partys hardliners have openly urged the government to revise the countrys military plans, while more moderate security experts said Japan should merely consider changes.
Abe called the missile firing an "unprecedented, grave and serious threat," while Japans new defense minister, the hawkish Itsunori Onodera -- who previously served in the role from 2012 to 2014 -- said Japan must upgrade its missiles. He insisted that more provocations were sure to follow.
Prior to his return to the defense ministry Aug. 3, as part of a Cabinet shakeup by Abe, Onodera advocated in March for a military upgrade due to a new level of threat from North Korea, the Australian reported.
In August, he suggested that Japan should be capable of striking North Korean military bases first.
We should consider it from the perspective of what Japan can do to beef up the deterrent capability of the Japan-U.S. alliance and protect the lives and property of the Japanese people, he said, according to the Japan Times.
"We should consider it from the perspective of what Japan can do to beef up the deterrent capability of the Japan-U.S. alliance and protect the lives and property of the Japanese people." Japan's Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera
Currently, Japans defense capabilities consist of a two-step missile defense system. It has Aegis destroyers with Standard Missile-3 interceptors deployed in the Sea of Japan that can shoot down missiles in mid-flight.
If the first step fails, it also has surface-to-air PAC-3s an anti-ballistic missile capability that could intercept any projectiles from within a 12-mile range.
Experts claim, however, that the system is unable to tackle missiles on a high-lofted trajectory or those with several warheads or in the event of simultaneous attacks on the country.
If Japan were to adopt a pre-emptive strike capability, it would have cruise missiles waiting to be fired from Aegis destroyers or other fighter jets toward enemy missiles. The capability would also allow intercept of an enemy missile from a North Korean launch site before it reaches Japan.
But discussions to develop what Japanese officials call a strike-back option could potentially upset China, which increasingly views Japan with suspicion as a potential threat.
Signaling Japan's new thinking, the Defense Ministry announced Thursday a record budget of 5.26 trillion yen ($48 billion) to cover the upgrade of the military and its missile defense system.
Abes steady increase in Japans military spending is perceived as part of a broader strategy to take a more aggressive stance in Asia-Pacific and global affairs. His government after re-interpreting the Constitution now permits Japan to help defend its allies in the event of attack.
But developing a pre-emptive strike capability is still deemed too unpopular in Japan, as polls show the majority opposes it.
"Prime Minister Abe seems to have turned hesitant about discussing pre-emptive strikes," said Tetsuo Kotani, a senior research fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs.
He added that Abe's declining approval ratings may stop him from pursuing the issue, forecasting that "Public debate of pre-emptive strikes may slow down."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Way Church is brand-new, Christ-centered, people-loving, gospel-sharing, life-giving church launching Sunday, Sept. 10. The community is invited to its grand opening worship service at Regal Cinemas 14. The service will begin at 10 a.m. Families and first-timers are welcome.
Started by Pastor Matt Rothe and 15 families who live in and around Fredericksburg, The Way Church is sponsored by Trinity Lutheran Church in Woodbridge and is a member of The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.
To find out more about The Way Church, visit TheWayChurchVA.com; or find it on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (@TheWayChurchVA).
More than 200 local people learned Friday morningin English and in Spanishthat they were officially being laid off from their jobs at Communications Corporation of America in Culpeper, the large direct mail printing facility destroyed in a multi-alarm fire Aug. 26.
Company director Mitzi Mills delivered the sobering news in the meeting room at Germanna Community Colleges Daniel Technology Center, even as myriad local agencies and potential employers rallied forces to lessen the blow by offering jobs, opportunities and assistance.
An emotional Mills, who has been with the company since 1974, said Communications Corporation of America, which employed more than 300 people, was committed to the rebuilding process.
It has been determined that we will be moving to another location in Culpeper County. This will allow us to get up and running much faster than if we stayed at the previous location, she said, reading a statement.
The current location, established in 1971, is off U.S. 522 in western Culpeper near the Rappahannock County line. The 122,000-square-foot facility burned to the ground in a Saturday night inferno that left small fires still smoldering days later.
The cause is still undetermined, Salem Volunteer Fire Company Chief Mike Bailey said Friday.
Mills said after that a core group of 85 people would be retained as part of the rebuilding process. As the company rebuilds, she said, more workers will be brought on, with laid-off employees given higher priority for rehiring.
It is our goal to try to make the CCA family whole again, she said. That being said, we realize that all of you have obligations that may not allow you to wait for rehire and will need to seek other employment. Several companies have reached out that they are willing to temporarily staff anyone unable to be retained at this time.
Among those companies is a similar operation, Print Mail Communications Inc., in Fredericksburg. As of Monday, CCA started outsourcing its jobs to Print Mail, said company HR manager Kelli Drumgoole.
David Pullen, a vice president with the Fredericksburg company, attended Fridays briefing in Culpeper to announce that Print Mail was hiring 75 people.
We are interested in helping you out as soon as possible, he told the laid-off workers. This is in partnership with CCA. All of us at PMC, our hearts go out to you. I understand the hard work that goes into building a successful mail shop.
Laid-off CCA employees will receive their final paycheck Sept. 8, Mills said, with everyone getting paid through Sept. 1. The workers employee-provided health insurance will last through the end of September.
Also on site Friday were representatives from the Culpeper Free Clinic, Culpeper Human Services, Culpeper Workforce Center, Virginia Employment Commission and Greg Vaughn, rapid response coordinator for the northern region.
As they secure new employment, the laid-off workers will be eligible for as much as $378 a week in unemployment benefits for a maximum of 26 weeks. Fifty computer stations to sign up for unemployment were made available Friday in the community college.
A job fair for the displaced workers will be held at the community college 9 a.m. to noon on Sept. 8.
In the audience, workers wiped their eyes, shook their heads and embraced. Employee Alex Jenkins, 21, of Rappahannock said the lay off news was really bad timing. He attended the employee briefing with his girlfriend, Renae Czerepak. Their first child is due in January.
Jenkins said he recently left his job at Culpeper Wood Preservers for the position at Communications Corporation of America, where he was making more money and had good benefits.
I was going to try to stay there as long as I could, he said. I will file for unemployment and will come to the job fair and just do what I can because I cant be jobless and I cant live off of unemployment.
Added Czerepak, holding her stomach, Its really stressful.
Lana Porter has worked nearly 12 years at CCA as a housekeeper. The 59-year-old from Madison also has full custody of two granddaughters, ages 4 and 6.
I guess were all in the same boat anyway, Porter said. Its going to be a long process for all of us no matter how you go about it.
Earlier this summer, King George County native Marvin Rose thought about dropping the flood insurance on his single-story home in Baytown, Texas.
Why not save about $400 a year? thought Rose, a church pastor.
He and his wife, Melinda, purchased the insurance plan shortly after moving to Baytown, about 30 miles east of Houston, 24 years ago. The other end of their neighborhood had flooded, so they decided to play it safe.
In the ensuing years, the married couple of 33 years never had to submit any claims.
But Hurricane Ike did destroy Roses church, which was later rebuilt, in September 2008. That same year, his mother died in a house fire in King George, next door to his sisters home. And his son Timothy, then 12, was diagnosed with blood cancer.
Our church has been through a lot, and theyve seen their pastor go through a lot, said Rose, 55, who graduated from King George High School in 1980.
Knowing how things can go horribly wrong, he decided to keep the flood insurance. Not only that, he increased his payments for better coverage.
Hurricane Harvey hit less than two months later, dumping 51.88 inches of rain in Cedar Bayou, Texas, the most rainfall ever from a tropical storm in the continental U.S.
Marvin and Melinda Rose live half a mile from Cedar Bayou.
Marvin Roses sister, Marilyn Deyo, who lives in King George, said she called her brother while monitoring the storm and warned him: This things coming in.
She asked him if he had gas in the grillin case the power went outand reminded him to put important documents in plastic baggies.
God has helped the family in times of need, Deyo said, and we look at helping others when a tragedy happens.
As the rain poured last Monday, flooding a lower section of his neighborhood, Rose and his wife sloshed to a home down the street to help a woman and her 15-month-old son. The toddler, seated on a highchair, looked petrified as water seeped into the house.
The Roses carried furniture, stuffed animals and other belongings to the second floor before a friend picked up the mother and son in a large truck. By the time they left, the water outside came up to their knees.
The couple returned to their still-dry home, and Marvin Rose ventured back outside 40 minutes later.
Rose said he heard a neighbor yell: Pastor, Pastor! Please help me! Her husband was experiencing chest pain and irregular heartbeats. Rose flagged down a dump truck driven by firefighters, who got the man to a hospital.
What happened next looked like a scene from a movie.
Rose spotted two dogs on a wooden porch that was floating down the street, which had turned into a river with canoes and kayaks. A kayaker got the dogsa brown Lab and a small black pupand handed them off to Rose.
Rose placed the pets on a riding lawnmower in a neighbors garage, where water was rising. The floodwater soon forced him, and the dogs, back outside in waist-high waters.
Eventually, he came across a man in a pickup searching for his lost dogs. Rose returned the pets to the grateful owner.
Finally, Rose waded back to his property, where deep ditches had filled with water. Within an hour, water rushed into his house from all sideswith such force that it knocked over a freezer and other large appliances.
Rose, who has an SUV, drove to a neighbors house on higher ground with his wife and another family. The couple brought their four pets, two catsone in laundry basket, the other in a carrierand two Shelties.
Rescue boats picked them up as that house flooded. The boats dropped them off at a checkpoint, where police officers took their names and addresses. A large National Guard truck then took them to a community center surrounded by water.
Less than two hours later, the Roses left the community center in a pickup truck with more than a dozen people and pets. They perched on the trucks tailgate for a scary 4-mile drive to a restaurant called the Whiskey Barn.
We were barely hanging onto the tailgate, Marvin Rose said. It was wild.
The Roses are now staying with a friend.
They drove home Wednesday to assess the damage. Melinda Rose opened the front door, and three snakes dropped to the ground. She screamed, and her husband quickly killed the slithering reptiles.
They found several other snakes, including a dead one in the freezer. The water was ankle deep in the foul-smelling home, Marvin Rose said. When he opened the oven door, water poured out.
Roses church also sustained damage.
Still, the pastor is thankful.
Thankful for little things like a warm shower. Thankful all of his parishioners survived. And thankful that his son, a senior at Dallas Baptist University, beat blood cancer nearly 10 years ago.
Rose said he and his wife will be fine.
But hes worried about his neighbors and the many others without flood insurance. Where do they go from here? he asks.
Watching my neighbors, it breaks my heart, he said. Im just seeing a look of desperation on everybody. The human suffering. As a pastor, Ive never seen anything like it. Never.
Verizon FIOS needs to bring back the Weather Channel
This letter is directed to Verizon FIOS for not carrying the Weather Channel as part of its cable package.
I have written and called FIOS numerous times to try and get them to bring back this channel, as the current channel it carries, AccuWeather, is totally inadequate.
Arguably one of the worst storms in American history, Hurricane Harvey, roared through Texas, and FIOS subscribers like me are stuck watching the totally substandard AccuWeather Network.
While the Weather Channel and the rest of the national media was providing updates to this national disaster, the AccuWeather Network was discussing global warming, ice flows and forecasts for every U.S. city except Houston.
Are you kidding me? FIOS subscribers are stuck watching D grade meteorologists, if they even are legitimate meteorologists, and a totally unprofessional weather channel.
Give me Jim Cantore and the Weather Channel. Having family in Houston, I needed to know the current weather conditions. I challenge Verizon FIOS to provide subscribers with a better option.
Scott C. Bushman
Spotsylvania
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A Pinch of Salt: The election is over, I think, so what now?
Kylee Barnes told her 4-year-old son, Jude, on Friday about Hurricane Harvey as they drove to pick blueberries at Kiger Island Blues farm in Corvallis.
He initially said he wanted to go build houses for everyone, said Barnes, who lives in Lebanon. I said, We cant quite do that, but this is something we can do to help.
This weekend, all the money from visitors to the farm will be donated to a hunger-relief organization in Texas. Blueberry pickers pay by the pound to take the fruit home.
I think its a good chance to teach him about helping others when they need it and also a good chance to teach him where food comes from, Barnes said.
Farm owner Mindy Miller is partnering with Mid-Valley Harvest for the fundraiser, which began Thursday and will continue through the Labor Day weekend. The farm at 2322 SE Kiger Island Drive will be open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. Visitors are asked to call Miller at 541-752-0787 ahead of time if they want to pick blueberries on Sunday or Monday.
The blueberries are $1.75 per pound and the farm accepts cash and credit card. Miller said 100 percent of the proceeds from fruit picked by visitors will be donated to Feeding Texas, a nonprofit organization with a statewide network of food banks.
Miller said her farm had a productive year and still has a lot of ripe fruit despite it being late in the harvesting season.
Im just trying to send some fruit home with people locally and send some money to Texas, she said.
Miller said her farm is on the Willamette River and is in a flood zone.
I think were all from Houston, she said. It really sharpens our focus on natural disasters and what it takes to come back from that.
Becca Meskimen, harvest director for Mid-Valley Harvest, said its important to help food pantries in Texas so they can distribute food to people in need.
Mid-Valley Harvest typically mobilizes volunteers to harvest food from local growers that would otherwise go to waste. The food is then distributed across the community to help those in need.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) shakes hands with Brazilian President Michel Temer during their meeting in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 1, 2017. Temer is in China for a state visit. During his stay, Temer will also attend the BRICS summit and the Dialogue of Emerging Markets and Developing Countries to be held in China's southeastern coastal city of Xiamen in Fujian Province from Sept. 3 to 5. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)
Oregon State Police officials say Terence Jay Shaw, 51, of Riverside, California, was the only person injured in an explosive tractor-trailer collision that shut down Interstate 5 southbound at Highway 20 shortly after midnight Friday morning.
The incident happened when a 2016 Freightliner pulling a trailer and operated by Shaw was traveling northbound on I-5 when, for unknown reasons, the vehicle drifted out of the travel lane. The vehicle traveled through the gore point at Exit 233, struck a guardrail and then struck a vertical pillar supporting the Highway 20 overpass.
A passing driver stopped and helped pull Shaw from the vehicle before it became engulfed in flames. Shaw was transported to a Portland-area hospital for injuries sustained in the crash and subsequent fire.
I-5 northbound was closed until 7 a.m. The Albany Police Department, the Albany and Tangent Fire departments, and the Oregon Department of Transportation assisted State Police at the scene.
A handful of bystanders watched on the east side of the crash as smoke and flames billowed from the cab and the trailer.
A man taking pictures at the scene said several explosions woke him up from his sleep at a nearby hotel.
A new cafeteria. A new classroom in a modular building. A remodeled bathroom. A relocated library.
All of this is supposed to be ready for students Wednesday when the new school year starts at the Harding Center. That's the building that houses the Corvallis School Districts alternative education programs, including College Hill High School, the Urban Farm program and the WINGS program, which helps students in special education programs transition to adulthood after high school ends.
You can imagine my anxiety, because nothing looks quite done, said Eric Wright, the districts alternative pathways coordinator, on Thursday. However, Wright said hes been told the work should be done by the time school starts.
Wright said hes looking forward to the new cafeteria space, which will give students a space to socialize. The new cafeteria was created by converting the stage adjacent to the schools gym into a separate room. A wall was put up to separate the former stage from the gym, which Wright said will allow students to eat in the cafeteria and others to play in the gym. The cafeteria will have booths like a restaurant, Wright said.
However, Wright said, all the changes have been complicated. The schools former lunchroom was in a classroom thats now been converted into the schools library, so the former library can be used by the WINGS program. The new modular will also be used as a classroom by the WINGS program
Its been a shell game figuring out where everything will go, said Wright.
The new modular is meant to be a temporary solution, he said. Instead of buying the structure, the district is leasing it for a year.
Although it wont be in place by the start of school, district staff members also are planning to install a new 30-by-90 foot greenhouse, which was donated to the school by Savant Plant Technologies. The space will be used by the districts Urban Farm program, which is entering its second year.
However, Wright said hes not sure when the greenhouse will be in place because there are still some issues to be worked out regarding its placement. One of those issues? How to run electricity to the building.
We want to take the time to do that right, he said.
An improper property : Former brothel bought unaware
Ippendorf The inconspicuous house at the Gudenauer Weg in Ippendorf was used as a brothel for years. This was kept from a woman, who bought the house. She feels duped and wants to have any information on the dubious reputation deleted from the internet.
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The house has a small secret, which many people in Ippendorf were aware of, but not the woman who was considering the purchase when it was for sale in 2016. She also didnt notice anything strange when viewing it. I didnt realize why there was an x-shaped thing leaning against the wall in the cellar, a private sign on one of the rooms door, a CCTV system and no cooker in the kitchen, says the owner now.
The house was used as a brothel for years, at least until 2015 apparently. Two rooms were used by prostitutes, and the kitchen was not used for preparing food but to cool sparkling wine for the guests. The former owner ran the brothel business from the living room. None of this was known to the new owner, when she signed the purchase contract in 2016. And it wouldnt have mattered a lot, actually, said the former primary school teacher who now teaches German to budding carers for the elderly. I fell in love with the property. Hence, a lot of renovation and restoration was done.
But when a friend of hers pointed out that there is online advertising for Janas Haus under her very address, she got suspicious. She asked a neighbor who replied as a matter of course: That the house used to be a brothel was a well known fact in Ippendorf. She did her own research then and found hints about the past of her house although the services had not longer been available for a while. Two weeks ago she received a letter to extend the trade licence and to look after the health of the ladies, it got too much for her.
The quizzical looks she got from people began to annoy her: The people seem to be thinking that I am the new owner of the brothel, despite having nothing to do with this type of business. I am a very respectable person. The teacher who does not want to be recognised by name, is now irritated that the history of the 105 square meter house was kept from her. And she is looking for an IT expert to help her to delete the online advertising from the internet.
The phone number of the brothel does not exist any more. Because it all seems suspect to her and unknown men showed up at her doorstep, the single woman got a tenant to feel safer. Also, she installed a front door with a glass window so she can see visitors before opening the door. She mentions repetitional damage and sees her dignity affected. That this was knowingly kept from me, I dont like. The former owner told her that there was nothing in the internet to be deleted. And the estate agent also sees no possibility to help.
Overall, dont let the bhoot mislead you, nothing bhootiya about this story. Had the makers tried to push the envelope, the idea could have been outstanding for a bhootiya comedy.
(Xinhua) 09:46, September 02, 2017
MADRID, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish government has reacted to the latest launch of a missile by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) by strongly condemning the action and demanding that two members of the Pyongyang embassy in Madrid leave the country.
The online newspaper "El Diplomat" reported Friday that in the wake of the test of a DPRK missile, which flew over Japan on Aug. 29, the Spanish government on Thursday summoned the DPRK Ambassador, Kim Hyok Choi, to condemn the actions of his government and demand the DPRK diplomatic mission in Madrid reduce by two its number of representatives in the Spanish capital.
Meanwhile, the Spanish Foreign Ministry published a note on its official website stating that Spain had "condemned the successive nuclear tests and the launching of ballistic missiles by the DPRK in violation of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council."
The communique adds that DPRK's continuous tests "undermine the nuclear non-proliferation regime and create a serious threat to peace in the region and to global security."
Finally, the Spanish government says it regrets that despite appeals to halt testing, DPRK continues with actions that represent "an increase of international tension and a serious risk of conflict," and explains that the "Embassy of the DPRK had been warned by the (Spanish) Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the continuation of these actions would have consequences on bilateral relation."
Army units from 24 states save more than 5700 from Houston floods
By Staff Sgt. David Kirtland, Louisiana National GuardAugust 31, 2017 BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Louisiana National Guard joined in Texas rescue efforts Wednesday, including helping evacuate a nursing home in Orange.
The LANG is providing Guard members, high-water vehicles, buses and helicopters to conduct search and rescue and transport people from the Texas border to shelters that have been established in Lake Charles.
"Louisiana is prepared to help Texas in any way possible," said Gov. John Bel Edwards. "Fortunately, we are able to take care of the needs of Louisiana as well as provide the manpower and resources necessary to help Texas in its time of need. We've all been through this as partners in the past, and there is no doubt that we will get through this event together as well."
The Louisiana National Guard is acting at the direction of the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. It's working with the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Marines Reserves, Louisiana State Police and the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to rescue Texan citizens from the rising floodwaters in southeast Texas.
As the disaster brought by Hurricane Harvey's landfall last Friday continues to unfold in Texas, Air and Army National Guard units join civilian emergency partners and other military units in rescues and providing services to the thousands of people displaced by flooding.
More than 5,700 people have been rescued, according to the National Guard Bureau. More troops - including active-duty, Guard and Reserves - will be phased in as necessary, military officials have said.
As of Friday, these states were providing Army and Air National Guard personnel:
Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
Louisiana's adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Glenn H. Curtis, said Louisiana and Texas have a longstanding history of helping each other in times of need.
"They were here during Katrina, and they helped us last year during the floods. That bond, that feeling you get when you cross state borders to help those in need, to provide relief, that's what makes the National Guard special."
The U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Marines Reserves are conducting air search and rescue operations in the Port Arthur, Texas, area. LANG Airmen with the 122nd Air Support Operations Squadron, headquartered in Pineville, are providing aircraft communication support to the Coast Guard at the Southland Airport in Sulphur.
"We are setting up communications at Southland Field," said Master Sgt. Mark Simpson, who is with the 122nd Air Support Operations Squadron. "We are linking the Coast Guard's tactical operations centers to the air assets so messages as far as Orange, Port Arthur and Beaumont [Texas] to help coordinate rescue efforts."
Also, Soldiers with the LANG's 139th Regional Support Group have staged commodities, which include MREs, tarps, sandbags and bottles of water at various points throughout the state in order to provide quick distribution to affected areas.
To date, the LANG has issued more than 1,152 MREs, 3,000 bottles of water and 415,000 sandbags.
The LANG has more than 530 Guard members activated in parishes around its home state responding to the weather emergency response, to include eight helicopters for search and rescue and Guard troops with high-water vehicles and boats prepositioned in Calcasieu, Vermillion, Orleans, Lafayette, Red River, Natchitoches, Caddo, Ouachita and Rapides parishes.
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More Than 13K Troops, DoD Civilians Aiding Harvey Lifesaving, Recovery Efforts
By Jim Garamone DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Sept. 1, 2017 About 11,000 National Guardsmen have deployed to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency-led rescue and restoration operations in the region affected by Hurricane Harvey, Defense Department officials said here today.
A total of 1,638 active-duty service members and 1,254 DoD civilian employees and contractors are also supporting operations in Texas. Another 1,050 service members are prepared to deploy if needed.
Lifesaving remains the priority for civilian and military officials in the state, but floodwaters are beginning to recede in many areas and resources are being dedicated to recovery operations, officials said.
Texas National Guardsmen evacuated 1,109 personnel, rescued 6,283 personnel and assisted 5,360 personnel, officials reported.
DoD officials said that active-duty troops have rescued 2,038 people in the region. The operations continue and U.S. Northern Command has deployed 100 high-water vehicles to Katy, Texas. Northcom has also deployed 87 helicopters, four C-130 Hercules aircraft and eight pararescue teams.
The Coast Guard has 46 helicopters and 10 fixed-wing aircraft conducting missions. The service also deployed shallow-water boats that are assisting the block-by-block search and rescue efforts, defense officials reported. More than 10,500 people have been rescued or assisted by Coast Guardsmen.
DoD assets are also standing by to aid evacuation efforts. Seven C-17 Globemaster III aircraft at Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina, and two C-5 Galaxy aircraft at El Paso, Texas, are on alert status.
Recovery Efforts
The Army Corps of Engineers is conducting air and ground post-storm assessments and harbor surveys in coordination with interagency partners. Two dredges are on standby, with two USACE dredges in ready reserve. Corps planners are also looking to providing up to 13,000 housing units.
The Defense Logistics Agency is providing 10 million shelf-stable meals -- the civilian equivalent of meals, ready-to-eat. The agency is also providing 1.5 million liters of water a day.
On the medical side, Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio is providing medical treatment for up to 7,000 victims of the hurricane and associated flooding.
The department also set up a disaster aeromedical staging facility at Houstons George Bush International Airport. Five C-130s and six aeromedical evacuation crews are on alert.
And more help is coming. The Navy ordered the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge, with the embarked 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, and the dock landing ship USS Oak Hill to sail to the region. The ships departed yesterday from their home ports in Virginia and are set to arrive Sept. 6. They will be in position to provide medical support, maritime security and medium and heavy lift air support and can assist with the delivery and distribution of recovery supplies, Navy officials said. These types of ships were also used for similar missions after Hurricane Katrina.
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Officials Release Details of Latest Strikes Against ISIS Terrorists in Syria, Iraq
From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release
Northcom Chief Relays Mattis Message: 'Texas Gets Everything They Need'
By Cheryl Pellerin DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Sept. 1, 2017 The commander of U.S. Northern Command delivered a message from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to the people of Texas today during an update on Hurricane Harvey from the Texas State Operations Center in Austin, Texas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott led the update on the Category 4 hurricane that since Aug. 27 has devastated southeastern Texas, and he summarized the Federal Emergency Management Agency-led and ongoing rescue and restoration operations there, before introducing Air Force Gen. Lori J. Robinson.
On behalf of Mattis, Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford and the men and women of the armed forces, Robinson expressed hope for the people affected by the storm. "I would like to offer our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to all of those who have been affected by Hurricane Harvey," she said.
In her role as Northcom commander, the general said, she is responsible for deploying active duty soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines to support FEMA and state requests for assistance to local, county, state and federal civil authorities in devastating times.
"When disasters of this magnitude strike, a whole-of-government response is necessary, and DoD is a part of all of that," Robinson said.
Right Capability, Right Time
The military has learned over time how important it is to have the right capability at the right place at the right time to support the needs of citizens, the general said. "Our military has unique capabilities to support disaster relief, and those same capabilities that make our armed forces so effective in combat make our forces uniquely effective in disaster relief efforts, she added. "We have been and we will continue to deploy any and all capabilities requested by FEMA and [the state of Texas]."
Robinson said she had a conversation yesterday with Mattis. "He made the comment to me: 'Lori, Texas gets everything they need, and we'll get it there as fast as we can,'" she said.
Military Contribution
"I'm so proud of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that have deployed in the affected area and that will continue to deploy as long as requested and needed," Robinson said, and she summarized the military contribution so far to the affected areas in Texas:
-- The Army has provided 200 high-water vehicles to support the Red Cross in the moving personnel and patients. Army helicopters with hoisting capability are helping to rescue and transport survivors, and the Army is overseeing the receipt and issue of life-support items.
-- The Air Force is providing strategic airlift, fixed-wing airlift, medical evacuation, airborne command and control, and helicopters to transport people and supplies.
-- Navy amphibious ships USS Kearsarge and USS Oak Hill, along with Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, are en route to Texas should the state need them.
-- The Defense Logistics Agency has provided fuel, sandbags, generators and incident-support bases and is delivering meals to dislocated citizens.
-- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has deployed experts to the state and to FEMA, and response nodes to help provide technical assistance with power restoration.
These are just a few things the men and women in uniform are doing to help with the larger relief effort, Robinson said. "We are committed to assist local, state and federal agencies throughout this trying time for our nation," the general added.
Robinson also thanked the governor and other officials involved in overseeing the response for their leadership. "We look forward," she said, "and we will be there -- steady, ready and to support at a moment's notice."
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South Korea Rules Out Bringing Back US Nukes After Missile Launch
Sputmik - 06:32 01.09.2017Get short URL164940
TOKYO (Sputnik) South Koreas presidential office does not plan to redeploy US nuclear weapons in response to a recent North Korean missile launch, a senior official told local media on Friday.
"We have never thought we should redeploy U.S. nuclear assets," a South Korean administration official said on condition of anonymity, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.
US tactical nuclear weapons were removed from the country in late 1991 as part of Seouls denuclearization agreement with Pyongyang.
Another senior government official told reporters a day after the North fired a ballistic missile over northern Japan on Tuesday that Souths Defense Minister Song Young-moo had raised redeployment of US tactical nuclear weapons with US Defense Secretary James Mattis during a meeting in Washington.
Russia and China have been opposed to stockpiling nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula. In June, they put forward a roadmap on a so-called double freeze that would see Pyongyang halt its nuclear activity in exchange for an end to US-South Korean military drills in the region. The plan has been backed by Germany but rejected by the United States. North Korea has not responded to the proposal.
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US-backed Forces Claim IS Fighters Pushed From Raqqa Old City
By September 01, 2017 2:37 PM VOA News
United States-backed fighters in Raqqa say they have taken the last districts of the Old City from Islamic State jihadists.
"We declare to our people the liberation of the old city of Raqqa," the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement.
Talal Sello, a spokesman for the SDF, told French news agency AFP that coalition fighters are now "on the edges of IS's security quarter in the city center, where most of its main bases are."
About 25,000 civilians remain trapped with the remaining jihadists, who are holed up in the Raqqa city center. Islamic State routinely uses civilians as human shields.
The SDF began its campaign to recapture the former de facto capital of the so-called IS caliphate in June with U.S. air support.
While the SDF said it has recaptured the Old City, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said SDF forces continue battling with IS fighters in a small portion of the Old City.
A U.S. military spokesman has said he is not yet able to confirm whether the city's been retaken.
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Somalia Seeks US Help, Says Militants Plot to Supply Uranium to Iran
September 01, 2017 5:06 PM Harun Maruf
WASHINGTON / PUNTLAND, SOMALIA The Somali government has asked the United States to provide "immediate military assistance" because it says al-Shabab militants are plotting to supply uranium to Iran.
In a letter to U.S. Ambassador to Somalia Stephen Schwartz, Somali Foreign Minister Yusuf Garaad Omar says the militant group has captured "critical surface exposed uranium deposits" in the central Somali region of Galmudug and intend to transport the uranium to Iran.
The letter says the issue presents a problem for the larger global community and will not be constrained within the borders of Somalia.
The authenticity of the letter was confirmed to VOA's Somali service by the Somali ambassador to the U.S., Ahmed Isse Awad.
The letter says Somalia is facing a "reconstituted" al-Shabab that is seizing territory in central Somalia. It also says the group is linking up with Islamic State militants in the country.
In the letter, the foreign minister says "only the United States has the capacity to identify and smash al-Shabab elements operating within our country."
"The time for surgical strikes and limited engagement has passed, as Somalia's problems have metastasized into the world's problems. Every day that passes without intervention provides America's enemies with additional material for nuclear weapons," Omar writes.
Expert doubts claims
The copy of the letter obtained by VOA offers no proof for Omar's assertions, though it refers to an intelligence brief sent to Schwartz.
Abdirashid Khalif Hashi, a former government minister and current director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank in Mogadishu, said he initially thought the letter was fake. But even with the government's confirmation, Hashi said he had "several issues" with the letter.
"First of all, it was written by a minister to an ambassador; he should have sent it to his [U.S.] counterpart," he told VOA. "They [the government] have also linked al-Shabab with Daesh, and they can't be linked up."
Daesh is a derogatory term for the Islamic State militant group. Al-Shabab and pro-IS militants in Somalia have been fighting since 2015. The government's assertion the groups have forged ties is unsupported by the situation on the ground, where al-Shabab has executed many pro-IS militants.
Asked about the claim that Iran is seeking uranium in Somalia, Hashi said it's possible because Somalia's borders are mostly unprotected.
"This is a collapsed state. ... If Iran needed something from Somalia, it's possible that they believe they can get it because this is an open country," he said.
But Hashi said the letter might be intended to draw additional military support from Washington more than anything else.
"The aim of the letter is to get sympathy from the U.S. and to change its policy toward Somalia," Hashi said. "But I don't think the language written in the letter is going to change the U.S."
New airstrike
The U.S. has a small number of military advisers helping and training special forces in Somalia. Since 2011, the U.S. also has carried out numerous airstrikes against al-Shabab, killing a number of top commanders.
The latest suspected U.S. strike took place Friday. Security sources told VOA Somali a strike targeted Abdirahman Hudeyfi, a senior al-Shabab commander in Middle Juba region.
Intelligence sources told VOA Somali that Hudeyfi was once al-Shabab's governor for the region. The U.S. military has yet to comment on the reported attack.
At least nine people, including five soldiers, were killed and more than 30 others were injured in two explosions at a market in Af-Urur, a village in the semiautonomous Puntland region.
The first explosion occurred in a store where traders sell khat, a green narcotic leaf widely chewed in Somalia. Moments later, a second blast was reported in the same area as people were gathering to evacuate the wounded.
Witnesses told a VOA Somali reporter that three people died at the scene while four others died on their way to a hospital. Two more died in the hospital in Armo village, 30 kilometers north of Af-Urur.
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the Friday explosions.
In June, al-Shabab militants attacked a military base in Af-Urur, killing 50 Puntland regional soldiers and three senior military officers.
Falastine Iman and Fadumo Yasin Jama contributed to this report.
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Myanmar Authorities: Nearly 400 Dead in Rakhine Violence
September 01, 2017 4:24 PM Kate Pound Dawson
About 400 people have died in violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state over the past week, military officials said, almost all of them Muslim insurgents.
A military Facebook page reported the numbers, saying 370 were insurgents and 29 were either police or civilians.
Members of the minority Rohingya Muslim community, however, have reported attacks on their villages that left scores dead and forced thousands to flee.
The United Nations says at least 38,000 people have fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh, most of them Rohingya. Community leaders in Bangladesh have told VOA that some Hindus, also a minority in Myanmar, have crossed the border.
Sources in Bangladesh have told VOA's Bangla service that as many as 60,000 have crossed the border in the past eight days.
Struggling to feed displaced
In addition, thousands of people have fled their villages and sought shelter in temples, schools and mosques in other Rakhine towns.
The deputy chairman of the Emergency Relief Committee, U Khin Win, told VOA's Burmese service by phone that 800 people were sheltering at two Buddhist monasteries in the town of Maungdaw.
"Security in Maungdaw is not even safe and some fled to Min Byar, Sittwe and Yathetaung. No one can guarantee their safety. People fleeing homes [are] increasing, and there are a few left in villages. There is only one police outpost in a village, and police do not have capability to protect villagers," he said.
Volunteers were struggling to find food for the displaced, he said.
"We need drinking water, meat, fish and medicines," he said. The group has gotten rice and donations from other communities but little from the government."
A government aid agency "provided a few bags of beans and instant noodles. Three boxes of instant noodles for 500 people is not effective. Just a superficial help," he said.
Hiding in forest
Hla Tun, a Rohingya from the village of Alae-Than-Kyaw, told the Burmese service that Muslims cannot rely on security forces for protection or help.
"Our villages are located near rugged coastal area from south of Maungdaw to Alae-Than-Kyaw village. Almost every village has been burned down and people have nowhere to stay. People are hiding in the forest. In order to avoid authorities, they can move only during nighttime to flee to Bangladesh," Hla Tun said.
The violence began a week ago, when a group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army launched a series of attacks on police posts in Rakhine, which is home to most of the Rohingya minority group. The police responded with attacks on villages, to hunt down the insurgents.
Myanmar considers the Rohingya to be migrants from Bangladesh, and not one of the country's many ethnic minority groups. Rohingya are denied citizenship, even if they can show their families have been in the country for generations.
Sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims has flared periodically for more than a decade. Until last month's attacks, the worst violence was last October, when insurgents attacked several police posts, sparking a military crackdown that sent thousands fleeing to Bangladesh.
The Myanmar government has denied allegations of abuse against the Rohingya and has limited access to Rakhine to journalists and other outsiders. However, the country's ambassador to the United Nations says the government plans to implement the recommendations from a U.N. commission to improve conditions and end the violence.
Amir Khasru in Bangladesh, VOA's Bangla service and VOA's Burmese service contributed to this report.
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Philippines Anticipate Long Struggle Against Muslim Rebels
September 01, 2017 5:50 AM Ralph Jennings
TAIPEI, TAIWAN Philippine residents are settling in for a long war against Muslim rebels entrenched in a southern Philippine city, despite government pledges of a speedy end, analysts say.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and military officials have promised to quickly defeat the Maute Group at its base, Marawi city. Analysts say fighting in the city on the embattled island of Mindanao could go on as long as that group or its sympathizers pose a terrorism threat, and there is no sign of the threat abating. Rebel violence has killed about 120,000 since the 1960s on Mindanao and curbed the largely impoverished islands economic development.
Sometimes its contradictory when they say there are only a few barangays (neighborhoods) that are controlled by the Maute Group, but still they cannot stop, said Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor at University of the Philippines Diliman.
The government may have miscalculated the rebels reach when the battles began in May, she added. Their funding and support network could also extend to other cities and countries, making them harder to beat, scholars in the Philippines say. About 20 other rebel groups also operate on Mindanao to demand more autonomy from the Philippine government.
Officials predict final battles
Duterte on Tuesday assured that the end of the siege is in sight when he met in Manila with 35 displaced children from Marawi, according to a statement on his website. Duterte has also vowed to rebuild the city.
As of Monday Philippine media report, 603 terrorists had been killed along with 130 soldiers and police officers and 45 civilians. More than 183,000 people, most of Marawis original population, have been displaced.
On Sunday Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana was quoted in the Philippine Star online as saying troops were preparing for final assault in Marawi. The defense department was not available Friday for comment. Officials had said in June the Maute Group had been confined to just four neighborhoods of Marawi.
Life goes on
A lot of people want the fighting to end and the reconstruction of Marawi to start, said Antonio Ledesma, archbishop in the Mindanao city of Cagayan de Oro. But citizens of his city about a two-hour drive from Marawi expect little change for now.
Actually a number of Muslim families have moved (from Marawi) over to Cagayan to Oro, Ledesma said. Were also trying to provide aid to them, but life on Cagayan de Oro is as it is, not much problem with the situation there.
Martial law declared for all of Mindanao has affected few people aside from vehicles stopped at road checkpoints, another Cagayan de Oro dweller said in July. Duterte declared martial law through Dec. 31 to make it easier for police and troops to make field decisions in Marawi.
Outside the immediate vicinity of Marawi, it seems like everything is sort of business as usual, said Christian de Guzman, vice president and senior credit officer with Moodys in Singapore. Government officials have infrastructure plans for Mindanao that are still on track, he added.
It seems to be more of a political issue rather than one that has had an actual economic impact, de Guzman said.
Welcoming the war
Normally unaffected by the fighting itself, many Filipinos welcome a longer war if it means eliminating rebels who could spread violence to other parts of the country, analysts say.
In April, Abu Sayyaf tried to stage an attack on the tourist island of Bohol, its first outside Mindanao. Four suspected terrorists, three soldiers, two civilians and a police officer were killed in the initial fight. More rebels died in follow-up skirmishes.
Seventy-five percent of Filipinos trusted the military last year, according to surveys by Metro Manila-based research institution Social Weather Stations, and as of June 57 percent supported the declaration of martial law throughout Mindanao.
Troops believe the Maute Group is working with Isnilon Totoni Hapilon, a leader of Abu Sayyaf, a sympathetic rebel group known for kidnapping and beheading foreign tourists along the Sulu Sea west of Mindanao. Islamic State, the terrorist outfit in Iraq and Syria, last year called Hapilon its Southeast Asian emir, the policy nonprofit Counter Extremism Project said.
People are also thinking its good to contain them, otherwise the Maute Group will spread into the Visayas and Luzon Island, Atienza said, referring to central and northern islands of the Philippine archipelago.
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Trump, Moon agree to increase Seoul's missile capabilities over North Korean threats
Press TV Fri Sep 1, 2017 8:3PM
The United States has agreed to help South Korea build up its missile capabilities in the face of what the two countries describe as threats posed by North Korea.
The agreement was made in a telephone call between US President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in on Friday.
"The two leaders noted the need to strengthen the Republic of Korea's defense capabilities to counter provocations and threats from North Korea, and reached an agreement in principle to revise the 'missile guideline' to the extent hoped by the South Korean side," South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Park Soo-hyun as saying.
Park said that Trump and Moon also underlined the importance of pressurizing Pyongyang to come to the dialogue table.
"President Moon and President Trump reaffirmed their view that it was important to have North Korea come out to the dialogue table to peacefully resolve the North Korean nuclear issue by applying maximum sanctions and pressure on the North.
Tensions between Washington and Pyongyang have been heightened since North Koreas latest missile launch over Japans airspace on Tuesday.
North Korea fired a Hwasong-12 missile reportedly capable of carrying a nuclear payload that traveled nearly 2,700 kilometers into the Pacific and triggered alert warnings as it flew over northern Japan.
The launch sparked angry reactions from South Korea, Japan and the United States, as well as calls for restraint by other countries.
US, Japanese and South Korean warplanes carried out a show of force against North Korea on Wednesday.
Pyongyang says it will not give up on its nuclear deterrence unless Washington ends its hostile policy toward the country and dissolves the US-led UN command in South Korea. Thousands of US soldiers are stationed in South Korea and Japan.
Last week, North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un ordered the production of more rocket warheads and engines, shortly after the United States suggested that its threats of military action and sanctions were having an impact on Pyongyangs behavior.
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'We're a New Party for a New Country': Colombia FARC Leader Byron Yepes
By: Carla Gonzalez - teleSUR 01 September 2017
In an exclusive interview, teleSUR spoke with Byron Yepes, member of the Central High Command of the FARC on the future of the organization.
For Byron Yepes, a member of the FARC Central High Command, the group's congress, which has closed, is key to determining the future of the organization and will revolutionize the way Colombians see politics.
Yepes, whose given name is Julian Villamizar, handled some of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia territories, and its finances at one point, and was a key ally to Manuel Marulanda co-founder of the FARC and commander "Mono Jojoy" member of the FARC Secretariat, both killed during the conflict.
Yepes himself was once considered to have been captured and killed in 2010.
"It is the first time we meet with delegates, former FARC fighters, in Bogota in the center of the capital, of what was once a clandestine party," Yepes told teleSUR from the Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada Convention Center, where the congress was taking place.
At the event's plenary session the fundamental elements of the party, its political platform, and symbols it will use were all approved.
The new party, which will now be called the "Revolutionary Alternative Forces of the Commons," with the same acronym, will seek to participate in all future elections, from small communal councils to municipal elections, and also for legislative seats.
We are going to influence politics, with fresh ideas, renewed ideas, with a new party for a new country, Yepes said. We are going to be an alternative, a change of political traditions in Colombia, a change in the way the political parties act.
The congress chose its leading members, but Yepes says it is up to them to go to the streets and build the structure of the party.
He says this critical step will include many challenges, work, and mostly a lot of expectations.
For this step, the congress included the participation and input from social organizations from all regions, and from the former transitional zones, which are now called Territorial Areas of Reconciliation.
Our party is a party that collects and reflects the aspirations of the Colombian people, the common people, that is, people who have never had a voice, most of them who have not had opportunities, Yepes said.
Campesinos, Indigenous people, Afro-descendants, women and workers from across the country met this week as part of delegations.
There is a good number of former combatants, comrades from different regions, and social organizations that have historically accompanied us throughout the war, Yepes said. And throughout the struggle, they have also been on the task of building the party.
But the challenges to consolidate peace are still a major challenge for FARC members, who have already delivered all their weapons and began their transition into society.
The main criticism, since the signing of the peace agreement on Sept. 27, 2016, in Havana, Cuba, is the slow implementation by the government of Juan Manuel Santos.
The struggle of all Colombians is to consolidate peace, to consolidate the implementation of the agreements because the agreement is not only for us, it is for Colombian society, it will affect the common Colombian people, Yepes said.
It will have a concrete impact on political, economic, and social life," he explained.
But the most crucial part of the agreement is still the Colombian state's commitment to eliminate paramilitaries and all forms of violence jeopardizing the definitive and permanent peace.
The reality is that every day in Colombia we are seeing murders of social leaders, and this should not be the case, the war is over, Yepes told teleSUR.
Without having the military force as a way to pressure the government, the FARC will now have to seek other mechanisms to ensure that the Santos government complies with its part of the deal.
We are going to take to the streets to mobilize with Colombian society, with the Colombian people, to impose on the Colombian regime the fulfillment of the agreements, he said.
The long-awaited peace in Colombia does not only affect its people but it also has an echo in the rest of the region.
Latin America has declared several times in different summits, that it has to be a continent free of conflicts, Yepes said.
Our continent is a continent that will live in peace, in harmony, in tranquility, he concluded.
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CHENGDU, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Nine people are dead and one remains missing after torrential rain hit Sichuan and Guizhou provinces in southwest China, authorities said Saturday.
In Sichuan, seven people are dead and another missing after rain triggered flooding and landslides since Friday, provincial civil affairs authorities said in a statement.
Torrential rain has affected 165,000 people in 35 county-level areas, with more than 6,800 residents evacuated, the statement said.
Over 4,300 hectares of crops have been damaged, of which 700 hectares were destroyed, it said.
In Guizhou Province, two people were buried when a house collapsed in Qianxi Township in the city of Bijie late Friday. The two bodies were recovered from the debris around 6 a.m. Saturday, according to a spokesperson with the local government.
Several townships in the district received more than 100 mm of rainfall within six hours. The local weather bureau issued a red alert, the highest in China's four-tier warning system, for heavy rain on Friday.
Disaster relief materials including tents, blankets and rice have been delivered to the affected townships.
EL PASO, Texas The University of New Mexico volleyball team dropped its second match of the year, falling to North Dakota in straight sets on Saturday to close out the Glory Road Invitational.
After earning back-to-back sweeps over Youngstown State and tournament host UTEP to open the weekend, the Lobos (4-2) struggled against the Fighting Hawks (8-1) inside Memorial Gym, losing by set scores of 25-23, 25-15, 25-22.
Todays match was difficult, UNM head coach Jeff Nelson said. We never found a good rhythm. We worked really harb but struggled in blocking against a very good North Dakota setter. We let our youth show a bit today and need to be tougher late in the games.
Hailey Rubino led New Mexicos offense for the third straight contest, finishing with 10 kills. The freshman logged double-digit kills every match in El Paso, earning her way on the Glory Road Invitational All-Tournament Team.
Carly Beddingfield also contributed to the Lobos offense, knocking home a season-best eight kills. Mariessa Carrasco (seven kills, .429 hitting percentage) and Lauren Twitty (seven kills) chipped in, as well.
Carson Heilborn finished with a game high-tying 34 assists, her third-straight match with at least 30 assists. She also earned a spot on the all-tournament team.
New Mexico hit .189 on the match, with 39 kills and 15 errors on 127 attempts.
Defensively, the Lobos posted solid numbers, with 55 team digs and four total blocks. Ashley Kelsey (game-high 18 digs), Mercedes Pacheco (12) and Rubino (nine) teamed up to power UNMs floor defense, while Yasmin Tan and Victoria Spragg each finished with one block each.
The Lobos started the match strongly, opening with a 6-2 lead as Twitty posted three quick kills. However, North Dakota would score five straight to eventually pull ahead at 14-13, sparking a back-and-forth affair that saw neither team exert more than a three-point lead.
UNM had some momentum in the waning moments of the set after stringing together four straight points for a 20-19 lead, but the Fighting Hawks finished with six of the final nine points for a 25-23 win.
Twitty had six kills in the opening stanza, with Rubino adding four and Beddingfield three.
North Dakota maintained the momentum to start the second set, creating a 6-3 advantage early. The Lobos would cut the deficit to one point at 7-6, but UND took control of the frame with a 9-1 run.
A 5-2 spurt by UNM made the margin six points at 19-13, but North Dakota captured the set via a closing 6-2 run.
Three Lobos Spragg, Carrasco and Beddingfield each had a pair of kills in the set, but the Fighting Hawks were virtually flawless in the set, hitting .593 with 17 combined kills and just one attack error.
After intermission, New Mexico came out with some fire, battling to a 7-6 lead after a Carrasco kill. UNM would keep the lead up to 9-8, but two 3-0 UND runs sandwiched around two straight Lobo points gave the Fighting Hawks a 14-11 lead that they would not relinquish.
New Mexico would remain within three points the rest of the way even cutting North Dakotas lead down to one point at 21-20 but the Lobos couldnt completely erase the deficit, falling 25-22.
Rubino tallied five kills in the set, while Tan converted errorless four kills on nine swings. But, despite a respectable .231 attack percentage, the Lobos couldnt overcome North Dakotas .312 clip.
The Lobos return to action on Friday as they play their home opener vs. UT Arlington at 12:15 p.m. MT. That match is part of the Lobo Classic, where UNM will also play Portland and Northern Colorado inside Johnson Center.
Fans can follow @UNMLoboVB on Twitter and Instagram for information and updates on the team!
Aircraft makers from both China and Russia are teaming up to jointly develop engines for a new wide-body aircraft project.
It's seen as an attempt to eventually break the double monopoly of General Electric and Rolls-Royce, reports the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.
The model of C929.
The newspaper quotes Victor Kladov, director of international cooperation and regional policy for Rostec, a Russian state corporation which develops high tech projects for the civil and defense sector. Kladov is quoted as saying that it was a top priority to develop and make engines for the new 280-seat wide-body jet, the C929. "Only China and Russia will be the manufacturers of the engine," he said, and "we'll try our best to produce a top-class engine, to support this aeroplane project."
However, Kladov said the possibility of cooperating with GE and Rolls-Royce had not been ruled out completely, with participation in the development of the engine possible in the early stages.
To develop the giant long-distance passenger plane, a joint venture was established by the Shanghai-based Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) and several Russian corporations including aircraft assembler, United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and Rostec, with China and Russian corporations each holding a 50% stake.
The widebody jet is designed to have a range of 120,000 kilometers and is set to be completed by 2025.
COMAC's first success in aircraft production came in 2015 with the launch of the domestically produced narrow-body passenger plane, the C919, which completed its maiden flight in Shanghai in May. It took nearly eight years to develop the 168-seat Plane, which has a range of up to 5,556km.
The flight made China the fourth jumbo jet producer after the United States, Europe and Russia.
Rostec also revealed that it was planning to co-develop a 15 tonne heavy-duty helicopter with the Aviation Industry Corp of China's general aviation subsidiary, Avicopter.
(TNS) - Pressure valves on one or more containers of volatile organic peroxides "popped" late Thursday at the flooded Arkema plant in Crosby, according to the company.Leaders are on high alert for explosions like the ones that shot plumes of smoke into the air and caused an hours-long fire at the chemical plant early Thursday."You could call this a warning sign that more explosions or fires could be coming soon," said Jeff Carr, Arkema spokesperson.Darryl Roberts, a safety official with the company, said the company expected additional fires to take place in a matter of days.One local resident reported hearing the popping sounds overnight, and officials confirmed the noise came from the 18000 Crosby Eastgate plant swamped earlier this week by a murky deluge that cut off power.Previously, the county said the popping sound indicated more organic peroxide exploding. Carr disagreed, blaming the pressure valves releasing instead.The company said temperatures are slowly rising in the six containers it can track. There are no temperature gauges in the remaining two containers.Company officials have said they expected the refrigeration to fail in all the trailers and that additional explosions are inevitable.Hurricane Harvey's winds and floodwaters have created emergencies at chemical facilities across the Houston area, from an Exxon Mobil roof collapse at its massive Baytown complex to the risk of an explosion at a chemical plant northeast of Houston. We combined our Chemical Breakdown risk map, based on a facility's potential for harm, with the region's 100-year floodplains. Type in a Harris County address in the search bar above to view which sites with "potential for harm" fall within a two-mile radius of that address.The Arkema plant lost power earlier this week, knocking out the primary supply and back-up generators and forcing employees to move the organic peroxides into 18-wheeler box vans with cooling systems.One employee was evacuated Monday night. Eleven other employees were evacuated Tuesday when the nitrogen refrigeration in the back-up containers also began to fail.Company leaders on Thursday morning said they had initially considered relocating the chemicals but deemed that process too risky."For us to be in a position where we were going to put that material into trailers and try to move it, it runs the risk of not being able to get it out of the area or getting it stuck in traffic, or having a fire or an explosion at a highway or at a public area, versus in the rural area where this site is," Roberts said.The company instead decided to leave the material on site with backup generators and a cooling system. The company could not say how elevated these generators were.Arkema said neutralizing the material was not practical and that "at no point" did they intend to destroy it."Those were our levels of contingency," Roberts said. "Clearly that wasn't enough."Local officials ordered the evacuation of residents after seeing the chemical inventories for the facility, which the company has not publicly released.The Crosby site has a history of regulatory problems.In 2006, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality cited Arkema for a fire caused by improperly stored organic peroxides. In 2011, the same plant was cited for failing to maintain proper temperatures of its thermal oxidizer.In 2016, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Arkema $91,724 after finding 10 violations at the Crosby site, many involving the mishandling of hazardous materials.Arkema's CEO Richard Rowe said earlier this week that the company spent millions of dollars on upgrades after the fines and believed all issues cited in the inspections had been addressed.2017 the Houston ChronicleVisit the Houston Chronicle at www.chron.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Robert Kubica says he still has "a good chance" of returning to formula one.
After his post-race test in Hungary, the Pole has now returned to the F1 paddock at Monza.
Although not in Renault team gear, the 32-year-old is basing himself at the Renault motor home as he works throughout the weekend for the Italian broadcaster Sky.
"Months ago, I promised someone I would be back in the paddock, either as a driver or for TV," Kubica said.
"I prefer to be in the car but this is a good step forward with respect to what has happened. A few years ago I would not have imagined it."
However, Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul said just a week ago at Spa that he isn't sure if Kubica is actually able to return to F1.
"What happens next? Good question," said the Frenchman.
There are rumours Renault will give Kubica his next chance to prove himself in the 2017 car in free practice ahead of the forthcoming Malaysian grand prix.
"I would like to have another chance to drive," admitted Kubica.
"You have to have your feet on the ground and your head free but the last months have been fundamental in lifting my doubts about being able to drive at a high level in formula one.
"I don't know what will happen, but so far it was nice. I am not yet a driver because I do not race, but there are good chances," he added.
"I'm convinced that I could do well and that I can drive these cars at a high level despite my limitations. At the same time I have learned that you have to enjoy what life gives you every day."
(GMM)
A meeting at Monza could have decided the fate of the McLaren-Honda relationship.
Ahead of the Italian grand prix, Renault chiefs Alain Prost and Cyril Abiteboul were spotted leaving the McLaren motor home, flanked by F1 boss Ross Brawn.
The big rumour is that a deal has effectively been done between Renault and McLaren for 2018.
"I have just come from the engineers meeting so now I will try to find out a little about what has happened," Fernando Alonso is quoted by Spain's Marca newspaper at Monza.
McLaren is now under intense pressure to make a decision about splitting with Honda or not.
That is because Toro Rosso could inherit the Honda deal, in order to keep the manufacturer in F1 -- something Liberty's Brawn is pushing hard for.
The Toro Rosso-Honda deal would then free up the customer Renault engine deal for McLaren.
"We need to decide in September -- probably the beginning of the month," admitted McLaren executive Zak Brown.
However, Toro Rosso's deadline could be even more urgent with that, amid reports the Red Bull junior team wants to know its engine plans by 6pm on Sunday.
"I think everyone's under time pressure," Brown responded.
"As McLaren we don't need to make any decisions this weekend, but I cannot talk about the situation at Toro Rosso."
Honda is said to contribute $100 million a year to McLaren, but after three years of struggling Brown said the team's decision will be taken on "sporting" grounds.
But Brown is also not ruling out staying with the Japanese company.
"Honda is putting in additional resources and doing various other things that I can't tell you about. But I believe you're aware that they've taken on the help of a number of consultants.
"Next week we will get together and examine Honda's plans and after that we will decide," the American added.
The outcome of that will also affect Alonso's decision, with Brown admitting McLaren is working on a "plan B and plan C" in the event that he leaves.
However, he said impressive younger Lando Norris is not one of those options.
"No, our plan is to let him drive Formula 2 next year," said Brown.
(GMM)
Egypt's Ministry of Interior is implementing heightened security measures at places where Egyptians gather to celebrate Eid El-Adha, which begins on Friday, state-run MENA news agency reported on Wednesday.
Earlier this week, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and a number of ministers to discuss the government's security preparations for Eid El-Adha.
The Ministry of Interior said it is ready to deal decisively with any attempt to disturb Eid celebrations.
Cairo security chief Khaled Abdel-Aal also stressed at a meeting of top security officials on Wednesday the necessity of deploying officers from the violence against women unit in crowded areas.
Reports of sexual harassment have traditionally spiked in Egypt during Eid celebrations.
Abdel-Aal also stressed the necessity of enhancing security presence at public parks, squares, cinemas, theatres and other places where people congregate in large numbers.
Eid El-Adha is one of the two most important religious holidays celebrated by Muslims worldwide.
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Lebanon's Hezbollah movement on Saturday accused US-led forces of stranding a convoy of Islamic State (IS) militants and civilians headed for Syria's Deir Ezzor province under an evacuation deal.
The convoy carrying hundreds of IS fighters as well as civilians was meant to travel from the Lebanon-Syria border to held territory held by Islamist militants in eastern Syria under a deal Hezbollah helped broker.
But the US-led coalition has pounded the road to Deir Ezzor with air strikes to prevent the convoy reaching the IS-held town of Albukamal on the Iraqi border.
Hezbollah, which has defended the deal to remove IS fighters from the Lebanese frontier, said US-led forces had effectively stranded most of the convoy's 17 buses in the Syrian desert, beyond government reach.
"They are also preventing anyone from reaching them even to provide humanitarian assistance to families, the sick and wounded and the elderly," the Hezbollah statement said.
The convoy left the Lebanon-Syria border region on Monday, but Hezbollah said six of the buses remained in Syrian government-held territory.
The deal, brokered by Hezbollah with the support of its Syrian regime ally after a week-long offensive against IS, has been fiercely criticised by US-led forces and the Iraqi government.
The international coalition fighting IS has said it is unacceptable for Islamist militants to be transported to the border with Iraq, where pro-government forces this week ousted the extremist group from the northern city of Tal Afar.
In a statement overnight, the coalition said it had sent a message to Damascus through Syria's ally Russia to say that "the Coalition will not condone IS fighters moving further east to the Iraqi border."
"The Coalition values human life and has offered suggestions on a course of action to save the women and children from any further suffering as a result of the Syrian regime's agreement," it added, without providing further details.
The coalition said it would not strike the convoy, but acknowledged hitting IS fighters and vehicles "seeking to facilitate the movement of IS fighters to the border area of our Iraqi partners."
Hezbollah accused US forces of hypocrisy, saying they had previously allowed IS fighters to flee territories in Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has described the deal as "unacceptable" and an "insult to the Iraqi people".
In Lebanon some criticised it for allowing fighters suspected of killing Lebanese citizens to escape on "air-conditioned buses."
Deir Ezzor in Syria's east is one of the Islamist militants' last remaining strongholds, where they hold most of the province and parts of its capital of the same name.
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In the recent assault on Confederate heritage, apparently anything goes, including not reading the Constitution. Harvey Herman wrote (letter, Aug. 25) that the Constitution says citizens who fight against the U.S. are traitors. Wrong. It does not use that phrase or even the word traitor. He further asserts that Confederate leaders and soldiers were traitors, which would include my ancestors.
The Constitution is silent about the right of states to leave the Union. Since the Union was a voluntary association of states, states should be considered free to leave it; thus those in the Confederacy were not traitors but were exercising freedom to leave the Union. Only force (the U.S. Army and Navy) led by our worst president (Abe Lincoln) vitiated the right of states to secede.
And we have finally hit the nadir of political correctness: ESPN reassigned announcer Robert Lee, an Asian, from University of Virginia games because his name is similar to Robert E. Lee of Civil War fame. But perhaps we could descend deeper: We should remove U.S. flags after all, they flew over a country allowing slavery much longer than Confederate flags flew over slave states.
Charles A. Jones
Greensboro
When Republican state legislators once again are called to account for their gerrymandered districts, their best defense will be, Weve gotten away with it before.
That and Democrats did it, too are true. Republicans and Democrats alike have crafted districts that give themselves partisan advantages, and the courts have let them get away with it.
Its time for the self-serving exercise to end. Partisan redistricting is a political partys attempt to rig the election system and deny fair competition. The party in power can make sure it continues to win a majority of seats even without winning a majority of votes. All it takes is placing the right voters in the right numbers in the right districts, which is easily achieved with todays computer technology. The process is manipulative and anti-democratic but somehow not illegal, yet.
The N.C. House and Senate this week approved new legislative districts to replace those struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court for relying too heavily on the race of voters in 28 districts. The new plans now must be submitted to a panel of federal judges in Greensboro for approval. They should not get a passing grade.
This time, the Republican lawmakers in charge of redistricting gave no consideration to race, which ought to be a violation of the Voting Rights Act. But they did give every consideration to political party, making sure that most districts would continue to elect Republicans.
Theres no reason to believe that Democrats would not have created similar advantages for themselves if they could. The particular district lines would be different but not the intent to limit choices for voters.
Enough. The U.S. Supreme Court seems to be moving closer to ruling against partisan gerrymanders based on newly developed evidence about their effects on voters. Political scientists describe an efficiency gap between the number of votes cast for a political party and the number of candidates of that party who are actually elected. That calculation yields the number of wasted votes.
North Carolina is a leading state for such wasted votes in other words, the number of voters who have little chance of electing the candidate of their choice.
The efficiency gap is most clearly seen in congressional voting. In North Carolina last year, 2.4 million votes were cast for Republican congressional candidates and 2.1 million for Democratic candidates. Those votes elected 10 Republicans and three Democrats. Simple math finds that Republicans won congressional seats at a rate of one for every 240,000 votes, while it cost Democrats 700,000 votes for each congressional seat won. Because of how the districts were drawn, it was nearly three times easier for a Republican to win than for a Democrat.
These kinds of tricks are more worthy of a country like Venezuela than anywhere in the United States. Yet, its been proven time and again that when politicians draw their own districts, they do so for their own advantage. Its little different in North Carolina than it is in Venezuela or any other country where leaders stage mock elections rather than give voters a fair opportunity to elect someone else.
While the judges should reject the latest attempted manipulation by North Carolina legislators, an entirely new system is needed. Some states have implemented independent redistricting to take the job away from politicians. They entrust the process to a panel of impartial citizens charged with creating fair districts, only making sure that they contain equal numbers of voters and that some allow a reasonable chance for minority voter influence.
There is no perfect system, but a deliberately imperfect system should not be continued. The latest plans are unacceptable. The people of North Carolina deserve better than to be apportioned into districts so they can dutifully elect the representatives party leaders choose for them.
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Avocadoes and kale got a whole lot cheaper at the upscale grocery chain Whole Foods on Monday after its new owner, the online giant Amazon, announced discounts on a broad range of produce.
As Whole Foods is shedding its Whole Paycheck reputation for high prices, one of the other big grocers in southwestern Connecticut, Stew Leonard's, is quietly taking notice.
Whole Foods is a great store, said Stews CEO and president, Stew Leonard Jr., who visited Whole Foods newest store near Bryant Park in New York on Monday. I have a lot of respect for what [Whole Foods founder] John Mackey has created but were not changing anything. Were just going to continue to offer the best deals we can to our customers.
In the coming days, shoppers may not see big changes at Stew Leonard's, but the Norwalk-based supermarket chain has many discounts in store, its CEO said. From lobster tails at $3.99 each to untrimmed filet mignon at $7.99 a pound, the company has advertised more than 20 specials at its locations in Norwalk, Danbury, Newington and Yonkers, NY, beginning this week.
We had a good sale day Monday, Leonard said. I heard from suppliers that the Whole Foods was busier than normal. Im sure their sales have gone up.
Leonard said its store can keep many of its prices low by buying directly from local farmers and cattle ranchers in Kent, or fishermen on the lobster docks in Stonington, Maine.
Both stores lowered their prices on a selection of organic items this week, with Stew Leonard's currently offering a dozen organic eggs for $1.99 while Whole Foods large brown eggs went from $4.29 a dozen to $3.99.
Were just focusing on getting the best food and cutting out the middleman, Leonard said.
With the Amazon-Whole Foods merger, Leonard believes that the new chain will really compete against grocery stores for home deliveries, getting food from stores to peoples refrigerators.
We have tractor trailers, but for us getting food driven to your house is usually very expensive, he said.
In the early 1920s, Leonards grandfather, Charles Leo Leonard, started Clover Farms Dairy in Norwalk, delivering milk to peoples homes. Today, his grandson hopes to bring back home-deliveries in the region in 5 years' time. At its Danbury store, Stews has already partnered with the start-up company Vroom Service Now for meal delivery.
Were definitely looking at when people can go online, or order here their groceries, and have it delivered at their home at a reasonable price, Leonard said.
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GREENWICH The Greenwich Department of Human Services is championing a new approach to closing Greenwich Public Schools achievement gap that focuses on the years before a child reaches the classroom.
A task force convened by the department has released a 28-page report recommending the town devote more resources to supporting children from low-income families in their first three years of life in order to help them avoid future academic struggles.
Research shows that 60 to 70 percent of the achievement gap is evident by age 5, the report states. Support interventions must start from day one; not day one in school, but day one of life.
While the town has a reputation as a bastion of extreme wealth, the percentage of Greenwich students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches has grown steadily from 10 percent in 2010 to more than 15 percent in 2015. For a student from a family of four to be eligible for free lunch, the annual household gross income limit is $31,500.
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Standardized test scores show that these students fall behind their peers in English and math in elementary school.
On the 2015-16 Smarter Balanced Assessment only 48 percent of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch met expectations, according to the district. In math, just 30 percent met the benchmark.
That gap in academic performance persists and even widens in higher grades.
At Western and Central middle schools, the achievement gap in math between high-needs students (low-income, English language learners or special education students) and other students exceeded the state average achievement gap, according to the state Department of Educations 2015-16 Next Generation Accountability Report.
At Greenwich High School, the achievement gap was wider than the states in English, math and science.
Too late
After studying the issue for two years, the Human Services task force concluded that Greenwich Public Schools ares limited in their ability to address the towns pervasive gap in academic performance because by the time students enroll in public preschool or kindergarten, it might already be too late.
Factors like unstable housing, family economic stress, poor nutrition, less interaction with parents or caregivers, or a lack of high quality books, toys or learning experiences can mean low-income children are less prepared for school than their wealthier peers at the start of kindergarten, said Greenwich Human Services Commissioner Alan Barry.
Addressing these non-school factors contributing to the achievement gap requires a community-wide effort, Barry said.
Too much pressure is being put on the schools to solve this problem, he said.
The report recommends targeting support at low-income families with children under three years of age through local community programs.
Currently, Greenwich Hospitals Parents Exchange and Newborn Mothers Group and Family Centers Nurturing Families Network provide parenting classes and groups. The Child Guidance Centers Child First and Family Centers Minding the Baby both send experts such as registered nurses, social workers or child psychologists into the home to help families deal with their childs physical and behavioral needs.
The Greenwich United Way is launching a fundraising effort to pay for new programs designed to help low-income children, such as a home-visitation program for at-risk families run by Family Centers called Parents as Teachers, and a new, structured after-school program with tutoring and wrap-around services for 22 high-risk families piloted by Family Centers, the Greenwich YMCA and the Heidenreich Foundation.
What were proposing is focusing our efforts on the zero-to-three age group so when those children enter preschool, they are better prepared, said Barry. Without that preparation, they are behind and they never catch up.
Preschool
The report also recommends expanding access to preschool, where cognitive and social development is cultivated. Some 81 percent of Greenwich children go to prekindergarten, according to the Department of Human Services, and about 20 percent attend pre-K at the public schools.
Barry and others from the task force said Greenwich and the state should work to implement free, universal pre-kindergarten. New York City has universal pre-K for all four-year-olds and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in April the city would expand that offer to three-year-olds within four years.
Vermont, Florida, West Virginia and Oklahoma offer universal prekindergarten and have the capacity to enroll nearly all children, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research. Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, New York and Wisconsin have policies calling for universal prekindergarten, but fall short in allowing all children to be served statewide.
As for what the public schools can do, the report suggested focusing more Greenwich Public School resources on preschoolers and kindergarteners, strengthening the schools social and emotional learning efforts by partnering with local mental health agencies and creating closer collaborations between schools and after-school programs.
Former interim Superintendent of Schools Sal Corda was interviewed by the task force for his input on the achievement gap, as well as Board of Education member Debbie Appelbaum, Selectman Drew Marzullo, Town Administrator Ben Branyan and representatives of many other Greenwich agencies.
They play vital roles in different segments in trying to move the needle on the achievement gap, said Winston Robinson, chairman of the Achievement Gap Task Force.
The school district already tries to close the achievement gap by inviting low-income children to its preschool program for a nominal fee. It has smaller class sizes in kindergarten and first grade at Hamilton Avenue School, one of the districts four schools receiving federal Title I funding, because of its high percentages of low-income children.
Greenwich Public Schools officials declined to comment for this article.
Economics
According to the Department of Human Services, helping each child reach his or her academic potential is not only a matter of compassion, it makes economic sense. Education is key to reducing the number of residents who will become dependent on local, state and federal entitlement programs later in life, the report states.
Theres a number of these younger people who are identified in this (low-income) population who without the right help and guidance are future customers of the Department (of Human Services), said Alan Gunzburg, who served on the Achievement Gap Task Force. So its incumbent on not only the department, but the town of Greenwich we know poverty is generational so we have to find a way.
The likelihood of gaining more resources to fund initiatives mentioned in the report might be low while the state faces a $5 billion deficit and worries about municipal and education aid are running high, but Barry said he hopes the report can guide Greenwich decision-makers to position existing funds well and motivate private organizations to continue or increase their support.
It would be challenging for my department to be requesting additional funding under the present economic environment, but we certainly will be supporting these programs, he said. What we are hoping is in some ways that this is a catalyst to just take a look at this a little differently ... if we are going to have an impact on peoples lives, trying to help them become more self-sufficient economically, the key is education.
emunson@greenwichtime.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
Winter is coming for the North.
Last year, three states in the NortheastConnecticut, New Jersey, and New Yorklanded in the top five places people were moving out of fastest, according to 2017 data from United Van Lines. (The other two states on the list were Illinois and Kansas). And data from Pew Charitable Trusts found that while people are all about moving to the South (their population grew by nearly 1.4 million people from 2014 to 2015) and the West (866,000 more people), the population growth in the Northeast is sluggish.
The Northeastern exodus is particularly acute in many big cities like New York City. Since 2010, more than 1 million people have moved from the New York areawhich includes parts of Connecticut, New Jersey, and Long Islandto other parts of the country.
So why are so many northerners packing their bags?
Reason No. 1: The insanely high cost
Data released on Wednesday by personal finance site GoBankingRates.com reveals that the No. 1 financial fear of people who live in the Northeast is that they will have to live in debt forever; the Northeast is the only region of the country that ranked this as No. 1. (The other regions put retirement as their No. 1.)
And no wonder theyre worried. The cost of living across the region is among the highest in the nation, and three of the five most expensive states or districts in the country (New York, Washington D.C., Massachusetts) are in the area. (The other two states are Hawaii and California.) Having to spend so much just to get by can make getting out of debt seem much harder. And housing costs and taxes in many of these states are also sky high.
Reason No. 2: The horrendous weather
We told you winter was coming to the Northand its so bad that many people are leaving the Northeast in search of better weather. Indeed, the largest migration between states is from New York to Florida, according to data from the Census Bureau. And simple looks at recent winters in the Northeast explains why. For example, in 2015, Boston had its snowiest winter on record, and New York City had one of its snowiest blizzards on record in 2016.
Just ask Karen Lanovi, a lifelong New Yorker who says she left for better weather, moving to central Florida 12 years ago. It has proven a great decision for my husband, myself and our three children. We for the most part, have a better life, she says. The same reasons drove tech entrepreneur Jaimyn Chang out of the Northeast to Austin; he says he was sick of the ridiculous snowy winters and bone-chilling temperatures and the constant seemingly endless gray overcast days.
Reason No. 3: The jobs
Many companies are setting up shop in warm and less expensive places, which means that people pondering getting out of the Northeast can now find work. Texas, for example, has seen massive job growth since the recessionand some of these jobs are in fields you wouldnt normally think of as being in Texas. For example, tech: Google, Apple, Dropbox and Oracle all recently built or expanded offices in Austin, along with many others.
This story originally appeared on Moneyish.com.
The post 3 Reasons So Many Americans Are Getting the Hell Out of the Northeast appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
Russia on Friday promised a "tough response" to a U.S. order to shut the Russian Consulate in San Francisco and offices in Washington and New York, the latest round in a diplomatic tit-for-tat.
The U.S. issued its order Thursday and gave Russia 48 hours to comply, intensifying tensions between the two countries.
President Donald Trump's administration described its action as retaliation for the Kremlin's "unwarranted and detrimental" demand earlier this month that the U.S. cut its diplomatic staff in Russia.
"The United States is prepared to take further action as necessary and as warranted," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. Still, she said that Washington hoped both countries could now move toward "improved relations" and "increased cooperation."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that Moscow will reply with firmness, but still must decide on the precise response.
"We will have a tough response to the things that come totally out of the blue to hurt us and are driven solely by the desire to spoil our relations with the United States," he said in a televised meeting with students at Russia's top diplomacy school.
American officials argued that Russia should refrain from retaliation, noting that Moscow's ordering of U.S. diplomatic cuts was premised on bringing the two countries' diplomatic presences into "parity."
"The United States hopes that, having moved toward the Russian Federation's desire for parity, we can avoid further retaliatory actions by both sides," Nauert said.
Both countries now maintain three consulates on each other's territory and ostensibly similar numbers of diplomats. Exact numbers are difficult to independently verify.
Lavrov on Friday also defended Trump, saying that the new package of sanctions against Russia that Congress adopted last month not only hits Russia but also is designed to "tie Trump's hands, not let him use his constitutional powers to the full to make foreign policy."
Several hours after the U.S. announcement, new Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov arrived in Washington to start his new posting.
At the airport, Antonov cited a maxim of former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin as he urged caution and professionalism.
"We don't need hysterical impulses," Russian news agencies quoted Antonov as saying.
The closures on both U.S. coasts marked perhaps the most drastic diplomatic measure by the United States against Russia since 1986, near the end of the Cold War, when the nuclear-armed powers expelled dozens of each other's diplomats.
And it comes amid some of the broadest strains in their relationship ever since. The two countries have clashed over the wars in Ukraine and Syria, but most significantly over American allegations that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election to boost Trump's chances of victory. Investigations continue into whether Trump's campaign colluded with Moscow.
By Saturday, the Russians must close their consulate in San Francisco and an official residence there. Though Russia can keep its New York consulate and Washington embassy, trade missions housed in satellite offices in both of those cities must shut down, a senior Trump administration official said. The official briefed reporters on a conference call on condition of anonymity.
Outside the consulate building high atop a hill overlooking the San Francisco Bay, there were no visible signs of an exodus Thursday. Consular officials walked in and out of the stately building, and Russian citizens who had scheduled appointments said they were able to pick up or renew their passports.
American counterintelligence officials have long kept a watchful eye on Russia's outpost in San Francisco, concerned that people posted to the consulate as diplomats were engaged in espionage. The U.S. late last year kicked out several Russians posted there, calling it a response to election interference.
The U.S. isn't expelling any Russian officials this time. Those who work at the shuttered offices can be reassigned elsewhere in the United States, the senior official said.
One of the buildings is believed to be leased, but Russia will maintain ownership over the others, said the official, adding that Moscow can determine if it wants to sell them or otherwise dispose of the properties.
The forced closures are the latest in an intensifying exchange of diplomatic broadsides.
In December, President Barack Obama kicked out dozens of Russian officials, closed Russian recreational compounds in New York and Maryland, and imposed sanctions on Russian people and businesses. Russian President Vladimir Putin withheld from retaliating. The next month, Trump took office after campaigning on promises to improve U.S.-Russia ties.
But earlier this month, Trump begrudgingly signed into law stepped-up sanctions on Russia that Congress pushed to prevent him from easing up on Moscow.
The Kremlin retaliated by telling the U.S. to cut embassy and consulate staff down to 455 personnel, from a level hundreds higher.
Russia said 755 personnel in all would have to go to reach the new limit. The U.S. never confirmed how many diplomatic staff it had in the country at the time. As of Thursday, the U.S. has complied with the order to reduce staff to 455, officials said.
The reductions are having consequences for Russia. The U.S. last month temporarily suspended non-immigrant visa processing for Russians seeking to visit the United States and resumed it on Friday at a "much-reduced rate." The U.S. will process visas only at the embassy in Moscow, meaning Russians can no longer apply at U.S. consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.
Even before the cuts at the U.S. mission were announced, typical waiting time for visa applicants in Russia to be interviewed was longer than a month.
Nadezhda Sianule was going to go to her daughter's wedding in the United States in mid-September and got an appointment in July to be interviewed on Thursday. Now these plans are in disarray.
"I came yesterday and they said that I'm not on the list, they said that the old lists have been canceled," she said outside the U.S. Embassy Friday morning where she went to make inquiries.
Despite the exchange of penalties, there have been narrow signs of U.S.-Russian cooperation that have transcended the worsening ties. In July, Trump and Putin signed off on a deal with Jordan for a cease-fire in southwest Syria. The U.S. says the truce has largely held.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend this month's United Nations General Assembly in New York, Russian news wire quoted his spokesman as saying on Saturday.
U.S. President Donald Trump, a frequent critic of the United Nations, will seek to gather global support for reforming the world body when he hosts an event at U.N. headquarters in New York on Sept. 18, a day before he formally addresses the 193-member organization.
It was not immediately clear if Putin had planned to attend the event initially.
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Published on 2017/09/01 | Source
While I don't know much about "The End of April" other than it was at the 21st Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival and that its a horror thriller, what I do know is that the promo material up until now has painted a dark, terse, picture of the 120 minutes of screentime. With Park Ji-soo, Jang So-yeon, and Lee Bit-na in the cast, a bit of anticipation builds within me even if I'm a little chicken when it comes to horror and thrillers. And this is most certainly a film that fits into those molds with strange neighbors, murders, and an old apartment sketched out in the premise. Luckily for my poor heart, these character posters aren't too creepy.
-Yours, Lisa, a managing editor who might need some moral support to watch this film
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"The End of April" (2016)
Directed by Kim Kwang-bok
With Park Ji-soo, Lee Bit-na, Jang So-yeon, Hong Wan-pyo, Lee Hyeok-I,...
Synopsis
Hyeon-jin, a test taker, moves into an old apartment. There are strange sounds from next door where a strange boy named Hyeong-goo lives. One day, Hyeong-goo and his mother are cruelly murdered.
Festival
21st Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival - upcoming Korean Fantastic: Features
Release date in Korea : 2017/09/14
Published on 2017/09/02 | Source
/Newsis
Children show their new textbooks as they return to school after the summer vacation at a school in Daegu on Friday.
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A 50-something in Changwon in southeastern Korea is the country's biggest landlord with a whopping 700 properties in their portfolio.
Minjoo Party lawmaker Choi In-ho obtained home ownership records from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Wednesday which show that there are 182,204 people registered as private rental business owners, and they own 644,036 homes between them. That boils down to 3.5 homes per person.
Rental businesses are required to register their properties, and the government offers some tax discounts to those who do, because many tend not to.
Douglas Purcell punched himself in the face, the court heard
A suspected thief told a garda who charged him, "I will follow you home, find your wife and kids and shoot them dead", a court was told.
Douglas Purcell (34) made the reply when he was charged with 19 counts of stealing power tools, and proceeded to repeatedly "assault himself" by punching himself in the face, gardai said.
He was refused bail and the case against him was adjourned at Dublin District Court.
Mr Purcell, a father-of-three of Belcamp Lane, Dublin 17, is charged with 19 counts of stealing tools from the same van in one incident at Turret Road, Palmerstown, on August 20.
The prosecuting garda told Judge Brian O'Shea that, when he was charged, the accused replied: "I will follow you home, find your wife and kids and shoot them dead. I will get you, you oul b*****d. You are dead, you oul c**t."
Lie
Joe Coonan, defending, said Mr Purcell was insisting this was a lie and he never said it.
He asked why the garda had charged him with so many separate offences arising from one alleged theft. The garda said each charge related to a separate tool.
There was no valuation yet but gardai expected it to be "fairly significant".
Mr Coonan said Mr Purcell would allege he was physically assaulted by gardai.
"He repeatedly tried to assault himself by punching himself in the face, and banged his head off the cell walls," the garda said.
The court heard the defendant was alleged to have stolen the construction equipment from a van after forcing open the rear door.
Mr Coonan said Mr Purcell was willing to abide by bail conditions and had 1,000 that could be lodged. The accused's partner said Mr Purcell could live with her at an address at Springdale Road, Raheny.
Judge O'Shea refused bail.
A co-accused was granted bail under strict conditions and his case was adjourned.
A man struggling with an alcohol problem was arrested after gardai found him trying to direct traffic in the middle of a city centre junction.
Dean Naughton (27) also hurled abuse at members of Dublin Fire Brigade as they dealt with another incident.
Judge Grainne O'Neill jailed him for four months.
Naughton, of Montpelier Park, Dublin 7, pleaded guilty to threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour.
Dublin District Court heard the first incident happened at Dame Street on August 1.
Gardai on patrol saw the defendant standing in the middle of the junction attempting to direct and stop traffic.
When the officers approached him, he ran into the path of oncoming traffic and down Temple Lane South, where he became violent and abusive to gardai.
The court heard the other incident happened at Bachelor's Walk on April 29 this year.
Aggressive
Fire brigade staff were dealing with a separate incident when the accused became aggressive toward them.
He shouted and swore at the fire brigade while he was being restrained.
Judge O'Neill asked if Naughton had impeded the fire brigade and a garda sergeant said it was "more a nuisance for them".
Naughton had been struggling with alcohol but had no drug addiction problems, his solicitor Michael Kelleher said.
Things had been "fraying at the edges" for Naughton and he was "doing nobody any favours at the time", Mr Kelleher added.
The accused had been "a nuisance, getting in the way of the gardai and various other services", he said.
The accused had already spent time in custody and had family support.
Judge O'Neill imposed two consecutive two-month sentences.
Grieving mum Margaret with treasured photos of her daughter Danielle and her two boys
A homeless young mum took her own life after the council offered her a home - only to then withdraw it and substitute another property, heartbroken relatives revealed yesterday.
Danielle Carroll (27) begged South Dublin County Council, telling them she feared she would end up dead, according to a family friend.
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Tragically, Danielle, mother of boys DJ (7) and Carter (20 months), was found dead in the room where she was staying in emergency accommodation on Wednesday.
Her mother Margaret told the Herald she despaired of finding a suitable home for herself and the children - then the council offered her a bungalow in Glenshane Lawns, Tallaght.
"It was a boarded-up house and Danielle knew the previous tenant in it had taken her own life in the house," she said.
"She was that desperate to have somewhere to live that she accepted it and was finally looking forward to moving in - only for her hopes to be dashed," Margaret said at her home in Tallaght.
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"She got a letter from the council on Wednesday the week before, to say they were withdrawing that offer and substituting it with a different place in the Meile An Ri estate, in Lucan, but when she saw it she was horrified," her best friend Linda Woods added.
"The back door was burned, where someone had set fire to it, and there had been people sleeping rough in it.
"She also said there was a lot of anti-social behaviour and she didn't want to bring the boys up there.
"She thought she would be going backwards.
"She said the council told her if they did not accept it, she would lose her emergency accommodation.
"She pleaded with the council. She told them she'd end up dead, she told us too. She just couldn't take it."
A county council spokesman said it was asked by Danielle's family not to comment on the matter and wanted to respect that wish.
Ms Carroll's family told the Herald they are preparing for her funeral and how telling Danielle's oldest boy that his mother had gone to heaven was the hardest thing they had ever done.
"Danielle had been renting in Russell Square until just after last Christmas, when the owner sold the property," said Margaret. "She had been on the housing list with South Dublin County Council since she was pregnant with her son DJ.
"Then she was trying to find a place on the HAP scheme and got a room in the hotel in Leixlip, but she found it very difficult there because the room was small and she had no cooking or cleaning facilities and had to bring the baby here to wash him."
Staff at the hotel described Ms Carroll as a bubbly and friendly lady who was always with her children.
"She was a positive person and would always compliment the other mothers. She was a very kind and nice girl. May she rest in peace," said one worker.
Ms Carroll's friend Linda said she was always hopeful of eventually finding a place to live.
"She would say, 'All I want is a little house where my DJ and Carter can have their own beds', and she hoped that someday that would happen," said Linda.
"She was trying her best in the hotel room, but she had to drive from there every day back to Tallaght, where DJ is in school, and wash and feed Carter in her mother's house. It was very difficult," she added.
Anxiety
Margaret said Danielle became very down and was seeking help for her anxiety for a time.
"She felt it was a hopeless situation. She was struggling. She went off the rails with worry and she would say that nobody cared about her," said Margaret. "Danielle was paying off furniture and beds and things. Now we have had to tell the shop she's dead," she added.
Comforted by family and friends, next to a table and mantelpiece, Margaret drew solace from the photos of her youngest child and grandchildren.
"We had to tell DJ last night. How do you tell a seven-year-old boy he'll never see his mammy again?
"We're finding it hard enough to deal with and we are adults," she said.
"We told him she is in heaven and he just broke down crying.
"Danielle lived for her children. She adored them.
"I'll miss her not coming through the door. Instead of coming here with her boys she's going into a hole in the ground." she said through tears.
Neighbours in Glenshane, where Danielle's family said she had been offered the house, said the property should be knocked down because of its past.
"Two previous tenants took their own lives in it, and then yesterday we heard that the person who had been offered it had taken their life too. It's too tragic," said one man.
Danielle's family said whatever agencies are tasked with dealing with homelessness need to be aware that it is people, not numbers, they are dealing with.
Funeral
"There are others out there like Danielle," said Danielle's brother John.
"They are not statistics. They are people with feelings, people with young families."
Her funeral will take place on Monday after 11am Mass in The Church Of The Incarnation, Fettercairn.
People who wish to talk about their problems can contact The Samaritans on 116 123.
Pope Francis said he feels free despite Vatican cage
Pope Francis has said that when he was younger he had weekly sessions with a psychoanalyst to "clarify some things".
It was not specified what the future pontiff wanted to explore with the professional - who was female and Jewish.
The revelation came in a dozen conversations the Pope had with French sociologist Dominique Wolton, writing a soon-to-be-published book.
An Italian newspaper, quoting from some of the conversations, said Francis went to the analyst's home. The Pope was quoted as saying: "One day, when she was about to die, she called me. Not to receive the sacraments, since she was Jewish, but for a spiritual dialogue.
"She was a good person. For six months she helped me a lot."
Francis was then a Jesuit official in his native Argentina, which was ruled by a military dictatorship.
In the conversations with the author, Pope Francis speaks highly of the positive influence women have had on his life.
"Those whom I have known helped me a lot when I needed to consult with them," he said.
The Pope (80) also speaks of his state of mind now.
Rigid
What bothers him, he added, are people with "rigid" viewpoints. He singled out "rigid priests, who are afraid to communicate".
"It's a form of fundamentalism. Whenever I run into a rigid person, especially if young, I tell myself that he's sick," he said.
However, Francis adds that, "in reality, they are persons looking for security."
In past remarks, the Pope has indicated he struggled with how to use authority in his first roles of leadership as a Jesuit.
The Catholic Church used to project a sense of mistrust regarding psychoanalysis.
However, this mistrust now seems diminished.
Updated Vatican guidelines for use on seminaries in training future priests describe psychologists as valuable in assessing the psychological health of candidates.
Breaches of fire safety standards have been found at three Dublin primary schools, as well as schools in Greystones and Mullingar.
All five were built in 2008 under a rapid-building programme.
The Department of Education, under Minister Richard Bruton, is now doing fire safety audits at a further 25 schools built in the past two decades.
Replaced
The fire safety audits, commissioned by the department, found breaches at Powerstown Educate Together National School in Dublin, as well as Belmayne Educate Together National School and St Francis of Assisi National School, both in Belmayne, Dublin.
The building in Powerstown has since been replaced with a new permanent building.
The two schools in Belmayne were temporary buildings and are due to be replaced.
The other two primary schools are in permanent buildings at Gaelscoil Na gCloch Liath , in Greystones, Co Wicklow, and Mullingar Educate Together National School.
"It is important to note - this is not a finding that the buildings are dangerous, it is a finding that the buildings do not comply with the detailed requirements of the fire safety certificates," a department statement said last night.
"The findings of these reports indicated issues of insufficient compliance with some requirements of the fire safety certificates in relation to fire retardation in those buildings.
"The reports found that while the designs which underpinned the fire safety certificates required that the buildings would provide 60 minutes of retardation to facilitate evacuation, the actual quality of construction indicated a level of retardation less than this."
The schools continue to be occupied as works are undertaken to ensure they comply with fire safety standards.
Breaches
The safety work is due to be completed at the two Belmayne schools by September 17.
The school in Mullingar will be completed in six weeks' time. The safety work in the Greystones school will be completed by the end of next month.
Breaches of safety standards included missing smoke seals, gaps around fire doors, and the need to keep escape routes clear of combustible materials.
The safety audits were carried out last year, after concerns were voiced by staff and boards of management.
Hungary's prime minister is asking the European Union to pay for half of the cost of anti-migrant fences it built on its southern borders, some 440 million euros ($523 million).
In a letter dated Thursday to EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the fences erected in 2015 protect not just Hungary "but entire Europe against the flood of illegal migrants."
Anthony Luckwill, now known as Colin Gregory, has set up home in Scotland after his history caught up with him in Ireland
A notorious paedophile, who claims he was hounded out of Ireland, has started a new life in Scotland.
Anthony Luckwill received widespread coverage here after being released from a jail term imposed for sexually assaulting young boys after he posed as a TV casting agent.
The predatory paedophile, previously branded "a grave risk to society" by an Irish judge, has a long history of convictions across the UK and Ireland.
Luckwill (44) has moved into a new home in Fife and a 10-year order aimed at protecting the public from him will expire on September 14.
Angry
It is open to Police Scotland to apply for a new order to be put in place. Luckwill was forced to leave Ireland after he was assaulted by an angry group of locals in Dublin and his home was torched.
However, Luckwill - who now prefers to be known as Colin Gregory - was arrested soon after he arrived in Scotland for breaching the terms of his Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO). The 10-year order was imposed in Wales in 2007.
Luckwill managed to avoid the restrictions of the order here, where it did not apply.
He claimed he thought the SOPO did not apply in Scotland and was found in possession of banned devices, including a laptop. He first appeared from custody at Dunfermline Sheriff Court in June.
On that occasion, defence solicitor Elaine Buist said: "He left Ireland because he had some very disturbing press coverage. On May 23, he arrived at Stranraer, spoke to police, said he had a pre-booked hotel in Inverkeithing."
When police went to the hotel, they found the devices and they were taken from him. "What's he doing here?" asked Sheriff James Williamson.
"Well, he's not being in Ireland," replied Ms Buist.
Bail was granted despite being opposed by the state. The court was told Luckwill planned to buy a property in west Fife.
When Luckwill returned to Dunfermline Sheriff Court, he admitted breaching the terms of the SOPO imposed at Mold Crown Court, Wales, by having ownership and possession of a laptop computer, two cameras and a mobile phone at an Inverkeithing hotel on June 4.
"When he spoke to police after arriving in Scotland, it appeared his history had caught up with him in Ireland," said depute fiscal Dev Kapadia. "He said he'd been assaulted and his previous accommodation had been set on fire. He said he was fearful for his safety."
Mr Kapadia said that with the existing order ending soon, police could apply to a sheriff to have a new one put in place.
Heatedly
When Mr Kapadia said the crown was moving for forfeiture of the devices, Luckwill became agitated in the dock and spoke heatedly to his solicitor.
"He's not happy at the notion of the equipment being seized," Ms Buist told the court.
Sheriff Alison McKay deferred sentence until October 23 to await the outcome of any new SOPO application from the police. Consideration of the forfeiture motion has also been continued to that date.
Luckwill, originally from Dublin, has numerous convictions for child-related sex offences in Ireland, Wales and the Channel Islands.
In 2012, he was jailed for five months after arriving in Guernsey and trying to lure a 14-year-old boy to his hotel room.
In June 2013, he was jailed for four-and-a-half years in Ireland for sexually assaulting two boys who thought they were going to TV auditions.
Foreigners who were barred from entering the U.S. during President Donald Trump's first attempt to ban travel from seven Muslim-majority nations will get government help reapplying for visas under a lawsuit settlement reached Thursday.
Civil rights lawyers and the Trump administration announced the deal in during a conference call in federal court in Brooklyn, one scene of the legal battle over the treatment of hundreds of travelers who were detained at U.S. airports over a chaotic weekend last January.
Under the terms of the settlement, the government agreed to notify anyone overseas who was banned that they can reapply for visas with the help of a Department of Justice liaison for a three-month period. In return, the plaintiffs said they would drop all their claims.
"We are pleased with the settlement and that this chapter in the fight is done," said American Civil Liberties Union Attorney Lee Gerlent.
Gerlent said it's unclear how many people will benefit from the settlement because the government has refused to disclose the total. There was no immediate comment from Justice Department officials.
SERVICES
BIBLE WAY CHURCH: Bristol, Tenn., 823 Williams St. Sept. 3, 10 a.m.: Homecoming services, gospel singing featuring Faithful 2, everyone welcome, 423-391-7381 or 713-498-1191.
LIGHTHOUSE OF PRAYER CHRISTIAN CHURCH: Bluff City, Tenn., 2401 Hickory Tree Rd. Sept. 3, 11 a.m.: Homecoming service, guest speaker Ben Repass, Elder from Meadowview, Va., dinner to follow, everyone welcome, 423-391-7403.
MARTHENA CHAPEL: Bristol, Tenn. 9th and Glenn St. Sept. 10, 11 a.m.: Homecoming services, speaker Pastor Bud Branscomb, lunch served following service; singing begins 1:30 p.m., everyone welcome.
MARION CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE: Marion, Va., 229 W. Coyner Ave. Sept. 17, 11 a.m.: Annual Homecoming, guest speaker, special music, lunch served following service, everyone welcome.
REVIVALS
LIGHTHOUSE BIBLE CHURCH: Blountville, Tenn., 371 Pleasant Hill Rd. Sept. 4-8, 7 p.m. nightly: Fall Revival, guest speaker Evangelist Bob McCurry, Evangelist Pat Hammons, special singing nightly, everyone welcome, 423-963-0240.
MARION CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE: Marion, Va., 229 W. Coyner Ave. Sept. 17, 6 p.m. and Sept. 18-20 7 p.m. nightly: Revival, guest speaker Evangelist Rev. George Holley from Ohio, special siging nightly, everyone welcome.
SINGINGS
NORTH STAR BAPTIST CHURCH: Bristol, Va., 2455 King Mill Pike. Sept. 10, 10:30 a.m.: Gospel singing featuring Romanian Orphan Choir, everyone welcome, 276-466-1825.
ROSEDALE BAPTIST CHURCH: Rosedale, Va., 325 Oakvale Ave. Sept. 22, 7 p.m.: Gospel singing featuring Gold City, everyone welcome, 276-880-1500.
SHILOH FREEWILL BAPTIST CHURCH: Bristol, Va., 21503 Benhams Rd. Sept. 24, 6 p.m.: Gospel Music Arts 10th annual celebration, featuring artists Holston River Boys, Bro. Bob Smallwood & Laurie, New Harvest Brothers, hosted by Diane & Mildred, free admission, everyone welcome.
COMMUNITY
RICHLANDS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: Richlands, Va., 1301 2nd St. parking lot. Sept. 9, 8 p.m.: Movie night featuring Babe, outdoors games prior to movie, snacks popcorn, ice cream, candies, bonfire smores, everyone welcome, 276-964-9465.
FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: Richlands, Va., 402 Suffolk Avenue. Sept. 10, 12:30 p.m. after morning worship: Block Party picnic style lunch, inflatable houses, snow cones, special appreciation for first responders and veterans, everyone welcome, 276-964-4311.
APOSTOLICS OF ABINGDON: Abingdon, Va., 15540 Lee Highway. Sept. 17, 2 p.m.: Friends and Family Day, guest speaker Rev. Rodney Betts of Durham, North Carolina, everyone welcome, 276-821-8342.
FIRST CHURCH OF GOD: Bristol, Tenn. 301 Georgia Avenue, corner Georgia Avenue & East State Street. Sept.16, 4:30-7 p.m.: State Street Fish Fry, fish, coleslaw, hushpuppies, fries, soup beans, drink, plus homemade desserts, dine with us so we can feed others. Cost $10 full fish dinner, $8 small fish dinner, rain or shine, 423-956-2720.
FIRST BROAD STREET UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: Kingsport, Tenn., 101 East Church Circle. To volunteer two hours any day Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Marlene Hudson, 423-817-8332. To help with food: Bob Smith, 423-246-3966. Clothing and other donations can be brought to Single Vision or taken to Shades of Grace.
FAIRVIEW UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: Jonesborough, Tenn., 878 Highway 81 North. Third Saturday each month, 7-10 a.m.: Country breakfast, bacon, fresh ground sausage, eggs, pancakes, gravy, biscuits and more. Donations welcome, located 5 miles from downtown Jonesborough going toward Fall Branch.
SHAKESVILLE CHURCH OF CHRIST: Bristol, Va., 262 Kingmill Pike: Connecting People with God, volunteers are needed to donate 2 hours a week, donate plastic grocery bags.
ST. THOMAS CHURCH: Abingdon, Va., 124 E. Main Street. Second Wednesday of each month, 6:45 p.m.: Taize service, everyone welcome, 276-628-3606.
YARD SALE
PENTECOSTAL CHURCH: Abingdon, Va., 17535 Jeb Stuart Highway off Exit 19 toward Damascus: Yard Sale, second Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Name brand childrens and maternity clothes, plus tons of good quality baby equipment. Proceeds benefit the Mayan malnourished children of Guatemala, and children in our orphanage and those in our orphans at home program. www.safehomesforchildren.org.
HOW TO SUBMIT
News and calendar items for the Religion section should be emailed only to features@bristolnews.com with Religion Calendar in the subject line or sent by mail to Religion Editor, Bristol Herald Courier, and P.O. Box 606, Bristol, VA 24203. Mailed items must be typewritten. Deadline is noon Monday. Please include the complete address of event location, name and telephone number of a contact person. If you have questions, contact Dorothy Hurt at 276-645-2556 or email dhurt@bristolnews.com. The service is free.
BRISTOL, Va. 85-year-old Novella Thompson was supposed to get her hair done Thursday morning at a salon not far from her home near Old Airport Road.
She never showed up.
By midday, concerned family contacted the Bristol Virginia Police Department, which instructed officers to be on the lookout.
Hours ticked by and still nothing. On Thursday evening, police ramped up the search, according to Capt. Maynard Ratcliff. Detectives with the department got involved. So did the Virginia State Police.
Detectives contacted Thompsons cell phone provider to get her last known location. That led them to a stretch of Benhams Road in Washington County, an area with a lot of small, windy, private roads with weak cell phone reception.
The Washington County Sheriffs Office joined the search, and officers combed the area in vehicles and on foot.
Still, Thompson remained missing. VSP used its helicopter to search the area and officers continued to search throughout the night.
On Friday morning, as the U.S. Marshals Service got involved, and the VSP helicopter took to the skies again, a relative of Thompson told police about some family-owned land near Mendota, Virginia, that she may have tried to visit. That tip led police to shift their search area closer to Mendota.
In the meantime, about 11 a.m., a driver spotted an overturned car in a creek on Lone Star Road in the northern part of the county. Thompson was inside the flipped vehicle, injured, but alive.
I cant imagine what it must have been like for her to be there and upside down in that car all night long, Ratcliff said.
He did not know Friday afternoon how long Thompson had been in the wrecked vehicle.
Any time at all would be terrible, he said.
Before Thompson was found, the community at her church, Fellowship Chapel, was organizing a prayer service.
Steve Buchanan, pastor of administration at the church, said the people there wanted to support Thompsons family by lifting them up and praying for God to give them some peace.
Ten minutes before the service was meant to start, the parishioners got word: she had been found alive.
Instead of a prayer service, it was a praise service, Buchanan said.
He said he heard from Thompsons family later Friday that she potentially had a broken arm.
Other than that, Buchanan said, the family reported that she was awake, alert and talking up a storm.
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE -- An unidentified man was shot around 3 p.m. in the parking lot of Walmart off the Volunteer Parkway in Bristol, Tennessee, the city's Police Department said in a news release.
When police arrived, they found the man lying on the ground next to a vehicle with a gunshot wound, the release states.
Police are asking that anyone with information contact them at 423-989-5600.
Stay with the Herald Courier for this developing story.
..................................................................................................
BRISTOL, Tenn. - There was a shooting this afternoon at the Walmart off Volunteer Parkway in Bristol, Tennessee, Sullivan County District Attorney General Barry Staubus confirmed.
No details about what happened have been released by police.
A section of the parking lot in front of the building has been roped off with yellow crime scene tape and a number of police officers and detectives are on the scene. Staubus arrived about 10 minutes ago.
Police appear to be hovering around a gray car that appears to have a bullet hope in the windshield.
Also at the scene are Bristol Fire and Rescue and the city's Fire Department.
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Stop in the name of money and we can say that with unpleasant certainty.
There seems to be a serious conflict of beneficiaries in the Trump administrations messages to boost the coal industry.
On Aug. 21, the U.S. Department of the Interior abruptly halted an in-progress study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, that would have examined the health risks of living in the vicinity of surface coal mines, including in Virginia and Tennessee. Federal budget cuts to the Department have necessitated an agency-wide review of all grants exceeding $100,000 a year after it pledged $1 million for the research.
If there is real dedication to bringing ex-coal miners back to work, having research further demonstrating what limited evidence already suggests higher levels of cancer, birth defects and shorter life spans, to name a few would impede that. It might even tighten those regulations that the administration maintains led to the industrys downturn.
On the one hand, those in favor of the studys interruption could argue its needlessness does make it a waste of taxpayer money, as contended by the Trump administration in its letter ordering the halt.
If we give the postponement the benefit of the doubt that this isnt an attempt to prevent jeopardizing an agenda the Interior Department does need careful reconsideration of its allocated funding, now confronted with a nearly $1.6 billion cut for the 2018 fiscal year. Moreover, some wonder if variables unaccounted in research thus far, like socioeconomic status, might induce more health complications than the air and water pollutants from mountaintop mining. If we further allow the body of research already completed to suffice, continuing with the National Academies study might be duplicating the effort.
If further research might produce unnecessary obstacles and be counterproductive, then, halting that would be reasonably justified.
On the contrary, we could categorize the Departments halt as an attempt to push away restrictions on the coal industry at any cost including the health and safety of miners and nearby residents.
Last August, the Department noted the need for further research to validate what had been found up to that point. Some, like the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, believed an interpreted bias in that research necessitated further studies to make a more valid claim on health risks. The study also might have helped dissolve questions over the influence of other variables. (Scientifically speaking, though, it wouldnt equate to a simple cause-and-effect relation; correlation doesnt equal causation, after all.)
Even if the administration can be applauded for its consistent stance on the coal issue, we have to question where the human element is here. Its difficult to discern the move as something other than an appeasement for coal industry execs when the study already halfway completed might have justified additional health regulations for miner and resident safety (read: more restrictions). Its a question of confidence and priorities: If the administration truly believes the study would not produce anything damaging to its agenda, why wouldnt they allow its completion to satisfy environmental groups and members of the scientific community and inform and possibly protect out-of-work coal miners and their families?
Consider the following statement from Virginia Coal and Energy Alliance President Harry Childress: We feel our health problems are the results of heredity and are our poor personal habits and choices, not the industry that has provided me and many others with jobs and health care. (If thats not suspiciously absolvent, we dont know what is.)
This surprising sentiment says a lot about the regard of coal miners health at the upper level in the industry, not even considering those living within close distance to those mines. If these are the people the administration is supporting, what does that say about how much the health quality of those close to coal mines matters?
Rachel Carson's expose shocked the world. And we're better for it
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Hero of Mollywood's first musical hit 'Thiramala' shares his Hollywood stint, directing Prem Nazir and more
Jokes erupted about Ayushmaan Khurrana when the official trailer of Shubh Mangal Savdhan (SMS) was released on August 1.
They revolved around the irony of an actor who played a sperm donor in Vicky Donor essaying a man with erectile dysfunction, in director RS Prasannas first Hindi film. Khurrana laughed along.
In SMS, Khurrana plays a man struggling to cope in a society where mardaangi is a touchstone and erectile dysfunction, a curse.
The film is a remake of Prasannas 2013 Tamil hit, Kalyana Samayal Saadham (KSS), and the SMS SMS has been credited with taking a humorous yet sensitive look at erectile dysfunction and performance anxiety.
Bahut ho gaya, (being) conservative, says Anand L Rai, producer of SMS. Its time we started communicating, within and outside our families.
Ratna Patha Shah in Lipstick Under My Burkha, which followed four womens quests for freedom in small-town India.
Hindi films over the past few years have not only become more explicitly expressive than before, whether about health, sexuality or even politics, they are also settings these tale in small towns or villages. Nil Battey Sannata, Anaarkali of Aarah, and Lipstick Under My Burkha are prime examples of big-screen successes that cut through the hypocrisy and faux romanticism of rural or small-town life to expose the raw underpinnings.
For SMS, I had only two guiding mantras. However bizarre the scene, if I dont believe that this can happen in real life, then I cant keep the scene. And Id imagine how my wife, father, or father-in-law would react in a certain situation, says Prasanna. Most slice of life films over the years have had a sense of plausibility. There should never be a scene that tries too hard.
Prasanna adds that he knew that if a conservative Tamil Nadu audience could accept KSS, anyone would.
You now have new kinds of family films that can also be enjoyed by todays generation. People today want cinema to respect them as much as they respect cinema, he says.
It took Rais team six months to change the setting from Chennai to a Delhi-Uttar Pradesh backdrop for SMS and come up with a new script that retained the essence of the original. He maintains that whether an original or an adaptation, theres a hunger among audiences to be treated to something different. Its this want, says the filmmaker, that more producers and directors are picking up on.
Ayushmann Khurrana plays a sperm donor in Vicky Donor, alongside Yami Gautam.
Down the line, youll see even more movies like this. As a producer, Im not bothered by the riskiness of a subject as much as I am about the intention behind making such films, says Rai.
In the age of social media, audiences also communicate more openly with filmmakers and actors about what theyd like to see. So what we call risky is actually teamwork between audiences and filmmakers to go for something new and challenging.
In an industry that has largely remained faithful to two or three story templates for decade after decade, its time for more such teamwork.
As SMS female lead Bhumi Pednekar puts it: Its high time we had more movies that ask questions or challenge prevailing beliefs. This is a generation that wants to leave theatres with a sense of change and no longer wants things to be brushed under the carpet.
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Mandira Bedi is on cloud 9, as she has bagged a role in Prabhas next film, Saaho. The actor will be seen in a negative role in the film that is expected to be a grand trilingual project, just like Baahubali, Prabhas last outing on the big screen.
Excited to be a part of the film, Mandira says, I have started shooting and weve already shot for a couple of days in Hyderabad. Next, well shoot in Mumbai and Abu Dhabi. Whats really interesting about this film is the way makers have done the casting lot of Hindi film actors along with many names from South Indian film industry. So, it will become truly an all-India kind of a film.
Though Mandira has not shot any scenes with Prabhas yet, she is quite looking forward to it. I havent met him yet, so probably for our next schedule in Abu Dhabi, there will be some overlap of scenes.
#Maketodaycount #mondaymotivation A post shared by Mandira Bedi (@mandirabedi) on Jul 30, 2017 at 11:16pm PDT
On how she finally bagged the role in Saaho, Mandira, who is also doing a Tamil film titled Adangathey, says, Its quite interesting. Both the director [of Adangathey and Saaho] follow me on Twitter and based on my pictures, they connected me with workout, fitness and thought of me for their respective films. [Also] they found my posts on Instagram very inspiring, hence I landed the role.
Mandira, who plays the role of a gangster in the film, shares that everything happened so fast that she didnt even get time to think and let the feeling sink in. I got a call from a casting director and literally three days later, I met the director and producer, they narrated subject to me and considering its such a huge project, I certainly wanted to be a part of it, she says.
How about some weighted sumo squats on a couple of benches!? Fun!! #mondaymotivation @kishordethe A post shared by Mandira Bedi (@mandirabedi) on Aug 28, 2017 at 12:11am PDT
Reportedly, Manidra will have quite a few action sequences in the film. Remaining tight-lipped on the subject, she says, Im yet to shoot the action scenes, but I do get to shoot my gun a fair amount, thats all I can say at this moment.
She adds its quite coincidental that in all four projects that shes currently a part of, her role is either related to a cop or a gangster. I dont think I can play anything in between, she laughs, adding, I play the role of a gangsters wife in a web series, a cops wife in Hindi film Vodka Diaries, a cop in Adangathey and a gangster in Saaho. So yeah, I have got all the roles covered.
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Vicky Kaushal feels his journey so far in Bollywood has been like a dream sequence -- yet he believes in living in the present instead of chalking out plans for the future. The actor says he is happy that big names like Meghna Gulzar and Rajkummar Hirani have offered him projects, and he hopes to make the most of them.
The actor, who forayed into Bollywood with the role of a simple character in a powerful film Masaan in 2015, says there is no doubt that Alia Bhatt-starrer Raazi and Hiranis yet untitled Sanjay Dutt biopic -- featuring Ranbir Kapoor -- will get him wide exposure.
If a film comes out of Dharma Productions or by Hirani, it will travel to different cities and villages. It will go across the country... So (films with Alia and Ranbir Kapoor) will get me better exposure, said Vicky.
The level of exposure of these kinds of films is very different. The nation also waits for films from these production houses.
Based on the book Calling Sehmat, Raazi is the story of a Kashmiri girl (essayed by Alia) who is married to a Pakistani army officer and is set during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Vicky will play the role of the army officer. It is produced by Dharma Productions and Junglee Pictures.
There is no information about what role Vicky will essay in the Sanjay Dutt biopic, which is produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. After accepting that films with popular stars and filmmakers get wider reach, Vicky -- who did small roles in films like Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana and Bombay Velvet before getting big ticket with Masaan -- asserts that it is not the criteria that he goes by while picking projects.
You always want to be part of good stories and work with good people. And then in this quest if you get good people like Raju sir and project by Dharma with a good storyline, you feel lucky that such big names are showing trust in your calibre and giving you a chance. We have to make the most of that opportunity and put in hard work, he added.
Vicky Kaushal also has films like Zubaan and Raman Raghav 2.0 in his filmography. I look at it (his journey) as a dream sequence of my life, he said, adding that he never thinks about the future. I concentrate on today and give my hundred percent to today. I live that day with full honesty. I dont want to live with the fear of what might happen in the future, and ruin my present.
For Vicky, son of action director Shyam Kaushal, it is important to learn with every film. It is important to enjoy the process of the film. The film has its own destiny. You can make a film and leave it to the audience, and they will decide if they like it or now, he added.
Western civilisations cradle, Athens, is over 6,000 years old! Home to more than half of Greeces eleven-million population, the citys friendly citizens wear the cloak of history lightly. Hotels are professionally run and the ancient sites that draw over 30 million tourists are constantly spruced up. And no, there are no refugees begging on the streets.
Story time
Evidence of human inhabitation on the Acropolis dates back to 5,000 BC. The then ruler, King Cecrops, named the city after himself, but the citizens wanted an immortal name. Two gods competed for the honour. Poseidon, the ocean god, struck the sacred rock and produced a spring of water, symbolising naval power. Athena, goddess of virtues like wisdom, war, and the arts, produced an olive tree out of the arid ground, signifying that citizens would always prosper and live in peace. This is how the city came to be called Athens.
Athens entered her golden age under General Pericles (495-429 BC). Great thinkers, writers, and artists flourished in the city. Herodotus, the father of history, lived in Athens, as did Socrates, father of philosophy, and Hippocrates, father of medicine. Plato founded his academy outside the walls of Athens in 385 BCE and, later, Aristotles Lyceum was founded in the city centre. Over the millennia, the city started to grow, spiralling downwards into the valleys and spreading as far as its present day port, Piraeus. In 1834, Athens became the capital of Greece. Today the greater urban complex of the Greek metropolis is called Attica.
The Greeks are the inventors of theatre. A priest called Thespis is believed to have been the first ever actor. Ergo, todays actors are called thespians.
The Acropolis (akro meaning high, and polis meaning city) is the name of the Sacred Hill on which several monuments were built at different periods of time: Propylaia, Parthenon, Erechtheion, and the Temple of Athena Nike. The grand design of ancient Greeks becomes clear as I step through the Beule Gate. First comes the Propylaia (built by Pericles in 437-432 BC), the ornate entrance of the temple complex. To the right is the wingless victory temple, built to commemorate the triumph of the Greeks over Persians who tried to invade. As we climb upwards to the left, we can see the almost intact monuments of Erechtheion (built 420 BC to signify Athens power and influence), and the Old Temple of Athena. Lo and behold! Straight ahead is the magnificent masterpiece known as the Parthenon, the central attraction built as homage to Athena, the supreme goddess.
The theater of Herodes Atticus is perched on the southwest slope of the Acropolis (Getty Images)
The Parthenon was built in 438-432 BC to replace an older temple to Athena, destroyed by the Persians. This rectangular structure encircled Athenas 12-metre high statue, made of wood and ivory. The statue was lost in the early Byzantine era (330BC-1453 AD), but the Parthenon survived. At various times it became a treasury, then a church, even a mosque. Today it is the most important surviving symbol of Classical Greece.
Observing its Doric architecture closely, the slight bulge of the columns gives the impression that they are bending under the weight of the roof. Dont be fooled. Its an optical illusion deliberately built to deceive.
Reluctant to leave the wondrous Parthenon complex even after three hours, we made our way downhill via the southern slope of the Acropolis. Halfway down stands another marvel: the most ancient theatre in the world the theatre of Dionysus. Here, famous ancient Greek poets like Aristophanes, Euripides and Sophocles oversaw premiere performances of their plays. Estimates are that the theatre had a capacity of 17,000!
The Greeks are the inventors of theatre as a literary form, and their drama masterpieces date back to the 6th century BC. A priest called Thespis is believed to have been the first ever actor to interact in dialogue with the chorus. Ergo, todays actors are called thespians.
The Acropolis Museum Caryatids has giant statues of priestesses that originally supported the roof in the Erechtheion (Vinod Advani)
If theres one museum you must visit, its the Acropolis Museum located at the base of the Acropolis Hill. Inside this striking glass post-modern building are priceless finds: structures and sculptures from the temple of Nike Athena and Erechtheion as well as works from the early Christian era are on exhibit. We gasped on seeing the Caryatids giant statues of priestesses that originally supported the roof in the Erechtheion. Five of the original six maidens are on display here, while the sixth is in the British Museum!
The Big Boot is a giant one, positioned in front of a shoe store in the Plaka neighbourhood (Vinod Advani)
Michelinic meals
One night, we decided to dine at the Radisson Blu hotels rooftop restaurant Stastra. Good decision. Succulent scallops on a bed of sushi rice with dill and rice chips. Tsalafouti salad of cheese, watermelon, strawberry tartare, cherry tomatoes and spearmint sorbet! Pita Apola pork belly, potato cream and yoghurt wasabi! Dessert looked like Gulab Jamuns made from rose essence-infused fried dough dumplings called Loukumades. Heaven!
Spend an evening at Port Piraeus to dine at any of the sea-front restaurants (Vinod Advani)
Another outstanding dinner was at the St. George hotel, situated on top of the Lycabettus hill with a commanding view of the Acropolis. A local brew, the agrou-rakhi cocktail, sparked off a degustation of fried octopus, fried calamari, saffron risotto with squid, shrimps and mussels in a symphony of flavours, followed by razor thin slivered salmon carpaccio. The dessert was a large and fluffy Mille-feuille with lime sorbet between the sheets. Finally, a coffee martini to toast the Greek Gods.
Greece is the country where symposiums originated, and the homeland of the Epikurean philosophers. Its 4,000-year-old gastronomic tradition is based on simple principles. Fresh ingredients. Herbs. Aromatic spices. And large measures of indigenous olive oil. We ate with the locals, knowing that one cant go wrong at any traditional Greek taverna. Our palates sang to the medley of mezedes: tzatzeki dip, garlic dip, fava bean dip, all on a mixed platter. Fried eggplants and zucchini. Big grilled peppers. Oregano and mint-intoxicated creamy yoghurts. Mint and rosemary-infused falling-off-the-bone slow cooked lamb. Feta cheese salads. And of course, there was always the glass of ouzo for that tangy tingle.
Tsalafouti salad of courgette, cucumber, radish, mint and cheese (Vinod Advani)
Last but not the least, Greeces fame as a seafood destination is not exaggerated. One long evening must be spent at Port Piraeus to dine at any of the hundreds of seafront restaurants. From very expensive fine dining to value for money cafes, gorge on grilled calamari, chopped fresh octopus, fried small fish (three inches) to very small fish (two inches) to very, very small fish (one inch), till you are as stuffed as their roasted aubergines.
Here be gods
Called the Neighbourhood of the Gods, Plaka occupies the area right below the Acropolis. It is Athens oldest and most picturesque area. On the north eastern slopes of the hill, neoclassical buildings flaunt their beauty, like colourful pebbles tossed from the palm of Goddess Athena. Juxtaposed are other homes built in the style of the Cyclades, mid-18th century. From the Byzantine times, there are churches, chapels, convents. We let our steps follow our eyes without a fixed plan, through the narrow, labyrinth-like streets. Sit down, drink something. Or wander some more?
Small framed paintings for sale on a street, at the bottom of the Parthenon complex (Vinod Advani)
All roads lead to Syntagma Square, boasting the citys most beautiful neoclassical architecture the Grand Bretagne hotel and the Monument to the Unknown Soldier. Dominating the square is the Greek Parliament, where every day, the Presidential Guard charge around with locomotive breaths. At 11am on weekends, it all turns into a spectacular display with an army band and 120 Evzones (military soldiers dressed in 19th century traditional costumes) marching up and down to martial music. Impressive. Kudos!
The Brunch insiders view For good food and warm service, the Telis restaurant occupies the top spot. (Source: Lonely Planet) For enjoying nightlife, head to Gazi, which has a lot of chic bars. (Source: CondeNast Traveller) Hotel Metropolis, located in the historical Plaka neighbourhood, is rated as the best by travellers. (Source: TripAdvisor)
Its all Greek to us
Greek origin words are part of everyday parlance. Anthrop (humankind) to anthropology. Andr (man) to android. Micro (small) to microscopic. Mega (large) to megalomania. Mania (madness) to mania . The idea and the word democracy also originated in the Greek ethic. Without democracy, Trump and Brexit would never have happened. Isnt that an original thought? Eureka!
A renowned travel, wine and food writer by passion, Vinod Advani is also the Trade Ambassador for South Australia
From HT Brunch, September 3, 2017
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Japanese carmaker Honda reached a $605 million settlement in a lawsuit over defective airbags in millions of cars on American roads, the legal team for the victims said Friday.
Honda joins Nissan, Toyota, BMW, Mazda and Subaru in agreeing a deal to settle a lawsuit, replace the defective airbags from now-bankrupt Takata, and to compensate car owners.
The latest agreement was filed in the US District Court in Miami.
Peter Prieto, one of the lawyers leading the team going after Takata, said the deal, which still has to be approved by the court, will improve driver safety by accelerating the removal of defective airbags from our roads.
It also will provide compensation to owners of up to $500 plus expenses, including rental cars while their vehicles are repaired.
We will continue prosecuting our claims against Ford and other automobile manufacturers to ensure that our clients receive the relief they deserve, Prieto said in a statement.
Multiple Honda models are affected by the case, including Civic, Accord and CR-V, dating back to 2001.
The airbag defect has been linked to 16 deaths and scores of injuries worldwide, as the safety devices can inflate with excessive force, sending shrapnel from the inflator canister hurtling toward drivers and passengers.
The issue led to the biggest car recall in history of about 100 million vehicles worldwide.
Takata in February pleaded guilty to fraud for hiding the defect, and paid a $1 billion fine.
The company filed for bankruptcy in June.
Indias second largest IT services firm Infosys said on Friday that incumbent non-executive and non- independent chairman Nandan Nilekani will not receive any remuneration for his current post.
In a BSE filing, the company said Nilekanis office as director shall be subject to retirement by rotation and the remuneration proposed to be paid to him is nil.
Nilekani was first appointed to the Board in 1981 and ceased to be its member on July 9, 2009, Infosys said.
His last drawn remuneration for the fiscal 2010 in which he ceased to be a director was Rs 34 lakh, it said, adding that Nilekani holds 2,13,83,480 equity shares in the company.
U B Pravin Rao, the interim CEO of the company and who holds 5,55,520 shares, will get the same salary he was drawing as chief operating officer.
Rao was elevated as the interim CEO and managing director after Vishal Sikka had quit from CEOs post on August 18, citing continuous attack from the founders and distractions.
Infosys said Rao will continue to hold the position of chief operating officer for which he will continue to receive the remuneration as approved by the shareholders vide postal ballot concluded on March 31, 2017.
Rao will not receive any additional compensation for his role as the interim-chief executive officer and managing director, it added.
His last drawn remuneration for fiscal 2017 was Rs 7.8 crore (excluding value of stock options granted of Rs 4 crore), Infosys said.
The shareholders had approved an annual remuneration of Rs 12.5 crore (comprising of annual fixed salary of Rs 4.63 crore, annual variable compensation of Rs 3.87 crore at 100 per cent payout and performance based stock options of Rs 4 crore which would vest over a period of 4 years, it added.
Infosys issued postal ballot notice seeking approval from its shareholders on share buyback and appointment of Nilekani as the non-executive chairman.
Other resolutions that require shareholders approval include appointment of D Sundaram as an independent director on the board and Rao as the managing director and interim chief executive officer.
E-voting and voting through postal ballot on these resolutions will begin from September 8 morning and continue till October 7 afternoon.
In 2014, Rawender Singh, 30, fell victim to a job racket and lost Rs 8 lakh.
However, instead of despairing over the loss of money, he decided to use the experience to start cheating other unemployed victims on a larger scale and in a planned manner.
By the time Rawender and his three associates finally landed in police net on Tuesday, they had already cheated over 50 persons of Rs 4-8 lakh each in the last three years, said Nupur Prasad, DCP (Shahdara).
Rawender and his associates would promise jobs with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the Indian Railways. But, they did not disappear with their money.
They would organise the entire process of getting a government job from filling a form to getting the employment letter. To come across as convincing, the racketeers organised fake competitive exams on OMR sheets and job training for the candidates, said the DCP.
Rawender, alleged mastermind, is a native of Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. He got married in May 2014 when he was working with a small private firm. But the additional expenses that came with marriage forced him to look out for a government job.
It was at that time that Rawender met a man named Abhishek Pandey who promised to get him a grade C job with the Food Corporation of India. Pandey too had an elaborate network and tricked Rawender into believing that he was actually being given a job.
Rawender went through the fake job process for six months lost a total of Rs 8 lakh to Pandey. By the end of six months, Rawender realised he was only being tricked and there was no FCI job waiting for him, said an investigator.
When he realised he was not going to get his money back money, he did not approach the police. Instead he decided to use his bad experience to begin duping job aspirants like him. He roped in his cousin, Ankit Singh, and some other friends.
The men would allegedly use WhatsApp groups to coordinate among themselves as they scouted for potential victims. They cheated over 50 victims in the last three years, said an investigator.
The two cousins and their two associates were finally nabbed by a Delhi Police team earlier this week when one of the victims approached the police to allege he had lost around Rs 7.5 lakh in a six-month period.
When Ankit was brought to the Vivek Vihar police station for questioning, he brought his fake CBI identity card along. For over an hour he insisted that he was a sub-inspector with the CBI. We had to cross-question him about the organisational structure of the CBI before he finally confessed to being a cheat, said an investigator.
The Navi Mumbai crime branch (unit 2) has arrested two persons for allegedly stealing a container consisting of chemicals worth Rs1.64 crore, which was to be exported to New York.
According to the police, a private company from Taloja, Hikal Limited, had sent a total of 180 boxes of chemicals for manufacturing some agro products to another company in New York on August 13. They had assigned the task of transporting the container to a logistic company.
The trailer driver, who was supposed to deliver the container at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), did not do so. When the container did not reach the port even after a week, the company got suspicious and they informed the Nhava Sheva police on August 22, said Tushar Doshi, deputy commissioner of police (crime).
After taking all the details, the Nhava Sheva police registered a first information report (FIR) under sections 407 (criminal breach of trust by carrier) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Its not possible for one person to steal a container. We suspect the involvement of some more people in the theft, Doshi said.
On August 24, the crime branch officials detained two people from Taloja, based on suspicions. During interrogation, they confessed to have committed the crime. They were then formally arrested.
They have been identified as Pravesh Chaudhary alias Satish Pandey alias Rajesh Rajbhor, 26, a native of Uttar Pradesh and Vijay Amle, 44, a resident of Kopri in Thane.
Doshi said, The accused later told us about their hideout at Bhiwandi and we recovered the container from that place after a few days. They have also given us the names of other people involved in the crime. The trailer driver is also one of the accused who is yet to be arrested. Our officials are searching for the remaining accused and we hope to arrest them soon.
The arrested people are habitual offenders. They have criminal cases registered against them in Navi Mumbai, Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Aurangabad, Surat and some other places of Gujarat.
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DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand government is set to launch an ambitious centrally funded Rs 250 crore project that aims to develop the hill state as a major apple growing hub.
It would help double income of the local fruit growers and check forced migration from the hills, agriculture minister Subodh Uniyal said.
We are going to develop the state into one of the worlds major apple growing centres, a la neighbouring Himachal Pradesh. The initiative will also help double the farmers income and check their forced migration from the hills, Uniyal told Hindustan Times on Saturday. The project area is being implemented under the Central governments ambitious project the Apple Mission.
Under the project, hill farmers would be encouraged to grow apples in some 1,000 acre of farm land.The scheme will be implemented under the apple and temperate fruit project. As part of that initiative, farmers will be provided all kinds of help to grow high density, early fruiting varieties of quality apples on their farmlands, the minister said, adding the sole aim was to enhance income and establish farmers as entrepreneurs.
Uttarkashi, Chakrata and Chamoli are the major apple producing centres in Uttarakhand. The state produces around 80,000 metric tonnes of apple on average annually.
Uniyal said farmers would be provided planting material and facilities to export apples other than providing technological help. Quality apples would be grown so that their export fetch foreign exchange to apple growers . Apart from apples, fruit growers would also be encouraged to grow other fruits such as pear, peach, plum and apricot. They would grow apples on 90% of their farmland while the rest would be spared for the other fruits grown in the hills.
Apple saplings will be planted in an area ranging from 1,500 m up to 2,300 m. Other fruits (such as walnut, plum, peach, cherry, pears and grapes) will be planted in lower altitudes, he said.
Giving further details, the minister said of the area set aside for fruit saplings, farmers in the first year would plant saplings of high density apples in 100 acre area. In the second and third year, saplings of (high density) apples will be grown in 300 acre and 600 acre respectively. Saplings of other fruits will be grown in a separate 100 acre area.
Farmers would plant 1,000 apple saplings in a cluster comprising one acre area of land. Growing apples in one cluster will cost us (govt) Rs 15-17 lakh, Uniyal said, adding likewise several clusters would be developed under the project.
Early fruiting varieties of apples would be grown under the ambitious project. One tree of such varieties of apple will start bearing fruit within a year and. It will give a total yield of 20 kg in its sixth year, Uniyal said, adding 1,000 apple trees would generate a whopping yield of 20, 000 kg of fruit annually.
Besides exporting apples and other fruits ,the horticulture produce would also be used as raw material for agro -based industrial units. We plan to set up a series of such units, which will also generate employment for the local youth, Uniyal told Hindustan Times.
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Muslims and Sikhs on Saturday set an example of communal harmony in Uttarakhands Joshimath, 300 kilometres from here, when the local gurudwara offered Muslims space to offer Eid prayers.
Muslims had gathered at a local ground in large numbers to offer prayers on the occasion of Eid-Ul-Zuha, but could not proceed due to incessant overnight rains. This is when Gurudwara Singh Sabha stepped in and welcomed them to the gurudwara.
Be it Hindus, Sikhs or Muslims we have a strong bonding in Joshimath. The senior management from the Gurudwara sahib and the Muslim community held a short meeting on Saturday morning and made quick arrangements for the prayers, Buta Singh, manager, Shri Hemkund Sahib gurudwara, told HT on phone. More than 500 Muslims offered Namaaz in the retiring hall of the gurdwara, he said.
The incessant rains for the past couple of days had rendered offering Bakr-Eid Namaaz at the traditional Gandh Maidan and local municipal board hall difficult. This led us to approach Govindghat-based gurdwara management committee senior manager Seva Singh for permission to offer Namaaz there. The gurdwara has ample space to accommodate sizable devout, said Salim Raja, an office bearer of Joshimath Muslim Committee.
This is not the first time that Sikhs have offered space for Eid prayers. On August 20, 2012, the Muslims prayed at the same gurudwara. Joshimath is believed to be the last place in the state towards the China border where Muslims offer Namaaz. Beyond Joshimath lies Badrinath, one of four shrines of the Chardham pilgrimage of Hindus.
Though we keep hearing stories about growing hatred in the society, by Allahs grace we never witnessed such negative things here, said Rais Ahmad (50).
Joshimath falls in the Chamoli district home to revered Hindu shrine Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib, the Sikh Gurudwara.
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DEHRADUN: The directorate of higher education has sought Rs 200 crore in funds from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank to provide better infrastructure in degree colleges.
The state government had sought 50% subsidy from the Centre on the project submitted a week ago demanding funds for the strengthening of government and aided colleges. The directorate needs at least Rs 613 crore to provide facilities such as building, furniture, books, laboratories and others.
As per the Directorate records, there are 100 government degree colleges and 18 aided colleges in Uttarakhand. Only 48 government colleges have their own land and building, 26 have land and the buildings are under construction, 9 have land and the construction yet to be done and land acquisition is on for nine colleges. Besides, work is on to make land available for eight colleges that came up in the last two years.
The funds will be utilised to provide infrastructure to colleges. Once we get the funds, we will disburse Rs 3 lakh each to colleges where there are no furniture, Rs 5 lakh for books and so on, higher education minister Dhan Singh Rawat told Hindustan Times on Saturday. I have asked MLAs to provide Rs 5 lakh each from Local Area Development (LAD) funds to the government colleges in their constituency. Twenty-two MLAs have already provided funds and remaining are in the process.
The minister claimed his effort has led to private universities adopt 22 degree colleges under which the former are sharing 5-10% of their annual income for boosting infrastructure.
Soon college marksheets would be linked to Aadhaar, Rawat said, adding Uttarakhand would be the first state in the country to take this step.
Poll for uniform at DAV (PG) College
Rawat said voting will be held at the Doons DAV (PG) College probably in the first week of October to get the opinion of students whether or not they want to follow the dress code.
The minister claimed students in all government degree colleges were following the dress code while most of the aided colleges have also started doing the same. But both BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Left-backed Students Federation of India (SFI) in this college have disapproved the proposal. The ABVP narrowly won the presidents post in the closely fought students union election at the college on Friday.
The student union elections in Kumaon will conclude on September 25 following which in the first week of October, I will organise voting of students whether they want to follow the dress code or not, Rawat said.
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Learning lessons from the Ghazipur incident, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has decided to shut down its Okhla landfill in the next two months. The Okhla site exhausted its life span in 2010, but in the absence of an alternative, dumping continued here.
We are closely monitoring the day to day activity at the landfill, but a decision has been taken to close this site now. We will dumped the garbage at the newly allocated site at Tehkhand, near Okhla, in future, SDMC commissioner Puneet Goel said. The site was allocated by Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to SDMC last year and civic agency also plans to develop a waste to energy plant here.
Goel said that the corporation will simultaneously start the process for remediation of Okhla landfill, after two months. We will bring down the height of the landfill from 55 metre to half. However, it is impossible to reclaim the whole place, he added.
Meanwhile, North Delhi mayor Preety Agarwal has also sought a status report from the municipal commissioner about the condition of Bhalswa landfill site. There is no denying that Bhalswa landfill under NDMC is under a similar threat. Therefore, I have directed the authorities to take immediate measures such as regular pressing of garbage. The department of environment management service has also been asked to submit a report on the condition of this place. I will visit the site next week,she said.
We will also discuss the reason for non-implementation of plans approved to reclaim the site and look for a permanent solution, she said.
POLITICAL SLUG FEST CONTINUES
After L-Gs order to discontinue dumping at Ghazipur, AAP called a press conference and blamed the BJP-ruled MCD for the Ghazipur mishap. AAP leaders claimed that despite crossing the height of 45 metre, BJP-ruled MCD continued to dump garbage there.
Unfortunately, even after the Ghazipur incident, BJP is not in a mood to leave its dirty politics and is trying to push off its failures on Delhi government. Three years back, Delhi High Court had instructed the Central government-run DDA to transfer alternative site for landfill to MCD. But they were interested in violating all norms and transferring land for a ministers factory, AAP spokesperson Dilip Pandey said.
The party said that DDA and MCD should work together to finalise a new garbage dumping site in the city at the earliest. Shifting garbage from one landfill to another does not improve the situation, Pandey said.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said that Delhi government must also come on board to solve Delhis overflowing garbage woes. All departments of Delhi government such as Delhi pollution control committee and environment department are responsible for ensuring that norms are being followed and the sites are run without violation of norms. Even if new sites are identified for landfill, it should be ensure that all precautionary measures are taken here right from beginning so that the residents wont suffer unnecessarily later on, Tiwari said.
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It took the loss of two innocent lives for the residents living around the 33-year old Ghazipur landfill site to see a ray of hope for a better life.
From getting 3,000 metric tonnes of waste daily, the 50-metre-tall mountain of waste will for the first time on Sunday morning see no garbage dumping on it. On Saturday, the landfill received the least quantity of waste (around 100 tonnes) ever, according to East Delhi Municipal Corporation data.
It is the beginning of the end of the Ghazipur landfill site. Fridays incident was tragic, but it finally shook the administration that was in deep slumber until now. We hope our surroundings improve, said Sayeeda Qazmi, a resident of Mulla Colony that overlooks the stinking landfill that had to be shut way back in 2002.
All these years, staring at the poisonous mountain of trash was a part of life for residents of Gharoli, Khoda, Gharoli Extension, Kalyanpuri, Kaushambi, Ghazipur and Kondli. The authorities today told us that in two years, this ugly sight would go. If thats true then we got our Eidi. This landfill has grown as I grew up, said 23-year old Waseem Akhtar, who runs a tyre shop in the area.
Waste in Hindon
An internal inquiry of the EDMC found that around 8,000 metric tonnes of garbage came crashing down from the Ghazipur landfill and fell into the Hindon canal. The impact was such that the water from the Hindon canal swept a car and three bikes from the road into another canal that run parallel to the road.
Since yesterday, over 80 trucks have already been used to clear the garbage that fell on the canal, the main road and the kachcha road (dirt road). It will take weeks to clear the entire impact area, an EDMC official overseeing the incident told HT.
Preliminary probe has also revealed that a blast first occurred which trigerred a chunk of the mountain to crash. Two to three days before the incident, the temperatures were high and then it rained making the garbage loose. Soon after there was sunshine, which must have heated the mound, resulting in the blast, the official added.
On Saturday, teams of EDMC and Delhi Disaster Management Authority were working at the site to clear the impact area at the foot of the mountain. Four JCBs and four poplanes were pushed to clear the Hindon canal and the kachcha road. Vehicle movement was restricted where the garbage fell on Friday.
New dumping sites
After the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) on Saturday issued directives to immediately ban dumping of waste at the Ghazipur site, the EDMC, within hours, finalised that it would dispose its waste at a 50-acre site in Rani Khera located on the Delhi-Haryana border. The site was identified by the corporation at least two years ago, but waste disposal couldnt begin because of the differences between the EDMC and the North DMC.
It is a temporary arrangement until we get the 150 acre land in Ghonda for which a meeting has been called by the NGT-appointed committee at the Ministry of water resources, EDMC commissioner Ranbir Singh told Hindustan Times. The 150-acre land in Ghonda is close to the river Yamuna.
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At least six Rohingyas from Myanmar, including three women, all living as refugees, were injured when a mob allegedly thrashed them for trying to sacrifice two buffaloes.
The incident occurred in Mujedi village under Ballabgarh sub division in Faridabad late on Friday.
Police said they had registered case against unknown people under different provisions of Indian Panel Code (IPC) and started investigation.
The victims temporarily residing in slums in Mujedi area for the last a few years are Rohingyas from Myanmar.
Police said some of the victims had got two buffalos from Delhi to sacrifice them on Eid.
When some locals of Mirzapur and Mujedi came to know about it, they rushed to the slums and allegedly warned them against sacrificing the buffaloes.
Both sides entered into a heated argument after which the locals thrashed six of them with lathis, police said.
The victims alleged that the mob took away one buffalo. Police got the injured medically examined and registered case in this connection against unknown men on Saturday.
The injured, mostly ragpickers, were identified as Senvera Begum, Safu Islam, Mohd Dule, Mohd Rashid, Noor Jehan and Ambia Hathu.
We registered a case against unknown under section 147, 148, 354, 379B, 323, 506, 342 in this connection and started investigation, said Hanif Qureshi , police commissioner, Faridabad.
The SHO (Sadar) of Ballabgarh, Hansraj, said a representative of United Nations High Commission for Refugees in India visited the injured and assisted them in lodging complaint.
The victims told us that they were about to return the buffalos from where they had brought but some locals did not listen and beat them, an official of the UNHCR for refugees said, requesting anonymity.
No arrests had been made when the reports last came in.
Ballabgarh was in news when a young Muslim boy was killed on board a train for being a suspected beef eater
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Kaushal Bhutani, who was found dead, would have turned 74 on Saturday. Her relatives had been planning her birthday celebrations for almost a week. A birthday cake and a family get-together at the couples house was on cards.
Hours before the planned celebrations, the relatives received news of her death. Kaushal was a very humble person. She was kind and kept in touch with everyone. We were eagerly waiting for her birthday. This was an occasion to celebrate. The brutal manner in which she was found dead is very shocking, said JC Bhutani, Kaushals brother-in-law.
Relatives said that Kaushal was confined in the house due to old age and her ailing husband, Ramlal, who was in bed. However, she kept in touch with everyone on phone. The couple had hired two helps to take care of them.
Her husband has been ill since last three years. So Kaushal used to take care of him. As a result, she was unable to step out of her house much. So we visited her often and talked to her. She was always very polite, said a neighbour.
The couple had an arranged marriage. They did not have any children and lived alone in the house. Kaushal had retired as a government school teacher. She loved to be around kids and liked it when children of her relatives came to visit her, neighbours said.
Kaushal was found dead inside her house around 9.43am on Saturday. She reportedly died due to severe head injuries. The way in which the couple was found dead in their house has shocked the neighbours. This is for the first time that such an incident has occurred in the locality, they said.
The elderly couple had been living alone for several years. They never faced safety issues. They lived peacefully. It turns out no one is safe now, said Lalita Chawla, Kaushals sister-in-law.
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The return of the Class 10 board exam was among one of the most discussed topics at mega Parent Teacher Meeting (PTM) organised in Delhi government schools on Friday.
The government organised this years first mega PTM in its 1,041 schools.
The PTM was held between 8am to 12 noon in morning shift schools and 2pm to 6pm in evening shift schools.
Shabana, a home maker, visited the Government Boys Senior Secondary School at Lalita Park to discuss the performance of her son Abdul Samad, who is in Class 10. Samad will be a part of the first batch of students after 2011 to give the Class 10 board exam.
I had heard that Class 10 exams have been made compulsory again. The teacher explained to me that his attendance should be at least 75 per cent to be able to sit for the exam and that the exam will be from full syllabus. I have to make sure he doesnt skip school, she said.
Delhi govt schools to hold PTMs for the first time on July 30
Schools said there was good response from parents and students. An official from the directorate of education said there was no definitive figure on participation of parents and students in the PTM but the participation was high.
Most parents were curious to know about the Class 10 Board exams and were happy that it is back. Teachers were already instructed to inform parents about the change in exam pattern for Class 10 Board, said BK Sharma, principal of the Shaheed Hemu Kalani Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya in Lajpat Nagar.
The directorate of education (DOE) has instructed schools to explain to parents whose children are in class 9-12 about the changes notified by CBSE in the examination scheme like requirement of 33% marks (27 marks out of 80 marks) for passing and inclusion of complete syllabus in end term/final examination.
Deputy chief minister and education minister Manish Sisodia visited several government schools in Hari Nagar and Shakti Nagar to interact with parents, children and teachers.
It is evident that the parent teacher engagement which the government aimed to institutionalize through Mega PTMs has been achieved, he said.
Delhi lieutenant governor Anil Baijal on Saturday banned dumping of waste at the Ghazipur landfill site, a day after a mountain of waste collapsed into a canal, killing two people in the national capital.
In a meeting at the L-G house, Baijal ordered immediate halt to dumping of solid waste at the landfill and clearing the site within two years.
According to a press statement, traffic has also been diverted as a safety measure and traffic police posted in the area to advise commuters to use alternate routes.
The order was passed after the meeting held by L-G with the East municipal body commissioner, general manager of the National Highway Authority of India and senior bureaucrats.
Dumping of solid waste at Ghazipur site to be stopped immediately. Traffic to be diverted to alternate routes as safety measure. LG Delhi (@LtGovDelhi) September 2, 2017
NHAI to start lifting of garbage from Ghazipur landfill site from November 2017 for use in road construction. LG Delhi (@LtGovDelhi) September 2, 2017
The L-G directed that no more dumping of solid waste and any other kind of silt would take place at the Ghazipur landfill site. The East MCD would be sending its collected dump to another alternative site immediately, the press statement read.
The NHAI has also started lifting the garbage to be used in construction of service roads from November.
The Ghazipur landfill is among the four dumpsites in Delhi and the collected waste had reached a height 50 metre, as tall as a 15-storey building.
Hundreds of tonnes of waste came down on its own weight on Friday afternoon, sweeping several people and a car and a scooter into a canal across the road that runs parallel to the site. A 30-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man drowned while five others were rescued.
A couple in their seventies was murdered and their house ransacked in north-west Delhis Ashok Vihar, Phase-3, on Saturday. Ramlal Bhutani (79) and his wife Kaushal Bhutani (73) were found dead by an attendants at 9.43am. Police said one of their recently hired domestic helps is absconding.
The incident came to light when Dulal Sarkar (57), who looked after ailing Ramlal, came to the house at 8am and found the door locked. He found it unusual as the couple did not leave their home, except in case of a medical emergency. Ramlal had been bedridden for the last three years due to a spinal problem. Recently, he had also developed heart ailments, due to which he was on complete bed rest.
My job was to look after Ramlal from 8am to 8pm. On Saturday morning, I came to work and found that the door was locked. The couple did not answer their phones. I asked their neighbours and even made a call to Ramlals relatives. Nobody had a clue where they were, Sarkar said.
Making one last attempt, Sarkar went to the nearest hospital to make enquires. He couldnt find them and alerted their neighbours again. The police reached the spot, broke the door open and found the couple lying dead in one of the rooms.
Ramlal was on the bed. It looked like he had been smothered to death. Kaushal was on the ground with a head injury. Every room had been ransacked. Cupboards were open and lockers had been emptied. The couples phones are also missing, Sarkar said.
The prime suspect is the second attendant, Dinesh (20), who had been recently hired to look after Ramlal. His work started after Sarkars shift got over. Dinesh was the last person who was seen with the couple, the neighbours said.
Dinesh was hired after Ramlal had a heart attack 10 days ago. He had returned from the hospital on August 27. On Friday night, I left when Dinesh came. He was supposed to be there on Saturday morning when I reported for work. But he wasnt there. Instead, I found my employers dead and their house ransacked, Sarkar said.
Relatives said that Ramlal was a retired government official. He had worked in audit department of home ministry. Kaushal was a retired government school teacher.
Ramlal was born in Pakistan. Post-partition, he shifted to Delhi with his family. He married Kaushal in 1989. Ever since then, the couple had been living alone in the house. They were very humble. My brother was very punctual. He loved to interact and always kept in touch with everyone, even after falling ill, said Lalita Chawla, Ramlals sister.
He told me that he was feeling better. He always kept in touch with me and the rest of the family, despite being confined to bed due to health issues. The next morning, I was told he has been murdered. I couldnt believe it, said SL Chawla, Ramlals brother-in-law.
Police said that a case has been registered at Bharat Nagar police station. Search for the absconding attendant is on.
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It came like a tsunami and we ran for our lives, said 43-year-old Mustaqim, a taxi driver, who had just parked his car in front of his house when a huge chunk of the Ghazipur landfill site in east Delhi came crashing down into a tributary of the Hindon river killing two and injuring five others.
Though East Delhi mayor Neema Bhagat called the incident a rare one, residents of C-Block Mulla Colony that overlooks the 50-metre-tall mountain of garbage said the worse is yet to come, if no action is taken.
The massive landfill, which is nearly 30 metres higher than the permissible standard as per the master plan, had begun showing signs of the havoc it wrecked on Friday nearly a year ago. During the Congress rule, a thick road was built right at the base of the landfill for easy access between the fish/poultry market and the slaughter house. The road raised and developed big cracks as it was built on garbage, said Parvez, a resident of the colony.
It must have happened due to the poisonous gases the landfill produces, he added.
Residents feared that some people could be trapped inside the debris, as rag pickers and meat traders use the road for their daily chores. After the incident, police cordoned off the road, but rescue operations remained largely focused on the canal in which a car and three two-wheelers fell.
It was around 2.45pm when residents of Mulla Colony noticed that a small part of garbage mound had collapsed. Seconds later, a massive chunk fell off into the fast flowing tributary of the Hindon river. Parallel to this canal is the road that connects Delhi to Ghaziabad and another canal that was built by the flood and irrigation department.
The impact was such that the water from the Hindon canal swept the car and bikes from the road into the second canal.The height of the wave made it look like a tsunami and all of us ran to safety, said Mohammad Afsar Ansari, an eyewitness.
Other residents said they heard a loud noise and rushed to the spot to find seven people drowning in the canal. Vakeel Saifi and his friends jumped in to the canal to rescue the victims. Finding nothing to pull them out of the canal, they used ropes from Saifis fathers tent house shop.
Some people brought in plastic pipes to pull the victims out of the canal, Saifi said.
We had to break the glass of the car to pull out the driver. Luckily, the water was not too deep. The police was soon alerted, but rescue operations began only after an hour or so, said Parvez, one of those who jumped into the canal.
Fire fighters and disaster management teams used cranes to fish out the vehicles.
Calling it a situation similar to a landslide, East Delhi Municipal Corporation commissioner Ranbir Singh said that with 3,000 metric tonnes of garbage dumped in Ghazipur daily, the landfill has already outlived its life by over 15 years. An inquiry will be conducted and the search operations will go on, he said.
Soon after the incident, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia, member of Parliament Maheish Girri and local politicians visited the spot.
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The Ghazipur landfill site, a part of which collapsed on Friday killing two persons, should have shut down in 2002. But more than one-fourth of the garbage collected in Delhi is still dumped at the site daily.
As trash piled up for years at this saturated location near Delhi border, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation did little to find an alternative. The East Delhi Municipal Corporation officials say that the danger is not over yet as many more portions of this garbage mound can collapse any time now.
Present situation
Every day, 3,000 tonnes of garbage is dumped at the Ghazipur landfill. Although the civic agency claim to have hired private concessionaires to segregate, recycle and compress the waste, a large part of it remains unsegregated and is dumped at the already filled dumping site. There is a waste to energy plant at site that treats only 1,200 tonnes of waste.
For permanent solution, the EDMC had signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Highway Authority of India for utilising the segregated waste for embankment of roads.
But the project was put on hold after if was found that the segregated waste has no calorific value. Now the court has directed the NHAI to revisit the project and use it for road widening. We are expecting to start the tendering process by September 20, said a senior East Delhi Municipal Corporation official.
Lack of management
The landfills at Ghazipur and Bhalswa were commissioned in 1984. The one at Okhla was added in 1996. Except for the Narela-Bawana dumpsite that was commissioned in 2009, the other three violate state regulations.
They are not designed according to the Municipal Solid Waste Rules of 2000, which mandates all such dumpsites to have eco-friendly garbage management facilities. Not just that, the landfills have no facility for material recovery, treating leachete and producing refuse derive fuel.They have no certification from Delhi Pollution Control Committee and should have shut down in 2002.
But the civic agency has no other option. There are no other sites thats why they continue to dump trash here, said KS Mehra, former commissioner of unified MCD.
For years, civic agencies have been repeating plans for reclaiming the oversaturated landfills but nothing has changed on the ground.
Non-availability of land
The municipal agencies have been repeatedly demanding more land from the Delhi Development Authority to set up landfills and waste-to-energy plants.
But, the sites allocated to the municipal corporations two years ago, are still unused. According to MCD officials, the sites provided are either too small to be used as landfill sites or not been demarcated properly by DDA.
However, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) blamed the three civic bodies for delay in creation of Sanitary Landfill Sites (SLFs) in Delhi. It said that the authority had allotted large chunk of lands as per their requirement. As and when they made a requisition, the DDA allotted sufficient amount of land to the three corporations, including the east civic body for the purpose. However, they have failed to set up garbage dumps there. A piece of land measuring 150 acre in Ghonda Gurjan was alloted to east corporation but it has having some legal issues and the matter is before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), he said.
Heres why Ghazipur was a tragedy in the making The landfill has crossed the height of 50 metres and still 3000 tonnes of garbage (including silt) continued to be dumped here every day. The EDMC has not identified any other alternative site to dump waste so far. As per officials, the one site provided by DDA at O-Zone near Yamuna has been rejected by National Green Tribunal. The Ghazipur landfill was commissioned in 1984 and is not designed according to the Municipal Solid Waste Rules of 2000, which mandates all such dumpsites to have eco-friendly garbage management facilities. Every day, 10,000 tonnes of garbage is generated in Delhi. Of this, east Delhi generates 3000 tonnes, north produces 3500 tonnes while south Delhi collects 3,500 tonnes of garbage.
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Students at the government-run Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) will now be taught the intricacies of Indian communication theories included in Bharat Munis Natya Shastra, an ancient treatise on performing arts.
The mass communication institute, which offers courses in journalism and public relations, has taken inspiration from Nepalese scholar Dr Nirmala Mani Adhikarys construct of the sadharanikaran (simplification) model of communication based on Natya Shastra.
The course in Indian communication models is already being taught in universities such as the Makhanlal Chaturvedi University of journalism and communication and is being replicated at IIMC to introduce Indian communication models to aspiring journalists and public relations professionals.
Aware that the introduction of the module could be perceived as an attempt to saffronise curriculum, director general of IIMC, KG Suresh said the new addition is not an attempt to foist any religious viewpoint on the students, but to ensure they have an understanding of Indias achievements in the past in several discipline, including communication.
He said the institute has been teaching western models of communication, which will continue to be taught and Natya Shastra will expose them to the Indian models.
We are producing global journalists with strong Indian roots, Suresh told HT. He said Indias strong tradition of oral history, and the theories in Natya Shastra are also being researched abroad and it is only relevant that the concepts are introduced to students at the journalism school, which comes under the ministry of information and broadcasting.
The module will be taught to students from the current academic session by experts who are familiar with the treatise, including Dr Adhikary.
The model illustrates how successful communication is possible in the society where complex hierarchies of castes, languages, cultures and religious practices are prevalent. Sahridayata helps those communicating to pervade the unequal relationship prevailing in the society and the very process of communication is facilitated, Suresh said.
Indias ancient past as well as contemporary history, including its transition to a democracy will be the focus area.
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New Delhi Blamed for defacing the city with posters in the run-up to Delhi University students polls this month, the RSS-affiliated ABVP today pitched for reforms in Lyngdoh Committee recommendations to avoid what it said was impracticality.
The demand for reforms was made as the BJPs student body felt the committees recommendations in confining the election process to 10 days was impractical considering the number of voters and colleges which are affiliated to Delhi University Students Union (DUSU).
DUSU elections will be held on September 12.
In the present scenario, posters are the only way a candidate can reach out to over a lakh students of 51 colleges spread across the city in a short time alloted for campaigning, ABVP national media convener Saket Bahuguna said, adding that a consensus was needed from all stakeholders on reducing reliance on paper.
DUSU is a large election and there cannot be one-size- fits-all approach confining elections to just 10 days, he said.
The body also said it was also urging DU election authorities to allocate separate democracy walls in colleges as space for putting up posters.
Allocate a separate wall and we will ensure none put up posters across the city, Bahuguna added, saying that reaching out to large number of students without using posters was not possible.
He also termed Rs 5,000 cap on poll expenditure as impractical as it was too less to contest in elections of on a large scale.
Even to campaign on single autorickshaw in all the colleges would cost much more than Rs 5,000, he said, adding that social media would be able to help reduce reliance on posters in future though not immediately.
He also suggested presidential-style debates like the ones that happen in JNU before its polls.
There should be presidential debates conducted online as holding it directly would not be feasible considering the scale of students who would attend the event, Bahuguna said.
Attacking Congress-led NSUI for hurling corruption allegations against ABVP, Bahuguna said it was a lie and manipulation of facts.
DU administration should audit DUSU funds and bring it in public domain to know the real picture, he said.
ABVP will release its poll manifesto on Monday.
Love chocolate but worried about the calories? In moderation, it can actually be good for your health. Research shows that chocolates can benefit your bowels, your heart and even boost your immunity. Heres what research says about it:
* Eating chocolate may provide relief from bowel disease.
Research shows that consuming protein rich foods such as nuts, eggs, seeds, beans, poultry, yogurt, cheese, and even chocolates, may foster a more tolerant and less inflammatory gut environment. This could mean relief for people living with abdominal pain and diarrhoea of inflammatory bowel disease. These food items contain an appreciable amounts of tryptophan an amino acid used in the buildup of proteins which when fed on mice led to the development of immune cells that foster a tolerant gut, the study said.
Read the full story here.
Certain compounds found in cocoa can help the body release more insulin and respond to increased blood glucose better. (Shutterstock)
* Scientists find that cocoa may help fight diabetes.
Scientists discovered that certain compounds found in cocoa the key ingredient of chocolates can help the body release more insulin and respond to increased blood glucose better, an advance that may lead to new therapies to treat diabetes. The new study, published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, finds beta cells work better and remain stronger with an increased presence of epicatechin monomers, compounds found naturally in cocoa.
Read the full story here.
Dark chocolate enriched with extra virgin olive oil may improve your heart health by increasing good cholesterol levels. (Shutterstock)
* Eat small portions of dark chocolate every day for a healthy heart.
Dark chocolate enriched with extra virgin olive oil may improve your heart health by increasing good cholesterol levels and preserving the repairing cells critical for maintaining blood vessels, a study has found. The study tested whether consumption of dark chocolate enriched with extra virgin olive oil or Panaia red apple was linked to atherosclerosis fat build-up in the artery walls in healthy people who had cardiovascular risk factors.
Read the full story here.
Dark chocolate increases serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain, making us happy. (Shutterstock)
* It can boost mens libido.
Dark chocolate increases serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain, making us happy and then puts us in the mood.Chocolate also contains phenylethylamine a compound that has been shown to produce when we are in love. Given that stress can be strongly linked with a lower sex drive, a few squares of dark chocolate daily is a good way to pump up the passion.
Read the full story here.
* Want to prevent flu and relieve intestinal irritation? Eat dark chocolate and dairy products.
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in the United States published results of two studies of mice that examined how intestinal immune responses can be enhanced by the consumption of certain nutrients. In the first study, which focused on the effects of flavonoids antioxidants mainly found in dark chocolate, bilberries and red wine on intestinal microbiota, researchers found that these nutrients could collaborate with certain microbiota bacteria to combat influenza and other viral infections.
Read the full story here.
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There could be a spike in dengue cases in Gurgaon with a rise in the citys humidity levels, warned doctors as they urged residents to take necessary precautions.
While the city health department registered 21 confirmed dengue cases last week, the figure swelled to 27 after seven more cases were reported this week. The spurt in dengue cases has set alarm bells ringing in the citys top health corridors.
Dengue cases are increasing with every passing day. We have also recorded a 60% jump in the number of cold and flu cases. The weather prevailing currently in the city is ideal for mosquitoes to breed, Dr BK Rajora, chief medical officer, civil hospital, Gurgaon, said.
Mosquitoes that are considered dengue-carriers breed in fresh water and the health department has been in the process of identifying such breeding sites.
This year, a survey of more than 7,000 houses was conducted, as against 6,761 houses surveyed last year to curb the breeding of mosquitoes in the city.
The most affected dengue areas in the city as indentified by the health department are Sector 45, Sector 104, DLF Phase-3, Sector 10A, Sector 6, Sector 43, Shetala Colony, Sector 3, Dundahera in Sector 21, Jacobpura, Sohna area and Sector 31.
The weather in the city has been lurching between cold and humid. We are aware of the threat of vector-borne diseases and are working on a war-footing to prevent an outbreak. The monsoon arrived late this year and we are still in a phase where the disease is affecting a lot of people, SS Saroha, deputy civil surgeon, civil hospital, Gurgaon, said.
While mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria are on the rise, cases of other viral and bacterial infections are also expected to soar, doctors in the city have warned. They advised residents to maintain hygiene and wash their hands and faces regularly to avoid the spread of highly communicable infections.
The health department has formed 30 teams to curb mosquito breeding sites. Waterlogged streets, muddy areas and abandoned plots in the city are mostly vulnerable to mosquito breeding.
Last year, the city hit a four-year high in the number of dengue cases, with the district health department recording 401 cases. In 2012, 375 cases were reported, while 175 were reported in 2013. In 2014 and 2015, the city recorded 86 and 381 cases respectively.
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City residents woke up to pleasant weather on Saturday, with light rain dragging the mercury down in the evening. Though, there was a slight increase in humidity after the rain, residents were spotted out and about enjoying the rain.
The minimum temperature on Saturday was recorded at 25.5C. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) held out hope of more showers next week. The city was buffeted by a cold breeze and the sky remained cloudy through the day.
Such sudden showers will be a regular feature this month. The South West monsoon is active in this region and thi is why it is receiving rain, an IMD officer said.
The pleasant evenings have brought relief to city residents after a long summer spell that continued through most of July and August as well. While Gurgaon saw more rainfall than last year, with several instances of waterlogging as well, the monsoon remained deficient.
According to data released by the Met, Haryana, so far, has received 75% less rainfall than normal.
As has been seen in the city even after light rain, there was waterlogging at Huda City Centre, Signature Tower, MG Road and several internal sector roads. The situation was different in the Aravalli hills, as the rain infused life into the parched forest and also brought relief to the wildlife in and around Gurgaon.
The minimum and maximum temperatures will drop by 3C over the next couple of days, the Met department predicted. There is also possibility of rain or thunderstorm in isolated areas of the city.
Read I Heavy rain lashes Gurgaon, more showers likely this week
Recent showers have also made a difference to the citys pollution levels. The PM 2.5 was recorded at 57 g/m by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), against the permissible limit of 60 g/m.
The PM 2.5, is suspended particulate matter which is 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter and one of the major components of air pollution. These particles could settle in the lungs and cause respiratory problems.
Sending out a strong message to the developers of city-based malls, the district town planning (DTP) enforcement Gurgaon came down heavily on malls on MG Road for illegal construction on Saturday.
As part of a 5-hour drive, the enforcement team, with heavy support of the police, sealed several stores raised illegally in the basement of Sahara Mall, MGF Mega City and MGF Metropolis. These malls had raised illegal structures such as stores in the basements that are only meant for parking.
At other malls such as Vipul Agora, DLF Grand, JMD Arcade and DT City Centre, the mall managements submitted affidavits to the officer in charge stating they will remove stores on their own.
We have sealed stores of big brands such as Haldirams, Big Bazar, Life Style, SPAR Hypermarket and others as they had constructed illegal stores in the basements of the malls, Rajinder Sharma, officer, DTP enforcement, said.
Malls are places that draw huge crowds daily and congesting space meant for public utility, parking, lift, stairs and other spaces or occupying them for commercial purposes are in violation of the Town Planning Act and now the developers will have to pay a heavy penalty, remove structures on their own within a specified time frame. We will not allow incidents such as the one at Uphaar cinema (in Delhi) at malls. The spaces where illegal structures have come up are meant to be used for rescue and relief in the event of a fire, earthquake or other incidents, Sharma said.
These mall owners are in the habit of using the parking space in basements for commercial purposes. They rent out such spaces to big brands, Amit Mehdolia, ATP, said after sealing stores of a canteen on the basement of Metropolis.
Read I Civic body, DTP lock horns over mobile towers
The basement, said the DTP official, can be used only as a small storeroom by the mall management to keep sanitation materials such as brooms, wipers etc.
Mall managements are also at liberty to set up a small control panel at basements.
A senior executive of MGF Mega City, said, We are not using basement space for commercial purpose. There are small store rooms on the basement for the management only.
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Salma Hayek, as she herself said, is her own work of art. The actor-model, who famously turned down Donald Trump before he was US President, turns 51 on Saturday. Now, she is among the select few around the planet who make you believe that going ageless is actually a thing. Having said that, Salma sure got a head start being one of the most dazzling divas of the last few decades.
The actor spoke about how her body confidence was not so good when she turned 50. Well I am entering my 50s, so your body confidence isnt that good, she admitted. I think it depends on the day. For everybody, theres some days you say, This is it, and you love it. Then there are days when you go, This cannot be it! Is this really it? So I think its up and down all the time! she told InStyle magazine last year. She should not have worried. As these 10 pictures from her Instagram account prove, she is quite the queen.
I am so bad at posting magazine covers but luckily I have fantastic fan pages that keep on top of it - gracias lo agradezco! #tbt #ellefrance A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek) on Aug 31, 2017 at 5:05am PDT
#water the most beautiful delicious and precious necessity of humans. #agua la necesidad mas hermosa deliciosa y preciosa del ser humano A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek) on Aug 11, 2017 at 12:42pm PDT
Life is #sweet and full of #color. La vida es dulce y llena de color #candy @miamaestro A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek) on Jul 23, 2017 at 4:18pm PDT
A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek) on Mar 13, 2017 at 10:37am PDT
Another #tbt from last month's #numerohomme, gracias #salmahayekmx A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek) on Aug 31, 2017 at 8:04am PDT
Y esto de #editmagazine #tbt A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek) on Aug 31, 2017 at 8:15am PDT
Happy #tbt A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek) on Dec 1, 2016 at 9:56am PST
Happy to be on the cover of the 10th anniversary of @gqmexico #GQMX10 Feliz de protagonizar la portada del decimo aniversario de @gqmexico photo by @nicobustos Art direction @fd0carrillo @alfonsoparragq Styling @mayazep A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek) on Oct 26, 2016 at 10:03am PDT
A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek) on May 31, 2016 at 3:46am PDT
#pomellato #beauty A post shared by Salma Hayek Pinault (@salmahayek) on Mar 5, 2016 at 10:12am PST
So, what does Salma have to say about bringing out your inner queen? You have to get up and become your own work of art; from the moment you put yourself together.
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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday said it will contest the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections, but will field candidates only on seats that meet certain criteria set by its central leadership.
The partys Gujarat election in-charge and Delhi minister, Gopal Rai, told reporters that the decision to contest the elections was taken at a meeting held yesterday between the AAPs state and central office-bearers.
To formally launch the campaign, the party will hold a road show in Ahmedabad on September 17, Rai said.
The AAP has decided, after a long discussion, that it will contest the Gujarat assembly elections. We have framed three criteria and will contest on those seats which meet our criteria, Rai said.
He said the party will contest seats where it can find competent candidates who have no charges of corruption or criminal cases, and have upright character.
Elections to the 182-member assembly in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are likely to be held by the year-end.
The assembly seats selected by the party should have in-charge in each booth. Also, the party members will have to raise money to fund their campaign and spend it as per the norms set by the Election Commission, the minister said.
Fund raised in a particular seat will be spent on campaigning in that constituency only, Rai said.
We will focus our energies on only those seats which we can win. For that, we have formed a state-level committee which will oversee election management works, he said, adding it is possible the party may end up fielding candidates on all the 182 seats.
The setback in civic polls in Delhi, where it lost to the BJP, had left a shadow on the AAPs plans to contest elections in Gujarat.
Though the Arvind Kejriwal-led outfit had emerged as the principal opposition in Punjab in the recently held assembly elections, the result had left the party disappointed as its leaders had been hopeful of wresting power in the state after the AAPs 2015 victory in Delhi.
However, it appears that the party has had a rethink after the recent win in Bawana bypoll.
Rai said the party has also appointed a team to oversee election preparedness, he said, adding AAP member Kishor Desai has been appointed its convener.
He said the party wants to provide an alternative to the people of Gujarat who are tired of the over two-decade- long rule of the BJP and feel the Congress is not a strong opposition party.
We want to reach out to the people of Gujarat who understand that the BJP government has not been able to tackle their basic problems.
He said the AAP government in Delhi has created a model to help the common man through a host of initiatives in fields like education and health.
The fledgling outfit wants to place this model before the Gujarat voters, Rai added.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) on Friday gave the green signal for relocation of one tiger and two tigresses from Ranthambhore National Park to Mukundara Hills tiger reserve, about 300 km south of Jaipur.
The decision was taken at a meeting held in New Delhi. The big cats will be relocated by December this year, officials said.
Mukundara Hills tiger reserve, located in the Hadoti region of south-eastern Rajasthan, has been waiting for the big cats since its inception in 2013. Mukundara Hills is the third notified tiger habitat in Rajasthan after Ranthambhore in Sawai Madhopur and Sariska in Alwar. The reserve was formed to provide a home range to the excess tiger population in Ranthambhore, which at present is said to have around 65 of the striped cats. The state government had recently sought the Centres nod for shifting the tigers.
The NTCA technical committee has cleared the relocation of three tigers, one male and two females, to Mukundara Hills from Ranthambore, in a meeting held in New Delhi on Friday. The relocation, which was earlier scheduled for December 2018, has been advanced by a year, a senior forest department official told HT.
The Mukundara Hills tiger reserve has a wide range of wildlife population that includes panthers, sloth bears, blue bulls, cheetals, sambhasr, chinkaras, wild boars and jackal among others.
The states chief wildlife warden G V Reddy, while refusing to confirm or deny the move, said, I will wait for the minutes of the meeting to be made available before making any statement.
Read more: Black bucks spotted in Mukundra for first time
Sources said that Rajasthans forest minister Gajendra Singh had met Union environment and forest minister Harsh Vardhan in New Delhi last week where the issue of shifting the tigers also came up for discussion.
Gajendra Singh said that the addition of tigers to Mukundara Hills reserve will attract more domestic and foreign tourists and help the State government generate the revenue needed for improving security and tourism infrastructure.
The state wildlife department had sent the Tiger Conservation Plan (TCP) to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in 2106.
Conversationalist Tapeshwar Singh Bhati and others have been urging the officials since a long time for expediting the tiger relocation process.
While the Mukundara Tiger reserve was established in 2013, development of infrastructure, setting up of a prey base and relocating surrounding villages, selection of tigers for release and other related works took time, officials said.
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Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav ended up honouring a woman organizers had wrongly announced as the widow of one of Indias greatest war heroes Param Vir Chakra winner Company Quartermaster Havildar Abdul Hamid at a function to unveil statue of Kargil martyr Ramsamujh Yadav in Azamgarh.
The blooper left Hamids kin stunned and hurt.
On August 30, Akhilesh Yadav unveiled the statue of martyr Ram Samujh Yadav in Natthupur village in district. The families of 38 martyrs were invited to the event. Akhilesh honorured the kin of slain soldiers from Uttar Pradesh with angvastaram and mementoes.
When the compere announced the name of Abdul Hamids widow Rasoolan Bibi, a woman sitting among the kin of martyrs stood up. Akhilesh bowed before her in respect and reached out to her. He talked to her for about two minutes and honoured her.
The mistake came to light only after the event concluded. Jameel, the grandson of Hamid, read news about his grandmother being honoured by Akhilesh. He was stunned as neither he nor his grandmother attended the event.
I had no idea about the event. Had I been invited, I would have attended the attended the event. I came to know about the event only from a newspaper report which states that my grandmother was honored even though we were not there, he told HT.
When contacted Pramod Yadav who organized the event, said, I went to the house of Saleem, another grandson of Abdul Hamid. I spoke to him on phone on August 28. Name of martyrs wife Rasoolan Bibi was included in the list after due consent of Saleem.
Pramod is the brother of Ramsamujh Yadav.
Kin of 28 out of 38 bravehearts invited attended the event. List of names of soldiers kin was with compere and he announced the name one after another. He made a mistake in identifying Rasoolan Bibi. I had no intention to hurt anyones sentiments or insult anyone, he said.
It later emerged that the woman whom Akhilesh had honoured, is the widow of martyr Bhagwati Singh who laid down his life in the Sino-India was in 1962. Her name is Lalita.
Abdul Hamids family lives in Ghazipur dictricts Dhampur village where he was born.
On September 10, 1965, Abdul Hamid destroyed three Pakistani tanks in Cheema village in the Khem Karan sector with a recoilless gun mounted on a Jeep. He was killed in tank fire from the fourth before he could engage it.
The Param Vir Chakra award was announced less than a week after the battle where he sacrificed himself.
The award was presented to Rasoolan Bibi by the then President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan at the 1966 Republic Day parade.
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BJP chief Amit Shah left for Delhi on Saturday after holding consultations with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat ahead of the cabinet reshuffle on Sunday.
Shah is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi later in the day after reaching Delhi to finalise the names of those to be replaced and those to be inducted in the Union council of ministers.
After the day-long session of the RSS and its affiliates at the coordination meeting of the RSS in Vrindavan on Friday, Shah met Bhagwat late in the night. The meeting lasted for over two hours.
Senior RSS leaders, including BJP general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal, Suresh Soni, Krishna Gopal, Bhaiyyaji Joshi and Dattatreya Hosabale were present at the meeting, sources said.
Sources told IANS that the meeting discussed the probable names for the cabinet reshuffle.
Hundreds of slogan-shouting protesters across Tamil Nadu staged rallies and blocked roads on Saturday, blaming the BJP-led government at the Centre for the death of a 17-year-old Dalit medical aspirant who was found hanging in her home.
Anitha S is believed to have committed suicide, few months after the Supreme Court dismissed her petition against the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET), which she said was detrimental to interests of students from rural areas.
Her death has brought the issue of medical education in Tamil Nadu and the politics around it into sharp focus, with political parties and even film stars wading into the controversy that has been compared to the suicide by another Dalit student, Rohith Vemula, in Hyderabad last year.
In many districts, protesters burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and shouted vekka kedu, vekka kedu (shame, shame), holding the central government responsible for her death as also for wrecking the dreams of many more.
In Chennai, protesters blocked an arterial road leading to Anna Salai, the main road in the city.
In Ariyalur, the district from where the girl hails, the ruling DMK and opposition parties called for a shutdown to condemn the state and central government on NEET, an all-India entrance exam for admission to medical colleges. Friends and relatives of the girl held protest demonstrations outside the hospital where her post mortem was conducted seeking abolition of NEET.
Family members of Anitha, who had refused to accept the body, finally relented and took back her body from the government hospital at Ariyalur.
Anitha, the daughter of a daily wage worker, was depressed over the SCs dismissal of the NEET plea. (HT Photo)
Anitha lost her mother at a young age and was brought up by her father, T Shanmugam, a daily wager in Tiruchirapalli. None of her four brothers have a steady job.
Chief minister M Edapaddi Palanisami on Friday announced ex gratia of 7 lakh to Anithas family and a government job to a family member.
Shocked teachers said she was the only student who had scored 100% marks in Physics and Mathematics in the whole district.
It is a pity that even after getting such high marks and qualifying for medical as per state government rules, she was denied admission due to the Centres attitude, one of her teachers.
Anitha told the media in August that NEET was a hurdle to people from rural backgrounds and poorer sections of the society.
This was the argument Tamil Nadu, too, put forward to reject NEET. Former chief minister
J Jayalalithaa had blocked its implementation during her lifetime. After her death, the AIADMK government has become weak and even has become anti-people and succumbed to pressure from the Centre, said political analyst Prof Ramu Manivannan of the Madras University. Opposition parties said as much, blaming the state and central governments for the NEET mess and held the BJP government responsible for the death.
Two of the states most popular actors, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan also expressed grief over the incident. We need to ensure that no student should take such drastic step in the future. This is not the end. We will fight and win. We have to make our argument louder in court, Haasan told reporters on Friday.
Describing the incident as unfortunate, Rajinikanth tweeted: What has happened to Anitha is extremely unfortunate. My heart goes out to all the pain and agony she would have undergone before taking this drastic step. My condolences to her family. The protests over her death are also being seen in the context of growing anger in the state over what many see as the Centres anti-Tamil moves.
(With agency inputs)
To spice things up initially, there was that Freudian slip. Every citizen of Karnataka under the Siddaramaiah government should feel he wont go hungry. That is the vision of the Amma... Indira Canteen.
Clearly, even Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi couldnt forget the original recipe for the new Indira Canteens launched on August 16 in Bengaluru. In his inaugural address at the Jayanagar outlet, he accidentally mentioned the Amma Canteens in Tamil Nadu instead of Namma Canteens, the official name of the much-hyped project. More widely known as Indira Canteens, they provide food to the citys urban poor at extremely affordable rates.
There is no quarrel about the main ingredient: the idea is poached from the late TN chief minister J Jayalalithaas hugely popular, populist and successful Amma Canteens. Populist or not, everyone agrees that reaching food to the hungry is one of the basic responsibilities of a government.
Like their Tamil Nadu counterparts, Indira Canteens are mandated to provide hygienic, nutritious food such as idlis and rice dishes with the usual accompaniments to the urban poor; prices are as low as Rs 5 for breakfast and Rs 10 for lunch and dinner. Designed by a former Taj Group chef, the rotational menu has 25 items, which includes brinjal rice, sambar rice, pongal, khara bath, methi rice, and kesari bath as the lone sweet item.
Fast food, fast project
Launched under a tight deadline by the Congress government a day after Independence Day, there are currently 101 canteens running in Bengaluru, and 97 more set to be opened on Gandhi Jayanti on October 2. The goal is to have one in each of the 198 wards in the city, serving three meals a day to 300 to 400 people per meal. The governments subsidy is reportedly around Rs 32 across three meals that a citizen may eat per day.
With the project being rushed through, there have been some teething problems. Of the 27 centralised kitchens supposed to serve the canteens, only two are up and running. Consequently, delays abound at the canteens, leaving them short of food and tempers. And in the rush to launch, it turns out that they are currently operating without food safety licenses. Mayor G Padmavathi of the Congress party says that the project was completed, such as it is, on a very tight deadline of just 60 days.
Playing politics with food
So why the rush? Apparently it was timed to duck the model code of conduct, which bars political parties from undertaking public works six months before elections to negate vote inducement. Elections to the Karnataka Assembly are scheduled for April 2018. Chief minister Siddaramaiah reportedly allotted a budget of Rs 100 crore in March for the canteens and, according to Citizen Matters, their operational cost will go up to Rs 10 crore a month.
It is not just the ruling Congress that is wooing the electorate through its stomach. A fortnight before the launch of Indira Canteens, Janata Dal (S) MLA TA Saravana started his own self-financed Namma Appaji Canteen in Hanumanthanagar in honour of party stalwart Deve Gowda. Those who have checked it out vouch for its superior fare that also includes the iconic ragi mudde plus tea or coffee at a mere Rs 3.
Meanwhile, as Bengalureans satiate their hunger and curiosity at the Indira Canteens, they are aware of the governments hopes of electoral gains that social security measures like Amma Canteens brought Jayalalithaa. Back in 2013, the late chief minister had started 200 food courts (or Amma unavagams) in Chennai, followed by 10 canteens in each of the eight municipal corporations in Tamil Nadu, all staffed by womens self-help groups . Unlike Indira Canteens, the food is prepared onsite and is cheaper there: an idli for Rs 1, curd rice for Rs 3 and sambar rice for Rs 5. Jayalalithaas truly revolutionary project served nearly 10 percent of Tamil Nadus population, and 20 percent of the BPL population in Chennai. A significant percentage eats at the canteens five or even six days a week. These canteens were one of Jayalalithaas pet projects, and she ensured that they were always well supported and run. They remain a huge part of her legacy, one shes most fondly remembered for.
But will the Amma magic work in Karnataka? The timing is unabashed. As filmmaker Chaitanya KH observes, governments usually launch new welfare schemes in the initial and final years of their term (the first so that the people see immediate results upon having voted the party, and the latter to remind voters to favour them again). But the Congress may have done too little too late for this to translate into votes next year.
People wait to eat at a newly launched canteen in Bengaluru. Food here goes for as cheap as Rs 5 for breakfast, and Rs 10 for lunch and dinner.
Supriya Chowdhury, an urban policy researcher based in Bengaluru, points out that in Tamil Nadu, the Amma canteens were not a standalone project. They were part of a complete package of poverty alleviation programs on several fronts, including rural poverty. This included giving free rice to families, laptops and bicycles to schoolgirls, and labour-saving kitchen gadgets and machines to women. Chowdhury says, The Indira Canteens are clearly a standalone project, like a last-minute guess [by the Congress] of what can get votes. Its also come along too late to gain any real political purchase, and the Karnataka voter is too sophisticated not to see that this is just a populist standalone project, unlike Tamil Nadus. It would be naive of the party to think that one single political measure could get votes.
Does Bengaluru need them?
S Rajendran, professor of Economics at Periyar University in Tamil Nadu, agrees that this is clearly a politically motivated rather than a poverty-alleviating project. Urban workers in places like Bengaluru are comparatively prosperous and they earn enough to eat for the day. Such a project should really be aimed at those living below poverty line (BPL) in areas that face real poverty, and to those denied access to ration cards due to various reasons. Theres no doubt that Karnataka needs such a programme: there are many more people living BPL in Hubbali and Dharwad, not in Bengaluru and Mangaluru.
The weekly menu at Indira Canteens can be accessed through its app.
On the other hand, urban poverty poses uniquely different challenges than rural poverty. Kala Sreedharan, researcher in urban studies, points out, Urban poverty can be more difficult to tackle than rural poverty, because [the sufferers] have no food security. In rural areas, people can grow and eat their own food. These canteens will really help alleviate the food insecurity of Bengalurus urban poor.
Something sweet, something salty
But despite criticisms of unimaginative populism and electoral politics, many agree that this remains a worthy project: theres little to be said against providing food to the poor and hungry. As Chandan Gowda, columnist, professor and Kannada playwright, points out, it isnt really a handout: people still have to pay for the food, albeit at highly subsidised rates.
At present, the canteens across the city now serve about 300 customers per meal. Theres a palpable excitement, with people checking with each other if theyve visited their local canteen, having their repast under a gigantic image of the eponymous prime minister. The structures were pre-fabricated off-site under a collaboration of talent from India, Greece, Poland, Britain and Ireland, all from KEF Infra. The structures are small, elegant and designed to accommodate a moving crowd, with entrances and exits carefully placed opposite each other, but its questionable if they can, at one go, accommodate the maximum capacity of 400 people.
I tried to go to the Indira Hotel [sic] yesterday but it was too crowded. I waited for two hours in RT Nagar but then they told us they had run out of food. I wanted to try the sambar rice; if it was tasty it could be a daily lunch option for me, said Shiva, a driver based in Vasanthnagar.
While some argue that the canteens are more needed in rural areas, others say it is the urban poor who will be better serviced by such initiatives since, unlike their rural counterparts, they cant grow their own food.
But there are those who are grateful for a cheap and decent meal when a dish at a darshini, the generic name for a local fast food outlet, can cost at least four times that.
Citizens protests and concerns
In the midst of all the goodwill, there are the party-poopers. Various resident welfare associations (RWAs) have not been able to stomach the location of the canteens in their backyards, citing nuisance and garbage. The RWA of Jayanagar 9th Block East protested the felling of trees to host a canteen, while Tata Nagar residents heartburn was that the one in their ward was located in a park. Sarakki denizens, meanwhile, could not digest the quantities of wet waste generated by the canteens saying they were worried over improper disposal. While these are legitimate complaints, they are, as Gowda says, more managerial problems than opposition to the canteens themselves.
Kshitij Urs at Action Aid reflects that the objections could have class overtones. Hunger is a pressing issue. Its a lame and classist excuse to say the government doesnt have money earmarked to tackle food insecurity and poverty when so much more is allocated for its own PR campaigns.
It may be too early to tell if the Indira Canteens will bring the Congress the returns in the upcoming Assembly elections. But it is safe to say they are a step towards ensuring some level of food security in Bengaluru. Besides, as one customer Manjunath R puts it, They even serve pickles and three chutneys.
(Published in arrangement with GRIST Media)
Facing ridicule on social media platforms allegedly blaming holes dug by rats for the severity of floods i Bihar, water resources minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh, on Saturday, denied categorically he ever made such a claim.
All I said was we are facing the problem of seepage in the embankments due to rat holes, Singh said, insisting, that unprecedentedly heavy rainfall in Nepal caused flashfloods in northern districts of Bihar, claiming hundreds of lives and causing untold misery to the people.
Talking to newsmen here, the minister quoted various documents released by successive governments in the state and the centre, to show alerts had been issued to keep an eye on the rat holes, which might cause damage to embankments.
We faced this problem in the embankments on many rivers, especially Kamla Balan and accordingly we took measures to repair the damages, he said, sounding as if was reiterating his earlier claim that rat holes were to be blamed for damage to embankments.
The minister also requested media persons to visit the embankments to find the truth.
When asked to comment on RJD president Lalu Prasads statement that the government was primarily responsible for destruction in North Bihar, Singh said he did not find it wise to comment on non-serious conversation.
The minister said the water resources department was still seized with the flood problem, as water discharge in many rivers including the Gandak, was increasing. In view of the seriousness of the situation, principal secretary, WRD, Arun Kumar Singh, camped at Samastipur for 12 days. If needed, he may go there again to monitor the situation, he added.
Singh said owing to the heavy downpour, many rivers were in spade. The only grace was that the Ganga was under control, or else the situation would have been much serious, he added.
The minister said owing to strict vigil by the WRD field engineers, many embankments could be saved. For instance, he said, the swollen Gandak had menacingly attacked the Pipra-Piprasi embankment but it was because of the alertness of the engineers that the protective structure could be saved.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to induct a former diplomat, an ex-police commissioner and two former bureaucrats, indicating his focus on professionalism and administrative experience as he revamps his council of ministers with nine new faces on Sunday. (Highlights)
Modis ministerial team will include former representative to the United Nations Hardeep Puri, former Mumbai police commissioner Satya Pal Singh, ex-home secretary RK Singh, and former Delhi Development Authority Commissioner KJ Alphons, who was known as the Demolition Man of Delhi for acting against encroachments and unauthorised constructions.
They and five others will be sworn in by President Ram Nath Kovind at 10:30am in a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Sunday morning, which will mark the third rejig of Prime Minister Narendra Modis council of ministers since he took over three years ago. Their inclusion will take the strength of the Union council of ministers to 76. Ahead of the ceremony, the PM will meet the new ministers over breakfast.
The other inductees include Shiv Pratap Shukla from eastern UP, known as a detractor of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Ashwini Kumar Choubey from Bihar, Virendra Kumar, a Dalit leader from Madhya Pradesh, Anant Kumar Hegde from Karnataka, and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat from Rajasthan.
The JD(U), an NDA constituent that was tipped to get two ministerial berths, is unlikely to join the government in Sundays exercise.
The Shiv Sena, which has only one Cabinet minister at the Centre, objected to more representation being given to JD(U) unless it too got additional cabinet berths, said sources from the two regional parties.
Shiv Sena has 18 members in the Lok Sabha while the JD(U) has 2.
That the Prime Minister has put a premium on competence and efficiency in revamping his team is evident from the fact that he has not picked anybody from poll-bound Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, as was widely anticipated.
However, the selection of new ministers is not completely without political imprint. There seems to be an attempt to reach out to Brahmins after the exit of Kalraj Mishra from the Union Cabinet. While the new UP BJP chief, Mahendra Nath Pandey, is a Brahmin, the PM has picked up another from the community from UP, Shiv Pratap Shukla.
Similarly, the inclusion of Satya Pal Singh was also necessitated to make up for the exit of fellow Jat Sanjiv Kumar Balyan from the government.
With Vasundhara Raje government facing the ire of Rajputs in Rajasthan following the encounter of gangster Anandpal Singh recently, inclusion of Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is expected to mollify the community to some extent.
Induction of KJ Alphons in the Union government is also expected to boost the BJPs political prospects in Kerala.
But the larger message of Sundays revamp is a thrust on bringing efficiency and dynamism in the government and not political expediency. Hardeep Puri could probably be the first former diplomat who will join the Union council of ministers without a stint in politics.
The new ministers are going to be strategically placed in key ministries, especially focusing on last mile delivery directly to the people, said a government source.
It reinforces Modis team with the power of 4P for passion, proficiency, professional and political acumen, said the source.
Non-performance was said to be the reason for the resignation of most of the six ministers who put in their papers over the last few days Kalraj Mishra, Bandaru Dattatreya, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjiv Balyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahendra Nath Pandey.
Mishra, however, said on Saturday that he had crossed 76 years and so he himself wanted to be relieved of ministerial responsibility.
Some ministers of state with independent chargesPiyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Manoj Sinha, and Mukhtar Abbas Naqviare said to be in contention for promotion to a Cabinet rank on Sunday.
Important portfolios, held as additional charges by ministers, are also likely to be re-allocated. These include defence, railways, information and broadcasting, environment and forests, and urban development and housing.
(With inputs from HTC in Patna)
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has hand-picked nine new faces for his council of ministers, sources say, even as the re-allocation of some important portfolios are likely on Sunday. This is probably the last major revamp of Modis team ahead of the 2019 general elections. The new ministers will be sworn in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhawan, which will start at 10 am. The Prime Minister will leave for China to attend the BRICS summit Sunday afternoon.
Highlights of the day.
11:03pm: Swearing-in ceremony of new ministers of the Union government will take place at 10.30 am on Sunday, September 3, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, tweets @rashtrapatibhvn, the official handle of the President of India.
11:00pm: Shiv Pratap Shukla on his possible induction: I will believe the information to be authentic only when I get it from official sources.
10:25pm: Ashwini Kumar Choubey, another BJP leader who will likely take oath on Sunday, says he will try his best to honour the trust placed on him by PM Modi. Celebrations begin at his home in Delhi.
10:22pm: Gajendra S Shekhawat, who has reportedly been inducted into the Union cabinet, tells ANI: Want to thank PM that he trusted me with such a responsibility, its a chance to work for country.
10:00pm: BJPs Virendra Kumar says, I have always fulfilled responsibilities the party leadership gave me. He thanks PM Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and senior leaders after making the cut.
9:58pm: The inclusion of JD(U) would have been great. It would have helped Bihar, says JD(U) MP Kaushalendra Kumar. There was a buzz that the NDA partner will join the Union cabinet. But no one from the JD(U) has made the cut.
9:46pm: Sources said the new ministers are going to be strategically placed in key ministries, as PM Modi looks to deliver on his vision of a New India.
9:45pm: Sources said as a part of the restructuring exercise, six incumbent ministers have resigned and they will be freed up for taking on other responsibilities.
9:40pm: Satya Pal Singh tells ANI: I have not been officially informed, but whatever is party and PMs decision I am ready for it.
9:12pm: The new ministers --- Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Lok Sabha MP from Rajasthans Jodhpur; Satya Pal Singh, LS MP from Uttar Pradeshs Baghpat; Alphons Kannanthanam, a distinguished former IAS officer of the 1979 batch, Kerala cadre.
9:11pm: The new ministers --- Raj Kumar Singh, Lok Sabha MP from Bihars Arrah; Hardeep Singh Puri, a decorated former IFS officer.
9:10pm: The new ministers --- Virendra Kumar (SC), Lok Sabha MP from Madhya Pradeshs Tikamgah; Anantkumar Hegde, Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka.
9:09pm: The new ministers --- Pratap Shukla, Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh; Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Lok Sabha MP from Bihars Buxar.
9:07pm: The Modi government picks nine new ministers, say sources.
8:20pm: Andhra Pradesh BJP president Khari Babu is likely to join the Union cabinet, say media reports.
8:01pm: Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan reaches BJP president Amit Shahs residence in Delhi.
8:00pm: The Congress has raised questions on whether the ministers who may be removed or have resigned have any link to corruption cases that are being probed, PTI reports. It has also accused the Centre of being selective and opportunistic in dealing with opposition leaders under investigation in corruption cases . The Prime Minister and the government of India must share the names and departments of persons who have been specifically named, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi tells reporters.
7:45pm: Nitin Gadkari tells ANI that it is PM Modis prerogative who should be given what responsibility. He is the one to decide...
7:15pm: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) says that the cabinet reshuffle is completely meaningless as it is just a game to divert the publics mind from the failure of demonetisation. The cabinet reshuffle is completely meaningless. It is like musical chairs. After the failure of demonetisation, the general mood in the country is that this government has miserably failed. They want to divert attention from this. And, that is why they are playing the game of Cabinet reshuffle, party general secretary Sitaram Yechury tells ANI.
5:06pm: We have no information...We got information only from media, news agency ANI quotes Bihar CM Nitish Kumar as saying. Kumar was talking about the cabinet reshuffle.
Earlier, sources in Kumars JD(U) told PTI that they had not been informed about their participation in the government. Our MPs are in Delhi. There was never any issue in the party over participating in the government but there has been no communication to us even though the reshuffle is tomorrow, a senior JD(U) leader says.
4:00pm: Meanwhile, theres uncertainty over the participation of the AIADMK and the JD(U) in the Union cabinet. Internal troubles in the AIADMK, which has been hit by a rebellion led by TTV Dinakaran, can prove to be a stumbling block in its joining the government, reports ANI.
3:45pm: NDA partner Shiv Sena has not received any communication from the BJP over the inclusion of its members in the Union cabinet, party chief Uddhav Thackeray says. I have got news about the Cabinet expansion only from media. I have not enquired about it (from the central BJP leadership). I have neither received any communication from anybody nor are we hungry for power, Thackeray tells reporters in Mumbai.
2:26pm: Union minister of micro, small and medium enterprises Kalraj Mishra too has resigned ahead of Sundays cabinet reshuffle. Mishra, 77, says he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and gave his resignation. He claimed the Prime Minister told him that his performance in the ministry was good. So the question of non-performance does not arise in my case, he tells the media.
Labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya resigned on Friday, adding to the list of ministers who have put in their papers in the past forty-eight hours to make way for new faces. The ministers who have already resigned include minister of state Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who held independent charge of skill development ministry.
1:20pm: Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad tells ANI: If reshuffling is happening on the basis of work, then Prime Minister Modi should be included in this. Because Prime Minister Modis work was the worst be it promises on employment, farmers, law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir, or demonetization.
Why the reshuffle
In rejigging his team, Modi is expected to strike a balance between his agenda of governance by plugging gaps in terms of competence and dynamism in his council of ministers and political expediency by giving representation to about half-a-dozen states going to polls by the end of 2018 and reflecting the ruling partys new social engineering formula.
BJP sources said he is likely to put a premium on performance in the re-allocation of portfolios, as was the hint from the list of ministers who were asked to put in their papers.
Of the 73 members of the Union council of ministers, at least eight are likely to be edged out. There can be a maximum of 81 members, which gives the Prime Minister the option of inducting at least 15 new faces in the government. He is, however, unlikely to fill up all vacancies.
Modi and BJP president Amit Shah met on Thursday evening and the two were understood to have discussed the names that could be considered for induction. The JD(U), which joined the NDA recently, is likely to get two ministerial berths.
Important portfolios
Some important portfolios, held as additional charges by ministers, are likely to be re-allocated. Finance minister Arun Jaitley, for instance, holds the additional charge of defence ministry. Asked about this dual charge at a function on Thursday evening, Jaitley said, At least, I hope, not very long.
Suresh Prabhu offered to quit as railway minister after a train accident last week. The PM has asked him to wait. There is an old proposal to integrate infrastructure ministries including road transport & highways, shipping and the railways.
The PM has not given any indication whether the proposal is back on his table, but BJP sources did not rule out its possibility.
The other ministries given to four ministers as additional charge are information and broadcasting, environment and forests, and urban development and housing.
There was speculation in the ruling party circles about the likelihood of Smriti Irani retaining I&B ministry but HT could not independently confirm it.
(With agency inputs)
Until a few years ago, not many could have believed that IT workers in Indias Silicon Valley would ever need to visit the Labour Commissioners office in central Bengaluru. But today, software professionals with employment-related grievances are regular visitors here.
They dress alike (jeans, T-shirt, backpack), stand in a huddle and look around nervously. Sunil Kumar, a 38-year-old software developer with nine years of experience didnt know a thing about workers rights until 24 April.
Three days after he was promoted as project manager at Tech Mahindra, he got a call from his HR manager informing me that the company didnt have any project that required my skills. I was told it was in my best interest to resign.
Highlights On 20 August, 200 software professionals in Bengaluru formed Indias newest trade union for IT industry, called Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union. In Bengaluru, FITE, which has 3,000 members, has filed 20 petitions at the labour commission challenging forced terminations. In Chennai, NDLF-IT, which has 1,000 members, has filed a petition at the labour commission on behalf of 75 Wipro employees. 1,600 petitions have been filed so far at Hyderabads labour commission by various unions. In March, a labour court in Hyderabad reversed the forced resignations of eight employees of Cognizant and ordered the company to give them another chance.
Like dozens of his colleagues who had faced a similar fate recently, Kumar reached out to the local unit of the Forum for IT Employees (FITE), a union mobilising employees in IT hubs such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune against forceful resignations and unfair terminations.
Beginning 2017, a number of IT majors, including Wipro, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Tech Mahindra, have shed thousands of workers across India. The largescale axing comes in response to a shift in the global market for software services, including automation, a transition from back-office programming to cloud computing and the new outsourcing policies of the US government.
According to a report in livemint.com, seven of Indias biggest IT companies including Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant plan to lay off 56,000 engineers this year. Employment solutions companies expect an annual layoff of 200,000 jobs over the next three years. A McKinsey report says nearly half of the IT services workforcethe $150 billion industry employs 3.9 million peoplewill be irrelevant over the next three or four years.
Faced with shrinking options, a section of IT workers are forming unions, poring over labour laws and making the rounds of government offices, courts and ministries. I dont know much about labour laws, says Sunil Kumar, waiting his turn outside the commissioners office for the fifth time in three months. But I am ready to go to the high court. The company has to take me back or give me a compensation for life.
Since March, 31-year-old Rajesh Natarajan, the Bengaluru coordinator for FITE, has received an average of 50 calls every day from IT workers anxious about their future. A product tester at a software company, Natarajan has to step away from his desk to take these calls. Why bother when he still has a job? For the future of the community. A job that took 50 people five years ago takes five people today. I know I wont have a job in five years.
IT professionals have remained outside the purview of labour laws such as the Factories Act, Industrial Disputes Act and certain state-specific regulations because these cater only to the rights of workmen or those without any executive powers. But in hearing after hearing at labour commissions and courts, IT unions are challenging its fairness, arguing that the impacted workers merely carried out tasks they were asked to do. If we are not workmen, then what are we? asks Natarajan.
However, not many are sympathetic to their plight. I will never take up their case, said Umesh GN, a labour lawyer in Bengauru. They didnt care about anyone else when they were earning salaries of Rs 2 lakh a month. Some point to the irony that their jobs came at the cost of livelihoods in countries such as the United States.
Their fight isnt altogether doomed, though. In July, Hyderabads high court asked Tech Mahindra to explain the illegal terminations of four employees. For Lokesh Vasana, one of the four, the high courts notice is the first instance of validation in months. Forget rent; my 6-month-old son has been down with dengue and my family suddenly has no health insurance.
For the Forum of IT professionals (FITP), a city-based union that made the appeal under the Shops and Establishments Act that prohibits termination of an employee while their case is in a labour court, its victory. We are more hopeful about the 70 petitions we have filed at the labour commission, said Kiran Chandra, the coordinator for FITP. More people are coming forward.
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Retired bureaucrats have got top billing in the Union cabinet with two former administrative service officers Delhis demolition man K J Alphons and Union home secretary RK Singh and ex-Mumbai commissioner Satyapal Singh to be sworn-in as ministers on Sunday.
The government on Saturday announced nine names for inclusion in the council of ministers after six ministers had resigned. In all, there are 14 vacancies in the council. PM Narendra Modi has chosen professionals with experience of the government functioning over politicians in probably the NDAs last reshuffle before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
KJ Alphons, 1979 batch IAS officer, is considered an urban affairs expert, as he got the nick-name demolition man for removing encroachments in the national capital when he was Delhi Development Authority commissioner and improving urban spaces in Kottayam, Kerala. Before joining BJP, he had a frosty relation with the CPI(M) in Kerala. In 2006, he quit civil service and won from Christian-dominated Kanjirapally assembly segment as the CPI(M) backed independent candidate. However, he quit the party five years down the line and joined the BJP. Politically, he tried to bridge the communication gap between the RSS and the Christians.
Unlike Alphons, a 1975 batch IAS officer and former home secretary R K Singh, joined the BJP just before 2014 general elections and won from Arrah in Bihar.
Before his tryst with politics, Singh was home secretary for two years (2011-2013). He did not enjoy cordial relation with the then home minister and Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde, who had reportedly chided Singh for handling of protest after 2016 Delhi gang rape case.
Singhs first brush with BJP was in 1990 when he was Samastipurs district collector. Then Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad had asked him to stop Lal Krishan Advanis Somnath to Ayodhya rath yatra. Singh arrested Advani giving construction of Ram temple a new momentum.
Singh caught partys attention when he expressed his unhappiness over ticket distribution in 2015 Bihar polls saying criminals have been nominated.
Satyapal Singh, 61, is known more as tough Mumbais former commissioner, who took early retirement to join BJP a year before 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He turned out to be giant killer as he defeated RLD chief Ajit Singh from his bastion Bhagpat in western Uttar Pradesh. Weeks after being appointed to head a special investigation team constituted by the Gujarat high court in June 2011 to probe Isharat Jahan encounter case, Singh quit citing differences with other two members of the team. An IPS officer of the Maharashtra cadre, Singh once described himself as biggest goonda of Mumbai.
(With inputs from Ramesh Babu in Trivandaram and Surendra P Gagan in Mumbai.)
The family of a girl, who was living in the Dera Sacha Sauda complex in Sirsa, has claimed that she has been missing after the rape conviction of sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim.
The family from Haryanas Tiwala claimed that they had not been in touch with Shraddha since 2008.
Her cousin Parminder Singh said the last time they got information about her was from a Dera-run magazine which described her as a yoga practitioner.
The family along with other villagers are making frantic efforts to trace her in Sirsa.
The caretaker of Sahe Baitiyan Baseeras (home for minor girls), Poonam, said she left the Dera after the sects head was convicted, Singh said, adding that he tried to get in touch with other officials of the Dera.
Ram Rahim was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping two of his female disciples by a special CBI court on August 28.
Shraddha was left in the Dera to pursue her education long time back. In 2008, we tried to meet her, but we were not allowed by the Dera functionaries, he alleged.
I tried to contact the officials of the Dera on their mobile numbers, but it was futile, he said, adding that as the area around the sects headquarter was still under curfew, it was difficult to get inside.
Sources said that around 29 minor girls were in the Dera-run Sahe Baitiyan Baseera.
Eighteen girls, all of whom are minors, said that they were happy and did not want to come out. However, we persuaded the Dera management, and with their help brought them out, Sirsa deputy commissioner Prabhjot Singh had said earlier.
The girls were sent to juvenile homes at different locations, including Sonipat, in Haryana, officials said.
The girls said they were happy and safe inside. We found them in a healthy condition, the deputy commissioner had said.
Like Shraddhas family, relatives of Suchaitana and Aapar from Delhi are also eagerly waiting their return.
The Sirsa district administration is also arranging transport for followers of the Dera to return home.
Forty-one people died and several were injured in incidents of violence in Panchkula and Sirsa districts of Haryana after the conviction of the Dera chief.
Dr Kafeel Khan, a Gorakhpur doctor blamed for the death of 30 children at a state-run hospital in Uttar Pradesh last month, was arrested on Saturday from the house of his in-laws where he was allegedy hiding, police said.
Khan is among seven people named in a case registered over the death of the 30 children within 48 hours at the BRD Medical College on August 10-11.
He was allegedly absconding since the police registered a case over the incident which triggered nationwide outrage and exposed the grim healthcare scenario in India.
Khan was suspended along with former principal RK Mishra and five others.
He was picked up by a team of the special task force (STF) from his in-laws house located in a rural part of Gorakhpur, said Manoj Tiwari, STFs senior superintendent of police.
He said Khan, who was traced through electronic surveillance, was handed over to Gorakhpur police who are investigating the case.
The 30 deaths are among 418 reported from the Gorakhpur hospital in August and more than 1100 casualties since January, the highest ever.
The 30 deaths over two days were attributed to shortage of oxygen after a private company cut supply over a payment dispute.
The government, however, attributes the deaths to Japanese encephalitis and acute encephalitis syndrome which ravage several states during the monsoons.
Khan was in-charge of the encephalitis war of the hospital when the deaths occurred.
He was arrested a day after a police team visited his residence in Gorakhpur and served a 24-hour deadline to appear for questioning. Police had also threatened to declare him an absconder.
In all, seven officials and employees have been suspended so far in connection with the deaths.
Immediately after the deaths were reported, Khan was hailed as a saviour of children but later he was portrayed as villain for his private practice and an alleged old case of rape against him.
Kafeel said he saved lives by arranging over 250 cylinders in 24 hours.
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I am going back to Sikhism, said Manjit Singh, a 29-year-old follower of the Dera Sacha Sauda in southern Punjab who is disturbed by Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singhs conviction for raping two disciples 15 years ago.
A Dalit man who operates a bus stand in Salabatpura, Singh joined the sect two years ago, guided by the noble things he had heard about it. I heard how it rids people of alcoholism, meat consumption, arranges weddings for poor women. So, I started to visit the Dera. I began to like Baba jis preaching, said Singh, who was himself an alcoholic before he took on the surname Insan.
Some friends used to talk about these cases against him, but every time I saw Baba ji, I thought those were complete lies. Now, Singh said he saw truth in the charges. This morning, I read in the newspaper that 18 girls have been rescued from the Sirsa Dera and sent for medical examination. Vishwas uth gaya hai (I have lost my faith in him). I cant trust a godman again. On August 29, the Akal Takht invited the predominantly Dalit followers of the Dera Sacha Sauda, who have long been marginalised by mainstream Sikhism, back into its fold.
Since the day of Singhs conviction when thousands of his angry supporters ran riot across Punjab and Haryana, the young, male mob has become the face of a sect that claims a following of 60 million. While many Dera followers remain loyal to the 70-year-old institution because of its place in their social and economic lives, some feel confused or conflicted in the face of their leaders disgrace. There are a number of factors that attracted people to Singhs cult; their reactions to his fall are equally diverse.
It was after I saw a film of his the one in which he plays an adivasi in Chhattisgarh that I became inspired to follow him, said 21-year-old Pooja Insan, who was leaving the sects Sirsa headquarters on August 30 with her mother at the urging of Haryana police. Enraptured by Singhs larger-than-life movie persona in MSG 2, Pooja persuaded her mother to travel from their home in Rohtak to the Deras Sirsa estate within days of the films release in 2015. We felt so good. We were first given the naam (Insan), then there was a satsang and dance performances by children. Since then, she has visited the Dera at least once a month. Now headed back home, Pooja and her mother said they didnt know if they were ever coming back.
We didnt know anything about the rape charges. We have never spent a night inside the Dera. We dont want to be a part of any controversy, she said.
Ramji Insaan, a 35-year-old engineer, isnt a recent follower. Like most Dalit families in Bajeka village of Haryana, he has followed the sect since its founding in 1946. I took the name 15 years ago. The Dera is a big part of the villages life. Hundreds of young men are employed by it. Since August 25, the day of Singhs conviction by a CBI court, though, most of them have been avoiding the subject.
We are waiting and watching, said Ramji, playing cards with his friends under a shed in the village. Asked if he is going to return to the Dera for the usual satsang, he said, Abhi kuch nahi kah sakte. Aage dekhenge (Cant say anything now, will see how things go).
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Nearly 50 BJP workers on Saturday joined the Congress in the presence of the Leader of Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh assembly, Ajay Singh, at Kandhwar in Sidhi district.
Kandhwar is in Singhs assembly constituency, Churhat.
The Congress leader claimed that workers of the ruling party were feeling suffocated and had lost faith in it.
Pooh-poohing the BJPs claims of development, he said at the ground level happiness and development are totally missing.
People were looking for a change as their faith in the saffron party was fast eroding, he claimed.
A five-year-old Pakistani girl was killed on Saturday after she was hit in the head by a bullet fired by Indian troops across the border, officials said.
The incident took place in Polas village at Abbaspur sector on the Line of Control, the de facto border dividing Kashmir between nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India.
A five-year-old girl was walking outside her house when a lone bullet fired by Indian troops pierced through her head, local government official Tahir Mumtaz told AFP.
The girl was rushed to hospital but died on the way, he said, adding that villagers held a protest rally and condemned the firing on the day they were celebrating Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice.
Another government official Sardar Sajid confirmed the casualty.
Kashmir has been divided between Indian and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947. Both claim the territory in full.
The neighbours regularly exchange mortar fire across the border despite signing a ceasefire in 2003.
Tensions reached dangerous levels last September, with both sides blaming one another for cross-border raids.
There have since been repeated outbreaks of firing across the frontier, with both sides reporting deaths and injuries including of civilians.
In November, at least nine people were killed when Indian cross-border fire hit a passenger bus in the Neelum Valley, the same region where four Pakistani troops were allegedly killed.
A mob set ablaze three houses belonging to a Muslim man who allegedly slaughtered cows on Eid ul-Adha in Jharkhands Giridh district on Saturday, about 185 kilometers from capital Ranchi, police said.
Tension simmered in the twin villages of Naitand and Bariabad villages of the district on Saturday after Rahman Mians houses in Naitand were gutted. Extra security forces were deployed at the spot soon after the incident to prevent the tension from snowballing into a conflagration. Four villagers sustained minor injuries in the clashes, police said.
Cops from the local police station doused the fire and sought reinforcement from the district police.
Rahman had allegedly slaughtered three cows in the morning near his residence for distribution among the local members of the Muslim community, police said.
Giridih superintendent of police Akhilesh B Variar told Hindustan Times that the police also recovered heaps of bovine meat and heads of cows from Rahmans residence.
Rahman fled fearing an assault by the mob and is still absconding, police said.
The situation is under control. However, our men are deployed in the area as a precautionary measure, Variar said.
Police have arrested six people so far. Variar and Giridih deputy commissioner Uma Shankar Singh are camping at the village.
Days before Eid, the BJP government in Jharkhand had issued an advertisement for the public highlighting the prohibition on slaughtering bovine animals in the state under various laws. It also warned offenders of dire legal consequences.
The Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, introduced in 2005 by a previous BJP government, prohibits slaughter or sacrifice of cows and calves.
On June 27, a frenzied mob of nearly 1000 people comprising villagers and members of cow a vigilante group assaulted a Muslim dairy owner Usman Ansari, 55, and set his house ablaze after a headless carcass of a cow was found near his house. Ansari and his family were rescued by the police which had to fire in the air to disperse the armed mob.
Meanwhile, several members of the Muslim community offered Eid namaz wearing black badges in parts of Giridih to protest seizure of camels smuggled from Rajasthan for sacrifice during Eid.
The state government here had also prohibited camel sacrifice citing clauses under the Food Safety and Standards Act.
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Days after Indian and China disengaged from over two month long military stand-off in the Sikkim sector, the Indian and Nepali armies are set to begin a joint exercise from Sunday.
Joint military exercise, Surya Kiran, being held at Nepal Army Battle School at Saljhandi, will have around 350 troops from each side, focussing on counter-insurgency and counter-terror operations.
To be held from September 3 to 16, it is the 12th edition of the exercise.
According to Indian Army officials, among the series of military training exercises undertaken with different countries, Surya Kiran is the largest in terms of troop participation.
The battalion level joint training between the two armies will focus on counter terror operations in mountainous terrain by facilitating interoperability. Disaster management and joint operations for disaster relief will also be a part of the exercise.
Surya Kiran series of exercises are held alternately in India and Nepal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said he is looking forward to productive discussions at the BRICS summit, which is set to start in Xiamen, China, from Sunday.
In a statement posted on Facebook and Twitter, the Prime Minister also mentioned his visit to Myanmar after the BRICS summit, and hoped it would deepen bilateral cooperation.
Prime Minister Modi will be in China for the BRICS summit from September 3-5, and will be in Myanmar from September 5-7.
India had the privilege of hosting the previous Summit in Goa in October last year. I look forward to building upon the results and outcomes of the Goa Summit. I also look forward to productive discussions and positive outcomes that will support the agenda of a stronger BRICS partnership under the chairmanship of China, Modi said.
We will also interact with the BRICS Business Council represented by captains of industry from all five countries. In addition, I look forward to engaging with leaders of nine other countries, including BRICS partners, in an Emerging Markets and Developing Countries Dialogue, hosted by President Xi Jinping on September 5, the Prime Minister said.
Modi said he will also meet leaders bilaterally on the sidelines of the summit.
Modi is likely to have a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit, which comes shortly after a period of increased tension following a two-and-half month long standoff between their forces in Doklam, along the Sikkim border, and a scuffle between their troops in Ladakh on August 15.
India attaches high importance to the role of BRICS that has begun a second decade of its partnership for progress and peace. BRICS has important contributions to make in addressing global challenges and upholding world peace and security, Modi said.
In another post he mentioned his visit to Myanmar, and said he is looking forward to meeting President U Htin Kyaw as also foreign affairs minister Aung San Suu Kyi.
Modi said during the visit, the two sides will review developments in bilateral relations, especially the extensive programme of development cooperation and socio-economic assistance that India is undertaking in Myanmar. New areas to work together will also be explored.
We will also look at strengthening our existing cooperation on security and counter-terrorism, trade and investment, skill development, infrastructure and energy, and culture, Modi said.
The Prime Minister added he is looking forward to visiting the famed heritage city of Bagan, where the Archaeological Survey of India has renovated the Ananda Temple, and will be undertaking further restoration work on a number of pagodas and murals that were damaged in last years earthquake.
I will end my visit in Yangon, where I look forward to visiting various historical spots that symbolise the shared heritage of India and Myanmar. I am also keen to meet and interact with the Indian-origin community of Myanmar, whose history goes back more than a century, he said.
I am confident that the visit will open a bright new chapter in India-Myanmar relations and will help in charting a roadmap for closer cooperation between our governments, our business communities and at the people-to-people level, Modi added.
The ruling CPI(M) in Tripura has decided to project Manik Sarkar as its chief ministerial candidate for the state assembly polls due in February 2018, a party leader said here on Saturday.
Sarkar, 68, who has been chief minister of Tripura for 19 years, is a politburo member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
Sarkar was reluctant to seek re-election but agreed following a party decision, CPI(M) state scretary Bijan Dhar told the media.
He will be the chief ministerial candidate of the Left Front for the next state assembly elections, Dhar said.
Manik Sarkar will contest the polls, win and will be the next chief minister, said Dhar, also a CPI(M) Central Committee member.
Political circles feel that due to Sarkars clean image, efficiency and performance, the ruling Left stands a strong chance to win the polls in the state.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has replaced Congress as the main opposition and is making all out efforts to capture power in Tripura.
Unlike previous elections, early announcement of the Left Fronts chief ministerial candidate is also an electoral strategy.
The Left has been in power in the state since 1978, except for five years from 1988 to 1992 - when a Congress-led alliance was in power in Tripura.
Speaking about the partys decision to not nominate general secretary Sitaram Yechury to the Rajya Sabha for a third term, Dhar said it was done as the party decided not to take any electoral support from the Congress or have any alliance with that party.
Thats why the party did not take support from the Congress to win the Rajya Sabha seat for Yechury in West Bengal, he said.
He also slammed the opposition parties, especially the BJP, for targetting Manik Sarkar.
The opposition parties, especially the BJP, have no major issues to counter the Left parties with in Tripura, and thats why they are spreading personal slanderous facts against Manik Sarkar as he is the main leader of CPI-M and other Left parties.
A confident Dhar said that the Left Front would return to power for the eighth term.
He said the Left has always remained with the people. It has used the benefits of being in the government to expand the party base and organising successful mass movements on various issues.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sprang a surprise on Saturday, picking former diplomat Hardeep Singh Puri and his governments first minister from Kerala in the latest round of cabinet reshuffle. The two are among nine new ministers who will take oath on Sunday, sources said.
The profiles of the new ministers show that Modi has picked his colleagues from a wide range of experiences and political backgrounds to help the government focus more on the last-mile delivery of schemes and policies, the sources added.
The BJPs allies didnt figure in the rejig.
The government is yet to announce the portfolios of the new ministers and changes, if any, in those of the existing ministers. In the run up to the reshuffle, six ministers have resigned so far. Heres a look at the nine new ministers:
Hardeep Singh Puri (Age: 65)
The 1974 batch Indian Foreign Services officers career spanned over 40 years. He was the permanent representative of India to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013. He was also Indias ambassador to Brazil and the United Kingdom. Like many other BJP leaders, Puri too, was active during the JP movement. He studied at The Hindu College, Delhi.
Alphons Kannanthanam (Age: 64)
The first Malayali face of the Modi government was best known as the demolition man, when he headed the Delhi Development Authority. The 1979 batch of the IAS, Kerala cadre, was born in a non-electrified village.
Satyapal Singh (Age: 61)
The former Mumbai Police commissioner is a first-time MP. He fought from Uttar Pradeshs Baghpat, where he was born. The giant-killer he defeated RLD leader Ajit Singh -- is credited with taking on organised crime syndicates in Mumbai. An MSc and MPhil in Chemistry, Singh also has a PhD in Naxalism.
Shiv Pratap Shukla (Age: 65)
The Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh was in state assembly for four consecutive terms. He began his political career as a student leader in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and was a UP minister for eight years. During the Emergency, Shukla was imprisoned under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA).
Ashwini Kumar Choubey (Age: 64)
Ghar - Ghar me ho Shouchalaya ka nirman, Tabhi hoga Ladli Bitiya ka Kanyadaan was a famous slogan by Choubey, a Lok Sabha MP from Bihars Buxar and a former health minister of the state. Choubey has been elected for five consecutive terms to the Bihar assembly. He played an active role in the JP movement in the 1970s.
Anantkumar Hegde (Age: 49)
He is a five-time Lok Sabha MP from Uttara Kannada in Karnataka and practices taekwondo, the Korean martial art. In 2016, Hegde was booked by the Karnataka police for hate speech. He got elected for the first time when he was just 28 years old.
Raj Kumar Singh (Age: 64)
He is a Lok Sabha MP from Arrah in Bihar. Singh is a former IAS officer of the 1975 batch, Bihar cadre. He is a former home secretary.
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Age: 49)
He is a Lok Sabha MP from Jodhpur. Shekhawat is known for being social media-savvy, with thousands of followers on blogging website Quora.
Virendra Kumar (Age: 63)
Virendra Kumar is a Lok Sabha MP from Tikamgah in Madhya Pradesh. He is another minister with political connections rooted in the JP movement. He has a PhD in Child Labour.
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A Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant, allegedly involved in the abduction and killing of an army officer in May, was gunned down in an early morning encounter in south Kashmirs Kulgam on Saturday.
Police have identified the militant as Ishfaq Ahmad Padder, a resident of Manchewa Yaripora area of Kulgam district. A terrorist killed during an encounter in Tantray Pora village of Kulgam district was involved in the brutal killing of 22-year-old army officer Umar Fayaz in Shopian, a police spokesperson said, adding that one AK 47 rifle, two AK 47 magazines, 42 AK 47 rounds were seized from the slain terrorist.
Lt Fayaz, a native of Kulgam district, had gone to attend the wedding of cousin in an adjacent village in Shopian district when he was abducted and killed by militants, triggering widespread condemnation.
Police said that Padder was also involved in bank robberies at Kader branches of J-K Bank and Ellaquai Dehati Bank and a firing incident on police station in Yaripora.
The killing of Padder comes hours after one policeman was killed and three others were injured when militants attacked one of their vehicles in Srinagar outskirts late on Friday evening.
The LeT had claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to the police, a joint team of Police Kulgam and 62 Rashtriya Rifles laid an ambush to trap Padder after receiving specific intelligence inputs.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, clashes between youth and security forces erupted at many places across Kashmir after Eid prayers.
Separatist leader and Valleys head priest, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, tweeted that it has been seven years since he was allowed by the authorities to lead Eid prayers.
He addressed a gathering at Srinagar grand mosque, Jamia Masjid, over phone.
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A BJP Lok Sabha member from Maharashtra said Narendra Modi does not like being questioned on the governments plans from his own party colleagues, the first time a sitting parliamentarian from the party has openly criticised the Prime Minister.
Nana Patole, MP from Gondia-Bhandara, launched a salvo at the PM during a function on Friday where he said Modi once got angry at him for raising issues such as problems being faced by farmers during a meeting of parliamentarians.
In the meeting, he said, he had made suggestions such as raising green tax, increasing centres investment in agriculture sector and creating an OBC ministry but instead of appreciating his suggestions, Modi got angry and asked him to shut up.
When the Prime minister is asked questions, he asks you if you have read the party manifesto and are aware of various government schemes, he said.
Patole is seen to be unhappy with the party for hobnobbing with the senior NCP leader Praful Patel, his arch-rival in the region. A former Congress legislator, he joined the BJP during the 2014 general elections and defeated Patel from Gondia-Bhandara constituency.
The state BJP chief did not comment on Patoles statements, maintaining that any action against the MP would need to come from the central leadership of the party.
Defending his outburst, Patole said on Saturday, I know that I am in the hit list of the party. But I hardly bother about it. I am not scared of anyone. I did not wish to be a minister because the union ministers live in a state of fear.
In his tirade the day before, Patole was unsparing in his criticism of not just Modi but also chief minister Devendra Fadavis.
He said Fadnavis had failed to handle mass protests by farmers properly, and did not pursue the matter with the union government effectively.
Lot of irrigation projects in backward Vidarbha region were pending because of lack of funds. But the state government miserably failed to pursue the issue with the union government, he said.
He added that only Nagpur, Fadnaviss constituency, gets funding.
When Nagpur is getting a metro rail and new industries, waters of Bhandara and neighbouring areas were being polluted.
Justifying the statements, Sanjay Pugalia, a trusted lieutenant of Patole, said that whatever the BJP leader said was the harsh reality that no one from within the party wants to say it in public.
But Sudhir Munganttiwar, a senior state minister, disagreed and said he has good experience with Modi. In fact the Prime Minister Modi gives chances to party workers to speak and he always tries to understand the issue, he added.
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The medical examination of rape victims is not conducted in consonance with guidelines set by the health ministry, a study has claimed while calling for proper training of personnel for carrying out such exams.
The study was conducted by an NGO Partners For Law in Development with support from the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice and UNDP (United Nations Development Programme).
The study also found that some victims experienced obstacles and harassment from the police in registering FIRs.
A copy of the FIR is not immediately available, but is dispatched later to the victims. Often, victims have to keep following up to obtain a copy, said the report.
The report also said that medical examinations were not carried out within the guidelines set by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
Consent is not formally taken and signatures and thumb impressions are often taken at a later stage, it said.
It recommended that only those garments that were connected with the crime must be taken for purposes of forensic examination.
The report also stressed on the need for victim-witness protection from the accused and their relatives.
The prosecutrix is shielded from the accused within court by way of in-camera trials, and there is a screen to shield her from intimidation by the accused during trial, it said.
However, it said that there is a need for victim-witness protection outside court premises, where the accused and their relatives continue to have access to the victim, and within the court precincts in waiting areas, it highlighted.
Many of the times, the victims are not aware of their right to avail compensation.
The report called for setting up of an independent specialised agency to provide comprehensive support services to the victims.
It also observed that the statutory stipulation of concluding trials within a period of two months is neither realistic nor conducive to fair trial rights of the accused.
As far as possible, proceedings should be conducted on a day-to-day basis. Courts can consider blocking consecutive dates to complete the deposition of a witness, and then resuming after a few months when the next set of dates are available, it stressed.
It also observed that delays occur in receipt of Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) reports and increasing case load.
The report observed the trial of 16 cases in four fast track courts in Delhi.
All the cases that were part of the study related to rapes by acquaintances, a category under which most rape cases fall in India and globally, the report said.
Sikh militants are getting more support from across the border to foment trouble in Kashmir and other parts of the county, suggest fresh inputs from intelligence agencies to the foreign policy establishment.
Pakistan establishment supporting the Sikh militants have long remained a bone of contention between the two neighbours, with Islamabad often denying its involvement.
But Indian agencies consistently pointed the number of Sikh militants taking refuge in Pakistan. The fresh inputs show support for Manjit Singh, leader of Khalistan Zinadabad Force (KZF). The intelligence inputs say this outfit is getting more active in South Kashmir and Kathua region of the state and in Punjab. Sikh radical elements sheltered in Pakistan are engaged in anti-India activities such as providing financial support to terror activities.
Sikh extremists leaders based in Pakistan belonging to Babbar Khalsa International , KZF, Khalistan Commando Force (KCF), International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) are getting help for making trouble in India.
The issue of terrorism and New Delhi accusing Islamabad for using terrorism as an instrument of state policy has time and again came in the way of two sides going back to the talking table to bring a new lease of life to their fragile peace process under the NDA government.
At the same time, Pakistan has stepped up its rhetoric on Kashmir, which coincides with Indian efforts on what officials say: Pakistan is not a victim of terrorism. Though India has scored many points over this, the recent statements from China and the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, have termed Pakistan as a victim of terror. But an Indian official said that calling Pakistan a victim of terror amounts to missing the woods for the trees.
The terrorism that Pakistan suffers from is self-inflicted. The terrorism that is inflicted on India comes from across the border and it is exported. Pakistan uses terrorism as an instrument of state policy, from support to Kashmiri groups to promoting specific groups against India to helping Sikh militants, this policy is evident, said the official.
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The three-day BRICS summit is set to begin on Sunday in Chinas southwestern city of Xiamen where Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are likely to meet on the sidelines.
Although economic, security and other multilateral issues will figure in the annual meet of the five-member grouping, a probable one-on-one between Modi and Xi will be a focal point, especially after the protracted military standoff along the Sino-India border in Doklam.
Since the (Doklam) dispute has been resolved, the Xiamen meeting (bilateral meet between Modi and Xi) will be a turning point, Wang Dehua, an expert at one of Chinas top think tanks the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told IANS.
Read more: Cant divulge what PM Modi will speak at BRICS summit: MEA
Wang, who was one of the Chinese experts threatening India with war during the standoff at Doklam, said there was no reason for India and China to be hostile to each other.
I always advocate Chindia which is integration of China and India. I think it is a turning point. If we work together, the world will listen to us, Wang said.
The troops of India and China were locked in an over two-month standoff over stopping construction of a Chinese road by the Indian Army in Doklam, at the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan.
The dispute, which had begun to threaten the success of the BRICS summit, was resolved on Monday.
Its good news that Modi is coming, but the reasons causing such kind of stand-offs increase strategic mistrust, Hu Shisheng, director of the Institute of South and Southeast Asia and Oceania Studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told IANS.
Asked about the issues he expects that will figure in the meet, Hu said: They (Modi and Xi) should give a kind of signal that this standoff does not happen again.
When questioned what if Modi raises Indias concerns over terrorism emanating from Pakistan, Hu said: This is the time of recovery. They will meet in the general way to discuss bilateral issues.
It will take some time to recover from the damage, he said referring to the face-off.
China has ruled out discussion on Indias concerns over terrorism emanating from Pakistan at the summit.
This is one of the thorny issues between India and China.
Beijings Belt and Road project, whose key artery the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor passes through a disputed Kashmir area claimed by India, is another sore point between the two nations.
Issues like counter-terrorism and the global financial crisis will also come for up discussion.
The proposed BRICS rating agency will be one of the key issues at the 9th meet of the grouping, which will be chaired by Xi.
The five-member bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa was formed in 2006. They comprise 42 percent of the worlds population, have 23 percent of global GDP and 17 percent share in world trade. The theme of the ninth BRICS summit is `Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will undertake a revamp of the Union Cabinet on Sunday to fill key vacancies and bring in new faces with a thrust on merit and demands of realpolitik.
A cloud of uncertainty, however, hangs over the participation of the BJP allies like the JD(U) and Shiv Sena in the reshuffle, the third since the NDA came to power in 2014, and chances of the AIADMK joining the government also appeared slim.
There was no such talk of JD(U) joining the Union cabinet. No talks were held on the issue (between the BJP and his party), Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, whose party JD(U) recently rejoined the NDA, said in Patna.
BJP chief Amit Shah returned to the capital on Saturday after attending a crucial coordination meeting with various RSS outfits in Vrindavan, and he and Modi were giving final touches to the changes.
More than half-a-dozen ministers are expected to make way for new faces in the reshuffle while portfolios of some could be changed.
Party leaders such as Bhupender Yadav, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Prahlad Patel, Suresh Angadi, Satyapal Singh, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Anurag Thakur, Shobha Karandlaje, Maheish Girri and Prahlad Joshi are being talked about within the party as among the probable ministers.
Ashwini Choubey and Pravesh Verma, late BJP leader Sahib Singh son who called on Shah on Saturday, are also seen as contenders for the ministerial berths.
Both Yadav and Sahasrabuddhe are key organisation leaders and Rajya Sabha members.
Patel is a seasoned Madhya Pradesh leader and Lok Sabha members. Joshi, Karandlaje and Angadi are Lok Sabha MPs from poll-bound Karnataka.
Singh and Verma are MPs from Baghpat in UP and West Delhi and come from politically influential Jat community.
Thakur is son of former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and an MP from the state.
Sarma, leader from Assam who has played a key role in BJPs expansion in the Northeast, is presently not a member of Parliament.
Girri represents East Delhi in the Lok Sabha while Choubey is an MP from Bihar.
A party leader said the prime minister may spring a surprise with his choice of new faces and ministers in key portfolio like defence.
While carrying out the reshuffle, Modi is also likely to keep an eye on upcoming state elections in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka and his partys re-election bid in 2019.
Union ministers -- Kalraj Mishra, Bandaru Dattatreya, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjiv Kumar Balyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahendra Nath Pandey -- had resigned on Friday ahead of the reshuffle.
Uma Bharti, too, had offered to resign but her fate remains in a balance amid speculation that there may be a few more exits.
Speculation swirled over the likely defence minister and names of Suresh Prabhu and Nitin Gadkari are doing the rounds. Finance minister Arun Jaitley is currently holding the additional charge of defence and he has already given indication that he would like to shed charge of the defence.
Internal troubles in the AIADMK, which has been hit by a rebellion led by TTV Dinakaran, can prove to be a stumbling block in its joining the government.
AIADMK leader Thambidurai, who met Shah yesterday, might be a likely representative from the party along with P Venugopal and V Maitreyan if it decides to join the government. However, the southern party has not said anything so far.
Shiv Sena, the BJP ally in Maharashtra, has also spoken on similar lines with its chief Uddhav Thackeray saying he has received no information from the BJP.
I have got news about the Cabinet expansion only from media. I have not enquired about it (from the central BJP leadership). I have neither received any communication from anybody nor are we hungry for power, Thackeray told reporters in Mumbai.
After assuming office in May 2014, Modi expanded his council of ministers twice--first on November 9, 2014 and then on July 5, 2016.
Mishra, a veteran party leader from Uttar Pradesh, said he offered to resign from the cabinet two months back when he met the prime minister.
I met the prime minister and said I have completed 76 years and Im now running on 77, you can take any decision about me. He told me that you should meet the national president, he said.
Mishra said the prime minister lauded his performance, adding that the question about non-performance does not arise in his case.
A process has been set in motion for the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan at around 10 am on Sunday, a top government official had said.
Shah had met Modi on Friday and the two leaders are understood to have finalised the changes in the council of ministers.
Road transport and highways minister Gadkari, seen as one of the more capable ministers, can be given more responsibility.
Railway minister Prabhu, who had taken moral responsibility for a string of train accidents and indicated his willingness to resign, may be moved to another key ministry, party sources said.
Other incumbents, including steel minister Birender Singh, may be moved to other ministries.
Power minister Piyush Goyal, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan and telecom minister Manoj Sinha are seen among the good performers in the government, a party leader said, adding that some of them can be elevated.
The resignation of Manohar Parrikar and M Venkaiah Naidu from the Union cabinet and the demise of Anil Dave had created three vacancies in the cabinet. Their portfolios were distributed to Jaitley, Narendra Singh Tomar, Smriti Irani and Harsh Vardhan.
The current strength of the council of ministers, including the prime minister, is 73 and the maximum number of ministers cannot go beyond 81.
According to a constitutional amendment, the limit cannot exceed beyond 15 per cent of the total strength of the Lok Sabha which is 545.
A host of wives of bureaucrats and politicians benefited from the government funds transferred fraudulently to the account(s) of the NGO, Srijan Mahila Vikas Sahyog Samiti Limited, between 2007 and 2017 at Bhagalpur, about 300 km east of state capital, Patna.
Records with sleuths of the special investigative team (SIT), set up by the Bihar Police to investigate the scam on orders of chief minister Nitish Kumar, on August 9, show Rs 14 crore worth of diamond jewellery was bought directly with Srijan money and given to wives and children of bureaucrats and politicians.
The sleuths have found evidence of RTGS pay offs from Srijan to jewellers in Patna, Lucknow and New Delhi for the diamonds.
It was found Jalan Gems and Jewellery store on Fraser Road, Patna, was paid a total of Rs 7 crore from three separate Indian Bank accounts of Bhagalpur in the name of Srijan.
Investigators said, of this amount, Rs 49 lakh was paid on March 3, 2015, Rs 25 lakh on March 6 and Rs 40 lakh on March 9, 2015. More payments were made on other dates.
Rekha Modi, a social activist, was directly identified as a beneficiary by the owner of the jewellery store whom the investigators approached for details. The RJD claimed she was related to Bihar finance minister and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.
However, Modi said, I have no connection whatsoever with Rekha Modi and the talk of her being related to me has no basis.
The sleuths also found that Rs 5 crore had been paid to Rajesh Craft Jewellery, Chandni Chowk, New Delhi through RTGS transfer over two years. This was just the tip of the iceberg, investigators said.
Sleuths showed purchase order via RTGS for Rs 22 lakh paid on February 16, 2015 for diamonds sold by the outlet, for which documents have been seized.
Another jeweller, identified as Agrawal Jewellers, Lucknow has also been found to be a beneficiary of total Rs 2 crore paid by Srijan on behalf of its clients. Documents for payments of Rs 11 lakh on December 19, 2011 is now with the sleuths.
Sources in the CBI, which took over the case from the Bhagalpur police last Saturday, said, It has been confirmed that payments had been made through Indian Bank branch at Bhagalpur. It seems, the beneficiaries, who had selected the items were just required to go and collect them, once the payment was made through RTGS by Srijan.
They said the CBI would now examine CCTV footage of the week in which the purchases were made to establish the identity of the beneficiaries of Srijan scam. We will quiz the shopkeepers for details on the customers served, said an officer.
The Srijan scam has turned out to be a major embarrassment for the present Nitish Kumar led NDA government, with investigations now suggesting that the scam could reach massive proportions and involve other districts, besides Bhagalpur.
So far, it is estimated, that Rs 1300 crore was transferred fraudulently from district project accounts to the Srijan accounts by way of collusion of bureaucrats, politicians, commissionary staff, bankers and Srijan staff led by its late founder Manorama Devi.
The modus operandi was to create fake e-statements and siphon of the money, while generating e-cheques and paying off to bank accounts held by Srijan, or transferring them to a private bank operated by the NGO. The money thus garnered went to build malls and buy real estate and feting those in power at district and state level.
The scam was detected, when three separates cheques, worth Rs 370 crore, seemingly issued by urban development, land acquisition and Bhagalpur district magistrate bounced on July 7 and July 8 and inquiries pointed out that the signature of the DM had been faked.
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Three fishermen from Mandapam area near here were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on Saturday for allegedly crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line, police said.
The fishermen in a country boat were reportedly carrying 1,125 kg of ammonium sulphate. They were apprehended and taken to Thalaimannar, they added.
The fishermen were being interrogated by police at Thalaimannar, Rameswaram fishermen association leader P Sesuraja said.
Four fishermen were arrested on August 31 by the Lankan Navy when they were allegedly fishing in the islands waters.
On the same day, a total of 76 Tamil Nadu fishermen, arrested by Lankan Navy on separate incidents for allegedly fishing in the island nations territorial waters, were ordered to be released by a Lankan court.
A cloud of uncertainty hangs over the participation of the AIADMK and JD(U) in the Union cabinet as Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertakes its reshuffle on Sunday.
Internal troubles in the Tamil Nadu party, which has been hit by a rebellion led by TTV Dhinakaran, can prove to be a stumbling block in its joining the government as it works to defuse the crisis.
JD(U) sources said they were still not informed about their participation in the government.
Our MPs are in Delhi. There was never any issue in the party over participating in the government but there has been no communication to us even though the reshuffle is tomorrow, a senior JD(U) leader said.
BJP sources, however, played down the confusion over whether or not the two parties will join the government, saying things will fall in fall in place before the event.
More than half a dozen ministers are expected to make way for several new faces in the reshuffle, being seen as a balancing act between Modis avowed thrust on merit and demands of realpolitik.
A process has been set in motion for the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan at around 10 am on Sunday, a top government official had said on Friday.
Union ministers Kalraj Mishra, Bandaru Dattatreya, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjiv Kumar Balyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahendra Nath Pandey resigned on Friday ahead of the rejig.
Uma Bharti too had offered to resign but her fate remains in a balance amid speculations that there may be a few more exits.
Bharti, who is the water resources minister, had said only Shah or anyone on his behalf can speak on the issue.
The media sought my reaction on reports in circulation since yesterday. I have said that I have not heard the question, will not hear nor will I answer it, she tweeted.
Shah met Modi on Friday and the two leaders are understood to have finalised the changes in the council of ministers.
Arun Jaitley, who currently holds the charge of two heavyweight portfolios -- finance and defence -- may retain only one, sources said.
Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, seen as one of the more capable ministers, can be given more responsibility.
Railways minister Suresh Prabhu, who had taken moral responsibility for a string of train accidents and indicated his willingness to resign, may be moved to another ministry, the sources said.
Other incumbents, including steel minister Birender Singh, may be moved to other ministries.
BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav, partys vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Prahlad Patel, Suresh Angadi, Satyapal Singh, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Anurag Thakur, Shobha Karandlaje, Maheish Girri and Prahlad Joshi are being talked about within the party as among the probable ministers.
Power minister Piyush Goyal, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan and telecom minister Manoj Sinha are seen among the good performers in the government, a party leader said, adding that some of them can be elevated.
With the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) also likely to join the government, its leaders RCP Singh, who is its parliamentary party leader in the Rajya Sabha, and Santosh Kumar are the likely picks from the new NDA constituent.
AIADMK leader Thambidurai had met Shah on Friday, and he, besides party leaders P Venugopal and V Maitreyan, may be the likely representatives from the Tamil Nadu party if it decides to join the government. However, the southern party has not confirmed it so far.
There are also talks of a greater representation from existing allies like the TDP and the Shiv Sena.
The current strength of the council of ministers, including the Prime Minister, is 73 and the maximum number of ministers cannot go beyond 81.
According to a constitutional amendment, the limit cannot exceed beyond 15% of the total strength of the Lok Sabha which is 545.
While there are some vacancies, a number of senior ministers are also holding dual portfolios.
Besides Jaitley, Harsh Vardhan, Smriti Irani and Narendra Singh Tomar are handling additional charges.
After assuming office in May 2014, Modi expanded his council of ministers twice -- first on November 9, 2014 and then on July 5, 2016.
Over 100 undelivered Aadhaar cards along with around 3,000 letters and marriage invitations sent through India Post were found dumped at a forest in Alwar district on Saturday, police said.
Preliminary investigation suggests that they were sent through government postal service in the past one year but were undelivered, a police officer said.
Villagers living near the Gadbasai forest area informed us that two sacks of documents have been found abandoned in the forest, said Amit Kumar, SHO of Thana Gazi police station.
All the documents were addressed to residences of Sanganer in Jaipur. We found around 100 Aadhaar cards, letters from the Life Insurance Corporation of India, marriage invitations along with around 3,000 letters, said Kumar.
The area, where the documents were discovered, is surrounded by forest as it is close to Sariska region, the police officer said.
Many of the letters date back to last year. We have found an undelivered wedding invitation wherein the ceremony was supposed to take place on July 15, 2016, he said.
Police said the letters were sent from all over India to addresses in Sanganer. Some of the letters pertained to condolence news about deaths of loved ones, which are undelivered as well, said the officer.
Police have confiscated all the documents and are conducting further probe in the matter.
Preliminary investigation suggests that all these documents werent delivered by the postal department for the last few years and somebody was accumulating them in these sacks before dumping them recently, said Kumar.
Police said it appears that both the sacks were dumped in the forest in the past couple of days.
We will be enquiring at the postal department in Alwar along with that of Jaipur to know that who is responsible for this. Many people pass through the area to visit a nearby temple. We are investigating all aspects of the matter, said police.
Despite repeated attempts to postal department officials couldnt be reached for their comments.
Had life not been so cruel to 21-year-old Soniya Bano, she would have been busy with festivities on Eid-ul-Adha, the Muslim festival that was celebrated on Saturday.
But she lies on a cot in the septic labour room of the womens hospital at Sanganeri Gate, a thin tube inserted into her right arm, a packet of digestive biscuits and water bottle placed on a stool next to her. Her five-day-old baby girl with a flushed face is sleeping beside her.
Bano was turned out of the house in Jaipurs Kanota area by her in-laws, a day after she gave birth to the baby. She spent two days at the railway station with her newborn before some people informed the women at Mahila Salah Evam Suraksha Kendra at the office of the Jaipur Rural SP, who then admitted her to the hospital.
A doctor said her stitch-line had become infected, but has been cleaned now. We have done a fresh dressing and administered triple antibiotic. Both the woman and the baby are fine now, said Dr Praveena.
Bano does not know where will she go after she is discharged from the hospital. Yahi log dekhenge, kuchh karenge (These activists will do something about me), said Bano.
Her ailing step-father in Mathura told her not to come back. Tera byaah kar diya, aur kahaan tak karunga main (I married you off. I cant do more for you), he told Bano when she called him from the railway station.
The ordeal of Bano started much before she delivered the baby. Married in October 2014, she said her husband Usman didnt have a proper job. He would abuse her, try to force her into prostitution and on refusal slander her, she said.
When she conceived the baby, her husband refused to accept it as his own and said he would not look after it. In the seventh month, I would feel dizzy, even pukish, and there were times when I would not be able to stand up. But despite repeated requests, he never took me to a doctor. I wasnt even given food at times, said Bano.
In absence of an identity proof, a neighbour, Shahrukh, helped her in medical consultation. On Sunday, I was in extreme pain but they (husband and in-laws) didnt take me to hospital. When I said Id die then they took me to the hospital. My husband told hospital authorities that he was my neighbour, said Bano. At 4:39am on Monday, Bano birthed a baby girl through normal delivery.
They did not even come once to ask if I needed anything. I was so weak that I crawled to the washroom. During the day I had to get a blood test done for which I needed Rs 50 but my mother-in-law refused saying she had already spent Rs 700 on me, said Bano, who spent Rs 50 from her stock of borrowed Rs 300. She was alone with the baby when she was discharged.
Bano reached her house on her own where she endured a night of curses, only to be turned out the next morning.
The police registered a case against her husband Usman for domestic violence and arrested him after the intervention of activists. The police have also taken Shahrukh, who helped Bano, in preventive custody. According to police, Usman alleged that Bano had relations with Shahrukh.
Nisha Sidhu, state convener of the National Federation of Indian Women, said a couple of people have offered support for Bano.
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The Rajasthan high court on Thursday granted bail to 19-year-old Vipin Yadav, one of the seven men arrested for the lynching of dairy farmer Pehlu Khan in Alwar in April.
Yadav, a student leader, is the fifth person to get bail in the case. Only two other accused are behind the bars.
All the seven, including two minors, were arrested on the basis of a video of the lynching which had gone viral on social media, causing nationwide outrage.
The minors were granted bail by a juvenile court earlier. Two other arrested men, Kaluram Yadav and Ravindra Yadav, too are out on bail.
Yadav was compared to freedom fighters Bhagat Singh and Chandrasekhar Azad by controversial Hindu leader Sadhvi Kamal Didi in May.
The police are yet to arrest the six people named in the FIR, accused in the murder of 55-year-old Khan, who was waylaid by a mob near Behror en route to his village Jaisinghpura in Nuh, Haryana on April 1.
Khan, who had bought bovines from a cattle market in Jaipur for dairy farming, was beaten to death on the suspicion of being a cow smuggler.
His distraught family rued that they were completely in the dark over the case.
We came to know about the bail of the accused from you. Nobody tells us anything these days The police have done nothing to arrest the accused, Pehlu Khans son, Irshad told HT.
The Rajasthan police changed the investigating officer in the case several times and currently, the case is being investigated by the criminal investigation department-crime branch (CB-CID).
However, no fresh arrests have been made in the last few months.
Earlier, we met a lawyer in Jaipur who assured us that bail wont be granted to one of the accused. We paid him over Rs 50,000 but at the end he spoke in favour of the accused. For the last two months, we havent heard anything about the case status. What do we do? alleged Irshad.
He added that the family of Khan would continue to seek justice for him.
Our struggle doesnt end here and we will fight till the end, he said.
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Children of a village, 5km from Dholpur, collect coins from the Chambal river, risking their lives to possible crocodile attacks.
Rajghat village, where some scenes of Bollywood movies Bandit Queen and Pan Singh Tomar were shot, is located near an overbridge on the Chambal, where people going in buses and other vehicles throw coins into the river waters.
The overbridge comes on the national highway-3 that connects Dholpur, the home district of chief minister Vasundhara Raje, to Morena in Madhya Pradesh.
Children, aged between 7 and 15 years, go to the river below the bridge two times a day to collect coins. Crocodile attacks on cattle and people have been reported from this place.
The children enter river waters on truck tubes, connected with magnets in long ropes -- magnets attract the metallic coins. They hide themselves behind pillars of the bridge when police reach there to stop them from entering the river.
I earn around Rs 50-100 after collecting coins two times a day, said 13-year-old Mukesh Nishad.
Lekhraj Nishad, a Class 8 student, said, Our parents dont allow us to go to the river, but we go there when they are busy in their work. Whatever we earn from the river, we hand it over to our families.
Bablu Nishad, 15, said, We are not afraid of crocodiles because they generally move away after seeing black tubes. We know swimming in case we fall from the tubes.
Despite assurances by ministers and officials, development has eluded the village no electricity, drinking water and roads that comes under ward 15 of the Dholpur municipal council.
About 300 voters of the village, belonging to Mallah community, are daily-wage labourers. The village has a government primary school with 36 students.
Most of the youths are bachelors as people dont want to marry off their daughters in the village because of its backwardness.
Rajesh Nishad, 33, said, Many ministers and officials had come here during the Dholpur by-election in April, and assured us of development.
Hariom Nishad said, Ministers had come here to seek votes for the BJP candidate but after the win, they didnt return to fulfil their commitments. Ministers in fact came here when villagers had decided to boycott the polls.
The chief minister, villagers said, assured them during the by-election that development work would be executed within one and a half years.
Dholpur collector Shuchi Tyagi said, We have visited the village. I have forwarded proposals to senior officials to provide electricity, water and road to the village.
He said, In the first phase, we are trying to install solar lights and supply water. Proposals were sent to power and water resources departments. Villagers will get light and water soon.
Locals expressed anger against government representatives, saying they were ignored at public hearings conducted by ministers.
Satyapal Singh, a schoolteacher, said, Villagers are forced to bring water for drinking from the river where dead bodies float. According to rituals in Madhya Pradesh, bodies of people, who die when they are below 18 years, are put in river water.
Crocodiles take cattle into the river after attacking them but locals have no other option than taking bath in the water and using it for drinking, he said.
The indefinite shutdown in the Darjeeling hills will continue till the Centre calls a tripartite meeting to discuss the creation of a new state, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurung told HT on Saturday.
Gurung also said his party is ready to talk to the Mamata Banerjee government and take part in the meeting in Siliguri on September 12.
This marks a radical shift from Gurungs position of not going for any talks with the state government, especially after the chief minister made it clear on August 29 that only Centre has the power to create a state.
Read: Sikkim Police slap murder charges against Kalimpong police super
Our party leaders would attend the September 12 meeting to know what exactly the state government has to say about the demand for Gorkhaland, Gurung told HT over telephone.
However, he also made it clear that the bandh in the Darjeeling hills will continue. The bandh will continue till the Centre convenes a tripartite meeting, Gurung said from his hideout which is suspected to be somewhere in Sikkim.
On June 20, Union home minister Rajnath Singh told a team of agitators that the Centre has nothing to do with the demand for a new state and the hill parties should speak to the state government. With the GJM president and the Centre both sticking to their respective stand, it is not clear how long the bandh might continue.
Gorkhaland agitators burning mobile phones in Darjeeling in protest against suspension of internet services in the hills by the state government. (HT File Photo)
Significantly, there has been a change in the political situation since the August 29 meeting between the agitators and the state. GJM chief coordinator Binay Tamang, who led a five-member Morcha team to the meeting, has been expelled by Gurung. Instead of suspending the shutdown - as announced by Tamang in Kurseong - GJM supporters have in fact intensified it.
With this shift in ground reality, the fate of the September 12 meeting has become rather uncertain, hill party leaders feel.
Read: Sikkim police prevent Bengal team from taking away arrested GJM members
Though he was confined in his house after GJM supporters took to the streets on August 1, Binay Tamang has already announced that he would attend the meeting to be held at Uttar Kanya (the state secretariat in north Bengal) on September 12.
Read: Instead of suspending bandh, Gorkhaland agitators step up Darjeeling shutdown
Gurung also wants the state government to invite Gorkhaland Movement Coordination Committee (GMCC) for the talks. The GMCC constituents are working without any vested interest and parties such as Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists (CPRM) and All India Gorkha League (AIGL) should attend, said Gurung.
The August 29 meeting was attended only by the GJM, Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) and Jan Andolan Party (JAP) in addition to the ruling Trinamool Congress. GMCC is the conglomeration of 14 pro Gorkhaland political parties and organisations.
Read: GJM headed for split as cracks appear over Darjeeling bandh for separate Gorkhaland state
But what exactly prompted the GJM to shift from its earlier stand and agree to have talks with the state?
Political leaders in the region feel that since the Centre has already stated that agitating parties should talk to the state, GJM has realised it would be futile to bank on the Centres support. Also, a section of GJM leaders feel that if they show eagerness to sit for the talks the state might relax the police crackdown.
On Friday, the police not only made several arrests in the hills, but also raided a place near Namchi in Sikkim to arrest Bimal Gurung and other GJM leaders.
JAP president Harka Bahadur Chettri told HT on Saturday that his party hadnt decided whether it would attend the September 12 talks.
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The dispute between Mamata Banerjee government and Pawan Chamling administration over Gorkhaland can turn into a full blown confrontation with Sikkim Police slapping murder charges against the superintendent of police of Kalimpong district following the death of a 34-year old in Sikkim on Friday afternoon.
Dawa Bhutia, 34, who was a resident of Kalimpong, died when a team of policemen from Bengal opened fire at a place called Saddam near Namchi (the headquarters of South district).
Read: Sikkim police prevent Bengal team from taking away arrested GJM members
An FIR has been registered at Namchi police station in South district of Sikkim under section 302/34 of IPC against Ajit Singh Yadav, the Kalimpong police super and his team. Yadav did not want to comment on the matter on Saturday morning.
File picture of a vehicle burnt by agitators in Darjeeling. The situation in the hills is again becoming complicated feel police officers. (HT Photo)
The tension between the two states started on June 20 when Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling wrote to Union home minister Rajnath Singh expressing his support for the new state being demanded by the Gorkhas. Bengal government promptly opposed Chamlings stance, calling it an unwelcome interference.
We will register a case, Pradhan said on Friday. The young man was the driver of Dawa Lepcha who was a member of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, the autonomous body set up to run the affairs of the hills.
READ: Sikkim did not merge with India to become a sandwich between China and Bengal: CM Pawan Chamling
An innocent man has died. If the Bengal government has violated the law and entered a different state, we condemn it, said Jan Andolan Party chief Harka Bahadur Chettri.
The of policemen team, some of whom were in uniform and some in plain clothes, entered South district of the Himalayan to raid the spot in Majhitar where Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung was holding a central committee meeting. The Morcha president, who is on the run after being slapped UA(P)A sections, managed to escape. Majhitar is near Namchi, the headquarters of South district.
The confrontation between the police of the two states heightened on Friday evening when Sikkim Police refused the team from Bengal to take away six GJM members who were arrested by them.
They could not produce any arrest warrant, or any other document. They have to take those arrested away on transit remand granted by a court. The team of Bengal police came into Sikkim territory without informing us, said Pradhan. However, he did not reveal the identity of those arrested by Bengal police.
The Bengal Police team entered Sikkim in several vehicles through the Melli check post. Sikkim Police also detained a few vehicles of the Bengal police team.
According to sources, the GJM members arrested by Bengal police included Sabitri Rai, Hemant Gautam, Raj Thapa, Shanker Adhikari, Jagdish Singh and Bimal Rai.
However, the station house officer of Namchi police station told HT that only Sabitri Rai has been arrested by Bengal Police and they are expected to produce her in court on Saturday for transit remand.
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Ahead of the planned Union cabinet reshuffle, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said he had neither asked the Centre about the proposed cabinet expansion, nor had he received any information.
Speaking to Shiv Sena corporators and party functionaries on Saturday morning, Thackeray said his party was not power-hungry. The Shiv Sena chief was at a meeting held to discuss the setting up of health check-up camps, following the August 29 floods.
I heard about the cabinet expansion from the media. Today, everybodys attention is focussed on it, but the Shiv Senas attention is on the health of Mumbais citizens, said Thackeray.
So far, there has been no word on the Shiv Sena getting a share in the upcoming cabinet reshuffle, though there is a possibility that the Narendra Modi-led government may offer the party one additional portfolio, which many see as long due, said sources.
The Shiv Sena has indicated that it would like one more member in the Union cabinet, along with heavy industries minister Anant Geete, who was inducted into the cabinet when Modi formed his government in May 2014. Even then, the party was unhappy over thisless significant ministry, saying the Telugu Desam Party which has less members in Parliament was given the civil aviation ministry. However, Modi and the BJP ignored the Shiv Senas demand.
Political analysts said the BJP currently has no political compulsion to please the Shiv Sena. They added that Prime Minister Modi had not pandered to the party, even when keeping it happy was critical.
The Shiv Sena, which has 18 members in the Lok Sabha, was expecting additional cabinet portfolios in the first cabinet expansion in November 2014. Modi had inducted 21 new ministers as the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government was seeking stability. However, after much drama, the Shiv Sena did not get a piece of the pie. It then boycotted the oath-taking ceremony. Party leadership wanted a cabinet berth, while Modi had reportedly offered them a junior ministers post. Acting on Thackerays orders, legislator Subhash Desai had left for Delhi to attend the ceremony. However,he turned back at the Delhi airport itself. Now, the Shiv Sena is likely to keep an eye on what Modi offers allies such as the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (U).
Bitter over getting a raw deal while participating in the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena keeps criticising both governments policies, sometimes even more harshly than the Opposition.
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The Bombay high court has said we cannot control nature but the situation in the city of Mumbai which has been facing heavy rains during monsoons regularly has not improved in the past few years.
The remarks were made by a division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice N M Jamdar while hearing a PIL by advocate Atal Bihari Dubey seeking a second doppler radar system to be set up in the city and other measures to be taken to ensure that people do not suffer due to floods.
We cannot control nature. But this is not the first time this is happening in Mumbai. We have not moved an inch, Chief Justice Chellur said.
The PIL was filed a few years back and in 2016 the court was informed by the Maharashtra government and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) that a site was identified and sanctioned in suburban Goregaon to set up a doppler radar.
Petitioners counsel S C Naidu told the court on Friday that till date there has been no progress in the matter.
The site has been sanctioned but at a premium rate due to which the matter has become stagnant, Naidu told the court.
He pointed out that this year too on August 29 Mumbai came to a standstill due to heavy rains.
The court has now posted the petition for hearing on September 7.
Two unidentified bikers shot dead a Bharatiya Janata Party worker and injured the partys Khoda mandal head in Ghaziabad on Saturday afternoon.
The incident comes heightened security in sensitive areas for Eid and came two days after chief minister Yogi Adityanath visited Ghaziabad.
The CM during a review meeting during his visit and had directed the police department to take strict action against criminal elements.
The BJPs Khoda head Balbir Chauhan and local leader Gajendra Bhati were waylaid by two armed bikers in Indira Nagri area of Mangal Bazar around 1pm on Saturday.
The bikers fired several rounds, four of which hit Bhati. Chauhan suffered a bullet injury and both were rushed to a hospital in Noida where Bhati died. It is suspected the incident was sparked by personal rivalry. Bhati also has a history sheet against his name at the Khoda police station, said Akash Tomar, superintendent of police (city).
We are trying to trace the culprits. Nearby CCTV cameras are being scanned to trace the bikers, he added.
Police sources said Bhati was the prime target and was shot at close range. One of the bullets pierced his eye while the others landed on his chest.
We are exploring all angles, including rivalry and personal enmity in the case, Tomar added.
Sensing the sensitivity of the daylight murder, senior officials rushed to the spot and deployed provincial armed constabulary along with the teams of civil police to prevent a law and order situation.
The sources said the assailants had escaped towards a road leading to Delhi.
BJP leaders rushed to the spot and met police officials. Chauhan sustained bullet injuries but he is now stable and under treatment at hospital in Noida. Police assured us of speedy work in the case, said Ajay Sharma, city president, BJP.
Sharma declined to comment on polices claims of cases against Bhati.
Keshav Prasad Maurya, UPs deputy CM, who was to arrive in Ghaziabad on Sunday, cancelled his visit on Saturday evening due to unknown reasons.
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Decades after it came into existence, Ghaziabad is yet to have a solid waste management facility for the scientific disposal of its daily generation of nearly 950 metric tonnes of solid waste.
As Delhi officials battle to find a solution to the overflowing Ghazipur landfill site, Ghaziabad faces similar issues.
Most of the solid waste is now dumped in open at a temporary landfill site at Pratap Vihar where the Ghaziabad municipal corporation deploys chain-dozers to press the garbage and prevent it from piling up in shape of a hillock like Ghazipur in east Delhi.
Residents living near the landfill site and those living near the east Delhi border have expressed deep concern over the way in which the affordable housing hub has failed to find solution to the issue of solid waste disposal.
We are already contesting a contempt petition over the issue of high pollution levels in our area. The Ghazipur landfill site is a major contributing factor for adding to air pollution and also for groundwater contamination. In some areas, if we keep borewell water for two days, it will develop bacteria, said VK Mittal, president, Kaushambi Apartment Residents Welfare Association (KARWA).
The major residential locality of Khoda, which is right next to the Ghazipur landfill site, is directly affected by the fires and stink emanating from the landfill. Official sources said that a number of residents in Khoda have developed asthmatic symptoms because of the foul air from the Ghazipur landfill site.
For Ghaziabad city, the previous plan to build a scientific solid waste management plant at Dundahera, near NH-24, has already run into rough weather as residents moved the National Green Tribunal.
The tribunal in December last year quashed environmental clearance for the project and the NOC issued by the UP pollution control board, leaving the city without any facility for scientific disposal of its daily solid waste.
Some officials indirectly favoured developers and allowed them to come up with housing while the arrangement for a solid waste management plant was put on the back-burner. Areas near Pratap Vihar, especially trans-Hindon, have been severely affected with contamination and unhygienic surroundings. Large settlements have cropped up near NH-24 and locals are affected with open disposal of solid waste, said Rajendra Tyagi, a councillor.
The officials have failed to implement the Solid Waste Management & Handling Rules fully. Now they have plans to develop a waste to energy plant at Galand, which is out of municipal corporation area. Transportation will result in heavy expenditure, Tyagi added.
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From liquor to floods, the tiny rat is dominating the public discourse in Bihar.
Bihar water resources minister Rajiv Ranjan has blamed rodents for the states crumbling embankments and the consequent flooding in 21 districts that has left more than 500 people dead and lakhs homeless.
People living on embankments litter food grains, inviting rats, which carve out holes that weaken embankments, he said during a review meeting on Friday.
We have tried to fix such problems, detecting such rat holes and getting them repaired within 72 hours to save several areas, he added.
Though experts agree that rat and fox holes weaken embankments, the latest round of floods was main attributed to some of the heaviest rainfall in the northern districts in many years.
Department chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh too blamed rats for the problem.
If such things come to light, engineers should immediately get down to reinforcing the protective bundhs, Singh said during a media briefing after the meeting.
Critics and opposition parties, however, accused the government of absolving itself of its failures and finding a scapegoat in rats.
Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an aerial survey of the flood affected areas and sanctioned Rs 500 crore for relief and rehabilitation.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, who has been attacking the Bihar government over the floods, wasted no time in hitting back.
The minister is the biggest rodent. We will expose them all for causing such huge destruction. Imagine, a minister talking like this to hide his own failures, he said in Ranchi.
Another RJD leader, Shakti Singh Yadav, said if rats were really causing such serious problems, the government should immediately come up with a plan to deal with it.
BJP MLA Mithilesh Tiwari, however, was also not convinced with the ministers argument.
Earlier, they said in reply to a question in the assembly that all embankments are safe but now rats are being blamed, while people suffer, he said.
This is, however, not the first time rats have emerged as a villain in the state
A few months ago, there were reports of rats allegedly guzzling thousands of litres of liquor seized and stored in police stations. Bihar implemented total prohibition in April.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar had later periodic monitoring and destruction of the seized stocks after it was alleged that the lost liquor may have been consumed or sold illegally by a section in the police.
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It was a day of utter chaos and confusion at several UT colleges as candidates filed their nominations on Friday. Many nominations were also cancelled, leading to outcry.
Candidates filed nominations for the posts of president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary in 11 UT colleges for Panjab University Campus Students Council (PUCSC) elections.
In Post Graduate Government College for Girls (PGGCG), Sector 11, nine students filed their nominations but all of them were cancelled by the college authorities.
An official said, Students filled the forms incorrectly, so their nominations stand cancelled. In Guru Gobind Singh College for Women, Sector 26, seven filed their nominations and three stand cancelled.
HSA protests in DAV college
The Hindustan Students Association (HSA) held a protest at DAV College, Sector 10, as their nominations stood cancelled. Around 30 students sat on a dharna , protesting the decision of the college authorities. Several other parties faced the same situation. However, police intervened and dismissed the protesters after five to seven minutes.
Parveen Khatkad, party president of the HSA, said, According to Lyngdoh Committee guidelines, a student should have 75% attendance from the time of admission. The college authorities, however, are saying they will count from the day the college began.
Our members and the presidential candidate, Vikas Dalal, are being threatened with suspension from the college, he added.
High drama at PGGC-11
Post Graduate Government College, Sector 11, also witnessed high drama as girls levelled allegations against the members of Panjab University Students Union (PUSU). Sources said PUSU members were campaigning in a second-year classroom, when they found a student recording their speech. A heated argument led to PUSU members thrashing the student.
Lyngdoh guidelines misunderstood at SD College
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) nominations were cancelled in GGDSD College, Sector 32, as they did not attach the certificates of all the semesters.
Abhishek, leader of the ABVP unit in the college, said, The Lyngdoh guidelines say one needs to attach only the certificate of the last semester and a proof of birth. We have now submitted a No objection certificate from the DSW (dean, student welfare) to the college authorities.
After both states missed the August 31 deadline to conclude the counselling for admission to MBBS and BDS as per the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) 2017, the Supreme Court on Saturday announced an extension for Punjab and Haryana till September 7.
The deadline was missed as, owing to curfew and violence in the states after conviction of Sirsa (Haryana)-based Dera Sacha Sauda Gurmeet Singh Ram Rahim in a rape case on August 25. Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, had postponed the counselling for Punjab. KK Venugopal, attorney general for the state in the SC, submitted, Due to law and order problem and other disturbances, counselling could not be held. Students of Punjab and Haryana are affected by the said situation. The same argument was advanced by Alok Sangwan, additional advocate general for Haryana.
Agreeing with the contentions, the apex court extended the deadline, but added that no other state should get the benefit of the extension.
Final call for 7 MBBS, 238 BDS seats
The BFUHS on August 31 conducted the third round of counselling, and now, of 246 MBBS seats and 620 BDS seats in the third round, seven and 238 seats are still vacant, respectively. The varsity will conduct physical counselling for the MBBS and BDS seats, respectively, on September 4 and 6.
We could have allotted all the seats to the candidates in the third counselling itself. But heavy rain led to absolute mess. Students with high merit returned without participating in the counselling. We didnt want to be unfair to anyone. Since the apex court had extended the deadline, we decided to conduct final counselling for the left-out seats. Only fresh applications will be entertained now, said a senior official of the university.
On August 18, BFUHS allotted 1,360 seats of undergraduate medical and dental studies in Punjab government institutes in the second round of counselling for state quota. The state quota, including NRI seats, has 2,255 seats 1,125 in MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) seats in eight colleges, and 1,130 in BDS (bachelor of dental surgery) in 14 colleges. Overall, the state has 85% seats in its quota, including NRI seats. The rest are for students from across the country.
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Once again, the Students for Society (SFS) fielded a female candidate. Hassanpreet is a masters student in the department of physics and belongs to Malerkotla.
She filed her nominations for three posts on the student council, including president, vice-president and secretary.
We are looking forward to bringing a change in the money culture of Panjab University and want to bring more students to take charge, she said. In 2014, the SFS fielded the first female candidate in the history of PU. However, Amandeep lost the elections that year.
Thats not all. Even the Gandhi Group Students Union (GGSU) has nominated a female candidate for the post of president. Aparna Khosla is a second-year MA student in the history department.
Last year, the National Students Union of India fielded Siya Minocha for the post of president. She was the only woman presidential candidate in the race.
48 CANDIDATES FILE FOR PRESIDENT
The nerves were evident among the student leaders, especially in the departments where seniors were present to support of their parties. All 21 student organisations filed their nominations.
According to the dean, students welfare, Emanual Nahar, 48 filed for the post of president, followed by 46 for vice-president, 59 for secretary and 54 for joint secretary.
All the 87 departments submitted the provisional list of candidates. The concerned departments scrutinised the submissions. The withdrawals and objections will happen tomorrow and by afternoon, the final picture will be out, said Nahar.
Each organisation made four to five students file nominations for each post and some even filed nominations for different posts, individually.
ALLIANCES YET TO EMERGE
Forming alliances is a major part of the elections. But these are yet to be named this year. The leaders said the alliances will be named after the final list comes out. The candidate for the council posts will depend on the alliances.
Nirjog Mann, chairman of the NSUI, said, Finalising the presidential candidate will depend on the alliances. We will have meetings later and finalise the presidential candidate.
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The UT police on Friday held a gangster, who has been convicted of murder and is out on parole, while trying to enter the Panjab University campus on the day of filing of nominations for the student council elections.
Jatinder Singh Jejjy was among 22 outsiders arrested during checking on the PU campus. He was driving a vehicle with the sticker of Panjab University Students Union (PUSU). They were trying to enter the campus in name of filing nominations, said senior superintendent of police (SSP) Nilambari Vijay Jagdale. We have informed Punjab Police about Jatinders arrest.
Jatinder was convicted by a Mohali court of the murder of kabaddi player Saudagar Singh, who was hacked to death outside the court on May 22, 2012. He is also named as accused in at least five other cases and has alleged links with gangsters in Punjab.
Cracking a whip ahead of the Panjab University Campus Student Council (PUCSC) elections, the UT police also arrested 11 persons during raids at boys hostels in the wee hours of Friday. Around 125 cops converged on the boys hostels 1, 3 and 8 around 1:30am. The raids continued till 3.30am, said sources.
Deputy superintendent of police (DSP, central) Ram Gopal said those arrested were unable to produce their identity cards. He said outsiders staying in hostels can pose threat to law and order ahead of the elections, scheduled on September 7.
Of the 11, three got bail while eight were sent to the Burail jail. The 22 arrested during the day will be produced in court on Saturday.
Varsity sought police aid
Even as various student organisations questioned police action on the campus, the university authorities as well as the police claimed steps are being taken to ensure smooth elections. Sources said PU authorities and police officials decided during a meeting that cops will be responsible for maintaining law and order on the campus.
PU authorities have reportedly asked police to take over checking of vehicles entering the campus.
We are providing assistance whenever and wherever PU authorities are seeking it, said senior superintendent of police (SSP) Nilambari Vijay Jagdale. This is being done to ensure free and fair elections. Reacting to the arrests, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) state secretary Saurabh Kapoor said: We strictly condemn the arrest of students staying as guests in hostels. Police could given them a warning to vacate the premises.
Parents to stand surety for troublemakers
Parents will have to stand surety for the 98 student leaders whose names figure on the list of troublemakers prepared by the UT police.
The list includes names of all student leaders booked in various criminal cases during the previous student body polls. These present and former students of PU and its affiliated colleges and their parents will be asked to fill a surety bond before the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) as part of preventive measures. They are required to give an undertaking that they will not indulge in unlawful activities.
A senior police officer said the move will ensure parents know what their wards are up to. It will help conduct peaceful polls, said SSP Jagdale. All we want is to keep parents in loop. Police have already held a meeting with student leaders asking them to refrain from violence.
Plea in HC against AISA leaders arrest
Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (Liberation) secretary Kanwaljit Singh on Friday approached the Punjab and Haryana high court against the judicial custody of All India Students Association leader Vijay Kumar.
Kumar, whose name is in the list of troublemakers, was arrested as a preventive measure on Thursday. Calling his arrest illegal, the petitioner sought his release. He alleged the arrest was made to benefit some other student parties. The petition is likely to be taken up on Monday.
A 45-year-old Indian-origin political consultant has been sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine for funnelling illegal foreign campaign contributions in the 2012 San Diego mayoral election.
Ravneet Singh of Illinois and former CEO of ElectionMall Technologies was ordered by US district court judge Michael Anello on Friday to report to prison in October to begin serving his sentence. Singh was sentenced for his role in funnelling more than $600,000 in illegal foreign campaign contributions from Mexican citizen Jose Susumo Azano Matsura to candidates in the 2012 San Diego mayoral election.
In September 2016, after six weeks of trial, a federal jury in San Diego returned guilty verdicts against Singh, Azano and Azanos son Edward Susumo, who were convicted of felony counts associated with a series of illegal campaign contributions by Azano to the campaigns of Bonnie Dumanis and Bob Filner.
American elections are not for sale, said executive US attorney Blair Perez. We will not allow our sacred electoral process to be compromised. This prison sentence underscores an important message: Anyone who tries to manipulate the American electorate will pay a high price, Perez said.
According to evidence presented at trial, Azano, Singh, and others conspired to inject hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and in-kind consulting services to the Bonnie Dumanis and Bob Filner campaigns, despite the fact that Azanos foreign national status made such contributions illegal.
To conceal his connection to these contributions, Azano arranged with his son Edward Hester and others to funnel this illegal foreign money through corporate and third person straw donor contributions.
The conspirators also arranged for at least $267,000 worth of Singhs in-kind consulting services to be secretly funnelled to the campaigns.
Ultimately, with Azanos help, Filner won the election, though he was forced to resign shortly thereafter.
For his part, Singh used his specialised skills and knowledge to facilitate the crimes. Evidence at trial demonstrated that Singh used code names for the Dumanis and Filner work that Azano paid for but never for any other domestic candidate for office; harshly reprimanded employees for using those code names in emails; and on one particularly candid occasion referenced the legal ramifications of discussing these topics.
Singh further concealed the payments from Azano by structuring the wires from a Mexican company Broadlink controlled by Azano, which had nothing to do with electoral politics, to company Singh controlled, not Election Mall, but eSolutions, which primarily developed software from India.
A 14-year-old girl was gang raped and thrown into a drain in Jamshedpurs Bagbera area on Friday.
Police have arrested one of the four accused, Abhay Yadav, who has been sent to judicial custody, and have launched a hunt for the other three.
The girl has been admitted to Sadar Hospital where she is undergoing treatment.
Deputy superintendent of police (law and order), Vimal Kumar said that the girl is doing fine and is helping them identify the culprits without any inhibitions.
The girl was returning home to Gandhinagar, a suburb in Jamshedpur, from her maternal uncles residence in Ranidih alone.
On the way, she came across four youths, Abhay Yadav, Sonu Mahato, Banti and Amit. Sensing danger, she changed her path but the four started following her and apprehended her midway and forcibly took her near a steep drain where three of them raped her.
After raping her, the culprits threw her into a drain as she fell unconscious and fled.
When she regained consciousness, the girl screamed for help and drew the attention of locals, who rushed to her rescue and took her to Sadar Hospital where the doctors confirmed rape.
The girls mother is a daily wage worker in Bagbera while her father works in Bengaluru. The mother was informed about the incident.
The girl told the police that except Sonu, all the others raped her. They threatened to behead her if she raised an alarm or shouted for help, and pleaded for the harshest punishment to them.
Chairperson of Jharkhand State Womens Commission, Kalyani Sharan condemned the rape and sought strict action against the accused.
A concerted effort by various stakeholders in the society is required to enhance respect for the fairer sex. People should change their approach towards girls and pay them due respect, Sharan said.
Many of us are perpetually day dreaming about our next vacation. The research and planning that goes into it before actually taking off also lends itself a certain thrill. Whether youre a nature lover, a culture vulture or looking for a digital detox, weve got you covered. Check out our best travel features from this week:
1) Find solitude in Kasar Devi and Binsar Valley in Uttarakhand
If youre looking to experience peace and silence, head to the lap of Uttrakhand. In Kasar Devi and Binsar Valley, explore old temples, trek up small hills and sample local Kumaoni food. These destinations are yet to be discovered by tourists, so you head here before they turn into another Nainital or Manali.
Read the full story here.
Binsar sanctuary.
2) Explore ruins
Travel off the beaten path and book a flight to Jordan. Ancient monuments, forts, and castles await you. The awe-inspiring beauty of this Hashemite Kingdom is mirrored aptly in its deep-rooted history and cultural traditions. Whats more, you can even explore coral reefs and marine life in Aqaba, which lies at the mouth of the Red Sea.
Read the full story here.
Jordan is a history lovers delight. (AFP)
3) Explore the worlds coolest neighbourhoods
Gorge at trendy cafes in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, and soak in sweeping views of lower Manhattan in Sunset Park, New York City. These two places make the cut and feature in Lonely Planets list of top 10 neighbourhoods around the world. You probably wont find these in generic travel guides.
Read the full story here.
4) Take it Despacito in Puerto Rico
Did Luis Fonsis super hit song Despacito make you want to visit Puerto Rico? We cant blame you. The Caribbean island is gorgeous and offers a range of activities for travellers. You can witness bioluminescent flora like in the movie Avatar, sign up for cave exploration and kayaking, and laze around on beautiful beaches.
Read the full story here.
The stunning white sand filled Flamenco beach on the Puerto Rican island of Culebra. (iStock)
5) Visit a mammoth active volcano in Chile
While Chile is home to many volcanoes, Villarrica is the most active volcano and towers to 2,847 metres above sea level. The fiery past of this stratovolcano, which is composed of several successive layers of hardened lava, has not deterred daring visitors. At the summit, climbers are rewarded with a remarkable panoramic view of the region.
Read the full story here.
The crater of the Villarrica volcano. (AFP)
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Rana Daggubati has shown the ability to move from one genre to another with ease. He recently delivered a huge hit Nene Raju Nene Mantri, a mass commercial money spinner. Now, the actor has moved to doing his first web series called Social. The trailer of the web series was launched on Saturday.
Set in Hyderabad, the 13-episode series is a story about four individuals who come together to solve the mystery of a missing girl.
Brought out by digital streaming platform Viu India, Social delves into the dark world of cyber crime. The trailer opens with a masked man threatening cyber criminals that they are the ones being addressed by him -- coward criminals -- as he calls them. Soon, a number of frames move past the screen giving us a peak into the cyber world. Two women knock on a door and next we see a montage of a woman, possibly dead or struggling to survive.
One click can destroy your life. The thrilling trailer from my first Digital Show, #SocialSeries is out! Watch => https://t.co/RpBQt2D0rr Rana Daggubati (@RanaDaggubati) September 2, 2017
We are told of a family that is struggling to locate their daughter, Naveda, who has gone missing. We hear a man saying how hes been trying to contact her since morning but her phone is switched off. We also see a young man, the victims brother Prithvi, in a police station, trying to tell the police that it has been more than 24 hours that his sister went missing and he has no clue about it.
We are then introduced to Vikram Sampat, played by Rana, the CEO of a technology company called Social, being interviewed by a journalist. We see Rana speak: I am inviting you to make socially relevant pages. Get communities together, give them a voice. Empower them and the most socially relevant page will be sponsored and mentored by me personally.
Rana Daggubati plays a CEO of a technology company.
Later, we see Prithvi being counselled by his tech friends about making an online campaign for Naveda -- of how the campaign can go viral and then everybody will get to know of it. When that happens, the police will be compelled to help them, his friends advice. They then form a gang, which has its own dynamics. Theres Chaand, the techie and Myra, the seductress (we are told)...
In the dying moments of the trailer, we are again introduced to the masked man, who in a muffled voice, threatens the perpetrators of the crime: Police might or might not be able to catch you, but I will. I would like you guys to know. Until then, watch out.
Naveen Kasturia of TVF drama series Pitchers fame stars in the series as its lead actor.
Through many more frames we see how the gang goes about trying to find Naveda. In all this, we also are bombarded with text about cyber crimes -- sex crimes, bank frauds, other scams -- we are told how all-pervasive they can be.
The thrillers central character is not Rana Daggubati but Naveen Kasturia of TVF drama series Pitchers fame, who plays Prithvi. Produced by Whacked Out Media and Guru Films, Social has been directed by Shashi Sudigala and also stars Priya Banerjee, Aradhana Uppal, Abdul Razzaq, Moin Khan and Preeti Asrani.
Though it not clear what kind of a role Rana Daggubati plays, one gets an eerie feeling that his character might have shades of grey.
Social is the story of a missing girl and how four individuals go about finding her.
Follow @htshowbiz for more
Argentine police shot dead a carrier pigeon that was delivering drugs to inmates in jail, prison authorities said Friday.
The pigeon was spotted flying into the grounds of the jail in Santa Rosa, central Argentina, a source in the Federal Penitentiary Service said.
Officers shot it down and found it to be carrying on its back a package containing pills and marijuana.
The prisons service had reported in 2013 that drug traffickers were using trained pigeons, some of which authorities say can make up to 15 delivery runs a day.
On the day when the latest pigeon was caught, traffickers had tried to make it pass unnoticed amid a flock that was released as part of a local pigeon-fanciers event.
A meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at the BRICS Summit could provide temporary relief from the chill in China-India ties due to the two-month military standoff in Doklam that ended only this week.
The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) forum is an opportunity for the leaders of India and China to smoothen new wrinkles that have appeared in ties already marred by a festering border dispute and lack of mutual trust over multiple issues.
How to take ties forward post-Doklam and prevent similar face-offs in the future are likely to be touched upon when Modi meets Xi on the sidelines of the summit. Rebuilding ties immediately will, for course, be tough given the heat generated by the standoff.
But Modi, who is reaching Xiamen on Sunday, and Xi have the chance to set it on the right path, Chinese experts told Hindustan Times.
Post-Doklam China-India relations are in a low point that we havent experienced in recent one or two decades. Now what we need to do immediately is to rebuild the trust between the two countries between the two leaderships and among the two people as well. In that sense, BRICS summit offers a much-needed opportunity, said Guo Suiyan, deputy director and South Asia expert with the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences.
The standoff inevitably hurt the bilateral relations and left one more open scar which is very deep. The most direct impact of the standoff is on the process of confidence building between the two countries, Guo added.
There is little doubt that the military impasse and the fear of escalation it had triggered is as fresh as the footprints left by border troops in Doklam and will weigh down ties.
It should be said that during the standoff, China showed great restraint and patience. Indias withdrawing (of border troops) builds a friendly and harmonious atmosphere for Modi's visit to China, Hu Zhiyong from the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences said.
Some in China are still smarting from the resolution of the standoff Indian border personnel managed to stay on Chinese territory for two months and leave without any retaliation from the mighty PLA.
(The impression created is that) whether the road is built or repaired or not, the Indian side will come and go at random. It will also set a precedent, which will be doubly harmful to China, said Ni Lexiong, a Shanghai-based military expert.
Thats exactly what Modi and Xi need to address: be able to convince domestic constituencies that no one lost out in the resolution of the impasse.
Seeking common ground while putting aside differences, and developing together are the broad parameters that the two leaders could discuss, Hu said.
To be realistic, I think we shouldnt expect China-India relations to be back to the high point like pre-2014 period. From the Xi-Modi meet during the BRICS summit if they meet we shouldnt expect anything concrete coming out from this meeting, but the two leaders need to tell the world that this (Doklam) incident has politically ended, Guo said.
At least for now.
The US and South Korea have agreed to increase Seouls missile capabilities just days after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan and threatened further launches, Seouls Yonhap news agency reported.
The reclusive state fired an intermediate-range Hwasong-12 over Japan early on Tuesday, which it said was a mere curtain-raiser for the Norths resolute countermeasures against ongoing US-South Korean military drills.
It came as the US and South Korean forces were nearing the end of the 10-day annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint exercises, which the North regards as a rehearsal for invasion.
US President Donald Trump later insisted that all options were on the table in an implied threat of pre-emptive military action, while on Thursday US heavy bombers and stealth jet fighters took part in a joint live fire drill in South Korea intended as a show of force.
In phone call on Friday, Trump and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in agreed to enhance Seouls deterrence against North Korea by boosting its missile capabilities, Yonhap reported, citing Seouls presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae.
The two leaders noted the need to strengthen the Republic of Koreas defence capabilities to counter provocations and threats from North Korea, and reached an agreement in principle to revise the missile guideline to the extent hoped by the South Korean side, Yonhap quoted Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Park Soo-hyun as saying.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years after a series of missile tests by Pyongyang.
South Korean President Moon Jae-In has previously urged limits on Seouls missiles to be loosened in a conversation with Trump.
Seoul is currently allowed to possess ballistic missiles with a range of 800 km and payload of 500 kg, but it wants the weight limit raised to 1,000 kg.
The Pentagon had said it was actively considering the revision.
Calls are also mounting in the South for Seoul to build nuclear weapons of its own to defend itself as nuclear-armed North Koreas missile stand-off with the US escalates.
The South, which hosts 28,500 US troops to defend it, is banned from building its own nuclear weapons under a 1974 atomic energy deal it signed with Washington, which instead offers a nuclear umbrella against potential attacks.
Yonhap added that the two leaders reaffirmed the need to bring Pyonyang back to the dialogue table by applying maximum sanctions and pressure.
However, Trump said after the latest missile test that negotiations with Pyongyang were not the answer.
China says its foreign minister is advising Japan not to impose sanctions unilaterally on North Korea after it launched a test missile that flew over Japan before falling into the Pacific Ocean.
The test-firing on Tuesday has intensified fear and reignited a debate in Japan about revising its defence plan after decades of pursuing more pacifist policies. A statement from Chinas foreign ministry on Saturday says the minister also urged his Japanese counterpart a day earlier not to consider unilateral sanctions in response.
Foreign minister Wang Yi said unilateral sanctions are not in line with the spirit of the (UN) Security Council resolutions, and there is no basis in international law for them, (therefore) Japan should not make a misjudgment.
Russia on Saturday summoned the top US envoy in Moscow to protest a search it says American officials are planning at a diplomatic facility in Washington that is due to be shuttered.
The foreign ministry said it called in acting US mission head Anthony Godfrey and handed him a note of protest over the intention of the American authorities to conduct a search at a Russian trade representation.
We consider the planned illegitimate search of the Russian diplomatic premises without the presence of Russian officials and a threat to break down the front door as an unprecedented, aggressive act, a statement said.
It could be used by the US intelligence services to organise an anti-Russian provocation involving planting compromising materials.
The trade facility in Washington is one of three diplomatic buildings -- including the consulate in San Francisco and an office in New York -- that the US has ordered Moscow to vacate by Saturday in the latest twist in a tit- for-tat feud.
The foreign ministry alleged Friday that US intelligence agents were planning to search the consulate in San Francisco.
Black smoke was seen pouring from the chimney of the consulate on Friday and firefighters confirmed its occupants were burning unidentified objects.
A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry said the smoke was due to measures being taken to preserve the building as officials were preparing to leave.
Pakistan on Saturday welcomed Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghanis proposal that his country is ready for a comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan.
The countrys foreign minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif hailed Ghanis statement seeking talks, saying that his country is willing to hold a dialogue with Afghanistan in line with a bilateral mechanism.
Pakistans position in the context of Afghanistan is very clear. We want to see peace and stability in Afghanistan and for that Pakistan will contribute and play its due role in all the initiatives taken to that end, Asif was quoted as saying by Radio Pakistan.
He also said Pakistan and Afghanistan have already had bilateral, trilateral, quadrilateral and multilateral mechanisms for dialogue and interaction in place.
Those mechanisms should be utilised to their full potential, he said.
Asif said that during previous interactions, both sides recognised the need for political to political, military to military and intelligence to intelligence cooperation.
Pakistani police say two gunmen targeting an ethnic party lawmaker after Eid prayers instead gunned down two others, including a child, in the southern port city of Karachi.
Lawmaker Khawaja Izharul Hasan escaped uninjured in the attack Saturday but the child and a police officer were killed, police officer Pir Mohammad Shah said.
Shah said one of the attackers was also gunned down by police during a chase.
Hasan belongs to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which represents the Urdu-speaking population. He was meeting and greeting people after Eid prayers when gunmen struck in a north Karachi neighbourhood.
The party was divided after its self-exiled founder Altaf Hussain uttered anti-Pakistan remarks in London last year. He is wanted in many criminal cases back home.
More than 2,600 houses have been burned down in Rohingya-majority areas of Myanmars northwest in the last week, the government said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest bouts of violence involving the Muslim minority in decades.
About 58,600 Rohingya have fled into neighbouring Bangladesh from Myanmar, according to U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, as aid workers there struggle to cope.
Myanmar officials blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for the burning of the homes. The group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on security posts last week that prompted clashes and a large army counter-offensive.
But Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh say a campaign of arson and killings by the Myanmar army is aimed at trying to force them out.
The treatment of Myanmars roughly 1.1 million Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the Muslim minority that has long complained of persecution.
The clashes and army crackdown have killed nearly 400 people and more than 11,700 ethnic residents have been evacuated from the area, the government said, referring to the non-Muslim residents.
It marks a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since October, when a smaller Rohingya attack on security posts prompted a military response dogged by allegations of rights abuses.
A total of 2,625 houses from Kotankauk, Myinlut and Kyikanpyin villages and two wards in Maungtaw were burned down by the ARSA extremist terrorists, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said. The group has been declared a terrorist organisation by the government.
But Human Rights Watch, which analysed satellite imagery and accounts from Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, said the Myanmar security forces deliberately set the fires.
New satellite imagery shows the total destruction of a Muslim village, and prompts serious concerns that the level of devastation in northern Rakhine state may be far worse than originally thought, said the groups deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson.
Full capacity
Near the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh, new arrivals in Bangladesh carrying their belongings in sacks set up crude tents or tried to squeeze into available shelters or homes of locals.
The existing camps are near full capacity and numbers are swelling fast. In the coming days there needs to be more space, said UNHCR regional spokeswoman Vivian Tan, adding more refugees were expected.
The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and regarded as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots that date back centuries. Bangladesh is also growing increasingly hostile to Rohingya, more than 400,000 of whom live in the poor South Asian country after fleeing Myanmar since the early 1990s.
Jalal Ahmed, 60, who arrived in Bangladesh on Friday with a group of about 3,000 after walking from Kyikanpyin for almost a week, said he believed the Rohingya were being pushed out of Myanmar.
The military came with 200 people to the village and started fires...All the houses in my village are already destroyed. If we go back there and the army sees us, they will shoot, he said.
Reuters could not independently verify these accounts as access for independent journalists to northern Rakhine has been restricted since security forces locked down the area in October.
Speaking to soldiers, government staff and Rakhine Buddhists affected by the conflict on Friday, army chief Min Aung Hlaing said there is no oppression or intimidation against the Muslim minority and everything is within the framework of the law.
The Bengali problem was a long-standing one which has become an unfinished job, he said, using a term used by many in Myanmar to refer to the Rohingya that suggests they come from Bangladesh.
Many aid programmes running in northern Rakhine prior to the outbreak of violence, including life-saving food assistance by the World Food Programme (WFP), have been suspended since the fighting broke out.
Food security indicators and child malnutrition rates in Maungdaw were already above emergency thresholds before the violence broke out, and it is likely that they will now deteriorate even further, said Pierre Peron, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar.
More than 80,000 children may need treatment for malnutrition in northern Rakhine and many of them reported extreme food insecurity, WFP said in July.
In Bangladesh, Tan of UNHCR said more shelters and medical care were needed. Theres a lot of pregnant women and lactating mothers and really young children, some of them born during the flight. They all need medical attention, she said.
Among new arrivals, 22-year-old Tahara Begum gave birth to her second child in a forest on the way to Bangladesh.
It was the hardest thing Ive ever done, she said.
The Trump administration announced Kenneth Juster as the next US ambassador to India, filling a crucial position that had been lying vacant since the new president took office and relieved all envoys appointed by the previous administration, as is the practice barring some exception.
An experienced India hand, 62-year-old Juster is currently serving as deputy assistant to the president for International Economic Affairs and deputy director of the National Economic Council, and had emerged as the leading interlocutor for the administration with India, and visiting officials.
He was a key part of the White House faction that had come to be branded the globalists or moderates, led by the presidents chief economic advisor Gary Cohn and that included Trumps daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, both advisers to the president.
For instance, they stood for continued engagement with the world, and argued for the United States to remain in the Paris Climate Accord. But they lost to the nationalists group led by the presidents former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who had pushed for an America First thrust to all Trump policies.
Justers appointment as ambassador, within just a few months of his appointment to the key White House position, was tied to the same tussle according to speculation, but came to be seen as a good choice by both India and India-watchers in the US.
Indians like the US ambassador in Delhi to have high-level connections in the White House, if not to the president directly, and Juster has excellent connections there, specially with Cohn, who hired him, said an observer, who has known the nominee and had closely followed the selection process.
Ashley Tellis, a leading US expert on India who had once been the subject of speculation for the post of ambassador to Delhi, had told Hindustan Times earlier that Juster would be an excellent choice.
Justers nomination will have to be confirmed by the Senate, a process that could take weeks, as it deals with a stream of appointments that the administration is making to fill many crucial positions that have remained unoccupied. There is still no assistant secretary of state for South and Centra Asia in the US State Department, a key position dealing with India, among other countries.
Juster, a lawyer from Harvard, is an experienced India hand. As deputy secretary of commerce in President George W Bushs administration a position roughly the equivalent of a minister of state in India he had launched the High Technology Cooperation Group to promote trade in sensitive dual-use goods and technology.
He served as under secretary of commerce from 2001 to 2005, counselor (acting) of the State Department from 1992 to 1993, and deputy and senior adviser to the deputy secretary of state from 1989 to 1992.
In the private sector, the White House statement about his nomination said, he has been a partner at the investment firm Warburg Pincus LLC, which has been very bullish on India and scaled up investments there; executive vice president at Salesforce.com, and senior partner at the law firm Arnold & Porter.
He was also chairman of Harvard Universitys Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and vice chairman of The Asia Foundation. Apart from a law degree from the Harvard Law School, he has a masters degree in Public Policy from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and a bachelors degree in Government from Harvard College.
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who holds the record for maximum time spent in space by any US astronaut, is set to return to Earth on Saturday, completing a 288-day mission at the International Space Station.
Whitson and her Expedition 52 crewmates Jack Fischer of NASA and Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos are scheduled to land in Kazakhstan at 9.22 pm on Saturday (6.52am Sunday India time).
At the time of their landing, she will have accrued a total of 665 days in space over the course of her career, more than any US astronaut, placing her eighth on the all-time space endurance list, NASA said.
Whitsons return will mark the end of her third long-duration stay onboard the space station.
In this December 8, 2016 photo made available by NASA, astronaut Peggy Whitson floats through a tangle of cables inside the Columbus module aboard the International Space Station. Whitson was operating the Fluids System Servicer to refill coolant loops in multiple modules on the US segment of the station. (AP)
She launched on November 17 with 377 days in space already under her belt, and on April 24 broke Jeff Williams standing US record of 534 cumulative days in space.
Whitson also holds the record for most spacewalks by a female.
Yurchikhin and Fischer, who launched in April, will complete 136 days in space on their return. Yurchikhin will return to Earth with a total of 673 days in space on his five flights, putting him in seventh place on the all-time endurance list.
At the time of undocking, Expedition 53 will begin aboard the station under the command of Randy Bresnik.
Along with his crewmates Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency), the three-person crew will operate the station until the arrival of three new crew members.
Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA and Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos, are scheduled to launch on September 12 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, NASA said.
Some of the diplomats hurt in a mystery sonic harassment attack on the US embassy in Cuba suffered brain injuries or permanent hearing loss, their staff association said on Friday.
Washington recently said at least 16 embassy employees were injured in a series of incidents in Havana that began last year, but officials have not revealed the extent of the injuries.
Now, the American Foreign Service Association the labor union representing US diplomatic and international aid personnel has been able to speak to 10 of those who received treatment.
Diagnoses include mild traumatic brain injury and permanent hearing loss, with such additional symptoms as loss of balance, severe headaches, cognitive disruption and brain swelling, it said.
The State Department has called the attacks unprecedented and has warned Havana it is responsible for the safety of envoys working on its soil without saying who it believes was behind them.
Staff members at the US mission, which was reopened as a full embassy in 2015 after a half-century Cold War breakdown in diplomatic relations began reporting sick last year.
US officials have told reporters they believe some kind of sonic device was used to covertly undermine the envoys health.
Some of the 16 staff who were hurt were evacuated to Miami for treatment in US hospitals, while others were cared for by American doctors who travelled to Havana to work at the embassy.
Separately, Canada has said one of its diplomats posted to Havana is also being treated for hearing loss.
In May, the US ordered two Cuban diplomats to leave their own recently reopened embassy in Washington and return to Havana, without publicly saying why.
It is now known that Washington had alerted the Cuban government to what Havana dubs the alleged incidents as far back as February 17.
But US officials made no public complaint until just last month when US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that Cuba must help investigate and prevent further attacks.
Tillersons spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Thursday last week that the incidents do now appear to have ended, but that investigations are ongoing to find the culprits.
This latest attack is regrettably only the latest example of the many threats facing members of the foreign service as they serve their country abroad, the staff association said.
The body urged the US government to do everything possible to provide appropriate care for those affected, and to work to ensure that these incidents cease and are not repeated.
Police in the US state of Utah have launched an investigation after video footage showed an officer forcibly arresting a nurse for refusing to draw blood from an unconscious patient.
The images captured by police body cameras and University Hospital in Salt Lake City show Alex Wubbels screaming for help as she is manhandled out of the medical centre and handcuffed.
The nurse was detained for around 20 minutes in a police car before being released after administrative staff intervened, according to Suzanne Winchester, a spokeswoman for hospital.
Winchester told AFP blood samples from a patient could be handed over to police only if the patient had given their consent, was under arrest or there was a warrant.
Nurse Alex Wubbels displays video frame grabs of herself being taken into custody in Salt Lake City. (AP)
None of these conditions was met, said Winchester, who added that Wubbels had correctly followed protocol.
This is very out of the ordinary. Everybody was very shocked -- it was upsetting for our staff, she added.
The incident unfolded on July 26, but the video was only made public on Thursday at a news conference held by Wubbels.
Stop, stop -- Ive done nothing wrong... This is crazy, please sir, youre hurting me, she is seen pleading as she is frogmarched to a police car.
Wubbels told journalists she felt betrayed and angry at her treatment when she was only trying to keep her patient safe.
Salt Lake City police chief Mike Brown said he was alarmed by the footage and that an internal affairs investigation had been launched.
To date, we have suspended the officer from the blood draw program. We have already replaced our blood draw policy with a new policy, he added.
All remaining officers on the blood draw program have reviewed, and are operating under the new policy and protocol.
District attorney Sim Gill issued a statement on Facebook calling for a full criminal investigation, however.
Injustice against one is an injustice against all. Everyone deserves a fair process and institutional accountability is our collective responsibility, he said.
Making a rare appearance over at the Literary Stage in Mindfield was Laura Albert, better known as JT LeRoy.
With an introduction worthy of a discussion in and of itself, journalist Nadine O'Regan opened the coversation by detailing how Albert became one of modern literature's most influential figures by having fabricated a persona entirely: JT LeRoy.
Falsely diagnosed with HIV by the New York Times, in hindsight Albert suggested "Maybe [LeRoy] should have been HIV positive. It could have started a dialogue." Tackling the complexity of such a character, Albert called LeRoy an early example of "gender fluidity", a salient observation, which she aligned with the topic of sexuality today.
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"I wanted to be a boy", she continued. LeRoy was her "disassociation having been abused. I distanced myself by telling stories. Being a boy was removed for me."
The Texas oil industry's breakdown after Tropical Storm Harvey will test the nation's ability to get fuel to motorists as gas stations scramble for fresh supplies, pump prices surge and the Gulf Coast's vast network of refineries, pipelines and seaside ports stays idle for weeks.
In coming days, the slow restart of coastal energy facilities will almost certainly expose weak spots in energy supply chains here and around the world. Ever since U.S. shale drillers figured out how to tap into once-inaccessible shale rocks for bountiful amounts of oil and gas, Houston and the rest of the Texas Gulf has become a crucial passage for global energy markets as local companies send fuel supplies to Latin America, Europe and Asia.
"In addition to the human tragedy, it's just shown how important Houston and the Texas Gulf has become in the global oil system," said Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS Markit. "As the storm passes, the big question will be how the logistics work with this degree of disruption, and how quickly do the refineries come back?"
In less than a week, Harvey flooded more than a dozen major refineries, stranded workers from Corpus Christi to Port Arthur, shut down major pipelines that ferry oil and gasoline across the country, crimped deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and threatened gasoline shortfalls that could last for weeks as companies slowly restart almost a quarter of the nation's refining capacity.
The catastrophic storm came at a time when the domestic oil and gas surge has shifted the energy industry's center of gravity to the Texas coast, a flood-prone region exposed to increasingly frequent and powerful storms. It has raised questions about the resiliency of Gulf Coast refineries and whether the region's vulnerability to storms might threaten its future as an energy hub.
Going elsewhere?
Energy Secretary Rick Perry said as the U.S. energy industry grows, it might make sense to build future refineries and other infrastructure in other parts of the country.
"That conversation has been ongoing, well before the storm," Perry said. "They're initial conversations, but they're ongoing, and rightfully so. The storm is a great example of why we need to be having that conversation."
In recent years, petrochemical manufacturers have poured tens of billions into new plants in Houston and along the Gulf Coast, taking advantage of existing gas and chemical processing facilities and the proximity to ports and waterways to export products. The region - not even counting Louisiana - produces more than 25 percent of the nation's gasoline and jet fuel.
After the U.S. oil export ban was lifted last year, American crude exports climbed to 1 million barrels a day in May, competing with the likes of long-established rivals including Saudi Arabia. But after Harvey's rampage, tankers coming from the Gulf Coast have all but disappeared from international shipping lanes. Countries that buy U.S. energy exports like Mexico, Brazil and Venezuela will also have to find new and costlier sources of gasoline in Europe, as European countries seek new imports from Asian countries like China, India and South Korea.
"Some of these cargoes are being sent with flexible destinations," said Michael Wittner, global head of oil research at Societe Generale, a French bank. "They're heading out across the Atlantic with the flexibility to go to the U.S. East and West coasts or Latin America. They're going to see where the demand is and which market is going to pay the highest price."
Twenty-five tankers carrying some 17 million barrels of crude for U.S. refiners can't offload their supplies in the closed or partly closed ports of Corpus Christi, Freeport, Texas City, Houston and Galveston, according to the Energy Department, although Houston-area ports have begun the process of reopening.
Ten Gulf Coast refineries were still shut down as of Friday, and six have begun to restart operations, a process that could take days or weeks as companies assess damage from the flooding, the Energy Department said. Exxon Mobil Corp., Valero Energy, Citgo, Petrobras, Royal Dutch Shell and Phillips 66 operated some of those refineries. That's not counting a few Corpus Christi refineries that have begun to start back up but will still take several days before they're fully operational.
All told, those shut-down refineries process more than 4 million barrels of crude per a day. Sections of major Texas rail lines that carry the ethanol that is blended in gasoline remained closed.
In the Gulf of Mexico, deep-water drillers evacuated more than 100 platforms and stopped pumping 300,000 barrels of oil a day, 18.5 percent of the region's output. In the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, producers shut in up to 500,000 barrels per day, more than half of the region's output, the Texas Railroad Commission estimated.
Still an oil glut
If not for the oil glut that has kept crude prices low and Gulf Coast storage tanks full for more than three years, the nation's supply constraints could have been a lot worse. But it's not clear the glut can ease the strain yet.
"It's a well-supplied market," said Neil Atkinson, head of the oil markets division at the International Energy Agency. "But it's more a question of logistics. Can we move stuff to where we need it?"
Over the past week, the average spot price for gasoline sold directly from U.S. refineries has climbed 24 percent, which analysts expect will soon hike pump prices. In Houston, the price of a gallon of regular gasoline could climb as much as 50 cents higher as gas stations scramble to find fresh supplies in what could be a monthlong period of fuel shortages and price spikes.
The storm hit the U.S. petrochemical sector even harder than refiners. At least half of the nation's production of ethylene, the primary building block of most plastics, is offline, as is almost half of the polyethylene supply to manufacture the most common plastics for packaging and much more, according to IHS Markit and S&P Global Platts. Those outages have caused a major disruption to the flow of chemical and plastic commodities around the world, at least temporarily, analysts said.
Billions lost
Lost economic activity and extensive damage by the storm could cost the region more than $100 billion, including $5 billion to $10 billion in damage to roads, bridges, rail and other infrastructure that holds the energy complex together.
It could also leave some refineries inoperable for up to a month. Some facilities in Corpus Christi are expected to hum to life again over the next two weeks, but in Port Arthur and Beaumont, where the flooding was relentless, it could take up to a month, analysts said.
"It's clear the infrastructure in the systems haven't kept up with the topography," Yergin said. "This is going to put a new focus on resilience, on hardening the system."
After a string of Gulf Coast hurricanes and storms, refiners have taken steps to improve their defenses against natural forces, including elevating outside control rooms to prevent floods from knocking out their facilities, and forming steep berms to catch heavy rainfall around the facilities, collecting the water like moats.
The shutdown of more than a dozen refiners this week could spur government-led studies of existing defenses against high levels of flooding. And the long aftermath of Harvey could play into how the region retains favor with risk-adverse companies that in coming years will decide where to build the next round of multibillion-dollar plants, said Praveen Kumar, executive director of the Gutierrez Energy Management Institute at the University of Houston.
Investors may be more cautious about a flood-prone region with increasingly frequent heavy storms, particularly as they seek out multidecade contracts with buyers in China, India and emerging markets, he said.
Diversifying locations
"A big part of economic decision-making is managing risk," Kumar said. In the event of a storm-related explosion or spill, "companies could be liable for billions of dollars in legal (fines). The big concern for Houston is that the economic calculations of these companies could start making them look at diversifying their locations."
Still, if the industry begins to set up new hubs outside of Texas, it's probably not going elsewhere in the United States. It would instead leave for other parts of the world like the Middle East and China, because domestic fuel demand isn't growing, so it doesn't make financial sense to build large U.S. refineries, analysts said.
"It's not like you're going to box up a refinery and move it," said Jamie Webster, senior director at Boston Consulting Group's Center for Energy Impact in Washington.
"But over time, people could look and say, 'Let's see if we're diversified,' " Webster said. "If you had geographic diversity, you could have refineries go down but you could handle it elsewhere."
Reporters Jordan Blum, Kevin Diaz and James Osborne contributed to this report.
Two former regional presidents who oversaw Wells Fargo branches across Southern California say they were wrongfully blamed and fired for promoting unethical sales practices - something they said they unsuccessfully tried to get their superiors to address.
Reza Razzaghipour and Marla Razzaghipour, who are married, were dismissed in March, just a few weeks after Wells Fargo publicly fired several higher-ranking executives over their roles in the bank's sham-accounts scandal.
The Razzaghipours say they complained about and reported bad practices - including the opening of unauthorized accounts but were fired anyway, both because they complained and because the bank "needed to scapegoat certain management to appease regulators, its board of directors and/or the public," according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles.
The Razzaghipours allege that several higher-ups knew about or promoted illegal conduct and that some of those executives were able to keep their jobs, including former Los Angeles-area executive David DiCristofaro, who is still with the bank but in a different role.
DiCristofaro knew about and encouraged illegal practices, including "simulated funding" - the practice of making a new sham account look legitimate by transferring money from a customer's existing account, the lawsuit alleges.
"Wells Fargo knew this, yet gave DiCristofaro a promotion while scapegoating the whistleblower plaintiffs by terminating their employment," the lawsuit says. The Razzaghipours also allege that DiCristofaro engaged in illegal age, gender and sexual orientation discrimination and that Marla Razzaghipour was fired in part for complaining.
The suit also names John Sotoodeh, a former Los Angeles regional president who now has a different position at the bank, and alleges that he encouraged illegal conduct. An internal bank investigation, the results of which were published in April, noted that Sotoodeh was in charge of the Los Angeles market when it became "the epicenter of the simulated funding phenomenon."
Bank spokesman Paul Gomez denied the allegations and said DiCristofaro and Sotoodeh could not comment.
"The termination decisions were not retaliatory as alleged in the complaint," Gomez said in an email. "The company terminated the employment of these two individuals for legitimate and lawful reasons."
The Razzaghipours are suing Wells Fargo for wrongful termination, retaliation and defamation, accusing the bank and a spokeswoman of smearing them as untrustworthy in a statement.
The bank did not announce that the Razzaghipours had been fired. The Los Angeles Times received a tip that they had been.
In response to an inquiry from the Times, a spokeswoman provided a statement, cited in the lawsuit, confirming the Razzaghipours were no longer with the bank but declining to comment on whether they had resigned or been fired. The statement went on to say that Wells Fargo was "focused on ensuring we have the right people and leaders in place to rebuild trust and build a better bank."
Dealing with the emotional residue of Hurricane Harvey was a given. Natural disasters are always traumatic and carry long-lasting effects. Natural disasters that feel like unforgettable dark moments of history are much more than the limits "trauma" can contain. It's going to take years for us to fully get through the toll of this cataclysm - if ever.
Some of this short-term psychological flotsam is easy to understand. Like the burn of anxiety that flares up when the weather forecast carries suggestions of more rain. Or the persistent guilt of comfort stemming from the fact that my home wasn't flooded when so many others' were, or that I was safe while some people were fighting to stay alive.
But the feelings that are most unsettling to me are also the most unexpected: a nagging sense that I've been used, commodified by a network of people appropriating the tragedies of Harvey for their own personal gain, and the recurring reality that I'm being told by people who have never lived through a hurricane how I should have reacted to its presence.
This is the price of being inside the biggest story of the moment during the age of social media: What's happening to you doesn't belong to you anymore. Everything that's swirling around your life in the midst of Harvey's terror - the physical torment, the emotional battle of logic versus fear, the concern that the end of days is suddenly something more than one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's worst movies - becomes intellectual merchandise for a group-think that's often less concerned with the group than the self.
Anyone with a social media account has witnessed the crime. An uplifting story about a family barely escaping the rising waters that flooded their home becomes one person's prop to get into a reductive rant of how global warming is real. They don't care about the people in the story - they simply care that the people's misfortune afforded an opportunity to twist this situation into some personal attention.
Logic and order don't matter in the path of a calamitous hurricane. And they don't matter in the social media reactions about Hurricane Harvey either. The currency in these posts is outrage mined from what's taking place all around and bent into the form of the posters' personal crusades, politics and religion. And all of us who have been inside Harvey's wrath are simply props for their arguments. What a petty exercise.
Again, I didn't experience the worst of Harvey's power. I can only imagine how it feels to be one of the people in those photos who were stuck on a roof, waiting to be rescued. And I can only imagine how it feels to find that this photo of you has become someone's "proof" that Houston's zoning laws were to blame for the flooding - rather than a historic storm that dumped 50 inches of rain on us in a few days.
We're an opportunity for more attention on someone's newsfeed, disaster be damned.
It's a disturbing experience. But it's not as bad as being told that, essentially, everything we did during the hurricane was wrong.
There's been a lot of hurricane-splaining since Harvey blew into town. People from disparate places like Kearney, Neb., and the set of the "Today" show are telling Houstonians that we were fools for staying. That we should have evacuated. That we should have abandoned our homes. That we should have turned our backs on our city, our neighbors, and rushed out of the state as Harvey started beating down everyone who remained.
These critics want to praise the first responders for their heroics yet blame the people who needed to be rescued. They want to celebrate the perseverance of human determination and damn the desire to protect your home. They want it both ways. Mostly, I think they want to sleep well at night.
Whether it's exploiting a tragedy or trying to shame people stuck in the path of a historic weather event, these social media reactions aren't about any of us - which might be the grimmest thought of all. They're about the people posting the rants. They're about these people trying to convince themselves that the true blame for this calamity is human decision. That ignoring the consequences of climate change caused Harvey to become a deadly behemoth. That people failing to flee when the weather forecasts tell us a hurricane is approaching is why we're going to have some unfortunate funerals.
People want to blame us, Houstonians, because they don't want to admit that sometimes Mother Nature is randomly mean. That some weather patterns can kill us with little warning. That life is dangerous regardless of how many precautions we take.
This is the dirty little truth of the Hurricane Harvey fallout: It reminds us how little control we have over life.
It's a fact that most humans will never be able to accept. So they redirect the fear at others and mask it as outrage.
It's not fair. And being part of it is not a fun feeling. But at least I have a comfortable bed to sleep in tonight. And a dry home. I wonder if these hurricane critics are counting the same blessings - or simply surveying the wreckage for more opportunities to convince themselves that their fear and frustration is someone else's fault.
So high were the Hurricane Harvey floodwaters in Jose Pacheco's northside Houston neighborhood, he had been stranded for days without the dialysis he needed for his diabetes. So Monday night, as the rains kept coming, the pit-room hand at Pinkerton's Barbecue posted to Facebook asking if anyone had a jacked-up truck to get him out.
His boss, Grant Pinkerton, saw the plea and sprang into social-media overdrive: posting calls for a high-water truck and a boat across his Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts. "I've got a boat and a four-by-four, are you ready to roll?" responded Kellan Lewis, a customer and friend.
Just before midnight, the two set off on a wild ride, navigating the wrong way on watery freeways. Waves sluiced over the hood. At one point, the boat floated free from its trailer.
The Instagram photo posted at tale's end, with Pinkerton and Pacheco grinning on dry land, floated onto the barbecue spot's popular Twitter feed in the early-morning hours like a talisman. It was hope in a snapshot, a signal that things actually might turn out all right.
"Once we got Jose back to the restaurant, we set him up with a cot and blankets, but the only thing he wanted to do was fire up the pit," Pinkerton recalls. By 3 p.m. the next day, Pacheco had found a scarce seat at one of the city's slammed dialysis centers, and after four days without, he was getting treatment.
More for you How the internet rallied to rescue a family in Katy
That life-and-death saga is just one of many that played out on various social-media platforms as Houston battled Harvey's unprecedented rains and flooding. Call Harvey the city's first social-media storm: the weather disaster in which platforms from Twitter and Facebook to Nextdoor and Zello emerged as a new kind of civic infrastructure when traditional infrastructure failed, or simply bogged down.
Twitter was a puny 2-year-old toddler when the city struggled through Hurricane Ike, our last catastrophic weather event. Facebook was only a youthful shadow of its 2017 self, with just 100 million users instead of a billion plus. Nextdoor, the networking platform for neighborhoods that has been proving itself vital to recovery efforts, had not been invented yet; nor had Zello, the Austin-based live-conversation startup that emerged as the crucial communications system for citizen high-water rescue groups, from the Cajun Navy to freelancers.
Houstonians used all these tools to forge happy endings even when the city's 911 emergency system was clogged with a near-hopeless number of calls. In hundreds of cases, they leveraged their social networks - and those of their friends and acquaintances - to achieve unlikely results.
Eighty-five-year-old Margaret Reuter was marooned in her Meyerland house with water closing around her, unsteady on her feet and unable to get to her roof. In the Heights, her daughter, Mary Beth Reuter, worked Facebook frantically with her wife, Shana Ross.
A friend knew a rescue swimmer with Texas Task Force 1 Urban Search and Rescue, which had teamed with the Blackhawk military helicopter-rescue team. As long a shot as it seemed, Ross used Facebook to reach the swimmer, Lt. Matthew Geller, a Dallas firefighter. The upshot: Gellar and company plucked Reuter from her roof in a rescue basket. "I felt like I had set up my own Facebook command center," Ross recalled after the fact.
Indeed. Individual command centers were springing up across the social-media landscape to meet the city's needs.
A brave flotilla of citizen rescue boats was held together by the walkie-talkie app Zello, which works on smartphones through Wi-Fi. Whereas people hoping for rescue or trying to supply it via Twitter used hashtags such as #harveyrescue or #harveysos, those appealing directly to freelance volunteer boats or organized crews like the Texas Navy or Cajun Navy did so through several widely circulated internet databases directing them to specially created Zello channels. They could broadcast their appeals live to phones in staging areas or on the water. Zello usage leaped 20-fold during the past week, a company official told Market Watch. It's safe to say that Zello is the rising social-media star of Harvey.
Stranded in San Diego after both Houston airports closed, Houston food blogger Phaedra Cook worked her extensive social media connections to coordinate thousands of hot meals with recipients. Cook and hospitality professional Carrie Jean Knight established a Facebook group, Houston Service Industry for Harvey Relief, that linked a network of Houston restaurants with first responders and evacuees needing to be fed. And Cook's daily postings of restaurant and grocery openings on her Houston Food Finder site proved invaluable to a hungry, poleaxed populace. She may work part-time in San Diego these days, but Cook's digital presence was nonstop.
When the task of matching meals and eaters outgrew the original Facebook group, Rice University professor and longtime social-media expert Matthew Wettergreen created a new website, I Have Food/I Need Food, to match shelters and chefs.
Hacking co-op Sketch City took it upon themselves to devise an interactive map tool, the Texas Muck Map, to match flooded-out homeowners with volunteers - and it was promptly shared widely by the real-estate blog Swamplot. Earlier in the week, the site had also given the initial boost to Sketch City's map matching a growing list of shelters to citizens who needed them, updated constantly by a group of volunteers.
In the Idlywood neighborhood, alongside badly flooded Brays Bayou on the city's east side, civic club president Amy Dinn used Nextdoor to rally work crews that started out by checking on elderly neighbors and clearing downed trees, then progressed in the following days to ripping out sheetrock, crowdsourcing box fans and mobilizing volunteers for the hundred little tasks of recovery. Every morning a new requisition list and staging-area designation popped up in Nextdoor users' inboxes.
Dinn says she used Facebook as well as Nextdoor to coordinate volunteers, the better to achieve maximum coverage. "Nextdoor is particularly nice because you can just keep the notices within our neighborhood or blast out to the 10 closest neighborhoods if you prefer, depending on what kind of audience is best," she says.
Susan and Mark Lawrence of Bellaire put out a call on Nextdoor: "An 83-year old man in poor health needs our help in pulling wet carpet out of his house and wet debris out of his garage." They got eight takers, including four Rice students. "We knocked the job out in about three hours," Mark said.
As news of hundreds of similar efforts was shared on social media, the intangible value of such citizen broadcasting dawned: People's spirits lifted. Good behavior was modeled. Heroes emerged at a time when it was reassuring - even energizing - to believe in them.
Powerful images on Twitter and Facebook especially seemed worth clinging to, each one its own little life raft. The brawny sheriff's deputy with two frazzled children in his arms. The firefighter wading through waist-deep water holding a mother and child. The video of a cowering pit bull crouched on a car roof, then enticed into a rescue boat with a bit of beef jerky.
One of the most harrowing storm images popped up last Sunday on Twitter. Six elderly women, some of them in wheelchairs, sat in murky, waist-deep water at La Vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson. It was posted in desperation by Timothy J. McIntosh, a financial author in Tampa, Fla., whose mother-in-law owned the facility, and who had been unable to get thought to the National Guard. So widely was the photo shared that La Vita Bella zoomed to the top of the priority list for Galveston's Office of Emergency Management. Within hours, the residents had been airlifted out.
A day later, an "after" Twitter photo of the residents, dry and smiling, was just the tonic many traumatized Houstonians needed.
That's the thing about the images and stories spread so widely, so immediately by social networks: Hour by hour, day by day, they made Harvey's floods seem first survivable; then, as a shared burden, bearable; and then, finally and most hopefully of all, recoverable.
The relief landscape mutated so rapidly - with shelters opening, rescue staging areas shifting, volunteer needs changing and donation drops filling up - that social media emerged as virtually the only way to sort out the confusion. On Tuesday night, as weary-looking young people straggled into Maba Pan-Asian Diner in Midtown looking for sustenance, they could be overheard consulting their smartphones and swapping intelligence about how the midnight curfew might affect volunteer shifts at the George R. Brown Convention Center shelter and whether the just-opened NRG Center shelter was taking volunteers yet.
As they conferred, the sun - unseen for nearly a week - suddenly burst through clouds low in the west. People actually gasped.
Hours later, word came through on Twitter from the mayor's account: The curfew had been moved from 10 p.m. to midnight.
Speaking personally, as a journalist and lifelong news junkie, I knew about the shift immediately because I was glued to my smartphone, which had seldom seemed so vital to my mental health. I could say the same of my laptop, from which I worked ceaselessly Friday night until I finally made it out of my swamped neighborhood on Tuesday evening.
I never once turned on my television. And I have never felt better informed about a natural disaster as it unfolded around me or more connected to my city and my fellow citizens. In Houston, in the time of Harvey, the Fifth Estate - social media - has truly come of age.
Joy Sewing contributed reporting to this story.
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Cleveland, Texas, help is on the way.
Sixteen-hundred miles away in Southern California, the residents of Manhattan Beach are organizing the Aid Cleveland Texas Campaign (ACT) to assist in Hurricane Harvey recovery.
The campaign started after former Cleveland mayor Niki Coats and his wife, Teresa, shared Facebook posts about how the town was suffering as a result of record flooding.
In California, Ben Dale, a 1985 graduate of Cleveland High School and classmate of the Coats and principal of Manhattan Beach High School, saw the posts and felt compelled to help his hometown.
"My first inclination was to get on a plane and go, but my wife was the voice of reason," said Dale. "She said I need to find some organization in Cleveland to connect to and not just go out there."
After talking to the Coats, Dale mentioned his idea for the campaign to his superintendent who suggested they get the school district and city involved.
After a meeting with the Manhattan Beach city manager and city council members, the community-wide project was given the green light. The neighboring city of Hermosa Beach soon joined in.
Calls were then made to Cleveland city and school officials to get "a picture of what was on the ground and so we could collect the things that are truly needed," he said.
With no middle-man organization between the California and Texas cities and schools, that means that every item and dollar donated will go directly into the hands of Cleveland residents.
"Everyone here has been anxious to respond and help out. We are fired up and ready. The willingness to support the people of Cleveland just poured out of our community," he said.
Organizers have gotten donations or commitments for 3,000 pairs of Sketchers shoes, 10,000 pairs of socks, hundreds of backpacks loaded with school supplies, bedding, cleaning supplies, baby supplies, clothing, hygiene kits and pet supplies.
"Since yesterday, I have probably received about $30,000 in donations," Dale said Thursday afternoon. "That will go toward transportation costs. Whatever we have left, we are going to take a tour around Cleveland and do a needs assessment and might do an additional run for items."
As of Thursday, Aug. 31, organizers were predicting to have at least four truckloads full of supplies for Cleveland. When the trucks arrive, everything will be organized to make it easier for volunteers to distribute.
"Everyone is committed to what is going on. Everyone understands and knows what is happening. We don't want you to have to do this alone," Dale said.
As a teenager, Dale recalls the devastation of Hurricane Alicia, a direct hit for the Houston area. His family took in evacuees of the storm like most other families in Cleveland.
"That is not the only time Cleveland has helped out," he said. "This is just another community now paying it forward to Cleveland. Who knows, someone might have to help us out one day."
He hopes that as others hear of the campaign, they will step up to do their part, whether it is for the cities of Dayton, Crosby or Liberty, or any other impacted by Harvey.
"I hope they will look at this and say, 'I have the capability to do something, so why am I sitting here doing nothing,'" Dale said.
The trucks from California are expected to arrive late Thursday evening, Sept. 8. To ensure they arrive safely, they will be escorted for a leg of their Texas journey by members of the Pct. 6 Constable's Office.
Teresa Coats said she can't wait to greet Dale and his entourage when they arrive.
"I am overwhelmed and humbled that people more than 1,600 miles away would care so much about our community and be willing to commit their time and money to us," she said. "I am constantly amazed at the generosity of strangers."
One person who won't be a stranger is Dale, who has kept up with his former classmates since graduation.
"We've all kept in touch over the years. Through that connection, Cleveland is about to be blessed in a tremendous way."
For more information on ACT, search Facebook for "Aid Cleveland Texas Campaign." Please follow the Cleveland Advocate's Facebook page to keep up with distribution times and locations.
WASHINGTON - A couple of weeks ago President Donald Trump scrapped Obama-era rules, intended to reduce the risks posed by flooding, that established new construction standards for roads, housing and other infrastructure projects that receive federal dollars.
Trump derided these restrictions, which were written in response to growing concerns over the impact of climate change, and other federal rules as useless red tape holding back the economy.
"This overregulated permitting process is a massive, self-inflicted wound on our country - it's disgraceful - denying our people much-needed investments in their community," he said in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York during an event to tout his infrastructure policies.
But now, in the wake of the massive flooding and destruction caused by Hurricane Harvey along the Gulf Coast, the Trump administration is considering whether to issue similar requirements to build higher in flood-prone areas as the government prepares to spend billions of dollars in response to the storm.
This potential policy shift underscores the extent to which the reality of this week's storm has collided with Trump officials' push to upend President Barack Obama's policies and represents a striking acknowledgment by an administration skeptical of climate change that the government must factor changing weather into some of its major infrastructure policies.
White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said in an interview that the administration had already been planning to replace the 2015 standard that Trump rescinded Aug. 15 as part of a broader executive order on infrastructure. But Bossert added that, given the damage the storm has wrought and the money the government is poised to spend, "It might expedite our efforts to reach coordinated consensus here as we institute policy."
"We don't just want to build back faster; we want to build back better, faster and stronger," Bossert said.
In revoking the flood standard last month, Trump shelved two significant rules that were waiting to be finalized. One, at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would have required that construction projects funded through its assistance programs be built between two and three feet above the 100-year flood elevation in an expanded flood plain, depending on whether they represented critical infrastructure. The second, at Housing and Urban Development, would have mandated new or substantially improved HUD-financed projects, such as multifamily housing complexes, be built two feet higher in an expanded flood plain area.
Earlier in his tenure, Trump eliminated other policies and institutions aimed at incorporating projected climate impacts such as sea level rise and more frequent, intense storms into infrastructure planning. The National Environmental Policy Act climate guidance, which instructed agencies to review climate impacts in the construction of bridges, roads, pipelines and other projects, was revoked in March.
But in a presidency that has been decidedly unconventional, administration officials are still contemplating a handful of the policy precautions envisioned by Trump's predecessor.
Roy Wright, FEMA's deputy associate administrator for insurance and mitigation, said in an interview that agency officials were not eager to finance projects that would be vulnerable to flooding once more. Although he could not identify what height level would be required, he noted that after Superstorm Sandy hit in 2014, federal officials agreed any new project would have to be at least one foot above the 100-year flood elevation.
"When that federal investment comes in post-event to help rebuild that public infrastructure, we should be acting in a way so that this is the last time the federal taxpayer needs to make that investment," Wright said.
Disaster-relief funds disbursed through HUD's Community Development Block Grant program currently requires any residential new construction or "substantial improvement" projects to be built two feet above base flood elevation, according to agency officials.
Administration officials said they are waiting to assess the damage in Texas and other affected states, and had yet to determine what precise requirements they would apply to projects receiving federal funds.
"When drafting new flood standards, the Trump administration is focused on ensuring that new construction, informed by recent research and data, is built to better withstand future extreme weather events," said one White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because no final decision had been made. "We will announce those new standards at the appropriate time."
Recent federal analyses have all projected an increase in heavy downpours and sea-level rise in the United States as a result of climate change. On Jan. 19, an interagency task force issued a report finding that the rate of relative sea-level rise is highest in Louisiana, Texas and along the northern East Coast starting in Virginia - all areas prone to hurricanes. And the latest draft of a scientific report underpinning the National Climate Assessment concluded with "high confidence" that "heavy precipitation events in most parts of the country have increased in both frequency and intensity since 1901."
The U.S. Global Change Research Program created a mapping tool to help officials in New York and New Jersey incorporate projected changes into their rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Sandy, which could be updated and applied to other regions, such as the Gulf Coast.
Harriet Tregoning, a former top HUD official under Obama who worked on the flood standard, said in an interview that incidents such as Harvey or Sandy tend to shift the way policymakers view the trade-offs between requiring a greater investment on the front end and paying for the damage that comes from a severe storm.
"All you have to experience is one of these increasingly frequent massive disasters to cause you to check some of the assumptions you had going in," said Tregoning, who served as principal deputy assistant secretary for HUD's Office of Community Planning and Development.
And Tevi Troy, who helped coordinate the George W. Bush administration's hurricane recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast as a Domestic Policy Council staffer and later wrote a book on how presidents manage disasters, said he was reassured that several of Trump's top aides worked on similar issues during the Bush years.
"I'm glad that there's been a conventional approach to response," Troy said. "These are people who have experience and knowledge of handling this kind of thing, and it's reassuring."
There remains one major wild card when it comes to the administration's approach to the still-nascent recovery effort: Trump himself. Bossert said the former real estate developer had already started focusing on what it will take to help the tens of thousands of people whose homes have been destroyed or severely damaged.
"This is really going to be a housing challenge," he said. "What's cool about this president is that he keyed into that right away."
The industries that will play a critical role in the rebuilding drive are poised to weigh in on any new federal requirements, whether they are written into an emergency spending bill or adopted by a department.
The National Home Builders Association, which was sharply critical of HUD's proposal rule to impose new requirements for building in flood-prone areas, welcomed Trump's executive order. The group expressed particular concern over the fact that agencies under Obama had proposed expanding the flood plain in areas based on topography, which would have made developers conduct additional surveys if FEMA had not mapped an area already.
In October, when the HUD rule was proposed, the NAHB said it would "increase construction costs and project delays for single-family homes targeted for purchase using [Federal Housing Authority] programs intended to serve low- to moderate-income buyers."
Cathleen Kelly, who served on the White House Council on Environmental Quality from 2010 to 2011, said Obama officials placed climate change "front and center with recovery and rebuilding process" after extreme weather events to reduce future risk, but encountered major pushback.
And advocates for higher flood elevation standards could claim one recent victory: Two years ago, Obama toured a new mixed-income development in New Orleans called Faubourg Lafitte, which is on the site of a housing project destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. It was built two feet above base flood elevation, and when the neighborhood flooded in mid-August, it resisted the deluge.
"It's countless money that the taxpayer was just saved," said Marion McFadden, the former deputy assistant secretary for grant programs at HUD, "because the first floor was not flooded."
- - -
The Washington Post's Abby Phillip contributed to this report.
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A Facebook post warning that Hurricane Irma is on its way to wreck havoc on Houston has been shot down by the National Weather Service.
A post that has been circulating on social media warns people to watch out for Hurricane Irma, erroneously reporting "she's predicted to come through Mexico, hit us and everything in between up to Houston."
BEFORE AND AFTER: Satellite photos of the Houston area show the extreme damage
However, it's far too early to predict if Irma is going to hit land and cause any damage at all, said meteorologist Katie Magee.
"Irma right now is closer to Africa than the U.S., so it's way too soon to get any updates on it," Magee said.
Magee added the NWS in Dickinson is getting multiple daily updates from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Should anything happen, Magee said people will be warned properly ahead of Irma hitting land.
The National Weather Service projects Irma may hit the Caribbean islands by 8 a.m. Tuesday with wind speeds greater than 110 mph.
DEVASTATING: Maps show what Harvey's impact would look like in other U.S. states
A spaghetti model of Hurricane Irma created by the South Florida Water Management District shows the storm has a high chance of staying in the Atlantic Ocean and not making landfall at all.
South Florida Water Management District
According to the model, the storm is most likely to stay in the ocean, traveling north outside of the Carolinas before dissipating.
Some models give the storm a slight chance of entering the Gulf, but most follow the same path as those issued by the Florida agency.
Those who come across the fake image should not share it, since it illegally uses the NOAA symbol.
'Whoever knowingly states that those who issues or publishes any counterfeit weather forecast or warning of weather conditions falsely representing such forecast or warning to have been issued or published by the Weather Bureau, United States Signal Service, or other branch of the Government service, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ninety days, or both," warns the Cornell Law School.
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A federal prison in Beaumont that decided Thursday not to evacuate inmates despite a precarious drinking water situation has come under criticism from the men being held inside.
FCI Beaumont, a federal prison that houses 1,812 low security male inmates, said that although the facility's water source was compromised and had intermittent power, it was "adequately maintained with generator backup power when needed. There is an adequate food and water supply for both inmates and staff," the Federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement Thursday.
Messages from inmates obtained by Chron.com using a prison email system tell a different story.
EMPTY: In Texas gas shortage, man fills garbage cans at pump in Austin
One of those inmates is a 30-something-year-old man being held at Beaumont for possession of a large quantity of cocaine and possession of three firearms. His identity, and the name of the other inmate who provided messages to Chron.com, has been confirmed, but withheld because they fear retaliation from guards for speaking out against the prison. The man's girlfriend Andrea Hasberry said one way the prison could retaliate is by moving him to another facility farther away.
The man described a scene where a fellow inmate passed out Thursday night because of malnutrition; inmates haven't had a warm meal in more than five days, he said. Because of the water shortage, four portable toilets were brought in to service the man's building. No chemicals were placed in the toilets, which have already been "topped off" with waste, the man said.
"Save me Jesus," the man said in an email. "I never thought nothing like this would happen in prison."
SAVED: Stunning photo of coast guard rescuing infant during Harvey
This was a similar story from another 50-something-year-old inmate shared with Chron.com. He was found guilty of fraud. Communication with this inmate was facilitated by his daughter Morgan Owen.
"We are getting two bottles of water a day thus far. Which is obscene," the inmate said Friday morning over email. "We are getting three brown bags of peanut butter and bologna a day. ... Keep pounding the social media sites and call Washington, D.C. for the Texas senators, congressman, and attorney general Jeff Sessions who is actually in charge of us. The more information they get the better."
Hasberry has been using Facebook to raise awareness around conditions in the prison. She has also shared photos of her emails to her boyfriend on Facebook as well, which have received dozens of comments.
"Just because a person made a mistake they don't deserve to be treated as a animal," Hasberry told Chron.com Friday afternoon. "Animals are treated better then those men. They evacuated all those animals and made sure they were safe, why can't they make sure those men in those units are safe, fed, healthy with clean clothes and enough amount of water; they are people too."
HELPING HAND: Houston family takes in 16 strangers and pets displaced by Harvey
When presented with the exact claims brought up by both inmates, the Federal Bureau of Prisons provided Chron.com the following statement Friday afternoon: "[T]he storm impacted the city water supply; however, the FCC (federal correctional complex) has its own reserve of water for emergency situations to adequately operate the FCC. There is ample food and bottled water for inmates and staff."
On Tuesday, rising floodwaters from the Brazos River forced the relocation of an estimated 1,400 convicts from the Jester 3 and Vance prisons in Richmond to the other 100-plus state lockups across Texas.
Owen hopes her father feels some relief very soon.
"My dad has been without running or drinking water today, without AC and with maybe 1300-1500 calories of food all day. That speaks for itself doesn't it?" Owen told Chron.com Friday afternoon.
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It has been two years since the photo of Alan Kurdi on the beach in Turkey was published and an explosion of compassion was ignited in public consciousness. That heart-breaking photo humanised the escalating refugee crisis. It was a far cry from the 'swarms' we heard our Prime Minister at the time referring to. Alan was human, one soul, out of tens of thousands of people who have lost their lives while attempting to find sanctuary over the past two years.
A group of us got together in the days that followed that photo being published and started a hashtag #helpcalais, a crowdfunding page with the objective of raising a thousand pounds, and a collection for a van-load of useful donations to take to the unofficial refugee camp which lay on our doorstep, in Calais. Within a week we had raised 56,000 and we were receiving thousands of packages every day at Big Yellow Storage in Finchley, where our journey began. This was the beginning of a civil society movement - from day one we relied on dedicated volunteers to make it all happen. A passionate team of strangers with a shared goal arrived at Big Yellow every single day to unload vans, unwrap packages, shift boxes, sort through bags: retired people, students, Mums, actresses, barmen, truck drivers and professors. The following week we went to Calais. We saw that there were no big NGOs there and that the governments were doing nothing, we met children as young as eight living alone in the camp, we were welcomed warmly by refugees living in flimsy festival tents, and we signed the lease on a warehouse with our French partners L'Auberge des Migrants. The boundless energy of the British public and the trust of the camp residents allowed us to collectively create systems and structures in the volunteering, aid distribution and shelter building.
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As the public continued to donate generously and as our network grew we became Help Refugees and quickly began working in Greece, organising and funding a visit from a group of doctors before the medical NGOs had any presence. This was when there were thousands of people arriving on boats on the islands every day, so we funded flood lights shining out to sea to spot people stranded as boats sunk, heaters which were placed on the beaches to warm people up when they arrived, and thousands of hot meals per day. Since then we have continued to fill gaps left by governments and INGOs, across Europe and in the Middle East. Raising close to 8 million pounds and helping 600,000 people, working in 10 countries as far as Syria and mobilising over 20,000 volunteers. We are different because we respond quickly and try to be as effective as possible with core costs of only 4%. All of this we do in partnership with incredible grassroots groups, powered by dedicated individuals who work tirelessly to respond to the actual needs in real-time, working closely with the people who they support, ensuring assistance is provided in a respectful and dignified way. We are not constrained by politics or mandates or bureaucracy, so the funds we receive go directly to where they are most needed.
I wish I could say that, two years on, there is no longer a need for the gap-filling services we and our partners provide. But there is - and we are only able to do so thanks to the generosity of the public. This crisis may be humanitarian but it is also political. People are still drowning trying to find sanctuary, refugee families will once again, two years on, be sleeping in tents in Europe this winter. Women in Greece still have no nappies for their children, families unable to reunite because of bottlenecks in systems. A generation of children are growing up without an education. We in Western Europe live in of the wealthiest corners of the world, and it is heartbreaking that our leaders and organisations whose job it is to work in crises like this are no closer to helping those who need it most.
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Over the last year we took legal action against Home Office to court over its failure to implement the Dubs Amendment, which we worked closely with Lord Alf Dubs on. The objective of the amendment was to quickly bring to safety some of the most vulnerable unaccompanied children stranded in Europe. Only 200 children have been brought to safety under the scheme and not a single one this year. The Home Office has failed to act quickly despite the desperate and dangerous conditions unaccompanied children are living in across Europe. We believe that Britain is not doing enough and we will continue to fight for the rights of displaced people, highlighting blockages in the system.
Man Shot And Killed By Pittsfield Police During Domestic Disturbance
The preliminary results of an autopsy on Daniel Gillis indicate was shot seven times and died from multiple gunshot wounds. Associate Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Sexton conducted the autopsy on the 36-year-old Gillis on Saturday afternoon at Holyoke office of the Chief Medical Examiner. PITTSFIELD, Mass. A Pittsfield Police officer shot and killed a man who allegedly charged officers after first barricading himself in his home. PITTSFIELD, Mass. A Pittsfield Police officer shot and killed a man who allegedly charged officers after first barricading himself in his home.
District Attorney David Capeless' office says Daniel Gillis, 36, of 43 Taylor St. was shot by Officer Christopher Colello Friday afternoon. Officers had responded to the address at 12:50 in the afternoon on Friday to a report of an ongoing domestic incident.
"The caller indicated that her ex-boyfriend was at the house, causing a disturbance, and when she attempted to intercede, he kicked in the door," Police Chief Michael Wynn said. "Shortly after the initial patrol units responded, they called for additional assistance and declared it as a barricaded subject. The barricaded subject had a knife."
Gillis was apparently distraught after being fired from his job and was intoxicated, the district attorney's office alleges. He barricaded himself in the house and armed himself with the knife. The woman, who was described by in the DA's statement as Gillis' girlfriend, threw the knife out of a window but Gillis went and got another one.
Shortly after, he exited out a rear door of the home and allegedly charged at officers who were stationed on the side of the property.
"He exited the residence and was coming toward the officers," Wynn said.
Gillis refused to drop the weapon despite police orders, say law enforcement officials, and a civilian witness and a video from a bystander confirmed that.
Gillis was taken to Berkshire Medical Center where he was later pronounced dead.
Friday's shooting incident is the second involving Colello. In November 2010, the officer shot Michael Barry after he had doused himself and another person with gasoline and fled into the woods in Dalton. Coello shot Barry when he refused to stop. Barry survived and later pleaded guilty to two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and vandalism. Numerous other charges were dropped and an internal investigation determined that Colello had not acted improperly.
Cultural Council Announces 'EBT Card to Culture'
STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. The state's "EBT Card to Culture" will offer low-income families access to more than 100 nonprofit arts, history, and science venues across the state through free or discounted admission.
State officials and cultural leaders formally launched the new program on Wednesday at the Norman Rockwell Museum, which offers free admission to cardholders. Supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Baker-Polito administration, the EBT Card to Culture is considered the most comprehensive effort of its kind in the nation to open doors to arts and cultural experiences for low-income families.
"In our new strategic plan, the Mass Cultural Council envisions a commonwealth where culture is inclusive, accessible, and embraces our diversity," said Anita Walker, the council's executive director. "The EBT Card to Culture is an important step toward achieving that vision in concert with our amazing partners in the cultural community. We look forward to expanding the reach of this program in the months and years to come."
The Executive Office of Health and Human Services and the Department of Transitional Assistance are already promoting these cultural opportunities to the one in eight Massachusetts residents who are served by DTA. The approach has seen remarkable success at institutions that have employed it: Boston's Museum of Science, for example, has seen participation in its EBT card discounts rise steadily from a few hundred to more than 13,000 visitors annually in less than five years.
In addition to the Rockwell Museum, the card also includes access to such local venues as Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, The Mount, Berkshire Museum and Hancock Shaker Village. A full list of participating organizations is online
Adrian Stair used the EBT Card to Culture to attend the Ko Festival of Performance in Amherst.
"I got to two performances which were, as usual, compelling views into the current state of affairs in our culture, and inspiring as well," he said. "Best of all, I participated in Kali Quinn's 'Compassionate Creativity' six-day workshop, which turned out to be an extraordinary and transformative event leading me effortlessly to heights of creativity that I never knew I had in me. It changed my life and literally launched me into my next career. I couldn't have afforded the workshop if it hadn't been for the discount provided through my SNAP card."
The Mass Cultural Council will continue to work with the administration to encourage additional nonprofit cultural organizations to sign up to offer the Card to Culture, and with the organizations to promote its benefits. It is part of the agency's Universal Participation Initiative, which supports the growth and development of organizations that embrace inclusivity as core to their mission and employ universal design principles to meet the needs of their patrons. Nonprofit cultural organizations can sign onto the program online.
"Learning does not take place in the classroom alone," said DTA Commissioner Jeff McCue. "The commonwealth is rich with incredible cultural institutions that provide essential educational opportunities and I am thrilled so many organizations have stepped up to provide greater access for DTA clients. Their generosity will help families access opportunities once financially out of reach, and assist in breaking the cycle of multi-generational poverty."
State Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, and Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts, and Cultural Development, said state support for culture is premised on the idea that it enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities.
"The Card to Culture ensures that those experiences are shared by all of us here in the Berkshires and across the commonwealth," he said.
A model of the expanded design for the Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum is on display at the EMRCA offices. The public got a look at the models after Friday's press conference. A model rendering of a possible boutique hotel on Main Street. Former Gov. William Weld introduces Thomas Krens. Thomas Krens explains the idea behind the museum. PreviousNext
World-Class Architect Climbs Aboard Model Railroad Museum
Award-winning architect Frank Gehry addresses the crowd at Friday's event. The 88-year-old Gehry will design the model railroad museum. NORTH ADAMS, Mass. Officials with the proposed model railroad museum are confident that they will have the funding in hand next year to move forward on the $65 million project.
The Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum has so far raised $2.5 million from private contributions and state grants; it expects to reach 50 percent of its goal by January with the balance by June 2018. The principals, including former Guggenhaim director Thomas Krens and former Govs. William Weld and Michael Dukakis, believe the findings of an economic impact study makes the for-profit venture attractive to investors.
"If it draws 500,000-700,000 visitors that produces a for-profit entity 25 percent rate of return, which may not be in the stratosphere of the private equity world, but is plenty good enough for those investors," Weld said.
Museum maestro Krens and Weld were joined by acclaimed architect Frank Gehry and other officials on Friday for a public press conference after a tour of the 10-acre site that includes Western Gateway Heritage State Park. Gehry's firm was signed to do the design for the 83,000 square foot museum that will run along the east side of the Hoosic River.
"I've seen more complex projects," said Krens, who worked with Gehry on his landmark Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. "Unless you start and unless you try to do it, you never know. I mean there are no guarantees here but my sense is that the product is sophisticated, I think Frank's presence in it is going to bring about a certain amount international attention and international credibility."
Since its initial proposal in 2015, the railroad museum's conceptual space design has grown, forcing it out of Heritage State Park and toward the former Sons of Italy.
"If you go into Building Five at Mass MoCA, go all the way through Building 5, then go into Building 6 and go all the way to through Building 6 and then go 40 feet farther," Krens said, giving an idea of the size of the project he envisions as a one-of-a-kind educational and historical display. "That's what it's going to be in one space."
The park, which the museum has entered into agreement to purchase for $1.2 million, would now house a Museum of Time, a distillery and shops and restaurants designed by Gluckman Tang.
"The Gehry building will tie seamlessly into Gluckman Tang's vision for the historic freight yard. It will also be designed to accommodate the detailed installation plans the EMRCA team has developed," according to the museum's MassWorks application. It is asking for a grant of $5.4 million to tear down and remediate the former clubhouse and dance hall and replace the Christopher Columbus Bridge. Should the grant be awarded, the completion of that work would be in fall of 2019.
More than half the funding for the project is expected to come from equity investment, another quarter from financing and the balance from corporate sponsorships, tax credits, and state and federal grants.
"I'm expecting if we hit the numbers professor [Stephen] Sheppard has uncovered in his economic impact analysis, this could make a serious amount of money for investors," Krens said.
For the governors and Krens, this is a bit of "unfinished business" dating back to 1988 to pump economic activity into the state's smallest city. All three had a hand in the beginnings of Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art that was hoped to jump-start an economy left in shambles by the departure of Sprague Electric.
While Mass MoCA has been an overall positive, particularly in recent years, there's been a sense it's full promise hasn't been achieved. The museum's director, Joseph Thompson, has been pushing for several year the concept of encouraging multiple-day visitors. Krens said it's a matter of changing the dynamic, something that the railroad museum and revitalized park, along with the development of the so-called "Cultural Corridor" between Williamstown and North Adams, can make happen.
"You have an established base, the multiple here is that if you get people to stay overnight, it increasee the economic impact by a factor of 8," he said.
"This project that Tom and his team are working on with Frank is going to inject a tremendous amount of life into North Adams, and therefore, into Mass MoCA, and we're really, really cheerleading for it," Thompson said.
The economic impact report by Williams College professor Stephen Sheppard, and funded by a $250,000 MassWorks grant, finds that the museum's construction could generate more than 2,000 jobs and add as much as $191 million a year into the economy.
"After completion of construction, we predict a long-term addition of between 1,400 and 2,000 jobs, with the local economy producing between $125 million and $181 million more economic output," a summary of the report states. "This would have a transformative impact on the region."
Nearly a quarter of Americans visit historical sites or museums, said Sheppard, making the draw for EMCRA three times that for venues like Tanglewood.
His report estimates at least a half-million visitor-days a year, although he points out the much more constricted Miniatur Wunderland model railroad museum in Germany does just under 1 million.
The affiliated projects also have to be taken into account, he said, noting plans for a for-profit museum by the airport , an art storage facility, the time museum and distillery. These would be an additional shot in the arm, he said.
Ancillary projects that could grow from the museum's existence include Krens' vision of a future North Adams with a park and boutique hotel on Main Street, a rejuvenated Mohawk Theater, a motorcycle museum and possibly an architectural museum, along with the Hoosic River Revival.
"All these 12 projects together, which have a sticker price of about $300 million all in, some private, some for-profit, some not-for-profit, some state support money, they will totally transform the North Adams-Williamstown area," he said. "I hope that the region as a whole will benefit from these projects."
The group also hopes it will have a crucial impact on the area's socio-economic needs. Dr. Gray Ellrodt, chief of medicine at Berkshire Medical Center, said health systems only have about a 20 percent impact on health needs. Rather, nearly 70 percent of outcomes and healthy living can be attributed to a community's economic and social health; poorer communities, like North Adams, have higher rates of smoking, obesity and drug and alcohol abuse, for example.
"These combined have a profound negative impact on a community, which can only be turned around, we believe, by profound and significant economic developmen," the doctor said. "If we are gong to effectively address the epidemic of diseases of despair for our community ... we need brave and bold economic development and investment in this community."
Mayor Richard Alcombright ticked off a long list of bold things happening in the city, from the opening of Mass MoCA's Building 6 to new branding and signage to the latest news of Gehry designing the model railroad museum.
"Because all of this happening, the city of North Adams is now positioned to be the place in Berkshire County, the place in Western Mass, and the the place in New England," he said. "Mr. Gehry, thank you for being here today ... I know you've done projects all around the world where your work is revered ... You've done work in LA, New York City, Hollywood, Barcelona, Paris, Frankfort, Prague, Dundee, Toronto, London ...
"How cool would it be for them to be in the company of the city of North Adams."
Waking the world to Vietnamese music
VietNamNet Bridge World renowned traditional musician and composer Vo Van Anh is returning to Viet Nam, her homeland, to continue implementing her Master-Apprentice programme.
Cultural legacy: Do Minh Phuong, one of Anhs talented students plays dan tranh at the Viet Nam National Academy of Music in Ha Noi.
The programme involves having famous musicians teach Vietnamese folk music to students from the country and abroad.
This year, it aims to help young music learners who love Vietnamese traditional music and instruments like the dan tranh (16-chord zither), dan bau (monochord) and several others to connect with eminent people like artists Xuan Hoach and Trong Thuy.
After one year, participants will perform before community as part of efforts to preserve and develop the arts, Anh said.
One of the ideas she is pursuing is to have the students play once a week at Quan An Ngon chain of restaurants, a culinary and tourism hub in Ha Noi or at the ancient Van Mieu (Temple of Literature).
Many of my students from the US and other countries such as Spain and Portugal who are accompanying me on this trip will join the programme, Anh said.
She set up a fund called Music Bridge in 2013 to encourage young musicians to compose, perform and teach traditional music and instruments. Their works would be an outlet for them to express their sentiments.
By doing so, we can develop and preserve our culture. Two workshops have been held in HCM City since the fund was set up, Anh told Viet Nam News.
Anh said movie producers (in the US and other countries) who wanted to use her music for their films have donated to the fund. For example, a producer will not have to pay royalties for her music but donate money to the Music Bridge fund.
Anh said she was particularly grateful to Pham Thi Bich Hanh, the owner and founder of Quan An Ngon Restaurant chain in Ha Noi for her tireless contributions to the fund, organising concerts for her and artists and auctioning many items including her dan tranh.
Hanh said her aim in setting up the Quan An Ngon restaurants was not only to introduce and develop traditional Vietnamese cuisine but also to preserve it for future generations. Anh has a similar purpose, so our thoughts meet, and I try to help".
She not only has a great passion for traditional music but also knows how to inspire young people to get involved and love the art, Hanh said.
Hanhs daughters Do Minh Phuong, 15, and Do Ha Phuong Anh, 11, have been learning to play the piano, but they are also keen on the dan tranh.
We like the way teacher Anh performs the dan tranh and the way she teaches us, said Phuong.
For example, when playing the folk song Keo Luoi (Drawing Fishing Net), Anh performs with the action of a real fisherman casting and drawing the net.
I understand the hard work a fisherman has to do to earn a living. Thanks to her, my performance improves every day, said Phuong. She said she loved the dan tranh because it helps her understand her countrys cultural past.
She teaches us how to express our feeling and sentiments through breathing and moving while performing, said Phuong, who played the zither with a group of foreign students at the Kennedy Center in June 2015.
Instrumental: Vo Van Anh plays dan tranh at a traditional music club in Ha Noi. Photos by Ha Nguyen
Anh tries to compose music that the youth can play on traditional instruments so that the music can give voice to the new generation and express their feeling.
She recalled: Once I had to make up a special version to teach my Japanese student. One day, I told her to play a Vietnamese folk song in which she had to mimic the sound of rain in Viet Nam. She played again and again but I couldnt hear the sound I expected. I told her that the raining sound in the country is often heavy, causing leaves to fall and tree branches to break.
The Japanese student understood. She said the sound of rain in her country is not as heavy as ours. So after hearing my explanation and watching my performance, she can play the Vietnamese folk song well, said Anh.
Anh recalled the oldest student shed ever had, an American woman named Laura Lopez, 84, who teaches piano to her two daughters at her home. Once, Laura had a chance to enjoy Anhs dan tranh performance.
Laura said Anh played the instrument and her Vietnamese folk songs beautifully that it inspired her to learn it. Laura was very happy when Anh agreed to teach her.
Laura added through it she had come to know Vietnamese culture and could understand the origin of the songs she played. She even joined others to perform the Vietnamese instrument before US audiences.
Singing folk song: Anh performs her music at the Rooftop Restaurant &Bar in Ha Noi.
International co-operation
Anhs collaboration with many world famous musicians has expanded her musical repertoire and helped her share Vietnamese music with international audiences.
When I first resettled in the US, it took a long time to be understood by others, because foreigners only knew Viet Nam through the war, not its culture. So I have tried my utmost to bring our culture to the world through my music composing and teaching.
Anh was born in 1975 in Ha Noi. She began learning traditional music at the Ha Noi Conservatory of Music (now the Viet Nam National Academy of Music) since she was six. She graduated from the school in 1992.
Bich Vuong, one of her teachers, said Anh was always a leading student in the school. She won the first prize at the National Zither Competition and a Best Performance Award in HCM City in 1995.
Since settling in the US in 2001, she has focused on collaborating with musicians across different music genres to create new works, bringing Vietnamese traditional music to a wider audience and preserving her cultural legacy through teaching.
In 2002, she released her first CD, Twelve Months, Four Seasons. Her third CD, Three Mountain Passes, released in 2013, featured her as the guest artist with the Kronos Quartet.
Anh has also collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, the Southwest Chamber Music, Eastby Oakland Symphony and other World Music (WM) artists. She has been invited and participated as screening judge in the WM category for the 2015 and 2016 Grammy Awards. She recently became the first Vietnamese artist to perform at at the White House.
Her Odyssey from Viet Nam to America premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2016. This work aimed to highlight the incredible power of the human spirit to survive as embodied by the so-called boat people. It also sought to deliver the message of forgiveness, peace and unity.
Her works have earned high praise from the BBC, the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets. It was chosen among the National Public Radios (NPR) 10 Favorite World Music Albums of 2013.
Mark Swed of the Times said: Vos Three Mountain Pass which includes her music and traditional Vietnamese pieces on a number of Vietnamese instruments interestingly begs the question of what is American music, especially since a knockout on the disc is her transcription of French composer Erike Saties Gnossienne No 3.
Molly Sheredan of the New Music Box said: Indeed, Vos energy and enthusiasm for musical creativity seems to transcend any particular instrument and instead feed of a fundamental sonic curiosity as well as a desire to reflect on her culture heritage and share those sounds with new ears.
Heather Morris of the Peninsula Review wrote: Her appearance was dramatic, in a stunning costume and headdress, her music was riveting, her stage presence theatrical and her contribution to Vietnamese music culture outstanding.
Despite winning a lot of successes and titles, Anh still has a wish to return to Viet Nam and bring together traditional music lovers to popularize the art and preserve it.
She wants the State to pay more attention to traditional music artists because they are part of Viet Nams giant library of culture.
Ha Nguyen
VNS
Governor Brown Signs Tribal Compacts
Sacramento, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced that he has signed tribal-state gaming compacts between the State of California and the Elk Valley Rancheria, the Quechan Tribe of the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation and Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River Reservation.
Each of the individually-negotiated new compacts includes updated provisions for licensing, compliance enforcement, mitigation of off-reservation impacts and protections for patrons and employees that are consistent with other recent compacts. The environmental mitigation provision within the Elk Valley Rancheria compact affirms the Tribe's constructive relationship with and prior commitments to local jurisdictions.
The regulatory provisions of these compacts respect the authority of each Tribe's professional regulators and build upon their constructive relationships with state gaming regulators. The economic terms of each compact reflect the Tribes' specific circumstances and the markets in which each Tribe operates its gaming facility.
Governor Brown Declares State of Emergency in Butte County Due to Ponderosa Fire
Sacramento, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today issued an emergency proclamation for Butte County due to the effects of the Ponderosa Fire, which has burned thousands of acres, damaged critical infrastructure, destroyed homes and caused the evacuation of residents.
PROCLAMATION OF A STATE OF EMERGENCY
WHEREAS on August 29, 2017, the Ponderosa Fire started in Butte County and has rapidly burned thousands of acres of land and continues to burn; and
WHEREAS this fire has destroyed multiple homes and is threatening additional homes and other structures, necessitating the evacuation of residents; and
WHEREAS the fire has damaged and continues to threaten critical infrastructure, including power lines, and has forced the closure roadways; and
WHEREAS extreme weather conditions and high temperatures have further increased the risk of fires; and
WHEREAS the circumstances of this fire by reason of its magnitude, are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of any single local government and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat; and
WHEREAS under the provisions of section 8558(b) of the Government Code, I find that conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exists in Butte County due to the Ponderosa Fire; and
WHEREAS under the provisions of section 8571 of the Government Code, I find that strict compliance with the various statutes and regulations specified in this order would prevent, hinder, or delay the mitigation of the effects of the Ponderosa Fire.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, in accordance with the authority vested in me by the State Constitution and statutes, including the California Emergency Services Act, and in particular, section 8625 of the Government Code, HEREBY PROCLAIM A STATE OF EMERGENCY to exist in Butte County.
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:
1. All agencies of the state government utilize and employ state personnel, equipment, and facilities for the performance of any and all activities consistent with the direction of the Office of Emergency Services and the State Emergency Plan. Also, all residents are to heed the advice of emergency officials with regard to this emergency in order to protect their safety.
2. The Office of Emergency Services shall provide local government assistance to Butte County, if appropriate, under the authority of the California Disaster Assistance Act, Government Code section 8680 et seq., and California Code of Regulations, Title 19, section 2900 et seq.
3. The provisions of Unemployment Insurance Code section 1253 imposing a one-week waiting period for unemployment insurance applicants are suspended as to all applicants who are unemployed as a direct result of the Ponderosa Fire who applied for unemployment insurance benefits during the time period beginning August 29, 2017 and ending on the close of business on February 28, 2018, and who are otherwise eligible for unemployment insurance benefits.
4. Vehicle Code sections 9265(a), 9867, 14901, 14902, and 15255.2, requiring the imposition of fees, are suspended with regard to any request for replacement of a drivers identification card, vehicle registration certificate, or certificate of title, by any individual who lost such records as a result of the Ponderosa Fire. Such records shall be replaced without charge.
5. The provisions of Vehicle Code sections 4602 and 5902, requiring the timely registration or transfer of title are suspended with regard to any registration or transfer of title by any resident of Butte County who is unable to comply with those requirements as a result of the Ponderosa Fire. The time covered by this suspension shall not be included in calculating any late penalty pursuant to Vehicle Code section 9554.
6. Health and Safety Code sections 103525.5 and 103625, and Penal Code section 14251, requiring the imposition of fees, are hereby suspended with regard to any request for copies of certificates of birth, death, marriage, and dissolution of marriage records, by any individual who lost such records as a result of the Ponderosa Fire. Such copies shall be provided without charge.
I FURTHER DIRECT that as soon as hereafter possible, this Proclamation be filed in the Office of the Secretary of State and that widespread publicity and notice be given of this Proclamation.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 1st day of September 2017.
_____________________________
EDMUND G. BROWN JR.
Governor of California
ATTEST:
_____________________________
ALEX PADILLA
Secretary of State
Governor Brown Issues Executive Order to Bolster State's Response to Unprecedented Tree Die-Off
Sacramento, California - Governor Brown Issues Executive Order to Bolster State's Response to Unprecedented Tree Die-Off:
EXECUTIVE ORDER B-42-17
WHEREAS on October 30, 2015, I proclaimed a State of Emergency to exist within the State of California due to the unprecedented tree mortality resulting from severe drought and bark beetle infestations across several regions of the State; and
WHEREAS the scope of the tree die-off has increased since my initial Proclamation, with the United States Forest Service most recently estimating that 102 million trees have died; and
WHEREAS this die-off is of such scale that it worsens wildfire risk across large regions of the State, presents risks from falling trees to Californians living in impacted rural, forested communities, and worsens the threat of erosion across watersheds; and
WHEREAS such wildfires will release thousands of tons of greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollutants; and
WHEREAS the circumstances of the tree die-off, by reason of its magnitude, proved to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment and facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and required the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat; and
WHEREAS the tree mortality crisis has increased the need for licensed professionals to remove dead trees that threaten life, property, and the environment; and
WHEREAS the licensure requirements of the Z'berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act and the California Contractors License Law together have limited the available pool of licensed professionals to remove dead trees; and
WHEREAS the scope of the tree mortality crisis necessitates that the State mobilize all available resources to mitigate the impacts of the crisis.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, in accordance with the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes of the State of California, in particular California Government Code sections 8567 and 8571, do hereby issue this Executive Order, effective immediately.
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:
The orders and provisions contained in my October 30, 2015 Emergency Proclamation remain in full force and in effect except as modified herein.
I FURTHER ORDER THAT:
1. Any individual who holds a timber operator license is hereby authorized to perform tree removal that would otherwise require a tree service contractor's license with the C-61/D-49 classification, where such removal is performed on dead or dying trees in high hazard zones. The provisions of the Business and Professions Code and the California Code of Regulations requiring licensure for this tree removal are hereby suspended as to individuals who hold a valid timber operator license.
2. Any individual who holds a tree service contractor's license with the C-61/D-49 classification is hereby authorized to perform timber operations that would otherwise require a timber operator license, where such operations are performed on dead or dying trees in high hazard zones. In order to perform such services, a tree service contractor must maintain the insurance coverage in the form and amount specified in Public Resources Code section 4572(c) prior to the conduct of timber operations, shall maintain the insurance coverage throughout the conduct of timber operations, and shall comply with all operational provisions of the Forest Practice Act and Rules applicable to the timber operations. The provisions of the Forest Practice Act and the applicable Rules requiring licensure for these timber operations are hereby suspended as to individuals who hold a valid tree service contractor's license.
This Executive Order is not intended to, and does not, create any rights or benefits, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity, against the State of California, its agencies, departments, entities, officers, employees, or any other person.
I FURTHER DIRECT that as soon as hereafter possible, this order be filed in the Office of the Secretary of State and that widespread publicity and notice be given of this order.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 31st day of August, 2017.
EDMUND G. BROWN JR.
Governor of California
ATTEST:
ALEX PADILLA
Secretary of State
Governor Brown Issues Proclamation Declaring Labor Day
Sacramento, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today issued a proclamation declaring September 4, 2017, as Labor Day in the State of California.
PROCLAMATION
When government and business recognize the intrinsic right of workers to organize and bargain collectively, it is possible to maintain an orderly system of industrial relations, avoiding the chaos and bloodshed that often marked labor disputes in the past. The industrial growth that our nation enjoyed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries came at a great human cost. While men, women and children suffered under brutal working conditions, their attempts to improve their situation were often met with violence by employers and the government. In response, many workers became radical or violent themselves, leading to a seemingly unbreakable cycle of destruction and terror.
There were countless instances of labor actions leading to tragedy during this period. One of the earliest and most infamous of these was the Haymarket Affair of 1886, a bombing and shooting incident during May Day rallies in Chicago that took the lives of seven police officers, four civilians and four anarchists that were hanged for plotting the attacka sentence whose justness is still debated. In 1894, a nationwide wildcat strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company led to a disproportionate response from the federal government. Twelve thousand United States Army troops were deployed to break the strike, killing 13 workers and wounding dozens more.
Though unions and craft organizations had begun to hold Labor Day picnics as early as the 1870s, it was not until the aftermath of this tragedy that the observance became an official holiday for all Americans. In that year President Grover Cleveland established the national Labor Day as part of his efforts to heal the nations wounds. However, lacking an orderly system to address labor disputes, the country continued to suffer similar events for several decades after this symbolic act of reconciliation. During a textile workers strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912, police clubbed women and children attempting to flee the embattled town. In San Francisco, on July 5, 1934, two men participating in a longshoremens strike were killed by police gunfire in an incident that came to be known as Bloody Thursday.
The following year, on July 5, 1935, President Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Actalso known as the Wagner Actthe foundational law of our modern system of industrial relations. By legitimizing workers organizations as political entities and creating a legal framework for the resolution of workplace disputes, the Wagner Act effectively ended the decades of bloodshed and despair that attended our nations birth as an industrial giant. Today, disagreements between management and labor are typically worked out at the bargaining table with paper and pens, not in the streets with guns and bombs. For this we can all be thankful.
This year, as we enjoy traditions ranging from beach outings and barbecues to an annual change in the rules of high fashion, we should remember how much progress has allowed us to celebrate this Labor Day. I urge all Californians to take this opportunity to appreciate not only the vast contribution of labor to our economy, but also the privilege of living under a fair and well-regulated system of industrial relations.
NOW THEREFORE I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim September 4, 2017, as Labor Day.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 1st day of September 2017.
___________________________________
EDMUND G. BROWN JR.
Governor of California
ATTEST:
__________________________________
ALEX PADILLA
Uzbekistan Independence Day
Washington, DC - Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson: "On behalf of the Government of the United States of America, congratulations to the people of Uzbekistan as you celebrate 26 years of independence. We also congratulate President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on his first year as President.
"Over the past 26 years, the United States and Uzbekistan have partnered on issues such as promoting regional stability, security, and prosperity. This partnership has grown stronger each year, and we look forward to even closer cooperation in the future. The United States continues to affirm our support for Uzbekistans independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.
"We send our best wishes to the people of Uzbekistan on this special day."
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The exclusive first UK trailer for western thriller Brimstone starring Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce and Kit Harington has been released.
Written and directed by Martin Koolhoven, the film - told in four chapters - follows a young woman named Liz (Fanning) who is thrust into an epic quest for survival as she becomes hunted by a vengeful Preacher (Pearce). Instead of succumbing to his depravity, however, Liz responds with astonishing bravery to claim the better life she and her daughter deserve.
Many are touting the Brimstone as a tale of powerful womanhood with the performance of Fanning - the former child star of War of the Worlds and Steven Spielberg TV series Taken - being touted as the film's highlight.
Films to get excited about in 2017 Show all 13 1 /13 Films to get excited about in 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi Director: Rian Johnson Rian Johnson Cast: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, and Lupita Nyong'o Plot: No details yet, but it will continue directly on from Rey coming face-to-face with Luke at the end of The Force Awakens. Release Date: 15 December 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Thor: Ragnarok Director: Taika Waititi Taika Waititi Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, Jeff Goldblum, Karl Urban, and Mark Ruffalo Plot: Story details are minimal as of now, but Thor's third return to screen has already been teased to feature a loose adaptation of the famous 'Planet Hulk' storyline. Release Date: 27 October 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 You Were Never Really Here Director: Lynne Ramsay Lynne Ramsay Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Alessandro Nivola Plot: A war veteran's attempt to save a young girl from a sex trafficking ring goes horribly wrong. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Annihilation Director: Alex Garland Alex Garland Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, and Oscar Isaac Plot: A biologist's husband disappears. She thus puts her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, but does not quite find what she's expecting. The expedition team is made up of the biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, and a surveyor. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Wonderstruck (image from Far From Heaven) Director: Todd Haynes Cast: Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, and Amy Hargreaves Plot: The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Mother (image of Darren Aronofsky) Director: Darren Aronofsky Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Michelle Pfeiffer, Domhnall Gleeson, and Ed Harris Plot: A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Killing of a Sacred Deer (image from The Lobster) Director: Yorgos Lanthimos Cast: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, and Alicia Silverstone Plot: A surgeon forms a familial bond with a sinister teenage boy, with disastrous results. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 Blade Runner 2049 Director: Denis Villeneuve Denis Villeneuve Cast: Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, and Jared Leto Plot: Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years. Release Date: 6 October 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Lady Bird (image of director Greta Gerwig) Director: Greta Gerwig Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, and Lucas Hedges Plot: The adventures of a young woman living in Northern California for a year. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (image of director Steven Spielberg and star Mark Rylance) Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Mark Rylance, Oscar Isaac Plot: The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara recounts the story of a young Jewish boy in Bologna, Italy in 1858 who, having been secretly baptized, is forcibly taken from his family to be raised as a Christian. His parents' struggle to free their son becomes part of a larger political battle that pits the Papacy against forces of democracy and Italian unification. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 How to Talk to Girls at Parties Director: John Cameron Mitchell John Cameron Mitchell Cast: Elle Fanning, Ruth Wilson, and Nicole Kidman Plot: An alien touring the galaxy breaks away from her group and meets two young inhabitants of the most dangerous place in the universe: the London suburb of Croydon. Release Date: Unknown Films to get excited about in 2017 The Dark Tower Director: Nikolaj Arcel Nikolaj Arcel Cast: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, and Tom Taylor Plot: Gunslinger Roland Deschain roams an Old West-like landscape in search of the dark tower, in the hopes that reaching it will preserve his dying world. Release Date: 28 July 2017 Films to get excited about in 2017 Suburbicon Director: George Clooney George Clooney Cast: Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, Josh Brolin, and Oscar Isaac Plot: A crime mystery set in the quiet family town of Suburbicon during the 1950s, where the best and worst of humanity is hilariously reflected through the deeds of seemingly ordinary people. When a home invasion turns deadly, a picture-perfect family turns to blackmail, revenge and betrayal. Release Date: 24 November
The film, which premiered at the 2016 Venice Film Festival, is also notable for starring not one but two alumni of HBO series Game of Thrones: Jon Snow actor Kit Harington and Carice van Houten who plays the Red Woman, Melisandre.
Brimstone arrives in cinemas on 29 September courtesy of Thunderbird Releasing.
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One of the more curious aspects of Warner Bros. announcing a new Joker origins movie, unconnected to the DCEU and featuring a new actor in the role, is seeing Martin Scorsese's name amongst the list of producers.
Though his deal isn't apparently done yet, The Hollywood Reporter now claims Warner Bros. had a very specific intention in bringing the iconic filmmaker on board: they want a path to Leonardo DiCaprio.
Supposedly, the bid is connected to the studio's desire to reignite the critical success of Christopher Nolan's Batman films, with hopes to see another comic book performance nominated at the Oscars. Though DiCaprio is yet to be approached, the move meant to send out a clear message of how Warner Bros. intends to carve out its DC future.
How Todd Phillips fits into this shift toward serious filmmaking, considering he's best known for the Hangover films, isn't quite clear.
One individual who isn't apparently happy about the news is, somewhat unsurprisingly, Jared Leto. Already the DCEU's resident Joker after last year's Suicide Squad, sources claim the actor made his displeasure know about the idea of there being two Jokers, though he's already slated to return in the role both in Suicide Squad 2 and a spin-off movie with Harley Quinn.
Justice League - Comic-Con Trailer 2
The idea of wanting to recreate Christopher Nolan's auteur success with his standalone trilogy certainly explains Warner Bros.' motivations in creating a series of films entirely unconnected to the DCEU. Though The Batman's director Matt Reeves has made clear that his film will be part of the DCEU, the furious rumours that Ben Affleck will be leaving the role could offer the studio a chance to change directions in a worst case scenario.
For now, at least, we have Affleck's role in Justice League, hitting UK cinemas 17 November.
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If Donald Trump's cameo in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York never made much sense, there's a good reason for it: it was never originally meant to be in the film.
While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Matt Damon revealed the bizarre clause that Trump had whenever film productions sought use of one of his buildings, in which he demanded that a part was written for him.
"[Director] Martin Brest had to write something in Scent of a Woman and the whole crew was in on it," he continued. "You have to waste an hour of your day with a b*llshit shot: Donald Trump walks in and Al Pacinos like, Hello, Mr. Trump! you had to call him by name and then he exits. You waste a little time so that you can get the permit, and then you can cut the scene out. But I guess in Home Alone 2 they left it in."
Damon stars in George Clooney's latest directorial output, Suburbicon, which bases itself off a real-life story about the violent racial conflict which exploded when a black family first moved into an all-white Pennsylvania neighbourhood in the late '50s.
A film that's even more prescient after the events of Charlottesville. "A lot of people, myself included, are really waking up to the extent of the existing racism," Damon commented. "And its so much worse than I naively thought. I just feel naive at this point. It was shocking to see those kids they looked 20 and 30 years old in button-down shirts, with Tiki torches, walking down the street. I thought, 'Those people are a lot younger than me. Who raised them?'"
"Again, I naively thought that, behind our generation, [another one] was coming with more awareness and inclusiveness, and that everything was getting better with each generation. And to see these young, aggrieved, white boys walking with their torches and screaming 'Jews will not replace us!' It was just shocking. Then the night that the President [made his] 'many sides' comment was absolutely abhorrent. Sadly, I feel the movie was made at the right time."
Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 Show all 15 1 /15 Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Director: Martin McDonagh Martin McDonagh Cast: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Caleb Landry Jones Plot: In this darkly comic drama, a mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder, when they fail to catch the culprit. Twentieth Century Fox Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 Call Me By Your Name Director: Luca Guadagnino Luca Guadagnino Cast: Timothee Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg Plot: A young man named Elio, living in Italy during the 1980s, meets Oliver, an academic who has come to stay at his parents' villa, and a passionate relationship develops between them, as they bond over their sexuality, their Jewish heritage, and the landscape. Sony Pictures Classics Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 Dunkirk Director: Christopher Nolan Christopher Nolan Cast: Harry Styles, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance Plot: In May 1940, Germany advanced into France, trapping Allied troops on the beaches of Dunkirk. Under air and ground cover from British and French forces, troops were slowly and methodically evacuated from the beach using every serviceable naval and civilian vessel that could be found. At the end of this heroic mission, 330,000 French, British, Belgian and Dutch soldiers were safely evacuated. Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 Get Out Director: Jordan Peele Jordan Peele Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener Plot: This horror drama follows a young interracial couple who visit the girl's parents only for her boyfriend to uncover a conspiracy whereby young black adults are being captured. Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 Downsizing Director: Alexander Payne Alexander Payne Cast: Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christopher Waltz, Alec Baldwin Plot: A man and his wife join a community of miniaturized people after undergoing a process to shrink themselves. Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 The Florida Project Director:Sean Baker Sean Baker Cast:Willem Dafoe, Bria Vinaite, Brooklynn Prince Plot: A precocious 6-year-old and her friends are homeless, living in extended-stay motels, but their summer is still filled with childhood wonder and adventure. Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 The Post Director: Steven Spielberg Steven Spielberg Cast: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Alison Brie, Sarah Paulson Plot: Ben Bradlee and Kay Graham of The Washington Post challenge the federal government for the right to publish classified information in 1971. Twentieth Century Fox Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 The Shape of Water Director: Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro Cast: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, Doug Jones Plot: In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa's life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda discover a secret classified experiment. Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 Molly's Game Director: Aaron Sorkin Aaron Sorkin Cast: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner Plot: The true story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game and became an FBI target. Courtesy of STXfilms Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 The Big Sick Director: Michael Showalter Michael Showalter Cast: Kumail Najiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano Plot: Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail finds himself forced to face her feisty parents, his family's expectations, and his true feelings. Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 Mudbound Director: Dee Rees Dee Rees Cast: Jason Clarke, Carey Mulligan, Mary J. Blige, Garrett Hedlund Plot: This Netflix film follows two who men return home from World War II to work on a farm in rural Mississippi, where they struggle to deal with racism and adjusting to life after war. Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 The Disaster Artist Director: James Franco James Franco Cast: James Franco, Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Zac Efron Plot: A big screen re-enactment of the making of Tommy Wiseau's cult film The Room deemed 'the worst movie of all time.' Getty Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 Phantom Thread Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Paul Thomas Anderson Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville, Vicky Krieps Plot: Set in 1950's London, Reynolds Woodcock is a renowned dressmaker whose fastidious life is disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman, Alma, who becomes his muse and lover. Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 Lady Bird Director: Greta Gerwig Greta Gerwig Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Beanie Feldstein, Tracy Letts Plot: Gerwig's deirectorial debut is a coming-of-age story about a high-school senior (Ronan) and her turbulent relationship with her mother (Metcalf). Early Oscars Best Picture Contenders 2018 Darkest Hour Director: Joe Wright Joe Wright Cast: Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lily James, Ben Mendelsohn Plot: The film follows Winston Churchill's early days as Prime Minister while Hitler closes in on Britain during World War II.
"I thought Jimmy Kimmels line was the best," he later added."When he said that Trump said there were fine people on both sides, and showed the clip of the guys screaming 'Jews will not replace us,' and cut back to Jimmy saying: 'Lets get something straight. If youre with a group of people chanting 'Jews will not replace us' and you dont immediately leave that group, you are not a fine person.'"
Suburbicon had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival. It hits UK cinemas 24 November.
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Watchdog group Common Cause has filed a complaint over concerns Kid Rock's potential Senate run would be in violation of federal-election laws.
The musician has been publicly toying with the idea of vying for a seat in Michigan for a while, but Common Cause has urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to investigate whether Kid Rock, real name Robert Ritchie, has violated the law by acting as a Senate candidate without officially registering his candidacy.
Beyond frequently tweeting about the idea, Kid Rock has gone as far as even setting up a website - kidrockforsenate.com - on which he sells merchandise emblazoned with the words, "Kid Rock for US Senate '18".
Indeed, Common Cause also named Kid Rock's label, Warner Bros. Records, as also violating federal law and commissions regulations by offering such merchandise for sale. The group further states that the musician has not complied with contributions restrictions or publicly disclosed contributions to his campaign.
"Given the activities weve documented in the complaint, he cant reasonably claim to be merely testing the waters of candidacy and thus exempt from candidate filing requirements," said Common Cause VP of policy and litigation Paul S. Ryan. "He is a candidate and is obligated to abide by all the rules and make the same disclosures required of everyone else running for federal office."
In response, Kid Rock released a statement to his website that read merely: "I am starting to see reports from the misinformed press and the fake news on how I am in violation of breaking campaign law. #1 I have still not officially announced my candidacy. #2 See #1 and go f*ck yourselves."
You can read Common Cause's full complaint here.
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The great workhorse of the wine world, the grenache grape is widely planted but for a long time was vastly underrated. Widespread in France, its also, as garnacha, widely planted in Spain where it tended to be overshadowed by tempranillo.
Its often been blended with other grape varieties to produce some superb wines, but now it seems the grape, which favours hot and dry conditions producing wines of a relatively high alcohol content, is coming into its own. Inventive and forward-thinking winemakers are making impressive wines from grapes grown on venerable vines that can often be more than a century old.
1. Domaine Andre Brunel Vin De Pays De Vaucluse 2015, 14%: 9.99, Virgin Wines
Heres a pleasant surprise: a full-flavoured, fruity gem from acclaimed French winemaker Andre Brunel for under a tenner. Ripe and crushed fruit flavours mingle with notes of pepper and spice and a hint of vanilla to produce a red thats eminently drinkable and a perfect late summer/early autumn treat.
Buy now
2. La Garnacha Salvaje Del Moncayo 2015, 14%: 9.99, Majestic Wines
Garnacha, the Spanish name for the grenache grape, provides some splendid reds in the Valle del Ebro in the north-west of the country. This wine, made from grapes grown at 810m (2,567ft), is fruity and smooth with lingering wild berry flavours and a depth acquired by its five months of ageing in French oak barrels. A wine to enjoy with chorizo or a late summer barbecue.
Buy now
3. Petit Perdigal Rouge 2015, 14.5%: 7.99, Majestic Wine
This is a no-nonsense red from the Rhone Valley winemaker Ogier thats named after its first cellarmaster, Leon Perdigal. A blend of grenache and syrah its easy on the palate with a dark berry zing and pleasing tannins, and at this price you cant really go wrong. Pair it with meat dishes or French cheese.
Buy now
4. Bodegas Aroa Laia Garnacha Blanca 2016, 13%: 11.25, Joseph Barnes Wines
Heres an unoaked, 100 per cent garnacha blanca from an organic and biodynamic vineyard in Navarra. Aroa means optimum in Basque, confirming that this slightly spicy white with its pineapple, mango and citrus undertones was made with no added sulphites, a short maceration, a light pressing and minimum filtration at just the right time. Enjoy with game dishes.
Buy now
5. Domaine Grandy Vacqueyras 2014, 13.5%: 11.95, Slurp
This wine is a blend of 60 per cent grenache, 20 per cent syrah and 20 per cent mourvedre from vines planted on pebble-strewn terraces in the Vacqueyras AOC wine region in the heart of the southern Rhone region of France. Its a full-bodied and muscular red with deep raspberry and black fruit notes with a spicy and almost peppery edge to it. Enjoy it now or keep for another two or three years.
Buy now
6. Bodegas Borsao Tres Picos Garnacha 2015, 15%: 13.95, Slurp
Wine expert Robert Parker awarded this robust red 91 points and called it one of the greatest values in the wine world. An intense, 100 per cent garnacha, it comes from old vines on the slopes of the Moncayo mountain massif in the north-east of Spain where low yields of less than two tons per acre produce a rich and complex wine bursting with cherry and black fruit flavours and tempered with smoky notes of spice and pepper. The perfect accompaniment to roast lamb.
Buy now
7. Waitrose Cotes Du Rhone Villages 2015, 14%: 6.99, Waitrose
From Waitroses acclaimed Blueprint series comes this no-nonsense Cotes Du Rhone Villages blend of grenache and syrah with its characteristic fruity notes and a hint of spice. Customers on the Waitrose website have given this the thumbs up, calling it soft, fruity and very drinkable. And we wouldnt argue with that. Goes well with pasta or even bangers and mash.
Buy now
8. Cotes-Du-Rhone Rouges Ceps Centenaires La Meme 2014, 13.5%: 33.99, AG Wines
This high-end Cotes-du-Rhone is produced in tiny quantities from 26 hectares of 100-year old grenache vines and then bottled, unfined and unfiltered and with no additional sulphites in a southern Rhone winery that has been farmed biodynamically since 2007 and certified organic since 2010. A complex and layered wine with concentrated black and red fruit flavours and a muscular richness. One to savour.
Buy now
9. Comando G Las Rozas 1er Cru 2015, 14.5%: 29, Swig
Heres a mountain garncha thats made from grapes grown in tiny, high altitude, organically-farmed plots located near the town of Rozas de Puerto Real, not far from Madrid. Its harvested by hand, fermented by natural yeasts and then aged for 12 months in 500-litre French oak barrels. It all results in a beefy red with strapping, deep and textured fruit flavours and pleasingly firm tannins.
Buy now
10. Zalze Shiraz Grenache Viognier 2015, 14.5%: 7.49, Co-op
From the long-established South African winemaker Zalze, this easy-drinking blended red is predominately shiraz with a dash of grenache along with the white-wine grape viognier. Soft and mellow and with bucketloads of fruit and soft tannins its an attractively priced partner for red meats or potent cheeses. Buy in-store at the Co-op.
Buy now
11. Ess & See Grenache No 2 2012, 14.5%: 10.99, Virgin Wines
Part of the new vanguard of young and enthusiastic Australian winemakers based in McLaren Vale, this medium-bodied red comes from a family winery that produces small batches of high-quality, eminently drinkable wines. Its full and fruity with spicy and fragrant overtones. On special offer at the moment, and with less than 3,000 bottles made, you should get it while you can.
Buy now
12. A.D. Beckham Amphora Grenache MMXV, 13.5%: 36.99, Les Caves de Pyrene
No, David hasnt gone into winemaking. This red wine is the product of Oregon-based natural winemaker Andrew Beckham, whose twin passions are ceramics and wines. He combines the two by hand-crafting terracotta amphoras in which the grenache is fermented. As a result, he claims there is a common textural component that I would liken to dusty brick. It doesnt sound too promising, granted, but with the earthy fruitiness and depth of the wine, it goes down a treat.
Not available online. Email shop@lescaves.co.uk for enquiries
13. Hancock & Hancock Grenache Rose 2016, 13%: 14.75, Flagship Wines
This is a beautifully pale rose, one of a range of premium wines crafted by winemaker Chris Hancock using grapes sourced from the family-owned vineyards in the McLaren Vale wine region of Australia. Its crisp, light and enticing with soft fruit and cherry flavours offset by a fresh acidity. Perfect as an aperitif or as an accompaniment to light cold meat dishes.
Buy now
14. Vinas Del Vero La Miranda De Secastilla Garnacha 2012, 14%: 13.50, Whitmore and White
An unusual white garancha, this wine is from the Secastilla Valley in the Somontano region of Spain where the garnacha blanca grape actually originates. Aromatic and well-balanced with apple and peach flavours and citrus and floral notes, its ageing in French oak supplies it with soft and pleasing tannins.
Buy now
15. Domaines Lupier El Terroir 2012, 14.5%: 21.95, Berry Bros and Rudd
This is a limited edition garnacha from low-yield vines that date back to 1903, based around the precipitous village of San Martin de Unx in the hills of Navarra, in whats termed Atlantic mountain viticulture. Its medium-bodied, with van-loads of deep and layered, dark and soft-fruit flavours and notes of spice and oak. Can be enjoyed now or be kept for another couple of years to get a softer, more mellow taste.
Buy now
The Verdict:
There are plenty of good grenache and garnacha wines available at reasonable prices For under 10 you can enjoy La Garnacha Salvaje Del Moncayo or this selections Best Buy, the Domaine Andre Brunel Vin De Pays De Vaucluse. Blends such as the Waitrose Cotes Du Rhone Villages and the Petit Perdigal Rouge offer good quality at even cheaper prices. Natural wine enthusiasts will savour the costly but impressive Cotes-Du-Rhone Rouge Ceps Centenaires La Meme and the A.D. Beckham Amphora Grenache, while more mainstream tipplers will enjoy the highly rated Bodegas Borsao Tres Picos Garnacha.
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Brunching out...
Weaving in and out of south-west Londons pre-war housing and tower blocks, orientate your way onto a stretch of the Thames that was once the province of coal workers labouring at Battersea Power Station.
Closed off by building works and accessible by a barely noticeable staircase leading from Battersea Bridge, the iconic factory, now decommissioned, is in the process of being regenerated into a destination for tourists and locals to eat, drink and shop.
Recommended Rail House Cafe review and peas on toast recipe
Before the crowds set in as the new tube station is built, there is an opportunity to visit the areas best kept secret, No 29 Power Station West. Situated between the iconic Power Station and Battersea Park, the bar-cum-restaurant pays homage to its industrial neighbour with a stripped-back aesthetic comprised of wide open windows and bare walls. Soft furnishings of velvet, leather and lines give the space an art deco feel, while potted plants and modern artwork place it within the cannon of Londons hippest spots.
While it serves diners and drinks from dusk until dawn, we visited during the brunching hour and tried the weekend menu, sampling the No 32 bacon sandwich with roasted Portobello mushrooms and truffled three cheese inside a brioche bun; No 32 eggs benedict with honey roast ham, avocado and spinach on sour dough with homemade hollandaise sauce; as well as coconut pancakes with caramelised banana and coconut yoghurt. Having visited the sister pub in Clapham, I was disappointed to see that there wasnt anything unique to the Battersea menu.
Food and drink news Show all 35 1 /35 Food and drink news Food and drink news Healthy living makes us more inclined to binge, research suggests Gluten-free breads, dairy-free milks and other plant-based products have been some of the most favoured foods in British supermarkets this year. However, while were busy filling our shopping trolleys with gluten-free goodness, were also jamming it with junk food and alcohol, new research suggests Getty/iStock Food and drink news Growing list of Vegan celebs Making the switch to veganism is a major lifestyle choice, one that many claim can improve energy levels, lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and clear up any skin issues. Beyonce, Natalie Portman and Jessica Chastain are among the growing list of Hollywood stars who have eschewed animal products from their diets in recent years. Theres also been an increasing number of professional athletes who have gone vegan, such as boxing champions Mike Tyson and David Haye, thus debunking the myth that following a plant-based diet will leave you feeling weak and malnourished. AFP/Getty/NARAS/iHeartMedia Food and drink news McDonald's has announced the launch of a new vegan burger on its menu in Germany This will mark the first time the German franchise of the fast food chain has offered a vegan burger to its customers. The Big Vegan TS burger consists of a patty made from soy and wheat. It is served in a classic sesame seed bun, and contains salad, tomato, pickles and red onion. McDonald's Germany Food and drink news Drinking too many protein shakes could lead to an increased risk of obesity and a reduced lifespan, a new study has claimed Researchers from the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre carried out an investigation to determine the impact excessive consumption of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) has on the body. BCAA supplements are often consumed in the form of powder, which is then added to water to make a shake. Published in journal Nature Metabolism, the study found that while BCAAs help to build muscle, they can also negatively impact an individual's temperament, cause weight gain and lead to a shortened lifespan Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Britain consumes more chocolate than any other country Most people love chocolate but it turns out no one does more than the Brits with the average Brit found to have consumed 8.4 kg of chocolate in 2017, according to new data. Chocolate consumption around the world is on the rise, according to Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD), which found that in the past year alone, Easter chocolate production has risen by 23 per cent Food and drink news 'Easter eggs should be banned for children under four' Dr Becky Spelman, chief psychologist at Harley Streets Private Therapy Clinic, is calling for Easter eggs to be banned for consumption for children under the age of four, claiming that giving them the opportunity to binge on chocolate so young will give them an unhealthy relationship with food later on. "This is a nightmare situation for parents of this generation as they have no idea how to teach their children to delay their response to cravings, she said, explaining that too many young kids binge on these chocolates because their parents dont know how to stop them. "Once a child starts overeating behaviour at a young age its very hard to turn things around for them in terms of food and their eating habits moving forward, leading to obesity from at very young age," she added PA Food and drink news Pineapple overtakes avocado as the UK's fastest-selling fruit According to Tesco, pineapple has overtaken avocado as the UKs fastest-selling fruit, with sales increasing by 15 per cent in 2017. In comparison, avocado sales rose by just under 10 per cent last year. The popular supermarket says the surge in popularity comes as shoppers buying the versatile fruit are beginning to use it as a main ingredient in everything from curries and barbecues, to juices and cocktails Getty Food and drink news Marks & Spencers launches stoneless avocados Rather than the result of genetic modification, the avocados are formed by an unpollinated avocado blossom. The fruit develops without a seed which in turns stops the growth, creating a small, seedless fruit. Whats more, the skin is actually edible, unlike a regular avocado. The flesh is much like that of a normal avocado - smooth and creamy, pale in colour and rich in flavour M&S Food and drink news Office teabags contain 17 times more germs than a toilet seat, reveals study The average bacterial reading of an office teabag was 3,785, in comparison to only 220 for a toilet seat. Other pieces of kitchen equipment also stacked up highly in their findings, with the bacterial readings averaging at 2,483 on kettle handles, 1,746 on the rim of a used mug and 1,592 on a fridge door handle Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news New study shows drinking more coffee leads to a longer life There is good news and a final hope for coffee addicts and lovers. You will now be able to drink coffee for longer as new study shows its can lead to a prolonged life. Scientists showed that those who drank between two and four cups of coffee a day had 18% lower risk of death compared to non-coffee drinkers. PA Food and drink news Coke Zero is replaced with Coke Zero Sugar Coca-Cola is pulling the plug on its Coke Zero. The much loved drink will be replaced with a new improved taste. The move, backed with a 10 million campaign, is said to come from Coca-Cola supporting people to reduce their sugar intake. Coca-Cola want people make this move while not sacrificing sugary taste of Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola Food and drink news Starbucks introduce new avocado spread The avocado craze has grown from hipster brunch restaurants to Starbucks. Starbucks have introduced their new avocado spread earlier this year and it has the internet in debate. Some argue that it not a spread but guacamole while others question if there is any avocado in there at all. When buying the new spread you can also buy an optional toasted bagel. It is a must try for all avocado connoisseurs. Starbucks Food and drink news New Mars chocolate bar The iconic British chocolate bar is about to get its partner in crime. The new bar, named Goodness Knows, will replace the gooey caramel goodness of the mars bar with oats. It is said to be more like a Florentine biscuit with a thin dark chocolate bottom. While being moderately healthy Mars says that is has good intentions. One pack has 154 calories and will sell for about 90p. Mars Food and drink news Wine prices could increase because of Brexit Wine lovers across the UK might soon have to shell out close to a quarter more for their favourite tipple after Brexit, as a weaker pound and sluggish economy takes its toll, a new study shows Rex Food and drink news Chocolate may be good for the heart A new study, published in the British Medical Journal: Heart, found that moderate chocolate intake can be positively associated with lessening the risk of the heart arrhythmia condition Atrial Fibrillation Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Brits throw away 1.4 million bananas each year British families are throwing away 1.4 million bananas that are perfectly good to eat every day at cost of 80m a year, new figures have shown PA/Armin Weigel Food and drink news Rosemary sales spike over exam time There has been a surge a surge in sales of the herb rosemary after a recent study found it helps improve memory. According to high street health food chain Holland & Barrett, sales of the herb have increased by 187 per cent compared to the same time last year Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Gluten-free diets 'not recommended' for people without coeliac disease Avoiding wheat, barley and rye in the belief that a gluten-free diet brings health benefits may do more harm than good, according to a team of US nutrition and medicine experts Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Starbucks launches two new coffee-based drinks Starbucks is launching two new coffee-based drinks in the UK, as it strives to tap into consumers growing appetite for healthy beverages. The Cold Brew Vanilla sweet cream and the Cappuccino Freddo, will both be available in stores throughout the UK from the start of May Twitter/@SbuxCountyHall Food and drink news Cadburys Dairy Milk Tiffin is making a permanent comeback after 80 years The Cadbury Dairy Milk Tiffin, first produced in 1937, is making a permanent comeback to the UK. The raisin and biscuit-filled chocolate bar is being launched after a successful trial last summer saw 3 million chocolate treats at the cost of 1.49 for each 95g bar- purchased by nostalgic customers Cadburys Food and drink news Pizza restaurant makes worlds cheesiest 'Scottie's Pizza Parlor' in Portland Oregon has created the worlds cheesiest pizza using a total of 101 different cheese varieties. Facebook/Scottie's Pizza Parlor Food and drink news A pizza joint in Portland Oregon has created the worlds cheesiest pizza using a total of 101 different cheese varieties. Why not eating before a workout could be better for your health A study published in the American Journal of Physiology by researchers at the University of Bath found you might be likely to burn more fat if you have not eaten first Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news New York restaurant named best in the world A New York restaurant where an average meal for two will cost $700 has been named the best in the world. Eleven Madison Park won the accolade for the first time after debuting on the list at number 50 in 2010. The restaurant was praised for a fun sense of fine-dining, blurring the line between the kitchen and the dining room Getty Images Food and drink news Why you crave bad food when youre tired Researchers at Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University in Chicago recently presented their results of a study looking into the effects of sleep deprivation upon high-calorific food consumption. Researchers found that those who were sleep-deprived had specifically enhanced brain activity to the food smells compared to when they had a good nights sleep Shutterstock Food and drink news Drinking wine engages more of your brain than solving maths problems Drinking wine is the ideal workout for your brain, engaging more parts of our grey matter than any other human behaviour, according to a leading neuroscientist. Dr Gordon Shepherd, from the Yale School of Medicine, said sniffing and analysing a wine before drinking it requires exquisite control of one of the biggest muscles in the body Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news British dessert eating surges after people ditch healthy eating in February : In heartening news for anyone feeling guilty about quitting their New Year diet, it seems lots of us have given in to our sweet tooths once again. New data from nationwide food-delivery service Deliveroo reveals there was a surge in Brits ordering desserts in February compared to the first month of 2017 Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news US congress debates definition of milk alternatives A new bill has been created that seeks to ban dairy alternatives from using the term milk. Titled the DAIRY PRIDE Act, the name is a tenuous acronym for defending against imitations and replacements of yogurt, milk, and cheese to promote regular intake of dairy every day. It argues that the dairy industry is struggling as a result of all the dairy-free alternatives on the market and the public are being duped too Getty Images Food and drink news Cadburys launches two new chocolate bars UK confectionary giant Cadbury has launched two new chocolate bars, hoping to lure those with a sweet tooth and perhaps help combat some of the challenges it faces from rising commodity prices and a post-Brexit slump in the value of the pound.The companys new products will be peanut butter and mint flavoured. They will be available in most major super markets as 120g bars, priced at 1.49, according to the company Cadburys Food and drink news You can now get a job as a professional chocolate eater The company responsible for some of your favourite chocolate brands think Cadbury, Milks, Prince and Oreo have officially announced an opening to join their team as a professional chocolate taster. The successful candidate will help them to test, perfect and launch new products all over the world. Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news MSG additive used in Chinese food is actually good for you, scientist claims For years, weve been told MSG (the sodium salt of glutamic acid) - often associated with cheap Chinese takeaways - is awful for our health and to be avoided at all costs. But one scientist argues it should be used as a supersalt and encourages adding it to food. Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Lettuce prices are rising Not only are lettuces becoming an increasingly rare commodity in supermarkets, but prices for the leafy vegetables seem to be rising too. According to the weekly report from the Governments Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, a pair of Little Gem lettuces had an average market price of 0.86 in the week that ended on Friday, up from an average of 0.56 in the previous week thats an almost 54 per cent increase. Getty Images Food and drink news Do-It-Yourself restaurant To encourage more people to cook and eat together, IKEA has launched The Dining Club in Shoreditch a fully immersive Do-It-Yourself restaurant . Members of the public can book to host a brunch, lunch or dinner party for up to 20 friends and family. Supported by their very own sous chef and maitre de, the host and their guests will orchestrate an intimate dining experience where cooking together is celebrated and eating together is inspirational Mikael Buck / IKEA Food and drink news Ping Pong menu with a twist Gatwick Airport has teamed up with London dim sum restaurant Ping Pong to create a limited edition menu with a distinctly British twist; including a Full English Bao and Beef Wellington Puff, to celebrate the launch of the airports new route to Hong Kong Food and drink news Zizzi unveil the Maamgharita Unique pizza art has been created by Zizzi in celebration of the Queens 90th birthday. The pizza features the queen in an iconic pose illustrated with fresh and tasty Italian ingredients on a backdrop of the Union Jack Food and drink news Blue potatoes make a comeback Blue potatoes, once a staple part of British potato crops, are back on the menu thanks to a Cambridge scientist turned-organic farmer and Farmdrop, an online marketplace that lets people buy direct from local farms. Cambridge PhD graduate-turned farmer, Adrian Izzard has used traditional growing techniques at Wild Country Organics to produce the colourful spuds, packed with healthy cell-protecting anthocyanin, which had previously disappeared from UK plates when post-war farmers were pushed towards higher-yielding varieties
What was on it, however, didnt disappoint. On top of the usual brunch fare, we picked at the small plates menu at a leisurely pace over cocktails, ordering the parmesan cauliflower croquets with truffle mayo and spicy crab cakes with sweet chilli creme fraiche. We particularly enjoyed the selection of crostinis with a variety of toppings, including smoked salmon, truffle honey and ricotta; fennel salami, chilli and truffle ricotta; sobrassada, burrata and basil.
No 29, offers a selection of coffees, fresh juices and breakfast cocktails, which includes a range of Bloody Marys from the Bloody Beet replacing tomato juice with beetroot juice or the Bloody Snapper substituting gin for vodka.
Breakfast for three came to 120
No 29 Power Station West; Unit 29 Circus West, Battersea, Battersea Power Station, London SW8 5BP; 020 3857 4669; no29powerstationwest.co.uk
Brunching in...
Linseed pudding by Dan Wilson, Dandy
50g of linseed
50g of honey, or golden syrup
100ml of water
200ml of coconut milk
Smoked syrup
100g of golden syrup
1 handful of wood chips
To serve
Edible flowers
flat peach, or plum
1 handful of blackberries
40g of macadamia nuts, crushed
Make the pudding 24 hours in advance. Place all the ingredients in a pan and heat to 70C over a medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and tip into a container. Set aside in the fridge for 24 hours.
For the smoked syrup, Place the golden syrup in a shallow baking dish. Place the hot coal in a smaller metal vessel and sit it in the syrup. Add the smoking chips to the coal and cover with foil.
The smoking chips and the coal should sit like an island in their vessel billowing smoke. When covered the smoke will slowly infiltrate the syrup. Leave for up to an hour.
Take the pudding from the fridge (after waiting 24 hours), place two scoops in a bowl with some slices of stone fruit and edible flowers. Cover with macadamia and lashings of the smoked syrup.
For more brunch recipes, visit greatbritishchefs.com
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When James Wharton quit the army after a decade to retreat to a job in the City and a cosy home in Windsor with his husband and their two dogs, it seemed hed found his happily ever after. He could have hardly predicted that a year later his marriage would have broken down, hed be living in central London and be addicted to a combination of hookups and drugs known as chemsex.
Its this unexpected journey that lead Wharton - who has previously written about being among the first openly gay men in the British army - to pen Something for the Weekend: Life in the Chemsex Underworld.
Chemsex is a term used to describe a scene among men who have sex with men which is fuelled by substances including crystal meth, mephedrone and GHB. These lower a persons inhibitions and heighten their libido in a combination described on dating apps as HnH or high and horny. Parties - commonly known as chillouts - often start on a Friday and bleed into weekdays for those who dont make it into work. Generally relaxed affairs, they see anyone from lawyers to teachers gather at homes and hotels, before moving on to a party that better suits their mood and high. In 2015, Wharton was hooked on the potent combination of drugs, feeling wanted and a sense of belonging to a point that he remembers little of the year.
It was the year that chemsex began to gain mainstream attention, when the British Medical Journal warned that parties were causing a spike in causes of HIV, while a separate study at Imperial College London found the number of deaths caused GHB spiked by 119 per cent in London between 2014 and 2015. One person was dying every 12 days from GHB in the capital.
We spoke to Wharton about why he chose to write about his experiences, what attracts people to chemsex, and why he hopes to prove to others that they can seek support and help if they need it.
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Chemsex has been in the mainstream news for a few years now. Why did you choose to write about chemsex now?
It was the right time for me. People have been going on about it for two or three years and I just didn't feel part of that discussion or want to be part of it until very recently. I also think the community across the board knows about chemsex and is aware of it going on but there isnt enough communication and discussion about it. I hope the book does spark that conversation.
Were you worried at all writing so candidly about taking drugs?
Yeah. I was worried about the people I love and what their reaction might be. Ive written a book before and you've got to put your heart out there. If you're going to talk about something personal and put opinions out there and express your views on certain things you cant then try to hide from certain aspects of your personal experience. I was at the early part of this process worried but as the program has moved forward Ive become more settled in myself and happy.
How did people respond when they realised you were working on the book? Did people distance themselves from you?
It was different for different groups of people. Friends who I know who take drugs and are involved were a bit concerned. There were a number of people texting me asking Im definitely not in the book, am I? Nobody had an adverse response to the idea of the book. Lots of people have asked for more information about chemsex, which I think is very positive. Others have expressed their support. On the whole, Ive been pleased with the feedback people have given. That extends to friends to professional from Dr Christian Jessen who said kinds things and David Stuart who manages a chemsex support clinic at 56 Dean Street in London. Well see what my friends and family think.
James Wharton at his book launch for Something for the Weekend (Ed Lowe)
Do you hope that the book with make people change their behaviour?
I want it to inspire some level of thought and dialogue and communication. I don't need to change someone's behaviour. Its not a read this if you want to stop but if you want more information. Read this if you want to find out you're not alone. People will only seek help if they want it.
Do you think that chemsex is painted in a black and white way, and as wholly bad? Is it more of a grey area in terms of how badly it affects people?
Its a very complex area and it is in only painted in a black and white way. But sometimes it's only possibly to paint a snippet of the culture. And its so firmly spread in the gay community. And I think its a part of our culture as a whole. I think chemsex culture is gay culture in 2017. And the reason for that is the incredible journey that weve been on to get where we are. A lot of people arae carrying a lot of grief and trauma. I'd say that most teenagers coming into the community have had to deal with trauma because they've had to hide who they are for so many years. It doesn't matter how tough you are, sitting down with your parents and saying you're gay is not easy. And then life happens. Marriages break down. This book I hope paints this picture in more than black and white and I want to pick out the complexity of what the culture is.
In the book, you describe how you wrote an article against chemsex culture and sauna culture and how you were against drugs. Then your life changed dramatically. Do you think there is division between people who see themselves as above chemsex, and those who are a part of it?
What I would say is that society paints a picture of there being good gays and bad gays. When we went through the equal marriage debate for a few years you had the societal view that gays should get married and have happy families which was in quite a clash and a direct contradiction to how many gay men have lived and do live their lives. Perhaps the heteronormative view and ideology that was placed on our shoulders as part of that debate wasn't wholly fair. A few years ago I subscribed to that vision of gay men getting married having a house and kids one day. And I don't think it's accurate or representative of the community. I have been through a transformation on what I think a gay person is or should be. The answer should be that a gay person should be whatever they want to be. If they want to get married and have kids great. If they want to live in a single flat and go clubbing every weekend thats equally great.
Do you hope the book will help people understand what other members of the LGBT community are experiencing?
I think that straight people can learn a lot about gay culture from it too. There are some members of the gay community who don't like to acknowledge the fact there is a drug problem. We are seven times more likely to use drugs than our straight counterparts. Over half of us have tried drugs in our lives. These facts point to something quite simple: if you're gay you're more likely to take drugs. There are some people who deny that happens and look the other way. They will think it's the 'bad gays' doing that. The book is an opportunity to encourage more dialogue among us. If you want to put a line in the sand you can point out that every 12 days a gay man is dying because of chemsex. If we want to address it the key to it is to come together as a community and engage in a non judgmental way and point people to the places where support can be found. Like 56 Dean Street where you'll find David Stuart. And me: I'm always happy to speak to people.
What surprised you the most about the scene?
In society there are barriers between different cohorts. Generally you have people in high or low paid jobs. There are people who work in the evening or in the day. People don't generally get the chance to come together and be peers. What I found was that you'd end up at a party with barristers, police officers, public service workers, teachers. It was a culture that didn't discriminate or put any people within the culture in a higher light. It broke all those standard barriers in real life.
Viceland's Chemsex documentary - In pictures Show all 7 1 /7 Viceland's Chemsex documentary - In pictures Viceland's Chemsex documentary - In pictures Viceland's Chemsex documentary - In pictures Viceland's Chemsex documentary - In pictures Viceland's Chemsex documentary - In pictures Viceland's Chemsex documentary - In pictures Viceland's Chemsex documentary - In pictures Viceland's Chemsex documentary - In pictures
Logistically, how do people manage to continue with their lives? How do they hide that they're on a comedown on Monday morning, for instance?
A hangover from alcohol can be more severe after a considerable time of drinking than a comedown. But it takes it toll and there are a number of people who are turning up and pushing through. A lot of people recall losing their jobs or interest and spark in working. But we gay men are also really bloody good at masking things. Some people are fantastically brilliant at putting on a mask and going to work. Others aren't so good.
It sounds really dark. So what's so great about it? There must be something about it that keeps people coming back. Do you have any fond memories that you'd like to share?
Its really fun. Chemsex culture is fun. The book is fairly clear that chemsex culture as a thing is dark and we talk about the really dark things like serial killers and a culture of rape that goes untackled every week in this great city because people are too scared to talk about it. The book is dark. But at the source, getting involved and going to parties and seeing 20 strangers all interested in you as person and the gratification of six or seven people expressing that desire to you in a sexual way and then factor in how powerful these drugs. In that very moment it's a fun situation. The problem is the added on knock on effects that come with that. I believe people find themselves missing things. It could be a long-term partner or intimacy. Then on the weekend you find you have that thing: intimacy, connections, people, camaraderie. You have that in sackloads. And don't forget you're also taking a lot of very powerful drugs. That to me sounds like a pretty good short term fix to the lack of having something to focus on in life. And that is what is so real about the culture. There is nothing dark about it in the instance but the knock-on effects are very dark.
As it's the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality this year, would you like to say anything about that?
I'm quite emotional about the whole thing. Anniversaries go and come all the time. But if you think about the terrible things that have happened to us in the past 50 years: serial killers in London, a bomb in the heart of Soho, the fucking Conservative party in the 1980s, archbishops of the church of England, chemsex, Stephen Port. That's a lot of a community to deal with. I'm not entirely sure I'm celebrating it. I'm almost thinking God, please let the next 50 years be kinder to us as a people than the last.
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Angela King first identified as a neo-Nazi at the age of 15. She spent eight years immersed in South Floridas far-right movement - where her hatred for minorities, aggression and violence were fully accepted - until she helped to rob a Jewish-owned store and was sentenced to five years in prison. It was behind bars that Kings hateful attitudes melted away, as she was befriended by a group of Jamaican women and fell in love with a black woman.
Now 42 and the co-founder of anti radicalisation group Life After Hate, Kings sees her damaging behaviour mirrored in those also drawn to violent extremism.
I believe many who join violent extremist groups are trying to fill some sort of void in their lives, King tells The Independent. At some level, all human beings want to be accepted and loved. Sometimes, we are willing to trade the things that make us human to receive that acceptance. In Kings experience, extremists are first drawn to being accepted into a group as a coping mechanism and hateful ideology second.
I was an angry young woman suffering through an identity crisis during adolescence, King recalls of her turbulent youth. I sought a place to belong, to be accepted, and to feel like I had a voice and that I mattered. In this quest, I tried on different self-destructive behaviors and the one that fit the best was with a group of young neo-Nazi skinheads.
Angela King had her first relationship with a black woman in prison (Mark Seliger)
As the eldest of three children in a highly conservative Baptist home where racial slurs and homophobia were part daily life, King's struggle with self-acceptance stemmed from realising she was attracted to women at the age of ten. I did not know what it was called, nor did I know there were other people out there just like me. I did feel that if anyone ever found out, I would be excommunicated from my family and spend an eternity in a supposed burning, fiery pit in hell.
The neo-Nazi beliefs didn't feel like a stretch from what I already knew, Kings says of how she was first drawn to far-right ideology. I did not always feel hatred. It started with fear of the unknown. The fear turned into anger. The anger into hate. The hate into violence. At that young age, I internalised a great deal of bullying and negativity. I dehumanised myself and thought it was OK to do the same to others.
Although the beliefs are not what initially drew me into it. It was that I was accepted: anger, violence, and all. It became easier for me to blame others and to justify my own actions and insecurities by claiming superiority. I wasn't superior. I was an angry young woman who had suffered bullying, abuse, was self-destructive, irresponsible, and a high school dropout with no self-esteem.
It was in prison - when a black prisoner struck up a friendship over a board game in the recreation area - that King found it harder and harder to maintain her racist beliefs. She was soon taken in by a group of Jamaican women.
King was imprisoned in 1999 for helping to rob a store owned by a Jewish person
I was treated with kindness and compassion from women I didn't feel I deserved it from. I realised that there was overabundant commonality with the very same people I claimed to hate. We had much more in common than we did different. It has, though, taken me years, and is something I will continue to do for the rest of my life, to undo the fact that I was socialised into a system based on white supremacy. It wasn't in my control that I was born into such a system, but how I act and speak today is in my control. And I intend to use every platform at my disposal to educate others.
Commenting on the the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other far-right extremists gathered to protest the removal of a Confederate statue, King says the rally and the rise of the so-called alt-right in the US doesnt shock her at all.
Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.
When I was involved in the violent far-right more than two decades ago, what we see happening around us in the US right now is exactly what I was trying to make happen back then. To King, the violent rally where Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old activist was killed, proves that the US is not a post-racial society just because we had a President of colour.
The US has a sordid history of mistreating marginalised people and groups. It began with the first colonists who came to our shores fleeing religious oppression. They leveraged genocide against the indigenous people of the Americas. Moving on from that, oppression was built into the very fabric of our social systems and continues to cost lives to this day," says King.
Overcoming hatred is, therefore, not easy and unique for each individual. And while racism, homophobia, Islamophobia shouldnt go unchecked, King argues persuading others to be more tolerant and accepting in a divided political climate is not the correct approach.
We try to have compassion for the individual because us former extremists know that we were once that person. When I encounter an individual like the person I used to be, I do my best to humanise that person and to find common ground. This means that I let my guard down, allow myself to be vulnerable, and if the person is willing to listen, share the experiences and voids that led me into the violent far-right.
"I'm not convinced that we will ever be able to prevent violent extremism one hundred percent of the time. But I do believe that, with education and awareness, we can build community resilience to it," says King, adding: I have never met a truly happy person who hates other human beings.
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Smoke was seen issuing from the Russian consulate in San Francisco on Friday, days after the State Department ordered the diplomatic facility closed.
A fire department spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. The department's public information account said on Twitter that Russian embassy had a fire alarm NOT A FIRE. Everything is ok and we are clearing.
After sending a crew to investigate the fire department determined that people in the building were using the fireplace, San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talamadge told the Associated Press.
It was not unintentional. They were burning something in their fireplace, she said.
The AP reported hearing someone from inside the building say consular staff were burning unidentified items in a fireplace.
The smoke pouring into the air mingled with an already-stifling climate in San Francisco, where temperatures climbed into the triple digits and broke records. A state air regulator said it had dispatched personnel to the embassy but found no violations.
The consulate was one of three Russian diplomatic outposts ordered closed by the State Department earlier this week in response to Russia ordering the expulsion of American diplomatic personnel, a move that followed America imposing a fresh round of sanctions intended to punish Russia for interfering in the 2016 election.
A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that American authorities planned to conduct a search of the building.
The State Department declined comment on either the fire or the Russian foreign ministry's statement, saying people would be barred access to the consulate without State Department permission starting on Saturday.
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The head of the worlds largest general science organisation has accused the Trump administration of paying scant attention to research and lacking understanding of scientific thinking.
Dr Rush Holt, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), pointed to the great slowness in appointing people with a scientific background to senior positions.
And he said that scientists had not been at the table for most of the policy discussions.
Donald Trump has infamously dismissed climate change as a hoax, but Dr Holt said the problems were much more widespread, encompassing a range of issues from public health to the military.
He was speaking amid controversy over the US Department of Interiors decision to halt a $1m study into the effects of mountain-top coal mining on the health of people living nearby. Mr Trump has spoken repeatedly about his desire to reinvigorate the ailing US coal industry.
In an outspoken editorial, the prestigious journal Nature said the decision suggested the Trump administration might cancel other scientific studies it did not like in another blow for science and for academic freedom.
Marches for science were held in the US and other cities around the world in April because of concerns over Mr Trumps attitudes towards climate change and hard evidence generally.
And, in an interview, Dr Holt told The Independent there had been little sign of improvement.
Within the administration, theres scant attention paid to science, to the scientific way of thinking, to the support for science, not in policy and not in funding, he said.
Recommended Trump reportedly growing frustrated with closest members of team
So it really is not just a matter of great slowness in appointing people who know something about science to mid-level and high-level positions in the agencies.
It also seems to be a failure to recognise that science has much to offer.
He said this applied to issues such as public health, social welfare programmes, immigration discussions and even security and military matters.
The Washington Post and a non-profit group has been tracking 591 key administration posts that must be confirmed by the Senate. According to the latest figures, just 117 people out of that number had been confirmed in their jobs, 106 had been nominated for a post, two were awaiting nomination and there were no nominees for the other 366 jobs.
Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Show all 33 1 /33 Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days in office were marred by a string of scandals, many of which caught the eye of the Independent's cartoonists Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's first 100 days have seen him aggressively ramp up tensions with his nuclear rivals in North Korea Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has warned of a "major, major conflict" with the pariah nation lead by Kim Jong Un Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump dropped the "mother of all bombs" on alleged ISIS-linked militants in Afghanistan, amid an escalation of US military intervention around the globe Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been accused of falling short of the standards set by his predecessors in the Oval Office, including Franklin D Roosevelt Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The tycoon's ascension to the White House came at a time when the balance of power is shifting away from Western nations like those in the G7 group Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Western politicians, including the British Conservative party, have been accused of falling in line behind Mr Trump's proposals Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Brexit is seen to have weakened Britain, reducing still further any political will to resist American leadership Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump's leadership has been marked by sudden and unexpected shifts in global policy Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's controversial missile strike on Syria, which killed several citizens, was seen by some analysts as an attempt to distract from his policy elsewhere Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The President has also spent a large majority of his weekends golfing, rather than attending to matters of state Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Though free of gaffes, a visit from Chinese president Xi Jinping spotlighted trade tensions between the two states Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One major and unexpected setback came when Mr Trump's Healthcare Bill was struck down by members of his own party Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been a figure of fun in the media, with his approval at record lows Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A string of revelations about Mr Trump's financial indiscretions did not mar his surge to the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Outgoing President Barack Obama was accused of wiretapping Trump Tower by his successor in America's highest office Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The alleged involvement of Russian intelligence operatives in securing Mr Trump the presidency prompted harsh criticism Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The explosive resignation of Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who lied about his links to the Russian ambassador, was just one scandal to hit the President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Many scandals, such as the accusation Barack Obama was implicated in phone-hacking, first broke on Mr Trump's Twitter feed Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's election provoked mass protests in the UK, with millions signing a petition to ban him from the country Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump cited a non-existent terror attack in Sweden during a campaign rally Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump stands accused of stoking regional tensions in Eastern Asia Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons North Korea has launched a number of failed nuclear tests since Mr Trump took power Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Theresa May formally rejected the petition calling for Mr Trump to be banned from the UK Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons When Mr Trump's initial so-called Muslim ban was struck down by a federal justice, the President mocked the 69-year-old as a "ridiculous", "so-called judge" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A week after his inauguration, Theresa May met with Mr Trump at the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first days in office were marked by a hasty attempt to follow through on many of his campaign promises, including the so-called Muslim ban Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's decision to ban citizens of many majority-Muslim countries from the US sparked mass protests Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Revelations about Donald Trump's sexual improprieties were not enough to keep him from being elected President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was criticised by many in the press for cosying up to the new President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One of Mr Trump's top aides, Kelly Anne Conway, was mocked for describing mistruths as "alternative facts" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was quick to demonstrate that her political aims did not hugely differ from Mr Trump's Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's inauguration, on 20 January 2017, sparked protests both at home and abroad
The US Secretary of States science and technology adviser, Vaughan Turekian, resigned in July and has not been replaced; the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has been all but wiped out by departures, according to The New York Times; the Interior Department has suspended more than 200 advisory panels; and the Environmental Protection Agency has sacked dozens of scientists.
The Justice Department decided to ditch the National Commission on Forensic Science, a panel of independent judges, lawyers, scientists and police, and replace them with its own in-house team.
Dr Holt said there had been one Trump administration statement from the Office of Management and Budget that might be interpreted to be a strong endorsement of science research.
But, in so many other ways beyond this one statement, science and scientists have not been at the table for most of the policy discussions, he said.
It just seems that there arent many people in this administration who understand what science and scientific ways of thinking can bring to their programmes and projects.
At the AAASs annual meeting in Boston, Dr Holt said some academics had voiced concern that the US could become like Soviet Russia, where political ideology was more important than hard evidence and facts.
Asked about whether fears that the Trump administration might seek to exert political influence on the results of research were coming to fruition, he said the picture was mixed.
Id say theres not been much encouragement and some discouragement of the practice of good science, Dr Holt said.
I dont want to overstate things. In many of the labs with federal funding, the research goes on every day just fine.
There have been cases where Trump administration agencies have removed words like climate change and global warming from their websites.
Dr Holt said he was not aware of how widespread a problem this was.
But he added: If there is a widespread practice or an emerging policy to remove for political reasons certain phrases from scientific communications, whether its grant proposals or research papers, that should be condemned.
That kind of censorship of scientific expression is really anathema to progress.
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A well-preserved Roman mosaic, described as the most exciting discovery in decades, has been uncovered in Berkshire by a local community archaeology dig.
The mosaic, dated from around 4th century AD, features Bellerophon, a Greek hero, riding the winged horse Pegasus. The panel shows a scene where they attack the fire-breathing monster Chimera. As a reward for killing the beast which had a lions head, a goats body, and a serpents tail, Pegasus was offered the King Iobates daughter, Philonoe.
Joy Appleton from the Boxford History Project told The Independent: I was stunned. Its an amazing mosaic with so many figures. There is every Greek mythical figure found on a British site. The owner of the Roman villa in which the mosaic was found, [clearly] wanted to display his knowledge as there are so many characters and beasts from Greek mythology.
Among the most spectacular scenes is Hercules killing a centaur, possibly Nessus, whose poisoned blood later caused the death of Hercules. Other illustrative elements on the mosaic contain scenes previously unknown on other UK sites, said archaeological experts. The find, which was discovered two weeks ago, has now been covered up to protect it until further digs. The dig volunteers, some without previous experience of working on archaeological sites, are hoping to fundraise for another excavation next year.
Anthony Beeson, a member of the Association for the Study and Preservation of Roman Mosaics, described the find as without question the most exciting mosaic discovery made in Britain in the last 50 years and must take a premier place amongst those Romano-British works of art that have come down to modern Britons.
Luigi Thompson, who visited the site and is known for his paintings of mosaics said, If I had the choice of only doing one painting in my career, it would be this one. It is the most delightful, lively and charming pavement I have ever seen. It causes me to imagine, with pleasure, the villa owner entertaining his guests with his knowledge of classical mythology.
Review: Chiefs and Governors: Art and Power in Fiji, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge Show all 5 1 /5 Review: Chiefs and Governors: Art and Power in Fiji, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge Review: Chiefs and Governors: Art and Power in Fiji, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge AN22302746Human-shaped-figu.jpg Filian Art at the Museum of Archaeology, Cambridge Review: Chiefs and Governors: Art and Power in Fiji, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge AN22302903Collectors-case-i.jpg Filian Art at the Museum of Archaeology, Cambridge Review: Chiefs and Governors: Art and Power in Fiji, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge AN22302752Sir-Arthur-Gordon.jpg Filian Art at the Museum of Archaeology, Cambridge Review: Chiefs and Governors: Art and Power in Fiji, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge AN22302775Shot-of-Chiefs-an.jpg Filian Art at the Museum of Archaeology, Cambridge Review: Chiefs and Governors: Art and Power in Fiji, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge AN22302830Cakobau.-Vunivalu.jpg Filian Art at the Museum of Archaeology, Cambridge
Cotswold Archaeology has been working at the site near Boxford in Berkshire since 2011. Backed by money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, previous finds include the foundations of a villa and bath house as well as a farm building. A further excavation will reveal the whole area of the mosaic and also explore more fully the Roman bath suite found in the same villa.
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A mother who has been campaigning for over 40 years to exhume her babys coffin has been left devastated as she discovered it is empty.
Gary died seven days after he was born at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh in July 1975.
Lydia Reid, 68, says she knew her son Gary was not in his coffin at his funeral.
The coffin was light. I knew the weight of a baby. My son was not there. Again, nobody believed me, Ms Reid told the BBC.
Reid has spent 42 years convinced that Gary was not in his coffin, before finally persuading Professor Dame Susan Black to carry out DNA tests on the remains which meant she could be granted a court order for an exhumation.
She said: I wanted to be wrong. I wanted to be called a stupid old woman. But the minute Sue lifted the shawl out of the ground, I knew there was nothing in it. Nothing.
My heart hit my feet. I didnt know what to say.
Prof Black discovered a shawl, a hat, a cross and a nameplate on top of the disintegrated coffin, which had spelt Garys name incorrectly.
The NHS in Scotland was forced to admit to widespread organ retention in 2001, after an investigation into Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool.
Between 1970 and 2000, approximately 6,000 organs and tissues were kept by Scottish hospitals, many from children.
Reid suspected that her son was among the countless victims, which is why she continued fighting decades after his death.
UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch 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She said: Even if he is lying in a jar in a hospital somewhere, I want to know. If it is possible to get my son back, I want to.
Black, the director of the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee, told the BBC: Ultimately, there is only one possible logical explanation and that is that the body was not put in that coffin.
NHS Lothian deputy chief executive Jim Crombie said: Our condolences are with the family of Gary Paton.
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A woman has been caught on camera hurling racist abuse at Muslims who were visiting a cemetery for Eid.
The video, which was posted to a local group on Facebook, shows the woman leaning out of a red Mini while screaming: F*** off! You f***ing P****!, in the town of Dewsbury, west Yorkshire.
The middle-aged woman launches into the rant seemingly unprovoked as she leans out of the passenger seat of the car in the 29-second clip.
Recommended Racist man ordered off tram for his a furious tirade against Islam
She is also seen encouraging onlookers to video her. She said Come on, film me you f***ing black c****! You British f***ing P****.
The footage was posted on Friday to a local group and has since has been watched more than 25,000 times.
Facebook users have heavily criticised the unknown woman.
One user wrote: Makes me embarrassed to be British Another said She needs reporting to the police. This is shameful and appalling.
As part of celebrating Eid Muslims are encouraged to visit relatives and close friends who are both living and dead.
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Billions of pounds of taxpayers money is being given to rogue landlords who are renting out homes that dont meet basic health and safety standards, new analysis of Government data has revealed.
Over the next five years, they will receive more than 12bn in housing benefit enough money to have helped build more than half a million new homes.
Some 2.5bn currently goes every year to landlords who are renting out properties in a non-decent condition: the Governments benchmark for what constitutes an unacceptable quality of accommodation.
Recommended Third of private rented homes fail basic health and safety standards
To be classed as non-decent, a home must have inadequate heating, outdated sanitation, be in a state of serious disrepair or be unsafe, for example due to a dangerous boiler, vermin infestation or faulty wiring.
The Independent revealed last month that almost a third of private rented homes in England, totalling 1.4 million properties, are currently substandard, while 17 per cent contain the most dangerous type of safety hazard.
Despite this, the landlords that own them are continuing to profit from vast sums of public money.
Spending on housing benefit has soared by 4bn since 2010, and now stands at 24bn a year, of which 36 per cent (8.8bn) goes to the UKs 1.75 million private landlords.
The new analysis of data, from the latest edition of the annual English Housing Survey, reveals that more than a quarter of all housing benefit paid to private renters goes into the pockets of rogue landlords.
Some of the rise in spending is a direct result of private rents increasing by an average of 22 per cent since 2010, meaning tenants are having to rely more and more on the state for financial support.
Housing benefit going to private renters has more than doubled in the last 10 years, from 3.7bn to 8.8bn. The Treasury forecasts it will rise to 9.4bn by 2021-22.
The increase comes despite Government ministers making 13 separate cuts to housing benefit since 2010, in an attempt to stop costs spiralling.
Commenting on the latest figures, the Labour party accused the Government of having made it easier for rogue landlords to fleece the system.
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Last year, ministers rejected an amendment to make it a legal obligation for landlords to ensure their properties are fit for human habitation. They have also consistently refused to introduce licensing of all private landlords, and have clamped down on local councils who want to introduce their own licensing schemes.
John Healey, the Shadow Housing Secretary who uncovered the latest figures in conjunction with the independent House of Commons Library, said: The number of families renting from a private landlord has soared by more than a million since 2010, but decisions made by Conservative ministers have made it easier for a minority of bad landlords to fleece the system.
Most landlords provide decent homes that tenants are happy with, but these rogue landlords are ripping off renters and taxpayers alike by making billions from housing benefit on substandard homes.
Theresa May declared the housing market is broken, but Tory ministers wont act to make the market fairer or work better for private renters. After seven years of failure, the Conservatives have no plan to fix the housing crisis.
He added: The next Labour government would call time on bad landlords and bring in a New Deal for private renters to establish new consumer rights.
Dawn Foster on Double Take: Three policies to tackle the housing crisis
Labour has vowed to introduce legal minimum standards for all private homes to put renters back in control, and to encourage councils to adopt compulsory landlord licensing, giving them the power to tackle offenders.
A third (827m) of all housing benefit going to rogue landlords is spent in London, while a further 399m is in the South East.
Those in the North-west receive 351m, but in other regions the figure is much lower: for example, 83m in the East Midlands.
Since 2010, the total number of households renting privately has increased by 1.2 million more than a third as a fall in the number of social homes and rocketing house prices leave millions of people trapped in the private-rental sector.
While local councils and social housing landlords are required to keep their homes in a good condition, regulations on private landlords are fewer and harder to enforce.
The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Show all 6 1 /6 The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Brexit The big one. Theresa May has spoken publicly three times since declaring her intent to stand in the Tory Leadership race, and each time she has said, Brexit means Brexit. It sounds resolute, but it is helpful to her that Brexit is a made up word with no real meaning. She has said there will be no second referendum and no re-entry in to the EU via the back door. But she, like the Leave campaign of which she was not a member, has pointedly not said with any precision what she thinks Brexit means Reuters The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address General election This is very much one to keep off the to do list. She said last week there would be no general election at this time of great instability. But there have already been calls for one from opposition parties. The Fixed Term Parliaments Act of 2010 makes it far more difficult to call a snap general election, a difficulty she will be in no rush to overcome. In the event of a victory for Leadsom, who was not popular with her own parliamentary colleagues, an election might have been required, but May has the overwhelming backing of the parliamentary party Getty The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address HS2 Macbeth has been quoted far too much in recent weeks, but it will be up to May to decide whether, with regard to the new high speed train link between London, Birmingham, the East Midlands and the north, returning were as tedious as go oer. Billions have already been spent. But the 55bn it will cost, at a bare minimum, must now be considered against the grim reality of significantly diminished public finances in the short to medium term at least. It is not scheduled to be completed until 2033, by which point it is not completely unreasonable to imagine a massive, driverless car-led transport revolution having rendered it redundant EPA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Heathrow expansion Or indeed Gatwick expansion. Or Boris Island, though that option is seems as finished as the man himself. The decision on where to expand aviation capacity in the south east has been delayed to the point of becoming a national embarrassment. A final decision was due in autumn. Whatever is decided, there will be vast opprobrium PA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Trident renewal David Cameron indicated two days ago that there will be a Commons vote on renewing Britains nuclear deterrent on July 18th, by which point we now know, Ms May will be Prime Minister. The Labour Party is, to put it mildly, divided on the issue. This will be an early opportunity to maximise their embarrassment, and return to Tory business as usual EPA The 6 most important issues Theresa May needs to address Scottish Independence Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP are in no doubt that the Brexit vote provides the opportunity for a second independence referendum, in which they can emerge victorious. The Scottish Parliament at Holyrood has the authority to call a second referendum, but Ms May and the British Parliament are by no means automatically compelled to accept the result. She could argue it was settled in 2014 AFP/Getty
Responding to the latest figures, campaigners accused rogue landlords of profiteering by selling squalor.
Dan Wilson Craw, director of campaign group Generation Rent, said: While decency standards have become the norm across the social rented sector in the past 20 years, more people have found themselves with no option but to rent from private landlords, where there is a greater risk of living in poor conditions.
Landlords should not be allowed to profiteer by selling squalor, whether rent is paid through housing benefit or wages.
The Government has finally acted this year to introduce a right to claim back rent paid for an unsafe home but to drive the cowboys out of business, both renters and councils need greater powers to take action against them. It should be easier for tenants to take their landlord to court, and for councils to start licensing all local landlords.
The Government has now introduced a register of rogue landlords, which will become active from October. However, it will be accessible only to Whitehall departments and local councils. Tenants or prospective renters wanting to check if their landlord is on the register will be unable to do so.
Renters will also be given new rights to reclaim rent they have spent on unsuitable properties.
Councils have been handed the power to fine failing landlords up to 30,000, but local government sources say cash-strapped councils are struggling to enforce existing regulations, in the face of government-imposed budget cuts of up to 50 per cent.
Landlord representatives, however, said it was up to councils to do more.
Alan Ward, chairman of the Residential Landlords Association, said: Every tenant deserves a property that is safe, legal and secure, which the majority of landlords do provide.
For the minority who do not, what is needed is improved enforcement to root out the criminals who have no place in a modern rental market.
Councils already have the power to recover money paid to landlords who are found guilty of criminal offences, including providing substandard accommodation. At present, however, many do not use these powers enough, letting down tenants and good landlords.
In response to the new figures, a Department for Communities and Local Government spokesperson told The Independent: Were determined to crack down on rogue landlords and councils now have the extra powers they need, along with 12m in additional funding, to tackle the landlords that shirk their responsibilities.
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Britain was sidelined from talks about the refugee crisis this week after Theresa May was excluded from a major summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Amid growing concerns about Britains waning influence abroad, Downing Street confirmed Theresa May was not invited to the Paris summit attended by Mr Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.
The meeting, which was also attended by leaders from Libya, Chad and Niger, was aimed at addressing the progress of refugees and migrants through the so-called western Mediterranean route to Europe which sees tens of thousands of people travelling from Africa every year, some to Britain.
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The Government says the lack of an invite for Ms May was justified because Britain is leaving the EU; however, the policies agreed at the meeting are likely to be relevant to the UK.
Some migrants who travel the western Mediterranean route from Africa end up trying to reach the UK and the largest group of migrants in the Calais jungle camp is fleeing Sudan a country at the end of the route.
Jo Swinson, Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson and deputy leader told The Independent the lack of an invitation for Ms May showed that Britain was gradually seeing its influence in world affairs wane to that of a rocky outcrop off the shores of Northern Europe.
It is becoming increasingly clear that Theresa May is leading Britain into decline, she said.
The UK is seen to have closed its door to the rest of the world, under this Government we face a marginalised future on the fringes of the world stage.
Refugee child receiving rations in Greece (Getty) (Getty Images)
Theresa May should see the lack of a UK invite to this summit as a wake-up call, we need to stay in the single market, stay in the customs union and continue to play a role in world affairs. Instead she is letting us become no more than a rocky outcrop off the shores of Northern Europe.
A Brussels-based official said: We are just not being taken seriously at the moment.
Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA
Leaders at the summit agreed an action plan to boost border controls and coastguard patrols in the African countries that attended the summit. A scheme to process asylum applications in Africa was also brought forward.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: The meeting was focused on the future of the EU so as such we were not invited. This is the latest in a series of meetings with the last one being held at Versailles in March, which we also did not attend. We will of course continue to work with the EU and our international partners on this and other migration issues.
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Labour will seek to amend the Repeal Bill to allow for the UK to remain in the single market after Brexit, when the legislation is put before the Commons next week.
The partys Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer has written to his Conservative counterpart David Davis, requesting wholesale changes to the legislation, which include the UK remaining in the single market, customs union and under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice during any Brexit transition period.
It is the clearest sign yet of the inevitable consequence of Theresa Mays loss of her parliamentary majority at the June election: that the battle to pass Brexit legislation will be fierce.
'No decisive progress' on Brexit, says EU negotiator Michel Barnier
The bill is designed to incorporate or so its critics say, copy and paste existing EU legislation into British law, in time for the UKs withdrawal.
However, implicit in doing so are great controversies, particularly the power to replace certain laws via statutory instrument, which parliament does not get to vote on or debate.
Mr Starmers letter calls the governments plans undemocratic and unacceptable, and say it fails to guarantee crucial rights and protections for citizens.
It also, according to The Times, demands that parliament should be able to replicate new EU laws on areas such as workers rights, the environment and consumer protection that are legislated after the UKs withdrawal.
UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA
As drafted, the bill would sideline parliament on key decisions, hoard unnecessary powers in Whitehall and fail to guarantee crucial rights and protections after we leave the EU, the letter states.
These concerns are serious, reasonable and responsible. They are not designed to frustrate Brexit, but to ensure that the right approach is taken and that jobs, living standards and rights are protected.
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The crowded field in the Ukip leadership race has thinned out, with four candidates forming an alliance.
Victory for the Ukip United leadership slate would see Jane Collins take the top job, with key roles for her former rivals.
Under the plan, Scottish MEP David Coburn would become deputy leader, with Ben Walker taking the role of party chairman and Marion Mason also backing the alliance.
Some 11 candidates were originally cleared to stand in the contest to succeed Paul Nuttall and the Ukip United team feared that splitting the vote could leave the door open to an "authoritarian" leader such as Sharia Watch director Anne Marie Waters.
A spokesperson for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire MEP Ms Collins said: "These people are not what the party should be about." Instead of "banging on about Islam and gay marriage" the Ukip United team would "take the stance Ukip did when Nigel Farage was leader" and "undo the last 16 months", which had seen the party decline in the polls, she said.
The campaign will be launched on Monday, and although a Ukip United victory would see Ms Collins become leader, the spokesperson said it was "very much a team thing".
The candidacy of Ms Waters, who has called Islam "evil", has divided the party, with some members threatening to quit if she wins the race. Mr Farage has warned Ukip will be "finished" if it goes down the road of becoming an anti-Islam party.
Other candidates approved to stand in the election include Ukip deputy leader Peter Whittle and London Assembly member David Kurten. The contest also includes David Allen, Henry Bolton, Aidan Powlesland and John Rees-Evans.
The new leader will be announced at Ukip's conference in Torquay on 29 September.
PA
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A former shadow minister has hit out at the floppy left after she was forced to resign for speaking out about men of South Asian and Middle Eastern origins grooming young white girls for sex.
Sarah Champion quit Jeremy Corbyns Shadow Cabinet after writing in The Sun that the UK had a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls.
Mr Corbyn later accused the paper of publishing statements that incite Islamophobia and stigmatise entire communities.
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Ms Champion, the Rotherham MP, was writing after one woman and 17 men from the Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, Iraqi, Iranian and Turkish communities, mainly British-born were convicted over the drugging and raping of underage girls and vulnerable young women in Newcastle.
It was an echo of the 2012 Rochdale scandal in which nine men were jailed for running a child sexual exploitation ring. The judge in that case said the men treated the vulnerable girls as though they were worthless and beyond respect.
And it was in Rotherham that gangs of largely Asian men groomed, raped and trafficked some 1,400 children over a period of years, as a damning report detailed in 2014.
Ms Champion initially apologised for an extremely poor choice of words.
She told The Times: If Im on the floppy left, to be accused of racism is probably the worst thing you can call me. That fear will motivate me to step away from a lot of topics Id maybe tackle head on if I didnt have that phobia.
By not dealing with the facts head on, you allow people to manipulate whats going on, she added, referring to previous official failures to confront grooming.
She told the newspaper that multicultural policies that I, through my working career, grew up with, and which Jeremy Corbyn grew up with, need a translation to come outside London.
London is not representative of the UK and its definitely not representative of the North of England in relation to race, she said. Rotherham and many post-industrial towns are still segregated.
UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA
Following the conclusion of the Newcastle case, dubbed Operation Shelter by the police and comprising a series of trials, a former Crown Prosecution Service chief said Britain must confront the scourge of profoundly racist crime it exemplified.
Lord Macdonald, a Liberal Democrat peer, said there was a major problem in particular communities of men viewing young white girls as trash and available for sex.
He added: And this seems to be a recurring theme. This is obviously disgusting and outrageous behaviour and its completely unacceptable.
Not all sex crime belongs in a particular community, but there is a particular issue about some men in some communities who feel that these young girls are trash who are available for sex.
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Theresa May is attempting to prevent a Tory rebellion over Brexit ahead of the first Commons votes on the legislation to withdraw from the European Union.
The Prime Minister's allies have warned would-be rebels that they risk putting Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10 if they attempt to water down the so-called Repeal Bill.
Ms May said the legislation officially called the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill would give legal certainty to people and businesses and insisted there would be "proper Parliamentary scrutiny".
But pro-EU Tories claimed the whipping operation to ensure they backed the legislation could backfire and potentially damage Ms May's already weakened leadership.
The legislation will be debated on Thursday after MPs return to Westminster following a summer break in which some have been plotting their tactics for the Brexit battles ahead.
Ms May said: "Since Parliament broke for summer the Government has been working hard to deliver a successful Brexit.
"The series of papers we are publishing have provided further detail on the deep and special partnership we want, we've had frank negotiations with the Commission, and we've travelled the globe to establish the trading relationships of the future.
"Now it is time for Parliament to play its part. The Repeal Bill delivers the result of the referendum by ending the direct role of the EU in UK law, but it is also the single most important step we can take to prevent a cliff-edge for people and businesses, because it transfers laws and provides legal continuity.
"We have made time for proper Parliamentary scrutiny of Brexit legislation and welcome the contributions of MPs from across the House.
"But for us to grasp the great prize ahead of us, that contribution must fit with our shared aim: to help Britain make a success of Brexit and become that great global country we know we can be."
Her de facto deputy Damian Green, the First Secretary of State, used a Sunday Telegraph article to warn Tories not to derail the legislation.
"Starting the new parliamentary session with the Withdrawal Bill shows that it is now the job of all MPs, including my former colleagues on the Stronger In campaign, to respect the will of the people and get the best possible deal for Britain," he said.
"No Conservative wants a bad Brexit deal, or to do anything that increases the threat of a Corbyn government."
Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA
But the outspoken pro-Remainer and former minister, Anna Soubry, responded angrily to attempts to try to stop Tory MPs tabling or supporting amendments to the legislation, telling the Observer: "Any suggestion that this is in any way treacherous or supporting Jeremy Corbyn is outrageous.
"It amounts to a trouncing of democracy and people will not accept it."
She added: "People will be very alarmed. It will all backfire on them."
Meanwhile Number 10 sources rejected as "not true" a Sunday Times report that Ms May was preparing to approve a Brexit divorce bill of up to 50bn after the Tory conference in October.
The financial settlement was the subject of a bitter row between Brexit Secretary David Davis and Brussels' chief negotiator Michel Barnier during the latest round of negotiations.
The newspaper said under plans being drawn up in Whitehall the UK would pay between 7bn and 17bn a year to Brussels for three years after Brexit, with the final bill set to be up to 20bn higher than hoped, as a result of the Prime Minister's weakened domestic position since the general election.
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Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has vowed to fix the countrys judiciary, following the Supreme Court annulment of his election victory.
Mr Kenyattas win was yesterday declared invalid, null and void by four Supreme Court judges, who cited irregularities in the transmission of results.
A fresh election has been ordered for October.
But Mr Kenyatta, after initially calling for calm, has responded by saying we clearly have a problem with the judges who made the ruling.
Riots break out after Kenya election's contested result
Speaking at a party meeting at his official residence, Nairobis State House, Mr Kenyatta criticised the judges decision and said he would return to the issue if elected.
He said: We shall revisit this thing. We clearly have a problem. Who even elected you? Were you? We have a problem and we must fix it.
Mr Kenyatta argued that the results of MPs, senators and governors were transmitted and no one asked any questions.
Recommended Odinga supporters celebrate as Kenyan court calls for new election
He continued: The Supreme Court sat and decided that they are the ones with a bigger power than the 15 million Kenyans who woke up, queued in lines, and voted for their preferred presidential candidate.
As a Supreme Court, they cannot annul the wishes of the people. And we will revisit this thing.
Analysts saw the presidents latest comments on the judiciary as a worrying development.
Its extremely unfortunate that Kenyatta seems to be issuing veiled threats at the judiciary, said Murithi Mutiga, a Nairobi-based senior Africa analyst at the International Crisis Group.
The election annulment came after the opposition party, the National Super Alliance, filed a petition to the countrys Supreme Court to overturn the result, and unexpectedly won by four judges to two.
Chief Justice David Maraga said the vote was unconstitutional.
Opposition leader, Raila Odinga, hailed the result as a historic day for the people of Kenya and by extension the people of Africa.
But he also expressed concern over the integrity of election officials, calling for some to be prosecuted, and said it was unimaginable a new poll could be conducted in just two months.
Kenyan election annulled Show all 13 1 /13 Kenyan election annulled Kenyan election annulled Supporters celebrate in Mathare slum after President Uhuru Kenyatta's election win was declared invalid by a court REUTERS/Siegfried Modola Kenyan election annulled Judges stand to deliver their verdict at the Supreme Court in Nairobi, ordering a new presidential election within 60 days after cancelling the results of last month's poll AFP/Simon Maina Kenyan election annulled Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga waves at supporters as he leaves the Supreme Court AFP/Simon Maina Kenyan election annulled Supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga cheer outside court after President Uhuru Kenyatta's election win was declared invalid in Nairobi Reuters/Baz Ratner Kenyan election annulled Supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga celebrate in Kibera slum after President Uhuru Kenyatta's election win was declared invalid by a court in Nairobi Reuters/Thomas Mukoya Kenyan election annulled A supporter of opposition leader Raila Odinga eats a cob of corn and does the splits as he celebrates after hearing the verdict AP Photo/Ben Curtis Kenyan election annulled Supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga celebrate after hearing the verdict AP Photo/Khalil Senosi Kenyan election annulled Supporters of The National Super Alliance (NASA) opposition coalition and its presidential candidate Raila Odinga celebrate in front of the Supreme Court after learning that the court ruled in favor of Odinga EPA/Dai Kurokawa Kenyan election annulled Supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga kneel down and thank God as they celebrate after hearing the verdict, on a street opposite the Supreme Court AP Photo/Ben Curtis Kenyan election annulled Supporters of Raila Odinga celebrate after hearing the verdict AP Photo/Khalil Senosi Kenyan election annulled Supporter of opposition leader Raila Odinga celebrates after hearing the verdict AP Photo/Khalil Senosi Kenyan election annulled Supporters celebrate after hearing the verdict AP Photo/Khalil Senosi Kenyan election annulled Supporters of Kenya's opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) leader, Raila Odinga celebrate in the streets of Mathare slum in Nairobi Tony Karumba/AFP
Following the landmark judicial ruling, Mr Kenyatta first struck a conciliatory tone, saying: Your neighbour will still be your neighbour, regardless of what has happened.
My primary message today to every single Kenyan is peace. Let us be people of peace.
The country was ravaged by post election violence in 2007, which left 1,200 people dead and another 600,000 displaced.
But later on Friday, he told a rally of supporters the judges were crooks and said Mr Maraga should know that he is now dealing with the serving president ... We are keeping a close eye on them.
His latest comments have added to anxieties over the potential fallout of the annulment.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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Game wardens and state troopers were called in to capture a massive alligator after it was displaced by the flood waters caused by Hurricane Harvey.
It took five men to control the 12ft beast before they could transport it to a less populated area.
The Texas game wardens posted a tweet of the incident showing five lawmen sitting on top of the alligator.
The flooding has forced many alligators in Texas to seek higher ground, in some cases putting them in close contact with humans. Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office has been warning people to stay well away.
"Leave alone until water recedes," the sheriff's office tweeted, along with photos of alligators on a driveway, a front porch and beneath a car.
Harris County deputy constables also had to help a man who found a 9ft alligator in the dining room of his home near Lake Houston. Texas game wardens and Wildernex Wildlife Control captured the reptile within 20 minutes and released it back in its natural habitat.
None of animal sanctuary Gator Countrys 350 alligators have escaped, said its owner, Gary Saurage, after he was swamped with calls.
"We're getting calls left and right about sightings," he said. "There's just no way I can respond to all of them right now. I'm focused on containing all our gators here, he told the Beaumont Enterprise.
However, due to the rising water, he feared they could be fighting a losing battle.
Were less than a foot from (water) going over the fences, Mr Saurage told TV station KFDM.
Its a common occurrence for local residents to see alligators during storms but the unprecedented flooding has meant that the reptiles can travel many miles from their original location.
"People need to let the water recede and these alligators will go back to their natural habitat," Mr Saurage said.
The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Show all 19 1 /19 The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A tattered U.S. flag damaged in Hurricane Harvey, flies in Conroe, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Lisa Rehr holds her four-year old son Maximus, after they lost their home to Hurricane Harvey, as they await to be evacuated with their belongings from Rockport, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People line up for food as others rest at the George R. Brown Convention Center AP Photo/LM Otero The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Volunteers with The American Red Cross register evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center Reuters/Nick Oxford The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Soldiers with the Texas Army National Guard help the residents of Cyprus Creek Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents wade through floodwater Reuters/Nick Oxford The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents walk along the flooded roadway of Texas 249 as they evacuate their adjacent neighborhoods EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A man floats past a truck submerged on a freeway flooded by Tropical Storm Harvey on Sunday AP The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued by airboat as they evacuate from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey James Archiable carries his bike through the flooded intersection at Taylor and Usenet near downtown Houston, Texas EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A massive sinkhole opened up on a motorway in Rosenburg, a city 25 miles southwest of Houston, Texas Rosenberg Police The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in an armored police mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey on a boat in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Evacuees are airlifted in a US Coast Guard helicopter after flooding due to Hurricane Harvey inundated neighborhoods in Houston, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Evacuees leave a US Coast Guard helicopter after being rescued from flooding due to Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents look on at a submerged motorway during a break in the rain in Houston, Texas EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People photograph the submerged motorway interchange EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Debris lies on the ground after a building was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey in Aransas Pass, Texas AP The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Dominic Dominguez searches for his boat in a boat storage facility that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Harvey near Rockport, Texas EPA
Dont feed, dont harass it, and dont shoot them, was the advice given by John Warren, head of the Texas Parks and Wildlife alligator programme.
There have been several sightings of other wild animals on the loose amid the flooding.
These include a wild hog running around in the Woodlands neighbourhood, snakes, raccoons and fire ants.
Mammals that dont want to be in the water... may end up being in your attic or garage, Kelly Norrid, an urban wildlife biologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife, told the Denver Post.
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Donald Trump agreed to sell South Korea billions of dollars in US arms amid the standoff over North Korea's missile and nuclear tests, the White House said.
The US president also approved that Seoul could review a joint treaty which places a cap on the development of its ballistic missiles meaning the strike distance and force of the weapons could be increased, South Korea's presidential Blue House said.
The plan to bolster South Koreas defences came after a request by South Korean President Moon Jae-in to Mr Trump.
The South wants to raise the missile cap to boost its defences against the North, which is pursuing missile and nuclear weapons programmes in defiance of international warnings and UN sanctions.
The two leaders agreed to the principle of revising the missile guideline to a level desired by South Korea, sharing the view that it was necessary to strengthen South Korea's defence capabilities in response to North Korea's provocations and threats, South Korea's presidential Blue House said.
Impoverished North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The North regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States.
North Korea sharply raised regional tension this week with the launch of its Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific.
That followed the test launch of two long-range ballistic missiles in July in a sharply lofted trajectory that demonstrated a potential range of 10,000 km (6,000 miles) or more that would put many parts of the US mainland within striking distance.
North Korea has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States and has recently threatened to land missiles near the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.
South Korea's development of its ballistic missiles is limited to range of 800 km (500 miles) and payload weight of 500 kg (1,100 pounds) under a bilateral treaty revised in 2012.
South Korea has said it wants to revise the agreement to increase the cap on the payload.
The two countries agreed to the cap as part of a commitment to a voluntary international arms-control pact known as the Missile Technology Control Regime, aimed at limiting the proliferation missiles and nuclear weapons.
World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty
The two leaders pledged to continue to apply strong diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea and to make all necessary preparations to defend against the growing threat by the North, the White House said.
The White House did not mention the voluntary bilateral agreement but said the two leaders agreed to strengthen their defence cooperation and South Korea's defence capabilities.
Trump provided his conceptual approval of planned purchases by South Korea of billions of dollars in American military equipment, the White House said.
Mr Trump, who has warned that the U.S. military is locked and loaded in case of further North Korean provocation, reacted angrily to the latest missile test, declaring on Twitter that talking is not the answer to resolving the crisis.
North Korea defends its weapons programmes as necessary to counter perceived US aggression, such as recent air manoeuvres with South Korean and Japanese jets.
Reuters
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Donald Trump has asked Congress for $7.9bn (6.1bn) in federal disaster relief after flooding left dozens dead and more than a million displaced in Texas.
Rescuers were continuing to search for stranded survivors after one of the costliest storms to hit the US paralysed Houston and swelled river levels to record highs.
At least 50 people are feared to have been killed by Hurricane Harvey and the devastating floods left in its wake.
People queued for more than a mile for bottled water after the storm knocked out the drinking water supply in Beaumont, a city of 120,000 people.
Meanwhile, thick black smoke and towering orange flames shot up after two tanks of volatile compounds blew up on Friday at the Arkema chemical plant in north-east Houston.
The fire, the second in two days, was expected to spread to six other containers after floodwaters engulfed backup generators that had been powering refrigerators used to keep the organic peroxides from igniting.
The Trump administration's request for a $7.9bn for response and initial recovery efforts was expected to be the first of several appeals for disaster relief funding.
White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said funding requests would come in stages as more became known about the impact of the storm.
Texas governor Greg Abbott has said that his state alone may need more than $125bn in aid.
Fields submerged by water from the flooded Brazos River in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey near Freeport, Texas (AP)
Mr Trump was planning to make a second visit to the region on Saturday, having been criticised for failing to speak to victims during a trip to Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday. The President will travel to Houston and Lake Charles, Louisiana, to survey the damage and meet residents and volunteers.
Although water levels had fallen in many areas of Houston on Friday, the mayor Sylvester Turner called for voluntary evacuations on the city's west side.
He said already flooded neighbourhoods may be in greater danger as the Army Corps of Engineers continues to release water into the adjacent Buffalo Bayou to prevent dam and levee failures.
Much of the damage caused by Harvey, which slammed into the US Gulf Coast as a category 4 storm on Friday last week, has been inflicted on Houston.
Seventy percent of Harris County, which encompasses the city, was one point was covered with 18 inches (45 cm) or more of water. An estimated 156,000 houses in Harris County, more than a tenth of all structures in the area, have been damaged by flooding.
Some of the flooded houses have several feet of water in them while others are submerged up to their rooftops.
A list of the dead put out by Harris County officials painted a grim picture of the storm's brutality, describing bodies found floating face down in floodwaters, lying in ditches or across fences. Many were unidentified but funerals have begun to be held for some of the mounting toll of victims.
The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Show all 19 1 /19 The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A tattered U.S. flag damaged in Hurricane Harvey, flies in Conroe, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Lisa Rehr holds her four-year old son Maximus, after they lost their home to Hurricane Harvey, as they await to be evacuated with their belongings from Rockport, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People line up for food as others rest at the George R. Brown Convention Center AP Photo/LM Otero The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Volunteers with The American Red Cross register evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center Reuters/Nick Oxford The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Soldiers with the Texas Army National Guard help the residents of Cyprus Creek Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents wade through floodwater Reuters/Nick Oxford The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents walk along the flooded roadway of Texas 249 as they evacuate their adjacent neighborhoods EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A man floats past a truck submerged on a freeway flooded by Tropical Storm Harvey on Sunday AP The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued by airboat as they evacuate from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey James Archiable carries his bike through the flooded intersection at Taylor and Usenet near downtown Houston, Texas EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A massive sinkhole opened up on a motorway in Rosenburg, a city 25 miles southwest of Houston, Texas Rosenberg Police The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in an armored police mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey on a boat in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Evacuees are airlifted in a US Coast Guard helicopter after flooding due to Hurricane Harvey inundated neighborhoods in Houston, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Evacuees leave a US Coast Guard helicopter after being rescued from flooding due to Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents look on at a submerged motorway during a break in the rain in Houston, Texas EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People photograph the submerged motorway interchange EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Debris lies on the ground after a building was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey in Aransas Pass, Texas AP The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Dominic Dominguez searches for his boat in a boat storage facility that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Harvey near Rockport, Texas EPA
About 80 miles (130 km) to the east of Houston, the Neches river, which flows into Beaumont and nearby Port Arthur, remained at record levels this weekend.
"There still remain areas that are deadly dangerous," Mr Abbott told reporters. "The Neches river continues to rise. It is about 7ft [2.1m] above the record and it will continue to remain at or be near that high for about the next week. This flooding poses an ongoing threat."
Beaumont's water system failed on Thursday after it was deluged by the river and back-up pumps failed. About 1,000 people who had been sheltering the city's civic centre were flown 300 miles (480km) to Dallas, while Beaumont authorities handed out bottled water near the Babe Zaharias Memorial Stadium throughout Friday.
Harvey has shut about a fourth of US refinery capacity, much of which is clustered along the Gulf Coast, and caused petrol prices to spike to a two-year high ahead of the long Labour Day holiday weekend.
The national average for a gallon of regular petrol has risen 17 cents since the storm hit, hitting $2.519 as of Friday morning, according to motorists group AAA.
Supply concerns prompted the US Energy Department to authorise the release of up to 4.5 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Smoke rises from the flooded Arkema chemical plant north-east of Houston (AP)
Several east coast refineries have run out of fuel, raising fears that motorists will face fuel shortages during the three-day holiday.
In major Texas cities including Dallas, there were long lines at gas stations. Mr Abbott said the state was taking steps to ensure adequate supplies, adding, "Don't worry. We will not run out of gasoline."
Some 440,000 Texans have already applied for federal financial disaster assistance, and some $79 million (61 million) has been approved so far, Mr Abbott said.
Moody's Analytics estimated the economic cost from Harvey for southeastern Texas at $51 billion (39 million) to $75 billion (58 million.)
Meanwhile a new storm, Irma, has strengthened into a Category 3 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. It remained hundreds of miles from land on Friday but was forecast to possibly hit Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti by the middle of next week.
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The ghostwriter of Donald Trump's best-selling memoir has said there is "no way" the President will follow through on his pledge to donate $1m of his own personal fortune to Hurricane Harvey victims.
Tony Schwartz, who spent hundreds of hours in the billionaire's company while researching The Art of the Deal, claimed Mr Trump "only promises to give" and "never actually does".
The promised gift of $1m (770,000) to the storm relief efforts would be largest personal donation made by a US president.
The White House said it had yet to decide where the funding would be allocated and asked reporters to suggest who should receive it.
Mr Trump, one of wealthiest men to have occupied the Oval Office, has a chequered charitable history and has previously been accused of failing to keep donation promises.
"No way Trump donates $1m of own money to Harvey victims," tweeted Mr Schwartz, who has repeatedly criticised the Republican since he announced he was running for the presidency.
"He only promises to give. Never actually does," the author added.
He suggested the President was "worth vastly less than he says" and was "desperate not to have that exposed".
Mr Schwartz, who now runs a business management consultancy, has previously admitted feeling "a deep sense of remorse" for "presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is".
In an interview with the New Yorker last year, he suggested The Art of the Deal should have been titled "The Sociopath".
The precise extent of Mr Trump's charitable giving is unknown as the President has broken with decades of tradition by refusing to release his tax returns. But he is thought to donate a far smaller proportion of his fortune than many fellow billionaires.
The Trump Foundation, the private philanthropical organisation he founded in 1987 with money from his book, came under heavy scrutiny during last year's election.
A Washington Post investigation revealed Mr Trump pledged $8.5m in donations in the 15 years before the campaign, but only paid out about $2.8m.
The Trump Foundation is also largely funded by other people, with the President contributing $5.5m (4.3m) of its $14.8m (11.4m) income since it was launched, according to tax records.
The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Show all 19 1 /19 The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A tattered U.S. flag damaged in Hurricane Harvey, flies in Conroe, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Lisa Rehr holds her four-year old son Maximus, after they lost their home to Hurricane Harvey, as they await to be evacuated with their belongings from Rockport, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People line up for food as others rest at the George R. Brown Convention Center AP Photo/LM Otero The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Volunteers with The American Red Cross register evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center Reuters/Nick Oxford The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Soldiers with the Texas Army National Guard help the residents of Cyprus Creek Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents wade through floodwater Reuters/Nick Oxford The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents walk along the flooded roadway of Texas 249 as they evacuate their adjacent neighborhoods EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A man floats past a truck submerged on a freeway flooded by Tropical Storm Harvey on Sunday AP The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued by airboat as they evacuate from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey James Archiable carries his bike through the flooded intersection at Taylor and Usenet near downtown Houston, Texas EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A massive sinkhole opened up on a motorway in Rosenburg, a city 25 miles southwest of Houston, Texas Rosenberg Police The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in an armored police mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey on a boat in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Evacuees are airlifted in a US Coast Guard helicopter after flooding due to Hurricane Harvey inundated neighborhoods in Houston, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Evacuees leave a US Coast Guard helicopter after being rescued from flooding due to Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents look on at a submerged motorway during a break in the rain in Houston, Texas EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People photograph the submerged motorway interchange EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Debris lies on the ground after a building was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey in Aransas Pass, Texas AP The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Dominic Dominguez searches for his boat in a boat storage facility that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Harvey near Rockport, Texas EPA
On Thursday White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr Trump would "pledge proudly a million dollars of his own personal money to help the people of both Texas and Louisiana".
"He would like to join in the efforts that a lot of people we have seen across the country do," she added.
The spokeswoman told reporters: He actually asked that I check with the folks in this room since you are very good at research and have been doing a lot of reporting into the groups and organisations that are best and most effective in helping and providing aid, and he'd like some suggestions from the folks here and I'd be happy to take those."
Mr Trump met with three aid organisations - the Red Cross, Southern Baptist Relief, and Salvation Army - in the Oval Office on Friday.
There is expected to be intense competition among relief agencies if the President opts to donate the sum to only one group or just a few.
"He should be looking to make an informed contribution, and it seems that he's doing so," said Rick Cohen, communications director for the National Council of Nonprofits, noting that the Mr Trump had kept abreast of conditions on the ground and was planning to see damage first-hand.
White House officials said the donation would come from the president's personal fortune and not his business or charitable foundation.
"You have to take him at his word," said Leslie Lenkowsky, a professor at Indiana University who focuses on philanthropy and who formerly headed the Corporation for National and Community Service.
"If he wants to lead the way, that's one of the things that a president's supposed to do... He does like the image of himself as a compassionate person."
Additional reporting by Associated Press
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A wildfire on the northern edge of Los Angeles rapidly grew on Saturday into what the mayor called the largest blaze in the city's history, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of people and the closure of a major highway.
The 5,000-acre (2,023-hectare) La Tuna Fire, named after the canyon area where it erupted on Friday, has led authorities to evacuate more than 700 homes in a north Los Angeles neighbourhood and in nearby Burbank and Glendale, officials said.
Authorities warned of erratic winds that could force them to widen the evacuation zone, after the fire destroyed one house in the city.
"Other than that, no loss of any property," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference. "That is a pretty amazing thing."
The fire was only 10 per cent contained with more than 500 firefighters battling it.
The blaze, which was burning in thick brush that has not burned in decades, was slowly creeping down a rugged hillside towards houses, with temperatures in the area approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), the Los Angeles Fire Department said in an alert.
"This fire, which broke out yesterday, we can now say is the largest fire in the history of LA city, in terms of its acreage," Mr Garcetti told reporters.
The fire could make air unhealthy to breathe in parts of Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest city, and nearby suburbs, the South Coast Air Quality Management District said in an advisory.
Video posted online by local media showed the fire burning along the 210 Freeway when it broke out on Friday, with smoke hovering over the roadway as cars passed by flames a few dozen feet away. Officials quickly closed a stretch of the freeway.
More than 400 miles (644 km) to the north, the so-called Ponderosa Fire has burned 3,880 acres, or about 1,570 hectares, and destroyed 30 homes in Butte County since it broke out on Tuesday. It prompted authorities to issue evacuation orders earlier this week to residents of some 500 homes.
The blaze was 45 per cent contained.
California Governor Jerry Brown issued an emergency declaration on Friday to free up additional resources to battle the Ponderosa blaze.
10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke filled with the carbon that is driving climate change drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan
Wildfires in the US West have burned more than 7.1 million acres (2.9 million hectares) since the beginning of the year, about 50 per cent more than during the same time period in 2016, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Reuters
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A detective may face criminal charges after he arrested a nurse who refused to take a blood sample from an unconscious patient during a stand-off that lasted several minutes, prosecutors say.
Alex Wubbels told police officer Jeff Payne she could not comply with his order to take blood from the victim of a crash because he could not consent, and the officer failed to produce a warrant.
Footage from Mr Paynes body camera shows him threaten Ms Wubbels with jail unless she gives into his demand, despite her bosses having confirmed the policy while he listened in.
But Detective Payne cited a now-outdated implied consent law, it was said, which he believed gave him the right to order the nurse to take the blood sample.
Ms Wubbels, a former Winter Olympian, stood her ground and the video moments later shows her being dragged from the hospital to a police car, screaming: Somebody help me! Stop! I did nothing wrong! This is crazy. This is crazy. Why is he so angry?
She added: I did nothing wrong! This is unnecessary. Ms Wubbels was held in the car for 20 minutes in the stand-off on 26 July but later released without charge.
The video of the fracas in University of Utah Medical Centre, in Salt Lake City, triggered public outrage. Prosecutors called for a criminal investigation and Detective Payne was put on paid leave.
Detective Payne had demanded that Ms Wubbels take a blood sample from the patient after he was injured by the driver of a vehicle being pursued by Utah Highway Patrol.
The video shows Ms Wubbels phone her superiors who confirm the policy that she could not comply with the officers orders because the patient was unconscious and the officer had no court order.
Ms Wubbels, a former alpine skiier who competed in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics, has insisted she will not press charges against Detective Payne but released the video of her wrongful arrest in the hope it will change how police officers act in future.
She said: This cop bullied me. He bullied me to the utmost extreme. And nobody stood in his way.
Salt Lake City police chief Mike Brown apologised to Ms Wubbels and said changes had been made to police blood policies and officer training.
He also supported district attorney Sam Gills calls for a criminal investigation into Detective Paynes actions.
He said: We will do what is necessary to fully investigate the issue, uphold the integrity of the Salt Lake City Police Department, and strengthen the trust with our community.
World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty
Mayor Jackie Biskupski said: When I learned of this unacceptable incident I was outraged and will ensure it is fully and independently investigated so our community can heal.
District Attorney Gill called for the criminal investigation into Detective Paynes actions but did not comment on his behaviour over the arrest of Ms Wubbels.
On the face of the evidence, there is concern that is raised about this officers conduct, Mr Gill said, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. But the whole point of an investigation is to gather the information about this situation.
Mr Payne said in a statement his superior, Lt James Tracy, ordered him to arrest Ms Wubbels if she refused to give him a blood sample, reports say. He has not publicly commented on the arrest.
Detective Payne turned up at Utah Medical Centre demanding Ms Wubbels take a blood sample from William Gray, 43, as he lay burned and unconscious from injuries suffered in a road accident.
Marcos Torres, 26, ploughed into his truck head-on in a pick up while being pursued by the Utah Highway Patrol, reports say. He died at the scene from injuries suffered in the crash.
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Donald Trump's election fraud commission chief is a paid columnist for conservative Breitbart News outlet.
Kris Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State and head of Mr Trump's Commission on Election Integrity, told the Kansas City Star: "I get paid for my columns...just like you're paid."
He has thus far published seven columns on the site, four of them concerning immigration.
Recommended Sebastian Gorka to join Steve Bannon back at Breitbart
The far-right leaning site is led by Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist who vacated his position in the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia that resulted in the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer and two Virginia State Police officers Berke Bates and H Jay Cullen.
Mr Trump was heavily criticised for his reactions to the incident after he repeatedly said "many sides" were responsible for the violence - neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, and white supremacists as well as those who were there to make sure a statue of Civil War Confederate General Robert E Lee was removed from a local park.
Also re-joining Breitbart News is former National Security editor Sebastian Gorka, who just left his undefined position at the White House.
"I think Breitbart.com appeals to anyone who is Republican...it appeals to a broad spectrum of conservative readers," said Mr Kobach.
The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Show all 9 1 /9 The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the media White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer takes questions during the daily press briefing Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Union leaders applaud US President Donald Trump for signing an executive order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington DC. Mr Trump issued a presidential memorandum in January announcing that the US would withdraw from the trade deal Getty The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Mexico wall A US Border Patrol vehicle sits waiting for illegal immigrants at a fence opening near the US-Mexico border near McAllen, Texas. The number of incoming immigrants has surged ahead of the upcoming Presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who has pledged to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. A signature campaign promise, Mr Trump outlined his intention to build a border wall on the US-Mexico border days after taking office Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and abortion US President Donald Trump signs an executive order as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus looks on in the Oval Office of the White House. Mr Trump reinstated a ban on American financial aide being granted to non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling, provide abortion referrals, or advocate for abortion access outside of the United States Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Dakota Access pipeline Opponents of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines hold a rally as they protest US President Donald Trump's executive orders advancing their construction, at Columbus Circle in New York. US President Donald Trump signed executive orders reviving the construction of two controversial oil pipelines, but said the projects would be subject to renegotiation Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and 'Obamacare' Nancy Pelosi who is the minority leader of the House of Representatives speaks beside House Democrats at an event to protect the Affordable Care Act in Los Angeles, California. US President Donald Trump's effort to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace the healthcare law failed when Republicans failed to get enough votes. Mr Trump has promised to revisit the matter Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Donald Trump and 'sanctuary cities' US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January threatening to pull funding for so-called "sanctuary cities" if they do not comply with federal immigration law AP The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the travel ban US President Donald Trump has attempted twice to restrict travel into the United States from several predominantly Muslim countries. The first attempt, in February, was met with swift opposition from protesters who flocked to airports around the country. That travel ban was later blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The second ban was blocked by a federal judge a day before it was scheduled to be implemented in mid-March SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP/Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and climate change US President Donald Trump sought to dismantle several of his predecessor's actions on climate change in March. His order instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate the Clean Power Plan, which would cap power plant emissions Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
He told the newspaper that Breitbart News approached him in June 2017 to write a regular column. He continues to serve in both his state and election fraud commission positions.
In his latest piece, Mr Kobach wrote about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Act, a programme intended to protect people who were brought into the US illegally as children, many of them as infants, from deportation and allow them to obtain work permits.
There are roughly 1.8 million young people, so-called "Dreamers," in the US who could qualify for the programme.
Mr Kobach wrote: "DACA is inconsistent with the rule of law, inconsistent with the president's own promises, and inconsistent with the president's principled stand against illegal immigration".
The site, according to former Editor-at-large Ben Shapiro, became a "go-to" for white supremacists and the "alt-right" under Mr Bannon's previous reign.
He wrote in the Daily Wire that the site is "pushing white ethno-nationalism as a legitimate response to political correctness, and the comment section turning into a cesspool for white supremacist mememakers".
Mr Shapiro this was not the intent of the late founder Andrew Brieitbart.
The Southern Poverty Law Centre, a legal advocacy organisation which specialises in protection of civil rights, has labeled the site as one that "embraces...racist ideas".
Mr Kobach said: I find that criticism to be completely baseless and if Breitbart had any connection to white nationalism I would not write for the site. And the Southern Poverty Law Center regularly slanders organizations and individuals and accuses them of having connections to white supremacy,
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At least 19 American diplomats in Cuba have been affected by mysterious attacks blamed on a secret sonic weapon, the United States said on Friday.
US officials said the bizarre incidents took place as recently as August, despite earlier assessments that they had long stopped.
The new disclosures came the same day the union representing American diplomats said mild traumatic brain injury was among the diagnoses given to diplomats victimised in the attacks.
In the most detailed account of the symptoms to date, the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) said permanent hearing loss was another diagnosis, and that additional symptoms had included brain swelling, severe headaches, loss of balance and cognitive disruption.
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said the US was continually revising its assessments of the scope of the attacks as new information was obtained. She said the investigation had not been completed.
We can confirm another incident which occurred last month and is now part of the investigation, Ms Nauert said.
US officials had previously said the attacks, initially believed to be caused by a potential covert sonic device, had started in autumn 2016 and continued until spring 2017.
Last week, Ms Nauert said at least 16 Americans associated with the US embassy in Havana had been affected, but that the incidents were no longer occurring.
The evolving US assessment indicated investigators were still far off from any thorough understanding of what transpired in the attacks, described by the US as unprecedented.
As the bizarre saga has unfolded, the US has encouraged its diplomats to report any strange physical sensations. So its unclear whether some symptoms being attributed to the attacks might actually be unrelated.
Recommended Trump is tightening Cuba regulations and policy
Still, the fact there was an incident as recently as August suggests the attacks likely continued long after the US government became aware of them and ostensibly raised the issue with the Cuban government, creating even more uncertainty about the timeline and who was responsible.
Notably, the US has avoided accusing Cubas government of being behind the attacks. The US did expel two Cuban diplomats, but the State Department emphasised that it was in protest of the Cubans failure to protect the safety of American diplomats while on their soil, not an indication the US felt that Havana masterminded it.
US investigators are searching to identify a device that could have harmed the health of the diplomats, believed to have been attacked in their homes in Havana, but officials have said no device has been found.
One of the diplomats affected had arrived over the summer of 2017 to work at the US embassy and was later diagnosed with concussion-like symptoms, said a US official, who declined to specify the symptoms that led the diplomat to report the situation.
And in Canada, a government official said that the Canadian government had first learned in March 2017 that one of its citizens was affected. Ottawa had previously confirmed that at least one Canadian diplomat was involved, but had not revealed any timeline for when it occurred or came to light.
Both the US and Canadian officials demanded anonymity because they werent authorised to comment publicly.
Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Show all 22 1 /22 Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump talk as they leave the Army Museum at Les Invalides in Paris AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump arrive for the group photo at the G7 Taormina summit on the island of Sicily in May 2017 Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Mr Trump was pressed on the subject at the G7 summit in Italy Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump gives a speeech at the Warsaw Uprising Monument on Krasinski Square Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May during a ceremony at the NATO headquarters before the start of a summit in Brussels, Belgium Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic is seen to the right of Donald Trump at a Nato summit in Brussels REUTERS Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis meeting with US President Donald J. Trump EPA Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Pope Francis poses with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump arrives at Palazzo del Quirinale ahead of the meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella Ufficio Stampa Presidenza della via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is seen during a joint press conference with the Palestinian leader at the presidential palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas meets US President Donald Trump PPO via Getty Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with US President Donald Trump prior to the President's departure GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands after delivering a speech at the Israel Museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance as White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump watch on during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu GPO via Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump takes his seat before his speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia Reuters Donald Trump's international Presidential trips Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump look at a display of Saudi modern art at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud take part in a signing ceremony at the Saudi Royal Court in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips King Salman presents Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz al-Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace on 20 May AP Donald Trump's international Presidential trips US President Donald Trump is welcomed by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud upon arrival at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump's international Presidential trips U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn prior to their first foreign trip Getty Images
Its unclear whether Canadians were intentionally targeted or whether there could have been collateral damage from an attack aimed at Americans, given that diplomats from various countries often live in the same areas of a foreign capital. US officials have said the Americans were targeted in their homes in Havana, not in the embassy.
Canadian officials have been actively working with US and Cuban authorities to ascertain the cause. A Cuban attack deliberately targeting Canadians would be even more confounding, given that Canada unlike the US has long had friendly ties to Cuba.
AFSA, in describing the damage to diplomats health, said it had met with or spoken to 10 diplomats affected, but did not specify how many of the 10 had been diagnosed with hearing loss or with mild traumatic brain injury, commonly called a concussion.
Yet the confirmation that at least some diplomats suffered brain injury suggests the attacks caused more serious damage than the hearing-related complaints that were initially reported.
We cant rule out new cases as medical professionals continue to evaluate members of the embassy community, Ms Nauert said. She added that the embassy has a medical officer and has been consistently providing care to those who have reported incidents.
Asked for further details about what the US had learned about the cause or culprit in the attacks, the State Department said it had no more information to share.
Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, typically results from a bump, jolt or other external force that disrupts normal brain functioning, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Short- and long-term effects can include changes to memory and reasoning, sight and balance, language abilities and emotions.
Not all traumatic brain injuries are the same. Doctors evaluate patients using various clinical metrics such as the Glasgow Coma Scale, in which a numerical score is used to classify TBIs as mild, moderate or severe.
AFSA strongly encourages the Department of State and the US government to do everything possible to provide appropriate care for those affected, and to work to ensure that these incidents cease and are not repeated, the union said in a statement.
AP
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Jeff Sessions Justice Department reportedly intends take a woman who laughed at the now-attorney general back to trial.
Code Pink activist Desiree Fairooz, 61, who was taken into custody after she laughed during Mr Sessions confirmation hearing, will go to trial in November for a second time.
My new trial set to begin Monday, November 13th. I still cannot believe the government refuses to drop this. Vindictive!, Ms Fairooz tweeted.
In July, a judge had thrown out out a jurys conviction of Ms Fairooz, finding that the government had improperly argued during the proceedings that her laughter was enough to merit a guilty verdict.
Chief Judge Robert Morin of the Superior Court of DC on Friday said he believed his thoughts on the governments previous theory of the case had been clear, the Huffington Post reported.
Ms Fairooz had been found guilty in May of charges of disorderly and disruptive conduct and of parading or demonstrating on Capitol grounds.
According to the Huffington Post, Ms Fairooz and her lawyer rejected a plea deal offered by the government in which she would have pleaded guilty to one of two charges in exchange for the Justice Department recommending a sentence of time served, Assistant US Attorney Kimberly Paschall said in DC Superior Court on Friday.
Ms Fairooz had been convicted in May along with two other Code Pink activists, Tighe Barry and Lenny Bianchi, who were were dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan as commentary on what the group described as Mr Sessions' racist past.
Each of the three protesters faced up to 12 months in jail, $2,000 in fines, or both.
The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Show all 9 1 /9 The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the media White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer takes questions during the daily press briefing Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Union leaders applaud US President Donald Trump for signing an executive order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington DC. Mr Trump issued a presidential memorandum in January announcing that the US would withdraw from the trade deal Getty The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Mexico wall A US Border Patrol vehicle sits waiting for illegal immigrants at a fence opening near the US-Mexico border near McAllen, Texas. The number of incoming immigrants has surged ahead of the upcoming Presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who has pledged to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. A signature campaign promise, Mr Trump outlined his intention to build a border wall on the US-Mexico border days after taking office Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and abortion US President Donald Trump signs an executive order as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus looks on in the Oval Office of the White House. Mr Trump reinstated a ban on American financial aide being granted to non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling, provide abortion referrals, or advocate for abortion access outside of the United States Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Dakota Access pipeline Opponents of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines hold a rally as they protest US President Donald Trump's executive orders advancing their construction, at Columbus Circle in New York. US President Donald Trump signed executive orders reviving the construction of two controversial oil pipelines, but said the projects would be subject to renegotiation Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and 'Obamacare' Nancy Pelosi who is the minority leader of the House of Representatives speaks beside House Democrats at an event to protect the Affordable Care Act in Los Angeles, California. US President Donald Trump's effort to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace the healthcare law failed when Republicans failed to get enough votes. Mr Trump has promised to revisit the matter Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Donald Trump and 'sanctuary cities' US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January threatening to pull funding for so-called "sanctuary cities" if they do not comply with federal immigration law AP The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the travel ban US President Donald Trump has attempted twice to restrict travel into the United States from several predominantly Muslim countries. The first attempt, in February, was met with swift opposition from protesters who flocked to airports around the country. That travel ban was later blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The second ban was blocked by a federal judge a day before it was scheduled to be implemented in mid-March SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP/Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and climate change US President Donald Trump sought to dismantle several of his predecessor's actions on climate change in March. His order instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate the Clean Power Plan, which would cap power plant emissions Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Ms Fairooz previously told NBC News that Mr Barry and Mr Bianchi avoided jail time but had to pay fines.
In an April court filing, the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia had argued that all three protesters shared a common goal to impede and disrupt Mr Sessions confirmation hearing. Ms Fairooz, the office said, had created a scene.
It was early in the January hearing when Republican Senator Richard Shelby said that Mr Sessions record of treating all Americans equally under the law is clear and well-documented, Ariel Gold, the campaign director of Code Pink, told The New York Times in May.
After hearing that, Ms Fairooz said, she let out a giggle.
In response to this statement, Defendant Fairooz let out aloud [sic] burst of laughter, followed by a second louder burst of laughter, according to court documents.
I just couldnt hold it, Ms Fairooz told The Times. It was spontaneous. It was an immediate rejection of what I considered an outright lie or pure ignorance.
After Ms Fairooz laughed, officers came over and took her into custody.
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Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said Donald Trump should preserve a program giving legal cover to young undocumented immigrants, potentially creating a rift between the president and Republican leadership.
An Obama-era initiative known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), allows unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the country as children and have clean legal records to get work permits and avoid deportation. Mr Trump has sent mixed signals on his intention for Daca but a threat by Republican attorneys general to sue if Mr Trump does not suspend the program is forcing a decision.
Mr Trump said he would announce whether to end DACA - a programme that protects nearly 800,000 so-called 'Dreamers' from deportation - by Monday. We love the 'Dreamers,' Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
However, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckerbee Sanders later said that the fate of the police was being "finalised" and would be announced on Tuesday.
Most of the Dreamer immigrants came from Mexico and other Latin American countries. More than 200,000 live in California, while 100,000 are in Texas. New York, Illinois and Florida also have large numbers.
What to do about Dreamers has been actively debated within the White House and Trump administration. One senior administration official described the debate to Reuters as a tug of war between factions in favour and against the move.
In addition to Democrats and immigrant advocates, business leaders and some Republican elected officials have urged Mr Trump to preserve DACA. Mr Ryan threw his weight behind that stance during a radio interview with WCLO Janesville, broadening a fissure among Republicans on Mr Trumps signature issue of immigration.
I dont think he should do that, Mr Ryan said in response to a question about Mr Trump potentially ending the program. These are kids who know no other country, who were brought here by their parents and don't know another home, he added, calling for a legislative solution.
California dreamers still make a splash Show all 2 1 /2 California dreamers still make a splash California dreamers still make a splash visfea1.jpg Reuters California dreamers still make a splash visfea2_1.jpg Oakland Museum of California
Senator Orrin Hatch - another Republican - said in a statement that rescinding the programme would further complicate a US immigration system sorely in need of legislative reform.
Like the president, I've long advocated for tougher enforcement of our existing immigration laws. But we also need a workable, permanent solution for individuals who entered our country unlawfully as children through no fault of their own and who have built their lives here. And that solution must come from Congress, Mr Hatch said.
In contrast to Mr Trump - who built his campaign around a vow to crack down on illegal immigration and build a wall with Mexico, and has since backed drastically slashing immigration numbers - Mr Ryan has backed bipartisan efforts at comprehensive immigration reform, though he said late in Barack Obamas term that he had abounded the effort.
Donald Trump calls for 'extreme vetting' of immigrants
During the presidential campaign, Mr Ryan said he did not support Mr Trumps proposal to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. He criticized Mr Trumps comments saying many immigrants are criminals and rapists as extremely disrespectful, saying Mr Trump doesn't speak for the Republican party.
But since the election Mr Ryan has backed Mr Trumps hardline immigration policies, defending a ban on refugees that invited widespread condemnation.
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A Russian state television host mocked Donald Trump as a political infant, punctuating deteriorating relations between America and Russia.
Mr Trump is being severely swaddled, added the host, whose co-presenter taunted Mr Trump as being placed into geopolitical coffin.
So why did we elect such a president? the host said.
The exchange illustrates Russian disillusionment with an American president who has fallen short on his professed desire for warmer relations with Russia.
The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images
Breaking with other world leaders who criticise the human rights record of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr Trump has had warm words for his Russian counterpart. He has consistently advocated stronger ties between the two nations.
Recommended US orders Russia to close diplomatic offices in three US cities
But the relationship has frayed amid the fallout of Russian interference in the 2016 election, which intelligence agencies concluded Mr Putin directed, and an ongoing investigation probing potential ties between Mr Trump's campaign and Russia. Congress authorized fresh sanctions to punish Russia for election meddling, which Mr Trump reluctantly signed.
Russia swiftly retaliated to the sanctions by forcing the closure of American diplomatic facilities. The Trump administration hit back this week, ordering Russia to close three diplomatic offices in the U.S. and blasting the closure of American outposts as unwarranted and detrimental to the overall relationship between our countries.
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The Treasury Department has confirmed they are investigating if its chief used taxpayer money for a personal trip to view the solar eclipse.
A watchdog group believed Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and his wife Louise Linton took a government plane to view the 21 August solar eclipse in Tennessee.
The pair joined Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in his home state to view the event atop Fort Knox, an Army base and home of $200 billion US gold bullion depository.
Mr Mnuchin is the first Treasury Secretary to visit the gold depository in 70 years.
Rich Delmar, counsel to Treasurys Office of Inspector General, said in a statement that the agency is reviewing the circumstances of the Secretarys [21 August] flight to Louisville and Ft. Knox to determine whether all applicable travel, ethics, and appropriation laws and policies were observed.
The agencys original response to public inquiries from ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Democratic Senator Ron Wyden was that Mr Mnuchin was in the state to discuss Donald Trumps tax reform plan.
It also said Mr Mnuchin will reimburse the government for Ms Linton's travel "as is longstanding policy regarding civilians on military aircraft. The trip was originally planned for earlier in August but was postponed to accommodate the Congressional calendar."
Mr Delmar said that when the review is complete, the agency will advise the appropriate officials, in accordance with the Inspector General Act and established procedures.
The Treasury Department for financial records showing "authorisation for and the costs" of the trip using a government plane.
In its Freedom of Information Act request, the group wrote: "At a time of expected deep cuts to the federal budget, the taxpayers have a significant interest in learning the extent to which Secretary Mnuchin has used government planes for travel in lieu of commercial planes, and the justification for that use."
World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty
CREW spokesperson Jordan Libowitz told CNBC that the issue would not have caught their attention if not for "the Instagram rant" by Ms Linton.
"That picture was clearly of a government plane, so that raised questions of what the relationship was of her to the trip, and what she was doing there," he said.
Ms Linton posted a picture on Instagram of her and Mr Mnuchin stepping off a government plane the day of the eclipse. In the post the Scottish-born actress described her outfit, naming several high-end fashion designers, calling it a "great #daytrip".
A commenter, Jenni Miller, criticised Ms Linton for bragging about her designer wear while many Americans are suffering financially.
It was Ms Linton's response that also raised suspicions for CREW.
Ms Linton wrote: "Did you think this was a personal trip?! Do you think the US govt paid for our honeymoon or personal travel?! Lololol".
She went on to say in her lengthy response to Ms Miller that the commenter was "adorably out of touch" and said the couple had contributed more in US tax dollars than Ms Miller had.
She later made her account private after massive backlash to her response and has since deleted the picture and issued an apology to Ms Miller.
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Robert Mueller is said to be examining the draft of a letter written by Donald Trump in which he laid out his rationale for firing FBI Director James Comey - a document that could prove crucial as the special counsel probes whether the President behaved in a way that obstructed justice.
Mr Comey was fired by Mr Trump on May 9 as the President became increasingly frustrated over the course of the FBI investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russias alleged interference in the 2016 election.
At the time, he had a letter delivered to Mr Comey explaining the decision, which was written by deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein. It focused on Mr Comeys handling of Hillary Clintons use of a private email server.
Trump says he's '100 per cent' willing to testify over Comey meetings
Yet reports suggest the earlier letter could provide clues to Mr Mueller as to Mr Trumps true intention for getting rid of his FBI Director. At the time, he told a television interviewer that Mr Comey was a grandstander and admitted he felt the Russia probe was a distraction.
The New York Times said Mr Trump was talked out of sending the earlier letter to Mr Comey, written with the help of White House aide Stephen Miller, on the recommendation of White House lawyer Don McGahn.
The newspaper, which said it had not seen the actual letter, reported that Mr McGahn believed that some of its contents were problematic, which partly lead to its redrafting, effectively blocking it from being released to the public.
The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images
The earlier letter was handed over to Mr Mueller team by the the US Justice Department. A statement from the department said it had been fully cooperative with Mr Muellers investigation.
In testimony on Capital Hill in June, Mr Comey said he did not know for certain why he was fired.
But he told the Senate Intelligence Committee: Again, I take the presidents words. I know I was fired because of something about the way I was conducting the Russia investigation was in some way putting pressure on him, in some way irritating him, and he decided to fire me because of that.
The Associated Press said Mr Trump had been fuming about Mr Comey for weeks, and was angry that the FBI Director would not say publicly that the President was not personally under investigation. Mr Comey later confirmed that when he appeared before senators.
Mr Muellers office has declined to comment on the draft letter. Mr Trumps lawyers have also refused to discuss the issue.
Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer, told the Times: To the extent the special prosecutor is interested in these matters, we will be fully transparent with him.
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A majority of voters think Donald Trump is unstable, divisive and lacks steadiness, according to a new Fox News poll.
Seven months into a tumultuous presidency, most of the roughly 1,000 Americans surveyed disapproved Mr Trumps job performance thus far. His standing in the eyes of voters has eroded swiftly: the sole iteration of this poll in which most people approved of Mr Trump was in February. By March 51 per cent of voters disapproved versus 43 per cent who approved, a gap that only grown since.
A section of the poll offering different descriptions of Mr Trump fleshes out the dissatisfaction. Three-fifths of respondents described Mr Trump as at least somewhat unstable, with nearly half (44 per cent) saying he was extremely or very unstable. A majority said he was not at all a steady leader, and a majority said he was a bully, lacked compassion and was not a moral leaderor presidential.
Recommended Paul Ryan calls on Trump to keep programme protecting young immigrants
Despite those broad reservations, members of Mr Trumps party generally gave him good marks. Strong majorities of Republicans called him a steady leader, stable and honest. And nearly all who voted for Mr Trump - 96 percent - were satisfied with their choice. And majorities of voters overall thought he was competent and a strong leader.
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In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour Show all 39 1 /39 In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud arriving for a reception ahead of a banquet at Murabba Palace in Riyadh Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald Trump, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud being welcomed at Murabba Palace in Riyadh Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald J. Trump with King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud during a welcome ceremony with traditional sword dancers at Murabba Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud with US President Donald J. Trump and wife Melania during a welcome ceremony at Murabba Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 US President Donald Trump adjusts the Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal, after it was bestowed upon him by Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud at the Royal Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 20 May 2017 Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud presents U.S. President Donald Trump with the Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal at the Royal Court in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 Palestinians print posters depicting US President Donald Trump in preparations for his planned visit, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 US President Donald Trump accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband White House senior advisor Jared Kushner, before delivering his remarks to the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 US President Donald Trump looks on as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef exchange a memorandum of understanding Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 First Lady Melania Trump shares a laugh with a child during a visit to the American International School in the Saudi capital Riyadh Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 21 May 2017 US President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 Israeli soldiers rest during preparations ahead of President Trump's landing in Tel Aviv, Israel Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 First Lady Melania Trump makes her way to board Air Force One in Riyadh as she heads with her husband the US President to Israel Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One for Israel, the next stop in Trump's international tour, at King Khalid International Airport AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 Israeli soldiers wait for the arrival ceremony of US President Donald Trump at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive aboard Air Force One at Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod near Tel Aviv, Israel Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump disembark Air Force One on arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald J. Trump and his wife, US First Lady Melania Trump are welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, in Lod outside Tel Aviv, Israel EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sit during welcome ceremony in Tel Aviv AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US First Lady Melania Trump chats wife Sara Netanyahu as US President Donald Trump chats to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a welcoming ceremony to welcome Trump at Ben Gurion International Airport Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump delivers a speech upon his arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump gestures during a press conference with Israel's President at the President's Residence in Jerusalem Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump watches as First Lady Melania Trump signs the guest book at the President's Residence in Jerusalem Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump walks with first lady Melania Trump in Jerusalem's Old City Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump visits the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalems Old City Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US President Donald Trump stands next to Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz at the plaza in front of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and White House senior advisor Jared Kushner leave notes at the Western Wall in Jerusalem Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 US First Lady Melania Trump touches the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 Ivanka Trump, assistant and daughter of US President Donald J. Trump, touches the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 22 May 2017 President Donald Trump visits the Western Wall AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 US President Donald J. Trump arrives in a vehicle to Saint Damaso's Court for a private audience with Pope Francis in Vatican City EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis walks past Ivanka Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on the occasion of the private audience with President Donald Trump, at the Vatican AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis exchanges gifts with US President Donald Trump during a private audience at the Vatican Getty Images In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis meets US President Donald Trump and his wife Melania during a private audience at the Vatican Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis with US President Donald J. Trump EPA In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 Pope Francis gets into is car after meeting with US President Donald Trump AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 President Donald Trump and his wife Melania look at the frescoed ceilings during their visit to the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican L'Osservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 US President Donald Trump security vehicles are seen in front of Air Force One before take off from Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy Reuters In pictures: President Donald Trump on tour 24 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump wave to reporters before boarding the Air Force One to Brussels, at the end of a 2-day visit to Italy including a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, at Rome's Fiumicino international airport AP
Long accustomed to lashing out at his opponents, Mr Trump is generally seen as a divisive figure, according to the poll. A majority said he was tearing the country apart, with only a third saying he was bringing the country together, though Republicans decisively believe he is bringing the country together. A majority of respondents said the president does not respect racial minorities.
Criticisms of fomenting division rained down as Mr Trump was faulted for his response to a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville that ended in bloodshed when a car plowed into a crowd of protesters. The president twice failed to specifically condemn white supremacists, instead suggesting that left-wing protesters shared the blame.
Donald Trump challenges, and cherry-picks, coverage of his Charlottesville statements at rally
Respondents disagreed. A majority (52 per cent) said white supremacists were to blame for the violence in Virginia, while about a third blamed either counter protesters or both/neither. A clear majority disapproved of how Mr Trump handled the situation, and they believed he is more amenable to white supremacists than he is to journalists: people overwhelmingly believe Mr Trump dislikes the journalists, a frequent punching bag, more than he dislikes white supremacists, 40 per cent believe the news media is a greater hazard - and more than two-thirds of Republicans ranked the media as a greater threat.
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Donald Trump is said to be silently growing frustrated with some of the top members of his administration.
In recent weeks, the President reportedly clashed with several of his officials on policy issues. Meanwhile, a top adviser expressed disapproval of Mr Trump's controversial comments following a violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Friends of Mr Trump told the Washington Post that while the President spent August dealing with North Koreas aggression, a tax reform plan and the governments response to damage brought by Hurricane Harvey, he was also fuming over criticism from the media and his aides.
One subject of the Presidents alleged fury is Gary Cohn, his chief economic adviser.
Mr Cohn, who is Jewish, told the Financial Times last week that this administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups, referring to the white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups that gathered to protest the removal of a Confederate statue in the Virginia city.
Mr Trump received bipartisan backlash for his remarks appearing to equate white supremacists and new-Nazis with the left-wing demonstrators who opposed them at the event.
Mr Cohn also said he felt enormous pressure to quit the administration following Mr Trumps response to the violent protests.
On Wednesday, Mr Cohn travelled with Mr Trump to Missouri, where the President announced the principles of his tax reform plan.
During a White House briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr Trump still has confidence in Mr Cohn.
Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Show all 9 1 /9 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Protesters clash and several are injured White nationalist demonstrators clash with counter demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. A state of emergency is declared, August 12 2017 Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Trump supporters at the protest A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville State police stand ready in riot gear Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Militia armed with assault rifles White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was declared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police. Militia members marched through the city earlier in the day, armed with assault rifles. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands behind a crowd of hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' during the 'Unite the Right' rally 12 August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. They are protesting the removal of the statue from Emancipation Park in the city. Getty Images Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Racial tensions sparked the violence White nationalists, neo-Nazis and members of the 'alt-right' exchange insults with counter-protesters as they attempt to guard the entrance to Lee Park during the 'Unite the Right' rally Getty Violence on the streets of Charlottesville A car plows through protesters A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The incident resulted in multiple injuries, some life-threatening, and one death. AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia AP Photo Violence on the streets of Charlottesville President Donald Trump speaks about the ongoing situation in Charlottesville, Virginia from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. He spoke about "loyalty" and "healing wounds" left by decades of racism.
The President is working hand-in-hand with Gary and the rest of his team on tax reform, Ms Sanders said. As Ive said several times earlier today, that's a big priority for the administration moving into the fall. And Gary is an integral member of the team leading that effort.
According to the Post, Mr Trump is also apparently chafing against new restrictions placed on him by new Chief of Staff John Kelly, who appears to be trying to bring more order to the chaotic White House.
Hes having a very hard time, a friend of Mr Trump told the newspaper. He doesnt like the way the medias handling him. He doesnt like how Kellys handling him. Hes turning on people that are very close to him.
But Mr Trump has publicly remained supportive of his Chief of Staff.
General John Kelly is doing a great job as Chief of Staff, Mr Trump tweeted on Friday. I could not be happier or more impressed - and this Administration continues to.....get things done at a record clip. Many big decisions to be made over the coming days and weeks. AMERICA FIRST!
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Donald Trump has joked that his hands are "too big" while helping to serve food to victims of storm Harvey at a shelter in Houston.
Video broadcast by US networks of President Trump's visit to the NRG Center shows him putting on gloves to help with the hand-out at a food serving line before turning to where the press are gathered and saying "my hands are too big".
Mr Trump, along with First Lady Melania Trump, are on a second visit to Texas since hurricane Harvey hit last week and are due to visit Louisiana, which ahs also been affected by rain and flooding, later in the day.
Mr Trump - who has faced pervious jibes about the size of his hands, including from Marco Rubio during the 2016 presidential campaign - appeared relaxed as he posed for photographs with volunteers and chatted with those relocated to the shelter alongside Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Melania, the sleeves of her blue denim shirt rolled up, hugged a woman and chatted with a child.
The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Show all 19 1 /19 The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A tattered U.S. flag damaged in Hurricane Harvey, flies in Conroe, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Lisa Rehr holds her four-year old son Maximus, after they lost their home to Hurricane Harvey, as they await to be evacuated with their belongings from Rockport, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People line up for food as others rest at the George R. Brown Convention Center AP Photo/LM Otero The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Volunteers with The American Red Cross register evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center Reuters/Nick Oxford The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Soldiers with the Texas Army National Guard help the residents of Cyprus Creek Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents wade through floodwater Reuters/Nick Oxford The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents walk along the flooded roadway of Texas 249 as they evacuate their adjacent neighborhoods EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A man floats past a truck submerged on a freeway flooded by Tropical Storm Harvey on Sunday AP The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued by airboat as they evacuate from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey James Archiable carries his bike through the flooded intersection at Taylor and Usenet near downtown Houston, Texas EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A massive sinkhole opened up on a motorway in Rosenburg, a city 25 miles southwest of Houston, Texas Rosenberg Police The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in an armored police mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey on a boat in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Evacuees are airlifted in a US Coast Guard helicopter after flooding due to Hurricane Harvey inundated neighborhoods in Houston, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Evacuees leave a US Coast Guard helicopter after being rescued from flooding due to Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents look on at a submerged motorway during a break in the rain in Houston, Texas EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People photograph the submerged motorway interchange EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Debris lies on the ground after a building was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey in Aransas Pass, Texas AP The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Dominic Dominguez searches for his boat in a boat storage facility that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Harvey near Rockport, Texas EPA
It has been a wonderful thing, Mr Trump said of his meetings with the children as he helped serve food to evacuees amid shouts of Thank you, sir.
Mr Trump's visit came after a week of historic flooding in the area that killed more than 40 people, displaced more than one million and dumped as much as 50 inches (127 cm) of rain in some areas.
Mr Trump, faced criticism for not meeting with victims and not showing more empathy on his first trip to Texas on Tuesday.
Trump stayed clear of the disaster zone earlier this week, saying he did not want to hamper rescue efforts. Instead, he met with Cabinet members, state and local leaders and first responders in the state capital Austin and Corpus Christi, where Harvey first hit, focusing on the logistics of the government response.
Reuters contributed to this report
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US President Donald Trump has flown to Houston on to meet with victims of Hurricane Harvey and see the effects of the record-setting storm while he presses for a multi-billion-dollar aid package.
Mr Trump, facing the first natural disaster of his administration, was joined by his wife, Melania, as he passed out food and hugged, kissed and played with children at Houston's NRG Center, a 700,000-square-foot (65,000 square metre) facility that is now the city's largest emergency shelter.
Mr Trump, who is making his second trip to the stricken state this week, asked Congress late on Friday for an initial $7.85 billion for hurricane recovery efforts. The request comes as Washington faces tough budget negotiations.
Mr Trump told reporters at the centre that his administration was moving fast to provide the financing for aid to the devastated region. We are signing a lot of documents to get money, he said.
Mr Trump appeared relaxed as he posed for photographs with volunteers and chatted with those relocated to the shelter alongside Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Melania, the sleeves of her blue denim shirt rolled up, hugged a woman and chatted with a child.
The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Show all 19 1 /19 The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A tattered U.S. flag damaged in Hurricane Harvey, flies in Conroe, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Lisa Rehr holds her four-year old son Maximus, after they lost their home to Hurricane Harvey, as they await to be evacuated with their belongings from Rockport, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People line up for food as others rest at the George R. Brown Convention Center AP Photo/LM Otero The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Volunteers with The American Red Cross register evacuees at the George R. Brown Convention Center Reuters/Nick Oxford The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Soldiers with the Texas Army National Guard help the residents of Cyprus Creek Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents wade through floodwater Reuters/Nick Oxford The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents walk along the flooded roadway of Texas 249 as they evacuate their adjacent neighborhoods EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A man floats past a truck submerged on a freeway flooded by Tropical Storm Harvey on Sunday AP The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued by airboat as they evacuate from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey James Archiable carries his bike through the flooded intersection at Taylor and Usenet near downtown Houston, Texas EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey A massive sinkhole opened up on a motorway in Rosenburg, a city 25 miles southwest of Houston, Texas Rosenberg Police The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey in an armored police mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People are rescued from flood waters from Hurricane Harvey on a boat in Dickinson, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Evacuees are airlifted in a US Coast Guard helicopter after flooding due to Hurricane Harvey inundated neighborhoods in Houston, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Evacuees leave a US Coast Guard helicopter after being rescued from flooding due to Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas Reuters The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Residents look on at a submerged motorway during a break in the rain in Houston, Texas EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey People photograph the submerged motorway interchange EPA The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Debris lies on the ground after a building was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey in Aransas Pass, Texas AP The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey Dominic Dominguez searches for his boat in a boat storage facility that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Harvey near Rockport, Texas EPA
It has been a wonderful thing, Mr Trump said of his meetings with the children as he helped serve food to evacuees amid shouts of Thank you, sir.
Mr Trump's visit came after a week of historic flooding in the area that killed at least 40 people, displaced more than 1 million and dumped as much as 50 inches (127 cm) of rain in some areas.
The trip may have political implications for Trump, who was criticized for not meeting with victims and not showing more empathy on his first trip to Texas on Tuesday.
Man plays piano in home flooded by Hurricane Harvey
Mr Trump stayed clear of the disaster zone earlier this week, saying he did not want to hamper rescue efforts. Instead, he met with Cabinet members, state and local leaders and first responders in the state capital Austin and Corpus Christi, where Harvey first hit, focusing on the logistics of the government response.
That was reasonable criticism, said Matt Mackowiak, chairman of the Republican Party in Travis County, Texas, who has praised the Trump administration's handling of the disaster.
A number of area residents - even one who had voted Democrat - said they believed Mr Trump's latest visit was a positive, as it boosted morale in the area.
It raises the morale, Kevin Jason Hipolito, who identified himself as a Democrat, told reporters at the convention centre. When he went to Corpus I was like, 'Man he just forgot about us.' This shows a lot of support. It perks up morale.
However, there were signs everywhere that recovery, which Trump suggested could take six months rather than the years projected because of the spirit shown by the people of Texas, is a difficult prospect for many.
Is he going to help? Can he help? Devon Harris, 37, a construction worker, said at the convention center. I lost my home. My job is gone. My tools are gone. My car is gone. My life is gone. What is Trump going to do?
The city of Beaumont, that lost its drinking water system to Harvey, also struggled to restore service to its 120,000 residents on Saturday, and firefighters kept monitoring a crippled chemical plant that has twice been the scene of explosions and fires since the storm roared ashore and stalled over Texas.
Meanwhile, Houston began burying its dead with the storm being named for more than 40 deaths - with that toll set to increase. One of the latest deaths, reported in the Houston Chronicle, came from fire officials in the community of New Waverly, about 55 miles north of Houston, said a 6-month-old baby was missing and presumed dead after being ripped out of its parents' arms and swept away by floodwaters when the family fled their pickup truck last Sunday.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said he spoken President Trump about the importance of getting storm evacuees out of shelters and into housing - 37,000 people spent the night in shelter on Friday - and helping people who are still in their homes but in need of assistance. The mayor called his discussions with very positive.
Reuters
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Russia has hit out at the US over what it called the unprecedented aggressive action of plans to conduct searches in the countrys trade mission complex in Washington, upping the ante in the latest diplomatic spat between the two nations.
Russias Foreign Ministry said it summoned Antony F Godfrey, a deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Moscow, to hand over a strongly-worded protest note. The note said the planned illegal inspection of Russian diplomatic premises included a "threat" to break down the front doors and any search could be used by the US special services for anti-Russian provocations by the way of planting compromised items.
The move follows an announcement from the US earlier this week that it would move to close the Russian consulate in San Francisco, as well as diplomatic annexes in New York and Washington as part of escalating tit-for-tat that began in the aftermath of the US Presidential election.
The State Department later said that Russia had compiled with the order to shut the offices, but refuted the claims of threats to break down doors. The department said a walkthrough was conducted with Russian officials and the US is upholding international law.
It also comes amid reports of fires at the Russian diplomatic premises in Washington and San Francisco, sparking speculation that documents might be being burned before closure.
In Washington, Foreign Policy reported signs that staff were burning paper at the Trade Representative of the Russian Federation, which came after images of thick black smoke coming from the chimney of the building in San Francisco.
Mindy Talmadge, a spokeswoman from the San Francisco Fire Department, told the Associated Press that the department received a call about the smoke and sent a crew to investigate but determined the smoke was coming from the chimney.
The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images
Ms Talmadge said she did not know what they were burning on a day when normally cool San Francisco temperatures had already climbed to 95 degrees by noon.
It was not unintentional. They were burning something in their fireplace, she said.
Responding to the reports, Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, said it was part of a mothballing.
In relation to this, the windows could be closed, the light could be turned off, the water could be drained out, the heating appliances could be turned off, the garbage could be thrown away, essential services could be turned off and many other things, she wrote on social media.
Sen. Lindsey Graham: Trump is empowering Putin by ignoring the cyber attacks
The cooling of diplomatic co-operation between the two nations began in late 2016, when then-President Barack Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and the seizure of two Russian government compounds in response to US intelligence services stating that Russia had sought to interfere in the election that made Donald Trump president.
At the time, Russia said it would not retaliate immediately, but would wait to see what the Trump administration would do. However, after Donald Trump reluctantly backed expanded sanctions against Russia voted for by Congress in July, Moscow ordered the US to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia by around half as well as announcing property seizures of its own. That would bring the number of staff down to 455, to match the number of Russian diplomats in the US.
That move prompted the US to announce the closures in San Francisco and on the East Coast, bringing the latest Russian protest note.
The note stressed that we are considering a planned illegitimate search of diplomatic premises in Russia without the presence of Russian officials and a threat to crack the front door as an unprecedented, aggressive action that can also be used by the US special services to organise an anti-Russian provocation using planted compromising objects, a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The US authorities must stop the gross violations of international law and breaching the immunity of Russia's diplomatic institutions. Otherwise, we reserve the right to reciprocate on mutual basis, it added.
The United States says Russia has complied with its order to shutter the San Francisco consulate and trade offices in Washington and New York.
But it is disputing Russia's claim that U.S. officials threatened to break down the doors as part of a plan to search the premises. A senior State Department official told the Associated Press that personnel from the Russian Embassy joined State Department officials for walkthroughs of the three properties so the US could verify the Russians had vacated ahead of the Saturday deadline. The official says it's untrue that the FBI is clearing the premises.
A senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin called Washington's had decried the US decision to close the diplomatic premises via state media late on Friday.
These new steps push the bilateral relations further into a deadlock, Yuri Ushakov told Russia Today late Friday.
Moreover, they contradict the statements made by the US President's administration, including at the highest level, on the establishment of cooperation Unfortunately, the spiral of unfriendly moves tightens, he said.
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
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Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha has been arrested in the capital Phnom Penh on suspicion of treason, according to the government.
The arrest marks a new escalation in a campaign against critics, independent media and any potential threats to Prime Minister Hun Sens hold on power ahead of an election next year, at which Kem Sokha was expected to be his main challenger.
The government said in a statement that it had a video clip and other evidence pointing to secret plans of conspiracy between Kem Sokha, others and foreigners to harm the Kingdom of Cambodia.
The above act of this secret conspiracy is treason, the statement said.
Hun Sen, 65, has ruled the Southeast Asian country for more than three decades. The former Khmer Rouge cadre has become one of Chinas closest regional allies and has been making increasingly strident verbal attacks on the United States.
Kem Sokha, 64, has led the main opposition, Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) since his predecessor resigned in February, saying he feared a government plan to shut it down.
Pictures in Cambodian media showed him being led away with his hands behind his back.
Kem Sokhas daughter, Monovithya Kem, who is also an official in the party, said on Twitter that her father had been taken away in handcuffs after a raid by between 100 and 200 police, who had arrived without an arrest warrant.
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The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. 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Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty
Kem Sokha whereabouts is still unknown, she said on Twitter, after earlier saying he had been taken to city hall.
Kem Sokha made no immediate comment and it was not clear if he had legal representation at this stage.
Fresh News, a pro-government website, said before Kem Sokhas arrest that it had video of Kem Sokha discussing to overthrow Hun Sen with support from the United States.
Neither the US State Department nor the White House responded immediately to a request for comment.
The government has recently increased its rhetoric against the US and last month ordered the expulsion of the US State Department-funded National Democratic Institute pro-democracy group.
Freedom of speech is rapidly becoming a highly endangered right in Prime Minister Hun Sens march down the road to dictatorship in Cambodia. Kem Sokha is now the latest victim, said Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director of the Human Rights Watch campaign group. It called on donors to condemn the arrest.
Recommended A ghost town in the hills of Cambodia
Last month Hun Sens government stepped up attacks on the media, halting broadcasts by some radio stations and ordering an independent newspaper, The Cambodia Daily, to close if it did not pay a $6m (4.6m) tax bill within days.
During Hun Sens rule, Cambodia emerged from the devastating Khmer Rouge genocide to enjoy record years of economic growth of more than 7 per cent, but disaffection for him has been growing and in 2013 he only just won the election against a unified opposition.
His Cambodian Peoples Party also won local elections in June, but the opposition also fared reasonably well, increasing expectations of a close contest in the general election due in 2018.
Kem Sokha took over the party leadership after his predecessor, Sam Rainsy, resigned in February. Rainsy said he had quit to save the party in the face of a threatened ban on any party with a leader who has been convicted of a crime.
Rainsy lives in exile in France to avoid a defamation conviction he says was politically motivated.
Reuters
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In a landmark ruling, Indias Supreme Court has confirmed an individuals right to privacy including sexual orientation under the countrys constitution.
The ruling on August 24 offers new hope for the LGBTQ+ community in India, still living under the homophobic legacy of the British Empire which criminalised same-sex relationships.
A formal judgement on the law, known as Section 377, is still pending and the hope is that the court will repeal this toxic colonial hangover.
This legacy dates back 157 years to a dark part of imperial history. In 1860, the British Raj the empire in India had been in place for three years.
The British East India Company had given way to crown control after the 1857 Sepoy Rebellion and justified its conquest with a promise of bringing civilisation to its colonies. Part of this civilising rhetoric was tied in with reforming the ways in which desire and love were practised and accepted.
At the time, a multitude of social norms existed within the borders of the Indian subcontinent largely influenced by religion, geography and occasionally by ethnicity. Suggesting there was a monolithic and singular attitude to anything was misleading. In contrast, there was a rich diversity in the ways in which sexuality was understood. Even in socially conservative areas, same-sex intimacy was simply a part of life.
Awadh, in modern-day Lucknow, had a ruler who would practice living as the opposite gender at times, including changing sexual partners. Bengali novels from the late 19th century such as Indira describe lesbian relationships. Texts such as the Kama Sutra contain advice for consensual same-sex intercourse. And Sufi Muslim texts in East India explicitly mention homosexual male romance.
This clashed with the British crowns idea of how a society should be. In a system dictated by Victorian Christian morality, any form of intimacy that was not geared towards having and raising children was unacceptable. Homosexual desire was the worst of these offences.
With such a rigid vision in mind, the empire implemented Section 377 in the Raj. The law made it a criminal offence to engage in any form of unacceptable carnal desire. Perpetrators could be jailed, given a heavy fine, or both. The law was exported to Australia, South-East Asia and African British colonial outposts as well.
The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe Show all 15 1 /15 The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 15. Italy Getty Images The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 14. Macedonia The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 13. Poland Getty Images The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 12. Liechtenstein The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 11. Lithuania The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 10. Latvia This content is subject to copyright. The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 9. San Marino The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 8. Moldova The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 7. Belarus Getty Images The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 6. Ukraine Getty Images The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 5. Monaco The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 4. Turkey Getty Images The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 3. Armenia The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 2. Russia Getty Images The top 15 worst countries to be gay in Europe 1. Azerbaijan Getty/AFP
Historically, Section 377 did not explicitly target homosexuals. It was meant to deter any type of sex that was not for the purposes of having children. This theoretically included protected sex between a heterosexual couple and also effectively outlawed forms of birth control. But in practice, this proved impossible to police, and over the decades, the implementation of the law came to focus purely on homosexual desire.
Indias diversity of sexual expression proved to be a weakness against this relentless campaign. The lack of a united narrative about homosexuality across India meant that there was no singular dissenting voice against the forced implementation of Section 377 in 1860. This was combined with a powerful propaganda machine which linked British military success with rigid masculinity and the Indian conquest with femininity among men. In particular, historical pamphlets and writings on the military victory in 1857 and the earlier victory in Bengal (the Battle of Plassey) made clear reference to the inferiority of the effeminate Indians.
There was also a concentrated and largely successful effort to alienate and undermine the agency of women and of gender non-binary communities, such as Hijra a third gender identity who are born male or intersex but present as feminine in dress. Today, Hijra are recognised and protected by law in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
This resulted in the firm establishment of legalised homophobia (and also misogyny and wider queer discrimination) in the subcontinent over the course of the Raj. By the time the Indian independence movement began to gain viable momentum in the 20th century, the challenges to Section 377 had died out and any narrative of queer emancipation was erased from both sides of the debate.
At the moment of their birth, Pakistan and India moved towards new constitutions and penal codes, yet many remnants of colonial control remained. Section 377 was retained in their respective statute books. When Bangladesh gained its independence from Pakistan in 1971, it was maintained there as well. It is still maintained in all three countries of the erstwhile Raj India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
In fact, of the 72 countries of the world where homosexuality is illegal today, 36 punish homosexuality due to some version of 377. It is a toxic hangover which makes the 52-strong Commonwealth of Nations the most homophobic global block of countries.
Two key commemorations of British history are being marked in 2017. The 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which partially decriminalised homosexual sex between consenting adults in Britain, and the 70th anniversary of the partition of India and Pakistan, which brought British imperial rule on the Indian subcontinent to an end. Both anniversaries are being celebrated as a triumph of progress and equality.
The UK, Pakistan and India are all correct to celebrate the long journeys they have taken. But it is vital that marginalised voices are heard, too. To confine colonialism to the history books, all of its legacies must be dealt with and erased completely. Indias Supreme Court could be on the way to making this happen. A petition is in the process of being submitted in the Bangladeshi Supreme Court but no progress has been reported, and there is no explicit case in Pakistan as of yet. Until this is redressed, there can be no true freedom.
The Conversation
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A five-year-old girl has reportedly been killed after being shot by Indian troops on the Pakistani border.
The child had been walking outside her home in Polas village in the disputed region of Kashmir when a stray bullet hit her in the head.
The girl was rushed to hospital but died on the way from her injuries.
"A five-year-old girl was walking outside her house when a lone bullet fired by Indian troops pierced through her head," local government official Tahir Mumtaz said, according to Al Jazeera.
Villagers were said to have protested over the girl's killing and condemned the fighting on the day they were celebrating the Muslim festival of Eid.
World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty
After India and Pakistan won their independence from Britain in 1947, the two new states went to war over Kashmir for two years.
The situation spilled over again into war in 1965 and 1999, by which time both countries had declared themselves to be nuclear powers, and the dispute over the border has remained tense. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed during the conflicts.
Since last September, firing has often broken out across the border. In April, the United Nations warned nuclear deterrence was at the greatest risk of breaking down in North Korea and between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory.
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Rohingya children have been beheaded and civilians burned alive, according to witness testimony amid claims that Burma's military and paramilitary forces are committing "genocide" or a "pogrom" against the Muslim minority in the countrys western Rakhine state.
Around 60,000 refugees are believed to have fled over the countrys western border into Bangladesh in a just a week following a clampdown on Rohingya militants.
The British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, called for the violence to end, saying the treatment of the Rohingya was besmirching the reputation of Burma, also known as Myanmar, and appealing to Aung San Suu Kyi to act.
Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has gone much further, accusing Burma's forces of genocide and saying those who turned a blind eye to events were complicit.
Observers believe the number of displaced people is likely to increase. The Burmese military said 400 militants had been killed in clashes with their forces.
Pope Francis defends right of Burma's Rohingya Muslims to 'live their faith'
Civilians who escaped gave horrific accounts of violence and destruction by Burmese soldiers and other armed groups.
A man named as Abdul Rahman, 41, said he had survived a five-hour attack on Chut Pyin village.
He told Fortifiy Rights, a charity working in the area, that a group of Rohingya men had been rounded up and detained in a bamboo hut, which was then set on fire.
"My brother was killed, [Burmese soldiers] burned him with the group, he said.
We found [my other family members] in the fields. They had marks on their bodies from bullets and some had cuts.
"My two nephews, their heads were off. One was six years old and the other was nine years old. My sister-in-law was shot with a gun.
Another man from the same village, named as Sultan Ahmed, 27, told the charity: Some people were beheaded, and many were cut. We were in the house hiding when [armed residents from a neighbouring village] were beheading people.
"When we saw that, we just ran out the back of the house.
Survivors from other villages in the region also described seeing people being beheaded or having their throats cut.
We cant stress enough the urgency of the situation, said Matthew Smith, head of Fortify Rights.
The Myanmar authorities are failing to protect civilians and save lives. International pressure is critically needed.
Satellite imagery released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) showed 700 buildings burned down in another Rohingya village, Chein Khar Li.
This new satellite imagery shows the total destruction of a Muslim village, and prompts serious concerns that the level of devastation in northern Rakhine State may be far worse than originally thought, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for HRW.
Yet this is only one of 17 sites that weve located where burnings have taken place. Independent monitors are needed on the ground to urgently uncover whats going on.
The Burmese government has denied access to the affected areas to journalists and observers.
On Saturday, Mr Johnson, appealed to Aung San Suu Kyi, the former dissident who won the Nobel Peace Prize and is now the country's State Counsellor, to intervene.
Aung Sang Suu Kyi is rightly regarded as one of the most inspiring figures of our age but the treatment of the Rohingya is alas besmirching the reputation of Burma. She faces huge challenges in modernising her country," he said.
I hope she can now use all her remarkable qualities to unite her country, to stop the violence and to end the prejudice that afflicts both Muslims and other communities in Rakhine.
It is vital that she receives the support of the Burmese military, and that her attempts at peacemaking are not frustrated. She and all in Burma will have our full support in this.
World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. 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A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty
Ms Suu Kyi has been silent on the extreme violence reported within her country and has faced mounting criticism from observers.
The Tatmadaw, Burma's military, and paramilitary groups began the operation when the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa) attacked security outposts in Rakhine on 25 August.
Arsa claim to fight for Rohingya people but have also been accused of preventing civilians from leaving the conflict zones.
Francis Wade, the author of a book about violence against the Rohingya, said on Twitter: What's happening in Myanmar can be dressed up as counter-insurgency campaign, but in design and purpose, it's a pogrom and has popular support.
There are around a million Muslim Rohingya people in Burma but they have faced years of mistreatment at the hands of the government, which does not recognise them at citizens. They also face widespread discrimination from Buddhist majority population and are often referred to as Bengalis, alluding to a common myth that they are illegal immigrants.
Earlier, Mr Erdogan said there was a genocide occurring in Rakhine.
"Those who close their eyes to this genocide perpetuated under the cover of democracy are its collaborators," Mr Erdogan said.
Turkey has offered to assist Bangladesh financially if it accommodated more refugees, but the south Asian country, which is already home to 400,000 displaced Rohingya, has been reluctant to allow more in.
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The hottest winter ever has been recorded in Australia amid a "long-term warming trend" mostly caused by climate change, according to the country's Bureau of Meteorology.
Peak temperatures during the day were up by 1.9 degrees Celsius (3.4 Fahrenheit) on the long-term national average of 21.8C during the period between June and August.
Winter rainfall was also down to the least amount since 2002 and the ninth-lowest on record. Australia started charting the statistics in 1900 for rainfall and 1910 for temperatures.
"You have a long-term warming trend which is largely attributed to changing levels of greenhouse gases," the bureau's senior climatologist Blair Trewin told AFP.
"On top of that, to get an individual extreme year like this one, you also need the more general weather pattern to be favourable to warm conditions as well, as this year was."
The bureau also noted that 19 of Australias last 20 winters had seasonal top temperatures that averaged above the long-term national average.
Meteorologist Greg Browning said it was "basically this background warming signal that we're seeing right across the globe associated with global warming".
Victoria was faced with the driest winter in more than 10 years, with rainfall significantly below average, Mr Trewin told the Herald Sun.
10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Show all 10 1 /10 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica Kira Morris 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others. Hira Ali 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Smoke filled with the carbon that is driving climate change drifts across a field in Colombia. Sandra Rondon 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050. Probal Rashid 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Sindh province in Pakistan has experienced a grim mix of two consequences of climate change. Because of climate change either we have floods or not enough water to irrigate our crop and feed our animals, says the photographer. Picture clearly indicates that the extreme drought makes wide cracks in clay. Crops are very difficult to grow. Rizwan Dharejo 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent. Tom Schifanella 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A river once flowed along the depression in the dry earth of this part of Bangladesh, but it has disappeared amid rising temperatures. Abrar Hossain 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A shepherd moves his herd as he looks for green pasture near the village of Sirohi in Rajasthan, northern India. The region has been badly affected by heatwaves and drought, making local people nervous about further predicted increases in temperature. Riddhima Singh Bhati 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change A factory in China is shrouded by a haze of air pollution. The World Health Organisation has warned such pollution, much of which is from the fossil fuels that cause climate change, is a public health emergency. Leung Ka Wa 10 photographs to show to anyone who doesn't believe in climate change Water levels in reservoirs, like this one in Gers, France, have been getting perilously low in areas across the world affected by drought, forcing authorities to introduce water restrictions. Mahtuf Ikhsan
More than 200 weather records were broken during the summer of 2016, with extreme bushfires, heatwaves and flooding.
Australia has warmed by around one degree Celsius since 1910, weather bureau and national science body CSIRO reported.
New South Waless Rural Fire Service is bringing forward its bushfire danger period to September, a month earlier because of the hotter and more arid conditions.
Research published in Nature Climate Change last week stated that hotter, drier conditions would increase in frequency even if global warming was kept to the Paris Climate Summit target of 1.5C.
The study warned it would be harder to tackle drought events and wildfires.
The highest-ever recorded temperature in Australia was 50.7C (123.3 F) in Oodnadatta on 2 January 1960.
A firefighting Hercules C-130 plane, dubbed Thor, has returned to Richmond airbase in Sydney from the United States, to prepare for the country's bushfire season. The aircraft is capable of dropping 15,000 litres of water or fire retardant.
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A man sparked a terror alert on a Ryanair flight after shouting "Allahu Akbar" and warning there was a bomb on board the plane.
The 51-year-old Belgian was arrested and eight men friends travelling with him were thrown off the flight from to Madrid following the scare at Brussels Airport.
Passengers were evacuated from the plane, which was then searched by a bomb squad, after airline crew alerted police.
Ryanair boss calls for alcohol limit at airports
Nothing suspicious was found and the flight took off at 9.25am on Saturday, two hours after its scheduled departure time.
The nine men, all Belgian and thought to have been drunk, were questioned by police. The 51-year-old, from Wallonia, could face prosecution for threatening a terror attack.
"The flight commander refused to take the nine people," federal police spokesman Peter De Waele told Belgian broadcaster VTM. "One of them was a stupid joker and called 'Allahu Akbar'."
Police said the man was also "crying something about bombs", reported De Morgen.
All luggage was removed from the plane and examined by sniffer dogs before the plane was allowed to depart.
World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty
A Ryanair spokesman said: "The crew of this flight from Brussels to Madrid requested police assistance after a number of passengers became disruptive prior to departure. Police removed and detained the individuals before the aircraft departed to Madrid.
"We will not tolerate unruly or disruptive behaviour at any time and the safety and comfort of our customers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority.
"This is now a matter for local police."
Passenger on Red Wings flight filmed slamming chairs while covered in blood
In March last year, three Isis suicide bombers killed 32 people in co-ordinated explosions at Brussels Airport in Zavenem and the city's Maalbeek metro station.
Last month a man shouting "Allahu Akbar" - Arabic for "God is greatest" - was shot dead by police after attacking soldiers with a knife in the centre of the Belgian capital.
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A policeman was killed after a suicide bomber tried to blow up a police station in western Algeria.
The policemen on duty responded quickly, and one of them, in an act of bravery, threw himself on the assailant at the entrance of the headquarters and lost his life, the national security directorate said. The suicide belt exploded, killing two policemen, according to state news agency APS.
The hero police officer was named as Tayeb Issawi, according to ennaharonline.com.
The attempted bombing happened on 31 August when an armed militant, wearing a suicide belt tried blow himself up in the police post in Tiaret, around 300 km (190 miles) west of Algiers.
The second police officer caught in the blast died later of his injuries, according to a police statement. A security cordon was set up by police at the scene of the explosion.
The Islamic State groups news agency later claimed responsibility for the incident. A martyr from Islamic State detonated a suicide vest close to the Algerian police station in the city of Tiaret, Amaq said.
An Algerian police officer told The New Arab that the attack was connected to Jund al-Khilafa, an al Qaeda faction which had pledged allegiance to Isis. You can be as good as you want but when it comes to suicide bombers there is nothing you can do, he said. You can only try to reduce damage but it is at the few seconds remaining before the attacker blows himself up.
According to France 24, groups of militants affiliated to Isis have been carrying out recent offensives in Algeria.
Vigilance seems to have been stepped down. We had a feeling that this was coming, a former security services official said after the bombing.
In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Show all 11 1 /11 In pictures: Isis' weapons factories In pictures: Isis' weapons factories A mortar round fin manufactured by Isis in Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Isis rocket components discovered in Gogjali, Mosul, Iraq in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Isis mortars discovered near Karamlais, Iraq, in November 2016 CAR In pictures: Isis' weapons factories An Isis rocket launch frame in Qaraqosh, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories A memo from Isis' COSQC on quality control at a manufacturing facility in Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Electrically-operated initiators manufactured by Isis in forces Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Isis mortar tubes at a manufacturing facility in Karamlais, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories An Isis mortar production facility discovered in Gogjali, Mosul, in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories An Isis weapons manufacturing facilities near Mosul in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Stocks of French-manufactured Sorbitol, Latvian potassium nitrate and Lebanese sugar at an Isis weapons factory in Iraq Conflict Armament Research In pictures: Isis' weapons factories A destroyed Isis weapons facility in Qaraqosh, Iraq, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research
The source, who asked not to be named, told AFP it was most likely carried out by Algerian members of ISIS who had escaped from countries where the militants were under sustained military attack.
This was the first suicide attack for several months in Algeria. A militant attempted to blow himself up at a police station in Constantine in April. In February, also in the city of Constantine, another suicide bomber died when a policeman opened fire on him, triggering the explosives belt he was wearing to explode. The attack was later claimed by Isis.
Al Qaeda in Maghreb, the groups North Africa branch is also operating mostly in southern and eastern Algeria and target army and military forces.
Algerian security troops have stepped up their offensive against Islamic militants, killing dozens this year.
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The Opposition ought to be taking the Conservatives apart. This is the view of someone in government someone who has a high opinion of Theresa May, but who told me this week: A Blair or Cameron-led opposition, let alone many of the oppositions of the Sixties and Seventies, would possibly bring the Government down this autumn.
We have had two hints of how a more effective opposition might operate. First, when Emily Thornberry stood in for Jeremy Corbyn at Prime Ministers Questions in July. She quoted what different ministers had said about the possibility of the UK and the EU failing to reach agreement on Brexit perfectly OK, said Boris Johnson; a very, very bad outcome, said Philip Hammond.
This is one of the most effective lines of attack available to an opposition leader. Tony Blair deployed it against John Major in 1995 about the governments policy on the euro: I find it odd that he cannot agree with his Chancellor, I find it strange that he cannot agree with his Secretary of State for Employment and I find it unbelievable that he cannot agree with himself.
Thornberry seemed to be enjoying herself, which may be one reason Len McCluskey, the leader of Unite, Labours biggest affiliated union, tipped her as a possible successor to Corbyn. Corbyn rarely mentions Brexit at PMQs, and he also doesnt think it is his job to comment on internal Tory differences, such as when Iain Duncan Smith resigned as Work and Pensions Secretary last year.
'No decisive progress' on Brexit, says EU negotiator Michel Barnier
Corbyns reluctance to talk about Brexit may have been an astute judgement, however, given his personal ambivalence about the EU and the large number of Labour voters who voted to leave in the referendum. He certainly held together a remarkable coalition in the election of Labour leavers and people who voted Labour because it was the best chance of stopping Brexit.
But now we come to the second hint of what an effective opposition might look like, with the new policy set out by Keir Starmer, the Shadow Brexit Secretary, last weekend. His plan for a long transition period four years during which Britain is outside the EU but still inside the single market, like Norway, is calculated to maximise Theresa Mays discomfort.
The Government published several Brexit position papers over the summer, and the consistent theme of all of them is to try to keep things as much the same as possible. Why not, therefore, stay in the one bit of the EU that was a British priority in the first place and that makes us richer? The answer to that is that Labour wants to end free movement of labour, but as a temporary phase the single market is a clever compromise.
Once again, it allows Labour to appeal to leavers Brexit is happening and free movement will end eventually and to remainers we keep most of the benefits of EU membership for a while, and maybe even permanently. Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, said on Thursday that the single market might be a permanent outcome of the negotiations. What he avoided saying was that permanent single-market membership would need the rest of the EU to agree to restrict the movement of people, which is most unlikely, but Labour is not in power so its proposals are not held to the same standard of plausibility as the Governments.
That is the secret of really effective opposition. It does not have to be entirely responsible or realistic. The best example might be not Blair or Cameron but John Smith, Blairs predecessor as Labour leader, who harried John Majors government mercilessly over the last great European negotiation, the Maastricht Treaty in 1992-93. (David Davis was then the junior government whip responsible for the bill.) Smith was a paleo-pro-European, having broken the Labour whip with Roy Jenkins in 1971 to vote in favour of joining the EEC in the first place. But he took the risk of killing the Maastricht Treaty by making common cause, cynically, with Tory Eurosceptics.
Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA
The government was defeated, and Major was forced to reverse it by calling a vote of confidence. If he had lost, there would have been an election, so the Tory rebels returned to the fold. Smith had not brought the government down, but he had inflicted further damage on Majors reputation: he declared the vote was not a sign of confidence, but a display of weakness.
We are in a similar position today. Starmer has written to Davis threatening a series of amendments to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, although I doubt that Labour can defeat the Government on the question of staying in the single market for a transitional period it would need 15-20 Conservative MPs to rebel. But someone of Smiths ability could embarrass Theresa May in the Commons so badly that it would make the next election really hard for the Tories.
Jeremy Corbyn has his qualities, as the last election proved, but forensic demolition in Parliament is not one of them. And who would have thought, when Corbyns Labour opponents criticised his support for the IRA, that it would become such a critical factor in parliamentary arithmetic?
In 1993 the unionists split, with the DUP voting against Maastricht but the mainstream Ulster Unionist Party voting with John Major. Who knows if a different Labour leader could persuade the deeply Eurosceptic DUP this time, but Corbyns history in Irish politics guarantees that its 10 MPs will stick by the Government.
Not even John Smith could bring the government down in 1993, but how much could Labour undermine the Governments foundations this time? Brexit is going to be hard enough for the Government, and Theresa Mays poor ratings could suffer further as a result. But so far, in the Commons, the Labour leadership has gone along with the Governments policy on Brexit.
Starmer has done well to persuade Corbyn and John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, to shift Labours policy on the transition. But, unless the leader himself can drive the advantage home, it doesnt seem as if Labour is likely to add significantly to Mays troubles.
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Even as the American news media committed serial heroics delivering the best possible reporting of Hurricane Harvey in dire conditions last week, one Trump found time to impugn it. That was Eric predicting on Twitter that among news outlets only Fox would bother to report on Thursday that his father had just donated $1m of his own money to the relief effort.
So proud!!! Lets see if @CNN or the #MSM acknowledges this incredible generosity. My guess: they wont... Eric Trump tweeted with a link to a Fox News story, referring not just to CNN, his fathers least favourite 24-hour cable channel, but also to the so-called mainstream media in general.
The Presidents second son, however, was as sloppy as the coverage of Harvey has been exemplary. And he was called out for it. He posted his tweet precisely three hours after CNN had also used Twitter to highlight its reporting precisely of his fathers gesture.
Sloppy but predictable. The media paranoia inside Trump World knows no bounds. The rebuke Trump got from almost all sides, even from anchors at Fox, after his failure clearly to condemn the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who bought chaos and murder to the streets of Charlottesville last month has only served to deepen his personal sense of victimhood.
Such has been the ferocity of President Trumps war on the media and fake news at a huge rally in Phoenix before Harvey made landfall he called all journalists truly dishonest people who are guilty of perpetrating crooked media deceptions against him that last week even the UN Human Rights Chief, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, felt the need publicly to sound the alarm.
Its really quite amazing when you think that freedom of the press, not only sort of a cornerstone of the US Constitution but very much something that the United States defended over the years, is now itself under attack from the President, al-Hussein told reporters in Geneva. Its sort of a stunning turnaround. And ultimately the sequence is a dangerous one.
Al-Hussein worried that the Trump torpedoes might be encouraging governments around the world to muzzle the free press as well as acts of violence against reporters. I believe it could amount to incitement. At an enormous rally, referring to journalists as very, very bad people you dont have to stretch the imagination to see then what could happen to journalists.
Most reporters are plenty tough enough to see the Trump attacks for what they are, reflections of his own insecurity and candy bombs for his slowly eroding voter base. But thick skins arent what make reporters great. We need a thin skin too, to grasp, feel and properly describe all that is good and terrible in the world. So, yes, it has never felt good to belong to one of the least respected professions in the land, alongside lawyers. Trump is only making that worse.
Which may explain why the American print media, in particular, has taken unusual steps to share with readers the commitment and courage of their reporting teams as they have waded directly into the floodwaters of Houston to carry out their duties. The message is clear. There was nothing fake about Harvey and nothing crooked about the writers and editors who have been tirelessly reporting it. Show them some respect, even.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein (Getty)
A page two story in The New York Times on Thursday, headlined How The Times Covered Harvey offered snippets of the travails of its reporters, like energy reporter Clifford Krauss, who kept reporting even as his own home succumbed to the deluge. Julie Turkewitz had a moment waist-deep in water meeting a man with a machete to ward off snakes and crocodiles. Colleague Alan Blinder shared the anguish any reporter who has covered a natural disaster will recognise. Even when youre tired you wake up in the night wondering if youve missed something, he told his own paper. You wake wondering what else is going on out there.
We are learning a lot, likewise, about how the Houston Chronicle coped and excelled thanks in part to a Facebook posting by one of its own, Susan Carroll, an investigative reporter, that was quickly picked up by the Poynter Institute, which exists to nurture and protect the freedom of the press, and wrapped into its story How the Houston Chronicle is covering the citys historic disaster. Some of what Carroll shared was how staff made it into work through the floods and got home again.
Vernon Loeb ran a couple miles from his house to the newsroom this morning during the flood because the roads were impassable. He honestly didnt seem to think twice about it, Carroll related in her original post. And later: Mark Collette finally made it home to Meyerland on a jet ski, wearing another mans shorts.
Chronicle staff went above and beyond the call of duty to report on the floods
Other insider tales include how the Chronicle delivered 4,000 free copies of the newspaper to the main shelter inside the George R Brown Convention Centre so those stranded could get a sense of what was going on outside its walls and in the neighbourhoods they had been forced to abandon, and how staff members of the Houston bureau of The Washington Post did a whip round and delivered almost 250 doughnuts to their exhausted colleagues over at the Chronicle.
Reporters are usually averse to inserting themselves in their stories. But when their own President is calling them scumbags on an almost daily basis the rules change a little. Credit where credit is due.
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This morning, LOreal dropped Munroe Bergdorf, their first ever trans model, from their diversity campaign after a media storm which has seen her since branded as anti-white for statements that she made concerning the complicity of white people in widespread racism.
This entire episode, and in particular LOreals tone deaf response and failure to back Munroe, is part of a long media tradition of painting anti-racism activists, and particularly black women, as irrational anti-white furies. The exact same thing happened to Cambridge BME Society Campaigner Jason Osamede Okundaye when he made similarly cogent points about racial prejudice.
The ensuing backlash around her statements and her consequent firing continue to create the sort of conditions in which there is a greater material consequence for speaking out against racism than actual racist rhetoric.
These right wing media attacks form part of an increasingly popular cycle of demonisation, where statements about racism and its structural and all-pervasive nature are decontextualised, interpreted in entirely bad faith and branded as anti-white rants that are then used to form the crux of a witch-hunt and facilitate twitter pile-ons and racist abuse.
But the fact remains that Munroes statements were not and did not constitute a racist rant. To suggest that all white people, and all people in general regardless of gender or creed, internalise the oppressive rhetoric and paradigms that dominate our society should be taken as a given.
We are socialised under white supremacy and patriarchy from birth. What she said is factual. Individual exceptionalism cannot absolve you of complicity in racist systems that function on a widespread structural level, one that requires the complicity of all the people that benefit from the system, and even in some ways minorities who do not.
People who bill themselves as progressives, and particularly white people who consider themselves progressives, need to ask themselves why their knee-jerk reaction to being called complicit in structural racism is to demand that the person of colour that did so loses their livelihood.
They should ask themselves whether or not this knee-jerk reaction might contribute to the silencing of the very people of colour who are working to dismantle racism.
People need to put aside their hurt feelings and fragility when they are told the ways in which they benefit from and are complicit in a racist society, and focus on tackling these system racial injustices, rather than shooting the messenger.
Obama says he "absolutely" suffered racism in White House
There is a painful irony in the right wing medias paradoxical obsession with protecting hate speech and dehumanising alt-right rhetoric, while orchestrating vicious takedowns of young, up and coming people of colour who dare be vocal about their plight in a white supremacist society.
Campaigns like LOreals exercise in diversity are ultimately nothing but empty rhetoric and bandwagoning of the most unforgivable kind. They are actively contributing to the silencing of anti-racism activists. They wanted Munroes transness, her blackness, her womanhood and all of the glory and the capital gain of her diversity with none of the corollary activism and resistance that comes with her identity: the necessarily trappings of a woman as vocal about racism and marginalisation as she is.
Lonely road: Why school is hell for transgender pupils Show all 2 1 /2 Lonely road: Why school is hell for transgender pupils Lonely road: Why school is hell for transgender pupils 25255.bin Lonely road: Why school is hell for transgender pupils 25256.bin
She was worth it until she dared speak out about racism. They wanted her cool and the aesthetics of her identity, but have no desire to challenge the very structures and practices that constantly threaten that identity.
Munroe is not the first trailblazer to lose out on opportunities for calling out the insidious ways that racism functions, and she will certainly not be the last. LOreal have acted particularly cowardly and shown us their true colours, and they must be held accountable for their lip-service to diversity and failure to do anything but uphold the status quo.
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It is no secret that the sex trade is riven with misogyny. The liberal left and other so-called progressives often take leave of their principles in order to support a global, multibillion-dollar trade built on the pain and oppression of women and girls. This is not surprising bearing in mind the sexism of the left, but the same apologists often also remain silent about the indisputable fact that black, brown and indigenous women and girls all over the world are first in line to be bought and sold into prostitution.
During extensive research for my book on the sex trade, I have met and interviewed women and men that are resisting the normalisation of racism within prostitution.
I met Necole Daniels, an African-American sex trade survivor and member of the abolitionist organisation SPACE International, in 2015 at a conference in the US. Daniels is clear about the racism that upholds systems of prostitution in the US. The sex trade is like racism. They are saying that some of us are worth less than others.
Pala Molisa, a Pacific academic and campaigner against male violence from New Zealand, has often been accused of being whorephobic since writing about prostitution as a form of oppression. Molisa has been threatened with losing his job, been a target of an online bullying and harassment campaign, and accused by sex work propagandists of being a sexually repressed creep.
UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses 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Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. 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Molisa says he has learned from his mother and other indigenous sisters about the white supremacist and colonial basis of prostitution. We dont just want men to be held accountable for reducing women to sexual chattel status we want the whole institution of prostitution [which is] the basis of colonial patriarchal rape culture dismantled, says Molisa. The dominant model of masculinity under male supremacy is also shaped by race and class, by capitalism and white supremacy.
Bridget Perrier is a Native Canadian activist and sex trade survivor. In 2015, Perrier appeared on TV in the UK debating a (white) member of the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP). Perrier, who has raised two children of serial killer Robert Picktons murder victims, was told by the ECP spokeswoman that she had blood on her hands because Perrier campaigns to criminalise pimps and johns. This is just colonialist shit, says Perrier. I am sick of being told that prostitution is good for me and my indigenous sisters when it is so obviously not good enough for them.
Courtney, also a Native survivor from Canada, told me: The sex trade is built on racism and colonialism as well as misogyny. For Native women and African-American women, and all women and girls of colour, it is yet another way in which the white man takes what he wants from our communities, our cultures and our souls.
A number of sex buyers I have interviewed have told me that they often select specific women on the basis of racist and colonialist stereotypes. Ethnicity itself is eroticised in prostitution. One man said: I had a mental check list in terms of race; I have tried them all over the last five years but they turned out to be the same. Another interviewee openly admitted that his use of Chinese women in prostitution was in order to fulfil a fantasy that he held about them. You can do a lot more with the Oriental girls like blow job without a condom, and you can cum in their mouths I view them as dirty.
Recommended Trump media slurs exposed amidst brave chronicling of Harvey
Advertising of sexual services is often reliant on racist and colonialist stereotypes. During a meeting with the Asian Women for Equality Society in Montreal, I was told about research involving analysis of 1,500 online advertisements for prostitution. Ninety per cent were found to have used racist stereotypes as a selling factor, such as Asian women being described as submissive, exotic, newly immigrated, fresh off the boat, and young and experienced. This is what men are looking for in Asian women, one of the collective said.
In the main red light district in Amsterdam, where the majority of prostituted women displayed like meat in the window brothels are from Romania and West Africa, there are so few Dutch-born women selling sex that pimps put stickers with the Dutch flag or NL (Netherlands) in the window for advertising purposes. White Dutch women have become quite a rarity.
The slave trade is alive and well, but has been restructured under neoliberal capitalism. During the act of prostitution the bodies of women and girls are colonised by the men who use them. How the left can ignore this, while claiming to be fighting for an equal society free of oppression, is beyond me. Much of the male left may not care too much about womens oppression under prostitution, but surely they can at least pay lip service to the fact that the system of prostitution is in part built on brutal racism?
Julie Bindels book The Pimping of Prostitution: Abolishing the Sex Work Myth will be published by Palgrave Macmillan on 27 September. Details of the book launch and debate surrounding the topic can be found here
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Two years ago today the photograph of a lifeless little boy washed up on a Turkish beach went viral. For a moment, the indignity done to the boy and his grieving family seemed to offer hope that a prevailing political hostility to refugees fleeing to Europe would be overcome.
Alan Kurdi became a symbol of the plight of so many others fleeing conflict and persecution in Syria and elsewhere. His tragic death laid bare the consequences of governments refusal to provide the safe routes they and their families need to reach a place where they can rebuild shattered lives.
David Cameron, then Prime Minister, declared how deeply moved he was by the dead boys image. He quickly announced a substantial expansion of what had been a tiny UK resettlement programme for Syrian refugees.
But hope faded fast. Theresa May, as Home Secretary, spoke at the Conservative Party conference barely a month later. She vowed to reduce the number of people reaching the UK to seek asylum, and to be even less tolerant of those who did. Not in a thousand years would the UK join Europe in a common approach, she added.
Footage reportedly shows young Syrian refugees being beaten by Turkish soldiers at border
Leadership of this kind on this issue was not new from the then Home Secretary. Needless to say, it did nothing to help secure collective commitment across Europe to respect the right to asylum of people forced to seek safety by crossing the sea.
Instead, various countries rushed to build more walls, fences and other less tangible barriers, from which smugglers and corrupt officials continued to profit by exploiting those needing to get past. And in spring 2016, with the EU Turkey deal, European countries agreed to pay Turkey to take back people who crossed to Greece while preventing others from making the journey.
This agreement has been celebrated by politicians and political commentators across Europe, including in the UK.
Yet, since the deal tens of thousands of women, men and children have been trapped in limbo in Greece. Turkey has descended rapidly into authoritarianism with an increasing risk that many of its citizens will need to flee the country. And other countries have followed Europe in excluding and evicting refugees.
For all the political soundbites about how UK Government policy has been to keep refugees safe in the region, the reality is that Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan have each been forcing Syrians back to conflict and terror while preventing others from escaping.
But it doesnt end there.
In her 2015 party conference speech, our current Prime Minister looked back to when as she somewhat modestly put it despite its many flaws and its criminal leadership, Libya was known as Europes forward border. The nostalgia for a time, in which British officials could work with a repressive Libyan regime to prevent people fleeing war and poverty from reaching Europe, was palpable.
The UK Government, like others in Europe, is once again dealing with Libya to try to block migration. But there is no Libyan regime now. Rather there are disparate parties, tribes and militias vying for power, legitimacy and money. In this chaos, migrants are especially vulnerable to exploitation whether they came to Libya to work or already hoping to reach Europe.
World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. 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A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty
Slavery, kidnapping for ransom, torture and rape are just some of the myriad abuses and atrocities refugees and other migrants suffer in Libya. Whether held in official detention centres or by gangs and militias, they are at risk.
As highlighted by Amnestys recent report Europe: A perfect storm, supporting corrupt bodies in Libya such as the coastguard exposes people to these horrors. As European governments assistance grows in trapping or returning people to Libya, they too will be complicit in human rights violations.
Those vying for power whether to run the country or control a neighbourhood now see the chance of securing European money by promising to curb migration to Europe. While the cash flows, they may be content to shut down smuggling routes. If it dries up, they can reopen those routes whatever pays best.
And why would they ever completely close these routes? Simply ending migration would remove their hold over those governments willing to pay or provide political backing. Meanwhile, there are other opportunities to exploit people who need to get out of Libya.
Two years on from a moment when public and politicians cried never again, it is all too clear that our political leaders have not set out to end the death and suffering of people forced to flee, nor their mistreatment at the hands of armed gangs and corrupt officials.
Rather, our leaders seem determined merely to keep as far away as possible the death and suffering of the children, women and men who just like Alan Kurdi have only smugglers and other abusers to turn to in their desperate search for safety. Out of sight, out of mind.
Deals that may temporarily slow migration at the cost of prolonging violence and suffering or exacerbating the root causes of why people need to flee are cruel and shortsighted. Governments must prioritise saving lives by maintaining search and rescue at sea while extending resettlement, family reunion and other visas for refugees to reach safety. Over the longer term, they must address those root causes conflict, repression and global inequality.
Amnesty is urging the public to sign a petition reminding European governments that saving lives at sea and offering protection and assistance is our moral and legal duty. You can find the petition here.
Steve Valdez-Symonds is Amnesty UKs Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme Director calls on European leaders to stop using Libya to block migration and start prioritise saving lives.
The Irish arm of retail giant Tesco has put the brakes on plans by German discount retailer Aldi from further expansion here.
This follows An Bord Pleanala upholding Tesco's appeal against a decision by Dublin City Council to give Dunmull Ltd the green light for a new Aldi store and a nursing home on the Malahide Road at Clarehall in north Dublin.
The decision comes against the background of continued growth by the German firm in the multi-billion Irish retail market. The latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel show that Aldi has a 11.5pc share of the market and is tied with Tesco for the title of fastest growing retailer in the most recent survey.
Tesco has a 22pc share of the market and last December Aldi announced another 400 new jobs through 20 new store openings.
However, Aldi won't be progressing with its Clarehall plan in the immediate future after the appeals board's decision.
The board stated that the proposed development would be contrary to the objectives for the area and be would be a barrier to their achievement.
Deutshe Bank is owed more than 690m by a group of companies controlled by Galway businessman Gerry Barrett, the High Court has heard.
Last month seven companies that form part of the Edward Capital Group were granted court protection after the bank appointed a receiver over the firms, which employ more than 330 full-time and part-time staff.
The companies sought the appointment of an examiner after the bank appointed a receiver over the companies.
Insolvency practioner Neil Hughes of Baker Tily Hughes Blacke was appointed interim examiner over ML Meyrick Ltd, MT Mono Trading Ltd, Edward Leisure Assets Unlimited Company, Niche Hotels Unlimited Company, Style City Limited, Radical Properties Unlimited Company, and Kitty Hall Holdings Limited.
The assets of the various firms include the four-star Meyrick Hotel, the five-star G Hotel and the Eye Cinema. They also hold various property assets including 38 apartments, a retail park, a house and sites in the Galway area. The total value of the seven firm's assets has been estimated at between 55m and 60m. The other companies in the group are not affected by the examinership application.
The group's assets include landmark hotels and shopping centres and it had also operated a successful construction company. It had previously owned Ashford Castle Hotel, which was sold four years ago.
The companies sought the appointment of the examiner as the companies were insolvent and unable to pay their debts as they fall due.
It sought the appointment of an examiner after Deutsche Bank appointed a receiver over the seven companies. The matter returned before the High Court yesterday when Mr Justice Henry Abbott approved the payment of a number of minor pre-petition debts. The Judge adjourned the matter to a date later this month.
Irish start-up MediMee, which was crowned best Healthcare start-up in the Bank of Ireland start-up awards 2017, will next week head to the DLD Innovation Festival in Tel Aviv to pitch for funding, as the company plans further expansion.
Founded in July 2016, the company offers an online emergency platform designed to help save lives.
The platform contains all your medical, emergency contact, health and travel insurance information all in one place for quick and easy reference.
MediMee also interacts with wearable technology including smart cards, wristbands and smart stickers which can help give life saving information about an individual in a matter of seconds.
In the case of an emergency, a person can scan their smart card, wristband, or sticker against a smartphone and they will be able to show medical personnel their medical history.
Alternatively a person can open a web browser and enter their MediMee card ID and have access to their health information.
In terms of the security of the information, access to a persons medical information is encrypted.
If anyone wishes to access another persons profile in the event of an emergency, they need to be in physical contact with the ill persons wearable device and enter the unique ID code printed on the wearable tech.
The idea for the company originally came about in 2012 when Mr Nolan became ill after a vital organ stopped working.
Mr Nolan remembers that on the day there was a Dublin match on, and when he became ill passers-by thought he was drunk and took pictures instead of stopping to assist him.
Mr Nolan was lucky that a colleague was with him and able to communicate his medical needs to emergency workers. But the incident got him thinking that there must be a way to use smart phones when a person falls ill to communicate ones medical needs, and so the idea for MediMee came about.
In addition to providing medical professionals with a persons medical information, the app can also enable users to contact family members, and/or their work to let them know that there is a medial issue and give the people being contacted your GPS location.
The company, which is about to go live with the emergency services at Dublin airport, says that the next step in terms of technology investment will be to enable the app to give emergency services a live view of what is happening in the emergency situation before they arrive at the scene.
The company also has an agreement with Deliveroo in Dublin and London which sees the bike riders wear the MediMee smart stickers on their helmets.
Should a rider be involved in an accident, the emergency services simply have to scan a smart phone against the sticker and they will know about any underlying health condition that the rider has, as well as being able to contact the riders next of kin.
So far the company has bootstrapped itself however it is now looking for funding to expand.
"Our medical information is some of our most sensitive information and yet we, the owner of the medical information, rarely has it all it is usually with doctors. This app allows that medical information to be stored in one place and for you, the owner, to have access to it at any time," Mr Nolan says.
Mr Nolan says he always wanted to do the app and he credits his his fellow co-founder, Eamonn OGrady as having "a very good tech head". The due also work with a medical professor to ensure that their ideas are medically and technically possible.
In addition to working with the emergency services MediMee is working with Drone Star, testing the ability of the app to send a drone to an individual that needs emergency services.
For now the app can be used on android phones only, however Mr Nolan expects iPhones to enable the technology to be used on them in the future.
Former journalist Ian Bailey was one of the guests at the Hot Press Chatroom at Electric Picnic.
Bailey, the key suspect in the murder of French film director Sophie Toscan du Plantier, read extracts of his poetry and discussed the impact the case has had on his life.
"I knew I was being stitched up and that's a very unusual situation to be in," he told the crowded tent.
Mr Bailey of the Prairie, Liscaha, Schull, west Cork, has long denied any involvement in the death of du Plantier.
When he was asked how he felt about the case "bringing down" then Minister for Justice Alan Shatter and the Garda Commissioner he replied: "Yes collateral damage I think that's called."
He said, excluding the help of Independent TDs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, he had "not had much political support".
However, he said that the people of Cork have rallied around him.
"There has always been a chorus of people going back 20 years, people who believed that I had nothing to do with it and they have been great," he said.
"And more and more people are sending cards, best wishes and miracle medals."
Bailey runs a baked goods stall at various markets in west Cork where he also sells his book of poetry 'The West Cork Way'.
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He said that many people have approached him and offered him words of support.
"Two or three weeks ago a little old lady came up to me, Mary from the Lough (that's a famous area), and she said something very touching. She said 'I have been praying for you for years'. And that is amazing".
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When asked about Judge Patrick Moran's comments that he was attracted to the limelight he said: "Well I don't want to use a bad word but that is a load of 'B' dot dot dot."
A documentary about the trial is in development and will eventually be screened on TV3, and the BBC.
"That's a long term project," said Mr Bailey.
"Jim Sheridan approached me during the civil case in Dublin a few years ago and he always knew he wanted to do something but didn't know what.
"And then Donal McIntyre a well know international investigative journalist also approached me. I introduced them together and out of that has come the project which will eventually result in a documentary."
Tina Barrett, Bradley McIntosh and Jo O'Meara from S Club 7 with Today FM's Fergal D'Arcy. They're playing the Electric Ireland throwback stage later.
Summer is over in Stradbally.
Where did the sun go? In true Irish festival form it has abandoned us. Its freezing. Met Eireann advise that its 15 degrees but it feels an awful lot colder. Its the wind, it would cut you in half.
Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Michael Duffy from Donegal and Ben Ma from Sydney (L-R) Aaron McCormack (9), Lorraine McCormack, Anne McCormack, Frances Carroll, Declan Fingleton (9) and Ben McCormack (5). Grayce Leonard from Mayo and Celine Fleur from Dublin. Celine has been happy to see "people protect their bodies by wearing warm clothes". BBC DJ Annie Mac and Today FM's Kelly Anne Byrne Mark Dempsey and Ben Delaney from Newbridge, Kildare. They just sat their Leaving Cert and it's their first EP Doctor conga at Trailer Park The Bold Motel Tina Barrett, Bradley McIntosh and Jo O'Meara from S Club 7 with Today FM's Fergal D'Arcy. They're playing the Electric Ireland throwback stage later. / Facebook
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Bare limbs are covered in goosebumps and there are a lot more coats, scarves and hats on display than usual. But the drop in temperature seems to be the only complaint. An Garda Siochana have said they are not aware of any arrests so far and organisers say everything is going to plan.
Oh, and it hasnt rained yet. A status yellow weather warning is in place for later this evening but nobody wants to think about that for now.
For the McCormacks from Laois, its been a "wonderful family day out". Aaron McCormack (9), brother Ben (5) and cousin Declan Fingleton (10) have been making the most of the funfair amusements, doing the rounds on the Ferris Wheel, but theyre saving their energy for their favourite band, The Strypes.
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"Its been great coming here as a family. Its a little cold, you can really feel it now but were having a good time so thats all that matters," says the boys grandmother, Frances Carroll.
Its a festival for all ages and all tastes in music, food and banter. Electric Picnic veterans, Simon and Oonagh Kingman from Stradbally have been coming here for 13 years.
"The very first time we came here, we felt like we were the eldest and we were only in our forties," says Oonagh.
"But its different now. There are a great mix of people here. We wont move from the main stage tomorrow. Its our era: Chaka Khan, The Pretenders were really looking forward to it. Itll be such a good buzz."
Expand Expand Previous Next Close Simon and Oonagh Kingman from Stradbally Michael Duffy from Donegal and Ben Ma from Sydney / Facebook
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Saturdays highlights are American rockers, Interpol; legendary DJ, Pete Tong and hip hop royalty, A Tribe Called Quest.
Michael Duffy from Donegal and Ben Ma from Sydney are especially looking forward to seeing the New York rappers. Its the final time the group will tour and the first time theyve ever played in Ireland. For hip hop fans, this will be a moment.
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"We cant wait. Run the Jewels will be great too but A Tribe Called Quest seeing them is going to be unreal," says Michael.
A top Kinahan gang member, who has been languishing in a Spanish jail since he was arrested by heavily armed police, has been moved to a high-security prison in Madrid.
The move was ordered by prison officials after the 34-year-old gangster received a "suspicious visit" by a "mystery man".
The thug - who cannot be named for legal reasons - was arrested in north-east Spain last month in connection with the murder of Eamon 'The Don' Dunne, a major crime figure.
Dunne was gunned down at The Fassaugh House Pub in Cabra in 2010.
Confusion remained last night over whether the north inner city thug was willing to be extradited to Ireland.
Sources said gardai have not received notice of an extradition court hearing in Madrid.
Tough
The gangster has been locked up since August 9, when Spanish police - operating on a gardai tip-off - stormed a hotel room in Tarragona, 60 miles south of Barcelona.
However, it has now emerged that, just days after his incarceration, he was transferred to a tough jail in Madrid.
"An Irishman claiming to be a relative attempted to visit him," said a source. "But prison guards became suspicious of the mystery man and he was denied access."
The gangster was then moved to a more secure prison, where he is allowed no visitors.
Details of his life on the run emerged last night, including a recent bizarre incident in which he narrowly escaped arrest while on holiday in Portugal. Before local police could pounce, the gangster - a slightly- built fitness fanatic - escaped through a bedroom window.
"This man was on the run for almost seven years and, because of his links to the cartel, he was never short of money at any stage," said a source.
"He travelled around on a false passport.
"A fuller picture of his life on the run is emerging all the time and it seems that he spent much of it in southern Spain moving from apartment to apartment.
"He always stayed in ground-floor properties, so that he could jump out a window if police came knocking."
The gangster is considered a "trusted" member of the international crime syndicate with access to large amounts of cash.
He is believed to have used a number of aliases since he went on the run and is wanted by police throughout Europe for various crimes.
The north inner city flats where he lived are now the focus of heavily-armed gardai checkpoints as officers try to keep a lid on the long-running Kinahan-Hutch feud.
Days after the gangster was arrested as he slept beside a woman in a hotel room, Spanish police released a video of the raid.
Footage showed the elite team, armed with semi-automatic weapons fitted with flashlights, burst into the room.
They can be heard shouting, "las manos, las manos" - Spanish for "hands up, hands up" - before yelling in English, "don't move".
The gangster had checked into the hotel using a false identity.
The armed police were part of a special operations group in Catalonia that is often called on to rescue hostages or take out terrorists.
Spanish police revealed they had come close to catching the wanted gangster in November at Malaga Airport on the Costa del Sol.
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He escaped after crossing a busy motorway as officers closed in on him when he went to meet relatives arriving from Ireland.
The gangster is a close associate of another key cartel thug and a criminal who was arrested in connection with the murder of Dunne.
It is believed Dunne was killed because the murders he was involved in were drawing gardai attention to the cartel's crime network.
Dunne had assumed control of the Finglas-based drugs and armed operation previously led by Martin 'Marlo' Hyland.
His gang was a major importer of drugs, supplying them to smaller operations throughout the country.
Dunne is suspected of being involved in up to 15 gangland killings before his murder by the cartel.
A MAN has died in a house fire in Cork.
The man, understood to be 86 years of age, died after his home outside Buttevant in north Cork caught fire last night.
Another man, aged in his 40s and understood to the gentleman's nephew, was injured in the fire.
He was rescued from the house and taken by ambulance to Cork University Hospital.
His injures are not thought to be life threatening.
Former Fine Gael councillor in the area Tom Sheahan said the deceased was "a very highly regarded person all his life."
"He was a lovely man and his family are the same," Mr Sheahan told Independent.ie.
"Everybody is shocked. He was a great age, and it is such a pity to make this age and die in this way."
Mr Sheahan said the gentleman was "very well known", a regular at Mass and was "very active, right until the end."
He also credited the paramedics and emergency services for their work at the scene.
Blaze
Neighbours detected the blaze and alerted both Gardai and Cork Fire Brigade.
However, intense heat and smoke prevented locals from gaining access to the property.
Gardai and fire services attended the scene of the fire at Knockbarry Cottages at approximately 9.30pm. The fire was brought under control by fire services a short time later.
The man was eventually removed from the blazing building but was pronounced dead before he could be transferred to Cork University Hospital (CUH).
Substantial damage was caused to his home by the blaze.
While the cause of the fire is not yet known, there are no indications the blaze was suspicious.
A full post mortem examination will be conducted at Cork University Hospital (CUH).
However, it is suspected the man died from the effects of smoke inhalation.
Garda and Cork Fire Brigade experts will examine the property once it is safe to do so to determine precisely how and where the blaze started.
The Coroner has also been notified.
The construction company behind dozens of schools built under the Department of Education's "rapid build" programme in 2008 say they do not believe they are "responsible for issues that have presented themselves since the hand-overs."
Western Building Systems Ltd built more than two dozen schools around the country which now require fire audits.
Safety fears were raised this week for thousands of school children after the Department of Education announced it will carry out fire audits at the schools.
It comes as a fire safety audit found breaches of standards at five recently-built primary schools.
The buildings were meant to provide 60 minutes of fire retardation to allow them to be evacuated.
However, the audit found the actual construction meant the level of retardation would be less.
The schools are in Dublin, Wicklow, and Mullingar, and were built under a Rapid Build programme in 2008 by Western Building Systems.
Speaking to Independent.ie, a spokesperson for the company said "it has a distinguished record of delivering high quality buildings for more than 35 years throughout the UK and Ireland."
They added: "We take matters of health and safety very seriously indeed."
The statement continued; "We believe the buildings mentioned in the reports met all relevant fire safety and building regulations at that time on the basis that all of the required building and fire certifications of compliance and completion were issued by the architect and by the client without any note of the defects included in the recently published fire safety reports.
"It is important to note that both building and fire regulations have been updated since the buildings were handed over and that schools are responsible for maintenance programmes once a project has been delivered by the contractor.
"Works were also carried out by other contractors subsequent to our handover and we cannot be held responsible for breaches of regulations or defects that have arisen as a result of the actions of a third party.
"We do not believe Western Building Systems Ltd is responsible for issues that have presented themselves since the hand-overs, some of which were designed and built almost ten years ago.
"However, we have been working closely with the Department and other relevant authorities to assist with maintenance and upgrade works stemming from issues that have come to light since the handovers including those created as a result of the actions of third parties."
They concluded: "The company will be making no further comment at this stage."
The schools involved are Powerstown ETNS in Dublin, Gaelscoil na gCloth Liath, Greystones, Mullingar Educate Together NS and Belmayne Educate Together NS and St Francis of Assisi National School, both in Belmayne in Dublin.
Of those schools where failings were found, a semi-permanent building in Powerstown, Dublin, has since been replaced with a new school building completed earlier this year.
The two schools in Belmayne were constructed as semi-permanent accommodation pending the construction of larger permanent build schools on another site in Belmayne.
These semi-permanent buildings are owned by the construction company and are leased by the department.
Construction of the permanent buildings is scheduled to commence shortly and will be completed in 2018.
However, both Greystones and Mullingar are permanent schools and are owned by the department.
The Greystones building was extended by the department in 2015 and the Mullingar building is currently being refurbished and extended.
The department said: "In summary, the findings of these reports indicated issues of insufficient compliance with some requirements of the fire safety certificates in relation to fire retardation in those buildings.
"The reports found that while the designs which underpinned the Fire Safety Certificates required that the buildings would provide 60 minutes of retardation to facilitate evacuation, the actual quality of construction indicated a level of retardation less than this."
The department said it was important to note "this is not a finding that the buildings are dangerous, it is a finding that the buildings do not comply with the detailed requirements of the Fire Safety Certificates".
Remedial work is due to be carried out shortly in the four remaining schools and the department said it has, and continues, to engage continuously with local fire officers.
The audits at each of the five schools were commissioned after an issue arose in respect of Rush/Lusk ETNS in October 2015, which was built by the same construction firm in 2008.
The department said remedial work at the two Belmayne schools is due to begin later this month, while work will begin in Mullingar ETNS in six weeks' time.
Remedial work will commence at Gaelscoil na nCloth Liath at the end of October.
Members of the Dublin Fire Brigade have rushed to the scene of a massive blaze in south Dublin on Saturday afternoon.
Three engines and a turn table ladder were used to battle the blaze in Inchicore.
It is understood that the fire broke out at around 1pm this afternoon.
Fire fighters have managed to get the blaze under control but are still managing the site.
Large clouds of black smoke coming from site of the fire have been seen by members of the public across Dublin city.
Reports on twitter are claiming that there is a fire in a derelict building across from the Jamestown Markets.
3 fire engines & a turntable ladder are currently dealing with an industrial #fire in Inchicore. Breathing apparatus in use #Dublin pic.twitter.com/ElZDuIx4Av Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) September 2, 2017
Emergency services are also currently at the scene.
More to follow...
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams faces a furious backlash from farmers and victims' families after suggesting the murder of innocent father Tom Oliver go unpunished.
Senior Government ministers warned Mr Adams that there will be "no amnesty" for those who committed "senseless" killings during the Troubles.
Mr Adams sparked outrage when he claimed that jailing the IRA murderers of the Co Louth farmer would be "totally and absolutely counterproductive".
In an interview on LMFM, Mr Adams described Mr Oliver's death in 1991 as a "politically motivated killing".
But farming groups rounded on Mr Adams, with many demanding justice for the family. Decades after the father-of-seven was abducted from his home in Riverstown, near Carlingford, the name Tom Oliver still stands out in farming circles.
President of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association John Comer said there could be no question of suspending or abandoning the investigation.
"We - and I think the vast majority of citizens - see the need for justice to be done for Mr Oliver's family and community and the justice system should proceed on that basis," said the Co Mayo farmer.
The current chair of the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) in Co Louth said many farmers in the area would remember the killing. "The family do deserve justice, it is going on long enough now," said Gerard Melia.
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IFA president Joe Healy added that the murder "shook farming and the young farming community to the core".
There is massive anger from many members of the farming community contacted in the Riverstown area, despite the years passing since the death.
Some of the livestock farmers recalled the terror that you might come across something that you shouldn't see, as you went about your business.
Agriculture Minister Michael Creed backed the farmers' calls for justice and said Mr Adams had made an "appalling suggestion" of forgiveness.
"We have an independent judicial system, independent Office of Public Prosecution, we have a Garda force that has served us well since the foundation of the State.
"And, if all of those institutions are doing their job correctly, then if there is evidence people should be brought before the courts. And there is no place for political interference in terms of the administration of justice. The Oliver family have waited long enough for justice."
His Cabinet colleague Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan also strongly criticised the remarks by Mr Adams. "The brutal murder of Tom Oliver was one of the most senseless acts of bloody murder whereby a wife and children were robbed of their husband and father," he said.
"Under no circumstance can the abduction and murder of a man be justified - for political or ideology means. I would say to Gerry Adams there can be and will be no amnesty of any sort or kind under the so-called banner of the Troubles. Garda authorities are taking this murder extremely seriously. Should new evidence emerge it will be acted upon immediately."
Austin Stack, the son of murdered chief prison officer Brian Stack, said Mr Adams was disrespectful towards victims and contemptuous of their families.
Mr Stack said: "I know the Oliver family quite well and I know the effect that these outrageous comments will have had on them."
He added that "Adams is trying to rewrite the Good Friday Agreement by suggesting there should be no prosecutions in Troubles-related cases, in fact the Good Friday Agreement specifically allows for prosecutions". He said Mr Adams "is fixated on getting amnesties for those who committed the most heinous of crimes, while at the same time leaving the victims with no answers or justice".
Safety fears have been raised for thousands of school children after the Department of Education announced it will carry out fire audits at more than two dozen schools around the country built over the last 20 years.
It comes as a fire safety audit found breaches of standards at five recently-built primary schools.
The buildings were meant to provide 60 minutes of fire retardation to allow them to be evacuated.
However the audit found the actual construction meant the level of retardation would be less.
The schools are in Dublin, Wicklow, and Mullingar, and were built under a Rapid Build programme in 2008 by the same construction company.
They are Powerstown ETNS in Dublin, Gaelscoil Clocha Liatha, Greystones, Mullingar Educate Together NS and Belmayne Educate Together NS and St Francis of Assissi National School, both in Belmayne in Dublin.
Of those schools where failings were found, a semi-permanent building in Powerstown, Dublin, has since been replaced with a new school building completed earlier this year.
The two schools in Belmayne were constructed as semi-permanent accommodation pending the construction of larger permanent build schools on another site in Belmayne.
These semi-permanent buildings are owned by Western Building Systems and are leased by the department.
Construction of the permanent buildings is scheduled to commence shortly and will be completed in 2018.
However, both Greystones and Mullingar are permanent schools and are owned by the department.
The Greystones building was extended by the department in 2015 and the Mullingar building is currently being refurbished and extended.
The department said: In summary, the findings of these reports indicated issues of insufficient compliance with some requirements of the fire safety certificates in relation to fire retardation in those buildings.
The reports found that while the designs which underpinned the Fire Safety Certificates required that the buildings would provide 60 minutes of retardation to facilitate evacuation, the actual quality of construction indicated a level of retardation less than this.
The department said it was important to note this is not a finding that the buildings are dangerous, it is a finding that the buildings do not comply with the detailed requirements of the Fire Safety Certificates.
Remedial work is due to be carried out shortly in the four remaining schools and the department said it has, and continues, to engage continuously with local fire officers.
The audits at each of the five schools were commissioned after an issue arose in respect of Rush/Lusk ETNS in October 2015, which was built by the same company in 2008.
The department said remedial work at the two Belmayne schools is due to being later this month, while work will begin in Mullingar ETNS in six weeks time.
Remedial work will commence at Gaelscoil na nCloth Liath at the end of October.
Author Mikal O'Boyle moved to Ireland in 2009 to study at NUI Galway, where she met her future husband Adrian. Mikal's new mother-in-law had grown up in the thatched cottage, so when the couple were expecting their first child, Adrian's mother suggested restoring it to its former glory so that the young family would have a home.
The cottage had lain empty for about 35 years, so it was no easy feat for Mikal's father-in-law and brother-in-law to bring it back to habitable condition. They added two bedrooms to the upstairs loft, a kitchen, and renovated the hag - a three-walled room just large enough for a mattress that was traditionally located behind the hearth so that a bed-bound grandparent could keep warm yet be within earshot of the story-telling action in the living room. The family then hired Mayo thatcher Denis Wright to repair the thatch.
For the author of Snake the Gypsy, who grew up in a US home where the temperature was controlled with a flick of the thermostat, living in a thatched cottage in the west of Ireland has proven to be a learning curve.
Restoring and living in a traditional cottage is a longing held by many but not always a practical one. Through the restoration the O'Boyle family discovered both sides of the thatched dream.
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"The biggest challenge is heating the house," Mikal says. "I had to learn how to keep the range on all day by throwing in coal, turf and wood so it heats the radiators.
"To look at the outside of the cottage, you'd think you'd walk in and step back in time. But we do have Wi-Fi and I tutor English over Skype."
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In the 19th century, up to half of the Irish population slept under thatched roofs. But they began to fall out of fashion after the introduction in the mid-20th century of government grants that encouraged homeowners to replace thatch with easier-to-maintain slates or tiles. Thatched cottages became associated with housing for the poor and gradually were left to decay, according to The Irish Cottage: History, Culture and Design, a new book by Marion McGarry that has just been published.
Michael Masterson, a 62-year-old builder from Moyne, Co Longford who focuses on restoring old properties, says: "Slate came to be everything - it was an indication of an improvement in your standing or status - and the thatchers began to die out."
Indeed, there are now only 40 thatchers in Ireland, according to Thatch, a guide to the repairing of thatched roofs published by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in 2015. The guide estimates that there are 3,000 thatched buildings left in Ireland.
But people like Mikal O'Boyle and Michael Masterson are part of a burgeoning movement that is seeing homeowners eschew the comforts of new-builds for restoring thatched cottages, either to live in or to let out through Airbnb. For them, these timepieces are characterful slices of heritage that maintain a link with the past.
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In the early Noughties, Michael bought a patch of land with a collection of old buildings, including the dance hall where his parents met, with an eye on renovating them. Among them were the ruins of a thatched cob (with walls of compacted earth) cottage that Michael estimates was initially built in the mid-1700s.
"Growing up, that house had the first television in the village, in the 1960s," he says. "We'd go there to watch Tolka Row and The Riordans; my mother would bring three or four of us to the house and dress us up like we were going to the movies."
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In the meitheal tradition, Michael rebuilt the 18th-century cottage with the help of his four children and some neighbours in 2009. Despite getting a grant of 4,500 for thatching the cottage, the cold winters of 2009 and 2010 delayed him from roofing it. The work was finally carried out in 2012 by a nearby thatcher and artist called Orla O'Neill, using reeds Michael had bought in the Co Limerick village of Foynes, on the banks of the Shannon estuary.
"Orla was a curator at an art gallery in Scotland, and I brought her back to do the thatch," he says.
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Michael, whose grandmother lived in a thatched cottage until it fell in the 1960s, moved into his own cottage in 2013 but lets it out on Airbnb during the summer.
"The French have a great appreciation for it," he says. "I've also had a family from Lanzarote come to stay, and a man from Israel who lives in a yurt and builds yurts."
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Emma Byrne, a graphic designer who celebrated the beauty of the country's thatched cottages in her 2015 book Irish Thatch, fell in love with her four-bed cottage in north Wexford in 2007.
"I had been looking for a house in Dublin at the height of the boom and I realised that all I could get for my budget was small and poky," she says. "I asked if I could work from home a couple of days a week from Wexford, where I was hoping to buy a place with a bit of character. I found this thatched cottage, though some people told me I was mad because it was an old house that would require a lot of maintenance."
In 2014, when it was time for Emma to rethatch the cottage, she set out to research the craft and to find a suitable thatcher. But there was a dearth of information online, so she began to drive around the country to examine the work of thatchers and photograph it.
Emma's research into her own Wexford cottage revealed that it had been built in 1840, but that it was on the site of an older house that locals said had been there during the 1798 rebellion.
"Mice try and come in during the winter because the thatch is nice and warm," she says. "When an old socket blew upstairs and came off the wall, there was a mouse inside, curved around the middle; it was a feat of gymnastics. Then crows arrived and were pecking holes in the thatch, so I put up a dead crow on the roof to deter them."
Emma hired a master thatcher called Peter Childs after being impressed by examples of his work on other cottages. Some 80pc of the cost of the work was covered by a grant. Emma and her family continued living in the cottage while Peter Childs spent eight weeks stripping off the old thatch and redoing it, but she believes it was worth it.
"A new house doesn't appeal to everyone - there are other ways to live," she says. "I was cold during my first winter here, but I've never had a cold living here. And it's hardly a Victorian lifestyle: I have a shower, a bath, broadband, a dishwasher and a washing machine; I'm not exactly doing all my washing on a scrubbing board."
The work of a number of local artists is featured in a new cookbook launched last week to raise funds for displaced people from Syria and Iran.
Petra Berntsson, Patricia Murphy and Adrienne Finnerty were among the hundred or so national and international artists who contributed to the project in aid of the Syria Vibes project.
Petra's recipe is for a chocolate cake inspired by the coffee shop where her sister worked in Gothenburg which is a firm favourite with her family, while Patricia adapted a favourite fish recipe by chef Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and Adrienne gave a recipe for the 'best ever pizza'.
The book was launched at the Air B'nB headquarters in Dublin recently and is on sale in Avoca Cafes in Dublin and from scoopfoundation.squarespace.com
Local musician Gary J Conlon was one of the many young people who left Ireland during the recession, arriving in Toronto in 2011 in pursuit of a new life and a new musical endeavour. Juggling job interviews with band listings, Gary met Montreal keyboard player Tom Bell and from there they dabbled in folk and rock music before settling on electronic pop.
The result was Honey Beard, with the duo choosing to play as many instruments as they can live whilst genre bending inside the electronic envelop.
Gary cites his former band 'Artificial Flight' and his old band members Jennifer Finnegan, David McEneaney and Sean Branton as a massive influence on him.
Honey Beard take to the Electric Picnic's Global Green Stage on Saturday September 2 at 7pm.
Dundalk artist Roseann Berrill grew up in a creative household so it's little wonder than she decided to follow her dream and go to art college.
'My mother Marie worked as a seamstress or dressmaker and I remember her Irish dancing costumes, wedding dresses and curtains. I grew up around her being creative with fabric so I was always I was always fabric and embellishment, embroidery or knitting.' Her Dad Gene was a much loved musician who passed away last year.
Having loved art as a student at St Vincent's Secondary School, Roseann says she always knew she wanted to go to art college, and completed the very popular Post Leaving Cert art course at O'Fiach Institute of Further Education before applying to the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.
'I originally thought I would do art and education but that changed because I was drawn towards fabric and textiles.'
'I really loved my four years at college,' she recalls. 'I was in a very small class - there were only 15 of us so it was intense and intimate.
Roseann graduated in 2016, showing her work in the annual Graduate Show as well as the Knitting and Stitching Show in the RDS in 2015. Her work was also shown in the Emerging Artists exhibition in St Patrick's University Hospital, Dublin and in the recent exhibition hosted by M'Anam in the County Museum, Dundalk.
She is now working on a new collection which explores youth and the media culture for an exhibition which goes on show in The Basement Gallery throughout the month of September.
As the current artist in residence at An Tain Arts Centre, Roseann has spent the past two months preparing for the exhibition.
'I was delighted to get this residency as it's given me the opportunity to work in this fantastic space,' she says. 'It's different from college as you're on your own, making decisions so it's both scary and really exciting,'
Her work incorporates drawing, printing, embroidery and textiles. 'It's bold and colourful and it's inspired by the media culture and my friends and what's happening in my own life,' she explains.
The result is a series of large scale pieces, with playful drawings of friends and acquaintances, embellished with beads and embroidery.
She draws inspiration from a diverse range of artists and genres, and is also making lanterns which will be installed during the exhibition which will evolve during the month of September.
Having already run workshops for young people from the Craobh Rua youth club during the summer, Roseanne is inviting people to join her for installation workshops every Saturday morning to work on pieces which will be added to the exhibition.
These are suitable for those aged eight and upwards and participants will contribute pieces which will be included in the exhibition. 'It's mainly geared towards young people as the work itself is bold and colourful and it really appeals towards that age group.'
'We are having a closing night instead of an opening as work will be added to the exhibition throughout the month.'
Roseann's exhibition 'Follow the Stream' will be on display in The Basement Gallery every Tuesday to Saturday from 11am to 4pm.
The installation workshops take place on Saturday mornings from 11am to 1pm, while the closing event takes place on Saturday September 30 at 7pm.
On Sunday afternoon there really was only one place to be and that was the Quay Celtic grounds for the Daffy Duck Derby to raise funds for SoSad which helps reduce the number of suicides in Ireland and run a 24-hour helpline 042 9327311, 083 4244182.
The crowds were gathering for the release of 7,000 ducks into the Castletown River by none other than living legend and Dundalk FC manager Stephen Kenny. The ducks are all sponsored and have to travel around 300 metres in the race with prizes for the first past the post.
I was only there when I met up with one of the main organisers Gerry Duffy from the Meadows who told me this is the 5th year the race has taken place and wanted a special mention for chairperson Regina O'Hare and the rest of the hard-working committee Madeline Carroll, Cathy Cousins, Maria O'Toole, Michael Muckian Mark Kelly and Paul Taaffe.
He also wanted to thank Stephen Kenny for helping out, the Dundalk Sub Aqua Club for making the entire event safe, Bino Gray for his tireless work and taking the ducks to all the Dundalk FC games and Quay Celtic for the use of their facilities.
I then headed over for a word with Yvonne Curtis, Aoife and Tony Moriarty from Seacrest Manor and Gussy the dog who were there to support the cause and also to see Stephen getting the whole thing under way.
After this I met up with Joe Quigley and Lorraine Carroll-Quigley from Bay Estate who told me they knew their ducks weren't going to let them down and would be there or there abouts at the winner's tape.
Not too long later I headed over for a word with Nigel Caldwell from Manydown Close who was with Adrienne, Mark, Barbara, Hallie, Nuala and Gillian as well as Lola the dog and they couldn't wait for the craic to get going on the river.
Next I headed over for a quick word with Marianne Boothman from Toberona who had brought along Lara and Ava specially for the race and was looking forward to seeing her duck do well.
Not too long later I met up with Ursula Shevlin from Barrack Street who was with son James who was actually playing for Quay Celtic on the pitch, but would be finished in time for the race.
I then headed over for a chat with Oliver Morgan and Brendan Byrne and dog Enzo from Meadow Grove who were working as volunteers on the day for such a worthy cause and were in great form.
Two ladies who were certainly enjoying the occasion were Alice Daly from Bishops Court and Maura Hennessy from Drogheda who told me they'd be keeping an eye on their ducks.
One man who was busy on the day was Graham Gorham from Drogheda who was helping out with the organisation of the race.
Making my way through the crowds I then got talking to Thomas and Elaine Bradley from Kilcurry who were with kids Ronan and Donal who were there for the race but were more interested in meeting 'The Gaffer' Stephen!
Making sure that everyone got safely up on to walkway at the river were Igors Sicevics from Mountain Court and Paul Watters from Newry who were looking forward to the big event.
Already up on the walkway were Eugene McArdle from Darver and his grandson Harry Underwood from Glenwood who told me they were quietly confident that their ducks would be in the running (or should that be paddling) at the end of the race.
Next I met my old neighbours Katie and Layla Byrne from Anne Street who were having a great time at the race and wanted to wish the organisers all the best with the event.
After this I got talking to organiser Madeline Carroll from McSwiney Street who was chatting to Siobhan Kenny from Donegal who was with son Eoin and his friend Caoimhin who is a Derry City supporter and they too were looking forward to seeing their ducks in action.
Finally, before I departed, I met up with Ann Coyle from St Marys Road and Mairead Smyth from Castle Road who told me if their ducks won, they'd definitely donate the prizemoney, but they were looking forward to a great race all the same.
The Seatown Festival returns to Dundalk this weekend.
Headliners for the free festival include Jake Carter, Dublin City Ramblers, The Nooks, The Willing Fools, Who's Eddie and the Dundalk Brass Band filling Seatown with live music from 4pm each day.
This year's Seatown Festival has been sponsored by Guinness and the coming together of participating bars - McManus' Bar; Castle Bar; Donnolly's Bar and O'Carroll's Bar who have worked hard on a fantastic line up.
The weekend also supports the locally based Men's Sheds, SOSAD and The Birches.
Festival Organiser Greg Gormley said 'We've worked hard on ensuring we have a line up to suit as many people as possible and thanks to sponsorship from Guinness, it will be a non-ticketed event.'
The live music starts on Saturday with The Nooks, followed by the Dublin City Ramblers at 7pm and Jake Carter at 9pm. Sunday's line up starts with the Dundalk Brass Band; Who's Eddie at 6pm and The Willing Fools at 9pm.
'There's nothing like it, feeling the pressure of twice your own body weight, and then within seconds your are weightless,' says Niamh Shaw.
The Dundalk woman has just returned from her first 'zero G' flight from the cosmonaut training centre in Russia - Star City.
Still high from the exhilaration of the experience, Niamh says she is thrilled that she also managed to make one little boy's dream come true by taking a drawing of Mars he had done with her.
'This little boy, Hayden Geraghty from Derry, has autism. But his love of space has helped him immensely with communication.
I tweeted about my zero G trip before I went, just to get the message out there to the public. His mum came back to me asking of I could take a picture of Mars he had drawn with me. I was really delighted to.'
She explained how her visit to the Russian space centre began with vital health checks.
'There are very strict medical tests before you are approved to go on the flight. I passed all those which was great, and we began some training in a number of routines such as putting on a parachute in the event of an emergency.'
Niamh boarded the flight the following day with a group of adventurers and star seekers from across the globe.
Known as a 'parabolic' flight, it began an ascent at 24,000 feet on a 45 degree angle up to 32,000 feet
'This is when we experience 2g, twice the force of gravity on our bodies. Then as the plane ends that manoeuvre and begins its descent we, in the plane, are in free fall and experience weightlessness for about 30 seconds. The plane then nosedives in another 45 degree manoeuvre downwards and we feel 2G again on our bodies,' explained Niamh.
'The plane then plateaus back to a normal flight pattern and begins the manoeuvre again to allow us experience weightlessness up to 10 times over the 2 hours flight.'
'When the 2 g hit it really was like nothing I have ever encountered, not a nice feeling at all! The pressure is twice your own body weight. I was really worried about being sick, as it is a common reaction at that point, but I managed to keep my head and body really still which helped.'
'Within seconds we were weightless... and it was just an amazing experience. To be without gravity, you just don't know where you are for a bit. I actually couldn't stop laughing, it was just such a bizarre sensation not to have any control. I held on to the bar initially, but by then end I was able to let go and float around.'
She added that the group were fortunate to experience weightlessness ten times during the flight, for up to 30 seconds each time, giving them time to adjust to the experience.
As artist in residence at Blackrock observatory in Cork, Niamh has explored and promoted her love of space through art.
'All of these experiences I have had, they inform the work I do, the shows I create, so I really wanted to film the zero G flight as it happened. Thankfully, our instructor helped me make that happen, and I'm really looking forward to sharing the footage.'
During one of the zero gravity moments, Niamh managed to release little Hayden's painting of Mars into the weightless atmosphere, a 'special moment' which she also captured on film.
'My dream has always been to go into space. But I am incredibly privileged to meet some amazing people on this journey, like Hayden, or a woman in her 60's who was also on the zero gravity flight, who is an accomplished ski-er. All of their stories have broadened my own outlook on life.'
Niamh previously made headlines after she took part in a simulated 'Mission to Mars' in the Utah desert last year. She was a member of a unique group from around the world who were hand picked to live and work in a simulated Mars environment.'
All of these experiences have informed her new theatre production, which she is currently preparing for.
'I go into rehearsals for my new theatre show 'Diary of Martian Beekeeper' next week, a highlight event at this years Space week, which takes place between 4th and 10th October 2017.
This show is set in the future, in 2036 where Niamh is part of Crew 173, a crew on Mars to establish the new colony and conduct experiments to ensure the future survival of humans when they eventually settle on this new planet.
The show has been made in collaboration with CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory and ESERO Ireland, created with the support of the European Space Agency's Astronaut Centre and funded by Science Foundation Ireland.
It will run at the Rory Gallagher Theatre in CIT Cork from Oct 3-10th.
Further details at my website www.niamhshaw.ie and all Space week events at www.spaceweek.ie
Dundalk Chamber of Commerce has sent their Brexit-related shopping list to the government as preparations for Budget 2018 continue.
The submission reiterates a number of the points that the chamber in Dundalk has been making to successive governments since 2000, including that the town be granted Living City status and that VAT and other taxes 'be set by reference to Northern Ireland and currency rates'.
The organisation wants the reciprocal recognition of the UK and Ireland BES/EII schemes to allow investors in one jurisdiction invest in the other and the targeting of bespoke employment schemes at the deprived regions of the area.
And they want the government to allow accelerated capital allowances to specified industries for a specified time line, which should, they said, be specifically targeted at Mullaharlin site, while care should be taken not to displace.
Brexit related issues are to the fore in the submission, as expected and the chamber wants the government to look for dispensation from European State Aid rules, if necessary, in order to Brexit-proof the country as much as possible.
In addition, the chamber wants the Living City initiative to be customised for Dundalk and local authority rates support on a step down basis linked to proximity to border.
They would like to see soft loans/interest support for SME exporters and for retailers in certain sectors and point to the fact that Dundalk is to be re-rated next year and 'special consideration should be applied on a short term basis in recognition of Brexit'.
Income tax rules for employees of UK businesses relocating to Dundalk, who retain UK residence by moving to Newry should be reviewed.
Meanwhile, the Chamber suggests, the government should have the long term goal of matching UK personal tax rates, continue the increase in tax credit until it matches PAYE credit, abolish the 3% surcharge on non-PAYE income over 100,000 and increase capital expenditure on infrastructure, financed as outlined in Chambers Ireland submission.
Chamber president Michael Gaynor said: 'We have worked with both Drogheda Chamber and Warrenpoint and Newry. We firmly believe that the region is under severe threat and that it is the government's duty to represent all 32 counties over the next two years.
'There is no part of life from commuting to education to shopping that is not due for an upheaval. Businesses face the same uncertainty from tourism to agriculture to manufacturing.
'We share, with Louth County Council, the concern over the proposed downgrading of the gateways and in particular the fact that none of the growth cities are north of a line from Dublin to Galway. This does not show long term planning in the context of Brexit.
'We believe that Dundalk has untapped potential to be a growth city. It can be seen as a major urban centre in its own right, as part of the linear city of Newry, Dundalk, Drogheda, or as a town equidistant from Dublin and Belfast able to accommodate workers from either city'.
Principal Rory Kinane and Chair of the Board of Management Cllr Jennifer Whitmore at the site in Charlesland where the new Greystones Community School will be built
Greystones Community National School has been granted planning permission for a permanent home.
The school, which currently based at Greystones Rugby Club, opened its doors in 2015. The new permanent facility will be located in Charlesland.
At the start of its life, the school was briefly in Templecarrig school until the existing facility at the rugby club was ready.
The new 4,763 square metre school will include three storeys, 24 classrooms, a hall, and a two-classroom special needs unit.
'We are thrilled that the new building is on the way and can't wait to continue the Greystones CNS journey in what will be a state of the art school when completed,' said principal Rory Kinane.
'We have been very happy in the rugby club. We look forward to moving to our permanent home in Charlesland once the build is complete.'
The school will remain at the rugby club site in the existing portacabins until the new build is complete.
Cllr Jennifer Whitmore, who is chair of the board of the school, welcomed the decision.
'This is a big milestone for our school and I am looking forward to working with the parents, staff, KWETB and the Department to deliver a fantastic new primary school to Greystones,' she said.
'It's great to see how far the school has progressed in the space of a couple of years and it already has become a big part of the Greystones community. It's an exciting time for the school and I very much look forward to the next phase.'
Deputy Stephen Donnelly, who has campaigned for the school for the past five years, said: 'I have been working closely with the Department of Education, parents and staff since the school opened its doors to find a permanent home for it.
'It looks like that this has now become a reality. The department is setting a target of 2018 for completion of the school, and credit is due to parents and staff for pushing for this project to be prioritised.
'It's vital that the school has a purpose-built facility that allows it to meet the growing demand in the Charlesland area.
The next priority is to ensure that building begins as quickly as possible in order to be completed in 2018.'
The school, which opened with one junior infants class, took in its third set of junior infants pupils in September 2017.
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Schools are ranked by numbers going on to an Irish university, such as Trinity College
Ten Co Wicklow secondary schools are included in a league table of 400 'top schools' in Ireland, ranked by the number of pupils going on to university after their Leaving Cert.
Gaelcholaiste na Mara in Arklow has climbed 48 places on the list, published annually by the Sunday Times, and ranks highest in Wicklow, and 35th overall in the country. With 70.1 per cent of students attending a university, and almost 92 per cent at third level, the school is second overall in Leinster (excluding Dublin).
St Gerard's School in Bray has jumped two places on the list, to 68th place, with 63.4 per cent at university and 97.5 per cent going on to third level. It is ranked seventh overall in Leinster (excluding Dublin).
Colaiste Raithin, the Irish secondary school located in Bray, has climbed to 141st place on the list, up from 213th last year.
East Glendalough in Wicklow town is 171th, down 12 places, while Loreto Secondary School in Bray is up seven places to 191st.
St Mary's College in Arklow is another major mover, up 63 places on the previous year.
Some principals criticise the publication of the list as schools are measured not by the numbers pursuing a third level education, but the number of pupils attending one of the nine universities on the island of Ireland, the main teacher training colleges, the Royal College of Surgeons, or the National College of Art and Design.
No account is taken of students attending college in the UK or further afield, or those at colleges specialising in repeat exams or plc courses.
The Wicklow Top Ten
1 Gaelcholaiste na mMra
(ranked 35) 70.1%
2 St Gerard's School
(ranked 68) 63.4%
3 Colaiste Raithin
(ranked 141) 53.7%
4 East Glendalough
(ranked 171) 51%
5 Loreto Bray
(ranked 191) 49.3%
6 St Mary's College
(ranked 282) 41.4%
7 Colaiste Bhride Carnew
(ranked 325) 38.9%
8 St David's, Greystones
(ranked 335) 38.5%
9 St Kevin's Community College
(ranked 360) 36.4%
10 Dominican College
(ranked 382) 35%
Percentage represents number of students from the school who registered for university in the academic years 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17, divided by three.
Fire alarms should be checked regularly and repaired immediately if not working, a jury has recommended after hearing that a fire alarm system was not working at the time of an arson attack which claimed the lives of two men in an apartment block in North Cork three years ago.
The jury at the inquest into the deaths of John Palmer (37) and Greg Lonergan (36) made several recommendations on fire safety after hearing how they had died in an arson attack by Rachel Crawshaw at an apartment at Granary Court, St Joseph's Road Mallow on March 13, 2014.
Crawshaw, a native of Mallow but of no fixed abode, is currently serving a 15 year sentence with five years suspended imposed by Judge Sean O Donnabhain at Cork Circuit Criminal Court for the manslaughter of the two men and the arson attack.
At this week's inquest, on Wednesday, the jury heard the fire alarm system had been disabled by a fire at the complex on February 26, 2014 and was due to be repaired on March 19 but was not working when Crawshaw set fires at three different locations in a flat rented by Mr Palmer's brother, Christopher.
A fire extinguisher on the landing of the third floor was also not working, following an earlier fire, while emergency lighting was also not working, which hampered gardai trying to rescue the two Palmers, Mr Lonergan and Crawshaw herself from the burning building.
The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter in accordance with a finding of Cork Circuit Criminal Court where Crawshaw was given a 15 year sentence with five years suspended but they also recommended fire alarms be checked every three months and repaired immediately if not working.
They also recommended that fire extinguishers should be replaced immediately if used while emergency lighting systems in public areas such as stairs should also be checked regularly and repaired if found not to be working.
Christopher Palmer, who was found unconscious on the third floor landing by Garda Caitriona O'Sullivan and Garda Liam Phillips and was rushed by ambulance to Cork University Hospital, later told gardai that all four of them had been drinking all that day at the flat.
At some stage in the evening "Rachel Crawshaw lost the rag" and began smashing up the apartment, including a TV, hi-fi system and computer and threatened to burn the apartment. "That was Rachel's trademark or main threat, always - that she would burn the place down," he said.
He recalled later that night that "Rachel was again losing the rag - by that I mean going mental - .... Rachel had a lighter in her hand and she set light to something that she was holding - it could have been a duvet or a cushion - I'm just not sure but panic set in around the apartment.
"John, Mushy (Mr Lonergan) and myself tried to stop her ... it was too late and the apartment went up in smoke .... basically, what I am telling you is that there was no fire in my apartment until Rachel Crawshaw used the lighter to set fire to what she was holding."
The inquest heard evidence from paramedic Paddy Moore that Christopher Palmer stopped breathing for two minutes as the ambulance was leaving Ballydaheen but they managed to resuscitate him and he was later treated at Cork University Hospital for smoke inhalation.
The inquest also heard from Mallow Fire Station Officer Tony Douglas that officers using breathing apparatus recovered the badly charred bodies of John Palmer and Mr Lonergan, and both were pronounced dead at the scene around 1am by Dr Raymond Jonas of Mallow Southdoc.
Garda Technical Expert Garda Kevin Sheehan said that he examined the scene and found that there was no sign of any electrical fault causing the blaze and he found three seats of the fire - one in each bedroom and a main one near a sofa in the living room, but no accelerant had been used.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster said both deceased had high levels of alcohol in their system, 353mgs in the case of Mr Palmer and 262mgs in the case of Mr Lonergan, while she also found evidence that both had taken sedatives as well.
Both died from shock due to burns sustained in a house fire in association with smoke inhalation and complicated by alcohol toxicity in association with ingestion of central nervous system depressive drugs, said Dr Bolster.
Both men had 11pc carbon monoxide saturation in their lungs and the normal level that is fatal for a healthy person is 50pc saturation level but the fact that they had been drinking and had taken sleeping tablets and other sedatives meant they were more at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Both men were highly sedated and in the case of Mr Palmer he was in a coma when the fire broke out and both would have been unconscious when the flames started to spread so they would not have felt any pain, she said.
Coroner for North Cork Dr Michael Kennedy thanked the jury for their recommendations and praised Garda O'Sullivan and Garda Phillips for their bravery in rescuing both Chris Palmer and Crawshaw while he also extended his sympathies to the Palmer and Longeran families on their loss.
Marymount is calling on the people of Cork to support Ireland's Biggest Coffee Morning for Hospice Together with Bewley's Celebrates by holding their own coffee morning on 14th September to raise vital funds for Marymount's services.
It is hoped that Ireland's Biggest Coffee Morning will raise a much needed 2 million nationally for local hospice and homecare services - Marymount aims to raise 200,000 alone.
"We would like to invite as many people who can to hold a coffee morning to support Marymount on Thursday 14th September," said Paula McGovern, Head of Commmunications and Fundriaisng at Marymount.
"Our hospice and home care services are under increasing demand and we need to raise 3 million every year to continue to provide our current level of services. Our coffee morning campaign is one of our biggest fundraising efforts. Please get in touch to register your coffee morning today." You can register at http://www.marymount.ie/coffee-morning/ or by calling 021 4501201. Hosts are provided with a free Bewley's coffee morning pack.
Speakeasy Toastmasters extend an invitation to the local community to their first meeting of the new season in the Hibernian Hotel on Thursday, September 7 at 8pm.
Toastmasters is devoted to showing its members how to express their thoughts, ideas and opinions through an enjoyable, yet professional educational experience. 'Learning by doing' is the best way to learn and that is how Toastmasters works.
The experience gained in Toastmasters will help you overcome the nervousness everyone experiences when speaking before an audience. It will help you to get your 'butterflies to fly in formation'. You will acquire the confidence and communication skills to address an audience.
To assist each member, the Toastmasters programme includes evaluation. Each member's speaking performance is evaluated by fellow members in a constructive and helpful fashion and each meeting also has a Topics Session which gives members the opportunity to think on their feet and express their views on various issues, some quite serious, others humorous.
Your improved speaking skills will give you the confidence to communicate effectively at business meetings, job interviews, in community organisations and, of course, in conversation with friends.
So, if you wish to improve your communication skills in an atmosphere of fun and friendship, Toastmasters is the Club for you.
Further information is available from Helsa Giles 083-885848 or Pat Sexton, 086-1564567.
Meanwhile the first anniversary of the sad passing of Tom O'Connor occurs around this time.
Tom was a very enthusiastic and entertaining member of Speakeasy Toastmasters who regaled its members with his wonderful speeches and poetry.
His hilarious recollections of his time in the Patrician Academy will live long in the memories of those who heard them.
The Toastmasters thoughts are with his family at this time.
Renowned comic Ruby Wax is bringing her new show 'Frazzled' to the TLT Theatre this Autumn.
The comic, who returned to university to train as a psychotherapist, will tour her new show based on her Sunday Times number one bestseller 'A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled' across the UK and Ireland from October to December this year.
Following sell-out shows around the country, and a month-long run at Leicester Square Theatre in London, the much-loved comedian, author and campaigner, she will return to the stage this autumn performing a further 22 dates of her one-woman show Frazzled.
Her biggest tour to date, she will be in residence at Underbelly Edinburgh Fringe from 10 to 12 August, before appearing at theatres from Galway to Northampton, from 16 October until 3 December. She will be in Drogheda on Monday, November 6th at 8pm where she will perform at the TLT Theatre.
Wax, holds both American and British citizenship and first came to prominance as a comic interviewr in series such as The Full Wax and Ruby Wax Meets... She was the script editor for the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous and appeared in two episodes.
Wax graduated in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and in 2013 she gained a master's degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy from Oxford University. In 2015, she was appointed a Visiting Professor in Mental Health Nursing at the University of Surrey.
A stunning new series of videos exploring the streets of Drogheda from above with stunning drone footage has just been launched as part of Louth County Council's Tourism and Heritage Strategy.
The series of videos called 'Our Town Stories' is narrated by Louth County Arts Officer Brian Harten who travels around town telling the story of some of Drogheda's most iconic landmarks.
In the videos, Brian visits St Laurence's Gate, Millmount and St Peter's Church on West Street.
These beautiful 3-minute videos act as an invitation to people from all over the world to come and visit Drogheda.
The first of these videos has recently been completed and launched by Louth County Council.
The project was developed by Louth County Council as part of their new Tourism and Heritage Strategy. Our Town Stories tells the story of Drogheda's heritage buildings using drone photography, narration and music.Mary T. Daly of Louth County Council explains: 'The concept is to use storytelling to change how people experience our places, our past and our people. Storytelling is a really powerful way to draw out the human story from our history and heritage.
'Ireland's Ancient East, an initiative of Failte Ireland, encourages people to tell the stories that make their community unique. Drogheda's heritage is so diverse and colourful. We wanted to find a way to communicate our history but also the vibrancy of this modern town.
'St Peter's is one of my favourite places. I'm captivated by the history of the building and the shrine to St. Oliver Plunkett. I approached Archdeacon James Carroll with a suggestion for how we could tell the story and was delighted that he shared our enthusiasm,' Mary explained.
Archdeacon Carroll added: 'Listening to Council's idea, I knew that Mary and the team would work hard to tell the story of St. Peters in a sensitive manner. The result is a video that is informative, engaging and beautiful.'
The 'Our Town Stories' have been filmed and edited by Drogheda native Noel Meehan.
It features drone footage taken over Drogheda and from a height within the nave of St Peter's church. The stunning footage shows some of the towns best known sites in a completely new light.
This first of the three videos will be released this week on the new www.Drogheda.ie and www.VisitLouth.ie websites.
The other two videos will be released later in the year.
The new websites act as a one stop shop for anyone visiting the town or county and are filled with guides, maps and lots of wonderful ideas for what to do when on holidays.
'Drogheda and the Boyne Valley have so much to offer to visitors. We want to reach out to people across the world and invite them to come and experience it for themselves,' added Mary.
Noel has shared some of the amazing footage through facebook on his page CopterView.
Louth County Council and An Taisce's Green-School's Programme together with the Gardai and Dundalk Chamber of Commerce are asking parents, teachers and students who attend schools in Dundalk, to begin the new academic year by reviewing their commute to school.
By rethinking the school run, families can arrive at the school gates more alert while helping reduce traffic congestion in their communities.
An active commute means healthier students who are more conscious and aware of their surroundings and can socialise with their friends on the journey to school. In Ireland just 19% of primary and 12% of post primary children meet the physical activity guidelines of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day.*
Before school begins families can assess their route to and from school and check if they can walk, cycle, scoot or use public transport instead of the private car.
An Taisce actively encourages schools with large catchment areas to locate 'Park 'n' Stride' locations, where parents can park at the halfway point to school and walk the rest of the way.
In Dundalk, 'Park 'n' Stride' parents can avail of free parking after dropping their children to school in designated car-parks displaying the distinctive blue 'Park 'n' Stride' logo. The scheme allows up to 60 minutes parking between the hours of 8am and 9.30am and a further 60 minutes between 1pm and 4pm.
Adrian O'Sullivan, Road Safety Officer with Louth County Council said: 'Research has shown that 'Park 'n' Stride' schemes provide parents with some valued time with their children, giving them an opportunity to have some fun, while walking to and from school. Importantly, it helps to build up their road safety skills.
'It's recognised that children who are active in the morning have better concentration levels in the classroom. It can also reduce the stress levels on parents who otherwise would have to battle to find a parking place close to the school. It also reduces the level of exhaust emissions that our School Crossing Wardens are subject to at school gates'.
An Taisce's Green-Schools Travel theme, the fourth theme of the successful Green-Schools programme, works directly with participating schools, offering them support to encourage sustainable and active travel on the journey to school.
Sorcha Brophy, the local Green-Schools Travel Officer working with Louth schools said: 'As of last year 54 Green-Schools in Louth have achieved their Green-Flag for Travel with nine more expected this academic year.
'This is in no doubt due to the excellent support of the programme from the staff and parents involved as children really do want to travel in an active way'.
This year Sorcha is looking forward to continue working with St. Malachy's Girl's School, who have excellent plans to build on the success of last year and increase the sustainable journeys to school even more with walking and Park and Striding.
'Park 'n' Stride' is supported by Gardai in Dundalk with Superintendent Gerry Curley welcoming the initiative. He said: ''Park 'n' Stride not only highlights the issues around congestion at schools but endeavours to address the issue in a practical manner. Parking in the designated car parks and walking with your child to school will reduce congestion at school gates therefore making it safer for children, parents, teachers and School Crossing Wardens'.
The initiative has been welcomed by Dundalk Chamber of Commerce President Michael Gaynor, who believes that up to two hours free parking available each day should encourage people to avail of the many shops and attractions which Dundalk town centre has to offer. He said: 'The town centre is an excellent place to have a snack, meet friends and of course shop. The Chamber encourages all parents to avail of the scheme and for all retailers to let their customers know. The flexibility of the afternoon times allows for shopping either before or after the school closes and should reduce traffic congestion at school closing'.
Participating in 'Park 'n' Stride' is easy. Just fill out the registration form (available from the participating coordinator at participating schools). You will then receive a 'Park 'n' Stride' sticker to display inside the front windshield of your car. After that, all you have to do is use any of the participating car parks during the specified times to 'Park 'n' Stride'.
Barnardos children's charity is calling on the local community in Louth to join them by volunteering at their National Collection day this September 15th.
The children's charity, who currently work with more than 14,100 children and families across Ireland and has services for children and families across Ireland urge people to register now! www.barnardos.ie/buckets.
By volunteering for just two hours the children's charity estimates that you could contribute up to 100 to Barnardos - which would help them continue their vital services for children in your area. Locations in Louth include: Drogheda, Dundalk and Ardee. To volunteer on Friday 15 September please call Mary Johnston on 01-7080418. For more information, email buckets@barnardos.ie or visit www.barnardos.ie.
Gardai are investigating break-ins at two local public houses which they believe may be connected.
The first incident happened on Tuesday, August 22nd at around 3.20am when The Mariner Pub on the North Quay was broken into.
The front window of the pub was broken and the culprits took a small quanty of cash.
A short time later, at 4.15am, Clarkes Bar on Peter Street was broken into.
A window on the pub was smashed, the till was ransacked and a small quantity of cash was taken.
A spokesperson said gardai believe the same culprits are responsible for both incidents and they are following a definite line of enquiry.
Meahwhile, in a separate incident the We Buy Gold shop on West Street was broken into on the 23rd. Gardai arrived on the scene, searched the premises and found two youths hiding upstairs.
The two youths were arrested and released pending a file to the National Juvenile Diversion Scheme.
Senator Ged Nash has called on the HSE to publish the plan they have received for the continued operation of the Cottage Hospital beyond June 2018.
He pointed out that the HIQA registration for the hospital to operate as a transitional care unit will expire in June 2018.
'Several hundred local people have already benefitted from the care they have received in the Cottage Hospital as they transition from the Lourdes to their own home, as has been the case in 67% of cases. Others who have been cared for in the Cottage have moved into longer term nursing home care.
'The recently published HIQA report highlighted the fact that a time bound and costed plan is required to be submitted to the HSE to allow the facility to be re-registered as a transitional care unit. This is part of the normal statutory re-registration process,' he said.
'I want the HSE to publish that plan immediately and to ensure that the required resources are provided by government to allow the unit to continue to operate beyond mid-2018 and to improve its services in the coming years.'
The Senator went on to say that he and Deputy Fergus O'Dowd had fought hard to retain the hospital as a healthcare facility in Drogheda and had been successful in this campaign. 'That campaign kicked off in early 2012 and that result was achieved against the odds,' he said. 'Now I want to see the HSE's long term plans for the continuation of the service and how they plan to resource the hospital into the long term future. They should publish their plans now.'
Senator Nash said that as a member of the previous government in late 2015, he helped secure a state of the art expanded St Mary's/Boyne View facility which is planned to be developed under the HSE's Capital Plan (2016-2021) and said these plans are advancing.
'HIQA in a recent report has identified issues at the Cottage that urgently need to be resolved around the appropriateness of some admissions, staffing levels, ongoing training and the need to add to the nursing management roles.
Nearly 150 cars of every kind of make and model descended on Bunclody recently for the second annual Aaron 'Chip' Byrne Memorial Run. While last year's event was somewhat of a last minute affair, this year Aaron's family and friends were determined to make it as big as possible and raise a significant amount of money for The Irish Kidney Association and Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin. Aaron passed away in August of 2015, aged just 24, after a lengthy battle with kidney illness. He spent a lot of time in Crumlin as a child and it's for that reason that these charities were picked as beneficiaries.
While the conditions were far from perfect with torrential rain over the course of the day, there was an extremely strong showing of local car enthusiasts from all over Wexford and Carlow. In particular, there was a strong showing of Japanese cars, a favourite of Aaron's with his own Honda Civic being his pride and joy. The drivers didn't let the conditions hamper them too much in any case and there was a great atmosphere as the run made its way from Bunclody to Kildavin, Clonegal, Ardattin, Tullow, Castledermot and Carlow where they stopped for a while before returning through Ballon.
'We're absolutely delighted with how it went, except for the weather,' said Aaron's sister Cora. 'We had double the amount of cars that we had taking part last year. In total, between the street collection on the Friday and Saturday and the run itself, we managed to raise 10,000, so we're delighted with that. The money will be divided equally between both charities and we'll have a presentation night in the River's Edge soon.'
Although they may not have been as gleaming when they returned, the cars were shining as they set off and there were prizes on offer on the day too. John Byrne from Ferns won Best Vintage Car, Best Japanese Car went to Willy Power from Kilrush and the overall Show and Shine went to Joe JR Nolan from Enniscorthy.
With the event proving such a success, thoughts have already turned to next year and the organisers will perhaps be hoping for a little bit of sunshine in which participants can show off their gleaming cars.
An Enniscorthy business woman has called for greater protection for those leasing commercial premises after her landlord gave her three months notice to vacate her premises on Duffry Hill, despite having spent thousands on renovating it.
Siobhan Kehoe started the Sonas Health & Wellness Centre at Duffry Hill just over a year ago and has enjoyed great success there. A trained nurse and midwife, Siobhan helps people from all over the country who are having difficulty conceiving, using acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicines. The business has gone from strength to strength and welcomes customers from all over the country,
Having received notice to vacate the premises from her landlord, Siobhan has been forced to re-locate to Bunclody to the old AIB Bank premises. While her landlord is within her legal rights to give her notice to quit the premises, Siobhan is calling for more protection for businesses renting property locally.
'The same thing happened to the last girl who rented the premises before me,' she said. 'She had spent thousands of euro doing the place up too. There's nothing I can do about it legally. Fortunately, business is going very well, but I just moved house five or six weeks ago and I didn't expect to have the stress of moving business as well. I had no intention of leaving Enniscorthy'
Siobhan says she was given no reason from her landlord as to why their arrangement was being terminated, and it was her understanding that she would take out a three year lease after she finished the one year one.
While it's a shame for Enniscorthy to be losing an award-winning business, it serves as Bunclody's gain as Siobhan sets up shop in the old AIB premises and she aims to be up and running there by early November after she hands back the keys to the current building on October 31.
'I don't want to paint myself as a victim here or anything like that,' she said. 'But really I just feel that something should be done to protect business owners a little bit more. I don't even know what that would involve, but this seems to be a recurring pattern in Enniscorthy in recent years.'
Fingal Dublin Chamber has a new man at the helm in the shape of Anthony Cooney who has just been appointed the organisation's new chief executive officer.
The Board of Fingal Dublin Chamber recently made the appointment and Anthony will take up his new role on August 28.
President of Fingal Dublin Chamber, Guy Thompson said: 'I am delighted to welcome Anthony to Fingal Dublin Chamber as its new CEO, Anthony has over 20 years of commercial and corporate senior leadership experience with a number of organisations in Ireland and the UK. He has excellent business links, a strong track record in developing business opportunities and a deep understanding of the economic development of the Fingal region.'
With almost 350 members and growing, the Chamber is entering an exciting new phase according to Mr Thompson. Anthony has big shoes to fill as he takes over from Tony Lambert, who stepped down as Fingal Dublin Chamber CEO in June after 23 years leading the organisation. Anthony has held senior director roles in FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) industry, B2B support services and the HORECA (Hotel, Restaurant & Catering) services. He is a director of the Irish Foodservice Suppliers Alliance (IFSA).
The new chamber CEO said: 'I am honoured to be selected as the next Fingal Dublin Chamber CEO. Fingal is a vibrant economic area with exceptional medium and small businesses, multi-national organisations and the biggest economic entity, Dublin Airport. I'm looking forward to reaching out to existing and potential members to build further depth and strength in our membership for the benefit of all businesses in the region. I'm also looking forward to working with the existing President Guy Thompson and incoming President, Jock Jordan as well as Board members in making a positive contribution to the chamber and its activities.'
Anthony is married with two children and lives in Malahide.
Diversions will be put in place by Irish Water to facilitate the construction of the long-awaited sewerage line
Irish Water has detailed the diversions that will be in place for traffic during the controversial closure of a section of the Rush to Skerries Road.
From the Lusk direction, the utility advises that all vehicular traffic wishing to access Skerries will divert onto the R127 Rathmore Road (Lusk By-Pass) at Lusk. Buses and trucks will exit the R127 onto the L 1285 at the Baldongan/Ballykea junction and travel onto the L 1285/R128 junction at Loughshinny turning left to access Skerries.
All vehicles wishing to access the Skerries Road, Rush, as far as Palmer Road will turn right at the L1285/R128 junction at Loughshinney heading straight through into Rush.
Irish Water advises that all vehicles wishing to access the Skerries Road, Rush, as far as Kilbush Lane will travel as normal through Rush on the R128 turning left at the traffic lights on the Upper Main Street/Skerries Road junction.
From the Skerries Direction, the utility has advised that all non-HGV traffic or vehicles not affected by the 3.44m height restriction of the R127 wishing to travel to Lusk, Swords and the City should continue to use the R127.
All HGV traffic or vehicles affected by the 3.44m height restriction of the R127 rail bridge wishing to access the Lusk, Swords and the City will travel along the R128 from Skerries turning right onto the L1285 Baldongan/Ballykea road at the Loughshinny crossroads and left at the R127 Skerries/Lusk road travelling to Lusk and following the signs for Swords and Dublin.
Irish Water also advises that all vehicles wishing to access the Skerries Road, Rush as far as Palmer Road will travel on the R128 from Skerries.
The utility has explained that all vehicles wishing to access the Skerries Road,Rush,as far as the Kilbush Lane will travel on the R128 from Skerries turning right onto the L1285 Baldongan/Ballykea road at Loughshinney crossroads. Vehicles should continue and take the R127 Rathmore Road (Lusk By-Pass) to its intersection with the R128 at the Remount Roundabout. Vehicles should take the first exit for Rush turning left at the Upper Main Street/Skerries Road junction.
Explaining why this work is taking place, an Irish Water spokesperson said: 'Irish Water is investing 9.7 million in the Rush wastewater collection project which will benefit over 9,000 residents, tourists and the environment in Rush and will significantly improve the bathing water at South Beach Rush, North Beach and Harbour Road Beach by stopping the discharge of untreated wastewater (sewage) into the sea. At present approximately 75% of sewage generated in Rush discharges untreated into the Irish Sea. The next step in the project requires an upgrade of the sewer network along the R128 and will require a phased road closure which has been submitted to Fingal County Council for approval. The phased road closure will take place from Monday, September 11 to Friday, November 24.
Irish Water is progressing the Rush wastewater collection network to stop the discharge of untreated sewage into the sea off the coast of the town
After a meeting with local political representatives and Fingal County Council, last week, Irish Water has agreed to hold a public meeting on the controversial decision to close the Skerries to Rush Road for up to three months to facilitate works to finally end the flow of raw sewage off the Rush coast.
There will be a drop-in public information evening on the project in the Rush Community Centre on Thursday, August 31 from 4pm to 8pm.
A number of compromises emerged out of the meeting with public representatives and the council, last week and Irish Water has now explained that the works on the R128 will be completed in seven phases.
An Irish Water spokesperson said: 'The first phase of the works will require a Stop/Go single lane closure to be in place. The remaining six phase of works are at a much deeper depth as the sewer is located 4.5 metres underground and will require 160 metres of road to close at a time as works advance through the phases. Pedestrian and cycle access will be available throughout for the duration of the works.'
Addressing the concerns of the worst affected residents in Goldenridge estate, Irish Water explained: 'Throughout the works at least one of the entrances to Goldenridge will be available for use. Unfortunately due to the programme of works of the project, these works could not have been commenced until the pumping station and Palmer Road/Chapel Green works were completed.
'These works are almost complete enabling the Skerries Road works to commence. Concerns have been expressed about an increase in traffic on the Palmer Road during these works affecting both St. Maurs GAA and Gael Scoil Ros Eo. It is proposed to provide a Stop/Go traffic management system at school peak times to better manage traffic flows. Local access only signage will also be erected.'
There was also concerns expressed locally about being cut off from the regular bus service. Irish Water has now announced there will be two free shuttle bus services that will run for the duration and schedule of the Dublin Bus service, seven days a week and will pick up and drop off passengers at all the Dublin Bus stops along the route as requested.
The first bus will take people to Lusk for connection with the Dublin Bus Service and return them to Rush. The bus will operate from the Skerries Road at Rush to Station Road in Lusk also serving Rush/Lusk Train Station on the route. The second shuttle will run from the works area on the Loughshinny side (this will change depending on the work phase) to Loughshinny Cross to link up with the Dublin Bus service.
We all lead busy lives and stress can be high in peak time traffic but are we all in such a hurry that we cannot slow down to let a few schoolchildren cross the road safely?
That is the question being posed by Fingal's 'Lollipop Lads' and 'Lollipop Ladies' - our hard working school wardens who are coming under increasing abuse from hassled motorists.
Niamh Russell has the mammoth task at Fingal County Council of co-ordinating the efforts of Fingal's 117 school wardens, serving 94 school crossings and 59 schools across the county.
She said that the school wardens are her 'eyes and ears' on the front-line and in recent years, a lot of the feedback she gets from wardens is around their concerns about growing abuse from motorists.
Niamh told the Fingal Independent: 'A lot of the feed back I get from the school wardens is about aggressive drivers and they are seeing the same people, day in, day out and some of the main culprits are actually parents.
'They might be in a rush to drop their children to school so they want to drop their children as close to the school as possible and that sometimes can be a school warden's crossing where they are obstructing their line of vision.
'It can be a very difficult situation for a school warden where they have to ask parents to move their cars.'
She added: 'They also get a lot of verbal abuse from motorists in rush hour traffic that are trying to get to work and the warden is trying to stop the traffic to allow children to cross. It definitely has got worse in recent years, I've definitely got more feed back on it. It's definitely increasing and I think stress levels are up.'
Asked what her message would be for drivers, Niamh said: 'At the end of the day, whether you have children or you don't, we were all children once and we all had to get to school safely at one point. The school warden is only there to do a job and protect our future generation - they are not trying to be a hindrance to anyone or ruin anyone's day.'
She added: 'I would say to motorists, slow down and be mindful of your school warden. They are performing a very important role in the community. Slow down around schools - it is just common sense.'
Anne Farrell has worked as a school warden at Pope John Paul II school in Malahide for the last nine years and she said she has 'zero tolerance' for verbal abuse from drivers and reports the registrations of any motorist that cares to dish it out, although she said that where she works, it has not been a huge problem.
She is more concerned about motorists simply not seeing school wardens because they are checking their mobile phones. 'They are on their phones and they whiz through you, whether they see me or they don't, I don't know,' Anne told the Fingal Independent.
But most of the time, Anne loves the job. She explained: 'I absolutely love it - I hate the holidays. I love the children and I just love getting up and out in the morning.
'It gives me structure to my day and then you are meeting the children and you feel you are doing a good job and keeping them safe. I always tell people it's the best job in the world - I don't know why there isn't a trail of people all the way down Swords to the council offices to do this job.'
Andrew Monaghan took up the job after the construction boom crashed and as a carpenter, he was left with little work.
He said he has 'never looked back' since taking the job looking after a crossing at Swords Educate Together and Gaelscoil Brian Boroimhe and loves the role and has 'great craic with the kids' but he recognises that motorists, particularly in morning rush hour, are getting less and less patient.
He said: 'There are some lunatics out there. In fairness, a lot of it is people under pressure trying to get their kids to school and going to work themselves. There is a lot of pressure on people but they need to just slow down and keep an eye on people.
'I've had a few incidents where a kid might run out. I might have 10 kids I'm watching and I'm watching the traffic and next thing, one kid decides to run.
'But you also get motorists on their phones or looking behind them at kids in the back seat and they are not watching the road at all. But I nearly have the cars trained down there at this stage. They see me put out the stick and they stop.'
Andrew would not swap the job now and says: 'I love it - it's just great. You feel appreciated and you are doing some worthwhile.'
Another person who loves the job is Catherine Moore who even came back after being knocked down last summer.
Catherine, who has been on duty for 23 years is on the beat at Holy Family National School in Swords.
She admits it was not an easy decision to take up the lollipop sign again: 'I thought long and hard about it. I thought well if he didn't see me then I'm really at risk here because the volume of traffic has so immensely grown.'
But it was the love of the job and the children whose safety she protects every day, that brought Catherine back on the beat.
She explained: 'I said I would give it a go and see how I felt. But when I went back, the support from the children and the parents was so immense and I was reminded that this is why I love the job.'
Catherine thinks that the only way to make drivers respect the school warden is to apply penalty points to motorists who breach a crossing.
She said: 'I would love a penalty points system to come in where drivers would get one or two points on their licence and that is the only way they will sit up and take note.'
It's memories of happy days as a school warden that keep her going like that day one little boy surprised her with a cake.
She remembered: 'He came up to me at my crossing and there was a cake sale on in the school. So he said: 'Oh no, I forgot my money and I can't get a cake now.' I took out two euro and gave it to him and he said: 'Ah Catherine, you're a star, I love you.'
'It brightened up my day and off he went to school and I told him not to forget to keep me a bit of cake.
'So after school, he was walking by me and I said: 'Where's my cake?'. He said: 'Oh Catherine, I'm so sorry, I forgot.' So I told him I was only joking and he went off.
'But the next day there was no sign of him and I was a worried about him because you get to know the different times the kids arrive at the crossing. I was just about to go when I heard 'Catherine!'.
'And there he was with his bag on his shoulder and he had gone to the shop and bought me an apple cake. That was one of the moments your heart just melts.'
Schools will be back in action this week and traffic will build and tempers may fray but when you are approaching a school and you see that familiar lollipop ahead, please slow down and stop, take a breath and then move on when the lollipop is gone. It could be your child, your niece or nephew waiting to cross the road safely - everything else can wait.
Malahide's Maria Coughlan has said her time representing Dublin in the Rose of Tralee Festival was one of the best experiences of her life.
The primary school teacher and two-times World Champion Irish Dancer said the ten days of the annual contest was like a 'whirlwind' with so many experiences and highlights to cherish.
Now relaxing and coming down from the high of the contest, Maria (25) was one of the 32 Roses who made it to the televised stage of the contest.
Although bookmakers had her down as the favourite to win, she laughed and said she does not understand where or how they came up with those odds.
Speaking to the Fingal Independent, Maria, laughing, said: 'I really don't know where they get the odds from, I genuinely don't.'
'Especially when they don't even know all of the girls or wouldn't have seen any of us being interviewed.'
'I was just delighted to be there and have made it down to Tralee and the televised part of the contest was just a moment, the cherry on top, of the entire ten days.'
Maria is now home in Malahide and preparing herself to go back to school teaching this week at St Vincent de Paul Infant School in Griffith Avenue.
She said after spending two days in Kildare visiting different sights, the 64 Roses were brought to her hometown, Malahide, to the castle where the RTE press launch took place.
Then it was off to Moneygall in Offaly for a reception at the Barack Obama Plaza before travelling to Tralee.
'When we arrived in Tralee the reception we got was amazing. A lot of the girls, including myself, were so emotional,' said Maria.
She said she specifically enjoyed the Rose Bud Party where each Rose met their little Rose Bud. Maria's Rose Bud was a nine-year-old girl named Chloe from Kerry.
'It was fabulous getting to meet Chloe and getting to know her,' said Maria.
A parade through Tralee took place on the Saturday night where the Roses were on floats passing through the crowds who lined the streets.
'That was a very special occasion,' she said.
It was at a reception on Thursday, August 17th when Maria found out she was one of the first 16 Roses to have made it onto the final.
The second 16 found out after breakfast on the Saturday morning.
Enjoying her few minutes being interviewed on stage by Rose of Tralee host Daithi O'Shea on Monday night, August 21, Maria performed a dance to a piece of music from the Lord of the Dance soundtrack.
And despite not being crowned the 2017 Rose of Tralee, Maria said she enjoyed every minute of the event.
'We were all so delighted for the winner, Jennifer Byrne from Offaly. She is such a lovely girl, so nice and kind and friendly. Everyone was so happy for her. My dad and his family are from Offaly so they were all excited for Jennifer to have won it.'
Now on the wind down and taking stock of the 'experience of a lifetime' Maria wants to thank her family, her boyfriend Emmett McArdle, her friends, the Dublin Rose team and all her sponsors who helped make her achieve her one of her dreams.
'I definitely would recommend it, one hundred percent, to any girl out there who wants to take part in the contest. It really is an experience of a lifetime.'
Swords is among five towns in the country in the running to win the title of the Retail Excellence Friendliest Town in Ireland.
Swords is competing with Ennis, Limerick City, Trim and Waterford City for the title and the winner will be announced at a ceremony in Killarney in November.
Retail Excellence, the largest retail representative body in Ireland, run these prestigious awards on an annual basis. The Awards are designed to drive standards in retail operations and town centres throughout the country.
Last year, Navan won the prestigious title at the Retail Excellence Ireland Awards.
David Fitzsimons CEO of Retail Excellence saidL 'Ireland is renowned the world over for its warm welcome and hospitality to all. This is always particularly evident in retail operations throughout every village, town and city in the country and this is why it is important to mark the significant contribution being made by retailers and city and county councils in driving standards.
'We are delighted with the quality of entries we received this year for Ireland's Friendliest Place Award and the standard set was second to none. It is always difficult to choose the finalists but the five towns selected are standard bearers in driving customer excellence, hospitality and pride in their town. Ennis, Swords, Limerick City, Trim and Waterford City can be proud of this achievement and we all look forward to the announcement of the overall winner.'
All too recently I was the victim of clothes shaming.
The offending clothing being a pair of red chinos which I wore with a eye-popping white shirt, gleefully festooned with what looked like daubs of fresh paint. Having uploaded the image to my Facebook page, along with several other holiday snaps from my trip to the States last month, I thought nothing more of it. I got a few likes and then Wham! Boof! Splat!, three upper cuts to the ego in the form of comments posted under the red pants.
It wasn't long before I was seeing red and a Facebook battle sparked to life with a councillor who I have had tame run-ins with over the years, but who really is a good guy.
You learn to grow a thick skin in this job fairly quickly so ultimately I viewed it as banter, but not before friends from across the world started lamenting, nay damning my choice of attire. 'Dang!' came one response, while another 'friend' whacked me with an accusation that I was after buying the colourful chinos before the Spanish students got to them. As someone who wouldn't normally care less about what people think about me and my choice of clothes I still did a double take and found myself questioning myself, my choices and what I was thinking getting dressed that day. My sartorial ways have often landed me in trouble, like when, as a long haired grunger in the mid-Nineties, my hair, Converse All Stars, cords and check shirt got me into a scrape with a Neanderthal at the Atlantic nightclub in Ballybunnion in County Kerry, or when said cords and Converse canvas boots sparked the ire of my Geography teacher as our class negotiated a rain soaked mountain side on a glacier hunt in 6th Year.
I would describe my style as bi-polar, oscillating for no particular reason (but always depending on cleanliness) between dark smart casual, fun, colourful Dad and colour-coordinated modern man about town (without the deep brown leather satchel). My dress sense that day fell probably into the fun Dad category as in fun Dad at a children's party, playing the clown!
I shop in secondhand clothes shops, but can also be found at classy mens shops. I have gone from two to seven pairs of pants in recent years and have somehow filled two drawers with shoes and boots of various colours. Taking the advice of Polonius in Hamlet who advised a young Laertes: 'Spend all you can afford on clothes, but make sure they're quality, not flashy, since clothes make the man,' I've tried to be stylish, admittedly pushing the boat out too far at times with my choices, but then who am I not to bring a bit of colour to what can be a drab, sad world.
Last week Barron Trump also fell prey to an online bashing for being spotted wearing children's' clothes, shorts and a t-shirt, as he disembarked Air Force One. I'm not his father's number one fan, but children are off bounds, aren't they! Ford Springer, a writer for a conservative website, wrote under the headline 'It's High Time Barron Trump Starts Dressing Like He's In the White House,' adding that he has been on the 'Barron Trump train from the start,' but then started bashing the 11-year-old for not looking as sharp as his famous parents.
'One thing that isn't normal though is the way he dresses when he joins his parents for a public appearance,' the article read. Chelsea Clinton soon jumped to young Barron's defence, saying: 'It's high time the media & everyone leave Barron Trump alone & let him have the private childhood he deserves.'
Clinton for 2020?
The organisers of this year's Gap Arts Festival weekend in Ballythomas say that over 1,000 adults and children took part in at least one of the events.
Festival director Garrett Keogh said they were delighted to be visited by the Arts Council, which provides the main funding to the community festival. He said the visit was a significant recognition for the festival, especially at a time when the Arts Council is reconsidering its funding policy for festivals.
He said that there was standing room only at the play 'Charolais', and 300 people sat in the school field for the late-night movie 'The Witches.'
The festival also expanded, and various other local venues were used. 'Paula Breen-Darcy hosted drama workshops for children in Ballyfad Hall, and Paula Meehan facilitated poetry workshops and readings at Hollyfort Old School and in St John's Church,' said Garrett.
'Not only is our audience and the range of events on offer growing, more and more people are getting involved,' he said. 'Helen Grannell was instrumental in raising the local sponsorship for the outdoor movie; Cllr Anthony Donohoe stepped in at the last minute with sound equipment; musician and producer Marc Aubele did a sound mix for the Giants at the Gap parade; and people who had never been at the Gap before joined in as audience and at workshops.'
The poet Paula Meehan praised the writers on the poetry workshop. 'From my perspective, the poetry workshop was a real pleasure to moderate,' she said. 'The participants were totally involved: brave to engage and put themselves on the line. I was full of admiration for them.'
'The setting in the restored community space that is the remarkable Hollyfort Old School was resonant; it was great to sit around the fire and work through the evening and all the following day,' she added. 'A perfect set up for workshops - the music of the great trees outside, the beautiful light, the cups of tea, the flickering of candlelight as dusk came on, the murmur of poems and voices telling important truths about the lives we share, all framed by the awareness that the old walls had sheltered scholars and teachers for hundreds of years. I felt the old ghosts drawing close to eavesdrop on the living.
'And St John's Church, with its beautiful acoustic, and its historic and folkloric connections, was such a wonderful place to hold a poetry reading'.
'The festival is very grateful to the people of Hollyfort and to Canon Mark Hayden and his churchwarden,' said Garrett. 'Not only are they venues we would hope to use again, they are important local relationships we'd like to build on.'
Garrett is now preparing reports for the festival's funding bodies - the Arts Council, Wexford County Council Arts Department, Foras na Gaeilge, and Creative Ireland.
Then the organising committee begins to start looking for funding for next year.
An internationally respected university professor has said that County Wexford's Great Island on the estuary near Campile is most probably where the first inhabitants of Ireland came from Spain and landed five thousand years ago.
Up to now the claim has been that it took place at Bantry, County Cork. Archaeologists have been flocking to Kilmokea in recent years to study the soil in the ecclesiastical enclosure from the early Christian period. Evidence was unearthed from a nearby archaeological excavation to suggest the existence of a Bronze Age settlement and that the site was used by Vikings, Normans and also in the Medieval period. A D-shaped enclosure was discovered along with rocks from a collapsed building.
Professor emeritus James Mallory of Queens's University Belfast and native of California, USA, told 50 historians and local politicians at a Think-In at Kilmokea Country Manor that 'Great Island has the strongest claim' and that other 'manufactured claims do not stack up'.
He said further that the place Dun na Marc or the Fort of the Ships, reputed by some scholars to be the exact place where Cessair, granddaughter of Noah, landed with 49 women and three men, was not at Cork but at Great Island. He was one of four university professors invited to focus on the area in a contribution by Mark and Emma Hewlett of Kilmokea Country Manor, Sliabh Coillte Heritage Group, local business people and historians to national heritage week.
Simon Kennedy, a retired solicitor from Duncannon who had spent more than 20 years researching the area personally and later with Sliabh Coillte Heritage Group, conducted recorded video interviews with three professors in Cork and Dublin. In a 40-minute video interview shown to the audience, Professor John Carey of UCC said that Kilmokea was of primordial importance and had the deepest antiquity. He had said in an article in Eigse magazine, based on his research of Labor Gabala Eren that Cessair had landed at Cumar na dTri Uisce or Confluence of the Three Rivers, known locally as 'the three sisters'.
The confluence is in the estuary off Great Island.
In another video interview, Professor Mairin ni Dhonnchadha of NUI Galway paid tribute to the work of the late Dr Billy Colfer and to John Flynn and Tommie Grennan authors of research findings about the Kimokea enclosure on Great Island published in the book Medieval Wexford. She confirmed the views of local historians that Kilmokea was a major medieval education centre that provided religious, spiritual and intellectual leadership to the national and international Christian community. It was also on the pilgrimage route to St. Molings or St. Mullins.
She said that the bishop and abbot of the church in the area, Bishop Suadbhar, who governed Kilmokea was signatory to the first human rights law in Europe. This was an accord known as the Law of the Innocents which protected women, children and clerics from involvement in warfare. She said also that his name may have been venerated in the place name, Carnsore or Carn Suadhbhair.
Professor emeritus Padraig O Riain of UCC, author of the acclaimed book A Dictionary of Irish Saints, in another video interview with Simon Kennedy noted similarities between Kilmokea and other monasteries such as those at Carnsore, Begerin and Ardmore.
He said saints Finbarr and Barrfhind gave the name Cill Mach Aodh or 'Church of the sons of Aodh' to Kilmokea. As the cult of Finbar, also linked with Nessan of Cork was associated with teaching, we may assume that Kilmokea was a school or education centre on the island.
Declan Lyons, an international management consultant and author, who is a part-time resident at nearby Arthurstown, was moderator for the Think In. The attendance included Wexford historians and authors Bernard Browne, Alice Burke, Willie Considine, John Flynn, Brian O Cleirigh, Greg Walsh and Dan Walsh. Councillors Larry O'Brien, Martin Murphy and Michael Whelan.
Emma Hewlett, co-ordinator and host for the Think-In, invited people to contribute further opinion on the findings in the weeks ahead.
As thousands of students deliberate their first round offers from the Central Application Office (CAO), the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) is encouraging young people in Wexford to consider a career in tourism. Hospitality and tourism businesses around the country are looking to recruit over 6,000 entry-level employees each year across all areas of their operations.
There is a variety of career options available through the CAO, PLC courses as well as opportunities for those who wish to start working straight from school.
Areas include food and beverage; catering; accommodation services; reception; leisure centre and spa facility management; sales and marketing; human resources; IT; management and finance.
The IHF has a dedicated website, Get a Life in Tourism, supported by Failte Ireland, which offers comprehensive information on the many careers available in the sector and how to get stared. The website also includes personal stories that offer a realistic picture of what to expect from a career in the tourism and hospitality sector as well as some of the many courses and training schemes that are available, providing young people with valuable first-hand information to help them make their course or career choice.
Aidan Quirke, Chair of the South East branch of the IHF said:
'We're encouraging school leavers especially to explore the many options available, including the hundreds of specialist third-level courses on offer throughout the country for those interested in obtaining a recognised qualification.
If you are looking for an exciting challenge, with endless career possibilities then this is the path for you.'
The tourism sector in Wexford supports 7,700 jobs and contributes some 223M to the local economy annually.
An exhibition appealing to the ears rather than the eyes will open at Wexford Arts Centre on September 2, in association with the arts advocacy group OpenGorey.
The show curated by the Gorey-based artist Richard Carr is called 'Hammer/Anvil/Stirrup' and will feature sound installations by Richard and fellow artists David Beattie, Edgardo Rudnitzky and John Wynne that seek to explore the nature of sound and the practice of listening.
The title is taken from the three smallest bones in the human body which are found in the middle ear and perform as an interface between the inner and outer worlds of sound.
The official opening at 3 pm will be followed by a gallery conversation between the exhibiting artists and the Wexford County Arts Officer Liz Burns and a wine reception.
'There are only five works in the show because they take up a lot of space and some of them move around the gallery. It's quite minimal but the sounds fill out the space', said Arts Centre Visual Arts Manager Catherine Bowe.
Coinciding with the exhibition, the Wexford composer and musician Laura Hyland will lead an experimental sound workshop for children on Culture Night on Friday, September 22 from 5 pm to 7 pm.
Responding to Hammer/Anvil/Stirrup, the children will be encouraged to listen closely and imagine how the sounds from the exhibition could fit into their own sound worlds which they will create on the night.
The event is open to children aged 10 and over and the participants will be asked to bring along their favourite noisy object which can be anything from sauce lids to fidget spinners. Electronic toys or balls are not encouraged. Places are limited and booking is advised.
The exhibition will run in the lower and upper galleries of Wexford Arts Centre from Monday, September 4 to Saturday, October 7.
David Beattie is an artist living and working in Dublin. He has exhibited widely at home and abroad including USA, Canada, Brussels, and Paris and has received a number of Arts Council bursaries
Richard Carr lives in Wexford and Dublin and has established himself as one of Ireland's prominent young artists exhibiting alongside leading lights such as Bill Viola, Dorothy Cross, Alice Maher, Salome Voegelin, Eva Rothschild and others. He graduated with a MFA from NCAD, Dublin in 2013 and is due to have his first international solo exhibition in London in 2018.
Edgardo Rudnitzky is an Argentinian-born sound artist, composer, and percussionist who has been based in Berlin since 2003 and has exhibited internationally. His works explore the nature of sound in its physical/material context and he has incorporated this practice in theatrical settings, dance and films.
John Wynne is an award-winning artist whose diverse work includes large-scale sound installations in galleries and public spaces, delicate sculptural works, photographs that produce sound, flying radios and'composed documentaries' that hover on the borders between abstraction and documentation.
His work on language endangerment includes a project with click languages in the Kalahari Desert.
He was artist-in-residence at two major centres for cardiothoracic and abdominal organ transplants, resulting in a book, a half-hour BBC Radio commission and several exhibitions, most recently Transplant and Life at the Hunterian Museum in London.
Charities such as the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) wouldn't be able to continue their work without volunteer spirit in communities across the country, and the NCBI charity shop in Gorey recently held a get-together for its dedicated volunteers.
Trish Rowlands, manager of the shop on St Michael's Road, explained that they held a coffee morning at the shop to thank the volunteer workers for their support, and to give them the chance to meet each other.
Alongside the manager and two Tus workers, there are around 14 volunteers who do shifts at the shop. 'Some have been here for up to 20 years,' said Trish, thanking them for all their work.
The shop was previously located in Market Square, and was formerly known as Mrs Quin's. It is open Monday to Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., and the volunteers generally work for a morning or an afternoon.
Trish said that the people of Gorey have always been very supportive of the NCBI shop, and donations of clothes, bric a brac, and small items of furniture are always welcome.
New volunteers are also very welcome to call in for an application form, or phone 087 1394342.
Tralee historian Maurice O'Keeffe is to give a series of nationwide lectures on the Kerry patriot, Thomas Ashe who died 100 years ago this September.
Using a cross-section of oral and historical sources he compiled through Irish Life and Lore, Maurice will revive Ashe's legacy before audiences in Limerick, Dublin, Cavan and Kilkenny. The Kerry lecture takes place at Kerry County Library on Thursday, September 7 at 7:30pm.
The lectures feature interesting primary sources that include an interview with Fionnan Lynch - the last man to talk with Thomas Ashe before his death and who was present at the anniversary commemoration at Casement's Fort in August 1917 when Ashe gave the oration.
An interview with the late Paddy Begley from Kinard - who knew Ashe personally - describes the Lispole patriot in fascinating detail. Maurice has also gathered interviews with 50 people from Fingal whose fathers would have fought alongside Thomas Ashe in the Battle of Ashbourne, while sources from the archives will feature a recorded interview with General Richard Mulcahy and his encounters with Ashe.
Maurice described Thomas Ashe as 'a great Kerry patriot' and someone the people of Kerry should be immensely proud of given his sacrifice.
"People were more inclined to get involved in the republican movement after his death and through my lectures I'll be talking about the man's life and using recordings to support what I'm saying," said Maurice.
Ashe was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour in Mountjoy Prison along with fourteen others convicted on similar charges, including Austin Stack. Ashe and his colleagues demanded prisoner-of-war status which was refused. He protested by going on hunger strike and on the fifth day, suffered internal injuries while being force-fed and died on September 25 in the Mater Hospital
"This is first-hand information about the man and we feel strongly enough about the topic to tour the country. Ashe's legacy is a wide-reaching one and we're using the material we've collected to demonstrate the value of oral history," he added.
Maurice commences his tour this Friday evening at the Book Centre, Kilkenny City; September 7 at Kerry County Library; September 19 at the Granary Library Co. Limerick; September 27 in Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, and September 30 in Fingal, Co Dublin, at the Round Towers GAA Club.
Some of the talented Listowel children pictured celebrating their success at the Nationals weekend in Dublin
One of the talented Listowel children pictured following his success at the Nationals weekend in Dublin
One of the talented Listowel children pictured celebrating her success at the Nationals weekend in Dublin
There are some very proud Listowel families out there this week after a number of children from the town returned home from a very successful weekend at the National Community Games in Dublin.
Lucas Leahy showed off his burgeoning art skills in the U8 competition while Clodagh Murphy showed off her musical talents by taking part in the U16 Solo Music competition last Saturday.
Amongst the others who enjoyed a great weekend were Cara Leahy, Ellen Trant, Emma Neylon, John Carmody, Sean O' Mahony and more.
"We just wanted to say a huge congratulations to everybody who travelled to Nationals - they did both Listowel and all of Kerry proud," said Jill Carey on Thursday.
"A huge thanks as well to Kevin Lynch and his team for all their hard work," she finished.
Lily was all smiles as she got her hair snipped for Rapunzel Foundation
When young Killorglin girl Lily-Sue Eyers heard about the work of the Rapunzel Foundation, she knew immediately that she wanted to help by donating her hair to be made into a special wig for a child suffering from hair loss.
It was a big decision for Lily (12) as she had never had her hair cut before, and it reached past her waist, but she didn't hesitate for a second.
"I loved my long hair and I was a bit nervous about having it cut, but I know that it will grow back. Some girls are not so lucky, they have lost their hair and they know it might never come back so if I can help someone then that's what I want to do" said Lily.
Originally, Lily planned to have her hair cut before she left Douglas National School in June so that she could ask her friends to sponsor her and raise money for charity but her plans hit a bit of a snag when she was chosen as Lady in Waiting for the 2017 Puck Fair.
"I was really excited about being Lady in Waiting and I thought it would look better if my hair was long because the Queen had long hair too, so I waited till after Puck."
Michelle at the Sean Taffe salon in Killorglin was delighted to help Lily with her ambition, and after carefully tying and cutting the hair for donation, gave her a stylish new cut while proud Mum Francesca Eyers watched.
"Lily has wanted to do this ever since she heard about the Rapunzel Foundation" said her Mum.
"She has always been proud of her lovely hair and so I couldn't be more proud of her for doing something that most 12 year old girls would regard as a huge sacrifice."
Lily still wants to use this opportunity to raise money for a good cause. After looking at different charities, she has chosen the Childhood Cancer Foundation because of the good work they do for children all over Ireland.
Lily now has a fundraising page on the "everydayhero" website so that people can donate online and she is now hoping to raise as much money as possible.
If you would like to help Lily-Sue to help the Childhood Cancer Foundation, you can make a donation over at her www.everydayhero.com/ie, Lily-Sue's Hair Donation.
Anyone wishing to learn more about the work of the Rapunzel Foundation can do so at www.rapunzelfoundation.com.
After terrific work in spreading awareness of positive mental health and the core messages of the "Cycle against Suicide" initiative, a young Kilgarvan secondary school student has been named as a "Cycle against Suicide Student Leader".
Young Padraic Randles, and indeed his school, family and locality, were left rightly proud after "Cycle against Suicide" chose the 17-year-old Pobalscoil Inbhear Sceine student to join just twelve other ambassadors for a retreat in Kippure Estate in Wicklow last week having been selected from a mammoth field of 200 nominees.
Padraic, who will take on his Leaving Cert in 2018, was nominated by Pobalscoil Inbhear Sceine having impressed through his involvement with the school's 'mental health team'. Through this team, he has worked within initiatives like the Amber Flag and Saint Patrick's Mental Health programmes, and he explained to The Kerryman this week that his trojan work for positive mental health arose from a "lightbulb moment" he had during Transition Year.
"I was inspired by The Heathers' song 'Forget me Knots', which says that it's okay not to feel okay, and I thought to myself 'you know, positive mental health would be a nice thing to get involved with'.
"It was a great honour to be nominated and then selected, and I look forward to representing Cycle against Suicide in their events over the coming year.
"All the ambassadors met up in Dublin last weekend before we went to Wicklow, and after the workshops, activities, and skills sessions we took part in, I feel I am well-prepared to work as an ambassador," he added.
Padraic, who has two older brothers and one older sister, followed his nomination with an impressive letter to the "Cycle against Suicide" committee, in which he heralded the link between expressing one's individuality and the maintenance of strong mental health.
Over the coming year, he will be at the forefront of other Cycle against Suicide-organised events like Sail against Suicide and the Student Leaders' Congress, which welcomes thousands of students each year.
Pobalscoil Inbhear Sceine Kenmare teacher Emer O'Riordan said that the selection of Padraic as an ambassador for the well-known mental health initiative was a privilege.
"It's an honour for our school to have a student selected for such a prestigious worthwhile programme at national level," she said.
"We are immensely proud of Padraic's achievement."
A 63-year-old man from the Tralee area died following a three-vehicle collision on the N21 between Castleisland and Abbeyfeale shortly after 2pm on Tuesday.
The man was rushed to Kerry University Hospital with what were described as serious injuries in the immediate aftermath of the crash. He tragically passed away shortly after 5pm on Tuesday evening.
The man was not named by the time of print, but The Kerryman understands he was very well known in his home town where he was involved in a number of community groups.
The man was the driver of a van which was one of at least three vehicles involved in the collision close to the now closed Captain's Table bar above Dooneen outside Castleisland.
The van he was driving was involved in a collision with a truck and at least one other car travelling behind also collided with the vehicles.
Listowel and Castleisland gardai attended the scene, closing the road to rescue stricken drivers and passengers and to carry out an investigation of the scene. It is understood that no other person involved in the tragic incident sustained serious injuries and the road finally reopened late on Tuesday.
Tralee was rocked by the brutal stabbing of a man in his late fifties that occurred in broad daylight close to the town centre on Monday.
Victim John McGillycuddy is recovering in hospital with serious knife wounds after the terrifying ordeal he endured in the Moyderwell area of the town at around 2pm on Monday.
He was walking close to his home in the vicinity of Kerry County Library when he was set upon by a man wielding a knife who stabbed him four times - twice in the arm and twice in his back.
The Kerryman understands the assailant fled through the Town Park as a number of witnesses looked on in horror before rushing to Mr McGillycuddy's side. He was rushed by ambulance to Kerry University Hospital where medics delivered major trauma care, staunching the loss of blood and ultimately saving his life.
His injuries were described as serious, but not life-threatening by Tuesday morning much to the relief of a community left utterly shocked by the horrific attack.
Mr McGillycuddy did not know his attacker, The Kerryman has learned.
Gardai in Tralee meanwhile arrested a male, aged in his thirties, in the town in relation to the incident on Monday night, taking him to Killarney Garda Station where he was detained under section four of the Criminal Justice Act, allowing for his detention for up to 24 hours without charge.
Gardai are appealing for witnesses to the attack to come forward and assist in their ongoing investigation.
Mayor of Tralee Norma Foley said the attack left the town shocked and that people were deeply relieved to hear that Mr McGillycuddy was expected to make a full recovery.
"People were very shocked and frightened by this horrific incident but I think it is important to say this is not the norm in our town. Everyone is relieved to hear the victim is recovering and welcome the news that gardai made a speedy arrest in relation to the assault," Mayor Foley said.
A 'large' number of people have already helped the garda investigation, she added. "It's very heartening that a large number of people have come forward to assist the gardai in their continuing investigation into the horrific and frightening event," Mayor Foley added.
"People are also saying that it was fortunate there weren't scores of young people in the area as, had it happened two days later, there would have been numerous secondary school students still present in what is very much a public space."
"But it was utterly shocking and frightening for the number of people who did witness it. People should be commended for coming forward and helping the gardai to do their job in investigating this attack."
Melanie Morris, editor at Image magazine, Sharon Sheehan of AC Pure in New Ross, model Barbara Bednarek and Nicky Byrne of 2FM.
New Ross hairdresser Sharon Sheehan is vying it out to be crowned the top professional hair colourists in the UK and Ireland.
Last month Sharon from A C Pure Salon which is located at the Brandon House Hotel beat off stiff competition in Ireland to reach he UK & Ireland Final of the hairdressing industry's most prestigious competition, the Wella Professionals TrendVision Award 2017, in the Colour Vision Category.
Following Sharon's success in the Irish heat she will now go onto compete at this year's UK & Ireland Final, making her one of the country's most sought-after and in-demand professional hair colourists.
In addition to being crowned one of Ireland's top hair colourists Sharon was also chosen as the Image magazine Style award winner by magazine editor in chief Melanie Morris. This is a great coup for Sharon and she will now by Image magazine's go-to expert for hair advice, tips, trends and rescue remedies. She will also judge the Image Business Of Beauty Awards and lead the charge in hair features for the next year. Melanie Morris said Sharon was a very worthy winner.
A native of Poulpeasty, Sharon set up A C Pure six years ago having previously owned Toni and Guy in Waterford.
`I'm so proud to have reached the UK & Ireland Final of such a prestigious competition. I've always had a huge passion for hair and I am very excited about taking part and competing against the best hairdressers in the country at the Wella Professionals TrendVision Award UK & Ireland Final in September', said Sharon.
TO vote for Sharon log onto https://www.wella.com/professional/en-UK/trendvision/trendvision-award-2016.
Thomas (Tom) James Molloy, who passed away peacefully on August 5, was born in New Ross in 1931 and lived in Boley Hill, Fethard-on-Sea.
His mother died when he was aged six and his siblings were brought up by relatives - while Tom was brought up by his relatives, the O'Flahertys of Battlestown, Ramsgrange.
When he was growing up he remembered planes flying overhead around the time of the Campile bombing and the harsh winter of 1944. He loved living in Battlestown and when he was in his early twenties he decided to look for work in the UK as there was more opportunity there.
It was when he set up his business in the building trade that he met the driver of one of his lorries which turned out to be his future father-in-law George Austin. Tom told George that he was going to marry his daughter Maureen after seeing her for the first time.
After getting married in Colchester where Maureen was from, they decided to move back to Fethard-on-Sea where they bought the pub in 1966. At the same time Tom set up his tarmacadam business which he worked very hard at for over 40 years in Wexford, where he was very well known, in the New Ross area and across the region.
When he retired at 65 his son Jason took over the reins.
Tom never advertised for his work and the phone never stopped ringing as his good work was spread from word of mouth as each customer was so pleased with his work.
Tom was a perfectionist and the odd time when things weren't going to plan one of his popular phrases was 'God help Ireland!' He gave a lot of employment in the area and the people who worked with remember him very fondly - and while they all did a hard days work - they could have a laugh with him as well.
Tom worked all over Leinster and Waterford and knew all the back roads like the back of his hand. Tom and Maureen made a good team. They were always together and were devoted to their children Laura, Jason, Clinton and Shane and eight grandchildren Leah, Amy, Kean, Lauryn, Tori, Katie, Ria and Josh and were delighted to have all the family living so close by.
Maureen ran the pub for over 50 years and was very popular kind and had time for everybody. Tom would often go to Duncannon and Campile so he could meet and have a drink with his friends which he loved to do. He was very popular with the young and old people of the area and they always kept a seat for him as they would love to hear about times past and the interesting things he had to say.
Tom also loved a flutter on the horses and kept the bookies very busy. He loved to put a small amount of money on his bets and would end up somehow with a good amount of winnings.
Tom was a gentleman and also took pride in his appearance and was always smartly dressed.
When Maureen passed away in August 2015 Tom missed her a lot as she was his lifelong partner and they made such a good team. They were devoted to each other and were always together. Maureen was his best friend and now they are together again may they both rest in peace.
A large crowd attended Tom's funeral Mass at All Saints church in Templetown and his burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery alongside Maureen.
May his gentle soul rest in peace.
A decision by Wexford County Council to allow dog kennels be built on the outskirts of New Ross has been appealed to An Bord Pleanala.
Johnathan St Ledger had applied for planning permission to build the dog boarding kennel and associated site works at Butlersland, Knockmullin and Arnestown, New Ross in June of this year. A similar application by Mr St Ledger had been refused permission last year due to the lack of sound insulation in the building.
Following on from that a fresh application was made accompanied by a letter from Des Redmond, Draughting and Design of Adamstown who said that the application now has a higher spec of sound insulation as well as provision for a roof over the outer pen. He also said that Mr St Ledger would ensure that the dogs were kept indoors between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Seven submissions were received by the council in respect of the application. These were made by Mary Doyle, Knockmullen House; Vanessa and Seamus Barron, Arnestown; Patricia Quinn, Ard Alainn, New Ross; John Morris, Arnestown; Bridget and John Woods, Rossnaree, Arnestown; Patricia Kennedy, Arnestown and David Merrigan of Merrigan, Phelan, McNamara Architects in Waterford.
In his report senior executive planner James Lavin said the proposed building is sited on a country road 250m south to the N25 ring road near New Ross. There are dwellings to the north and east of the site and farm buildings to the southwest.
In respect of the submissions received Mr Lavin said the main areas of concern were: noise, the entrance exacerbating a traffic hazard, environmental impact from animal waste, children's safety if the dogs escaped, barking disturbances to both residents and adjoining sheep and stud farms, odour, the building being out of keeping with landscape, falling property value, the presence of an ancient holy well and water quality.
Mr Lavin noted that the previous application which had been refused was for a building measuring 77 sq m housing 17 kennels while this application concerned a building measuring 132 sq m housing 36 pens - 18 outdoor and 18 indoor.
He said this application proposes keeping the dogs indoors between at night and a 2.1m acoustic wall. Mr Lavin said that the proposed building is an agri type structure with a green metal clad roof. It is proposed to clad the front elevation in cedar cladding.
He said the closest residential sites to the development are 80m and 100m to the northwest. He went on to note that the acoustic wall and the noise insulation in the building itself were now considerable acceptable.
In his conclusion Mr Lavin said: 'The planning authority considers that the subject proposal has included sufficient noise mitigation measures and has addressed the previous refusal reason and is therefore considered acceptable.'
He recommended that planning be granted subject to nine conditions including: noise restrictions and dogs to be kept indoors between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m.
The decision by the council to grant permission was then appealed to An Bord Pleanala by Mary Doyle, Patricia Quinn and others and Seamus Barron and others. A decision on the application is due on December 18.
Based on a true story of outlandish lies, American Made reunites director Doug Liman and leading man Tom Cruise after their successful collaboration on the sci-fi thriller Edge Of Tomorrow.
It's an interesting choice of role for the gung-ho star of Top Gun and the Mission: Impossible franchise: an amoral drugs smuggler and money launderer.
Despite Cruise's best effort to play against type, he can't resist adding a sheen of likeability to his portrayal of a money-driven family man, who was exposed as a pivotal figure in the Iran-Contra scandal that threatened to bring down the Reagan administration.
A different actor, who hasn't spent his career cultivating a personal brand of wholesomeness, might have elevated Gary Spinelli's script and dug deeper, right down to the marrow of this opportunistic criminal's warped psychology.
Sadly, any emotional ripples radiate solely on the picture's glossy surface.
Regardless, Liman's nostalgic visual flourishes, crisp editing and Cruise's insistence on performing his own stunts (he's in the cockpit for many of the aerial sequences) ensure this short-haul flight overcomes some of the dramatic turbulence and safely touches down without outstaying its welcome.
TWA pilot Barry Seal (Cruise) is haemorrhaging enthusiasm for his job as he provides for his wife Lucy (Sarah Wright) and children.
He makes a little money on the side by smuggling Cuban cigars into America in his hand luggage. This illegal practice is rumbled by CIA handler Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson), who coerces Barry into working for the US government by flying reconnaissance missions over Central America to take photographs of the emerging communist threat.
He proposes to install Barry as the head of a new company, IAC.
'You'd run the company but after hours, you'd work for us,' grins Monty.
During one covert flight, Barry meets members of the high-powered Medellin cocaine cartel including Ochoa Vasquez (Alejandro Edda) and Pablo Escobar (Mauricio Mejia).
They exploit Barry's greed by employing him to transport narcotics back to America.
Acting as a runner for both sides, Barry amasses a huge personal fortune and the Seals move to Mena, Arkansas, to establish a new base of operations for Barry's rapidly expanding empire.
The unexpected arrival of Lucy's reckless brother, JB (Caleb Landry Jones), threatens to expose the trafficking, and bring Barry back down to terra firma with an almighty bump.
American Made recreates the late 1970s and 1980s with a swagger.
Wright and Gleeson are short-changed in their limited scenes, while Landry Jones is effectively deplorable in small doses.
Casting compels us to like Cruise's incarnation of Seal, even when he's endangering the people closest to him.
However, it's impossible to muster sympathy when he is clearly the smug architect of his own downfall.
Irish comedy fans can enjoy a double dose of laughs over the coming months with the announcement today by top Irish stand-ups Bernard O'Shea and Karl Spain of their first ever joint tour, Fat Chancers and includes a local date.
Fat Chancers kicks off in Cavan on 29th September and visit the Hawk's Well Theatre on 13th October. The double headliner includes a date at Dublin's Vicar Street on 24th February.
And when they're not keeping audiences rolling in the aisles, the funnymen have thrown down the gauntlet to see who is the biggest loser - in weight that is - after challenging each other to a slimming contest over the tour. Expect plenty of references to fasting, snacking and even colonic irrigation.
Commenting on the tour, Karl Spain said "Don't expect massive weight loss or body transformations or Bernard being funny".
Audiences can expect plenty of on-stage banter as Fat Chancers will feature the popular comics share the stage, as well as performing their own stand-up routines.
No stranger to television and radio fans, Bernard is the co-writer and star of RTE2's Bridget and Eamon with Jennifer Zamparelli and co-host of the RTE 2FM breakfast show, Breakfast Republic, alongside Zamparelli and Keith Walsh. He is a former host of The Republic of Telly and has made regular appearances on The Panel, The Naked Camera, Just for Laughs and The Byrne Ultimatum, amongst other shows. His foray into comedy saw him winning the Harp Newcomer Comedy Award in 2000. Since this time, he has become a regular at the Cat Laughs comedy festival in Kilkenny and the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival. His Edinburgh Fringe debut received five star reviews.
Karl is a well-known name to Irish TV audiences thanks to his television series Karl Spain Wants a Woman, Karl Spain Wants to Rock, and his appearance on Celebrity Operation Transformation. Other television credits include Liffey Laughs, The Late Late Show, The Panel, Tubridy Tonight, The Afternoon Show and The Offside Show. A stand-up comic for 15 years, Karl is a regular performer at Kilkenny Cat Laughs, the Galway Comedy Festival, the Vodafone Comedy Festival, Cork Comedy Fest, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Montreal Just for Laughs.
He has toured extensively abroad, including Australia, the U.S., Middle East and South Africa. In addition to his own stand-up career, Karl was resident writer for Republic of Telly and writes for countless other comedians. With fellow comic Al Porter, he wrote the 2015 pantomime Freezin': The Story of The Snow Queen and a short film for Sky 1 as part of the Irish shorts series.
Fat Chancers ticket and tour information is available at www.hawkswell.com
A man has appeared in court in connection with an incident in which a husband and wife were stabbed at a family function.
Michael Sweeney, charged with assault causing harm following an incident in which his brother-in-law and his wife were stabbed.
The father-of-five appeared at Letterkenny District Court following the serious attack at Crozon Park last Saturday night week.
It is alleged that Martin and Margaret Sweeney were both stabbed at the party following an altercation.
The accused was also rushed to hospital after he received a punctured lung.
The alleged victim Martin Sweeney suffered multiple stab wounds to his neck, back and arm.
He underwent emergency surgery at Sligo University Hospital where his condition although still critical, has improved.
The female victim Margaret Sweeney (40), described by gardai as an "innocent victim", received a number of stitches at the hospital, and was later discharged.
The 40-year-old accused was rushed to hospital after he suffered a punctured lung during the incident.
The court was told that Martin Sweeney is the brother-in- law of the accused and they had gathered to celebrate the news of a pregnancy in the family.
The accused said when he was found by gardai two doors down from the scene of the original attack: "I was scared because I had been stabbed with a samurai [sword]. I was trying to hide."
A garda who attended the scene carried out CPR on one of the casualties.
Gardai objected to bail for Michael Sweeney, of Old Bundoran Road, Sligo, who was charged with assault causing harm.
Solicitor Rory O'Brien told the court that his client was a family man with a wife and five children who was willing to comply with any bail conditions.
Judge Deirdre Gearty refused bail, adjourned the case to this Friday at Harristown District Court.
One of the most popular priests in Sligo is taking leave for almost a year.
Canon Tom Hever is stepping down as Administrator of Saint Mary's Cathedral Parish in Sligo in order to undertake a period of sabbatical leave.
Canon Tom told The Sligo Champion that he would miss the town very much and that he had thought long and hard before taking the decision to take his break.
"Sligo has been very kind and good to me over the years. Its people and places were very familiar to me over the years. It was such a joy to be able to walk down the town and know everyone I meet," he said. The Strandhill Road native has been Administrator at St Mary's for the past twelve years and has been in Sligo since 1990. After being ordained he was in Strokestown for four years before spending seven years in the parish of Calry/St Joseph's in Ballytivnan and later attached to Sligo Social Services before a spell at St Angela's College.
Canon Tom said he will be going on a 30 day retreat to Wales in October before undertaking a visit to the Holy Land for three weeks and further reflection and study will follow at the Cathlolic Institute in Chicago with a return to Sligo next June when it will be up to Bishop Doran to decide which parish he will be allocated to.
"I'm looking forward to the break. There'll be some study but I won't have the pressure of exams or deadlines," he said.
Bishop Kevin Doran has appointed Donegal native, Fr Declan Boyce SPS as Canon Tom's replacement, effective from 31st August. He has been in St Mary's for three years.
Bishop Kevin said: "I am very grateful to Canon Tom for his generous service at the Cathedral, which is not only a busy working parish, but also the mother Church of the Diocese. In the meantime, he remains in his role as Vicar General.
Canon Hever said St Mary's was a great parish with good people and it deserved new vision from someone like Fr Boyce and the fact he was already attached to the parish meant the transition would be seamless.
Over 100 attendees came through the gates of Sligo Gaol as part of the "If Walls Could Talk" Heritage Week event. Friends of Sligo Gaol put a special call out to those with a link to the historic building to attend a tour of the prison.
Thanks to a grant under the Community and Voluntary Sector General Grant Scheme, Friends of Sligo Gaol were able to offer tours and were delighted to have met many who had stories to tell about the jail.
Visitors travelled from as far away as Tasmania, England and Scotland to attend the event. Many of those present also had fond memories of having played in the jail as children.
Both John Fahy and his son Andrew played at the jail, although thirty years apart.
Una McAvera travelled all the way from Antrim to show FOSG a copy of a court hearing which saw her Great Granduncle imprisoned in the jail in 1890 when he was only 14 years old. She was accompanied by her Sligo cousin Antonia Fox.
Another lady showed the group a newspaper article from 1936 which told the tale of her grandfather who was imprisoned at the jail for three months for stealing potatoes.
Gurteen man Donagh McDonagh brought along a key to the jail which was presented to his father, the Late former Sligo County Councillor Michael McDonagh, upon the jails closure in 1956.
"It was a wonderful day and we were very grateful for all the information people were able to provide us with," said Friends of Sligo Gaol Chairperson Tamlyn McHugh.
"This further enhances our understanding of life at the jail and the effect incarceration had not only on the prisoners, but also on their families.
" We enjoyed talking with people about their memories of the jail and in turn people were very interested to see inside the jail," added Tamlyn.
She said that events like this are the result of many contributors.
"We are very grateful to Sligo County Council for giving us access to the jail and providing us with a grant to host this.
"We would also like to thank Heritage Officer Siobhan Ryan for her continued support. Thanks also to Creative Ireland. Many thanks to Sligo Civil Defence for allowing us to use their building as a venue for the event.
"Although we were so grateful to everyone who came and spoke with us about the jail on the day, we would particularly like to thank Kevin Murray for providing us with incredible aerial photos of the jail which we displayed on the day," said Tamlyn.
The group is now busily preparing for next year, which will mark the 200th anniversary since the opening of the jail in 1818.
"We hope to mark the milestone in a special way and have our thinking caps on," Tamlyn added.
The aim of Friends of Sligo Gaol is to provide community support for the conservation of Sligo Gaol and to promote greater understanding and public awareness of its history and heritage.
Its eventual aim is to see the Gaol opened to the public as a tourist attraction.
For more information on Friends of Sligo Gaol or to keep up to date with planned events you can check out their Facebook page or log on to www.sligogaol.
Tony McLoughlin T.D. says he will fight 'tooth and nail' to ensure everything is done to deliver a fixed Cardio Cath lab to Sligo University Hospital.
Tony McLoughlin last week released a document to local media from the, Chief Operations Officer of Saolta University Hospital Group, Ann Cosgrove, which he received.
The correspondence contains an update with regard to the provision of a new fixed cardio catherisation laboratory at Sligo University Hospital.
In the document, Cosgrove advises Deputy McLoughlin that she acknowledges his previous correspondence on the matter and that she can now confirm that "the business case for 'Developing a Cardiology Network in Saolta Health Care Group for the Delivery of Invasive Cardiology Services' has been completed by Saolta and that it has been submitted to the HSE for consideration.
There has been much anger and frustration expressed by many politicians locallyabout the length of time it was taking for the Saolta Hospital Group to conduct this business case.
McLoughlin said: "A fixed Cardio Cath Lab for the Northwest region is an absolute priority for me and my office.
"All one needs to do is to take a look at a map of Ireland to see the true picture of this situation.
"There is nothing in place above the straight-line from Dublin to Galway. The Northwest region and the people who live here are totally left out."
He added: "Since 2014, I have raised this time and time again with the different Ministers for Health, the HSE, the CEO of the Saolta Hospital Group and the consultant cardiologist in Sligo University Hospital Dr. Donal Murray and I must note that my frustrations have boiled over on many occasions due to what I could argue was a lack of urgency from the Hospital Group on the issue.
McLOughlin continued: "I even raised it directly with a Minister at the Department of Health in the Dail Chamber in January, where I said that people were travelling in the back of ambulances to Galway and Dublin after having heart attacks, not knowing if they would make it or not, if there wasn't a helicopter available to transport them.
"However, after reading this letter, I am glad to say that it is now clear to me that the Hospital Group have now completed their side of the task and it is now over for the HSE to deliver this service.
"You will recall In July 2017, I held a positive meeting with the Minister for Health Simon Harris, on the future of cardiac care in the North West and in particular on the provision of a fixed Cardio Cath Lab service to be based at Sligo University Hospital.
"At that time the Minister agreed to conduct a National Review on the provision of Cath Lab services nationally and the submission of this business case for the North West means that Sligo University Hospital will also be included in this review."
Wild Atlantic Oysters, the brand under which a number of oyster producers of Sligo trade, has been revealed as one of the seafood producers to be profiled on the 'Taste the Atlantic- a Seafood Journey' trail along the Wild Atlantic Way route.
The trail, which offers visitor attractions designed to highlight Ireland's seafood and coastal heritage was developed by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) in partnership with Failte Ireland.
The oyster producers of Sligo between them employ 33 people and produce in excess of 170 tonnes of oysters each year.
Visitors on the 'Taste the Atlantic - a Seafood Journey' trail can now learn about Sligo's rich shellfish producing heritage. Sligeach, meaning "Shelly River", derived its name from the abundance of sea shells found in the bed, and along the banks, of the Garavogue River as it meets the sea in the 7 km long estuary to Oyster Island.
Along this stretch of water, rich beds of flat or native oysters were harvested over generations until the stocks were depleted in the early years of the twentieth century.
Jim O'Toole, CEO, BIM said: "We are delighted to have the opportunity to tell the story of Sligo's oyster heritage to visitors. The Wild Atlantic Oyster producers have been cultivating the Irish rock oyster for the past 40 years. Through careful management of the production cycle, they ensure the sustainability of this valuable resource which offers a distinctively local Sligo Bay flavour, much sought after at home and on the export market." The oysters cultivated in this area are sourced from a local oyster hatchery run by Kevin O'Kelly in Drumcliffe Bay - one of only three oyster hatcheries in the country - and grown and matured along several sites in the pristine Atlantic Ocean.
One of the founding members of Wild Atlantic Oysters, Charlie Kelly from just outside of Sligo town, started farming clams and oysters in 1986 in Lissadell. Speaking about his experience, he said: "I have always loved the sea going back to childhood family holidays in Mullaghmore and my student days' lobster fishing and angling on inshore boats.
"I originally trained as a teacher and owned a fish business before I began growing oysters.
"I never actually got to teach in the classroom but I am happy to educate anyone who will listen about the fascinating world of oyster cultivation!"
To learn more about Sligo's oyster heritage on the 'Taste the Atlantic - a Seafood Journey' trail, people are invited to visit Lissadell House where a special exhibition tells the story of oyster farming in the area.
Alternatively, the Wild Atlantic Oyster Cart, a mobile unit which offers a fresh and healthy alternative to the normal fast food is managed by one of Wild Atlantic Oysters youngest members, Glenn Hunter and can be booked for events and festivals..
The memory of the Spanish soldiers and sailors who lost their lives during the Spanish Armada shipwrecks in 1588 have long been remembered and honoured by the Grange and Armada Association Group.
Indeed, the work of the group has left such an impression in Spain, that they were awarded the 'Plate of the Order of Isabel La Catolica' last Friday evening at a reception in City Hall.
The Spanish Ambassador to Ireland, His Excellency, Jose Maria Rodriguez-Coso said he was honoured to present the award to the group, having been approved by His Majesty, King Philip VI.
The Order of Isabella the Catholic is a Spanish civil order, in which membership is granted in recognition of services that benefit the country. I it is the first time it has been presented in this country.
The Ambassador, who promised this will not be his last visit to Sligo, said the Grange and Armada Development Association are fully deserving of this honour.
"It's my second time in visit and it will not be my last. I'm going to be back, if everything is ok, in September for the Celtic Fringe Festival. It's a pleasure to come here, especially to take the opportunity to give recognition to a fantastic group of people who are doing a great job for almost 30 years.
"It's a very important job. We're not talking about the capital, we're talking about the west coast. We are talking about a group of people who are trying to do a job, sometimes with limited funds but with a lot of enthusiasm. I thought it had to be proposed, that his Majesty the King of Spain had the goodwill to recognise."
While he says that many Irish travel to Spain for their holidays, there are two huge cultural links between the countries that do not involve the things we mainly associate with Spain.
"Culturally, I used to say there are two main connections between Ireland and Spain. There are many, but let's forget the Sangria, the Sol, Mallorca and Malaga. We're laughing but it's 1.8million Irish people who visited Spain last year. That means that almost one third of the population has been there.
"We're talking about other things. Not only the fact that a lot of Irish people go to Spain and stay there, there are two main cultural events that keep the communities linked. One is the Camino, the symbolism is not only religious, and then the remembering of the Armada is another cultural thing that keeps the two communities connected through history. For me, it brings me emotion when I see something like this that is recalled so fondly, when it happened so long ago.
"Of course, whatever is related to ships, sailing storms and catastrophe has a sort of romanticism, I don't know why. I suppose that everybody, especially my generation, started reading books like Treasure Island so there is a whole mythology around this.
"That's why the story of the armada, which is tragic, still brings a big interest to people," added the Ambassador.
"In his address, Cathaoirleach of Sligo County Council Seamus Kilgannon said 'In this year when Sligo celebrates its status as 'European Capital of Volunteering', it is fitting that this major international award is being presented to an outstanding group of volunteers. These events serve to enhance the very special relationship we have with Spain, which is our 5th largest tourist market, and the Spanish Navy will also have a major presence at the Celtic Fringe Festival in October."
Councillor Kilgannon paid tribute to the hard working volunteers who ensure that the armada is remembered.
"The presentation of the award by the Ambassador here today is fitting acknowledgement of the exemplary work carried out over many years by the Grange & Armada Development Association. It reinforces the strong formal and personal relationships that have been developed over the years between Spain and Ireland. The strength of this association is shown by the fact that the Spanish Navy will once again participate in our Celtic Fringe Festival this year in September.
While the focal point of the reception was the presentation by the Ambassador to the Grange & Armada Development Association, the Cathaoirleach also invited the Ambassador to open a Book of Condolence to enable the people of Sligo express their solidarity and support following the tragic events in Spain last week. The Books will be available for members of the public in Sligo City Hall, Quay Street and County Hall, Riverside.
Sligo County Council has given the go ahead to a waste disposal firm at Deepwater Quay to double its rubbish intake to 50 tonnes a year.
Starrus Eco Holding Limited trading as Greenstar, has also been given the green light to accept commercial and domestic non-hazardous wastes as well as the acceptance of household hazardous waste at the civic amenity area and commercial hazardous waste in the transfer building.
Under its existing planning permission Greenstar is restricted to accepting 25,000 tonnes of waste annually and does not allow the acceptance of household and commercial hazardous waste.
Planning permission for the development was granted last week by the council which said it would not seriously injure the visual amenities or landscape character of the area; would not have an adverse impact on the integrity of any Natura 2000 sites; would not seriously injure the amenities or property values of residential properties or farms in the vicinity; wuld not be prejudicial to public health and would not have any unacceptable effects on the environment.
The council says the development is of minor scale and does not involve any significant construction works on site which was already developed and serviced and no significant changes were proposed in this regard.
It also stated that the site was of low biodiversity value and was not located within any designated Natura 2000 sites as per the EU Habitats Directive.
Emissions from the proposed development would not be significant and the site was located with an established commercial/industrial area and was not close to residential areas.
It was also not located in an area that was sensitive in terms of archaeological, architectural or cultural heritage.
The council was of the opinion that the Environmental Impact Assessment Report contained adequate mitigation measures including: all waste processing to be carried out within the building; odour neutralising agents would be used; only baled waste would be stored in open areas; the yard would be dampened down during dry periods to avoid vehicle dust; there would be daily site inspections for vermin, pests and other nuisances; clean surface water is to be separated from wastewater; potentially hazardous materials to be stored in a manner that minimises risks of pollution and appropriate measures will be applied to prevent windblown litter or bales falling into the estuary during loading of ships.
Only rainwater collected from the roof and the access yard to the northwest of the building would be discharged into the Garavogue estuary.
The total weight of waste received every year shall not exceed the following: 43,250 tonnes of non-hazardous waste; 500 tonnes of household hazardous waste and 6,250 tonnes of commercial hazardous waste. The site is located in an area reclaimed from Sligo Bay after the construction of the Deepwater Quay around 1900. There is no record of when the buildings were built but it is likely to have been in the mid 1960s according to engineers who submitted the planning application on behalf of Greenstar. In 1994 Sligo Waste Disposal Ltd acquired the site and it was taken over by Greenstar in 2005.
Sci-fi writer Diane Duane will be in attendance at the world's oldest science fiction convention which takes place in Dublin in two years time.
The World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) has announced that Dublin has won the bid to host the 77th Annual Convention, Dublin 2019 - An Irish Worldcon.
The Convention Centre Dublin will be the venue to host over 5,000 sci-fi fans as they descend on it in full force over five-days from August 15 to August 19, 2019.
Worldcon is held in a different city every year.
The guests of honour have already been confirmed and Diane Duane will be among them.
Diane was born in the US but resides in Grangecon. Her first novel was published in 1979 and she has sold more than fifty other novels during her career. She has won numerous awards and has also written extensively for TV and film.
Arklow Library is currently hosting a centenary exhibition of paintings by Arklow born artist George Campbell RHA (1917-1979) to mark Heritage Week.
The exhibition follows on from a very successful event organised last May by Arklow Municipal District Council where they unveiled a plaque at the birth place of George Campbell on St Patrick's Terrace Arklow.
This event has now been shortlisted for Chambers Ireland Excellence in Local Government Awards for 'Commemorating the 100th Birthday and Birthplace of Artist George Campbell RHA (1917 - 1979)' under the Heritage and Built Environment category.
Arklow library will now build on this success by hosting 24 paintings by this renowned artist. The exhibition is free to view during normal library opening hours until September 30 and the official launch takes place this Thursday at 7.30pm. All welcome to attend.
The Crying Game will be one of the films shown
Wicklow Film Festival 2017 will take place at Mermaid Arts Centre from Friday, September 8, until Sunday, September 10.
Each of the seven films programmed in this, the second Wicklow Film Festival, will be accompanied by post-screening discussions led by film makers and social commentators.
This year's festival is a collaboration between Mermaid and Outpost Studios, a Wicklow-based visual artists studio workspace.
As an artist and member of Outpost Studios, Raine Hozier Byrne led the selection of films along with her son, writer-director Jon Hozier Byrne and visual artist Eleanor Philips. This year the screenings will feature some daring deconstructions of gender inequality, racism, and poverty. Each film will be accompanied by engaging post-film discussions with filmmakers, experts, and activists.
'The power of film, at its best, confronts us with truth and challenges our perceptions, and in doing so, can become an agent for change,' said Raine.
'With the glamour of the film industry it's easy to be distracted and forget the intense power of film,' said Niamh O'Donnell, artistic director at Mermaid Arts Centre.
'Film holds the possibility not just to transport us to other worlds but also to have an intensely transformative effect. Almost all of us have seen a film that fundamentally changed and altered our outlook and opinions.'
On Friday, September 8, it's Machines at 12 midday. Debut director Rahul Jain displays a combination of artistic vision and social conscience giving a glimpse into the heavily guarded world of sweatshops in India. The post-film discussion includes New York Times writer Caelainn Hogan. At 7 p.m. it's Sanctuary.
Set in the world of people with intellectual disabilities and garnering universal acclaim from critics and audiences alike, Sanctuary is a touching and funny love story about Larry and Sophie, two people who long to be together in a world that does everything to keep them apart. The discussion will include director Len Collin and screenwriter Christian O'Reilly.
On Saturday, September 9, Twice Shy will be shown at 1 p.m. Directed by Tom Ryan, Twice Shy is a coming of age story about a young, unmarried couple who embark on a road trip from Ireland to London, as the result of an unplanned pregnancy. Anna Cosgrave, Founder of Repeal Project, will participate in the discussion.
At 4 p.m. it's Do Not Resist. Director Craig Atkinson's documentary is an account of the increasing use of force by law enforcement in the United States, counterpointed with civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri following the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014.
Professor Diane Negra, head of the UCD film department, will speak afterwards.
At 7 p.m. it's Pilgrimage. Director Brendan Muldowney creates an extraordinary period drama crossed with action-laced road movie. Travelling through a 13th-century Irish countryside filled with warring clans and Norman conquerors, monks bring their land's most sacred relic to Rome. Religious fervour and the savagery of man are the profound lessons learned. Brendan Muldowney and screenwriter Jamie Hannigan will speak afterwards.
On Sunday, September 10, Eat Your Children will be shown at 1 p.m. Director Treasa O'Brien will participate in the post-film discussion.
The Crying Game will be screened at 4 p.m., as the 25th anniversary of the Neil Jordan Oscar-winner falls. This extraordinary film explores themes of race, gender, nationality and sexuality against the backdrop of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Filmmaker Paddy Breathnach will be included in the post-film discussion.
For more information or to book tickets, go to mermaidartscentre.ie.
Frank Curran has been appointed as the new Chief Executive of Wicklow County Council.
Mr Curran is the former Chief Executive of Leitrim County Council, a position he held for over three years. He succeeds Bryan Doyle who took on the role on a temporary basis following the retirement of Eddie Sheehy in 2015.
Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council, Cllr Edward Timmins, has welcomed Mr Curran to his new position.
'I look forward to working with him after his appointment. I am very optimistic about the contribution he can make to Wicklow County Council.'
Health Minister, Simon Harris, has also welcomed the news, saying the appointment of a permanent Chief Executive was 'very positive news' for the county.
'We have been without a permanent Chief Executive for a long time now. The appointment of a new Chief Executive with such an excellent record can only serve to drive the county forward,' he said.
'I want to welcome Frank to County Wicklow and wish him the very best in his new role. I look forward to working with him and continuing to work with team in Wicklow County Council to drive positive development in our county.'
Prior to taking up the position of Chief Executive with Leitrim County Council in February 2014, Mr Curran served as a Director of Services with Waterford County Council from 2007 to 2014, as Senior Executive Officer from 2004 to 2007 and Senior Executive Engineer from 2002 to 2004.
He was Assistant Resident Engineer for the Southern Cross Motorway with Dun Loaghaire/Rathdown County Council from 1998 to 2000.
Wicklow County Council has shot down plans to build a large wind farm in south Wicklow.
In July, ABO Wind had applied to Wicklow County Council for permission to develop the wind energy project, consisting of up to eleven wind turbines at Roddenagh, Kiladuff, Ballymanus, Preban, Ballinglen and Askakeagh.
The turbines were to have a maximum overall height of 150m to blade tip from existing ground level, a transformer at each turbine and a hard stand area adjacent to each turbine. The development was also to consist of a 38kV electrical substation and all associated infrastructure and works, up to two permanent/temporary meteoroligcal mast with a maximum overall height of 100m tip from existing ground level and all associated infrastructure and works, a temporary site compound and all associated works, new site tracks and upgraded site tracks and all associated works, two new access entrance to local road and all associated works, 20kV underground cables facilitating the connection of turbines to 38kV electrical substation and all associated infrastructure and works, land clearance including tree felling and vegetation removal, and all ancillary works.
An Environmental Impact Statement accompanied the application.
There was widespread opposition to the proposed development with Wicklow County Council receiving 324 submissions from the public in respect of the application.
These included submissions from: Ballymanus GAA, Askingap County Development Association, Aughrim and District Trout Angling and Conservation Club, Cllr Joe Behan, the Parents Association of Annacurragh National School, Richard More O'Ferrell and others, Wicklow Uplands Council, the Board of Management of St Brigid's National School, 4As Hill Walking Club, Askinagap Group Water Scheme Coop Society, Cllr Shay Cullen, Mountaineering Ireland, the elected members of Baltinglass Municipal District, Deputy Pat Casey, Deputy John Brady and Cllr Brendan Thornhill.
On Monday, Wicklow County Council refused permission for the development on two counts.
In its decision it said that the council 'considered the proposed development would form a significant visual intrusion in the landscape by reason of the height and spatial extent of the proposed turbines, which would be excessively dominant and visually obtrusive, when viewed from Listed Prospect No. 54, would have a pronounced effect on the landscape, altering its reading as a rolling rural landscape to a more industrialised scene, when the accumulation of both existing and permitted windfarm developments are viewed in the setting.
'The proposed wind energy development would, therefore, seriously injure the visual amenities of the area, would impact detrimentally on this listed prospect, and would be contrary to proper planning and sustainable development.'
Secondly it said: 'Having regard to the overall design, layout and positioning of the proposed site entrances taken in combination with the inadequate information submitted in relation to the provision of sight distances and the detailed design of the entrances, it is considered that the proposed development could endanger public safety by reason of serious traffic hazard. The proposed development would therefore be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.'
Cllr Pat Kennedy, who had made a submission, said he was delighted the development had been refused permission.
'This comes after fierce opposition from local residents and is the second time that it has been refused. Let's hope that the developers respect the wishes of the communities affected and the decision of Wicklow County Council and leave this landscape to the people who have looked after it for generations.
'I was proud to have been able to stand with the communities on both occasions and I will do so again if needs be. Hopefully it will not come to that again.'
Hosted by Polo Wicklow, the 2017 International Ladies' Polo Tournament in aid of The Irish Injured Jockeys Fund saw top international players and spectators from around the world present at the private Ballyhenry Estate outside Ashford.
Crowds gathered from noon to enjoy the feature fundraiser lunch in aid of The Irish Injured Jockeys Fund took place in the pitch-side marquee overlooking all of the polo action.
Around the pitch, in addition to the polo action, guest enjoyed pitch-side picnics, barista-prepared coffees from the Mini Coffee Company, a saddlery pop-up and demos with Lucy Cushley and interactive polo displays. There was also a ceremonial Bray Harriers Hound Parade and Luxury car displays from Audi Centre and Bentley Belfast who showcased their latest sporty models.
On the pitch, the day featured three thrilling games: Ireland vs the Rest Of The World went to the Rest of the World Team.
This was followed by an entertaining Charity Jockeys vs Trainers match which saw the Trainers team prevail. Well known racing names who played included Davy Russell, Bryan Cooper, Katie Walsh, Sean Flanagan, Andy McNamara, Tony Martin and Kate Harrington.
The sporting highlight of the day saw Ireland's strongest ever polo team secure victory over the US. The 2017 Irish ladies' polo team was captained by Ireland's highest rated lady polo player, Wicklow native Siobhan Herbst.
She said: 'This was the 18th year of the tournament and we fielded our strongest Irish ladies' polo team ever, which really paid off.
'We were delighted to welcome lots of new visitors this year and would like to thank everyone who supported the day so generously.'
Apart from hosting and possible maintenance costs, there are not exactly downsides to having your own website. Even if its just a personal blog it can always become more useful down the line, if you utilize it in the right manner. In other words, more
A leading international medical humanitarian organisation has called for an end to the arbitrary detention of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants currently held in Libyan detention centres.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has released these photographs, calling the conditions of the detention centres "substandard".
They said the centres do not meet any international or national standards.
The international humanitarian organisation has now been providing medical care to people held inside Tripoli detention centres for more than one year.
Medical advisor Dr Sibylle Sang described the conditions inside the centres.
"Detainees are stripped of any human dignity, suffer ill treatment and lack access to medical care," Dr Sang said.
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"Every day we see how much unnecessary harm is being caused by detaining people in these conditions but there is only so much we can do to ease the suffering."
Medical teams treat more than a thousand detainees every month for respiratory tract infections, acute watery diarrhoea, infestations of scabies and lice, and urinary tract infections.
Many detention centres are dangerously overcrowded with the amount of space per detainee so limited that people are unable to stretch out at night and there is little natural light or ventilation.
Food shortages have led to adults suffering from acute malnutrition, with some patients needing urgent hospitalisation.
There is no formal registration system in place and no proper record-keeping in the centres. As a result, once people are inside a detention centre there is no way to track what happens to them.
MSF said this makes close monitoring and follow-up of patients difficult.
Some patients simply disappear without a trace, the organisation said.
Director of Medecins Sans Frontieres in Ireland Sam Taylor said; "We are treating more than a thousand detainees a month for diseases a result of their detention, including at least one adult per week for acute malnutrition."
Kenya's Supreme Court has overturned the re-election of Uhuru Kenyatta, the country's president, ordering a fresh vote in a stunning ruling unprecedented in Africa's history.
Prompting raucous street celebrations by opposition supporters and naked disbelief in presidential quarters, the court found that Mr Kenyatta's victory in the election, which held on August 8, was marred by "irregularities and illegalities".
Robed in red and black, the six judges on the bench ruled by a majority of four to two to uphold a petition by Mr Kenyatta's challenger, Raila Odinga, who argued that he had been deprived of victory through systematic fraud.
Although the court appeared to absolve Mr Kenyatta of rigging, the chief justice, David Maraga, concluded that the manner in which the electoral commission had tallied the votes was so flawed it merited a re-run of the election within 60 days.
"The presidential election held on August 8 was not conducted in accordance with the constitution and applicable law, rendering the results invalid, null and void," he said.
Mr Odinga had initially refused to mount a legal challenge to the results, arguing that the supreme court had proved itself to be a partisan tool of the executive after it rejected his petition five years ago to overturn Mr Kenyatta's first election victory.
He capitulated only under international pressure after at least 28 of his supporters were killed by police during violent protests triggered by the electoral commission formally declaring Mr Kenyatta's re-election three weeks ago.
In the slums of Nairobi and the cities of western Kenya, where support for Mr Odinga is most fanatical, they marched in their hundreds of thousands in celebration at the ruling.
Mr Kenyatta defeated his challenger by 1.4 million votes, a margin of 9.5pc.
The court has yet to release its detailed findings, but the chief justice intimated that the court had reached its verdict not because Mr Odinga had proved fraud but due to the opaque manner in which the count was conducted.
Results filed from a quarter of the 40,000 polling stations were not submitted to the central tallying centre with the required hard copies signed by agents from both parties, but were nonetheless allowed to stand.
Acrid, black smoke has been coming from a chimney at the Russian consulate in San Francisco a day after the US government ordered its closure.
Firefighters who arrived at the scene were turned away by consulate officials who came from inside the building.
An Associated Press reporter heard people who came from inside the building tell firefighters that there was no problem and that consulate staff were burning unidentified items in a fireplace.
Mindy Talamadge, a spokeswoman from the San Francisco Fire Department, said the department received a call about the smoke and sent a crew to investigate but determined the smoke was coming from the chimney.
"They had a fire going in their fireplace," she said.
Ms Talmadge said she did not know what they were burning on a day when normally cool San Francisco temperatures were particularly high.
"It was not unintentional. They were burning something in their fireplace," she said.
The consulate's workers are hurrying to shut Russia's oldest consulate in the US.
The order for Russia to vacate the consulate and an official diplomatic residence in San Francisco - home to a long-standing community of Russian emigres and technology workers - escalated an already tense diplomatic stand-off between Washington and Moscow.
The deadline for the consulate to close is Saturday.
AP
Russia accused the US of gross violations of international law in its order to Moscow to close the Russian consulate in San Francisco by Saturday.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said US "special services" intend to search the consulate on Saturday. S
She said the US also plans to search apartments in San Francisco used by Russian diplomats and their families. Ms Zakharova said that involves the families leaving their apartments for 10 to 12 hours so officials can search.
The State Department is not commenting specifically on whether officials plan to search the premises.
But the State Department said that as of Saturday, access to the consulate will only be granted with State Department permission.
The State Department said it will "secure and maintain the properties in keeping with our responsibilities".
AP
Kenya's president has promised to "fix" the judicial system after the Supreme Court nullified last month's election.
And Uhuru Kenyatta warned the chief justice and judiciary not to interfere with the electoral commission as the country prepares for a new presidential vote.
On Saturday, the president again accused the court of overturning the will of the people after he was declared the winner of the August 8 election.
The court on Friday said the electoral commission had committed irregularities in the vote and called for a new election within 60 days.
Mr Kenyatta said the country's judiciary has a "problem" and his administration will revisit the issue once it is re-elected.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga had petitioned the court challenging Mr Kenyatta's win, claiming manipulation. He now wants the electoral commission to be disbanded.
AP
Undated US Coast Guard handout file photo of the catamaran Surf into Summer which Lewis Bennett and wife Isabella Hellmann were sailing on before her disappearance. US Coast Guard/PA Wire
A British man whose wife mysteriously vanished as they sailed off the coast of Cuba must pay 250,000 dollars (193,000) to be bailed over allegations he was smuggling stolen coins as he was rescued.
Lewis Bennett, 40, sent an SOS call saying recent mother Isabella Hellmann was missing and his catamaran was taking on water as the newlyweds sailed from Havana to Florida, prompting an FBI investigation.
He was rescued alone in his life-raft where investigators say they later found a stash of silver coins before unearthing a haul of golden coins in a search of their home in Delray Beach, Florida.
Bennett, a British-Australian dual citizen, appeared in a Florida court on Friday where the judge set the bond with the condition that if the money is provided, the source can be investigated.
His lawyer, Marc Shiner, says he will deny a charge of transporting gold and silver coins worth up to 100,000 dollars (77,000) while knowing that they were stolen and taken by fraud, when he returns to court on September 11.
The search for estate agent Ms Hellmann, 41, was called off days after she was reported missing in the early hours of May 15 but the investigation into her disappearance is continuing.
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During his rescue, Bennett took a suitcase and two backpacks into his life-raft but left with just one "unusually heavy" backpack, according to a coast guard.
Special Agent James Kelley alleges that 158 British Year of the Horse silver coins and 77 Canadian Maple Leaf coins were found in Bennett's raft.
After a visit to the UK, Bennett went back to his Florida home later in May and the FBI returned the coins.
But later that day they realised Bennett had reported to police in May 2016 that coins had been burgled from a sailing boat, Kitty R, that he had been working on in St Maarten, according to court documents.
Investigators allege they returned to his home to discover 162 gold coins stashed in a pair of boat shoes in a bedroom cupboard.
The FBI says Kitty R's owner confirmed that all the coins discovered were the ones taken from the vessel.
Smoke rises from the flooded Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, near Houston (KTRK via AP)
Thick black smoke and towering orange flames shot into the sky after two trailers of highly unstable compounds blew up at a flooded Houston-area chemical plant, the second fire there in two days.
Officials at Arkema in Crosby said Harvey's floodwater engulfed the plant's back-up generators and knocked out the refrigeration necessary to keep the organic peroxides, used in such products as plastics and paints, from degrading and catching fire.
Arkema executive Richard Rennard said two containers caught fire on Friday evening, and six others are also at risk.
Arkema spokeswoman Janet Smith said the company expects the rest of the containers will ignite "within a matter of days".
Preliminary analysis of data captured by Environmental Protection Agency surveillance aircraft on Friday did not show high levels of toxic airborne chemicals, agency spokesman David Gray said. No serious injuries were reported in the last two days as a result of the fires.
The height and colour of the flames from the plant on Friday suggested incomplete combustion of the organic peroxides, Texas A&M chemical safety expert Sam Mannan said.
With complete combustion, he said, the byproduct is carbon dioxide and water, posing about the same amount of risk as standing too close to a campfire. But incomplete combustion implies something else is burning.
The fire burned not just the organic peroxides but also the plastic packaging, insulation, and the materials used to construct the trailers, Ms Smith said.
Daryl Roberts, the company's vice president of manufacturing, technology and regulatory services in the Americas, told the Associated Press on Wednesday that the floodwater inundating the plant would cause any toxins produced by the fire to quickly vaporise. By Friday, the water had receded but Ms Smith could not comment on whether that had changed the calculation of risk.
A 1.5-mile (2.4km) buffer zone around the plant was established on Tuesday when Arkema warned that chemicals kept there could explode.
Employees were evacuated, and up to 5,000 people living nearby were warned to leave their homes.
Officials remain comfortable with the size of the exclusion zone, Rachel Moreno, a spokeswoman for the Harris County Fire Marshal Office, said on Friday evening.
Ms Smith reiterated statements executives made earlier on Friday that the safest course of action was simply to "let these fires happen and let them burn out".
Arkema officials did not directly notify local emergency managers of the generator failure, Ms Moreno said. Instead it came by way of the plant's ride-out crew, who told the Crosby Volunteer Fire Department about it when they were rescued during the storm, she said.
In a conference call with reporters on Friday, Arkema president and chief executive Rich Rowe apologised and said he was sending a team of employees to Crosby to figure out how best to assist locals.
"I realise this is not a situation that we can help remedy overnight," he said.
A total of 42 people have so far been confirmed dead a week after Harvey slammed into the middle Texas Gulf coast.
Harris County is home to Houston and has so far accounted for 28 deaths from the storm.
President Donald Trump has sent politicians a 7.9 billion dollar (6.1 billion) request for an initial downpayment for Harvey relief and recovery efforts.
The request, expected to be swiftly approved by Congress, would add 7.4 billion dollars (5.7 billion) to rapidly dwindling Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster aid coffers and 450 million dollars (347 million) to finance disaster loans for small businesses.
AP
No-one claimed responsibility for the attack (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
Seven workers were killed when at least three attackers entered a power station and blew themselves up, Iraqi authorities said.
Eight security forces were injured in the suicide bombing in Samarra.
Brigadier General Yahya Rasool said two of the attackers disguised themselves as workers and a third wore a security forces uniform.
The attack happened at dawn on Saturday. No-one immediately claimed responsibility.
Electricity Ministry spokesman Musaab al-Mudaris said seven employees were killed and eight security forces were wounded. He put the number of attackers at four.
Mr Al-Mudaris said one attacker was shot dead, while the others blew themselves up.
Samarra is 78 miles (125km) north of the capital, Baghdad.
AP
A Rohingya refugee carries a child in a sack after crossing over to the Bangladesh side of the border (AP/Bernat Armangue)
Tens of thousands more people have crossed by boat and on foot into Bangladesh in the last 24 hours as they flee violence in western Burma, the UNHCR said.
Burma 's security officials and insurgents from the Rohingya ethnic minority are accusing each other of burning down villages and committing atrocities in Burma 's Rakhine state.
The military has said nearly 400 people, most of them insurgents, have died in armed clashes.
The violence has triggered a flood of refugees crossing mostly on foot into Bangladesh, though some were fleeing in wooden boats.
"Roughly 60,000 have arrived in Bangladesh since the violence erupted on August 25," said UN Refugee Agency spokeswoman Vivian Tan.
That is about 20,000 more than the number local officials had estimated on Friday.
Refugees who had arrived at the Bangladeshi fishing village of Shah Porir Dwip described bombs exploding and Rohingyas being burned alive.
"We fled to Bangladesh to save our lives," said a man who only gave his first name, Karim.
"The military and extremist Rakhine are burning us, burning us, killing us, setting our village on fire."
He said he paid 12,000 Bangladeshi taka, or about 116, for each of his family members to be smuggled on a wooden boat to Bangladesh after soldiers killed 110 Rohingya in their village of Kunnapara, near the coastal town of Maungdaw.
"The military destroyed everything. After killing some Rohingya, the military burned their houses and shops," he said. "We have a baby who is eight days only, and an old woman who is 105."
Satellite imagery analysed by Human Rights Watch shows hundreds of buildings had been destroyed in at least 17 sites across Rakhine state since August 25, including some 700 structures that appeared to have been burned down in just the village of Chein Khar Li, the international rights watchdog said in a statement Saturday.
Ali Hossain, a deputy commissioner in Cox's Bazar, said Bangladesh was struggling to cope as "the flow of Rohingya refugees is continuing by boat and the land route."
The Red Cross has sent teams to refugee camps, in co-ordination with the local Red Crescent Society, to "assess the refugees' requirements. The influx is scattered at different places. The task is challenging for us", said spokeswoman Misada Saif.
The violence erupted when insurgents attacked Burma police and paramilitary posts in what they said was an effort to protect minority Rohingya. In response, the military unleashed what it called "clearance operations" to root out the insurgents.
Advocates for the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Burma, say security forces and vigilantes both have attacked and burned villages, shooting civilians and causing others to flee.
The government blames the insurgents for burning their own homes and killing Buddhists in Rakhine.
Longstanding tension between the Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists erupted in bloody rioting in 2012, forcing more than 100,000 Rohingya into displacement camps, where many still live.
AP
Cheers erupted when the H.L. Hunley broke the ocean's surface for the first time in more than a century. Since it vanished during a 1864 naval battle, the Confederate submarine had lain on the seafloor off the coast near Charleston, South Carolina, its heavy iron hull gathering barnacles and rust. In 2000, when the vessel was recovered, scientists and historians expected to be able to solve the mystery of why it sank.
But when they ventured inside the boat, they found not a single clue. Its 40-foot-long iron hull was barnacle-encrusted but not broken. The skeletons of eight members of the crew were found still in their seats at their respective battle stations; their bones bore no evidence of physical harm. The bilge pumps hadn't been activated. The air hatches were closed. There was no sign that anyone had tried to escape.
"There was nothing on the boat that could explain the deaths," said Rachel Lance, a biomedical engineer at the University of North Carolina.
In a paper published this week in the journal PLOS ONE, Lance and her colleagues report it was something in the water that led to the submarine's demise, something the crew had put there themselves. They were killed by their own weapon.
Lance figured this out without experience in archaeology or access to the sub itself. In fact, the majority of her research was conducted in a pond. Here's how she did it.
First, some the history of the Hunley. It was meant to be the Confederacy's secret weapon; though boats capable of operating underwater had been built before the Civil War, none had been successfully deployed against an enemy ship. On Feb. 17, 1864, the sleek iron vessel slid unnoticed into Charleston Harbor, which was blockaded by the U.S. ship Housatonic. The Hunley's crew pointed a torpedo packed with explosive black powder at the Union boat's hull, aimed and fired.
The Housatonic sank. And then, seemingly for no reason, the Hunley did as well.
A few years ago, the mystery fell into Lance's lap. She specializes in trauma related to underwater blasts, and at that time she was a researcher for the Navy working on her PhD at Duke University. One of her professors wanted to know if she could apply her work to the Hunley case.
"Hollywood does a really poor job of showing what happens in an explosion," Lance said. "People aren't thrown that often."
Instead, when a torpedo blows something up underwater, it creatures pressure waves that reverberate in the water and through the body of anyone who happens to be in it. The instantaneous increase in pressure can squeeze oxygen out of the lungs and pop blood vessels in the brain. The effects are often deadly.
But the damage occurs exclusively in a victim's soft tissue, like the gut, lungs and brain - from the outside, it can be impossible to tell that the person has been harmed.
Lance has studied thousands of blast trauma deaths of World War II sailors who were killed by explosions that caught them in the water during the Battle of Midway. She has also advised the Navy on the safe distance for divers trying to disarm unexploded ordinance at the bottom of the sea. As soon as she read the description of the remains of Hunley's crew, "we realized that what the archaeologists had uncovered were patterns of trauma that looked exactly like blast injures," she said.
But where did the pressure waves to cause that trauma come from? The most likely answer was the Hunley itself - or rather, the torpedo that the Hunley had fired at the Housatonic moments before.
Lance and her colleagues constructed a six-foot scale model of the Hunley out of historically accurate sheets of iron, and dubbed the vessel CSS Tiny. They placed it in a pond on Duke's campus, then pumped a puff of compressed gas into the water near the little ship to replicate the effects of a bomb exploding. Sensors located on every surface of the Tiny indicated that the waves hit the underside of the hull and were deflected, setting off a secondary pressure wave that bounced around the vessel's interior.
Next they replicated the experiment using real blasts of black powder - the world's most ancient explosive, which was the active ingredient in the Hunley's torpedo. This phase was conducted in an off-campus pond, where it wouldn't harm any hapless undergrads. But it gave the same results: The pressure along the Hunley's keel was about 1,100 pounds per square inch, or psi - equivalent to being beneath 2,400 feet of water. Inside the ship, the pressure jumped to at least 28 psi after the explosion - similar to diving down to 64 feet below the surface.
That may not sound like much, but remember that this increase happened almost instantaneously. "It is the rapid rate of increase that causes the trauma," Lance said. She and her colleagues calculated there was an 85 percent chance that the crew of the Hunley died of pulmonary problems caused by this dramatic wave of pressure. They could have died before they knew what was happening.
Robert Salzar, a blast injury biomechanics specialist at the University of Virginia, told Nature that blast trauma is usually not instantly deadly. Instead, he suggested, the pressure waves may have killed the crew indirectly by knocking them out and causing the Hunley, with no one conscious to steer it, to sink.
The absence of an autopsy makes it impossible to know for sure, Lance said, but this is the first theory that accounts for all the odd clues archaeologists uncovered. In Lance's mind, at least, "I think the mystery is solved."
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The recent federal court rulings have singled out Texas and North Carolina for creating discriminating congressional voting districts which diminish the rights of minority voters. This enables the party in power (GOP) to skew the results in their favor.
About 30 of the NC districts need to be redrawn to reflect rational jurisdictions vs. a process which stacks the deck in one party's favor. Voters should select representatives not the other way around. Two districts in NC resemble a snake (east to west) and the other an octopus (north to south).
Nationally more voters voted for Democrats in 2012, yet the GOP retained control of the House.
In North Carolina in the last statewide election 53 percent of the votes were Republican, yet 77 percent of the representatives were Republican. This distorts the will of the voters. On the state level, it makes it easier to pass bills over a governor's veto and to silence a vocal and strong minority. The only solution is to have a completely bipartisan commission draw up the districts without regard to race or ethnicity. Just because the Democrats distorted districts in the past is no reason to postpone current remedies.
As former House leader Tip O'Neil stated, all politics is local. It cannot be local if districts
group voters into discriminatory districts.
Gerrymandering is not the only problem in our democracy.
Finance reform needs to occur to return power to the people versus power to the billionaire donors and super-PACs that hide the identities of the true donors such as the Koch brothers.
The Citizens United decision in the Supreme Court needs to be overturned to allow more equity to lower and middle income voters vs. large corporate interests and wealthy individuals. A policy of limiting donations to perhaps $2,000 per corporation and $500 per individual would equalize the playing field. Full disclosure would also help so that lobbyists would have less power in influencing legislation and selecting representatives.
Hopefully the 2018 elections will more accurately reflect the will of the people vs. the biases of any given political party. To do otherwise, fairness and equality would be set back, and our democracy would go down the wrong path.
Deabler is a former hospital CEO, healthcare consultant, and economics instructor.
Is there some way to help President Trump recover from the damage caused by his comments relating to events in Charlottesville and the future of Confederate monuments? Perhaps he could issue a statement of his position following the model of the classic If-by-Whiskey speech given by Noah Sweat, a Mississippi legislator, in 1952 on the controversial question of legalizing the sale of liquor. In that speech, Sweat passionately and convincingly argued two opposing sides of a serious issue.
If our president followed that model, he could explain his position as follows:
****
My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject any further. But as you know I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about the removal of Confederate monuments. All right, here is how I feel about them and the proposals to take them down.
If, when you say Confederate monuments, you mean the memorials to those young men who entered the war of 1861-65 in answer to the call of their country and whose lives taught the lesson of their great commander that duty is the sublimest word in the English language; if you mean those monuments that celebrate Southern pride and stand for heritage, not hate; if you mean those long standing statues which, if removed would erase history and give in to those who believe that the way to cultivate democracy and racial harmony is to obliterate physical markers of the past and prettify our mixed American history; if you mean those monuments whose removal would be more likely to freeze than eradicate our nations lingering hatreds by eliminating opportunities for critical contextualization to use our past to instruct us for a better future; if you mean those monuments that have been a reminder that while the South lost the Civil War, its people should not lose their respect for the soldiers who fought and fell in defeat; if you mean those monuments that polls show a majority of Americans want to preserve; if you mean those monuments that anchor beautiful and peaceful public places where people of all backgrounds and races gather and whose removal would thus rip apart the landscape, history and culture of our great country, then certainly I support Confederate monuments and oppose their removal.
But, if when you say Confederate monuments, you mean those structures that glorify the Confederacy and its legacy of slavery; if you mean monuments erected long after the end of the Civil War that were part of efforts to support white supremacy and symbolize the white mens duty and right to rule and which gave legitimacy to the Jim Crow regimes that segregated nearly every aspect of life; if you mean those monuments that have made the black people who pass by them every day walk in the shadows of edifices that honor and glorify those who enslaved, beat and slaughtered such peoples ancestors and who supported a bloody Civil War to protect the inhumane institution of slavery; if you mean those monuments that are constant reminders of institutional racism, segregation and slavery and have become symbols of modern white supremacy, the KKK, and neo-Nazism, then certainly I am against Confederate monuments and they must be removed.
This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.
***
The complete text is below:
My friends, I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey:
If when you say whiskey you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.
But, if when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.
This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.
D.G. Martin hosts North Carolina Bookwatch, which airs Sundays at noon and Thursdays at 5 p.m. on UNC-TV. Preview the upcoming program on UNC-TVs North Carolina digital channel (Spectrum #1276) on Fridays at 8 p.m.
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He likes to call himself a Sufi Soul on Instagram, and indeed he is. If you follow him on the social media platform, youll know that the man has a beautiful creative soul that apparently understands life and emotions a little better than all of us.
If you love short poems that can effectively convey the spiritual quality of solitude and calmness, you might just want to follow Bollywood actor Arunoday Singh on Instagram, because the man loves to share the power of and love for words, music, dogs as well art with everyone around. He writes each of his poems in a unique calligraphy, which makes it even more beautiful.
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Arunoday Singh made his debut in Bollywood with Sikandar in 2009, a film, which was based on the backdrop of terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir and had R. Madhavan in the lead role while Sanjay Suri, Ayesha Kapoor played other pivotal roles.
He is best known for the chocolate boy roles he played in movies including Aisha, in which he donned the role of Dhruv Singh, Aisha Kapoors (Sonam Kapoor) aunts step-son. He was also a part of movies like Jism 2, Yeh Saali Zindagi, Main Tera Hero and Mohenjo Daro.
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He is good-looking, a handsome hunk, a hearthrob, and more than that, he has a beautiful soul that can make women go weak in their knees, and his poetry is a proof of the same.
1. Just in case youre having a bad day.
2. If you are watching the rain spread its beautiful arms around you, and need a thought to wonder about the beauty of it, here it is.
3. Everything/everyone in this world has a purpose in life. For humans, it is to spread the love. And that youll find everywhere, he says.
4. Will you make it or never will? It's not about that; its about making in time, right?
5. Its not about the big things that you achieve in life, its about the little moments that bring you joy and peace.
6. This o ne line that might change your perspective about life.
7. If you love gazing at the stars, theres a connection you would feel with them after reading this.
8. And you thought fear was a bad trait? Heres the other side of it; the other purpose in life.
9. That feeling called love.
10. Get lost to find yourself, maybe.
11. Because mother is the greatest treasure in life.
12. Drift and dream your way to life, and its going to be beautiful.
13. That feeling you get after expressing your emotions through words.
Once written down, the thought wouldn't bother you, they say.
14. Chasing dreams? Lets keep dreams a bit simple, and put an end to the anxiety that it causes to achieve something big.
15. This one is simply spellbinding.
* My mind Is a prison, Where I Am warden, And convict Both____ #sufisoulpoetry #poetsofinstagram #poets #poemsporn A post shared by Arunoday Singh (@sufisoul) on Apr 17, 2017 at 7:26am PDT
Most of Arunoday Singhs poems are dedicated to his Canadian wife Lee Elton, it seems, who he met on a yoga retreat in Goa, and that is from where their journey as soulmates began. They bonded instantly and are living happily ever after.
(Read More: Arunoday Singh Marries Canadian Girlfriend Lee Elton And Their Wedding Pictures Are Just Lovely)
1. Post Slamming Hrithik Roshan, Kangana Ranaut Reveals Aditya Pancholi Used To Abuse Her While They Were Dating
It was a very difficult and very harsh time. I was physically abused. I dont have to go to details. I felt trapped. You feel people might help you. But there are no free lunches. But when you are going you fall for it. This man who was my fathers age hit me hard on my head when I was 17. I started bleeding. I took out my sandal and hit him head hard and he started to bleed too. I lodged an FIR against the man, she had earlier said at a press conference.
2. Rapist Gurmeet Ram Rahim's Work Permit Gets Terminated By CINTAA On Criminal Grounds
AP
The Cine and TV Artists Association (CINTAA) on Saturday unanimously decided to terminate the work permit of rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who was sentenced for 20 years in prison in a 15-year-old rape case by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court.
3. Sanjay Dutts Fellow Inmates Enquire About His Whereabouts From Farhan Akhtar Who Visited Them Recently
STATIC6.COM
As Sanjay had spent some time in the Yerwada jail, the inmates enquired about him. They asked how he was doing, his upcoming movies, events, etc, a source told DNA.
4. Embracing Pregnancy, Celina Jaitly Is Flaunting Her Baby Bump Like A Queen In This Bath Tub
I decided to share this picture because it is so important to free yourself from a negative body image that people generally associate with pregnancy and making a good one last beyond pregnancy, she told Missmalini.com about it.
5. Aamir Khan Reveals The Secret To A Successful Film, Says Play Safe With The Budget Of The Movie
You can never predict how much business a film will make. You have to make what you believe and financially you try and make it on a budget so that you don't lose money. That is what we try to do, as an actor or even as a production house, we try to make it (film ) in a budget that doesn't lose money hopefully. The extent of the business can never be in control of nor can we really predict that, DNA quoted the actor as saying.
Sanjay Dutt confessed that he realised a lot of things about life during his time in the jail. He, in fact, wrote a few songs in there and had made good friends, he had revealed.
static6.com
Recently, when Farhan Akhtar visited Yerwada jail in Pune to promote his film Lucknow Central along with the team and had launched a song before 4,000 inmates.
Twitter
Now the grapevine is abuzz with rumours that Sanjay Dutts fellow inmates enquired about his whereabouts from Farhan Akhtar and were curious to know what he is up to, and what films he is doing currently.
Twitter
As Sanjay had spent some time in the Yerwada jail, the inmates enquired about him. They asked how he was doing, his upcoming movies, events, etc, a source told DNA.
And it proves that Sanjay Dutt has a heart of gold!
A sailor, who felt he was "a woman trapped in a man's body", is facing termination from serving with the armed forces, after the Navy recommended to the defence ministry that "she" be discharged from service.
The sailor in question had recently undergone sex change surgery or gender reassignment, which prompted the Indian Navy to take this extreme measure.
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Confronted with the first-ever such case when the sailor returned to her INS Eksila base in Visakhapatnam after quietly undergoing the surgery in Mumbai late last year, the Navy wants her to be discharged under the SNLR (service no longer required) provision, sources said.
The Navy said the sailor had violated the terms and conditions under which she joined the force as "an Indian male citizen" seven years ago.
Moreover, though the Indian armed forces have been inducting women in small numbers as officers since the early 1990s, only men are recruited as sailors, soldiers and airmen.
Read more: 6 Women Officers From Indian Navy Will Set Sail To Try & Circumnavigate The Earth In September
"There is no specific rule or regulation to deal with such sex-change operations or transgender people in the armed forces. After much deliberations, a show-cause notice, a medical examination and other proceedings, the Navy has decided she cannot continue as a sailor in the force," a source said.
The sailor, who has grown her hair and wears saris, is, for now, attached to the office of the commanding officer of INS Eksila, a Naval marine gas turbine overhaul facility under the Eastern Naval Command.
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"The sailor had joined the Naval mechanical engineering wing seven years ago, got married and even has a child. The sailor, once discharged, will not get any pension because it is mandatory to serve for at least 15 years to become eligible for it," the source said.
What about gender equality?
Though the government says it is now working to "increase the participation of women officers and expand their role" in the armed forces, there is no concrete proposal to recruit them in the lower ranks.
Women officers are also not allowed to serve on board sea-faring warships or join the infantry, artillery and armoured corps in the Army, though three are now undergoing training on fighters in the IAF after getting commissioned last year.
Incidentally, last week, US President Donald Trump formally signed a presidential memo to ban transgender people from joining the US armed forces, and bar the Pentagon from paying for sex-reassignment surgeries and related medical treatment of serving troops, overturning a decision taken by predecessor Barack Obama.
Read more: After Russian-Built Choppers Fail To Satisfy The Navy, 110 Light Utility Helicopters To Be Made In India
The Royal Bengal tiger is doing well in the Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park (RGONP). And multiplying. The park has the highest density of tigers, higher than that of Kaziranga, at 35.44 per 100 square km.
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Ranger officer Chakrapani Rai puts the tiger-number in Orang at 28. He says the number could be higher because not all the tigers in the park have been counted.
Fifty-year-old Rai is an old wildlife hand. He has spent half his life in forest reserves. The last five years in Orang. A day spent with Rai is instructive. He knows the reserve inside out.
Rai says he is on guard 24/7. You dont know when your day starts and when and how it would end. Life in the jungle is unpredictable, he tells 101Reporters. Ive to make sure everybody is safe, animals as well as guards, and ensure that poachers do not poison the Tigers.
RGONP is spread over 78.81 sqkm and straddles Darrang and Sonitpur districts of Assam. The nearest city is Tezpur.
On a clear day, the park is a sight for tired eyes. The dense green vegetation, the pelicans and kingfishers, the black necked stork and the pintail, the rhino, elephant, hog deer, leopard, civet and the Royal Bengal Tiger.
The tiger of Orang is native to the reserve, says Rai. They do not move out, though, a corridor connects Orang to Kaziranga.
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Phase IV of the All India Tiger Estimation Programme of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) put the number of tigers in Orang at 28, i.e., 35.44 per 100 sqkm.
The actual number is higher. That is because pregnant tigers go into dense and safer places, says Rai. And the tracking cameras fail to capture them for the survey.
There are 38 forest camps in Orang. The camps are hooked to a control room (CR). A forest guard posted in the CR gets an hourly update from range guards of every camp. CR in turn keeps Rai up to speed.
Rai moves around the park in a jeep. He travels to boundary areas to check no animal has strayed out of the park. But there are places deep inside where the jeep cannot go. I often have to use the boat or the water launch; trudge on foot or travel elephant-back. I mostly travel alone.
He is one of those who lives, Within the Indian reality of shortages and shortcomings. His two big gripes are insufficient staff and old guns. Orang has a staff strength of 105 including 45 home guards and 15 forest guards to patrol and secure 78.81 square km of reserve area and a buffer zone of 413.18 square km.
But Rai remains unfazed. It is not a normal official routine but then nothing in the wild is official or routine, says the range officer, You have to work as per their (animals) schedule. The rhinos may go out of the buffer zone. Then you worry about poachers. A tiger may go into a human habitat. Then you worry about the tiger. You ensure the tiger returns safely to the park.
Before being turned into a wildlife park, RGNOP was home to the Orang tribe. A century ago, Kala Azar drove the Orang out. Forest guard Lankeswar Deka says the Orang worshipped Lord Shiva. There is an old Shiva Temple in the park. The reserve also has 26 ponds built by the Orang.
They are called lotus ponds, says the 48-year-old, pointing his .315 rifle like a finger at a water lily.
He keeps a 9mm pistol on him at all times. He also has a .315 mm. The last time he used the .315 was in April this year. We found some suspicious footprints on the east side. For two days we kept a watch on a stretch of the bank of river Paanch Noi. The second night the poachers fired. I fired back with my .315. In all we fired 16 rounds and gunned down two poachers, recalls Rai.
In 2016, three poachers were convicted. The local population, mostly Bengali origin minority, employs poachers to kill animals. The poachers are Naga, Bodo, Garo and Karbi. They have sophisticated weapons like M4, 9mm pistols and SLR. Until this year, we didnt even have an SLR. Its very difficult to fight poachers, says Rai. Only the bravery of our forest guards stand in the way. Rhino and tiger body parts are in high demand.
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When the Brahmaputra is on spate, Tigers cat-foot it to higher ground. Even rhinos swim away from home. In July, Rai and two guards spent two nights on a sandbar in the middle the Brahmaputra. We got information of a rhino crossing into Nagaon district. I and two guards went looking. We got marooned on a sandbar. Luckily the rhino returned. We had to spend two sleepless nights on the Sani Sapori (sand bar), says Rai.
Our animals hardly go far. When the Brahmaputra rises, Tigers come close to the camps. They dont attack unless disturbed. That is characteristic of the Royal Bengal Tiger, adds Deka.
Forest guards risk life every day. Deka remembers a tiger attack on a forest guard five years ago in Borabazar village of bordering Udalguri district. The tiger went from Orang to Borabazar village to prey on cattle. The villagers trapped him. We rushed to the spot, narrates Deka. The tiger was stuck in a net. Forest guard Haraprasad went to untangle him and get him into a cage. But the villagers wanted to kill the tiger. In the melee, the tiger sprang.
It got Haraprasad by the neck. We somehow freed him and got the tiger into the cage but Haraprasad died, recalls Deka. Another time a mahout was killed. Again because of interference from villagers. This was in 2013. Then, too, a tiger went out and killed a cow. Rai and 30 forest guards went to the village to save the tiger. We used a tranquillizer. The tiger hid itself in the swamp. The villagers started beating my men. The police and CRPF were called in. In the uproar, the tiger attacked our mahout. He died on way to hospital, says Rai.
Since 2012 six Tigers have been poisoned by villagers. They poison the remains of a tiger-kill and when the tiger returns and feeds on the kill, the poison kills it. Rai laments the shortage of staff.
We are blamed when poachers strike. But nobody sees our camps are set 2-3 km apart, he says. Forest guards patrol day and night but workload increases if one of them takes ill or takes a day off. Even the gateman doubles up as a forest guard.
Moreover, the forest guard doesnt come trained. Everything he learns is in the jungle. Rai blames the lack of service rules for the lacunae.
After the 2013 tiger census, the government is aware. For the last two years training is being imparted. But we still follow the 1891 forest manual, says Rai.
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The only saving grace is every Orang forest employee can fire a gun and navigate a boat. Even the watchman and the cook! Field Director of Orang reserve Sunnydeo Chaudhary says forest guards will shortly get AK-47s.
But there is no electricity, only solar power. The boots are awful. So are raincoats. And ration is always running short.
Funds to upgrade and modernize camps; also train staff will be allocated shortly. NTCA will contribute 90% funds, 10% by the state government, says Chaudhary.
But for Chakrapani Rai there is no place like Orang. When I first arrived, I used to patrol the park five to six times a day. I used to feel very satisfied after a tiring day knowing that all my animals were safe, says Rai, dapper in a neat khaki uniform and a white hat, his 9mm tucked in a waist holster.
Rai also has his favourite spot in the jungle. Its on the bank of the Jhauni, a tributary of Brahmaputra, with a beauty all its own. I often spend nights there with forest guard Tilak Bodo. It gives me peace, says Rai.
Syeda Ambia Zahan is a Guwahati based freelance writer.
Endangered elephants and tigers are killing one person each day in the country as man-animal conflict is on the rise. The toll is also rising as humans are increasingly squeezing their habitat.
The figures presented by the parliament reveals that man is, in turn, killing a leopard a day as the man-animal tussle for space reaches new heights.
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India has lost vast swathes of forests to urbanisation in recent decades, forcing animals into human-occupied zones.
As per the environment ministry, 1,144 people were killed in attacks across the country in 1,143 days between April 2014 and May this year. And there is no sign of the number of deaths being cut.
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The ministry said 345 tigers and 84 elephants were killed in the same period, mostly in poacher attacks. Elephants are targeted for their tusks. Siddhanta Das, the ministry's director general of forests, said human encroachment into animal territory was causing the deaths.
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"We are running awareness campaigns to minimise the casualties," Das told AFP.
Elephants accounted for 1,052 human deaths and tigers 92, according to the figures released to Parliament last week. West Bengal state accounted for more than a quarter of deaths. The eastern has nearly 800 elephants and is also home to famed Bengal tigers.
Transgenders were recognised as the third gender in 2014, a year later Rajya Sabha passed a law against abuse, exploitation and for employment of the third gender. We now have a transgender OAS officer, a transgender college principal, a transgender model was headlining Lakme Fashion Week and transgenders are allowed to use any loo they choose. Slowly but surely, things in India are changing for the transgenders, but there is one thing that might deliver a crippling blow to India's attitude towards our transgenders.
An Indian Navy officer is facing termination of service, for undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) to become a woman. Sabi, born MK Giri, had joined the Marine Engineering Department of the Indian Navy in in 2010 as an 18-years-old young man. But growing discomfort over sexuality and being felt trapped inside a male body, Giri underwent a sex change surgery in 2016 to become a woman.
Tragically this places India in the same bracket as USA where President Donald Trump's decision to ban transgenders from the US military has been in equal parts condemned and abused.
Indiatimes
The gender-reassignment surgery that Sabi thought would change her life, changed it for the worst. The 25-year-old Navy sailor serving the INS Eksila base of the navy in Visakhapatnam now faces termination from service.
The Navy has begun proceedings to discharge her from service.
Speaking to Indiatimes, Sabi said her Commanding Officer (CO) had sent her papers to the Naval Headquarters in Delhi a month ago and the decision is pending. Sabi said that she was served a show cause notice for undergoing sex change surgery without informing the authorities.
She, however, rejected the allegations and said that the doctors in the Navy had failed to offer any help when she approached them.
"I had told my commanding officer about the trauma I am facing, but I was offered no solution. I also consulted the doctors in the Navy, even they couldn't help me. They suggested me to undergo psychiatric treatment, and nothing beyond that."
Indiatimes
She said there is no provision in the Navy rules regarding transgenders and they are using this excuse to terminate her service. With little support from her seniors, Sabi sought the help of a private psychiatrist who identified that she was having Gender Identity Disorder. In May 2016 she began the process of sex change and underwent the surgery in October.
Days after joining back to duty, Sabi was forced to consult a doctor in Navy after developing a urinary infection, which revealed her sex change.
"They were surprised and was clueless about what to do. They kept me in a psychiatric ward for almost six months, because they had no idea how to go about," Sabi told Indiatimes.
Indiatimes
After her release from the psychiatric ward, Sabi was allowed to resume her service as a woman, but the Navy began the process to terminate her.
Sabi is thankful to her family who was initially shocked to hear her decision, but later on accepted her for who she is. She, however, did not get the same from her colleagues in the navy.
"Most of my colleagues are scared to interact with me as I am facing administrative action. So they don't want to get into the bad books of the officers. Maybe that is why they are reluctant" she said.
Sabi says she is still optimistic and hopes she can continue her passion.
"I was selected from thousands of candidates based on merit. I still can pull a trigger and fight the enemy. So how does my sex change affect what I am doing? I am not a terrorist criminal, I had proudly served the navy for the past seven years. Why should they terminate me now" she asked.
Indiatimes
Sabi also hopes Prime Minister Modi who says his government is 'sab ke saath' will look into her case favourably.
While Sabi is the first such case in the Navy, earlier this year a female CISF personnel who underwent sex change surgery four years ago to marry a woman colleague was officially recognised as male and was permitted to continue service after undergoing multiple medical and physical tests.
India has launched a global hunt for 123 naval multi-role helicopters (NMRHs), with potent anti-submarine warfare capabilities, as well as 111 armed naval light utility choppers (NUHs) for operations from the decks of warships.
The projects, together worth well over $ 5 billion, will be executed under the new "strategic partnership" (SP) policy under the "Make in India" framework.
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The SP policy is basically meant to boost the indigenous defence production sector, with Indian private sector companies producing cutting-edge weapon systems in collaboration with global armament majors through joint ventures and technology transfers.
The government had earlier issued the RFI (request for information) to arms majors of six countries for the over Rs 70,000 crore project to build six advanced stealth submarines in collaboration with an Indian shipyard under the SP policy.
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For the two helicopter projects, the government has also sought responses from original equipment manufacturers through RFIs by early-October. The vendors will then be issued formal tenders or RFPs (request for proposals) to submit their technical and commercial bids.
With the Indian companies to be selected in a parallel process, it will take at least a couple of years for the final contracts to be actually inked.
Both the NMRH and NUH are "critical operational necessities" for the Navy. Indian warships, for instance, are virtually bereft of helicopters that can detect, track and hunt enemy submarines at a time when Chinese nuclear and diesel-electric submarines are making regular forays into the Indian Ocean Region.
Even the long-pending initial procurement of 16 S-70B multi-role helicopters from American firm Sikorsky has not made any headway. The Navy is currently grappling with just 11 old Kamov-28 and 17 Sea King ASW (anti-submarine warfare) helicopters, most of them in a moth-balled condition, to defend its existing fleet of 140 warships.
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ASW helicopters typically fly ahead of warships to "dunk" their sonars into the deep waters, "listen" for enemy submarines and fire torpedoes against them to clear the path for the fleet. In the 9 to 12.5-tonne class, these helicopters also have missiles to take on other warships as well as electronic warfare and early-warning suites.
The Navy, in turn, wants the twin-engine NUHs to replace its ageing fleet of single-engine Chetak helicopters. The NUHs are different from the Army/IAF light choppers because they need wheeled landing gears, sea optimization, foldable blades and small dimensions to ensure they can fit into warship hangars.
But the acquisition plans of the armed forces, which want to induct around 1,200 helicopters of different types over the next 10-15 years, have been dogged by long delays, scams and scrapping of tenders.
Delhi police have busted a fake jobs racket and arrested four men who cheated people promising them government jobs. According to police, the racket was running their con job since 2015 and has cheated over 50 people.
AFP/ Representational Image
Police said the racket was led by Rawender Singh, who was once cheated of Rs 8 lakh by a man who promised to get him a government job. Singh who lost the money however used the experience to fraud others in similar lines.
Police said Singh used to pose as a CBI officer and usually demanded Rs 3.5 lakh for a job. He was assisted by his brother Ankit and his friends Ajit Singh and Gyanendra Kumar.
They were arrested on a complaint file by Asif Ali, a resident of Ghaziabad who paid the racket over Rs 3.5 lakh for a job.
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In his complaint, Ali said he handed over the money to Singh in Lucknow and was asked to fill up a form and called to Kanpur. He was made to sign a register and told that it was for training.
Ali was later called to Unnao where he was informed that he has been appointed in Food Corporation of India (FCI). He was asked to join at Fatehabad, Haryana in the first week of August.
When he asked Singh for an appointment letter, he was asked to wait. This made him suspicious. When Ali tried to contact FCI authorities, he found that he had been duped.
For the majority of Indians, our first government was formed in 1947 after the independence. But an interim government was already in place, formed almost a year before under the leadership of Lord Archibald Wavell, the then Viceroy and Governor-General of India.
The government, which was formed to assist in the transition of British India to two independent nations of India and Pakistan had Jawaharlal Nehru who went on to become the first Prime minister of India as vice president of the Executive Council with the powers of the PM.
The interim government which was formed on September 2, 1946, from the newly elected Constituent Assembly had 69 per cent seats were allocated to Indian National Congress.
Other members of the government were from the All India Muslim League, which had initially refused to join the cabinet and the then Commander-in-Chief, Sir Claude Auchinleck. While Muhammad Ali Jinnah was not a member of the cabinet, Liaquat Ali Khan who went on to become Pakistan's first Prime Minister was part of the government and held the charge of finance.
Dr Rajendra Prasad who became the first President of India held the Agriculture portfolio in the cabinet while Sardar Vallabhai Patel was in charge of Home Affairs. The interim government which was in place till August 15, 1947. Other than the partition, it also drafted the post-independence Constitution of India and established diplomatic relations.
Seven years after software engineer Rajesh Gulati smothered his 36-year-old wife and then used an electric saw to chop her body into 70 pieces, stashing the parts in a deep freezer for two months, a local court has held him guilty of murder, bringing closure to a case that was counted among the most heinous killings in Uttarakhand.
Soon after additional district judge Vinod Kumar held him guilty under section 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the IPC, Rajesh, with his face betraying little emotion, was escorted out of the court by policemen. The quantum of sentence will be announced on Friday.
The brutal murder which sent shockwaves in Dehradun dates back to 2010. After an argument on the night of October 17, Rajesh, then 37, killed his wife Anupama in their two-room rented house at Prakash Nagar in Dehradun Cantonment. As the trial continued, many gruesome details of the case emerged.
Rajesh and Anupama had moved to the US after getting married in 1999. But soon after their return to Dehradun in 2008, their relationship started getting strained. The couple would often fight, with Anupama charging Rajesh of having an extramarital affair with a woman from Kolkata. On October 17, they got into another argument and Rajesh slapped his wife following which she hit her head on the wall and fell unconscious. Scared that she would wake up and file a police complaint, the techie stuffed her nose and mouth with cotton before using a pillow to smother her.
Leaving nothing to chance, Rajesh bought an electric saw from the market and chopped up his wife's body into 70 pieces. He then filled up polythene bags with the body parts and stored them in a deep freezer which also he bought from the market.
To keep his crime from being uncovered, he kept throwing away the polythene bags, one at a time, at various locations on the outskirts of the city. Some of the bags he dumped along the Mussoorie-Dehradun route were recovered by police during the course of investigation.
Rajesh kept up the pretense of normalcy for nearly two months, even telling his children, twins aged four, that their mother had gone to Delhi until one day Anupama's brother Sujan Kumar Pradhan landed at his doorstep having not heard from his sister in a long time.
Pradhan got suspicious when Rajesh could not tell him about his sister's whereabouts and also refused to let him enter the house. Pradhan then filed a missing complaint at the Cantonment Police station. Police subsequently raided Rajesh's house and recovered severed parts of the body, including Anupama's head, from the deep freezer.
Would you kiss a stranger? No? After reading this, you may change your mind.
During this year's Roskilde Festival in Denmark, photographer Johanna Siring was on a mission - to find strangers and click their shots before and after she kissed them.
The Norwegian artist, through her series called Kiss A Stranger, wanted to make a meaningful connection with these strangers. And by the looks of it, we believe she made many!
She would approach the people, explain her concept, and watch them drop their public masks to reveal what they really felt after a stranger kissed them. Here are the amazing results.
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Johanna Siring
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Johanna Siring
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Johanna Siring
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Johanna Siring
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Johanna Siring
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Johanna Siring
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Johanna Siring
Go kiss a stranger!
With more 1/7 of the worlds population, or 868 million people living below poverty line, and the global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, the problem of tackling the issue grows ten fold.
Poverty is a multi-faceted issue, it entails discrepancies in status, social exclusion, lack of resources and limited access to medical facilities. Eradicating poverty would been rooting out all of these problems that come along way and that in itself would be a herculean task.
However, over the years good Samaritans across the world have come up with many wonderful inventions to help the worlds poor and needy. Here are a few:
1. Tateh Lehbib Breica who made a house out of plastic bottles
UNHCR
Tateh Lehbib Breica, a Sahrawi refugee living in a camp in Tindouf, Algeria, is building homes for other refugees out of plastic bottles filled with sand. The houses not only help solve for challenging weather is an affordable option and also tackles the scourge of plastic waste.
2. Arunachalam Muruganantham invented Low-cost sanitary pads for women in India
Arunachalam Muruganantham a social entrepreneur, invented a low cost sanitary and pad making machine. He also made sure to impart knowledge among women about menstrual hygiene and adopting better options to manage periods.
3. Kenton Lees The Shoe that Grows
Kenton Lee
Kenton Lee, founder of Because International, an organization that helps the poor in Kenya, invented The Shoe that Grows, a shoe that adjusts to five different sizes and lasts for five years.
The shoe is made of leather and compressed rubber and are long lasting and help to protect childrens feet from soil transmitted diseases and parasites.
4. Ashis Paul invented a cooler that runs without electricity
Inventor Ashis Paul from Bangladesh came up with a simple and affordable cooling device for the poor. The zero electricity cooler, called the "Eco-Cooler"is a grid made from half cut out plastic bottles, which can be placed in windows.
Hot air enters the open end of the bottle and gets compressed in the bottle's neck, making it cooler before it passes into the room.
5. Peter Janicki made a machine that converts poop into clean drinking water
At least 2 billion, use toilets with improper drainage systems and the other half defectae in the open. The waste contaminates drinking water for millions of people. Thus Peter Janicki, CEO of Janicki Bioenergy, developed a machine, that can turn contaminated water into clean drinking water.
Dubbed the "Omniprocessor," the steam-powered sewage processor that burns up solid waste and creates both potable water and electricity.
6. Red bindis that help women and babies stay healthy in India
An initiative called Life Saving Dot turned the traditionally bindi by Indian women as a way to provide essential micronutrient called Iodine. The makers invented a way to coat the back of bindis with iodine. The hope is that the iodine will adsorb into a woman's skin as she wears it,
6. This 'Wall Of Kindness' Encouraging People To Donate Things For The Poor
People across India have adopted the Wall of Kindness initiative for the benefit of the needy. The motive behind setting up the wall is Donate it, if you dont need it! Take it, if you need!
The 'Wall of Kindness' concept first started in Iran back in 2015 and spread to the rest of the world. In Beirut, a group of anonymous volunteers built the walls of kindness to help refugees with donations for the taking.
7. Sarah Collins invented the Wonderbag or non-electric heat-retention cooker.
Invented by founder Sarah Collins in South Africam, the Wonderbag is conserving cooking energy in developing nations, this cordless, power-free, gas-free slow cooker.
"It continues to cook food which has been brought to the boil by conventional methods for up to 12 hours without the use of additional electricity or fuel."
Eleven IDPs were killed by Boko Haram insurgents on Friday in Banki, bordering Cameroon, two people were also confirmed injured.
According to eye witness reports, the sect were said to have, in the early hours, infiltrated the camp in Banki which has about 45,000 persons, attacking, killing and injuring their victims quietly with knives.
They adopted this silent tactics to avoid being challenged by soldiers at a nearby military camp.
They were also said to have carted away food belonging to the displaced persons.
The terrorists were believed to have used knives instead of firearms or explosives in order not to alert soldiers who were close by, thereby inviting counter-attack.
However, soldiers were reportedly alerted once the attack was discovered and moved in to dislodge the insurgents.
Banki has come under repeated attacks by Boko Haram.
In April last year, at least seven people were killed at the camp in a suicide bombing attack carried out by two women.
In January of this year also, a 10-year-old girl died in a botched suicide bombing attack just outside the camp.
Source: ( PM News )
Two people and a Policeman have been killed, when a vehicle crashed into a large crowd of Muslim worshippers at the Eid-El Kabir prayer ground in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State on Friday.
An Eyewitness said the driver lost control of the car and plowed into the crowd leaving scores of other worshippers injured.
An angry mob descended on the driver, who was rescued by policemen at the venue.
One of the policemen, was even beaten to death as he fought to save the driver.
The driver of the vehicle has since been arrested, while the injured, taken to the hospital.
The Ogun State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, has confirmed the accident.
No visits yet
350 Prison inmates were released by the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, on Friday, as part of activities marking the 2017 Eid el Kabir celebrations, the Kano Central Prison and Goron Dutse Prison to release 200 and 150 from the 2 prisons respectfully.
Ganduje during the Eid El Fitr celebrations 2 months ago directed that 500 prisoners be carefully selected for immediate release making it the 1st time in Nigeria, a governor is pardoning these much number of prisoners at the same time, which cuts across all categories of prisoners in the state.
A few of those condemned to death and who are serving life imprisonment had their sentences reviewed downwards. The released inmates were also given N5,000 cash each to assist them to return back to their homes in various destinations.
Source: ( Linda Ikeji )
48 houses that was seized during the administration of former president, Goodluck Jonathan in 2013 has been returned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to Timipre Sylva, the former governor of Bayelsa State.
The choice properties belonging to former Bayelsa State Governor, Mr. Timipre Sylva, in January 2013 because he was being prosecuted at a Federal High Court in Abuja for alleged misappropriation of N6.46 billion state funds when he was governor of the state.
Some of the assets belonging to the former governor include a mansion at 3 River Niger Street, plot 3192 Cadastral zone AO, Maitama District Abuja; nine units (comprising six one bedroom and 3 two bedroom apartments) at 8 Sefadu Street Wuse zone 2, plot 262 Cadastral zone AO2, Wuse Abuja; and 2 units duplexes at 5 Oguta Street, plot 906 Cadastral zone Wuse 11 Abuja.
Others are: a duplex at Plot 1271 Nike Street Cadastral zone AO5, Maitama District Abuja; a duplex at Phase 1 Unit No. 1 (Villa 1) Palm Springs Gold Estate, Cachez Turkey Projects Limited, Mpape, Abuja; 10 units of one-room apartments at 8 Mistrata Street plot 232 Cadastral zone Wuse 11 Abuja; 5 units duplexes at Plot No 1070 Dakibiyu District Cadastral zone B10, Abuja; 16 units service apartments at Plot 1181 Thaba Tseka Crescent, Off IBB Way, Wuse 11, Abuja and 3 units of three- bedroom flats at No. 1 Mubi Close, Plot 766. Cadastral Zone A01, Garki, Abuja.
Sylva was first arraigned on Tuesday June 5, 2012.
Source: ( PM News )
The South-east governors on Wednesday had a meeting with the leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu ,at the Government House, Enugu.
According to reports, the governors told the IPOB leader during the meeting that the groups demands must not be absolute.
The forum also promised to engage the entire leadership of IPOB in further dialogue to address their demands.
The meeting commenced at about 2 p.m. and ended by 4.30 p.m.
Mr. Kanu arrived Enugu Government House around 1.30 p.m. in the company of a constitutional lawyer, Ben Nwabueze, who is also the leader of Igbo Leaders of Thought, ILT, and Eliot Uko, deputy secretary of ILT.
The Chairman of the South-east Governors Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi; Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi; and Anambra Deputy Governor, Nkem Okeke, were present at the meeting.
The Imo and Abia governors, Rochas Okorocha and Okezie Ikpeazu, were said to have travelled outside the county.
Mr. Umahi, who read the communique after the meeting, spoke on the outcome.
The meeting agreed that these demands by IPOB should not be absolute, rather the South-east Governors shall immediately engage the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, and the entire leadership of IPOB to further meetings and dialogue with a view to quickening the resolutions of all issues amicably, Mr Umahi said briefly.
The meeting with the IPOB leader may not be unconnected with the recent move by the federal government to re-arrest him on alleged violations of his bail condition. Mr Kanu is currently on bail after being charged with alleged treasonable offences.
Mr. Kanu in a recent reaction dared the federal government to arrest him.
Source: ( Premium Times )
36-year-old John Emeka Obodoechina was recently burnt to death in Lagos, by her fiancee, Blessing Ohare Ukhurebor, simply because he decided to quit the relationship due to her violent nature.
DailySun reported that John and Blessing had dated for over a year, before she moved in with him.
It was also revealed that John introduced Blessing, from Edo State, to his siblings, but he was advised to study her for a few months before deciding on a formal visit to Blessings family for dowry payment.
John was said to have assured the girl of his intentions to meet with her family, but the meeting was suspended after their relationship got a bit messy.
A relative of Johns, who pleaded anonymity, revealed that he, John, started noticing some unacceptable behaviour from Blessing.
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It was learned that at the slightest misunderstanding, Blessing would lock the door, pull a kitchen knife and threaten to stab John to death.
Johns elder brother, Chief Obodoechina snr, explained that John informed him about how he met Blessing in his office and had been helping her in the business she was doing.
After about three months, Blessing started taking some of her belongings into Johns place. At that time Blessing did not know whether anyone was Johns sister or colleague in the office, so any calls from a female caller was seen as a taboo.
That was when John started introducing Blessing to his sisters and colleagues. But when all that also failed to guarantee peace, John felt that marriage between Blessing and himself might be disastrous, so he decided to end the relationship.
He, therefore, informed Blessing that both of them should part ways in peace. But Blessing, apparently didnt like the idea. There was a day John came to my house at an odd hour and complained bitterly about Blessing. I advised him that if they were not compatible, they should go their separate ways before something dreadful would happen.
It was gathered that after John who couldnt stand the relationship anymore, he called Blessing and told her to relocate elsewhere, promising to give her some money to help her get another apartment.
On the 1st of August, when John gave Blessing N100, 000 to help her secure an apartment, she got angry and set herself and John ablaze.
Following the tragic incident, Johns sister, Angela Ibrahim who lives in Badagry, said that morning, she was invited to Johns office by the management of the African Fertilizer &a Chemicals (Big) Ltd in Agbara, Ogun State.
According to her, the invitation surprised her, and she quickly raced to the office.
She said: There, I was told that Blessing Ohare Ukhurebor, a girl from Edo State, who John had wanted to marry, burnt him alive.
I could not understand that because it was not up to four days that the girl left my house and did not show any signs of an impending violence.
That was when I started calling my brothers. When we got to Johns house, we saw John bent on the bed, totally burnt. There was no electricity and the gas cooker in the kitchen was not affected. The two phones were there.
There were no signs that the gas cooker or phone caused the fire. It was only John and the area he was sleeping that was burnt. The neighbours that we met told us that some people had taken Blessing out, as she was also affected. But they said she was not dead.
The neighbours went and reported the incident to the Baale of the area who ordered some of the palace chiefs and Johns neighbours to report the incident to the police.
On getting to the Police Station in Agbara, the police said they could not do anything unless a relation of the deceased was around. When my brothers came, initially they could not hold themselves to follow the processes of investigation.
After some logistics and protocols at the police station, the corpse was taken to the Badagry General Hospital for preservation in the morgue. All our efforts to get to see Blessing to know how she was affected and find out what happened were rebuffed by Blessings uncle who was rather threatening us.
A few days after Johns interment, we got a call from the same Blessings uncle, telling us that Blessing had also died.
She had her chance on August 1, by 7:45am, while John was sleeping, That was when Blessing, who already had her plans worked out, poured fuel on John and lit the match. Unfortunately, because fuel is inflammable, she was also affected, Angela lamented.
Source: Yabaleftonline
Nigeria and Africas richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has opened up on reports he will run for the presidency on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2019.
Africa richest man and billionaire businessman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has declared that he has no interest in politics, advising that politicians and political parties should leave him alone and stop dropping his name.
Dangote, who is the President/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dangote Group of Companies, specifically warned that nobody should set him on a collision course with President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The business mogul stated this while reacting to a report that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its leaders are mounting pressures on him to come and contest for the 2019 presidential election on its platform.
Dangote spoke during a telephone interview with The Daily Times in Abuja on Thursday, and made it clear that his primary interest, which he had always made known to everybody, is business with the goal of providing jobs for millions of people in addition to wealth creation.
He said: I am an entrepreneur. My passion is to create jobs for Nigerians and not otherwise. He also disclosed that those who are jealous of successes so far recorded by him in business are the ones desperately trying to link him with the 2019 presidential election.
Dangote said: I am not interested in politics and this is authoritative. No member of any think tank committee has contacted me. People should stop dropping my name for the 2019 presidency.
This whole thing is an attempt by people who do not like me. They are doing all these with a view to putting me on a collision course with President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling party. They are people who are jealous of the successes I have so far recorded in business.
My passion is for business development, provision of jobs and wealth creation, not politics.
I have never shown interest in politics. Am not interested in politics. I am not a politician. My passion has always been business and business.
Buhari is like a father to me. Nobody should try to set me on a collision course with President Buhari. That will not work. I have high regard and respect for the President.
For emphasis once again, I am not a politician. I cant and wont confront President Buhari. They should leave him out of any high wire politics and horse trading. I also seize this opportunity to warn name droppers to desist from their infamous act.
They should stop using my name for politics. They should not set me on collision course with President Buhari and the government in power.
Continuing, Dangote said: By the time the ongoing Dangote refinery in Lagos and the sugar projects come on stream fully, there will be a great positive development and thousands of jobs created that will change the narrative in the country. That is my passion.
Ahead of 2019 general elections, high wire politics has begun while politicians have started endless meeting in order to position themselves for different elective posts.
But the sudden return of Buhari from medical vacation in London has changed the permutations as the Presidents body language and the rousing welcome for him by the ordinary people are now causing some ripples in the political circles.
Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has hailed the efforts of the South-East leaders to put an end to the lingering request by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, the governors had a meeting with Kanu on Thursday.
Mr. Fayose who gave his views on the meeting in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communication and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said the meeting has provided a veritable platform which all Igbos must key into otherwise they will remain guinea pigs as long as this country exists.
He also said he remained committed to the call for full and total restructuring of Nigeria through dialogue and negotiation because it was too late for Nigeria to disintegrate.
I am particularly glad that Southeast governors have come to the realisation that they cannot ignore their own in times like these as agitations are normal and must not be ignored, although the approach should be handled with caution, he said.
He however blamed the actions and utterances of President Muhammadu Buhari for the agitations going on in the country.
The father figure of this country is President Buhari and if his language does not represent unity, there will be agitations like we are witnessing now, Mr. Fayose said.
A father figure rallies even the bad boys in his house. The utterances and actions of the when he became President were against the unity of this country.
How can a president say that he will only attend to the needs of those who gave him 97 per cent vote and neglect others who didnt vote for him.
For Nigeria to move forward and in unity, there must be no sectionalism, there must be no oppression and there must be justice and equity.
The governor commended the northern leaders for ensuring that the Arewa Youths quit notice against the Igbos in the north was withdrawn without necessarily arresting and detaining anyone.
I am sure that the same can be achieved by the Igbo leaders as arresting or re-arresting Kanu may be counterproductive as it may be perceived as vilification of the entire Southeast Region, not necessarily Kanu as a person, he submitted.
I remain committed to the call for full and total restructuring of Nigeria through dialogue and negotiation. Even though it is too late for Nigeria to disintegrate, we do not need APC kind of restructuring.
Once again, I salute my brother governors from the Southeast for their historic meeting of yesterday and I urge them not to relent in their efforts to bring lasting peace and harmony to their region.
While I also commend the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu for his display of humility and commitment to peace by attending the meeting, I enjoin him to cooperate with leaders of the region going forward.
Source: ( Premium Times )
Nollywood actor, Ramsey Nouah, has cleared the air on his real nationality, despite speculations among movie fans in the country that he is a foreigner.
While fielding questions as a guest of Classic 97.3 FM radio recently, the actor, who was the subject of a death rumour that went viral on the social media in July, insisted that he would prefer to be addressed as a Nigerian and not as an Israeli
He said, I am Nigerian. Although I am also partly Israeli and Lebanese, I carry only the Nigerian passport. I was born and raised in Nigeria. All my life I have lived in this country and I have never been to either Israel or Lebanon where my paternal grandparents come from. Basically, this is my home and where I have found myself.
However, anyone who has seen Nouahs latest comic film, My Wife and I, in which he co-stars with Omoni Oboli for the first time in nine years (since the production of Kunle Afolayans Figurine), may be having other ideas about his ability to keep a marriage intact. But, the actor gave a different impression during the interview.
Nouah revealed that, apart from being happily married, he is blessed with three children two daughters and a son that he cherishes so much. Just to show how much he adores and appreciates his wifes contributions to the success of their marriage, he described her as the power-house of the family.
My wife is the power-house of my family. If it were not for her, I would not have been able to keep a family together. She is such a wonderful woman. I always price her above other women, he said, in response to a question about his family.
Noting that sometimes people asked him how his wife had managed to cope with the romantic roles he played in the movies, he added, I would just laugh at their questions and reply that my wife had been able to cope because she was a triple woman, he said.
Source: Punch
Members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in Benue State have rejected the plea by Gov. Samuel Ortoms against the one-week warning strike proposed to start Sept. 5.
The warning strike was announced in a communique jointly signed by the NLC Chairman, Mr Godwin Anya and his TUC counterpart, Mr Ordue Tartenger, declared that the governors appeal was unacceptable.
His appeal is predicated on the prevailing economic situation, but the state has not stopped receiving statutory allocations from the federation account. This is besides Internally Generated Revenue and other revenue receipts from the federal government.
He appealed for understanding without any offer; other allocations from the federal government and other revenue sources are still available to government.
Supplementary support keeps coming from the Federal Government under various subheads bailout, stabilization, Paris Club refunds, among others, the workers said.
The unions, therefore, declared Tuesday, September 5 Wednesday, September 13 for the strike, and advised government to implement the state of emergency it declared on payment of salaries, gratuities and pensions.
Reacting, Special Adviser to Ortom on Media and ICT, Mr Tahav Agerzua, said that the governor placed all the cards on the table before the labour leaders.
He opined that the strike was not the solution because it would not bring the money needed to pay the salaries and arrears being demanded.
NAN reports that the Benue workers are owed eight months salaries, with Ortom saying that N40 billion was required to settle them.
Source: ( NAN )
The Victims of the unfortunate event that happened in Ozubulu Catholic Church, Anambra State , where scores of church worshipers were shot dead by unknown gunmen who dressed in military uniform early in August.
Source: ( Linda Ikeji )
A man has shocked many people with his unbelievable act after he was found out to have inserted his finger inside his wifes private parts.
Cashington Machiha, a Zimbabwean man from Mutare man was hauled before the courts for inserting four fingers into his wifes private parts as a way of disciplining her following a misunderstanding.
According to Manica Post, Cashington Machiha (29) pleaded guilty when he appeared before Mutare provincial magistrate, Mr Tendai Mahwe last week.
He was facing charges of physical abuse as defined in Section 4 (1) of the Domestic Violence Act, Chapter 5:16.
Mr Matthew Chimutunga prosecuted.
The court heard that on August 17 at around 10pm, Machiha and his 23-year-old wife had a misunderstanding when she arrived home late.
The wife told him that she was at her sisters place.
Machiha got angry and harassed his wife. He inserted four fingers into his wifes private parts, saying he wanted to tear it apart.
His wife screamed for her help and Machiha left the room, said Mr Chimutunga.
The following day, Machihas wife told her sister what had happened and this angered Machiha again. He assaulted her all over her body with his hands.
He further threatened to stab her with a knife, but she managed to escape. She sustained physical injuries, said Mr Chimutunga.
Asked why he opted solving his differences with his wife in such a way, Machiha left the court in stitches when he told the gallery that it was out of anger that he inserted his fingers into her private parts.
He said he wanted her to respect their matrimonial home.
[via]
The proposed nationwide industrial strike by the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, has suspended, according to the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, was quoted by Channels Television as saying on Friday that the doctors suspended the strike after a meeting.
The meeting was held between officials of the NARD, Mr. Ngige, and officials of the ministry of health, and ended on Friday morning after several hours, the minister said.
Mr. Ngige said the meeting would continue on November 2.
The resident doctors had earlier threatened to go on strike from September 4, if the federal government does not meet their demands including their immediate enrolment in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS.
Neither the federal nor state governments has shown commitment to the resolution of issues at stake nor honoured previous agreements, the head of NARD at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, said in a statement.
Consequent upon this, the association resolved to proceed on a total indefinite industrial action from Monday, September 4, 2017, until all these issues are permanently resolved.
The NARD is, however, yet to formally announce the suspension of the strike.
Source:( Premium Times )
Earlier on Monday, it was reported that an expatriate escaped death by the whiskers after he was reportedly attacked by a suspected member of the dreaded Badoo cult group in Ikorodu area of Lagos.
The suspected Badoo member who is a cab driver had reportedly picked up the foreign expatriate from the airport and took him home to use cutlass to butcher him an attack which the man survived.
An investigative report has revealed the real reason behind the deadly attack on the white man.
Here is how LIB exclusively reported the story:
19 persons were confirmed dead in a ghastly motor accident at Ugoneki village, along Benin-Asaba highway, in Uhunmwode Local Government Area of Edo State on the eve of Salah celebration.
The incident occurred at about 6 pm on Thursday, when an 18-seater commercial bus, with registration number ABD 206 XA, said to be heading to Auchi, in the nothern part of the State, had a head-on collision with a truck marked DRZ 347 XA, carrying goats, and heading to Benin.
Sixteen of the passengers were said to have died at the spot, three others died at the hospital, while eight sustained varying degrees of injuries.
A source in the area, who did not want to be named, disclosed that members of a family who were travelling for the Eid-el-Kabir celebration were among the casualties.
The spokesman for the Edo Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr. George Otoaviokhai, who confirmed the incident to journalists on Friday, explained that the bus had attempted to overtake another vehicle in front of it when it rammed into the truck on the other lane.
He attributed the accident to dangerous overtaking, adding that the incident was avoidable.
There was a vehicle in front of the bus; the bus was trying to overtake. That was not even needed. The accident was avoidable, he said.
The injured and remains of the deceased were said to have been taken to Aigbogun Clinic in Abudu, in Uhunmwode Local Government Area of the State.
Source: ( PM News )
Really? A student shared their schedule for this semester and it turns out therell be no class on September 4th because its Beyonces birthday.
The semester schedule has been reshared a number of times online with people questioning why classes should be canceled just because its Beyonces birthday. However, someone pointed out that Labour Day this year in the US and in Canada falls on September 4th so that might explain why theres no class on that day.
Source: Linda Ikejis blog
A Facebook user has taken to the social networking platform and narrated the story of a some cow thieves who normally trigger herdsmen attacks, were stripped n*ked after being apprehended in Gbajimba, Benue State.
Patrick Peresio Barnabas who shared the photos on Facebook wrote;
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Cow thiefs (rustlers) apprehended in Gbajimba Town, Guma LGA, Benue State.
They have been in the business for a long time.
This are some of the problems that lead to Fulanis invading communities, killing innocent people since they cannot identify the thiefs.
Luck ran out of them this time as this is the eight (8) cow going missing in the town, we are at peace because all the cows stolen this year belongs to natives and some strangers (not Fulanis).
Some people are working hard to live a decent life, to feed their families while some are just busy stealing the sweat of others.
Big Brother Africa winner, Dillish Mathews has been slammed for stepping out for an event in a daring completely see-through dress.
The Namibian beauty wore the black sheer shimmery dress with only a bra and pant underneath to a beauty pageant in Namibia three days. See tweets below.
Source: Linda Ikejis blog
A farmer identified as , Efosa Omoregie, was murdered in his farm in Oben community, in Orhionmwon Local Government Area of Edo State by suspected Fulani Herdsmen in the state.
According to reports the event occurred on Thursday morning, when the deceased and youths in the area attempted to prevent some cows sighted on their farms from eating their crops.
Eye witnesses account had it that the deceased, a father of 12 children from two wives, fell and was allegedly shot in the chest by one of the herdsmen.
The death of Omoregie whos remains have been deposited at the Oben Cottage Mortuary, thrown the bereaved family and entire community into mourning.
The State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Moses Nkombe, could not be reached on phone for confirmation.
President of the Obozogbe-Nugu, Ikobi and Iguelaba Youth Forum, Mr. Kelly Ogbeide, however confirmed the incident on Friday evening.
According to Ogbeide, Some of the youths saw Fulani herdsmen around the farm. In their usual way, the cows were eating their crops, so they (youths) tried to resist the cows from destroying their crops. While they were doing that, the Fulani herdsmen started shooting.
The man [Omoregie], started running away and while he was running, he fell. When he fell, a Fulani herdsman shot him. As at yesterday, only one person was killed.
Ogbeide who was not happy that no arrests had been made since the incident was reported, added: The Commissioner of Police is aware. We reported the matter to the commissioner of police. So, he sent some men to the area.
We have said that we will do a formal petition to the CP, AIG and the Governor, because the next time we will witness this incident again, we will not take it lightly with the Fulani herdsmen.
Source: ( PM News )
Two men of the Nigerian Army have been killed by suspected militants, the attack occurred on Monday at Letugbene community in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
According to eye witness reports, four soldiers who are members of the Operation Delta Safe, were killed by the militants but according to the military spokesman only two people were killed.
The Nigerian military released a statement, This is to put to rest exaggerated speculations on an incident involving our troops and suspected militants on Monday, 28th August, 2017 around 200 hrs near Letugbene community in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa, Ibrahim Abdullahi, a major and spokespersons of the joint military operation said in a statement.
During the firefight, one gallant soldier and a civilian staff attached to the military houseboat paid the supreme price for defending fatherland as against reports of four soldiers killed.
A rescue team supported by gunboats was immediately dispatched to the area and they were able to locate and support two other soldiers who engaged the militants, he added.
Mr. Abdullahi said that a manhunt had been launched to fish out the perpetrators of the act some of whom fled into neighbouring communities.
He said that the ongoing operation to keep the oil producing Niger Delta safe was within the rules of military engagement in line with best practices. He assured that innocent residents had nothing to fear.
Operation Delta Safe and indeed the Nigerian Military do not carry out reprisal attacks on innocent citizens as alleged in some quarters, he said.
Members of the public especially those resident in areas where operations are being conducted are hereby advised to go about their normal lawful duties at this time of Sallah break and celebration.
Source: ( Premium Times )
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David Williams
Technical director
AXA Insurance
Automated vehicle technology could drastically reduce the number of accidents on our roads, and insurers are at the heart of making that happen. In addition, driverless vehicles could impact society in a number of positive ways providing modes of transport for those currently unable to drive, tackling congestion, lowering emissions and reforming city planning.
Motor insurance has been compulsory in the UK for more than 80 years, but the industry has only made an underwriting profit once since 1993. We should be welcoming any disruption with open arms and with insurers leading the charge in driverless, it puts us very much in control of our destiny.
Teresa Cracas
Senior vice president and chief risk officer
The Cincinnati Insurance Companies
The insurance industry has always supported innovations that help save lives. Were learning that potential life-saving benefits could come from removing distracted humans from driving. And risks related to cars will still need to be managed, even if the potential liability shifts from driver to manufacturer.
While its still too early to know exactly what impact driverless cars will have on our industry, we know that we cannot sit and wait for this change or any change to happen. Carriers need to understand whats coming and develop strategies that help agents serve their clients as the world around us evolves.
John Matley
Insurance leader
Future of Mobility Practice
Deloitte Consulting
We believe we will see a seismic shift from traditional personal lines policies to a future in which personal and commercial lines will blur and combine very closely as car-sharing and ride-sharing begin to change lifestyles.
For the players who are extremely focused on personal [motor] policies and dont have commercial lines capabilities, without a strategy to adapt, driverless cars represent a long-term existential crisis. For those who have strong commercial lines capabilities knowledge on how to underwrite and price product liability and who are dynamic in their thinking, the change driverless cars represents is potentially very good.
It will be business as usual for Calibre following its sale to the Hollard Insurance Group, its CEO has said.Mike Hooton, who will remain as CEO and director of Calibre following the acquisition, said that the firm will look to maintain continuity following the acquisition.The beauty of buying our business is they dont need to make any changes, Hooton told Insurance Business. We carry on as we are with no changes to operations, to structure, staffing. It is just business as usual without the distraction of a sale anymore.Hooton said that Hollards ability to be both owner and underwriter of Calibre and its policies was a positive for the acquired business as he sees a good fit for both organisations.I think the two are complimentary, Hooton continued. I think we are a fit for them, particularly with their aspirations to expand in the SME sector and particularly the auto-rated sector so I think it was a good fit for both sides.Hollard as a company has a good reputation, its a growing business and it has a track record of supporting agencies and brokers, and they have obviously got significant resources that can help and support our business, particularly with underwriting expertise.Hooton said that the deal will allow Calibre to focus on profitable growth in its key auto-rated, SME package market; however, with Hollards reputation of entrepreneurship, product opportunities could be something thats looked at further down the track.I think focusing on the products that we have got, delivering them efficiently and effectively to brokers will continue to be our focus in the short to medium term, Hooton said.The deal follows Munich Re s decision last year to divest its Great Lakes Australia business. Hooton said that with such a well-known brand taking over ownership and underwriting responsibilities, Calibre hopes to strengthen its place in the broker market.We focused on our brand and what it means to brokers and professional intermediaries but no doubt having Hollard associated with us carries with it greater recognition in the market. I think that can only help the business, Hooton said.
The son of late jazz legend Thelonious Monk is suing a California brewery, alleging it is using his fathers image on bottles and packaging of a Belgian-style ale and other merchandise without permission.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco by Thelonious Monk Jr. accuses North Coast Brewing Co. of trademark infringement and other violations.
North Coast Brewing Co. President Mark Ruedrich said the company was disappointed by the lawsuit and stood ready to successfully defend its rights.
The brewery makes Brother Thelonious Belgian Style Abbey Ale.
The lawsuit claims the brewery had a verbal agreement with Monks son to use his fathers image to market the beer, but that permission was revoked last year.
The lawsuit seeking unspecified monetary damages says the brewery never had permission to use Monks image on other merchandise.
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Topics Lawsuits California
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Update 8.29pm: The Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork has said he is "deeply shocked" at the death of a young homeless woman in Cork not far from St Fin Barres Cathedral, in the neighbourhood in which he lives.
The woman in her 30s is the third homeless person to have died this week alone.
Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton, said that the death has challenged the foundations of our society, highlighting the wider issue of homelessness in Ireland.
"We are all deeply aware of the complex challenges of homelessness in our community and country. Somehow, that this death has happened near the very place where our city of Cork was founded, seems, in its own symbolic way, to strike at, and to challenge, the emotional and moral foundations of our society," he said.
"In spite of the fact that our very small Church of Ireland community in Cork has its own housing projects, and that we work in partnership with and support of those who have the greatest insights and experience in this area, it is clear that more needs to be done and that across many sectors of society we need to pool our efforts," he added.
The woman was discovered in Gilabbey Park in the south west of Cork city at around 2am on yesterday.
Cork North-Central TD Mick Barry has said the Dail should be recalled early to tackle the issue.
Earlier: A Cork TD has said a change in policy is needed to deal with the homelessness issue.
Solidarity deputy Mick Barry made the comments after the death of a homeless woman in Cork City in the early hours of yesterday morning.
The woman in her 30s is the third homeless person to have died this week alone.
Cork North-Central TD Mick Barry has said the Dail should be recalled early to tackle the issue.
"Three people have died in the space of one week and the homelessness crisis is getting worse week on week," he said.
"We need action and a chnage of policy from the government."
Earlier: A woman who was sleeping rough in a tent in Co Cork has been found dead.
The woman, according to Gardai, was in her 30s and has not yet been named.
The death is not being treated as suspicious by Gardai.
The woman was discovered in Gilabbey Park in the south west of Cork city at around 2am on yesterday.
The woman's death brings to three the number of homelsess people who have died this week in Ireland.
A 30-year-old man was found dead last week under the old taxation office in Chancery St in Dublin.
On Thursday, a mother of two was found dead in a hotel room in Co Kildare.
The 26-year-old woman, who was from the south Dublin area, had been living in the hotel with her two children.
A spokesperson for Dublin City Council expressed their condolences before adding that the woman had been offered permanent social housing recently.
Gardai have said that they are not treating her death as suspicious.
The Irish Examiner have reported today that the government is to convene an emergency housing summit next week in the wake of the deaths of homeless people.
Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has said his Department will explore additional measures to help and to house families and individuals living in emergency accommodation and accessing emergency State supports.
You can read the full story here.
Families under financial strain are being forced to choose between school books and paying the rent.
St Vincent De Paul received 5,000 calls for help last month in the run up to the start of the academic year.
The Irish Science Teachers Association (ISTA) said Irelands presence in Cern would allow researchers to achieve similar discoveries that had changed the face of science and medicine.
UCC president, Patrick OShea, and world-renowned UCD particle physicist Ronan McNulty are among leading academics who support joining Cern, Cork senator Colm Burke said.
Mr Burke has raised the issue with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in recent weeks, saying: Irish companies are currently not able to compete for contracts from Cern which are valued at over 300m per annum.
Founded in 1954, the Cern laboratory near Geneva was one of Europes first joint ventures and now has 22 member states.
There are 21 European countries, as well as Israel, in Cern, whose main area of research is particle physics the study of the fundamental constituents of matter and the forces acting between them.
Cern is also home to one of the worlds most impressive feats of engineering, the Hadron Collider, the worlds largest and most powerful particle accelerator with a 27km ring of superconducting magnets.
Cern has thousands of staff laboratories and has hosted tens of thousands of fellows from the scientific and engineering fields. It is also involved in advanced cancer therapy, IT, biomedical, and other research. The World Wide Web began as a Cern project in 1989.
Membership can cost up to 10m annually, which is thought to be the overriding reason why Ireland has not become a member.
Cern director general Fabiola Gianotti has said that the organisation wants Ireland as a member.
ISTA national chairman Sean Fogarty said it was high time Ireland joined.
The fact that the mainly European members of Cern have managed over the years to produce so many different experiments and discoveries is in itself amazing and it is high time that Ireland was part of it, he said.
Mr Fogarty said ISTA supported the many arguments, such as economic spin off, job opportunities, etc but that the impact on students to encourage them into STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) would be invaluable.
The key area for us is how Irelands membership will impact on our students. With a new policy document on STEM education in Ireland about to be released by the Department of Education, it is more imperative than ever that our students see Ireland at the heart of scientific discovery and endeavours, he said.
If they do not see Ireland being involved in the like of Cern, then they can be forgiven for thinking that big science is something that happens elsewhere and that there is little point in them taking a STEM related subject.
There are many aspects to the uptake of STEM subjects but the interest that is generated by something like our involvement in Cern would be an area that could, with the right promotion behind it in schools, act another strand to the promotion of STEM.
Mr Fogarty said it was important to Irelands economic development that we have the skills in our population to avail of the opportunities presented and to cope with the challenges of the future.
Around 240,000 has to be raised by the Friends of Bandon Community Hospital to fund the construction of a dayroom at the new complex in the West Cork town, as the Government will not pay for one.
Patricia Brennan, spokeswoman for the board of directors of the Friends of Bandon Community Hospital which is overseeing the fund-raising campaign for the new dayroom, said the group was happy to raise the funds.
We were happy to do so because we knew it was for the benefit of the community as a whole. When a resident moves into a nursing home now, it is their home and we want it to be as comfortable and as attractive as possible.
We have located the proposed dayroom at the front of the building because its busy there with lots to look at.
In September 2015, the Friends group formed a board of directors specifically tasked with raising money to build a dayroom at the front of the proposed new hospital building.
Ms Brennan said the proposed dayroom, on which construction began earlier this month, would be bright and spacious, with floor to ceiling glass windows.
The dayroom is expected to be completed by November or December of this year. Construction on the new hospital building finished this month.
Once open, the complex will accommodate about 25 elderly residents and will have provision to provide palliative care and facilitate patients with dementia.
In a statement Cork Kerry Community Healthcare acknowledged the hard work and dedication of the group: We would like to thank and acknowledge the Friends of Bandon Community Hospital for their ongoing commitment to the facility.
Over many years, they have provided invaluable financial assistance for the purchase of equipment and decoration at the community hospital. We are particularly grateful to the Friends for their agreement to fund a day room at the front of the new extension to Bandon Community Hospital.
This day room was not part of the capital funding allocated to the project.
Meanwhile, the old community hospital building is expected to continue to be used for a number of purposes such as administration, physiotherapy and a mental health unit.
The bank said it was not viable to include the Irish language option in newer machines it was installing, given that the Irish option is used in fewer than 1% of all ATM transactions.
Conradh na Gaeilge has asked for an urgent meeting with Bank of Ireland to discuss the absence of an Irish-language option on its new lodgement and withdrawal ATMs which, it said, was going against a prevailing trend for other companies to increase the Irish language options available to their customers.
Julian de Spainn, general secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge, said: Bank of Ireland created a distinct space for themselves in the market by virtue of being the only bank to provide an Irish-language option on such a wide range of ATMs throughout the country, Gaeltacht areas included.
Conradh na Gaeilge firmly believes that it would be hugely short-sighted and regressive of Bank of Ireland to no longer provide the public with an Irish-language option on its new LATMs.
At a time when private businesses such as Google, Microsoft, Energia, and Tayto are increasing the number of services they provide for their customers in Irish, and as thousands of potential future customers start in Irish-medium schools this September, it makes no business sense for Bank of Ireland to discard the goodwill and brand awareness that they have built up with the Irish- speaking and Gaeltacht community over the years.
Bank of Ireland said it did provide an Irish language option on all retail ATMs (co-located within retail units) and on some ATMs within its branch network and also supported Irish-speaking customers by providing services including chequebooks, and withdrawal and lodgment dockets in Irish.
Asked if it would meet with Conradh na Gaeilge a spokesperson said: We have nothing further to add at this time.
Elsewhere, a new study into how new speakers of Irish react to learning the language has found many form an intense emotional bond with it, while others feel frustration at their inability to master it and others feel shame that they did not learn it earlier.
The findings are published in an articleby Dr John Walsh, senior lecturer in Irish at NUI Galway, in the International Journal of Bilingualism.
These emotions include fear, shame, frustration, anger, pride, and a sense of well-being and they can impede or facilitate the transition from learner to new speaker, Dr Walsh said. So if we want to create more speakers of minority languages, or indeed if we want to facilitate integration of migrants, we need to learn more about the emotions involved in acquiring the new languages.
Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy announced the meeting of county council bosses and senior officials after the two deaths piled further pressure on the Government to address the housing crisis.
Mr Murphy said the meeting will take place in his department in the Customs House in Dublin and will explore additional measures to help and to house families and individuals living in emergency accommodation and accessing emergency State supports.
The unprecedented level of homelessness that we are witnessing is totally unacceptable, he said.
The Government and my department, working with the local authorities, voluntary sector, and other stakeholders, are doing everything we can, but I know that we need to do more.
His comments come as Mr Varadkar was slammed for tweeting about the 20th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana while failing to reference the double tragedy.
Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin hit out at the Taoiseach for prioritising spin and communications over taking real action on the escalating homeless and housing crisis.
Responding to questions around Mr Varadkars tweet about Diana, Mr Martin said the Taoiseach and his Government are detached from reality.
There is a real crisis and the Government has failed to get to grips with it over the last number of years. People are talking about it all over the place, the lack of action, the lack of tentative progress, he said.
We have seen two homeless people die tragically this week, and our condolences go to their families, and so it concerns me that the Taoiseach seems to think that communications is number one: Its not, its homelessness and housing that is number one; health issues are number one and access to the health services.
The Cork South-Central TD claimed Mr Varadkar was now focusing on PR and the establishment of a new strategic communications unit, instead of the issue of homelessness.
There is no sense that Government has yet managed to get to grips with it and PR isnt going to deal with it, Mr Martin said.
There is a terrible detachment and a sense that communications can cover over or hide the reality.
He said he had already flagged his concerns that the strategic communications unit is a waste of taxpayers money and will be used to put forward a political message.
Meanwhile, efforts to tackle homelessness are not keeping up with increasing demands, according to charities who say the country is in the middle of the worst homelessness crisis in living memory.
The assessment comes following the release of a Focus Ireland report that found 99 families with 214 children became newly homeless in Dublin in July the highest number recorded in 18 months.
Sam McGuinness of Dublin Simon Community said the report shows urgent action is required.
Figures published for July show that there are now 1,178 families accessing emergency accommodation in the Dublin region alone, an increase of 5.6% since June and 18.6% in the last year. Children are now at 2,423, an increase of 6.7% since June and 19.9% in the last year, he said.
However, todays figures indicate that the ever-rising flow into homelessness means that there is even bigger challenge now to keep up with the demand.
Focus Ireland advocacy director Mike Allen said the figures clearly show the homeless crisis is continuing to deepen.
We had seen a drop in the numbers of families becoming homeless every month at the end of last year and earlier this year but this is no longer the case, and we are back to constantly rising numbers every month, he said.
Mr Allen said the country is now in the middle of the worst homelessness crisis in living memory with nearly 8,000 people homeless nationwide.
Alan Lucid, 28, from Knockane, Ballyheigue, Co Kerry, worked as a research assistant in the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences in UCC. He also lectured part-time at the Cork Institute of Technology.
He had been staying in Egmond aan Zee where he was attending a symposium on lactic acid bacteria. After attending a party on Wednesday night, he joined a group who went swimming.
The alarm was raised just after 3am on Thursday when members of the group realised he was missing. A rescue boat had just been launched when he was found following a shoreline search. Attempts to revive him failed.
UCC said it was deeply saddened to learn of Mr Lucids death and a book of condolences will open in the Honan Chapel on Monday. CIT will also open a book of condolences in the foyer area of the CREATE building on Monday.
Head of the Department of Biological Sciences at CIT, Dr Brendan OConnell said it was with deep regret he heard of the death.
Mr Lucids long-time partner, Lisa OSullivan, is a student at CIT and is studying fora PhD in biological sciences. The couple had been together for seven years.
Cllr John Lucid (FF) said his cousin was the youngest of a family of eight children.
His parents, John and Bridie, could not be more upset; it is such a shock, he said. He really enjoyed what he was doing, and his family was very proud of his achievements.
Family members flew to the Netherlands yesterday to make arrangements to bring him home.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres gave Major General Mike Beary his full backing following criticisms that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) mission along the border with Israel is giving terrorism a pass.
US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley launched a personalised broadside a week ago when she claimed the Irish peacekeeping chief was blind to Hezbollahs activities in the region.
She claimed there is a massive flow of illegal weapons into south Lebanon, and accused him of an embarrassing lack of understanding of the threat posed by Hezbollah.
Maj Gen Beary took command of the Unifil mission last year.
Earlier this year, he said that he was not overly concerned about the risk Hezbollah may pose in the region.
Forty countries are involved in the mission, with about 380 Irish soldiers.
Unifil oversees the so-called blue-line that separates the Israeli military from the Lebanese army and Hezbollah. The UN decided on Wednesday to extend the mission.
In a statement on behalf of Mr Guterres, the UN said: The secretary-general emphasises the need for the parties to build on the prevailing calm, to focus on the goal of a permanent ceasefire and to act proactively to address all outstanding issues in the implementation of resolution 1701 and other relevant Security Council resolutions.
The secretary-general extends his gratitude to the countries contributing troops to Unifil. He expresses his confidence in the leadership and staff of the mission.
Unifil reports almost daily breaches of UN resolution 1701, passed after the 2006 war in south Lebanon and Israel.
Some relate to simple incursions into Israel or Lebanese territory, while drones, some for surveillance, are a common sight over the unstable region.
The mission also aims to ensure the region is not utilised for hostile activities of any kind.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said: Despite the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, Unifil has helped to ensure that southern Lebanon has remained an area of relative calm since 2006.
Maj Gen Bearys outstanding record of leadership in numerous international peacekeeping roles speaks for itself.
SINCE Danni Barry garnered her first Michelin star, in 2015, there has been a huge demand on her time, but she didnt hesitate when Tess Perry, of Glebe House, in Baltimore, West Cork, asked her to cook a pop-up dinner for Taste of West Cork last year. Cooking in a country house that boasted its own smallholding, which supplies the kitchen, is Dannis idea of culinary heaven, a farm-to-fork lifestyle she has known since her childhood as a GAA-mad youngster, in Co Down.
Danni is the second child of four and grew up on the family farm, in Mayobridge.
It was a mixed farm, beef and dairy, says Danni. Whenever there was harvesting to be done, gathering potatoes, baling hay, girls and boys were all outside, so there was no difference at all. We all grumbled a lot about having to go and work on the school holidays. Mum was a good cook; meat and two veg. We had a big farm, so she was always preparing lots of food for the working men and Id have helped.
When she was 14, Danni got a summer job washing pots in a local restaurant. The chef soon gave her basic cooking tasks, along with a copy of Anthony Bourdains Kitchen Confidential. Nonetheless, it came as a surprise when she announced she wished to go to catering college.
I was quiet, I enjoyed school, worked hard. It was quite a surprise, even to me, when I didnt continue on the academic route. I was doing my A-levels and I went to an all-girls school, where everyone went on to teaching, nursing, law. When I left to go to catering college, in 2003 even then, being a chef was a lesser job it was a bit odd.
Through the 90s and early 2000s, Michael Deane was one of a lonely few flying the culinary flag for Northern Ireland, his eponymous restaurant holding a Michelin star for 14 years. After second year in college, Danni cold-called, asking for a job.
I moved to Belfast. I just wanted to learn from the best. If Id left school to train to be a chef, I wanted to prove to my parents that I could be the best I could, Danni says.
But before that, she had to first prove herself to her peers. After two years of college, you feel like you know things and then youre being told to even wash salad differently. Some days, you felt, that was good, I understood that, and then, other days, you felt like it was your first day. It was tough. You got a hard time at the beginning, back when there was a sense that you had to be broken to see what you could take. It was a macho environment, but there was no difference if you were male or female; it was just hard, very competitive, very high-energy. Everyone had a role: you were a cog and it was a machine. If you couldnt handle it, male or female, you were gone. If you could, you got the respect.
The other side was the camaraderie. Once you earned your stripes, they would show you things, take you under their wing. I had moved from the country to Belfast and there was a sense of them looking out for you. It didnt feel like you were going to a job. Everything was so new. You were learning something every day; so much to see and do.
After four years, Danni headed off to see the world. First was Australia, working in a Sydney brasserie for a year. She toured, through South-East Asia, South Africa, New Zealand. She was the chef on a private yacht in the Med.
Danni Barry learned her trade in Michael Deanes restaurant in Belfast, and now cooks at his Eipic restaurant.
I knew Deanes inside out and wanted to learn elsewhere, to see a bit of the world. There were no females in the kitchen in Sydney. It was very male-dominated, but it was really good fun. To be fair, they were all very supportive and I was quite surprised at the very high standards. At first, doing the tougher jobs, maybe deep-cleaning, one of the guys might say to me, do something easier and Ill finish this, but Id keep doing what I was doing and theyd get it, theyd say sorry, and wouldnt say it again. I quite enjoy the banter with the boys. I was used to it, at that stage. After all, I had worked on the farm and that was a very male environment. I probably had that bit of a tomboy nature.
Working on the yacht was fantastic, for a while. I could get the train to Barcelona, sometimes, and stay the night and eat, but I was working entirely on my own and it was lonely. I missed the buzz of the kitchen.
Dannis immediate boss in Deanes was head chef, Derek Creagh, and she sought him out on her return home, working briefly with her former mentor in the Salty Dog, in Bangor.
Derek is fantastic, one of the best Ive ever worked with. Hed always encouraged me in Deanes, saying, dont be staying in Belfast. You need to read, you need to eat and you need to travel and he was right. He said, you need to go somewhere where theyre growing their own produce, and told me to apply to LEnclume.
Simon Rogan is one of Britains most-renowned chefs, with a hospitality empire founded on two Michelin-starred LEnclume, in the postcard-perfect English medieval village of Cartmel, in Cumbria. The bulk of produce for Rogans restaurants came from his 12-acre nearby farm, including fruit, herbs, vegetables, beef, chicken and pork. Pretty soon, Rogan installed her as head chef at Rogan & Co, LEnclumes sister restaurant, a casual dining take on its stellar sibling.
Simon is a demanding person to work for and it was competitive and tough, but there was no difference, male or female. There were lots of female chefs and the farm manager was a girl. Cartmell is beautiful, very picturesque, and I enjoyed my work. Getting to know the locals, you felt like part of the village, but it is pretty isolated and small and gets a wee bit suffocating, Danni says.
In 2011, Deanes had lost their star, following an extended forced closure. Michael Deane publicly shrugged and got on very successfully with business, but, privately, he began star-chasing once more.
Michael wanted me to come and look at a new restaurant he was opening. He wanted someone who knew the Deanes way of working and I was ready to come home. Ox had just opened, you could see there was a growing food scene in Belfast, and people were talking about it.
Eipic (the Irish for epic) opened in January 2014 and, just one year later, received its first Michelin star. In 2017, Danni was crowned best chef in Ireland at both the Restaurant Association of Ireland awards and the Food & Wine magazine awards.
That was the first time any attention came on me about being female. Before that, you were no different to the boys, but then it was much more a media thing, the only female in Ireland with a star. Its a double-edged sword. You get recognition and young girls coming up to you, saying youre an inspiration, which is very humbling and you want to encourage them, but you dont want to be known as the only female. I am best chef of the year, not best female chef of the year. Judge me just on my food.
Danni spoke last year at the Athru, a conference in Galway aimed at empowering female chefs in professional kitchens.
If you go to Michelin kitchens, especially two- and three-star kitchens, there are lots of women at that level, because those kitchens require a certain standard of organisation and discipline and you need to work methodically. I think those are female traits and women really thrive in that particular environment. But, at the same time, Ive been fortunate in the experiences Ive had, though Ive heard the horror stories [of bullying and abuse] from other female chefs, but I think that kind of thing needs to be changed for everyone male and female.
Danni still returns home regularly. I do a bit of hiking. I like the outdoors, I would have played for the [GAA] club, at home, but these days, on Sunday [after standing all week], your legs wouldnt work and, anyway, you wouldnt be able to go to training during the week. My family are very proud of me; theyve always been very supportive. They might complain about the hours I work and say you look tired and pale, but they get it. They always encouraged us to do whatever made us happy and Daddy worked all day, every day, so we had the work ethic working hard didnt seem strange to me.
Im really happy with what weve done here at Eipic, but probably, in the future, Id like to do something outside the city, something more casual. Id love to be able to do something with the farm at home, something along the lines of Cartmell or Glebe I loved it last year and am doing two nights this year or Ballymaloe, where youre growing and cooking your own produce and having your family around you as you do it. But thats the future, whenever the legs give up and Im too old for the stove.
Danni Barry will be cooking at Glebe House, Baltimore, West Cork on Monday and Tuesday, September 11 and 12, as part of Taste of West Cork food festival (September 8-17). (www.atasteofwestcork.com & www.glebegardens.com)
Lismore, Co Waterford - 225,000
Size: 148 sq m (1,600 sq ft)
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2
BER: C2
AS A GETAWAY retreat, Mir at Bridane Lower near Lismore may not be quite as remote as the European Space Station, but it does have very scenic views of the Bride Valley.
Imported from Finland around 10 years ago, its a sizable three-bed log chalet with 1,600 sq ft of living space and a two acre site with a pond.
Seeking offers of 225,000 Sherry FitzGerald Reynolds say its an attractive and unique property which is in turn key condition and is being sold with all contents included.
The scenic location makes it perfect for a holiday home. Its within walking distance from the River Bridge and a short drive from the River Blackwater and will appeal to fishing enthusiasts, says auctioneer Sinead Reynolds.
Accommodation includes an extra spacious kitchen dining living room with timber floors, walls and ceilings and cream country style kitchen units.
It also has two sets of double doors and a large stove which heats the whole house.
Other ground floor rooms include a utility room, a bedroom and a bathroom.
The first floor has two very large bedrooms and a bathroom.
Fitted with double glazing and solid fuel heating, the property has a C2 BER rating At ground level theres a decked veranda at the front and upstairs theres a balcony, both with scenic valley views.
Steps from the veranda lead down to a lily pond at the front.
Mir is located 7km from Lismore and 11km from Cappoquin
VERDICT: Perfect for angling and as a get-away-from-the-world holiday home
Harvey has been downgraded and receding waters reveal its trail of destruction. Something around 100,000 homes have been hit and the death toll is heading towards 50 and is expected to rise.
The exceptional monsoon season in South Asia has had an impact of an entirely different order millions of people across India, Nepal, and Bangladesh have been affected and more than 1,200 have died.
IDC reported this week that smartphone shipments are expected to grow through 2021. Last year, shipments were 1.47 billion. That number is expected to reach 1.7 billion in 2021. That computes to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is expected be 3.3 percent.
This is a bit of a new reality. Last year, shipments were up slightly more than 2.5 percent compared to 2015, the first year ever of single digit growth. IDC suggests that two trends, a two-year replacement cycle and new user demand, will keep the sector moving. However, the expected CAGR of 3.3 percent for the term of the report doesnt come close to the halcyon days of double-digit expansion.
The firm found that market share will stay constant over the period of the report. Androids share will move from 85.2 percent this year to 85.5 percent in 2021. Apples iOS will lose a fraction, moving from 14.6 percent to 14.4 percent. The other category will shrink slightly to hold an even smaller portion than it has today.
States Moving Toward FirstNet
Hurricane Harvey is another illustration of the importance of emergency communications. AT&T and the U.S. Department of Commerce are addressing the chronic weakness of these platforms with FirstNet. The nascent network is signing up states to participate in FirstNet, which is expected to greatly improve crisis communications capabilities. Now, according to FirstNet, 20 states have opted into the program. Four states have announced their intention of participating this week: Nebraska, Hawaii, Tennessee and Alaska. Puerto Rico also came on board.
Verizon recently announced that it will offer first responder network services to states and territories as well.
People Care About Net Neutrality
The public comment period on the Federal Communications Commissions net neutrality action ended on August 30. A record 21,873,926 comments on net neutrality were and a recorded.
Comments touched on such items as the reconsideration of the 2015 Open Internet order rules against blocking, throttling and prioritization and Chairman Ajit Pais plan to change the classification of broadband, according to Broadcasting & Cable. The submissions in some cases are quite sassy:
Those comments included a wide range of unfiltered input, with the docket packed with four-letter words and invective the FCC would never allow on air, but does in its comment system in the interests of letting all weeds, as well as flowers, bloom. Pai had signaled that the FCC was going to err on the side of inclusiveness in the docket.
The story says that some of the submissions likely are duplicates or from overseas. It is possible that some action is taken on net neutrality this month.
Verizon and Partners Demo CBRS
Verizon, Ericsson, Qualcomm and Federated Wireless say that they are the first to demonstrate Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) operation in an LTE Advanced carrier aggregation scenario.
The CBRS band, according to FierceWireless, to date has been used for radar systems. It is 150 MHz of 3.5 GHz shared spectrum that the FCC is allowing to be repurposed for small cell traffic. The demonstration looks at the ability to aggregate wireless traffic on the systems as well.
The Impact of a Mobile Workforce
Mobile workers are having a profound impact on communications technology and business in general. More people are working from home and in general the requirements are greater. This, of course, leads to vendor investments and further pushes technology, according to a commentary at RCR Wireless.
Video conferencing is one of the most positively affected areas. The story uses Uberconference as an example. These systems generally are easier to use, far more flexible, have better features and are more secure. A greater percentage of mobile workers means that work processes involving tasks, commitments, goals and interactions invariably shift and evolve as well.
Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
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Hanesbrands is donating more than a million underwear and activewear items to assist victims of flooding from Hurricane Harvey in Texas and the Gulf Coast.
This equates to more than five trailer loads of the underwear, socks, intimate apparel, T-shirts and activewear fleece.
The company said it has teamed up with nonprofit charity Delivering Good and Glen Raven Logistics, a North Carolina-based transportation company, to get the items valued at more than $2 million to flooding victims.
The company also is donating $25,000 to the American Red Cross.
The Hanes, Champion, Playtex, Bali, Maidenform apparel products will be shipped from the companys distribution centers in Rural Hall, Kings Mountain, and Laurel Hill, N.C.; Martinsville, Va.; and Perris, Calif. Glen Raven is donating the transportation of the goods to Delivering Good, which will arrange for the goods to get to appropriate relief efforts in Texas and anywhere else needed in the Gulf Coast path of Harvey.
Hanes and its employees share the nations great concerns for the victims of Hurricane Harvey and want to help, said Chris Fox, HanesBrands vice president of corporate social responsibility. We know that victims of natural disasters have a tremendous need for the basics in life, including shelter, food, water and clothing. We are happy that we can assist in the long road to recovery.
Fran Daniel
President Trumps pardon of Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz, has drawn predictable responses. The left, which long ago exceeded its sell-by date when it comes to ideas that work, denounced the decision as racist (thats all they have) and a perversion of justice. Some moderates, like Sen. John McCain and Sen. Jeff Flake, both Arizona Republicans, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, joined the critics.
Arpaio, who is 85, was convicted of disobeying a 2011 federal court order to halt traffic patrols that targeted immigrants. He faced up to six months in prison.
The White House issued a list of reasons for the presidents decision, which included Arpaios age, his service to the country, including enlistment in the military at the start of the Korean War, and his work as a police officer and special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Arpaios defenders say he was trying to help the federal government identify people in the country illegally. His opponents say he profiled Hispanics only, and thus engaged in racism. Given that Mexicans, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, make up the largest group of unauthorized immigrants, it made sense to focus on this group. That the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico has been decreasing matters little, as the number of immigrants from Central America and Asia has increased.
Even critics must acknowledge that any president has sole discretionary authority under the Constitution to pardon anyone for almost anything, except offenses against the United States and curtailing the impeachment process.
It is instructive to review some of the hundreds of pardons delivered by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama when they were president. Many were granted to people whose resumes do not come close to the services rendered to the nation by Sheriff Arpaio.
President Obama issued 70 pardons during his two terms as president. He pardoned minor drug offenders, bank embezzlers, military deserters, and, according to the Chicago Tribune, a young sailor court-martialed and demoted for taking four pounds of butter from his Navy base in 1947.
Bill Clintons pardon list contained names of people who committed crimes a little more consequential, some even a little suspect. His most notorious pardon was granted to Marc Rich, a major donor to the Clinton campaign. The Rich pardon came during Clintons last hours in office and was condemned by leading Democrats, including former President Jimmy Carter.
For those with short memories, Rich was indicted in the United States on federal charges of tax evasion and making controversial oil deals with Iran during the Iran hostage crisis. Rich, who fled to Switzerland when he was indicted, never returned to the U.S., and died there in 2013.
Clinton later said he regretted the Rich pardon. Without a hint of irony, he said, It wasnt worth the damage to my reputation. Most of Clintons other pardons were far less controversial. They included convictions for bank fraud and odometer rollback.
The presidents pardon of Arpaio is a far cry from those granted by Clinton and Obama. He was correct in citing Arpaios age and service to the country among his reasons for granting it. His conviction had political overtones and it is perfectly fitting that the pardon addressed his conviction partially on a political level.
Arpaio reached the same conclusion when he tweeted: Thank you @realdonaldtrump for seeing my conviction for what it is: a political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama Justice Department.
Two days after Hurricane Harvey ripped into the Texas coast, I sat at a window in Pacific Grove, Calif., watching the sun set on Monterey Bay.
In the distance, on water as blue as the sky and calm as a lake, sailboats glistened like the wings of angels. A tour boat of whale watchers left a V in its wake as it headed back to dock in time for supper.
Seagulls soared and swooped and cackled. Pelicans glided along the shore, diving for sardines and anchovies.
In a quiet cove by Lovers Point, a family of sea otters lay belly-up, anchored in a bed of kelp, cracking clams or crabs (clack-clack!) with a rock.
Along Ocean View Blvd., stately old Victorians blushed pink in the setting sun. And as day turned to evening, lights began to glitter around the bay, forming what locals like to call the Queens Necklace.
I wish you couldve seen it.
Amid the stillness and peace of that lovely moment, my mind kept replaying horrific images and stories from the news about the devastation in Texas.
Its hard to be at peace when your neighbors are in danger.
My husband and I live in Las Vegas, but weve spent the past month visiting family and friends on the Monterey Peninsula, the place we first met and will always call home.
I lived in Pacific Grove for more than 30 years. My three children grew up riding their bikes to school and to the beach and the ice-cream parlor.
From preschool through middle school, they marched with their classmates every fall in a parade to celebrate the return migration of Monarch butterflies to the town. Two of my grandchildren are set to march in that parade this year.
Does that sound overly idyllic? Maybe. But arent hometowns places we all tend to idealize, even if only in memories?
Thinking about the news from Texas, I tried to imagine Pacific Grove in the aftermath of a Category 4 hurricane. What would 130 mph winds, a 12-foot storm surge and as much as 60 inches of rain do to this place that I know so well and love so dearly?
Those boats in the bay? The Victorians on the waterfront? The birds and otters and other wildlife? The schools and churches, homes and possessions, hopes and dreams and, most of all, the lives of my children and grandchildren and neighbors and friends?
I couldnt imagine it.
Sometimes life makes the unimaginable a reality. And the best we can do an essential act of empathy that makes us, at once, most human and most godlike, and enables us to help bear each others burdens is to picture ourselves in the place of those who are suffering and try to feel what they feel.
If we can do that, we will find ways, with the grace of God, to help them survive and move forward with their lives. And then, when the unimaginable becomes a reality for us, we can hope that others, in turn, will see themselves in our place and try to feel what we feel.
Ive never been to Rockport, Texas, the small town where Hurricane Harvey made landfall. But my heart goes out to the people who call it home and to thousands of others in Corpus Christi and Houston and all across the Gulf Coast who have lost so much and stand to lose even more in days to come.
To feel for someones suffering is a start. But its only a beginning. The victims of Hurricane Harvey need prayers and encouragement. But they are also in dire need of money.
Here are two places to donate: The Salvation Army at 1-800-SAL-ARMY (725-2769) or www.salvationarmyusa.org; and the American Redcross at 1-800-HELP NOW (1-800-435-7669) or www.redcross.org.
This weeks event: President Trump doubles down on his controversial pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Carroll Leggett: 0. Speechless. Almost. Can he order searches without warrants? Imprisonment without trials? Whatever. And simply pardon those who carry out his orders in advance? Dont want to give him notions.
The power to pardon must at some point run afoul of separation of powers -- both of which are in the Constitution. Who said, What you do stands over you and roars so loudly I cannot hear what you say?
Joe Eskridge: 5. A paradox for sure, and my rating belies my sitting on the fence to some degree. While I believe in the laws and courts, Sheriff Joe was pushing the law to find the lawless. Liberal judges and politics dont help, and all of this points to the mess we find ourselves in with a broken immigration system. However, I stand with President Trump. By the way, build the wall.
Clint Johnson: 10. President Obama commuted the sentence of a young man, now a young woman, who stole our nation's secrets, and that president was not condemned. President Trump pardons an elderly man who was the target of a politically motivated campaign to punish him for trying to stop illegal aliens from entering the country, and this president is condemned. As Gen. Cornwallis understood after the Siege of Yorktown, The World Is Turned Upside Down.
Hayes McNeill: 1. The Arpaio pardon was bad in many ways, but first by displaying Trumps inadequate understanding of government. Its three branches are intended to check and balance each other. When the courts this time in the form of Trumps own Justice Dept find a miscreant guilty under our laws, the executive branch in the person of the president should not issue a pardon because the guilty person is a political ally or is a friend. To do so betrays a fundamental lack of understanding of or basic contempt for -- presidential authority. Trump seems to see himself as a king, and not a good one at that.
Kristen Pratt Machado: 0: Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a bigot who systematically pro-filed Latino residents and treated inmates as less than human. I wish I could say I was surprised, but Arpaio and others like him comprise Trump's base.
John Wayne Lambeth: 10. Trumps pardon on Sheriff Joe is justified, I believe. Sheriff Joe is a true patriot and loves his country. He protected our borders. Sheriff Joe followed the law with respect to immigration.
The left don't like it because it doesn't follow their agenda for open borders. Obama pardoned serious, hardened criminals. I don't recall the media being outraged. Sheriff Joe was upholding our laws.
John Harrison: 0. While the president has the right to pardon Arpaio, that authority, like other forms of power, can be abused. Pardoning someone sworn to defend the Constitution who at the same time has contravened the civil rights of hundreds of people; demeaned prisoners; and defied the court after conviction for contempt, is hardly a worthy subject for pardon.
There are too many sheriffs running their county like feudal fiefs riddled with patronage, hiring and firing with impunity and where law enforcement is anything but impartial. Is this pardon, however, simply a rehearsal for clemency to other Trump acolytes who may be emboldened to break the law, or having already done so to sleep easier?
Jim Monroe: 5. Presidents have been pardoning real criminals for years. Arpaio only broke the law by failing to obey a judge's order. He is not anywhere near the top of the list of people pardoned by presidents who should have spent the rest of their lives in jail.
Suzanne Carroll: 0. Trump's pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and subsequent actions defending the pardon demonstrate his own blatant disregard for the law. Sheriff Arpaio broke the law and did it in a very discriminatory manner. Businessman Trump is used to doing whatever he wants. President Trump needs to be accountable to the law and the Constitution.
JoAnn Dunn: 10. I seem to recall that little was said when President Obama released over 100 terrorists from Gitmo, some of whom returned to the Middle East and rejoined jihadist groups. One might not like Arpaios style, but his efforts have kept a lot of felons off the streets of Texas, and he is no threat to any law-abiding citizens. I cant figure out why liberals want to protect those who break the law.
Don Witte: 0. Arpaio is a bigot, among other things, and is a terrible representative of the law enforcement community.
David McMahon: 0 Hiding under the guise of being a patriot, Joe Arpaio as long been a vile and cruel bully who makes the scum of the earth look good. With this pardon, Trump has shown that he, too, prefers to live in the muck and the mud of the swamp he promised to drain.
Tony Gagliardi: 8. I have no problem with the pardon of the sheriff or the president's defense of him. If you compare this pardon to the many that the press said nothing about under the Obama administration, well, there is no comparison.
Mike Walker: 2. Once again, Trump takes the low road. This was an opportunity to end the practice of politically expedient pardons and commutations. Instead, he chose to pander to his base.
Yes, there are glaring examples of previous clemency that range from inexcusable to questionable, such as President Clinton's pardoning of Marc Rich or Obama's commutation of prison sentences for Chelsea Manning and drug dealers. However, everyone does it is a childish defense of the indefensible. The only argument in favor of clemency for a lawman who broke the law would be Arpaio's age and health, but those considerations would at most justify commuting his sentence to house arrest and probation, not a full pardon.
Steve Lawson: 0. The pardon did not surprise me because he and the convicted sheriff are cut from the same cloth as Bull Connor. Birds of a feather
Linda Hill: 5. President Trump pardoned Arpaio using his clemency powers, which re-quire no consultation. That power comes with the office.
It is no secret that the border states, especially Arizona, bear the brunt of illegal immigration. Arpaio was doing his job of protecting the citizens of Arizona, but he was accused of profiling, among other things, and defied a court order to desist.
Considering the amount of drugs coming across the border, the human trafficking and the sex slave market, is punishing an over-zealous servant of the people worth wasting time and taxpayer money on? The president's pardon was spot-on."
JURIST Guest Columnist Shannon Riordan of St. Johns University, discusses domestic violence in the NFL
On February 15, 2014, Ray Rice, a top National Football League (NFL) player for the Baltimore Ravens, was arrested on assault charges, after he engaged in a physical altercation inside an elevator with his now-wife, Janay Palmer, at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City. Video surveillance revealed Rice dragging his fiancee out of an elevator unconscious after Rice punched her in the face, causing her to fall into the elevator wall and hit her head against the metal rail. Rice ultimately pleaded not guilty and was accepted into a pretrial intervention program, which was offered in less than one percent of all domestic violence cases in New Jersey from 2010 to 2013.
About four months after the domestic abuse case, the NFL held a disciplinary hearing. Following the hearing, the NFLs Commissioner, Rodger Goodell, announced that Rice would receive only a two game suspension for violating the Personal Conduct Policy. With all of the uproar and outrage surrounding the lenient punishment, Goodell soon realized his mistake. After a second video was released, revealing footage from inside the elevator where Rice is seen punching Palmer, the Baltimore Ravens terminated Rices contract and Goodell announced that Rice would now be suspended from the NFL indefinitely.
Rice appealed the suspension under the Personal Conduct Policy and, on November 28, 2014, Rices indefinite suspension was overturned #8212 making him immediately authorized to sign with a team and resume playing. As of 2016, no team has picked up Rice, and thus, has not played in an NFL game since his arrest. It appears that most NFL teams believe that the negative attention that would accompany signing Rice, is not worth the talent he would bring to the team.
This episode made it astonishingly clear that a major flaw in the previous Personal Conduct Policy existed: domestic violence cases. After public outrage surrounding Rices domestic abuse incident, Goodell quickly acknowledged the huge blind spot and stated that the Personal Conduct Policy had failed and would be revamped. In December 2014, Goodell delivered a revised Personal Conduct Policy. Now, any first time offender who engages in domestic violence that involves physical force will be suspended without pay for six games. Goodell announced that consideration will be given to any aggravating or mitigating factors. For second time offenders, the punishment is more severe. Second time offenders will be banished from the league for at least one year, and given the option of reinstatement after petitioning the league, but there is no presumption or assurance that the petition will be granted.
Despite Goodells tougher stance towards domestic violence, there have been several NFL employees arrested on domestic violence charges, including Joseph Randle. In February 2015, Randle was arrested after police received a call from the mother of Randles son, who told police that Randle broke a car window during an argument and threatened her and her son with a gun. Despite the domestic violence charges being dropped in April, the NFL met with Randle over the summer to discuss whether he violated the new Personal Conduct Policy. In November, the NFL announced that Randle would receive a four game suspension, two less than the Personal Conduct Policy suggests for first time offenders. The NFL never released a statement explaining their decision.
From the first incident till March, 2016, Randle was arrested multiple times, including another incident that occurred between him and his ex-girlfriend. Around 3 a.m. on February 1, 2016, Randle showed up at his ex-girlfriends residence, looking for a place to sleep before driving to Kansas. After Randle rang the doorbell, he was informed that he was not welcome there. The mother of the ex-girlfriend called the police who arrived to find Randle sitting in his car. After running a standard warrant check, the police learned that Randle was wanted on a speeding charge in Texas. Other arrests included causing disruptions in a Kansas casino and shoplifting.
The NFL should once again alter their Personal Conduct Policy regarding domestic violence incidents. The NFL needs to start truly abiding by the game suspension punishments listed in the Personal Conduct Policy: six games for first time offenders and one-year suspensions for second time offenders. Without consistent results, the threat of suspension without will not properly deter NFL employees from committing acts of violence.
Further, stiff penalties create the opportunity to reduce those penalties through counseling or reparation. If an NFL employee successfully enters into an intervention program or therapy, the NFL could consider lessening the suspension period, post facto. The ultimate goal is to punish those that commit domestic violence, while also preventing acts of domestic violence in the future through counseling and therapy.
Concentrating on the NFL is important because in various ways, the NFLs history with domestic violence mirrors societys progressing views on the problem. Over the past 40 years, domestic violence has gone from being a private issue, only within the home, to an issue on top of law enforcement and policy makers lists. Due to its national presence, there is hope that the NFLs revised Personal Conduct Policy, with strict penalties and an emphasis on rehabilitation, will reduce incidents of domestic violence in the NFL community and beyond.
Shannon Riordan is a recent St. Johns University School of Law graduate. During her time at St. Johns, she served as Associate Managing Editor of the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development and participated in the St. Johns Prosecution Clinic. Currently she is employed by the Queens District Attorneys Office.
Suggested citation: Shannon Riordan, The NFL: Tough but not Tough Enough (On Domestic Violence), JURIST Student Commentary, Jul. 21, 2017, http://jurist.org/forum/2017/07/shannon-riordan-nfl-domestic.php.
This article was prepared for publication by Kelly Cullen, a JURIST Section Editor. Please direct any questions or comments to him at commentary@jurist.org
Ohio Governor John Kasich [official website], Republican, and Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper [official website], Democrat, sent a letter [text] to Congress Thursday proposing a plan to preserve the Affordable Care Act (ACA) [text, PDF] to stabilize the healthcare market [AP report]. The governors suggest preservation of the ACAs unpopular individual mandate provision, noting that it may be the most important incentive for healthy people to enroll in coverage. Young, healthy people in the healthcare market lowers overall healthcare insurance prices. The letter explains that this plan is temporary but necessary to fix the current status of the market and allow Congress to construct a plan to replace the ACA. The six other governors who endorsed this letter to Congress include, Republican Governor Brian Sandoval of Nevada; Democratic Governors Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, John Bel Edwards of Louisiana, Steve Bullock of Montana and Terry McAuliffe of Virginia; and Alaska Governor Bill Walker.
The plan comes in response to failed congressional efforts during this presidential term to replace the ACA and reform healthcare. In July the Senate proposed [JURIST report] a new bill that will allow insurance companies already providing policies under the ACA to offer cheaper plans with limited coverage options and contains provisions for providing states with funding for treating opiod addiction. The bill also included a provision requiring providers to give their customers maternity and newborn care, mental health services, prescription drug coverage, and hospitalization and emergency room coverage. In June Senate Republicans unveiled their version of a health care bill proposing numerous changes to the ACA, including repeal of the the tax increases it enforced to pay for itself and Medicaid [official website], essentially giving tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.
[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Texas [official website] granted a temporary restraining order [text, PDF] Thursday, blocking Texas officials from enforcing a ban on the most common second trimester abortion procedure. The ban that was halted by Judge Lee Yeakel [official profile] originates in Senate Bill 8 [text] and would have taken effect Friday. The judge found that the states arguments to prevent the restraining order unpersuasive and to possess a thin record. The States interest notwithstanding, this court finds no authority for holding that government-mandated medically unnecessary, untested, or a more invasive procedure, or a more complicated and risky procedure with no proven medical benefits over the safe and commonly used banned procedure, is a permissible means of regulating previability abortions.
Abortion remains a contentious issue around the world. Earlier this month Chiles Constitutional Court [official website, in Spanish] approved legislation [JURIST report] that would legalize abortion in certain circumstances. In June the UN Human Rights Committee [official website] found [JURIST report] that Ireland must remedy harm done to a woman in 2010 after denying her an abortion. The Delaware legislature [official website] approved a bill [JURIST report] in June that guarantees access to abortion.
Kenyas Supreme Court [Official website] ruled 4-2 Friday to invalidate [materials] the recent presidential election. President Uhuru Kenyatta was reelected after winning 54 percent of the votes in the recent election, which was held on August 8. The petition [text, PDF], filed on August 18 by Raila Odinga, who won 44 percent of the vote, alleged that the election failed to comply with several of the requirements established under Kenyas constitution. It also contends that the 2.6 percent of votes that were rejected was deserving of an inquiry. The Supreme Court found that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission failed to conduct the election in the manner set in the Constitution, but did not find any wrong doing from Kenyatta. The new vote must be held within 60 days. This is the first time that a court in Africa invalidated an election due to irregularities in voting.
The election has sparked violent protests, resulting [JURIST report] in at least 24 people dead, according to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights [official website]. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein has called on Kenyan leaders [JURIST report] to take the responsible path and exercise their leadership to avoid violence after these deadly protests. Protests the following Kenyas 2007 election, which Odinga also lost, resulted in more than 1,200 deaths, triggering an International Criminal Court investigation and charges that were ultimately dropped [JURIST report] against Kenyatta. On Monday Kenyas Supreme Court had ordered [JURIST report] the election commission to allow Odinga and Kenyatta limited access to its computer servers and electronic devices so that they could assess the vote-count themselves.
UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee [official profile] on Thursday expressed grave concern [press release] for Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar as the cycle of violence against them worsens. Thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh and nearly 18,000 more [BBC report] are attempting the same in response to the violent outbreak that ensued in Myanmar last week. Military action against this Muslim population commenced last Friday after a group of Rohingya insurgents attacked 30 police stations. An estimated 400 people [Reuters report] have been killed as a result of the violence and nearly 38,000 have successfully entered Bangladesh. Coverage of the situation is limited, as few reporters have access to Rakhine state.
Human rights has been on the forefront of Myanmars new democratic government since ending a decades-old military rule. On Tuesday UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein urged people to refrain from violence [press release] against Myanmar security forces, for authorities to adhere to human rights law, and for authorities to prohibit use of provocative media usage in the northern regions of Rakhine state. In his statement, Zeid noted that the acts of violence committed in northern Rakhine against Myanmar security forces could have been predicted and could have been prevented due to decades of persistent and systematic human rights violations [which] have almost certainly contributed to the nurturing of violent extremism. In March the UN Human Rights Council [official website] passed a resolution to investigate [JURIST report] potential human rights violations in Myanmar, but reported earlier this month that no such violations were found [JURIST report].
[JURIST] Individuals blocked from entering the US by President Donald Trumps original travel ban order can reapply for visas, under the terms of a settlement [text, PDF] reached Thursday. Those who have a right to reapply are to be informed and notified of legal services that can aid them. The two main plaintiffs in this case [ACLU backgrounder], Hameed Khalid Darweesh and Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, had been detained [complaint, PDF] at JFK airport last January after the first travel ban was ordered. Becca Heller, Director of the International Refugee Assistance Project, welcomed the settlement:
On January 27, Hameed Darweesh and thousands of others attempted to legally enter the United States. They were detained, handcuffed and, in many cases, deported. This settlement forces the government to individually reach out to everyone illegally kept out of the country, and begin to remedy that wrong. But it is only a first step we continue to fight against the illegal, discriminatory, and un-American provisions of the second Muslim ban.
The lead plaintiff now currently lives in the US with his family.
Earlier this week a three-judge panel questioned [JURIST report] a Justice Department lawyer in a hearing regarding the revised travel ban. In July a judge for the US District Court for the District of Hawaii expanded [JURIST report] the exemptions permitted under the Trump administrations temporary travel ban on visitors from six predominantly Muslim countries. The US Supreme Court is scheduled to hear further arguments on the matter in October.
KEARNEY Carol Rowedder will never forget her grandsons suicide 12 years ago, but out of its ashes, she found hope. It led her to co-found the Survivors of Suicide Support Group.
SOS, for people age 15 and older, meets from 6:50-8 p.m. the second Monday of each month at First Baptist Church at 1616 W. 39th St. Co-facilitators are Rowedder and Sandra Nevitt, both of Kearney and both First Baptist members who have lost loved ones to suicide. Its the only Nebraska suicide support group west of Lincoln.
People are so glad to find us. They say, Were about to burst. We need to talk, Rowedder said. No matter what relative a person has lost to suicide a child, a parent, a grandparent, a dear friend there is always a bond.
On Sept. 16, SOS will have its first Saw Hope Suicide Awareness Walk at the Minden eFree Church at 1310 W. First St. Registration begins at 8 a.m. An in-memory balloon launch will happen at 8:40 a.m. The two-mile walk begins at 9 a.m. It will be followed at 10:15 a.m. by a support group session. The event will benefit the SOS group and other local suicide awareness and prevention organizations.
SOS helps friends and families after a suicide. We just want survivors to know were there for them, Rowedder said.
SOS draws an average of 15 to 20 people a month. Some come once or twice, while some come every month to reach out to others who are taking their first jittery steps down the dark road of recovery. People can share their names and stories or sit silently and listen. Sometimes, pastors and counselors visit to share insights. Everything said in the sessions is confidential.
SOS is based on Christian beliefs and scriptures, Rowedder said. Without that, I couldnt do this. If not for God, we couldnt get through this, she said. At the end of every meeting, she reads a passage from II Corinthians, 1:4: He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort.
After her grandson committed suicide, Rowedder felt not just grief and anguish but a piercing loneliness. First Baptist Senior Pastor Stan Murdoch suggested she talk to Nevitt, whose son had taken his life in Colorado two weeks earlier. Murdoch also called Nevitt to suggest that she reach out to Rowedder. When the two women connected, I finally felt like I could cry, Rowedder said.
They organized the first International Survivors of Suicide Day Conference at the University of Nebraska at Kearney in 2009, founded SOS in 2010 and have continued the survivors conference at UNK every year since 2011.
Along with monthly meetings, SOS has a web site and provides pamphlets that police and funeral directors can give to grieving families after a suicide. The two women also get support and information from the Lincoln-based chapter of the American Federation for Suicide Prevention.
We give people permission to grieve, Nevitt said. Weve seen the reblooming of people who have been totally lost.
LINCOLN A new Crop Residue Exchange from University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension can provide an online connection and searchable database to farmers and cattle producers interested in grazing agreements.
The site is at http://cropresidueexchange.unl.edu.
After creating an account, farmers can list available cropland by drawing their plots on an interactive map and entering information about the type of residue, fencing, water and dates available.
There also is a lease agreement template, plus links to tools and guidelines for stocking and grazing rates.
IANR Media developed the tool with funding from a Nebraska Extension innovation grant.
NORFOLK -- Its not clowns this year so far but several odd calls to Norfolk police have come across the blotter this summer.
The foul offenders?
Chickens.
Complaints include a report of a rooster crowing each morning and disturbing the neighbors, chickens being kept in backyards and even a hasty hen who evaded capture in an alleyway a short time before being taken into custody.
Unfortunately for Norfolks would-be poultry farmers, chickens and other fowl are prohibited from being kept in town by city ordinance.
Doug Zach, a community service officer with the Norfolk Police Division, said when he receives a complaint about a livestock animal in town, he generally talks to the owner and gives them time to comply with the ordinance and relocate the animals in question.
Chickens, specifically, dont generally account for more than about 10 animal calls to the police a year, Zach said.
Some people keep chickens for food. About a month ago, there was a family that had five big, fat hens they were keeping for food and were going to butcher when they got big enough, he said.
Another family who had recently moved from out of state were keeping chickens to teach their child how to be responsible with feeding and care of the animals.
They didnt realize that they couldnt have (chickens) in town. Theyd sure have liked to have kept them, but we had to tell them they couldnt, Zach said.
And though a lot of people who Zach has to talk to about having illegal animals are polite and compliant, some take the issue personally. Coupled with the fact that Zach also writes parking citations as part of his duties, he often ends up seeing the worst side of some citizens.
They can get very irate about their animals and their vehicles. Those are personal things of theirs, and some of the police officers have said they dont get as much grief on most of their calls as I do. People get really passionate about their animals and their vehicles, Zach said.
Dogs and cats at large are taken to the Puppy Love animal shelter in Norfolk, but livestock may be relocated to area farms or the Humane Society in Nebraska if the owners cant find a place for their animals.
According to the city ordinance, other animals defined as livestock and not allowed to be kept in city limits include: horses, cows, turkeys, goose, ducks, chickens or other fowl, sheep, pigs, swine, goats and any dwarf or miniature variety of the same.
However, these animals may be in town long enough to be slaughtered and processed, under certain conditions.
Capt. Mike Bauer said any animal killing and butchering has to be done in a completely enclosed building.
People do deer and things like that. You can do it in your garage or an outbuilding, but you cant leave a carcass hanging in your backyard tree, Bauer said.
The ordinance does not apply to fish and fowl, he said. Those animals, specifically, can be butchered outside in city limits.
LINCOLN Nebraska feedlots with capacities of 1,000 or more head contained 2.16 million cattle on feed on Aug. 1, according to the U.S. Department of Agricultures National Agricultural Statistics Service.
KEARNEY The Kearney Womans Club will be have its annual membership meeting at noon Tuesday at the clubhouse at 723 W. 22nd St.
A lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m. The speaker will be Jason Whalen from the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department.
Call Mary Jo Jarecke at 308-530-8147 for more information about this volunteer group, which is a member of the General Federation of Womens Clubs.
Im writing to your newspaper to say, thank you to the people of Nebraska. My wife, youngest daughter, age 17, and I traveled to your state to watch the eclipse. We stayed at a hotel in Kearney, but on Aug. 21 we watched the celestial event from Ravenna Lake State Recreation Area. We also drove up to Ravenna the day before to take part in the towns activities and to scope out the park. We enjoyed those events too.
When I started making plans to come to Nebraska way back in February, Ravenna had nothing planed. I visited the towns website several times and I also looked at surrounding areas Broken Bow, Stapelton, Alliance. Some of those areas were already planning events. I quickly ruled out Alliance because of Carhenge, thinking too many crazies would be there.
I was looking for a quieter, more personal setting. So while Ravenna seemed oblivious to the fact that it sat smack dab on the center line of the eclipse path, I picked Ravenna as the place to be. Im so very glad I did.
I was surprised when I checked the towns website again in July and saw all the events they had lined up. We took part in the festivities from the bands to the vendors. And yes, I spent money. We enjoyed the small-town atmosphere, charm and hospitality to the utmost maximum. We also appreciated the case of bottled water I received at the park.
I had paid the $100 for a tent site even though we camped at a hotel. I wanted to be sure we could get into the park the day of the eclipse.
We spent a total of nine days in your lovely state. Nebraska is a big state. We logged nearly 1,900 miles traveling from the airport in Omaha and back again. We saw sights from Homestead to Fort Robinson to Smith Falls and everything in between. I was surprised at how friendly Nebraskans are and how they are willing to help or give advice on what to do and see to a stranger.
Even the police officer who pulled me over for speeding in Ogallala ended up offering advice about Ash Hollow. It turns out that by the end of our stay we could actually tell who was a native to Nebraska and who was not, simply by their friendliness. Nebraskans often started the conversation with us. You put Southern hospitality to shame. We also learned of your new state motto, Nebraska. Nice, and found it to be perfectly fitting.
P.S.: My hometown name is pronounced school-kill. It is a Dutch word, meaning hidden river. When the Dutch first sailed up the Delaware River in the late 1500s they missed the mouth of the Schuylkill and only noticed it on the way back down the Delaware.
Mike Sausser and family, Schuylkill Haven, Pa.
Kansans take pride in being kind beyond the norms set in other parts of the country. Some Kansas ranchers, victims of last springs wildfire in southwest Kansas, took it a major step further in August. They gave up valuable resources to help victims of wildfire in Montana and drought in South Dakota.
Even though were still picking up our own pieces, we should be the first to step up when somebody needs help, said rancher Tyler Woolfolk of Protection.
The March fire that burned more than 700,000 acres in Clark and Comanche counties killed thousands of cattle and burned hundreds of miles of fences. Ranchers in those areas have had a rough summer trying to recover.
But Kansas ranchers jumped to the aid of ranchers elsewhere, just as donors from around the country helped them with hay and supplies.
A group of Kansans sent tons of hay to Montana and South Dakota. The ranchers could have used the hay for their own cattle since winter grasses are going to be thin, but chose generosity instead.
The Eagle, Wichita, Kan.
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Newly arrived Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority refugees scuffle for food rations near Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia, Bangladesh, Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017. Aid officials said relief camps were reaching full capacity as thousands of Rohingya refugees continued to pour into Bangladesh on Sunday fleeing violence in western Myanmar. Some 73,000 people have crossed the border since violence erupted Aug. 25 in Myanmar's Rakhine state, said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Vivian Tan. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Kenosha Circuit Judge Chad Kerkman has reinstated Mark Jensens conviction for the murder of Jensens wife, Julie.
The ruling came during a motion hearing Friday morning, reversing decisions from federal district and appeals judges who said Jensens original conviction was invalid because of issues with evidence used during the trial.
We believe this decision is not the correct decision under the law and this decision will be appealed, Jensens attorney Deja Vishny said. The case will be appealed to federal district court, going back to the same judge who overturned Jensens conviction.
Julie Jensen died in 1998, in the couples Pleasant Prairie home. Jensen was charged with her death in 2002, and convicted in 2008.
The conviction was overturned in 2013 by a federal judge who said evidence used in the 2008 trial should not have been admitted. The evidence in question statements and letters Julie Jensen made before her death, pointing the finger at her husband were anything to happen to her was an unrebuttable and emotionally compelling accusation of guilt, the judge wrote.
The state appealed that ruling, but the federal appeals court agreed with the district judge, setting the case for a retrial. The trial was supposed to start Sept. 25.
The federal judge in his decision had ordered that Jensen be released from prison or retried. Prosecutors have argued that Jensen poisoned his wife and tried to make it look like a suicide, while the defense says she poisoned herself and then framed her husband.
Back in Kenosha County Circuit Court, Kerkman agreed with prosecutors that legal decisions on other cases have created new precedents that would allow the voice from the grave letter to be used at trial.
On Friday he granted a state motion to reinstate the conviction.
Kerkman said in court that with his earlier ruling allowing Julie Jensens letter to be used at trial evidence at the new trial would essentially be the same as in the first trial. Today, he said that with the letter evidence allowed in, the trial would not be substantially different, and he saw no reason to retry the case.
This trial is expected to be very long, six or seven weeks, Kerkman said, saying that was a substantial use of judicial resources. That doesnt make a lot of sense to me if the evidence is going to be the same.
I am going to grant the states motion to reinstate the conviction, Kerkman said. The court of appeals and the supreme court can do what they will.
Special Prosecutor Robert Jambois declined to comment on Kerkmans decision, saying he did not want to talk about the case when Kerkmans decision was likely to be appealed.
He said the Wisconsin Attorney Generals office had sought an opinion in federal court as part of the states motion to reinstate the conviction, and in that process had received the opinion from the federal court that Kenosha prosecutors would not be in violation of the federal courts ruling to retry the case if the conviction was reinstated because the state had in fact started the trial process.
Vishny said based on Kerkmans decision to admit the letter his decision Friday did not come as a surprise. We thought it was very likely that the court would grant the states motion. We disagree with the courts decision. We disagree with the decision to admit the letter. We disagree with this decision, and now it will go to federal court.
Jensen showed no reaction in court when Kerkman announced his decision.
We are going to continue to fight this case, Vishny said. Mr. Jensen is fighting for justice and to clear his name. He is innocent, and we will get him into court and free him as soon as possible.
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With miles of sandy beaches and endless waves for leaping through, its no wonder dogs love a day out at the beach.
Kent is home to some of the best beaches in the country, but not all of them welcome dogs all year round.
And sometimes it's not clear when and where you can walk your dog on the coast.
The beautiful beaches below welcome your four legged friend all year round.
Here's our guide to the dog friendly beaches in Kent, so you know where to head with your pet while on a day out at the seaside.
Abbots Cliff
(Image: Peter Facey)
The little known beach under Abbot's Cliff is mostly pebble and shingle with rocks off the shoreline.
It is a pleasant, natural feeling spot that has not been developed.
Set below the high chalk cliffs between Samphire Hoe Country Park and "The Warren" Country Park, this is not the most accessible beach along the Folkestone and Dover coast, but is a lovely little spot for your dogs to play.
There are a few hazards to negotiate at Abbots Cliff, not least getting there.
One of the easiest ways is from Samphire Hoe, however this becomes cut off by the tide. The other way is down the steep cliff path from Capel-le-Ferne which is almost as hard work as the walk back up.
A more serious risk is from cliff falls, which are not uncommon. For this reason it is not advisable to sit too close to the cliffs.
Where? Folkestone, CT18 7HZ
Dumpton Gap
(Image: Pam Fray)
Dumpton Gap offers one of the best low tide walking routes to Ramsgate during low tide, however it is very important to check the tide times before setting off.
The quiet sandy bay has a promenade and kiosk, and there are plenty of rock pools to explore.
Just remember at very high tide the beach is totally covered by the sea.
Where? Broadstairs, CT10 1TD
Fulsom Rock
(Image: Geograph)
At high tide there isn't much of a beach at Fulsam Rock, just the promenade and slipway.
Towards lower tides a fairly modest patch of sand does appear.
And you can walk your dog along the promenade and sandy area all year round.
Where? Margate, CT9 1HG
Hampton Pier, West
(Image: Stephen Craven)
Hampton-on-Sea is a small seaside settlement close to Herne Bay.
The area of beach west of the pier is predominantly shingle, with mud and some patches of sand exposed at low tide.
From the beach there are views out over the Thames Estuary.
Where? Herne Bay, CT5 1BX
Kingsgate Bay
Kingsgate Bay is a sheltered sandy cove backed by high white chalk cliffs.
It is probably best known for its sea caves which are reputedly some of the best in the country.
Overlooking the southern end of the beach is Kingsgate Castle, built in the 1760s for Lord Holland.
At the other end is the Captain Digby public house, also built by Lord Holland. This family friendly pub has great views over the beach and a children's play area.
Where? Broadstairs, CT10 3QH
Samphire Hoe
(Image: Ian Capper)
Another secluded beach situated under the famous White Cliffs of Dover.
The beach is mainly shingle but at low tide a few patches of sand can be found between the rockpools.
There's also an excellent country park nearby.
Like neighbouring Abbot's Cliff beach there is a risk of rock falls from the cliff face here so it is advised to sit away from the cliffs.
Where? Dover, CT17 9FL
Palm Bay
(Image: Nigel Cox)
Palm Bay is a pleasant sandy beach not too far away from Margate's town centre, between Walpole and Botany Bay.
Despite its appeal, Palm Bay never seems to get as busy as the better known neighbouring beaches.
This is probably the best dog friendly beach in the area so expect to have a few pooches for company.
Where? Margate, CT9 3GH
Reculver Beach
Recluver Beach is a small, tranquil stretch of shingle, backed by rocks and grassy areas around three miles east of Herne Bay.
The remains of a 12th century church, with its two towers, known locally as "The Twin Sisters", make a romantic backdrop and provide an excellent photo opportunity.
Come here to spend a few hours walking along the many paths in the area, or just to relax in this evocative, peaceful place.
Where? Herne Bay, CT6 6SU
Sandwich Bay
Sandwich Bay is a long sweeping inlet of the sea between Ramsgate and Deal, on the east coast of Kent. The coastal area consists of sand flats with their associated salt marshes and coastal sand dunes.
The beach at Sandwich Bay is largely shingle, and relatively steep in profile at points along its width, but the receding tide reveals some areas of sand.
Towards the northern end of the beach Sandwich Bay is separated from the Isle of Thanet by the River Stour estuary, where the Pegwell Bay nature reserve and salt marsh can be found.
The only facilities on the beach are a small toilet block and areas at the edges of the dunes for parking.
The beach itself is backed by three golf courses and a private estate, making actually getting to the beach a little more complicated than your average beach trip.
The most obvious route involves a private toll road through the estate, although this will set you back around 7.
Where? Sandwich, CT13 9QB
Shakespeare Beach
(Image: Raimund Zozmann)
Recently reopened after the beach's seawall was almost completely destroyed in a storm in 2015, Shakespeare Beach's long stretch of shingle is popular among locals and visitors alike.
Accessing the beach can be a bit of a workout, as it is only accessible via more than 100 steps down to the water.
It's location within a bay, just minutes from the nearby Shakespeare Cliff, is also home to deep rock pools, which can be accessed at low tide.
The wonderful walk and open space make it an ideal place to bring dogs and they are allowed on the beach year round, although there are no litter facilities.
Where? Dover, CT17 9HB
Whitstable West Beach
(Image: Pam Fray)
Whitstable's West Beach runs from just south of the town's harbour to neighbouring Seasalter, a distance of around a mile.
Despite the lack of sand Whitstable is still a fantastic spot for your dogs to let loose in.
There are beach huts, weatherboard cottages, fishing boats pulled up on the beach and the Neptune pub sits practically on the beach.
There are a few other places to grab a bite to eat along the beach too, including the Whitstable Oyster Company restaurant if you fancy something a little upmarket.
Where? Whitstable, CT5 1FB
Which Kent beach is your favourite for dog-walking?
Let us know in the comments below.
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The other day, rather than being at the office, I was sitting in the waiting room of our favorite gastroenterologists endoscopy suite. I had dutifully accompanied my wife, who was getting her colonoscopy. My cell phone buzzed. It was my nurse calling from the office. I had seen a patient late the previous day who was complaining of right leg pain.
I had ordered a D-dimer, hoping the test would be negative, ruling out a blood clot. But the test had been positive. The patient was still experiencing pain, and now wanted further instructions. I asked my nurse to order an ultrasound of the patients leg, which she was able to do with a quick phone call. The patient was sent right over for the test. About an hour later my cell phone buzzed again. It was radiology calling to let me know that the patient did indeed have a blood clot. They put the patient on the phone, and I informed them of the diagnosis and asked them to come right back to my office on the way home. I met the patient there and started one of our newer anticoagulants, for which we had samples that came in a handy-dandy one-month starter pack, and sent them home.
This was just a simple case, but I love how easy it can be to get things done when we have smartphones, smart, motivated staff, a simple ordering process, and new treatments like this anticoagulant. Not too long ago, this patient would have had to go to the ER to start IV heparin, and be admitted to the hospital for days until the warfarin (an older anticoagulant) blood level was therapeutic. Its actually amazing what we can get done today with such relative ease.
It made me think of other times and other ways that newer technologies or treatments enabled me to treat patients in ways that were impossible just a short time ago. A couple of years ago, I was on vacation in the Canadian Rockies, and was browsing Facebook, and caught a post from a patient (who is also a Facebook friend) inquiring if anyone in Facebook land could diagnosis his rash. I messaged him, jokingly admonishing him for turning to social media for such things, but also asking him to send me some better photos of the rash. I immediately received his photos, and was able to diagnose his cellulitis. I called in an antibiotic to a pharmacy back home. I know that I was supposed to be relaxing, but it just tickles me so much that we can do things like that today that I do it almost for the fun of it. And the whole episode took just a few minutes of my time.
Then there was the patient who had come in for dizziness and a slow heartbeat. His EKG looked an awful lot like complete heart block to me (an extremely serious finding), but the automated electronic EKG interpretation disagreed with me. I called a local cardiologist, took a picture of the EKG with my smartphone, texted it to his phone, and in seconds had his interpretation. He agreed that it was heart block.
I really love this next one. A patient of mine was on vacation in Eastern Europe and began experiencing abdominal pain. The patient had a previous history of pancreatitis following a Whipple procedure (a very complicated abdominal surgery) for a suspicious pancreatic cyst. The patient was visiting a national park, where they happened to have a doctor, who evaluated her and treated her pain, all for $50. The next day, a lab tech came to her hotel room, and drew blood. The lab results were available through a portal and were emailed to me. With those results, and in a phone conversation with the patient, we were able to come up with a simple plan of care, and as the pain had abated, keep the patient on their wonderful trip.
Again, these were all relatively simple cases. But what we can accomplish, and how easily we can do it, with newer technologies, like a smartphone, is truly profound. Imagine what we could accomplish if we brought to bear all of our newer technologies and other capabilities, diagnostics, and treatments. We could be working miracles all day long.
I imagine what it might be like.
Instead, we have a health care administrative system that fights us almost every step of the way.
Instead, we are distracted by a day filled with cumbersome and useless tasks made necessary by an out-of-control government bureaucracy and greedy insurance companies: the incredible time and work required just to get paid for basic services; unbelievable documentation requirements and data collection; mandated electronic health records that do not work; time-consuming prior authorizations for even basic testing and treatments; and now new hoops to jump through and websites to visit in order to prescribe pain medications.
Instead of working miracles all day long, as we could, we struggle all day to comply with a health care administrative system gone mad.
If we want better health care in the United States, we must, first and foremost, wipe the slate clean of excessive and unnecessary government and insurance company administrative hassles. We need:
Markedly streamlined payment systems that eliminates most billing and denials altogether. Usable, affordable (or free) EHRs in the hands of all practicing physicians. Elimination of barriers to basic care, like prior authorizations for basic treatments and testing. Administrative simplification for both patients and medical professionals: elimination and/or streamlining of forms, paperwork, duplication, and complexity of every manner.
For our political leaders, licking their wounds after a bruising spring and summer of trying to reform the health care system, and looking for a way forward: This is the path. Until then, I am left to imagine what we could do in a health care system that helped us, worked with us, and fostered better care rather than fought it at every turn.
Matthew Hahn is a family physician who blogs at his self-titled site, Matthew Hahn, MD. He is the author of Distracted: How Regulations Are Destroying the Practice of Medicine and Preventing True Health-Care Reform.
Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Camile Thai Kitchen, the healthy Thai food restaurant delivery business, established in 2010 by OBrien's sandwich bar founder Brody Sweeney, has announced it will open 3 new restaurants in Ireland before the end of the year.
The venture will create 75 new jobs. The announcement also revealed that the company is looking to add to its list of franchised restaurants by opening in several new Irish markets, including Kilkenny.
Investment in a Camile Thai franchise typically costs between 250,000 and 400,000 for a 1,000 - 2,000 square foot restaurant.
Marketing manager, Daniel Greene, said: "Kilkenny already has an excellent reputation for food, so we know that there is appetite there for a higher standard of hot food delivered to the home.
We are now actively looking for a franchise partner in Kilkenny Town and we believe this is an exciting opportunity for somebody to be part of a fast-growing brand with a proven track record.
The three new branches will open in Lucan and Swords in Dublin and on the Newtownards Road in Belfast.
Camile is then looking for franchisees in leading towns and cities across the Island.
The brand currently has 12 restaurants in Dublin as well as in Belfast and Limerick, where Galway star hurler Joe Canning is one of the franchise partners.
Stuff reports:
Exporters are disappointed at Queenslands tough crack-down on trade that is likely to take effect on Friday.
The Australian states Buy Queensland First policy favours local suppliers even if they charge up to 30 per cent more than an outside bidder.
Export NZ executive director Catherine Beard said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuks policy was disappointing and would disadvantage both New Zealand and Australian exporters.
Its not a good policy. If the best deal is coming from outside thats what they should be doing for Queenslands people in terms of getting best value for money.
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A U.S. travel ban on North Korea took effect Friday as bilateral tensions increased over the regime's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The ban was announced by the State Department in July after the death of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who returned from North Korea in a coma in June.
As of Friday, all U.S. passports are invalid for travel to, in, or through the North in the absence of special validation, according to a notice in the Federal Register.
"The Department of State has determined that the serious risk to United States nationals of arrest and long-term detention represents imminent danger to the physical safety of United States nationals traveling to and within the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," it said, referring to the North by its official name.
Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for stealing a political propaganda sign from a hotel in Pyongyang in January last year. He fell into a coma two months later due to botulism and a sleeping pill, according to North Korean officials, but doctors in the U.S. said he had severe brain damage.
The ban will be in effect for one year unless extended or revoked by the secretary of state. Exceptions can be granted to professional journalists, Red Cross representatives, and others with "compelling humanitarian" reasons or a travel request that is "in the national interest."
U.S. nationals who were in North Korea were required to leave the country by Thursday.
Three more Americans are still detained in the North, all of them Korean-Americans.
Two, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang-dok, were detained earlier this year, while the third, Kim Dong-chul, was arrested in October 2015 and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor on charges of espionage and subversion.
North Korea has drawn fresh condemnation from the U.S. and the international community for its launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan earlier this week. (Yonhap)
North Korea set a goal early this year of increasing its oil reserves to 1 million tons in anticipation of additional international sanctions, a Japanese newspaper reported Saturday, citing a Pyongyang source.
The Tokyo Shimbun said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reached the decision to secure a 1 million ton petroleum stockpile during a meeting of the State Affairs Commission in April.
The targeted amount accounts for about half to two-thirds of the North's annual imports of crude oil and petroleum products, it noted. North Korea is known to import about 1.5 million to 2 million tons of crude and petroleum products a year, with over 90 percent shipped from China.
Following the April decision, said the newspaper, the number of gas stations closed in Pyongyang skyrocketed, resulting in a surge in oil prices.
Oil prices in the North somewhat stabilized for some time later but began to move upwards recently, raising speculation that authorities there are artificially restricting the supply of petroleum into the market.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hosted a photo event in Pyongyang for a group of the country's youth troops, its state media reported Saturday amid keen global attention on the possibility of additional provocations by his regime.
Kim took photos with participants in the fourth conference of "active secretaries of primary organizations of the youth league of the Korean People's Army (KPA)," according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The photo session took place at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, which serves as the mausoleum for his grandfather Kim Il-sung and father Kim Jong-il.
The KCNA did not specify the date of the event but it's believed to have been held on Friday.
He "warmly congratulated the secretaries of primary organizations and young officials of the youth league of the KPA who fully demonstrate the resourcefulness and bravery of youngsters at the posts standing guard over the homeland and at major sites for building a socialist power," it said in an English-language dispatch.
Kim was accompanied by senior military officials including Gen. Kim Won-hong who has reportedly returned to power after having been purged.
U.S. President Donald Trump keeps "all options" on the table to deal with the nuclear and ballistic missile threats from North Korea, the White House said Friday.
Trump said earlier this week that "talking" will not solve the nuclear standoff with the North. A day earlier, he had said "all options are on the table" following North Korea's Tuesday launch of a missile over Japan.
Both remarks were interpreted as a signal he would consider military options against Pyongyang.
In a phone call with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday, however, the two leaders "reaffirmed their view that it was important to have North Korea come out to the dialogue table," according to Moon's spokesman Park Soo-hyun.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied there was any inconsistency in Trump's remarks.
"The president is looking for an integrated process, and we're continuing to move forward on that," she said during a press briefing. "We take North Korea extremely seriously, and all options are on the table. That hasn't changed." (Yonhap)
Nine out of 10 malaria infections in South Korea occur in border areas with North Korea, a member of a provincial government disease control body said Saturday.
Officials at the government of Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul said Saturday that a college professor belonging to the province's Committee on Infectious Diseases argued against the construction of a large-scale housing complex and crowd facilities within 10 km of the inter-Korean border, citing the dangers of malaria originating from North Korea.
"An analysis of local malaria patients found that over 90 percent of the infections occurred within 10 km of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Accordingly, large-scale housing and other crowd facilities should not be built in the border areas," the professor was quoted as saying. The DMZ bisects the Korean Peninsula and forms the de-facto border between the Koreas.
According to data, 235 malaria patients have been reported in Gyeonggi Province so far this year, which account for 58.6 percent of the nation's total of 401. In the same period of last year, the province witnessed 307 malaria patients.
In Gyeonggi Province, Goyang reported 54 malaria patients, followed by Gimpo with 51 and Paju with 42. At present, large-scale housing complexes or multiuse facilities are being built in Paju and Gimpo, which are both located within 10 km of the border.
The province has asked municipalities of the border areas to more thoroughly conduct quarantine activities against mosquitos. (Yonhap)
The leaders of South Korea and the United States have agreed to enhance Seoul's deterrence against North Korea by increasing its missile capabilities, but also reaffirmed the need to bring the communist state back to the dialogue table, Seoul's presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae, said Saturday.
The agreement came in a telephone conversation between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, on Friday, three days after Pyongyang staged its latest missile provocation.
"President Moon and President Trump reaffirmed their view that it was important to have North Korea come out to the dialogue table to peacefully resolve the North Korean nuclear issue by applying maximum sanctions and pressure on the North," Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Park Soo-hyun said in a press release.
North Korea fired what is believed to have been an intermediate range ballistic missile that flew over Japanese territory on Tuesday, prompting a fresh condemnation from the U.N. Security Council.
After the latest missile provocation, Trump said dialogue with the communist North was "not the answer."
In their talks, Moon denounced the North's latest missile launch, calling it a serious provocation that violated U.N. Security Council resolutions and raised military tension in the region, according to Park.
Trump stressed the importance of sending a strong and clear message to the reclusive North.
By Walt Gardner
Even if the Ministry of Education is able to get public support for making the study of English a requirement for all students, the issue is unlikely to be fully settled. At least that's been the experience in the United States, where teaching English as a second language to the children of the 42 million newcomers to its shores remains highly controversial.
To date, the debate in South Korea is over whether English deserves to be on the list of mandatory subjects, along with Korean and math. It's worthwhile considering both sides. But as the U.S. has learned, that's only the beginning.
Roughly one-fifth of Americans speak a language other than English at home. The situation in South Korea is not that much different, with an estimated 100,000 students growing up in multiracial families. In Daegu, nearly 3,000 students _ or one percent of the total _ come from a home where the mother or father is foreign born.
The U.S. approach to teaching English to the 5 million students who are English-language learners _ about 9 percent of public school enrollment _ can serve as a model for South Korea. Dual-language programs have supplanted total immersion programs. Students are taught in their native tongue and in English. The goal is to move them to classes that require higher levels of English. There are approximately 2,000 such programs in the U.S. today, compared with some 260 in 2000. They vary in the amount of time spent during the school day in each language.
At Porter Ranch Community School in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second largest, a Korean-English dual-language program has drawn support from the Republic of Korea Consulate General, which provides materials and helps fund a Taekwondo program and Korean drumming class.
Yet the greater challenge is to narrow the gap between survival English and proficient English. It takes the average learner about 100 hours to move up a level from low beginner to high beginner. A multi-year study of students enrolled in dual-language programs in North Carolina between 2007 and 2010 found that low-income black children in these programs posted higher reading and math scores than their peers of the same race and socioeconomic background who were taught in one language.
If South Korea decides to follow in the footprints of those in the U.S., it will need to step up efforts to recruit and retain trained teachers. Offering sign-up bonuses and additional pay will help. But so will small classes, where teachers have an opportunity to get to know all their students on an individual basis.
It's encouraging that multicultural classes in South Korea were introduced in 2010 in the university curriculum for students who plan on becoming teachers. But rather than being optional, the classes need to be compulsory. Although knowledge of subject matter is indispensable, it alone is not enough to be effective in a classroom increasingly populated by students from different cultures.
The number of multicultural children in schools in South Korea was 99,186 in 2016, more than a 200 percent increase from 31,788 in 2010, according to Statistics Korea. The growth is expected to accelerate in the years ahead, as the once mostly homogeneous nation until the 1980s continues to diversify.
The concrete steps South Korea takes to achieve its goal of teaching English will play an important role in preparing its young people for the demands of the global economy.
Walt Gardner writes the Reality Check blog for Education Week in the U.S. Write to walt.gard376@gmail.com.
SPC Group Chairman Hur Young-in, right, poses with U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce during their meeting at the Korean firm's headquarters in Seoul, Tuesday. / Courtesy of SPC Group
By Kang Seung-woo
The nation's food and beverage giant SPC Group seeks to expand its U.S. business fivefold by 2020.
Its Chairman Hur Young-in unveiled his plans during a meeting, Tuesday, with U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce and Congressman Ami Bera in Seoul.
The two U.S. politicians were visiting Korea to discuss expanding U.S. trade opportunities and establishing new partnerships in Korea. Royce and Bera are co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Korea.
"We are planning to increase the number of Paris Baguette stores in operation in the United States to 300 by 2020, creating up to 10,000 new jobs," Hur told Royce during their meeting at the company's headquarters in Seoul.
Royce was quoted as saying Paris Baguette has contributed to job creation in the U.S. by employing more than 1,500 people and it will play a key role in the global food industry in the future.
SPC established a U.S. west coast affiliate in 2002 and opened America's first Paris Baguette in Los Angeles three years later. After rapidly expanding its footing in the country, Paris Baguette achieved huge success on the east coast as well, with the number of stores in the U.S. totaling 57.
In 2016, the company invested more than $48 million (53.8 billion won) to report annual sales of $100 million and bring 1,500 new jobs to the country.
"I could not be more thrilled to see these thriving businesses invest resources, and most importantly, bring jobs into the U.S. The impact of CJ Foods and SPC Group on the U.S. economy cannot be denied," Royce said on his official website.
"As one of the first supporters of KORUS FTA, I'm proud of the positive impact that our economic alliance with these companies is having on the people of Southern California, and I know that success stories like these will continue to grow in local communities throughout the U.S."
KORUS FTA refers to the free trade agreement between Korea and the U.S., which went into effect in 2012.
However, U.S. President Donald Trump, calling it a "job-killing" pact, requested renegotiation of the bilateral deal. As a result, the two countries have started talks.
However, there is evidence Washington benefited from the five-year-old contract more than Seoul.
For example, the U.S. Department of Commerce said the FTA benefited both countries _ while global trade decreased 12 percent since signing the deal, trade between Korea and the U.S. increased 12 percent between 2011 and 2016.
Global initiative
Instead of being content with success in Korea, SPC has put forth great efforts to tapping into overseas markets including the U.S., Europe and Asia.
In July 2014, Paris Baguette became Korea's first bakery brand to enter Paris, setting up a business base to expand to other French and European cities.
The outfit also opened Paris Baguette stores in Shanghai in 2004 and Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore in 2012. SPC attributes Paris Baguette's global success to its product diversity, shopping experience and personnel management.
Aug. 28, 2017 marked the 112th anniversary of a fire that took out the La Jolla Bathhouse, considered a treasured resource at La Jolla Cove in the late 1800s. With the end of summer tourist season in sight, La Jolla Light decided to look back on the facility that once was, the fire that took it out, the newer (not necessarily improved) replacement, and the community effort that had it removed.
According to By the Beautiful Sea: A photographic history of summers in La Jolla 1870-1930 (the accompanying material to a 2008 La Jolla Historical Society exhibition), bathhouses were a common phenomenon of beach towns in the late 19th century.
Bathhouses were built to accommodate growing numbers of beach-goers, an excerpt from the booklet reads. Besides lockers and changing rooms, they usually included recreational facilities such as dancing pavilions, tea rooms and restaurants. La Jollas beaches specifically La Jolla Cove were the most popular destination of any in the San Diego area, frequently attracting thousands of visitors on a single day.
La Jolla Historical Society historian Carol Olten added, This was something people were presumably doing up and down the coast, and La Jollans were interested in a healthy lifestyle, so La Jolla was a suitable place and the bathhouse was likely seen as a good thing.
The La Jolla Bathhouse, designed by famed architect Irving Gill, opened in 1894 and offered coffee and cold drinks to visitors who came to La Jolla from San Diego by rail for a day at the beach. Images of America: La Jolla, by Olten, Heather Kuhn and the La Jolla Historical Society, reports that the Bathouse was remodeled 10 years after it opened to provide extended facilities and a more picturesque profile.
An excerpt from the book reveals: After the remodel, a new roof and coat of paint improved the bathhouse in 1904. Sturdy wooden stairs allowed access to La Jolla Cove beach, and swings were erected for further recreation. A small group of boats awaited those who wished to row offshore.
On Aug. 28, 1905, a fire broke out in the kitchen of the original bathhouse while the manager was cooking. The cause was later determined to be a faulty gas lamp. The facility burned to the ground within 30 minutes. The loss of the original bathhouse made way for a larger, more expansive facility to be built.
In March 1906, the new bathhouse considered a lively spot for dancing and dining, similar to facilities found on New Yorks Coney Island opened. According to Images of America, it was considered much larger and imposing for its time and built on the same site. It contained an auditorium, a swimming pool that was later floored and turned into a dance hall, and restaurant overlooking The Cove. The only facility at the time available for social life and recreation, it became the pride of the small La Jolla Community. It offered 180 dressing rooms and lockers.
But the proud sentiment didnt last long.
In 1922, the commercial atmosphere and lack of sanitary conditions began to bother citizens, and the beach-facing side of the bathhouse was covered in advertisements. I think the ads played some part, but according to our records, the reason stated (that the community bgan to dislike it) is that is most unsanitary and an eyesore, said Olten. La Jolla has always had a natural landscape and aesthetic perspective they didnt want another Coney Island. So when the proprietors tried to renew the lease, meetings were held and there was community opposition it kind of sounds like today and the Park Board refused to renew the lease.
In January 1924, the La Jolla Civic League held a meeting to discuss the bathhouse and by March 1925, it was torn down with no plans for constructing another.
PRESS RELEASE
China, Russia Diplomats Insist on No Unilateral Responses on North Korea Crisis
Sept. 1, 2017 (EIRNS)Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke by phone with his Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono, on North Korea today, Xinhua reported. The wire made clear that Wang Yi emphasized the need for the UN Security Council to speak with one unified voice, opposing the imposition of unilateral sanctions by individual countries. He urged adoption of Chinas
"suspension for suspension and dual-track initiatives, aiming to resolve reasonable security concerns of each side in a balanced approach and resume dialogue to settle the nuclear issue,"
according to Xinhua.
"Chinas efforts are in accordance to the Security Councils resolutions on the DPRK, and are also for the common interests of all parties, including Japan,"
Wang said.
"Unilateral sanctions do not coincide with the Security Councils resolutions and are not based on international law, he said, adding that Japan should not make any wrong judgements,"
Xinhua reported.
Discussion was clearly tense, but engagement will continue, judging by Xinhua brief summary of Konos side of the discussion:
"For his part, Kono said Japan strongly opposes the provocative act of launching ballistic missiles again by the D.P.R.K. [North Korea] and proposes that the international community take it seriously. Japan underlines Chinas role on this issue and is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with China,"
he said.
For its part, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported today that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also spoke with Taro Tono today, about North Korea and bilateral issues. Other than that the Japan initiated the call, no further details were given.
But Russian Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov criticized the U.S. imposition of unilateral sanctions against North Korea, in his press briefing today. According to Sputnik, Ushakov said that Russia believes that sanctions must be approved by the UN Security Council, and cited Russias agreement with China that the UN Security Council plan should be adhered to by all parties; that plan includes sanctions, but also the need for intensifying diplomatic efforts.
PRESS RELEASE
Lavrov: Sanctions Were Attack on Trump
Sept. 1, 2017 (EIRNS)Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during his speech at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations today that the U.S. Congress is undermining Trumps intention to improve relations with Russia. (This was hours before the Ministry announced the FBI plan to invade the Consulate in San Francisco Saturdaysee accompanying report.)
TASS reports that Lavrov said that after the meeting between Trump and Putin,
"it became clearer that President Trump, as he said many times after the meetingwas interested in bringing relations with Russia back to normal.... This is a mutual goal, since we share this position. We are ready to move forward at a speed that would be convenient for the Trump administration. We understand that efforts are being made to corner [the administration] at every opportunity, so we dont believe it is necessary to take any active steps concerning relations with the U.S."
He added:
"We understand that there are forces that simply want to undermine the administration. This is our standpoint on the sanctions that Congress has been forcing on Donald Trump."
TASS added that
"Lavrov also said that the sanctions bill passed by the Congress is aimed more at Trump than at Russia, as U.S. legislators seek to prevent him from fully using his constitutional powers as far as foreign policy goes."
"As you know, it takes two to tango, but it seems to me that our partners keep performing individual breakdance," Lavrov said. He added that all of the "exchange of sanction moves" were initiated by the Obama administration to undermine relations and hinder the incoming president from changing the situation for the better.
Lavrov said Russian responses to hostile actions would not damage Russias own interests, but,
QUESTION: We recently acquired a condo, but even with a 60-day escrow, we felt the purchase process was too fast. We wanted to take our time to read and review everything before signing, but that didnt happen. The seller imposed time restrictions on all of our replies and if we did not respond by those deadlines, the deal was off. Once in escrow, we had to agree to pay extra or forfeit the sale if we were the cause of a delay in closing.
Later during escrow, we received an overwhelming stack of documents from the homeowners association. It was not possible to perform our own due diligence, let alone obtain legal counsel to review the morass before the closing deadline. Two months after we moved in, we began reading everything we signed. The association had an owners-only website for access to its governing documents. Because we were buyers at the time of sale, we did not have access to the website.
Once we compared the websites governing documents, we saw they differed from what the escrow company provided us. We also learned that the seller voted to approve a $10,000 special assessment becoming effective a year after we closed escrow. The result of that vote was not tallied until two months after escrow closed.
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We feel we were taken advantage of. What can we do? What could we have done differently?
ANSWER: You were not taken advantage of. You had inferior bargaining skills compared to your counterpart. The time to read everything is always before you sign.
When buying into a common interest development, you are buying more than just the property: You are getting all of the restrictions and liabilities that come with it. You probably wouldnt buy a house without walking through it or conducting a professional inspection, but too many buyers fail to properly review governing documents describing limitations on use prior to making an offer.
Buying and selling property in a homeowners association is complicated, and sellers want to highlight the most attractive elements of their properties. That can leave little time to get through the associations governing documents and meeting minutes meaning less of a chance for buyers to find something they dont like.
In these types of transactions, buyers must be assertive early in negotiations. Offers and counteroffers should contain more than just a dollar amount. They should include clauses requiring delivery of certain documents by a specific date, and make the purchase contingent on acceptance and approval of those items.
Too many buyers go along with whatever their real estate agents say and are too accepting of claims that things are done a certain way because it is the industry standard, down to the pre-printed real estate forms with an X already in the box. Those forms are meant to protect the transaction agents and brokers, not buyers and sellers.
Nothing prevents a buyer from making an offer contingent on whether there are any foreseeable special assessments expected within a certain number of years from the date of sale, or that the seller must agree to inform buyer of any vote that may take place during the sale process, and make the sale contingent on the buyers approval of that vote. Buyers need assurances that sellers will not bind the property during this time without buyers consent.
Civil Code 4525 lists documents sellers must provide to prospective buyers, but that list is not exhaustive of what buyers need in order to make an informed purchase. Only changes in the associations current regular and special assessments and fees which have been approved by the board must be disclosed, as you learned. Association assessments and maintenance that are in the early stages of discussion, in the process of approval or that have been voted on but without a tally of votes require the buyer to do more digging and allocate more time to discover. Address these issues in the offer and place them in the escrow instructions too.
Similarly, although a seller must provide a purchaser with a copy of board meeting minutes conducted over the previous 12 months, only minutes that were approved and signed by the board must be provided and even then, only after a request by the prospective purchaser. If the buyer is unaware of these nuances and the industrys pre-printed sales form does not provide this option, the buyer will lose out. And even then, its a good idea to request minutes spanning two years.
Its also a good idea to shift the burden on the seller to have him or her guarantee that no special assessment votes are pending at the time of the sellers acceptance of the offer and that there will be no increase in monthly dues for a year. Nothing stops buyers from requiring a seller to cover assessments and related costs that come up through such a guarantee. These contingencies should be up front in the offer by the time escrow opens, it may be too late to make these demands.
And during escrow, while the seller must provide you with a copy of the associations current governing documents, were hearing of ever-more sloppy and inaccurate copies of governing documents issued by associations. An accurate copy of those documents should be available at your county recorders office in order to verify what you have received. If they are not identical, contact the title insurance company and your lawyer.
Zachary Levine, a partner at Wolk & Levine, a business and intellectual property law firm, co-wrote this column. Vanitzian is an arbitrator and mediator. Send questions to Donie Vanitzian, JD, P.O. Box 10490, Marina del Rey, CA 90295 ornoexit@mindspring.com
Dole Food Co. will lay off 402 workers from its Pajaro Valley fields and packing facilities as part of a widening move out of Californias strawberry market.
The vast majority of the layoffs will fall on 268 unionized pickers, but also includes other laborers, drivers and supervisors from harvesting and cooling operations in Watsonville, according to a notice the company sent last week to state employment officials.
Last month, the company announced a similar move from its Southern California operations, including laying off 172 unionized workersin the Oxnard area, according to state records.
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Dole spokesman William Goldfield said he knew of no other planned layoffs elsewhere in the state. Dole grows and packs berries in the adjacent Salinas Valley and in the Santa Maria and Coachella valleys farther south.
This is part of an ongoing initiative to evaluate all berry operations to ensure they remain aligned with our growth objectives and position us to remain competitive in the market place, Goldfield said.
The moves shocked Watsonville Mayor Oscar Rios.
Anytime a plant is phased out, its a loss for the workers and a loss for the city, Rios said.
For the most part, it looks like theyve decided to pull out of berries, said Armando Elenes, a spokesman for the United Farm Workers union, which represents the workers in Watsonville and Oxnard.
Elenes added that he has heard of at least two other berry companies that might shut down operations tin the Pajaro and Salinas valleys.
UFW still represents several hundred workers in the raspberry and mushroom industry in the region, Elenes said.
Growers statewide have complained of a worsening labor shortage that has pushed wages up and driven them to recruit more foreign guest workers.
In addition, new state rules that shortened the work week and require more overtime hours have added to costs, while increased restrictions on the use of fumigants also have put pressure on growers.
Dole Food Co., the largest producer of fruit and vegetables worldwide, is struggling with nearly $1.3 billion in debt, low operating margins and declining revenue. The company, owned by Los Angeles billionaire David H. Murdock, 94, has pledged to slim down its international real estate holdings ahead of a stock offering that would take the company public for the third time in its history.
In addition to its 10-acre headquarters property in Westlake Village, Dole is trying to sell 14,800 acres of unproductive agricultural land, valued at $171 million, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Sale of the headquarters property hinges on a tax-related swap for a pineapple-themed park on Oahu that is owned by Murdocks Castle & Cooke Properties, a privately held real estate company.
Goldfield, the Dole spokesman, said he knew of no plan to uproot the staff from the Westlake Village headquarters. But officials in North Carolina have spoken previously about a potential relocation to Murdocks sprawling research campus in Kannapolis, a city in that state where both Murdock and Dole operate research facilities.
Dole owns and operates some 124,000 acres worldwide, according to its prospectus. But very little of that property lies in the mainland U.S. just 1,600 acres spread across five states, according to company filings with the SEC. The rest of its U.S. farming operations are on roughly 19,000 acres of leased land in those states, company records show.
It was unclear how much strawberry acreage Dole might relinquish in Santa Cruz County, where Watsonville is located, and in neighboring Monterey County.
Watsonville suffered from the loss of the canning and frozen vegetable industry in the late 1980s, then was severely damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The city has slowly recovered, attracting small manufacturing businesses such as Fox bike shocks and a FedEx hub, said Rios, the mayor. But agriculture remains the top employer for the city of about 54,000 people 19% of whom live below the federal poverty line, according to the U.S. Census.
On Thursday, city officials had just celebrated the framing of a 46-unit affordable housing complex, only to hear the news of the layoffs.
You can just imagine, Rios said of the news. Its a big hit.
geoffrey.mohan@latimes.com
Follow me: @LATgeoffmohan
UPDATES:
12:30 p.m.: This article was updated with comment from a Dole spokesman
This article was originally published Sept. 1 at 7 p.m.
Social Finance Inc., the hot online lender known as SoFi, has launched an internal investigation into claims of sexual harassment at the San Francisco company.
In a post on the company blog, co-founder and Chief Executive Mike Cagney wrote Friday that outside attorneys are conducting an investigation in response to a lawsuit filed last month and amended this week by a former employee.
To the extent we determine that there is any truth to the allegations, swift and severe action will be taken, Cagney wrote. To be blunt, that kind of behavior has no place at SoFi, and were not going to tolerate it.
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The lawsuit and Cagneys response are the latest allegation of improper behavior to dog start-ups and the tech industry.
The executive board of ride-hailing company Uber recently hired a new chief executive to replace Travis Kalanick, who left amid complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination, bullying and retaliation at the San Francisco-based firm.
Also, Dave McClure, the founder of the business mentorship program 500 Startups, was stripped of his chief executive title this year following an internal investigation into his behavior toward women.
SoFi is a leading fintech firm, a new breed of companies that offer loans through online platforms. It recently took steps to rival the nations biggest banks by applying for a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. charter so the company could offer traditional banking services.
The original lawsuit was filed by former employee Brandon Charles, who claims he was fired because he spoke out against a SoFi manager for openly discussing sexual acts with two younger, female subordinates at the companys Healdsburg, Calif., operations office.
Charles had been hired in March as a senior operations manager, according to the lawsuit, which also claimed he suffered retaliation for reporting improprieties in the processing of some loan applications.
Charles amended his original complaint on Thursday, adding Cagney as a named defendant and claiming that the chief executive fostered a culture that permits sexual harassment.
The culture of male bravado filters down from the leadership team at SoFi headquarters in San Francisco throughout the company, empowering other managers to engage in sexual conduct in the workplace, according to the amended lawsuit filed in Superior Court in San Francisco. Not only is sexual harassment permitted, but employees who oppose it, such as Mr. Brandon Charles, are vilified.
In his blog post, Cagney said the company had learned that several people were willing to come forth and formally allege they had been victims of or had witnessed improper activity at the Healdsburg office.
He added that the company was creating an anonymous means for employees to provide our counsel information that could be helpful to their investigation. The company, he said, is also starting new training and education programs.
Still, Cagney wrote that the company was confident in our position in these cases.
In a statement issued Saturday, the company said that Charles claims were investigated and found to have no merit.
We will vigorously defend ourselves against any claims otherwise, the statement said.
hugo.martin@latimes.com
Follow @hugomartin on Twitter.
ALSO
What Apple and Qualcomm are really fighting about
New MPAA chief Charles Rivkin aims to be a diplomat for Hollywood at an uncertain time
Plan to boost electric-vehicle rebates to $3 billion is scrapped in favor of state study
UPDATES:
4:30 p.m.: This story was updated to include a statement from a Social Finance spokesman.
This article was originally published at 2:25 p.m.
Back in 1990 when Qualcomm was a start-up, it was spending so much on a new approach to cellular communications that it struggled to make payroll.
So the San Diego firm began peddling its 50 patents to mobile phone and network gear makers. It negotiated upfront fees to fund research, as well as an ongoing patent royalty should its technology ever be used in products.
Companies did use Qualcomms technology. And in a big way.
Qualcomms inventions are now under the hood of every 3G/4G smartphone. They power faster download and upload speeds and have reduced static and interference, given batteries a longer life, made auto lock and airplane mode possible, and the list goes on. Qualcomms patent licensing arm is a $7.7-billion juggernaut, with 130,000 patents issued and pending. Its licensing business model helped cement Qualcomm as the research and development engine for the mobile industry.
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And now Qualcomm is in Apples crosshairs over how much it charges for its inventions. In January, Apple sued Qualcomm, cutting off royalty payments. Among other things, it contends Qualcomm is illegally gouging Apple on patent fees and collecting royalties on innovations it had nothing to do with.
Anti-monopoly regulators in the U.S. and South Korea allege Qualcomm has concocted a scheme that leverages its dominance as a cellular modem chip supplier to overcharge for patent licenses and hamstring competitors. Qualcomm believes these charges were instigated by Apple.
Monopoly regulators in Europe and Taiwan are investigating. Tech giants Intel and Samsung have lined up behind Apple. So have technology trade groups that count Google and Microsoft as members.
Qualcomm counters that its fundamental cellular technologies breathe life into mobile phones. Without them, a $700 iPhone is a glorified iPod Touch.
For this technology that enables high-speed, ubiquitous connectivity, Apple was paying on average $10 per iPhone.
For consumers, this battle might not amount to much a settlement that slightly lowers costs for Apple and perhaps other smartphone makers.
But if Apple succeeds in striking a blow to Qualcomms licensing business, it could create a funding void for Qualcomms R&D machine, which created many of the advances in 3G/4G communications to date and is now pushing hard to invent next-generation 5G technologies.
In patent law, we always look not just at the short term but also the long term, said Jonathan Barnett, a professor at USCs Gould School of Law. If you dont have enough compensation flowing up to the innovator, their incentive to do research and development is reduced, and that could make consumers worse off over time.
This complex fight is being waged under the canopy of contract law, patent law and antitrust rules. It pits two very different business models for innovation against each other. Its hard to predict the outcome. But it appears both sides are preparing for a long war.
Innovation house
Theres a bit of black magic in wireless, and Qualcomms sorcery soars in getting more out of the invisible airwaves that carry data between smartphones and cellular networks.
To be able to throw much more data across that narrow bandwidth, to operate along multiple paths without interference, those are the kind of things that we and only a couple other companies have spent their resources on, said Don Rosenberg, Qualcomms general counsel.
Qualcomms breakthrough was a 2G/3G standard called Code Division Multiple Access. It enabled cellular operators to add millions of subscribers to their networks at lower cost and with fewer dropped calls.
Qualcomm also led the way in todays fourth-generation 4G LTE, which improved speeds and airwave efficiency even more. During the recession, it spent heavily on LTE technology while the rest of the industry licked its wounds.
There wouldnt have been LTE, really, until 2014 without Qualcomm, said Mike Walkley, an analyst with financial services firm Canaccord Genuity. Fast-forward and part of Apples complaint is that Qualcomm had a virtual monopoly on LTE from 2010 to 2014. But on the flip side, if theres no LTE, theres no great iPhone smartphone market.
Qualcomm continues to push the mobile envelope, serving up gigabit-per-second peak download speeds on its latest LTE chips.
You have one carrier a week making announcements that theyre going to have Gigabit LTE, and Qualcomm is the only silicon that does it, said industry analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy.
Chips and patents
Qualcomm has two businesses. It licenses its large portfolio of patents to device makers. And it also sells semiconductors that power mobile devices, including cellular modems that link smartphones to cell networks.
While the semiconductor business generates most of Qualcomms revenue, the licensing arm accounts for three-quarters of its profit.
Qualcomm pours a big chunk of licensing revenue back into R&D about $5 billion a year to invent next-generation mobile technologies.
Essential patents
Consumers are able to use gadgets from different manufacturers seamlessly because technology inside the devices works together. That happens because of standard essential patents, which the industry has agreed to include to ensure interoperability.
Qualcomm, Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung are among the big standard essential patent holders in cellular. They have a lot of negotiating power over device makers, since their technology is needed for, say, a text from an Android phone to be read on an iPhone.
So in exchange for their technology being included in the standard, they promise to license on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.
Such terms are typically hammered out in negotiations between device makers and patent holders. When talks break down, the dispute ends up in court.
The business of innovation
Companies use two main blueprints to earn a return on research and development. Many firms, including Apple, keep patented inventions for themselves. Theyre not available for licensing. They give the company a competitive advantage and raise barriers for rivals to enter the market.
Qualcomm does the opposite. When it invents mobile technologies, it makes them available to the entire industry for a price.
Qualcomms model fosters competition in handsets, said Richard Windsor, a longtime Nomura Securities analyst who now runs Radio Free Mobile, a technology research publisher. New companies can enter the market without making a huge R&D investment in cellular.
But there are wrinkles in the way Qualcomm gets paid for its intellectual property that have been controversial.
The company treats its chips and patents as separate products. When smartphone makers buy cellular modems, the price does not include the value of Qualcomms intellectual property.
Instead, Qualcomm gets paid for its intellectual property through patent licenses with phone makers.
This is unusual. Most product companies, including those that license patents, recover R&D investments through product sales.
Qualcomm does it differently for a couple of reasons. The key one is that its inventions, which underlie mobile communications, are implemented well beyond a single product in the phone such as the modem chip.
Solving the vexing technical puzzles in wireless requires systemswide technologies, the company says. Some of the puzzle is solved in the modem, but the rest comes together in other places such as the phones antennas, in cell towers and across the cellular network.
Qualcomm says its patent portfolio covers these systemwide approaches. Thats why it makes sense to license patents at the handset level. The cellular industry grew up this way. Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, Huawei and ZTE also collect device-level royalties.
Apple and others argue that Qualcomms technology is mostly encased in the modem, and its business model is structured to allow it to get paid more than its inventions merit.
The bite of Apple
Apple doesnt shy away from litigation. It has been in legal wrangles with Samsung, Motorola, Nokia and others over patents.
While theres much bombastic language flying around in these lawsuits, the key allegations are that Qualcomm is engaged in a monopolistic scheme to corral exorbitant royalties and hurt competitors.
Apple says Qualcomms unfair business practices allow it to achieve an order of magnitude higher royalties than all other cellular patent holders combined.
Smartphones have evolved into complex, multi-function computers with advanced cameras, hefty processing power and significant memory. Yet Qualcomm continues to charge the same royalty rate that it did when phones were primarily used for voice and the modem was more critical, Apple says.
Qualcomm has a dominant market share in top-tier cellular modem chips, so smartphone makers cave to Qualcomms licensing demands, according to the lawsuits from Apple and regulators. They acquiesce to inflated rates and dont challenge the strength of Qualcomms patents.
Qualcomm refuses to grant licenses to rival modem makers, which Apple and others contend furthers its scheme to overcharge for royalties.
Licensing other chip makers could pave a path toward chip-level patent agreements under current case law. It also could create a spider web of complicated negotiations and disputes, given that the workings of todays smartphones involve an estimated 250,000 patents.
They supply us with a single connectivity component but for years have been demanding a percentage of the total cost of our products effectively taxing Apples innovation, Apple said in a statement.
Counterpunching
Qualcomms strong patent position does open the door for potential abuse. But is that occurring?
Qualcomm says it has inked more than 300 license agreements over two decades that establish the market value of its intellectual property.
The rate for Qualcomms portfolio of patents tops out at 5% of the sales price of the device, but smartphone makers usually pay less these days. They can reduce the rate by paying a lump-sum amount upfront. Theres a cap on the maximum dollar amount charged per phone.
Today, smartphone makers are paying $5 to $6 per phone on average for using Qualcomm patents, said Walkley, the Canaccord Genuity analyst.
According to Qualcomm, its false to claim smartphone makers dont push back in licensing negotiations. Disagreements and re-negotiations pop up often. Sometimes device makers stop paying royalties when talks break down.
Qualcomm says it has never cut off chip supply to a licensee during these disputes.
The company says it is not required to license rival chip makers under its commitment to the cellular standard setting organization. These competitors are free to sell chips without paying a license fee to Qualcomm for the same reason that Qualcomm doesnt recover the cost of its intellectual property when it sells chips: The patents read on the entire phone. Qualcomm is already getting paid for its intellectual property rights through its license agreements with handset makers.
Messing with success
This legal fight is playing out as the smartphone market inches toward saturation, with slowing growth. Thats likely to continue until 5G technologies spark the next upgrade cycle in 2019-20.
But its a market where Apple has been one of the biggest winners. The company has sold nearly 1.2 billion iPhones, ringing up $775 billion in sales and $250 billion in profits over the last decade, according to Counterpoint Research.
Studies suggest smartphone prices have declined when adjusted for computing power and functionality of the device since the inception of the industry, said Barnett, the USC law professor.
What that is telling you is the standard setting process is working as it was intended to, he said.
mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com
Twitter: @TechDiego
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Two former regional presidents who oversaw Wells Fargo branches across Southern California say they were wrongfully blamed and fired for promoting unethical sales practices something the pair say they unsuccessfully tried to get their superiors to address.
Reza Razzaghipour and Marla Razzaghipour, who are married, were quietly dismissed in March, just a few weeks after Wells Fargo publicly fired several higher-ranking executives over their roles in the banks sham-accounts scandal.
The Razzaghipours say they complained about and reported bad practices including the opening of unauthorized accounts but were fired anyway, both because they complained and because the bank needed to scapegoat certain management to appease regulators, its board of directors and/or the public, according to the suit.
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In the suit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles, the Razzaghipours allege that several higher-ups knew about or promoted illegal conduct and that some of those executives were able to keep their jobs, including former Los Angeles-area executive David DiCristofaro, who is still with the bank but in a different role.
DiCristofaro knew about and encouraged illegal practices, including so-called simulated funding the practice of making a new sham account look legitimate by transferring money from a customers existing account, the lawsuit alleges.
Wells Fargo knew this, yet gave DiCristofaro a promotion while scapegoating the whistleblower plaintiffs by terminating their employment, the lawsuit says. The Razzaghipours also allege that DiCristofaro engaged in illegal age, gender and sexual orientation discrimination and that Marla Razzaghipour was fired in part for complaining.
The suit also names former John Sotoodeh, a former Los Angeles regional president who now has a different position within the bank, and alleges he encouraged illegal conduct. An internal bank investigation, the results of which were published in April, noted that Sotoodeh was in charge of the Los Angeles market when it became the epicenter of the simulated funding phenomenon.
Bank spokesman Paul Gomez denied the allegations and said DiCristofaro and Sotoodeh could not comment.
The termination decisions were not retaliatory as alleged in the complaint, Gomez said in an email. The company terminated the employment of these two individuals for legitimate and lawful reasons.
The Razzaghipours are suing Wells Fargo for wrongful termination, retaliation and defamation, accusing the bank and a spokeswoman of smearing them as untrustworthy in a statement released to the Los Angeles Times and other publications.
In response to an inquiry from The Times, a spokeswoman provided a statement, cited in the lawsuit, confirming the Razzaghipours were no longer with the bank but declining to comment on whether they had resigned or been fired. The statement went on to say that Wells Fargo was focused on ensuring we have the right people and leaders in place to rebuild trust and build a better bank.
The Razzaghipours say the statement implied they were untrustworthy and responsible for Wells Fargos fake account, simulated funding and/or other illegal conduct.
Wells Fargo faces several lawsuits related to the sham-accounts scandal and other practices that have been uncovered over the last year. But based on a review of court records, the Razzaghipours suit appears to be the first such case filed by any of the handful of Wells Fargo executives who recently have been fired by the bank.
Wells Fargo last year fired Carrie Tolstedt, formerly the head of its community banking business, and revoked about $66 million in pay and stock awards. The banks internal report pinned much of the blame for the banks overbearing sales culture and the creation of unauthorized accounts on Tolstedt. An attorney for Tolstedt challenged the reports findings.
In February, the bank announced it had fired and withheld bonuses from four additional community banking executives: Shelley Freeman, former Los Angeles regional president and later the head of consumer credit solutions; Pamela Conboy, Arizona lead regional president; Matthew Raphaelson, head of community bank strategy and initiatives; and Claudia Russ Anderson, former community bank chief risk officer.
The Razzaghipours were fired the following month. Reza Razzaghipour, who had worked for Wells Fargo since 2000, according to the suit, oversaw bank operations in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, Bakersfield, Santa Clarita and the West San Fernando Valley. Marla Razzaghipour had worked for the bank since 1994, according to the suit, and oversaw branch operations in parts of the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood and the South Bay.
Theyre seeking damages of at least $50 million, saying the banks practices have cost them money and job prospects and caused emotional distress, depression and anxiety.
james.koren@latimes.com
Follow me: @jrkoren
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The ICA L.A. prepares to open its doors. How a group of Latin American women artists are rewriting art history. And how Texas cultural institutions have been affected by Hurricane Harvey. Im Carolina A. Miranda, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, with the weeks essential culture news:
ICA L.A. prepares to debut
The institution formerly known as the Santa Monica Museum of Art is about to be reborn downtown as the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, or ICA L.A.. Housed in a light industrial warehouse in the Arts District that was refurbished by architect Kulapat Yantrasast, the ICA L.A. will kick off with a show devoted to the work of Mexican artist Martin Ramirez. We want this to be an active space, crackling with energy, director Elsa Longhauser tells Deborah Vankin. Los Angeles Times
Director Elsa Longhauser stands inside the soon-to-open ICA L.A. as workers uncrate the inaugural exhibition. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
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And because journalism is a lot of things, but never boring: Vankin interviews L.A.s top theatrical scene stealer: Zeus, the rat, from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Los Angeles Times
Mexicos Radical Women
Of all the new Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles / Latin America exhibitions, none will rewrite history quite like Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-85 at the Hammer Museum. The show will explore boundary-breaking art by women all over the continent. On a recent trip to Mexico City, I spent time with the Mexican artists in the show, who told me about psychedelic installations and a quinceanera dress made out of beef. These were women dealing with power, says exhibition co-curator Cecilia Fajardo-Hill. They are women fighting power. Los Angeles Times
Plus, some excerpts from a roundtable that The Times held in Mexico with some of the key artists in the show, including Lourdes Grobet, Monica Mayer, Maris Bustamante, Carla Rippey and Magali Lara. It contains fireworks. Literally. Los Angeles Times
Paintings of peace and ferocity
Late Los Angeles painter Carlos Almaraz, known for his luminescent depictions of fires and freeway crashes, is getting his first large-scale museum survey with the opening of the exhibition Playing With Fire: Paintings by Carlos Almaraz, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art part of PST: LA/LA. I knew he would get there at some point, his widow Elsa Flores tells Times contributor Steve Appleford. He had a very strong vision. He just didnt live long enough to see it. Los Angeles Times
Plus, a look at how Almarazs art contended with his bisexuality and his Chicano identity. The Frame
Architecture in the museum
This week, Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne files a couple of dispatches on important architectural shows.
The first takes us to New Yorks Museum of Modern Art, which has an exhibition drawn from the mammoth archive of Frank Lloyd Wright. The exhibition, notes Hawthorne, is wide-ranging and often surprising. Exhibition curator Barry Bergdoll got 11 co-curators to put together mini-exhibitions that explore a single facet of the archive. The approach pays dividends, but Hawthorne says he notes some ambivalence in MoMAs attitude towards the singular Wright. Los Angeles Times
Hawthorne also has a look at the architecture of John Yeon at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. Yeons work, he writes, made a powerful argument that architecture was flourishing in Oregon and places like it and that it could grow richer, rather than less authentic, by taking cues from its setting. Los Angeles Times
Harvey and the arts
Hurricane Harvey has devastated large swathes of Texas and among the affected are numerous cultural institutions.
Many Houston museums, thankfully, seem to already be on the rebound. The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Menil Collection and the Rothko Chapel closed, but emerged from the storm largely unscathed with some already beginning to reopen. Artnet, Houston Chronicle
The Rockport Center for the Arts in Rockport, however, hasnt been so lucky. The museum has suffered severe damage. Artforum
The same goes for Houstons theater district, which was hit by significant floods. The Alley Theatre, which recently completed a major renovation, was especially hard hit with water flooding basement dressing rooms and damaging electrical systems. Even so, the theater will proceed with its fall season. Houston Chronicle, TheaterMania
The Houston Ballet, however, has canceled its season opener. Dance Magazine
In the meantime, jazz critic Nate Chinen reports on how the storm has affected the jazz scene. You cant point to a jazz club, really, in Houston, pianist Robert Glasper told Chinen. But Houston probably has more jazz musicians that are relevant on the scene now than any other city. NPR
Plus, its a good time to revisit this report from last year on how a lack of urban planning made the Houston area more vulnerable to disaster. ProPublica
A pair of pairings at the Bowl
In the waning day of August, Times classical music critic Mark Swed has been hitting the Hollywood Bowl hard.
Last week, he caught a performance of John Adams Harmonium, one of the composers pioneering, operatic works, as well as a requiem mass by Mozart. Swed says that LA Phil musical director Gustavo Dudamel made great use of the Bowls amplified acoustic space for the Adams piece. Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
He also notes that things got a little more traditional this past week, with a show that featured Lalos Symphonie Espagnole and Stravinskys Petrushka performed by violinist Joshua Bell. Los Angeles Times
Painting the face of the city
Times staff writer Jeffrey Fleishman shadowed muralist Robert Vargas as he worked on a massive mural on a 12-story apartment across from Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles. He writes: The canvas, 60,000 square feet of wall and windows, will tell the tale of the city with images of the L.A. River, Gustavo Dudamel, indigenous Tongva Indians, an ancient sycamore and three bright-winged angels. Los Angeles Times
Muralist Robert Vargas before his work, Our Lady of DTLA in 2013. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)
The 99-seat beat
The Times is debuting a new listing that will focus exclusively on work at the citys smaller, experimental theaters of 99 seats or less. These will post every Friday at latimes.com/arts. This weeks list is up and running! Theres a lot going on in El Lay. Do not miss! Los Angeles Times
In the galleries
The director of the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona put out a call for artists to reflect on our nations current state of dysfunction, and the results, reports Times contributing reviewer Leah Ollman, are rousing. Los Angeles Times
Plus, Sharon Mizota pays a visit to Zarouhie Abdalians beautifully spare exhibition at LAXART, which features sculptures that explore the point at which natural materials turn into the man-made. Los Angeles Times
In other news
In case you needed some Hunger Games style excitement in your life, tickets for the Yayoi Kusama extravaganza at the Broad went on sale. May the odds be ever in your favor. Los Angeles Times
The Massachusetts attorney generals office is reviewing the Berkshire Museums plans to sell off some art. WAMC
A house by Modernist architect Richard Neutra is for sale as a teardown, because Los Angeles. Curbed
A controversial restoration at the Chartres Cathedral in France has resulted in a black Madonna being painted white, among other significant changes. New York Times
Architecture critic Oliver Wainwright doesnt think much of the new White House redesign, which he says looks like it has been lifted straight from a mid-range chain hotel. Go figure. The Guardian
The Los Angeles artist who wants to be your Alexa. Co.Design
Since L.A. feels like its burning up: on the origins of the This is Fine meme. KPCC
And since were on the subject: an interview with Antonio Guillem, the photographer behind the distracted boyfriend meme. (I think my take on it is pretty sublime, especially if youre into pit bulls.) Wired
Welcome to a new musical art form: the podcast score. Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra has received a historic gift of $1.5 million. Los Angeles Times
Jane Kaczmarek will star in a Pasadena Playhouse-Deaf West Theatre production of Our Town, opening Sept. 26. Los Angeles Times
Graphic novelist Mimi Ponds 10 favorite graphic memoirs. Publishers Weekly
And last but not least
The kinds of rich Id like to be. McSweeneys
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carolina.miranda@latimes.com
@cmonstah
Romulo Avelica Gonzalez was a taquero.
He worked at a modest Mexican restaurant near his home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Lincoln Heights in the citys Eastside.
Like most immigrants in the country illegally, Avelica Gonzalez kept his head down. He had his job making tacos, the love of his wife Norma and four daughters and not much else the outside world would probably care to know about.
Then he was arrested while taking his two youngest daughters to school. One of them recorded the encounter with her cellphone and that would make all the difference.
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Taken to an immigrant detention facility, he remained there for six months until he walked out, Wednesday night, to a battery of TV cameras.
The cook had become an activist. Or at least thats what his lawyer called him.
Cellphone video of the arrest of Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez by immigration authorities taken by his 13-year-old daughter just after he had just dropped off his 12-year-old daughter at her school in Highland Park.
Avelica Gonzalez, 49, balks at the label, but not the burden.
We have to do something to stop that the separation of families, he said Thursday to a supportive crowd. Because its not just us who suffer in there. Our kids also suffer. Theyre citizens.
Avelica Gonzalezs release comes during a week when President Trump is rumored to be considering ending an Obama-era policy that shields so-called Dreamers immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. when they were young from deportation, and after he pardoned former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt in connection to racial profiling of Latinos during his crusade against illegal immigration.
He joins an often rhetorically brutal debate over illegal immigration in which warring factions reach for symbols whether its a deported mother or, in the case of Trump, U.S. citizen victims of crimes by those in the country illegally.
In late February, Avelica Gonzalez was detained by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wearing jackets with the word POLICE on the back. His daughter Fatima, now 14, sobbed as she filmed the encounter. It went viral.
Lawyers settled Avelica-Gonzalezs decades-old misdemeanor convictions for driving under the influence and for receiving stolen car tags that prompted the deportation order that led to his arrest. He pleaded guilty to lesser vehicle code violations, which would ordinarily not make him deportable.
An immigration appeals court threw out Avelica Gonzalezs final deportation order last month. He is still in deportation proceedings but, because of massive backlogs, it could take years for his case to go back through the local immigration court process.
On Wednesday morning, an immigration judge ruled that he was eligible to post bond. That night he walked out of the Adelanto Detention Facility in San Bernardino County wearing the same green shirt and salsa-stained work pants he had on when he was arrested.
Driving back to L.A, the family first stopped at historic Mission San Conrado. Falling to their knees, they gave thanks to Jude the Apostle, the patron saint of desperate situations and lost causes.
Romulo Avelica Gonzalez hugs his niece, Diana Vargas, as he prays at a shrine to St. Jude the Apostle at Mission San Conrado after being released. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
He left detention with a list of more than 20 names and phone numbers of immigrants praying to get out just as he did even if their ultimate fate, like his, remains murky.
Its easy to give up in there, he said, pulling out and unfolding the list, handwritten on a scrap of paper, from his shirt pocket.
Avelica Gonzalez said that people he met while in detention inspired him to do more than go back to his old life.
Some were so poor they had no money even for a phone call, he said. A few got so depressed that theyd begin considering signing their deportation papers just so they could leave.
Some did, including one of his friends, a farmworker whose wife and children had lost their apartment without his income. The man had convictions for driving under the influence and illegal reentry, Avelica Gonzalez said. Desperate to work, he decided that going back to Mexico was better than waiting locked up in the U.S.
Everything I lived through in there, my experiences and especially the stories of my friends its really tough, he said. And even though my own heart was hurting, I tried to encourage them. Id tell them, You have to try, OK? Dont give up.
On Thursday, Avelica Gonzalez kept that man and the others on his list in mind as he addressed reporters in front of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department headquarters. He wore the braided white cross and the pendant with an image of his favorite patron saint that had been confiscated by guards as contraband immediately after The Times interviewed him last month.
He voiced his support for Senate Bill 54, which would block local and state law enforcement from using resources to help federal immigration agents, and announced that on Tuesday he will participate in a caravan to Sacramento to rally in support of the bill.
Commonly called the sanctuary state bill, it would limit the information that immigration agents receive about county jail inmates, including immigrants release dates, with the exception of those who have committed violent crimes. Sheriff Jim McDonnell has said the bill could hurt immigrants by forcing immigration agents to go deeper into communities to arrest people instead of going through the jail system. He said that could cause other immigrants to get caught up in the net.
Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said Avelica Gonzalez fights not just for his family but for all families of immigrants facing deportation.
Romulo Avelica Gonzalez, who was detained in late February while dropping his daughters off at school, is reunited with his family. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The importance of this victory, of this case, is that Mr. Romulo told Trump and all our adversaries, I dont have fear, Alvarado said.
Standing before a large banner that read #FREEROMULO, Avelica Gonzalez took a pair of pruning shears and sliced the slogan in half. He and his daughter Fatima held up the part of the banner that now read: #FREE.
Still, Avelica Gonzalez said he doesnt consider himself an activist, saying the word carries more responsibility and preparation than he has. But his experience gave him a platform, and he said hell use it to do what he can.
And despite the new attention, he doesnt think itll be hard to settle back into his former life.
On his first night out of detention, as hunger gnawed at him, the man his lawyer declared an activist would have to wait for the taquero. It was nearing 10:30 p.m. when the family pulled up to the restaurant where he worked.
Reuniting with his boss at the grill, Avelica Gonzalez scooped meat onto tortillas, taking taco orders from everyone in line. Five asada. Two al pastor. That night, they were on the house.
Regular customers welcomed him with friendly slaps on the back. An in-house musician serenaded him on an acoustic guitar with a song about Nayarit, his home state in Mexico.
Finally, he took a seat next to his wife and said a quick prayer before digging into his tacos. Hed been dreaming of the moment for half a year.
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Good morning. Im Paul Thornton, and it is Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. For those of us in and around Los Angeles who still have electricity, here is a helpful tip for keeping the A/C humming throughout this hellish heatwave (hint: turn something else off now). Lets take a look back at the week in Opinion.
Southern Californias miserable weather isnt the biggest climate news of the moment, and for good reason: Much of Houston and other parts of Texas spent the week underwater after Hurricane-turned-Tropical Storm Harvey stalled overhead and dumped record-breaking amounts of rain, turning expansive interstates and neatly laid-out suburbs into shallow inland seas. How much human-caused climate change aided Harveys devastation is unclear, but we do know what isnt aiding anything: President Trump s denial of global warming.
Harvey resembles the kind of storm climate scientists warned us about: a bigger, less infrequent and more devastating instance of a weather phenomenon not unknown to the area. Houston is no stranger to hurricanes and heavy rain, but Harvey was the kind of storm that part of Texas can expect to receive once every 500 years. Unfortunately, Houston has had three such 500 year floods in the last three years. Perhaps this should teach Trump a lesson about climate change, says The Times Editorial Board:
If Trump himself were to consult the experts such as, you know, climate scientists he would learn that global warming is real. Hed also learn that although warming did not cause Hurricane Harvey, it certainly makes such storms stronger, more unpredictable and quicker to intensify. Experts theres that word again say that warmer air temperatures mean more evaporation of moisture from the seas to the skies, and thus more rainfall from storms. Warmer seas including the Gulf of Mexico intensify storms, from their size to their wind speeds, and amplify storm surges. (In southeast Texas, the flat geography allows a surging Gulf to intrude farther inland.) Another wrinkle, according to atmospheric scientist Michael E. Mann: Climate change modeling suggests that human-propelled global warming could lead to weaker prevailing winds and a jet stream tracking father north. And that appears to have been what led Harvey to park over southeast Texas and dump more than 40 inches of water in places rather than spreading the rain (and pain) around or drifting back out over the Gulf.... Ironically, the president two weeks ago rescinded Obama administration standards requiring the federal government to assess and account for the impact of climate change when designing and building new infrastructure projects. Of course, that makes no difference to the current status of Houston, but Harveys terrible impact certainly spotlights the foolishness of ignoring climate change. Experts (ahem) in Trumps own Pentagon know that climate change is real, and they recognize that more extreme heat, droughts, floods and famines threaten international stability while rising seas imperil military bases especially, of course, naval installations. But rising seas also threaten civilian shipping ports, coastal neighborhoods and sensitive freshwater estuaries. Saline ocean water is already seeping into the Everglades, threatening the freshwater supply of millions of people in southern Florida. Infrastructure must be adapted to account for such changes. And not just in the U.S. Globally, populations in coastal zones are increasing faster than in inland areas, and many of the worlds megacities are built on coasts or in low-lying deltas. This is the hot, hard reality the world faces, and as weve noted before, Trump, along with his Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and other proponents of increasing fossil fuel production, are leading the nation in a dangerous direction. This isnt an issue of mere policy differences; their beliefs and agenda imperil the health and safety of the people they have sworn to protect. >> Click here to read more
According to Naomi Oreskes and Geoffrey Supran, for decades about 80% of Exxon Mobils internal communications and scientific studies acknowledged the reality of climate change. At the same time, roughly the same percentage of the advertorials it published in the New York Times expressed doubt. And now, Exxon Mobil is misleading the public about its history of misleading the public. L.A. Times
Rain will always fall on Houston; devastation does not have to be the result. Kiah Collier and Neena Satija, two journalists in Texas, propose four steps for making Houston less prone to days-long flooding and the resulting damage and death: Preserve and restore as much prairie land as possible, restrict development in flood plains and buy out flood-prone homes, plan for climate change and educate the public. L.A. Times
Yes, theres a silver lining to the Harvey storm clouds. Tragic as the deluge was for masses of people, columnist Jonah Goldberg writes, that amount of rain washed away a lot of political bull. The Times Editorial Board strikes a similar note, pointing out that the obvious political differences between Texas and California do not diminish our desire to help or our solidarity with the Lone Star State. The wide gap between this bluest of blue states and that reddest of red ones epitomizes how sharply divided this country has become on so many issues, the board writes. What we share, though, is a common vulnerability to the power and fury of Mother Nature.
A black daughter of the Confederacy on what to do with all those Lee statues: Former Times editorial writer Lisa Richardson, a descendant of both black slaves and a white Confederate soldier, proposes moving the statues to museums. As for Richardsons ancestors, shes glad her white great-great-great-grandfather lost and her great-great-great-grandmother won, but she thinks of her Confederate ancestor without bitterness: He was a man of his time, his family, his community and his culture. L.A. Times
Remember the Arpaio pardon? It happened last Friday, an eternity in Trump time, but its effects will be lasting. #NeverTrump pundit Max Boot wrote that Trump and Joe Arpaio, the convicted former sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona, are both emblems of racism and lawlessness. Political scientist Jeffrey Crouch wrote that the pardon, however odious it may be, is probably not sufficient grounds for impeaching Trump. Legal analyst Andrew Cohen looked for any similarity between the Arpaio pardon and similar actions by Barack Obama and found nothing.
Reach me: paul.thornton@latimes.com
Berkeley speakers: In the Aug. 30 California section, an article about debate over UC Berkeley hosting conservative speakers said the university had canceled a speaking engagement for Anne Coulter. UC Berkeley did not call off the Coulter event. It offered another time and place, which she refused.
Los Cabos: In the Sept. 1 Section A, an article about rising crime in Los Cabos, Mexico, said an estimated 200,000 Americans live in Los Cabos. That many Americans live throughout the Baja California peninsula.
Housing vote: In the Aug. 31 California section, an article about an affordable-housing bill in the Legislature said that Assembly Democrats could afford to lose one member on the vote. They cant afford to lose any members on the vote.
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Ankur Dhawans 6-year-old daughter walked into the living room one day in June and told her family shed learned in school that you could be a girl in a boys body. Her classmate was one of those girls, she said.
She asked her dad, How does this happen?
Caught off guard, Dhawan invoked the Hindu god Ganesha.
Ganesha put souls in bodies, sometimes he goofs up, and thats all there is to it, Dhawan told her. That seemed to be all the explanation she needed.
His daughter calls her classmate by her desired name and almost always uses the right pronoun. When she messes up, he gently corrects her.
Dhawan is happy, though, that outside resources exist to teach his daughter about gender identity.
She began to learn her way around the subject when her teacher at her Northern California charter school, Rocklin Academy Gateway, read from the book I am Jazz, co-written by transgender teenager Jazz Jennings. Earlier that week the teacher had told the class to refer to their classmate as a girl, by a new name.
In the book, Jazz says, I have a girl brain but in a boy body. This is called transgender. I was born this way!
I think its a great way of addressing a very pertinent issue, Dhawan said. I think the book does it in a way thats at least meaningful from the 5- or 6-year-old perspective.
When is the right time to have these conversations?
The transgender child brought I am Jazz into class for the teacher to read, said school spokeswoman Elizabeth Ashford. Students often bring books in, she said. The teacher also read the class Red: A Crayons Story, which talks about identity and labels without bringing up gender.
Discussions about transgender identity are not a part of the schools curriculum, and the teacher did not hold discussions about the books, Ashford said.
But experts say kindergarten is a good time to start talking to kids about gender identity.
As transgender and gender fluid people become increasingly visible in the media, children are exposed to the concepts earlier and have started feeling more comfortable publicly identifying at younger ages, said Becca Mui, the education manager at the LGBT education and advocacy group GLSEN.
A 2010 GLSEN survey found that 8% of elementary school students said they do not conform to traditional gender norms. Orange County parents recently sued a private school, alleging that the school prevented their 8-year-old from expressing her gender identity.
Young people learn about these things whether were having conversations about them or not, said Mui, who was an elementary school teacher for 10 years. At kindergarten, theyre at a place where they understand developmentally the difference between boys and girls and they also developmentally can think about identity versus expression.
A transgender student shouldnt be responsible for leading discussions or answering questions in class, so a proactive approach works best, Mui said. Age-appropriate books like the ones the Rocklin teacher read use simple words and break down concepts in a way children can understand.
Books about transgender children should be treated like any other book about diversity as an accepted part of educating children, said Susan Landon, a therapist who works with transgender children and is the child and adolescent program director of the Los Angeles Gender Center.
These are all things that children need to know about because this is what youre going to see in your life and theyre all perfectly normal, Landon said of such subjects as societal differences, race and gender.
Did the school need to tell parents about the book?
Rocklin is a small, conservative-leaning city north of Sacramento. At Rocklin Academy, not all parents agreed with Dhawan that having the teacher read the books was good for their children. Some complained, to the school and publicly, saying they should have a choice about if and when to talk to their children about gender identity.
It's really about the parents being informed and involved and giving us the choice and rights of what's being introduced to our kids and at what age, parent Chelsea McQuistan told CBS Sacramento.
Legally the school could not tell parents that a student was transitioning because of privacy laws, school leaders wrote in a post on the Rocklin website Wednesday. As for the books the teacher read, it said, the school wasnt required to tell parents about them.
We live in a diverse society, and our students come to us from a variety of backgrounds, with a variety of experience, and with a variety of needs, Rocklin Academy superintendent Robin Stout wrote in an Aug. 22 letter to families. Our job as a school is to make sure all of our students are accepted, included, and safe so that they can learn.
Asaf Orr, an attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights transgender youth project, agreed. The law protects schools in making these ... decisions, Orr said. Do parents have influence? Sure. They can talk to administrators and the board. But ultimately, schools dont have to notify parents as long as the materials are age-appropriate, he said.
Some parents have called for the charter school to change its rules about books.
[A]ny policy amendments would require a great deal of thoughtful conversation with all stakeholders, Stout said in an Aug. 15 letter. There is, of course, the possibility of creating a slippery slope about what can and cannot be discussed in our classrooms.
The school has since told parents that the board is reviewing these policies and will hear families input at a September meeting.
Schools have an obligation under both state and federal law to create a safe and welcoming learning environment for all students, Orr said. Carving out exceptions for books that are specific to transgender kids or a specific group of people is highly problematic.
These books can teach children that difference is an important part of humanity and that its important to respect others differences and treat them as equals, he said.
A 2015 GLSEN survey of teenagers found that LGBT students in schools that taught LGBT-inclusive curriculum were less likely to miss school and more likely to feel accepted by their classmates.
Dhawan understands where the angry parents are coming from. He too would have preferred to have time to research instead of having to answer his daughters question on the spot.
But he also knows that transgender children face many challenges, and he wants his child to get the guidance she needs to learn to treat them with kindness.
Hundreds of firefighters fought for control over a 5,800-acre brush fire Saturday in the Verdugo Mountains north of downtown Los Angeles that forced the evacuations of hundreds of homes and shut down a nine-mile stretch of the 210 Freeway.
The La Tuna fire was believed to be one of the largest in L.A. city history in terms of sheer acreage, officials said. The blaze destroyed three homes in Tujunga, but no injuries were reported.
The fire, which shrouded the sky with plumes of white smoke, was only 10% contained late Saturday.
It broke out a day earlier, with shifting winds sending flames in multiple directions. Fire crews confronted the same erratic conditions on Saturday, Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said.
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Our biggest concern is the wind and weather, Terrazas said. The erratic weather is our No. 1 challenge. If theres no wind, this is a relatively easy fire to put out. But when the wind changes, it changes our priorities because other properties become at risk.
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti declared a local emergency Saturday night and asked Gov. Jerry Brown to do the same so that state and federal assistance can be provided to the city as quickly as possible.
We are grateful for the men and women of LAFD, and all of our partner agencies, for their heroic efforts to bring the fire under control and to keep people and their homes safe, Garcetti said.
Firefighters were hoping for some relief overnight from a heat wave that has gripped much of the state for days.
1 / 39 LA County firefighter Kevin Sleight extinguishes hot spots while battling the La Tuna Canyon fire along Crestline Drive Sunday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 39 A couple survey the damage as they walk near a cross that remains standing amid the scorched hillside that destroyed three homes and a shed. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 39 A home, cars and property lies in ruins as it was one of three homes and a shed were destroyed in the the La Tuna Canyon fire. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 39 A scorched hillside and car is revealed after the La Tuna Canyon fire moved through the hills near Crestline Drive. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 39 LA County firefighter Kevin Sleight extinguishes hot spots while battling the La Tuna Canyon fire along Crestline Drive. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 39 LA Fire Dept. arson investigators search for clues along La Tuna Canyon Rd. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 39 Helicopters continue to drop water on the LA Tuna fire burning in steep terrain in the hills above Burbank. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 39 A home destroyed by the LA Tuna fire on Verdugo Crestline Drive near the Sunland-Tujunga area. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles TImes) 9 / 39 A fountain and truck parked in front of a home and property lies in ruin as it was one of three homes and a shed were destroyed in the La Tuna Canyon fire. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 39 White smoke is visible above Burbank, CA from Olive Ave. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 39 A home and car destroyed by the LA Tuna fire on Verdugo Crestline Drive near the Sunland-Tujunga area. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles TImes) 12 / 39 Firefighters work hot spots on steep terrain in the hills above Sun Valley on Sunday morning. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles TImes) 13 / 39 A L.A. County Fire helicopter does a water drop above Villa Cabrini Park in Burbank on Sunday morning. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles TImes) 14 / 39 A number of deer are on the streets and hillsides in Burbank on Sunday morning. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 39 The La Tuna fire continues to burn above Glendale as the sun begins to rise Sunday morning. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles TImes) 16 / 39 A homeowner uses a hose to water down his roof as the La Tuna fire threatens Sunland on Saturday. The house was spared from the fire. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 39 A helicopter drops water as the La Tuna fire approaches homes on Oro Vista Avenue in Sunland. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 39 A plane does a water drop on the La Tuna fire that crests into Sunland. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 39 Los Angeles City Fire Fighter Robert Hawkins disappears into the smoke while trying to save homes from the La Tuna fire at the end of Glenties Way in Sunland. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 39 Los Angeles County Fire Fighters hit hot spots of the La Tuna fire in Sunland. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 39 The La Tuna fire approaches homes on Oro Vista Avenue in Sunland. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 39 Firefighters work to contain the La Tuna fire near the 210 Freeway. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 39 Scorched earth surrounds homes in the Verdugo Mountains above Burbank as crews battle the La Tuna fire. (Raul Roa / Burbank Leader) 24 / 39 Sunland resident Jeff Dalton sprays water near his home as flames from the La Tuna fire approach. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 39 Residents watch the La Tuna fire raging in the Verdugo Mountains. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 39 Fire continues burn in the Verdugo Hills above Burbank early Saturday morning. (Raul Roa / Burbank Leader) 27 / 39 A stretch of the 210 Freeway is closed due to the La Tuna fire in the nearby Verdugo Mountains. (Raul Roa / Burbank Leader) 28 / 39 Gregory Lasavio evacuates the Glenwood Oaks community as the La Tuna fire rages. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 39 A firefighting aircraft makes a water drop on the La Tuna fire raging in the Verdugo Mountains. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 39 A DC-10 drops fire retardant on the La Tuna fire in Burbank. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 39 A helicopter approaches the Angeles National Golf Club to pick up water to battle the La Tuna fire in the Verdugo Mountains above Sunland-Tujunga. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 39 Brush burns along La Tuna Canyon Road. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 39 A firefighting helicopter makes its way toward the La Tuna fire in the Verdugo Mountains. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 39 Golfers at Angeles National Golf Club play while the La Tuna fire burns nearby in the Verdugo Mountains above Sunland-Tujunga. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 39 Flames from the La Tuna fire burn near La Tuna Canyon Road. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 39 The La Tuna Fire burns near La Tuna Canyon Road. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 39 Smoke from the La Tuna fire shrouds La Tuna Canyon Road. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 39 An LAFD helicopter drops water on a hillside to protect homes threatened by the La Tuna fire in the Verdugo Mountains in Tujunga. (Roger Wilson / Burbank Leader) 39 / 39 An LAFD super-scooper drops a tankful of water on a brush fire in the Verdugo Mountains in Tujunga. (Roger Wilson / Burbank Leader)
Winds were expected to die down Saturday night as temperatures dropped to the low 80s near the La Tuna fire area, according to the National Weather Service. Humidity was also expected to increase as monsoonal moisture from Tropical Storm Lidia moves into the region. The weather system could bring rain and thunderstorms.
The fire continued to burn on multiple fronts Saturday southwest of the 210 Freeway, which remained closed between the 2 Freeway and Wheatland Avenue. Firefighters encountered punishing heat, with Burbank recording a high of 101 degrees while the Tujunga area reported 96, forecasters said.
Approximately 730 homes were placed under evacuation in Glendale, Burbank and the Sunland and Tujunga neighborhoods of Los Angeles, according to the citys fire department.
One of those ordered to leave was Chris Hall, 37, who was spraying the roof of his Sunland home with a garden hose when two police officers pulled up to his driveway.
Now its mandatory, one of the officers told him. Get your stuff and go.
Hall said he wanted to stay but did not argue. He piled important documents and cherished belongings including photos of his daughters birth, birthdays and visits to the zoo into the trunk of his Nissan Sentra.
Everything else can be replaced, he said, sitting behind the wheel of his car.
In Tujunga, music teacher Valerie Keith frantically loaded her pets in her car, along with her two best violins, spilling the yogurt she had taken for breakfast. Before she left, she remembered something, dashing back inside to grab a framed photograph of her mother and a banjo made from a tambourine.
When you have to leave for safety, then you suddenly realize whats important, she said.
In Glendale, emergency officials announced mandatory evacuations in the Glenwood Oaks and Mountain Oaks neighborhoods. And in Burbank, police went door to door early Saturday urging residents to evacuate on hillside streets at the citys northern end.
Those orders followed a series of other evacuations called the night before.
Andrea Heintz, 78, was getting ready for bed Friday night when she saw on the news of an evacuation around Brace Canyon in Burbank, where she lives. She arrived at the hastily assembled Red Cross shelter in Burbank around 11 p.m.
Cots were not set up until 1:30 a.m. Heintz and other evacuees passed the time chatting and watching TV and stepping outside to look at the burning bright orange in the hills.
It was really scary, she said.
In the distance appears to be 2 houses fully engulfed. @KTLA #LaTunaFire pic.twitter.com/MKdIUa3pf0 Chris Gierowski (@tepall14) September 2, 2017
Officials warned of poor air quality throughout the region. Burbank police officers were wearing respiratory masks because of the heavy smoke. The South Coast Air Quality Management District on Saturday recommended that children, older adults and people with respiratory disease living in smoke-impacted areas stay indoors.
Amid Saturdays high temperatures, you already have an inversion layer holding a lot of ozone and pollutants close to the surface, said AQMD spokesman Patrick Chandler. Then you add the fire and all the particulate matter that comes from the ash and the smoke.
Residents in smoke-heavy areas were also advised to avoid using swamp coolers or whole-house fans to avoid bringing additional smoke indoors.
Evacuation centers were opened at McCambridge Park Recreation Center in Burbank, Sunland Recreation Center in Sunland, and Crescenta Valley High School in La Crescenta. A large-animal evacuation center was set up at the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center in Sylmar.
By mid-afternoon Saturday, more than 30 people had checked into the Burbank shelter. Some took naps to make up for the sleepless night.
Peter Glassberg, 64, brought in four of his cats and four rescue kittens that are up for adoption. Police transported the pets in carriers to animal control vans and drove them to the Burbank Animal Shelter, which is providing temporary shelter.
Glassberg said flames were 20 feet away from the road as he drove his beat-up SUV down the canyon and to the shelter. He arrived wearing faded jeans and a dusty cowboy hat, smelling like a campfire. He hadnt slept in 32 hours.
Glassberg hugged his favorite cat, a Siamese named My Guy, before handing him over.
Another cat, Baby Girl, had escaped Glassbergs trailer on La Tuna Canyon Road last week and had not come back before he was evacuated.
He watched when the fire started Friday afternoon and stayed up all night as it threatened to come down the hillside. He was packed and ready to go when the evacuation order came at 9 a.m. Saturday.
I looked inside and I said, No, it can go, it can go, he said, tears welling in his eyes. It makes you face whats important in your life.
Times staff writer Ben Poston contributed to this report.
ruben.vives@latimes.com
andrea.castillo@latimes.com
alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com
david.zahniser@latimes.com
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UPDATES:
9:30 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with new information from fire officials.
4:20 p.m.: This article was updated with new information about the number of structures burned.
1:40 p.m.: This article was updated with more comments from evacuees.
1:05 p.m.: This article was updated with new information about evacuations.
Noon: This article has been updated with more comments from officials and evacuees.
10:50 a.m.: This article was updated with new information from fire officials news conference.
9:30 a.m.: This article was updated with new information about evacuations and weather conditions.
This article was originally posted at 8:10 a.m.
One statue in the nearby city of Yonkers was decapitated, the head dumped next to a trash can.
Another in Queens was defaced overnight with stenciled blue spray paint around the pedestal reading, Tear it down. Dont Honor Genocide.
Monuments to Christopher Columbus are under siege throughout New York and beyond. While vandals have taken matters into their own hands, politicians are busy debating the Italian explorers past and future as a national hero worthy of so many markers.
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The debate over Columbus is an especially tricky matter in New York, which is home to the largest Italian American population in the country.
The speaker of the New York City Council, Melissa Mark-Viverito, has proposed removing the 76-foot-tall likeness of the explorer from its pedestal at the eponymous Columbus Circle, a prominent landmark in the city lying at the foot of Columbus Avenue near Central Park.
Long venerated as a symbol of Italian American pride, Columbus also is blamed for the extermination of native populations throughout the Americas and the introduction of the slave trade.
The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted to replace next months Columbus Day holiday with Indigenous Peoples Day. Seattle, Albuquerque and Denver had done so earlier.
Although controversy about Columbus has been around almost as long as the statues, the issue gained traction after the removal of Confederate monuments last month sparked violent protests by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va.
In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio, himself of Italian heritage, opened a Pandoras box last month when he announced on Twitter that after the violent events in Charlottesville, New York City will conduct a 90-day review of all symbols of hate on city property.
After the violent events in Charlottesville, New York City will conduct a 90-day review of all symbols of hate on city property. Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) August 16, 2017
The mayors announcement has provoked demonstrations from Italian Americans and a flood of complaints. People have threatened to boo him if he joins, as promised, the citys annual Columbus Day parade scheduled for Oct. 9.
When you start tearing down statues, it is a slippery slope, complained Sal Albanese, who is challenging de Blasio in the Democratic primaries Sept. 12.
Albanese, who came to the United States from Italy when he was 8, said that the statue at Columbus Circle, created by Italian sculptor Gaetano Russo in 1892, was funded by hard-earned contributions from Italian immigrants who were fighting back against the discrimination against their community at the time.
Tearing down the statue would cause a lot of animosity and division, Albanese said.
He has endorsed a plan by Columbia University professor David Eisenbach, a candidate for public advocate, to keep the statue in place, but to turn the public plaza around it into an educational forum with information about the history of conquest and slavery. De Blasio has called for a simpler explanatory plaque on the base of the statue.
But leaving Columbus statues in place carries risks too.
The statue in Yonkers was beheaded on Aug. 27. Earlier in the month, a Columbus statue in Baltimore was vandalized by an activist who posted videos of the damage on YouTube.
The vandalism to the statue in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens was reported on Thursday morning.
By Friday, an employee with the citys parks department was sloshing white paint over the graffiti. People crossing the busy traffic island known as Columbus Triangle, walking between a Starbucks and a subway trestle, paused to take photographs and reflect.
You know, I lived near this statue for years and never really noticed, said Matthew Valencia, a 31-year-old construction worker who grew up in the neighborhood. But once you think about it, you cant be oblivious to the obvious. You have to recognize how this country was founded.
Herve Monestime, left, is an engineering student who lives in Queens but is originally from Haiti. Patricia Silva, an artist from Queens, noticed the graffiti on the Columbus statue in the city there. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
Patricia Silva, 42, a photography teacher and immigrant from Portugal, said the controversy has been thought-provoking in one of New Yorks most ethnically diverse neighborhoods.
What are we complicit in by defending this statue and the myths it promotes? she asked.
A Haitian immigrant, 23-year-old Herve Monestime, a mechanical engineering student, was more kindly disposed to Columbus, despite his role in the extermination of the indigenous population of the Caribbean island.
If it werent for Columbus, Haiti wouldnt be Haiti. I cant say he was completely a bad guy. He was somebody who took a lot of risks. He was a brave guy, Monestime said.
Columbus is not the only historical figure to be targeted in the escalating monuments war.
One Jewish group has asked that the name and image of Peter Stuyvesant be scrubbed from New York because of the virulent anti-Semitism of the 17th century Dutch governor. Harlem residents have reopened their demands to remove a statue from Central Park of J. Marion Sims, a gynecologist who experimented on enslaved African American women.
barbara.demick@latimes.com
Twitter: @BarbaraDemick
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When volunteers from Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USAs youth group arrived to aid hurricane victims this week, they were welcomed by a cross-section of Texans, some of whom recognized them by name.
You helped us two years ago, one elderly woman on the citys southwest side told them.
Texas is home to a large Muslim community that in recent years has found itself targeted. State officials tried to block resettlement of Syrian refugees, citing safety concerns. Mosques were vandalized. Women wearing headscarves were harassed. Dr. Bilal Rana, the groups president, was singled out on a flight back to Houston two years ago while wearing a traditional South Asian shalwar shirt and detained (he was later released).
Despite the tense political climate, the Muslim group volunteered in response to flooding in 2015, then again last year, and now with Hurricane Harvey.
About a hundred volunteers have rescued more than two dozen flood victims by boat. They have distributed donated chicken dinners and other food from a local mosque despite flood damage there. And they have been going door-to-door to help residents clean up.
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Sultan Munawar and other volunteers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Assn. don protective gear to help Houston residents clear out their homes. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
On Friday, the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, volunteers attended prayer services in the morning, then changed out of their formal clothes to help storm victims haul away drenched furniture and rip out soaked drywall.
We were actually pretty stoked to be able to celebrate our Eid this way: Not just in word, but in deed, said Rana, 38, an anesthesiologist and father of five whose suburban Houston neighborhood also flooded. We know people often harbor negative stereotypes about Muslim youth, and actions like this do a lot to dispel those. It gives us an opportunity to prove people wrong by being the exact opposite of what they expect.
Volunteers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Assn. arrive in the Westbury neighborhood to help residents clean up. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Rana said volunteers had not encountered any opposition. Much of their help was directed at the elderly, who often seemed surprised to find able-bodied young people ready to lift soggy mattresses and other heavy debris.
An older gentleman said, I was praying for someone to come; I didnt know how I was going to lift all this stuff, and then you did, Rana said.
Earlier this week, they met an elderly Russian professor whose home had flooded, who was so grateful for their help cleaning up, he wanted to repay them.
He said, I dont have much to thank you with. We could see he didnt have anything. All he had was a bottle of room-temperature water. That was his gift to us, Rana said.
Rahman Nasir, 23, said he and other volunteers felt compelled to help fellow Texans, both because of their faith Eid al-Adha celebrates sacrifice but also because of their upbringing.
Most of us, Houston is the only home weve ever known. We were sitting at home stranded, wanting to serve our city. This place raised us, he said. Its like this extensive family in Houston right now. It doesnt matter what race you are, what religion you are. Were all Houstonian, and were struggling.
Volunteers attended prayer services in the morning, then helped storm victims haul away damaged furniture and other items from homes in the suburban Houston neighborhood. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com
Twitter: @mollyhf
Southern Californians have to prepare for earthquakes and drought, but thankfully we will never have to deal with Houston-type flooding.
Or will we? Like Houston, Los Angeles is built on a floodplain. The whole reason the Los Angeles River is encased in concrete is to protect against the kind of terrifying, deadly flooding that raged through the region in 1938, caused by a storm the likes of which is expected only once every 50 years. Hurricane Harvey has been variously called a 500-year and a 1,000-year event, so its important to remember that in L.A.s short history, we havent yet seen anything like that kind of a deluge. That doesnt mean its not coming.
L.A.s focus in recent years has been on drought and water shortages, which look like the polar opposites of flooding. In the 20th century, the different challenges of supplying the city with water and protecting against floods meant two very different engineering solutions: a network of storm drains feeding cement-paved rivers to get all that dirty floodwater out to the ocean as quickly as possible, and simultaneously a network of aqueducts to get clean Sierra and Rocky Mountain snowmelt to the city as quickly as possible. These were accompanied by a third feat of engineering genius to meet a third challenge: a separate sewer system that, unlike the combined sewage-and-storm drain systems once common in Eastern cities, did not cough up human waste whenever a rainstorm hit, but instead directed sewage into treatment plants that cleaned it just enough to allow it to be dumped into the ocean.
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We should take hope and inspiration from the little-discussed but crucially important Central Valley flood management plan.
Three different goals, three different public works agencies (Department of Water and Power, county Flood Control District, Bureau of Sanitation), three different mind-sets, three different funding sources. But surely it should be possible to plan and build integrated systems that have multiple benefits and meet multiple goals and dont work against each other or cost three times as much in taxes or bond funding.
That ought to be, and increasingly is, the 21st century model. In Los Angeles, the three agencies are working on plans to make each of their systems more efficient and effective by planning and building jointly. Some crazy ideas such as huge cisterns in backyards filled by storm runoff and emptied into the aquifer when it needs to be replenished, or carefully constructed creeks that lead to settling basins where rainwater and runoff can be cleansed for reuse turn out not to be quite so crazy. A lot is riding on whether those sorts of projects can move Los Angeles to water self-sufficiency in a timely and affordable manner.
Affordable? There was a saying, popular in public works circles in the late 20th century, that still has some currency: The four most expensive words in engineering are, While were at it. In other words, since were already renovating the kitchen, why dont we add a bathroom? Since were already building one new dam, why not two? Costs jump along with ambitions.
But in the 21st century, while were at it may be the most cost-effective words. We should make sure that our new water delivery system also wards against flooding, restores fisheries, cleans the bay in short, that it does all the things wed eventually be required to do anyway because of the demands of nature, law or lawsuit and does those things in an integrated fashion.
In late August, a Sacramento-based agency called the Central Valley Flood Protection Board adopted a new flood management strategy that departs from the old model of just raising levees to meet the challenge of greater flood risk. In a model of smart, joint planning among interests that too often work against each other, environmentalists and flood engineers collaborated on a plan that restores ecosystem health along the San Joaquin River and replenishes the groundwater, which in turn stabilizes supplies for the State Water Project.
Why should Southern Californians care?
Because we drink that State Water Project water and have a vital interest, to say the least, in making sure it doesnt run out, and that it is not contaminated or lost by levee failures in the distant (to us) Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta due to rising sea level. Meanwhile, we have a vital interest in our own locally captured, stored and consumed water, and should take hope and inspiration from the little-discussed but crucially important Central Valley plan. The proper test when considering new water bonds (which we are likely to see on the ballot next year), new taxes and new projects is whether they try to accomplish just one thing, in last centurys mold, or instead to fit into a many-faceted 21st century framework that does many things simultaneously: securing our supplies, sustaining our environment and keeping us safe during Houston-style calamities.
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Last months Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., was a sickening spectacle that ended in a horrific act of violence when a driver crashed into a group of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. Its not surprising that those events are reverberating nationwide, including in Sacramento.
But a new proposal to amend Californias hate-crimes law to make it easier to punish offenses against allies of victims of racism, while well-intentioned, contains vague language that could actually complicate the attempt to bring violent criminals to justice. It isnt even clear that the bill, SB 630, would apply to circumstances such as Heyers killing, for which James Alex Fields has been charged with second-degree murder and other offenses.
For the record: 12:09 p.m.: An earlier version of this editorial identified the hate-crime bill as AB 640. The bill is AB 630.
Heather Heyers killer could not be charged with a hate crime because Heather herself does not fall within the laws definition of a protected class, complained Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the bills sponsor. SB 630 addresses this ambiguity to ensure that those who commit a hate act, regardless of the status of the victim, can be prosecuted fully and appropriately.
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The definition of hate crimes in California should be altered only after careful debate, not as part of a rushed reaction to a tragedy in another state.
But Californias definition of hate crimes already includes crimes against people who have an association with members of protected classes (victims selected because of their race, gender, nationality, religion, disability or sexual orientation). That definition applies to both the stand-alone crime of interfering with the civil rights of a member of a protected group and the additional penalties that can be imposed on someone convicted of a crime if the victim was targeted because he belonged to a protected class. Association is defined to include advocacy for or identification with members of protected groups, among other things.
Skinners bill would expand the definition of association to include active representation, defense or support of members of a protected class. But how does support of differ from advocacy for? Presumably its meant to cover a broader category of activity, but how broad? Would wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt count as support of African Americans? How about demonstrating in support of affirmative action?
Far from eliminating ambiguities about what constitutes a hate act, this bill seems to create new ones.
The definition of hate crimes in California should be altered only after careful debate, not as part of a rushed reaction to a tragedy in another state. But this proposal has been put on a fast track by having its language inserted over the text of a bill the Senate passed earlier this year, a procedure known as gut and amend. The Legislature would be far better off taking its time and canvassing a range of lawyers and judges about the consequences of any new definition, not just the prosecutors, such as Alameda County Dist. Atty. Nancy OMalley, who support a change in the law.
Finally, this proposal seems to reflect the popular misconception that an act of violence cant be adequately punished unless it is designated a hate crime. That attitude has led to an expansion in the number of protected classes covered by hate-crime laws. Most recently, there has been a campaign to declare crimes against police officers hate crimes.
Hate-crime laws serve a useful purpose in punishing acts that are clearly motivated by bigotry. But they need to be carefully designed and not enacted, or amended, in response to the headlines of the day.
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After she died in a Paris car wreck 20 years ago this week, Princess Diana everything about her, including her royalty, love life, charity work, funeral and the circumstances of her untimely death filled The Times letters pages for weeks. But in 2017, when media treated the 20-year anniversary of Dianas death as an important news event, few Times readers had much to say.
The somber occasion drew several letters to the editor, to be sure, but the amount of submissions and their tone came nowhere close to matching the outpouring of grief and anger by readers that appeared in The Times after Dianas death on Aug. 31, 1997.
Here are some letters sent to us this week, 20 years after that fateful day in Paris.
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Berta Graciano-Buchman of Beverly Hills still tries to make sense of the princess death:
Princess Diana may have well been the precursor of todays fascination with reality shows, but the impact her untimely death has had in the world is a clear statement of how strong the emotional connection we can feel for someone that most of us never met in person.
Quality periodicals shouldnt indulge loopy obsession with British royalty. Betty Turner, Sherman Oaks
This connectivity has often eclipsed reason, and I, like millions of people, cried on that awful day 20 years ago upon learning of the accident that took the lives of Diana and her friend.
Although two decades have gone by, many of us are still trying to make sense of her reported last words: My God, what happened?
Betty Turner of Sherman Oaks says the lives and deaths of long-ago royals isnt news:
While no fan of the cult of celebrity, I dont begrudge The Times for running reports and opinion pieces reflecting on the legacy of Diana. I understand theres an audience for fluffy articles on the vicissitudes of anachronistic British royalty, and, well, you need to sell newspapers.
But come on, cant The Times reserve its front section for real news? Royal families marriages, divorces, extramarital affairs, offspring and so on may provide titillating fodder for gossip pages, but none of that impacts life on this side of the Atlantic.
Its true, as op-ed article writer Autumn Brewington aptly noted, the rubbernecking didnt stop with Dianas fatal car crash. So let cheesy tabloids exploit such vapid voyeurism. Quality periodicals shouldnt indulge loopy obsession with British royalty.
In Santa Monica, Lawrence Booth examines the infrastructure that contributed to Dianas death:
The largely unreported cause of Dianas death was not the sobriety of her driver or the paparazzi chasing the car. The actual cause was the incredibly dangerous condition of the Pont dAlma tunnel in Paris.
The tunnel was built with pillars separating one side from the other. With high-speed cars in use, this design became unsafe: If a car swerved into a pillar instead of sliding along, say, a rail protecting the pillars, it would destroy the car. That is exactly what happened with Dianas vehicle, which was turned into a mass of smoking metal.
Only one person survived because he was in the right front and not just because he was the only one belted. If the princess had been wearing a seat belt, her fate might not have been any different, since the car was almost totally crushed.
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California farmworkers will have to undergo sexual assault prevention training By Jazmine Ulloa Gov. Jerry Brown/ (Monica Davey/ EPA) Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday signed legislation to ensure farm labor contractors train employees on how to prevent and report sexual assault, a response to a 2013 PBS Frontline investigation that found sexual violence against women was a pervasive problem in California fields. Senate Bill 295 by Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) makes sexual harassment training mandatory at all businesses that supervise farm employees or provide them with lodging, transportation or other services. The training has to be conducted or interpreted in a language that employees can understand, the law stipulates, and farm labor contractors will have to provide proof of all of their materials and resources to the Farm Labor Commission as part of the license renewal process. Under the new law, the state labor commission also will be able to charge a $100 civil fine for any violation of the new requirements. The PBS Frontline investigative documenatory, Rape in the Fields, The Hidden Story of Rape on the Job in America found more than half a million women work in U.S. fields. Most do not have legal residency in the country, and sexual harassment and violence often go unreported. A 2012 Human Rights Watch survey found 80% of 150 women in Californias Central Valley had experienced some form of the abuse. Facebook
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Los Angeles voters can cast ballots in Assembly race on Tuesday By Chris Megerian Wendy Carrillo is one of 13 people running for a state Assembly seat. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) The political dominoes from U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxers retirement are almost done falling. Her decision two years ago to forgo reelection led to a reshuffling that eventually left vacant a state Assembly seat in Los Angeles. There are 13 candidates running in the special election, and the primary is Tuesday. Read More Facebook
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Gov. Brown signs major housing legislation By Liam Dillon At a signing ceremony in San Francisco on Friday morning, Gov. Jerry Brown signed 15 bills aimed at addressing the states mounting housing problems. It is a big challenge, Brown said. We have risen to it this year. The bills could add nearly $1 billion in new funding for low-income housing developments in the near term as well as lessen regulations that slow growth. Read More Facebook
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Watch live: Gov. Jerry Brown signs bills to tackle Californias housing crisis Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers are gathered in San Francisco for the signing into law of a package of proposals designed to tackle some of the most pressing parts of Californias housing crisis. Read More Facebook
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Businesses in California will be required to tell customers exactly how much their automatic renewal will cost By Mina Corpuz California will require online businesses that offer free trials to tell customers exactly how much an automatic renewal will cost under a law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday. The laws author, Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys), thinks the bill, known as SB 313, will make it easier for customers to cancel service. Consumers need to know what they are signing up for and that they can just as easily cancel any service or subscription online as when they started it online, Hertzberg said in a statement. Streaming services like Hulu and Spotify and the file-sharing site Dropbox have elicited lawsuits and consumer complaints about their automatic service renewals, according to Hertzbergs statement. The law goes into effect in July. Facebook
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Heres why Californias early primary in 2020 is destined to pick the next president. (Nah, not really) By Mark Z. Barabak (Harry Chase / Los Angeles Times) Today we answer questions. Woo-hoo! Now that Gov. Jerry Brown has signed the bill, it looks like California is moving up its 2020 presidential primary. Finally! Uh. No more watching from the sidelines as small-fry states like Iowa and New Hampshire throw their weight around. Um. Im already fluffing pillows and prepping the guestroom for all the 2020 hopefuls wholl be camped out. Er. What? You dont seem too excited. Look, it would be great if California voted in a truly meaningful presidential primary. Its been about 50 years since that happened. But its about as likely in 2020 as President Trump dumping Vice President Pence and running for reelection on a unity ticket with Hillary Clinton. How can that be? Lots of reasons, both political and practical. Do tell. Read More Facebook
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Poll: Californians like Obamacare more than ever but are divided on single-payer healthcare By Melanie Mason Members of the California Nurses Assn. and other supporters rally at the state Capitol for a single-payer health plan June 28. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) As the latest attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act fizzles, the law has reached its highest popularity in California in four years, according to a new poll released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California. Nearly 60% of the Californians hold a generally favorable view of the healthcare law, and just over a third of Californians see it unfavorably the highest approval rating since PPIC began tracking the laws popularity in 2013. But while Democrats and independents back the law, known as Obamacare, with strong majorities, three-quarters of Republicans have negative views of it. Only 18% of Californians believe congressional Republicans should try again to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and 58% of adults want to see bipartisan efforts to improve the law. Underscoring the GOPs challenge in dramatically reducing governments role in healthcare, two-thirds of the states adults believe it is the federal governments responsibility to ensure that all Americans have health coverage. But Californians are divided on whether to substantially increase government involvement through a single-payer system, such as the Medicare for All proposal recently introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). A national single-payer insurance program such as Medicare for All gets support from 35% of Californians, according to the poll. Support is higher among Democrats 44% and independents 34% than among Republicans. Only 6% of Republicans back such a system. But the current system, a patchwork of government and private insurance options, isnt particularly adored by Californians. Just under 30% of adults support continuing with a mix of private and public insurance options, while 36% of Democrats, 21% of Republicans and 31% of independents see that mixed system as the best way to provide health coverage. Facebook
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Half of Californias likely voters think Sen. Dianne Feinstein should retire, poll finds By Phil Willon (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) As Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein contemplates a 2018 bid for reelection, a new poll has found that 50% of Californias likely voters think she shouldnt run again. Just 43% of likely voters support Feinstein running for a sixth term, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll released Wednesday. The results are similar among all California adults, not just likely voters, with 46% saying she should not run for another term and 41% saying she should run. Feinstein, 84, has come under increased pressure from members of Californias left, many of whom were infuriated when earlier this month she called for patience with President Trump and refused to back demands for his impeachment. Still, the poll found that Feinstein remains popular. More than half of likely voters 54% approve of the job shes doing, compared with 38% who disapprove. Thats on par with Gov. Jerry Browns approval rating, and it bests the marks for Californias other Democratic senator, Kamala Harris. When likely voters were asked about Harris, the former state attorney general elected to the Senate in November, 47% approved of the job she was doing in Washington and 30% disapproved. Almost a quarter of voters didnt offer an opinion about Harris. The contrasting results on Feinstein are difficult to decipher but at the very least indicate voters remain restless. Partly, this is a holdover from last years election in which you saw many Democrats wanting a more liberal alternative at the presidential level and you saw many independents wanting an outsider, said Mark Baldassare, president of Public Policy Institute of California. As people are looking to next year, theres a desire for something new. Speculation continues that Feinstein may face a Democratic challenger. Among those who have been mentioned is state Senate leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), who is weighing his next political move after he terms out of office in 2018. De Leon lashed out at Feinstein after her comments about Trump in early September. In her last election, Feinstein trounced her Republican opponent, Elizabeth Emken, by a 25-percentage-point margin in 2012. She won by almost an identical margin in 2006 when challenged by former Republican state Sen. Richard Mountjoy. However, California has since switched to a top-two primary system. The two candidates who receive the most voters in the June primary election will advance to the 2018 general election, regardless of their party. Two Democrats faced off in the finale of Californias 2016 U.S. Senate election, with Harris besting then-Rep. Loretta Sanchez. Facebook
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Barbara Boxer says if Sen. Dianne Feinstein runs for another term, she should expect a tough race By Mina Corpuz Former Sen. Barbara Boxer (Mina Corpuz / Los Angeles Times ) Its one of the hottest political parlor games in California right now: Will she run again? Everyone is waiting for Sen. Dianne Feinstein to announce if shell seek a sixth term. And even though they served as colleagues in Washington for more than two decades, former Sen. Barbara Boxer said she has no inside intel on what Feinstein will do in 2018. I believe she is running until I see any other indication, Boxer said Wednesday at a Sacramento Press Club lunch. Every single race is hard.... Anyone who runs against her will give her a tough race. Feinstein, 84, has made clear she is taking her time, even as ambitious politicians eye the seat she has held since 1992. One long-shot Democrat already is raising money for the race, and Feinstein recently drew criticism from California Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, who has not ruled out a primary challenge against her. Boxer said Wednesday her own priority for next years midterm election is flipping several Republican-held House seats in Southern California. Theres no such thing as an off election year, she said. Its an on year. Much of this work will be done through the political action committee Boxer founded, PAC for a Change. The organization also supports electing more Democrats to the Senate and standing up to President Trumps policies, she said. Since leaving the Senate in January, Boxer has also given speeches and promoted her book, The Art of Tough. She doesnt like to consider herself a retiree. Boxer also skirted a question about her pick for governor in a race that already is crowded with several Democrats. All of the candidates, she joked, are like my sons and daughters. Facebook
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Californias top elections officer now says his agencys website wasnt the one scanned by Russian hackers By John Myers Secretary of State Alex Padilla (John Myers / Los Angeles Times) Five days after saying he had been told Russian hackers scanned the states main elections website for weaknesses in 2016, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said Wednesday that it turns out it didnt actually happen that way. Padilla said that his office was given incorrect information by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and that the Russian operation was instead focused on scanning the network of the state Department of Technology. Our notification from DHS last Friday was not only a year late, it also turned out to be bad information, Padilla said in a statement. Bryce Brown, a spokesman for the states information technology agency, said officials had long known about suspect activity that occurred on our network last summer but didnt know anything else until the notification from federal officials. Although we did not have knowledge of the source until now, we have confirmed our security systems worked as planned and the activity was blocked as it happened in 2016, he said. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that federal officials also reversed course in a notification they had made to Wisconsin elections officials about Russian activity. In June, federal officials told Congress that 21 states elections systems were targeted by Russian activity. Padilla insisted last week that the scanning incident found no vulnerabilities or access to any California voter information, and he criticized DHS officials for the delay in sharing information about 2016 activities. On Wednesday, he said hopes that federal officials will continue to work with the states in preventing cyberattacks. I remain committed to a partnership with DHS and other intelligence agencies; however, elections officials and the American public expect and deserve timely and accurate information, Padilla said. Facebook
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Hollywood tour buses could get more rules slapped on them under the law Gov. Jerry Brown just signed By Patrick McGreevy A tour bus passes the late Carrie Fishers gated home in Beverly Hills. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times) Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed legislation aimed at reining in the proliferation of tour buses offering to take fans to the homes and gathering spots of celebrities in Hollywood and other trendy neighborhoods. The measure allows cities and counties to adopt rules that restrict the routes or streets used by the tour buses, and prohibit the use of loudspeakers on open-topped buses and vans. Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian (D-Sherman Oaks) introduced the proposal in response to a report by NBC Los Angeles that found some tour buses were operating unsafely without proper permits. He also cited complaints about topless buses on narrow streets of the Hollywood Hills, Malibu and Bel-Air. Facebook
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Latino state lawmakers back Antonio Villaraigosa for California governor By Phil Willon Antonio Villaraigosa gives a pep talk in Los Angeles at Cathedral High School, where he once was also a student. ((Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) The Legislatures California Latino Caucus on Wednesday endorsed former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for governor. While expected, the nod from the politically influential caucus is a boon for Villaraigosa, a former Democratic Assembly speaker and the only major Latino candidate running for governor. Villaraigosa has lagged behind Lt. Gov. Gavin Newson in early polls and fundraising. As Assembly speaker and Los Angeles mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa worked to strengthen our economy, expand our healthcare, improve our schools and invest in strategic infrastructure projects that create middle-class jobs, Sen. Ben Hueso (D-San Diego), chair of the caucus, said in a statement Wednesday morning. An intriguing aspect of the endorsement is that one of the most prominent members of the California Latino Caucus is Senate leader Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles). In Sacramento, speculation abounds over whether De Leon may run for governor, and the Villaraigosa endorsement could indicate De Leon has other plans for his political future. Villaraigosa joins a slate of other Latino statewide candidates endorsed by the caucus: Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-Azusa) for lieutenant governor; current appointee Xavier Becerra for attorney general; incumbent Alex Padilla for secretary of state; Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) for insurance commissioner; and Assemblyman Tony Thurmond (D-Richmond) for superintendent of public instruction. Facebook
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California is trying to educate people about marijuana before recreational sales start By Patrick McGreevy Months before California allows the sale of marijuana for recreational use, the state has launched an education campaign about the drug, including highlighting the potential harms of cannabis for minors and pregnant women. The state is scheduled to issue licenses starting Jan. 2 for growing and selling marijuana for recreational use, expanding a program that currently allows cannabis use for medical purposes. In response, the California Department of Public Health has created a website to educate Californians about the drug and its impacts, including how to purchase and safely store cannabis. We are committed to providing Californians with science-based information to ensure safe and informed choices, said State Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith. The website, Lets Talk Cannabis, notes it is illegal for people under 21 to buy marijuana for non-medical use and warns that using cannabis regularly in your teens and early 20s may lead to physical changes in your brain. The site also warns that marijuana edibles may have higher concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. If you eat too much, too fast you are at higher risk for poisoning, the website warns. The state urges parents and guardians to talk to their teenagers about legal and health issues surrounding marijuana use. The state officials also say consuming cannabis is not recommended for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, or who plan to become pregnant soon, noting that it can affect the health of your baby. The website got good marks from legalization activist Ellen Komp, deputy director of Californias chapter of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The website is fairly accurate, she said, but added, The risks with pregnancy are somewhat overstated, telling women they should not use cannabis for nausea or even if they are thinking of getting pregnant. Some 43% of Californians have used marijuana for recreational purposes and 54% said they have not, according to a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll last November. Among those who have not used it, just 2% said they are much more likely to use it if Proposition 64 passed, which it did, while 5% said they are somewhat more likely to use it, and 89% said they are no more likely to smoke pot if it was legalized. Other advice from the states site: driving under the influence of cannabis is illegal and increases the chance of a car accident, and cannabis should be stored in a locked area to avoid poisoning children and pets. Updated at 11:30 am to include data from poll on marijuana use. Facebook
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Todays newsletter: Republicans fail again to repeal Obamacare By John Myers Todays Essential Politics newsletter details the last gasp of the Republican efforts in Washington to repeal the Affordable Care Act, efforts that President Trump insisted on Tuesday arent over. We also take a look at the win by Roy Moore, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, in a Senate runoff that saw the president back the losing candidate. And weve got the details of what happens if Gov. Jerry Brown, as expected, signs the sanctuary state bill into law. The newsletter comes out Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Are you a subscriber? Sign up below. Read More Facebook
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After meeting with Trump, California Democrats say they want a seat at the tax reform table By Sarah D. Wire Ahead of Republicans plans to unveil a more detailed overview of their tax reform plan Wednesday, President Trump sat down with a bipartisan group of members that included California Democratic Reps. Linda Sanchez and Mike Thompson. Sanchez, of Whittier, who serves on the House committee that has authority over tax legislation, said members didnt learn much about the details of the plan Tuesday. There were kind of generalities but no specificity, which is why were interested to see what they put out tomorrow, because clearly its not something thats had Democratic input, Sanchez said. According to a White House transcript of part of the meeting, Trump said the plan is focused on making the tax code simple and fair, increasing the deduction most families can take, lowering the business tax rate and bringing wealth stored overseas back to the United States. Thompson, of St. Helena, said the president listened to what Democrats had to say, but he didnt get the impression that the policy plan would change before it becomes public Wednesday. I dont think it was that kind of meeting. We all agreed we wanted a fair, easy-to-work-with tax code that generates more jobs, said Thompson, who is also on the committee. He said repeatedly he wants to be successful. Republicans are set to unveil a consensus document Wednesday they say will be a much more detailed overview than previous tax policy papers theyve released. But it is not expected to be an actual plan or bill. Republicans will huddle with Vice President Mike Pence for half of Wednesday to discuss tax reform. Democrats are holding their own tax reform forum too. Its been 30 years since Congress has passed a major tax overhaul, and Republican leaders have set an ambitious timeline for passing a tax-reform measure, indicating they want to get it to Trumps desk by the end of the year. Sanchez said she tried to stress in the meeting that Democrats should play a role in writing the final bill. There wasnt discussion about the group sitting down with Trump again, she said. The president was very pleased that it was a bipartisan effort, which sort of confused me because that was the first meeting where there were members of the Democratic side of the Ways and Means Committee there, Sanchez said. I dont know if theyve been telling him that the process is bipartisan or if he knew it wasnt bipartisan but didnt care, but I thought that was kind of odd. Facebook
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Judge rewrites summary of proposed gas tax repeal initiative, saying it was fundamentally flawed By Patrick McGreevy A Chevron gas station in Sacramento shows prices in February. ( (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) A judge on Monday rewrote the title and summary for a proposed initiative that would repeal recent gas tax increases in California. He rejected a title and summary written by the state attorney generals office as fundamentally flawed. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley criticized the attorney generals office for not mentioning in the title that the ballot measure would repeal newly approved taxes or fees. This is not a situation where reasonable minds may differ, Frawley wrote in his ruling. The Attorney Generals title and summary ... must be changed to avoid misleading the voters and creating prejudice against the measure. The initiative proposed by Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) would repeal a bill approved in April by the Legislature and governor that would raise the gas tax by 12 cents per gallon and increase vehicle fees in order to generate $5.2 billion for road repairs and to improve mass transit. The title and summary will be placed on petitions to be circulated by those trying to qualify the measure for the November 2018 ballot. The title and summary are also placed on the ballot if enough signatures are collected. The original title written by Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerras office was: Eliminates recently enacted road repair and transportation funding by repealing revenues dedicated for those purposes. Allens attorneys argued the voter could read that to mean that the Legislature identified existing funds for transportation and the initiative would take those funds away. The judges title says: Repeals recently enacted gas and diesel taxes and vehicle registration fees. Eliminates road repair and transportation programs funded by these taxes and fees. The judge also made it clear in the summary that an Independent Office of Audits and Investigations that would be eliminated by the initiative is newly established. Representatives of the attorney generals office were not immediately available to comment on whether the ruling would be appealed. Facebook
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Democrats to try to force vote on Dream Act with rarely successful procedural move By Sarah D. Wire House Democrats are trying to force a vote on Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allards version of the Dream Act, they announced in a news conference Monday. The House and Senate have less than six months to address the legal status of people brought into the country illegally as children before the program protecting them from deportation ends in March. In the weeks since President Trump announced he was ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Democrats have pushed for a quick vote on Roybal-Allards bill, which is backed by every House Democrat and four Republicans. There are also a handful of other Republican-sponsored bills that could be considered. To force a vote, Democrats would need a majority of the House 218 members to sign whats called a discharge petition to pull the bill from the House Judiciary Committee and bring it to the House floor. Roybal-Allard, a Democrat from Downey, said she believes there is enough support to pass the bill if Democrats can get it to the House floor. Democratic leaders said they expect all House Democrats will sign the petition. The American people overwhelmingly oppose deporting our Dreamers, Roybal-Allard said. But the Republican leadership is ignoring the wishes of a majority of the American people. Democrats hold only 194 seats, and would have to convince 24 Republicans to buck their party leaders and sign the petition. House leaders control which bills come to the floor for a vote and when. Although discharge petitions have been used in the past to shame congressional leadership into letting a bill move forward, the procedural move is rarely successful. This month, Republican Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado filed a discharge petition for the Bridge Act, a Republican- sponsored bill to address the legal status of people brought to the country illegally as children. Five members of Congress had signed on as of Monday. FOR THE RECORD Sept 26, 12:38 p.m.: An earlier version of this post identified the member of Congress who filed a discharge petition for the Bridge Act as Rep. Mike Thompson. It was Rep. Mike Coffman. Facebook
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California lawmakers grant some megaprojects relief from environmental law, but not others By Liam Dillon Developers plan to build two skyscrapers near the Capitol Records building in Hollywood. (Reed Saxon / Associated Press) When professional sports team owners, Facebook and big developers have asked California lawmakers for some relief from the states main environmental law over growth, the answer usually has been yes. The law, the California Environmental Quality Act, requires developers to disclose and reduce a projects effects on the environment a process that often can get tied up in lengthy litigation. This year, legislators passed a measure aiming to shorten any potential environmental lawsuit against Facebooks expansion of its headquarters, two skyscrapers planned in Hollywood and other megaprojects to less than nine months. Doing so has led many to question why only big projects get such relief. Read More Facebook
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The fate of Californias biggest campaign donor disclosure bill may hinge on some small details By John Myers Members of the California Fair Political Practices Commission. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP) You wouldnt expect to see the leader of Californias campaign watchdog agency rooting for Gov. Jerry Brown to veto sweeping new disclosure rules for political donors. And yet, thats where things stand in a seven-year debate over helping voters follow the money. I think we can do better than this bill, said Jodi Remke, chair of the California Fair Political Practices Commission. Remke and her staff have raised a red flag about the fine print tucked inside Assembly Bill 249, the California Disclose Act, that rewrites rules for campaign contributions that are earmarked. Read More Facebook
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Oceanside lifeguard receives Californias highest public safety honor By Mina Corpuz Medal of Valor recipient David Wilson stands with his parents, a family friend, Gov. Jerry Brown and Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra. (Mina Corpuz / Los Angeles Times ) An Oceanside Fire Department officer who risked his life to save a boater received the states highest award for public safety officers on Monday. Gov. Jerry Brown and Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra presented David Wilson with the Public Safety Medal of Valor at a ceremony at the state Capitol. In July 2016, Wilson rescued a man whose boat crashed into a jetty in Oceanside Harbor. The victim was barely conscious and jammed between two rocks. With only a short window between each set of waves, Wilson dove underneath the water and swam into the boulders to free the victims legs. You earned it, Brown said at the ceremony. You were assaulted by the waves and the rocks, and you went ahead anyways. Thats why you are the only one getting a medal of honor. A review board made up of law enforcement officers reviewed 21 nominations for the Medal of Valor. The award is given out once a year. There can be more than one recipient, but this year Brown chose one. Facebook
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7.5 million Californians could lose coverage under latest Obamacare repeal effort, state health insurance exchange says By Melanie Mason Peter V. Lee, executive director of Covered California, the states health insurance exchange, in 2013. (Rich Pedroncelli / AP) Californians who get their health coverage on the individual market could face dire consequences under the current Republican effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, warned a new analysis released Monday by Covered California, the states health insurance exchange. Under the latest plan, which is being led by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), 7.5 million Californians could lose their health insurance by 2027, the analysis said. It also said the repeal could trigger a collapse of the states individual insurance market. The Graham-Cassidy plan takes resources away from California and from the majority of states, which means that far fewer Americans would have insurance or the existing protections from insurers, said Peter V. Lee, executive director of Covered California, in a statement. The effect on California would be devastating, and lead not only to there being more uninsured people than there were before the Affordable Care Act, but would also cause huge negative impacts on the health care delivery system, the economy and on those with employer-based coverage, Lee said. The report comes on the heels of another grim analysis by Gov. Jerry Browns administration, which estimated that the Senate proposal would strip California of nearly $139 billion in federal funds from 2020 to 2027. The Covered California report looked at two different scenarios for how state officials could respond to such a slash in federal dollars. If the state chose to prioritize protecting Medi-Cal, which provides coverage for low-income Californians, the analysis projects the collapse of the individual insurance market by 2021. If officials chose to direct attention to the individual market by stepping in to cover subsidies now paid for by the federal government, that could lead to large reductions in the Medi-Cal program. In both scenarios, the result would be up to 7.5 million fewer Californians with health insurance, according to the report. Proponents claim Graham-Cassidy gives states flexibility and choice, but in reality it puts states into a lose-lose situation, Lee said. Under this plan, California and states across the nation would be forced to either turn their backs on their most needy residents, or let the individual market be destroyed. Either way, millions lose coverage. Read More Facebook
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Todays newsletter: Sports spat starts with California teams By Christina Bellantoni Todays Essential Politics newsletter details President Trumps sports spat, which originated with California teams before becoming national political drama on football fields across America. It also notes last falls USC/Los Angeles Times poll, which found huge partisan divisions in how California voters viewed Colin Kaepernick at the time. Democrats liked him more, while he had just 6% favorability among tea party Republicans here. The state was evenly divided on whether to support his protest during the national anthem. The newsletter comes out Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Are you a subscriber? Sign up below. Read More Facebook
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Attorney running against Sen. Dianne Feinstein is hosting Hollywood fundraiser By Christine Mai-Duc Pat Harris may be a long-shot candidate for U.S. Senate, but hes not fundraising like one. On Monday Harris, a Democrat challenging Sen. Dianne Feinstein, is set to tread territory familiar to many prominent statewide candidates looking for cash: the Hollywood fundraiser. The event is to be held at the Catalina Jazz Club on Sunset Boulevard and is being billed as a CD release party for Carol Welman, a jazz musician and Harris wife. Tickets range from $150 for a single ticket to $2,700 for a VIP dinner for two. (An email to Welmans subscriber list earlier this week advertised tickets for as little as $30). Harris announced that he was running last month on a platform that includes support for single-payer healthcare and a pledge that he will only take campaign donations from individuals. Facing pressure from progressive activists, Feinstein has been coy so far about whether shell retire or run again in 2018. Either way, shes stockpiled $3.5 million in her campaign war chest. As of June 30, Harris had raised no money except for $104,685 he loaned his own campaign. Three other candidates have also filed to run against Feinstein: Democrats Steve Stokes and David Hildebrand, and independent Jerry Carroll. Facebook
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Rep. Keith Ellison headlines dinner for Orange County Democrats, who declare orange is the new blue By Christine Mai-Duc The focus was on 2018 as Orange County Democrats gathered Saturday night in Costa Mesa to bask in their high hopes here. Headliner and deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, urged unity as dozens of Democrats navigate crowded primaries throughout the state. Ellison getting star treatment tonight, speaking to VIP attendees & meeting congressional candidates & gubernatorial hopeful @DelaineEastin pic.twitter.com/2Bh8K5H1Qu Christine Mai-Duc (@cmaiduc) September 24, 2017 Much of focus tonight on flipping 4 GOP congressional seats in OC. Ellison: "We need 24 more seats...I figure 4 of em we can get right here" pic.twitter.com/CDDbGWpNnT Christine Mai-Duc (@cmaiduc) September 24, 2017 The theme of the annual awards dinner was Orange is the New Blue, a twist on the title of a popular Netflix show and the latest indication of Democrats rosy outlook as they try to flip the countys four GOP-held House seats next year. Ellison told the crowd it was not the proper role of the DNC to choose among the many primary contenders. But you will sort it out running spirited campaigns, you will sort it out over ideas, and when it is over we need you to hold hands and support the Democrat. Ellison pushed for a return to grass-roots organizing and outreach to voters of all stripes and not just during election years. We cannot come a month before the election, tell them ... Come vote for us, Ellison said. Weve got to be in their lives in a physical, palpable way. Then we do have to have the right words, we do have to stand up for them. Ellison on more permanent solution for DACA: no wall, no increase in detention beds "but there might be some other things" Dems can agree to pic.twitter.com/yrmOGfXYan Christine Mai-Duc (@cmaiduc) September 24, 2017 In an interview, Ellison also stressed the need to pass legislation for young people brought to the country illegally who were allowed to stay and work under the Obama Administrations Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Ellison said Democrats are open to negotiating certain immigration enforcement provisions in order pass a replacement for DACA, which President Trump announced he will end in March. But he said Democrats wont acquiesce to Trumps demand for a border wall or allow additional capacity for immigration detentions. There are certain things that are simply not on the table the wall or more detention beds, were just not doing that, he said. Facebook
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Russians tried to find weaknesses in Californias election website last year, say state officials By John Myers Secretary of State Alex Padilla (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Californias chief elections officer said U.S. government officials believe Russian hackers tried to find weaknesses in the states election website during the 2016 campaign, but that theres no evidence their effort was successful. Secretary of State Alex Padilla said the Department of Homeland Security only told him on Friday of last years attempt. He described the attack as a scanning of the states website in hopes of finding weaknesses in its computer network. Our office actively monitors scanning activity as part of our routine cybersecurity protocols, Padilla said in a statement. We have no information or evidence that our systems have been breached in any way or that any voter information was compromised. Those involved were Russian cyber actors according to Padillas description of information he received from federal officials. In June, a top federal official told the Senate Intelligence Committee that systems in 21 states were believed to have been scoured by cyberattackers. The election website, www.sos.ca.gov, contains public information about voting procedures as well as data on past election results and current issues. More sensitive data, including the electronic files of some 17 million registered voters, are not included on the website. A leaked National Security Agency document earlier this year outlined a Russian effort to hack into devices made by a Florida-based voting software company. One California county, Humboldt, used the companys software, but did not find any evidence of tampering. Padilla, a frequent critic of President Trumps special panel investigating the potential of voter fraud, said federal officials should have notified him much earlier of the attempted breach. The practice of withholding critical information from elections officials is a detriment to the security of our elections and our democracy, he said. Facebook
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Antonio Villaraigosa jabs at Gavin Newsom over his apparent embrace of single-payer healthcare bill By Melanie Mason Supporters of a measure to establish single-payer healthcare in California were thrilled by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsoms embrace of their bill on Friday, but a rival gubernatorial campaign was less impressed with his position. A spokesman for former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa accused the lieutenant governor of flip-flopping because after Newsom was asked if he explicitly endorsed the legislation Senate Bill 562 he responded that he endorsed getting this debate going again. This is an outrageous parsing of words when millions of people are at risk of losing their healthcare, Villaraigosa spokesman Luis Vizcaino said in a statement. It is a yes or no question, lieutenant governor. Are you for SB 562 or not? The nurses and California voters deserve the truth, Vizcaino added. The question of backing SB 562 is thorny since it was shelved earlier this year after Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) called it woefully incomplete. Backers have said theyd be willing to make changes to the measure, but the contours of those proposed changes have not been made public. Vizcaino said Villaraigosa has always supported universal healthcare and the concept of single payer, but agreed with Speaker Rendon that the bill couldnt be sent to the governor without a funding plan. Speaking to reporters, Newsom said he saw a single-payer system in which the government covers healthcare costs as the best way to achieve universal coverage and said he would be actively engaged in designing and developing it if SB 562 does not pass next year. RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Assn./National Nurses United, said she saw Newsoms remarks as a clear endorsement of their measure and a stance she said was not surprising. We always knew Gavin would support our bill, DeMoro said. She lambasted Villaraigosa who does not support SB 562 for criticizing Newsom, whom her group endorsed nearly two years ago. I want Villaraigosa to explain to the Latino community why he doesnt think they should have ... comprehensive healthcare, she said. Villaraigosas being disingenuous. He knows better. Hes just politically posturing trying to find a wedge issue and he knows better. UPDATE 4:32 p.m.: This post was updated with an additional statement from Villaraigosas spokesperson on the former L.A. mayors support for universal healthcare. Read More Facebook
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In San Francisco, Bernie Sanders plays two roles: Obamacare defender and single-payer advocate By Melanie Mason View Twitter post Sen. Bernie Sanders headed west to drum up support for his recently unveiled Medicare for All proposal Friday, but first trained his sights on the Obamacare repeal bill currently gripping Congress. Sanders (I-Vt.), whose speech was the cornerstone of a California Nurses Assn. gathering in San Francisco, blasted the Republican plan led by Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina as horrific legislation. How cruel, how immoral it is, to say to those millions of Americans, we are going to take away that health insurance that keeps you alive, Sanders said. Sen. John McCain announced on Friday he could not support the measure, dealing the GOP plan a blow. Sanders thanked McCain for his stance, prompting the liberal crowd to cheer the Arizona Republican. Some Democrats had worried that Sanders push for his single-payer plan could distract from efforts to oppose the repeal bill. But the senator was explicit in his appeal to the approximately 2,000 supporters in attendance to focus their energy on defeating the repeal measure. Our job is to continue to make sure the Republicans do not get the 50 votes they need ... I beg of you, please, do everything you can to stop the bill, he said. Still, the crux of Sanders speech focused on his single-payer bill, which he sold as an improvement over the status quo. The Affordable Care Act, as we all know, made significant improvements to our healthcare system, Sanders said, citing the expansion of the number of Americans with health insurance and the ban on insurance companies ability to deny coverage to people with preexisting conditions. But we must be honest and acknowledge that with all the gains of the Affordable Care Act, it does not go far enough, he added. The bill expands the Medicare program to cover the healthcare costs of all Americans with no out-of-pocket payments for patients. The measure does not include a plan to finance such a system, but Sanders has released a report laying out various ways to cover the costs, including a progressive income tax. During his pitch, Sanders said the implications extended beyond health policy. It is a struggle about what this great nation stands for, Sanders said. It is a struggle about whether or not every working person in this country has healthcare as a right or whether we allow insurance companies and drug companies to continue to rip us off. Facebook
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Gas tax foes win victory as they try to get a repeal on November 2018 ballot By Patrick McGreevy A Chevron gas station in Sacramento shows prices in February. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) In a rare court rebuke of the state Attorney Generals Office, a judge said Friday that the title and summary written for a proposed initiative is misleading and that hed do a rewrite himself to make it clear the measure would repeal recently approved increases to gas taxes and vehicle fees. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley said he would draft a new title and summary to be placed on petitions for the initiative after attorneys for the state and proponents of the ballot measure could not agree on compromise language. In this circumstance, I honestly believe that the circulated title and summary that has been prepared is misleading, Frawley told attorneys during a court hearing Friday. He hopes to release the new title and summary by Monday. The initiative proposed by Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) would repeal a bill approved in April by the Legislature and governor that would raise the gas tax by 12 cents per gallon and increase vehicle fees to generate $5.2 billion annually to fix the states roads and bridges and improve mass transit. Allen and his attorneys said the state attorney general sought to confuse voters with a title that does not use the words taxes or fees. The title was proposed to say: Eliminates recently enacted road repair and transportation funding by repealing revenues dedicated for those purposes. Allen, who is running for governor in 2018, said the court decision showed the attorney general was trying to sway voters against the initiative. Justice is being served for the voters of California, Allen said after the court hearing. I think that he [the judge] has properly seen that the attorney general has tried to intentionally mislead the voters of California because he has tried to prejudice their vote and tried to keep increased taxes for Californians. A coalition of business, labor and government officials called Fix Our Roads, which supports the gas tax legislation, had representatives in the courtroom who later criticized Allen for seeking political gain at the expense of California motorists. This is more about Travis Allens gubernatorial race than anything else, said coalition spokeswoman Kathy Fairbanks. Hes condemning voters to driving on potholed roads and being stuck in traffic. Allen said the initiative and his campaign for governor are both aimed at giving voters power to fight higher taxes. Finally ordinary Californians are understanding that they actually can hold Sacramento accountable, Allen said. This is why Im running to be the next governor of California, because for too long Sacramento has been run by out-of-touch elitists that are coming from Sacramento and the Bay Area of San Francisco. A second initiative to repeal the gas tax has been proposed by a different group of Republican activists. Allen said he supports the second initiative but noted it has to collect many more signatures because it seeks to change the state constitution. It has a long way to go, Allen said. If the judge issues a new title and summary Monday, Allen said the petitions will hit the streets immediately and he is confident they will get the 365,880 signatures to qualify the measure for the November 2018 ballot. Facebook
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We will have universal healthcare in the state of California, Gavin Newsom promises single-payer advocates By Melanie Mason View Twitter post Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has made his most explicit endorsement yet of a controversial single-payer healthcare proposal that has roiled Democratic politics in California. Newsom appeared Friday before the California Nurses Assn., the most ardent backers of SB 562, a stalled bill to establish a system in which the state would cover all residents healthcare costs. Theres no reason to wait around on universal healthcare and single-payer in California, Newsom said. Its time to move 562. Its time to get it out of committee. The line prompted cheers and a standing ovation from the audience of about 1,500 members of the nurses union. He capped off his remarks with a promise: If we cant get it done next year, you have my firm and absolute commitment as your next governor that I will lead the effort to get it done. We will have universal healthcare in the state of California. Enthusiastic nurses in the room heard an unequivocal backing of their effort to push forward with the bill. When he says hes going to get this done, he means, seriously, that he will pass SB 562 and make sure that there is healthcare for all Californians, said Catherine Kennedy, a neonatal nurse from Roseville. But speaking to reporters after his address, Newsom was less clear in embracing the specifics of the proposal. I 100% support moving this process along, getting this debate going again and addressing the concerns, the open-ended issues that the nurses themselves have acknowledged as it relates to the need of going through the legislative process and to fill in the blanks on the financing plan, among other issues, he said. Facebook
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President Obama appears in an Assembly race mailer in California but read it closely By Christina Bellantoni The race to replace Jimmy Gomez, who was elected to Congress earlier this year, has so far been waged by mail and door-knocking in northeast Los Angeles. Most of the mailers feature local leaders and endorsements from groups including Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club. But one mailer that arrived in my mailbox Thursday has a much more familiar face former President Barack Obama. While it might seem like one to the casual voter sorting through junk mail, this isnt an endorsement. Want to know what kind of job Gabriel Sandoval will do in the Assembly? Listen to the people hes worked with in the past, the mailer reads, above Obamas official White House portrait. In small type, it notes that Sandoval served as a Senior Civil Rights Attorney and Senior Advisor for a White House initiative within the Department of Education. It features a glowing quote over an image of a July 12, 2013, letter from the president to Sandoval written on White House letterhead. Facebook
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Healthcare a hot issue in race for California governor By Phil Willon Antonio Villaraigosa, left, and Gavin Newsom (Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images; Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) With the hyperpartisan politics surrounding healthcare stirred up by efforts to repeal Obamacare and calls for a single-payer system, both Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa are claiming the mantle of healthcare visionary. On the campaign trail the two Democratic candidates for governor are touting their signature healthcare accomplishments from earlier in their political careers as their bona fides. For Newsom, its about Healthy San Francisco, the nations first municipal universal healthcare program, approved while he was mayor; and for Villaraigosa, its Healthy Families, which provided healthcare coverage to the children of Californias working poor, legislation he authored as a California assemblyman. But do they deserve all the credit? It sure doesnt look that way. Healthy San Francisco is one of the many topics Newsom is expected to highlight when he speaks to the California Nurses Assn. convention in the Bay Area on Friday morning. On Thursday night, Newsom took a shot at the latest Republican effort in Washington to roll back the Affordable Care Act a bill written by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) The numbers on this make my skin crawl. Under Graham-Cassidy, an individual with metastatic cancer could see their premiums increase by $142,650. Diabetes? $5,600. Want to tackle the opioid crisis? Gets a lot tougher if an individual suffering from drug dependence sees their premiums go up by $20,450, Newsom said in an email sent out by his campaign. This is not a game. Lives are at stake. Read More Facebook
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Rep. Duncan Hunter calls for preemptive strike against North Korea By Joshua Stewart, San Diego Union-Tribune Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) introduces U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions at a news conference. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune) Rep. Duncan Hunter said that the United States needs to launch a preemptive strike against North Korea in order to prevent the rogue nation from harming the U.S. first. You could assume, right now, that we have a nuclear missile aimed at the United States, and here in San Diego. Why would they not aim here, at Hawaii, Guam, our major naval bases? Hunter, an Alpine Republican, said Thursday during an appearance on San Diego television station KUSI. The question is, do you wait for one of those? Or two? Do you preemptively strike them? And thats what the president has to wrestle with. I would preemptively strike them. You could call it declaring war, call it whatever you want, Hunter continued. Hunter, a member of a House Armed Services Committee and the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the United States nuclear arsenal, did not say whether the military should strike North Korea with conventional or nuclear weapons. Read More Facebook
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Will Bernie Sanders push for Medicare for All help or hinder the California effort for single-payer? By Melanie Mason When Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders visited Beverly Hills last May, he made a full-throated appeal for California to lead the country and pass a pending state proposal to establish single-payer healthcare. On Friday, hell return to California for a San Francisco speech trumpeting his own higher-stakes plan a bill to drastically overhaul the nations healthcare system by covering everyone through Medicare. The push for single-payer, in which the government pays for residents medical care, has already rattled Californias political landscape. Now, the Sanders measure brings an additional jolt, elevating the issue to a national debate that has implications for the future direction of the Democratic Party and early jockeying in the 2020 presidential race. Read More Facebook
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What will Kevin de Leon do when his term in the California Senate expires next year? By Patrick McGreevy State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, speaks during the last regular Senate floor session of the year. ( (Rich Pedroncelli / AP)) As he gaveled down what may be his last full year as leader of the California Senate on Saturday, Kevin de Leon had still not said what he planned to do next. Will he run for governor or U.S. Senate? Does he want to be mayor of Los Angeles some day? De Leon told reporters they will have to wait to find out. His advisors, supporters and political observers have their own ideas what De Leon could do next. Read More Facebook
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Skelton: The presidential election bills on Gov. Browns desk may be satisfying politics, but theyre risky ideas By George Skelton Two presidential election bills are on Gov. Jerry Browns desk, sent to him by the Democratic Legislature. Both should be tossed in the trash. No doubt Im in the minority on this. These bills do offer some fun, even if theyre flawed. One has strong pluses that are outweighed by unacceptable minuses. The second is a mean-spirited gotcha bill aimed at the Democrats No. 1 enemy: President Trump. It may be satisfying politics, but it sets a risky precedent. The first bill moves up Californias presidential primary from June to March. Great idea. But it also moves up the state primary along with it. A horrible idea. The second measure would require all presidential candidates to release their tax returns for the last five years. Anyone who refused wouldnt be allowed on the California ballot. Thats a sharp poke at Trump, who in 2016 was the first presidential candidate in 40 years not to release his taxes. Yes, watching Trump squirm would be entertaining. And maybe the tax information would be useful for some voters. But even if the disclosure requirement were constitutional and theres substantial doubt about that its a crummy precedent. Read More Facebook
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California Senate leader preparing for legal fight over sanctuary state legislation By Sarah D. Wire California Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De Leon (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Gov. Jerry Brown hasnt yet signed legislation making California a so-called sanctuary state, but state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon is preparing to defend it in court. In between several immigration events in Washington on Wednesday, De Leon (D-Los Angeles) said he met with former U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. who has served as outside counsel to the Legislature for much of the year to continue to further discuss inoculating California from [U.S. Atty. Gen.] Jeff Sessions Department of Justice. Passed early Saturday by the Legislature, the sanctuary state bill would limit state and local law enforcement communication with federal immigration authorities and prevent officers from questioning and holding people on immigration violations. Sessions has threatened to withhold some federal grant funds from cities and counties that refuse to assist federal immigration agents. Holder and other former Justice Department lawyers believe the bill is defendable, and if the Trump administration tries to compel California cities to act by withholding funds, it will find itself in court, De Leon said. Defenders of so-called sanctuary cities often rely on a 1996 Supreme Court ruling that cited the 10th Amendment and found the federal government cant compel local governments to cooperate with enforcing federal laws. It is immoral, and quite frankly un-American, that Americas top law enforcement official would withhold dollars that our local police officers need precious dollars we need desperately to counter terrorism, to deal with the issue of human trafficking as well as international drug cartels, De Leon said. On Tuesday, Sessions urged Brown not to sign the bill, calling it unconscionable and a threat to public safety. Brown responded to Sessions comment on CNN by calling the legislation well-balanced. It protects public safety, but it also protects hardworking people who contribute a lot to California, Brown said. He has until Oct. 15 to sign the bill. De Leon also shot back against Sessions statement that the federal money isnt an entitlement, saying Californians pay more in federal taxes than they receive in federal funding. Thats not a gift or a grant from the Department of Justice to California. Those are our dollars; they belong to the people of California, he said. Facebook
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California, with alliance of states, pledges to keep pushing climate policies despite lack of federal progress By Chris Megerian (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) California and a growing alliance of states committed to fighting global warming said Wednesday that theyre slashing greenhouse gas emissions at the rate required by the Paris climate agreement. However, the rest of the country would need to join their effort for the United States to actually hit the target of cutting emissions by at least 26% below 2005 levels by 2025. President Trump has pledged to pull the country out of the Paris deal, but the states reiterated their pledge to keep pressing forward during a news conference in New York. Were all in, California Gov. Jerry Brown said. Eventually, Washington will join with us. You cant deny science forever. Californias climate goal is even more ambitious than the Paris target. A law signed by Brown last year requires the state to cut emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. California became a founding member of the U.S. Climate Alliance, along with New York and Washington state, months ago. Either we end this problem, or this problem will end us, said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. On Wednesday, North Carolina became the 15th member of the U.S. Climate Alliance. Other members include Massachusetts, Oregon and Puerto Rico. Clean air and a healthy environment are vital for a strong economy and a healthier future, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a newly elected Democrat, said in a statement. Facebook
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Bay Area cities sue major oil companies over climate change By Chris Megerian (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) San Francisco and Oakland are suing to get five oil companies, including San Ramon-based Chevron, to pay for the cost of protecting the Bay Area from rising sea levels and other effects of global warming. These fossil fuel companies profited handsomely for decades while knowing they were putting the fate of our cities at risk, San Francisco City Atty. Dennis Herrera said in a statement. The lawsuits, which were filed Tuesday in state court in San Francisco and Alameda counties and announced Wednesday, dont ask for a specific dollar amount. But the cities could try to put oil companies on the hook for billions. Long-term improvements in San Franciscos seawall are projected to cost $5 billion, according to one of the lawsuits. The law is clear that the defendants are responsible for the consequences of their reckless and disastrous actions, Oakland City Atty. Barbara J. Parker said in a statement. A spokesman for Chevron, Melissa Ritchie, said the lawsuits would not help address climate change. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a global issue that requires global engagement and action, she said in a statement. Should this litigation proceed, it will only serve special interests at the expense of broader policy, regulatory, and economic priorities. Facebook
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California sues to stop Trumps border wall: No one gets to ignore the laws. Not even the president By Patrick McGreevy California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announces lawsuit against Trump Administration. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that President Trumps proposal to expedite construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border violates laws aimed at protecting the environment. Becerra announced the legal challenge standing in front of the existing border fencing at Border Field State Park near San Diego, saying the federal government failed to comply with federal environmental laws and relied on federal statutes that dont authorize border wall projects in San Diego and Imperial counties. No one gets to ignore the laws. Not even the president of the United States, Becerra said. The border between the U.S. and Mexico spans some 2,000 miles. The list of laws violated by the presidents administration in order to build his campaign wall is almost as long. He said the project involves the improper waiver of 37 federal statutes, many aimed at protecting the environment. Filed in federal court in San Diego and including the California Coastal Commission as a plaintiff, the lawsuit states its purpose is to protect the State of Californias residents, natural resources, economic interests, procedural rights, and sovereignty from violations of the United States Constitution and federal law. Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra at the U.S.- Mexico border where he announced lawsuit to stop a proposal for a border wall. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) The lawsuit also alleges that federal officials have not shown any data suggesting new border barriers in the San Diego area will reduce illegal entry into the U.S., nor that there is a significant problem in that area. It adds that the wall would have a chilling effect on tourism to the United States from Mexico. In August, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a notice that it was waiving federal and state laws on the environment to expedite the construction of prototypes of the wall along the San Diego border with Mexico. The California lawsuit claims the federal government violated the U.S. Constitutions separation-of-powers doctrine by vesting in the Executive Branch the power to waive state and local laws. The lawsuit also says the Department of Homeland Security decided to build the walls without complying with the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Coastal Zone Management Act. As a result, the lawsuit alleges, the federal government lacks proper environmental analysis of the impact of the 400-foot prototypes of the wall currently planned, as well as the 2,000-mile-long final wall. A federal official declined comment. As a matter of policy, we do not comment on pending litigation, said Tyler Q. Houlton, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego) stood with Becerra at the event, saying the wall is unnecessary and will put a barrier between relations involving the two countries. Maybe to people in Iowa, it sounds like a really good idea, she said. We dont need more structure. We need a good relationship [with Mexico]. Times staff writers McGreevy reported from Sacramento and Ulloa from San Diego. AG @XavierBecerra takes some shots at Trump: He hasn't made the transition from candidate to president. #borderwall pic.twitter.com/liSJdrAK2v Jazmine Ulloa (@jazmineulloa) September 20, 2017 Facebook
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California to sue Trump administration over plan for U.S.-Mexico border wall By Patrick McGreevy California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra plans to announce a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of the state that will challenge President Trumps proposal to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, a project Becerra has called medieval. Becerra is scheduled to travel to Border Field State Park near San Diego to announce that a lawsuit is being filed in federal court over construction of border wall projects in San Diego and Imperial counties. The lawsuit, which includes the California Coastal Commission as a plaintiff, states its purpose is to protect the State of Californias residents, natural resources, economic interests, procedural rights, and sovereignty from violations of the United States Constitution and federal law. It adds that the wall would have a chilling effect on tourism to the United States from Mexico. The states lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration has failed to comply with federal and state environmental laws and relied on federal statutes that dont authorize the proposed projects. The brief alleges the federal government violated the U.S. Constitutions separation-of-powers doctrine by vesting in the Executive Branch the power to waive state and local laws, including state criminal law.. The lawsuit also says the Department of Homeland Security decided to build the walls without complying with the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. As a result, the lawsuit alleges, the federal government lacks proper environmental analysis of the impact of 400-foot prototypes of the wall currently planned, as well as the 2,000-mile-long final wall. The Democratic attorney general has been critical of the wall for months, including in April during an appearance on ABCs This Week. Im still trying to figure out who believes that a medieval situation to fix our broken immigration system is what we need, Becerra said. He also accused Trump at the time of reneging on his promise to have Mexico pay for the wall. I think American taxpayers probably are very much aligned with Mexico. None of them, whether its Mexico or our taxpayers, wants to pay for a medieval wall, he said. This is the latest of more than two dozen lawsuits and legal briefs filed against the Trump administration by Becerra, who was appointed attorney general in January and is running for election to the post next year. He previously sued to challenge Trumps plans to end a program that protects young immigrants from deportation, ban immigration from some countries and roll back environmental laws. Last week, three advocacy groups sued the federal government to block construction of a border wall, alleging that the Trump administration overstepped its authority by waiving environmental reviews and other laws. The action by the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and Animal Legal Defense Fund seeks to prevent construction of wall prototypes in San Diego. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said last month that prototypes for a border wall may be completed by the end of October. Becerras lawsuit is the latest attempt by California Democrats to fight the wall proposal. A bill that would have banned state government contracts for any company that helps build the wall passed the state Senate, but stalled recently in an Assembly committee. Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) authored the bill, testifying at a committee hearing that the wall is another attempt to separate and divide us. It sends a message that we are better off in a homogenous society. Todd Bloomstine, a lobbyist representing the Southern California Contractors Assn., opposed the bill, asking the panel, What next unpopular project would be [on the] blacklist? Read the lawsuit >> UPDATE 8:30 a.m. This article was updated to provide additional details of the lawsuit. This article was originally published at 6 a.m. Facebook
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Judge rules state used misleading language in summary of ballot measure to repeal California gas tax By Patrick McGreevy GOP Assemblyman Travis Allen, in red tie, with Democratic state Sen. Bob Hertzberg, left, and Charles Munger Jr., far right, in 2014. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) A judge tentatively ruled Tuesday that the state-written title and summary of an initiative to repeal the recent gas-tax increases were misleading and should be rewritten by the state attorney generals office. The ruling by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley, scheduled to be finalized at a court hearing on Friday, was welcomed by the initiatives lead proponent, Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach). This preliminary ruling is a major victory for Californians, Allen, a candidate for governor, said in a statement. This brings us one step closer to repealing Jerry Browns hugely unpopular gas tax. I look forward to the final ruling on Friday, and ensuring that the Repeal the Gas Tax Initiative receives the straightforward ballot title and summary that it deserves. Judge Frawley agreed with Allens legal claims that the title and summary drafted by Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerras office is confusing, misleading, and likely to create prejudice against the proposed measure. The judge said the initiative would repeal taxes and fees approved by the Legislature this year, but the title and summary issued by the state makes it sound like it would eliminate transportation funding without using the words taxes and fees in the title. He ordered state officials to come to Fridays hearing prepared to discuss alternate language for the ballot measure. To avoid misleading the voters and creating prejudice against the measure, the Attorney General must prepare a true and impartial statement that reasonably informs voters of the character and real purpose of the proposed initiative in clear and understandable language, the ruling says. The existing circulating title and summary fails this test. If the judge finalizes the order after hearing arguments Friday, Allen can use the new title and summary to circulate a petition. Allen needs to collect 365,000 signatures from registered voters in 150 days to put the measure on the November 2018 ballot. Facebook
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Gov. Jerry Brown: Trumps rhetoric about North Korea adds to non-rational bluster By Mina Corpuz (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) California Gov. Jerry Brown said President Trumps name calling and threats at the United Nations can get in the way of diplomacy and statesmanship. Earlier Tuesday, Trump called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a Rocket Man on a suicide mission and said the United States may have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. It just raises the temperature and the exchange of non-rational bluster back and forth, Brown said in a interview with CNNs Jake Tapper. I dont think thats positive. Brown is in New York for some climate meetings related to the United Nations General Assembly. Facebook
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Yes, dahlink: Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, widower of Zsa Zsa Gabor, is running for California governor By Phil Willon Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, widower of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, outside of the couples Bel-Air mansion in 2011. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times) Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, widower of the whimsical celebrity and actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, is back. Von Anhalt has filed to run for governor of California his second attempt after a short-lived campaign in 2010 saying hes fed up with seeing roads falling apart, people struggling to afford rent and an explosion of homelessness in the state. Ive lived in this city for 36 years. Ive never seen so many people eating out of a trash can in the Western world, Von Anhalt said Tuesday. We talk about Hollywood, and this being the entertainment center of the world. How is this possible? Von Anhalt, Garbors ninth and last husband, is running as an independent. He filed an official Candidate Intention Statement with the California Secretary of States office Monday, the first step in launching an official campaign. The 74-year-old Bel-Air resident, a German immigrant, said he has enough money to help support his own campaign. He said he dropped out of the 2010 governors race only because his wife became seriously ill. She died in December. She was the one who wanted me run, Von Anhalt said. Von Anhalt also flirted briefly with a run for Los Angeles mayor in 2013, a race eventually won by Eric Garcetti. FOR THE RECORD 5:33 p.m.: An earlier of this post said Von Anhalt was age 71. He is 74. Facebook
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Assemblyman urges other legislatures to join California in censuring President Trump By Mina Corpuz Assemblyman Tony Thurmond (D-Richmond) speaks with Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) A California lawmaker who authored a resolution to support a censure of President Trump sent letters to 49 other state legislatures Tuesday to urge them to join the effort. Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, a Richmond Democrat, sent the letters days after the Assembly became the first state legislative body to support a congressional censure of the president. California has spoken and we look to the rest of the nation to join us, Thurmond said in a statement. Its important that all our states unite and show that the United States of America stands against hate. Read More Facebook
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After cap-and-trade vote, Assemblyman Chad Mayes faces a second Republican challenger for reelection By Patrick McGreevy Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley leaves the Assembly floor before resigning as Assembly Republican leader on Aug. 24. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) Former Palm Springs Police Chief Gary Jeandron on Tuesday became the second Republican to announce plans to challenge Assemblyman Chad Mayes (R-Yucca Valley) in the 2018 election. Jeandron, a La Quinta resident, said he was angered over Mayes vote as Assembly Republican leader to support an extension of the states controversial cap-and-trade program, which requires businesses to buy permits to release greenhouse gas emissions. Jeandron saw the action as continuing a wrongful tax increase and said he is signing a no-tax pledge. I just dont believe [Mayes] has held Republican values, Jeandron told The Times. He has been blinded by ambition. He has been seduced by the governor. Mayes vote led to an outcry by Republican leaders, and he eventually succumbed to pressure to step down as leader of the Assembly Republicans. Mayes defended his position, telling colleagues during the floor debate, many of us believe that climate change is real and we have to work to address it. Jeandron, who lost to Mayes in the 2014 election, joins San Jacinto City Councilman Andrew Kotyuk in planning to challenge Mayes for the 42nd Assembly District seat. Facebook
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Republican John Cox tasted political defeat many times before launching his bid for California governor By Phil Willon Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox speaks to the Lincoln Club of Riverside County in June. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times) Candidate for California governor John Cox is relatively new to the states politics, but Cox has run for office multiple times, and even tangled with Barack Obama on the debate stage when the pair ran in the 2004 Illinois U.S. Senate race. Neither candidate was considered their partys favorite. But things began looking up for Obama, of course, who won the Senate race and then the presidency. Cox dropped out before the GOP primary election. It was his third try for elected office in Illinois and his third defeat. Now hes back, this time in his new home of California, running for governor against a trio of Democratic heavyweights. Once again, Cox is a practical unknown. Once again, the Republican is in a left-leaning state reaching for a coveted political office. Once again, Coxs campaign is being fed by cash from his own bank account. Read More Facebook
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After she was confronted by protesters, Pelosi says Democrats want a clean Dream Act with no border wall By Jazmine Ulloa House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Monday said she understood the fear in young protesters who shouted her down at a San Francisco news conference, asking for a legal path to citizenship for themselves and their parents. Speaking at Sacramento State hours after the disruption, Pelosi said she agreed with the protesters, pointing to the Dream Act as only the first step to broader immigration reform. We are all disrupters ourselves, she said, standing next to fellow congressional Democrats. So we recognize it and respect it in others. At Sac State, @NancyPelosi on SF protests today: We are all disruptors ourselves. So we recognize it and respect it in others. #dacadeal pic.twitter.com/W1WKQikmsc Jazmine Ulloa (@jazmineulloa) September 19, 2017 Both press events were scheduled by Pelosi to discuss a legislative fix to help thousands of young people affected by President Trumps decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The Obama-era policy provided temporary status for 800,000 people brought to the country illegally as children. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York met with Trump last week after the termination of DACA was announced. In Sacramento, Pelosi said they had come to an agreement to a clean Dream Act, which would provide a path to permanent status for citizens who work, study or serve in the military, without tougher border enforcement or increased deportations. Meanwhile, Democrats are fighting with the president over the construction of a wall along the U.S-Mexico border. And House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin has made it clear he wants some kind of border security, Pelosi said. That is not under discussion, she said. We can discuss other issues, but we are not going to discuss how we protect the Dreamers. At Sac State, @NancyPelosi arrives to talk #DACAdeal and help for Dreamers. Elected officials from every level of government also present. pic.twitter.com/yoESsRC1Ok Jazmine Ulloa (@jazmineulloa) September 18, 2017 Facebook
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Feinstein, who called for patience with Trump, lashes out over his attacks on Clinton By Sarah D. Wire Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said it was appalling and disgusting to see President Trump retweet a video edited to look like he hit former rival Hillary Clinton in the head with a golf ball. He continues to obsessively lash out at her at his rallies, with his words and now through social media in a manner that is utterly unbecoming of the president of the United States, Feinstein said in a statement Monday. Every one of us should be offended by the vindictive and candidly dangerous messages the president sends that demean not only Secretary Clinton, but all women. Grow up and do your job. Clinton is out with a new book about the campaign, and Trump has repeatedly used Twitter to deride her as a sore loser. He retweeted the animated GIF Sunday which shows him hitting a golf ball that then knocks down Clinton. Feinstein, who has yet to say whether shell run again in 2018, has walked a fine line with Trump in recent months. Shes criticized him at times, but drew ire from some progressive Californians last month when she called for patience in dealing with the president, saying that Trump could be a good president if he learned and changed. Facebook
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California lawmakers are building a wall against President Trumps policies By George Skelton California state legislators ended their annual session the way they began it building a wall to protect undocumented immigrants from President Trump. Not an iron wall, as Trump promised to erect along the U.S.-Mexico border, but a legal barrier to prevent local police and sheriffs from teaming with the presidents agents to enforce federal immigration law. The legislators did a lot of other things, too, before adjourning early Saturday until January. They sent Gov. Jerry Brown bills to address Californias dearth of affordable housing, to borrow $4 billion for parks and waterworks, to spend $1.5 billion in greenhouse-gas pollution fees, to provide tuition-free community college for first-year students and to lift some secrecy from prescription drug pricing. Earlier in the session, the heavily Democratic Legislature passed its boldest, most controversial bill of the year: A $5.2-billion annual increase in fuel taxes and vehicle fees to finance transportation infrastructure, especially to repair crumbling highways. Republicans will attempt to repeal the bill at the ballot box in 2018. Brown says that borders on insanity. Read More Facebook
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Trump is riding a very dead horse on climate change, Gov. Brown says at New York conference By Ann Simmons (Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press) Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday touted steps California has taken toward a healthier climate, but warned that powerful forces he called climate deniers are resisting technologies and policies designed to improve conditions. I like all the optimism around here, but I dont want to minimize the steep hill that we have to climb, Brown said at the start of a gathering of international leaders called Climate Week NYC. Decarbonizing the economy when the economy depends so totally on carbon is not childs play. Its quite daunting. Hosted by the Climate Group, an international nonprofit organization that works with business and government to promote clean technologies and policies, the event was scheduled to bring together high-profile governors, executives of Fortune 500 companies and leaders of multinational businesses for a week to share their strategies in tackling climate change. The discussions come amid concerns about global warming and after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma caused devastation in Houston, Florida and across parts of the Caribbean. Some scientists believe that warmer ocean waters caused by climate change are creating stronger storms. Read More Facebook
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Nancy Pelosi shouted down at DACA news conference for working with Trump By Sarah D. Wire Dreamer protesters have disrupted a Pelosi presser in CA, asking for protections for Dreamer & their parents: https://t.co/o3zGNJvblL Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 18, 2017 More than four dozen immigration activists upset with Democrats for negotiating with President Trump shouted down House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi at a San Francisco news conference Monday. We are not your bargaining chip, the crowd chanted at one point, according to KCBS News political reporter Doug Sovern. VIDEO: Chaos at @NancyPelosi #DACA event as 40+ undocumented hijack her news conf in SF: "We are not your bargaining chip! Let us speak!" pic.twitter.com/KC2WyrjqSy Doug Sovern (@SovernNation) September 18, 2017 'All of us or none of us' Crowd takes over DREAM Act event. Pelosi getting blasted by about 100 young 'undocumented youth' pic.twitter.com/RgwnZ4dB3O Evan Sernoffsky (@EvanSernoffsky) September 18, 2017 San Francisco Chronicle reporter Evan Sernoffsky said on Twitter that some in the group were yelling, All of us or none of us. Other reporters said the group chanted, Shut down ICE. Pelosi held the news conference to advocate for speedy passage of a legislative fix to the legal status of hundreds of thousands of people brought to the country illegally as children. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York met with Trump last week after he announced an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The Obama-era program deferred deportation for some people brought to the country illegally as children. Pelosi and Schumer said their discussion with the president included the possibility of adding more immigration enforcement which some immigration advocates are against to legislation to address DACA. At the news conference, Pelosi first made remarks and introduced an immigrant in the country illegally, at which point the shouting began, according to a Pelosi aide. The group surrounded Pelosi, with some gesturing close to her face. She attempted to calm the crowd for about half an hour before leaving the news conference. The aide said the group was made up of local DACA beneficiaries. We need to have a conversation, but that was completely one-sided; they dont want any answers, Pelosi told reporters afterward, according to a transcript. Pelosi said the activists should be focused on Republican members of Congress, not Democrats. I understand their frustration, Im excited by it as a matter of fact, but the fact is theyre completely wrong. The Democrats are the ones who stopped their assault on sanctuary cities, stopped the wall, the increased deportations in our last bill that was at the end of April, and we are determined to get Republicans votes to pass the clean Dream Act. Is it possible to pass a bill without some border security? Well well have to see. We didnt agree to anything in that regard, except to listen, Pelosi said. UPDATES
1:06 p.m. This post was updated with more details throughout and quotes from Pelosi. This post was originally published at 12:12 p.m. Facebook
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Democrats hopes of flipping seats in California are soaring, but it wont be as easy at it seems By Christine Mai-Duc (Associated Press / AFP/Getty Images) Democrats know they have to win at least a few seats in California if they want to regain control of the House in 2018. But though the energy and hopes of many Democratic activists here are soaring, flipping Republican-held seats here could be harder than it appears. There are a few bits of conventional wisdom that suggest Democrats have a long road ahead. For one, Republicans often turn out in greater numbers than their Democratic counterparts in midterm-election years. And even though Hillary Clinton won seven of the Republican-held districts Democrats are now targeting, past election data show voters there still lean much more conservative than other parts of the state. If past is prologue, says Rob Pyers, research director for the nonpartisan election guide California Target Book, Democrats will have a hard time picking up more than a couple of seats in California. With most voters unlikely to tune in until at least next spring, there are many factors that could affect the political calculus, including whether the California Republican Party will be able to field a competitive candidate for governor, or whether ballot initiatives such as a potential repeal of the newest gas tax hike will propel GOP voters to the polls. Read More Facebook
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California will be the keeper of the nations future in the era of Trump, state Democratic lawmakers promise By Melanie Mason State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, from left, Gov. Jerry Brown and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. (Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press) Within a day of President Trumps election last November, Californias top Democratic lawmakers responded with a joint statement that contained an audacious promise. It was their state, not Washington, D.C., that would be the keeper of the nations future. An artistic rendering of that vow, with looping calligraphy and a roaring grizzly, is now on display in the offices of Senate leader Kevin de Leon and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon. In the wake of Trumps win, the words seemed to be a sort of foundational document Californias declaration of resistance. That pugilistic posture is often conveyed in shorthand: California versus Trump. But the ensuing legislative year, which ended Friday, revealed the messy reality of squaring up against the federal government. Its been challenging, De Leon (D-Los Angeles) said, bleary-eyed as he took a break during the final days of the session. You have to debate, you have to negotiate, you have to make your case, and I think at the end of the day, well still have the most far-reaching policy in the nation. Read More Facebook
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California Politics Podcast: Lawmakers leave Sacramento after a busy year By John Myers From immigration issues to housing, some of the biggest debates of the Legislatures nine-month session happened at the very end. In governing, as in life, deadlines often make things happen. On this weeks California Politics Podcast, we take an early look at some of the most important decisions lawmakers made in the final few days of the 2017 session in Sacramento. That includes a landmark decision to intervene in the issue of illegal immigration, and to pass a long discussed package of bills to begin addressing Californias housing crisis. We also look at some of the broader political themes of the entire legislative year -- most notably, the effort by Democrats in the Legislature to provide a resistance to actions taken by President Trump. Im joined by Times staff writers Melanie Mason and Liam Dillon. Facebook
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Passage of sanctuary state bill draws rebukes from Trump administration officials, praise in California By Jazmine Ulloa Supporters of state sanctuary bill SB 54 rally outside the Hall of Justice. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) California lawmakers on Saturday passed a sanctuary state bill to protect immigrants without legal residency in the U.S., part of a broader push by Democrats to counter expanded deportation orders under the Trump administration. The landmark legislation by Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) would limit state and local law enforcement communication with federal immigration authorities, and prevent officers from questioning and holding people on immigration violations. But the bill sent to Gov. Jerry Brown drastically scaled back the version first introduced, the result of tough negotiations between Brown and De Leon in the final weeks of the legislative session. Its passage already is reverberating across the country. Trump administration officials have sounded off in opposition. And immigrant rights groups and some California law enforcement officials have come out in support of what they call a hard compromise. Read More Facebook
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Supporters unable to resurrect California clean-energy proposal on final day of legislative session By Chris Megerian Environmentalists rally in front of Assemblyman Chris Holdens office in Pasadena on Thursday. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) Despite a last-minute push from environmentalists and actors from The Avengers, legislation that eventually would require all of Californias electricity to come from clean sources failed to advance this year. Facing opposition from unions and utilities, Assembly leadership refused to put the measure, SB 100, up for a vote on Friday, the final day of the legislative session. The decision to not move the bill this year is disappointing, said Kathryn Phillips, director of the Sierra Clubs California chapter. But we are committed to moving this policy next year. Theres no time to waste. The measure, written by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (
Trump Jr. to speak privately to Senate staff on Thursday
(Richard Drew / Associated Press)
President Trumps oldest son is expected to meet privately with a Senate committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, several senators said Wednesday.
Donald Trump Jr.'s appearance Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee would probably focus on a meeting he had with a Russian lawyer and others during the final stretches of last years campaign. Emails released in July show that Trump Jr. was told the session at Trump Tower in New York was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father, the Republican nominee.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating that meeting, also attended by Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. A grand jury has heard testimony about it.
Trump Jr. has also agreed to appear in the coming weeks before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting its own investigation.
Separately, President Obamas national security advisor, Susan Rice, was meeting on Wednesday with the House Intelligence Committee, according to a person familiar with the interview. This person wasnt authorized to discuss the committees confidential work and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
That committee has subpoenaed the Justice Department and the FBI for documents related to a dossier of salacious allegations involving Trump and possible ties to Russia.
As for Donald Trump Jr., some Democratic senators said they planned to attend his session though tradition dictates that senators cannot ask questions at such interviews conducted by committee staff.
Sens. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said they would be there. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) was considering it.
I go in with an open mind, Durbin said. I want to hear his answers to questions there are plenty of questions about the involvement of the Trump corporation as well as the Trump campaign with the Russians and other foreigners, and I just want to hear what Mr. Trump has to say.
Durbin said he would be shocked if questions werent asked about whether Trump Sr. knew about the Trump Tower meeting.
The critical part of his testimony will be following the financial dealing, Blumenthal said. He said he also wants to find out what Trump Jr. may know about potential obstruction of justice, adding there may have been conversations between the two about the firing of FBI Director James Comey and other matters.
Blumenthal and Coons said the private interview is no substitute for a public hearing, which the committee chairman, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), has promised will happen.
This meeting is far less important than his public testimony, under oath, before the American people, Blumenthal said.
Grassley would not say on Wednesday whether he would issue a subpoena for Trump Jr. if he refuses to testify publicly.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department is reviewing subpoenas from the House intelligence committee.
In a letter Friday that was obtained by the AP, the committee wrote that it had served subpoenas on Aug. 24 to the department and the FBI for documents related to the committees investigation of Russian meddling. The Justice Department and FBI had missed the original Sept. 1 deadline, so the committee extended the deadline to Sept. 14.
The letter was signed by the committee chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who stepped back from the Russia investigation this year after he was criticized for being too close to the White House. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) took over the leading role, but his name does not appear on the letter.
As chairman, Nunes retains subpoena power in the committee.
According to the letter, the original subpoenas requested any documents related to the dossier and sought information about whether the department was involved in its production.
If the documents are not produced, the committee is seeking to compel Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, who has withdrawn from investigations examining connections between Trump and Russia, and newly installed FBI Director Christopher Wray to testify in an open hearing. The committee issued two additional subpoenas to Sessions and Wray on late Tuesday.
Resort to compulsory process was necessary because of DOJs and FBIs insufficient responsiveness to the committees numerous Russia-investigation related requests over the past several months, the letter said.
If the committee is unable to obtain documents or testimony, Nunes wrote, the committee expressly reserves its right to proceed with any and all available legal options, including a House vote to hold Sessions and Wray in contempt.
The Justice Department confirmed it was reviewing the subpoenas but declined further comment.
The dossier attracted public attention in January when it was revealed that then-FBI Director Comey had briefed Trump, soon before he was inaugurated as president, about claims from the documents that Russia had amassed compromising personal and financial allegations about him.
Its unclear to what extent the allegations in the dossier have been corroborated or verified by the FBI because the bureau has not publicly discussed it.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday evening on MSNBC that the subpoenas were issued over the objections of Democrats. Schiff said Republicans are working harder to discredit those who compiled the dossier than to find out if the allegations in it are true. He said Republicans should be more focused on getting documents from the White House.
The subpoenas were first reported by the Washington Examiner.
Today
HomeStore, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., 701 E. Dodge St., Fremont. The HomeStore sells donated items at discounted prices. Proceeds support the mission of Fremont Area Habitat for Humanity.
Round Church Rumblefest, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Good Shepherd Lutheran Church parking lot, 1440 E. Military Ave., Fremont. Registration is from 9 a.m. to noon. The cost is $15 per entry. There will be over 20 unique awards given. The Pancake Man will be serving pancakes from 8:30-11 a.m. at no charge. A hot dog lunch will be available and there will be a split the pot drawing. The event is a youth group fundraiser.
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, 136 N. Main St., Fremont.
Storytime, 11-11:30 a.m., Keene Memorial Library auditorium, 1030 N. Broad St., Fremont.
Alcoholics Anonymous womens heart to heart group, noon, Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Tailgate party, 6 p.m., Fremont Eagles Club. The club will open at noon. Everyone is welcome.
Narcotics Anonymous open meeting, 7:30 p.m., United Faith Church, 218 W. Gardiner St., Valley.
Narcotics Anonymous Lie Is Dead Group, 8 p.m., Care Corps, 723 N. Broad St., Fremont.
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10:30 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Sunday
Alcoholics Anonymous Happy Sober Sunday Group, 9 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Narcotics Anonymous Seekers of Serenity Group, 10:30 a.m., Care Corps, 723 N. Broad St., Fremont.
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 5:15 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Dodge County Radio Emergency Associated Communication Team (REACT), 6:30 p.m., American Red Cross, Dodge County Chapter, 439 N. Main St., Fremont. For more information, call 402-687-2160.
Narcotics Anonymous Point of Freedom Group, 7 p.m., Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Education Building, west of the church, 1440 E. Military Ave., Fremont. Enter through the rear door.
Alcoholics Anonymous Sunday speaker, 7:30 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Monday
TOPS Club (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), 9 a.m., First United Methodist Church, 850 N. Broad St., Fremont. Weigh-ins begin at 8 a.m. Visitors (preteens, teens and adults male and female) are welcome. The first meeting is free. For more information, call Janet Bloemker at 402-721-8952.
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 10 a.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, noon, Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, 5:15 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
Narcotics Anonymous basic text study, 6:30 p.m., Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Education Building, west of the church, 1440 E. Military Ave., Fremont. Enter through the rear door.
Celebrate Recovery, 7-9 p.m., Sanctuary Church, 1640 W. Military Ave., Fremont. Childcare is available.
Celebrate Recovery, 7 p.m., Fremont Church of the Nazarene, 960 Johnson Road.
Alcoholics Anonymous 12x12 meeting, 8 p.m., Chapter 5 Club, Fremont.
A 20-year-old Ohio resident accused of sucker-punching a man at an America First! rally in Laguna Beach pleaded guilty Friday to one misdemeanor count of battery.
Richard Daniel Losey of Lancaster, Ohio was sentenced to 30 days in county jail and three years informal probation, according to the Orange County district attorneys office.
Losey was one of about 2,500 people who went to Main Beach in Laguna on Aug. 20 to either attend or protest the America First! rally.
Organizers said the demonstration was meant to honor victims of crimes allegedly committed by immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
Others, though, have alleged America First! organized by Johnny Benitez is racist and white supremacist.
According to prosecutors, Losey walked up to a man at about 8:40 p.m. and punched him multiple times in the face, ear and temple area.
About 20 minutes later, prosecutors say Losey tackled the man from behind, punched him and dragged him down the street. The district attorneys office did not identify the man in a news release Friday.
The victim who the Los Angeles Times identified as R.C. Maxwell reported the attack to the Laguna Beach Police Department on Aug. 21.
The next day, Losey was arrested without incident in Laguna Beach as he was attempting to obtain a bus ticket to Ohio, according to a department news release.
luke.money@latimes.com
Twitter @LukeMMoney
A Newport Beach police officer pleaded not guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor charge that he discharged his firearm with gross negligence while off-duty, prosecutors said.
According to the Orange County district attorneys office, Ronald Martin Stucken, 31, left a bar in San Clemente on May 22 with a woman using the Uber ride-hailing app.
The two took an Uber to her neighborhood, where Stucken left the Uber vehicle alone and fired multiple rounds from a firearm that was not his Newport police service weapon, prosecutors said.
Orange County sheriffs deputies responded to the scene.
To maintain the privacy of the woman, prosecutors said they are unable to reveal the location where Stucken allegedly shot his weapon.
Stucken, who lives in Newport Beach, pleaded not guilty to one misdemeanor count of discharging a firearm with gross negligence. If convicted, he faces one year in county jail.
In a statement to the Daily Pilot, Newport Police Chief Jon T. Lewis said the department learned on May 22 that sheriffs deputies responded to a call involving an off-duty Newport Beach police officer who had allegedly illegally discharged his personal firearm. We immediately placed the officer on administrative leave and we have cooperated fully with sheriffs investigators.
bradley.zint@latimes.com
Twitter: @BradleyZint
Poetry is necessary for Kinsale Hueston, a powerful nexus to culture and action.
In addition to demonstrating and fueling her deep interest in social justice, her wordcraft has earned the 17-year-old the honor of being one of the best young poets in the country this year as one of five National Student Poets.
Kinsale, who lives in Corona del Mar and attends St. Margarets Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, said she has been a poet since she was in second grade. She memorized poems out of an anthology her parents gave her, and soon found her own words.
Poetry is a layered art form that holds her close.
I love reading it, dissecting it, just kind of immersing myself in it because its so complex and yet so simple, she said by phone Friday from Washington, D.C., where she and her fellow poets are being feted. I kind of love discovering new things every time I reread a poem.
Around 10th grade, her writing got more serious as she had, as she puts it, a bit of an identity crisis being a Native American specifically, Navajo in Southern California.
The U.S. Census puts less than 1% of Orange Countys population as Native. But that heritage is everything to Kinsale.
Her mother grew up on the Navajo reservation, in Navajo Mountain, Utah, in the Four Corners area, and introduced the girl to language, tradition, pride and reality. On their road trips through the stunning landscape, Kinsale learned that the streaks in the hills are scars from uranium mines, where toxic waste lingers in the earth.
This imagery has informed her poetry. So has violence against women, loss of native language, poverty and obesity.
I seek to contemporize Native American culture with my poetry, and for me my work is a form of activism, she said.
In her piece Grandmother, which qualified her for the National Student Poets Program, an elder woman speaks to a young person who doesnt know their native tongue. Kinsale weaves in the Navajo words nali grandfather, a word that she associates with love and tradition and yaateh, a greeting, into the work, bringing the subject matter to the forefront.
Read some of Kinsale Huestons poetry
To qualify for the National Student Poets Program, she had to emerge from a pool of more than 300 award-winning poets in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Out of those writers, 35 semifinalists were invited to submit additional poetry and performance videos to jurors for final selection as a National Student Poet.
Over the next year, the junior laureates will serve as literary ambassadors at libraries, museums and schools, and contribute to service projects promoting the program in their regions (Kinsale represents the West).
The program is an initiative of the Presidents Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, which administers the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.
The National Student Poets Program has provided such an amazing opportunity for me to share my work and continue to develop my voice, Kinsale said. I havent found another program like it, and Im just so excited to see where this year will take me.
Kinsales Washington trip has been packed with appearances and workshops, including a ceremony and reading Thursday at the Library of Congress, a private workshop with the 21st Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, and a reading at the National Book Festival. She said shes learned a lot from her fellow poets, who also write about heritage and nature, but are informed by different backgrounds and styles.
Kinsale isnt sure what she wants to do for a career, or where she will attend college, but her experience last summer working with the attorney generals office on the Navajo Nation has focused her on helping women on the reservation: Not just being an activist and posting about it on Twitter, but also diving head-first into the issue and doing what I can to help, she said.
And she knows poetry will always stay with her.
hillary.davis@latimes.com
Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD
A pro-Palestinian student group at UC Irvine is appealing its punishment in response to a protest that flared during an on-campus Israeli veterans panel in May.
University administrators gave the Students for Justice in Palestine two years of probation, 12 mandatory meetings to discuss free speech and a requirement to meet with administrators two weeks before hosting any event after a heated discussion during the May 10 event, a panel featuring Israeli military veterans.
In a statement, representatives for Students for Justice in Palestine said their clapping and chanting at the event, sponsored by Students Supporting Israel, was in response to aggressive behavior by a member of the soldiers group.
Its outrageous that the university is punishing us, students, instead of protecting us from aggressive foreign military agents on campus, Daniel Carnie, a Jewish UCI student, said in a statement. Were a diverse group of Palestinian, black, Latino and Jewish students who attended the soldiers speaking event and asked critical questions.
Campus police officers escorted the panelists to the parking lot after the event. No arrests were made.
Students for Justice in Palestine said its members have been harassed and cyber-bullied since the event, and said it has filed a discrimination complaint.
In May 2016, the group disrupted a screening of a film about Israeli soldiers. UCI administrators later said the Palestine group violated student conduct policies, though the university said several other allegations of wrongdoing were unfounded.
The group was given a warning that its behavior was under increased scrutiny and that another violation could lead to harsher consequences.
hillary.davis@latimes.com
Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD
A Glendale resident shared her Armenian culture by collaborating on a multicultural picture book while studying abroad in Mitaka, Japan, earlier this year.
Mayreni Abajian, 22, helped create and design two pages in Meos Trip to Earth, a picture book that follows a resident named Meo, who lives on the moon and visits Earth.
Meo visits various countries and tastes food from all over the world. During his journey, he invites his new friends to visit the moon and enjoy a feast featuring food from countries he visited.
In the picture book, the Crescenta Valley High School graduate drew an Armenian church, Mt. Ararat, a girl in traditional clothing and a table featuring foods such as apricots, pomegranates and lavash, which is a flat bread.
The majority of the story is told in Japanese, Abajian said, but some lines are in languages represented in the book such as Armenian and Tagalog.
While studying at the International Christian University in Mitaka, Abajian began volunteering with an organization called Glocal Mitaka, which connects foreign-exchange students with their Japanese counterparts.
With the organizations help, Abajian and her peers conducted short language lessons and read stories, including their original short story, to students at Japanese picture-book houses.
Abajian organized a visit to the Embassy of Armenia in Tokyo, where she and Glocal Mitaka representatives introduced the book to ambassador Grant Pogosyan. While she said Pogosyan couldnt donate funds to help publish multiple copies, he did promote it online.
The embassy also displayed excerpts from the book at the Armenian Culture Week exhibition in Tokyo.
I think he was glad we had a project including Armenia. Its often overlooked as a small country, and so I think he appreciated we were doing this project, said Abajian during a phone interview.
About $400 was raised through an event showcasing the picture book, she said, and 20 copies were printed, some of which went to Japanese libraries.
Upon returning home in June, Abajian said the best part of her year abroad was sharing her Armenian culture with the Japanese community.
Now a senior at UC San Diego, Abajian said she hopes to start a Kickstarter campaign to help raise funds to publish more copies of the picture book.
priscella.vega@latimes.com
Twitter: @vegapriscella
In southern Syrias chilly late winter of 2011, a scrap of schoolboy graffiti that read Your turn, Doctor a mocking call for the ouster of President Bashar Assad helped spark a ferocious civil war that has left hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced.
Now, there is a growing diplomatic consensus that Assad, the 51-year-old ophthalmologist who inherited Syrias leadership 17 years ago from his dictator father, has almost certainly prevailed against efforts to dislodge him militarily and that his opponents need to come to terms with his political survival as they plot a new course.
The multi-sided war, midway through a seventh brutal year, is far from over. But Assads consolidation of control in key parts of the country, and continued crucial aid from allies Russia and Iran, have contrived to make it virtually impossible for the rebels who once enjoyed U.S. support to drive him from power, longtime observers of the conflict say.
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Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks to Syrian diplomats in Damascus on Aug. 20. (Office of the Syrian President / Associated Press)
Bashar Assads government has won the war militarily, said Robert Ford, a former U.S. ambassador to Damascus who witnessed the uprisings earliest days. And I cant see any prospect of the Syrian opposition being able to compel him to make dramatic concessions in a peace negotiation.
The government has yet to fully secure areas around the capital, and fighting continues in various pockets of Syrias east as well as the northwestern province of Idlib. Yet even Assads staunchest international adversaries see the continuation of his rule as a fait accompli and have urged the rebels arrayed against him to do the same.
The nations who supported us the most theyre all shifting their position, said Osama Abu Zaid, an opposition spokesman contacted by phone. Were being pressured from all sides to draw up a more realistic vision, to accept Assad staying.
The key to the Syrian leaders survival has been his battlefield allies Moscow and Tehran; both have been laser-focused on keeping him in power.
Russia dispatched warplanes and elite Spetsnaz units in 2015 to stop the oppositions advance, just as a coalition of hard-line Islamist rebels were on the cusp of overrunning key government bastions. Iran poured in materiel as well as manpower, including proxies from as far afield as Afghanistan, to bolster Assads exhausted troops.
Diplomatically, Russia has repeatedly wielded its veto power on the U.N. Security Council to shield Damascus from punishment, and has worked to forge de-confliction zones that have given the army the breathing space it needs to mount offensives in the eastern province of Dair Alzour.
Meanwhile, the opposition has found itself with international backers bereft of the political will to remove Assad, with each government pursuing its own strategic priorities in Syria.
Turkey, long the primary conduit for the opposition its border towns became rear-guard rebel bases early in the crisis is now fixated on stopping the advance of the Peoples Protection Units, or YPG, a Syrian Kurdish faction that has been one of the most effective fighting forces against Assad. Ankara views it as a proxy for a domestic Kurdish separatist group it has fought for decades.
That has put Turkey on a collision course with the U.S., which has built up the YPG as the nucleus of an anti-Islamic State force that it also hopes will block Iranian aspirations in the country.
The oppositions Persian Gulf patrons are also at each others throats, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates squabbling with Qatar even as they face a quagmire in Yemen, where a 29-month Saudi-led air campaign has led to more than 10,000 deaths and sparked an epic humanitarian crisis, including one of the worlds worst cholera epidemics.
Meanwhile, Assads government is signaling its confidence in ways large and small. Earlier this month, the Damascus International Fair once a showpiece of economic and technological prowess, attracting investors from across the Arab world and beyond was held for the first time since being shuttered early in the war.
The fair is the gateway for the declaration of victory in Syria, its director, Fares Kartali, said by telephone from Damascus.
Meanwhile, those who had hoped to drive out Assad see a bleak realpolitik playing out among countries that the opposition counted as backers. Abu Zaid, the opposition spokesman, said France and other European powers are more interested in stanching the flow of Syrian refugees and stabilizing the country enough to send many of those already in Europe back.
He and other opposition figures chastised the Obama and Trump administrations, saying the U.S. had all but abdicated the wider battle to Russia while it focused on countering Islamic State and Al Qaeda. Although President Trump ordered an airstrike on Syria after its forces were reported to have carried out a chemical weapons attack in April, he also has steered clear of calls for Assads removal.
Other than a desire to combat jihadist groups, its as if the U.S. doesnt care, said Abu Zaid.
Yet the opposition itself has often been its own worst enemy. Plagued by internal divisions, with different factions beholden to often competing interests, it was only able to mount a serious challenge to government forces when self-styled moderate forces were allied with Islamist groups, including Al Qaedas onetime affiliate, Al Nusra Front.
Not only were those groups anathema to the West, they were excluded or refused to take part in the tortuous U.N.-brokered negotiations between the government and the opposition in Geneva and Kazakhstans capital, Astana. That has meant that most of the groups participating in the diplomatic process have very little actual power on the battlefield.
Damascus, meanwhile, has achieved battlefield gains that have cemented Assads grip over what policymakers like to call useful Syria. Damascus, Aleppo, Homs and the coastal Mediterranean cities of Tartous and Latakia are firmly in Assads hands. His forces march to the east has brought desperately needed energy supplies back under government control.
All these factors have led to a wide-scale campaign to recycle the regime, said Yahya Aridi, an opposition spokesman and member of the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee, the rebels top representative body.
In the longer term, those who bet on Assads defeat will now likely find themselves shut out of a lucrative rebuilding effort part of a larger geopolitical pivot on the part of Syrias leadership. Iran, Russia and China are well-positioned to reap the bonanza of a reconstruction projected by the World Bank to cost $226 billion.
Assad, in a speech earlier this month, described a policy of turning toward the East.
With more U.N.-mediated talks on tap in Geneva, the opposition, though publicly holding fast to its demand for Assads departure, is being steadily prodded toward a new vision not only by external forces, but by a desperately war-weary nation.
There do not appear, at this stage, any realistic options for Assads departure, absent a dramatic escalation of the conflict, or a lucky shot, said Andrew Parasiliti of the Center for Global Risk and Security at the Rand Corp. Many Syrians also just want to get on with their lives.
Special correspondent Bulos reported from Amman and Times staff writer King from Washington.
Twitter: @nabihbulos, @laurakingLAT
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For anyone curious how many DUI arrests Pennsylvania State Police make in a year, the statewide figures for 2016 were released Friday -- ahead of a holiday week that will see stepped-up enforcement locally.
Last year, troopers arrested 19,518 people in Pennsylvania for allegedly driving under the influence.
That number includes both alcohol and drug DUIs, and represents a 3.5 percent increase from 2015, state police said in a news release. It does not take into account enforcement efforts by local police departments.
State police also investigated 4,520 DUI-related crashes in 2016.
State Police Troop M -- which covers Lehigh, Northampton and Bucks counties -- recorded 1,500 DUI arrests and 275 crashes, according to a breakdown in the data.
"Driving under the influence is a serious crime that puts innocent lives at risk every day," said Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Tyree C. Blocker.
On Saturday, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said its Lehigh Valley DUI/Traffic Safety task force -- which includes dozens of local police departments -- will be conducting checkpoints and roving DUI patrols in Lehigh and Northampton counties over the Labor Day week.
Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
TROPHIES
The suffering and losses dished out by Hurricane Harvey along the Gulf Coast are generating donations and offers of help from around the country, including the Lehigh Valley and northwest New Jersey. Religious groups are taking up collections to help victims of the catastrophic flooding. Among them are Life Church, which has five congregations in the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos. The church has an offer from a donor to match all contributions up to $10,000, which will go to partnering organizations, such as Houston-based "Feed the Hungry." St. Paul Baptist Church in Bethlehem will be accepting flood-relief donations through the month of September. A special collection will be taken up in the 84 parishes of the Diocese of Allentown the weekend of Sept. 9-10.
Among those who decided to help flood victims are employees at Reagle Dodge in Pen Argyl. Workers put out requests for nonperishable foods, gently used clothing, cases of water, dog food, baby food, cans of gasoline, toiletries, hygiene items, toys, school supplies and coloring books. They're also receiving gift cards and monetary donations. Nick Russo, a mechanic at Reagle and member of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard National Guard, said he was moved to act after hearing from a family friend in Texas. Russo and his father Joseph plan to make the trip to deliver the aid. Many others responded: Horns Outdoor Center of Mount Bethel donated gasoline. Employees of Rock Bottom Bow Fishing, a New Jersey-based sporting goods store, gave a palette of water jugs. Klaver Auto in Bangor sent supplies. Reagle Dodge is lending a 2017 Durango for the trip; Penske Truck Leasing has loaned a 16-foot box truck to haul the donations.
The Kingwood Rescue Squad and the 9-1-1 center in Hunterdon County played a role in rescuing two people trapped by rising flood waters in the attic of their home in Texas. A squad member received an email at 11:35 a.m. Tuesday from someone in Kingwood, Texas, a suburb of Houston. The email was relayed by the squad member to the Hunterdon 9-1-1 center. Dispatchers got in touch with the sheriff's office in Harris County, Texas, which initiated a rescue effort. Kudos to the Kingwood squad member, who wished to remain anonymous. A few hours later the Harris County Sheriff's Department emailed the Hunterdon 9-1-1 center to say the couple had been evacuated safely. Officials said it's likely the people in Texas found the Kingwood squad through an online search, after their cell phone service went down. Hunterdon 9-1-1 technicians Ed Hahola, Katie Powell and Tammy Hoffman helped coordinate the rescue.
When a family pet slipped into an abandoned cistern in Hellertown on Wednesday and couldn't be reached, public workers came to the rescue. Borough Police Chief Robert Shupp said a 13-year-old bulldog had slipped down a hole and into a tank about 7 to 8 feet below the surface. Responders from Dewey Fire Company, police, the public works department and the water authority assisted, using a backhoe to create a path to the tank. The only injury was a cut on the dog's paw. The borough code office contacted the the property owner to fill in the cistern.
An apparent head-on collision Friday afternoon in Warren County sent the drivers of both cars to the hospital, according to reports from the scene.
It was reported at 3:18 p.m. in the 2300 block of Route 57, just west of Whites Road, in Franklin Township.
The Chevrolet Corvette and Pontiac G6 both sustained heavy front-end damage.
Responders closed the road for about an hour between Asbury Broadway Road and the crash scene.
Franklin Township Fire Department EMS and paramedics from the Hunterdon Medical Center took the drivers for treatment. The extent of any injuries was not immediately known.
New Jersey State Police responded but did not immediately provide information.
Freelance photographer Rich Maxwell contributed to this report from the scene.
Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
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A Sallins man is counting his lucky stars that he went for a blood pressure check last year.
We had a cluster meeting for the Mens Shed in Sallins which was visited by Irish Heart's Mobile Health Unit, says Bob Mulvaney. He got his checked and it was 179 over 90, which was high, but they told me not to be panicking.
He went for a follow up visit to his GP two weeks later and he was put on blood pressure tablets.
Bob told the Leinster Leader that he developed terrible cramps in my legs a few weeks later.
He ended up getting stents in his legs which has improved his quality of life hugely.
And this all came about because I got myself checked.
Otherwise Id still be plodding away.
But these days, he says theres not a bother on him.
I couldnt walk 10 metres without being in pain. Now thats all charged. Ive been to Croke Park since.
That used to be a struggle, and now its a pleasure.
Surprisgingly Bob says that he wasnt aware that he wasnt in great health until the mobile unit appeared.
Four of us got it done and I was the only one who turned out with the high blood pressure.
The 60-year-old who is retired said that the greatest thing he got from the test and the procedure that followed is peace of mind.
Newbridge is a fair sized town, with a good, broad population.
A former garrison town, it has a fair representation of socio economic groups, from the middle class all the way through to the working class, and everything in between. (In Ireland were not allowed to say upper class, we just have very middle class).
This marks it out as different from Naas, which is more monoculturally middle class.
And as a consequence, Newbridge has a wide variety of housing types available in essence, it doesnt matter what you can pay, everyone has a place and theres a place for everyone.
Or so I always thought, or so we all always thought.
In the past few weeks Ive followed and reported on the plight of a the family of a man who is a corporal in the army.
Hes been serving for the past 17 years and is, you would imagine, in a good place finanically. Its a good steady job, with a pension guaranteed.
The mans partner has a part-time job in a shop its not huge money, but between them, youd imagine they should be able to afford to either rent or buy a house for themselves and their four children.
Well, yeah.
The man, I learned, earns circa 520 before tax per week. I had imagined that it would be 520 net rather than gross. I dont know what his partner brings in, but lets say its the guts of 150 a week.
It turns out that with their income they qualify for government support, in the form of HAP or Housing Assistance Programme.
The woman told me that between HAP, and their own resources, they would be in a position to offer potential landlords 1,400 a month.
However, their landlord told them back in January that he was going to be selling up. They spent six months trying to find an alternative place to live, to no avail, and had to register themselves homeless with Kildare County Council.
They got sorted with a house supplied by a Housing Agency last week, just in the nick of time.
There are two elements to this dilemma, both fundamental.
The first is that a man with 17 years service in the army, who has managed to earn promotion, should be earning more than 520 gross or more to the point, should be earning enough to not have to rely on State supports to provide for his family.
The Defence Forces have a significant difficulty right now in either attracting or holding onto personnel. This is, for obvious reasons, not a position the armed forces of any nation should be in.
This mans situation, I would suggest, is probably at the heart of that difficulty.
Secondly, we have to be concerned that Newbridge, with its broad variety of housing available, cannot cater for a family who can offer landlords 1,400 a month. Part of the problem was that 1,400 didnt buy a lot, which is worthy of our concern in any town.
Wary
But also, landlords were wary of HAP for a variety of reasons.
Some, in fairness, had had bad experience with it. But some were simply anxious to avoid coming to the attention of authorities.
The whole rental sector needs a massive overhaul.
Too many people are dependent on it for it to be left to the market to sort out.
Has Clane sufficient water and sewerage infrastructure to build the houses and provide the local industry its population needed?
A housing development in Clane was recently turned down by Bord Pleanala and it was revealed that one of the grounds was that the water and sewerage system was inadequate.
Last week, Irish Water confirmed to the Leader that a major project, which would enable it to cater for a population equivalent to 130,000 people is nearing completion.
But a number of other projects are still in the pipeline, one due to be completed in the first half of 2020 and the other in the second half of 2020.
The Leader asked Irish Water about the statement by Bord Pleanala that a 34 proposed house development near Lidl, development was premature due to the existing lack of capacity in the Clane wastewater network, including the Clane foul pumping station and other sewer network constraints in the area between Clane and Osberstown Wastewater Treatment Plant, which deficiencies will not be rectified within a reasonable period.
Details were sought of any estimate of when the system will have sufficient capacity to enable such projects as the above 35 house application in Clane to go ahead, if permission was granted to them.
In response, Irish Water said it is carrying out three major projects on the Upper Liffey Valley Wastewater system with a combined value of over 50 million.
One is the Osberstown Wastewater treatment plant upgrade.
This project will increase the treatment capacity at the plant and enable it to treat wastewater up to a population equivalent of 130,000PE.
This project is nearing completion.
Another project is known as Contract 2A, the Newbridge Interceptor Sewer.
This project is due to start in first half of 2018.
It has a two year construction period and will increase the wastewater network capacity in the area.
Then there is Contract 2B which will cater for Naas, Sallins, Clane, Kill and Johnstown.
This is due to start in second half of 2018.
Irish Water said this will take two years to complete and will increase capacity in the area.
Twenty two acres of land at Whitechurch, Straffan has been put up for sale by public auction on Thursday September 21 in The Glenroyal Hotel, Maynooth at 3 pm
Lot 1 concists of three acres, Lot 2 includes 19 acres, and Lot 3 includes The Entire, unless previously sold.
REA Coonan Maynooth and Celbridge are delighted to bring this prime parcel of lands to auction.
The lands are laid out in one division with excellent frontage to the main Kill to Straffan roadway.
Whitechurch is located along the Straffan to Kill road about 5 km from the village of Straffan.
Surrounded by stud farms, agricultural lands and one off housing, Whitechurch is situated just 7 km from the M7 motorway at Kill and is just a 30 minute drive to Dublin city.
The area is a prime location and is adjacent to the K Club, Baronrath Stud and Goffs.
The lands are laid out in one rectangular shaped division with over 100m frontage to the public road. The lands are laid out in pasture and are surrounded by mature hedgerow.
The lands are of prime quality free draining lands and would suit any agricultural enterprise.
The lands would also provide for a very attractive residential site for a one off house subject to the necessary planning consent.
The land is on offer at guide price of 13,000 per acre.
Joint Agent: Morgan Ferris, Ferris and Associates, (086) 8333244
Sols: Mr Tom Stafford Reidy, Stafford Sols, Newbridge, Co. Kildare (045) 432 188 Viewing Strictly by appointment with sole agents. Contact Philip Byrne of REA Coonan 01-6286128 for further information.
The Glens Centre, Manorhamilton will host a series of free workshops during the autumn months.
The Migration Project with Rachel Webb
This series of six art workshops for children aged 8-12 starts on Tuesday, September 19 at the Glens Centre in Manorhamilton, each session running from 5.30 - 7.30.
Looking at how and why birds and people migrate into and out of Ireland, the similar and different reasons for leaving home to travel to a faraway place, we will be watching short videos, playing games, making bird masks, models, paintings and video.
Although the participants will learn about bird migration, and about why people from other countries come to live here, the emphasis will be on fun and making things.
Writing Workshops with Mary Branley
Mary Branley is an award winning poet, musician and writer whose poetry has been widely anthologised including Windharp Irish Poetry since 1916, (Ed Niall Mc Monigle) Penguin Ireland, Dublin, Sept 2015 and The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Vol IV), Cork University Press, 2002.
Her work has been translated into both Spanish and Catalan.
Recent poems have appeared in Australian online publications Mascara Review, and Cordite Poetry Review.
She received the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in 2008, numerous residencies at Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, Heinrich Boll Cottage.
'Writing Together' will consist of eight workshops every Saturday at 1pm until 3pm from September 9 until October 28.
The 'Poetry Clinic' will consist of two workshops on Monday, November 6 and Monday, November 13 from 7pm - 9pm.
Taking place in The Glens Centre, New Line. Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim. Limited places in each workshop. Please contact The Glens Centre to book your place - (071) 9855833.
A protest was held in Carrick-on-Shannon, yesterday, Friday into the move by Bank of Ireland's to withdraw the Irish service on ATMs in Leitrim, apart from one in the county town.
For the past 15 years when you went to withdraw money at a Bank of Ireland ATM, the first question you were asked was, did you want to conduct your transaction in Gaeilge or English.
For those with a strong interest in the Irish language this was a very positive and welcome development. A recognition that, yes, this was our first choice language and here was a commercial bank giving us a chance to use Irish. After fifteen years, one could never envisage a situation when that service would not be available.
Bank of Ireland branches in Mohill, Drumshanbo, Manorhamilton and Carrick-on-Shannon all offered this service. Then, about two years ago, the option disappeared off the screen in Drumshanbo. When locals protested, they were told not to worry, the service is still running in three other Leitrim towns. Today, the option exists in Carrick on Shannon only. Its the same story throughout the country.
For member of Conradh na Gaeilge this is all a hugely backward and ill-advised step by Bank of Ireland. Why they would withdraw a service that reflected well on the Bank is hard to understand, especially when there was practically no cost involved in providing the Irish option.
On Friday last, people with an interest in the Irish language held a picket/protest at Bank of Ireland in Carrick-on-Shannon as part of a national demand for restoration of the bilingual option. Indeed it is strongly felt that ATMs should have the facility for multiple language use, as is common in most countries.
Pictured above are : Grupa taobh amuigh de Bhanc na hEireann, Cora Droma Ruisc ar an Aoine seo caite: Councillor Des Guckian, Sean O Suilleabhain, Councillor Seadhna Logan, Gene Anderson, Councillor Finola Armstrong-Maguire, Mairin Martin, Micheal Shanley, Maire Ni Mhaoilbhlia, Seosamh Mac Muiri, Diarmuid Mac Con Mhaoil.
The Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza continues and deepens week after week. The occupation is of course illegal under international law as enshrined in the Geneva Conventions which were adopted after World War II. As a reaction to Germanys colonising activities in Eastern Europe, they specifically prohibit the colonisation/absorption of land conquered in war (in this case 1967) into the territory of the conquering country. Just this weekend Netanyahu has confirmed his determination to continue the settlement enterprise and never to give back any land that has been stolen. This has been reported in Haaretz, the Iiberal Israeli newspaper, which is the source of much of the information in this post.
In Gaza, the siege continues and this prevents the rebuilding of the territory after the last Gaza conflict (2014) and inflicts daily misery on the inhabitants. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, it is estimated that over 3500 Palestinians have been arrested this year alone. Many of these are children and every day I read reports of new overnight arrests children and adults taken from their beds by Israeli soldiers. Settler violence towards Palestinians has increased dramatically and the Haaretz and Israeli NGOs regularly report on this. The settlers who commit crimes against Palestinians are protected by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) whose soldiers rarely intervene. Prosecutions of settlers for such crimes are almost unheard of.
A particularly serious development has occurred these past two weeks which has really incensed some European governments. With the start of the new school year the Israelis have decided to demolish several schools. Some of these have been funded by the Belgian, Dutch and Norwegian governments. This has been documented this week in an article in the Independent (also confirmed by Haaretz) which reports that 55 schools in the West Bank are currently under threat of demolition.
Belgium is particularly incensed by the demolition of a school in the village of Jubbet Al Dhib where six terrapin cabins had recently been erected so that local children did not have to walk an hour to get to school. The IDF destroyed the school buildings and confiscated the equipment and furniture, so the children had to sit on the ground in the blazing heat on the first day back while tarpaulins were erected to give some protection from the sun. The Belgian Deputy Prime Minister issued a statement saying:
These new demolitions and seizures of essential infrastructure are unacceptable: Belgiums projects aim to meet humanitarian needs and are carried out in strict respect of international humanitarian law..By undermining such humanitarian projects, Israel contravenes its international obligations as an occupying power.
The Jubbet Al Dhib demolition comes on top of the destruction of school facilities in three other West Bank villages in the last two weeks, all donated by international bodies and NGOs.
Israel loves to claim that it is the only democracy in the Middle East. It enjoys special privileges as a result of its Association status with the EU. Its citizens, including the settlers who live illegally on Palestinian land, enjoy visa free travel to the UK and EU countries something that is not true for Palestinians unless they live in Israel proper and have Israeli passports. They are allowed to buy arms not to just for their own security, but also to maintain their illegal occupation. And yet Israel behaves like any other tyranny towards the Palestinians in the occupied territories, and it thumbs its nose at the European governments that provide aid to Palestine projects which are then destroyed.
How long will the EU countries (including the UK) just carry on admonishing the Israeli government for all its illegal actions, and when will they get serious and start putting pressure on Israel to change its ways. They could start by making trade with settlements illegal and they could withdraw visa free travel for people living in settlements.
* John Kelly is a member in Warwick District, Secretary of the Lib Dem Friends of Palestine, and a member of the Federal International Relations Committee.
My spiritual home in August is usually Charlotte Square in Edinburgh at the heart of the Edinburgh Book Festival.
This year, I didnt manage to get there at all until the very last night.
I showed up at 6pm after work without much hope of getting tickets for anything at that late stage. How wrong could I be?
I managed to buy returned tickets for both Margaret Hodge, the former Chair of the Public Accounts Committee and the amazing foreign correspondent John Simpson.
Margaret Hodge was there to talk about her book, Called to Account, and she told us about an encounter with her predecessor just after she was elected PAC Chair. David Davis, before he became a fully paid up member of the establishment, told her to go after Vodaphone on tax.
Keen to track down evidence of a deal between HMRC and the corporate giant, she summoned a senior HMRC official who denied everything. A suggestion from a committee colleague that the official be put on oath led to a 20 minute hunt for a Bible.
She outlined a few areas where public money could be better spent. The MOD apparently spends a fortune on polo lessons. Thats the charging around on horses clunking balls with mallets, not the mint with the hole.
A telling moment was when she changed her mind on the Private Finance Initiative which her party saddled us with. She thought they were a good idea but now sees them as a complete con, with NHS trusts having to pay off their debt before they pay a single doctor.
The revolving door between government and the big financial firms continues to be a problem. She cited the issue of a adviser from one of the big accountancy firms who worked in the Treasury for a while writing laws on tax relief which he then went back and advised people how to get round.
In questions she affirmed her continuing opposition to Jeremy Corbyns leadership of the Labour Party.
Next up was John Simpson. My first memory of him is watching him read the 9 oclock News about the Llandudno Liberal Assembly, you know, the one where David Steel told them to go back to your constituencies and prepare for Government in 1981. Since then, Ive watched him report on many wars.
So what was the worst year he can remember in his long career? This last one in Britain. He described the Brexit stuff as our darkest hour and talked about how nasty the country had become with so much abuse of people online and in real life.
His book, We chose to speak of war and strife, tells his own story as well of those of other distinguished foreign correspondents. He talked about Clare Hollingsworth and Martha Gellhorn, clearly strong inspirations for his own work. Hollingworth was the journalist who first saw German tanks invading Poland in 1939. She died earlier this year at 105.
One of the questions he got was about the gender pay gap at the BBC which he answered with quite a lot of class. He was pretty defensive of his employer of half a century, highlighting the agenda of those who would do down the BBC, but recognised that it was a problem without harsh criticism.
Spotted in the audience, amongst many other journalists, was BBC Scotlands fabulous political editor Brian Taylor, who was, like Simpson, clad in a light coloured suit.
The event was chaired by his former BBC Colleague Allan Little who, amongst many other things, is the Book Festival Chair. He and Simpson reminisced about the first Gulf War in 1991 when they were both headed to Iraq. The night before in Jordan, they were deciding what alcohol to bring in with them and Little steered his older colleague away from the Campari towards the single malt.
Of course the events did their job and I bought both books. It was slightly surreal after spending an hour listening to stories about war zones to walk to the station to the sound of the end of festival fireworks.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
THERE was no better handler of cattle at Limerick Show than 16-year-old Jason Teague.
While many grown men and women struggled with headstrong heifers and belligerent bulls, Jason was calmness personified, just like his pedigree bullock.
When the Leader asked if we could take a photograph, Jason manoeuvred his wheelchair around, untied his Limousin X bullock from the gate and led him over like an old Labrador.
Jason, who has cerebral palsy, is on a winning streak.
I got champion at Mohill Show last week and reserve champion at Iverk Show on Saturday, said James, from Abbeyshrule in County Longford.
No sooner were they home from Kilkenny that night they were planning for Limerick Show on the following morning.
I was up at 5am and we left for Limerick Show after 6am. Ive been going to shows all my life, said Jason, who has no fear of holding on to an animal weighing over 500kgs.
He is as quiet as a lamb, smiles Jason, who was dressed in the show persons uniform of crisp white shirt, tie and trousers.
He keeps a close eye while his bullock is shown in the ring. Sadly his prized possession was out of the places at Limerick Show but Jason really enjoyed his day in the thick of the action.
His mum, Jacinta said she and husband James are very proud of Jason. Grandmother, Maureen, also made the journey to Limerick Racecourse.
Jason loves cattle and shows, absolutely loves it - thats his hobby. We had a great day at Limerick Show. It is a long journey and an early start but he doesnt mind once he is going with his bullock. He was awake at 5am and has to wear his whites.
He holds the animals halter while we comb and wash the bullock. It would stand for him because he is an auld pet and is used to Jason. Jason has been around him since he was a calf, said Jacinta.
And the bond between boy and gentle beast was there for all to see.
THE sun shone as residents and staff at St Itas Community Hospital in Newcastle West gathered to welcome the arrival of a brand new bus, which will make life easier and a lot more interesting for them all in the months and years ahead.
The wheelchair-adapted Mercedes Benz Sprinter is a gift to the hospital from the Friends of St Itas and the voluntary groups chairman, John Collins, as well as other members of the group, were there to share in the handing over ceremony last Thursday.
It has been long awaited, Ann McMorrow, director of nursing said, smiling with pleasure. And it is and will be invaluable.
The bus, with a capacity for four wheelchair users as well as 12 others, will be used, she said, to bring people to the hospitals day services but will also be used by the residents, the people who live in St Itas. Eyes lit up as she listed out trips to Ballybunion, to the shopping centre, or to the races that would now be possible.
Or Lisdoonvarna, someone suggested to a lot of laughter.
It is a huge asset,Ms McMorrow said, especially for a rural hospital like St Itas and allows residents to go back into their own area and community.
People give donations for the good work done here and it is great to see something tangible, she added.
It is great day for us, John Collins, chairman of Friends of St Itas said.
A lot of work has gone into collecting this money. I thank each member of the Friends. I especially want to thank the people who contributed, who gave money from the bottom of their hearts.
The Friends have long contributed to the hospital and look forward to supporting them again in the future. The friends, volunteers and community are very proud of their efforts and very proud of the new addition to St Itas Community Hospital today
Joan Cremin, who helps run the Day Hospital, made known their appreciation to the Friends of St Itas and those who contributed.
We owe you a huge debt. On behalf of the day hospital, thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Catherine McAuliffe, on behalf of the administrative team, wished everybody luck and safe driving.
This is a huge asset for the hospital and residents, she said.
An older bus was traded in for the state-of-the-art 61,500 16-seater bus which has all the mod cons including a heated floor and seats, air conditioning, a lower platform for ease of lifting wheelchairs and a host of safety features. The bus was blessed by Fr. John Mockler.
COME to school and be yourself, and well do everything in our power to support you through your secondary education".
That was the message this week from the first principal of Limericks newest secondary school, which opened its doors to the first intake of students.
Some 94 first year pupils filed through the gates of Mungret Community College on Tuesday morning.
They were joined by 14 teachers at the secondary school, located in a building once occupied by the areas Educate Together.
Educate Together will also this week start the school year in its own purpose built accommodation, while it is hoped within two years, the Community College will have a building to call its own within the Mungret College site, as it grows to its target of 600.
The first new secondary school in the city since Gaelcholaiste Luimni in 2006, its first principal Liam OMahoney has hailed a significant milestone.
There hasnt been a secondary school here since 1974 when Mungret College closed, and it is not lost on us that were opening a new school in the shadow of this. We are looking forward to providing a high quality, inclusive education, where our students will be at the centre of everything we do, he said.
The motto of Mungret Community College which is being run by the Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board is 'a community learning together, and its crest has at its heart the Abbey of Mungret.
For now, the new school has six general classrooms, along with specialist resource rooms, a general purpose room, along with classrooms specialising in woodwork, art, music, science and home economics.
Cllr Daniel Butler, who chairs the board of management, said the opening of the school, represents pride and relief in the local community.
There has also been a widespread welcome for the new secondary school from other politicians in the city.
Labour TD Jan OSullivan, who was Education Minister when funding was granted for the school in late 2015, said: Its a very proud day. Im really pleased we could move this forward as quickly as we did, and the Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board is the patron.
Cllr James Collins, Fianna Fail, added: Its something im very proud to be associated with. The main issue in the area when I started as a councillor was a lack of school places and amenities.
Gaelscoil an Raithin also opened in new accommodation at Mungret this week. Up to now, it had been based in a pre-fab at Garryowen Rugby Club.
DOWN Syndrome Ireland promotes a message of inclusivity, ability and beauty and Maura Ryan could be their poster girl.
The 27-year-olds moves went viral on social media last year after she danced on stage with Imelda May at a concert in Killarney.
And while the Cappamore lady received plaudits from the crowd that night, her dance moves have now been officially recognised.
Maura, a student at the Dance Academy in Castletroy, successfully passed her two minute tap dancing solo exam in front of Lorraine Hastings, examiner from the International Dance Teachers Association.
Maura is pictured with Ms Hastings, Laura ODwyer, also Cappamore, and Ashling Hughes, Corbally, who were taking the third module in their ballet teacher exams.
Maura will receive a medal for her talents. Afterwards, a thrilled Maura paraphrased the words of Barack Obama, Yes I can.
Her sister Caitriona and mum Mary said they were delighted that Maura achieved this and it was a very happy day.
Caitriona describes Mauras teacher at the Dance Academy, Stacey Booth, as a shining light in Mauras life and an inspirational woman.
From a teaching viewpoint she has made huge progress. She has a more of a sense of herself and a pride in what she is doing - she has studied ballet, jazz and tap dancing.
For the examiner she did a solo tap dance plus a few little additions of her own which were lovely. She is great fun and we have great fun together. In the dancing school we always try to make sure that all the students get a chance to express their talents.
For example, the other two girls in the photo are becoming ballet teachers. We try to get everybody involved at whatever level is best suited to them, said Stacey.
But there will be no rest for Stacey or any of her proteges as the next big project is coming up fast.
In November, we are putting on Peter Pan in the University Concert Hall with full costumes, said Stacey.
And Maura cant wait to get back on stage and strut her stuff like she did with Imelda May.
Get on good terms with the language of stamp collecting
May 1, 2021, 3 AM
Se-tenant refers to stamps of different designs joined together, such as this se-tenant block of Marine Creatures stamps issued by Russia in 1990 (Scott 5933-5936).
Literally head-to-tail, tete-beche refers to two or more stamps joined together, with one stamp inverted in relation to the other(s). These 1949 stamps from Switzerland showing a viaduct are tete-beche (Scott 329a).
A stamp triptych consists of three stamps joined together to form a complete design, such as these three 2011 Swiss 1-franc stamps featuring the Lavaux Vineyard Terraces UNESCO World Heritage Site (Scott 1429).
The T (for taxe) handstamp on this 1939 cover from Fiji to Portsmouth, Ohio, indicates that the affixed 2-penny stamp was insufficient, and more postage is due.
A keytype stamp has a design used in common with more than one country or colony. Frances Peace and Commerce design was amended for use in 1894 to create a stamp series for the colony of French Sudan.
The Peace and Commerce keytype design also was used for the colony of French Oceania in 1892. Many earlier colonial issues of a few other European countries also are keytypes.
An 1890 keytype design of Great Britain used in many British colonies portrays Queen Victoria. This -penny stamp is from Leeward Islands (Scott 1).
Continuing the succession of British keytypes, a 1927 design depicts King George V, who appears on this 1d red keytype stamp for Fiji (Scott 97).
Great Britain was using keytype stamp designs for its possessions into the mid-20th century. King George VI is on this Leeward Islands 3-penny keytype stamp from 1949 (Scott 125).
Stamp Collecting Basics By Janet Klug
There are terms used in our hobby that sometimes baffle beginner, intermediate, and, on occasion, even advanced stamp collectors. It doesnt hurt to have a review from time to time.
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Lets look at a few terms that seem to get the most questions.
Se-tenant is usually defined as a French word meaning joined together, though Merriam-Webster describes the literal translation as holding one another.
Se-tenant stamps are two or more unseparated stamps of different designs, colors, denominations, or types.
Tete-beche correctly translates from French into head to tail and refers to two or more stamps joined together with one stamp being inverted in relation to the other(s).
Triptych is a stamp term similar to se-tenant, but involving a se-tenant strip of three related stamps joined together to form one overall design.
T The letter T as a marking on a mailed cover (an envelope, postcard, or similar item) is an abbreviation for the French word taxe. A T handstamped on a cover means that not enough postage has been affixed and there is postage due.
A keytype is a basic stamp design used for the stamp issues of two or more postal entities, usually differing in the country name and denomination. Many of the earlier colonial issues of Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany, and Portugal are keytypes.
Often, a keytype stamp will include a designated area where the colony or country name is added to the basic design.
It is worth the effort to learn the language of stamp collecting. Being familiar with terms used in the hobby will help you in communicating with stamp dealers and with other collectors, when you go to a stamp show and look at the exhibits, and when you do research in periodicals and books regarding material in your collection.
There are many sources of information regarding hobby words. A useful glossary is found on the Linns Stamp News website.
BRITT | The annual Britt Draft Horse Show may only last three days, but preparation for the event begins well in advance for the horses and their handlers.
Days, weeks and even months in advance.
Its a lot of work, said Jerry Maker with Maker Farms of Strawberry Point, but we do it for the fun.
Eighteen hitches, including three new ones, returned to Britt for the 36th annual draft horse show, which began Friday and concludes Sunday.
Friday morning Maker and his wife, Mary, and their daughter and son-in-law, Jessica and Paul Banowetz, were on the Hancock County District Fairgrounds preparing their eight Belgian mares for the evenings youth and amateur show.
Jessica and Paul Banowetz walked each of the horses to a wash bay where they scrubbed them down with soap and water before returning them to their barn stalls to dry before the grooming, including rolling the manes, tying the tails and adorning with harnesses, flowers and the hitch.
Some of the horses even received equine chiropractic care from Cadiee Miller of Plainview, Minnesota, who attended the event with Steffen Belgians but assists fellow exhibitors. She attended college in British Columbia, Canada, for equine chiropractic.
It takes about two hours to wash eight, Mary Maker said, noting it takes another two hours to groom the horses prior to the shows.
The Makers, who raise and drive about 30 Belgian mares on their farm, arrived to Britt on Thursday after participating in the Minnesota State Fairs last week. The family usually participates in seven to eight shows a year prior to Britt.
For them, they began pre-season training with the horses to build their wind and muscles in April before the shows started.
Its good when theyre seasoned because you can get away with not having a lot of people, Mary Maker said.
Also washing Belgians Friday morning were Jamie Ridgely and her daughters Kaylynn, 14; Jade, 12 and Mya, 9.
Everybody has a little difference system, but we have plenty of people to help, Ridgely said.
After the seven horses are washed, she said theyre squeegeed, dried and put out before applying show sheen, braiding their hair and painting their hooves before the show.
It takes about an hour and a half if all the horses are washed, Ridgely said.
And Ridgely is no stranger to the Britt Draft Horse Show.
In fact, its a family tradition that was started by her grandparents and continued by her parents Bob and Vicki Roby of Rockwell City. Robys Belgians have returned to Britt for 35 years to attend the draft horse show.
Its kind of our favorite show of the year, Ridgely said.
She said thats because its relatively close to home, so family and friends come and watch, they know a lot of the horse families and the event has its own day for the youth and amateur show, which allows her daughters to participate.
Robys Belgians starts preparation for show season in March with the shoeing of their horses, and by May, the horses are worked pretty hard, Ridgely said, noting theyre driven four days a week and trained with skids to build their endurance.
The family goes to seven to eight shows a year, including the Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska state fairs, but the show in Britt marks the end of their summer.
Its fun for us, Ridgely said. Summers not over until we come to Britt.
The Britt show, which is part of the North American Six-Horse Hitch Classic Series, is one of the last events for hitches across the U.S. and Canada to earn enough points to qualify for the finals at the Oklahoma State Fair in mid-September.
The show is hosted by the Britt Draft Horse Association. The weekend event also features food and retail vendors in the commercial building at the fairgrounds.
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One of the worst wildfire seasons in recent California history was sending smoke into nearly every corner of the state Friday, turning skies into a soupy, gray haze and triggering unhealthy-air warnings, even in Bay Area cities that usually benefit from a protective ocean breeze.
Dozens of fires burning from San Diego County to the Oregon border, many destroying homes and forcing thousands to flee, were fanned by record and near-record temperatures that are expected to continue through the weekend.
Fire officials feared that continued heat in the forecast combined with the throngs of people expected to take to the forests and foothills for fun over the Labor Day holiday would only add to the fire danger.
We want people to be extremely careful this weekend with campfires, with truck chains, said Scott McLean, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire. September and October are historically the two months when we see the largest fires and most devastating fires. Thats what were going into now.
On Friday, Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency for Butte County, where a destructive fire east of Lake Oroville destroyed 20 homes and threatened 500 more. More than 1,000 people were under evacuation orders, including residents of the small community of Feather Falls, named after the popular 410-foot waterfall nearby.
The 3,715-acre Ponderosa Fire began Tuesday when an illegal campfire escaped its pit, according to Cal Fire officials. State investigators have since arrested a 29-year-old Oroville man who they say was responsible. The fire was reported to be 40 percent contained Friday night.
Much of the smoke spilling into the Bay Area, officials said, was coming from the destructive Helena Fire in Trinity County, about 250 miles north of San Francisco. Brown declared a state of emergency there a day earlier.
The 5,170-acre blaze had demolished 130 structures, either homes or outbuildings, near the community of Junction City. The fire, which ignited Wednesday, continued to burn out of control in the Trinity Alps, with firefighters reporting no containment late Friday.
Farther south, several fires ravaged the forests in and around Yosemite National Park. The Railroad Fire, which had scorched 4,360 acres north of the community of Oakhurst along Highway 41 just outside the park, prompted the closure of Yosemites southern entrance. Park officials were advising visitors to enter on Highway 140 or Highway 120.
Fires have also closed Glacier Point Road within the park and several of the trails in the Wawona area.
So far this year, wildfires have charred just over 500,000 acres statewide, about 30,000 more acres than had burned at this time last year and well above average for the period. State officials chalk up the busy season to the bumper crop of vegetation that emerged after the wet winter.
Were well above all the stats at the moment, McLean said, and theres just no relief in sight.
Large wildfires were also burning in Northern Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Idaho in the run-up to the holiday weekend, all contributing to the smoke that hung over much of the West.
In the Bay Area, air regulators advised children and the elderly with respiratory problems to stay indoors because of particulate matter spawned by the fires on top of the record heat and smog.
We have a double whammy here, said Kristine Roselius, spokeswoman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.
com Twitter: @kurtisalexander
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Fridays scorching 106-degree heat in San Francisco broke the all-time record dating to 1874 for the hottest day in the usually foggy city by the bay.
And that record may get broken by Saturdays similarly hot temperature.
Its horrible out there, Fritz Waldron said Friday as he stood in line to buy strawberry ice cream at the Haagen-Dazs shop at Westfield San Francisco Centre downtown. Just horrible. Its like Phoenix. I cant wait for it to end.
Before Friday, the hottest day ever recorded by the National Weather Service for San Francisco was 103 degrees on June 14, 2000. And the hottest Sept. 1 was a mere 90, a record set in 1952.
Now Playing: KTVU's Steve Paulson says there is an excessive heat warning for much of the Bay Area today with cities like Livermore possibly reaching 116 degrees. Video: KTVU
The National Weather Service attributed San Franciscos blazing heat and other falling records around the Bay Area to a massive area of high pressure hovering above Northern California and no onshore wind, which usually brings cooling sea air into the city and other coastal areas. The Weather Service issued an excessive-heat warning through 9 p.m. Saturday along the coast.
Meteorologist Scott Rowe of the National Weather Service in Monterey summed up the news with this masterful understatement: Its very hot.
San Francisco summers typically mean coats, space heaters, and high heating bills. Air conditioning in city homes is not even a thing.
I dont like this, said Habte Tesfom, a valet parking attendant at the downtown Nordstrom. Nothing helps. Its hot outside, and its even hotter when you get into a parked car.
As the thermometers peaked in San Francisco, Tesfom said hed already drunk five bottles of water and was working on a mango juice. He said he wasnt surprised that the heat set a new record. It feels like it.
Patience wasnt the only thing melting in San Franciscos surprising swelter. The tourist trade all but evaporated for street vendors.
Nobodys buying, everyones inside, said Blue, who tried to sell mini seagull sculptures made of pine cone petals for $5 each at Aquatic Park.
Meanwhile, nine Bay Area cities, as well as Moffett Field, Santa Cruz and Salinas, broke heat records for Sept. 1, most set more than 60 years ago.
Among them were Santa Rosa, which at 110 degrees, broke its record of 105 set in 1950. San Jose hit 108 degrees, well above its previous record for the day of 101, also set in 1950. And Richmond, at 102, crushed its record of 93 degrees set in 1955.
What were seeing today is incredible heat throughout the San Francisco Bay Area including locations that are usually lot cooler, so we urge folks to take extra precautions to stay safe, Rowe said. Even at our office in Monterey its 101 degrees in Monterey!
BART officials, concerned that the sizzling heat could warp its steel tracks, are running trains slower than usual so operators can keep an eye out for dips and bumps.
Another unlovely side-effect of the record heat is that it has combined with smoke from wildfires burning in Northern California and Oregon to create plenty of soot and smog in Bay Area air.
The particulates can cause breathing problems in sensitive people or those who work outside, said Ralph Borrmann, spokesman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
Jumping into cool water is one way to cool off.
Walnut Creek has a creek but you cant swim in it, not even when the temperature is 108. Its largely a fenced-off storm drain with warning signs to keep out, which everyone except ducks was doing.
Instead, people headed to the usual lineup of libraries and other public buildings rebranded as cooling stations. At the senior center, it meant that a nice person like receptionist Eileen Kempker put out a pitcher of ice water and plastic cups by the front desk, next to the basket with the free hearing-aid batteries.
Were a respite, and you can just stay inside and do whatever you want, said Kempker, although she herself could not stay inside because the ice machine was in another building and she had to go out the front door from time to time to replenish the ice in the pitcher, one of her official duties when the senior center becomes a cooling station.
Next door, at the Walnut Creek main library, it was OK to come in and read, or come in and not read.
I like to read, said Pat Strong, the clerk in the Friends of the Library bookstore. I dont know if its ever really too hot to read, but if you dont want to read, you dont have to.
Downtown, one of the hardiest souls was 95-year-old Emily Hagen, who comes to a coffee bar on Locust Street for ice herb tea and a cheese danish every Monday and Friday because thats just what she does, and never mind how hot it is. Cold weather is nice, she said, and hot weather is nice and so is all the weather in between.
I enjoy a day like this, she said. I enjoy everything. When youre 95, you thank the good Lord youre alive and you stop complaining.
Donald Steeves, 67, said hes been homeless for about 30 years. He said Walnut Creek is one of the places hes been homeless in, and its as good as any. Being homeless when the temperature is 100 is all about being logical.
You go into public buildings when you can, he said, pushing a grocery cart with stuff in it besides groceries down Olympic Blvd. You drink water, not beer. A cold beer doesnt really work in weather like this.
The triple-digit temperatures elsewhere in the Bay Area were considered very high risk for the entire population due to their duration and no relief was expected overnight. So officials warned were warning people to take precautions: drink water and stay indoors if possible.
Officials advise people to stay inside from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., the hottest hours of the day, to prevent heat-related illnesses.
Pet and livestock owners are advised to take extra care of their animals and give them lots of water.
Many schools closed early Friday, and some outdoor events have been canceled this weekend, thanks to the heat, including Livermores 36th Harvest Wine Celebration at Las Positas College.
Steve Rubenstein, Nanette Asimov and Jenna Lyons are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com, nasimov@sfchronicle.com and jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF, @NanetteAsimov and @JennaJourno
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UPDATE: 12:10 p.m., Saturday
According to information reported by area motorists through gas price tracker GasBuddy.com, about 500 fueling stations in and around San Antonio were out of gas early Saturday afternoon.
Multiple corner and grocery stores, who had gas Saturday morning, continued to see lines of vehicles as locals sought fuel as the Labor Day weekend began.
"We are out of gas, and will not have any until Tuesday," is how Ashley Chapman, station manager at Hollywood Park Automotive, a North Side Shell filling station, was answering the phone Saturday Morning.
Chapman said it has been a madhouse since Thursday afternoon.
"People have been coming at us from all different directions," she said. "And our phones are ringing off the hook, it's non-stop."
According to the AAA gas prices website, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded in the San Antonio area Saturday morning was $2.35, up from $2.29 Friday.
Chapman said her station received a full delivery of 9,000 gallons Thursday about 12:30 p.m. By 10:30 p.m. the store was dry. A second delivery Friday afternoon of about 4,500 gallons lasted only three hours.
Like San Antonio, many neighboring cities also have been experiencing a run on the gas stations.
"I can't get over how the lines are backing up," said Clayton Campbell, 59, of Castroville at the Valley Mart, 521 U.S. 90 East in Castroville. "I filled up last night here. I had to wait, but it wasn't bad."
Campbell said people are creating the very shortages they fear.
"C'mon, people, it's not going away," he said, of the gasoline.
Original story continues:
San Antonio drivers reported that 72 percent of the areas roughly 630 gas stations had run dry by Friday afternoon as farmers, transportation companies and businesses scrambled to find backup fuel, according to data submitted by drivers to gas price tracker GasBuddy.com.
The websites gasoline availability tracker was awash with 453 red marks denoting stations without fuel as of 5:45 p.m., even as Gov. Greg Abbott assured Texans that we have a bunch of gasoline coming in and Mayor Ron Nirenberg asked drivers to stop hoarding fuel.
People are panicking and making the situation much, much worse, Nirenberg said in a statement.
Abbotts and Nirenbergs comments did little to fill the tanks of the ranchers, businesses, ambulances and volunteers that needed gas to work or to shuttle people and supplies around Texas. Officials blamed the run on gas on public fear stoked after major refineries and pipelines reported outages in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. The fear that gasoline would be in short supply spread across Texas, from the Rio Grande Valley to Dallas, and drivers lined up at the pump in places such as Florida, too.
The perceived shortage, however, was causing real gas prices to rise and problems across the state. Wholesale gasoline prices are up 53 cents in Texas since Aug. 21, and gas stations are passing that cost along to consumers, said Tom Kloza of Oil Price Information Service. Average U.S. prices at the pump are expected to reach $2.60 to $2.75 per gallon in the next few weeks, he said.
Now Playing: Lines extend to the streets on Wednesday, Aug. 31, as gas stations run low after Harvey. Video: San Antonio Express-News
Prices in San Antonio soared within hours Friday. Gas at two Northeast Side stations, a Valero and a Shell, jumped from $2.09 a gallon Friday morning to $2.25 and $2.29 a gallon, respectively, by noon.
Gene Richardson, director of commodity and regulatory activities for the Waco-based Texas Farm Bureau, said fuel supply issues were already stalling farmers just starting to take their giant combines and cotton pickers out to the fields.
We have had a producer just north of here who yesterday said that he got his last 50 gallons of diesel, Richardson said of an Ellis County cotton, grain sorghum and corn farmer. He was told that he would not get any more diesel till next week. Well you know, if you got a tractor using 10 gallons an hour, 50 gallons doesnt go very far. So, if hes running multiple vehicles and then has trucks to haul stuff out of the fields its a problem.
A far West Texas man who distributed fuel to large farms and ranches posted on social media that hed been told not to expect another load of gas until next week.
His fuel comes out of El Paso, Richardson said. All the trucks have been diverted to the affected area from the hurricane.
Its a distribution problem, its not a lack (of gas), Richardson said. I think its just because all the trucks have been rerouted, and itll get worked out shortly.
Our governor has taken off all the rules about interstate transportation. That kind of clues you in theyre letting go of all the stops. I think well get back to normal quickly.
Emergency service providers, companies and public transportation agencies that still had fuel were preparing for the worst, tapping fuel reserves and arranging backup gasoline supplies just in case.
Austin-based Acadian Ambulance Service of Texas was to send extra fuel tanks to San Antonio and Austin today, company spokeswoman Denise Richter said. The company, which operates more than 300 ambulances in the state, including 52 in Bexar County, is the 911 provider for Bexar Countys unincorporated areas. It has seven local ambulance stations.
Our operations have not been affected by the run on gas so far, Richter said. Crews have been instructed to replenish the fuel in their ambulance as often as possible.
VIA Metropolitan Transit, which operates San Antonios bus system, is coordinating with gas suppliers to arrange priority supplies for the VIAtrans Paratransit Service fleet that operates on gasoline, President and CEO Jeffrey C. Arndt said. VIAtrans provides services for registered riders with disabilities.
We do not anticipate any reduction in service through the storm recovery period, Arndt said. We continue to provide free transportation for evacuation shelter staff and shelter guests arriving from across Southeast Texas.
VIA is otherwise operating at full-service levels, he said. The majority of VIAs fleet operates on diesel and compressed natural gas, which werent affected as much by the storm.
Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft were closely monitoring the situation, but long lines at fuel pumps hadnt stymied the companies operations yet.
Were not seeing any big problems around the state with supply or demand or pricing, but we do acknowledge it is certainly frustrating for our driver-partners, company spokesman Travis Considine said. I do not want to discount that.
Volunteers like Rich Plakas worried that the supply interruption and perceived gas shortage would leave them without enough fuel to deliver supplies to Rockport and Port Aransas, some of the hardest-hit coastal communities.
Ive got three-quarters of a tank, so, Im going to head down, said Plakas, who is a digital marketer and founder of Craft Beer Austin. I dont know if Ill make it back. Thats my concern. Weve got some guys with big trucks, generators.
Plakas asked that people in areas that werent hit by Harvey to not panic.
If you dont need the gas, sit tight. Its going to come back, he said. Let the people that need to get it, let us get down there. Let us help the people. We have electric, we have running water the people down there, they havent had that for a week already.
rdruzin@express-news.net
@druz_journo
Staff Writers Patrick Danner, Joshua Fechter, David Hendricks, Diana R. Fuentes and Chris Quinn contributed to this report.
Robots are populating our cultural landscape with engineers building them to converse, engage in commerce and perform dangerous tasks.
Two divergent views on robots reflect questions about humanity's uniqueness in the universe. People may see them as a threat, especially as some become increasingly humanlike.
A phenomenon, called "the uncanny valley," proposed in 1970 by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, says the more humanlike something is, the more comfortable we feel with it. But this comfort level suddenly dips when the object closely resembles a human.
"They contain both life and the appearance of life," said Karl MacDorman, associate professor in the human-computer interaction program of Indiana University. "It reminds us that at some point, we could be inanimate after death."
The idea that robots may have a consciousness and become indistinguishable from humans disturbs some people. The possibility that humans are not unique opens up questions about the nature of humanity.
Philosophers such as Daniel Dennett describe humans as nothing but complicated robots made of flesh.
But Jews, Christians and Muslims believe humans are made in God's image, the apex of God's created order.
People from cultures that attach spiritual significance to trees or stones may have an easier time with robots. MacDorman points out that Japanese society, which is both Shinto and Buddhist, has a general tendency to be more accepting of robots.
Robots interact with customers in department stores, and engineers have built them as companions for families and the elderly.
But the fact is that they can be almost humanlike and may be manipulated in more malicious ways. Setting limits for robots and drawing the line between humans and machines has increasingly become relevant in government meetings.
In the future, governments may have to clearly define robot rights.
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The City of Laredo's appeal to overturn a ruling that shot down its plastic bag ban will go before the Texas Supreme Court, with the outcome affecting plastic bag bans across the state.
In its response to the city's request for review, the Laredo Merchants Association requested the court grant the city's petition and affirm "the well-reasoned decision of the Court of Appeals."
The association's legal representation, Christopher Peterson, said the merchants are happy with the Supreme Court's decision to hear the case.
READ MORE: Texas Supreme Court to review Laredo's plastic bag ban
The association is a conglomerate of merchants in Laredo that are mom-and-pop stores but also state and nationwide stores that want to centralize the hodgepodge of plastic bag laws so that there is one uniform law to follow, according to Peterson.
Texas currently has various plastic bag bans, differing from city to city.
"These merchants have to comply with different regulations and it is very expensive," Peterson said.
He compared it to the statewide ban against texting while driving that took effect Friday. Rather than having various texting bans throughout the state, Texas centralized it so Texans know when they enter the state they can't text on their phones.
"That is really what the merchants want, is one uniform law that they can apply statewide," Peterson said.
RELATED: Ken Paxton wants plastic bag bans eliminated in Laredo, statewide
The City of Laredo did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the case moving forward.
After Laredo elected to pursue an attempt to see the appellate court's decision overturned, its retained attorney, Dale Wainwright, said the issue is one that the Texas Supreme Court has not addressed before.
"The specific question is whether a municipality may regulate the provision of single-use checkout bags, but the more fundamental question is whether the City of Laredo and other Texas cities may promulgate valid ordinances to help prevent flooding when these bags clog street drains and sewer systems, and to save lives, protect property and wildlife and reduce litter," he said.
"The city's Checkout Bag Reduction Ordinance was intended to serve these purposes," Wainwright added. "Local municipal officials know better than statewide regulators how to address these legitimate and important local objectives, and the city believes that the statute at issue does not prevent it from taking these actions to serve its citizens."
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Four people filed police reports against a local gas station Thursday for alleged price gouging, according to the Laredo Police Department.
Complainants stated they were charged between $7 and $9.99 per gallon at the Tejano Mart at 502 Lafayette St., according to the police reports filed Thursday.
A Tejano Mart representative did not respond to a request for comment.
LPD said rumors spread on social media about Laredo running out of gasoline due to the effects of Hurricane Harvey. These rumors indicated that Austin and San Antonio had run out of gasoline and that Laredo would be affected as well.
RELATED: Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller says gas is on its way
Panicked people subsequently flocked to the gas stations, creating long lines and a lack of fuel at local gas stations. Four people who went to the Tejano Mart on Lafayette were in for a surprise.
Incidents
A 53-year-old woman stated she pumped 9.9 gallons. When she received the receipt, she noticed she had been charged $95, or $9.99 per gallon, according to police.
Upset, she went to speak to the cashier, who told her that the owner had set the price due to the high demand, LPD said.
Other customers began complaining of price gouging.
A 36-year-old man pumped 4.46 gallons and paid $44.62, according to police. A 39-year-old man told police he ended up paying $20.22 for 2.889 gallons. He was charged $7 per gallon, according to police.
READ MORE: Roughly one-third of the gas stations in Laredo reportedly didn't have fuel Friday morning
A 61-year-old man alleged he paid $88.44 for 8.84 gallons. He stated the price at the pump and billboard did not reflect the increase, according to police.
LPD had said that a gas price increase was expected but only by a few cents.
"They clearly were taking advantage of the public in a vulnerable time due to rumors," states the police report.
Proclamation
Gov. Greg Abbott warned the public against price gouging on Friday, saying those involved in the illicit activity will be prosecuted.
"Price gouging is unlawful throughout Texas, and I will work with Attorney General Ken Paxton to ensure all who engage in this reprehensible act are vigorously prosecuted," Abbott said in a statement. "Taking advantage of victims of Hurricane Harvey is indefensible and Texas will punish these lawbreakers to the fullest extent of the law. We must be helping our fellow Texans in need, not seeking to exploit their struggles."
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The City of Laredo's appeal to overturn a ruling that shot down its plastic bag ban will go before the Texas Supreme Court.
The court agreed Friday to grant the city's request for a review of a lower appellate court's ruling that deemed its ban on store-provided plastic bags is unlawful. Oral arguments are set for Jan. 11. The City of Laredo and the Laredo Merchants Association are allotted 20 minutes to present their case.
The outcome will affect plastic bag bans across the state.
READ MORE: City of Laredo, merchants association react to Texas Supreme Court review of plastic bag ban
Last year, the Fourth Court of Appeals ruled that the city's plastic bag ban is preempted by state law. The appellate court found that the law "unmistakably expresses the Legislature's desire to preempt any ordinance that prohibits the sale or use of a container or package for solid waste management purposes."
Store-provided bags are containers under the law, the court said.
In spring 2015, the Laredo Merchants Association filed a lawsuit against the City of Laredo just before its checkout bag reduction ordinance took effect. Two months later, 341st District Court Judge Beckie Palomo ruled in favor of the city. The Merchants Association then appealed the decision to the appellate court.
Over 10 cities across Texas are in jeopardy of having their plastic bag ordinances overturned depending on the Supreme Court's decision. Other cities have postponed deliberations on proposed plastic bag ordinances while they await the outcome of the case.
RELATED: City of Houston in support of Laredo's plastic bag ban reduction ordinance
The case has garnered widespread attention. The cities of Houston and Galveston as well as Texas lawmakers, leagues and associations have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in both opposition and support of Laredo's ordinance.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a brief in December on behalf of the state of Texas, saying "the Legislature did not mince words when it removed the authority of Texas cities to restrict or prohibit plastic checkout bags."
"That Laredo and Austin, amongst others, would persist in their foolhardy policy despite the statute's clear language shows how Texas cities have grown more and more contemptuous of the rule of law," Paxton said.
Paxton filed a lawsuit against the City of Brownsville in October regarding an ordinance that imposed a $1 per-transaction fee on plastic bags in grocery stores and other retailers.
READ MORE: Ken Paxton wants plastic bag bans eliminated in Laredo, statewide
The Texas Tribune announced the case's dismissal in May, reporting that it came as part of a settlement in which the city agreed to repeal the ordinance.
If the Supreme Court had denied Laredo's request to have the appellate court's decision reviewed, then the decision deeming the bag ban unlawful would have only applied to the Fourth Court of Appeals district, which is comprised of 32 counties located in South Texas and the Texas Hill Country. Some of the cities within the district include Laredo, Zapata, Eagle Pass and San Antonio.
Taryn Walters may be reached at 956-728-2528 or twalters@lmtonline.com.
Hurricane Harvey was a record-setting event for Pearland.
Fire Chief Vance Riley said the storm brought an unprecedented amount of rain.
"Some parts of Pearland received more than 46 inches of rain, causing severe flooding and damage and the fire department was called to handle more than 400 water rescues," Riley said a press conference Aug 30.
The National Weather Service reported Pearland broke a 40 year-old state record for total rainfall from a tropical system with 49.2 inches of rain fall recorded at Mary's Creek at Winding Road in east Pearland as a result of Harvey.
The previous record of 48 inches was set in 1978 in Medina during Tropical Cyclone Amelia, second in the U.S. only to a 1950 record 52 inches of rain fail in Hawaii following Hurricane Hicki.
The storm cause damage to the city's water sewage treatment system, but city officials say the water supply was not affected.
"Pearland water is safe," city manager Clay Pearson said during the press conference. "We have had losses in our sewage treatment plant. We continue to evaluate those and will make an announcement but we have at least two facilities that suffered damage."
Mayor Tom Reid said workers were assessing damage to the city.
"We are in the final stages of a preliminary damage assessment and I'd like to report we had a small percentage of homes and businesses that suffered water damage and those that were (damaged), we are working with them on that," he said.
Many of the neighborhoods most affected lie near Clear Creek and Mary's Creek, Reid said.
Congressman Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, said the costs associated with Hurricane Harvey also are expected to break records.
"Hurricane Harvey is the most expensive hurricane to hit the Texas Gulf Coast. According to numbers from the state, this hurricane will cost America $150 billion, seven times the cost of Hurricane Ike and five times the cost of Hurricane Katrina," Olson said.
"Pearland took that blow head-on twice and we have survived. We will rebuild and we will begin to start thriving again soon."
On Friday, both independent school districts for Spring and Tomball announced their decisions to start classes after taking into account the damages families, faculty and staff have suffered due to Harvey.
While Spring ISD announced classes would start on Tuesday, administrators met and decided on Friday morning to delay classes until Sept. 11 after taking a roll call of employees.
"All of the principals have been individually calling their teachers and seeing who can be back by Tuesday," said Tiffany Dunne-Oldfield, Spring ISD chief communications officer. "As we looked at those levels, that's when the decision was made."
Spring ISD employees are expected to return to schools on Thursday. Dunne-Oldfield said faculty and staff reached out to said they wanted to return a few days before classes began to be able to process the events of the storm.
At an emergency meeting convened on Friday, the Spring ISD Board of Trustees approved a vote to allow the district's administration to negotiate contracts to clean, repair or replace school equipment or buildings damaged by Harvey. The board also approved a vote to compensate employees who were unable to work due to the storm.
At the meeting, SISD chief operations officer Mark Miranda said Anderson Elementary School had been flooded by two feet of water inside of its gym. He also said other schools had flood damage to temporary buildings.
Raising funds for families and employees in need
Spring ISD has also set up a Harvey relief fund to assist families and employees in the district. The fund is currently accepting tax-deductible monetary donations at give2springkids.org.
The school district will begin distributing funds to employees and families on Tuesday, said Dunne-Oldfield. The district is currently prioritizing the applications of employees and families who have applied for assistance, she added.
Families and employees who have been hit the hardest by damage to their homes and vehicles have no way to get to school or a place to live, which is why monetary donations would be the most useful to help them get back on their feet, she said.
The grant requests will be cut off on Saturday at noon.
"We need to know how much need we have and how much money we have," Dunne-Oldfield said. "All of the money will go to the people that have made the request."
Tomball ISD announced classes would begin on Tuesday.
"Our families and students who are able to come to school, we would like for them to join us on Tuesday so that we can begin to get back on track as far as a normal and consistent schedule," said Tomball ISD spokesperson Staci Stanfield.
Stanfield said the district would help affected families and employees seeking help and direct them to resources, but did not specify how they would be assisted.
She some schools had roof leaks that had been repaired. She did not specify how many or which schools had repairs done.
According to the Texas Education Agency's web site, both Spring and Tomball school districts may be eligible for missed school day waivers, which would allow them to end the school year on schedule instead of extending it by adding more days.
Stanfield said Tomball ISD is applying for a waiver.
Lupita Hinojosa, Spring ISD chief of leadership and support services, said the district is currently looking into whether it needs to apply for the waiver.
"The administration is looking at it and bringing it to our board so we can make a decision," she said.
RICHMOND, Va. - Labor Day weekend traditionally kicks off high season for the Virginia governor's race, but tradition is under siege this year, and both major-party candidates have already been taking shots at each other.
The heightened political environment of the Trump administration, supercharged by the racial violence in Charlottesville, finds Republican Ed Gillespie and Democrat Ralph Northam in full battle mode.
Pushed by the same political divisions that are rending the nation, both men have taken positions that stray from their records.
Gillespie, long a proponent of a comprehensive immigration overhaul, is talking about the need to protect communities from dangerous undocumented people.
Northam, the lieutenant governor and legislator who built a reputation as an aw-shucks Southern gentleman, now says the president of the United States is dangerous and possibly mentally ill.
And the pair find themselves in the middle of a heated war over Confederate statues, with Gillespie urged by his base to defend them and Northam by his to call for their removal.
David Ramadan, a former Republican delegate from Northern Virginia, faults both sides for heeding the advice of political strategists that in a low-turnout, off-year election they must play to the extremes.
"Both sides are playing with fire," he said. "Political strategists are counting on you not voting. . . . So Democrats are headed back to the far left and Republicans are headed to the far right. It's a shame."
In a sense, neither candidate can quite shed the ghost of his primary opponent. Republican Corey Stewart nearly took the nomination from Gillespie by stirring up the right wing of the party, and Democrat Tom Perriello drew big national dollars in his challenge to Northam by running hard against President Donald Trump.
It wasn't supposed to be that way this year. Virginia's last gubernatorial race, between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cuccinelli, was ideologically polarized in a way that seemed unusual for the state. McAuliffe, who won, was the glad-handing soul mate of former president Bill Clinton running against a thunderously conservative Cuccinelli.
The parties seemed to gravitate back toward middle ground with their presumed nominees for 2017 - Northam and Gillespie were both centrists with vanilla personalities.
But after Trump's surprising election, and the unexpectedly hard-fought primary races this spring, the landscape has changed.
"In this political climate right now, there's not much room for moderation," said Del. Marcus Simon, D-Fairfax.
That was illustrated dramatically after last month's violent clash in Charlottesville between white supremacists and counterprotesters around a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. As the nation debated what to do about Confederate statues, Northam surprised even some fellow Democrats by coming out forcefully in favor of moving public monuments into museums.
Although Northam also says localities should decide the issue for themselves, his posture is a tricky one in Virginia, which has more Civil War monuments than any other state and where polls show a slim majority of residents want the statues to remain in place.
"He probably got out farther than he would have if Charlottesville hadn't happened," said state Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington. "But I think Charlottesville moved a large number of people who at one point were in the middle."
Gillespie also found himself on dangerous terrain when Trump drew widespread anger by initially saying the violence in Charlottesville could be blamed on "many sides" instead of condemning the white supremacists.
Northam pushed his opponent to disavow Trump's comments, but Gillespie - who last year was slow to embrace Trump's candidacy - has generally avoided mentioning the president. He has denounced white supremacists but defended the statues and thinks they should stay put.
In the weeks since, Gillespie went on the offensive and aired the first attack ad of the campaign, slamming Northam for allegedly supporting "sanctuary cities" that allow undocumented immigrants to take refuge from federal agents. There's a complicated backstory there - Virginia has no sanctuary cities, but Republicans in the state Senate used a parliamentary maneuver to get Northam to cast a vote on the topic.
The result is that as September begins, Northam is suggesting that Gillespie won't disavow racists, while Gillespie hints that Northam coddles undocumented immigrants.
"It has been a little more negative before Labor Day than I would have expected," said Del. David Toscano, D-Charlottesville, the House minority leader. He blamed the negative turn on "Republicans' concern about the state of the race," but others say the tone of the race flows directly out of Washington.
Many people bemoan the polarization and speak wistfully of the bygone - if not entirely imagined - era of collegial bipartisanship known as "the Virginia way."
John Fredericks is not among them.
The conservative radio host, who helped lead Trump's Virginia campaign, wants Gillespie move closer to the president in substance and style. Gillespie recently hired the blunt-spoken operative who helped Trump round up votes in Southwest Virginia, a man who contends on Facebook that communists are behind the push to remove Confederate statues.
Fredericks thinks monuments could be the issue that puts Gillespie over the top.
"I think it's a winning issue for him," Fredericks said. "We've teed it up. He just has to hit the ball and leave nothing for interpretation or ambiguity."
Democrats didn't anticipate Confederate monuments as a lasting issue in this year's governor's race. Northam now says he thinks the topic will linger into the fall, and he's trying to steer the conversation to other issues.
"There are a lot more monuments we need to discuss in Virginia that aren't built in bronze, and those are the inequities we have, such as inequities in income . . . in access to education, in access to health care and voting rights," Northam said in an interview.
Those roads lead, inevitably, back to Trump.
"I think that there are policies that are coming out of Washington right now that are very detrimental to Virginia, and people are certainly paying attention to those," Northam said, mentioning Trump's positions on health care, his proposed Muslim travel ban, on climate change.
"I look at my opponent - this is a time for leadership and to stand up and say, 'These policies coming out of Washington are detrimental to Virginia and I'm going to stand up against them,' " Northam said.
Gillespie's campaign said he was unavailable for an interview but others in the party voiced exasperation that everything Gillespie proposes gets viewed through the lens of Trump.
For instance, Gillespie's call for aggressive action against MS-13, a violent street gang that has taken root in some immigrant communities, fits neatly in the long history of GOP law-and-order gubernatorial candidates. But in the current climate, it is portrayed as an extension of Trump's "build that wall"approach. Former state attorney general Jerry Kilgore, finance chairman for the state GOP, said he thinks Gillespie's stance will play well in suburbs and rural areas - "in spite of the head winds coming from Washington."
But insiders on both sides worry about the tone of the race. Gillespie and Northam have already begun their TV advertising, and both will have significant financial resources as national attention focuses on Virginia's race - the marquee statewide contest this year.
If the tone is already sharp by Labor Day, it could get worse.
"I think many folks would agree that Washington has kind of helped to throw gasoline on the fire, and it's a difficult environment to govern with so many emotions running high," said Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, the General Assembly's only Muslim, who has called for more unity and understanding.
Ramadan, the former Republican delegate, said he still supports Gillespie but regrets the way the race is developing. "I am fed up and I am disappointed in both of them for turning this into what Virginia is not," he said.
MASON CITY | Fourth Ward Councilwoman Janet Solberg has announced she will not seek a third term on the council.
Jack Leaman filed for the open seat on Friday.
Solberg, who led the Central Heights Neighborhood Association prior to being elected to the council in 2009, said she has been an active volunteer for 40 years, influencing her decision to step down.
Leaman announced earlier his intention to run.
Former Councilman John Jaszewski, who was Solberg's predecessor on the council and served three non-consecutive terms, has also filed as a candidate.
Filing deadline is Sept. 21. The election is Nov. 7.
John Skipper
HOUSTON - Brays Bayou swallowed entire blocks of well-trimmed lawns in south Houston during Harvey's rage. It turned lawns into lakes and permeated homes, filling dens and living rooms, pooling around piano legs, sending families fleeing for high ground.
And then, as it had to, the bayou retreated to its proper contours and people returned. By the end of the week, deposits of silt sat like gray flowers on the still-manicured grass on Braesheather Drive.
Inside some of the houses, hired men were ripping walls naked to their studs and sweeping mud off the faux-wood floors. Power tools whined in the morning sun.
On the other side of town, miles to the north - past the train yard that bisects east Houston and the freeway that encircles it - a short, uneven street twists beneath another bayou that went wild with Harvey's rains.
Detritus lay heaped in front of every house on Talton Street. But the sidewalks were narrow here, so the piles spilled into the streets, tangling trucks and growing ever larger as families cast upon them the better part of all they owned.
Tens of thousands of people who evacuated their homes during Hurricane Harvey's devastating floods this week began to return to neighborhoods wealthy and poor, finding their homes damaged, their lives disrupted, the toll difficult to calculate.
In Brays Bayou, it was the third flood in three years, and people here wasted no time in starting to rebuild.
Susan Rath went around her house with shopping bags, into cages of wooden supports that had once been her closets, and sorted through her clothes. The water had soaked her blouses to the elbows, and she inspected them for mildew before bagging the good ones.
"We raised up everything," she said. "It didn't matter."
Susan and her husband, Jim, both in their 70s, had learned from a lesser flood that ruined the house in 2015. They finished rebuilding last year, and they did what they could to blunt Harvey's blow as it arrived last weekend.
They put their dining room chairs on the table, and those will probably be all right, although the table, maybe not. The antique armoire didn't make it and was out on the curb in one of the numerous trash heaps along the block.
"The couches were nice; they were from Bernhardt," Susan Rath said. But most of the furniture they lost was from Costco. The Raths didn't put much stock in fancy things anymore.
The couple rode out the storm at their daughter's house in Bellaire, so their car didn't drown when their own street filled with water three feet deep.
They had flood insurance, and Jim knew all the ins and outs of the policy. They'd have to wrestle with the company some, and figure whether they'd rebuild again or move (he wanted to stay and fix it up, she leaned toward a new start somewhere else). Good contractors would be in short supply, and the Raths would probably be out of pocket tens of thousands of dollars by the end of it.
But the important things were fine.
"The Lord has taken care of us," Jim Rath said. "The main thing is, this is just stuff. And the more stuff you have, the more you're controlled by it."
In the wall-stripped and mud-streaked front room, a framed piece of paper lay safe on a high shelf. Jim took it down. It was a gift from his daughter, a short piece she wrote after the 2015 flood.
"Life brings floods of many kinds," it began. "Some are floods of blessing, excitement, and joy. Some floods are full of surprise, disappointment and change."
- - -
Across town, Jose Baltazar Sr.'s house sat behind a barricade of destroyed bedding, which his children dragged out from the home, piece by piece. Baltazar hunched over a shovel in the living room, scraping up his ruined floor and dumping the shards of tile out the front window.
His 7-year-old, Mia, stood across the room, watching him, with a doll gripped in both hands. Baltazar was careful as he shoveled to not soil the girl, or the box of Huggies balanced on the windowsill.
Besides wet tile, diapers and the doll, there was little useful left in the Baltazar home.
"We've got nothing," Baltazar said. "When they were asking for the toys, it's hard. It breaks your heart."
Mia's brother Marcos, 10, had left his Bible on his handmade wooden bed when they fled waist-deep water Sunday. But the bed had collapsed by the time the family returned, and the Bible was just mush.
The bedroom walls never had any shelves, although a few sentimental things hung from screws and escaped the water, among them a ball cap bearing the logo of the construction company for which Baltazar works.
That hat, and a bust of the Virgin Mary, were what was left of Marcos's room, unless you counted heaps of sopping children's clothing, which were abundant throughout the house.
While his father scraped out the living room, 19-year-old Jose Jr. inspected the bedroom where he had slept with his wife and baby. The crib was still standing, but Jose Jr. eyed it mistrustfully and said he would probably buy a new one. He had pulled the carpets up the day before, and the next job would be the drywall. Jose Jr. worked in construction with his father.
"We're going to rebuild it," he said. "We're not going to stay here no more. We're going to fix it and rent it."
But "it's going to take time," he said.
And they do not seem to have a lot of time. The Baltazars said they had no flood insurance. They had been staying at a relative's house since fleeing, but she would return from Dallas soon, and they didn't know where they would go then.
They were wearing the same clothes they'd escaped in. They had cash to last another week or so.
"We haven't asked for any help yet," Baltazar Sr. said. "We probably will later on."
Jesus, 3, wandered into the living room and squatted down beneath his father. He was using shards of tile like toys.
"I think we can make it," Baltazar Sr. said. "We can start again from zero."
Farther up Talton Street, he noted, four children had fled with their great-grandparents and died in the bayou on the same day his family survived.
"Have a blessed day," he said, and went back to shoveling up his floor.
Human echolocation might sound like the stuff of comic book heroes. But navigating by sound is a matter of acoustics, not marvels. For the first time, researchers describe these echolocation clicks in detail. The clicks are fast, focused and energetic.
Lore Thaler, a psychology professor at Durham University in Britain, said that echolocation has captured scientific interest since the 1940s and '50s. "At first they thought this was some mystical skill that people are born with," she said. "They didn't think this was something you could explain based on physics."
Physics, of course, won out. "Echolocation, on a very basic level, is quite a simple process," Thaler said. "You rely on the reverberation of sound or sound echoes." We all do it to some extent, she said, when, for instance, we walk across a floor and can hear that we're in a school gymnasium or in a small furnished office.
Thaler began investigating echolocation sounds in 2009, after watching a video of a man named Daniel Kish. Kish, perhaps the most famous echolocator, is blind. Retinal cancer took his eyes when he was 13 months old. As a child he taught himself to find his way though the world by clicking the roof of his mouth with his tongue.
The clicks "are flashes of sound that go out and reflect from surfaces all around me, just like a bat's sonar," Kish said during a March 2015 TED talk, "and return to me with patterns, with pieces of information, much as light does for you."
Kish can hear the separate parts of a tree. Bark echoes differently than leaves, he wrote in the Guardian. Wanting to bike to school like his friends, he trained along a wall, clicking as he went to maintain a straight line. Practice paid off. YouTube videos, like the one Thaler saw, show Kish years later, riding his bike while avoiding traffic.
In the new report published Thursday in the journal PLOS Computational Biology, Thaler and her colleagues recorded the clicks from three men, all blind, who had used echolocation since early childhood or their teens. The scientists found that the average click was 3 milliseconds long. That's three times faster than coarser estimates had suggested. (When speaking, by contrast, it takes a human brain about 600 milliseconds to retrieve a word and pass it to the mouth.) The analysis also revealed that echolocators emit clicks in much tighter beams, in 60-degree cones of sound, than spoken words.
"It's more directional than speech. It gives you a bit more focus. When you move your head you direct this," Thaler said, likening the ability to an acoustic flashlight.
Echolocation experts not involved with the study praised this work for the level of detail it offered. "Absolutely, a great job for this research group to have persuaded people to pay for it," said Daniel Rowan, an audiologist at the University of Southampton in Britain. And "to get the expert echolocators to the lab. They would have clicked a hell of a lot."
There were a few limits to what the researchers can conclude based on the new work. Thaler and her colleagues acknowledge that simply because the expert echolocators use clicks of the same average duration and frequency doesn't mean these are the optimal sounds. They also did not analyze the time between clicks, said Juan Antonio Martinez Rojas, a researcher at the University of Alcala in Spain.
"Unfortunately, three subjects is a very small sample and conclusions cannot be generalized," he said. "However, this is not a criticism of this excellent paper, because longtime expert echolocation users are only a few in the world."
The study has the potential to forward the field of echolocation research, Rowan said. "From a science point of view, the authors have not just given us some data - they've given us some tools to proactively make our science better." Given this information, what he called a "crazy-stupid" idea occurred to him: "Knowing these characteristics, we could build an iPad app" that gave feedback on people's clicks, Rowan said, perhaps in a manner similar to foreign-language programs like Duolingo.
Thaler's team also developed software to simulate echolocators in a virtual environment. She said she hopes to use these clicking avatars to answer some of the many questions about echolocation. "We know that human echolocations can determine the shape of object using clicks," she said. "What we don't know at present is how."
Thaler said that many echolocators live rich and independent lives. But it is not a replacement for sight. Despite echolocation's sensitivity, almost all blind echolocators also use tools like long canes or guide dogs.
Rojas, who said he could sustain continuous echolocation for about two hours, called it an "extremely demanding task" both physically and psychologically. Though sighted people are fascinated by echolocation, he said, it's still a rare practice in the blind community.
Law professor Robert Jackson is the Trump administration's pick to fill the open Democratic seat at the Securities and Exchange Commission, raising the chances that Wall Street's main regulator will have a full complement of commissioners for the first time since 2015.
The White House announced Friday that President Donald Trump nominated Jackson, who directs the Columbia University Law School's Program on Corporate Law and Policy, for the slot. In July, the administration announced it would nominate Hester Peirce, a former Senate staff member whom the Obama administration also picked, to fill the open Republican position at the SEC. It's common for the Senate to consider Republican and Democratic nominees together for confirmation.
WAU, South Sudan - The top U.S. official for humanitarian aid has delivered a stern warning to South Sudan's president that the Trump administration is reexamining its policy toward one of the world's poorest and most dangerous countries as the African nation slides into lawlessness.
Mark Green, the administrator for the United States Agency for International Development, met Friday with President Salva Kiir Mayardit. Green said he raised U.S. concerns over the dangers humanitarian aid workers face in delivering food and medicine in the country as well as a pervasive climate of criminal activity by government forces, criminal gangs and opposition forces.
Since civil war erupted almost four years ago, a third of South Sudan's population has become internally displaced or fled the country in Africa's worst refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
"I told him we are, in the next few weeks, undertaking a complete review of our policy toward South Sudan," Green said in an interview immediately after the meeting on Friday, which was embargoed for security reasons until he left the country the next day.
USAID officials said the policy review will be comprehensive, though not as formal as reviews conducted over such troubled nations as Afghanistan.
Although Green said he did not mention specific consequences if U.S. concerns are not addressed, like sanctions or an arms embargo, he considered the message clear.
Green called South Sudan "a very dangerous place in which we're seeing atrocities occur all the time. And while it is true that we support the people of South Sudan, it is just as true that the situation has deteriorated to the point where a serious reexamination of U.S. policy is appropriate."
Alarm has been growing over deteriorating conditions in South Sudan, the world's newest country after it declared independence in 2011. A civil war has devastated the country since it started in December 2013, following a dispute between Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar, political rivals who head the Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups. Government troops have won back much territory over opposition forces, but fighting involving many splinter groups continues. That has made it more difficult for aid workers - who often negotiate with a dozen or more groups, some of dubious authority - to deliver truckloads of food and supplies overland.
In the chaos, a senior United Nations official warned last month that South Sudan is on the precipice of an "impending abyss."
The war has bankrupt the government, despite revenue from its oil fields and fertile land that once made this a breadbasket for the Horn of Africa. It lacks salaries to pay its soldiers and civil employees. Unpaid soldiers and criminal gangs own the night in the capital of Juba, looting homes. In rural areas, soldiers have reportedly stolen crops from farmers. Checkpoints are manned by armed men who demand a "tax" to pass. Humanitarian groups are frequently held up by bandits.
Everyone seems to be suffering but the political and military elite. A report last year by a George Clooney-funded project, The Sentry, said South Sudan is run by a "kleptocracy" that has enriched itself by profiteering.
Human rights groups, U.N. humanitarian aid officials and many governments blame both the government and opposition forces for preying on civilians.
"All sides are guilty of human rights abuses," said an aid worker with long experience in the country. "The fabric of society is broken. You can't imagine it will keep going down, and then it goes further down."
With no bottom in sight, international organizations and donor nations recently have dispatched officials to South Sudan to urge that it take part in the High Level Revitalization Forum, a regional peace initiative that aims to revive a stalled 2015 peace agreement.
"The international community is in a difficult situation," said David Shearer, head of the U.N. Mission in South Sudan. "Because on the one hand, there doesn't seem to be an immediate end to the fighting and the conflict. On the other hand, there are millions of people who need aid. And to just pull that aid will mean thousands of people will die."
As head of USAID, Green embodies U.S. humanitarian aid to South Sudan. This fiscal year, the United States spent more than $500 milliongetting emergency aid to the 2 million internally displaced South Sudanese. Counting aid to another 2 million refugees in neighboring countries, this year the United States spent almost $730 million, making it by far the biggest donor.
U.S. efforts to push an arms embargo on South Sudan have failed at the Security Council. But Washington's leverage on the government in Juba is limited by its unwillingness to walk away from the 6 million Sudanese - more than half the 10 million left in the country - who are considered "food insecure."
During their Friday meeting, Green said he sought to impress on Kiir the impatience and broad frustration Washington is feeling over his handling of the conflict and the now-normal level of violence.
"Part of what I wanted to do is to make sure the government of South Sudan appreciates, yes, there's a new administration," he said. "But this is not a partisan issue. This is an issue in which everybody I know from the U.S. government and the U.S. political scene is on the same page."
But Green said Kiir disputed every concern he raised. According to Green, Kiir insisted there is no systemic insecurity in the country, lies are spread by his opposition that he blamed for cease-fire violations and humanitarian access is unfettered.
"He would say it's either the opposition's fault, or he would say that the situation isn't as bad as I've heard," Green recalled. "And I said, 'I respectfully disagree, because I have heard from so many people. And I said, as the leader of America's largest aid agency, we have people in the field and partners in the field. Their security is of paramount concern.' "
Green spent Saturday in Wau, South Sudan's second-largest city, where he was struck by the disconnect between Kiir's dismissal of U.S. concerns and what he observed. A United Nations compound in this once-quiet city is encircled by a makeshift camp filled with 32,000 frightened civilians who prefer sleeping on rainy-season mud floors under peacekeeper protection than going home to neighborhoods where shooting sounds ricochet through the night.
He also visited the city's Catholic cathedral, one of four churches in Wau where thousands more civilians have sought refuge. Humanitarian workers at the two locations said the residents are overwhelmingly ethnic minorities with homes nearby, and they are considered supporters of opposition groups. Their fears are of government forces, not the rebels who have a front about five miles outside town, according to aid workers.
A schoolteacher named James, who has been elected as a leader in the U.N. compound, expressed despair when Green asked him why people don't go home.
"Where would we go?" he told Green. "We will be killed. We would really like to go back where we were. But we are scared."
After departing Wau, Green said that what he observed and heard in Wau contradicted every denial Kiir made.
As the water recedes, the sun shines and Houston sets out on its long road to recovery, I think of John James Audubon. In May 1837, the world-famous naturalist stepped off the steamer Yellow Stone, clambered up the west bank of Buffalo Bayou and caught his first glimpse of the new town of Houston, capital city of the Republic of Texas.
Following in his footsteps on Wednesday, I found the west bank at the foot of Main Street underwater and "un-clamberable." It wasn't much better on that May morning 180 years ago, but then, as now, Houstonians were making the best of their soggy situation.
Slogging past mud-splattered tents, half-finished houses and roofless buildings in a clearing hacked out of a pine forest, Audubon made his way to the "mansion" of newly elected President Sam Houston. A gathering of Cabinet members welcomed their distinguished guest into a rough 12-by-16 log cabin consisting of two rooms separated by a dog run. Audubon couldn't help but notice how cluttered and filthy everything was, in the anteroom and in the president's private chamber. While impressed with Sam Houston, he would recall that "the place of his abode can never be forgotten."
Hanging around town for a few days, Audbon wandered into the roofless capitol building. When Congress assembled six days after his arrival, he noted that it had rained the night before and the floor was a muddy lake. Lawmakers glanced down at their wet boots and soaked pant legs and at the soggy, smudged papers on their desks and promptly adjourned.
Water from bayou
They stepped out of the building into odiferous streets that relied on the appetite of feral hogs for sanitation. Drinking water came from the bayou, which also was the sewer. Inside the tents and rudimentary houses were Houstonians laid low by typhoid and dysentery. Frank Lubbock, a passenger on the first steamship to reach Houston via Buffalo Bayou, recalled decades later: "It was a very muddy place ...with very poor drainage, so that, with the immense wagon trade, the roads and streets, although very wide and handsome, were almost impassable in wet weather."
Austin writer Jeffrey Stuart Kerr compiled several of these early-Houston anecdotes for his 2013 book, "Seat of Empire: The Embattled Birth of Austin, Texas," including the following from a young Texas immigrant named Granville Rose. When Rose and his buddies wandered into a swarm of mosquitoes "as large as grasshoppers," they jumped into the bayou to escape, only to discover that the water was aboil with alligators. Their mad scramble to shore left one of their party stranded on the opposite bank, so the others found a canoe to ferry him back across. As the vessel nosed into the bank, a large panther sprang out of the brush and bounded away.
"Houston is now one of the muddiest and most disagreeable places on earth," another early-day visitor, John Winfield Scott Dancy, observed in 1838.
Why would Lubbock and Rose and an ever-growing number of immigrants have made their way to one of the muddiest and most disagreeable places on earth? Many, of course, had been wooed by two young New York promoters, brothers touting "an abundance of excellent spring water and enjoying the sea breeze in all its freshness," a city that's "handsome and beautifully elevated, salubrious and well-watered." Despite the fact that one of those brothers, John Kirby Allen, died at 28 of a "bilious fever," (possibly yellow fever or malaria), people yearning to start anew kept coming.
'Most animated'
If the Allen brothers' advertising genius helps explain why people came, we still have to wonder why they stayed in what sounds like a god-forsaken, pestilential swamp. Local historian and author Dan Worrall ("Pleasant Bend: Upper Buffalo Bayou and the San Felipe Trail") offers a partial, and very practical answer.
"They found good, fertile land around here," he reminded me a couple of days ago. "Particularly the German immigrants. They were coming from a place where land was very expensive."
Worrall is right, but there was something more, something else John Dancy observed that helps explain the pull: "It is the most animated town I have seen in Texas."
And still is. Then, and now, Houston was a place where you could build - new lives, new fortunes, a new city.
Veteran broadcaster Doug Miller, now a Chronicle editorial writer, likes to point out that 60-odd years after the Allen brothers envisioned a thriving town along the bayou, second- and third-generation Houstonians were quick to seize an opportunity, quick to build. The Monday after the great storm of 1900 devastated the state's leading port city, the Houston City Council had three items on its agenda: humanitarian aid for Galveston, repairing Houston's storm-damaged roofs and expediting a plan for dredging a ship channel. If you've hacked a thriving city out of a mosquito-ridden swamp, what's so daunting about gouging out a 40-mile ditch to the sea?
Houston not only was audacious but also welcoming. Unlike more insular (and suspicious) communities, this town recognized from the beginning that newcomers breathed life into the city. They brought energy, ideas, business. Their success nourished their neighbors' success. Today's Houston, its people from Bangladesh and Bug Tussle, Iraq and Idalou, is no different.
I have no doubt that the mud, floods and mosquitoes drove away a number of early-day dreamers, and you can't really blame them. Life was hard and dangerous. And yet those who stayed and managed to find a foothold in the swampy soil helped build a city.
Watery baptism
I think of Dilue Rose, the feisty, adventurous 11-year-old who endured the harrowing Runaway Scrape in the cold, wet spring of 1836. Fleeing the advancing army of Mexican Gen. Santa Anna, the Rose family of Stafford's Point (now Stafford) joined several thousand of their fellow Texans as they trudged eastward along roads turned into quagmires of red or black mud, attempted to cross rivers spilled out of their banks - the Trinity was more than a mile wide - and skirted lowlands that had become impassable swamps.
Livestock drowned. Women and children, cold, sick and exhausted, walked barefoot. Young Dilue saw her infant sister die in her mother's arms. She saw a man pulled under by an alligator in a rain-swollen bayou.
Back home at Stafford's Point after the Texians' victory at San Jacinto, the Rose family discovered that their house had been broken into. Dr. Rose's bookcase had been ripped apart and hogs lay sleeping on his books and medicines. Meanwhile, the corn field needed plowing, so he hitched up his oxen and went to work before cleaning out his office.
"Mother was very despondent, but Father is hopeful," Dilue wrote. "Says Texas would gain her Independence and become a great nation."
Like Dilue Rose and her family, we've endured our own watery baptism this week, a baptism of more than biblical proportions. And like those Houstonians who came before us, who endured, we rise up together. We set to work building.
Some Iowa sheriffs say an increase in the number of non-professional permits to carry handguns, coupled with new or recent gun laws in the state, have increased safety risks in their counties.
They point to provisions in the new Iowa Omnibus Gun Law, adopted this year, that decreases the punishment for carrying a firearm while intoxicated and increased the ability to use a stand-your-ground defense when firing a gun at someone else.
That law followed one in 2011, in Iowa Code 724.11, that changed a sheriffs right to issue non-professional permits to carry from may issue to shall issue," taking away much of the discretion sheriffs had when issuing non-professional permits to carry.
Several sheriffs IowaWatch interviewed also expressed concern about the lack of training required to receive a permit.
There are people out there that I know I am issuing permits to, that the law forces me to, that shouldnt have a weapon, Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner said.
Since the 2011 law took effect, the number of non-professional permits to carry issued has grown exponentially. From just 2010 to 2011, 29 Iowa counties saw more than a 380 percent increase in permits issued. The overall state increase was 158 percent.
Cerro Gordo County Sheriff Kevin Pals, who issued 1,186 permits in 2016, said the uptick last year was due to renewals.
Since 2001, county's second-highest number of permits issued, 1,260, occurred in 2011.
In 2011 we doubled," Pals said. "What were seeing is people then renewing in 2016. Were going to see that again in 2021.
Renewal years aside, Pals noted the number of permits issued since 2001 has increased every year.
In 2001, 279 permits were issued in Cerro Gordo County, steadily increasing to 676 in 2015.
No state data exists that details the number of individuals with permits to carry with previous criminal records, nor the number of permits that have been revoked in a given year, because the state does not require keeping those records.
However, Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said he issued 203 permits to people with criminal records in 2016. Pulkrabek, who is president of the Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies Association this year, said he has kept of personal tally of the number of permits he has issued to individuals with criminal records whom he said he most likely would have denied before 2011.
He said his list covers serious misdemeanors, such as theft, but not traffic, disorderly conduct or public intoxication citations.
People with criminal records that do not include felony convictions may get a permit to carry. Felons are barred from possessing a gun in Iowa.
In Black Hawk County, Sheriff Tony Thompson said he has issued permits to carry to individuals who later committed crimes, such as driving while intoxicated, dealing drugs while carrying their firearm, and displaying their gun in a road rage incident.
That permit does not mean: one, they are a good person; two, they are trained; and three, are aware of the law, Thompson said.
However, he said, changing the law to shall issue in 2011 was necessary in order to eliminate any inequities across the state.
Your rights should not be limited by someones individual interpretation of whether you are a good person or a bad person, Windschitl said.
Before the law changed in 2011, sheriffs could deny permits for reasons beyond past criminal activity or mental health issues.
Gardner, who issued 5,298 permits in Linn County during the boom year in 2011 after issuing 1,433 in 2010, said he supports the shall issue provision in Iowas law. Before the law, he said, the equivalent of 99 different laws existed because sheriffs in each county could set their own criteria for issuing permits.
However, I know there are people that have applied for carry permits whose family has contacted us saying they shouldnt be carrying weapons because they have mental health issues, Gardner said. But because they havent gone to court, I have to issue a permit.
Gardner issued 8,351 permits in 2016, the last year for which full data are available.
Story County Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald, who issued 1,956 permits in 2011 after issuing 390 in 2010, said he has had similar experiences.
Despite the small number of permits issued in 2010, Fitzgerald said he denied few permits before 2011. Like other sheriffs, he cited news coverage of the law change and culture of Iowa as the reason for the uptick in 2011. Iowans, he said, understood the law and their gun rights better because of the coverage.
Reasons Fitzgerald would have denied a permit, he said, included a known history of mental health issues, family and/or spousal abuse and drug or alcohol addiction. Other than that I dont care if people have guns or what kind of guns they have, Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald cited one permit request, in which a background check showed the person had suicidal tendencies. While Iowa law states that a person who has been involuntarily hospitalized can be denied a permit to carry, simply being told by other community members or family members of the person applying for the permit does not meet the threshold for denial.
He said he is not aware of the person committing suicide or hurting anyone else since receiving the permit.
In Dubuque County, Sheriff Joseph Kennedy said, Every once in a while we get a permit request from a known gang member, but their level of criminality has not reached the point to where they cannot get a permit.
Wapello County Sheriff Mark Miller, who took office in 2012, said his county historically only would issue permits before 2011 to people like business owners who could prove a need to protect items with monetary value.
In 2011 Wapello County issued 1,473 permits to carry, compared to 135 in 2010. The county issued 1,632 in 2016. While Miller said there were concerns about the increase of citizens carrying for personal protection, his department hasnt experienced any problems as a result.
Other than the increased workload, we havent seen any bad side to this, he said, referring to the work of processing more permits. There hasnt been an influx of gun-related calls or anything like that.
Dan Belleau, a sales associate at G & G Retailers of Davenport, which sells firearms, said he favors Iowas gun law changes. He said stricter gun laws do not make for a safer society.
He said he didnt have to worry in his hometown of Buffalo about gun violence or robberies, despite a high prevalence of guns.
Everybody has a gun, multiple guns. People leave their doors unlocked. I can go over to my neighbors house while theyre not home, get some sugar or borrow a pop or something and leave a note, and they dont give a s---, Belleau, 34, said.
People say, Well if you ban guns, then nobody has any guns, then you cant get shot, he said. Well, you cant carry a gun in Chicago, and thats where the most shootings happen.
Why? Belleau asked. Its a mentality thing.
Required training concerns
Mahaska County Sheriff Russell Van Renterghem said he initially had concerns with the lack of power sheriffs had over issuing permits, but also said he no longer worries.
We were concerned and we actually had a couple of residents in town at that time, and I can remember them telling us as soon as they get their permit to carry, theyre gonna strap a gun on their side and walk down the aisles at Hy-Vee or Walmart, Van Renterghem said. But that didnt happen. We dont have people flaunting their guns now. Our concerns werent warranted.
Another law change made in 2011, with Iowa Code 724.9, eliminated a sheriffs right to require certain types of firearms training in order to be granted a permit. Previously, many sheriffs, like Black Hawk Countys Thompson, required a proficiency qualification to be met.
Operating as a shall-issue sheriff since his election in 2009, Thompson said his only requirements for receiving a permit were a face-to-face interview and a training course, offered by his department in conjunction with the community college, that required individuals to demonstrate that they could load and fire a handgun correctly. The course also informed individuals on Iowas gun laws.
It was a bad move negating training and watering down training to the degree that there really was no value in it, Thompson said.
Since 2011, Thompson said the number of suspensions and revocations of permits he has issued in Black Hawk County has increased, with a total of 95 as of the end of 2016. Some of these are happening due to ignorance of the laws, and of training, he said.
Pals said Cerro Gordo County is "seeing more and more foregoing handgun training in favor of an online class."
He said he thinks people would benefit from more training like one undergoes when receiving a hunting license.
"I'm not sure it needs to be an eight-hour class but something that is better," he said.
Delaware County Sheriff John LeClere, who issued 558 permits in 2011 after issuing only 110 in 2010, said he supports more required training. He said the states current training requirement for permits does not guarantee a person has any proficiency with a firearm.
As a law enforcement officer, were required to demonstrate proficiency with a firearm before we can carry it on duty, LeClere said. I would hate to see someone who has never fired a weapon take a training course that doesnt require firing a weapon and go out and not understand what will happen when they shoot.
Taking an online training course is an option but Kim Smithe, owner of the Davenport gun shop G & G Retailers, said those courses are not sufficient.
These are people that have never even held a handgun before, she said.
Ive had customers come in here that have taken an online (course) and gotten their permit and they pick that handgun up, with their finger on the trigger, looking down the barrel. Both of those are the first things you learn that are big no-nos, you dont do either one of those. So those online courses are not teaching anyone anything, Smithe, 51, said.
I do believe in the right to carry a firearm but I do think there needs to be stricter regulations, Smithe said, who has had her permit to carry since 1988. I think you need to be able to prove that you can handle that firearm and you have that knowledge, and if you dont, you shouldnt be able to carry, period.
Relaxing intoxication punishment
One change made by Iowas Omnibus Gun Law was decreasing the severity of the punishment for carrying a firearm while intoxicated. Previously, this crime was considered an aggravated misdemeanor, punishable by up to two years in prison. Since July 1, the crime has been considered a serious misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail.
Additionally, carrying while intoxicated is no longer always terms for revocation of a permit. Other factors must be present, such as previous alcohol-related offenses that could indicate an alcohol addiction, which is grounds for revocation.
The simplest explanation is that under the prior law, intoxicated carrying was clear grounds for suspension upon arrest, and clear grounds for revocation upon conviction, said Ross Loder, program services bureau chief at the Iowa Department of Public Safety. But under the new law it becomes more situational as there may or may not be grounds for suspension or revocation, depending on the existence or non-existence of other factors.
Thompson said, Im not sure what the driving force was behind watering that down.
He said hes baffled that state legislators recognize the dangers of operating a vehicle or heavy machinery while intoxicated, but not while carrying a firearm.
We know alcohol consumption blurs judgment, he said. Were looking for people in the state that can carry firearms responsibly, that dont infringe on the rights of other citizens.
In Johnson County, Pulkrabek said his staff now stamp, not valid while intoxicated on all new permits issued.
Pals had a different take on the issue, especially if it involved a permit holder being charged with an OWI while having a gun in the glove compartment, which in the past would result in a severe penalty.
Its more common sense for what we experience," he said, speaking of Cerro Gordo County.
Stand your ground
Before the Ominbus Gun Law, Iowas stand-your-ground law stated that individuals who felt threatened in a public space, outside of their home or place of employment, were required to retreat if possible before defending themselves.
Now, the law allows individuals who feel threatened to lawfully shoot.
Pals, the Cerro Gordo County sheriff, said the previous law still allowed people to defend themselves.
People thought that was more authority to use deadly force. I dont think it is," he said. Just like police officers, we cant just go out and shoot people.
Pulkrabek said the change wasnt necessary.
From what I can tell, Iowa already gave a person the ability to defend themselves, he said. In my opinion, this gives someone the right to shoot first and ask questions later. And if they kill the individual, you only have one side of the story.
Pulkrabek related his argument to his departments inability to use discretion when issuing permits to carry: I find it alarming, especially considering now that there are people getting permits with lengthy criminal records, even sex offenders.
Kennedy, of Dubuque County, said, Its always a concern when you are giving people more freedom to make deadly force decisions, especially when those people are not familiar with what constitutes a deadly force decision.
They dont have to be correct in that estimation of the danger they are facing, he said, adding, I think its going to make it more difficult for us, especially when you have an offender and a victim, and the victim is deceased.
But Belleau, the Davenport gun store sales associate, said he hopes many of the break-ins and other crime existing now will stop with stand-your-ground. I hope more criminals realize that people are more willing to use them, Belleau said, referring to firearms.
People are kind of scared to defend themselves, Belleau said when talking about Iowas previous stand-your-ground-law. Like, yeah, I dont want to be attacked. But I also dont want to go to prison for being attacked. You know, if someone breaks into your house, theyre not there to bake you a cake.
While the law states that individuals do not have to correctly estimate danger when defending themselves, Windschitl said the force used has to be determined as reasonable.
You might misjudge the situation, he said. But if someone else in the exact same situation could also misjudge the situation and use the same force that is reasonable force.
While he said he understands sheriffs concerns, Windschitl said Iowas previous stand-your-ground law was not adequate. In particular, he said placing the burden of proof on the individual who claimed self-defense was wrong.
That shouldnt be the case, he said. We have an inherent right to life and part of that is defending that life. You shouldnt have to prove that you were defending yourself.
Towering flames and plumes of jet black smoke poured from the flooded Arkema plant in Crosby as volatile chemicals exploded late Friday afternoon.
One container caught fire, and the heat from that fire ignited a second container about 25 feet away, said Arkema executive Richard Rennard. The dramatic display was the latest chapter of a chemical disaster, caused, in part, by floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey.
Authorities have evacuated residents within a mile and a half of the facility and said the fumes from the fire don't pose an immediate public threat. The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting air and water tests in the area.
Arkema is a maker of organic peroxides commonly used by the plastics and rubber industries. They must be kept in cool temperatures or they can explode. The Arkema plant lost power earlier this week, knocking out the primary supply and backup generators and forcing employees to move the organic peroxides into nine box vans with cooling systems, which soon began to fail.
The company has abandoned the facility and any hope of preventing the chemicals from catching fire.
Despite the explosions and noxious fumes, Arkema has refused to provide a chemical inventory and facility map to the public. Speaking to reporters Friday morning, Arkema CEO Richard Rowe said the company was balancing "the public's right to know and the public's right to be secure."
That answer wasn't good enough for Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas.
"There's no good reason they shouldn't be putting this information out," Metzger said. "It makes it look like they're hiding something."
There's little patience or sympathy for Arkema from Crosby residents near the plant.
Philip Mincey had evacuated from his home about a quarter of a mile from Arkema because of floodwaters. He bought the place a year ago. There's enough land that he and his girlfriend can raise four cows, a cat and 30 to 40 chickens. Now, Mincey can't get back to their property. He's worried about their animals, and he's tired of the lack of communication from Arkema about when he'll get temporary housing. He doesn't know when he can return home, and he wonders about the dangers of the inevitable explosions from the plant.
"At first, I was understanding; it was an accident," Mincey said. "But now, they're jerking us around."
Late Thursday night, the company provided a list of the chemicals on the site. But the potential hazards they pose remain unclear because the company did not provide the amounts of the chemicals, where those chemicals were located, or in what types of containers the chemicals were stored.
Melissa Wren, a company spokeswoman, said Arkema was advised by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to refer all requests for the detailed chemical inventory, called a Tier Two, to the state agency.
"She's mistaken," said Andrea Morrow, spokeswoman for TCEQ. "(The agency) has told Arkema they are free to release the Tier Two if they so choose."
Morrow said if someone requests the Tier Two from TCEQ, it will have to be through a formal public information request and it would be sent to the Texas Attorney General's Office. That office, under Greg Abbott and now Ken Paxton, has blocked inventories from the public citing a state law that restricts information that might be useful to terrorists.
The Texas Homeland Security Act, passed in 2003, made government information confidential if it could be used to plot terror attacks. For more than a decade, the law was never invoked to block release of chemical inventories. The state reversed course after widespread media interest in the data following the 2013 explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas.
The company responded to some questions about what led to the emergency. Arkema safety official Daryl Roberts said neutralizing the organic peroxide with another chemical was not practical and that "at no point" did they intend to destroy it.
Company leaders said Thursday they had initially considered relocating the chemicals but deemed that process too risky.
"For us to be in a position where we were going to put that material into trailers and try to move it, it runs the risk of not being able to get it out of the area or getting it stuck in traffic, or having a fire or an explosion at a highway or at a public area, versus in the rural area where this site is," Roberts said.
Roberts said two chemicals contained on its government mandated worst-case scenario report, sulfur dioxide and isobutylene. They were located hundreds of yards from the organic peroxides exploding on the site.
"There's no issues with any of those materials," Roberts said. "No fire or water damage. No degradation in any of the systems that you're asking about."
The company left the material on site with backup generators and a cooling system, but the company didn't say whether the generators were elevated. "Those were our levels of contingency," Roberts said. "Clearly, that wasn't enough."
Company officials have said they expected the refrigeration to fail in all the trailers and that additional explosions are inevitable for the six remaining containers.
Six containers remain but are located in a more remote location of the plant, said Arkema officials. Bob Royall, assistant chief of the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office, said he believed those could explode in a matter of days as temperatures continue to rise.
"Wish I had a crystal ball," he said.
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District 8 councilman Manny Pelaez is outraged that the United Gamefowl Breeders Association had its yearly gathering in San Antonio last month.
Pelaez said it was disturbing that the association held its 41st annual conference at Hotel Valencia, on Aug. 24-26, even as the city prepares to strengthen ordinances that seek to ensure the humane treatment of animals in the city.
Animal cruelty in any form is wrong, the councilman said, and something I take very seriously, which is why Ill be asking city staff to look into the feasibility of an animal cruelty registry, to ensure the city is taking every step possible to prevent this type of behavior.
Cockfighting is illegal in all 50 states.
John Bucky Harless, president of the California-based association, said the uproar about gamefowl is a manufactured problem created by animal rights people.
They have this Disney attitude about animals they shouldnt use for any reason, he said. Its a pretty radical group thats trying to go after sportsmen, farming and ranching industry. Were just one small piece of that overall game plan.
Pelaez called the conference a slap in the face to law enforcement officers who have worked on eradicating cockfighting and advocates who promote the health and safety of animals.
Later this month, Animal Care Services will forward recommendations to the city council based on research and input from public meetings. If approved, one of the updates would increase the number of fowl a resident may own, from three to eight, but would permit only one rooster per eight (or fewer) hens. Currently, a resident can legally own three roosters and no hens.
The councilman demanded that Valencia donate any and all proceeds from the conference to the Animal Defense League of Texas or the San Antonio Humane Society.
In a prepared statement, officials at Hotel Valencia said they were blindsided by Pelaezs accusations and shocked at any suggestion that they would host an organization that engaged in activity that violated their core values and principles. The statement said the booking came through a site selection and venue finding company and sales staff conducted a credit check that is standard hotel policy.
We would never knowingly host a group that engages in any illegal or illicit activity, Hotel Valencia Riverwalk general manger Trent Freeman said. Nothing in our due diligence of reviewing this meeting request indicated that this organization was anything other than what it represented itself to be.
Pelaez said he appreciated the hotels explanation, but found their view disappointing.
It still doesnt change the fact that their position is to keep that money, he said. I challenge them to do the right thing, which is to disgorge those funds and hand them over to an agency that is moving the ball forward and standing up for the principles that they claim to support.
Harless said Pelaezs request is un-American.
I think the councilman ought to be admonished, Harless said, in a phone interview. Would he cause the same stir if the Sons of the Confederacy had a conference there? (Or) Black Lives Matter, LGBQT or even advocacy groups that are advocating things that are illegal?
Pelaez countered that those groups hadnt perpetuated cruelty on helpless animals.
As far as the position that decrying is un-American, Ill tell you where animal cruelty and cockfighting exist without restriction, he said. Its in Third World countries, with governments that dont care about animal cruelty and certain Central American countries. We in the United States are proud to not be like Third World countries that turn a blind eye to these practices.
Harless said his associations purpose is to perpetuate the species of game fowl, sharing better breeding practices and making sure the breed doesnt go extinct. Several years ago, the association listed 15,000 members on its rolls, with branches in 33 states.
The three-day conference featured a judging seminar, sessions on how to judge poultry and a board of directors meeting. There were also sales of portable pens, feed and commemorative plates with pictures. The event included an online chicken auction.
Harless said there wasnt any contraband at the conference; the only item linked to cockfighting was a picture on display from the Civil War of Union soldiers watching two slaves pit two roosters against each other.
I think he owes the hotel an apology for harassing them, Harless said, of Pelaez. It really irritates me that they cant live and let live.
vtdavis@express-news.net
OSAGE | The Iowa Department of Education says it has cited Osage Schools for beginning the academic year too soon.
The district began classes Aug. 22, one day sooner than state law mandates.
"Under state law, school is to begin no sooner than Aug. 23," Iowa Department of Education spokeswoman Staci Hupp told the Globe Gazette via email. "There are no waivers available from the school start date."
Prior to 2015-16, districts could apply for permission from the state to begin classes sooner, but that practice was discontinued when the new law took effect.
Hupp said Osage will not be able to count its first day of school toward the required 1,080 hours of instruction for the year.
"District leaders have acknowledged the mistake and said it won't happen again," she said.
Osage Superintendent Barb Schwamman said the district was aware of the situation and has handled it.
"We've talked to the state Department of Education and resolved the issue," she said.
The district built an extra 90 hours into its calendar for snow days, Schwamman said, noting the mistake will not impact the calendar or change the date for the last day of school.
The Globe Gazette sought additional information on the citation, but it was not available from the state Department of Education. A message on Hupp's voicemail said she was out of the office.
When he was running for governor, Greg Abbott threw plenty of shade on climate science.
The climate was changing long before the discovery of fossil fuels, he said. He warned against politicized science and injected doubt into the debate.
This matter needs to continue to be investigated, he wrote to this Editorial Board in 2014.
Abbott was in a position to say so much more, but chose instead to stick with the usual GOP talking points. Faced with scientific consensus, inject doubt.
In responding to Hurricane Harvey, with its unprecedented flooding and destruction, Abbott has repeatedly said this is a new normal. It is a new normal in Houston and on the coast. Cities have been leveled. Neighborhoods have been flooded. Texas will be grappling with Harvey for years in ways that are difficult to imagine or fully understand.
But Abbott would be wrong to continue his climate-denying ways. Accepting climate science should be part of the new normal.
Thats not to politicize an unprecedented storm. Its to honor the tragedy and suffering we are witnessing and do our best to mitigate future storms.
Climate change didnt cause Harvey, but scientists have been clear it played a role in amplifying the storm. Just as they have been clear that climate change will amplify and strengthen some future storms.
Climate change has made sea levels higher, about 6 inches in the Gulf of Mexico. Higher sea levels mean higher storm surges. Its also made water temperatures warmer, and the Gulf of Mexico has been exceptionally warm. Warm water means more moisture in the air, which means more energy for storms.
Climate change may have also helped keep Harvey in place, stalled over Houston though this point is more tenuous.
Climate scientist Michael E. Mann of Pennsylvania State University has said this fits a jet-stream pattern in climate change models.
The science has been abundantly clear about this and other likely outcomes. There will be more droughts and famine, but also heavier rains and intense flooding. As sea levels rise, coastal communities will flood.
In responding to the storm, Abbott has struck a calm and unifying tone. He has been right to focus on the immediate safety of Texans in floodwaters.
But what about the long game? Is he prepared to accept the science, develop state policies and push for federal policies to mitigate climate change in Texas and beyond? Hes in a unique position to turn GOP orthodoxy on climate.
Unfortunately, its easy to have doubts because Abbott often hasnt shown this type of substantive leadership. He has been more open to Kid Rock as a potential U.S. Senate candidate than climate science. His leadership has been mostly about division cities, the federal government, immigrants, Democrats, House Speaker Joe Straus than vision. He has supported policies that are often misleading.
He signed legislation slashing penalties for insurers that delay paying claims, which will harm some storm victims.
In the special and regular sessions, Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick proclaimed reducing property taxes was a top priority, and then fought hard for legislation that didnt meaningfully reduce property taxes.
Abbott supported the bathroom bill, which would have invited economic boycotts for targeting transgender Texans for a nonexistent problem.
He prioritized the divisive and problematic sanctuary cities law.
This might play well in a GOP primary, but it diminishes the statewide office.
It also reflects a type of cynical politics. One that is devoid of real ideas and policies.
As in, its pretty cynical to invite economic boycotts over discriminatory legislation that addresses a nonexistent problem. Its misleading to champion property tax reform legislation that doesnt really reduce property taxes. Its irresponsible to ignore and doubt the abundance of climate science.
Texas is facing an unprecedented catastrophe. The rain falls on all. The rebuilding falls to all. Democrats and Republicans, cities and rural areas, Christians, Muslims, gay, straight and transgender.
A proper response requires substantive unifying leadership followed with meaningful policies. In the past, Abbott has too willingly set these aside. May that change with the storm.
JBrodesky@express-news.net
A couple of Fridays ago, San Antonio stocked up on tortillas limit two packs per customer! and sandwich materials at the H-E-B, bracing itself for unprecedented flooding.
And while a lot of us ended up with a little surplus water, much of it was bottled or bagged in the form of ice having been purchased in case of a tremendous crisis that didnt hit.
But so many of those around us in Houston, Rockport, Port Aransas and the smaller communities in between werent so lucky. In much of Texas, things are not going to be business as usual for a long time.
In the coming weeks, there will be stories of heroism and images of human goodness from people just like us all over the state. We will see video of downtown Houston as waters recede and photographs such as the image of the baby cradled by a woman being carried to safety by a man. There will be outpourings of aid from celebrities and schoolchildren. There will be ongoing pleas for help and endless shows of gratitude from people who saw up close how quickly things went from dangerous to catastrophic.
Well read the stories of our Texas neighbors who evacuated before the storm and returned to homes theyd been building for a lifetime, now soaked and filled with mud, sludge and mold that will linger for years. And well hear about those who came home to find that everything theyd built and saved is just gone.
As the powers that be work to measure this unprecedented event with unprecedented numbers, the heartbreak around us will keep growing. Thats when those of us in lucky San Antonio should step up.
We pride ourselves on being a friendly, welcoming city every day of the year and maybe its because were all connected. Were a place where people know one another because, when they met at St. Marys University, they figured out they were both from little communities around Corpus or because they both went to A&M in Galveston. Or because, once in casual conversation, the neighbors shared that they, too, lived in Houston a million years ago.
We reach out to our neighbors because its the right thing to do. We dont have a lot of extra but we have plenty for everyone to have enough, so we share what we have. And if theres only enough for one, well make it so that its enough for two. We look for ways to help in whatever way we can because we know that were stronger together. We know this because its our culture.
Weve spent our summers fishing with Rockport and feeling the ocean breeze in our hair with Port Aransas. Weve prayed in Houstons hospitals and studied at her schools, shopped her malls and danced at her weddings. And weve spent long weekends sleeping on dicey air-mattresses just so we could make a few memories with grandparents, cousins and old friends in small towns such as League City and Richmond.
We really are family. And family every last member finds a way to help.
mariaanglin@yahoo.com
The Texas Legislature just cant seem to get it right sometimes.
A bill passed during the recently concluded special session repealing a flawed bill from the regular session dealing with voter fraud is creating new woes.
Having to repeal legislation less than three months after it was signed into law is unusual. Repealing it with a seriously flawed bill raises questions about how closely lawmakers are reading and vetting legislation before casting their votes.
In May, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a bill hurriedly approved during the waning days of the regular session. It was aimed at preventing mail-in ballot fraud.
As introduced, the bill was supposed to allow election officials to move voters with a disability or illness to the front of the line at the polls. As often happens when time is running out at the end of a session, that piece of legislation became a conduit for another stalled bill, and its scope changed drastically.
The legislation signed into law in May still allowed for certain voters to move to the head of the line at the polls, but it also required county election officials to send election judges to nursing homes if they receive more than five early voting applications from a facility.
The legislation also required the on-site election workers to allow any other qualified nursing home resident to vote and not limit the balloting to only those who had made prior ballot requests.
There was immediate outcry from elections officials across the state about the costs and manpower demands associated with the nursing home balloting law. They were worried about mail-in ballot delays because they would have to wait to see if they received five requests before delivering them in person. They were also apprehensive about the bill allowing election judges to enter residents private rooms.
There were budgetary concerns, too. The Bexar County elections office requested $50,000 to cover costs imposed by this bill for the fall and spring elections.
State lawmakers responded swiftly to the concerns by passing legislation that repealed the new law, but in the process they managed to further complicate things for local election officials.
The effective date of the repeal is in December. The law approved during the regular session takes effect in September. That means the law is in effect for the November election.
A low voter turnout is expected for the November election. Most counties will only have constitutional amendments on the ballot. In Bexar County, there is the possibility of a school tax rollback election, too.
Things could have been much more complicated if it were a presidential or a midterm election year.
The nursing home voting bill could affect as many as 3,000 facilities in the state, and about 450 of them are in Bexar County. Even if no requests are forthcoming, local elections officials will have to plan and prepare for the possibility. Its time that could be better spent.
Mail-in ballot fraud was one of the governors top priorities this year.
By allowing an election to occur under this flawed law, legislators signaled their lack of attention and absence of concern for voters and election officials back home.
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In an audio message released on Aug. 31, Zakir Musa criticized the Pakistani government and vowed to fight for the implementation of sharia law in Kashmir.
Zakir Musa, the leader of the newly-formed Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, has released an audio message in which he accuses the Pakistani government of betraying the jihad in Kashmir. Musa, a former commander in Hizbul Mujahideen, became a vocal critic of the established jihadist groups fighting in Kashmir earlier this year. He has accused his one-time comrades of being puppets of the Pakistani Army and criticized them for failing to seek the implementation of sharia law. Musa expounds upon these same themes in his latest message, which was released online on Aug. 31.
Musa says his groups jihad is not merely for land or to serve the interests of supposedly corrupt rulers. Instead, according to a translation prepared by his online supporters, Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hinds jihad aims to free the ummah (worldwide community of Muslims) from the nonbelievers and establish the law of Allah.
Our war is against the Indian army, the murtadd (apostate) police of Kashmir, the Government of India, their officers and their political structure and every such individual who would collaborate with the Kuffar (nonbelievers) and tried to harm this jihad, Musa says.
He provides a brief history of the jihad in Kashmir, claiming that the muhajireen (emigrants) kept the flame of jihad alive with their blood despite persistent pressure from Indian forces. But in 2001 the situation changed, according to Musa, when Afghanistan was attacked by the occupiers and the Pakistani government backstabbed the jihadists. The same mujahideen who fought in Kashmir were declared terrorists, while training camps were shut down and many brothers were either killed or imprisoned.
Musa stresses that while his organization does not target average Pakistanis, it does oppose the slaves of America in the Pakistani Army and government who have supposedly betrayed Muslims and the mujahideen fighting in Kashmir. Musa adds that he and his men love all the Muslims who seek to unite Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and the whole subcontinent under the banner of Islam and monotheism. It is for this purpose that Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind was created, free from the shackles of the Pakistani government and the Indian cow worshippers.
The new audio message, which was released by Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hinds Al-Hurr Media, is just over nine minutes long. Although it is formatted in a basic fashion, the production is a significant upgrade over Musas previous releases, which were spliced together with publicly-available images.
In his new release, Musa is also well-groomed and dressed in highly-stylized garb.
Ties to al Qaeda
Musa has not publicly sworn allegiance to al Qaeda, but there are multiple indications that he and his men are affiliated with the terror network. It is possible (though not confirmed) that Musa is loyal to al Qaedas leaders, but they have decided not to publicize this fact for various reasons. Al Qaeda has often obscured its organizational links to various jihadist groups around the globe.
The rift between Musa and his former Hizbul Mujahideen boss, Syed Salahuddin, became public in May when Salahuddin publicly distanced the jihad in Kashmir from global terrorist organizations. This movement is purely local and indigenous. It has no international agenda, Salahuddin said, according to press reports. Al Qaeda, Daesh [Islamic State] or Taliban have no involvement or role in Kashmir, Salahuddin added.
It was a reversal, of sorts, for Salahuddin. Previously, the Hizbul Mujahideen leader had welcomed any jihadist support his men could get from outside groups. Salahuddin was added to the US governments list of specially designated global terrorists in June and Hizbul Mujahideen was designated as a terrorist organization in August.
Musa responded to Salahuddin with a message of his own in May, explaining his separation from Hizbul Mujahideen and his commitment to Shariyat ya Shahadat, meaning Sharia Law or Martyrdom. Musa also thanked al Qaeda for supporting his efforts in an article that appeared in Nawai Afghan Jihad magazine.
Musas high-profile break from Hizbul Mujahideen was celebrated by pro-al Qaeda jihadists. A statement allegedly issued by Haji Mansoor Mehsood, who was identified as a Pakistani Taliban commander, praised Musas decision. The statement noted that Musas previous messages included images of al Qaeda figures such as Anwar al Awlaki and Abu Hamza al Muhajir (the deceased leader of the Islamic State of Iraq). Still other al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, were included in the productions as well.
Mehsood credited the hard work done by Asim Umar, who is the emir of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), and other al Qaeda leaders for Musas decision to defect. All this shows that al Qaedas thinking about Kashmir is going in [the] right direction and showing its impact and fruitful results, Mehsood purportedly wrote.
Musas split also coincided with al Qaedas pointed criticism of the Pakistani-backed jihadist groups fighting in Kashmir. In June, AQIS released its code of conduct, which contained a section addressing jihadists backed by governments.
We call on all jihadi groups working under anti-sharia intelligence agencies in any place to end their dependence on them, AQIS wrote. This is the only way to help the oppressed Muslims, and to make real progress towards implementation of sharia, because the militaries of corrupt governments destroy [the] fruits of these mujahideens jihad.
The Kashmiri Jihad is a clear example of this, AQIS warned.
It was a telling comment, as the Pakistani state has sponsored the leading jihadi groups fighting Indian forces in Kashmir for years, including Hizbul Mujahideen. Even though these same outfits share much in common with al Qaeda and the Taliban, al Qaeda doesnt think they go far enough. It is the same critique leveled by Musa. [See FDDs Long War Journal report, AQIS emphasizes allegiance to Ayman al Zawahiri, Taliban in new code of conduct.]
On July 26, just weeks after AQISs code of conduct was released, Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hinds founding statement was published online by the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), which translates and distributes al Qaeda propaganda. The statment can be seen on the right. After the martyrdom of heroic Mujahid Burhan Wani, the jihad in Kashmir has entered a stage of awakening, as the Muslim Nation of Kashmir has committed to carry the flag of jihad to repel the aggression of tyrant Indian invaders, and through jihad, and with the aid of Allahwe will liberate our homeland Kashmir, the statement read.
Burhan Wani was killed by Indian forces in July 2016. He was a young, charismatic jihadist and is largely credited with reviving and legitimizing the image of militancy in Muslim-majority Indian-administered Kashmir, according to BBC News. Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind sought to capitalize on Wanis popularity, portraying Musa as his rightful ideological successor. Indeed, the group said it had been founded by the companions of martyr Burhan Wani, under Musas leadership.
On Aug. 20, Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind released a threepage statement, emphasizing that it is free from the influence of all intelligence agencies. The message was entirely consistent with the argument advanced by AQIS in its code of conduct. The group said it was not advocating any different Manhaj, or methodology. We will not change the direction of Jihad on the dictation of any country or agency but will stand like a wall for the welfare of Islam and Muslims, the statement read.
Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind rejected democracy, nationalism and man-made borders, while saying it would accept members regardless of race or tribe. Musas organization claimed to be independent, with all its decisions being made under the guidance of its Shura Committee. (This statement does not foreclose the possibility that the group is part of al Qaedas network, as other al Qaeda-affiliated jihadists have claimed to operate independently.)
We invite all the Muslims of Kashmir and the world for Jihad against India and hope that they will strengthen this Jihad with their lives and money, Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind said in its Aug. 20 statement. The jihadists specified that their targets are the Indian Army, police, and every such person who is overtly or covertly involved in oppression against Muslims of Kashmir and India.
The jihad against Indian forces
Historically, al Qaeda has maintained close relations with the jihadist groups focused on Kashmir. But tensions have emerged over the past year. The Hurriyat alliance has appealed to the United Nations for assistance at times, a move that Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind explicitly rejects. Both Hurriyat and the United Jihad Council (UJC), which is led by Hizbul Mujahideens Salahuddin, have also portrayed their efforts as purely local, arguing that there is no need for global jihadist groups to enter the fray.
Therefore, Musas defection from Hizbul Mujahideen and the formation of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind come at an opportune time for al Qaeda. To date, al Qaeda and its newest branch, AQIS, have had little success in sparking jihad inside India itself. Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind could serve al Qaedas efforts in both Kashmir and India proper. Al Qaeda may be hoping that Musas personal appeal boosts its endeavors. Like Burhan Wani, Musa is popular on social media, with photos and videos regularly highlighting his star personality. Musas popularity may also help his organization poach from established jihadist groups like Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), all of which have received support from the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment. The Let and JeM also have longstanding ties to al Qaeda.
Some of Musas online supporters have compared him to Ilyas Kashmiri, another popular jihadist who made a name for himself fighting the Indians before climbing through al Qaedas ranks to become one of Osama bin Ladens lieutenants. If the comparison to Kashmiri is apt, then Musa could very well prove to be a formidable foe. But first he will have to survive the increased scrutiny he will now receive from his enemies, as Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind attempts to make a name for itself in the Kashmiri jihadist scene.
Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.
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The calendar may show Labor Day but with another enormous American harvest and its resulting low prices just around the corner it feels more like Groundhog Day.
The movie, I mean, not the shadowy holiday.
The reason why, as Bill Murrays boorish character learns, is because weve been here before. And before and before and before. In agriculture, old-timers see these repetitive, big harvest-low price loops as the proverbial farm problem.
After decades of these endless loops, however, maybe the real problem isnt on the farm. Maybe the real problem is our loopy farm policy that all but guarantees long stretches of little-to-no profit interrupted by short bursts of (usually) disaster-inspired, low yields and high profits.
Thats our past and it will likely remain our future because farmers, ranchers, and taxpayers are about to go for another lap in the farm policy hyperloop machine. Congress is back in Washington and its ag leaders hope to finish the 2018 Farm Bill before the snow flies.
By all accounts, however, the new law will mirror the old law because old is what our mostly old representatives and senators deliver when we mostly oldsters out in the country are asked what we want. New ideas, it seems, are as rare in rural America as they are in Washington.
That means the well-worn, low-and-going-lower price centerpiece of recent Farm Bills, crop insurance, will again be the centerpiece of the new and in all likelihood, really low price Farm Bill of the future.
Like crop insurance, other tired policy elements wont even bother to shower and shave before going back into the new law: there will be no meaningful conservation cross compliance, no program payment caps, no increases in Land Grant research funds, no needed increase in rural infrastructure spending, and no new money for beginning farmer programs.
All, either individually or collectively, could be a starting point to meaningful farm policy reform. But, no, no, no, no, and no.
We know this because, as Bill Murray finds out over and over in the 1993 movie, no is easy; it carries its own strident righteousness.
Heres how Senate Ag Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-KS, recently explained why the status quo no of today will become the status quo no of tomorrow: This is no time to be proposing revolutionary ideas with the farm bill crop insurance is, for many, the most valuable tool in the risk management toolbox.
Besides, he added, he doesnt want to make cuts in crop insurance, but rather reduce regulations that impact farmers and ranchers.
While Chairman Roberts didnt point to any specific regulation whose elimination would deliver more profit to farmers and ranchers, his committee colleague, Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischer, did recommend the elimination of one that not only isnt a regulation now, it wont be in your lifetime or mine.
Fischer said there is a movement by some activists, reported the Columbus (NE) Telegram, to tie more conservation programs into any kind of farm payments. These programs can, in turn, be tied into crop insurance.
That would be very bad, she said, because putting an extra burden on our farmers isnt the way to go.
Extra burden is an interesting and revealing phrase for what should be at the very center of all Farm Bills: a clear public benefit cleaner water, less soil erosion, more vibrant rural communities, and a safe, abundant food supply to name but a few in return for the subsidies received by farmers.
Accountability, after all, is how well-deserving farmers and ranchers build trust with hungry, helpful taxpayers.
But today our farm and political leaders often are so scared of their own shadow a primary challenger, a knee-buckling White House tweet, some awful activist with an idea that challenges convention that few pause to consider what change could mean for rural Americas economic and cultural future.
And yet change is what is needed to make tomorrow a new day, not another Groundhog Day again and again and again.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > US, China caught in Thucydides Trap
The Context
North Korea is threatening to emerge as the casus belli for an impending US-China conflict. President Donald Trumps accusation that Beijing is not doing enough to rein in its prodigal younger cousin, North Korea, from its pursuance of nuclear and missile development programmes and the Chinese rejection of such an accusation could be the trigger. Trumps pressure on China is precipitated by the launch of an inter-continental ballistic missile, second within a month in July, by North Korea with the potential to bring many cities of the US such as Los Angeles, Denver and Chicago within the missiles range. For Pyongyang, its sole objective is to gain international legitimacy as a nuclear power with no real immediate intention to strike the US. It just wants to retain the right to strike in retaliation if threatened but is unlikely to strike first due to clear knowledge of its own destruction. Possession of nuclear weapon is seen as the ultimate deterrence for its survival. No compromise on that.
Such a policy of No-First Use, though not stated in clear terms but conjectured from an analytical perspective, could appear reassuring to those who advocate such a view; but the truism is the bellicose utterance to strike in a language that is always escalatory and this does not give any comfort to peace believers. One view is that is that if it wants to strike South Korea to seek unification on ideological terms, it does not really need nuclear weapons; the other weaponry in its possession should be adequate to put Seoul on fire. What it wants is to arm itself with nuclear weapons so that the US does not intervene in a conflict situation as an obligation to defend its ally and inflict pain on North Korea. The annual US-South Korea military drills are always seen in Pyongyang as a dress rehearsal for invasion, which is why preparedness remains a critical factor in Pyongyangs strategic calculus.
This creates an uncomfortable situation for the US. Such a scenario does not assure the US about its security, which is why Trump expects Beijing to exercise its influence to prevail upon Pyongyang to abandon the nuclear and missile programme. Trump had criticised China for its trade policy and accused it of raping the US economy. He had vowed to correct the trade imbalance but soon shifted focus on the North Korean threat. Viewed from a larger perspective, neither the US nor China finds easy to escape from this Thucydides trap, a deadly pattern of structural stress that results in a rising power challenging a ruling one. Neither is willing to yield space. Things get complicated as a result.
What is Thucydides Trap?
Viewed from a larger perspective, when a new power rises, the existing sole power inevitably feels threatened. It does not necessarily mean that war between an established power and a rising power inevitably breaks out but as tensions build up, war could be a possibility. The twentyfirst century is witnessing a rising power, China, challenging an established power, the United States. Of course, there are other rising powers such as India as well but India is not a threatening power such as China. Therefore the comparison remains limited to the US and China when the battle for one-upmanship on global affairs is the issue of discussion in world capitals.
Chinas rise coincides with the relative decline of the US and this phenomenon has attracted academic scrutiny. A recent prominent book, titled Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides Trap, by Graham Allison highlights this unique phenomenon of two powers jostling for space in global affairs. Going by the Chinese maxim, two tigers cannot stay in the same mountain. Thucydides was a General and historian in Ancient Greece, and his History of the Peloponnesian War is regarded as a major historical work. Borje Ljunggren writes in Yale Global Online, Thucydides maintained that the 27-year war, from 431 to 403 BC, was a consequence of the anxiety that Athens rise caused in Sparta, an ascending power challenging an established war: it was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable. This sentence inspired the term Thucydides trap. Allison subsequently developed this study and in the process identified 16 major power rivalries during the last 500 years between a ruling and an emerging power, 12 of which led to war.
Allison argues that US-China relations at present are following a similar historical pattern where a war could look imminent. Such a premise rests on examples in history when the Peloponnesian War devastated ancient Greece, the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable. Allison notes that over the past 500 years, these conditions have occurred sixteen times. War broke out in twelve of them. Today with an unstoppable China and immovable America locking horns with two strong leaders, Trump and Xi Jinping, in either side of the spectrum spitting venom with the goal to make their countries great again, the seventeenth case looks grim. Unless China scales back its ambitions or Washington shows greater willingness to accommodate in the power structure of the region and the world, any of the issues such as trade differences, cyber attack, or accident at sea or North Korea could provide adequate fodder to escalate a potential conflict into a major war.
Allisons main thesis is that both the US and China are on a collision course for warunless both parties take difficult and painful actions to avert it. That clashing powers have kept peace in the past should give some solace that both should be willing to take some painful steps to avoid a disaster. In Allisons views, China wants to regain its rightful place, and the return to the prominence of a 5000-year civilisation is not a problem to fix but a condition. Allisons concern is that many Americans are still in denial about what Chinas transformation from an agrarian backwater to the biggest player in the history of the world means for the United States.
Optimists cite two examples: Cold War and German reunification. Both were achieved without war. There is yet another argument which takes the position that the world since the end of the World War II in the past 70 years is a safer place with many countries in possession of the most destructive nuclear weapon than the world preceding World War II which was relatively unsafe when only one country was in possession of nuclear weapons, which had no hesitation to actually use it. This argument rejects the fear that North Koreas nuclear threat is real and that the US need not be too paranoid about it and must not, therefore, engage in a blame-game with China.
While the German reunification was successfully achieved within the framework of the European Union, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the most dangerous confrontation in human history that brought the world to the brink of a nuclear war, was defused by astute diplomacy. Those that take this position rest their argument that the current US-China dilemma should be examined from this perspective. The truism is that no single country can ever boast of winning a war if it breaks out; the idea of winning a war in a nuclear age would look insane but if ever it happens, one can witness the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) in full play with universal assured annihilation of mankind. Would Trump and Xi Jinping rejoice such a possibility?
Will Historical Cycle be Repeated?
That possibility does not look easy. The situation in the 21st century world is quite different and looks messy. Any historical parallel could look inappropriate to analyse a potential war scenario today. And yet, historical lessons cannot be summarily dismissed either, which is why all windows must be kept open to explore a possible solution.
The present problem is: how to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear and missile path. Trump feels that Beijing has the real leverage to influence North Korea. Beijing is unwilling to accept such a charge. Trump remains unconvinced. Earlier, the Beijing-brokered Six-Party Talks did not lead anywhere; it is virtually dead after Pyongyang walked out of it in 2008. Imposing economic sanctions in order to strangulate the Norths economy and isolate the country internationally have yielded little result.
Beijing has rejected Trumps intentions to link North Koreas nuclear programme to US-China trade. Chinas reaction was in response to Trumps tweet when he said Americas foolish past leaders had allowed China to make billions of dollars a year in trade and that he was disappointed in Beijing for not solving the problem. Beijing says these are two issues in completely different domains and unrelated and therefore should not be discussed together. Beijing has repeatedly said it is not its responsibility to resolve the North Korean issue, and that both Washington and Pyongyang need to take steps to calm tensions and address each others concerns. At the same time, Beijing has condemned unilateral sanctions imposed by the US on Chinese companies. Both failed to agree on major new steps to reduce the US trade deficit with China, casting doubts over Trumps economic and security relations with Beijing.
Sustaining Dialogue
Both have toughened stances so much that there seems to be little scope of arriving at a mutually agreed solution. While Beijing continues to urge for talks, the US and its allies stress on the need to increase sanctions, both unilaterally and through the UN. Urging both the US and North Korea to ease tensions, Chinas UN ambassador Liu Jieyi accused the relevant countries of violating the UN Security Council resolutions by heightening tensions and failing to resume negotiations. Earlier, the Chinese proposal for freeze-for-freezesuspension of joint military drills by the US and South Korea and suspension of nuclear and missile programmeproved to be a non-starter, with neither agreeing to it. Some hawkish Senators, such as Lindsey Graham, are fuelling fire to the tensions by saying that Trump is ready to launch a devastating military strike if diplomacy fails to stop the nuclear missile threat. On the other hand, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calmed the situation by saying that the Trump Administration is not seeking a regime change and not opting for an accelerated reunification of the peninsula.
As Trump fumes, experts warn that an answer to the North Korean crisis would not come through China. They warn that the US cannot count on China as a reliable partner in defusing the crisis on the Korean Peninsula. With a view to enhance the countrys security preparedness, South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered the deployment of four more mobile launchers of the controversial Terminal High-Altitude Defence System (THAAD) anti- missile system. China has protested against the THAAD system, because it claims the missile shields radar allows it to peer deep into China. Moons decision to expand the THAAD shield marked a departure from his earlier stance of holding back on further deployment of the system until environmental reviews were conducted. South Korea already has two THAAD units deployed about 135 miles outside Seoul as per the agreement reached by Moons predecessor, Park Geun-hye. Seoul also warned North Korea that it has a powerful new ballistic missile in its arsenal with precision-strike capability and features that allow it to be launched in seconds for lethal strikes.
For its part, Beijing is concerned about the repercussions of North Koreas regime collapsing, including a civil war in an impoverished country with nuclear and chemical weapons. Beijing is also worried that a fall of the regime could result in millions of refugees across the border into China. While China may not like the status quo, the present one is a lot better than the alternative. Though the US provided North Korea about $ 1.3 billion in aid since 1995, this did not influence Pyongyang to changes its policy of beefing up deterrence capability.
Heightening of Threat Perception
In the meantime, though some American and South Korean experts have cast doubts about North Koreas ICBM re-entry capability, Trump is not expected to loosen his preparedness to cope with the North Korean challenge. Though these experts concede that North Korea after decades of effort has a missile potentially capable of reaching the continental US, they hold the view that Pyongyang has yet to show that the ICBM can inflict serious damage once it gets there. Though doubts remain if North Korea can arm the missile with a nuclear warhead and protect it throughout the flight, there are enough indications that North Korea would conduct more tests to perfect its capability to hit the US target with a nuclear tipped missile. In such a circumstance, can Trump prevail over China to check North Koreas nuclear menace? If Beijing remains obdurate and uncooperative, then the US and China would find themselves in a collision course. The world would then witness for the seventeenth time the ripering of conditions for a major conflagration. Of the two options, negotiation or declare war, the latter would have come to play. Can diplomacy still triumph and avert a potential war?
Alternatives/Escaping Thucydides Trap
What then are the alternatives to diffuse the US-China tensions over North Korea? The window of opportunity for dialogue should be kept open by all means. Both the US and China need to sit together and hold a serious security dialogue with Pyongyang and abandon the sanctions route as it has proved ineffective. No efforts should be spared to prevent the US and China from drifting towards a collision course on the North Korean issue.
President Trump needs to take cognisance that China has begun to realise that nuclear-armed North Korea has become a greater threat to its security and is looking for ways to cope with this challenge. China remains still the life-line for North Korea as many as 90 per cent of North Koreas economy still flows through China, and therefore China can use this leverage to control North Korea. There is plenty of room for both Trump and Xi to work out a relationship that can be productive and together seek ways to address the North Korean issue.
Such optimism premised on Chinas realisation of North Korea breaching the tolerance threshold could be negated by the argument that Xi has gone far ahead from Deng Xiaopings cautious maxim that the nation should hide its power and bide its time towards an increasingly assertive role, taking advantage of strategic opportunities and embarking on major initiatives, from where he could find difficult to retreat. Here, Trumps withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and rejecting the Paris climate agreement provide further opportunity to Xi to expand his design for the world. Given such stark differences in the two personalities and the resolve by both to make their respective countries great, can there still be room to work together on not only the North Korean issue but also on a host of other issues? This author would still hold on to the optimistic view that diplomacy would finally prevail and the drift to a collision course would be prevented, with both not falling into the Thucydides Trap.
Professor (Dr) Rajaram Panda is currently the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) India Chair Visiting Professor at the School of Economics and Business Administration, Reitaku University in Japan. The views expressed here are the authors own and do not represent those of either the ICCR or the Government of India. He can be contacted at e-mail: rajaram.panda[at]gmail.com
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Gorakhpur Tragedy: Yogi Must Go!
MUSINGS
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Aditya-nath, should step down. In fact, he should be asked, if not forced and compelled, to resign. Lets not overlook the fact that only recently over 60 children died in less than six days in the BRD Medical College situated in his constituency, Gorakhpur. A constituency he has been representing for the last nearly 20 years. Also, not to be overlooked is the fact that encephalitis didnt strike overnight. Eastern Uttar Pradesh districts, which include Gorakhpur, have been reporting hundreds of encephalitis cases every year; in fact, if I am correct, the first case was reported way back in 1978.
What has Yogi Adityanath done for his Gorakhpur constituency all these years when he has been representing it? And now, what has he done, after becoming the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh? Apparently nothing very much, except indulging in plain politics! In fact, its been appalling to see him and his government indulge in blame-games, trying their utmost to come up with an array of excuses for these deaths. If the children did not die because of lack of oxygen, then how did they die? They died in the wards of that hospital, ever so swiftly, one after another!
And there you had Yogi sarkars spokes-persons come on the small screen with no apologies, no condolences, no acceptance of some hard-hitting facts. Not even taking the responsibility for those deaths! In fact, Siddharth Nath Singh, who happens to be a Minister in the Yogi sarkar and also works overtime as the spokes-person, was even seen smiling on the small screen in the midst of trying to put up weak excuses for those deaths! It was not just shameful but utterly callous. Those smiles uncalled for, in the midst of details to the dead and dying children! In fact, he went a step ahead and even tried justifying those deaths by reading out numbers of the dead in the preceding months or years. As though relaying that it was okay ...all too normal for these deaths to take place; after all, children had been dying all through the years! And last night, as I heard another of Uttar Pradesh sarkars spokespersons, Anila Singh, writ large was sheer arrogance and that couldnt-care-less attitude!
Along expected lines, blame has been heaped on the head of this medical college, Rajiv Mishra, and also on Dr Kafeel Ahmad Khan, head of the paediatrics ward. No, not a word to the various whys: why wasnt sufficient oxygen available in the wards even after the concerned hospital authorities had been sending urgent messages to the babus in the Yogi sarkar for payment of arrears to the suppliers and also for the procurement of oxygen cylinders? Why havent erring bureaucratic heads sacked or suspended? Is it because there is a strong nexus between the politicians and bureaucrats of this sarkar? What about a deeper nexus between the Yogi sarkar with the Modi sarkar and the likes of Amit Shahs? Are we supposed to overlook the fact that the one of the first politicians to come to Yogis defence was Amit Shah? Are we a bunch of fools to get conned by useless weak excuses and alibis? Does the suspension and sacking of two doctors justified, when corruption is ram-pant in the State machinery, when distractions are dragged along communal strains? Did Yogi and any of his ministers or babus visit the shamshan-ghats and qabristans when the poverty- ridden grieving parents were performing the last rites of their children?
Yogis government is accountable for these deaths. Also for the callousness that followed ...ongoing. He should not manage to get away by hoodwinking the people, telling them that an inquiry is on! In fact, I simply dread the word inquiry, for to me it relays that crucial facts will be getting pushed under dusty carpets, as concocted theories and alibis get into circulation.
And in the midst of this tragedy Yogi also played up the religious card! In fact, almost ordering the policemen to celebrate Janamashthami in the police lines and stations and offices. As though relaying that the era of democratic norms is done and over with, where any religious celebrations and festivity to all given religions were to be celebrated more along the personal and private strain.
Also, how could he let go of the Muslims of the State! This time full-fledged orders had gone out that all the madrasas and other Islamic religious and educational institutions would have to record how they celebrated the Independence Day of our country!
Did Yogi send out a similar set of instructions to the various Ashrams or the RSS-run schools or even to the other regular schools of his State? Why did he single out only Muslim-run educational institutions? Does he and his government not trust the Musalmaans and their love for the country? Is he trying to question the very loyalty of the Indian Muslims? Is he trying to heap another round of divisions? Is he so caught up playing communal politics that he hasnt bothered to hear Indian Muslims say that their loyalty cannot be questioned as seven decades back when they were given that option to cross over to the newly formed country, Pakistan, they did not. They did not want to. Yes, they opted to stay in their own countryHindustan!
Mind you, the loyalty of the Muslims for this land, their country, is on for centuries.
Has Yogi read this verse of the last of the last Mughal Emperor of Hindustan-Bahadur Shah Zafar (17751862):
Ode to Hindustan/
Matchless is the soil of Hindustan/
In it grow love, compassion, fidelity/
As sure as the sun rises from the East/
So surges from this land sincerity.
This is the true seed of Hind and from its earth/
these fruits have spread across the world, far and wide?
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Why should you Worry unless you have Something to Hide?
by Ram Krishnaswamy
In the last seven years every time I opposed Aadhaar and said it was a Frankenstein monster the creators will not be able to control and it invades our privacy, my opponents never hesitated to attack me personally and tell me unless you have something to hide why should you be worried? This meant that any one and everyone including activists who have spent their lifetime serving various communities in India, all had something to hide.
Transparency does not mean walking naked in the park; the same way every individual has a right to his/her own privacy.
What is Private/Privacy one may ask?
Virtually anything and everything that an individual does not want to share with anyone. Meaning all-encompassing. It is upto the individual to decide what is private and what is not?
The Privacy Case has gone on for some time in the Supreme Court of India, with a nine-Judge Constitutional Bench which was to determine if the Indian Constitution recognises the Right to Privacy of its Citizens.
Finally Truth and Justice prevailed when the nine-Judge Supreme Court ruled on August 24, 2017 that the Right to Privacy is Intrinsic to Life and Liberty and is inherently protected under the various fundamental Freedoms enshrined under part III of the Indian Constitution.
Lawyers often have the unenviable job of having to put forward arguments they themselves do not believe in. This is perhaps what made senior lawyers representing the Indian Government say things in court that were ridiculous and jaw-dropping bloopers. Obviously they had very little to defend their positions in the debate.
Here are a few arguments that will make you laugh:
Mukul Rohatgi Former Attorney General of India:
The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The Right to Privacy is not guaranteed under the Constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right Article 21 of the Indian Constitution refers to the right to life and liberty.
My Comment: Sir please think about this: There can be no right to life or Liberty if there was no right to Privacy.
Mukul Rohatgi told the Supreme Court that the right over ones body is not absolute and called the arguments of bodily intrusion to take biometric data for Aadhaar as bogus. His added that Aadhaar biometrics are no more intrusive than photographs used in other identity documents andthat an individual does not have absolute authority over their body because the government was already regulating abortions in women and collecting fingerprints from criminals. The A-G also argued that the leaks did not come from the central database and so the Aadhaar database cannot be called unsafe.
Me: I feel like saying Oh Yeah Over My Dead Body, Mr Rohatgi.
Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal for the Centre: Privacy is not a single, homogenous right but rather as a bunch of rights spread over the Constitution. The right to privacy is a sub-species of the fundamental right to personal liberty and consists of diverse aspects. Not every aspect of privacy is a fundamental right. Some citizens cannot agitate against Aadhaar, saying it is a violation of their right to privacy. An elite few cannot claim that their bodily integrity would be violated by a scheme which serves to bring home basic human rights and social justice to millions of poor households across the country.
My Comment: Good spin, Mr Venugopal, but nowhere near Prasanna, Bedi, Chandrasekars standards. To argue that it is only the elite who are challenging Aadhaar in the Courts is sad. The millions of poor households across the country you talk about are struggling to earn Rs 100 a day and have no Voice in India. The elite few you talk about are in fact, Sir, the Voice of India, God-sends like Judge Puttaswamy, Usha Ramanathan, Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Jean Dreze, Reetika Khera, Bezwada Wilson, Shanta Sinha, Kalyani Menon Sen, Sudhir Vombatkere (an IIT Alumnus, same as Mr Nilekani), Dr Anupam Saraph and hundreds more working behind the scenes backing our leaders. Mr Venugopal, Sir, will you go to the Supreme Court against an elected Majority Government represented by legal Eagles like yourself? I do not think So.
Additional Attorney General Tushar Mehta representing UIDAI:
What is so great about my fingerprints? I touch a file, I leave my fingerprints. These are all perceived ideas of privacy. We should aim to use technology to the maximum for the betterment of human beings. Aadhaar has 115.15 crore people enrolled, that is, 98 per cent of the population. Privacy is non-negotiable, confidentiality is non-negotiable under the Aadhaar Act. Privacy cannot be inserted as a new fundamental right into the Constitution.
My Comment: What is so great about your Finger Prints you ask, saying you leave it behind on everything you touch. Sir, suggest you watch some Crime Channel and get a better idea of the value of your finger print and for that matter your own DNA. An American Citizen Brandon Mayfield living in Oregon was accused and arrested by FBI of the 2004 Madrid train bombing, after the FBI wrongly found a partial match from their Finger Print database. Can Indians trust a database containing fingerprints of a billion Indians considering our corrupt bureaucracy sending innocent people to jails for crimes not committed by them?
You say: Privacy is non-negotiable, confiden-tiality is non-negotiable under the Aadhaar Act. Are you serious? Please check with your family members if they value and want their privacy before going down this path. Sir.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi for the Gujarat Government: Transparency is a key component in the modern age and providing basic personal information could not be covered under right to privacy.
My Comment : Sir, Dwivediji, Transparency does not mean walking naked in the park, does it?
Senior advocate C.A. Sundaram for Maha-rashtra Government: Privacy is not a funda-mental right but only a concept. Constitution makers had considered and rejected the idea of privacy as a fundamental right. For something to be a fundamental right, it has to be tangible and exact. Privacy has no exactitude, in fact, the concept of privacy varies from person to person. If made a fundamental right, it would open a flood of litigation.
My Comment: Sir, Sundaram, I am sure you will agree that Indias Constitution came into effect on January 26, 1950 and is the longest written constitution of any sovereign country in the world, by a drafting committee headed by Ambedkar as the Chairman and respected as the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. Sir, that was 67 years ago when in India only the urban elite had toilets. Surely, Sir, you did not expect Privacy to be spelt out then in the Constitution. Since 1950, Sir, there have been at least 101 amendments to the Indian Constitution. And these amendments have been brought about by Attorney Generals and Lawyers like yourself for the Government on behalf of the people the Government represents...
Now that the nine-Judge Supreme Court ruled on August 24, 2017 that the Right to Privacy is Intrinsic to Life and Liberty and is inherently protected under the various fundamental Freedoms enshrined under part III of the Indian Constitution; this should open a flood of litigations as you suggest.
PM Modiji: NPR and UID Aiding Aliens.
Sir, a Senior BJP Leader said in September 2102: I do not agree to Nandan Nilekani and his madcap (UID) scheme which he is trying to promote.
NPR and UID Aiding Aliens,This is what you said before the elections.
A nation of 1.3 billion people who were fed up with the corrupt UPA II Government led by PM Manmohan Singh, adored you, respected you and voted you and your BJP Party in with an overwhelming majority. The Nation was ecstatic to see the Congress Party annihilated. The Nation had never seen anything like this since Independence. Finally we have a Prime Minister who cares and is a genuine leader we thought and were all looking forward to the Achhe Din that you promised the nation. I was there at the Acer Arena in Sydney to see you and listen to you and my family who were with me said: Wow, what a speech? What a paradigm shift from an PM we never heard from for 8 long years. I told everyone that PM Modi will usher in Rama Rajya that has been predicted here right now and every one agreed.
As someone who has opposed Aadhaar from Day 1 for all the right reasons, I was hoping and praying that you will retain Aadhaar only for distributing Government subsidies to the BPL population and scrap the rest as promised by all BJP MPs in their election manifesto. We understand, Sir, you were uncertain about Aadhaar that you willingly implemented in Gujarat as the CM and it is also great that we have a PM who listens.
But then, Sir, you listened to a billionaire like Nandan Nilekani with a National Agenda of not just removing ghosts nd duplicates from beneficiary lists of welfare programmes, Aadhaar can help India save Rs 50,000 crores which would help the fiscal deficit. Sir, Nandan is entitled to his billionaire views as he has never visited a village in India ever and knew more about the slums in New York.
Sir, this is where you got hoodwinked into believing that Aadhaar for the entire population was an answer to every problem in India.
Sir, I am sure you are personally aware that the looting in PDS is not happening in the last mile by the needy poor who depend on subsidised grains supplied by the Government. Sir, you, I am sure, are aware that the looting of Government subsidies takes place in procurement supply to the State governments by the Central Government and then again the nearly 1.5 lakh fair price distribution shops in the nation. You do not expect Nandan to understand this as he was born with a silver spoon and mixes and dines with the worlds richest.
Sir, the People of India elected you whole- heartedly and welcomed you with open hands and we have all been waiting formiracles to transform the nation. We believed that each and every state in India will attain the standards of Gujarat.
Unfortunately, Sir, all that we have seen in the last three years is Aadhaar for Subsidies and more and more of Aadhaar which is voluntary and not mandatory but UBIQUITOUS suggesting the Government has taken its entire population for fools.
Sir, at a public meeting when there are thousands of supporters who applaud you, what do you see? Do you see people who are depending on you to help them and raise the standards of living and create jobs or do you see them as mere NUMBERs meaning Aadhaar Numbers?
Now that the nine-Judge Supreme Court Bench, the largest ever, has made its ruling on Right to Privacy, a Wise PM like yourself can do another about-turn tell the people you are sorry and were misled and that Aadhaar will now apply only to Government Subsidies as per the Aadhaar Act and not Pan card, passport, Voters card, Driving Licence etc etc etc. Please do not reduce the entire nation into Creatures with Unique identification numbers. Privacy suggests that all Indians have a right to live with Pride and Dignity without Government intrusions and surveillance.
Sir, a flawed system like the Pan card can be fixed easily if people incharge wanted to sans Aadhaar. It is the Corruption within the Indian Bureaucracy that has given rise to thousands of fake Pan cards Fake licences and even fake passports. There are simpler ways.
PM, Sir, please remember: the people who backed you and we want to back you again at the next elections.
A blogger based in Australia, the author has consistently opposed Aadhar. This article was put up on his blog.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > The Great Face-saving U-Turn on Privacy
On July 22, 2015, the Attorney General (AG), Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Union of India (Centre, hereinafter), argued before a three-Judge Bench (Justices J.Chelameshwar, S.A. Bobde and C. Nagappan) considering a batch of petitions challenging Aadhaar, that # the Constitution-makers did not intend to make the right to privacy a fundamental right, # since there is no fundamental right to privacy, the petitions under Article 32 should be dismissed, # it is needless to call privacy a fundamental right since it is already common law right, and # the right to privacy is not absolute.
Following this, on August 6, 2015, with the Centre seeking a larger Bench to adjudicate on more fundamental issues, namely, whether privacy was a fundamental right, the three-Judge Bench reserved its judgment on the petitions challenging Aadhaar. This unambiguously indicates that the issue of whether or not privacy was a fundamental right was raised at the instance of the Centre.
The Centre has also argued before the Supreme Court that privacy is so amorphous as to defy description, that privacy is an imported value and is elitist, and rather scarily, that a person does not have right over his/her own body.
It is fair to assume that the AG prepares his arguments in full knowledge of the views and policies of the Centre, following regular discussions and briefings with the Union Minister for Law, especially in a matter of such great import as Aadhaar. The AGs arguments and contentions in Court cannot but reflect the mind of the Centre. The AG, who is appointed by the Centre to represent it in the Supreme Court, cannot afford to speak at variance with the policies and views of the Centre.
That said, in a landmark ruling on August 24, the nine-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that privacy is a fundamental right, and that the right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty, as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution. The nine-Judge Bench also ruled that the right to privacy was not absolute, but was subject to reasonable restrictions (as is every other fundamental right). This was an emphatic, vigorous and outright rejection of the Centres contentions on the matter of privacy.
This judgment was a victory for the common man who is a part of We the People, and it has set the equation between the State and the Citizen on an even keel, in times when the State is becoming overweeningly, sometimes frigh-teningly, superior to the Citizen.
While the Citizen celebrated the Supreme Courts decision, the Centre strangely made a complete turn-around on its view regarding privacy. Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, while welcoming the Supreme Court judgment on the right to privacy, claimed that it affirmed the governments position; he is quoted [Deccan Herald, Bengaluru, Edit Page, August 25, 2017] as saying: SC had affirmed what the Government had said ... Privacy should be a fundamental right subject to reasonable restrictions. He also appeared on TV with the same assertion. BJP chief Amit Shah too made a U-turn when he declared [The Hindu, Bengaluru, page 10, August 25, 2017] that the judgment was in consonance with the NDA Governments vision and action. We are still to hear from the Prime Minister, but clearly the Centres intention is to get the public to believe that it had always been in favour of privacy as a fundamental right.
Prasads statement that SC had affirmed what the Government had said... is disingenuous, even dishonest, especially since it comes from the Law Minister. Shahs words that the judg-ment was in consonance with the Centres vision and action, may point to the political compulsion of deliberate obfuscation, and make one wonder what the vision is really about.
Instead of accepting the Supreme Courts verdict with dignity and good grace, the Centre has resorted to unseemly face-saving by saying that it had supported the fundamental right to privacy. The Centres callow U-turn on privacy-as-a-fundamental-right is unbecoming to say the least, and cannot convince the millions who have followed the course of the petitions challenging Aadhaar. This U-turn could be a political mistake, unless the spin doctors manage to make black appear as white.
Even if the judiciary has taken note of the Centres reversal of stand on the issue of privacy, the common man can rest assured that the five-Judge Bench will hear the Centres forthcoming arguments on Aadhaar with all due seriousness, as befits our countrys highest judicial authority. One cannot help quoting Abraham Lincoln who, in September 1858, is supposed to have said: You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time, although in present times, even that may not be beyond the bounds of possibility.
Major General S.G. Vombatkere, VSM, retired as the Additional DG, Discipline and Vigilance in the Army HQ AGs Branch. With over 520 published papers in national and international journals and seminars, his area of interest is strategic and development-related issues.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Acts of sharing on this Independence Day
by Sriti Ganguly
India just celebrated the 70th anniversary of its independence and like every year, apart from the grand celebration at Red Fort, schools and colleges across the country and even television soaps marked the event in their own ways. One also noticed an increasing trend of flags being sold at traffic signals by homeless migrants and the same flags undulating on rooftops of residential buildings. My nieces school also celebrated the I-Day where she and a handful of other classmates were called on 15th of August by their teachers to take part in the flag- hoisting ceremony followed by patriotic songs. Interestingly, I remember when I was in school a decade ago, Independence Day was celebrated on the previous day, that is, on the 14th. However, gradually a common sense emerged that August 14th was Pakistans Independence Day, our sworn enemy and neighbour. There-fore, our countrys flag should be hoisted on the 15th instead. According to my niece, this year a part of their celebration also included distri-bution of snacks and flags to children of slum-dwellers who were invited to the school.
While on a superficial level this gesture of kindness by a high-end English-medium private school in the Capital may seem unproblematic, something rattled inside me. A series of uncom-fortable thoughts came to my mind. I will not venture into the obviously and starkly visible irony of why even after 70 years of independence the nation has failed to address and eradicate poverty. This is a question many have been asking. So I would rather focus on this act of charity whose intention was perhaps to sensitise the privileged class and inculcate a sense of sharing among the children. Personally, I feel an often unacknowledged feeling underlying such acts is satisfaction about oneself and suppression of the guilt of belonging to the category of haves in this deeply unequal society.
However, the idea of sharing is what I would like to delve into in this article. In the context of the United States, Philipsen (2007) rightly points out that while the White middle class parents may want to instil ideas of equality and an ethic of sharing, it does not necessarily translate into sharing of privilege which, according to her, would constitute a contra-diction in terms, almost a violation of a persons habitus1, to use the terminology of Pierre Bourdieu. (p. 273) The White middle and upper classes have their counterparts in the Indian society where one finds class distinction overlapping with caste. It is this category that is largely catered to by these schools in the Capital. While every year a day such as the
I-Day is perhaps dedicated to sharing, there is evidence to show how several private schools responded to the 25 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections under Section 12(1)(C) of the Right to Education Act which mandated sharing of everyday social space. Nawani (2017) writes: The private school lobby is fiercely contesting the reservation of 25 per cent of seats for children from economically weaker sections (EWS) in private schools. (p. 24) Few other studies also revealed reluctance and lack of knowledge among the school staff to implement the provision effectively and there is also evidence indicating a general perception towards children, who do manage to secure seats under quota, labelling them as slow learners or deficient. (Sarangapani et al. 2014; Sarin and Gupta 2014) Most schools were content with admitting the children but were not committed to bringing fundamental changes in attitudes or pedagogies that would foster inclusion, write Sarangapani et al. in their discussion on inclusion and integration of the marginalised children in the private schools of Bangalore and Delhi. (p. 40) Thus what can be argued is that if anything can in the true sense inculcate a genuine ethic of sharing and appre-ciation of diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds among privileged children, it is this provision rather than tokenistic and pater-nalistic gestures of charity towards children from the marginalised sections.
This unwillingness to share the social space is not limited to classrooms and schools alone but also manifests in the geography of the city. Delhi as a city has particularly been hostile to the poor, including hawkers, squatter dwellers and homeless persons. Much of the scholarly literature on urban poor in Delhi and spaces of poverty has discussed how the poor figure in the imagination of the section of non-poor and planning bodies. (Dupont 2011; Ghertner 2012; Baviskar 2006) This imagination is intricately linked with the vision of the city as a world-class or global city and it corresponds to transforming Delhi into a slum-free city. These scholars working on Delhi as a urban space, and on the citys so-called planned and unplanned areas have discussed and critiqued the very way in which the urban poor and the spaces occupied by them have been represented because these depictions have subsequently become the basis on which large scale eviction and displacement of the poor has taken place.
Such processes have moved them away from their homes, social networks and sources of livelihood making their condition even more precarious.
According to Ghertner (2012), slums are cons-tructed as nuisance zonesas zones of incivility that violate normalised codes of urban conduct and appearance. Chakrabarti (2008) discusses the impact of the Bhagidari scheme of citizen participation on the urban poor in Delhi where this scheme altered the role and power of the Resident Welfare Associations and the middle classes, whose interests these bodies represent in a significant way, as they began to participate in urban policy-making and influence decisions. Baviskar (2003) uses the phrase bourgeois environmentalism to describe the middle and upper class concerns about hygiene and safety that again demands removal of squatters and slums whose population ironically provides numerous, everyday services to these very people and makes their freedom to work, without having to clean, cook, attend to the child etc., possible.
Thus, Philipsen (2007) correctly argues that the discourse on poverty needs to shift its focus from the poor to the non-poor and recognise the ways in which the non-poor play a role in maintaining their privilege and perpetuating poverty. As long as the poor continue to be either represented as uneducated, delinquent and incompetent, responsible for their own condition or as being deficient and in need of charity in public discourses, their inclusion in the city will remain limited to such acts of sharing once a year.
Endnotes
1. French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, described habitus as lasting dispositions that manifest in manners of speech, gestures, and life-styles.
References
Philipsen, M.I. (2007), The Problem of Poverty: Shifting Attention to the Non-Poor In Apple, M. W., Noblit, G. W., & Van Galen, J. (2007). (eds.), Late to Class: Social Class and Schooling in the New Economy. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Baviskar, A. (2003), Between violence and desire: space, power, and identity in the making of metropolitan Delhi, International Social Science Journal, 55(175).
Baviskar, A. (2006), Demolishing Delhi: World class city in the making, Mute Magazine, 5.
Chakrabarti, P. (2008), Inclusion or exclusion? Emerging effects of middle-class citizen participation on Delhis urban poor, IDS Bulletin 38:6.
Dupont, V. (2011), The Dream of Delhi as a Global City, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 35.
Ghertner, A. (2012), Nuisance Talk and the Propriety of Property: Middle Class Discourse of a Slum-Free Delhi, Antipode 44(4).
Nawani, D. (2017), Right to Education: Are We on the Right Track?, Economic and Political Weekly, 52(31).
Padma, M., A.M. Sarangapani, R. Mukhopadhyay and A. Namala (2014), Inclusion of Marginalised Children in Private Unaided Schools under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, Oxfam India.
Sarin, A. and Gupta, S. (2014), Quotas under the Right to Education: Not Leading towards an Egalitarian Education System, Economic and Political Weekly 49(38).
The author is a Ph.D Scholar, Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > How Unsafe are Muslims?
In a farewell message the outgoing Vice-President, Hamid Ansari, has said that the Muslims do not feel safe in the country. Instead of introspecting on what he said, the RSS and BJP have denounced him. Some have gone to the extent of saying that he could migrate to a country where he would feel safe.
The unkindest cut came from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who said that Ansari could now pursue his agenda. A few others, occupying high positions, also made more or less similar remarks. There was not an iota of examination by the Hindu leaders and thus a great oppor-tunity to disarm the Muslims of their fear was lost.
True, the Vice-President could have made the same remarks earlier and submitted his resignation while in office. But that would have created another kind of crisis which the Constitution experts would have found hard to sort out. That way the country would have been thrown into a cauldron of doubt and suspicion.
The majority community must try to find out why every Muslim leader raises reservation about his communitys welfare whenever he gets the opportunity, particularly on the eve of quitting office. The remark that Ansari could go to any country of his choice does not in any way meet the point he has raised. Ansari was not saying whether he was safe or not personally. The outgoing Vice-President was only conveying the fears of Muslims.
Personal attacks on Ansari would not do. The government leaders should ponder over what the outgoing Vice-President has said and how the majority community could make amends to retrieve the situation. But the message has not been taken in the spirit it should have been.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has reportedly endorsed the view that since Ansari did not feel happy in India he could go elsewhere. As head of a Hindu organisation, Bhagwats remark attains the representative character, unfortu-nately reducing the whole thing to the perennial debate of Hindus versus Muslims.
Since Anaris remark is public property and coming as it did from the countrys Vice-President, it should be debated at all responsible forums, including Parliament. The government at the Centre had constituted in the past a Commission to find out how the Muslims felt. Justice Rajindar Sachar, who led the Commission, said in his report that the Muslims were treated worse than the Dalits. And he found that West Bengal, after nearly three decades of communist rule, had only 2.5 per cent educated Muslims. The time is ripe to have another Commission to find out if Justice Sachars report had made any difference.
Unfortunately, similar remarks of regret have been made by other Muslim leaders in the past. In fact, some celebrities also have joined the chorus. Take for instance, what film star Aamir Khan remarked a couple of years ago when he took potshots at politicians, while referring to the fear his wife, Kiran Rao, had expressed about Indias growing intolerance.
When I chat with Kiran (his wife) at home, she says Should we move out of India? Thats a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make. She fears for her child. She fears about what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day. That does indicate that there is this sense of growing disquiet, there is growing despondency apart from alarm. You feel why this is happening, you feel low. That sense does exist in me, Aamir said.
Aamir, while speaking at an award function, also endorsed the returning of awards by creative people saying it was a way to express their dissatisfaction or disappointment. People who are our elected representatives, people who we select to look after us for five years, State or Centre... when people take law into their hands, we look upon these people to take a strong stance, to make a strong statement, speed up the legal process, when we see that happening there is a sense of security but when we dont see that happening there is a sense of insecurity, said the celebrity actor.
Understandably, the BJP reacted to his remark and completely rejected the comment of Aamir. He is not scared but he is trying to scare people. India gave him all the laurels and respect. He should not forget that India made him a star, said BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain. The Congress Vice-President stoutly defended the actor and suggested that the Modi Govern-ment should reach out to the people to know why they felt disturbed.
Rahul in a tweet said: Instead of branding all those who question the government and Modiji as unpatriotic, anti-national or motivated, the government would do better to reach out to people to understand whats disturbing them. But the BJP spokesman, as usual, pooh-poohed Rahuls comment saying that there was a conspiracy going on in the country to defame the nation!
The real problem is the line drawn by Radcliffe on the basis of religion. He did regret the killings in the wake of partition, but did not change the line. Those on the other side of the line are people of Pakistan who slowly and gradually are becoming part of the Islamic world. Fundamentalism has taken a firm grip.
There is practically no Hindu and Sikh on the other side of the border. Christians form the majority among the minorities in Pakistan. Their complaint is that the churches have been destroyed and there is forced conversion. The democratically elected Prime Minister is doing whatever he can. But the last word is with the Army. Unfortunately, the Army is also getting contaminated.
Words of Ansari have great relevance because a soft kind of Hindutva is spreading in India. Those who are at the helm of affairs are pushing the division because elections fought on the basis of Hindus and Muslims are bound to benefit the Hindus. The fabric of secular India is being torn bit by bit. Its regrettable that the ideology of secularism followed in the last seven decades is in great danger.
The author is a veteran journalist renowned not only in this country but also in our neighbouring states of Pakistan and Bangladesh where his columns are widely read. His website is www.kuldipnayar.com
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > End of the Doklam Stand-off: No Winners or Losers
by Purusottam Bhattacharya
The 70-day-old Doklam stand-off on the disputed Himalayan plateau between India and China at the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan has finally ended with a declaration by the Government of India on August 28, 2017 of a mutual pull-out of troops from the prolonged face-off between the Indian and Chinese soldiers though the Chinese version differs significantly. The present reality, as one understands it, is that while India withdrew all its soldiers to its territory, China drew back most of its military personnel from the area, claimed by both Beijing and Thimphu, keeping some to continue patrolling operations it has long pursued there. The Chinese Government, on the other hand, confirmed the agreement to end the 10-week-long stand-off but went out of its way, obviously for domestic consumption, to emphasise that it was India that pulled out troops, a persistent Chinese demand throughout the crisis, without China making any concessions.
It is significant to take note of the starkly different versions of the statements put out by New Delhi and Beijing to explain how the stand-off ended. While the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced that expeditious disengagement of border personnel at the face-off site in Doklam has been agreed to and is ongoing (the wording expeditious
mutual
disengagement was added by the MEA in the evening of August 28), the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson declared: On the afternoon of August 28 the Indian side has pulled back all the trespassing personnel and equipment to the Indian side of the boundary... Chinese personnel on the ground have verified this, and Chinese troops continue to patrol the area and continue to exercise sovereignty and territorial integrity in accordance with historical conventions. The spokesperson also added: I can tell you that China will
make adjustments with the situation on the ground (emphasis added), a demand voiced by India, though a section of the Chinese media ignored this aspect of the agreement. The Chinese spokesperson did not directly answer a question about whether the Doklam deadlock was settled. (It would be reasonable to surmise from the usage of the words make adjustments with the situation on the ground that it is a piece of Chinese sophistry to acknowledge that Beijing did indeed draw back most of its military personnel from the area).
Significantly the agreement to de-escalate tensions was arrived at six days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to fly to Xiamen in Eastern China to attend the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) summit there when Modi will also meet the Chinese President, Xi Jinping. It is understood that at the bilateral meeting between Xi and Modi the two leaders will try to reset safeguards that have helped the two nations avoid military conflict for half-a- century despite a disputed border. This under-standing has suffered setbacks in recent years. An end to the deadlock at Doklam was also necessary to salvage the BRICS summit on September 3-5, 2017 which is scheduled to be hosted by China, the most powerful country in the grouping which was also locked in this bitter dispute with India, the second most important economy in the five-nation bloc. If the stalemate had not been ended before the summit it would certainly have cast a cloud over the gathering if not scuttled it altogether. There were other compulsions too to which we will return later.
There is no doubt that the limited under-standing that was implemented on August 28 deliberately allowed both India and China to claim they had achieved their objectivesto satisfy politically their domestic audiences. One has to remember how the stand-off originated in the first place (its genesis has been in public domain for the past ten weeks), namely, Chinas attempt to change the status quo in the Doklam plateau by building a road through what is undoubtedly Bhutanese territory which would have endangered Indias own security by bringing the Siliguri corridor, the so-called Chickens Neck connecting Indias North-East with the mainland, within the range of Chinese armaments. Incidentally the southern tip of Chinas Chumbi valley is only 50 kilometres away from the Chickens Neck. The strategic significance of this attempt on the part of China to change the status quo in the Doklam plateau has to be seen in the perspective of Beijings persistent claim that large parts of Arunachal Pradesh are actually Chinas Southern Tibet and hence not a part of India. The question, however, remains whether this basic objective of India, that is, to stop China from undertaking the construction of the road in the Doklam plateau altogether has been achieved as there is no sign of any undertaking from China in this regard; the jury will probably be out on that for some time to come.
China, on the other hand, insisted that it had attained its objectives. From the very start Beijing had insisted that Indian troops had to withdraw from the disputed spot to the Indian side of the border as a precondition for any resolution. China had held that Beijing enjoyed full sovereignty over the Doklam plateau (completely ignoring Bhutans claim to the area); India therefore, according to Beijing, was in Chinese territory and was the aggressor and must vacate its aggression. Following the August 28 agreement India did technically withdraw its troops to the Indian side of the border to which the Chinese Foreign Ministry statement, cited above, pointedly referred implying therewith that China has scored a significant triumph over India in this whole episode. It also pointed to the retention of its border guards in the area and the fact that they would continue to patrol the area. (Ironically India never objected to China patrolling the area; it only acted when China tried to change the status quo in the area by trying to build a road as noted above.) However, as one understands, Beijing also pulled back most of the additional soldiers it had deployed to counter Indian troops during the stand-off. (Is it not a case of making adjustments with the situation on the ground?)
There seems to be a consensus in the Indian foreign policy establishment that the Doklam episode is a diplomatic victory for India. International observers, however, have extra-polated from the statements from the two sides that China has emerged victorious from the stand-off. (BBC News: August 28, 2017) From the information available in the public domain it is known that New Delhi had been persistently trying for a negotiated diplomatic solution while maintaining a firm military stand at the disputed spot. At the same time it redeemed itself very well by not responding in kind to the barrage of threats, invectives and bullying emanating from Beijing throughout this entire episode which only showed the latter in a rather poor light in the eyes of the international community. However, the fact to be noted here is that China made no commitment that its soldiersat a later datewould not restart efforts at building the road that triggered the spat in the first place. After all, it is China which
is in physical control of the Doklam plateau notwithstanding the illegitimacy of its presence there.
We have been given to understand from information available in public domain that the Chinese side has given assurance that the road-building project has been shelved, at least for the moment. The breathing space that has been gained in the process, one hopesif this deduction is correctwill give time for diplomacy involving India, China and Bhutan (the original claimant to the Doklam plateau) to arrive at an acceptable formula for all concerned.
In the final analysis, China has not emerged well from the stand-off with India at Doklam. It hardly received any international support, except from its all weather friend Pakistan and a brooding silence from Russia. The United States, in spite of the chaos in the Trump Administration, pointedly asked China to settle the issue with India diplomatically while Japan offered open support to Indias position. While it is too early to say so, Chinas smaller neighbours in South-East Asia probably drew their own conclusions and will be even more wary of their powerful northern neighbour (which is openly exhibiting jingoism and bullying tactics in Asia) especially in the context of the unresolved South China Sea dispute.
However, India and China need to pick up the pieces and seek to start afresh in view of the very high stakes involved in the bilateral relationship (bilateral trade worth $ 70 billion, big-ticket Chinese investments in India and last, but not the least, the unresolved border dispute which continues to fester and trigger fresh conflicts/stand-offs in ever increasing numbers). It is worth noting in conclusion what former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh used to say in the context of Sino-Indian relationshipthat there is enough strategic space in the world, and in Asia in particular, for both China and India to compete, co-operate and grow together. The future of the two countries should be looked at in this spirit and not as permanent enemies.
Dr Purusottam Bhattacharya is a former Professor of International Relations and erstwhile Director, School of International Relations and Strategic Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > War Clouds Over Doklam Recede
Tens of millions of people in India and China heaved a sigh of relief last Monday (August 28) when the war clouds that had gathered menacingly over Doklam receded, even if they have not totally disappeared. While India said both sides had decided to withdraw their troops and the Chinese side had agreed to stop its road-building activities in Doklam, meaning that the Chinese have decided to restore status quo ante as on June 16, the Chinese statement was ambivalent and ambiguous.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said: The Chinese side will continue to exercise its sovereignty, uphold territorial integrity in accordance with the historical conventions ... The Chinese Government attaches importance to its friendly relations with India. We hope India can earnestly abide by historical relations and norms governing the international law based on the mutual respect of sovereignty to uphold the peace, tranquillity of the border with India.
The spokesperson said India had withdrawn its troops from Chinese territory but did not clarify whether China was also reciprocating it. Despite persistent questioning, the spokesperson remained ominously silent on whether they had agreed to desist from building a road in Doklam. It is road building which created the critical situation as India considered this unilateral action on the part of the Chinese as an attempt at changing the ground reality in a way that posed a threat to the Siliguri corridorthe narrow neck of land that connects mainland India with its seven North-Eastern States.
While New Delhi deserves praise for its dealing with the crisis with both maturity and firmness without engaging in a slanging match with China in using provocative and vituperative language and at the same time giving a clear message to Beijing that threats and intimidations wont work, Chinese ambivalence remains a source of concern and anxiety. Was China trying to save its precious face while climbing from the high horse it was riding, or was it keeping its options open for the future? That, future alone can say.
The Doklam crisis, however, has exposed the chinks in our armour. It has brought into the open the hitherto little known fact that the Indian Armys store of ammunition was critically low, not enough even to sustain a ten-day long war. On July 13 the Union Cabinet gave full financial powers to the Vice-Chief of the Army to procure critical ammunition and spares to maintain an optimum level to fight a short intense war following critical voids in capabilities of the Army. The procurement related to 46 types of ammunition that the Army uses. But for the Doklam crisis, this critical void would have continued. The Army has now placed an emergency order for ammunition and spares worth Rs 20,000 crores. But why in the first place was this critical shortage allowed to grow?
Doklam has shown that it is possible to look the Chinese straight in the eye and hold ones ground and make them blink. This has sent a reassuring message to Chinas smaller neighbours who stand in constant fear of it.
Prevention is better than cure. To be fully prepared for war against a treacherous neighbour is the best way to prevent war. One way of developing an effective deterrence against China is to strengthen our Navy. As things stand now, despite the Chinese Navys superior fleet strength and firepower compared to the Indian Navys, India can still effectively put a naval blockade in the Malacca Strait to prevent the egress and ingress of Chinese commercial vessels. As defence experts have pointed out, China will be at a disadvantage vis-a-vis the Indian Navy in the Bay of Bengal because it is Indias own territorial waters while the Chinese will have to traverse a long distance to engage with the Indian Navy. In another five years time, the Indian Navys fleet strength will go up from the present 137 ships to 200 including half-a-dozen submarines.
Also, the raising of the Mountain Strike Corps should be completed expeditiously as this Corps is being trained specially for fighting the Chinese in the high altitudes of Tibet, if need be.
The Doklam crisis has blown over for the present but India cannot afford to lower her guard. At the same time, it is necessary to keep other countries fully apprised of the situation in our border areas with China so that China cannot be the aggressor and at the same time play the victim card.
The author was a correspondent of The Hindu in Assam. He also worked in Patriot, Compass (Bengali), Mainstream. A veteran journalist, he comes from a Gandhian family and was intimately associated with the RCPI leader, Pannalal Das Gupta.
SMITHFIELD, Va., Sept. 02, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Smithfield Foods, Inc. announced today that it will donate $100,000 to the American Red Cross to assist in ongoing relief efforts to aid in the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey. In addition to this contribution, the company announced it will match two-to-one all donations made by its more than 40,000 U.S. employees to the American Red Cross.
In addition to financial contributions of the company and its employees, Smithfield has also mobilized Helping Hungry Homes, its hunger relief initiative. Through Helping Hungry Homes, Smithfield has donated more than 300,000 pounds of protein to Feeding America food banks in southeast Texas and Operation BBQ Relief, which provides meals to displaced residents and emergency personnel during times of natural and other disasters.
At Smithfield, were committed to helping communities and our people are passionate about helping their neighbors in need, said Kenneth M. Sullivan, president and chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods. Its truly inspiring to witness the entire company rallying together in support of those impacted by this devastating storm.
Smithfield will continue to work with response organizations to assess the regions immediate needs and recovery in the coming weeks.
About Smithfield Foods
Smithfield Foods is a $15 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield, Eckrich, Nathan's Famous, Farmland, Armour, John Morrell, Cook's, Kretschmar, Gwaltney, Curly's, Margherita, Carando, Healthy Ones, Krakus, Morliny and Berlinki. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Remove Khattar, hold Fresh Elections in Haryana
The following is a press release issued by Dr Prem Singh, President, Socialist Party (India), on August 27, 2017.
The Socialist Party considers the Haryana and Central governments responsible for the violent incidents that broke out on Friday (August 25) in Panchkula and Sirsa of Haryana and parts of its border States. In view of the decision of a Special CBI Court in the case of the Dera Sacha Sauda chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, accused of rape, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had instructed the government well in advance to ensure adequate arrangements to maintain law and order. But the Haryana Government and the Central Government did not take necessary steps to prevent potential violence on the day of the judgment.
By assembling his supporters in large numbers with arms, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh had made an audacity to pressurise the court on the day of the judgment. The RSS/BJP politics, under Modi-Shah-Bhagwat, is mainly based on the strength of superstitions and mobocracy. That is why the Haryana and Central governments have encouraged the strategy of the accused, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, for the sake of the vote-bank. Therefore, the Haryana and Central governments are directly responsible for the death of about 35 people, hundreds of people being injured and destruction of property worth millions of rupees. The Punjab and Haryana High Court too has stated this fact clearly.
The Socialist Party believes that if the superstitions and mobocracy continue to grow like this in the country, then democracy and the constitutional institutions will be destroyed. Safety and peace in civilian life will end. Therefore, the Socialist Party appeals to the citizens to rise above the party-lines and seriously consider and prevent this malignant tendency.
The Socialist Party welcomes the Special Courts decision for giving justice to the rape-victims after a long struggle. Simultaneously, it also welcomes the statement of the Punjab and Haryana High Court: National integration and law and order are above everything. We are a nation, not a party-nation. Politicians need to understand that the nation is one. It is the Prime Minister of India, not the BJP.
The Socialist Party wants to make it clear that the people, Constitution, administrative system and its related responsibilities do not have any significance for the pracharaks of the RSS. They live in a world of superstitions and ignorance of their own organisation. In the last year, the Jat-Reservation protest movement in Haryana and now the violent incidents happened after the courts verdict. These show that the BJP had put the lives of the citizens of Haryana and citizens of Delhi, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir who pass through Haryana in danger by appointing Manohar Lal Khattar, an RSS pracharak, as the Chief Minister of Haryana. The Socialist Party demands the resignation of Khattar and imposition of Presidents Rule in the State in order to hold fresh elections.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Haryana Mayhem, Patna Rally, Long March
EDITORIAL
The long arm of the law has finally caught up with him. After being convicted on August 25, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the self-styled godman and chief of the Dera Sacha Sauda, was sentenced to 20 years rigorous imprisonment10 years each for the rape of two of his disciplesby the CBI court judge in Rohtaks Sunaria jail three days later (on August 28).
While pronouncing the sentence the judge ruled that the Dera chief did not deserve sympathy of the court since his followers had placed him on the pedestal of god while revering him but he did not even spare his own pious disciples and had acted like a wild beast. He further added that Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singhs actions caused irreparable damage... to the heritage of this ancient land.
Thankfully, nothing untoward happened on that day when the sentence was pronounced. That is because perhaps the Haryana authorities were careful not to let things get out of hand following the events of August 25, the day of his conviction. There was real anarchy in Panchkula on that day and mob violence reached menacing proportions leading to as many as 38 deaths, according to latest figures, while many more were injured. As The Hindu editorially pointed out on August 27,
True, mob violence is difficult to control without resort to extreme force, but in this case the government seemed to rely entirely on the good sense of the sects followers. It failed to foresee violence on such a large scale, and no viable security plan was in place after several hours of lawlessness. Despite intelligence inputs about the Dera followers storing fuel, and knives and stones, the government machinery was woefully slow to react... Punjab saw better coordination between the Army and the police, with action being taken at least ten days in advance. Of course, the supporters had gathered in greater numbers in Panchkula and Sirsa, the headquarters of the sect, in Haryana; even so, nothing remotely credible can explain the inadequateness of Haryanas response to Fridays mayhem.
Actually Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh enjoyed the patronage of the major political parties in the region at various timesthe Akalis, Congress and BJP. The Dera chief had switched his loyalties in 2014 to back the BJP and thus the BJP Government in Haryana went out of its way to lend support to him in different ways (from the PM to the State CM the attitude of the BJP leaders was the same regardless of whatever Narendra Modi may say now). So the political class, notably the ruling party at the Centre and the State, cannot escape responsibility for whatever happened in Haryana after the conviction of the Dera chief. Hence, the demand that the State CM should step down for his inability to maintain peace and order is fully justified.
Meanwhile, the Opposition parties rally at Patna on August 27, called by the RJD in an effort to forge an Opposition alliance against the ruling BJP, was by all accounts a success, to say the least. It was attended by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav, rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, CPI leader D. Raja and brought together 18 Opposition parties. No doubt these parties would have to do much more than just holding such rallies. Yet the significance of the August 27 rally should not be minimised as the public disillusionment with the Modi Government is gradually mounting.
At the same time, something else is happening. Left-wing students and youth belonging to the AISF and AIYF have been touring nooks and corners of the country in what is described as a long march to save India, change India and the public response to it is indeed striking. One was witness to this at a public meeting as late as 11 pm in Kolkata wherein prominent JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar regaled the large audience by tearing into the Modi regimes propaganda stunts.
A clear sign of the changing times. This is bound to become more transparent in the coming days.
August 30 S.C.
DUMBO's charming, if treacherous, Belgian blocks were reported to be in danger earlier this week, with an Historic Districts Council report noting that the stones don't comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act. It seemed, at first, that the city would rip out the stones, but the Brooklyn Paper reports that the streets, but not my heels, are safe.
Department of Transportation spokesperson Scott Gastel told the paper that though the HDC report found that some of the neighborhood's cobblestoned streets flouted federal regulations for the disabled, the city has opted to modify them, not scrap them. "I want to be very clear that the Belgian block configuration in Dumbo is not being removed," Gastel said. "The idea that the character is disappearing from the streets of DUMBO is not true."
Instead, the Department of Design and Construction will temporarily remove them, clean them, and smooth them to make them ADA-compliant. Stones that cannot be salvaged will be replaced, but the city says they'll do their best to keep as many as possible.
This isn't the first time the 150-year-old hand-cut, hand-rounded Belgian stones have been under siege. In 2013, the Department of Transportation suggested ripping out the stones and re-shaping them to make them more bike-friendly and handicap-accessible, ultimately implementing these changes along Water Street. Neighborhood residents and workers have long been split on the blocks, which, while beautiful, are a pain-in-the-ass to walk and bike on; still, they're a charming reminder of an older New York, since far more city streets were paved like this back in the day.
"The Belgian blocks of Dumbo are much beloved but a little beleaguered," Alexandria Sica, president of the Dumbo Business Improvement District, told te Brooklyn Paper. "Businesses are asking when the streets are going to be fixed because their employees have to bike down the wrong side of the road on one block, because its full of holes. And mothers with strollers are constantly in my ear about how they cant safely get across Pearl Street."
We reached out to the DDC to find out more about the stone-smoothing plan, and will report back.
SPRINGFIELD - Car shows are nothing new in Western Massachusetts.
But when Springfield resident Sam Esteves first began to organize "Hard Parked Springfield," not only did he set a goal to invite car enthusiasts from all over the northeast to the City of Homes, but to introduce local residents and out-of-towners alike to the best the area has to offer.
"Hard Parked Springfield" is set to debut Sunday, Sept. 10 at 11 a.m. at the Eastfield Mall and, according to Esteves, will feature prizes, food and drink and enough vendors to leave participants and attendees alike "talking shop" for hours.
"We organized "Hard Parked" to let car owners know they have a safe space to show what they've built with their hard-earned money. Ed's Custom Mufflers will be sponsoring a few different competitions and we'll have prize categories for everything from best exhaust and best wheels to the best Euro, imports, Jeeps, classics and domestics," he said.
The car show's origins date back months in advance, with Esteves, who works as Digital Marketing Manager for the Bertera Auto Group by day, working overtime alongside co-founder Edwin Garcia, owner of Ed's Custom Mufflers, to develop a new car show from the ground up.
"Edwin and I have been friends for a long time so we joined up to make this show happen and make it exciting for everybody involved. We worked together in sponsoring and presenting a car show at UMass in the spring. We decided we wanted to put on an event of our own and a good friend of mine, Mat Dubord, came up with the name," he said.
However, the tech-savvy graphic artist and web designer was quick to note that his goal behind "Hard Parked" was to go above-and-beyond what a typical car show has to offer, recruiting several area businesses in the process.
"We're going to have Bueno Y Sano serving up some of their favorites all day as our official food vendor. We're excited to have their support," he said. "It looks like we'll also have Krazy Jake's, El Tripetazo and the Janna Juice Bar and Grill serving burgers, hot dogs and a fruit bar, too."
When all is set and done, Esteves said he hopes to make "Hard Parked" an annual tradition in Springfield that's well-known across the auto community.
"We feel there's a need for this sort of event around here. We want to promote how positive the culture can be. I think if you have proper organization and a dedicated group of people organizing this kind of event, they can bring a new perspective to the people who think car shows just cause trouble or might otherwise not come out," he said, adding that staff members will also be collecting water and canned food for families affected by Hurricane Harvey.
Hard Parked Springfield will take place at the Eastfield Mall on Sunday, September 10 between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1838245689826226/.
It's state fair food time again, and in 2017, as in years past, nothing seems to succeed like excess. Concessionaires from Washington State to New England have pulled out all the stops, developing over-the-top edible delights.
Bacon is big this year, appearing in creations like the Bacon Fluffernutter, a grilled cinnamon bun stuffed with bacon, peanut butter, and marshmallow creme (Minnesota State Fair). Bacon is also making multiple appearances on the Texas State Fair midway; it's playing a role in dishes like Bacon Cream Corn; a Dallas Fried Bacon-Tilla, in which bacon is woven into the shape of a tortilla shell; and Lollipop-Fried, Bacon-Wrapped Smoked Quail Breast on a stick. Bacon Ravioli, a Bacon-wrapped Pork Shish Kabob, and Beer-battered Bacon-wrapped Cheddar Sausage on a Stick were just of few of the bacon-themed items featured at the Wisconsin State Fair.
If it can conceivably be deep fried, it's likely to find its way onto a state fair midway. Deep-fried Nachos, a kind of cheese-filled tortilla dough ball, was new at this year's Texas State Fair, where the dish joined the likes of Deep-fried Clam Chowda (think chowder "bites" served on a bed of fried clams), and Deep-fried Cannoli Bites.
Pasteurized and thus safe-to-eat raw cookie dough has also been prominently featured on this year's state fair circuit. The dough is being offered in various flavors either served "straight" or with toppings as part of a sundae-like dessert bowl.
The Big E, our hometown version of a big-time state fair, also has some new food treats in store for visitors this year - a Belgian Waffle Ice Cream Sandwich, a BBQ Brisket Sundae, and Pumpkin Pie Funnel Cake, to list a few.
OffTheMenuGuy@aol.comOf course, Big E favorites like the Big E Cream Puff, The Big Eclair, and the Craz-E Burger will be back for the fair's 17-day run.
Side dishes
Figaro Restaurant in Enfield will be presenting "Ticket to Ride: The Ultimate Tribute to the Beatles" on September 10.
The show, which begins at 7 p.m. is $19 per person.
Figaro is also offering a buffet-style dinner before the performance with seating starting at 5:30 p.m. Dinner is $19.95, tax and tip not included. A cash bar will be available as well.
For more details or to make reservations, contact Figaro Restaurant at (860) 745-2414.
***
On Monday, September 11, the Publick House Historic Inn in Sturbridge will be holding a "Publick House Cooks for Community" feast. Held to benefit local non-profit organizations, the dinners are "cash & casual."
Two seatings are planned, one at 4:30 p.m. and a second at 6:30 p.m.; no reservations are accepted.
The all-you-care-to-eat menu for September 11 will feature baked ham, au gratin potatoes, and green beans as well as salad, rolls, dessert, and a choice of coffee or soft drinks.
The donation for adults is $14; children 12 and under are $5.
For more details contact the Publick House at (508) 347-3313.
***
This September participating McDonald's restaurants in Connecticut and Western Massachusetts will be hosting Family Nights every Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Kids ten years old and younger will receive a free Happy Meal when accompanied by an adult who purchases an Extra Value Meal or an Entree Salad.
Participating locations also have extra surprises in store for Family Night; these might include appearances by Ronald McDonald, free Kiddie Cones, and other fun activities.
Happy Meal menu options include Chicken McNuggets or hamburgers; the assortment of sides ranges from yogurt to apple slices.
***
The Gray House, a nonprofit organization in the North End of Springfield, is kicking off its third annual "Fill the Plate, Feed a Family Challenge," an on-line fundraising initiative which will run through Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017.
The Organization has set a goal of raising $20,000 for the month of September and is asking the community to help them reach this goal. All proceeds will directly support their food pantry operations, which serve an average of 80 to 120 households each week.
This year the "Fill the Plate" campaign will kick-off at Hot Table at Tower Square in downtown Springfield on Wednesday, Sept. 6 where 20% of proceeds from breakfast, lunch and dinner sales will benefit The Gray House. Patrons must present the cashier with a fundraising flyer, which can be found at GrayHouse.org. That web site also has more information about The Gray House and its programs.
***
The Munich Haus in Chicopee will once again be presenting a Lobster Fest Event on September 12 at 6:30 p.m. As always, the main attraction will be a six-to-nine-pound lobster served with seasonal vegetables and oven-roasted potatoes.
The feasting will begin with the restaurant's own-recipe clam chowder; a Caesar salad and a strawberry sundae will also be part of the dining experience.
The cost for one diner to enjoy one lobster is $90; a couple can split a lobster for $55 per person. Taxes and gratuity are not included in the ticket price.
Reservations may be purchased by calling (413) 594-8788 or going on line to MunichHaus.com
***
Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) will be holding it annual farm-to-table dinner, Taste the View, on September 28 from 6:00 p.m. until 9 p.m. at Quonquont Farm in Whately.
Dino Giordano of Smith College Dining Services is responsible for the dinner's preparation, and he's planning a menu that will feature a wide variety of small plates and main dishes in which locally sourced ingredients play a primary role. An open bar with beer, wine, and other beverages is being offered at the event.
A live and silent auction is also part of the evening.
Tickets can be purchased on line at CISA's web site, buylocalfood.org, where a preview listing of auction items can also be found.
Suggested donation levels per ticket start at $125 per person.
For more information on Taste the View, call CISA at (413) 665-7100.
***
Allium Restaurant + Bar in Great Barrington has announced the arrival of a new chef, Oliver Antunes.
Antunes, a Berkshires native, is a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute. He returns to the Berkshires after stints in France and California's wine country.
His stated food philosophy focuses on simplicity and he aligns the menus he creates with the changing seasons. Antunes intends to build on Allium's farm-to-fork philosophy and is looking forward to sourcing ingredients from Berkshires farms, foragers, and producers.
A sampling of Antunes' menu philosophy can be found at alliumberkshires.com.
Allium, which serves dinner seven nights a week, answers at (413) 528-2118.
***
The Cedar Street Grille in Sturbridge will be hosting a Farm-to-Table Dinner on September 21 starting at 6:30 p.m.
Cedar Street's Head Chef, Nick Faucher, will be creating a multi-course experience that highlights the best of the local harvest season. Each course of the dinner will paired with a local microbrew specifically selected by the chef to harmonize with the dish being offered.
Price for the event is $55 per person with beer pairings and $48 per person without; tax and gratuities not included in the ticket price.
Reservations can be made by contacting the Cedar Street Grille at (508) 347-5800.
Hugh Robert is a faculty member in Holyoke Community College's hospitality and culinary arts program and has over 40 years of restaurant and educational experience. Please send items of interest to Off the Menu at the Republican, P.O. Box 1329, Springfield, MA 01101; Robert can also be reached at OffTheMenuGuy@aol.com
NORTHAMPTON - Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey will speak at Smith College on Monday, Sept. 18 at 4:30 p.m. in Weinstein Auditorium, 7 College Lane, as part of the college's Presidential Colloquium series.
The series features "influential thought leaders in a variety of fields." Healey's appearance, which is free to the public, is in conjunction with the observance of Constitution Day on Sept. 17, which falls on a Sunday this year.
Constitution Day and Citizenship, as designated by Congress, commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787 as well as recognizing "all who, by coming of age or by naturalization, have become citizens."
The observance actually started as "I Am American Day" when Congress passed a joint resolution, in 1940, authorizing and requesting the president set aside the third Sunday in May honoring all those with U.S. citizenship.
This resolution was repealed, in 1952, and a new law established Sept. 17 as Citizenship Day to commemorate the "formation and signing" of the U.S. Constitution.
In 2004, Congress designated Sept. 17 as "Constitution Day and Citizenship Day" and asked that educational institutions receiving federal funds hold a program for students in conjunction with the day.
In his proclamation on the day in 2000, President Bill Clinton called the U.S. Constitution a "powerful piece of political philosophy" and "a powerful example of citizenship."
"Wise about human nature and wary of unlimited power, the authors of our Constitution created a government where power resides not with one person or institution but with three separate and equal branches of government," Clinton said.
"It guarantees for our citizens the right and responsibility to choose leaders through free elections, giving Americans the means to enact political change without resorting to violence, insurrection, or revolution. And, with its carefully crafted system of checks and balances, the Bill of Rights, and its process of amendment, the Constitution maintains an inspired balance between authority and freedom and between the ideals of unity and individual rights."
He added, "For more than 200 years the Constitution has provided our Nation with the resilience to survive trying times and the flexibility to correct past injustices."
"At every turning point in our history, the letter and spirit of the Constitution have enabled us to reaffirm our union and expand the meaning of liberty. Its success can be measured by the millions of people who have left their homelands over the past two centuries to become American citizens. Its influence can be measured by the number and vigor of new democracies springing up across the globe," Clinton said.
Boston Police have identified the man behind a dangerous crash in which he drove his car down three flights of stairs on Boston City Hall plaza.
Nicholas Hoetzel, 26, of Tiverton, Rhode Island faces multiple charges after crashing into a cast iron pole on Congress Street around 10:30 p.m. Friday night. He is believed to suffer from mental health issues and police say there is no indication of terrorism in the crash.
Boston Police charged the suspect with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and unlawful possession of a firearm.
In a statement, Boston Police said officers responded to a call on the crash at City Hall Plaza around 10:37 p.m. Friday night. A blue Toyota Corolla with serious damages was discovered.
Officers learned the car had entered the plaza - a pedestrian-only space near Boston's City Hall building - from the area of Washington and Court Streets. Before heading toward the City Hall building, Hoetzel allegedly turned right, driving down a wide staircase before crashing into a crosswalk pole.
"Although numerous people were walking on the stairs and in the area at the time of the incident, miraculously, none were struck or injured in any way," Boston Police wrote in a statement.
Officers found Hoetzel, "unconscious, suffering from numerous self-inflicted, non-life threatening injuries" on State Street. He was transported to a hospital for treatment.
In the car, officers found a "large, opened bottle of alcohol" and a firearm on the passenger side floor. Boston Police say Hoetzel does not have a license to carry a firearm in Rhode Island or Massachusetts.
Hoetzel will be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court following his hospital release.
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The fatal police shooting of a mentally-impaired man in South Boston last year was justified, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney.
On Thursday, Suffolk D.A. Daniel Conley shared the findings from an investigation into the fatal shooting of Terrence Coleman, 31, on Oct. 30, 2016 in Boston's South End. Coleman was shot twice in the abdomen by Boston Police Officer Garrett Boyle after Coleman attempted to stab police officers and two emergency medical technicians with knife in a Shawmut Avenue apartment.
"Officer Boyle acted in the lawful exercise of his duties, both in self-defense and the defense of others," Conley wrote in a report.
"Under the extremely difficult circumstances facing him, Officer Boyle's actions in firing his service weapon twice at Mr. Coleman were reasonable and lawful." Following the state's investigation, Boyle faces no criminal charges in the fatal shooting.
The shooting occurred on the night of Oct. 30, 2016, shortly after Coleman's mother called 911 after 12:30 a.m. She called seeking help for her son, who she said suffered "schizophrenic paranoia." In a report, police say Hope Coleman had contacted her son's therapist, as well as Tufts Medical Center. Experts at Tufts reportedly said her son should be brought to the hospital by ambulance.
Two EMT responders arrived at the apartment shortly after while police waited outside. When Coleman became violent, attacking one of the EMT responders with a knife, the other responder called for the police outside.
Conley's report describes officers attempting to pull Coleman onto his back and asking for him to drop the knife. Boston Police Officer Kevin Finn reportedly wrestled on top of Coleman: "Officer Finn began to sense that he was losing control of Mr. Coleman's right arm and feared that he would be stabbed," the report reads.
Officer Boyle ordered Finn to "get clear" of Coleman, and then fired two shots at the knife-wielding man. Coleman was transported to Tufts Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. A later autopsy revealed he died from the gunshot wounds.
DA Conley cited a 2015 case of a police officer beating an unarmed civilian in self-defense, "Commonwealth v. Asher," which found a police officer is obligated to protect fellow officers and the general public in a way "that goes beyond that of an ordinary citizen, such that retreat or escape is not a viable option for an on-duty police officer faced with a potential threat of violence."
Following the shooting, Hope Coleman told WBUR her son was not holding a knife and did not use deadly force. She said police should have tased him.
"I wanted to call for help," she told WBUR while crying, "but instead of getting help, they killed him, they killed my son."
In records from Coleman's treatment at Tufts Medical Center after he was shot, Hope Coleman reportedly told her son's physician that she "did not really see what exactly happened, but that there was some sort of scuffle and she heard a gunshot," according to Conley's report.
Hope Coleman, her attorneys and DA Conley met with local clergy, civil rights advocates and community leaders after the findings were published on Thursday to discuss the case and governing law, according to a statement by Conley's office.
Just in time for Labor Day weekend, Old Ironsides has opened up to visitors once again. After two and a half years of restoration, the historic war vessel now appears strikingly similar to how it once looked when it sat in Boston Harbor 219 years ago.
The ship, first launched in 1797, underwent a 26-month, $12-15 million restoration job by naval crew members. Work included the installation of more than 2,200 copper sheets and the replacement of hull planks.
The ship can be toured for free by children and visitors who have a valid federal or state photo identification card. Beginning Saturday through September 16, the ship will remain open to visitors from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. each day, with the exception of Monday, September 11.
The boat returned to open waters in Boston Harbor this July, when it set sail out of the Charlestown Navy Yard Dry Dock 1. The ship is currently docked at Pier 1 East in the Navy Yard, next to the USS Constitution Museum.
Updates a story posted Friday, Sept. 1, 2017, at 3:08 p.m.
PITTSFIELD -- A Pittsfield man died after he was shot outside his home by a Pittsfield police officer Friday afternoon, the Berkshire District Attorney's Office said.
Daniel Gillis, 36, of 43 Taylor St., was shot just before 1 p.m. when he confronted officers with a knife and then ran toward them despite repeated calls for him to stop and drop the knife, according to a press release from Frederick A. Lantz, spokesman for Berkshire District Attorney David A. Capeless. Gillis was shot by Officer Christopher Colello.
Officers initiated CPR and then transported Gillis to Berkshire Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
According to Lantz's press release, a witness told police that Gillis was distraught and intoxicated after being fired from his job earlier in the day. When police arrived at his home, he refused to let them in. Gillis armed himself with a knife, but his girlfriend was able to take it away from him and threw it outside.
Gillis grabbed another knife, briefly barricaded himself in the home, ran out the back door and confronted officers in the side yard of the house, before charging at them with the knife, Lantz said.
The incident was witnessed by at least one civilian, and a video of the drama was made by a bystander, Lantz said.
The shooting is being investigated by the Massachusetts State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Berkshire District Attorney's Office with assistance from the Massachusetts State Police Firearms Identification and Crime Scene Services Section, chemists assigned to the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory, the Berkshire County Sheriff's Department and the Pittsfield Police Department.
According to Lantz, this is the second time Colello has shot a suspect while on duty. In 2010, he shot and wounded a Dalton man who had doused himself and a second person with gasoline and ran from the house the two were in. Colello shot and wounded Michael Barry when Barry refused Colello's commands to show his hands.
Barry survived the shooting and Colello was later found to have not acted improperly in discharging his weapon.
SPRINGFIELD -- Dozens of Springfield-area residents who are looking to lend a hand in the response to Hurricane Harvey turned out to the Red Cross' Western Massachusetts chapter Saturday for volunteer training sessions.
The daylong special training event is the first in a series the Springfield-based Red Cross location is planning to hold over the next several weeks as it sends volunteers down to Texas to help with hurricane response and recovery efforts.
Brenda Brouillette, the Red Cross' regional mass care manager, said just under 40 volunteers attended Saturday's training, which included sessions on disaster services, basic food safety and orientations on the organization's response efforts in Texas, as well as its work locally, among other things.
"Obviously when we have large disasters a lot of people call and want to be part of the process, so we are providing training because we do not send volunteers out without a background check and without training and without what we call their resource kit, or their toolkit, so they feel confident and empowered on the job," she said in an interview.
Individuals who participated in the training will also undergo additional training sessions over the next few weeks, background checks and health assessments before they are given volunteer assignments, Brouillette said.
Although the special training event was largely held in response to Harvey, Brouillette noted that many of the new volunteers could remain in Western Massachusetts and fill local positions for the more seasoned volunteers who have been or will be deployed to assist with the hurricane response.
"For every volunteer that we send to Texas, that means we're short a volunteer here that goes to local fires, that does our smoke detector install program and helps out here in our everyday business of keeping the chapter going," she said.
Some, however, may be sent to Texas in the coming weeks and months, as more experienced volunteers return home from their two-week stints and the response effort shifts to recovery, she said, noting that newer volunteers are often given shifts at emergency disaster shelters.
Brouillette said she expects the Red Cross's hurricane response efforts to continue on for several months, noting that after its initial work to address individuals' basic emergency needs, it will turn its attention to casework and rebuilding efforts.
As of Friday, nine volunteers from the Western Massachusetts Red Cross Chapter had been sent to Texas to help with the hurricane response, she said. About 70 of the total 2,300 Red Cross volunteers in Texas as of Friday had deployed from Massachusetts.
Brouillette noted that the Red Cross covers expenses related to volunteers' travel through financial and in-kind donations.
HOUSTON -- A Texas city that lost its drinking water system to Harvey struggled Saturday to restore service, and firefighters kept monitoring a crippled chemical plant that has twice been the scene of explosions and fires since the storm roared ashore and stalled over Texas more than a week ago.
Officials in Beaumont, population almost 120,000, worked to repair their water treatment plant, which failed after the swollen Neches River inundated the main intake system and backup pumps failed. The Army Corps of Engineers sent pumps, and an ExxonMobil team built and installed a temporary intake pipe in an effort to refill a city reservoir. Exxon has a refinery and chemical plants in Beaumont.
On Friday, people waited in a line that stretched for more than a mile to get bottled water.
In Crosby, outside of Houston, authorities continued to monitor the Arkema plant where three trailers of highly unstable compounds ignited in recent days, sending thick black smoke and tall flames into the air. A Harris County fire marshal spokeswoman said there were no active fires at the facility, but six more trailers were being watched.
The soggy and battered city of Houston began burying its dead and taking steps toward the long recovery ahead. The school district said up to 12,000 students would be sent to different schools because of flood-damaged buildings. Harvey flooding is believed to have damaged at least 156,000 dwellings in Harris County, which includes the nation's fourth-largest city.
The storm is blamed for at least 43 deaths. Also, fire officials in the community of New Waverly, about 55 miles north of Houston, said a 6-month-old baby was missing and presumed dead after being ripped out of its parents' arms and swept away by floodwaters when the family fled their pickup truck last Sunday, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Kim Martinez, 28, waited Saturday for insurance adjusters to come to her Southbelt/Ellington neighborhood, a devastated middle-class area of southeast Houston.
The mother of two was hosting a watch party for the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor boxing fight last Saturday when floodwaters forced about 15 people to the attic. They escaped the next day. Seven children were rescued by a neighbor's boat. The women and a 115-pound German shepherd used inflatable swim toys, and the men swam or waded through shoulder-high water.
"You can be prepared for anything but not a monster storm like Harvey," said her mother, Maria Martinez, 63.
Valerie Williams returned to her flood-damaged home to find mud covering the walls and everything but her dining room table destroyed.
"People, they say we're praying for you and stuff. Well, we appreciate the prayers. We really do. But what we need is assistance," Williams said.
Some were able to count their blessings even as they faced a daunting recovery.
"I'm just praying on some help right now so I can get this over, behind me and try not to think about it," said Georgia Calhoun, whose family is sleeping on air mattresses inside her damaged home after taking ruined furniture to the curb.
Not everyone was able to think about rebuilding yet.
About 200 people waved signs and shouted as they rallied Saturday outside a still-flooded subdivision in the west Houston suburb of Katy, demanding answers about when they will be able to return home. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has warned residents that their homes could remain flooded for up to 15 days because of ongoing releases of water from two reservoirs protecting downtown.
The city said the releases are necessary to preserve the reservoirs' structural integrity, but many at the rally said their homes were being sacrificed to save others.
Homeowner Sheetal Parwal said her family now has less than what they had when they emigrated from India 10 years ago, and that their home is now a swamp.
The school district assessed its own losses. Twenty-two of its 245 schools had extensive damage that will keep them closed for months. Superintendent Richard Carranza said the goal is to start the school year on Sept. 11, but that could change.
President Donald Trump arrived in Houston for his second visit to the devastated region. He and first lady Melania Trump met with Harvey evacuees taking shelter at the NRG Center in Houston, where they spent time with children and helped to serve food. Later, they helped load trucks with relief supplies at a church in suburban Houston. They also visited Lake Charles, Louisiana, to survey damage.
Turner said he spoke to the president about the importance of getting storm evacuees out of shelters and into housing, and helping people who are still in their homes but in need of assistance. The mayor called his discussions with Trump "very positive."
About 1,000 evacuees remained at the George R. Brown Convention Center, down from a peak of about 10,000, city officials said.
Trump has asked lawmakers for a $7.9 billion down payment toward Harvey relief and recovery efforts -- a request expected to be swiftly approved by Congress, which returns to work Tuesday after its summer break.
The remnants of the storm were fading fast in the Ohio Valley. National Weather Service meteorologists expect what's left of Harvey to break up and merge with other weather systems late Saturday or Sunday.
Harvey came ashore Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane, then went back out to sea and lingered off the coast as a tropical storm for days. The storm brought five straight days of rain totaling close to 52 inches (1.3 meters) in one location, the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental U.S.
Another storm was churning far out over the Atlantic. Hurricane Irma was on a course that could bring it near the eastern Caribbean Sea by early next week. The Category 2 storm was moving northwest at nearly 13 mph (20 kph). No coastal watches or warnings were in effect.
--By Jay Reeves and Juliet Linderman
Free classes to help students prepare for the High School Equivalency Test (HiSET) begin September 5 at Flathead Valley Community Colleges Kalispell and Libby campuses. Offered through FVCCs Adult Education program, the classes are designed to help students improve their reading, writing, math, problem-solving and computer skills in preparation for obtaining a high school equivalency diploma, attending college or securing employment. Students must be at least 16 years old and not currently enrolled in school to participate in these classes.
In addition to HiSET preparation classes, FVCC offers free English Language Acquisition classes for non-native English speakers.
Both evening and daytime classes are offered, with start dates throughout the year. For more information, visit http://www.fvcc.edu/adult-education or contact Margaret Girkins at 406.756.3884 or 1.800.313.3822, ext. 3884.
Oregon is one of five states that has no sales tax, but that will change on January 1, with Gov. Kate Browns signature on a landmark transportation funding bill that applies a half-cent sales tax to auto sales and increases gas taxes by 10 cents.
Irvin Dawid
https://www.planetizen.com/node/94589/oregon-launches-ev-rebate-program-new-motor-vehicle-sales-tax
"Overwhelmingly, Im hearing from educators and the public that Idaho is headed in the right direction for supporting students and teachers," Ybarra said in a prepared statement. "Idaho is seeing the positive impact of our investment evidenced in the huge increase of students taking college level classes in high schools, the early positive gains in reading, as well as districts making strides in attracting and retaining teachers."
Idahos public schools chief is seeking a 6.8 percent increase in education spending for 2018, describing it as a budget with no surprises and no new initiatives.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra released her plan Sept. 1. If approved by lawmakers in January, Idahos public school funding would bump up nearly $114 million more than what lawmakers allocated this year for a total of $1.78 billion.
It is a known fact that prolonged sedentary time poses serious threats to our health. But what can we do about it? A new study investigates. Share on Pinterest It might be worth coming up with creative solutions for reducing sedentary time at work, new research suggests. In our modern daily life, office-based work has become more and more prevalent, and we spend an increasing amount of time being entertained by streaming services and social media. This results in many of us spending too much time sitting down in fact, a recent survey has shown that people in the United States spend an average of 13 hours per day being sedentary. But too much time sitting down can be hazardous to our health. Prolonged sitting has been shown to raise the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and premature death. However, insufficient research has explored whether or not reducing sedentary time is actually possible given the demands of our modern lifestyle, and whether such a reduction brings any health benefits for people who are already in good health. This is why researchers from the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland set out to examine the impact of reducing sedentary time over a period of 1 year. The first and corresponding author of the study is Dr. Arto Pesola, of the universitys Neuromuscular Research Center in the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, and the findings were published in the journal PLOS One.
Is reducing sedentary time possible? Dr. Pesola and team conducted a cluster-randomized trial, meaning that 133 participants with young children were randomly separated into two groups: 71 participants were assigned to the intervention group and 62 joined the control group. The participants in the intervention group were asked to participate in a 30-minute lecture on the dangers that prolonged sedentary time poses to health, the challenges of modern life that encourage excessive sitting, and strategies for reducing sedentary time. Then, they were offered one-to-one, face-to-face counseling sessions during which they discussed tailored approaches for reducing sedentary time both at work and in their free time. In these sessions, participants set contractually binding goals to decrease sitting time and increase light physical activity. The most popular goals for the workplace were to break up sedentary periods, and for leisure, participants most commonly wished to increase the time they spent with their family while being physically active. Additionally, participants generally wanted to increase light physical activity during their commute for example, by parking the car farther away from work so as to walk more. The researchers evaluated whether the participants hit their goals by asking them to wear an accelerometer around their waists for five 1-week segments between April 2011 and April 2012. Dr. Pesola and team took anthropometric measurements such as body mass index (BMI), weight, body fat composition, and blood pressure at baseline and every 3 months until the completion of the study. They also took blood samples testing for biomarkers of cardiovascular and metabolic health.
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In Switzerland, around 28 percent of adult women and 20 percent of men suffer from disturbed sleep.Researchers around Natalie Urfer-Maurer from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Basel and Prof. Dr. Sakari Lemola from the University of Warwick studied this relationship.Sleep was assessed in healthy 7-12 years old children during one night by in-home electroencephalography (EEG); around half of the children were born preterm. In addition, parents reported their own insomnia symptoms and their children's sleep problems.The study shows that children of mothers with insomnia symptoms fall asleep later, get less sleep, and spend less time in deep sleep as measured by EEG. However, there was no association between the fathers' sleep problems.It is possible that mothers' sleep is more closely related to children's sleep than fathers' sleep because in Switzerland mothers on average still spend more time with their children than fathers. Therefore, the mother's sleeping behavior has a stronger influence on the child.When parents reported their children's sleep, both mothers and fathers with sleep problems more often reported that their children had difficulties getting into bed and did not sleep enough.Several mechanisms could account for the relationship between parents' and children's sleep, report the researchers. First, children may learn sleep habits from their parents.Second, poor family functioning could affect both parents' and children's sleep. For instance, family fights in the evening before bedtime may prevent the whole family from a good night's sleep.Third, it is possible that parents suffering from poor sleep show "selective attention" for their own as well as their children's sleep problems leading to increased monitoring of sleep. It is possible that increased monitoring and attempts to control sleep may negatively affect sleep quality.Finally, children may also share genes with their parents that predispose for poor sleep.Natalie Urfer-Maurer, Rebekka Weidmann, Serge Brand, Edith Holsboer-Trachsler, Alexander Grob, Peter Weber, Sakari Lemola.The association of mothers' and fathers' insomnia symptoms with school-aged children's sleep assessed by parent report and in-home sleep- electroencephalography.Source: Eurekalert
The city of Mumbai is known for its undying spirit. When it rains heavily and the city is held hostage by Mother Nature, you will find tons of people out there all ready to help those who are stranded. Well, that is definitely something that makes me and every Mumbaikar proud of this city and its people.
We once again saw the true spirit of Mumbaikars coming together in order to assist in whatever way possible when the monsoon slammed the city that never sleeps.
Among many who were helping selflessly, one such person was popular Telugu actor Harshvarshan Rane. The actor left the comfort of his home as he wanted to help those stranded across the city.
Today #Django helped me help some people #mumbairains A post shared by Harshvardhan Rane (@harshvardhanrane) on Aug 29, 2017 at 4:47am PDT
In a situation of crisis, the citizens of Mumbai allied together. Some offered food to people, while some even opened the doors of their houses to whoever was stuck nearby.
Harsh stepped out of his house and drove across the city, unfazed by the havoc rains, offering lifts to people in his car. The actor was actually home safe but something made him take this decision and help those who were stuck during the deluge. Driving across knee-deep water, he picked up people who needed it most, especially girls.
#mumbairains LETS HELP A post shared by Harshvardhan Rane (@harshvardhanrane) on Aug 29, 2017 at 5:08am PDT
Like a Knight in the shining armour, he saved a lot of people as per a report by DNA.
The actor, who was also seen in Bollywood film Sanam Teri Kasam', genuinely wanted to do something selfless and we truly admire his act. He truly is a Guardian Angel for the people of Mumbai!
Salt Lake City police apologized Friday for arresting a nurse who, citing hospital policy, refused to let officers draw blood from an unconscious crash victim. The arrest of Alex Wubbels, who was later released without charge, was captured on body camera video that the police chief said was alarming.
The incident happened July 26, when a crash victim was admitted to the University of Utah Hospital burn unit in a coma. Though the man was not a suspect in the wreck, which killed the other driver, police asked for his blood to be drawn.
Wubbels, the charge nurse in the burn unit, presented the officers with a printout of hospital policy on drawing blood and said their request did not meet the criteria. Hospital policy specified police needed either a judge's order or the patient's consent, or the patient needed to be under arrest, before obtaining a blood sample.
"I'm just trying to do what I'm supposed to do. That's all," Wubbels tells the officers, according to the body camera video.
Wubbels' attorney, Karra Porter, said Friday the university and Salt Lake City police had agreed to the policy more than a year ago and "the officers here appeared to be unaware of" it.
"There's no dispute that the blood draw policy was jointly prepared and in effect for quite some time," Porter told CNN.
After Wubbels refuses, the video shows Salt Lake police Det. Jeff Payne walk quickly over to Wubbels, who backs away as he says, "Oh, please. We're done here. We're done. We're done."
Wubbels shrieks as Payne forces her out the door toward a police car. She screams for him to stop, saying, "I've done nothing wrong! I've done nothing wrong! Why is this happening? This is crazy!"
She asks out loud why the officer is "so angry."
Payne handcuffed Wubbels and placed her in the police car, where she sat for about 20 minutes, according to CNN affiliate KSL. She was later released without a charge.
"I was alarmed by what I saw in the video with our officer and Ms. (Wubbels)," Salt Lake City police Chief Mike Brown said in a news conference Friday. "I am sad at the rift this has caused between law enforcement and the nurses we work so closely with."
The department opened an internal affairs investigation, he said, and Friday evening the police department said Payne and another "employee" were placed on full administrative leave as a result of a criminal investigation into the incident. The department said the second person was an officer, but did not identify that officer.
The officer's account
In a police report, Payne said when he arrived to the hospital, Wubbels said he needed to get permission from the hospital administrators.
After more than an hour waiting, Payne said, he called his supervisor who advised him to arrest Wubbels if she refused to let him draw a blood sample.
"I told them we wanted to blood sample to protect him, not punish him," he wrote.
An after-hours message left with the Salt Lake Police Association, the union representing officers, regarding Payne's status was not immediately returned.
Brown said the department has apologized and that its "blood draw policy" has been replaced with a new one that officers are now using.
His statement did not mention the policy that was in place at the time of Wubbels' arrest or why police would need a new one.
Why nurse came forward
Since the incident, Wubbels and her attorney said they have met with the city and police department to encourage them to reeducate their officers about the policy.
But Porter said they were not encouraged by their discussions with the University of Utah police and the Department of Public Safety, which provides security for the hospital. Officers from both departments were present for the arrest and did nothing to stop it, she said.
Wubbels said the lack of "forward progress" they felt in those meetings spurred them to come forward this week with the body camera footage.
"I felt obligated to release it on behalf of anyone that's ever gone through something like this" but didn't have evidence or video, Wubbels told CNN. "Just being bullied by police for any particular reason in a health care setting."
Wubbels also said she hopes to raise awareness of the policy.
"This should never have happened and it should not happen again," she told CNN. "We have to have a conversation and a discussion."
Wubbels said she received calls from the mayor and police chief to apologize and felt they were sincere.
Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski called the actions of the officers "completely unacceptable" and apologized to Wubbels.
"It was not necessary, and that's what we are here to say and we are truly apologetic," the mayor said at a news conference Friday.
CNN's Carolyn Cremen contributed to this report.
UPDATE: Saturday, 9:30 a.m.: The size of the fire remained at 22,000 acres as of Saturday morning, according to a news release from Kimberly Larson, a public information officer with the Hill County Emergency Operations Center.
Firefighters are reinforcing the fire lines on the southeast border of the fire. The fire is generally contained within a rough box comprised of Sucker Creek on the north, Clark Creek on the east, the west fork of Clear Creek on the south and Beaver Creek on the west.
Crews are mopping up hotspots and monitoring pockets of unburned fuel as the fire backs into established containment lines.
The Hill County Sheriff's Office is asking people stay out of their recreational cabins and off Beaver Creek Road for their own safety and the safety of the firefighters. Access to Taylor Road is open for those who live on or down Taylor Road.
No travel is permitted on Sucker Creek Road, and Beaver Creek Park remains closed to all recreation.
A Type I incident management team is mobilizing to help fight the fire. The team will participate in a briefing at 10 a.m. at the Stone Child Vo-tech between Rocky Boy Agency and Box Elder, and will take over management some time after that.
Evacuations remained in effect Friday afternoon for areas threatened by the East Fork fire burning an estimated 22,000 acres of land 12 miles south of Havre in the Bears Paw Mountains.
Shortly after 3 p.m. the Hill County Sheriff's Office lifted pre-evacuation orders for Bullhook Road, said Kimberly Larson, a public information officer with the Hill County Emergency Operations Center.
As of 1 p.m. Beaver Creek Road was open to the south as far as Taylor Road, according to a 3 p.m. press release from the Hill County Emergency Operations Center. Travel along Taylor Road was restricted for people living on or down the road. The Hill County Sheriff requested that recreational cabin owners stay out of their cabins due to safety concerns for people and emergency personnel. Beaver Creek Park is closed and travel is no longer allowed on Sucker Creek Road, which would be blocked off Friday.
The fire, which threatens roughly 130 structures, began Sunday shortly before 4 p.m. on the Rocky Boy's Reservation and went on to spread into Beaver Creek Park in Hill County and also into Blaine County. The fire was estimated at 15,000 acres Thursday. The new size estimate for the fire Friday afternoon is believed to be the result of fire growth, as opposed to more accurate mapping, Larson said.
A reverse cold front shifted the fire's movement Thursday. Previously it had been growing to the northeast, but the shift in wind and weather began moving the fire southeast Thursday afternoon.
Five cabins and five outbuildings were destroyed by the fire on Wednesday, Larson said, though she was unsure of their exact location.
Lines established along the southeast border of the fire are being monitored and more than 15 agencies are working in cooperation on the fire, according to the release. "We're feeding about 150 every meal," Larson said. "We have many, many people who have stepped up and are helping."
As of early Friday night the fire was "generally contained within a rough box" made up of Sucker Creek on its northern border, Clear Creek on its eastern border, the West Fork of Clear on the south and Beaver Creek on the west.
Currently the fire is under command of Eli Groom's Bureau of Indian Affairs Type 3 Incident Management Team. The number of firefighters at the fire increased Friday, and a Type I Incident Management Team was on its way to the fire to begin taking over management of the fire, according to the release.
A relief fund for the East Fork fire has been set up at Independence Bank, according to the release. Anyone with resources or a desire to assist can call 406-265-5481 and enter extension 467. People wishing to help or provide resources can also enter their information at www.surveymonkey.com/r/EastForkResources.
The flames that gutted the 114-year-old Sperry Chalet in Glacier National Park on Thursday were first noticed coming from the inside, according to firefighters who were desperately trying to save the historic building from a fast-moving wildfire in extremely dry, hot and windy conditions.
A picture from the firefighters shows flames bursting from a blown-out window, and eventually the blaze consumed the roof and all other wood portions. However, since much of the exterior of the structure was made of stone, it is unclear how difficult it would be to rebuild. Details were scant on Friday from park officials.
As more details are known about the extent of damage to the main Sperry Chalet building and any fire damage to the secondary structures the park will evaluate the next steps about future visitor services in the chalet location, said Lauren Alley, a spokesperson for Glacier National Park.
The on-scene firefighters had apparently been battling an ember shower from the approaching fire when they suddenly noticed puffs of smoke under an eave. They immediately sprayed the area with water as they thought it was an ember on the roof. Almost instantaneously, however, the window broke out and flames were licking at the eaves.
The Sprague fire in Glacier more than doubled in acreage on Thursday to 4,646 acres, pushed by high winds, low relative humidity, hot weather and extreme terrain.
The fire team has worked tirelessly to contain this fire and protect structures and infrastructure, said Glacier National Park superintendent Jeff Mow. The environmental conditions were absolutely extreme yesterday, as high as anything weve seen so far this summer.
Alley said that a highly skilled group of firefighters had been working to protect the two-story structure, which included guest rooms and staff housing, since just after lightning started the fire on Aug. 10. They had installed an extensive hose lay with a pump system, and portions of the chalet were wrapped with fire resistant material.
The firefighters, supported by four helicopters that flew until last light, made a valiant stand to save the structures, she said. They were unsuccessful in saving the main building at the Sperry Chalet. They worked through the night to protect the four remaining structures. The firefighters are safe. That team will be supported by additional firefighters today while they recuperate.
Mow said that the structures at Sperry Chalet are iconic historic structures that are widely loved by park employees and visitors all over the world.
The park is deeply saddened by this loss but is thankful for the safety of the firefighters, he said.
Sperry Chalet has been operated by a concessioner called Belton Chalets, Inc., since 1954 and accommodates between 40 and 50 overnight visitors per night. The chalet was originally constructed by the Great Northern Railway as part of a system of grand hotels and picturesque guest houses soon after the park was established in 1910. It was part of a campaign to draw tourists from back East. Construction was completed in 1913, with the help of Italian stonemasons, and backcountry travelers have been staying at the chalet for a nice meal and a bed for the past century. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
This event is an important moment in the history of Sperry Chalet and Glacier National Park, said Sperry Chalet Coordinator Kevin Warrington. I have been around Sperry for my entire life and I have never expected to see anything like this. It has been a privilege to share Sperry with the great many people that love it, and it is a sad day to share the loss.
Belton Chalets also operates the Granite Park Chalet, in another area of the park.
The Avalanche Lake Trail has been closed as fire managers evaluate the Avalanche Creek Drainage for possible spot fires from yesterdays extreme fire activity, and evaluate the current and planned suppression efforts in the Mount Brown area.
According to Inciweb, a national wildfire information service, the fire was very close to the Mount Brown Lookout, which fire managers call a priority value at risk.
The Sprague, Snyder and Lincoln Creek drainages and associated trails, from Lake McDonald Trailhead on the west and Gunsight Pass on the east, are all closed to use. Visit http://go.nps.gov/glacconditions for trail, road and campground information.
Have you ever had a close-call date or relationship that you look back on and think, "Man, am I glad THAT never happened?"
Well, for me, the one that luckily got away is named Harvey.
To be blunt, Harvey has been putting the screws to millions. In case you live under a rock, I'm talking about Hurricane Harvey.
We almost met last week. I was invited to attend a workshop for some Hearst-owned community newspapers last Thursday and Friday in Houston, Texas. At the last minute, the summit was bumped up to Wednesday, so I hit the road (or more accurately, the friendly skies) on Tuesday. I was so focused on the topic of that Wednesday meeting that I hardly paid any attention to news reports and social media.
How is that possible, you might ask. Well, it's fairly easy when you're traveling at a fast pace and booked for 13-15 hours for two consecutive days.
However, I do recall one person at the summit mentioned to a Texan colleague, "Looks like you guys are going to get a hurricane."
"Looks like it," was the fairly carefree reply.
Fast forward a week later and it's amazing -- and heartbreaking -- to see the utter devastation that's being experienced in Houston.
On Tuesday, Hearst President and CEO Steven R. Swartz reported that all of our more than 800 Hearst colleagues in Houston (which is home to Hearst's largest newspaper) are safe and unharmed.
"Some have suffered flood damage to their homes and the disruption of vital services, and our local management is working with us to help meet their needs," Swartz stated in an email to all Hearst employees. "Our prayers are with the families of those who have lost loved ones, and our thoughts and efforts are with those who continue to provide vital rescue and aid efforts, work that will no doubt go on for months."
Indeed, just the other day I was showing my 10-year-old son some before and after photos of highways in Houston, where I had been less than four days prior to then. Our sister paper, the Houston Chronicle, has done some great journalism in the days since Harvey landed, and much of that content has been shared on the Huron Daily Tribune's website, www.michigansthumb.com.
The Chronicle has been featured nation-wide for their amazing hurricane coverage -- and how they're working tirelessly to get everyone the news. Some of the efforts they have gone to include taking down an Internet pay wall so everyone can access their coverage, not just paid subscribers, on their paid site. They have been delivering tens of thousands of newspapers to the George R. Brown Convention Center, other shelters, hotels and gas stations in the Houston area so evacuees can get the latest updates from the best source of journalism in that area.
And every journalist there has been helping report the latest news. It truly is an marvelous feat.
What makes me most proud to be part of the Hearst family, however, is the response our company has had to this disaster. Swartz's email stated Hearst is donating $1 million to the Greater Houston Red Cross. The company will also match employee donations -- dollar for dollar -- up to $1 million to support the Red Cross's efforts across the Gulf region.
I didn't have much to donate, but I'm hoping that there will be a large number of people like me who will donate just a little to raise a lot. And I hope there will be more companies like Hearst to match those donations.
Although I barely missed meeting Harvey, so many more weren't as fortunate. Countless of our fellow Americans are now homeless. As I write this column, the death toll stands at 40, and officials expect that will rise dramatically once the flood waters recede.
Americans always come together to help each other in times of tragedy. Please join me and give what you can to help out your fellow country men and women.
Visit www.redcross.org/donate/hurricane-harvey to make a donation.
CASEVILLE -- A new addition to a family can bring about a lot of changes.
Babies need care, lots of it. For Samantha Martin, of Caseville, it meant taking time off from her pastime of creating arts and crafts.
"Because of Asher, my baby, I really can't do anything with arts and crafts until he gets bigger," Martin said. "I don't want him getting into the small things I use."
A very talented person, Martin created a variety of items, including jewelry and some wearable art. She would then buy booth space at local events in order to bring in extra money for the family. She also loves photography, and does portrait and wedding shoots on the side.
When she got pregnant with Asher, Martin knew she was going to have to make a change. Even though her husband had a good paying job, feeding their four children, plus the new addition, might be difficult. She started looking around for something to bring in extra money.
She accepted an invitation to a Tupperware party, primarily because she wanted to replace a bowl that had worn out. While there, the host asked if anyone wanted to host a party. A host receives a discount, and Martin realized if she began hosting Tupperware parties, she could bring in some extra money.
"I actually only wanted one thing," Martin said. "I saw you could get it in the starter kit. It was cheaper in the starter kit, and you got all these other things that go with it. The starter kit is $99 and you get over $350 worth of products, but you only pay $39 plus shipping.
"If you have two standard parties in the first 60 days, the rest is free," she added. "Most parties will bring in anywhere from $300 to $500, so if you bring in $1,000 in 60 days, the starter kit only costs you $39."
Problem solved. She was now a Tupperware lady. And as an added bonus, Martin discovered she likes doing it.
"I like the product," she said. "I've been doing it for over a year now. I love it. I can keep my own schedule ... I can do it whenever I want to. My kids go with me to a lot of the parties. A lot of people who do parties are moms and they like it, because their kids can participate. I basically did it to help my family out with extra income."
Having the additional cash to feed the family helps considerably, but the quality of the product is what sold Martin on Tupperware. She's been using it for years, and the company is continually improving and expanding what they offer. They also stand behind what they make.
"Most of our products can be replaced, if they break from something other than natural causes," Martin said. "You can get your money back to go toward different things. I've gotten stuff from the 60s that I've replaced. I contact the company and ask if they have something similar. If they do, they'll put it on my order. It costs the customer nothing."
The company operates on a tier system. Representatives of Tupperware host parties. They explain the products and demonstrate how they work. Then they take orders. As in Martin's case, the people in attendance are given the opportunity to receive discounts by hosting parties themselves. Each person that becomes a host then becomes part of the recruiter's team. The recruiter receives a portion of the sales of each member of the team. Team members are encouraged to form their own teams. They then receive a portion of their team's sales. It's a concept that works, because it encourages people to continue to host parties and recruit new hosts. And, the product is time-tested. It serves a useful purpose, and it lasts a long time.
Tupperware is also changing.
"They no longer have just bowls," Martin said. "They have cookware and can openers. They have products that you can put in the refrigerator called fridge smart, which keeps your fruit and vegetables fresher at least four times longer than they would normally keep. I use mine all the time. I had strawberries in one. Usually strawberries last three or four days in the fridge. Mine lasted a lot longer."
The product line is always being tweaked, to meet the demands of the consumer.
"Most of their stuff is plastic," Martin said. "Most of it is microwave safe ... not all, but most of it. You have metal for cookware. Some of it can go right from the fridge into the oven. We sell kitchen gadgets, like mixers and spoons. We sell a thing called a power chef, where you can cut an onion in less than ten seconds. I can make salsa in 30 seconds. It's one of my favorites. They're always making their products better."
Martin averages about one party a week. Many people do more than that. Being able to set her own schedule is important to her, especially because of the baby. She plans to continue selling Tupperware because it helps out the family, and she's providing a product she believes in.
"I usually do the parties in the evening," Martin said. "I make a cake in nine minutes at the party. The people like that. I make it in a stack cooker. It's not just for cakes. I've made chicken in it, too. I've also made casseroles and steamed things in it."
She keeps a stock of Tupperware on hand for display purposes, as well as the products she uses herself. The stock is used to demonstrate when she hosts a party, and also when she buys booth space at special events. She is constantly going through the catalogs supplied by Tupperware looking for sale items. If she sells something from her stock, she replaces it with sale items, thereby increasing her profit margin.
Martin encourages people to host a party if they have a special event or need.
"If anyone is interested in a fundraiser, they get 40 percent off," she said. "It doesn't matter what your cause is. It can go toward your church. It can go toward a medical expense. It can go toward your school or for a sport. Anything you need it for."
Selling Tupperware has offered Martin a way to bring in extra income for her family, and have fun doing it. Of course, it helps considerably that she likes the product.
"I like the company," she said. "They work with you. I like how they stand by their products."
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HURON COUNTY During the summer, Cassidy MacGuire spends a lot of time at the beach.
It's not quite as glamorous as it sounds she does it in chest waders. But it's not a bad gig either.
At least twice a week throughout the summer beach season, MacGuire travels up and down the Huron County shoreline, making sure all county beaches are safe for swimming. MacGuire is in her third year working as a beach technician for the Huron County Health Department.
"I like it," she said. "It's nice being out here at the beaches and dealing with all the results."
As the county's lone beach technician, MacGuire collects water samples on her own, drives them to Saginaw to be tested, compiles all the data and sends it out to all interested parties. In addition, she maintains the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Beach Guard web page.
A typical day at the beach for MacGuire means visiting five beaches up the county's eastern shoreline on one day, then the county's eight remaining beaches on the western side the next day.
At each beach, she will take three samples and collect them in a small plastic jar. She splits each beach's swimming area into thirds left, middle and right and takes a sample from each spot in 3 to 6 feet of water. A total of 100 milliliters of water is collected in each jar for testing.
Should a Huron County beach show a composite of the three samples collected exceeding 300 Escherichia coli (E. coli) colonies per the 100 ml. of water, the beach is deemed unsafe for swimming and is closed. At that point, MacGuire must retest all closed beaches and continue testing until bacteria counts improve to acceptable limits.
Sometimes this requires working into the weekend but she doesn't mind.
"If the samples come back bad, that's my job to go back and resample them," she said.
MacGuire is currently attending Ferris State University and is in the college of health professions. She said that experience comes in handy during her summer job.
"With my degree in college, I've had a lot of background in science courses and labs so I found this really interesting," she said.
While out on the beach, MacGuire said sometimes people will approach her and ask her what she's doing and most everyone is very friendly. Aside from that, she deals with an unruly wave or two.
"It gets a little wavy out, so sometimes I get wet," she said about her biggest challenge. "But that's about it."
UPPER THUMB -- State Rep. Gary Glenn of the 98th District recently announced he plans to run for Senator Mike Green's seat when it is available.
"This is Mike's last term as senator," said Green's spokesperson, James McLoskey. "Mike is in line to become the Michigan Director of the USDA Rural Development office in Lansing. "We are not sure when the federal government appointment will be announced, but it could be within the next month or so."
As Glenn's district includes portions of Bay and Midland counties, within Bay County, Glenn represents the cities of Auburn and Pinconning, Linwood, and the townships of Beaver, Fraser, Garfield, Gibson, Mount Forest, Pinconning, and Williams.
In Midland County, his district includes the city of Midland, the village of Sanford, and the townships of Midland, Homer, Jerome, Larkin, Lee and Lincoln.
Green's district covers Bay, Lapeer, and Tuscola counties. He has served as a state representative and as a Tuscola County commissioner.
When Green is appointed to the USDA Rural Development office, it will be up to the governor to schedule a special election to fill the seat, explained McLoskey.
"The winner of the election will serve for the balance of the term of office in the senate," he said.
In his position of representative, Glenn is chair of the House Energy Committee in his second term of being on the panel. He also was named to a second term on the Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. Glenn additionally serves on the Communications and Technology, and Insurance committees.
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BAD AXE -- It's a bird, it's a plane ... actually it's Bad Axe's own, Tyler Leipprandt, and he's high in the air capturing the beauty of the Thumb in a unique way.
Last fall, Leipprandt, 31, started Michigan Sky Media -- his new business that captures high-quality aerial images and videos.
Before Michigan Sky Media could take off, literally, Leipprandt had to get properly equipped.
He bought his first drone, a DJI Phantom 4, and it's currently the only own he owns. Hovering in the air at about a foot and a half wide in diameter and weighing a mere five pounds, Leipprandt has travelled all over the Thumb.
"The plan was to do aerial images for realtors and private property owners," Leipprandt said. "It kind of just turned into this whole other beast of the artsy side."
"My passion right now is capturing art around the Thumb," he added.
Leipprandt, who is also an instructional tech at the Huron Intermediate School District, is a certified remote pilot through the Federal Aviation Administration.
"What that certification does is it allows me to fly within five miles of an airport," he explained. "I know about the airspace in Bad Axe because there is an airport. I do follow all of the restriction guidelines from the FAA, and I always try to get permission before I fly over private residences."
"I always follow regulations and keep safety in mind first," he added.
The motivation behind his idea was seeing his brother take on a similar project in the Grand Rapids area.
"He told me about what he was doing and I noticed nobody up here was doing drone photography or even using a drone," he said. " ... I have no background in photography, so it was a learning process for me."
Leipprandt said the learning process consisted of watching a lot of YouTube videos on how others were capturing art from above.
He's put together eight to 10 videos of locations in just the Thumb, but all together, his collection sits at roughly 15 videos.
The videos are generally a minute long to help keep the audience's attention, he said.
"I do have some that are over five minutes because I'm trying to explain more detail," he said, adding he thinks in his head what and how he wants to capture.
He said for a five-minute video, he generally captures 40 minutes worth of footage. Then, he heads back to his computer and begins editing and cutting the video.
"Sometimes it'll take me three or four attempts when I finalize my video to do some tweaks," he said. "Just the video editing process can sometimes take three to four hours to get it how I like it."
Another factor Leipprandt faces each time he heads out is one that can't be controlled: The weather.
"The challenges are always the weather -- I'm always looking at the weather," he said. "I could schedule jobs and not be able to do them because of the weather factor."
Leipprandt said one of his biggest enjoyments in his line of work is the reaction from the public.
"Just seeing the beauty of the Thumb and the reactions of people's faces is what drives me right now," he said. "What I enjoy the most is just capturing art."
He said he's received many positive comments from the public, including his grandma.
"She told me that it's nice that I share the video for people who can't get out and experience these things," he said.
The future looks bright for Leipprandt and Michigan Sky Media, but there is one thing he'd like to do more of.
"I would like to continue doing what I'm doing and just travel more in Michigan," he said.
If you're interested in his work or possibly having Leipprandt create a masterpiece for you, you can email him at michiganskymedia@gmail.com or visit his Facebook page by searching "Michigan Sky Media."
NORMAL To hear music from the bell tower at Broadview Mansion would take Mary Winn back to some of the best days of her life.
"I used to walk over there and stand by the fence and watch when Jim went across to the bell tower, then listen to the bells play, then watch him go back to the house, she said. "I wouldn't bother anyone, just stand by the fence and watch and listen. Thats what you do when youre young and in love."
Love brought Mary and Jim Winn, the first musician to play those bells and later her husband, together in the shadow of the historic bell tower just as it led to the tower's construction and 1940 dedication by mansion owner Margaret Van Leer in honor of her late husband, Bird.
Winn, who attended that dedication, will return next week as Broadview dedicates a new bell, identical to the biggest one Jim who passed away in 2007 played from the carillon inside the tower nearly 80 years ago.
The new bell, which sits at the base of the tower, is the first on the property at 1301 S. Fell Ave., Normal, since the original bells were removed in 1979 for safety reasons after 40 years of proclaiming morning and afternoon for Bloomington-Normal.
"We couldn't imagine a better guest of honor," said Annette Klinzing, executive director of Immanuel Bible Foundation, which oversees the mansion. "Mary had a very fond and close relationship with Margaret."
Winn, now a 95-year-old resident of Clinton, Iowa, said she looks forward to speaking, taking questions and showing off photos, including from the 1940 dedication and from Jim's final visit to the tower in 2006 for his 65th college reunion. He and Mary met at and graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University.
The dedication, 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7, at the tower, will let the three organizations responsible for bringing the bell celebrate the finished project with the public.
Klinzing worked with the town of Normal and Second Presbyterian Church of Bloomington which the Van Leers attended to bring the church's former bell to the foot of Broadview's tower and build for it a concrete base with marble plating and twin plaques about its legacy.
Though plans fell through for the bell to be refurbished, Klinzing still hopes to revitalize the tower. After the bells were removed, it was all but abandoned, but the carillon stands, decayed and surrounded by dust and crumbling brick.
"Our dream is to have music again coming from the tower. Many people in the community have called and said, 'We really miss it,'" said Klinzing. "But it's a very expensive process. ... If anyone is interested in learning about the bell tower or how they can help, they can contact me."
Winn still hopes she'll hear sweet sounds at Broadview once more.
"I'm sure this will bring back some memories of good years back there, she said of the dedication next week. "I always loved that bell tower."
In 2013, the Marine Corps began quietly testing a new look for female Marines at Marine Barracks Washington: a dress blues coat featuring a high "Mandarin collar" like that on the male uniform, rather than the winged blazer-style collar on the traditional female uniform.
The Barracks, which hosts many dress occasions, including formal events and parades, eventually adopted male-style covers and jackets for female Marines on the parade field.
But the Corps has been conducting wear tests and surveys ever since to determine whether to take the look to the force.
Later this month, the service will wrap up a survey that solicits feedback from female Marines on changes to a modified dress blues coat that is similar to the men's, but contains subtle style and tailoring adjustments.
The survey, which is taking place in person at specific locations and online, is at least the third of its kind, as fine-tuning continues on the coat.
The new survey began at the initiative of Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller, said a defense official with knowledge of conversations about the uniform change.
The initial push for new dress uniform items began under Gen. Jim Amos, a previous commandant, and Neller expressed interest in evaluating the move before making a change.
"When Gen. Neller became commandant, he said, 'Wait, is this what our females really want?' " the official said.
At the time, then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus was beginning a slew of initiatives designed to make female Marines and sailors look more like their male counterparts, a move he saw as a way to bring greater equality to the force.
But the efforts weren't well received by all.
In the Navy, where dress uniforms and covers were changing to become more unisex, some sailors complained that the changes were costly, unnecessary and unpopular.
"Female Navy officers now had to foot the bill to buy a uniform item they loathed to replace a uniform item they loved," Andrea Goldstein, who served as an active-duty naval officer until 2016, wrote in an editorial for Task and Purpose.
In another Task and Purpose editorial from 2015, two female Marine officers, Maj. Nicole V. Bastian and Capt. Mabel Annunziata, protested changes to the female dress blue coat as a misplaced effort to make men and women more equal in the service.
"The initiative to change the uniform is wrought with gender bias, and in essence tells female Marines that only through what a Marine wears in formal ceremonies will she be recognized as an equal member," they wrote. "The dress blue coat currently worn by women is identifiable as a Marine uniform to the public and proudly symbolizes not just women's achievements on the field of battle, but also the long road to equality attained by women through integration and opportunity."
In January and February 2015, months before Neller would become commandant that September, the Corps conducted a similar online and in-person survey for both a prototype dress blues coat in the male style, and dress cover with a round frame like that worn by men, instead of the narrower female style.
The survey, according to a Marine Corps announcement, was designed to determine best fit and form for both items.
Ultimately, the service adopted a unisex dress cover, requiring all female Marines to own the new uniform item by May of this year.
But as Marine Corps Times reported in early 2016, reviews on the coat were mixed.
According to data obtained by the publication, three out of five Marines liked the new unisex style, but those in the more senior officer and enlisted ranks were less keen on the look, with roughly 50 percent preferring to keep the old coat.
In January 2016, the Marine Corps Uniform Board voted to adopt the modified female dress blue coat as a replacement for the current one, but noted that prototype refinement still had to take place, and it would likely be two to three years before the coat was ready to field.
Information about when female Marines are required to own the new coat has yet to be published.
The design that female Marines are being surveyed on features modifications from the traditional men's coat.
According to Barb Hamby, a spokeswoman for Marine Corps Systems Command, the changes include a Mandarin-style collar 1/4-inch shorter than that on the male coat, a form-fitting waist with a white belt and waist plate for the enlisted-style coat, and no pockets.
The male dress blue coat has both waist pockets and breast pockets.
Hamby said the design in its current form was finalized in 2015.
"The design led to prototypes and a deliberate series of engagements with female Marines through onsite and online surveys and focus groups, which began last spring," she said. "...The surveys are expected to conclude Sept. 22. The results of the surveys will go to Marine Corps officials for final adjudication and submittal for approval."
During a meeting last April between service officials and female Marines from around the National Capitol Region to discuss changing the coat, leaders stressed that feedback mattered at this stage.
"I think our commandant takes this very seriously, hearing each and every Marine, particularly in a decision like this that is going to be long-standing, or potentially long-standing," said Sgt. Maj. Edward Parsons, sergeant major for Headquarters and Service Battalion at Henderson Hall, according to a Marine Corps news release.
"Our commandant wants to hear what our women Marines have to say about it. If they like it, I think he's going to take it into consideration. If they don't like it, I truly believe he's going to take that into consideration," Parsons said.
-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
Camp Lejeune Town Halls Aim to Help Those Exposed to Toxic Water. Heres How You Can Go.
Retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger made it his mission to tell the world that if they lived or served on Camp Lejeune...
BEIRUT Reem Kaedbey was never very religious. Shes not even sure there is a God.
But when it came to marriage, she never had any doubt she would choose within her familys sect, a tiny offshoot of Shiite Islam known as the Druze faith.
Its a requirement for my parents, said 28-year-old Kaedbey, who lives near Beirut and works for the United Nations. I didnt want to get into problems.
Finding a life partner is hard enough for anybody. Members of the Druze faith face an added pressure: keeping the religion alive.
The faith is thought to have about 1.5 million members, with most living in Lebanon, where they make up 5 percent of the population, and Syria, where they make up 3 percent. But an exodus of people fleeing wars in those countries has fueled a small but growing diaspora. There are about 30,000 in the United States, with the largest concentration in Southern California.
While the internet has made it easier for Druze to connect with each other Kaedey met her husband on social media growing contact with the outside world has increased the chances that members will marry outside the faith. That is a path to extinction, because the religion does not accept converts and in its more conservative strands rejects children of mixed marriages.
In the modern day, theres a lot more tolerance and acceptance, but for the ones who truly follow the faith, once a person marries a non-Druze, they took the decision of leaving the faith, said Daniel Halabi, a 22-year-old sheikh, or religious leader, who lives in Chicago. The religious laws are clear.
And so the future of the Druze faith may depend not only on pairing up its youth a community effort but also on whether the religion itself can make accommodations to the modern world.
As religions go, the Druze faith is not especially old, having been formed roughly 1,000 years ago. It accepted the prophets of Islam and Christianity and incorporated elements of Greek philosophy and Gnosticism.
Unlike other forms of Islam, it embraced reincarnation, allowed women to become religious leaders, banned men from having multiple wives and did not mandate prayer at set times or places.
Its most important early promoter was Al Hakim bi-Amrillah, the sixth leader of the Fatimid Caliphate that spanned a large area of North Africa and the Middle East and had its capital in Cairo. After his mysterious disappearance, his followers in Egypt were exterminated.
But they survived in other areas of the Middle East, including in present-day Lebanon and Syria.
In 1044, after a brief period of proselytization, the faith was closed to converts. Early Druze communities were insular and isolated and left historians with few records.
The religious texts have never been widely disseminated, leaving it to the sheiks to educate adherents on the finer points of the faith.
The diaspora began as a trickle and picked up in 1975 with the beginning of Lebanons 15-year civil war. The countrys 2006 war with Israel spurred more to leave, and most recently, many Druze have joined the stream of refugees from Syrias civil war.
As Druze members have branched out, many have lost touch with the religion, raising existential questions about its future.
Very few of them have an in-depth understanding of their dogmas, said Chad Kassem Radwan, an anthropologist of Lebanese Druze descent who wrote a doctoral dissertation for the University of South Florida on Druze identity in Lebanon. How do you preserve your heritage? This is truly the seminal issue of the Druze community.
He and most Druze who care give the same answer: marriage.
Marrying outside the faith is a betrayal that is not easily forgiven.
Our children always ask me, Why do we have to marry a Druze? What if I fall in love with someone not Druze? said Anita Dakdouk, who was born into a Lebanese Druze family in Venezuela and now lives in Valencia , where she and her Druze husband run a coffee company. I tell them, Dont think about yourself only, because there is family involved.
Those who stray are often ostracized by their families and sometimes by the larger community. In one instance Radwan found in his research, a Druze man was going to marry a woman of Shiite and Christian heritage. When the neighbors found out, they visited his parents to express condolences on the loss of their son, as if he had died.
In a case that made headlines four years ago, a Druze woman and Sunni man from northern Lebanon eloped. The brides family hunted the groom down and cut off his penis.
Some members of the faith are pushing back on the rules.
Walid Jumblatt, head of the Progressive Socialist Party in Lebanon and perhaps the countrys most prominent Druze figure, married outside the religion.
On identification documents, the Lebanese government considers anybody with a Druze father to be Druze, even if the mother is not a concept that has been embraced among more liberal adherents to the faith.
Yes, yes, they are Druze, said Hassan Sleem, a Druze resident of Beirut who runs a translation service. We are a small community. We need more people.
Rima Muakkassa, who lives in Akron, Ohio, where there about 100 Druze families, said that while she never considered marrying outside the religion, her four children could do as they wished.
In the end, its not by force. We believe in free will, she said. The purpose is to enlighten and guide our children so they can make the right choices.
From a practical point of view, the biggest challenge to finding a spouse within the faith is the shortage of other Druze, especially outside the Middle East.
Many second-generation children of the diaspora visit Lebanon or Syria in hopes of finding a husband or wife with mixed success.
Kaedbeys husband, Firas Talhouk, recalled a cousin from Miami whose parents sent him to Lebanon one summer.
All his moms friends stacked up their daughters and he was so happy, Talhouk said. He dated one each night and hes like, You know what, cuz? Im coming next summer, man. But he didnt marry any of them.
In the United States, annual conventions of the American Druze Society, which is based in San Antonio, have become a well-known matchmaking ground, with mixers and outings aimed at young people always on the schedule alongside religious presentations.
Muakkassa, the societys current president, met her husband at a convention, as did the the vice president, Labiba Harfouch, and her daughter. Some gatherings have included weddings.
But the conventions are not for everyone. Halabi, the young sheikh in Chicago, said the first time he attended one he left the singles night after an hour because it was at a bar and alcohol was flowing. As a strict adherent to the faith, he does not drink.
He complained to the societys leadership, which led to his teaching religious sessions for the children at this years convention in Irvine.
Halabi, who is now in college, said he eventually wants to return to Lebanon, where he grew up, to marry and start a family with a Druze woman with similar religious views. But for now, he sees his mission as reaching the younger generation of Druze living in the United States.
If they dont know their identity, its easy to have them dissolve in the society we live in, he said. Once we abandon being Druze, we are just like all the other people around the world who have no identity.
Manishi Raychaudhuri of BNP Paribas Securities told CNBC-TV18, "Auto is one bright spot. Even though the stocks have run up sharply, if you look at the frontline four wheeler companies for example it is clear that the trough that was created in the sales volume specially if you look at the year on year growth in two wheelers and passenger cars, the trough that came about in the first quarter is clearly behind us and there has almost been a 'V' shaped recovery especially in two wheeler volumes and to some extent in passenger cars as well."
"The most recent month's high frequency numbers seem to indicate that, that revival is clearly continuing. Over the longer term I think low penetration, relatively better monsoons which should support rural incomes and even better performance and penetration by the banks in terms of penetration into hitherto un-penetrated rural areas."
"All these things put together stand in good stead for consumer discretionary's particularly automobiles. So, even in our model portfolio allocation we have significant exposure to Indian autos and we are likely to stick with that for the time being," he said.
The month of August didnt exactly went the way Bulls would have wanted, but the S&P BSE Sensex is still up nearly 20 percent so far in the year 2017. The structural Bull Run is still intact which fosters a conducive environment for the primary markets.
Three companies are in the pipeline to go public in the month of September collectively raising as much as Rs1,700 crores from D-Street.
The companies that will be launching their public issues include names like online matchmaking company Matrimony.com Ltd, road developer Bharat Road Network Ltd (BRNL), and electronics maker Dixon Technologies (India).
The real estate services provider Capacite Infraprojects Ltd is also scheduled to raise money up to Rs400 crores this month but hasnt confirmed the timeline.
So far in 2017, as many as 15 companies have raised Rs 12,589.94 crore through the IPO route, said a report quoting data from primary market tracker Prime Database. In 2015 and 2016, 47 companies raised a total of Rs40,107 crore through IPOs, the data shows.
"We expect a lot of increase in the IPO pipeline from sectors like insurance, hospitality, and some other financials. Considering that returns on recent IPOs have been considerably better than it was four years back, we believe investors are likely make decent returns going forward also," Abhimanyu Sofat, Vice President, Research at IIFL told Moneycontrol.
Matrimony.com IPO plans to raise up to Rs500 crore
The initial public offer of Matrimony.com, which runs online match making business under BharatMatrimony brand, is likely to open on
September 11. The issue of Matrimony.com is expected to raise Rs 500 crore, sources said.
The company's initial share sale offer is likely to open from September 11-13, PTI reported quoting sources.
Proceeds from the issue will be utilised for advertising and business promotion activities, purchase of land for construction of office premises in Chennai, repayment of overdraft facilities and general corporate purposes.
Dixon Technologies sets IPO price band at Rs 1,760-1,766
Dixon Technologies, a consumer electronics manufacturer, today fixed a price band of Rs 1,760-1,766 per share for its initial public offering, through which it aims to raise about Rs 600 crore. The IPO will be open for public subscription during September 6-8.
Proceeds from the issue will be utilised for setting up a unit for manufacturing of LED TVs at the Tirupati facility, enhancement of backward integration capabilities in the lighting products vertical at Dehradun facility and upgradation of the information technology infrastructure.
Bharat Road Network IPO to raise up to Rs600 crores
The road and highways BOT company, Bharat Road Network, will open its initial public offering of up to 2.93 crore equity shares for subscription on September 6, 2017, to raise around Rs 600 crore at the higher end of the price band.
The issue will constitute 34.90 percent of the post issue paid-up equity share capital of the company. The company has fixed price band at Rs 195-205 per share for the issue that will close on September 8.
The company will also use IPO money for acquisition of the subordinated debt given by SREI to three special purpose vehicles i.e. Solapur Tollways Private Limited, Kurukshetra Expressway Private Limited & Mahakaleshwar Tollways Private Limited; and general corporate purposes.
By Manish Maheshwari
After weeks of speculation and uncertainty, Ubers Board has finally offered the top job to Dara Khosrowshahi. Now, if one had to quickly look at Daras track record, it is nothing short of enviable.
His most recent professional commitment as CEO at Expedia Inc. speaks volumes of his business and operational acumen.
He turned around the companys dwindling graph by increasing its stock value six-fold, after he took over the top job in 2005.
Clearly, the board of directors at Uber have spelt a definitive objective with their latest appointment, which is near-term business oriented.
But in doing so, they have missed out both, a near-term objective to rebuild Ubers tarnished goodwill and the long-term goal to be that innovation engine which reimagines the logistics and transportation industry.
And that is primarily why Daras appointment has come as a big surprise.
Sure, Uber needs to claw its way back to profits, especially after it reportedly lost USD 645 million in the last financial quarter.
While this is important from a business standpoint, it is currently not its most worrying problem.
Uber has been mired in controversies of not the right kind.
This is turning both its customers and its employees away to the delight of its biggest competitor Lyft, which has been gaining ground since the #DeleteUber campaign in January.
The most publicized branch of this problematic and fast-growing tree has been its battle with sexism and unfair treatment of its employees.
One thing led to another after a viral blog post in February triggered a spate of negativity for the ride-sharing company, finally leading to its then CEO Travis Kalanicks exit.
Within a span of four months, Uber ironically went from experimenting with cars that were driver-less, to becoming a company that was leader-less.
The board did make a positive statement by recently appointing a female leader in Frances Fei, who stepped into the position of Senior VP of Leadership & Strategy with the sole responsibility of ensuring that their women employees are treated better, in addition to mending the issues on a work culture front.
It was a right move that was perfectly set up for the appointment of, perhaps, another visionary leader to start the long-term work of pushing Uber into another orbit.
While Expedia is a successful company from a business standpoint, it is not known for re-imagining travel, just as Google is known for re-imagining how information is organised and discovered, or for that matter how Facebook is known for how people connect and share their lives online.
Uber is at a stage where it can either become a purely utilitarian profit making local transportation company or re-imagine point-to-point mobility and deliver on some of the moon shots such as driver-less cars.
An ideal choice would have been a visionary leader with an emotional connection to occupy Travis empty chair.
On the contrary, while Dara promises to bring a lot to the table from an operational standpoint, Im not sure if he boasts of a soaring 'emotional quotient'.
And I am yet to hear his vision on mobility. It is for this very reason that I think Daras credentials make him more suitable for a COO role, rather than that of a CEO, a model that worked quite well in Facebooks case with Mark Zuckerberg as CEO and Sheryl Sandberg as the COO.
Lets not forget that the nature of Ubers business is complex, with operations across multiple countries to be looked after.
There is no doubt that Dara fits this role like a fish in water, but then Id rather have him focus on just the operational aspect, and have someone else solely dedicated to re-joining the isolated pieces of Ubers vision and public image.
Both these things need to happen simultaneously for Ubers fortunes to truly turn, and Im afraid that it seems like it is currently too tall an ask from the former Expedia chief.
It will be interesting to see how the immediate future shapes up for Uber. The first step has already played out as Dara officially confirmed to US media outlets that he will take up the mammoth job offered to him.
The former Iranian refugee and explicitly Anti-Trump leader wont have a shortage of challenges to face, apart from the obvious problems plaguing one of the most prolific private technology firms in Silicon Valley.
One can only hope that he lives up to the faith that the board has entrusted upon him. Expedias stock value has risen by 32 percent this year, so if anybody is relieved at this point, it is the shareholders of Uber Technologies Inc.
As far as image rebuilding is concerned, which is the more pressing issue for the company at this point, one would have to just wait and watch.
(The author is a startup mentor and former head of merchant and seller ecosystem at Flipkart. Views are personal. Edited for Moneycontrol.)
Manishi Raychaudhuri of BNP Paribas Securities told CNBC-TV18, "The private sector banks look good particularly the private sector banks which are retail lenders. Even in our Asian model portfolio the Indian private sector retail lenders are quite significantly represented. I think even some of the corporate lenders are beginning to look better now."
"For the public sector banks, I would think that they may have to bare the pain of increasing credit costs for about couple of quarters. Some of the public sector banks which have a very wide reach across geographical areas and across wide range of industrial sectors may weather the pain and they may possibly have bottomed out."
"However if I were to look at the public sector banks as a whole, I think for about a couple of quarters we would still remain slightly cautious on that universe," he said.
Myth 3: Everyone who has a mental illness needs medication to manage symptoms | Bulthuis says no two patients are the same. While medicines can help manage symptoms, there are some people with mental illness who do not require medication. For others, medicine is essential for recovery. (Representative image)
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Pharmaceutical stocks extended their gains this week. The sector was buzzing with Lupin getting an Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) for its Aurangabad facility and some momentum in Dr Reddy's Teva portfolio.
How did Pharma Index Perform?
The BSE Healthcare index gained 0.96 percent in the past week, the benchmark Sensex rose 0.43 percent.
Dr Reddy's was biggest gainer this past week with its stock rising 6.2 percent.
Divis (5.1 percent), Aurobindo Pharma (3.18 percent) and Cadila Healthcare (2.57 percent) were the other two stocks that have gained, while Lupin (-0.35 percent) , Glenmark (-1.75 percent), Cipla (-0.94 percent), Torrent Pharma (-0.58 percent)and Biocon (-0.98 percent) have declined.
Here's what kept the sector buzzing:
Lupin, Cadila Healthcare and Strides Shasun have announced their facilties have cleared United States Food and Drug Association (US FDA) inspection.
Dr Reddys has entered an agreement with US-based Vivus to end patent litigation related to the latters anti-obesity pill Qsymia. The settlement agreement permits Dr Reddy's to begin selling a generic version of Qsymia from June 1, 2025, or earlier under certain circumstances.
The company also received favourable ruling from US court on patent litigation over proposed generic version of Suboxone (buprenorphine and naloxone) sublingual film. Both the drugs were bought from Teva.
Biocon on Wednesday said US drug regulator has agreed to give three months extension of target action day for its breast cancer biosimilar Trastuzumab. The original target action day was September 3.
Target action day is the deadline set by US FDA to take a decision on the application to approve a new drug.
Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, addresses the audience after inaugurating power projects in Allahabad
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in a review meeting has said that development works must be visible at the ground level and rectification in administrative work was required to win the trust of people.
The chief minister after laying a symbolic foundation stone for the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims rest house yesterday assessed the work being done by the government's departments in the district.
He directed the Superintendent of Police, HN Singh, and other officials to identify and crackdown on land, mining mafias and criminals.
"Rectification in administrative work is required to win the trust of the public. The developmental works must be visible on the ground level," Adityanath said.
He ordered stringent action against errant police personnels, those having criminal history and connections with anti-social elements.
The chief minister ordered District Magistrate Ministhy S to ensure the payment of arrears of sugarcane growers from a sugar mill here before the crushing season.
Diagnostic centres conducting sex determination test must be identified and the owners should be put to task, he said.
Dr. Kafeel Khan, who was blamed for the death of at least 30 children at a state-run hospital in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh in August, was arrested on Saturday, the police said, according to a report in The Hindustan Times.
The doctor was hiding in his in-laws' house in a rural part of Gorakhpur, Manoj Tiwari, special task force (STF)'s senior superintendent of police confirmed.
According to the STF, Khan, who was traced using electronic surveillance, was handed over to Gorakhpur police who are currently probing the case.
Khan is one of the seven individuals named in the case registered over the death of 30 children within two days at the BRD Medical College Hospital between August 10 and 11.
The doctor had been absconding since the police registered a case over the incident, which exposed the healthcare situation in the state and triggered nationwide outrage.
Former principal RK Mishra and five other were also suspended.
The Uttar Pradesh government, however, says that the deaths happened due to Japanese encephalitis and acute encephalitis syndrome, which are common in several states of the country during the monsoons.
Khan was in-charge of the hospital's encephalitis ward at the time of the deaths.
In the immediate aftermath of the deaths, Khan had been hailed as a 'hero' but was later portrayed as a 'villain' for his private practice and an alleged old case of rape against him.
Khan had said that he had saved many lives by arranging over 250 cylinders in 24 hours.
here
19:35 As Railway Minister, on recommendations of the government think-tank Niti Aayyog, Suresh Prabhu ended the 92-year-old practice of a separate Railway Budget, merging it with the Union Budget. The minister argued that the integration of the general and railway budgets would help create an effective national transportation policy.
This seasoned politician from Maharashtra was formerly associated with the Shiv Sena. He served four tenures as a Member of the Lok Sabha from Maharashtra's Rajapur constituency before joining the Cabinet.
Prabhu was Power Minister in the Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and worked extensively on the river-linking project, which is finally being greenlighted by Modi.
Read the full story here: Suresh Prabhu travels from Railways to Commerce: Did derailments end his three-year journey?
19:00 I will join tomorrow, get briefing, will try to understand the department: Hardeep Singh Puri, new Housing & Urban Affairs Minister, tweets ANI.
18:00 Here are some of the key challenges Piyush Goyal is about to face as the Railway Minister in the cabinet:
# The Indian Railways have always been questioned on issues of safety with many reported rail accidents in the recent past. The Indore-Patna railway derailment in 2016 killed 65 people alone in 2016 while the Utkal Express derailment in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 claimed around 23 lives and injured many.
# Railway Finances is also a major point of concern for Goyal as the Railway Ministry has suffered poor operating ratios in the past. The annual rate of cost has not been able to keep pace with the revenues generated in the Railways Ministry.
For other challenges that Goyal could face, click here
17:30 Sitharaman now becomes only the second woman after Indira Gandhi to take charge of the high-profile ministry, and is the first full-fledged woman defence minister.
In interviews to the media after her elevation as a cabinet minister Sitharaman said, "I am just overwhelmed and humbled. I can serve the country with something which is constantly on the top of my mind."
To a query whether her elevation showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment towards women empowerment, she said the Prime Minister has always been in favour. "I know his working style since the time he was in Gujarat. He always believed in giving women their due share. His belief is that women can also perform," she said.
Read full story here: Women to the fore: After Swaraj and Irani, Sitharaman gets top billing
17:00 The cherry-picked set of former civil servants and Rajya Sabha MPs, as also promotions to high performing ministers, demonstrated the Prime Ministers intent to walk the talk on maximum governance, keeping a sharp eye on political acumen to balance efficient administration with poll winnability.
Read full story here: Cabinet Reshuffle: Nine new ministers take oath; four elevated to cabinet rank
16:30 My gratitude to PM for reposing faith in me and giving me a very important ministry. Appeal to all sports federations, lets keep sportsmen as most important person,everything else will fall into place later: New Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, tweets ANI
For the full list of portfolios allocated to the revamped Council of Ministers, click here.
15:06 Speaking to News18, Suresh Prabhu says he resigned because it was his moral responsibility to do so, even though he feels accidents reduced drastically during his tenure.
14:58 "Performance is the only message that the Prime Minister is trying to send through the reshuffling," says Arun Jaitley.
14:39 Outgoing Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has welcomed his successor Piyush Goyal: "Welcoming my long time dear friend,colleague @PiyushGoyal to @RailMinIndia.I offer all my help to him to make railways world class.all best (sic)," he tweeted.
Prabhu is set to take charge of the Commerce ministry.
14:32 Here's what Nirmala Sitharaman said soon after she took oath this morning: "Somebody who has come from a small town, grown into the party with all the support of the leadership, and if given such responsibility, it just makes you feel sometimes that cosmic grace is there. Otherwise it is impossible."
14:20 Arun Jaitley is speaking to News18 now. Says it was not logistically possible to hold full-time charge of two heavy duty ministries in the form of defence and finance. He says that Nirmala Sitharaman will be a competent successor.
14:17 So as things stand, Nirmala Sitharaman's elevation as Defence Minister and Piyush Goyal's promotion as Railway Minister are the biggest surprises of this reshuffle.
14:14 After Sushma Swaraj, Nirmala Sitharaman will now be the second woman on the Cabinet Committee for Security.
14:08 There are now 75 ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Council of Ministers 27 Cabinet ministers, 11 Ministers of State with independent charge. and 37 Ministers of State.
14:05 Former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar tells News18 that Nirmala Sitharaman is 'competent, efficient and analytical' and will do well in her new role.
14:00 Here's what the nine new faces in the Council of Ministers have been entrusted with:
Hardeep Singh Puri - Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
Satya Pal Singh - Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Minister of State in the Ministry of Water Resources,
River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
Shiv Pratap Shukla - Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance
Alphons Kannanthanam- Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Tourism; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
Raj Kumar Singh - Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Power; and Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
Virendra Kumar - Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Minority Affairs
Anantkumar Hegde - Minister of State in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat - Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Ashwini Kumar Choubey - Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
13:54 Nirmala Sitharaman has become the first full-fledged woman defence minister of India.
13:52 Sushma Swaraj retains charge of the External Affairs Ministry, Nitin Gadkari keeps road and highways, while Arun Jaitley will continue to head the Finance Ministry.
13:49 Here are the big ones:
Suresh Prabhu - Commerce
Dharmendra Pradhan - Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas; and Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
Piyush Goyal - Minister of Railways; and Minister of Coal
Nirmala Sitharaman - Minister of Defence.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi - Minister of Minority Affairs
13:45 Here's the full list of portfolios allocated to the revamped Council of Ministers.
13:43 The full list is out now. Piyush Goyal has been confirmed as the new Railways minister.
13:38 Former home secretary RK Singh will get independent charge of the power ministry.
13:34 Word coming in that Nirmala Sitharaman has been made the new Defence Minister. She is only the second woman after Indira Gandhi to take charge of the ministry.
13:28 In case you're just joining us, here's what has happened so far:
> Nine new ministers took oath this morning.
> Existing ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Piyush Goyal have been elevated to Cabinet rank.
>Railway minister Suresh Prabhu announced his exit from the post.
> Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left for the BRICS Summit in China even as his ministers await word about their portfolios.
13:15 Sources are now saying that Nirmala Sitharaman will be named the next Defence Minister.
13:07 BJP President Amit Shah has congratulated the newly-inducted ministers. "I am sure they will leave no stone unturned in realising PM Narendra Modi's dream of a New India."
13:01 National Conference leader Omar Abdullah has something to say too: Spare a thought for Nitish Kumar ji who was the bee's knees in the UPA & now only hears of union cabinet reshuffles through the media.
12:56 The Congress has a message for the new ministers: Best wishes to the newly inducted, we hope you will deliver the promises made to the people. We are watching you.
12:53 Click here for full coverage of the Cabinet reshuffle.
12:43 Shashi Tharoor has some advice for the new Ministers of State: Being MoS is like standing in a cemetery - there's a lot of people under you but no one is listening!
Been there, done that.
12:37 Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman terms the Cabinet reshuffle as a "sign of change amid continuity".
12:32 Sources are now telling News18 that Arun Jaitley may be divested of the defence portfolio. He has been holding additional charge of the ministry since Manohar Parrikar resigned to take over as Goa Chief Minister earlier this year.
12:26 Congress: Cabinet reshuffle is a sign that the BJP government has failed to deliver. The economy is in a shambles. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should be replaced.
12:14 MoS Hardeep Singh Puri says he is leaving it to BJP president Amit Shah to take a call on his entry to Parliament via the Lower or Upper House.
12:10 Is Piyush Goyal going to take charge of the Railways? We'll find out anytime now.
12:05 Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has just boarded Air India One. He is heading to China for the BRICS Summit.
12:03 Sources suggest that there is a possibility of another reshuffle inducting JD (U) and AIADMK. The AIADMK has not yet joined the NDA, but is expected to do so once it gets its house in order.
12:00 Heres the full list of the new ministers:
CABINET MINISTERS
Shri Dharmendra Pradhan
Shri Piyush Goyal
Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman
Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
MINISTERS OF STATE
Shri Shiv Pratap Shukla
Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey
Dr. Virendra Kumar
Shri Anantkumar Hegde
Shri Raj Kumar Singh
Shri Hardeep Singh Puri
Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat
Dr. Satya Pal Singh
Shri Alphons Kannanthanam
11:54 Two of the newly-inducted ministers Kannanthanam and Puri are presently not members of Parliament and will have to be elected to the Rajya Sabha within the stipulated six months.
11:47 Dharmendra Pradhan says the Prime Minister has tasked new inductees with taking India to new highs. He thanks PM Modi for reposing faith in him.
11:44 After being promoted to a cabinet rank, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said: Our duty is to match up to expectations of PM Modi. We pledge to carry our duties honestly, he told ANI.
11:41 The full list of portfolios is set to be out anytime now.
11:34 "No idea what is in store for me," Suresh Prabhu tells News18.
11:29 Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has bid farewell to his colleagues. His tweet: Thanks to all 13 Lacs+ rail family for their support,love,goodwill.I will always cherish these memories with me.Wishing u all a great life (sic).
11:29 The Cabinet secretariat has not yet sent the list of portfolios to Rashtrapati Bhavan, reports News18.
11:24 The Prime Minister has just tweeted: I congratulate all those who have taken oath today. Their experience & wisdom will add immense value to the Council of Ministers. I congratulate my colleagues @dpradhanbjp, @PiyushGoyal, @nsitharaman and @naqvimukhtar on joining the Union Cabinet.
11:18 Lalu Prasad takes a swipe at Nitish Kumar. "One who leaves his people won't be taken in by others," he says.
11:10 Uma Bharti was not at the swearing-in ceremony. Amid speculation that she has been dropped from the Cabinet, she has tweeted saying that she had a prior engagement.
11:07 All eyes now on the allocation of portfolios. The full list should be out anytime now.
11:04 Alphons Kannanthanam is the second Cabinet minister to oath in English after Nirmala Sitharaman. And with that, all the new ministers have been sworn in and the ceremony has ended.
11:02 Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh also takes oath. An IPS officer of the 1980 batch of the Maharashtra cadre, Singh has been recognised with medals like the Antrik Suraksha Sewa Padak and a Special Service Medal for extraordinary work in the Naxalite areas of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in 1990 by the government.
Singh is known for breaking the backbone of organised crime syndicates in Mumbai in the 1990s as the financial capitals commissioner of police. He also served as the commissioner of Pune and Nagpur police.
11:01 Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is next. A Lok Sabha MP from Jodhpur in Rajasthan, the The 49-year-old is a popular face in the Bharatiya Janata Party and will be the second Rajput after Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore to secure a place in Modi's cabinet.
10:59 Former diplomat Hardeep Singh Puri has been sworn in as well. He may be tasked with focusing on US and Israel relations.
10:56 Former Home Secretary RK Singh sworn in. He is known to deal effectively with bureaucracy. RK Singh could be the replacement for Giriraj Singh. He is an MP from Arrah in Bihar.
10:53 Madhya Pradesh MP Virendra Kumar takes oath, followed by Anant Kumar Hegde from Karnataka. Hegde is a member of the standing committee on external affairs. According to PRS, Kumar has an attendance rate of 96 percent in Parliament and has asked 245 questions.
10:50 Ashwini Choubey has been sworn in. He is close to the Sangh outfits and key to the Brahmin vote.
10:47 Shiv Pratap Shukla is the first of the new faces to take oath. Shukla has been elected to the UP Assembly four consecutive times, is a Rajya Sabha MP and is on the committee for Rural Development.
10:45 Nirmala Sitharaman has been sworn in as well, followed by Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Pradhan, Goyal, Sitharaman and Naqvi are all being given Cabinet positions.
10:42 Pradhan falters with the words of the oath and is corrected by President Kovind. Piyush Goyal takes oath next. He is also being elevated to Cabinet rank.
10:40 Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan is the first to take oath. He has been elevated to Cabinet rank.
10:38 President Ram Nath Kovind has arrived for the ceremony and the national anthem is now playing.
10:36 The Janata Dal (United) has also skipped the ceremony. The newest NDA ally has not been allotted a Cabinet berth.
10:35 Uma Bharti is not attending the swearing-in ceremony. She is the Union water resources minister.
10:32 Amit Shah is seated next to Narendra Modi, followed by Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley.
10:28 Railway minister Suresh Prabhu is seated next to Road minister Nitin Gadkari. Will they hold the same portfolios in an hour from now?
10:23 Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived at the swearing-in ceremony.
10:10 The full list of portfolios should be out by 11am.
10:00 Just half an hour to go for the swearing-in ceremony to begin. Live visuals from Rashtrapati Bhavan show plenty of handshakes and hugs going around.
09:59 "Our National President (Nitish Kumar) had already made it clear, so no question of me or anyone from JDU joining cabinet," VN Singh, Janata Dal (United) leader, tells ANI.
09:57 Former IAS officer KJ Alphons says his induction into the council of ministers came as a great surprise.
Alphons, who hails from Kerala, was featured in Time Magazine's list of 100 Young Global Leaders and is said to have pioneered the literacy movement in India by making Kottayam the first 100 percent literate town in India in 1989.
09:48 Word is that there is unlikely to be a change in the 'big four' portfolios - defence, finance, external affairs and home. Arun Jaitley is currently in charge of the defence and finance ministries.
09:42 The list of portfolios that have been allotted will be known soon after the ceremony.
09:39 If you're just joining us, these are the nine new faces who will be inducted into the council of ministers.
09:37 The nine new ministers and the three set for an elevation have just left the Prime Minister's residence and will now head to Rashtrapati Bhavan.
09:33 Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, RK Singh has thanked the Prime Minister for expressing confidence in his ability, adding that his portfolio has not been decided yet. Singh is a former home secretary.
09:30 Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi is also said to be in line for an elevation to Cabinet rank. He's currently the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs.
09:25 There is also buzz that NDA ally Shiv Sena will skip the swearing-in ceremony over not getting a fresh berth in the reshuffle.
09:20 Speculation is rife that Piyush Goyal may be given charge of the Railways. Suresh Prabhu had offered to quit last week in light of recent train derailments.
09:10 The Prime Minister is currently hosting a 'chai pe charcha' with the nine men set to join his Council of Ministers. Narendra Modi will be leaving for the BRICS Summit in China at 3pm today, so he will not have time to interact with his new ministers after the official portfolios are allotted.
09:08 Will Nitin Gadkari take charge of the Railways? "It is a discussion in the media," he said when asked about the possibility.
09:02 The nine new members to be inducted in the Union council of ministers include four former senior bureaucrats and also BJP leaders from the states of Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh which go to polls in the near future.
08:46 Dharmendra Pradhan (Petroleum), Nirmala Sitharaman (Commerce) and Piyush Goyal (Power) have received calls for elevation to Cabinet rank as a reward for their good work.
08:40 The President tweeted last night that the swearing-in ceremony of the new ministers of the Union government will take place at 10.30 am today.
10.40 pm The names of nine ministers who will be inducted into the Council of Ministers have been confirmed. They are Raj Kumar Singh, Shiv Prakash Shukla, Virendra Kumar, Hardeep S Puri, Satya Pal Singh, KJ Alphons, Ashwini Choubey, Ananth Kumar Hegde, Gajendra Shekhawat.
Here is a brief profile on each.
9.12 pm The swearing-in ceremony for the Council of Ministers is expected to be held at around 10 am at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The list of portfolios that have been allotted will be known later in the day, probably in the afternoon before PM Modi leaves for the BRICS Summit in China.
8.59 pm But the short point being the NDA Cabinet does need a bit of a shake-up. Bench strength was perceived to be the biggest weakness of the ruling party, which rode to power on the popularity of one man -- and it has shown.
With general elections a couple of years away, PM Modi will need as much help as possible: demonetisation and the GST rollout have kept the economy soft recently, banks struggle with a gargantuan NPA burden, private sector investment remains sluggish while a jobs crisis looms.
8.53 pm Having said that, it is by now well known that PM Modi and BJP President Amit Shah like to keep their cards close to the chest. So one should not be surprised in cases of, well, surprise.
8.50 pm Here's what we know so far, courtesy our trusted sources:
- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is also holding the defence portfolio, will likely hold only one of the two after the shuffle. Rising star in the NDA government, Power Minister Piyush Goyal could be elevated and given charge of one of these portfolios.
- BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhav also could be inducted into the Cabinet. Rajya Sabha MPs Bhupendra Yadav and Vinay Sahasrabuddhe could be the other new inductees to Modis council of ministers.
- There is also speculation that the agriculture and fertilizer ministries might be merged in the new system, while railways, aviation, roads and shipping ministries could be integrated into a single transport ministry. Highways minister Nitin Gadkari could head this integrated transport ministry.
- Suresh Prabhu may be moved to the environment ministry.
8.45 pm A cloud of uncertainty, however, hangs over the participation of the BJP allies like the JD(U) and Shiv Sena in the reshuffle, even as chances of the AIADMK joining the government appear slim.
8.42 pm Union ministers - Kalraj Mishra, Bandaru Dattatreya, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjiv Kumar Balyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahendra Nath Pandey -- had resigned yesterday ahead of the reshuffle.
Uma Bharti, too, had offered to resign but her fate remains in the balance amid speculation that there may be a few more exits.
So did popular Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu whose stint has seen the transporter roll out several new initiatives and services but which remains blighted by a poor safety record.
8.37 pm The Cabinet reshuffle is important coming as it does less than two years before the Modi government goes to polls in 2019. The PM, known to be an astute strategist, will have to keep in mind several interests: use it reinforce important political alliances and get caste and regional calculations right while picking ministerial candidates having the potential to help move the needle in an economy that faces several headwinds.
Welcome to the live coverage of the Cabinet reshuffle scheduled for Sunday morning. In less than 24 hours, we will come to know the full shape of the Union Cabinet following its third major reshuffle during the tenure of the Narendra Modi government.
NDA partner Shiv Sena has not received any communication from the BJP over the inclusion of its members in the Union Cabinet expansion scheduled for tomorrow, party chief Uddhav Thackeray today said.
"I have got news about the Cabinet expansion only from media. I have not enquired about it (from the central BJP leadership). I have neither received any communication from anybody nor are we hungry for power," Thackeray told reporters here.
"Today everyone is busy with the Cabinet expansion at the Centre. However, we are only busy about ensuring the (good) health of Mumbai citizens (after the deluge earlier this week,)" Thackeray told reporters here.
The Sena chief said the party's ideology for the last 50 years has been 80 per cent social work and 20 per cent politics.
Though a long time ally of the BJP, Sena has often been at loggerheads with the senior partner. Its lone member in the Union ministry is Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled undertake a reshuffle of his council of ministers at 10 am tomorrow, a top government official said.
It will be the third such exercise since he took office in May, 2014.
New Delhi: A view of Parliament in New Delhi on Sunday, a day ahead of the monsoon session. PTI Photo by Kamal Singh (PTI7_16_2017_000213B)
Sunday's reshuffle is likely to take load off four ministers who are holding additional charges after vacancies arose in the cabinet between March and July this year due to various reasons.
In the rejig, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may induct new faces lessening the burden on these ministers.
In March, Manohar Parrikar resigned as defence minister. He later became the chief minister of Goa.
Arun Jaitley, who was holding the portfolio of Finance and Corporate Affairs, was given the additional charge of Defence.
In May, Anil Dave, the then Environment and Forest minister, passed away. Science and Technology minister Harsh Vardhan was given the additional charge of the Environment Ministry.
In July, M Venkaiah Naidu resigned from the union cabinet after being picked up as the NDA nominee for the post of vice president of India. His Housing and Urban Affairs portfolio went to Narendra Singh Tomar as additional charge.
Tomar is the minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation.
Naidu's Information and Broadcasting portfolio went to Smriti Irani, the minister for Textiles.
Besides, Ravi Shankar Prasad holds two portfolios Law and Justice and Information-Technology.
Nalgonda: BJP National President Amit Shah addresses a public meeting at Suryapet in Nalgonda district on Friday. PTI Photo (PTI6_10_2016_000283B)
In a bid to reach out to the party's young supporters in poll-bound Gujarat, the BJP's youth wing will organise an interactive session here on September 10, to be addressed by party chief Amit Shah.
The event, being organised by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), is likely to see over one lakh participants, who will interact directly with Shah through video-conferencing facilities to be provided across 100 centres in the state.
Party's state in-charge and national general secretary Bhupendra Yadav told this to reporters here today.
Shah will address the participants from Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Auditorium in Ahmedabad.
"On September 10, BJP's youth wing, under the leadership of its state president Rutvij Patel, will organise 'Adikham Gujarat' (Steadfast Gujarat) town hall programme. The event will be held in 100 centres across the state in which over one lakh youths will take part," he said.
"Party's national president Amit Shah will take questions from the young participants and address them through video conferencing facility from Ahmedabad," Yadav added.
"Through the programme, the BJP will connect with the party's youth supporters to take forward the concept of 'New India' propagated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and seek their commitment to the party," he said.
BJP state president Jitu Vaghani said that young supporters will also be able to place their questions through social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, as well as through WhatsApp on mobile number--7878182182.
A website, www.adikhamgujarat.com, will also be launched on Monday for the same, he said.
Virbhadra Singh
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who returned to the state on Friday after meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi, said he would continue to work for the party and ensure its victory in the state Assembly polls, due later this year.
The Himachal Congress strongman, who had earlier announced that he would not contest the polls, said yesterday's meeting with Gandhi was fruitful and the party chief listened to the issues raised by him "seriously".
He though remained non-committal on whether he would contest the polls or not.
Singh, who has been gunning for the removal of state Congress chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, said, "I will work for the party at the time of the election and ensure its victory."
Asked if everything was in order in the Himachal Congress, he said, "Small issues keep cropping up, but these will be resolved."
Claiming that there was no "crisis" in the party, Singh said, "I have been in the Congress for 55 years. I have participated in all the elections all these years. I will continue to lead the party from the front and not do anything which will harm the party."
Replying to a question, he said he "may or may not" contest the polls, adding that the victory of the party was more important.
trends Urban Reality: Is National Green Tribunal an effective eco-warrior? CNBC-TV18's special show Urban Reality, puts the spotlight on how and why we should be fighting to keep India's green watchdog, National Green Tribunal alive and thriving.
Politician Bimal Gurung watches during an interview with Reuters at his party office in Darjeeling March 17, 2008. India's Darjeeling hills have come alive with fresh demands for a separate state within India for the Gorkha people, with protests threatening the area's renowned tea and tourism industries. Picture taken March 17, 2008. To match feature INDIA-GORKHALAND/ REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri (INDIA) - GM1E43J1HRH02
West Bengal minister Gautam Deb today accused the Sikkim government and police administration of protecting GJM supremo Bimal Gurung, who has cases under UAPA against him, and helping him "flee".
The Sikkim government might have a hidden agenda behind its alleged move to help Gurung flee during a raid by West Bengal police in the neighbouring state, Deb, the state's tourism minister, said.
"Whatever Sikkim government and their police department are doing is totally unconstitutional. When the unrest in the Darjeeling hills started, they supported the GJM's demand of separate state of Gorkhaland," Deb, who is elected from north bengal, told a Bengali TV channnel.
"They have been helping GJM. The Sikkim government and the police administration had helped Bimal Gurung and his associates to flee. They are giving protection to Gurung," he said.
"How can they provide protection to a person like Gurung who had cases against him under UAPA ? A lookout notice has been issued against Gurung and instead of helping the West Bengal police to nab him, they are helping him to flee. I think the Sikkim government has some motive behind it," Deb alleged.
The South Sikkim district police had yesterday alleged that the West Bengal police entered its jurisdiction posing as tourists and shot dead a GJM supporter and arrested four leaders of the outfit.
Gurung was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in connection with two blasts in Darjeeling hills on August 19.
Apart from UAPA, charges under the Explosive Substances Act, the West Bengal Maintenance of Public Order Act and IPC Section 302 (murder) were also slapped against him.
Gurung has been on the run since then and had made contact with his supporters through recorded audio messages.
Narendra MODI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said he was looking forward to productive discussions and positive outcomes at the upcoming BRICS summit in China, noting that it has to make important contributions in upholding peace and security and address global challenges.
"I look forward to building upon the results and outcomes of the Goa Summit. I also look forward to productive discussions and positive outcomes that will support the agenda of a stronger BRICS partnership under the chairmanship of China," the PM said in a statement.
Modi leaves for Xiamen tomorrow to attend the Brazil- Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS)summit on September 4. The visit comes days after India and China managed to end the 73-day long Dokalam standoff. From Xiamen, he will travel to Myanmar on August 5 for a three-day visit.
About his first bilateral visit to Myanmar, Modi said both countries will look at strengthening existing cooperation in areas of security and counter-terrorism, trade and investment, infrastructure and energy, and culture.
On BRICS, the Prime Minister said he will have the opportunity to meet leaders bilaterally on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit.
Replying to a specific question, the Ministry of External Affairs yesterday did not rule out a possible meeting between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the summit, saying it is a common practice to arrange bilateral meetings on the sidelines of such multilaterals.
India had hosted the previous BRICS summit in Goa last year.
"India attaches high importance to the role of BRICS that has begun a second decade of its partnership for progress and peace. BRICS has important contributions to make in addressing global challenges and upholding world peace and security," the prime minister said.
The prime minister said he was looking forward to engage with leaders of nine other countries, including BRICS partners, in an Emerging Markets and Developing Countries Dialogue, being hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 5.
"We will also interact with the BRICS Business Council represented by captains of industry from all five countries," he said.
On his Myanmar visit from September 5-7, Modi hoped it will help in charting a roadmap for closer cooperation between the two countries.
He said both countries will review developments in bilateral ties with a focus on "extensive" programme of development cooperation and socio-economic assistance India is undertaking in Myanmar.
Both sides will also explore new areas of cooperation.
The prime minister said he was looking forward to paying a visit to the famed heritage city of Bagan, where the Archaeological Survey of India has done "stellar work" in renovating the Ananda Temple, and where it will be undertaking further restoration work on a number of pagodas and murals that were damaged in last year's earthquake.
Modi had visited Myanmar in 2014 to attend the ASEAN- India Summit.
The prime minister will meet President U Htin Kyaw and hold talks with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Myanmarese president and Suu Kyi had visited India last year.
"I am also keen to meet and interact with the Indian- origin community of Myanmar, whose history goes back more than a century.
"I am confident that the visit will open a bright new chapter in India-Myanmar relations and will help in charting a roadmap for closer cooperation between our governments, our business communities and at the people to people level," Modi said.
September 02, 2017
No "Russian Hacking" In Durham Election - NY Times Report Belies Its Headline
The last piece pointed out that the NYT headline "U.N. Peacekeepers in Lebanon Get Stronger Inspection Powers for Hezbollah Arms" was 100% fake news. The UNIFIL U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon were not getting any stronger inspection powers. The relevant UN Security Resolution 2373, which renewed UNIFIL's mandate, had made no such changes. No further inspection powers were authorized.
Today we find another similarly lying headline in the New York Times.
The piece is about minor technical election trouble in a district irrelevant to the presidential election outcome. Contradicting the headline it notes in paragraph five:
There are plenty of other reasons for such breakdowns local officials blamed human error and software malfunctions and no clear-cut evidence of digital sabotage has emerged, much less a Russian role in it .
All of the reported troubles are simple computer hiccups that would not have occurred in a more reasonable election system build on paper and pencil balloting. All the computer troubles have various innocent causes. The officials handling these systems deny that any "Russian hacking" was involved. Moreover, there was no chance that these troubles in one district would have effected the general election. There was thereby no motive for anyone to hack these systems:
Despite the disruptions, a record number of votes were cast in Durham, following a pattern there of overwhelming support for Democratic presidential candidates, this time Hillary Clinton.
Screenshot of NYT report
The NYT headline is an outrageous lie. It promotes as causal fact completely unproven interference and troubles for which, as the article notes, plenty of other reason might exist. It is politically irresponsible. Only two out of ten people read beyond the headlines. Even fewer will read down to paragraph five and recognize that the headline lies. All others will have been willfully misled by the editors of the New York Times.
This scheme is the gist of ALL reporting about the alleged "Russian hacking" of the U.S. presidential election. There exists zero evidence that Russia was involved in anything related to it. No evidence -none at all- links the publishing of DNC papers or of Clinton counselor Podesta's emails to Russia. Thousands of other circumstances, people or political entities might have had their hands in the issue. There is zero evidence that Russia was involved at all.
The whole "Russian hacking" issue is a series of big lies designed and promulgated by Democratic partisans (specifically Brennan and Clapper who were then at the head of U.S. intelligence services) to:
cover up for Hillary Clinton's and the DNC's failure in the election and to
build up Russia as a public enemy to justify unnecessary military spending and other imperial racketeering.
The New York Times, and other media, present these lies as facts while not providing any evidence for them. In many cases they hide behind "intelligence reports" without noting suspiciously mealymouthed caveats in those subjective "assessments" of obviously partisan authors. Hard facts contradicting their conclusions are simply ignored and not reported at all.
Posted by b on September 2, 2017 at 3:26 UTC | Permalink
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Brachycephalic syndrome: its a medical term for a variety of anatomical problems that sometimes obstruct the airways in pugs, bulldogs, and other pets (even cats!) with flat faces.
Brachycephalic syndrome is seen in brachycephalic dogs, which are dogs that have been bred for incredibly short noses. (The word brachycephalic comes from the Latin for short-headed.) Pets afflicted with brachycephalic syndrome may experience snoring, difficulty breathing, susceptibility to overheating, trouble with anesthesia and more.
With popularity of these brachycephalic breeds on the rise, veterinarians are seeing more and more dogs with brachycephalic syndrome.
In June 2017, a new surgical procedure that addresses one of these pets anatomical problems was performed for the first time in the United States at the University of Illinois Veterinary Teaching Hospital by Drs. Heidi Phillips and Brendan McKiernan.
The procedure was developed by a German veterinarian and involves removing small amounts of tissue inside the dogs nasal cavity. The surgery was performed on a young French bulldog, and it was a success. By the end of August, the surgeons had performed the procedure on several more patients (including Sonny, featured in the photo), with additional patients scheduled for evaluation.
Dr. McKiernan is a specialist in small animal internal medicine and an internationally known expert in respiratory diseases of companion animals. In 1978, while he was an Illinois faculty member, he founded the Veterinary Comparative Respiratory Society and served as its first president for seven years. He is a professor emeritus of small animal medicine and former director of the hospital. Dr. Phillips is a board-certified small animal surgeon with special interests in soft tissue and microsurgery. She is an assistant professor of small animal surgery at the University of Illinois.
A major location of heat regulation for dogs is their nose, says McKiernan. When dogs pant, air enters their nose and exits through their mouth. As the air travels through the nose, it contacts all these intricate scrolls of nasal tissue, called turbinates. These turbinates help to clean the air and cool it down for the body.
In brachycephalic dogs, the nasal cavity is smaller, so the turbinates are more crowded and end up touching each other. Turbinates can also get a little out of control, growing too far forward or too far back, McKiernan explains. In either case, its easy to see why these brachycephalic dogs have such a hard time breathing through their noses.
The new procedure addresses this problem, specifically treating the turbinates to improve the dogs breathing.
How did Illinois become the first U.S. veterinary facility to offer this procedure?
It began in 2006 when I went to a convention in Germany to present my research on a newly discovered anatomical finding about canine turbinates, McKiernan explains. That is where I met Dr. Gerhard Oechtering, who was presenting on the same topic and his work to relieve the obstruction. We started talking, and I visited him in Germany in 2014 and 2015, when he showed me the new procedure he was doing to treat brachycephalic syndrome.
After that initial meeting, McKiernan made more visits to Germany to learn about the surgery and to exchange knowledge on the topic. Dr. Heidi Phillips, a board-certified small animal surgeon at Illinois, also traveled to Germany to observe the procedure.
Together, Drs. Phillips and McKiernan have brought this procedure to the United States.
The surgery is a laser-assisted turbinectomy, also called LATE, Phillips explains. We use a very small, precise laser to remove the parts of turbinates that are obstructing the nasal cavity. Because we use a laser, there is very little bleeding, and it has been a very safe procedure.
Its important to keep in mind that treating the obstructing turbinates is only one part of the problem," McKiernan says. Typically, a dog with brachycephalic syndrome requires multiple procedures, so along with the LATE surgery we treat other parts of the upper airway tract, if necessary. Common problems include nostrils that are too narrow or structures in the back of the throat, such as the soft palate, that are oversized or out of place.
Does this procedure affect a dogs ability to smell?
Actually, no. The turbinates we address are in the front part of the nasal cavity, Phillips says. The tissues and nerves that are responsible for the sense of smell are in the very back of the nasal cavity. In fact, clearing the airspace might actually improve a dogs sense of smell.
Phillips and McKiernan are excited to be able to help brachycephalic dogs in a new way, but this treatment still isnt a cure. Although this does improve a dogs quality of life, it wont completely fix the problem. Even after the surgery, owners are advised to keep their dogs at an ideal weight and to monitor them closely in the heat.
To learn more about brachycephalic syndrome, talk to your local veterinarian.
BROOKFIELD Todays patient has 2-inch fangs, a glossy golden-brown coat and a triangular, petal-pink nose.
Dongwa the clouded leopard lies fully anesthetized in the CT scanner, his tongue lolling, as Brookfield Zoo radiologist Marina Ivancic scrolls through the 3-D rendering of his insides on her computer screen.
Right lung, left lung, aorta, liver, gallbladder, she narrates, as she makes the virtual journey through the cats thoracic cavity and down into his abdomen.
She calls up an image of the 40-pound cats muscular exterior, and then, with a few quick drags on her computer touchpad, she makes the muscle fall away, and you see the curves and angles of ghost-white bone.
Dongwa is the big attraction today, with vets and veterinary students clustered at his side, but its actually Ivancic, zoo officials say, who is one of a kind. She is the only board-certified veterinary radiologist working full time at a North American zoo, according to Michael Adkesson, vice president of clinical medicine at the Chicago Zoological Society, which operates Brookfield Zoo.
Hired last June, Ivancic helps diagnose animals at Brookfield and serves as a consultant to zoos and aquariums worldwide, analyzing scans sent in from as far away as Australia and Hong Kong.
Im humbled every day that I get to do this for a living which is nuts, she said.
People would do anything to touch one of these animals just once. Theres always some new thrill or some new species some beautiful little animal that (may be) pregnant. The other day I looked at a little tamandua a tiny anteater. Theyre gorgeous animals, and I was looking at her belly with the ultrasound while she was eating these nasty little worms that she loves so much, and theyre wiggling around, and shes chewing on them and paying no attention to the fact that Im looking at her.
Ivancic has quickly carved out a niche for herself recent patients include a penguin, a snow leopard and a kangaroo. Shes also analyzing images sent in by other zoos, in a fee-for-service arrangement that Adkesson described as a win-win.
Its so easy to move these images (online) and her expertise can help everyone, he said. Were hoping to not just improve the caliber of medicine for our animals, but to provide that for zoos around the world.
Born in Croatia her last name is pronounced EE-ven-cheech, Ivancic came to the U.S. with her family at age 5 when her father, a mathematician by training, got a job offer in Silicon Valley.
A passionate ballet dancer as a teenager, she practiced four hours a day and landed a ballet scholarship to the University of Hartford in Connecticut. But at 19, she suddenly became disenchanted: I felt like it was a superficial form of existence. She decided to focus, instead, on her love of animals and found her calling during a summer internship training dolphins in Hawaii.
I met those animals, and that was it, said Ivancic, 40, who lives in Chicagos South Loop neighborhood. I was done. I fell completely in love with them as a species, and that has never waned.
She studied the standard domestic and barnyard animals at veterinary school but spent her summers working with dolphins at the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program in San Diego, where she realized radiology is a big part of dolphin care. She did her residency in radiology at the University of Pennsylvania and started a career as a marine mammal radiologist.
People were like, What? I dont need a dolphin radiologist. Youre crazy! I can just look at (the scans) myself, Ivancic recalled, laughing.
But MRI physics are complicated, she would tell the doubter; you do need a radiologist.
Then Ill send (the scan) to a human radiologist, the doubter would say.
OK, but they dont know anything about a dolphin, Ivancic would respond. A dolphin has a blowhole; they have a modified larynx; they have all these adaptations.
She built up a radiology consulting business, analyzing scans sent to her via the internet and flying off to help diagnose and treat dolphins at zoos and private collections in Mexico, Canada, Bermuda, Turkey and Dubai.
Back at Brookfield, zoo veterinarians were beginning to realize they had a problem.
As imaging technology had advanced, it had become more difficult for veterinary radiologists trained in domestic animal care to interpret images from CT scans, MRIs, X-rays, ultrasounds and nuclear medicine. Adkesson wanted someone who could fill that gap, a staff radiologist with a focus on zoo animals who could help get the diagnosis right the first time, potentially allowing zoo veterinarians to start treatment earlier and get better results.
Ivancic was already very well-known in the marine mammal field, Adkesson said, and the Brookfield Zoo has dolphins, seals and sea lions, so that was a natural fit. She had the technical skills the zoo was looking for: Shes an absolutely phenomenal radiologist one of the best radiologists Ive had the opportunity to work with, said Adkesson.
And she had the people skills that medical professionals with highly technical specialties sometimes lack.
Were really in very uncharted waters with this, and we knew she had the right personality to make a success out of it, Adkesson said.
For todays patient, the news is good. A few months ago, Dongwa, a senior cat at age 14, had a small cancerous growth removed from his mouth. But after examining 4,875 images from the CT scan of the cats body, as well as computer reconstructions that capture important details, Ivancic finds no sign that the cancer has spread.
Sitting in an office decorated with black and white photos from her dolphin-training days, Ivancic reports good news on the consulting side as well. Shes now getting a few dozen requests to analyze scans from other zoos every month, up from zero when she started a year ago.
Im getting everything, she says of her long-distance patients. Ill get an African Cape porcupine, Ill get a Komodo dragon CT and Ill get an MRI of a gorilla you know, all of it. Your brain has to constantly be working. Theres steam coming out of my ears!
Not that shes complaining.
I like a challenge, Ivancic said with a smile. Im not a risk-averse person.
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Small Bites returns with area news on local restaurants and food trends. In this edition, lots of buzz is surrounding Chef Chip Hight with both his restaurants. Also, a new fried chicken option appears to be on the horizon.
Appetizers
To start, we reported today that Hight announced the closing of Hight Foods will be on Thursday. 7. For two years, he introduced a bevy of flavors and dishes to the Midland restaurant scene with his fresh takes on familiar dishes. He will be focusing on his downtown restaurant Opal's Table and also begin working to open The Basement, a bar in the underground space at Opal's.
Hight Foods catering services will continue and he is also celebrating the restaurant's success with a free lunch beginning at 11 a.m. Read more here.
Chick-fil-A will be giving away free breakfast through Sept. 30. The catch is downloading the restaurant's app which will then lead to the free offer.
Today kicks off Hunger Action Month for the West Texas Food Bank. Read here about the several ways to help the WTFB with events and fundraisers throughout the month.
Coming Soon
Chicken Express has posted a sign on Andrews Highway at Michigan Ave. The sign is at the former D.R. Pharmacy location. This follows the recent opening of Golden Chick and the second Bush's location on Wadley Ave.
The sign also mentions it is hiring managers. Per the sign, interested applicants can email a resume to chickenjudge@gmail.com.
No additional word has been mentioned of a potential opening date or if the building will be torn down for a new one.
A sign has been posted for Tropical Smoothie Cafe next to the new Chick-fil-A on SH 191 at Loop 250. The Florida-based chain offers smoothies, wraps, sandwiches, flatbreads and salads. Clearly its menu leans toward a healthier food option and according to its website, TSC offers meals that are vegetarian friendly and under-500 calorie options.
Main Course
The 34th Annual Taste of the Basin has posted its lineup of restaurants and food services that will be present at this year's event. The event by the Permian Basin Restaurant Association will benefit area students and teachers with scholarships, hospitality training and culinary equipment for high schools. More than 30 different participants will provide a variety of flavors and tastes to ticket holders.
Participants this year include:
The Barn Door Steakhouse
Johnny's BBQ Midland
La Margarita
Taco Villa
Rosa's Cafe
Gerardo's Casita
Wolf Dairy Queens
Opal's Table
Dominos Pizza
HEB True TX BBQ
Fuddruckers
Homemade Wines
King's Point Cove
Midland ISD Culinary Arts
Mulberry Cafe
Keith's Hamburger Station
Texas Soul Cafe
Ben E. Keith
Holiday Inn Heritage Restaurant
Susie's South Forty Confections
Chili's Grill & Bar
Texas Burger
Edible Arrangements
La Bodega Restaurant
Coca-Cola
Dickeys' Barbecue Pit
Rockin' Q Smokehouse
Baskin Robbins
Kwik Eats
Texas Roadhouse
Ector ISD Culinary
Osaka Japanese Steak House
The Egg & I
The event begins with a preview party at 5:30 p.m. and general admission at 6:30 p.m.. Oct. 17 at CAF Main Hangar, 9600 Wright Drive. Tickets are $35 and available online.
Helping of Food
Hurricane Harvey is on the minds of many folks, particularly Outlaw Cafe and Mac's BBQ and Catering.
Mac's posted a photo on its Facebook page this week of staff and its food trailer in Rockport. They served meals and water to both those in need and responders.
Chef Darren Reed and his Outlaw Cafe collected supplies for the victims of Hurricane Harvey. the diner took donations of non-perishable items, water, clothing, blankets, hygiene products, diapers this past Wednesday and Thursday from and began their journey to Houston Friday morning.
On the Menu
Hight is also doing his part with relief efforts by hosting a Bayou Benefit dinner on Wednesday at Opal's Table. We reported the event here. Proceeds from the dinner will go to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Harvey relief.
He posted a simple menu that he describes as Houston-inspired. Being from Houston, that puts Hight right in his element.
This is the menu for Bayou Benefit:
Gulf Ceviche
Roasted duck pho
Chicken Tikka Masala
BBQ pulled Pork pot stickers
Bacon-wrapped filet with Gulf shrimp
Bananas Foster
Chocolate cake
Wine provided by Pioneer Wine and Spirits will be included in the meal.
Reservations are $100 per person and can be made at opalstable.com.
LaVenture in Hotel Saint George has announced a rotating three-course prix fixe menu for dinner. The newest Marfa restaurant destination is open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday from 5 to 6:15 p.m. The meal is centered on comfort food classics with seasonal elements.
Walk-ins are welcome or reservations can be made online. On Wednesdays, the restauarant offers half-price wines by the bottle.
Here are the selections:
Starter
Daily soup or Chef's green salad
Entree
Wednesday: Lasagna Bolognese with pork Ragu, ricotta and mozzarella cheese
Thursday: Fried chicken, buttermilk biscuit, mashed potatoes, pepper cream gravy, cole slaw
Friday: Trout Amandine, green beans, brown butter sauce
Saturday: Grilled flat iron steak, roasted Yukon potatoes, grilled Romano beans, buttermilk dill dressing
Sunday: Chef Stephen's meatloaf, mashed potatoes, sauteed zucchini and onions
Dessert
Brownie ice cream sundae or seasonal fruit crisp with vanilla ice cream
The restaurant will also host its first Beer Sessions dinner. LaVenture's Chef Allison Jenkins has created a menu that pairs with five craft beers by El Paso's DeadBeach Brewery. Seating is limited. Reservations are $50 per person and can be made by emailing jeff@marfasaintgeorge.com or calling 432-729-3701.
The Beer Sessions menu:
First
Berry white-raspberry honey saison
Monte Cristo with saison honey mustard, raspberry jam
Potato chips
Second
Poppin Pils: Czech-style pilsner
Pilsner steamed mussels
House fries with lemon aioli
Third
Rye Me A River:Imperial Rye IPA
Pork schnitzel
Mustard spaetzle, caraway-braised cabbage
Fourth
Chuco Cabra Black IPA
Smoked short rib mac and cheese
Gruyere and crispy onions
Dessert
Abuela Stout: Chocolate imperial stout
Pasilla chile stout cake
Salted caramel ice cream, candied pumpkin seeds, chocolate sauce
Upcoming food, drink and restaurant events
Saturday | Midland Downtown Farmers Market. The market is open Saturdays through Oct. 28. 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at Museum of the Southwest, 1705 W. Missouri Ave.
Monday | The 60th Annual Labor Day Picnic by the Permian Basin of West Texas Central Labor Union. Rep. Mike Conaway will speak at noon. Open to the public. 11:30 a.m. at Slator Community Center, 1001 W. 38th St., Odessa. Free.
Wednesday | Bayou Benefit , a dining event benefiting American Red Cross. 7 p.m. at Opal's Table, 223 W. Wall St. $100. opalstable.com.
Wednesday | Trivia Game Night, 7 p.m. Wednesdays at True Texas BBQ, 5407 Andrews Hwy. Free.
Sept. 11 | Beer Sessions with El Paso's Deadbeach Brewery. The dining event will offer five courses with five craft beer pairings. 6 p.m. at Hotel Saint George in the Laventure, 105 S. Highland Ave., Marfa. $50. Reservations can be made by emailing jeff@marfasaintgeorge.com or by calilng 432-729-3701.
Sept. 12 | Second Tuesday Salon is a free lunchtime concert series. Brown bag lunches or purchase from the local food truck onsite beginning at 11:30 a.m. Open to the public. Noon at The Rose Building, 415 N. Grant Ave., Odessa. Free. odessaarts.org.
Sept. 12 | Hunger Action Month: West Texas Food Bank FUNdraiser Night. Ten percent of sales will go toward West Texas Food Bank. 5-9 p.m. at True Texas BBQ, 5407 Andrews Hwy.
Sept. 16 | Midland Centennial Masonic Lodge 29th Annual Fish Fry will offer a fish and steak finger dinner. Meals can be dine-in or carry out. The event benefits the lodge with ongoing maintenance of the Midland Masonic Temple. 5- 8 p.m. Sept. 16 at American Legion, 501 Veterans Airpark Lane. $12 adults, $6 children.
Sept. 18 | Dining in the Dark Cocktail Party. Guests will have the option of wearing blindfolds or vision-impairment simulation glasses to enjoy hand-crafted cocktail and appetizers by the Blue Door and Garlic Press. The event will also feature a silent auction, wince cork pull and benefits the Recording Library of West Texas. 6 p.m. at The Blue Door, 4610 N. Garfield St. $150 per reservation.. 21 and older only. Recordinglibrary.org.
Sept. 28 | Oktoberfest: The Beer, Sausage and Pretzel Festival, 6 p.m. at 303 W. Wall St. 21 and older. doyourcity.us.
Sept. 28 | Prom Night: A 1950s Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre. The event is Palmer Drug Abuse Program's annual fundraiser. 6:30 p.m. at Green Tree Country Club, 4900 Green Tree Blvd. $75. eventbrite.com.
Sept 30 | Midland Downtown Farmers Market: Community Swap Party. The market is open Saturdays through Oct. 28. 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at Museum of the Southwest, 1705 W. Missouri Ave.
Sept. 30 | Second Annual Tap into Downtown Odessa wine and craft beer tasting. 6 p.m. in downtown Odessa, 119 W. 4th St.
Oct. 7 | Midland Downtown Farmers Market celebrates National Farmers Day. The market is open Saturdays through Oct. 28. 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at Museum of the Southwest, 1705 W. Missouri Ave.
Oct. 7 | Post-Symphony Mixer by the MOSC Symphony Young Professionals. 9 p.m. at Proof, 7270 E. Highway 191, Odessa.
Oct. 10 | Second Tuesday Salon is a free lunchtime concert series. Brown bag lunches or purchase from the local food truck onsite beginning at 11:30 a.m. Open to the public. Noon at The Rose Building, 415 N. Grant Ave., Odessa. Free. odessaarts.org.
Nov. 9 | Second Annual Divas and Desserts: Rock of Ages benefiting Permian Playhouse. Local talent will sing the hits of the '80s followed by appetizers and dessert bar. 7 p.m. at CAF Airpower Museum, 9600 Wright Drive. Permianplayhouse.com.
DECATUR Lindsay Tipsword had no intention of becoming a teacher when she went to college.
The 2011 graduate of LSA High School attended Richland Community College and Millikin University and loved her English and history classes. Her LSA class was the first to go through their entire elementary and high school years in the school's Mound Road location, which opened in 1998.
Teaching was always something I said I'd never do, Tipsword said with a laugh. I went to college and I was interested in a lot of stuff. I was definitely a liberal arts sort of girl. I had anxiety issues and took off a semester and went to Richland, and while I was there, I didn't know what to do and where I was going to go with all of that.
"I went on a retreat with a bunch of junior high kids, and I just prayed about it and God definitely called me to it," she added. "That was one of the few times I felt God really spoke to me.
She assumed there was no chance of getting a job at LSA, because the staff tends to stay long term. But a position did open, teaching alongside one of her former teachers, Jeff Salefski, who is an alumnus as well. She still calls him Mr. S.
I got into teaching because of the influences I had here at the LSA, Salefski said. Ms. (Carol) Reeves, Ms. (Jan) Bryant, and Mr. (Ted) Voelker just showed me that teaching was more than just talking about a particular subject area, but it was building relationships with students and working together.
"I never really planned to teach at the LSA, but when the opportunity came about I jumped at the chance to be able to give back to the school that really made me.
"Working with Lindsay is going to be great," he said. "She was always an awesome student, and I know she will make an awesome teacher. I think Im looking forward to learning/mentoring from her has much as I hope shes looking forward to learning/mentoring from me.
One of the reasons Tipsword loves teaching, she said, is that she feels very strongly that young people need to learn to think critically and keep their emotions in check when dealing with the charged social and political atmosphere of these times, she said.
At the same time, their generation, which is also her own, is accused of being too wrapped up in themselves and not caring about anyone else, she said.
It's an interesting dynamic, because I'm a millennial teaching millennials, Tipsword said. It's important for me to inspire them to not fit the stereotype of being apathetic. We talk about that a lot in class."
And whatever they believe, she added. " ... you need to back it up with facts. You can't espouse something for no reason.
She brings up topics for the current events class, but she asks them to suggest topics, too. She's the teacher, but they discuss things as a group and she encourages them to disagree with her and with each other. She keeps her political views under wraps, though, and only tries to spark discussion through what she says. In her world and United States history classes, the atmosphere is a bit more formal.
I think if I want to say I want to make an impact, teaching isn't going to make me a lot of money, but it's the greatest impact I can give with my life, Tipsword said. Just working with (students) every day, they're funny, they jazz me up.
I get upset about things in the world, especially with things going on right now, like Charlottesville (Virginia)," she continued. "We've been talking a lot about that. Things kind of eat at me sometimes, and I feel like there's so much hate, but they led a 30-minute discussion about it. They talked to each other about it.
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
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Its been clear for decades that the way Illinois funds its public schools has been wrong-headed. But finding a solution has eluded everyone who has tried. Until now.
Gov. Jim Edgar thoroughly defeated a Democratic rival in 1994 who championed a tax swap idea. The plan Dawn Clark Netsch backed wouldve traded an income tax hike for local property tax reductions and an overall funding increase to local schools. For years, property taxes had been rising while the states share of overall education funding had plummeted. But Edgar focused on the income tax hike in Netschs plan and pummeled her at the polls.
Well into his second term, Edgar unveiled his own school funding plan, which turned out to be eerily similar to Netschs proposal. His proposal was backed by Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who had spoken briefly during the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention in favor of school funding reform. The plan was killed by Senate President Pate Philip, a suburban Republican who pointed out that the voters had already thoroughly rejected Netschs proposal.
Philip also strongly opposed a last-minute provision to help Chicago Public Schools pay for its teacher pensions. The state picks up all the employer and legacy costs of teacher pensions for the suburbs and Downstate, but not Chicago. And that has been a bone of contention for years.
James Meeks, an African-American minister of a huge congregation on Chicagos South was the next to take up the mantle. Meeks was elected to the Illinois Senate as an independent in 2002 and he made education funding reform his top priority. Meeks threatened to run as an independent candidate for governor in 2006 if incumbent Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich didnt come up with his own plan.
Blagojevich convinced Meeks to get out of the race by unveiling a proposal that vastly increased school funding by privatizing the lottery. But after Blagojevich was safely reelected, he double-crossed Meeks and didnt follow through.
Meeks spent the next few years attempting to pass a huge tax hike package, mainly to help public schools. But it stalled when Speaker Madigan wouldnt put his House majority at risk.
Along the way, Meeks attempted to organize a boycott of underfunded Chicago Public Schools and brought busloads of kids to suburban Winnetka in a failed bid to enroll them in the top-ranked New Trier High School. He also championed the idea of using tax money to help kids enroll in private schools.
It turns out that a Winnetka resident at the time, Bruce Rauner, wound up being elected governor a few years later. Meeks backed Rauner in the 2014 campaign and Rauner, a school choice champion, appointed Meeks chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education.
At the time of the 2014 election, state Sen. Andy Manar, a Democrat from the tiny southern Illinois town of Bunker Hill, had already been working on the school funding problem. Manar had quit his job as Senate President John Cullertons chief of staff to run for the legislature in 2012, so he had far more skills and experience than the typical freshman.
After he was inaugurated, Gov. Rauner hired an education funding reform point person, Beth Purvis, and put her in charge of a study commission that actually wanted to get something done this time.
The next two and a half years was filled with excruciating political infighting that made even the most hardened insiders blanche. It looked like it would all go off the rails more times than I could count. And it really almost did when the governor used his amendatory veto powers in July on a bill passed by both the House and Senate in May.
Rauner constantly derided that bill as a Chicago bailout. But his amendatory veto introduced new concepts that hadnt been discussed by his commission and, therefore, brought opponents out of the woodwork.
Faced with yet another revolt by some of the same legislative Republicans who overrode his vetoes of the state budget and income tax hike, Rauner was finally convinced to pare back his excessive demands.
Rauner did win a school choice component -- a five-year income tax credit for donations to private and out-of-district public school tuition scholarship funds that Chairman Meeks backed. But he also ended up signing a bill that provided more money for Chicago Public Schools than the one he vetoed, including, finally, some significant state cash for Chicago teacher pensions, a proposal he vetoed almost two years ago.
Without Manar, Purvis and Meeks and those who preceded them, none of this would've happened. And now we can move on to the next Illinois crisis.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office says someone abandoned several horses and other animals at a property on the Lake County side of DeLand, by leaving them on someone else's property.
8 horses, 2 ponies, 3 dogs found on someone else's property
Animals were not in "prime condition"
Lake Animal Shelter hopes to put horses up for adoption
"As far a we know, the horses were abandoned and so the owner just stopped caring for them and left them on someone else's property," said Whitney Boylston, the Lake County Animal Shelter manager.
Officials say they removed eight horses, two ponies and three dogs.
"They were a little on the thin side. They definitely needed extra care and attention, they were not in prime condition," said Boylston.
Boylston said it's difficult for them to care for livestock and are grateful for donations like the one they got on Friday of bales of hay.
Misfit Animal Rescue says they raised more than $500 and used that money to buy a shade tarp, feed and hay.
"The community here in Lake County has just been overwhelming in trying to come out for this and Houston and everything else. It's been amazing," said Kent Weber with Misfit Animal Rescue.
Shelter officials hope to put the horses up for adoption in the next couple of weeks. Check with the shelter if you wish to help.
Authorities say they haven't heard anything from the owner. No charges will be filed.
MINNEAPOLIS Xcel Energy on Friday announced a donation of $100,000 to the American Red Cross to assist with Hurricane Harvey relief and recovery efforts. The company is making the contribution through the Xcel Energy Foundation, a non-profit organization.
The heartbreaking devastation has moved all of us. Lives have been lost, communities destroyed and families displaced. At times like this, its important to lend a hand to our neighbors on the Gulf Coast, said Ben Fowke, Xcel Energy chairman, president and CEO. The American Red Cross is working around the clock to help people in need, and we are pleased to make a contribution to these essential relief efforts.
MERIDEN A surveyor contracted by Suzio York Hill Trap Rock Quarry Co. has placed dozens of wooden stakes near the trail and wooded area atop the ridge of Chauncey Peak, however, Suzio officials say the excavation of the mountaintop is years away.
The Suzio companys survey of the property began prior to the citys $12,000 land survey last year, however, the stakes were placed in the ground within the last several months, said quarry co-owner Leonardo Suzio.
He declined to name the company hired for the survey, but noted the surveyor was in communication with the citys surveyor.
Suzio assured there were not immediate plans to begin mining the peak. Excavation is currently taking place near Westfield Road.
It would be several years, I would think, before we would get even close to that area, Suzio said.
The stakes appear to run from the southern cliffs through a wooded area and along the trail near the west peak of the mountain, with stakes being placed within a few feet of the trail in some places. A 1963 deed in city land records prohibits mining within 50 feet of Chauncey Peak along the ridge line.
We did our survey just to assure that we were not within the 50-foot buffer, Suzio said.
The company has an agreement with the Connecticut Forest & Park Association to allow access to the trail, which is one of the most popular hiking spots on the Mattabessett Trail according to Clare Cain, the associations trails stewardship director. The once steep trail from Giuffrida Park up to Chauncey Peak was relocated last year to wind up the mountain with less of an extreme slope.
Cain said she was not aware of the stakes being placed on the top of the mountain.
Negotiations on preserving the popular hiking spot ceased early this year with the death of community leader Phil Ashton, who had spearheaded talks between the Meriden Land Trust and the Suzios. While former Meriden City Manager Roger Kemp said he would be continuing negotiations, as of July he had yet to meet with company owners. Kemp could not be reached for comment Friday.
Suzio York Hill has been involved in several major construction projects statewide, including the construction of the recently opened Pauli Murray College and Benjamin Franklin College at Yale Universitys campus, which increased undergraduate enrollment at the school by 15 percent. The company is finishing up work on Fedexs new distribution Center in Middletown and was also contracted to do work on a new science center planned for Yales campus.
The projects have not had an impact on the rate of excavation, Suzio said.
The rate is pretty consistent, but there were some big jobs so they do take a lot of stone, Suzio said.
While Cain said she hoped the trail could remain a place for hikers to explore, she noted the associations agreement with the Suzios includes a clause allowing for termination.
Its not a binding agreement, Cain said. We want to see the trail stay there. Its one of our most scenic and iconic places on the trail so we look forward to working with the landowner to make sure the trail stays up there, but it is private property so thats part of the deal.
ltauss@record-journal.com 203-317-2231 Twitter: @LeighTaussRJ-
New Braunfels, TX (78130)
Today
Cloudy skies early, then off and on rain showers overnight. Low around 45F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..
Tonight
Cloudy skies early, then off and on rain showers overnight. Low around 45F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
WALLINGFORD Choate Rosemary Hall is adopting new sexual misconduct policies and procedures following an investigation released in April that documented a history of sexual misconduct by former faculty members at the private school.
The changes are based on recommendations by RAINN, an anti-sexual violence group Choate hired last year to review its policies.
Among the changes are new training for students and faculty, updates to the schools sexual misconduct policy, a new sexual misconduct policy advisory committee, and more rigorous background checks for faculty. A new 26-page sexual misconduct policy published by Choate establishes protocols for responding to and investigating reports of sexual misconduct.
Choate also created a new wellness coordinator position, which will be responsible for overseeing sexual misconduct prevention and response efforts, according to the schools website.
The changes were posted to Choates website recently and headmaster Alex Curtis is expected to announce them to the community this coming week.
Choate has taken numerous steps to be at the forefront of the highest possible standard of care in preventing and addressing sexual misconduct and this important work is ongoing, school spokeswoman Lorraine Connelly said in a statement.
An investigation conducted by Nancy Kestenbaum, an independent investigator hired by Choate, named 12 former faculty members who engaged in sexual misconduct with students.
Kestenbaum wrote that when reports of sexual misconduct were substantiated by the Choate administration, sexual misconduct matters were handled internally and quietly. In some cases, teachers accused of abuse went on to teach at other schools and received recommendations from Choate administrators.
Choate is implementing new training in mandated reporting for all faculty. Training in sexual misconduct and consent will also be required for all students.
After the report was released in April, the school received several new allegations of misconduct made by former students against both former and current faculty members. The school hired Connecticut-based law firm Day Pitney to investigate these claims, with a mandate to prioritize any reports concerning current faculty members, Connelly said.
Day Pitney informed the school last week that it has conducted its investigation into allegations against current faculty and based on evidence developed to date it has found no basis to take any action against any current faculty member.
Day Pitney is continuing to follow up on investigations of former faculty members, a school representative said.
mzabierek@record-journal.com 203-317-2279 Twitter: @MatthewZabierek
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A Berkeley law that makes public displays of the female breast illegal could be abolished this month if a city councilman gets his way.
The nudity ordinance as it stands makes it a misdemeanor or infraction for a woman to expose any portion of the breast at or below the areola similar to municipal codes across the country. Under the new proposal, anyone could go topless in the city without regard to gender.
Kriss Worthington, the progressive councilman who has represented a student-heavy district near UC Berkeley for two decades, said the indecent exposure law is antiquated and sexist. He said it objectifies women and creates confusion for transgender individuals as well.
Worthingtons proposal, which will be considered at the Sept. 12 City Council meeting, referenced an exception in the law for breastfeeding to make his point.
If a woman's nipples are fit to be seen by the most innocent and impressionable portion of the population, babies and toddlers, then it stands to reason that nipples are not inherently sexual and are fit to be seen by the rest of the population, if that woman so chooses, the proposed ordinance reads.
Despite a free the nipple equality campaign that gained traction in recent years, there are prohibitions against topless women just about everywhere in the Bay Area.
Oaklands immoral dress law says that women cannot wear any type of clothing so that any portion of such part of the breast may be observed. San Jose bars anything less than completely and opaquely covered female breasts. Women cannot be topless in San Francisco parks without advance permission from city authorities.
Worthington said that he has long thought that Berkeleys law is sexist, and that the current composition of the City Council, with a progressive majority and mayor, could finally do something about it.
I dont think theres a rational public policy to justify having the double standard for men and women, he said. Theres a lot of male fear of women and womens bodies, and we shouldnt be part of that.
Adjusting the citys nudity law is not a giant, major issue, he added, but a simple step in the direction of gender equality.
If passed by City Council, the change could go into effect as early as October.
You dont have to venture far for a change of scenery and some attractive camping sites especially when the leaves turn and temperatures drop in the fall.
Government Canyon State Natural Area: The 12,000-acre area park offer many activities from biking, geocaching, hiking, picnicking, trail running, ranger programs, regularly scheduled guided hikes and scheduled programs (Hike the Canyon, Explore the Canyon and Family Fun). Overnight camping on Fridays and Saturdays (additional camping nights available on many holidays). The park has the only known dinosaur footprints on public land in Bexar County. Gates open from 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Monday, closed on Tuesday-Thursday. 210-688-9055, 1-800-792-1112, reservations 512-389-8900 or make reservation online at texas.reserveworld.com; 12861 Galm Road, San Antonio.
Guadalupe River State Park: 1,900 acres just north of San Antonio off Texas 46 on the Guadalupe River. Visitors come to fish, canoe, swim and tube on the Guadalupe River, but the park offers camping with about 100 campsites, picnicking, hiking and a 5.3 mile-equestrian trail that is also open to mountain biking. Fishing gear is available, on loan, for use in the park. Open daily. Gates open 8 a.m.-10 p.m., 830-438-2656, reservations 512-389-8900 or make reservation online at texas.reserveworld.com; 3350 Park Road 31, Spring Branch.
Hill Country State Natural Area: 5,300 acres southwest of Bandera provides a secluded retreat with rocky hills, oak groves, grassy valleys and canyons and spring-fed streams. A variety of camp sites ranging from 40 primitive to back-country camping are available. Other park activies include backpacking, equestrian trails, fishing, hiking, mountain biking and swimming. Visitors are encouraged to bring their own drinking water. Open daily. 830-796-441, reservations 512-389-8900 or make reservation online at texas.reserveworld.com; 10600 Bandera Creek Road, Bandera.
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Garner State Park: North of Uvalde, visitors may swim, tube or paddle boat on the 2.8 miles of the Frio River that wind through the parks 1,774 acres. Camping is allowed with approximately 375 campsites and shelters. Other activities include bird-watching, hiking, picnicking and dancing at the parks concession building. Open daily 8 a.m.-10 p.m. 830-232-6132, reservations 512-389-8900 or make reservation online at texas.reserveworld.com; 234 RR 1050, Concan.
Enchanted Rock State Natural Area: One of the most visited parks in the state park system, the 1,640-acre park is known for the massive pink granite dome rising above Central Texas. Visitors are offered 11 miles of hiking trails, rock climbing, picnicking, bird watching and stargazing. Campers may choose 35 walk-in campsites and 20 primitive backpack campsites. Open daily 8 a.m.-10 p.m. 830-685-3636, reservations 512-389-8900 or make reservation online at texas.reserveworld.com; 16710 Ranch Road 965, Fredericksburg.
Blanco State Park: One of the smaller state parks at 104.6 acres, its only an hour away from San Antonio. Visitors may go boating, tubing, swimming or fishing on the one-mile stretch of the spring-fed Blanco River that hugs the park. Camping (only 29 campsites are available all with power and water), hiking, geocache and wildlife watching are popular park activities. Fishing gear is available on loan for park use. Open daily. 830-833-4333, reservations 512-389-8900 or make reservation online at texas.reserveworld.com; 101 Park Road 23, Blanco.
Lost Maples State Natural Area: The park stretches across 2,174 acres two hours northwest of San Antonio. Visitors can birdwatch, explore more than 10 miles of trails and stay at the 30 camp sites with water and electricity or backpack to the six primitive campsites. Fishing in the Sabinal River or at Can Creek can be done without a license. Please note cellphone reception in not available in the Natural Area. Open daily. 830-966-3413, reservations 512-389-8900 or make reservation online at texas.reserveworld.com; 37221 F.M. 187, Vanderpool.
Choke Canyon State Park: Two units (South Shore and Calliham) make up the park with Calliham offering boating, hiking, fishing, a lake beach, camp sites, shelters with air conditioning and group facilities. The South Shore Unit is a day-use only park. Located on the 26,000-acre Choke Canyon Reservoir. Open 6-a.m.-10 p.m. daily (except during public hunts). The Calliham Unit is located 12 miles west of Three Rivers on Texas 72 to Tilden. 361-786-3868, reservations 512-389-8900 or make reservation online at texas.reserveworld.com.
Goliad State Park & Historic Site: The park complex has a refurnished restoration of the Spanish colonial era mission of Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga, reconstructed in the 1930s. Activities include camping, picnicking, hiking, fishing and nature study. Open daily (except for Christmas Day) 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; 361-645-3405, reservations 512-389-8900 or make reservation online at texas.reserveworld.com; 108 Park Road 6, Goliad.
Bastrop State Park: The 6,600-acre park (32 miles east of Austin) lets campers choose from a total of 126 walk-in, basic and standard camp sites, 54 RV hook-ups or stays in the 13 historic cabins available. Open daily. 512-321-2101, reservations 512-389-8900 or make reservation online at texas.reserveworld.com; 3005 Texas 21 E. (100 Park Road 1A), Bastrop.
Palmetto State Park: The park is an hour away from San Antonio and Austin. Water flows into the park from multiple sources (including the San Marcos River) that allows canoeing, fishing, swimming and tubing. Dwarf palmettos, the parks namesake, grow under the trees at the 270-acre site nothwest of Gonzales and southeast of Luling. Campers are offered 19 tent sites, 18 RV sites and a secluded group site that can house 100 people. Open daily (gate is locked only when the park is closed for emergencies). 830-672-3266, reservations 512-389-8900 or make reservation online at texas.reserveworld.com; 78 Park Road 11 South, Gonzales.
Pedernales Falls State Park: 30 miles west of Austin, the park (5,200 acres east of Johnson City) is set on the banks of the Pedernales River. Activities include birdwatching, camping, hiking, horse riding, mountain biking and picniking. On the river, you can fish, swim and go tubing. Campers may chose from 69 sites with water and power or a hike-in camp area (limited to four campers per site with a two-mile minimum hike to the campsite). Open daily. 830-868-7304, reservations 512-389-8900 or make reservation online at texas.reserveworld.com; 2585 Park Road 6026, Johnson City.
The Vardenis-Martakert highway, the second linking Artsakh and Armenia (after the Goris-Stepanakert roadway), was officially opened today, September 1.
The highway starts from Armenias Gegharkounik province and stretches via the Shahoumyan district of Artsakh to the Martakert district. Its 114.6 kilometer long and more than 10 meters wide in places, with some auxiliary facilities, including 17 renovated bridges of different sizes.
The Vardenis-Martakert roadway is the largest project implemented by Hayastan All-Armenian Fund during its 25 years of operation. The total cost of the project is around 17 billion AMD, of which 7,500,000 has been allocated by the government of Armenia, and 1,950,000,000, by the government of Artsakh. The rest was collected by Hayastan All-Armenian Fund during the 2013 and 2014 telethons, sponsored by the Armenian communities in the United States, Brazil, Italy, Sweden, Russia, Lebanon, Iran, Armenia and Artsakh.
Under the agreement between the Fund and the contracting companies, the latter assumed to provide warranty roadway service for the next five years.
According to the Funds press release, the new highway not only significantly reduces the time and space needed for going to the northern regions of Artsakh via Goris-Stepanakert highway, but also strengthens intercommunity ties, contributing to the economic development of adjacent communities, and "promotes tourism by enlivening the socio-economic life of the two republics. The road also gives us an opportunity to get acquainted with our historical and cultural monuments and to enjoy the beauty of Armenias land. "
Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who is on a working visit in Artsakh Republic, attended the highways opening ceremony.
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NEWTOWN Ever since Virginia Zimmerman started creating a 1,400-square-foot mural on Church Hill Road in May, she has been embraced by the community.
Drivers traveling under the railroad overpass, where her mural wraps around the concrete wall, honk and give her a thumbs-up as she paints. Some shout, Great job! or other encouragements as they speed by.
When the train rumbles on the tracks overhead, Zimmerman said the conductor blows the horn to say hello.
Ive had people bring me lunch, Ive had people stop and their children get out and give me flowers, Zimmerman said. (The mural) only says, Welcome to Newtown, but I think it touches their hearts and makes them feel good, and that was the idea.
The community has helped her finish the project, which was funded by grants from the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut in Danbury and the Newtown Cultural Arts Commission.
A local painter power washed the site and sent a crew to help, volunteers helped with priming, the Newtown Veterinary Specialists next door bring her water and let her use their power source and Newtown Color Center provided her with all the paint.
She has had help from her children, and her brother and sister-in-law came up from New York City a few times, Zimmerman said.
The final weekend of painting was also a collaborative effort.
On Saturday, Zimmermans friends from Parsons School of Design, Manny and Maria Morales, drove up from New Jersey to help with the finishing touches.
Zimmerman broke her shoulder and had surgery about a month ago. She had since been trying to finish the mural with her non-dominant, left hand before the end of the summer, when changing weather might delay the project.
This was really important to her to make sure she sees it through, no matter what, Manny said. You can see shes a tough cookie and nothing stops her, not even a broken shoulder.
When he heard about the surgery from Zimmermans husband, Manny said, he knew he wanted to come, not only to help, but to be part of the project.
What are friends for? he said. Its kind of cool to be able to help her out and be part of something that is very important to her, and as you can see by the people passing by, its definitely important to the town. So, its a win-win for everybody.
The mural, painted on both the sides of the overpass and the wall under the tracks, depicts a freight train, complete with reflective paint on the headlight.
Zimmerman said she consulted with experts at the Danbury Railroad Museum to create a historically accurate train, complete with Newtown symbols.
A rooster, the towns mascot, is painted on the front of the train above the years 1705 and 1711, when Newtown was settled and incorporated. Instead of a red N and white H for the New Haven railroad, Zimmerman painted a half-red, half-white N for Newtown.
On the wall under the overpass, a train car reads Welcome to Newtown in large, white letters.
For me, the train is very symbolic because freight trains are awesomely powerful, theyre indomitable, Zimmerman said. They bring towns what they need to survive, to prosper and to do well. Theyre incredibly strong and resilient, and for me thats the message I wanted to give the town."
Next year, Zimmerman said, she plans to paint the other side of the overpass. The final concrete wall will extend the train with boxcars for each of the towns four communities.
The finished product will be reflect the purpose of the grant, which was to get the community involved and make a positive difference in town, Zimmerman said. She hopes the mural will lift the spirits of residents and visitors as they drive by.
Just by the three simple words ... if youve never been here before, welcome to our town, she said. If you live here, and youre on your way home youre home. Youve made your place.
aquinn@newstimes.com
The Russian government almost had one more thing to deal with on top of U.S. sanctions: a ticket from Bay Area air regulators.
As social media exploded with photos of smoke billowing from the chimney of the Russian consulate in San Francisco on Friday afternoon, a day after the Trump administration ordered it closed, a local air inspector headed to the embassy in the Cow Hollow neighborhood to see if any pollution rules were being broken.
It didnt help that the Bay Area Air Quality Management District had declared a Spare the Air Day on Friday, meaning air quality was being compromised by heat and wildfire smoke. District officials were urging people to do what they could to reduce pollution.
What the hell is the Russian consulate burning? Secrets to making the best vodka? wrote Twitter user Akit, who described himself as a foul-mouthed San Francisco native.
Others on social media figured the reason for the fire was more sinister.
Where theres smoke, theres fire and burning #russianconsulate documents related to Trump, Clinton or both! wrote Nathan Yates on Twitter.
Some had fun with the incident.
The Russians have chosen a new pope, wrote T. Becket Adams at the Washington Examiner.
While consulate officials wouldnt say why they were having a fire, it clearly wasnt for heat on a day that San Francisco broke temperature records a high of 106 degrees.
There has long been suspicion that those working at the consulate may be spies and have sensitive information on record.
As for air pollution, by the time the inspector arrived, the smoke had stopped coming out of the chimney. The inspector had planned to test the density of the smoke to see if was excessive, according to the air district. Although the district discourages fires, especially on Spare the Air Days, there is no law banning them in the summertime.
We did not issue a citation today, said Kristine Roselius, spokeswoman for the district. But we will be watching to see if the smoke kicks up again.
Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander
On June 3, 2014, Attorney General Eric Holder restarted a long-dormant domestic terrorism task force created after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. A former Ku Klux Klan leader had just murdered three people near a Jewish Community Center in a Kansas City suburb and yelled "Heil Hitler" as police took him into custody.
For too long, Holder said, the federal government had narrowly focused on Islamist threats and had lost sight of the "continued danger we face" from violent far-right extremists.
But three years later, it is unclear what, if anything the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee has done, despite expectations that its reanimation would better focus efforts throughout the Justice Department to disrupt and detect plots in a more centralized way, as was already being done by the department and FBI when it came to hunting Islamist terrorists.
As President Donald Trump continues to suffer political backlash for his response to the deadly Charlottesville, Virginia, protests led by white supremacists, analysts who follow far-right groups say generations of neglect by multiple administrations has allowed them to proliferate and strengthen.
"The federal government has taken their eye off the ball, and it has allowed the far right to fester and grow for decades," said Heidi Beirich, who leads the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project and runs its Hatewatch blog. "They are a real threat that has been underestimated."
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, the domestic terrorism task force was due to convene for a regular meeting. It never happened, and the group remained dormant for more than a decade.
The 9/11 attacks were transformative for the federal government, nowhere more so than at the Justice Department and the FBI. The agencies made counterterrorism their chief concern, pouring billions of dollars into the effort to sniff out terrorist plots before they could be executed.
The FBI's aggressive and preventive posture meant terrorism dominated the Justice Department's agenda, but when they talked about plots, officials were focused on those inspired by radical Islamist ideologies, not anti-government or hate groups.
But far-right violence remained a significant issue. Since 9/11, there have been 95 deaths in the United States linked to Islamist militant violence, while 68 people have died at the hands of the far right during the same time, according to the nonpartisan think tank New America.
Just months before 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed and 19 others were injured in Charlottesville, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint intelligence bulletin that said white supremacists "were responsible for 49 homicides in 26 attacks from 2000 to 2016 . . . more than any other domestic extremist movement."
Federal authorities are also dealing with an emerging problem from an increasingly confrontational and sometimes violent leftist extremist group known as antifa. Homeland Security officials said members of the loosely organized group are "anti-fascist, anti-government extremists." And their membership and public demonstrations have spiked in recent months in response to activities organized by violent white supremacists, such as the Charlottesville rally.
But most of the money and manpower to combat terrorism -- even under the Obama administration after Holder warned of the danger of far-right extremism -- has centered on preventing threats posed by Islamist extremists.
"They never really focused on neo-Nazis and the far right," said Seamus Hughes, a former lead staffer at the National Counterterrorism Center and deputy director at George Washington University's program on extremism. "The Obama administration was very good at messaging, but if you actually looked at their programs, it was always a secondary thought."
Vanita Gupta, who served as principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's civil rights division under Holder, was less critical, saying that while there were a number of efforts to confront violent extremism and white supremacy in the Obama administration, "even then, more could have been done."
The issue also became ensnared in the country's increasingly partisan politics.
In 2009, for instance, a senior analyst at the Department of Homeland Security wrote a report warning that the election of a black president, the financial crisis and the stock market crash were fueling a resurgence of right-wing extremist activities. But the report was heavily criticized as an attack on conservative ideologies. After 20 conservative groups sponsored ads calling for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's dismissal, she said it was disseminated without regular review and apologized to the American Legion for the report's warning that veterans could be targeted by militias for recruitment.
The six-person unit that tracked domestic terrorism groups was dissolved months later.
"They took us off the organizational chart," said Daryl Johnson, who wrote the report. "We were all reassigned to regional teams, looking at al-Qaida threats and Islamic extremism."
Even after deadly white supremacist violence, the label of "terrorist" is more rhetorical than legal. When Frazier Glenn Cross, 73, a former leader of the White Patriot Party, in 2014 shot and killed a 14-year-old Eagle Scout and his grandfather in the parking lot at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City before gunning down a woman at the Village Shalom retirement community nearby, he was charged with capital murder, three counts of attempted murder, and assault and weapons charges.
Bringing Cross up on terrorism charges was not a real option. Federal statutes are generally written to prosecute violence inspired by international terrorist groups, not domestic extremists.
The Justice Department's National Security Division drafted legislation to change that after Holder reactivated the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee in the wake of Cross's actions. The committee endorsed the measure, two members said, but no members of Congress were identified to sponsor it. Under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, there has been no new move to resurrect the proposal.
Legal experts say the gap in the law presents a twofold problem: It perpetuates the uneven way the federal government treats terrorists based on their ideologies, and it allows violent criminals influenced by far-right ideologies to avoid the stigma of being labeled terrorists.
Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said criticism of the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee is not valid, despite its lack of work product, because it is "an internal deliberative body, so its work is not public." Hornbuckle said the committee is a "forum for information-sharing among DOJ components and other federal departments and agencies."
Some members of Congress are also expressing concern about the government's failure to address the rising violence coming from right-wing extremists. They, too, are having a difficult time getting answers.
For the fifth time in three years, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, and other Democratic members of the House Homeland Security Committee have asked for a hearing exclusively focused on the terror threat posed by right-wing extremists. Each time, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the chairman of the committee, has turned them down.
"There is a clear increase in activity by right-wing organizations in this country," said Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the committee. "We are coming up on the 12th anniversary of doing annual hearings on terrorism since 9/11, but we only hear about Muslim terrorism in the country."
In response to Thompson and other Democrats' requests, McCaul sent a letter, saying no special hearing will be scheduled but that a hearing about terror threats scheduled for Sept. 12 -- held annually since 9/11 -- could serve as a forum for any questions they want to ask about groups such as the ones that held the rally in Charlottesville.
"I strongly encourage Members of both parties to engage the witnesses on the dangers posed by domestic terrorists and other extremist groups," McCaul wrote.
Transcripts from the last four annual 9/11 hearings show one brief mention of threats from white supremacist extremists, while more than 10 hours of testimony and questions focused on threats from Islamist militant groups.
"The time to look at this is overdue," Thompson said. "We need to move beyond this reluctance to look at right-wing threats in this country."
- Julie Tate contributed to this report.
YANGON, Myanmar -- Hundreds have died in clashes between insurgents and security forces, a dramatic escalation of the Rohingya crisis that has haunted Myanmar's transition to democracy and tainted leader Aung San Suu Kyi's legacy.
The increasing death toll follows reports that tens of thousands more Rohingya Muslims have been displaced in the conflict.
In some of the worst fighting in decades, Myanmar's army says 370 fighters tied to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) have been killed since the group first moved on dozens of police posts in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 25. Fifteen members of Myanmar's security forces and civil service and 14 non-Muslim civilians died in the attacks and ensuing clashes.
Though it emerged only a year ago with origins in the diaspora, ARSA claims it fights for the more than 1 million stateless Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, also known as Burma. The government calls it a terrorist organization.
The Rohingya, most of whom reside in Rakhine state on the border with Bangladesh, are deeply unpopular in Myanmar, which is 90 percent Buddhist. The government insists they are immigrants from Bangladesh despite generational roots. Myanmar disputes the very term "Rohingya," preferring "Bengali" or "Muslims in Rakhine state."
A Rohingya activist and resident of Maungdaw -- one of three towns affected by the fighting -- who would only be identified as Anwar for safety reasons, said villages were emptying as security forces burned homes. The government says residents are torching their own property.
He dismissed army assertions that the bulk of the dead are ARSA fighters.
"All the people they killed are not ARSA members," he said. He added that the death toll was expected to rise.
Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since the Aug. 25 attack, monitors say, while more than 10,000 Buddhists have been internally displaced within the state. Hundreds of ethnic minorities have also fled.
Members of the rights monitor Fortify Rights are in Bangladesh speaking with Rohingya refugees.
"Right now villages are burning, people are being killed, residents are fleeing for their lives," Fortify Rights co-founder Matthew Smith said. "I will say it's shocking, and some of the survivors are devastated by what they have experienced, what they have seen."
Government officials say security forces are rescuing civilians and engaging militants.
Thousands of mostly Rohingya Muslim refugees trying to escape are stuck between the two countries, according to Lt. Col. Manzurul Hassan Khan, a Border Guards Bangladesh official.
"They are under the open sky," he said, adding that most are women and children.
Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency, said Saturday that estimates of arrival numbers have not been verified, but that a rough count by aid agencies on the ground is 60,000 since August 25.
For more than 30 years, Bangladesh has been a destination for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya seeking refuge. United Nations officials appealed to the Bangladeshi government to let new arrivals in.
Some died trying to get out of Myanmar. Bangladeshi officials have recovered the bodies of an estimated 42 Rohingya, mostly women and children, who drowned after their boats capsized during the journey, according to Cox's Bazar deputy police chief Afruzul Haque Tutul.
Reports have circulated that Burmese security forces fired on fleeing refugees, but the government denies the allegations.
"No, no, no, absolutely not," said Zaw Htay, spokesman for the office of Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de facto leader, who came to power last year after decades of military-backed rule.
"We are trying to control the situation and bring stability to the region," he said.
Critics say Suu Kyi has failed to stand up for the Rohingya, while defenders argue she is hamstrung by a still-powerful military, which ruled Myanmar for half a century.
But when it comes to Rakhine state, the government and the military seem to be speaking with one voice.
Most international aid workers left northern Rakhine state after the government highlighted that supplies from international aid groups, including USAID, had been found in raids on Rohingya fighter positions. The U.S. ambassador to Myanmar, Scot Marciel, called the implication that aid groups had supported ARSA "absurd."
First called Harakat Al-Yakin, or Faith Movement, ARSA emerged last year after raids on police posts in October killed nine. The following military operation resulted in nearly 90,000 Rohingya crossing into Bangladesh, allegations of possible crimes against humanity by Burmese security forces and a U.N. probe that Myanmar has blocked.
Though the region has experienced insurgencies since Myanmar became independent in 1948, the relationship between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists significantly deteriorated in 2012, just as the country was opening up to the outside world.
Intercommunal clashes killed hundreds and sent some 140,000 Rohingya to apartheidlike camps, where most remain today.
Myanmar's national security adviser said this week that the new insurgent group is intent on establishing an Islamic state in Rakhine, but members counter that they only want rights enjoyed by all citizens in Myanmar.
"Our status as a recognized ethnic group within Myanmar must be restored," a representative going by the name Abdullah told the website Asia Times this week.
The insurgents are crudely equipped, and the amount of public support they have is unclear. Raids have recovered small stockpiles of weapons, but videos of training sessions show only a few dozen scrawny and shabbily dressed fighters.
But the new burst of violence may rally broader support and will no doubt complicate efforts to find a way forward in Rakhine.
Days before the Aug. 25 attack, a commission led by former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan presented a report with advice on how to find a "peaceful, fair and prosperous future" for the people of the state.
The government said it would set up a committee to review the advice. Officials say that is still in the works but the timeline has clearly changed.
Tin Maung Shwe, a spokesman for the Rakhine state government, said that "this is different" than what happened on Oct. 9.
He said thousands of people had taken part in the offensive.
"This is a terrorist attack," he said. "They're waiting for when our guns jam, then they will attack with swords."
There are at least 477 teacher vacancies in Armenia, a country touted as having 100% literacy and where on September 1, the first day of school, the country celebrated Knowledge Day.
This data doesnt come from the Ministry of Education and Science, which says it has no exact teacher vacancy numbers, but from the countrys ten provincial administrations and various municipalities contacted by Hetq after the ministry failed to provide any numbers.
We say, at least 477 teacher vacancies because the education departments of Ararat and Armavir provinces and the Yerevan Municipality refused to provide their vacancy numbers.
The Ararat Provincial Administration referred Hetq to the Ministry of Educations website, while the Armavir Provincial Administration said it had no listed vacancies. The Yerevan Municipalitys listing of teacher openings isnt functioning.
Thus, the 477 number relates to the remaining eight provinces.
When a permanent teaching position opens at a public school in Armenia, the principal must post it in the official organ Education (Krtutyun) which then has to send it to the ministry for posting on its website.
Lori has the largest number of teacher vacancies, 220. Tavoush has 67, Syunik 62, Gegharkounik 50, Aragatzotn 34, Kotayk 29, Shirak 9, Vayots Dzor - 6.
What all this means is that teachers in some schools must assume a greater workload. A history teacher might have to also fill in for the missing English instructor, and a math instructor might be asked to teach biology.
85% of the 477 teacher vacancies are in rural schools. Most qualified applicants are not interested in moving to some remote village to work. Take the example of Shiraks Tzaghkout High School. A job opening for a Russian language teacher has been announced 25 times, but no one has applied. The position is now filled by someone with a psychology degree.
In Shiraks Getashen High School, a person with a physics degree is teaching math. The school hasnt been able to hire a mathematics teacher even after posting a vacancy announcement sixteen times since 2013.
A directive issued by the Minister of Education and Science in 2013 regarding qualifying exams for hiring teachers, says its not permissible for someone to teach a certain subject if they arent accredited in the subject, even if there is no winner for a certain vacancy.
Schools in remote mountainous communities and border villages can hire part-time qualified teachers to teach a subject if the vacancy isnt filled by the qualifying competition. They can also hire individuals on the verge of acquiring accreditation or qualifying colleges and universities.
We asked the provincial administration to provide us with data as to how many vacancies were being filled by those not accredited in the subject to be taught.
The data we received from the Lori, Shirak and Syunik administrations reveals that, for the most part, vacancies are being filled with teachers accredited in a related subject, and in a few cases, with teachers who have no connection at all to the subject. For example, history teachers teaching biology, or mathematics.
NORWALK The Extended Studies and Workforce Education program at Norwalk Community College is now offering a non-credit certificate program for new professions within the workforce.
Extended Studies will help students prepare for opportunities in new careers by awarding certificates in fast-growing fields such as health care, information technology, real estate, travel, small business startup and enterprise management.
By all accounts, the head nurse at the University of Utah Hospital's burn unit was professional and restrained when she told a Salt Lake City police detective he wasn't allowed to draw blood from a badly injured patient.
The detective didn't have a warrant, first off. And the patient wasn't conscious, so he couldn't give consent. Without that, the detective was barred from collecting blood samples - not just by hospital policy, but by basic constitutional law.
Still, Detective Jeff Payne insisted that he be let in to take the blood, saying the nurse would be arrested and charged if she refused.
Nurse Alex Wubbels politely stood her ground. She got her supervisor on the phone so Payne could hear the decision loud and clear. "Sir," said the supervisor, "you're making a huge mistake because you're threatening a nurse."
Payne snapped. He seized hold of the nurse, shoved her out of the building and cuffed her hands behind her back. A bewildered Wubbels screamed "help me" and "you're assaulting me" as the detective forced her into an unmarked car and accused her of interfering with an investigation.
The explosive July 26 afternoon encounter was captured on officers' body cameras and is now the subject of an internal investigation by the police department, as the Salt Lake City Tribune reported Thursday. The videos were released by the Tribune, the Deseret News and other local media.
On top of that, Wubbels was right. The U.S. Supreme Court has explicitly ruled that blood can only be drawn from drivers for probable cause, with a warrant.
Wubbels, who was not criminally charged, played the footage at a news conference Thursday with her attorney. They called on police to rethink their treatment of hospital workers and said they had not ruled out legal action.
"I just feel betrayed, I feel angry, I feel a lot of things," Wubbels said. "And I'm still confused."
Salt Lake police spokesman Sgt. Brandon Shearer told local media that Payne had been suspended from the department's blood draw unit but remained on active duty. Shearer said Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown had seen the video and called it "very alarming," according to the Deseret News.
It all started when a suspect speeding away from police in a pickup truck on a local highway smashed head-on into a truck driver, as local media reported. Medics sedated the truck driver, who was severely burned, and took him to the University of Utah Hospital. He arrived in a comatose state, according to the Deseret News. The suspect died in the crash.
A neighboring police department sent Payne, a trained police phlebotomist, to collect blood from the patient and check for illicit substances, as the Tribune reported. The goal was reportedly to protect the trucker, who was not suspected of a crime. His lieutenant ordered him to arrest Wubbels if she refused to let him draw a sample, according to the Tribune.
A 19-minute video from the body camera of a fellow officer shows the bitter argument that unfolded on the floor of the hospital's burn unit.
A group of hospital officials, security guards and nurses are seen pacing nervously in the ward. Payne can be seen standing in a doorway, arms folded over his black polo shirt, waiting as hospital officials talk on the phone.
"So why don't we just write a search warrant," the officer wearing the body camera says to Payne.
"They don't have PC," Payne responds, using the abbreviation for probable cause, which police must have to get a warrant for search and seizure. He adds that he plans to arrest the nurse if she doesn't allow him to draw blood. "I've never gone this far," he says.
After several minutes, Wubbels shows Payne and the other officer a printout of the hospital's policy on obtaining blood samples from patients. With her supervisor on speakerphone, she calmly tells them they can't proceed unless they have a warrant or patient consent, or if the patient is under arrest.
"The patient can't consent, he's told me repeatedly that he doesn't have a warrant, and the patient is not under arrest," she says. "So I'm just trying to do what I'm supposed to do, that's all."
"So I take it without those in place, I'm not going to get blood," Payne says.
Wubbels's supervisor chimes in on the speakerphone. "Why are you blaming the messenger," he asks Payne.
"She's the one that has told me no," the officer responds.
"Sir, you're making a huge mistake because you're threatening a nurse," Wubbels's supervisor says over the phone.
At that point, Payne seems to lose it.
He paces toward the nurse and tries to swat the phone out of her hand. "We're done here," he yells. He grabs Wubbels by the arms and shoves her through the automatic doors outside the building.
Wubbels screams. "Help! Help me! Stop! You're assaulting me! Stop! I've done nothing wrong! This is crazy!"
Payne presses her into a wall, pulls her arms behind her back and handcuffs her. Two hospital officials tell him to stop, that she's doing her job, but he ignores them.
"I can't believe this! What is happening?" Wubbels says through tears as the detective straps her into the front seat of his car.
Another officer arrives and tells her she should have allowed Payne to collect the samples he asked for. He says she obstructed justice and prevented Payne from doing his job.
"I'm also obligated to my patients," she tells the officer. "It's not up to me."
In Thursday's news conference, Wubbels's attorney Karra Porter said that Payne believed he was authorized to collect the blood under "implied consent," according to the Tribune. But Porter said "implied consent" law changed in Utah a decade ago. And in 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that warrantless blood tests were illegal. Porter called Wubbels's arrest unlawful.
"The law is well-established. And it's not what we were hearing in the video," she said. "I don't know what was driving this situation."
Wubbels has worked as a nurse at the hospital since 2009, according to the Tribune. She was previously an Alpine skier who competed under her maiden name in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics.
As a health-care worker, she said it was her job to keep her patients safe.
"A blood draw, it just gets thrown around like it's some simple thing," she said, according to the Deseret News. "But your blood is your blood. That's your property."
For now, Wubbels is not taking any legal action against police. But she's not ruling it out.
"I want to see people do the right thing first and I want to see this be a civil discourse," she said Thursday, according to the Deseret News. "If that's not something that's going to happen and there is refusal to acknowledge the need for growth and the need for re-education, then we will likely be forced to take that type of step. But people need to know that this is out there."
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https://youtu.be/hJPVglqR4yM
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About 10,000 to 12,000 Houston ISD students will likely be temporarily displaced from their storm-damaged schools and sent to other campuses, Superintendent Richard Carranza said Saturday.
Carranza said the plan remains for the district to start school on Sept. 11, with all students returning to campuses on that date. No decisions have been made on which students will be relocated, and to which schools they will be sent. Plans are being made to provide busing for those students.
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In the cool quiet of the early morning, long before the sun rose Friday over San Antonio, the statue of an unknown Confederate soldier was hoisted from its pedestal in Travis Park, lowered on a flatbed trailer and hauled off to storage along with two Civil War battle canons that had decorated the downtown block.
Unlike the removal of Confederate statues in other locations across the country, there were no organized protests when city crews took the Travis Park statue down about 2 a.m. Friday. A group of about eight people standing behind a police barricade started cheering loudly and yelled, Hey hey, ho ho, the racist statues got to go.
The removal of the 117-year-old statue, approved Thursday morning in a 10-1 vote by the City Council, marked a significant victory for grassroots activists and others whod fought for years to bring down the monument, which they said was a constant reminder of hatred, racism and the oppression of their ancestors
Mario Salas, a former councilman who had been a strong advocate for the monuments removal, called the council vote and subsequent removal a major accomplishment.
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Im still in a state of euphoria, Salas said Friday. It was a major accomplishment. It just left me breathless.
It was one of several recent victories he said, but the work is far from over.
He noted that already Bexar County has removed a plaque dedicated to the Confederacy, and this week, the North East Independent School Districts board of trustees voted unanimously to rename Robert E. Lee High School.
Salas, who said he was active in the Civil Rights Movement, said he was enthused to see so many active young people fighting for the removal of the Travis Park statue. He said research is under way to identify other symbols of racism in San Antonio.
During debate on the matter Thursday, Councilman Clayton Perry, the lone dissenting vote for removal, and Councilman Greg Brockhouse asked when the push by activists would stop.
Brockhouse, who decried that the council was sidestepping the prescribed process for handling such cases, said Friday that he ultimately voted his conscience on the removal but worried that the councils decision may have opened the body to a flood of requests that could create chaos.
In my comments (on the dais Thursday), I was trying to be very clear that it has to end, Brockhouse said, referring to the movement to remove symbols and names that memorialize a painful part of our history that many find offensive. This cannot continue in perpetuity when youre going down a list of everything you find offensive in the world.
The proposal to remove the statue was first initiated by council members Roberto Trevino and William Cruz Shaw, both of whom received slur-filled hate mail for their position.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Brandon Burkhart called Shaw a corrupted ingrate and castigated the council for voting Thursday days after Hurricane Harvey devastated portions of the Texas coast and unleashed historic flooding on Houston. Perry and Brockhouse also argued that the city should delay the vote until after relief efforts had subsided.
Burkhart who lists himself as vice president of the organization This Is Texas Freedom Force, a group that is protectors of all things Texasfighting for Texas & Texans (sic) rights alleged that by voting to remove the statue, the council caved to special interest projects that he described as a small group of racist (sic).
Don't get comfortable in your City Council seat though, we are coming to unseat you and your fellow Councilmen Trevino & the Mayor come hell or high water, Burkhart wrote.
Jonathan David Jones, an African-American grassroots activist who has offered testimony at council meetings about police reform and body cameras, said an amalgamation of activist groups in San Antonio are working together to fight for meaningful community change. And, he said, theyre not done.
The monument thing its a small thing to a lot of people, he said. To us, to our ancestors, its a big deal.
They can celebrate, he said, but soon they must return to fighting white supremacy and systemic racism, including issues like the temporarily halted Senate Bill 4, the anti-sanctuary cities bill that was supposed to take effect Friday.
Councilwoman Ana Sandoval said the work to bring down the statue and place it in the appropriate historical context will be for naught if the council doesnt charge forward on other policies that address other systemic issues of inequity in San Antonio.
The statues removal would be little more than a gesture if we as City Council members fail to implement policies and make budget choices that bring opportunity to all of our communities, she said. We can start by ensuring the City invests in streets, sidewalks, and other infrastructure more equitably in San Antonios vulnerable and too-often-ignored neighborhoods.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the focus now must be on ensuring that the community moves forward.
Whether people are celebrating the removal of the statue or mourning it, now is the time to refocus our efforts on being good neighbors. There is big difference between glorifying the Confederacy and displaying the artifacts of history in a proper context, he said. We will have that conversation in the near future and can talk then about the differences between statues honoring men for their commitment to Democracy and the founding of our nation and those erected to honor men solely for their dedication to an immoral and indefensible cause.
Staff Writer Sarah Ravani contributed to this report.
jbaugh@express-news.net
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Although agencies in Orange County are still focused on rescuing people, Jefferson County has turned to getting necessities to its residents.
That includes a temporary fix of Beaumonts water system.
Right now, its about trying to return to normal as quickly as possible, said Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick. Were trying to work with federal and state officials to push the assets that are necessary to the points of distribution where people can come get ice, water, MREs, cots, blankets, pillows, cleaning supplies for getting back into their homes and getting them clean.
Exxon Mobil and two other companies Friday rigged a temporary pump from the Neches River to the city of Beaumonts water system, restoring water ranging from a drip to a flow to residents faucets, though officials cautioned that the water crisis is far from over.
When the city lost its water pumps shortly after midnight Thursday because of rapid flooding from Tropical Storm Harvey, Exxon Mobil engineers volunteered to help evaluate possibilities.
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Working with two engineering companies, Echo and Tiger Industrial, they were able to get some water flowing early Friday.
Officials cautioned that the fix is temporary and limited.
Its OK to flush and bathe with, but were asking people to refrain from trying to fill up big containers, said Mayor Becky Ames. It helps build pressure.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has issued a boil-water notice until future notice. After water is boiled for two minutes, it can be cooled and used for drinking, cooking, washing hands and brushing teeth.
The boil advisory will not be lifted until the distribution center has been flushed, disinfectants such as chlorine are at certain levels, and water samples test negative for germs and bacteria, said the TCEQs Andrew Keefe.
Officials remain unsure when water will be restored to the entire city.
The citys main water pump, just south of Colliers Ferry Park on Pine Street, remained under water from the swollen Neches River.
That pump provides about 70 percent of the citys supply. The other 30 percent comes from wells in Hardin County, which also saw torrential rainfall from Tropical Storm Harvey.
The river is expected to have crested at about 21 feet, according to the National Weather Service
To give you a point of reference, major flooding in Beaumont is normally around 10 feet, said meteorologist Seth Warthen. So there will be a few days before it returns to normalcy.
Officials are unclear when the water will recede enough for crews to check the pumps for damage and repair them, Ames said.
In the meantime, residents have been lining up on foot or in cars at grocery stores and distribution centers across the city for water.
Branick also said the county has stayed in touch with industry and Entergy throughout the storm, and theyre working to get back up to normal functioning.
He expects plants and refineries to get back up to full capacity as the power grid becomes more reliable.
About 13,000 of the 22,500 customers of Jasper Newton Electric Cooperative had regained power through other suppliers, JNEC announced Friday. Repairs to the Entergy transmission system, which knocked out power to parts of Jasper, Newton, Sabine, Orange and Angelina counties, are ongoing, JNEC said.
As residents in Jefferson County were regaining some basic services, it was a different situation in neighboring Orange County, where all agencies were still conducting rescue operations, according to the county.
Many county and city services remained disrupted or suspended as of Friday evening, and distribution sites for water, ice, and MREs were still not available.
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Social media has proven to be vital tool in rescue and relief efforts for those hard hit by Harvey.
First, it worked as a stand-in dispatch center for SOS calls sent from stranded residents.
Now that cities and towns are beginning to assess the damages and rebuild, social media and payment apps like Venmo and PayPal are simplifying monetary donations.
Case in point: Shea Serrano. The San Antonio-proud Houston resident and The Ringer writer has amassed a devoted Twitter following of nearly 200,000.
Immediately after Harvey hit, The Rap Yearbook author became a go-between for victims waiting to be helped and rescuers by retweeting distress tweets. He kept his followers in the loop by sharing updates which announced hundreds of people had been saved.
Many applauded Serrano for his efforts, to which he responded: "Let's not make it more than it is -- I'm just retweeting shit -- shoutout the people who are actually out there doing the hard part."
"[...] I laugh every time -- all I'm doing is retweeting shit which is the worst superpower I've ever heard of," he tweeted another person commending his help.
RELATED: 'I just had to come': Meet a few of the S.A. volunteers who rescued Hurricane Harvey victims
On Thursday night, he used his platform again, this time to raise money for Houston.
Serrano mobilized his army with just one tweet, which has since been deleted.
This is the same group of people who Serrano rallied to buy up Why I March which previously ranked No. 6,746 on Amazon until it rose to No. 37, ousting President Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal.
His social media power was no different on Thursday. Serrano's followers raised $132,738.91 in a few hours via Venmo and PayPal, which some pointed out surpassed Golden State Warrior Steph Curry's original $118,000 donation.
Others, including Serrano, pointed out another interesting point: No one knew exactly where the money was going.
That's how much his following trusts him.
"My favorite part is I never even said what charity the money was going to I just said 'send money' and everyone was like 'ok cool,'" he said on Twitter Friday morning.
Serrano eventually deleted his original call-out Friday afternoon. Donations were still coming in. On Friday, he returned to his home in Houston after staying with family in San Antonio for the past few days.
"[...] We're showing up with $100,000 to donate to hurricane victims -- f--cking unreal," he said before bed and another $30,000 rolled in Thursday night.
Serrano, who is assessing damages around his neighborhood as of this write according to his tweets, was not immediately available to return requests for comment.
However, the sportswriter penned a narrative via The Ringer explaining how he experienced Harvey 200 miles away.
He said his home stood mostly unscathed by Harvey, but his neighbors were not as fortunate, something he is attempting to understand.
"Houston is going to rebuild itself because that's what Houston does," he wrote. "I can't wait to watch it happen, and I can't wait to get home to help. I just want to go home."
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When Marjorie A. Gibney became a registered nurse as a young women, she probably didnt realize how much she would come to depend on her career in the coming years.
Marrying in 1960, Gibney had three daughters under the age of 9 when her husband, who was doing his second tour in the Vietnam War, returned home with a terminal illness.
After his death, Gibney went back to Brownsville and worked as a labor and delivery nurse and raised us three girls, daughter Christine Gibney said.
Moving to San Antonio in the early 1970s, Gibney eventually left hospital nursing to become a school nurse in the San Antonio Independent School District, working at Lanier High School, Woodlawn Elementary School and Rhodes Middle School, among others.
More Information Marjorie A. Gibney Born: Dec. 18, 1934, Brownsville Died: Aug. 30, 2017, San Antonio Preceded by: Husband Warren Paul Gibney; grandson Justin Blakley; parents Petra and Frank John Musel; two sisters; two brothers Survived by: Daughters Marjorie Blakley, Christine Gibney, and Elizabeth Burgert and son-in-law James; five grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; a sister; a brother Services: Visitation at 6 p.m., rosary at 7 p.m. Thursday at Mission Park Funeral Chapels North, 3401 Cherry Ridge; Mass at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Luke Catholic Church, 4603 Manitou Drive; burial at 2 p.m. Sept. 10 at Buena Vista Cemetery, 5 McDavitt Blvd., Brownsville See More Collapse
She loved it, daughter Elizabeth Burgert said. She loved the first day of school, especially with the elementary-school children.
Gibney died Wednesday at 82.
A devout Catholic, Gibney originally was interested in becoming a hospital nun because that combined nursing with her faith, Christine Gibney said. But her father discouraged it.
Graduating with her nursing degree from St. Marys Hospital in 1956, Gibney joined the Air Force the next year.
She told me she joined because it was a safe place to be and she could earn an income and be provided for, Burgert said.
Gibney also was able to repay her parents for nursing school.
She met her future husband, who was posted at Fort Hood, on a blind date.
Beginning a long-distance relationship, the couple exchanged many letters while getting to know one another.
Weve got a lot of love letters in our treasure box, Burgert said.
The couple married in 1960 in Seville, Spain, where Gibney was stationed.
Discharged from the Air Force after becoming pregnant, she moved with her husband to New Jersey and Virginia before she decided to return to her hometown of Brownsville in 1965, while her husband served in Korea and later in the Vietnam War.
He was doing a second tour in Vietnam when he got sick and they shipped him to BAMC, or Brooke Army Medical Center, Christine Gibney said.
Staying in Brownsville for a few years after her husbands death, Gibney decided to move to San Antonio in 1972.
After working at Methodist Hospital for a while, Gibney transitioned to school nursing and began working for SAISD in 1975.
At home, she raised her daughters to be self-reliant.
We were a houseful of women, Christine Gibney said. There was no saying, Thats a mans job. We painted, mowed and edged.
During summer vacations, Gibney loaded up and took us camping, Christine Gibney said. We set up the tent, made the fire; she taught us It wasnt just a job for men.
Retiring from the school district in 1995, Gibney was able to devote more time to the church, often floating from church to church for different programs.
She was part of a lot of organizations, Burgert said. She was always wanting to do for somebody always giving.
mheidbrink@express-news.net
One of the least safe places to be in Berkeley, California, is in the vicinity of someone holding a No Hate sign.
So-called anti-fascist, or antifa, activists bearing shields emblazoned with those words assaulted any of the handful of beleaguered Trump supporters they could get their hands on at a small political rally over a recent weekend. All in the cause, mind you, of demonstrating their supposed opposition to hatefulness.
Too many people were willing to perfume antifa in the wake of Charlottesville, where it clashed with Nazi thugs who caused, and deserved, a wave of national revulsion. But Berkeley demonstrates once again the true nature of this left-wing movement, which is thuggish in its tactics and totalitarian in its sensibility. Anyone who at this point makes excuses for antifa or worse, justifies it is participating in its moral rot.
The antifa goons showed up in force at Berkeley at what had been a small anti-Marxist rally of Trump supporters at a public park. Antifa wore its usual fascistic garb of black masks and body armor. They overwhelmed the police who had been trying to maintain order and, holding aloft smoke-spewing flares, chanted, Whose park? Our park!
They then treated suspected Trump supporters with all the decorousness of torch-wielding medieval villagers who believed they had stumbled upon a witch. A leader of a pro-Trump group had to run from a mob that pepper-sprayed and beat him, until he was taken into police custody for his own protection. The targets werent Nazis bearing Nazi regalia, but supporters of the duly-elected president of the United States. Or people who were guilty of the offense of committing journalism a reporter was beaten by the antifa cadres.
Antifa benefited enormously from the horrific events in Charlottesville. It became Nazis versus the people standing up to the Nazis, and in that formulation the people standing up to the Nazis always win. There can be no moral equivalence, we were told, between Nazis and their opponents. But that depends on who the opponents are there is a vast difference between peaceful counterprotesters and violent thugs, even if they are marching on the same side.
There was certainly moral equivalence between Hitler and Stalin. Likewise, bully-boy fascists spoiling for a fight and black-clad leftists looking to beat them up exist on the same moral plane. They both thrill to violence and benefit from the attention that comes from it. They both reject civility and the rule of law that make a democratic society possible. They both are profoundly illiberal.
All this was lost in the reaction to Charlottesville. Liberal commentators spread memes comparing antifa to American GIs who stormed the beaches at Normandy. The comparison would be apt if the 1st Infantry Division got together to spend an afternoon beating up fellow Americans rather than giving its last measure of devotion to breaching Hitlers Atlantic Wall.
There is a cottage industry in excuse-making for antifa. Mark Bray of Dartmouth College says in The Washington Post that its activists are characterized by their willingness to physically defend themselves and others from white supremacist violence and pre-emptively shut down fascist organizing efforts before they turn deadly, i.e., assault people and shut down uncongenial speech as they deem necessary. Todd Gitlin of Columbia University writes in The New York Times that antifa is not squeamish about its means but he is clearly squeamish about describing it frankly.
There will always be goons who enjoy breaking things and hurting people. The real scandal is that otherwise respectable people are willing to look the other way or explain away the violence, so long as its perpetrators are on their side.
They are just as cowardly as the mask-wearing antifa thugs who are brave enough to punch and kick people, but not to show their faces.
comments.lowry@nationalreview.com
After reading Robert Jensens op-ed on mySA.com, Critical questions need to be answered in transgender debate, I had more than a few critical questions.
How could Jensen not discuss the experiences of any trans people?
When Danann Tyler was born, the doctor cried, Its a boy. But before age 2, Dannan started identifying as a girl. When she was 4, Danann refused her toys-for-boys Christmas presents.
I always wanted to play with dolls, Danann, age 7, explains in the documentary Trans.
The Tylers, a conservative cop and a liberal yoga instructor, were stunned. Theyd never even heard the word transgender before. They didnt know what to do. After Danaan started school, she faced bullying and teachers who demanded she be dressed like a boy.
Danann began talking about killing herself. Fortunately, her supportive family rallied around her, changing her school.
What Jensen deems the transgender movement is exclusively about helping people, like Danann, be more accepted in society and providing them choices through modern medicine to better accept themselves.
Jensens commentary starts with his conclusion that many dont understand transgender activists claims about sex and gender, which lack a coherent explanation, societal or biological.
Jensen suggests that people understand being attracted to someone of the same sex, but not everyone comprehends not wanting your own body. But of these two human experiences, homosexuality and transgenderism, Jensen demands scientific backing only for trans people.
This is a double-standard argument as etiologies behind gay and lesbian sexualities arent known either.
Also, coherent claims about sex and gender have been clearly articulated. For example, by Danann, at age 7, No, I dont ever ever want to be a boy. Before her parents allowed her to live as a girl both at home and school, Danann would threaten to cut off her penis. She does not want to be a boy or a male, in gender or sex.
Jensen asks you, in short, to disregard peoples experiences and instead double down on double standards he doesnt defend. Furthermore, he uses dated, vague biological rationales to justify not understanding transgenderism.
Jensen seemingly argues that childbearing is the sole origin of two human sexes, a notion contrary to present biological research. In 2015, Nature, a world-leading scientific journal, published the article Sex Redefined, summarizing 25 years of findings in human biology The idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that.
As Ph.D. biochemist Julia Serano explains, Sex is a collection of traits that, while generally dimorphic, can vary greatly in the population, and some can change over time.
For example, every single nerve cell in our brains has sex hormone receptors, which turn genes on or off in response to sex hormones such as testosterone or estrogen.
Jensen floats that there is disagreement on whether being transgendered is a condition that requires medical treatment, an all-or-nothing. He does not discuss which disagreements or treatments he means, nor that not all trans people deem their desires a condition.
Some people desire hormones, some surgeries, and most the use of preferred pronouns. If Jensen questions hormonal treatment, hes challenging modern endocrinology, a specialty that provides much more than sexual transitions.
But if Jensen meant to hint that no one trans requires surgeries, he ignores how many Americans want them.
Business Insider reported that in 2016, surgeons performed 3,250 sex-confirmations, and that high costs and low insurance coverage sent many trans people abroad for operations.
Somehow Jensen concludes that without debate we cannot have real policy discussions about normalizing dramatic interventions into the body. If youre wondering if he knows of chemotherapy, transplants, hysterectomies or abortions, youre not alone.
Halfway through the piece, Jensen writes, The underlying problem, from a critical feminist perspective, is institutionalized male dominance, what has long been called patriarchy. Underlying problem with what?
He continues, If we ever transcend the rigid, repressive and reactionary gender norms of patriarchy people would live authentically without claiming they belong in a sex category that isnt what the midwife or doctor concluded from newborn genitals.
Fighting for equality and equity, and ending violence against women and rape culture, is, obviously, necessary and much-needed work. However, Jensen fuels a dangerous false equivalency between granting freedoms to trans people and fighting for womens equality and equity.
Under the pretense that stopping people from altering their bodies protects women, Jensen fears invasions of womens privacy. But until there is a coherent explanation of the transgender movements claims, its not discriminatory to maintain certain sex-segregated facilities because this will lead to predators exploiting the ambiguity.
How many convicted sexual predators have used gender-neutral bathrooms as cover? According to Fox News, zero.
Since Fox News deemed the bathroom issue too nonexistent for last years Republican presidential hopefuls, reactionary feminism must take a hint. For ideological witch-hunting and fearmongering over theoretical predators, fringe feminists castigate trans people, their families, doctors and scientists.
Leading questions or a search for proof of a trans condition should never stop Danann from living her life and joining the ranks of women who know they dont need to prove themselves to yesteryears politics.
Lucas Burdick is a freelance writer living in Austin.
SACRAMENTO Legislative leaders backing a package of bills to raise revenue for affordable housing pushed the vote into next week after it became clear Friday that they did not have the support needed for passage.
Lawmakers involved in the deal said the package of housing legislation is coming together and remains a priority for Democratic leaders. Its just taking more time than expected to craft the deal and ensure they have enough lawmaker support to pass it, they said.
Everyone in the Legislature understands the severity of the housing crisis and wants to move forward with significant actions and hopefully that will happen next week, said Assemblyman David Chiu, chair of the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee.
While as many as a dozen bills are being considered as part of the housing package, three of those appeared ready for a vote on Friday before being pushed off to next week. Those bills are a $4 billion bond that will be put before voters next year under SB3, a new real estate fee under SB2 and changes to state law that will force reluctant cities to build more low-to-middle income housing under SB35.
This package will not solve the housing crisis overnight, Chiu said Friday. That being said, its a significant step in addressing the worst housing crisis our state has ever faced.
SB2 and SB3 both would require every Democrat in the Senate and Assembly to vote in favor to reach the two-thirds approval needed to pass both houses. On Friday, Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, was absent from session for legislative business, leaving Democrats shy a lawmaker.
However, Quirk-Silva is among several Democrats in swing districts who have expressed concerns about the new real estate fee in SB2 or declined to state a position on the bill. SB2 by Sen. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, would create a new $75 to $225 recording fee on real estate documents and property transactions, such as deeds and notices of default. The fee would not include home sales.
Republicans have widely panned SB2. The chances of peeling off a GOP lawmaker or two to vote for SB2 became much more difficult last week when Assembly Republicans replaced their leader over his support for cap-and-trade legislation.
Still, Democrats said they believe they will garner the support needed to pass housing legislation.
These are big bills so its not surprising that its not moving at lighting speed, but we will get it done, said Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who is the author of SB35 to streamline building.
Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez
ZANU PF youths have been reportedly instructed to avoid contesting for any position Robert Mugabe Jr seeks to occupy at the upcoming youth league conference, it has emerged.
Speculation is rife that the later strongman Robert Mugabes son has set his eyes on a leadership position in the youth leagues national executive
Sources in the party also said the 30-year-old is set to contest for the Zvimba East National Assembly seat currently occupied by Justice, Legal and Parliamentary affairs minister Ziyambi Ziyambi.
The idea, sources said, has excited the Zanu PF Mashonaland West leadership, with some suggesting Ziyambi could be moved to the Senate to pave way for him.
According to sources privy to developments, Robert Jr will be part of the four representatives from Mashonaland West to be voted into the national executive committee of the youth league.
He will not be contested and comrades are very comfortable with that arrangement, a party source said.
Everything has been put in place for him to become more visible at party functions and within the Mashonaland West structures so he kick starts his career in Zanu PF, the source added.
Robert Jr told journalists he has always been Zanu PF member despite the current party leaders being responsible for his fathers deposal in a military coup in 2017.
They have been very accommodative. I thought I should come and support the party, Robert Jr told reporters in Chitungwiza.
Its like the familys tradition. Since I was born all I know was Zanu PF. I am a Zanu PF child born in Zanu PF so its only right that I continue the legacy.
Despite the plan to fast track his rise, Robert Jr might be affected by the partys constitution which specifies that candidates should be fully subscribed members for a continuous period of five years.
But a senior Zanu PF official from.Mash West dismissed the reports saying: There is no truth in that, members just saw him at the rally in Chitungwiza and started the rumour, the official said.
He has not approached any local leadership of his interests. The local leadership is the one that vets and makes a recommendation.
The current executives term ends in May.
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ZIMBABWEAN students in neighbouring South Africa have suffered a major blow after Pretoria withdrew a waiver allowing them to apply for permanent residence permits.
Foreign students studying in areas of critical skills could apply for permanent residence before attaining five years post-qualification experience, or without submitting testimonials from employers.
But South African Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi in a latest circular withdrew the blanket waiver which was granted on April 21, 2016.
In a January 31 Immigration Directive No 2 of 2022, Motsoaledi said students who wished to apply for permanent residence permits, had to comply with the countrys immigration laws.
By virtue of the power vested in me by section 31(2) of the Immigration Act, 2002, Act No 13 of 2002, I hereby withdraw the blanket waiver which was granted on April 21, 2016, which waiver allowed foreign graduates at South African tertiary institution that studied towards degrees in the area of critical skills, to apply for a permanent residence permit without the need of first acquiring five years post-qualification experience or the need to submit testimonials from employees, the directive read.
This came after Pretoria stopped renewing the Zimbabwean Special Permits (ZEPs) that expired in December last year, and opted to give the permit holders a year to move to other visa regimes or face deportation.
ZEP was introduced in 2009 by then Home Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, as a temporary solution to a growing refugee crisis related to Zimbabwe. There are an estimated 180 000 ZEP holders in South Africa.
In December, ZEP holders field urgent court applications to overturn the decision taken by Motsoaledi not to renew their permits. The High Court in Pretoria struck their applications off the roll of urgent matters.
Zimbabwes ambassador to South Africa David Hamadziripi yesterday said he would consult staff to assess the impact of Motsoaledis latest directive targeting foreign students.
I have just seen the ministers directive and it is, obviously, going to affect a lot of Zimbabweans based in South Africa.
However, I havent had the opportunity to meet with my staff to assess the impact of the said directive. We will be convening a meeting with my colleagues so that we come up with an informed opinion on the latest development, Hamadziripi said.
South African nationals are lobbying for Zimbabwean immigrants to leave that country as they accuse them of stealing their jobs. South Africa has also tightened border control measures to stop illegal immigrants from entering that country.
Analysts said the neighbouring country was putting in place stringent immigration measures to deal with internal political problems ahead of its 2024 elections.
A member of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Higher and Tertiary Education, Daniel Molokela (Citizens Coalition for Change) said: We must not be surprised by such measures that are being put in place to stop African immigrants into South Africa. We must actually brace for more measures of the same nature.
We have in the past years witnessed thousands of Zimbabweans relocating to South Africa and that has created a political crisis for the neighbouring country. The measures are being put in place by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to solve the crisis ahead of the countrys upcoming polls.
Some political parties such as ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance performed well in SAs November 2021 municipal elections after riding on the anti-immigrant sentiment.
In January, there were reports of xenophobic attacks against Zimbabwean immigrants in areas such as Diepkloof, Rosebank and Turfontein.
Molokela said the influx of immigrants, especially from Zimbabwe is a reminder to Sadc that the Zimbabwean crisis should be resolved with urgency.
Political analyst Eiffe Ncube said the new measures against fellow countrymen in South Africa had serious negative effects on the local economy as they contributed significantly through diaspora remittances.
Every employment policy that is implemented in South Africa, United Kingdom or any other country where Zimbabweans are based will affect our economy because the country is benefiting much from diaspora remittance, Ncube said.
The immigration crisis in South Africa is centred on the elections that are due in the country. The ruling party is reacting to the extreme political groupings that have become very sensitive to the continued rise of immigrants in the country. ANC is adopting populist political policies to deal with its rivals and secure victory in the upcoming elections.
Zimbabweans in South Africa are estimated to be around three million.
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President Emmerson Mnangagwa acted unconstitutionally by flying to South Africa yesterday on an official visit before appointing his deputies, law experts have said, warning that if anything befalls him, it may have detrimental consequences for the administrative State given that there is no clear successor by operation of law.
While Mnangagwa has been quick to select his Cabinet, it has taken him inordinately much longer to fill the two top-level vice president positions in the State an indication that the issue might have become a hot potato in Zanu PF.
The chief secretary to the President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda said in a statement yesterday that in the absence of Mnangagwa, Environment, Water and Climate minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri had been appointed acting president.
His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe,Mnangagwa, has proceeded to the Republic of South Africa on a one day working visit, to meet with his counterpart, the President of the Republic of South Africa, His Excellency, Jacob Gedyeyehlekisa Zuma, Sibanda said in a statement to the Daily News yesterday.
During his absence and in terms of Section 100 (1) (c)(i) of the Constitution, the president has designated the minister of Environment, Water and Climate, the honourable Muchinguri-Kashiri, as acting president of the Republic of Zimbabwe.
Constitutional law expert Lovemore Madhuku told the Daily News that the VP vacancies have potentially far-reaching implications for constitutional and administrative law.
The president is acting unconstitutionally its a critical position. The Constitution says the president must without delay appoint VPs. The first appointment he should have made, according to the Constitution, is the VPs, not ministers. He cant appoint ministers before appointing VPs.
He committed a serious illegality by failing to appoint VPs; he has no constitutional reasons. In fact, his reasons are invalid, reasoned Madhuku.
He said the Constitution envisages a situation where the president and his deputies appoint ministers and assigns functions to them, including the administration of any Act of Parliament or of any ministry or department, but the president may reserve to himself or herself the administration of an Act, ministry or department.
Madhuku alleged there has been a cocktail of illegalities by the new president, including taking oath as State president without the mandate of his party.
In his closing speech at the Zanu PF congress, he indicated that he was not yet president, Madhuku said.
Mnangagwa told the extraordinary congress: Today I address you as the partys president and first secretary subject to the ratification of the resolution of central committee meeting that sat on November 19, 2017.
On November 19, Zanu PFs central committee dismissed Robert Mugabe as party leader, and replaced him with the reinstated Mnangagwa.
It also expelled Grace Mugabe and senior Generation 40 leaders from the party, and reinstated membership for all those subjected to disciplinary measures since 2014.
Madhuku said appointing Muchinguri-Kashiri acting president was even more scandalous.
He said while Muchinguri-Kashiri was the most senior Zanu PF official in Cabinet after Mnangagwa, the chief secretary cannot invoke Section 100 (1) (c)(i) of the Constitution to clothe the illegality.
They cant rely on that section, Madhuku said.
Its not designed for a president who has no VP. That section, it assumes there is a VP who is unable to exercise his function maybe because of ill-health then a minister can be appointed. It doesnt apply before a VP has been appointed. He cant leave the country before he appoints a VP. A president who hasnt appointed mustnt leave the country. The Constitution does not contemplate a situation where the president appoints Cabinet before VPs, he opined.
Madhuku said despite affecting important areas of public policy, the vacancies in the VP positions have other serious implications.
If something happens, there is no successor by operation of law, Madhuku said.
By the way, Oppah is not acting as vice president, there is no vice president. So, say Mnangagwa dies in a plane crash, it will create serious problems. It wont be automatic that Oppah becomes a successor. They are creating unnecessary problems, the University of Zimbabwe law professor added, warning of detrimental consequences.
He is running the country like a tuck shop, Madhuku said. Proper head of State material would ensure that by now you have VPs. Thats the formal thing to do. This is unconstitutional, it has serious dangers. Mnangagwa is creating recipe for instability in the country.
Political scientist Tamuka Chirimambowa said in a situation where the president becomes hospitalised or otherwise and is not able to make decisions, the country would have a serious problem as the power vacuum becomes real.
It may render the Executive dysfunctional. It may potentially open avenues for bitter contestation of who is in charge because it may have been left open. We have to remember that power vacuums and uncertainty have always bred disaster after disaster in politics, said Chirimambowa.
The Bond Coup drama of the last two months or so was a result of the perceived power vacuum and uncertainty on succession in ruling party and government. In this case, the new administration has to be more alive to this reality than anyone and leave no power vacuum even if it means the president may be absent even for a second. Its something that the new Czar needs to quickly sort out. Continuing the culture of governance hinged on uncertainty and suspense may be playing Russian Roulette if not handled properly, he continued.
Civil rights campaigner and analyst Gladys Hlatywayo disagreed.
She said there was no power vacuum, adding the real president is in the country.
Let us not be fooled. This is a military junta and not a civilian government. So where Mnangagwa goes in my opinion is immaterial. The real power resides in the military, she said, tongue in cheek.
The military has been directly involved in guiding both the ruling party and the governments new direction.
Piers Pigou, southern African director of the International Crisis Group, said he gets a sense that the hold-up in the appointments of VPs was because of former Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Constantino Chiwengas shift from the army to politics.
Regarded by many as the power behind Mnangagwa, Chiwenga has signalled that the military is now a direct political player, with many anticipating that he will be appointed one of the two VPs after his retirement by the president and pending redeployment confirmed as part of the military leadership reconfiguration announced this week.
I dont think we should read too much into it, notwithstanding concerns that these differences between Mnangagwa and Chiwenga, especially with respect to strengthening powers of the VP and guarantees of succession, Pigou said.
It appears to be in the interest of both to resolve this quickly as possible. The longer it drags on, however, the more speculation it will generate that there are two centres of power.
Spokesperson of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC, Obert Gutu, said it is really strange that Zimbabwe still does not have VPs.
This betrays the fact that there are a lot of things taking place behind the scenes regarding the appointment of VPs. There is too much jostling for these top posts. President Mnangagwa is in a very tight spot.
He has to appease the military top dogs who brought him into power and at the same time, he doesnt want it to appear like his government is a de facto military administration. The balancing act is proving very difficult to play, Gutu told the Daily News.
United Kingdom-based Zimbabwean academic George Shire said the thing about ED is that he does not like to be micro-managed and does not want to be seen to be rushed by anybody so again we are gonna (sic) have to get used to waiting and playing the long game.
He wants to be ahead of events. He knows that you guys want him to name the VPs because you have already decided who it will be and my guess is he will want to do things his own way in his own time. There is a new boss in town, Shire said. DailyNews
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A TOP army official only identified as one Colonel Gwanzura on Thursday evicted Karoi commercial farmer Garry Hobbs, who had close links with the late former President Robert Mugabe.
Hobbs previously offered to downsize his Chisuwa Farm, also known as John Impi, situated about 30 kilometres north of Karoi town in Hurungwe North constituency.
He was one of the few white farmers who supported the ruling party.
He enjoyed immunity from the chaotic land reform as he was close to Mugabe as he was looking after his (Mugabes) in-laws that he supported with all farming expertise, said a senior Zanu PF source speaking on condition that he is not named.
Hobbs and his family, despite having an offer letter, woke up on Thursday to a team from the Sheriffs Office accompanied by armed police officers to enforce the eviction order.
A removal truck was ready to ferry the farmers household furniture, while tractors and other farm implements were removed from the premises.
It is believed that Hobbs was served an eviction order in November last year and an eviction notice came in March 2021.
Both Gwanzura and Hobbs could not be reached for comment.
But Information permanent secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana said Hobbs would remain on the farm despite the eviction order.
Mr Hobbs remains at his farm. He has not been evicted.
The Second Republic stands for sanity on all farms and its policy is that all agricultural land should be used productively by beneficiaries. The boundary confusion is being resolved by relevant authorities, Mangwana tweeted.
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A meeting has been sought with Iarnrod Eireann in an attempt to increase the number of trains travelling through Clonmel railway station, it was decided at a meeting of Clonmel Borough District.
The discussion at the council meeting took place before a report in the Irish Independent yesterday, Tuesday, suggested that the Limerick Junction to Waterford rail line was one of four earmarked for closure.
The line serves Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir, Cahir and Tipperary Town.
Cllr. Siobhan Ambrose said the town was very fortunate to have a train station but unfortunately only two trains left Clonmel every day.
Passengers using the 8.05am train didn't arrive in Dublin until 11am, which wasn't conducive to doing business, while the other train left at 8.05pm.
By contrast, 19 trains left Thurles for Dublin every day and a lot of Clonmel people used that service.
Clonmel was a regional town and they needed to meet Iarnrod Eireann officials and tell them that just two trains a day wasn't conducive to business or pleasure, and that was why the service wasn't being utilised.
If there was "a bit of joined-up thinking" and the timetables changed then so many people wouldn't have to travel to Dublin by car, said Cllr. Ambrose.
Cllr. Richie Molloy said it almost seemed as if Iarnrod Eireann was trying to close the station by stealth.
Something would have to be done about the timetable because it just wasn't working.
Anytime you travelled to Dublin by train from Thurles you met people from Clonmel giving out about the lack of trains from the town.
Cllr. Pat English said that the station was a great asset to the town.
Clonmel was the largest town in the county and it was essential that the rail service wouldn't be just retained but expanded.
He accused Iarnrod Eireann of having dodged the big issues of serious investment and changing the timetable.
(Natural News) A tech reporter claimed Thursday that Google uses its power to censor the internet, alleging that the company pressured her to delete an article detailing its deliberate stifling of search traffic.
(Article by Rob Shimshock republished from DailyCaller.com)
Former Forbes reporter Kashmir Hill reportedly discovered during a 2011 social media meeting with Google that the company would rank links higher on its search engine if those links included buttons for its Google Plus social network, according to the reporters Gizmodo article.
The Google salespeople were encouraging Forbes to add Pluss +1 social buttons to articles on the site, alongside the Facebook Like button and the Reddit share button, Hill said. They said it was important to do because the Plus recommendations would be a factor in search resultsa crucial source of traffic to publishers.
By tying search results to the use of Plus, Google was using that muscle to force people to promote its social network, Hill said.
The former Forbes reporter clarified her interpretation with Googles press office, which did not say she was wrong, but preferred to phrase the Google Plus button function as something that influences the ranking of pages.
Hill published an article in Forbes entitled Stick Google Plus Buttons On Your Pages, Or Your Search Traffic Suffers in which she detailed the exchange.
Google promptly flipped out, Hill said. This was in 2011, around the same time that a congressional antitrust committee was looking into whether the company was abusing its powers.
Google allegedly did not object to the accuracy of the story but told Hill to take it down, citing the confidentiality of the meeting in which the writer had learned the information. However, Hill claims that there was no such arrangement for confidentiality. (RELATED: Anti-Corporate Voices On Both Right And Left Claim Google Censorship)
Read more at: DailyCaller.com
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. would have to pay nearly $100 million under a regulatory judges proposed punishment issued Friday.
The fine relates to five years of improper backdoor communications between the utility and state regulators
Citing the flagrant and pervasive nature of the five years of illegal e-mail contacts, administrative law judge Robert Mason concluded that a previously agreed to $1 million fine against the company was too low.
Mason upped that to $12 million in fines. That's combined with $73.5 million in customer rate cuts that PG&E has agreed to provide.
The $97.5 million penalty will be the most severe imposed on any state regulated utility for so-called ex parte communications the official term for backdoor, one-sided contacts with regulators.
We received it and were reviewing it, said Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the utility said Friday of the judges tentative decision. PG&E could decide to appeal the penalty. He declined further comment.
The fine must also be approved by the states Public Utilities Commission.
The latest case dates back to when the company had to release 65,000 e-mails dating from 2010 and 2014, under pressure from the city of San Bruno.
The citys push for emails had already led PG&E to admit it had engaged in a secret campaign to get the regulatory judge of it wanted to oversee a rate case tied to the blast. A total of 164 of the 65,000 communications were alleged to be improper.
Under the administrative law judges tentative ruling, issued late Friday, the company would have to pay $6 million each to compensate the cities of San Bruno and San Carlos.
Both cities were involved in regulatory disputes over pipeline safety at the time and but were unaware of the companys one-sided communications with regulators.
Britt Strottman, attorney for the city of San Bruno, said she hopes the settlement will be the last chapter and PG&E will learn from its mistakes.
Ed Helms and Lake Bell star in "I Do . . . Until I Don't," which Bell also wrote and directed.
Local and national lawmakers have released statements condemning militant anti-fascist group Antifa following violence at a Berkeley protest last week.
The condemnation comes after skirmishes broke out Sunday during an anti-Marxist rally and a subsequent counter-protest against racism. Those who repudiated the violence include Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Adam Schiff, and others.
"Our democracy has no room for inciting violence or endangering the public, no matter the ideology of those who commit such acts," Pelosi said in what was arguably the strongest disavowal of the group from a Democrat. "The violent actions of people calling themselves Antifa in Berkeley this weekend deserve unequivocal condemnation, and the perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted."
A majority of the estimated 4,000 counter-protesters who flocked to downtown Berkeley remained peaceful throughout the four-hour event. But footage of black-clad Antifa members beating down right-wing activists quickly went viral on social media, sparking a debate about the methods used by the anti-racist, anti-capitalist group.
Several journalists also reported being threatened or assaulted when taking photographs of the masked protesters, another strategy that Antifa has repeatedly used to protect themselves against possible doxing and identification.
https://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/901910682030882816
Some bean bag tossing/kid friendly activists at Crescent Lawn.. pic.twitter.com/vjdnwyMCov Gillian E. (@GillianM925) August 27, 2017
A decentralized group with no national leadership, Antifa's goals are to end the oppression of marginalized people through direct action, according to Mark Bray, a Dartmouth historian who wrote a book on the subject.
The group has maintained a large presence at several high-profile protests in the Bay Area, including the demonstration against a UC Berkeley speaking engagement by former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos. Antifa members were seen breaking windows, smashing ATMs, and attempting to start a fire inside Wells Fargo. (It was extinguished by a fellow protester.)
Arreguin, who has faced criticism for the violence unfolding under his watch, opined that Antifa should be considered a gang. Prior to Sunday's protest, he had urged protesters to stay peaceful while demonstrating.
"They come dressed in uniforms. They have weapons, almost like a militia, and I think we need to think about that in terms of our law enforcement approach," he told a CBS-affiliate KPIX.
On Sunday, 13 people were arrested in connection with the protests.
A Twitter account linked to Berkeley Antifa dismissed Arreguins comments and expressed doubt at the motivations behind them.
What the mayor and the chief of police are worried about is not militias or gangs. It's the erosion and irrelevance of their power, the tweet thread said. They want to attack a now unified left movement that wants to go beyond liberal free speech and towards total freedom and autonomy.
A statement from House Speaker Paul Ryan referred to Antifa as a "scourge" on our country.
"Speaker Ryan believes, as is obvious, these individuals are left-wing thugs, and those who are committing violence need to be arrested and prosecuted," Ryans spokeswoman Ashlee Strong said in a statement provided to The Daily Caller.
While being grilled by CNNs Jake Tapper, Schiff, a Democrat from Los Angeles, said there was "no justification" for the violence, but cautioned against drawing false parallels between Antifa and self-styled white supremacy groups.
"Millions of people are gathering around the country and have since this president was inaugurated in the most peaceful forms of protest," Schiff said. "We cant allow the Commander-in-Chief to somehow equate the handful of people that would make those protests violent with any kind of sentiment that condones white supremacist or neo-nazism."
The condemnations come on the heels of a deadly white supremacy rally in Charlottesville, VA, where one anti-racist protester was killed and dozens more wounded. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes, white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups have been on the rise since the 2016 presidential campaign, during which Donald Trump rode a wave of anti-immigrant rhetoric to the White House.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday denounced the indictments in the United States of 19 people, among them 15 Turkish security officials, calling them "scandalous."
The 19 suspects have been accused of attacking peaceful demonstrators gathered outside the Turkish ambassador's Washington home during a visit by Erdogan in May.
Videos of the infamous brawl show Erdogan supporters and security guards in suits and green uniforms hitting the protestors as police try to quash the violence. Some protestors are heard shouting "Baby killer Erdogan" and "Long live YPG," a Syrian Kurdish militant group that has become a sore spot in U.S.-Turkey relations.
Erdogan said his security detail was protecting him from members of the militant group after U.S. police failed to do so.
Turkey considers the YPG a terror organization and an extension of Kurdish militants waging a three-decade-long insurgency against the Turkish state, but the group is a key U.S. ally in Syria against the Islamic State group.
The bodyguards "performed their duties against this attack," Erdogan said and accused the U.S. of protecting a terror group. Nine people were hurt in the attack.
Sixteen of the defendants were charged in June while a grand jury decision on Tuesday added three more suspects, among them the head of security, Muhsin Kose.
Erdogan called the indictments "a clear and scandalous expression of how justice works in America" and said he would raise the issue with U.S. President Donald Trump during a visit to New York this month.
Two suspects, who are not security officers, were arrested in June and are due in court on Sept. 7. The rest remain at large and are thought to have returned to Turkey.
A Rhode Island man is facing a number of charges for allegedly driving a car through Boston's City Hall Plaza on Friday night and crashing into a light pole before fleeing the scene.
Police arrived to the Congress Street side of the plaza at 10:37 p.m. where they found an unattended Toyota Corolla with heavy front-end damage. The vehicle was taking up most of the travel lane of the roadway.
Witnesses told police that the driver had entered the plaza from the area of Washington and Court streets, driving towards City Hall. When the vehicle approached the building, it turned right and down a large, three portion staircase before striking a large cast iron pole holding the crosswalk signal on Congress Street.
Numerous people had been walking on the stairs but fortunately, no one was hurt.
The driver, later identified as Nicholas Hoetzel, 26, of Tiverton, Rhode Island, fled the scene.
Police were able to locate Hoetzel a short time later in the area of 28 State St. He was unconscious and suffering from numerous non-life-threatening injuries.
Hoetzel was taken into custody and transported to an area hospital for treatment.
Police said when towing the vehicle, officers observed a large, opened bottle of alcohol in the front passenger seat and a firearm on the passenger side floor. The vehicle was then 'frozen' until a search warrant could be executed.
Further investigation revealed that Hoetzel does not have a license to carry a firearm in Massachusetts or Rhode Island. Authorities also believe that he suffers from mental health issues.
Police said there is no indication that the incident has any ties to terrorism.
Among the charges Hoetzel is facing are unlawful possession of a firearm, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and operating under the influence of alcohol. He will be arraigned Tuesday in Boston Municipal Court.
Six people were hospitalized after a salmonella outbreak at a BBQ restaurant in the Morgan Park neighborhood on Chicagos South Side, health officials announced Friday.
Best BBQ, 1648 W. 115th Street, closed voluntarily and is fully cooperating with the Chicago Department of Public Healths investigation, officials said. Officials said the outbreak was impacting 14 individuals total as of Friday evening. The health department encourages anyone who ate at Best BBQ and who are suffering symptoms to see a medical professional and tell them about the possibility of salmonella.
Emails sent and voicemails left for the business owners were not immediately returned.
"This is a serious condition that is treatable," said CDPH Commissioner Dr. Julie Morita "Anyone who believes they may be symptomatic and ate at this restaurant should see their medical provider immediately. CDPH is taking every precaution as part of our robust response in order to limit the impact of this outbreak."
Salmonella is a bacteria that can be treated with antibiotics. Most people infected develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps between 12 and 72 hours after infection.
Salmonella symptoms usually last four to seven days, and most individuals recover without any treatment. In some cases, diarrhea may be so severe that the patient needs to be hospitalized. In these patients, the Salmonella infection may spread from the intestines to the blood stream, and then to other body sites. In these cases, Salmonella can cause death unless the person is treated promptly with antibiotics. The elderly, infants, and those with impaired immune systems are more likely to have a severe illness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Salmonella causes approximately one million illnesses and 450 deaths in the United States each year.
The outbreak was detected by CDPH officials' ongoing surveillance, reviewing laboratory reports of patients diagnosed with specific diseases. Investigators recognized an uptick in a particular laboratory serotype of Salmonella cases and then contacted patients to determine if there were any commonalities between the various cases. This led to the determination that a number of individuals with a single Salmonella serotype recently ate at the restaurant in question. Working with CDPH food protection inspectors, the restaurant is addressing any possible contamination issues, to ensure sanitary and health conditions are in place. They are also providing a list of suppliers to investigate possible concerns with food sources.
CDPH has also issued an alert to area physicians of the outbreak, providing medical guidance. For more information on Salmonella, go to the CDC website here.
Two men were killed and at least eight other people were wounded in shootings across Chicago between Friday evening and Saturday morning, marking a deadly start to the citys Labor Day Weekend.
The two deaths were the latest casualties of Chicagos increasing gun violence that has taken the lives of at least 431 people since the start of the year, according to data maintained by the Chicago Sun-Times. More than 2000 people have been shot in the city this year.
The latest killing happened early Saturday when a man was found shot to death in the West Side Austin neighborhood, according to Chicago Police. He was found lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head at 5:02 a.m. in the 1000 block of North Waller. The man, whose age was unknown, was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
About four hours earlier, a man was shot to death and three other people were wounded in a Gresham neighborhood attack on the South Side, according to police. The group, which included two men and two women, was sitting on the front porch of a house about 1:20 a.m. in the 8300 block of South Hermitage when three people got out of a white car parked behind the house, walked up to them and opened fire.
One of the men, a 26-year-old, was shot in the chest and stomach and later died at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said. The other man, 23, was shot in the shoulder, police said. He was listed in good condition at Christ Medical Center. A 25-year-old woman was also taken to Christ, where she was treated for gunshot wounds to the arm and stomach, according to police. Her condition was stabilized. Another woman, 23, was shot in the leg and was listed in good condition at Christ, police said.
The Cook County medical examiners office did not immediately confirm either of the deaths.
In the latest nonfatal shooting, a man was wounded early Saturday in a drive-by shooting in the Logan Square neighborhood on the Northwest Side. The 27-year-old was driving north at 3:04 a.m. when another vehicle pulled up in the 2800 block of North California and opened fire, according to police. He was in good condition at Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was treated for a gunshot wound to the arm.
Less than an hour earlier, a 29-year-old man was critically injured in a West Side Austin neighborhood shooting. He was driving at 2:39 a.m. in the 1800 block of North Mason when someone opened fire, striking him twice in the back side of his leg, police said. He was taken to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and later transferred to Stroger Hospital. He was listed in critical condition.
Only five minutes earlier, a man and woman were seriously hurt in a West Side West Garfield Park drive-by shooting. A group of people was standing outside at 2:34 a.m. in the 4300 block of West Wilcox when a white Jeep drove by and someone inside fired shots, police said. Two people were struck, including a 26-year-old man, who was shot in the stomach and shoulder and taken to Stroger Hospital by a friend, where he was listed in critical condition. A 26-year-old woman was taken to Rush Hospital by a friend and later transported to Stroger, where she was treated for a gunshot wound to the left leg. She was in serious condition.
In the weekends first attack, a man was shot Friday evening in the West Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side. The 24-year-old was walking down the street about 11:20 p.m. in the 4100 block of West Congress when he heard shots and felt pain, according to police. He was shot in the chest. He went to Loretto Hospital and was later transferred to Stroger Hospital, where his condition was stabilized. He was uncooperative with officers, and no suspects were in custody.
The holiday weekends attacks came a week after seven people were killed and at least 25 others were wounded in shootings last weekend.
Some 16,000 Muslims from the United States are in Saudi Arabia this week to perform the hajj pilgrimage, one of Islam's most sacred experiences. If the hajj is performed with sincere intentions, Muslims believe it can wipe away past sins, purify the soul and alleviate worldly stresses.
This year, however, Muslims say they have never been more anxious traveling abroad than now, under the Trump administration's rules, which unleashed protests across the country and confusion at airports earlier this year.
Those performing the hajj say that while it's never been exactly stress-free to fly as a Muslim in America, the new climate under President Donald Trump has heightened anxieties about traveling to Saudi Arabia, where the hajj is performed. The hajj, which runs for five days and ends Monday, draws some 2 million people from around the world each year. All Muslims with the means to do so are required to make the pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime.
"We do find the anxiety level rising at this current time," said Sulaimaan Hamed, who operates Hajj Pros, an Atlanta-based company organizing hajj trips. "It is a reality with the heightened scrutiny."
Hamed, who is in his 17th year organizing the pilgrimages, has a client who opted not to take the trip this year. The West African native had renewed her green card because of a misspelling and the new document didn't arrive in time for traveling.
"She's fearing ... she might not be able to get back" into the U.S., Hamed said. "The environment of heightened scrutiny has her nervous enough. She's waiting until next year."
Shortly after taking office, Trump ordered a temporary ban on refugees and a travel ban affecting Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen, plus Iraq. His administration had also initially said citizens of those countries who hold permanent U.S. residency green cards would be barred from re-entering the country.
Trump said the controversial measures were needed to protect the U.S. from terrorists, but opponents said it was unfairly harsh and was intended to meet his campaign promise to keep Muslims out of the United States. Two months ago the Supreme Court partially lifted lower court injunctions against Trump's executive order, which no longer includes people from Iraq.
Abdull Warsame, a Somali-American who lives in Minnesota, is leading 420 people to hajj this year from the United States. His company, Mina Hajj Travel, consulted with an immigration attorney to address concerns before the trip.
He said only about three or four people chose to cancel their pilgrimage this year because they didn't want to deal with the unknowns the travel ban might bring if they are not allowed to return to the U.S.
Tussles in the courts over Trump's executive order, and the gradual dissipation of a ban on major electronics and laptops in cabins of flights from 10 mostly Muslim cities including Jiddah, the main entry point for pilgrims on hajj left many unsure about what their rights are while traveling.
"There is still a lot of confusion from travelers and we are hearing from people who are coming back from hajj and worried about what they will face at the border," said Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Shamsi, the director of the National Security Project at the ACLU, said there has been a rise in reported incidents of Muslim citizens and legal permanent residents being questioned inappropriately about their religious and political beliefs while traveling.
"This has happened under previous administrations, but we and colleague organizations have certainly seen a rise, at least in anecdotal accounts, of that kind of questioning and screening," she said.
Suehaila Amen, part of Michigan's large Arab American and Muslim community, had concerns when traveling to Lebanon earlier this year after the initial Trump order was issued.
Amen, who's on the hajj this year, says she always makes sure to fly internationally from Detroit because the Muslim community in Michigan has a good working relationship with government agencies there. It makes flying more comfortable, she said.
"I actually go out of my way to go through customs in Detroit and not anywhere else," she said.
To prepare Americans for traveling to the hajj, the Council on American-Islamic Relations conducted a webinar that discussed people's rights while traveling at customs, U.S. entry points and airport security checkpoints.
"We have tremendous rights as we travel, but these rights are only meaningful if you know them and understand them," CAIR Florida's Executive Director Hassan Shibly said during the webinar.
Some of the examples CAIR gave include the rights of female travelers to request a female TSA agent for pat downs and the right to request that the hijab, or head cover worn by Muslim women, not be removed in public.
CAIR's senior litigation attorney, Gadeir Abbas, told The Associated Press the Trump administration's conduct has heightened an already tense situation among Muslims, who have come to expect a certain level of extra scrutiny while traveling.
Abbas said the Trump administration has reintroduced the practice of placing U.S. Muslim citizens on a no-fly list while they're abroad and thus exiling them until they can successfully petition the government and courts to board a flight back home. He said the practice was first introduced under the Obama administration, but had disappeared since 2014.
After Trump took office, at least one person every month has been added to the no-fly list while abroad. Among those was a mosque leader, or imam, from Salt Lake City who was in Kenya to meet his wife and children over the summer. CAIR was able to litigate on his behalf and he was removed from the no-fly list. The imam is now leading a group of pilgrims for the hajj.
"It has never been more stressful to travel as a Muslim in America," Abbas said.
After all the preparations, Hamed the hajj tour operator said Muslims must step out in faith.
"We have to help them understand that God is greater, as is the obligation to fulfill your religious rite, than being scared of flying on an airplane or fearing what one may experience going through customs," he said.
Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Amy Forliti in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump cupped a boy's face in his hands and then gave him a high-five. He snapped on latex gloves to hand out boxed lunches of hot dogs and potato chips. And he loaded relief supplies into vehicles, patted storm victims on the shoulder and declared the work "good exercise."
An upbeat and optimistic president visited with victims of Harvey on Saturday, touring a Houston mega-shelter housing hundreds of displaced people and briefly walking streets lined with soggy, discarded possessions. Trump met the scene with positivity, congratulating officials on an emergency response still in progress and telling reporters that he'd seen "a lot of love" and "a lot of happiness" in the devastation the storm left behind.
"As tough as this was, it's been a wonderful thing," Trump said of the Harvey response after spending time with displaced children inside NRG Center, an emergency refuge housing about 1,800 evacuees.
The trip, to Houston and Lake Charles, Louisiana, was Trump's second to survey Harvey's wake and a chance for a president to strike a more sympathetic tone. He'd rushed to Texas on Tuesday, heading to Corpus Christi and Austin to talk to first responders. "What a crowd, what a turnout," he'd said as he stood outside a firehouse.
He had minimal interaction with residents, saw no damage and offered few expressions of concern while on the ground, unusual omissions for a presidential visit to communities in crisis.
That made Saturday something of a do-over.
Joined by first lady Melania Trump, the president went directly to the NRG Center and was greeted warmly by volunteers and children. The Trumps brought coloring books and crayons and sat with families that had been displaced. Trump lifted one little girl into his arms and gave her a kiss. He signed his name on the cement wall by the children's artwork.
With a wide smile and quick banter, Trump served food in the lunch line at one point joking about his hands being too big for the sanitary gloves and then moved on to First Church in the Houston suburb of Pearland. The Trumps greeted a group of volunteers and lavished praise on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for his state's response.
"I want to congratulate the governor," he said. "I want to congratulate everybody that's worked so hard. It's been an incredible five days, six days. It seems like it's been much longer than that, but actually it's going so well that it's going fast, in a certain sense."
The Trumps then helped load small boxes and bottles of water into pickup trucks and minivans.
"I like doing this," Trump told one of the volunteer coordinators. "I like it."
As Trump visited, the Houston area was still burying its dead and trying to contain the mess. Nearby Beaumont, Texas, population 120,000, was struggling to restore its drinking water. Firefighters in Crosby, outside of Houston, were warily eyeing the Arkema chemical plant, twice the scene of explosions. Floodwaters had inundated at least seven highly contaminated toxic waste sites in the Houston area, raising concerns about creeping pollution.
Harvey is blamed for at least 43 deaths, NBC News reported, and believed to have damaged at least 156,000 dwellings in Harris County. The American Red Cross said more than 17,000 people have sought refuge in Texas shelters such as the one Trump visited.
The White House has asked Congress to approve a $7.9 billion Harvey relief down payment when lawmakers return to Washington on Tuesday.
During his brief stop in Lake Charles, Trump met with first responders and a group of volunteers known as the Cajun Navy, many of whom were in cowboy hats and waders. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards accompanied him. Trump supporters lined the route to and from the National Guard Armory, and before departing for Washington, the president posed for photos with law enforcement officers who'd led his motorcade.
In Texas, the Trumps were joined by an entourage that included four Cabinet officials, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Before leaving for Louisiana he stopped by a street that had only recently again become passable.
"These are people that have done a fantastic job of getting things together," he said as people stood near ripped-out drywall and trash bags piled high at their curbs.
He spotted a man wearing a red "Trump is my president" T-shirt and pulled him in front of news cameras. "Look at this guy," he said. "You just became famous."
U.S. officials say the leader of a California drug smuggling ring in the 1980s who was on the run for almost 30 years was brought from Australia to face charges.
The U.S. Marshals Service says 72-year-old Peyton Eidson, who lived in Queensland, Australia, was escorted by Australian officials and taken into custody Thursday at San Francisco International Airport.
Frank Conroy, supervisory deputy marshal for Northern California, said he doubted Eidson had an attorney.
Eidson was indicted in 1988 for importing tons of high-grade marijuana throughout the 1980s.
Authorities say Eidson had a false passport and lived abroad for decades. He was arrested in Australia in 2011 but had fought deportation.
Officials say two of his associates tried to fake their own deaths by sinking a fishing boat in the 1990s.
Fire officials say a wildfire burning near the Northern California town of Oroville has destroyed 20 homes and seven outbuildings.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says the so-called Ponderosa blaze about 70 miles north of Sacramento had consumed 3,680 acres or nearly 6 square miles. Flames are threatening 500 homes.
Fire crews increased containment to 30 percent overnight ahead of a statewide heat wave.
But officials say the fire's location in steep and rugged terrain plus hot and dry temperatures are complicating firefighters' efforts.
More firefighters are joining the more than 1,600 already battling the Ponderosa fire.
Investigators have arrested John Ballenger, of Oroville, on suspicion of sparking the flames. The man is accused of "recklessly starting a campfire outside a designated campground and allowing it to escape," Cal Fire said in a statement.
The blaze is one of many wildfires across the U.S. West, including fires in and around California's Yosemite National Park that have closed a popular road into the park prompted evacuations of nearby towns.
Milwaukee high school students talked with Cap Times reporter Katelyn Ferral and picked up some t-shirts and sunglasses during the Black Women's Leadership Conference last May at Madison's Overture Center.
In an escalating tit-for-tat, the United States forced Russia on Thursday to shutter its consulate in San Francisco and scale back its diplomatic presence in Washington and New York, as relations between the two former Cold War foes continued to unravel.
The Trump administration said the move constituted its response to the Kremlins unwarranted and detrimental decision to force the U.S. to cut its diplomatic staff in Russia. Under the order, Russia must close its San Francisco consulate by Saturday, along with Russias chancery annex in Washington and a consular annex in New York.
The United States is prepared to take further action as necessary and as warranted, said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert. Still, she said the U.S. hoped both countries could now move toward improved relations between our two countries and increased cooperation on areas of mutual concern.
Earlier this month, the Kremlin retaliated for stepped-up U.S. sanctions on Russia by announcing the U.S. would have to cut its embassy and consulate staff in Russia by 755 people. During meetings in the Philippines shortly thereafter, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson left open the possibility the U.S., in turn, would retaliate for that move, and promised Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov a formal response by Sept. 1.
The U.S. has said as a result, it will stop issuing visas at its consulates in Russia in cities other than Moscow. A senior U.S. official said Thursday that the U.S. reduction of diplomatic staff is complete.
There was no immediate reaction from the Russian government. But given the back-and-forth nature of the escalating tensions over the past year, it was likely the Kremlin would feel compelled to respond by taking further action against the U.S.
Nevertheless, the United States argued that the score has been evened, urging Russia not to retaliate for the retaliation. U.S. officials pointed out that Russia, when it ordered the cut in U.S. diplomats, had argued it was merely bringing the size of the two countries diplomatic presences into parity.
The United States hopes that, having moved toward the Russian Federations desire for parity, we can avoid further retaliatory actions by both sides, Nauert said.
The newly arrived Russian ambassador to the United States has invoked Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin in saying Moscow will carefully consider its response to the order to close its consulate in San Francisco and scale back operations in Washington and New York.
Anatoly Antonov flew into Washington on Thursday, hours after the State Departments announcement of the closure.
Russian news agencies quoted him as saying: We have to act calmly and professionally. Speaking like Lenin, we dont need hysterical impulses, citing a Lenin maxim.
Not much activity was detected outside the consulate building at 2790 Green Street in San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighborhood Thursday afternoon. A white van bearing the consulate logo could be seen parked outside. Several people, including aged relatives of people living in Russia, had shown up to get their passports renewed, and were surprised to hear the news.
Women with suitcases could also be seen coming out of the building, but nobody offered any comment. News crews with cameras were parked outside the building.
Daniel, a dual Russian citizen who was visiting the consulate Thursday, told NBC Bay Area he was blindsighted. "A lot of people feel blindsighted," he said.
Back in December, then President Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the U.S., including four employees and their families from the Russian consulate.
The four Russian consulate employees in San Francisco including a chef accused of being a spy by the U.S. government were ordered to leave the United States within 72 hours.
At that time, the Consul General called Obama's accusations against their staff "bizarre and ridiculous."
Full statement from the U.S. State Department:
"The United States has fully implemented the decision by the Government of the Russian Federation to reduce the size of our mission in Russia. We believe this action was unwarranted and detrimental to the overall relationship between our countries.
In the spirit of parity invoked by the Russians, we are requiring the Russian Government to close its Consulate General in San Francisco, a chancery annex in Washington, D.C., and a consular annex in New York City. These closures will need to be accomplished by September 2.
With this action both countries will remain with three consulates each. While there will continue to be a disparity in the number of diplomatic and consular annexes, we have chosen to allow the Russian Government to maintain some of its annexes in an effort to arrest the downward spiral in our relationship.
The United States hopes that, having moved toward the Russian Federations desire for parity, we can avoid further retaliatory actions by both sides and move forward to achieve the stated goal of both of our presidents: improved relations between our two countries and increased cooperation on areas of mutual concern. The United States is prepared to take further action as necessary and as warranted."
Riya Bhattacharjee and Sam Brock contributed to this report.
A self-proclaimed psychic from South Florida was arrested at Miami International Airport on grand theft charges out of Maryland.
Gina Marie Marks, 44, was taken into custody at MIA Thursday night before she could board a plane to Barcelona, authorities said.
Marks appeared in bond court Friday, where she said she wants to fight the warrant out of Maryland.
"I want to wait, I want to stay here and fight it," Marks told Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer.
By fighting the arrest warrant Marks will stay in jail for up to 90 days while the state gets a Governor's warrant to send her to Maryland.
"Let her stay here, it's nice in the jail, you don't have to pay rent, you get meals and you get medical care," Judge Glazer said.
Investigators say Marks has a long history of scamming victims out of hundreds of thousands of dollars across the country, posing as a psychic and fortuneteller.
Marks, also known as Regina Melbourne and Natalie Miller, pled guilty in 2009 to felony grand theft for defrauding five women of $65,000. In 2012, she pled guilty to defrauding three women of over $500,000, went to prison for a year and paid the victims back the money.
In the Maryland case, Marks is accused of defrauding a woman who moved there from China out of more than $82,000 through a fortune-telling scheme that lasted for months.
A SoHo street vendor was hospitalized after he was beaten by three men who were arrested within hours of the attack, police said.
The 34-year-old vendor was preparing to work at his food cart near the intersection of Broadway and Broome Street on Saturday morning when the three men, one of whom had a metal weapon, attacked him, according to police.
After assaulting the man, the three men threw the weapon in the back of a truck and took off, police said.
Three suspects were arrested later on Saturday. All three of them face a charge of felony gang assault.
They were identified as Carlos Lopez-Pizarro, 31, Marco Vial, 50, and Eduardo Latin-Cisperna, 46. The three men share an apartment in West New York, New Jersey, according to police.
The vendor was taken to Mount Sinai Beth Israel with pain to his groin, chest and neck, police said. His injuries are not life-threatening.
A young man accused of groping women at universities in Southern California was arrested once again Friday, this time in connection with an alleged sexual assault at the University of California Riverside.
Minda Shewangiza, 19, was taken into custody by the United States Marshals Service San Diego Fugitive Task Force.
The suspect had been arrested earlier this week at San Diego State University (SDSU) for groping four different women as they walked on and near the campus.
Those incidents happened early Tuesday morning, one near the Aztec Corner Apartments on Montezuma Road, where Shewangiza approached two women walking in an alley. He allegedly groped one womans buttocks and the other victims chest, grabbing that victims arm and trying to pull her towards him.
About 45 minutes later, he struck again, groping two more women on campus at the Aztec Student Union Pedestrian Bridge on Aztec Circle, university police said.
The U.S. Marshals Service said Shewangiza was also wanted in connection with a groping case out of UC Riverside. Officials tracked him down at his job at a San Diego supermarket and arrested him in connection with that case. He will be extradited to Riverside County to face charges of sexual assault in that case.
Meanwhile, booking records show Shewangiza is being held at San Diego Central Jail on five counts, including felony sexual battery and misdemeanor sexual battery in connection with the SDSU incidents. He is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday.
Shewangiza does not attend SDSU, campus police confirmed.
A Missouri lawmaker said in a Wednesday Facebook post that he hoped whoever placed paint on a Confederate monument in Springfield is found and hanged, prompting Democratic leaders to ask him to step down over what they're describing as a call for a lynching.
"This is totally against the law," Republican Rep. Warren Love wrote in the post. "I hope they are found & hung from a tall tree with a long rope."
Love said his post is no longer up, although the lawmaker told The Associated Press he did not take it down.
Vandalism of the Confederate monument was discovered at the Springfield National Cemetery on Wednesday, at a time when heightened security surrounded President Donald Trump's visit to Springfield to discuss tax policy. The Greene County Sheriff's Department is investigating.
Love, in a response he provided to AP and said he posted on Facebook, later said people had interpreted his post "to be rather harsh and inciting violence." Love is from Osceola, a western Missouri city where fewer than 1,000 people live.
"I did not mean it that way and was only using and old Cowboy Statement that is a western custom of a penalty for Thieves that steal Cattle & Horses," the statement said. "To all who this post offended I am very sorry."
Love, who ranches, told AP the term was a "cowboy slang statement," not a call for lynching.
Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Stephen Webber and House Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty both said Love should resign. A request for comment to Republican House Speaker Todd Richardson was not immediately returned Wednesday.
"In calling for the lynching of those who vandalized a Confederate statute in Springfield, state Rep. Warren Love invoked a form of political violence used throughout the South to keep African-Americans subjugated for generations following the fall of the Confederacy," McCann Beatty, who is black, said in a statement. "For that he must resign."
McCann Beatty also said Confederate monuments "are monuments to white supremacy; there is no separating the two."
Love said he's a member of both the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and Sons of Confederate Veterans. He sponsored legislation this year and in 2016 that would protect state historic military monuments and other memorials under Missouri Department of Natural Resources control, including Confederate monuments, from being moved or created without public input and an advisory council vote.
He said he meant to point out in his post that "it's terrible when someone vandalizes or desecrates an object of remembrance."
This is the second time in as many weeks that a Missouri state lawmaker has been asked to step down over Facebook posts.
Democratic Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal in mid-August said she wrote "I hope Trump is assassinated!" in response to a post that suggested Vice President Mike Pence would try to have Trump removed from office.
She later took the post down and apologized. She's also refused to resign, despite pressure from top Missouri Democrats and Republicans.
Warning: The above video may be considered too graphic for some viewers.
Police in Lynn, Massachusetts, continue to search for two men who are wanted in connection with an armed robbery and shooting of a man earlier in the week.
Authorities released shocking surveillance video of the Sunday morning incident which happened as the victim was sitting in his car in a parking lot on Green Street. Police said the suspects ran up to him at about 3 a.m. and robbed him of $50 in cash and his cellphone.
Video shows the suspects shooting the victim after robbing him. The man was hit by one bullet and grazed by two others.
The victim continues to recover at an area hospital.
The man's wife, who would only identify herself as Katerina, says her 39-year-old husband usually sits in the parking lot outside his friend's house where he works on his Ford Mustang after work.
Police said they released the video in the hopes of developing more leads in the ongoing investigation. They said the suspects pose a danger to the public.
Anyone with information about the suspects or the shooting is asked to call Lynn police at 781-595-2000 or the department's anonymous tip line at 781-477-4444. Cellphone users can also text anonymous tips to Lynn police by texting "tiplynn" and the tip information to tip411 or 847411.
Katerina is also offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the men responsible.
By PTI
CHENNAI: Customs officials have seized liquid gold worth Rs 7.28 lakh concealed in a detergent from an air passenger who arrived from Dubai here recently.
The incident comes days after a similar case in which a passenger from Malaysia had tried to smuggle gold in liquid form on August 23 at the airport.
Acting on specific information, the officials intercepted the 25-year-old passenger at the international terminal, on August 29 and checked his belongings, which led to the seizure of the liquid gold, an official release said.
Initial investigations revealed that Abdul Niyas was carrying the liquid gold concealed in a can as a 'popular detergent'.
The plastic cans which had the detergent were unusually heavy forcing the authorities to test the solution.
"The solution inside it was Aqua Regia solution which can dissolve gold", the release said, adding the gold was extracted by way of heating the solution.
"After evaporation of liquid, the gold in powder form was extracted and then converted into pellets. A government approved valuer carried out the whole process which took nearly 14 hours", the release said.
The gold seized was of 245 grams of 24 Carat purity valued at Rs 7.28 lakh, the release added.
CHENNAI: Customs officials have seized liquid gold worth Rs 7.28 lakh concealed in a detergent from an air passenger who arrived from Dubai here recently. The incident comes days after a similar case in which a passenger from Malaysia had tried to smuggle gold in liquid form on August 23 at the airport. Acting on specific information, the officials intercepted the 25-year-old passenger at the international terminal, on August 29 and checked his belongings, which led to the seizure of the liquid gold, an official release said. Initial investigations revealed that Abdul Niyas was carrying the liquid gold concealed in a can as a 'popular detergent'. The plastic cans which had the detergent were unusually heavy forcing the authorities to test the solution. "The solution inside it was Aqua Regia solution which can dissolve gold", the release said, adding the gold was extracted by way of heating the solution. "After evaporation of liquid, the gold in powder form was extracted and then converted into pellets. A government approved valuer carried out the whole process which took nearly 14 hours", the release said. The gold seized was of 245 grams of 24 Carat purity valued at Rs 7.28 lakh, the release added.
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By Express News Service
MUMBAI: With the Union cabinet reshuffle and possible expansion scheduled to happen on Sunday, the Shiv Sena has gone into a sulk with boss Uddhav Thackeray complaining that no one in the BJP bothered to inform him about it.
"We came to know about it from the media. There has been no official confirmation to us till now. Nobody has called me or any of my colleagues," Thackeray said Saturday.
The Shiv Sena's sulk is a familiar posture. It did the same thing back in November 2014 when the Union cabinet went through a similar exercise. That time, the Shiv Sena boycotted the ceremony altogether.
This time, Thackeray didn't bother to reply to queries whether his party will go to the swearing-in ceremony of new minister or boycot it just like last time.
There is speculation all the same about who from the party, if any, will find a place in the Union cabinet come Sunday. Sources say Thackeray is unhappy that his party may at best get one additional place while the JD(U) is likely to get two despite having fewer members in the Lok Sabha.
In his public remarks Saturday, Thackeray made no secret of his pique that the BJP has grown to give the short shrift to the Shiv Sena although the latter is the former's oldest friend in politics.
MUMBAI: With the Union cabinet reshuffle and possible expansion scheduled to happen on Sunday, the Shiv Sena has gone into a sulk with boss Uddhav Thackeray complaining that no one in the BJP bothered to inform him about it. "We came to know about it from the media. There has been no official confirmation to us till now. Nobody has called me or any of my colleagues," Thackeray said Saturday. The Shiv Sena's sulk is a familiar posture. It did the same thing back in November 2014 when the Union cabinet went through a similar exercise. That time, the Shiv Sena boycotted the ceremony altogether. This time, Thackeray didn't bother to reply to queries whether his party will go to the swearing-in ceremony of new minister or boycot it just like last time. There is speculation all the same about who from the party, if any, will find a place in the Union cabinet come Sunday. Sources say Thackeray is unhappy that his party may at best get one additional place while the JD(U) is likely to get two despite having fewer members in the Lok Sabha. In his public remarks Saturday, Thackeray made no secret of his pique that the BJP has grown to give the short shrift to the Shiv Sena although the latter is the former's oldest friend in politics.
By Express News Service
VIJAYAWADA: The city police arrested as many as 28 accused and solved 35 cases, including dacoity, robbery, housebreaking, extortion, murder and attempt to murder cases. They recovered valuables worth Rs 2.5 crore from the offenders.The Central Crime Station (CCS) police on Friday arrested Muvva Venkateswara Rao in connection with the murder of Vemuri Chandramma (75) on February 11, 2012. After murdering the old women, he decamped with her gold ornaments. He shifted to Nuthanki village and started a new life. Acting on a tip-off, the CCS police arrested the accused. They also recovered the stolen gold ornaments of the old woman from him.
Vehicle thieves arrested
K Khadar Babjee (24), who stole as many as 11 motorcycles and a lorry, was arrested by the CCS police. All the stolen property was recovered from him. The property is worth `22 lakh. According to the police, the offender committed the crimes along with two others in the current year. The arrested include Bhudhati Laxma Reddy (29) and Kandhivalasa Ankamma Rao (24).
Dacoit gang nabbed
A 10-member gang, involved in seven dacoity cases on the outskirts of the city, was nabbed by the police. The kingpin of the gang, Jupudi Vamshikrishna, along with his friends used to stop and threaten lorry drivers and loot money from them. Vexed with the repeated complaints, police intensified the search operations and succeeded in nabbing the offenders. The police recovered a container vehicle, laptop, and Rs 29,200 from them.
Appreciating the police personnel, Joint Commissioner of Police BV Ramana Kumar said, Police will chase the criminals, until they are put behind bars. The public should cooperate with the police to solve the cases at the earliest. DCPs Kanthi Rana Tata, Gajarao Bhupal, ACPs K Srinivasa Rao, V Pothuraju, P Sundar Raju and other police personnel were also present.
VIJAYAWADA: The city police arrested as many as 28 accused and solved 35 cases, including dacoity, robbery, housebreaking, extortion, murder and attempt to murder cases. They recovered valuables worth Rs 2.5 crore from the offenders.The Central Crime Station (CCS) police on Friday arrested Muvva Venkateswara Rao in connection with the murder of Vemuri Chandramma (75) on February 11, 2012. After murdering the old women, he decamped with her gold ornaments. He shifted to Nuthanki village and started a new life. Acting on a tip-off, the CCS police arrested the accused. They also recovered the stolen gold ornaments of the old woman from him. Vehicle thieves arrested K Khadar Babjee (24), who stole as many as 11 motorcycles and a lorry, was arrested by the CCS police. All the stolen property was recovered from him. The property is worth `22 lakh. According to the police, the offender committed the crimes along with two others in the current year. The arrested include Bhudhati Laxma Reddy (29) and Kandhivalasa Ankamma Rao (24). Dacoit gang nabbed A 10-member gang, involved in seven dacoity cases on the outskirts of the city, was nabbed by the police. The kingpin of the gang, Jupudi Vamshikrishna, along with his friends used to stop and threaten lorry drivers and loot money from them. Vexed with the repeated complaints, police intensified the search operations and succeeded in nabbing the offenders. The police recovered a container vehicle, laptop, and Rs 29,200 from them. Appreciating the police personnel, Joint Commissioner of Police BV Ramana Kumar said, Police will chase the criminals, until they are put behind bars. The public should cooperate with the police to solve the cases at the earliest. DCPs Kanthi Rana Tata, Gajarao Bhupal, ACPs K Srinivasa Rao, V Pothuraju, P Sundar Raju and other police personnel were also present.
G Parthasarathy By
India and Bangladesh had differences over the demarcation of their maritime boundary in Bay of Bengal. Bangladesh took the case to the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration. After five years of proceedings, the Court in July 2014 awarded Bangladesh 19,467 square kilometres and India 6,135 square kilometres of the disputed maritime territory. Respecting the provisions of International Law, India immediately accepted the Court verdict. Similarly, respecting international law, India has concluded bilateral and trilateral agreements with virtually all its maritime neighbours, including Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives. The maritime boundary with Pakistan has not been demarcated, among other reasons, because the land boundary near the sea has not been settled and remains the subject of negotiations.
Countries across Asia and the world are contrasting Indias respect for international law by abiding by the decision of the UN Tribunal on the issue of its maritime borders with Bangladesh, with the churlish and arrogant behaviour of China, on its maritime claims with its neighbours. China has based its claims not in terms of international law, but on a nine dotted line unilaterally drawn by its then government in 1947, after Japans defeat in World War II. These claims were rejected even then by Vietnam and the Philippines. There was never any question of a defeated Japan accepting these arbitrary Chinese claims. In keeping with Deng Xiaopings dictumHide your strength and bide your timeChina waited till the end of the last century after it had developed the maritime capabilities, air power and military strength, to coercively enforce its claims.
China has moved methodically, but forcefully, in enforcing its untenable maritime border claims. Vietnam was the first to face Chinese maritime power in South China Sea. But, the course had been set for claims backed by coercion, also on Chinas maritime borders with the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. Not only has China used naval power to enforce claims on its maritime neighbours, it has also built airbases and extended the size of artificially-built islands across South China Sea.
Faced with this naked aggression, including seizure of islands belonging to it across its maritime frontiers, the Philippines approached the International Arbitration Tribunal, for justice. The Tribunal ruled against China and held its claims based on its nine dotted line as inadmissible. China even forced the Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to eat humble pie, defer his claims and virtually kowtow in Beijing, seeking economic aid. Vietnam has been coerced into halting oil exploration within what are legally its maritime borders. That China is a regional bully was evident in its restrained behaviour to enforce its claims on Japan, which enjoys a Defence Treaty tie with the US. China also knows that it would be badly mauled if it tangles militarily with Japan.
India is the only Asian country, other than Japan, to stand up to Chinese military power. While bullying small neighbours, China has been circumspect in not provoking Indonesia by seeking to avoid enforcing its maritime boundary claims militarily across its maritime boundaries with latter. Standing firm, without reciprocating the hysterical propaganda by Chinese rags such as Global Times, India has won admiration across Asia. The process of mutual withdrawal agreed to by China, will have to be carefully implemented. The world will recognise the reality of Chinese withdrawal when there is no Chinese troop or construction presence threatening Doklam. By its actions, India would have demonstrated its readiness to face up to China and that it would also not hesitate to defend Bhutan.
G Parthasarathy
Former diplomat
dadpartha@gmail.com
India and Bangladesh had differences over the demarcation of their maritime boundary in Bay of Bengal. Bangladesh took the case to the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration. After five years of proceedings, the Court in July 2014 awarded Bangladesh 19,467 square kilometres and India 6,135 square kilometres of the disputed maritime territory. Respecting the provisions of International Law, India immediately accepted the Court verdict. Similarly, respecting international law, India has concluded bilateral and trilateral agreements with virtually all its maritime neighbours, including Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives. The maritime boundary with Pakistan has not been demarcated, among other reasons, because the land boundary near the sea has not been settled and remains the subject of negotiations. Countries across Asia and the world are contrasting Indias respect for international law by abiding by the decision of the UN Tribunal on the issue of its maritime borders with Bangladesh, with the churlish and arrogant behaviour of China, on its maritime claims with its neighbours. China has based its claims not in terms of international law, but on a nine dotted line unilaterally drawn by its then government in 1947, after Japans defeat in World War II. These claims were rejected even then by Vietnam and the Philippines. There was never any question of a defeated Japan accepting these arbitrary Chinese claims. In keeping with Deng Xiaopings dictumHide your strength and bide your timeChina waited till the end of the last century after it had developed the maritime capabilities, air power and military strength, to coercively enforce its claims. China has moved methodically, but forcefully, in enforcing its untenable maritime border claims. Vietnam was the first to face Chinese maritime power in South China Sea. But, the course had been set for claims backed by coercion, also on Chinas maritime borders with the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. Not only has China used naval power to enforce claims on its maritime neighbours, it has also built airbases and extended the size of artificially-built islands across South China Sea. Faced with this naked aggression, including seizure of islands belonging to it across its maritime frontiers, the Philippines approached the International Arbitration Tribunal, for justice. The Tribunal ruled against China and held its claims based on its nine dotted line as inadmissible. China even forced the Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to eat humble pie, defer his claims and virtually kowtow in Beijing, seeking economic aid. Vietnam has been coerced into halting oil exploration within what are legally its maritime borders. That China is a regional bully was evident in its restrained behaviour to enforce its claims on Japan, which enjoys a Defence Treaty tie with the US. China also knows that it would be badly mauled if it tangles militarily with Japan. India is the only Asian country, other than Japan, to stand up to Chinese military power. While bullying small neighbours, China has been circumspect in not provoking Indonesia by seeking to avoid enforcing its maritime boundary claims militarily across its maritime boundaries with latter. Standing firm, without reciprocating the hysterical propaganda by Chinese rags such as Global Times, India has won admiration across Asia. The process of mutual withdrawal agreed to by China, will have to be carefully implemented. The world will recognise the reality of Chinese withdrawal when there is no Chinese troop or construction presence threatening Doklam. By its actions, India would have demonstrated its readiness to face up to China and that it would also not hesitate to defend Bhutan. G Parthasarathy Former diplomat dadpartha@gmail.com
Kanu Sarda By
Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has constituted a supervisory body comprising two of its former judges to examine whether a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was justified in closing 199 cases relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
The supervisory body comprising two former judges justices J M Panchal and KSP Radhakrishnan would start functioning from September 5 and submit its report within three months.
The court said the supervisory body would scrutinise the SITs decision to close 199 riots-related cases and analyse whether it was justified. We constitute a supervisory body of two former judges of this court, namely, Justice
J M Panchal and Justice KSP Radhakrishnan, who shall scrutinise the 199 matters which have been closed and express the view whether there was justification to close the cases, a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said in its order of August 16.
The bench, also comprising justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar, noted in its order that additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta has very fairly stated that the panel could also look into the justification of the SITs decision to close 42 other riots-related case.
The supervisory body is requested to file a report within three months. The said supervisory body shall be given requisite assistance, which the Union of India shall provide, the bench said.
The bench fixed the matter for hearing on December 6 and directed that the records related to the 199 cases, which were placed before it in a sealed cover, be produced before the supervisory body.
During the earlier hearing, the court was told that these 199 cases should be verified by a supervisory body consisting of two retired judges of the apex court. However, it had not named the judges then.
The court had on March 24 asked the Centre to place before it files pertaining to the 199 cases of the anti-Sikh riots which the SIT, set up by the Home Ministry, decided to close.
The anti-Sikh riots that broke out after the assassination of then PM Indira Gandhi had claimed 2,733 lives in Delhi alone. The SIT is headed by Pramod Asthana, an IPS officer of 1986 batch, and has Rakesh Kapoor, a retired district and sessions judge, and Kumar Gyanesh, an additional deputy commissioner of Delhi Police, as its members.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has constituted a supervisory body comprising two of its former judges to examine whether a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was justified in closing 199 cases relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The supervisory body comprising two former judges justices J M Panchal and KSP Radhakrishnan would start functioning from September 5 and submit its report within three months. The court said the supervisory body would scrutinise the SITs decision to close 199 riots-related cases and analyse whether it was justified. We constitute a supervisory body of two former judges of this court, namely, Justice J M Panchal and Justice KSP Radhakrishnan, who shall scrutinise the 199 matters which have been closed and express the view whether there was justification to close the cases, a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said in its order of August 16. The bench, also comprising justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar, noted in its order that additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta has very fairly stated that the panel could also look into the justification of the SITs decision to close 42 other riots-related case. The supervisory body is requested to file a report within three months. The said supervisory body shall be given requisite assistance, which the Union of India shall provide, the bench said. The bench fixed the matter for hearing on December 6 and directed that the records related to the 199 cases, which were placed before it in a sealed cover, be produced before the supervisory body. During the earlier hearing, the court was told that these 199 cases should be verified by a supervisory body consisting of two retired judges of the apex court. However, it had not named the judges then. The court had on March 24 asked the Centre to place before it files pertaining to the 199 cases of the anti-Sikh riots which the SIT, set up by the Home Ministry, decided to close. The anti-Sikh riots that broke out after the assassination of then PM Indira Gandhi had claimed 2,733 lives in Delhi alone. The SIT is headed by Pramod Asthana, an IPS officer of 1986 batch, and has Rakesh Kapoor, a retired district and sessions judge, and Kumar Gyanesh, an additional deputy commissioner of Delhi Police, as its members.
By ANI
NEW DELHI: The Cine and TV Artists Association (CINTAA) on Saturday unanimously decided to terminate the work permit of rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who was sentenced for 20 years in prison in a 15-year-old rape case by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court.
The association terminated it with immediate effect on the grounds of criminality and moral turpitude.
The first movie of the jailed spiritual leader, who has five movies in his kitty, was MSG: The Messenger of God,' which was released on February 13, 2015, where he was seen doing impossible stunts.
The next in the franchise was MSG-2 The Messenger,' which was also released in the same year and in the month of September.
In October 2017, two of his work - MSG: The Warrior Lion Heart and Jattu Engineer' - are supposed to be released.
However, Ram Rahim Singh was sentenced to 20 years in jail after his conviction in a 2002 rape case, where the controversial guru was found guilty of rape charges by the court on August 25 and has been lodged up in Rohtak jail since.
NEW DELHI: The Cine and TV Artists Association (CINTAA) on Saturday unanimously decided to terminate the work permit of rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who was sentenced for 20 years in prison in a 15-year-old rape case by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court. The association terminated it with immediate effect on the grounds of criminality and moral turpitude. The first movie of the jailed spiritual leader, who has five movies in his kitty, was MSG: The Messenger of God,' which was released on February 13, 2015, where he was seen doing impossible stunts. The next in the franchise was MSG-2 The Messenger,' which was also released in the same year and in the month of September. In October 2017, two of his work - MSG: The Warrior Lion Heart and Jattu Engineer' - are supposed to be released. However, Ram Rahim Singh was sentenced to 20 years in jail after his conviction in a 2002 rape case, where the controversial guru was found guilty of rape charges by the court on August 25 and has been lodged up in Rohtak jail since.
By ANI
NEW DELHI: As the Union Cabinet is all set to be reshuffled tomorrow, the Congress Party on Saturday said that if it is being done on the basis of work, then Prime Minister Narendra Modi should also be included as his was the worst.
If reshuffling is happening on the basis of work, then Prime Minister Modi should be included in this. Because Prime Minister Modis work was the worst be it promises on employment, farmers, law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir, or demonetization, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told ANI.
Meanwhile, Union Cabinet Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Kalraj Mishra has confirmed that he has submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Prime Minister Modi will reshuffle his Cabinet on Sunday at 10 a.m. before leaving for China to attend the BRICS Summit.
Some Cabinet ministers have already stepped down from their posts, viz. Bandaru Dattatreya, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjeev Baliyan and Faggan Singh Kulaste.
Yesterday, the newly appointed Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Mahendra Nath Pandey also hinted at quitting his Cabinet post.
Speaking to ANI, the Uttar Pradesh BJP chief said he has already forwarded his resignation to BJP President Amit Shah and will soon be talking to Prime Minister Modi in this regard.
"I have to tender my resignation as the state union minister, as Uttar Pradesh is a huge state and there are lots of responsibilities," Pandey said, adding that he will be meeting Prime Minister Modi regarding this.
Pandey has replaced Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya who was serving as UP BJP chief.
The decision to appoint a new BJP chief has come in the wake of Maurya being elected to the Legislative Council to continue as the Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
NEW DELHI: As the Union Cabinet is all set to be reshuffled tomorrow, the Congress Party on Saturday said that if it is being done on the basis of work, then Prime Minister Narendra Modi should also be included as his was the worst. If reshuffling is happening on the basis of work, then Prime Minister Modi should be included in this. Because Prime Minister Modis work was the worst be it promises on employment, farmers, law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir, or demonetization, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told ANI. Meanwhile, Union Cabinet Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Kalraj Mishra has confirmed that he has submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Prime Minister Modi will reshuffle his Cabinet on Sunday at 10 a.m. before leaving for China to attend the BRICS Summit. Some Cabinet ministers have already stepped down from their posts, viz. Bandaru Dattatreya, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjeev Baliyan and Faggan Singh Kulaste. Yesterday, the newly appointed Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Mahendra Nath Pandey also hinted at quitting his Cabinet post. Speaking to ANI, the Uttar Pradesh BJP chief said he has already forwarded his resignation to BJP President Amit Shah and will soon be talking to Prime Minister Modi in this regard. "I have to tender my resignation as the state union minister, as Uttar Pradesh is a huge state and there are lots of responsibilities," Pandey said, adding that he will be meeting Prime Minister Modi regarding this. Pandey has replaced Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya who was serving as UP BJP chief. The decision to appoint a new BJP chief has come in the wake of Maurya being elected to the Legislative Council to continue as the Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday told the Supreme Court that they have documents with them to show the reason for issue of lookout circular against former Union Minister P Chidambarams son Karti Chidambaram in connection with the irregularities in Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media.
The CBI, represented by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta, placed documents in a sealed cover before the three judge Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A N Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud.
The ASG also stated that Kartis case was not simple, and it involved jugglery of accounts and property abroad. He said the interrogation report would be filed soon. Kartis counsel and senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam, however, refuted the CBIs claims and said that he has properties all across the world and bank accounts abroad. However, during questioning, the CBI did not ask me one question about it, Subramaniam said.
Seeking dismissal of the lookout circular, Subramaniam referred to a Delhi High Court order that said that lookout circulars could be issued only against persons deliberately evading arrest or not appearing before the probe agencies. The court has to see if the lookout circular issued by an executive order can be sustained in law, following the Supreme Court judgment in the Maneka Gandhi case, he said.
In Maneka Gandhis case, the apex court had held that the right to travel and go outside the country was included in the fundamental right to personal liberty.
What is the subject matter of enquiry is not me, but my father, who happened to be the finance minister giving FIPB approvals to a company in 2007, and it is alleged that one of the conditions had been violated. But not a single person of the six-member FIPB, who were secretary level officers, had been examined in the case, Subramaniam argued in favour of Karti.
He also told the court that the entire matter related to a listed company in which Karti held 0.75 per cent shares and the overseas property he bought in view of his daughters education.
We have things to show -- the jugglery of accounts and properties abroad, the CBI responded.
However, the court refused to hear Kartis plea to move abroad and made it clear that he would not be allowed to leave India. The next hearing is on September 11.
The court also sought the CBIs response to a plea by Karti against the lookout notice issued against him in a corruption case. Meanwhile, the court also did not permit Ravi Vishwanathan, the co-accused in the case, to travel abroad on September 6. The FIR, lodged by the CBI on May 15, relates to irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of `305 crore in 2007 when Kartis father was the Union Finance Minister.
NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday told the Supreme Court that they have documents with them to show the reason for issue of lookout circular against former Union Minister P Chidambarams son Karti Chidambaram in connection with the irregularities in Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media. The CBI, represented by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta, placed documents in a sealed cover before the three judge Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A N Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud. The ASG also stated that Kartis case was not simple, and it involved jugglery of accounts and property abroad. He said the interrogation report would be filed soon. Kartis counsel and senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam, however, refuted the CBIs claims and said that he has properties all across the world and bank accounts abroad. However, during questioning, the CBI did not ask me one question about it, Subramaniam said. Seeking dismissal of the lookout circular, Subramaniam referred to a Delhi High Court order that said that lookout circulars could be issued only against persons deliberately evading arrest or not appearing before the probe agencies. The court has to see if the lookout circular issued by an executive order can be sustained in law, following the Supreme Court judgment in the Maneka Gandhi case, he said. In Maneka Gandhis case, the apex court had held that the right to travel and go outside the country was included in the fundamental right to personal liberty. What is the subject matter of enquiry is not me, but my father, who happened to be the finance minister giving FIPB approvals to a company in 2007, and it is alleged that one of the conditions had been violated. But not a single person of the six-member FIPB, who were secretary level officers, had been examined in the case, Subramaniam argued in favour of Karti. He also told the court that the entire matter related to a listed company in which Karti held 0.75 per cent shares and the overseas property he bought in view of his daughters education. We have things to show -- the jugglery of accounts and properties abroad, the CBI responded. However, the court refused to hear Kartis plea to move abroad and made it clear that he would not be allowed to leave India. The next hearing is on September 11. The court also sought the CBIs response to a plea by Karti against the lookout notice issued against him in a corruption case. Meanwhile, the court also did not permit Ravi Vishwanathan, the co-accused in the case, to travel abroad on September 6. The FIR, lodged by the CBI on May 15, relates to irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of `305 crore in 2007 when Kartis father was the Union Finance Minister.
Aishik Chanda By
Express News Service
KUPUP (EAST SIKKIM): For India, the standoff at Doka La was not just about the plateau at the India--Tibet-Bhutan trijunction. Its unblinking resolve through the 72 days was due in equal measure to the strategic value of Siliguri, which connects India's Northeast with the rest of the country. Every inch given to China compromises India's security in the Northeast, and therefore the road at Doka La had to be resisted.
Military officials in East Sikkim say the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has elaborate artillery arrangements in place along the Line of Actual Control, and Siliguri lies well within a range of their big guns.
"The standoff was not about Doklam. The Chinese target was not Sikkim or Bhutan. They had already recognised Sikkim as a part of India in 2003, and invading an independent country like Bhutan was out of the question at the present time. The Chinese wanted to place their big guns at greater heights on the Doka La plateau so that Siliguri comes closer in their sights and they can use that as a psychological arm-twisting tactic against India," explained a senior military official of the Eastern Command.
With China establishing rail connectivity right up to Lhasa and working to extend it till Zhangmu on the Tibet-Nepal border, they would be able to easily bring in long-range missiles at short notice to the frontline at Doka La, Nathu La and Cho La in Sikkim within less than 12 hours. The better road conditions in Tibet compared to Sikkim would enable swifter movement of troops and armoured vehicles.
If the 27-km Chicken's Neck corridor south of Siliguri between Phansidewa on the Indo-Bangladesh border and Galgalia on the Indo-Nepal border gets cut off due to Chinese bombardment of road and railway networks, the seven states of the Northeast, northern parts of West Bengal and Sikkim would become an open field for the PLA.
Unrest in the Northeast always plays to China's advantage. For more than five decades, insurgent groups there have been supported in some form or the other by China. The very first of these Chinese-sponsored insurgencies was the Naga insurgency in the early 1960s. Naga insurgents were known to have been trained by the PLA in Kunming in China's southwestern Yunnan province. The preferred route for the insurgents to PLA training centres was through areas held by the Kachin Independence Army in northern Myanmar.
Political observers saw the beginning of Naga insurgency as a Chinese strategy to wage a proxy tactic against India after the 1962 war. The Chinese smalls arms industry, one of the largest in the world, exports huge quantities of small arms to northern Myanmar, which in turn are smuggled into the Northeast, fuelling agitations and insurgencies.
Cut to 2017, the same Kachin Independence Army-held areas still host an estimated 5,000 insurgents of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) of Assam, NSCN (K) of Nagaland and PREPAK, UNLF and PLA of Manipur. The unification of these insurgent groups of the Northeast under an umbrella group called the United Liberation Front of Western Southeast Asia (UNFWSA) was also allegedly facilitated by China. Formed on April 24, 2015, UNFWSA was behind the deadliest attack in Manipur in 30 years, claiming the lives of 18 Indian jawans.
For India therefore, securing the Siliguri area, described by many as the 'umbilical cord', would be of utmost priority.
So while the Doka La standoff has seemingly ended, India's security concerns over Siliguri would continue to exist. One senior military official says it's time to move the BrahMos missiles to Sikkim as a deterrent: "Like we have moved BrahMos missiles into Arunachal Pradesh, we should move BrahMos and other long-range missiles to Sikkim so that they act as a deterrent against Chinese aggression in this sector."
KUPUP (EAST SIKKIM): For India, the standoff at Doka La was not just about the plateau at the India--Tibet-Bhutan trijunction. Its unblinking resolve through the 72 days was due in equal measure to the strategic value of Siliguri, which connects India's Northeast with the rest of the country. Every inch given to China compromises India's security in the Northeast, and therefore the road at Doka La had to be resisted. Military officials in East Sikkim say the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has elaborate artillery arrangements in place along the Line of Actual Control, and Siliguri lies well within a range of their big guns. "The standoff was not about Doklam. The Chinese target was not Sikkim or Bhutan. They had already recognised Sikkim as a part of India in 2003, and invading an independent country like Bhutan was out of the question at the present time. The Chinese wanted to place their big guns at greater heights on the Doka La plateau so that Siliguri comes closer in their sights and they can use that as a psychological arm-twisting tactic against India," explained a senior military official of the Eastern Command. With China establishing rail connectivity right up to Lhasa and working to extend it till Zhangmu on the Tibet-Nepal border, they would be able to easily bring in long-range missiles at short notice to the frontline at Doka La, Nathu La and Cho La in Sikkim within less than 12 hours. The better road conditions in Tibet compared to Sikkim would enable swifter movement of troops and armoured vehicles. If the 27-km Chicken's Neck corridor south of Siliguri between Phansidewa on the Indo-Bangladesh border and Galgalia on the Indo-Nepal border gets cut off due to Chinese bombardment of road and railway networks, the seven states of the Northeast, northern parts of West Bengal and Sikkim would become an open field for the PLA. Unrest in the Northeast always plays to China's advantage. For more than five decades, insurgent groups there have been supported in some form or the other by China. The very first of these Chinese-sponsored insurgencies was the Naga insurgency in the early 1960s. Naga insurgents were known to have been trained by the PLA in Kunming in China's southwestern Yunnan province. The preferred route for the insurgents to PLA training centres was through areas held by the Kachin Independence Army in northern Myanmar. Political observers saw the beginning of Naga insurgency as a Chinese strategy to wage a proxy tactic against India after the 1962 war. The Chinese smalls arms industry, one of the largest in the world, exports huge quantities of small arms to northern Myanmar, which in turn are smuggled into the Northeast, fuelling agitations and insurgencies. Cut to 2017, the same Kachin Independence Army-held areas still host an estimated 5,000 insurgents of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) of Assam, NSCN (K) of Nagaland and PREPAK, UNLF and PLA of Manipur. The unification of these insurgent groups of the Northeast under an umbrella group called the United Liberation Front of Western Southeast Asia (UNFWSA) was also allegedly facilitated by China. Formed on April 24, 2015, UNFWSA was behind the deadliest attack in Manipur in 30 years, claiming the lives of 18 Indian jawans. For India therefore, securing the Siliguri area, described by many as the 'umbilical cord', would be of utmost priority. So while the Doka La standoff has seemingly ended, India's security concerns over Siliguri would continue to exist. One senior military official says it's time to move the BrahMos missiles to Sikkim as a deterrent: "Like we have moved BrahMos missiles into Arunachal Pradesh, we should move BrahMos and other long-range missiles to Sikkim so that they act as a deterrent against Chinese aggression in this sector."
By Express News Service
VIJAYAWADA: The Health Department has banned the use of two antibiotics, Chloramphenicol and Nitrofurantoin, for shrimp culture in the State. Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas said, No antibiotics are to be used for shrimp culture in the State. He further created a Task Force to look into the issue.Addressing the media, Kamineni said, AP stands for the best production in fisheries and shrimp, which is usually exported to other countries. India ranked first in exporting fish with a share of 37 per cent in the world market. Of the total exports from India, nearly 40-45 percent are from Andhra Pradesh. In order to shore up exports, we have to follow certain parameters, especially in the use of drugs in aquaculture.
Kamineni further said that antibiotics would lead to serious infections among humans, like cancer. Use of antibiotics not only has an impact on our health but also has an impact on the exports, which might lead to a ban on exports from AP. For this, we have to create awareness sessions for farmers to teach them about the harmful effects of these antibiotics. We have also planned to stop the use of unauthorised aqua labs in the State, he added.
For any laboratory, the government is asking to recruit a certified analyst to perform the check-ups. Drug stores which sell medicines for aqua culture need to obtain a licence from the Director General of Drugs. In order to undertake these initiatives, the government constituted a task force committee. The committee will be headed by Commissioner of Fisheries as Chairman and the team will comprise 10 members.
VIJAYAWADA: The Health Department has banned the use of two antibiotics, Chloramphenicol and Nitrofurantoin, for shrimp culture in the State. Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas said, No antibiotics are to be used for shrimp culture in the State. He further created a Task Force to look into the issue.Addressing the media, Kamineni said, AP stands for the best production in fisheries and shrimp, which is usually exported to other countries. India ranked first in exporting fish with a share of 37 per cent in the world market. Of the total exports from India, nearly 40-45 percent are from Andhra Pradesh. In order to shore up exports, we have to follow certain parameters, especially in the use of drugs in aquaculture. Kamineni further said that antibiotics would lead to serious infections among humans, like cancer. Use of antibiotics not only has an impact on our health but also has an impact on the exports, which might lead to a ban on exports from AP. For this, we have to create awareness sessions for farmers to teach them about the harmful effects of these antibiotics. We have also planned to stop the use of unauthorised aqua labs in the State, he added. For any laboratory, the government is asking to recruit a certified analyst to perform the check-ups. Drug stores which sell medicines for aqua culture need to obtain a licence from the Director General of Drugs. In order to undertake these initiatives, the government constituted a task force committee. The committee will be headed by Commissioner of Fisheries as Chairman and the team will comprise 10 members.
By Express News Service
BENGALURU: Thousands of engineering students from colleges affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belagavi, boycotted classes on Friday following the bandh call given by the VTU Students Struggle Committee.
While a majority of the colleges witnessed only about 10 per cent attendance, at a few colleges, faculty members returned home after students did not turn up.
Members of All India Democratic Students Orginsation (AIDSO) and Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had extended support for the bandh. They even staged a protest at Mysore Bank Circle in the city demanding the authorities to fulfill their long-pending demands. Their major demand was for removal of year-back and critical year-back system for non-CBCS (Choice Based Credit System) students and supplementary exams for CBCS students.
A student who took part in the protest said, The results of December 2016 exams was delayed by five months. Also, results of hundreds of students were withheld without any valid reason, and were announced just a few hours before the exam. This uncertainty over results and anomalies in the evaluation process has caused dilemma and anxiety among several students.
Recently, over 1,200 students took out a rally from City Railway station to KR Circle and decided to call for the bandh on September 1.
WATCH VIDEO | Karnataka VTU students protest against critical year back examination system, delayed results
In the year-back system, students cannot be promoted to next year if they fail in more than four subjects. The critical year system mandates that students cannot go to third year if they do not pass their first year papers or cannot enter final year if they do not pass all second year papers.
BENGALURU: Thousands of engineering students from colleges affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belagavi, boycotted classes on Friday following the bandh call given by the VTU Students Struggle Committee. While a majority of the colleges witnessed only about 10 per cent attendance, at a few colleges, faculty members returned home after students did not turn up. Members of All India Democratic Students Orginsation (AIDSO) and Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had extended support for the bandh. They even staged a protest at Mysore Bank Circle in the city demanding the authorities to fulfill their long-pending demands. Their major demand was for removal of year-back and critical year-back system for non-CBCS (Choice Based Credit System) students and supplementary exams for CBCS students. A student who took part in the protest said, The results of December 2016 exams was delayed by five months. Also, results of hundreds of students were withheld without any valid reason, and were announced just a few hours before the exam. This uncertainty over results and anomalies in the evaluation process has caused dilemma and anxiety among several students. Recently, over 1,200 students took out a rally from City Railway station to KR Circle and decided to call for the bandh on September 1. WATCH VIDEO | Karnataka VTU students protest against critical year back examination system, delayed results In the year-back system, students cannot be promoted to next year if they fail in more than four subjects. The critical year system mandates that students cannot go to third year if they do not pass their first year papers or cannot enter final year if they do not pass all second year papers.
Fabu: Which South will it be? The beautiful one or the racist one?
By Express News Service
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The LDF Governments deft move on Onam eve to slash the distance limit for liquor bars from places of worship and educational institutions has stirred up the Opposition UDF and the Congress. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged in a statement the decision is in lieu of favours received in the form of crores from the liquor lobby during the last Assembly polls.The decision vindicates the Opposition charge the Left Government has totally surrendered to liquor barons. The statement of the Excise Minister justifying the decision and billing it for tourism promotion is a joke.
Is it essential to open bars in front of educational institutions for the sake of tourists? Though the government claims the distance has been shortened only for four and five-star hotels, the ulterior motive is to bring three-star hotels too in its purview in due course, he said. Attempts to soak and kill Kerala in liquor will be resisted by the UDF. Intense stirs will come up, he said.
KPCC president M M Hassan said the Chief Minister has proved the governments intention is only to widen the availability of liquor even in front of places of worship and educational institutions after talking loud the Left policy will be aiming for abstinence from liquor. The move to reopen bars on such a wide scale is on the basis of a secret deal entered into by the CPM and bar owners during the last Assembly polls. Heavy corruption is involved. A detailed probe on it is imperative, Hassan said in a statement.
In a Facebook post, former KPCC president V M Sudheeran said the liquor policy of the Left Government and a series of follow-on measures, including the latest order on distance limit, is the fallout of a biggest-ever political corruption in Kerala and called it the governments Onam gift to bar owners.
Govt has given into liquor barons
TPuram: BJP state chief Kummanam Rajasekharan on Friday said the decision to reduce the distance limit for liquor bars will only help to increase the number of young tipplers. The government has surrendered before liquor barons in return for their help received in the Assembly polls. The government stand on bars being more necessary than worship places and educational institutions is dangerous to society. The decision is the fallout of large-scale corruption, Kummanam said in a statement.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The LDF Governments deft move on Onam eve to slash the distance limit for liquor bars from places of worship and educational institutions has stirred up the Opposition UDF and the Congress. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged in a statement the decision is in lieu of favours received in the form of crores from the liquor lobby during the last Assembly polls.The decision vindicates the Opposition charge the Left Government has totally surrendered to liquor barons. The statement of the Excise Minister justifying the decision and billing it for tourism promotion is a joke. Is it essential to open bars in front of educational institutions for the sake of tourists? Though the government claims the distance has been shortened only for four and five-star hotels, the ulterior motive is to bring three-star hotels too in its purview in due course, he said. Attempts to soak and kill Kerala in liquor will be resisted by the UDF. Intense stirs will come up, he said. KPCC president M M Hassan said the Chief Minister has proved the governments intention is only to widen the availability of liquor even in front of places of worship and educational institutions after talking loud the Left policy will be aiming for abstinence from liquor. The move to reopen bars on such a wide scale is on the basis of a secret deal entered into by the CPM and bar owners during the last Assembly polls. Heavy corruption is involved. A detailed probe on it is imperative, Hassan said in a statement. In a Facebook post, former KPCC president V M Sudheeran said the liquor policy of the Left Government and a series of follow-on measures, including the latest order on distance limit, is the fallout of a biggest-ever political corruption in Kerala and called it the governments Onam gift to bar owners. Govt has given into liquor barons TPuram: BJP state chief Kummanam Rajasekharan on Friday said the decision to reduce the distance limit for liquor bars will only help to increase the number of young tipplers. The government has surrendered before liquor barons in return for their help received in the Assembly polls. The government stand on bars being more necessary than worship places and educational institutions is dangerous to society. The decision is the fallout of large-scale corruption, Kummanam said in a statement.
By Express News Service
BHUBANESWAR: Director General (DG) of Indian Coast Guard Rajendra Singh on Friday unveiled the Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft and Dornier Hangar at the Coast Guard Air Enclave here.
The state-of-the-art aviation infrastructure is a part of Coast Guard (CG)s continued initiatives to strengthen maritime and coastal security and the new addition at Bhubaneswar will provide a fillip to the futuristic expansion plan of CGs air arm.
While the aircraft based at Bhubaneswar is actively involved in undertaking reconnaissance for sensitive maritime environment as well as search and rescue missions, the CGs air assets are adequately equipped to swiftly respond to contingencies at extended ranges for safety and security off Odisha coast.
The Air Enclave here is being commanded by Commandant AC Dandekar and the unit comprises 16 officers and 81 men.
During the inauguration, the DG was apprised of various efforts for maintaining high state of vigil off the States coast, search and rescue efforts during natural disasters, besides protection of the maritime environment as well as endangered species off the shoreline.The Coast Guard Air Enclave is actively involved in undertaking air surveillance along Odisha and West Bengal coast. It is currently under the operational control of Commander, Coast Guard Region (North East) who exercises command through Coast Guard State Headquarters at Odisha and West Bengal with an area of responsibility spread over 1.5 lakh square km of Exclusive Economic Zone in the Bay of Bengal. Additional Director General and Commander (Eastern Seaboard) KC Pande and Inspector General Kuldeep Singh Sheoran, Commander (North East) Region were also present.
BHUBANESWAR: Director General (DG) of Indian Coast Guard Rajendra Singh on Friday unveiled the Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft and Dornier Hangar at the Coast Guard Air Enclave here. The state-of-the-art aviation infrastructure is a part of Coast Guard (CG)s continued initiatives to strengthen maritime and coastal security and the new addition at Bhubaneswar will provide a fillip to the futuristic expansion plan of CGs air arm. While the aircraft based at Bhubaneswar is actively involved in undertaking reconnaissance for sensitive maritime environment as well as search and rescue missions, the CGs air assets are adequately equipped to swiftly respond to contingencies at extended ranges for safety and security off Odisha coast. The Air Enclave here is being commanded by Commandant AC Dandekar and the unit comprises 16 officers and 81 men. During the inauguration, the DG was apprised of various efforts for maintaining high state of vigil off the States coast, search and rescue efforts during natural disasters, besides protection of the maritime environment as well as endangered species off the shoreline.The Coast Guard Air Enclave is actively involved in undertaking air surveillance along Odisha and West Bengal coast. It is currently under the operational control of Commander, Coast Guard Region (North East) who exercises command through Coast Guard State Headquarters at Odisha and West Bengal with an area of responsibility spread over 1.5 lakh square km of Exclusive Economic Zone in the Bay of Bengal. Additional Director General and Commander (Eastern Seaboard) KC Pande and Inspector General Kuldeep Singh Sheoran, Commander (North East) Region were also present.
By IANS
MUMBAI: DMK Working President M.K. Stalin asserted on Saturday that his party would never come to power in Tamil Nadu through the "back door" despite there being tremendous political uncertainty in the state.
He insisted that the AIADMK government may collapse any time.
"DMK is not hankering after power. We will not come to power through the back door because a proper government cannot be run in such circumstances. The DMK will never work against democratic norms," he said at a function here.
However, Stalin said there was tremendous uncertainty in Tamil Nadu because of the crisis in the ruling party, raising questions over the stability of the government. "There will surely be a change. Whether the government will last a year or months or even days is the issue. If it falls any moment, there should be no surprise," he said.
He was speaking at the birthday celebrations of a local DMK activist in Mumbai after unveiling a statue of saint-poet Thiruvalluvar in the megapolis.
MUMBAI: DMK Working President M.K. Stalin asserted on Saturday that his party would never come to power in Tamil Nadu through the "back door" despite there being tremendous political uncertainty in the state. He insisted that the AIADMK government may collapse any time. "DMK is not hankering after power. We will not come to power through the back door because a proper government cannot be run in such circumstances. The DMK will never work against democratic norms," he said at a function here. However, Stalin said there was tremendous uncertainty in Tamil Nadu because of the crisis in the ruling party, raising questions over the stability of the government. "There will surely be a change. Whether the government will last a year or months or even days is the issue. If it falls any moment, there should be no surprise," he said. He was speaking at the birthday celebrations of a local DMK activist in Mumbai after unveiling a statue of saint-poet Thiruvalluvar in the megapolis.
By PTI
CHENNAI: Demanding "justice" for the 17-year-old Dalit medical aspirant, political parties, students' bodies and pro-Tamil outfits today hit the streets with many political heavyweights like T T V Dhinakaran making a beeline for the girl's native village to pay their tributes.
Anitha, daughter of a daily wage earner, allegedly hanged herself at her house in Ariyalur district of the state yesterday. She was reportedly upset after it became known that Tamil Nadu will not be exempted from the ambit of National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET).
She had moved the Supreme Court against NEET-based medical examinations in the southern state.
Road and rail blockades and attempts to picket government offices were organised by protesters, even as the BJP and the ruling AIADMK came under severe criticism.
Some students tried to stage a protest on Greenways Road near Chief Minister K Palaniswami's house here but were detained by police.
Some activists also raised slogans against lawyer Nalini, wife of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, who had represented pro-NEET students in the court.
The CPI(M) and its student and youth affiliates, SFI and DYFI, staged a road blockade here over the suicide of the girl. The party's state unit secretary G Ramakrishnan and many others were detained, police said.
#WATCH: Villagers in Ariyalur district's Kulumur protest over death of #Anitha who appealed against NEET in SC, demand justice #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/m658uINM29 ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
At Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli district, a "wailing protest" was held by women members of pro-Tamil 'Naam Tamizhar Katchi'. Protests were also held at Coimbatore, Salem and Rameswaram by students' and youth outfits who demanded justice for the girl and sought immediate withdrawal of NEET.
Similarly, VCK party workers were held when they staged a road blockade at Kilpauk here.
Hundreds of students and workers of various political parties and organisations were arrested at Coimbatore when they attempted to stage agitation on the issue.
A few students asked the Tamil Nadu government to take moral responsibility and step down from office and sought a judicial inquiry into the incident, police said.
A group of workers belonging to Viduthalai Chiruthigal Katchi (VCK) assembled near Gandhipuram bus stand, blocked the road and raised slogans against the government and sought an exemption for Tamil Nadu from NEET.
Some workers also attempted to burn an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Coimbatore, but the police prevented them. Police arrested 11 persons in this connection.
Protests were also held in Salem, Madurai and Rameswaram by students' and youth outfits who demanded justice for the girl and sought immediate withdrawal of NEET.
Meanwhile, Anitha's mortal remains were kept at her native village in Ariyalur for the public to pay tributes. Among others, Dhinakaran, VCK founder Thol Thirumavalavan, DK leader K Veeramani and a host of social activists, cinema personalities and others paid tributes.
Some locals also raised slogans against Dhinakaran when he arrived at the girl's native village. Some of them claimed they opposed his visit as "he is part of the (ruling) AIADMK."
Dhinakaran later said that despite scoring "high marks" of 1176 out of 1200, Anitha could not get a medical seat.
"In the interest of the people of Tamil Nadu, Central government should cancel NEET," he said.
Traders had also shut down shops in Ariyalur.
At the receiving end for the teen's suicide, the BJP said NEET was a "pan-India issue" and that its admissions were based on the merit lits following a Supreme Court verdict.
NEET is being held in Tamil Nadu following the apex court order, BJP state President Tamilisai Sounderrajan said even as she regretted the death of Anitha.
She claimed rural students have benefited more from NEET and that they have been highlighting the three attempts in the exam.
"Let this not be highlighted as brutal politics. State BJP wants no more Anithas," she said.
Union Minister of State, Pon Radhakrishnan said Anitha's death has caused "unbearable pain."
Condoling her death, he also expressed sympathies with her family.
He further exhorted children to face their future with mental grit and urged politicians, activists and others to make encouraging remarks for children.
Senior AIADMK leader and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai said his party was not in favour of NEET and expressed regret over Anitha committing suicide.
"She could have avoided taking the step," he said.
The apex court had last month asked the state government to start counselling for admissions to MBBS and BDS seats in the state based on NEET merit list.
It had given the directive after Centre told the court that it was not in favour of a recent ordinance passed by the state to exempt it from NEET this year.
Political leaders including DMK working president M K Stalin and VCK founder Thol Thirumavalavan and actors Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth, among others, had condoled Anitha's death.
Political parties and other outfits in Tamil Nadu are opposed to NEET, saying it will affect rural students.
Early this year, the state assembly had unanimously adopted two resolutions to ensure for the continuation of medical admissions in the state based on Class XII marks and not through an entrance exam, as envisaged by NEET.
CHENNAI: Demanding "justice" for the 17-year-old Dalit medical aspirant, political parties, students' bodies and pro-Tamil outfits today hit the streets with many political heavyweights like T T V Dhinakaran making a beeline for the girl's native village to pay their tributes. Anitha, daughter of a daily wage earner, allegedly hanged herself at her house in Ariyalur district of the state yesterday. She was reportedly upset after it became known that Tamil Nadu will not be exempted from the ambit of National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET). She had moved the Supreme Court against NEET-based medical examinations in the southern state. Road and rail blockades and attempts to picket government offices were organised by protesters, even as the BJP and the ruling AIADMK came under severe criticism. Some students tried to stage a protest on Greenways Road near Chief Minister K Palaniswami's house here but were detained by police. Some activists also raised slogans against lawyer Nalini, wife of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, who had represented pro-NEET students in the court. The CPI(M) and its student and youth affiliates, SFI and DYFI, staged a road blockade here over the suicide of the girl. The party's state unit secretary G Ramakrishnan and many others were detained, police said. #WATCH: Villagers in Ariyalur district's Kulumur protest over death of #Anitha who appealed against NEET in SC, demand justice #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/m658uINM29 ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017 At Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli district, a "wailing protest" was held by women members of pro-Tamil 'Naam Tamizhar Katchi'. Protests were also held at Coimbatore, Salem and Rameswaram by students' and youth outfits who demanded justice for the girl and sought immediate withdrawal of NEET. Similarly, VCK party workers were held when they staged a road blockade at Kilpauk here. Hundreds of students and workers of various political parties and organisations were arrested at Coimbatore when they attempted to stage agitation on the issue. A few students asked the Tamil Nadu government to take moral responsibility and step down from office and sought a judicial inquiry into the incident, police said. A group of workers belonging to Viduthalai Chiruthigal Katchi (VCK) assembled near Gandhipuram bus stand, blocked the road and raised slogans against the government and sought an exemption for Tamil Nadu from NEET. Some workers also attempted to burn an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Coimbatore, but the police prevented them. Police arrested 11 persons in this connection. Protests were also held in Salem, Madurai and Rameswaram by students' and youth outfits who demanded justice for the girl and sought immediate withdrawal of NEET. Meanwhile, Anitha's mortal remains were kept at her native village in Ariyalur for the public to pay tributes. Among others, Dhinakaran, VCK founder Thol Thirumavalavan, DK leader K Veeramani and a host of social activists, cinema personalities and others paid tributes. Some locals also raised slogans against Dhinakaran when he arrived at the girl's native village. Some of them claimed they opposed his visit as "he is part of the (ruling) AIADMK." Dhinakaran later said that despite scoring "high marks" of 1176 out of 1200, Anitha could not get a medical seat. "In the interest of the people of Tamil Nadu, Central government should cancel NEET," he said. Traders had also shut down shops in Ariyalur. At the receiving end for the teen's suicide, the BJP said NEET was a "pan-India issue" and that its admissions were based on the merit lits following a Supreme Court verdict. NEET is being held in Tamil Nadu following the apex court order, BJP state President Tamilisai Sounderrajan said even as she regretted the death of Anitha. She claimed rural students have benefited more from NEET and that they have been highlighting the three attempts in the exam. "Let this not be highlighted as brutal politics. State BJP wants no more Anithas," she said. Union Minister of State, Pon Radhakrishnan said Anitha's death has caused "unbearable pain." Condoling her death, he also expressed sympathies with her family. He further exhorted children to face their future with mental grit and urged politicians, activists and others to make encouraging remarks for children. Senior AIADMK leader and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai said his party was not in favour of NEET and expressed regret over Anitha committing suicide. "She could have avoided taking the step," he said. The apex court had last month asked the state government to start counselling for admissions to MBBS and BDS seats in the state based on NEET merit list. It had given the directive after Centre told the court that it was not in favour of a recent ordinance passed by the state to exempt it from NEET this year. Political leaders including DMK working president M K Stalin and VCK founder Thol Thirumavalavan and actors Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth, among others, had condoled Anitha's death. Political parties and other outfits in Tamil Nadu are opposed to NEET, saying it will affect rural students. Early this year, the state assembly had unanimously adopted two resolutions to ensure for the continuation of medical admissions in the state based on Class XII marks and not through an entrance exam, as envisaged by NEET.
By AFP
KARACHI: Unknown gunmen Saturday killed a 10-year-old boy and a guard and wounded four others when they fired at an opposition politician in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, police said.
The attack took place in the central Buffer Zone district when Khawaja Izharul Hassan from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was hugging people after an Eid al-Adha prayer gathering but he was unharmed, senior police official Zulfiqar Larak told AFP.
"Unknown gunmen opened fire on Khawaja Izharul Hassan when he was meeting people after Eid prayers. His guard and a boy, about 10 years old, were killed while four others were including another guard were wounded in the firing," Larak said.
Another senior police official, Pir Mohammad Shah, confirmed the shooting and said one of the gunmen was also killed when Hassan's second guard, who was also wounded in the attack, fired back.
He said the attackers came in police uniforms so they were able to pass through various check points unhindered.
MQM leader Farooq Sattar condemned the shooting and criticised federal and provincial governments for not providing adequate security to opposition politicians despite threats from banned sectarian militant outfits.
"I strongly condemn this attack on Khawaja Izharul Hassan," Farooq said.
"My party colleagues and myself are facing threats from banned sectarian militant outfits and other organisations but federal and provincial governments have failed to provide us adequate security."
Karachi, Pakistan's largest city with more than 14 million inhabitants and a major business and industrial hub, is rife with political, sectarian and ethnic militancy.
A strategic operation in the city by security forces in recent years has brought a lull in violence, but scattered attacks still take place.
KARACHI: Unknown gunmen Saturday killed a 10-year-old boy and a guard and wounded four others when they fired at an opposition politician in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, police said. The attack took place in the central Buffer Zone district when Khawaja Izharul Hassan from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was hugging people after an Eid al-Adha prayer gathering but he was unharmed, senior police official Zulfiqar Larak told AFP. "Unknown gunmen opened fire on Khawaja Izharul Hassan when he was meeting people after Eid prayers. His guard and a boy, about 10 years old, were killed while four others were including another guard were wounded in the firing," Larak said. Another senior police official, Pir Mohammad Shah, confirmed the shooting and said one of the gunmen was also killed when Hassan's second guard, who was also wounded in the attack, fired back. He said the attackers came in police uniforms so they were able to pass through various check points unhindered. MQM leader Farooq Sattar condemned the shooting and criticised federal and provincial governments for not providing adequate security to opposition politicians despite threats from banned sectarian militant outfits. "I strongly condemn this attack on Khawaja Izharul Hassan," Farooq said. "My party colleagues and myself are facing threats from banned sectarian militant outfits and other organisations but federal and provincial governments have failed to provide us adequate security." Karachi, Pakistan's largest city with more than 14 million inhabitants and a major business and industrial hub, is rife with political, sectarian and ethnic militancy. A strategic operation in the city by security forces in recent years has brought a lull in violence, but scattered attacks still take place.
By AFP
MOSCOW: Russia on Saturday summoned the top US envoy in Moscow to protest a search it says American officials are planning at a diplomatic facility in Washington that is due to be shuttered.
The foreign ministry said it called in acting US mission head Anthony Godfrey and handed him a "note of protest over the intention of the American authorities to conduct a search" at a Russian trade representation.
"We consider the planned illegitimate search of the Russian diplomatic premises without the presence of Russian officials and a threat to break down the front door as an unprecedented, aggressive act," a statement said.
"It could be used by the US intelligence services to organise an anti-Russian provocation involving planting compromising materials."
The trade facility in Washington is one of three diplomatic buildings -- including the consulate in San Francisco and an office in New York -- that the US has ordered Moscow to vacate by Saturday in the latest twist in a tit-for-tat feud.
The foreign ministry alleged Friday that US intelligence agents were planning to search the consulate in San Francisco.
Black smoke was seen pouring from the chimney of the consulate on Friday and firefighters confirmed its occupants were burning unidentified objects.
A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry said the smoke was due to measures being taken to "preserve the building" as officials were preparing to leave.
MOSCOW: Russia on Saturday summoned the top US envoy in Moscow to protest a search it says American officials are planning at a diplomatic facility in Washington that is due to be shuttered. The foreign ministry said it called in acting US mission head Anthony Godfrey and handed him a "note of protest over the intention of the American authorities to conduct a search" at a Russian trade representation. "We consider the planned illegitimate search of the Russian diplomatic premises without the presence of Russian officials and a threat to break down the front door as an unprecedented, aggressive act," a statement said. "It could be used by the US intelligence services to organise an anti-Russian provocation involving planting compromising materials." The trade facility in Washington is one of three diplomatic buildings -- including the consulate in San Francisco and an office in New York -- that the US has ordered Moscow to vacate by Saturday in the latest twist in a tit-for-tat feud. The foreign ministry alleged Friday that US intelligence agents were planning to search the consulate in San Francisco. Black smoke was seen pouring from the chimney of the consulate on Friday and firefighters confirmed its occupants were burning unidentified objects. A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry said the smoke was due to measures being taken to "preserve the building" as officials were preparing to leave.
By PTI
WASHINGTON: A 22-year-old Sikh software engineering student has been stabbed to death in his taxi allegedly by an American student who was upset over not getting admission into a university, media reports said.
Gagandeep Singh, a third year student who was also working as a taxi driver, was allegedly attacked by the 19year-old passenger he had picked up at Spokane International Airport in Washington State on August 28, NBC affiliate KHQ reported.
The Bonner County Sheriff's Office in Idaho identified the defendant as Jacob Coleman, who was charged with firstdegree murder in the death of Singh.
Coleman is said to have flown from Seattle to Spokane to start as a new student at Gonzaga University in Spokane, but upon arrival he was denied entry, according to a statement from the sheriff's office.
But "he became angry and began to have homicidal thoughts," police said, after claiming he was denied entry to Gonzaga University, a private Catholic school in Spokane.
The university said it "has no record of an application"
from Coleman and that it was cooperating with law enforcement, the report said.
Coleman reportedly left, hailed a taxi and asked Singh to drive him to a fictitious friend's house in Bonner County, Idaho.
Coleman later admitted that during the journey he "became homicidal" and bought a knife during a stop at a shop, police said.
Singh later stopped his car in the city of Kootenai after realising he had been sent to an erroneous location. That's when Singh was stabbed multiple times with the knife Coleman allegedly bought at the store, according to the sheriff's office and a criminal complaint.
Singh, originally from Jalandhar in Punjab, had been living in Washington state since 2003.
"He was talking to my mom, he was a little nervous," his older brother Balgit Singh said on Tuesday. They had spoken over the phone. "That was the last call from our family. So my mom's like 'well, if he already paid you just drop him off another ten miles.'"
He said they lost contact with him soon afterward and called 911, KREM2.com reported.
There have been a number of attacks targeting IndianAmericans and Sikhs in the recent months in the US.
In July, two Sikh Americans were killed in two separate incidents in one week in California.
In March, a 39-year-old Sikh man was shot in the arm outside his home in Kent, Washington, by a partially-masked gunman who shouted "go back to your own country".
WASHINGTON: A 22-year-old Sikh software engineering student has been stabbed to death in his taxi allegedly by an American student who was upset over not getting admission into a university, media reports said. Gagandeep Singh, a third year student who was also working as a taxi driver, was allegedly attacked by the 19year-old passenger he had picked up at Spokane International Airport in Washington State on August 28, NBC affiliate KHQ reported. The Bonner County Sheriff's Office in Idaho identified the defendant as Jacob Coleman, who was charged with firstdegree murder in the death of Singh. Coleman is said to have flown from Seattle to Spokane to start as a new student at Gonzaga University in Spokane, but upon arrival he was denied entry, according to a statement from the sheriff's office. But "he became angry and began to have homicidal thoughts," police said, after claiming he was denied entry to Gonzaga University, a private Catholic school in Spokane. The university said it "has no record of an application" from Coleman and that it was cooperating with law enforcement, the report said. Coleman reportedly left, hailed a taxi and asked Singh to drive him to a fictitious friend's house in Bonner County, Idaho. Coleman later admitted that during the journey he "became homicidal" and bought a knife during a stop at a shop, police said. Singh later stopped his car in the city of Kootenai after realising he had been sent to an erroneous location. That's when Singh was stabbed multiple times with the knife Coleman allegedly bought at the store, according to the sheriff's office and a criminal complaint. Singh, originally from Jalandhar in Punjab, had been living in Washington state since 2003. "He was talking to my mom, he was a little nervous," his older brother Balgit Singh said on Tuesday. They had spoken over the phone. "That was the last call from our family. So my mom's like 'well, if he already paid you just drop him off another ten miles.'" He said they lost contact with him soon afterward and called 911, KREM2.com reported. There have been a number of attacks targeting IndianAmericans and Sikhs in the recent months in the US. In July, two Sikh Americans were killed in two separate incidents in one week in California. In March, a 39-year-old Sikh man was shot in the arm outside his home in Kent, Washington, by a partially-masked gunman who shouted "go back to your own country".
By IANS
ISLAMABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) senior leader Khwaja Izharul Hassan escaped an assassination attempt on Saturday in the southern port city of Karachi while he was coming out of a mosque after offering Eid prayers.
A child and one of Hassan's security guards were killed in the attack which took place in the city's Bufferzone area. Hassan, who is also the leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, was unhurt, Dawn online reported.
Four others were injured in the attack, according to police officials.
Four assailants on two motorcycles opened fire on the MQM-P leader outside the mosque, said Deputy Inspector General Police Zulfiqar Ali Larik.
"They were wearing helmets and were garbed in police uniforms," Hassan said, adding that the assailants opened fire right after they saw him exiting the prayer area.
Police said one of the assailants was shot dead in retaliatory firing and they had recovered the shell of a 9mm pistol bullet as well as a motorcycle used by them.
Condemnations poured in from provincial lawmakers soon after the attack. The city's police chief was also directed to submit a report on the matter.
MQM-P supremo Farooq Sattar later said in a press conference that the provincial government cannot be absolved of responsibility in the incident.
"What if the leader of the opposition had been killed? What would have the city's situation been like?" he said. "Already, people are frustrated with the way Karachi was completely neglected in the aftermath of the [recent] rains."
ISLAMABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) senior leader Khwaja Izharul Hassan escaped an assassination attempt on Saturday in the southern port city of Karachi while he was coming out of a mosque after offering Eid prayers. A child and one of Hassan's security guards were killed in the attack which took place in the city's Bufferzone area. Hassan, who is also the leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, was unhurt, Dawn online reported. Four others were injured in the attack, according to police officials. Four assailants on two motorcycles opened fire on the MQM-P leader outside the mosque, said Deputy Inspector General Police Zulfiqar Ali Larik. "They were wearing helmets and were garbed in police uniforms," Hassan said, adding that the assailants opened fire right after they saw him exiting the prayer area. Police said one of the assailants was shot dead in retaliatory firing and they had recovered the shell of a 9mm pistol bullet as well as a motorcycle used by them. Condemnations poured in from provincial lawmakers soon after the attack. The city's police chief was also directed to submit a report on the matter. MQM-P supremo Farooq Sattar later said in a press conference that the provincial government cannot be absolved of responsibility in the incident. "What if the leader of the opposition had been killed? What would have the city's situation been like?" he said. "Already, people are frustrated with the way Karachi was completely neglected in the aftermath of the [recent] rains."
By PTI
ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today accused Myanmar of "genocide" against the Rohingya Muslim minority, who have fled in the tens of thousands across the border into Bangladesh to escape ethnic violence.
"There is a genocide there," Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul during the Islamic Eid al-Adha feast, which commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son.
"Those who close their eyes to this genocide perpetuated under the cover of democracy are its collaborators".
Around 400 people -- most of them Rohingya Muslims -- have died in violence searing through Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine state, the army chief's office said today.
Reports of massacres and the systematic torching of villages by security forces -- as well as by militants -- have further amplified tensions, raising fears that communal violence in Rakhine is spinning out of control.
To escape the violence, about 20,000 Rohingya have massed along the Bangladeshi frontier, barred from entering the South Asian country, while scores of desperate people have drowned attempting to cross the Naf, a border river, in makeshift boats.
Erdogan said he would bring up the issue at the next UN General Assembly in New York later this month, adding that he had already talked to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other Muslim leaders.
According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Bangladeshi authorities to "open your doors," adding that the country would cover the costs associated with letting in more Rohingya.
Bangladesh already hosts 400,000 Rohingya and does not want more.
"We have called upon the Organization of Islamic Cooperation," Cavusoglu said. "We will organise a summit this year" on the issue. "We have to find a definitive solution to this problem".
The UN Security Council met behind closed doors on Wednesday to discuss the violence, but there was no formal statement on the crisis.
Today, Guterres said he was "deeply concerned" by the situation in Myanmar and called for "restraint and calm to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe".
The Rohingya are reviled in Myanmar, where the roughly one million-strong community are accused of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today accused Myanmar of "genocide" against the Rohingya Muslim minority, who have fled in the tens of thousands across the border into Bangladesh to escape ethnic violence. "There is a genocide there," Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul during the Islamic Eid al-Adha feast, which commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son. "Those who close their eyes to this genocide perpetuated under the cover of democracy are its collaborators". Around 400 people -- most of them Rohingya Muslims -- have died in violence searing through Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine state, the army chief's office said today. Reports of massacres and the systematic torching of villages by security forces -- as well as by militants -- have further amplified tensions, raising fears that communal violence in Rakhine is spinning out of control. To escape the violence, about 20,000 Rohingya have massed along the Bangladeshi frontier, barred from entering the South Asian country, while scores of desperate people have drowned attempting to cross the Naf, a border river, in makeshift boats. Erdogan said he would bring up the issue at the next UN General Assembly in New York later this month, adding that he had already talked to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other Muslim leaders. According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Bangladeshi authorities to "open your doors," adding that the country would cover the costs associated with letting in more Rohingya. Bangladesh already hosts 400,000 Rohingya and does not want more. "We have called upon the Organization of Islamic Cooperation," Cavusoglu said. "We will organise a summit this year" on the issue. "We have to find a definitive solution to this problem". The UN Security Council met behind closed doors on Wednesday to discuss the violence, but there was no formal statement on the crisis. Today, Guterres said he was "deeply concerned" by the situation in Myanmar and called for "restraint and calm to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe". The Rohingya are reviled in Myanmar, where the roughly one million-strong community are accused of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
By Associated Press
TOKYO: British Prime Minister Theresa May sought to reassure Japanese business leaders about Brexit on Thursday, while also joining Japan in calling on China to use its influence to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons and missile development.
May, whose visit came shortly after North Korea launched a missile over Japan, said the global condemnation of the launch needs to be matched with action.
"China does have a particular position in this, they have leverage on North Korea and I believe that we should be encouraging China to exercise that leverage," she said at a joint news conference after talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The British leader said she and Abe had agreed to work with others to step up pressure on North Korea, including a speeding-up of the implementation of sanctions.
On Brexit, May said she is seeking to lay the foundation to take the trade and investment relationship with Japan to "a whole new level" as the U.K. leaves the European Union.
"This is a formative period in shaping the future of my country," she said in remarks earlier to a Japan-U.K. business forum.
She pledged that Britain would deepen trade relations and become even more outward-looking post-Brexit. "There are few places where the opportunities of doing so are greater than Japan, the third-largest economy in the world," she said.
Some Japanese companies with factories in the United Kingdom are worried about their ability to export to the rest of Europe after Brexit. Britain voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, and triggered the formal two-year exit process in March.
May, on her first visit to Japan as prime minister, boarded a Japanese warship and attended a meeting of Japan's National Security Council to underscore her country's deepening security ties with Japan.
She and Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera met on the Izumo at a naval base in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo.
"My visit today is a sign of the growing cooperation and partnership that we have on defense matters," May said in comments broadcast on Japanese TV.
May noted that U.K. Typhoon fighter jets took part in a joint drill in Japan last year, the first country other than the U.S. to do so, and that British troops will join an exercise in Japan next year for the first time.
TOKYO: British Prime Minister Theresa May sought to reassure Japanese business leaders about Brexit on Thursday, while also joining Japan in calling on China to use its influence to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons and missile development. May, whose visit came shortly after North Korea launched a missile over Japan, said the global condemnation of the launch needs to be matched with action. "China does have a particular position in this, they have leverage on North Korea and I believe that we should be encouraging China to exercise that leverage," she said at a joint news conference after talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The British leader said she and Abe had agreed to work with others to step up pressure on North Korea, including a speeding-up of the implementation of sanctions. On Brexit, May said she is seeking to lay the foundation to take the trade and investment relationship with Japan to "a whole new level" as the U.K. leaves the European Union. "This is a formative period in shaping the future of my country," she said in remarks earlier to a Japan-U.K. business forum. She pledged that Britain would deepen trade relations and become even more outward-looking post-Brexit. "There are few places where the opportunities of doing so are greater than Japan, the third-largest economy in the world," she said. Some Japanese companies with factories in the United Kingdom are worried about their ability to export to the rest of Europe after Brexit. Britain voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, and triggered the formal two-year exit process in March. May, on her first visit to Japan as prime minister, boarded a Japanese warship and attended a meeting of Japan's National Security Council to underscore her country's deepening security ties with Japan. She and Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera met on the Izumo at a naval base in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo. "My visit today is a sign of the growing cooperation and partnership that we have on defense matters," May said in comments broadcast on Japanese TV. May noted that U.K. Typhoon fighter jets took part in a joint drill in Japan last year, the first country other than the U.S. to do so, and that British troops will join an exercise in Japan next year for the first time.
Garrison Keillor: How did we get here anyway?
By AFP
The UN Security Council will vote Tuesday on a draft resolution presented by France that would set up a sanctions regime for Mali, the council's Ethiopian presidency said Saturday.
The move is backed by Mali's government, which earlier told the council that repeated ceasefire violations by jihadists threatened to derail a 2015 peace agreement ending years of fighting with the insurgents in the north.
Islamist jihadists took over territory in northern Mali in 2012, but were driven out by a French-led military intervention in January 2013.
Mali's government signed a peace agreement with coalitions of armed groups in June 2015 to end the fighting, but insurgents remain active, including in central Mali.
France last month circulated the proposed resolution on establishing a committee tasked with setting up the UN sanctions blacklist, as fears grow that the West African country is sliding back into turmoil.
Russia, a veto-wielding council member, had expressed reservations about the proposal.
"We are always against the sanctions regime, especially in this particular situation, when one of the parties to the agreement on peace and reconciliation asks for sanctions against the other two parties," said Russian Deputy Ambassador Petr Iliichev on Friday.
"When one party asks for another (to be sanctioned), we can expect a collapse of this agreement," he added.
Ethiopia, which holds the council presidency this month, scheduled the vote for 10 am (1400 GMT) on Tuesday, at France's request.
Diplomats said they expected the measure to be adopted following talks with the Bamako government.
The resolution would set up a sanctions committee made up of all Security Council members to designate individuals and entities the United Nations would blacklist.
Those on the list would be subject to a global travel ban and an assets freeze.
No names have been submitted, but the draft text states that those who obstruct or delay the peace agreement implementation, block aid deliveries, or attack UN peacekeepers can be blacklisted.
Insurgents have repeatedly attacked the UN peacekeeping force in Mali, which is considered the world's most dangerous UN mission.
Four armed groups active in Mali are already on a separate UN sanctions blacklist for their ties to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Mali and four neighboring countries -- Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger -- are organizing a counterterrorism force to fight jihadists in the Sahel, a region France has warned could become a haven for extremists.
In the latest attack to shake the region, gunmen opened fire on a restaurant in the Burkina Faso capital of Ouagadougou on August 14, killing 19 people including several foreigners.
The UN Security Council will vote Tuesday on a draft resolution presented by France that would set up a sanctions regime for Mali, the council's Ethiopian presidency said Saturday. The move is backed by Mali's government, which earlier told the council that repeated ceasefire violations by jihadists threatened to derail a 2015 peace agreement ending years of fighting with the insurgents in the north. Islamist jihadists took over territory in northern Mali in 2012, but were driven out by a French-led military intervention in January 2013. Mali's government signed a peace agreement with coalitions of armed groups in June 2015 to end the fighting, but insurgents remain active, including in central Mali. France last month circulated the proposed resolution on establishing a committee tasked with setting up the UN sanctions blacklist, as fears grow that the West African country is sliding back into turmoil. Russia, a veto-wielding council member, had expressed reservations about the proposal. "We are always against the sanctions regime, especially in this particular situation, when one of the parties to the agreement on peace and reconciliation asks for sanctions against the other two parties," said Russian Deputy Ambassador Petr Iliichev on Friday. "When one party asks for another (to be sanctioned), we can expect a collapse of this agreement," he added. Ethiopia, which holds the council presidency this month, scheduled the vote for 10 am (1400 GMT) on Tuesday, at France's request. Diplomats said they expected the measure to be adopted following talks with the Bamako government. The resolution would set up a sanctions committee made up of all Security Council members to designate individuals and entities the United Nations would blacklist. Those on the list would be subject to a global travel ban and an assets freeze. No names have been submitted, but the draft text states that those who obstruct or delay the peace agreement implementation, block aid deliveries, or attack UN peacekeepers can be blacklisted. Insurgents have repeatedly attacked the UN peacekeeping force in Mali, which is considered the world's most dangerous UN mission. Four armed groups active in Mali are already on a separate UN sanctions blacklist for their ties to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Mali and four neighboring countries -- Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger -- are organizing a counterterrorism force to fight jihadists in the Sahel, a region France has warned could become a haven for extremists. In the latest attack to shake the region, gunmen opened fire on a restaurant in the Burkina Faso capital of Ouagadougou on August 14, killing 19 people including several foreigners.
Portsmouth, Middletown headed to Super Bowls. How they did it.
While Portsmouth and Middletown will play for championships, Rogers will be left out following semifinal loss.
A gender discrimination lawsuit filed by teacher Caroline Hickethier against the School District of Cornell will be heard in Eau Claire County court on Monday, Oct. 29, 2018, according to a filing Tuesday.
Hickethier filed the lawsuit June 29 in the Western District branch of Federal Court in Madison. She teaches English in grades 6-12 and has taught 29 years at either the Cornell Middle or High School.
We dont feel we are liable for anything, Cornell Superintendent Paul Schley said Wednesday.
In the lawsuit, Hickethier claims she is receiving compensation significantly less than male teachers of comparable seniority despite the fact that (Hickethier) performs equal works in teaching positions that require equal skill, effort and responsibility and which are performed under equal working conditions.
In a filing on Aug. 2, the district denies that allegation and several others made by Hickethier. The district maintains Hickethiers claims may be barred by the statute of limitations; that Hickethiers suit failed to state a claim where there claim can be awarded; and that she doesnt perform equal work when compared with two male teachers cited as examples in the lawsuit.
(Hickethier) does not have the same licensure/certification and is not required to perform the same (job) as the (two male teachers) she identifies, the district said.
According to the lawsuit and the reply from the school district:
Hickethier, heading into her 30rd year in the district, has an undergraduate degree in English and a Masters degree in education, along with 27 graduate credits in her teaching area.
Degree-related advantages are counted in teacher compensation for those hired before the passage of the 2011 Wisconsin Act. 10.
Teachers qualifying under the old system are given consideration for degrees, seniority and credits in decisions regarding their salaries.
For the 2015-16 school year, Hickethier was paid $58,016.15, plus $529 for being an advisor to students.
In that same year two male teachers, Richard Erickson and Steven Parker, received salaries of $65,587.15 and $67,0000 respectively, the lawsuit says.
Erickson teaches agriculture education and has been with the district for 32 years. He has a bachelors degree.
The lawsuit said the district increased Ericksons salary by $17,400 because he did not have the districts medical benefit.
Parker was a new hire in 2015 from an adjacent school district where he had taught for 18 years. He was classified as a new hire, notwithstanding his years in teaching before Act 10. Parker started with a base salary in 2015 of $67,000, which was $8.983.85 higher than (Hickethier) with identical benefits.
For the 2016-2017 school year, Hickethier was paid a $59,000 salary based on part on her seniority, $2,800 for credits and $2,500 for her Masters. But Erickson was paid $67,100 and Parkers salary was raised to $69,000.
The school district said Hickethier was paid $59,000, which she received in addition to taking cash for not taking the districts health insurance.
For the 2017-18 school year, the Cornell School District proposed paying Hickethier the same as the previous school year, even though a supervisor of hers at first proposed giving her a raise to $59,750 if the school board approved.
This proposed wage increase was withdrawn by (the school district) when (Hickethier) complained of the discrimination against her based on gender. The current proposal is to pay (Hickethier) a salary of $58,800. Thats with a base salary of $38,000, $12,000 for her 29 years of seniority, $6,300 for her credits; and $2,500 for her Masters. The total is a decrease of $200 from the previous school year.
Hickethier receives whats called a cash replacement of $16,500 for not participating in the school districts group health insurance plan, but unlike Erickson, that amount is not built into her salary.
The school district, however, says the total compensation Erickson receives is actually less than Hickethier.
When (Hickethier) complained of discrimination, Schley asked the school board to terminate its long-standing practice of publishing teacher salaries, but the motion to do so remains pending, the lawsuit said.
The payment of additional compensation to Parker and Erickson is sex discrimination in employment in violation of the Equal Pay Act, the lawsuit said.
The school district replies: The difference in pay between (Hickethier) and the two (teachers she names) are the result of factors other than (gender).
Hickethier is asking for double the difference of her salary and that of Parker, and for the court to mandate that the amount she received for opting out of the districts health insurance plan since 2015 be applied as salary until she retires. She is asking for an order prohibiting the school district from retaliating against her because of the lawsuit.
Hickethier is represented by the legal firm of Lommen Abdo of Minneapolis. The school district is represented by the Madison law firm of Axley Brynelson, LLP.
At the BRICS Summit, looking forward to building upon the results & outcomes of the Goa Summit last year.
Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 2, 2017
India attaches high importance to BRICS, which has begun a 2nd decade of its partnership for progress and peace. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 2, 2017
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday took to social media to to say he was looking forward to "productive" discussions at the BRICS summit which will start in China from Sunday.He also said he would be visiting Myanmar after the BRICS summit, and hoped it would deepen bilateral cooperation.Prime Minister Modi will be in China for the BRICS summit from September 3-5, and will be in Myanmar from September 5-7."India had the privilege of hosting the previous Summit in Goa in October last year. I look forward to building upon the results and outcomes of the Goa Summit. I also look forward to productive discussions and positive outcomes that will support the agenda of a stronger BRICS partnership under the chairmanship of China," Modi said on Facebook, as quoted by IANS."We will also interact with the BRICS Business Council represented by captains of industry from all five countries. In addition, I look forward to engaging with leaders of nine other countries, including BRICS partners, in an Emerging Markets and Developing Countries Dialogue, hosted by President Xi Jinping on September 5," he added.Modi said he will also meet leaders bilaterally on the sidelines of the summit.Modi is likely to have a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit, which comes shortly after a period of increased tension following a two-and-half month long standoff between their forces in Doklam, along the Sikkim border, and a scuffle between their troops in Ladakh on August 15."India attaches high importance to the role of BRICS that has begun a second decade of its partnership for progress and peace. BRICS has important contributions to make in addressing global challenges and upholding world peace and security," Modi said.In another post he mentioned his visit to Myanmar, and said he is looking forward to meeting President U Htin Kyaw as also Foreign Affairs Minister Aung San Suu Kyi.Modi said during the visit, the two sides will review developments in bilateral relations, especially the extensive programme of development cooperation and socio-economic assistance that India is undertaking in Myanmar. New areas to work together will also be explored."We will also look at strengthening our existing cooperation on security and counter-terrorism, trade and investment, skill development, infrastructure and energy, and culture," Modi said.The Prime Minister added he is looking forward to visiting the famed heritage city of Bagan, where the Archaeological Survey of India has renovated the Ananda Temple, and will be undertaking further restoration work on a number of pagodas and murals that were damaged in last year's earthquake."I will end my visit in Yangon, where I look forward to visiting various historical spots that symbolise the shared heritage of India and Myanmar. I am also keen to meet and interact with the Indian-origin community of Myanmar, whose history goes back more than a century," he said."I am confident that the visit will open a bright new chapter in India-Myanmar relations and will help in charting a roadmap for closer cooperation between our governments, our business communities and at the people-to-people level," Modi added.(With IANS inputs)
New Delhi: A Bharatiya Janata Party leader was shot dead in Uttar Pradeshs Ghaziabad on Saturday.
According to reports, BJP leader Gajendra Bhati was shot dead by unknown assailants in broad daylight in Khora Colony area of Ghaziabad. The assailants managed to escape after the shooting.
While police has reached the site, not much in known about the shooting at this time.
Bhati and his friend Balbir Singh Chouhan were on a motorcycle in Khora colony when the two bike-borne attackers came near them and opened fire, City Superintendent of Police Arun Kumar Singh told PTI.
The two were rushed to a private hospital in neighbouring Noida where doctors pronounced Bhati dead on arrival, he said, adding Chouhan, who was critically injured, is undergoing treatment in the hospital.
This comes just two days after UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited Ghaziabad city to review the law and order situation there. The UP CM has been receiving flak for his handling of the law and order situation which his critics say is deteriorating.
This is not the first incident of a local BJP leader being shot dead this year. Another BJP leader, Ikhlaq Qureshi, was also shot dead earlier this year.
(With PTI inputs)
JUNEAU A 57-year-old Horicon man has been accused of illegally voting in last Novembers presidential election.
Herbert E. York Jr. is charged with election fraud voting by disqualified person. If convicted on the charge, he could face 3 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
According to the criminal complaint, York was still on supervision with parole and probation for a felony conviction when he voted in the Nov. 8 general election.
York was placed on probation for three years after a 2014 conviction for intentionally subjecting an individual at risk to abuse in Washington County.
According to the criminal complaint, Horicon police received a report from the Wisconsin Election Commissions on Aug. 1 about a person who was on supervision and voted in the presidential election. Yorks information matched a list of offenders who still were under supervision with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.
Police met with York on Aug. 3, and began to tell him about the accusations when York allegedly interrupted them and said that they were there about him voting and that he was no longer on probation.
When the officer said he was on probation when he voted, York allegedly said, Yeah, but I thought I would get away with it.
York is scheduled to appear in a Dodge County courtroom Oct. 2 for his initial appearance.
Kolkata: West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee on Saturday instructed all schools in the state to ensure that students do not carry mobile phones in classes.
The instruction comes after several cases of schoolchildren in the state falling victim to the Blue Whale Challenge, an addictive online game which drives those who play it to suicide.
He asked school authorities to strictly follow the instruction and stressed that parents should also be informed to keep a close watch on their children to prevent any mishap.
There are allegations of a number of students getting victimised by the Blue Whale game across the state. It is a matter of concern for us. Schools and the authorities should be on alert, he said in an event to organise Public Library Day by the Department of Mass Education & Library Sciences.
The Blue Whale game should be stopped immediately. We have asked the schools to ban mobile phones for students inside schools premises, he added.
Chatterjee said that 25 government schools in Kolkata have been identified where UNICEF will conduct workshops regarding use of safe Internet by school children. The workshop will be conducted in a few private schools as well, he said.
The government schools selected for workshop include Hindu School, Jodhpur Park School and Binodini Girls. Students of nearby schools will also be asked to attend.
Some ICSE schools will also hold a sensitisation workshop on online gaming and Internet addiction, covering around 200 schools in the state.
Meanwhile, Kolkata police will also launch an awareness campaign through social media for parents to keep a watch on their children.
Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar is personally looking in to the awareness campaign and asked all the departmental heads in the city police to work hard on this project to spread the message among parents to prevent their kinds from falling in to such online trap.
Apart from uploading dos and donts content for parents as well students, the city police is also planning to rope in schools to make this project a success.
This is a preventive measures to help those who are addicted to online fatal games, Kumar told News18.
The online game has already claimed more than 100 lives across the world with several cases reported in India including five in West Bengal.
The conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in rape cases has once again turned the spotlight on the damage that the charlatans, who pass off as godmen, do to the spiritual culture of India. Devdutt Pattanaik, writer of modern Hindu mythology, talks to News18s Eram Agha on this form of crony spiritualism, which, he says, has nothing to do with religion but with the nature of secular democracy and vote bank politics as practiced in India. Edited excerpts:
Q: Hinduism is said to be a religion with 33 crore Gods. But do godmen have a place in Hindu scriptures?
A: Godmen is a pejorative term created by the media. Every religion, not just Hinduism, has holy men who claim access to an alternate reality call it spiritual, mystical, magical, or divine. We call them shaman, priest, yogi, guru, mullah. Some are sincere, others are charlatans. Some try their best to help their tribe, flock or followers; others exploit the power they have.
Q: Indias soul is said to be in its spirituality. Bikshus live a frugal life, surviving on alms, so that they can devote all their time to spiritual practices. How much damage do these charlatans inflict to the spiritual culture?
A: Self-realisation has nothing to do with wallet size. This association of poverty with spirituality is a false one. A spiritual person can be a hermit (who has renounced material world) or a householder (who has embraced material world). I still have to find a scientific technique to affirm if a person is an authentic godman or a charlatan. Its all a matter of opinion, an assumption, just like celibacy, which cannot be proven. Many godmen do wonderful social work, and give dignity to poor people who have been discarded by mainstream society. But simultaneously they may be doing things in their personal life that make them less than holy or worthy of respect. We need to appreciate that bad things can be done by people who also do good things. Life is complex. Simple binaries are for stupid people who cannot handle complexity.
Q: This is a sentence from the court order on Gurmeet Ram Rahim: Such criminal acts of the convict, who is stated to head a religious organisation, are bound to shatter images of pious and sacred, spiritual, social, cultural and religious institutions existing in this country since time immemorial, which in turn reflects irreparable damages caused by the acts of convict to the ancient heritage of this ancient land Do you agree?
A: It is the courts opinion. And I respect their opinion. But it does sound rather melodramatic. We, as a country, have a history of ministers, bureaucrats and judges who have taken full advantage of their position in the government and done horrible things while in office. It has not taken away peoples faith in the government and the judiciary. There are so many parents who physically and sexually abuse their own children. Have we lost faith in parents? All rapists of women are heterosexual men. Does that mean we have lost faith in heterosexual men?
Lets not get hyperbolic about these things. Leave that to soap operas. A man who was respected by a large number of people took advantage of his position and behaved in the most inappropriate way. He was caught and punished but the process was not easy. Can we ask the court why it took 15 years to convict him? Who takes responsibility for the delayed justice? Can we say our courts also cause irreparable damage to civil society by their slow inhuman processes?
Q: Many of these so-called godmen with criminal intent use mythology as a cover for their sexual crimes. Ram Rahim reportedly invoked Krishna and his Gopis while coercing and raping unsuspecting sadhvis. Does Indian mythology sanction such salvation through sex?
A: If you do a simple online search, you will find stories of sex scandal involving Tibetan lamas, Christian evangelists, Catholic priests, Islamic educationists, and secular journalists. I think there is a kind of secular bigotry in saying that a religion provides the framework for sexual misconduct. A rapist uses various tools to entrap his prey. Mythic imagination is one of them. Politicians use their power. Goons use threats of violence. Since we tend to equate holiness with celibacy and sexual continence, it bothers us when holy men turn into sexual predators. These incidents have more to do with power, than with faith. In fact, it is a classic case of loss of faith in the man who inspires others to have faith.
Q: Indian history is replete with towering spiritual figures. These range from sages who wrote our epics to social reformers like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharshi. How do we ensure that their memory and legacy doesnt get bracketed with the deeds of criminals like Ram Rahim?
A: If you read the history of the Catholic Church, you will learn of numerous scandals involving Popes and clergymen. Still the Church remains a respected institution even today. If you read the Vinaya Pitaka, and the rules of sexual conduct for Buddhist monks, you will realize that Buddhist monasteries faced many sex scandals. But all this does not take away the majesty of Buddhas work. I think we are being rather melodramatic and chest beating over this scandal. This religious leader got caught but there are hundreds of incidents that have not been reported or investigated or convicted.
A few years ago a holy man was caught on camera in his underpants with two women. The video was on YouTube. Today he still has a large number of followers who insist that the incident was an illusion created by the master. Nothing changes. People will seek gurus. And some gurus will take advantage of the power they have over their followers. It was so in the past. It will be so in the future.
Q: Who do you think is the target audience here for the godmen? Is it the new middle-class or the poor?
A: I have heard of godmen and their scandals in my childhood and in my youth. Nothing special about this. Every generation has its holy men and women. Every generation has its share of scandals. We would like to believe our lifetime is unique. It is not.
Q: Or is it that godmen are being able to hijack the faith because Hinduism, unlike Abrahamic faiths, doesnt offer any single all-powerful figure?
A: Kindly do a Google search and you will find sex scandals involving American evangelists (Protestants), amongst Church priests (Catholics), amongst lamas (Buddhists), Jain sadhus, Islamic educationists, secular journalists and activists. And these are only cases that have been brought to the light. Think of the hundreds of cases that are suppressed by the faithful flock to protect the reputation of the faith.
I think Indians are in a self-hating phase. We want to assume the worst about India. Indian men are rapists. Indian godmen are rapists. Rape is a universal phenomenon but the developed world would like to tell us that our poverty and our religion makes us less than human. We must be careful of such propaganda. We are unkind to ourselves, ashamed of ourselves. And finding vicarious pleasure in self-flagellation.
Q: India has been a secular democracy for 70 years after centuries of Islamic and British rule. Do you think it has been unfair to Hinduism?
A: I realize you subscribe to Hindutva history. Not everyone in the world agrees with this passionate but rather unscientific understanding of the past. Historians certainly will not agree with this simplistic division of India being ruled by non-Hindus; this division was created by the British, incidentally, as part of colonial propaganda. The idea of Hinduism itself is so complex, that it is difficult to put it in a simplistic umbrella.
Wasnt Ashoka Buddhist? Wasnt Kharavela Jain? Was Akbar Muslim, or was he the founder of Din-e-Ilahi? What about Marathas who ruled India in the 17th century between the Mughals and the British East India Company? Did the Chera, Pallava and Chola kings of the Sangam period identify themselves as Hindu? India has been ruled by powerful men who professed different faiths. They patronised many faiths while simultaneously persecuting other faiths. In Karnataka, the Lingayats were patronised and persecuted in different times by different kings. In Odisha, some kings chose Vishnu-worshipping Brahmins and others preferred Shiva-worshipping Brahmins.
We must understand that in a secular democracy, vote banks matter. And so this vote bank politics has led to politicians to seek out caste and religious leaders who can get their followers to vote for them. Thus a form of crony spiritualism has been on the rise in the past few decades. It has nothing to do with religion. It has a lot to do with the nature of secular democracy and vote bank politics practiced in India.
Q: One gets to see the rightwing political establishment throw its might behind institutions like Dera Sacha Sauda or any other mutt even in the face of controversies. Do you think BJP and RSS need to bear the burden of these enterprises just because they call themselves Hindu? Shouldnt they be representing a more modernizing facet of the faith?
A: If a religious or caste leader offers votes, he will be followed by all political parties. Currently since BJP is in power, we see them in a negative light. But this was going on in Congress era too. I am aware of quite a few religious leaders who were patronised by former Prime Ministers. Political parties use religion as an instrument of power. Some use Hinduism, some use Islam, some use secularism. They are sadly more interested in power than governance. And so we suffer. Faith is a private matter ultimately. We may take help of community structures, but ultimately it is a private matter. As soon as faith is used for social engineering and controlling peoples lives, problem starts. You will have religious leaders telling you how to live your life, what to wear, who to have sex with, who to give money to. That is where trouble starts.
Q: When faced with a man or a woman who claims divinity, what would you advise a common man to do? What should be his benchmark to assess a spiritual leader?
A: I would advise people to slap themselves (metaphorically) when they feel divinity rests outside them. When you think divinity is outside you, then you give power to others, and contribute to the creation of monster godmen. Our body is our temple. Our gods are within our body. This god within can see the gods outside, in everyones body. It helps us respect everyones temple. The Upanishads say, Aham Brahmasmi: I am divine. They also says, Tat tvam asi: So are you. This is true equality at a spiritual level, the diversity of our body, mind and social status notwithstanding.
New Delhi: In the third arrest since last months Gorakhpur hospital tragedy, the Uttar Pradesh Police on Saturday nabbed Dr Kafeel Ahmed Khan, who was earlier hailed as a hero for saving a number of lives by arranging oxygen.
Dr Khan, who was Head of the Encephalitis Ward at the BRD Medical College and Hospital in Gorakhpur, has been charged with medical negligence. He has also been accused of doing private practice.
Former principal of BRD Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur, Dr Rajiv Mishra, and his wife Dr Purnima Shukla were earlier arrested by the UP Special Task Force in Kanpur.
On Friday, a court had issued non-bailable warrants against seven people, including Dr Khan, in connection with the death of children at the BRD Medical College hospital.
All of them were named in an FIR lodged by the government after a report by the Principal Secretary, in the wake of 63 children dying at the hospital within a span of five days.
An FIR was registered against 9 people at the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow over the death of the children in BRD Hospital. The first FIR was registered against corruption, second negligence and the third for private practice.
In the FIR, cases under various sections were registered against Dr Rajiv Mishra, Dr Kafeel Khan, Dr Satish, Dr Purnima Shukla, Chief Pharmacist Gajanan Jaiswal, Accountant Sudhir Pandey, Assistant Clerk, Uday Pratap Sharma of Pushpa Sales and Manish Bhandari.
The FIR was registered after a written complaint by DG Health, KK Gupta, under IPC sections 409, 308, 120B, 420, Prevention of Corruption Act, Section 8 of the IPC, Section 15 of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956.
The Gorakhpur hospital deaths started on August 10, when over 63 children died at the state-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. While many accredited this to the oxygen supplier cutting off the hospital for non-payment from the state government but the supplier denied the cut-off. The official report by Chief Secretary also denied lack of oxygen as the cause of death.
While the Uttar Pradesh government vehemently denied that shortage of oxygen led to the deaths, a high-powered probe committee headed by Chief Secretary Rajive Kumar indicted Mishra and others of laxity and other charges.
Mishra was accused of sitting over the issue of payments to the vendor supplying oxygen gas to the hospital.
The doctor couple were booked on the basis of the report submitted to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath by the chief secretary.
Adityanath had formed the committee on August 12, a day after the deaths of children were reported at the hospital.
Rourkela: A man was killed after he attempted to take a selfie with a wild elephant in Odishas Sundargarh district on Saturday.
The man, identified as Ashok Bharati of Cuttack, died after being trampled by the elephant as he tried take the selfie while local villagers and forest officials were trying to shoo away the elephant.
In a video, accessed by News18, the elephant can be seen chasing the hapless Bharati as he tries to get away. The elephant quickly catches up to Bharati and crushes him as several people look on helplessly. Bharati was rushed to hospital but could not be saved.
Authorities said Bharati worked with a private company in Mandiakud of Rajgangpur police limit of Sundargarh district.
This is not the first time people have died while trying to take selfies with animals. A 30-year-old man was trampled to death by an elephant at the Bannerghatta Biological Park in Karnataka in July after he and his friends sneaked into the park to take selfies with an elephant.
The group managed to enter the park on a holiday and were reportedly clicking photos in from pf an elephant called Sundar when it charged them and trampled the victim, identified as Abhilash, to death.
In another such case, a man died in Navi Mumbai after he tried to take a selfie while kissing a cobra. The victim, 25 year-old Somnath Mhatre, used to rescue snakes and other creatures. After rescuing a cobra from a car, Mhatre tried to take a selfie with the creature before releasing it. The panicked animal bit Mhatre on the chest and escaped. He was rushed to a hospital but died after five days.
New Delhi: At least nine new ministers will join the Council of Ministers as part of a major revamp ahead of the 2019 elections on Sunday, sources have told News18. The list of names that emerged after the BJP top brass went into a huddle on Saturday evening shows that the party has tried to strike a balance between its political compulsions and governance agenda.
However, a surprise was the absence of any member of the BJP's allies such as the JD(U) and the Shiv Sena from the list. Though top BJP leaders maintained silence on the development, sources in the party said the JD(U) and the Shiv Sena not figuring in the list was likely due to lack of a formula for representation which could satisfy all allies.
Sources said that the names have been chosen keeping in mind the PMs mission of a New India and have been identified based on their track record and potential.
The swearing-in ceremony for the new entrants to Prime Minister Narendra Modis Cabinet will be held at 10:30 am, sources said. They, however, did not clarify whether any of the new ministers would be given a Cabinet berth or what portfolio they would hold. There are also no women in the list.
Here is the list of the nine likely new ministers in the Narendra Modi-led council of ministers:
Shiv Pratap Shukla
Shiv Pratap Shukla is a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh. He is a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development. Shukla was elected a Member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly for 4 consecutive times in 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1996. He served as a Cabinet Minister in the UP government for 8 years, and is known for his work in Rural Development, Education and Prison reform during his tenure.
A Law Graduate from Gorakhpur University, Shukla started off early in politics as a student leader in the 1970s. He was imprisoned for 19 months under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the Emergency.
Ashwini Kumar Choubey
Ashwini Kumar Choubey is a Lok Sabha MP from Buxar, Bihar. He is member of the Parliamentary Committee on Estimates and Standing Committee on Energy. Choubey has been elected for 5 consecutive terms to the Bihar Legislative Assembly. He has held important portfolios including Health, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering as a Cabinet Minister of the Government of Bihar for 8 years.
Choubey played an active part in the JP movement in the 1970s. He is also credited to have raised the slogan "Ghar - Ghar me ho Shouchalaya ka nirman, Tabhi hoga Ladli Bitiya ka Kanyadaan", and has helped construct 11,000 toilets for Mahadalit families.
Virendra Kumar
Virendra Kumar is a Lok Sabha MP from Tikamgah, Madhya Pradesh. A six-term Lok Sabha MP, Kumar is the chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour, and has been Chairman of the Joint Committee on Office of Profit and a Member of National Social Security Board.
Kumar had actively participated in the JP movement of the 1970s, and went to jails for 16 months under MISA during the Emergency. Highly qualified academically, Kumar has an MA in Economics and a PhD in Child Labour.
Anant Kumar Hegde
Ananth Kumar Hedge, a Brahmin from Uttar Kannada is a five-time MP. The 47-year-old is a surprise choice just before the elections as he will be the second Brahmin from Karnataka in the Cabinet if sworn-in, the other being parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar. Hegde is currently a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs and Human Resource Development.
Raj Kumar Singh
Raj Kumar Singh is a Lok Sabha MP from Arrah, Bihar. He is a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committees on Health and Family Welfare, Personnel, Pensions and Public Grievances and Law & Justice.
A former IAS officer of the 1975 batch, Singh rose up the ranks to become the home secretary of India. He served in multiple important roles of responsibility including Defence Production Secretary and Joint Secretary Home; as well as heading Home, Industries, Public Works and Agriculture amongst other departments in the Bihar Government. He is known for his contributions to schemes for Police Modernization and Prison Modernization, and laying down a framework for Disaster Management.
Hardeep Singh Puri
Hardeep Puri is a decorated former IFS officer of the 1974 batch, known for his experience and expertise in foreign policy and national security. He is the President and Chairman of Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) think tank, and was the Vice President of International Peace Institute, New York.
Puris distinguished four-decade career in diplomacy spanning the multilateral arena, included critical roles of Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, Ambassador to Brazil and the United Kingdom and Permanent Representative of India to Geneva. As head of the Indian Delegation to the UN Security Council, Hardeep Puri had served as Chairman of the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the UN as well as President of the United Nations Security Council.
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is a Lok Sabha MP from Jodhpur, Rajasthan. He is a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance and Chairperson of the Fellowship Committee. The addition of Vasundhara Rajes close aide Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, if it goes through, will mark a thaw in relations between the Rajasthan Chief Minister and the BJP leadership in Delhi. His appointment is also a political move to neutralise Ashok Gehlot in his home district Jodhpur as Gehlot is increasingly seen as the face of Congress in the run up to the assembly polls.
Satya Pal Singh
Satya Pal Singh is a Lok Sabha MP from Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh. He is a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs and Chairperson of the Joint Committee on Offices of Profit.
Singh, a former Mumbai police commissioner, has been recognized with medals like the Antrik Suraksha Sewa Padak by Government of India in 2008 and a Special Service Medal for extraordinary work in the Naxalite areas of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in 1990. He is also is credited for breaking the backbone of organised crime syndicates in Mumbai in the 1990s.
Alphons Kannanthanam
Alphons Kannanthanam is a distinguished former IAS officer. He is also a practicing advocate. Alphons became famous as Delhi's Demolition Man when he was Commissioner of the Delhi Development Authority, having cleared DDA areas of encroachment removing around 15,000 illegal buildings. This got him listed in Time Magazine's list of 100 Young Global Leaders in 1994.
The choice of Alphonse as Kerala representative in the government though surprising has a political import. Firstly PM seems to have send across a msg to a divided state unit of the BJP embroiled by graft allegations. Alphonse is a rank outsider who joined BJP a few years back. As a bureaucrat he's had an image of upright and honest officer.
Protests were held across Chennai on Saturday by many groups, including the CPI(M) and its student wing SFI, a day after the suicide of 17-year-old S Anitha who led the battle against NEET in the Supreme Court.More than 200 CPI(M) workers blocked a portion of Chennai's Mount Road for half-an-hour. They were later detained by the police. The VCK, Naam Tamilar Katchi and other fringe groups also paid tributes to Anitha and staged demonstrations demanding the scrapping of the common medical college entrance test NEET.The protestors blamed both the state and the central government for Anitha's death. "There is no system in place. If the state government does not act, then we will continue to protest as there are many more Anithas whose lives have been shattered," said a protester.Tamil superstars Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan have expressed grief over the incident. "We must protest for Anithas justice without considering caste, creed or even state borders. The girl had many dreams but now she has been killed and buried. Those who claimed that good news was coming soon have disappeared, so has the girl. Politicians should forget party rivalries and rise against this, said Kamal Haasan."Is there anything viler than this? I don't care about the girl's hometown or caste. She is my daughter. We have missed a good would-be doctor. We formed the government instead of arguing in the court, we are bargaining. Only if such incidents will teach them a lesson. People must fight for her," added Haasan.What has happened to Anitha is extremely unfortunate. My heart goes out to all the pain and agony she would have undergone before taking this drastic step. My condolences to her family" tweeted Rajinikanth with #RipAnitha.Anitha, the 17-year-old Dalit girl who was the face of the fight against NEET, took her life on Friday just over a week after Supreme Court ruled that medical college admissions in Tamil Nadu will be based on the national admission test.The SC directive came as a huge setback for thousands of students who had hoped for a positive response, including Anitha. Daughter of a daily wage labourer, she had failed to secure herself a seat in medical course leaving her disappointed. Anitha, who was one of the respondents against the plea in the Supreme Court, committed suicide at her residence in Ariyalur district in Tamil Nadu.Anitha had secured 1176 out of 1200 in her board examination, but she secured just 86 out of 700 in NEET which is why she didn't get an admission in a medical college. After scoring a high cut-off of 199.75 for engineering and 196.75 for medicine, she was offered a seat in aeronautical engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology. The young girl also secured a place for Bachelor of Veterinary Science in Veterinary College at Orathanadu. Anitha, however, wanted to do something else. I want to be a doctor, shed been reported as saying.Coming from a poor family, Anitha moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on MBBS admissions in state-run medical hospitals based on NEET scores. In her petition, she said NEET implementation will destroy the ambitions of many students from rural Tamil Nadu.
New Delhi: In a first-of-its-kind order, the Supreme Court has taken away the custody of their children from a sparring Delhi couple and made a district judge in-charge of their well-being.
The judge will now get the teenagers admitted in boarding schools at Nainital, away from the ugly tug of war between their parents.
This is a case where several orders passed by this court in the interest of the children and with the tacit consent of both the parties have been flouted flagrantly. Therefore, we direct the District and Sessions Judge, Nainital to see that the children are admitted in the institutions referred to above, directed a bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and AM Khanwilkar.
The court asked the mother to handover the custody of the two children to the District and Sessions Judge, Nainital. The judge, it added, shall take the children to their respective schools.
The judges held that the Court has a duty to act in the best interest of the children, who require to be kept away from both their mother and father, so as to ensure their minds are not polluted any further.
Saddened by the extremely strained relationship between the couple and repeatedly failing to counsel them, the bench resorted to the extraordinary recourse and said that the children should rather study in a more congenial atmosphere away from company of either of their parents.
Having regard to the strained relationship between the parties, we are of the view that for the time being it is in the interest of the children that they be put up in a boarding school, since, at this stage it is not in their interest to have the exclusive company of either their father or their mother, held the Court in a recent order.
The bench initially asked the mother and the father to file a list of boarding schools in Delhi itself, to put the children in, but later decided to send them out of the city so that they could study in peace.
We find, in the background of this case, it is not in the interest of both children to continue either with the father and the mother, it said in its order.
The bench noted that despite all the assistance and professional counselling given to the parents, the bitterness between them have only gone up. Thus, it was necessary that both the children, staying with their mother, should get a better atmosphere to build their career and enjoy small pleasures of life.
The father said he is willing to bear the educational expenses of the children and the court asked the parents to take the children to the boarding schools at Nainital for the admission formalities.
It has further asked the administration in both the schools to admit the children with minimal formalities after noticing that admission dates have already expired.
New Delhi: A suspected terrorist was killed during an encounter in Tantray Pora in Kashmir's Kulgam on Saturday morning. According to sources, the slain terrorist was involved in the brutal killing of 22-year-old Army officer Ummer Fayaz in Kashmir.
Officers of Rashtriya Rifles and Special Operations Group killed at least one terrorist, who was identified as Irshad Padder. Forces are still engaged in a gunbattle with an unknown number of terrorists.
The newly commissioned Lt Fayaz was abducted and killed by Lashkar terrorists in May, when he was attending a wedding in Shopian. This incident stoked concerns as militants had been indulging in direct face-offs with the security forces. However, targetting army officers, when off duty, and murdering them is not very common.
Few hours before Saturday's encounter, in another incident, a group of terrorists on Friday attacked a bus carrying security personnel in Srinagar, injuring five policemen.
The attack took place even as there were reports from intelligence agencies that over 250 terrorists have trespassed across the border and were planning attacks during Eid celebrations in Kashmir.
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Cabinet decision on August 23 to constitute a Commission to work out the mechanism, criteria, norms and parameters in a scientific approach for Categorization of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEdBCs) in the Central List and assign the castes in that List to appropriate Categories, based on the degree and extent of backwardness, the government has taken a momentous step for the advancement of the SEdBCs.
This is a long-overdue measure, dating back to 1980 at the national level and periodically pressed upon successive Union governments by the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) and other bodies from 1993 and personally by myself through official reports, committees, documents in the public domain like the Dalit Manifesto 1996 authored by me, and personal communications and discussions, but evaded till now. I will come to this history lower down.
Now the most urgent issue is to ensure that categorization is done objectively, as intended in the governments announcement, without allowing electoral and other extraneous considerations to intrude. The range and degree of backwardness among the SEdBCs is very wide. At one end are castes which are close to the SCs except that they have not been found to be victims of Untouchability. At the other end are castes which are close to or just below the Socially Advanced Castes (SACs), i.e., the non-SC, non-ST, non-SEdBC castes (NSCTBCs). In between, there are various gradations. It has been obvious a priori and it has been seen from actual past experience that the More, the Most and the Extremely Backward Castes stand no chance in competition with the relatively advanced Castes of SEdBCs. Therefore, the present initiative, at last, seeks to address the plight of the More, Most and Extremely Backward Castes, by apportioning the total reservation quota into sub-quotas for each of the Categories. In my view, which I have been communicating through different fora and my writings and communications, it would be desirable to have four categories of SEdBCs, viz.,
(a) Extremely Backward Castes
They have no assets, no skills and often no address.Nomadic, Semi-Nomadic and Vimukta Jati communities are of this category. Also in this category are castes which are not included in the list of SCs, only because of Clause (3) of the Presidential Orders from 1951 onwards, such as the Muslim castes traditionally linked with the occupation of manual scavenging like Muslim Mehtar, Muslim Lalbegi (whose Hindu counterparts of the same name are SCs) and Halalkhor (whose Hindu counterparts Balmiki and Sikh counterparts Mazhabi are SCs)
(b) Most Backward Castes
These are castes without assets but which have skills, though the skills have become outdated. These include artisan castes, artisanal castes, pastoral castes, fishing castes, inferior service-providing castes, etc. Their sudden and unprepared exposure to global competition has deepened their economic distress, damaged their traditional occupations, without opening to new opportunities, and reduced large numbers of them to wage-labourers.
This is the largest category of BCs. While most of this category are castes of Hindu, it also includes most of the Muslim backward castes other than those which are in (a).
(c) More Backward Castes
Tenant Peasants and other Very Weak Peasants like those on Batai tenure in Bihar, Palu tenure in Andhra Pradesh.
(d) Backward Castes
Peasant castes with landed assets
There can be no doubt about the Extremely Backward Castes and the Most Backward Castes. More sensitive analysis will be required to separate land-owning/agricultural communities into Backward and More Backward Castes.
There are also simple and readily available data which can help in confirming the extreme backwardness and most backwardness of the first two categories and to distinguish and differentiate the latter two. Whenever required, I shall be happy to share with the proposed Commission and/or the Government my idea regarding such simple and readily available data.
Objectivity, impartiality and prevention of intrusion of electoral and other considerations in Categorisation and the process of Categorisation are important, not only in fairness to SEdBCs but also to ensure judicial sustainability, for any decision taken is certain to be challenged in the Supreme Court.
The matter does not end there. The proposed Constitutional National Commission for SEdBCs, the Bill for which has been temporarily stalled, should be charged with continuous monitoring of the performance of each Caste within each Category and identify and propose fine-tuning as objectively necessary by measures such as sub-dividing each Category or inter-transfer of castes between Categories on the basis of their performance in securing the benefit of reservation in employment at different levels and in education at different levels.
Some news reports say that this Commission proposed for categorisation is also to look into the possibilities of inclusion of more communities under the Categories. I hope that this is a case of mis-reporting. The proposed Commission will have its hands full with the exercise of categorisation of the castes in the existing Central List. No other task should be entrusted to it. No room should be allowed to create the impression that an effort is proposed to be made to accommodate, through this mechanism, castes which are not socially backward and are agitating, threatening and powerfully mobilising in order to coerce the governments to include them in the list of SEdBCs. Any such attempt is most likely to fail the judicial test and, if combined with the legitimate exercise of Categorisation, may jeopardise that exercise also.
The people of the SEdBCs and those working for them need to be continuously alert and watchful to make sure that categorisation is done objectively, impartially and transparently and without intrusion of electoral and other considerations and castes/communities which are not socially backward are not allowed into the list of SEdBCs. I would also appeal to members of castes which are least backward among the SEdBCs to cooperate with this process with grace. Till now, they have got more than their due share within the quota for SEdBCs in the absence of categorisation and sub-quotas, which ought to have been there from the beginning and as has been existing since long in the Peninsular States. They should not resent parting with a portion of it in favour of their and our brethren of the weaker SEdBCs. Failure to do so will create and widen the rift between them and the More, Most and Extremely Backward Castes of SEdBCs, who form the majority of the SEdBC population. Any active or passive opposition to this process or appearance of such opposition will make their attitude and behaviour seem similar to the attitude and behaviour of misguided and ill-informed sections of upper castes of North India in 1990 when reservation for SEdBCs was introduced by the VP Singh Government. Even after categorisation and sub-quotas, the least backward castes of the SEdBCs will continue to get a fair share of the SEdBC quota, and, in addition, they have the capacity to secure a share of the open non-reserved quota.
Categorisation has a long history dating back to pre-Independence period and early post-Independence period in southern Provinces/Princely States/States. In the Centre, the first move was through a note of dissent by Shri L. R. Naik, ex-MP and member of the Mandal Commission (Report of the Second Backward Classes Commission, 1980, Second Part, Vol. VII). His minute of dissent proposed the bifurcation of Backward Classes into Intermediate Backward Classes and Depressed Backward Classes (DBCs), with a sub-quota of 15% for DBCs out of the total 27% quota for BCs. He had consulted me on a personal basis (I was then Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs in charge of SC and BC Development) and I helped him in touching up and finalising his draft note of dissent. His list of two categories of BCs may not be the last word in categorisation but it was a meaningful first step. But it was not agreed to by the majority members of the Mandal Commission under the impression that the Supreme Courts judgment in M. R. Balaji and others vs State of Mysore (1963 AIR 649, 1962 SCR Supl. (1) 439) prohibited categorisation of SEdBCs. The Supreme Court in its Mandal judgment (Indra Sawhney and Others vs Union of India and Others, 1992 Supp (3) SCC) clarified that categorisation of SEdBCs on the basis of relative degrees of backwardness is Constitutionally permissible.
The Expert Committee on Backward Classes, of which I was virtually the guiding Member, which was formed in February 1993 for recommending criteria for identifying the Socially Advanced Persons/Section (commonly referred to as the Creamy Layer), as directed by the Supreme Court in the Mandal judgment as a pre-condition for commencing reservation for SEdBCs, was, after completing this task, entrusted the task of recommending the basis of categorisation in view of the Supreme Courts observations. While the Expert Committee was mid-way through this process, this task was withdrawn by the Government, apparently on account of pressure from the less backward castes of the SEdBCs. Thereafter, on various occasions, the NCBC and other bodies and I, as part of the NCBC and also in my personal capacity, have been, from time to time, urging Governments of the last quarter of a century to initiate categorisation. The first positive decision of the government on this has come now, rightly though belated Der Aayaa, Durust Aaya.
It is a matter for appreciation that the government has fixed a three-month time-limit for the Commissions work. This time schedule should be strictly adhered to. It is practicable. For example, the Expert Committee on Backward Classes 1993 gave its first report within the stipulated 15 days and the next report within the dateline of 30 June 1993, which enabled actual commencement of Reservation for SEdBCs in Central jobs in 1993 itself.
The newspaper reports and reactions contain certain errors and misconceptions which need to be removed, which I shall deal with in the Part-II on News18.com
(The author is former Secretary to Government of India and former Member-Secretary, National Commission for Backward Classes and has been in the field of Social Justice for SCs, STs and SEdBCs for nearly seven decades. A 1956 batch IAS officer, he headed the Welfare Ministry in 1990 when Prime Minister VP Singh had implemented 27 per cent reservation in government jobs for OBCs)
Part I of a two-part series
Dehradun: A software engineer who killed his wife, chopped her body into 70 pieces and stored them in a freezer has been convicted by a Dehradun court.
Rajesh Gulati, a resident of Delhi, was convicted under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (hiding evidence) of the IPC in the seven-year-old case which had shaken the nation. Additional District and Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar said the quantum of punishment would be pronounced on Saturday.
Joint Director (law) JS Bisht said the arguments in the case were concluded on August 18.
The couple's four-year-old twins had also given evidence in the case but the court did not attach any importance to it.
The murder was reported on December 11, 2010 about two months after it was committed when Anupama's brother came to see her at the couple's residence at Prakash Nagar colony in Cantonment area after failing to get in touch with her for a number of days.
When Gulati could not tell him anything about Anupama's whereabouts, he reported the matter to the police.
Gulati even tried to mislead the police by feigning ignorance about Anupama's whereabouts but when they found a deep freezer kept under locks in the house their suspicion deepened.
When it was unlocked, some pieces of Anupama's body were recovered. It also came to light that Gulati had thrown some pieces of her corpse into a drain on Mussoorie road after packing them into a polythene bag.
According to the prosecution, the couple often had altercations over an alleged extra-marital affair of Gulati and during one such fight between them on October 17, 2010 Anupama fell unconscious after hitting her head against the bed.
Rajesh then throttled her to death with the help of a pillow.
The next day Rajesh bought a deep freezer and hid her body in it. Later, he chopped the body into pieces and kept throwing them into a drain on Mussoorie road gradually in instalments.
However, the matter came to light before he could dispose of the chopped pieces of his wife's body completely.
When the twin children enquired about their mother, Rajesh told them that she had gone to their grandmother's place in Delhi.
Originally from Delhi, Rajesh Gulati had shifted to Dehradun in 2008.
(With inputs from PTI)
Image: Netflix/ A still from Our Souls At Night trailer
The one trick which Ritesh Batra has learned, and learned very well, is casting. I know however good a director may be, he has to say his story only through his actors, and if they are dumb, the movie is as good as gone even before the first shot is canned. Of course, one also needs a good plot and a great script, and here again without good writing a story whatever be its plus points may well totter on the screen.But Batra always gets his casting right, and one hopes that he will continue to keep this ace up his sleeve for all time to come. His debut feature, The Lunchbox, that premiered at the Cannes Critics' Week (which runs along with the main Festival) in 2013 had actors as wonderful as Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Nimrat Kaur, and it narrated a sweet love story which happened through letters tucked inside a lunchbox which Kaur's bored wife sends to Saajan Fernandes (Khan).Now, Batra has made yet another sweet romantic story, Our Souls At Night, with two of the biggest actors the world has ever known, Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. It could not have been a more exhilarating cocktail with the American streaming giant, Netflix, producing the movie and premiering it at the ongoing 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival on September 1.Batra, who seems to be drawn to English-language fiction (with his second feature, The Sense of an Ending, based on the British writer, Julian Patrick Barnes, who won the Man Booker Prize in 2011), finds his latest inspiration from American novelist Kent Haruf's work, Our Souls at Night.Batra has spun his story around loneliness (a theme we also saw in The Lunchbox - with Irrfan Khan's Fernandes pining for love). The movie opens in one of the most unpretentious ways. We see Robert Redford as Louis Waters, an elderly widower, having a quiet dinner (so different from the garishly loud manner in which Indian heroes make their entries) when an aging widow, Addie Moore, knocks on his door. They have lived as neighbours in a small Colorado town for 70 years but had barely spoken to each other.Addie comes with a proposal. She would like him to share her bed not really for sex, but for a conversational company. He agrees after contemplating for a day. And so begins a love story without much ado or elaborate preamble (no chasing around trees, no stalking as we have seen in Indian cinema).Not surprisingly, the movie had to do away with some of the haunting details of the book, maybe to accommodate two of the greatest stars America has known. But then the film gains, and gains enormously, from the strengths of these two actors, and the brilliant chemistry they evoke on the screen as fresh and as passionate as the one they created very early on in their lives The Chase in 1966 and the legendary Barefoot in the Park (1967). Redford and Fonda have never come together in all these 50 years, and I must give credit to Batra for thinking up of pairing the two.At a Press conference soon after the screening, it seemed so much like Jane was in love with Robert, and she said several times during those 40 minutes how much she had been fond of Redford. It is such a pity that Batra cut out the sex scene in Our Souls At Night, she lamented laughing. "When I made the last movie with Robert, the Sundance Institute (which Redford had helped set up) was just beginning, and now what he created has really changed American cinema in the most profound ways. I wanted to be able to spend time with him and see what he has become."To this, Redford quipped that he wanted to do one last film with Jane before he died.She also added: "Plus, I wanted to be able to fall in love with him again. In Barefoot in the Park I couldnt keep my hands off of him. I was constantly forcing myself on him. In Our Souls at Night, the dynamic of my character to his character was somewhat similar. I just love the fact that these films bookend our careers. We played that young love just getting married and now we play old people love and old people sex. Although, n my opinion, Ritesh cut the sex scene too soon...He doesnt like sex scenes, Fonda then said, pointing at Redford. I live for sex scenes! Hes a great kisser. It was fun to kiss him in my 20s and then to kiss him again in my almost 80s. She said of Redford's character in Our Souls at Night, "Louis has been a fantasy of mine for a long, long, long time.And it is this off-screen attraction that Jane and Robert, both circling 80, recreate in the movie, the sex appeal, and the romantic mysticism still intact. Both are really charming and convincing as Addie and Louis, and are directed with a great lot of finesse by Batra who steers clear of unnecessary sentimentality and high-strung emotional sequences. He seems good at this, and one remembers his recent handling of Jim Broadbent and Charlotte Rampling (remember her in Francois Ozon's Swimming Pool where she is seen as a writer?) in a BBC adaptation of the Julian Barnes novel The Sense of an Ending.But like most romances, Our Souls at Night also gets into a storm when Addie's (Gene (Matthias Schoenaerts) son arrives and wants his mother to take care of her grandson, Jamie. And they live in another town, and Addie is torn between her own family and her relationship with Louis. It is a very difficult choice she has to make.The day ended for Fonda and Redford with Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Awards that the Festival bestowed on them at a gala ceremony.(Gautaman Bhaskaran is an author, commentator, and movie critic who has covered the Venice Film Festival for 18 years.)
New Delhi: The oppressive summer Sun in Delhi had relented to usher in a precocious autumn. The festival season in north India was to kick-start in a few days. These were two pleasant months before the heavy fog would descend in December taking weather conditions to another extreme.
One can't be sure if the October morning lethargy was induced by the cool zephyr blowing past Lutyens Delhi, but Arjun Singh reached All India Congress Committee headquarters a little late. The moment he entered his room, the secured REX line in his room buzzed. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi wanted to see Singh immediately at his residence 7, Race Course Road.
News reports from October 1985 give vivid details of how ministers were called in one by one and told to write resignations on a blank piece of paper. This was the second major Cabinet reshuffle effected by Rajiv Gandhi in October, 1986.
More than three decades later, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares to rejig his Cabinet, ministers are being called and asked to put in their papers, exactly like in 1986. However, in 2017, the task was assigned to party President Amit Shah.
Quite like PM Modi, reports during Rajiv Gandhis regime that detail the political developments during Gandhis regime, show the former PM was in the habit of periodically assessing his ministers and their performance.
An interesting piece of news item just before his first Cabinet reshuffle in 1985 documents in detail how from mid-June a mainframe computer at the Prime Minister's Secretariat, a Hewlett Packard, profiled each minister's targets and achievements. The ministers were summoned individually and explanations were sought.
It is also not the first time that there is a discussion regarding the creation of a unified and composite Transport Ministry.
With Suresh Prabhu having already offered to quit after a series of derailments, surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari is being seen as somebody who can put the rails on track while continuing to hold on to his current charge.
Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, was the first Prime Minister to constitute a super transport ministry. It was headed by Haryana strongman Bansi Lal.
Lal had three Ministers of State working under him the three Gandhi loyalists, Jagdish Tytler (civil aviation), Rajesh Pilot (surface transport) and Madhav Rao Scindia (railways).
The idea was to infuse fresh blood into the government and also create a buffer for the senior minister whose resignation was sought by the opposition after every rail mishap.
Gandhi also clubbed education, with culture, art, sports, youth welfare and women's affairs and made PV Narasimha Rao responsible for all of it.
A year later, the mantle of the jumbo Transport Ministry was handed over to Mohsina Kidwai. She was in-charge for a few months when Gandhi realised he had created a behemoth with multiple power centres.
Within two years of ushering in this radical change in the way the Indian Railways were run, it was back to square one.
New Delhi: With government sources disclosing the names of nine people who will take oath as ministers on Sunday, a surprise factor is the absence of any member of the BJP's allies such as the JD(U) and the Shiv Sena from the list.
Though top BJP leaders maintained silence on the development, sources in the party said the JD(U) and the Shiv Sena not figuring in the list was likely due to lack of a formula for representation which could satisfy all allies.
The Sena, with 18 Lok Sabha members against two from the JD(U), wanted its share of representation in line with that of the Nitish Kumar-led party, which would have meant several more berths for the Maharashtra party, a demand the BJP did not concede, the sources said.
In the Rajya Sabha, the Sena has three members while the JD(U) has 10.
Earlier in the day, Kumar claimed in Patna that no talks between the BJP and his party were held on the issue, while Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said he had received no communication from the bigger ally.
Internal troubles in the AIADMK, which has been hit by a rebellion by the T T V Dhinakaran-led section, has proved to be a stumbling block in its joining the government.
Nine new ministers including former IFS officer Hardeep Puri, ex-Mumbai Police chief Satyapal Singh and retired IAS officer Alphons Kannanthanam will be inducted into the Union Council of Ministers tomorrow as part of a major revamp by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The new faces include BJP MPs Ashwini Kumar Choubey (Bihar), Virendra Kumar (Madhya Pradesh) and Shiv Pratap Shukla (Uttar Pradesh).
The others are Anant Kumar Hegde, Raj Kumar Singh, Hardeep Puri, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Satyapal Singh and Alphons Kannanthanam.
The much-awaited reshuffle of the Union Cabinet will take place on Sunday morning. The uncertainty over the participation of the AIADMK and JD(U) remains. JD(U) sources said they were still not informed about the reshuffle while the internal squabble in AIADMK may prove to be a stumbling block. Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena said it has not received any communication from the BJP over the inclusion of its members in the Cabinet.
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Kolkata: Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) chief Bimal Gurung softened his stand on Saturday and sent a message that his representatives will take part in an all-party meet with the West Bengal government on September 12.
His statement came a day after Bengal police allegedly entered Sikkim without informing the neighbouring state and conducted raids at Namchi to arrest him and other GJM leaders from a resort.
"Our party members Binay Tamang and Anit Thapa cheated us and joined hands with the Bengal government. Both of them were removed from the party today. They are traitors. I have proof that how they along with few others conspired against us to derail the Gorkhaland movement," he said.
On the look-out notice issued against him by Bengal police, Bimal said, "I will challenge the look-out notice in the court. This a conspiracy against me. The Bengal government want peace in the hills but I have doubt about their intention. We are not to going to step back from our demand of separate Gorkhaland".
Reacting to the allegations, Binay Tamang, on the other hand, said that his removal from the party was unethical as he had attended the meeting with the Bengal government on Gurungs instructions. "They removed me because Rooshan Giri and Bimal Gurung are now suffering from inferiority complex because of my popularity in the Hills," he said.
"On Friday, he (Gurung) said why I agreed to attend the next all-party meet on September 12 and today he himself said that he will send GJM representatives to attend that meeting in Siliguri. I dont understand the logic behind it. He himself is confused on what to do next. If he is agreed to attend the meeting then why did they remove me from the party? I will go to court for justice," he said.
Meanwhile, chairman of Kurseong municipality, Krishna Limbu, was arrested on Friday for his alleged involvement in violating law and order in the Hills as the police stepped up its clampdown on the protest.
In the raid on the resort in Sikkim, GJM activist Dawa Bhutia was allegedly shot dead by the West Bengal CID. Close aides of Bimal Gurung were also arrested from Namchi area in South Sikkim.
Speaking to News18, SP (South Sikkim) Pratap Pradhan, said, "The Bengal CD officers entered Sikkim posing as tourists and later they arrested several GJM leaders and supporters without having any valid documents. One Dawa Bhutia was also killed in the operation. Officially they should have informed us before conducting any such operation."
He said that an FIR has been filed against Kalimpong SP Ajit Kumar Yadav and his team under section 302 IPC for killing Dawa Bhutia. "We are working on official formalities on how to examine Bengal police officers in this case," he added.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes in the "complete concentration of power" which has "effectively destroyed" the Cabinet form of government, the Congress on Friday said, ahead of a reshuffle in the Council of ministers.
Congress senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said the reshuffle would make no difference to the government as there was lack of talent in the Council of ministers.
"I don't see much talent that he has," he said. While the reshuffle, slated to be held on Sunday, was the prerogative of the prime minister, it would make "zero difference", he said.
"He may appoint anyone and remove anyone and change any portfolios but will make a zero difference because this is the prime minister who believes in the complete concentration of power," Sharma told reporters here.
The former Union minister said there was a Cabinet form of government in the country, but wondered if it was "functioning like one".
He said key ministries for more than three years were without a Cabinet minister, which, he added, had never happened.
"Why? So that all policy papers which originate from the Cabinet ministers signature are prepared in the PMO. This is what he was doing as the chief minister of Gujarat. That is exactly what he is doing now to India," he said.
The Congress leader claimed the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) had "from day one virtually been done away with", even though, he said, it existed on paper.
These were direct orders from the PMO, he said, "until he was reminded that the word committee means two people, more than one. So, the Home Minister was included".
Modi, he added, had "effectively destroyed" the Cabinet form of government.
"No Cabinet minister including the powerful Finance minister moves a Cabinet note. He is not a member of the ACC.
The Defence minister is not a Member of the ACC," he said. Asked about the ongoing RSS meet in Vrindavan, Sharma said the outfit still did not have "the character and courage" to say it was the "parent political party" of the BJP.
Calling the RSS an "octopus" with many affiliated bodies, the Congress leader said the RSS claimed to represent India's culture and Hinduism, but had a political ideology.
"The people, the majority community, to which many of us belong, including myself, have never given the RSS or the BJP the right to represent the Hindus of this country," he said.
Though the RSS said it was a social and cultural body, no decision was taken in the BJP or in the government without the RSS's approval, Sharma claimed.
"They should stand up and own that, yes, we control the political decision making of the BJP and the policy making," he said.
Asked about the likelihood of 21 Congress MLAs of Bihar leaving the party, Sharma said the Congress Legislature Party in Bihar was intact.
"There is no threat. Yes, efforts have been made, which expose the unprincipled politics of the BJP and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. They have failed, and the Congress Party will continue to resist any attempts to weaken its party or the Legislature party," he said.
On Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh meeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi, he said it was "normal" for Congress CMs to meet the Congress chief.
Sharma added that the Congress Party was united in Himachal Pradesh.
Kano, Nigeria: Boko Haram jihadists killed 11 people on Friday in a raid on a camp for civilians displaced by the Islamist group's violent insurgency, military and vigilante sources told AFP.
The Boko Haram fighters penetrated the camp in Banki on Nigeria's border with Cameroon which houses 45,000 internally displaced people (IDP), using knives to kill their victims silently.
"At around 12:30 am (2330 GMT Thursday) this morning some Boko Haram terrorists broke the barricade securing the IDP camp from the rear towards the Cameroon border and entered to seize food from IDPs," a senior military officer in the town told AFP.
"They killed 11 IDPs and wounded two in the attack," said the military officer who declined to be named.
Boko Haram is waging an insurgency in a bid to establish a hardline Islamist state in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north.
At least 20,000 people have been killed in violence since 2009 and more than 2.6 million people have been left homeless.
More than five million people are starving as the fighting has devastated farmland, leaving farmers unable to sow or cultivate crops for several years.
Adamu Ahmad, a member of a civilian militia charged with protecting the Banki camp, confirmed the incident.
The jihadists used knives to kill their victims instead of firearms to avoiding alerting soldiers at a military base adjacent to the camp, Ahmad said.
Soldiers expelled the attackers from the camp after the informal militia raised the alarm.
The raiders also stole food aid rations given to those living in the camp, said the military officer.
Boko Haram is reported to be running desperately low on supplies after Nigerian security forces successfully cut off supply lines to the group's bases.
"We have reason to believe they most likely acted on a tip-off from insiders," said the officer who suggested that wives or children of Boko Haram fighters may have infiltrated the camp disguised as displaced people to conduct reconnaissance.
Banki, which is 130 kilometres (80 miles) southeast of Borno state capital Maiduguri, was initially an area of relative safety for those fleeing Boko Haram since the camp opened in March 2015.
But it has been repeatedly targeted by Boko Haram suicide attacks.
In April last year, at least seven people were killed at the camp in a suicide bomb attack carried out by two women.
In January, a girl thought to be 10-years-old died in a botched suicide attack after the explosive vest she was wearing detonated outside the camp.
As the Wisconsin Legislature nears another round of voting on the $3 billion incentive package to bring Foxconn Technology Group to the state, supporters of the deal find themselves sandwiched between two philosophical camps.
On the left are those who think government should spend predominantly on education, health care and helping the poor and not invest in attracting or retaining profit-seeking companies. That outlook fails to recognize that those profit-seeking companies spark an economy that generates taxes for government programs at all levels.
On the right are economic purists who think corporations should fend for themselves in an Adam Smith world that no longer exists. To them, government subsidies are antithetical to raw capitalism. That approach ignores todays competitive world, in which nations, states and neighboring communities constantly seek an edge.
That economic competition isnt new. Consider the city of Madison, where Mayor Paul Soglin has taken a dim view of the Foxconn package.
One of Madisons longest-running economic development programs is tax incremental financing, or TIF, which lets a community loan money to development projects with the expectation the loan will be repaid through the higher property taxes the developer or company will pay on the improved property.
Targeted at blighted areas when the Legislature passed a TIF law in the mid-1970s, it was later amended to pay for projects that create large numbers of jobs.
Since Madison created its first TIF district in 1977, it has invested $148 million and leveraged $1.6 billion in property value. Thats a double-digit return spread over about 47 projects over 40 years, with no insolvencies and only three that were withdrawn or shut down before the city invested heavily.
The latest TIF proposal on the citys radar involves Exact Sciences, a company that was on its last legs when Kevin Conroy and Manesh Arora moved it from Boston to Madison a decade or so ago. Today it has 750 employees and is looking to hire about 200 more in the short term, evidence of the growing market acceptance of its Cologuard test for colorectal cancer.
Exact Sciences is preparing to move into the former Spectrum Brands headquarters on Madisons Southwest Side, mainly to manage overflow in its current facilities. That site could eventually become home to Exact Sciences second processing laboratory a project that would cost $57.3 million and create another 225 well-paid jobs.
However, the laboratory project depends in large part on whether the city of Madison approves a TIF district that meets a $2.5 million need within the companys financing plan.
Exact Sciences is looking at another site in nearby Fitchburg for its 137,000-square-foot lab, should that citys TIF program pencil out a better deal. While a Madison-vs.-Fitchburg choice wont make a big difference in terms of the metropolitan area economy it basically functions as one unit it would be a loss for Madison in terms of property tax revenue.
Because the Spectrum Brands building isnt being used, the city also has an interest in renovating a potential eyesore on the Beltline and securing a new employment base for nearby neighborhoods that could use a shot in the arm.
Exact Sciences wants Madison to consider amending its TIF rules so it can capture the full $2.5 million loan. That raises the citys historically conservative risk quotient slightly but it may keep the companys newest facility within city limits. The review process reaches a key city committee Sept. 11, and managers at Exact Sciences are hoping for a decision by early October. In the meantime, theyre keeping their options in business-friendly Fitchburg open.
Whether its Foxconn, which selected Wisconsin in a multi-state race, or the current 15-state competition for a Toyota-Mazda plant that would create 4,000 jobs, or the Exact Sciences proposal in Dane County, all governments compete in hopes of delivering opportunity to their citizens and tax revenue to their coffers.
Washington: A 22-year-old Sikh software engineering student has been stabbed to death in his taxi allegedly by an American student who was upset over not getting admission into a university, media reports said.
Gagandeep Singh, a third year student who was also working as a taxi driver, was allegedly attacked by the 19- year-old passenger he had picked up at Spokane International Airport in Washington State on August 28, NBC affiliate KHQ reported.
The Bonner County Sheriff's Office in Idaho identified the defendant as Jacob Coleman, who was charged with first- degree murder in the death of Singh.
Coleman is said to have flown from Seattle to Spokane to start as a new student at Gonzaga University in Spokane, but upon arrival he was denied entry, according to a statement from the sheriff's office.
But "he became angry and began to have homicidal thoughts," police said, after claiming he was denied entry to Gonzaga University, a private Catholic school in Spokane.
The university said it "has no record of an application" from Coleman and that it was cooperating with law enforcement, the report said.
Coleman reportedly left, hailed a taxi and asked Singh to drive him to a fictitious friend's house in Bonner County, Idaho.
Coleman later admitted that during the journey he "became homicidal" and bought a knife during a stop at a shop, police said.
Singh later stopped his car in the city of Kootenai after realising he had been sent to an erroneous location. That's when Singh was stabbed multiple times with the knife Coleman allegedly bought at the store, according to the sheriff's office and a criminal complaint.
Singh, originally from Jalandhar in Punjab, had been living in Washington state since 2003.
"He was talking to my mom, he was a little nervous," his older brother Balgit Singh said on Tuesday. They had spoken over the phone. "That was the last call from our family. So my mom's like 'well, if he already paid you just drop him off another ten miles.'"
He said they lost contact with him soon afterward and called 911, KREM2.Com reported.
There have been a number of attacks targeting Indian- Americans and Sikhs in the recent months in the US.
In July, two Sikh Americans were killed in two separate incidents in one week in California.
In March, a 39-year-old Sikh man was shot in the arm outside his home in Kent, Washington, by a partially-masked gunman who shouted "go back to your own country".
Karen Lucado Haynes, 63, of Lynchburg, unexpectedly passed at her home on Tuesday, August 29, 2017. Born on December 11, 1953, in Lynchburg, she was the daughter of Eunice Godsey Lucado and the late Edwin Earl Lucado. She worked for Central Virginia Family Physicians for nearly 30 years. In addition to her mother, she is survived by her daughter, Amy Haynes Carderelli and her husband, Tony of Lynchburg; a sister, Cheryl Hartman and her husband, Ed of Henrico; her nephew, Bryan Hartman, his wife, Annie and their children, Beau, Katherine, and Jackson; her nephew, Josh Hartman, his wife, Mary and their son, Edward, as well as other devoted family and special friends. Karen was a very special lady and was loved by all. She leaves a hole behind that cannot be filled. The family will receive friends at Tharp Funeral Home, 220 Breezewood Drive, Lynchburg, VA 24502, from 5 until 7 p.m. on Friday September 1, 2017. A memorial service will be held at a later date. Memorial contributions in Karen's memory may be made to Samaritan's Purse @samaritanspurse.org. Tharp Funeral Home & Crematory, Lynchburg, is assisting the family. To send condolences please visit tharpfuneralhome.com.
A former Dane County sheriffs deputy will serve 90 days in jail for giving contraband to inmates in 2016.
Victoria A. Long, 37, also was sentenced Friday to three years of probation and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service.
Long pleaded guilty to two counts of delivering illegal articles to an inmate when she worked at the Dane County Jail.
She was fired after less than a year as a deputy when investigators learned that she had given items including a radio, batteries, face wash and throat lozenges to an inmate.
She also gave another inmate chewing tobacco, according to the criminal complaint.
While Long apologized for her actions and expressed remorse, Dane County Circuit Judge Nicholas McNamara said jail time was necessary to show that police officers and sheriffs deputies arent above the law.
McNamara said he worries such incidents could hurt public trust in law enforcement.
No jail at all unduly depreciates the harm that youve caused, McNamara said.
Longs attorney, Lester Pines, said he thought probation and community service was an appropriate punishment because she had admitted to her actions and apologized for them.
But Assistant District Attorney Andrea Raymond said jail time was needed because Long created a safety risk by giving prohibited items to inmates. She also compromised an investigation with her actions, which included flirting with inmates and letting one touch her on the buttocks near where keys to the jail are kept, Raymond said.
She was in a position of power and at the very least abused it, Raymond said. When an officer acts this way, it taints the police.
Long said she let her kindheartedness cloud her judgment when dealing with inmates and that she betrayed the trust of inmates, the public and other law enforcement officers. She said unhappiness in her marriage allowed her to be manipulated by inmates.
I didnt intend for my behavior to be malicious, she said.
Its unclear if Long will serve the sentence in Dane County. She was given 60 days to report to jail.
Devant writes Ghana on Le Hunte
He asked Ayorkor Botchwey to confirm that Le Huntes Ghanaian citizenship was revoked within, a mere three days and in accordance with the laws of Ghana with a renunciation certificate being issued as required. Le Hunte was first sworn in on August 24.
However his appointment was revoked on Monday when it was discovered that he had Ghanaian citizenship. Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley resumed control of the Public Utilities portfolio until Le Huntes situation was rectified.
The Office of the Prime Minister said on Monday the matter would be rectified by yesterday.
Maharaj, in his letter, also asked whether Le Hunte was afforded any special treatment by the Ghanaian government, to expedite this process. In a separate statement, Maharaj described the second swearing in of Le Hunte as an insult to this countrys democratic principles. After his swearing in, Le Hunte apologised to Rowley and the nation.
Le Hunte said the blame was his and no one elses.
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority will soon start taxing churches with business ventures, but exclude tithes, offerings and donations from taxation. Churches will also be required to remit Pay As You Earn for their employees salaries, wages and allowances.
Zimra head of corporate communications Mr Canisio Mudzimu said, Churches carrying out business are treated like any other entity and are liable to income tax which is payable on business profits, i.e. income derived from, or deemed to be from a source within Zimbabwe.
However, the receipts and accruals of church or religious organisations are exempted from income tax only to the extent of donations, tithes, offerings, other contributions by its members, and any other income that is not from trade or investments.
Every person who becomes an employer is required by law to register for PAYE within 14 days of becoming an employer. Once a church becomes an employer and it pays any type of remuneration, for instance, a salary, wage, allowance among others to its employees, the church will be required to deduct the correct employees tax or PAYE every month, in accordance with the tax tables, and remit to Zimra by the 10th day of the following month.
Mr Mudzimu also said, Capital gains tax is payable on capital gains realised from the sale of specified assets (immovable property, shares and other securities). It should be stated that a church is exempt from capital gains tax in respect of any sale of specified assets.
However, the exemption does not cover a situation where the church carries on a trade through a company or other statutory corporation and the latter sells a specified asset. . . Please note that any business transaction carried on by any pastor and founder of any church is liable to tax. Sunday Mail
Local think-tank Research and Advocacy Unit has predicted victory for President Mugabe and Zanu-PF in next years harmonised elections, ruling out any real challenge from the opposition.
In its August 2017 report, RAU which comprises academics and NGO officials says President Mugabe will continue to befuddle pundits who have dismissed him based on age and Zimbabwes economy by once again emerging tops in the coming polls. Titled Zimbabwe since the elections in 2013, the view from 2017, the document ribs the ruling partys challengers with a prediction that 2018 will likely decimate the opposition once and for all.
The report reads in part: The big question, as we have raised here, is why, apart from the Constitutional requirement to do so, would Zanu-PF, in its fractured state, be willing to take a chance on elections? The only reason that Zanu-PF would take the election route, early or otherwise, would be to decimate the opposition once and for all and claim a legitimate hold on power. Unless something changes drastically in the next 12 months, there is little hope for an opposition win in 2018.
. . . Given Zimbabwe has a separate Presidential poll, one key problem that the grand coalition has yet to solve is who will lead the coalition in challenging Zanu-PF for the Presidency. Despite this, there are few signs that the central problem of who will lead the coalition has been resolved.
RAU predicts that just as it did in 2013 with President Mugabe at the helm, Zanu-PF would silence pundits with victory come 2018. While regurgitating the Wests mantra about Zimbabwes economy being in the intensive care unit, it acknowledges a further surge in President Mugabes popularity since 2013.
Zimbabwean politics may well confound the pundits as it has done in the past, and show a decided contempt for the best tenets of political science, Posner and Young, in analysis of the changes taking place, theorised that no African big man would attempt to continue in power if his lead in opinion polls was less than 20 percent, was older than 60 years and led a country that was very dependent on economic assistance (Posner & Young. 2007).
This theory was wholly discredited in 2013 (Reeler. 2012), and probably will be discredited in 2018, even if the factors indicated by Posner and Young are still completely applicable, worse in some ways: the President is older, the economy is in the intensive care unit, but the Presidents popularity is arguably better than in 2013, according to the Afrobarometer at least.
On civil society, the report says: Organised civil society has been on the downward trend since the announcement of the election results in 2013 both in terms of legitimacy and funding. As was stated in previous research, civil society had overconfidence in the opposition.
When they lost the election, this had a domino effect, as civil society had to accept that they had to engage with the Government they had invested so much time and money to remove.
The struggle for survival for civil society worsened in the last year as the realisation that there wont be as much money poured into this election as in previous years . . .
Reacting to the report, political analyst Mr Godwin Mureriwa said: The Zanu-PF support base does not dwindle because of perceived factional divisions within the party. While there may be symptoms of systematic instability, it is mainly at the top and between individuals.
This has not trickled down to the grassroots who remain united behind the party and its leader. The ongoing interface rallies have shown beyond doubt that Zanu-PF is powerful when it comes to mobilisation. When the party is fully mobilised and confronting a common opponent, it has shown that it is unstoppable.
While Zanu-PF has been going around the country and mobilising its support base, the opposition is busy trying to put together the so-called grand coalition; and it is almost two years now since that idea was first introduced and they have nothing to show for all the talk. So, given facts on the ground, the findings that Zanu-PF will romp to an easy victory cannot be disputed by any right-minded observer.
Earlier this year, another research hub, Afrobarometer, revealed that President Mugabe enjoyed support from two-thirds of Zimbabwes adult population.
In May 2017, academic and former MDC-T official Dr Teondepi Shonhe also predicted defeat for the opposition, citing ideological bankruptcy. Sunday Mail
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In response to the heartrending stories and images coming out of flood-stricken areas of Texas, businesses and residents in southern Wisconsin have stepped up to help, donating cash and sending convoys of emergency supplies to the region.
We are getting calls from across the country and right here in our hometown, and the generosity of people who understand this disaster is truly amazing, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement sent out by Madison Mayor Paul Soglins office Friday.
Together we can make a difference to those who will need extensive help to get back on their feet once this storm is over.
To make the process more efficient, help ensure the region gets the supplies it needs and avoid scams, Soglin urged donors to review the following tips from officials in Texas:
Cash assistance
The Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, administered by the Greater Houston Community Foundation, accepts tax deductible flood relief donations.
Online credit card donations: Visit www.ghcf.org. Online credit card donations will be assessed a small fee, typically 3 percent, by the credit card companies. Donors have the option of increasing their credit card donations to cover this fee.
Checks/money orders: Mail to Greater Houston Community Foundation, 5120 Woodway Drive, Suite 6000, Houston, TX 77056.
Wire transfers: Wire To: JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. Houston, Texas ABA # 021000021 For credit to: Greater Houston Community Foundation A/C#: 849170287. For further credit to: Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund.
Emergency supplies
The most pressing need right now is for toiletries, cleaning supplies and diapers. Organizations wishing to send supplies via truck are asked to send details to Carlecia Wright at Carlecia.Wright@houstontx.gov
Large truck deliveries should be sent to:
6501 Navigation Blvd., Houston, Texas 77011. Contact Erik Vidor, 832-483-1708, erikvidor@gmail.com. Hours of Operation: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday
For additional questions, contact Marsha Murray at 832-971-0819 or by email at Marsha.Murray@houstontx.gov.
[Editor's note: This story has been updated to include information about where large truck deliveries may go.]
It could be the plot of a Hollywood movie, albeit one where apparently nothing goes wrong: On Aug. 23, Germany announced it had successfully and in secret shepherded half its gold reserves back home, per Reuters. Germany's 3,378 metric tons of gold had for decades been stored in New York, London, and Paris over fears that the Soviets could get their hands on it, CNBC notes; only 2% of the country's gold remained at home during the Cold War. A mission that began in 2013 to bring 1,710 tons back to Frankfurt wrapped up well ahead of the scheduled 2020 end date. The Bundesbank declined to explain to CNBC the methods by which the transfer of 53,780 barseach worth $519,000, or $27.9 billion in totalout of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Paris' Banque de France took place. The undertaking cost Germany $9.1 million, per Deutsche Welle.
The Financial Times reports Germany's gold reserves are second only to the United States' 8,134 metric tons; what remains abroad is held at the Federal Reserve and Bank of England in London, where it can be converted to dollars and pounds, respectively, if an economic emergency necessitates it. Economic emergencies elsewherethink the US subprime crisisled some to voice concerns the gold "might have been tampered with, lent out, or sold off," as Deutsche Welle puts it, spurring the central bank to bring more gold home. "We've checked every ingot against authenticity, fineness, and weight. We have nothing to complain about," says a Bundesbank board member. The first repatriation pre-dated even the subprime crisis, notes Reuters, with 931 metric tons returned from London in 2000. (Some suspect the Federal Reserve isn't holding as much gold as it claims.)
The Army has suspended the head of its forces in Africa after he was caught flirting with the wife of an enlisted soldier in private Facebook messages, USA Today reports. "I knew u were worth worshiping!" Maj. Gen. Joseph Harrington writes in one message. "How often does your devil vixen come out?" Stars and Stripes quotes Harrington as asking in another message. Harrington, considered a "rising star" in the Army, met the unnamed woman at the gym. She says their conversations started friendly but she got concerned when they turned suggestive, according to USA Today. In his messages, Harrington suggested they meet and asked the woman to delete their conversations afterward. The woman turned over dozens of messages sent between March and June to an advocacy group.
Harrington, the commander of the US Army Africa's Southern European Task Force, was suspended while the Army investigates. Harrington is married, and adultery is a violation of military lawthough the woman says their relationship never turned physical. Regardless, Don Christensen, the head of an advocacy group for military sexual assault and harassment victims, says Harrington "should lose his command over this." I would say they clearly violated Article 133conduct unbecoming an officer, the former Air Force prosecutor tells Stars and Stripes. The woman's husband serves at the same military installation in Italy as Harrington but isn't under Harrington's command. In a statement, Harrington says he looks "forward to the completion of the investigation." (Read more US Army stories.)
Prison appears to be doing nothing to change serial con man Jimmy Sabatino. The Miami Herald reports the "legendary" con artist pleaded guilty Friday to running a lucrative scam out of his cell at a federal facility in Florida. Authorities say Sabatino bought cellphones from corrections officers then used them to call luxury stores. Posing as an executive from Sony or RocNation, Sabatino allegedly convinced the stores' owners to loan out watches, jewelry, and more for use in music videos. Authorities say Sabatino then had associates fence the items at pawn shops. One jewelry store in New York says Sabatino scammed them out of $700,000 worth of jewelry. Authorities say Sabatino sent part of his profits from the con to an associate of the Gambino crime family.
Sabatino has already spent half of his 40 years locked up and faces another 20 years in prison on these new charges. He's currently being kept alone in a special housing unit in an attempt to stop him from conning people. It's the same reason the Justice Department is imposing a gag order that only allows Sabatino to talk to his family and attorney. In past scams, Sabatino scored hundreds of free Super Bowl tickets and racked up unpaid bills worth hundreds of thousands of dollars at resorts. He once secured his return to the US by calling the FBI from a prison cell in England and threatening to kill Bill Clinton. While serving prison time following that incident, Sabatino defrauded Nextel of $3 million. (Read more weird crimes stories.)
Mysterious incidents affecting the health of American diplomats in Cuba continued as recently as August, the United States said Friday, despite earlier US assessments that the attacks had long stopped. The US increased its tally of government personnel affected to 19. The new US disclosures came the same day that the union representing American diplomats said mild traumatic brain injury was among the diagnoses given to diplomats victimized in the attacks, reports the AP. In the most detailed account of the symptoms to date, the American Foreign Service Association said permanent hearing loss was another diagnosis; the BBC notes the hearing loss had not previously been described as permanent.
US officials previously said that the attacks had started in fall 2016 and continued until spring 2017. Last week, State Department rep Heather Nauert said the "incidents" were no longer occurring, but she can now "confirm another incident ... occurred last month." The evolving US assessment indicated investigators were still far off from any thorough understanding of what transpired. The US has avoided pointing a finger at the Cuban government. The US did expel two Cuban diplomats, but the State Department emphasized that was in protest of the Cubans' failure to protect the safety of American diplomats while on their soil. US investigators have been searching to identify a sonic device that could have harmed the health of the diplomats, believed to have been attacked in their homes in Havana, but officials have said no device had been found. (Read more Cuba stories.)
"On the face of the evidence, there is concern that is raised about this officers conduct," says Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill. Many of the people who have racked up nearly 3 million views of the video that shows Detective Jeff Payne arresting University of Utah Hospital nurse Alex Wubbels would likely agree. Gill on Friday called for a criminal investigation into the encounter, in which Payne handcuffed a screaming Wubbels after she refused to permit a blood draw from an unconscious patientas she was right to do, according to law, because Payne had neither a warrant nor the consent of the patient, who was not under arrest. The Salt Lake Tribune reports Payne was put on administrative leave Friday afternoon, along with a second unnamed officer connected to the July 26 incident. More:
Mayor Jackie Biskupski and Chief Mike Brown both called Wubbels to apologize. Per the city, the Unified Police Department will begin a criminal probe into the matter, and an internal affairs investigation will be conduced as well.
The Tribune also offers more background on the patient in question: William Gray, a 43-year-old who was driving a semi when a 26-year-old who was trying to evade the Utah Highway Patrol crashed into Gray head-on. That driver was killed, and a police official explains it's typical to get blood draws of those involved in fatal crashes, even if they aren't suspected of wrongdoing.
The AP cites Payne's police report, in which he wrote he was trying to avoid a "scene" by taking Wubbels outside and that this his boss told him to arrest her if she didn't cooperate with the draw. Wubbels' attorney says the nurse was left in a hot police car for 20 minutes before the detective realized the hospital had already drawn the patient's blood as part of treatment.
The Tribune notes that while the video may suggest Payne was demanding Wubbels draw Gray's blood, Payne is actually one of a handful of officers certified to draw blood in accident cases, and was looking to draw the blood himself.
(Read more police investigation stories.)
Dr. HH Holmesknown as "America's first serial killer"murdered an unknown number of people at his "hotel of horrors" during the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, the AP reports. Holmes' hotel "featured a bizarre labyrinth of windowless rooms, secret passageways, false floors, trapdoors," and gas vents controlled from his bedroom. But when it was Holmes' turn to be killedby the state for the murder of his business partnersome remained convinced the good doctor had tricked his way out of hanging and headed for South America. One of those people was Holmes' great-great-grandson Jeff Mudgett, who co-hosted American Ripper on the History Channel to find out if the body buried in Holmes' grave was actually that of the infamous serial killer, NBC Philadelphia reports.
A court approved the exhumation of Holmes' grave in March, and the body was dug up for testing in April, Rolling Stone reports. And with American Ripper wrapping up its eight-episode run on Tuesday, we finally have an answer: The body did belong to Holmes. Scientists used dental records to confirm the identity since there was no DNA left to test, at least partly due to Holmes' bizarre burial request. He had asked for his coffin to be filled with concrete, buried 10 feet down, then covered with more concrete. This resulted in, among other things, his skull still sporting a perfectly preserved mustache. "It stank," says one University of Pennsylvania anthropologist. Holmes' body was reburied, but Mudgett remains skeptical: "This doesn't deter me from my investigation." (Read more serial killers stories.)
The federal prison in Beaumont, Texas, refused to evacuate its prisoners Thursday despite concerns about the city's supply of power and running water in the wake of Harvey, saying it had enough food and water to weather the storm, the Houston Chronicle reports. But that's not the story its inmates were telling Friday. "Save me Jesus," a 30-year-old man locked up at FCI Beaumont for cocaine and gun possession said in an email. "I never thought nothing like this would happen in prison." The man said inmates hadn't had a warm meal in nearly six days and one inmate passed out Thursday from malnutrition. He said the water shortages have forced inmates at the 1,800-person, low-security facility to use four portable toilets, which are already full.
"We are getting two bottles of water a day thus far," says a 50-year-old Beaumont inmate serving time for fraud. "We are getting three brown bags of peanut butter and bologna a day." He calls the situation "obscene." In response to the inmates' complaints, the Federal Bureau of Prisons stated: "There is ample food and bottled water for inmates and staff." The city has already suffered major shortages of clean running water and power due to flooding, and more flooding is expected, CNN reports. A thousand people have been evacuated from the city's shelters, and the city's Baptist Hospital was also evacuated. A number of other prisons in the area have relocated their prisoners. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says flooding "poses an ongoing threat to Beaumont." (Read more Hurricane Harvey stories.)
On his visit to a Texas shelter for storm victims Saturday, President Trump declared he sees "a lot of love" in the wake of devastation left by Harvey, the AP reports. "We saw a lot of happiness," he told reporters after he and first lady Melania Trump greeted children in the kids' zone in Houston's NRG Center, an emergency refuge for people who were forced out of their homes. "As tough as this was, it's been a wonderful thing." It was his second trip to Texas in a week, and this time his first order of business was to meet with those affected by the record-setting rainfall and flooding. That interaction was missing from Tuesday's trip to Texas, which was criticized as being off-key for a presidential visit to discuss communities in crisis.
During his visit to NRG Center, Trump cupped a boy's face in his hands and then gave him a high-five. He lifted a girl into his arms to give her a kiss. He snapped on latex gloves to hand out boxed lunches of hot dogs and potato chips. Joining Trump on Saturday were four Cabinet secretaries and other administration officials, including Brock Long, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Trump has sent lawmakers an initial request for a $7.9 billion down payment toward Harvey relief and recovery effortsa request expected to be swiftly approved by Congress, which returns to work Tuesday after its summer break. (Read more Donald Trump stories.)
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Unlike most of the nation, the Bay Areas biggest problem right now is not from right-wing provocateurs, its from anarchist hoodlums.
Most people recognize how despicable and dangerous the ultra-right-wing, white supremacist, neo-Nazi movement is. We deplore President Donald Trumps false equivalency that those who protest the bigotry are equally culpable.
As we saw in San Francisco and Berkeley, most who demonstrate against this countrys ugly underbelly can do so peacefully and effectively.
Unfortunately, as we also saw, theres a small subset of opponents with a penchant for violence that plays right into the hands of the nationalist extremists. Dressed in black with masks covering their faces, they call themselves antifa, or anti-fascists.
If the political left, and police, dont find a way to contain them, they will only fuel the bigotry. The news will continue to revolve around the anarchists confrontations with the right. The narrative will shift from right-wing bigotry to the suppression of speech. We must not let that happen.
Across the political spectrum, speech must be protected. The First Amendment doesnt protect merely speech we agree with, it protects all speech, however distasteful. ...
And violence must not be condoned or permitted. The time has come for all of us to denounce the antifa tactics. They only serve to hurt the cause of fighting bigotry.
Make no mistake. We understand why people are angry. Sadly, Charlottesville was only a symptom of a national disease, a political cancer that must be stopped before it metastasizes.
Take to the streets. Voice your anger. Show the world that Americans believe in diversity, and abhor racism and religious intolerance. But do so peacefully. Avoid direct confrontations. Violence is not the answer. Dont condone it.
Consider what happened in Berkeley on Sunday. A small group of right-wing protesters showed up at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. Thousands of counter-demonstrators showed up a few blocks away.
The story could have been the massive show of opposition to bigotry. Instead, the counter demonstrators moved toward the park and, predictably, the hundred or so black-clad antifa turned to violence. ...
They were spoiling for fight, just as weve seen before when they turned the Occupy movement into a melee of destruction in downtown Oakland, and last springs protests of conservative campus speakers into a bonfire of property destruction.
There are serious questions for Berkeley police about why they werent better prepared and stepped away, letting the anarchists overrun the park. But there are equally serious questions about why counter-protest leaders didnt foresee the trouble and steer the crowd toward a separate, peaceful venue.
The right-wing protesters got what they wanted, a confrontation that maximizes publicity. For the left, there are lessons to be learned. They must denounce and separate themselves from the anarchists.
If they dont, their message of tolerance will continue to be lost.
Fairbanks, AK (99707)
Today
Periods of snow. Low near 20F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 70%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches..
Tonight
Periods of snow. Low near 20F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 70%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches.
New Delhi:
The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation has put in a lot of effort to simplify the process to check EPF balance and passbook. It is now only a matter of seconds to retrieve this information.
In most of the cases, both the employer and employee contribute 12 per cent of basis salary plus DA (if any) towards EPF.
An employee's 12 per cent contribution goes toward EPF kitty, while 8.33 per cent out of the total 12 per cent of the employer's contribution is invested in EPS or pension scheme. The balance 3.67 per cent is invested in EPF.
Different processes to check EPF balance, passbook:
To check EPF balance, passbook, the user can click on the link (E-Passbook) on EPFOs website. The e-passbook link can be spotted at the top-right corner of EPFOs website.
After clicking on the link, the subscribers are required to enter the UAN number and password.
Then, subscribers are required to click on the View Passbook button to open their passbook and know their balance.
The EPF balance, passbook can also be accessed on EPFOs app. Subscribers need to click on the Member button and after entering UAN number and password, they can their results.
Users can also check their EPF balance and passbook by simply giving missed call on 011-22901406 from their registered mobile number.
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New Delhi:
Bigg Boss 11 is all set to be launched next month on Colors channel. As the launch date is coming closer, the list of people being approached for the show is increasing.A
The Salman Khan hosted show is known forA having an exciting mix of contestants from different backgrounds.
A As per a report in India Forums, actress Tejasswi Prakash Wayangankar has been approached for the new season of the reality show.A It looks Bigg Boss makers are keen to make her a part of the show.A
Tejasswi has been recently grabbing headlines after her show ' Pehredaar Piya Ki' went off air. The show has been embroiled in major controversy ever since it aired the first episode. Television viewers filed a petition against the show and asked for a complete ban on it.A
The beautiful actress confirmed that she has been approached for the show. However, she won't be taking up the offer because of her commitment with Sony Tv for a new show.A
When asked about the development in her upcoming project, the Swaragini actress said that things are at their initial stage and are yet to be finalised.A
New Delhi:
The city of Ahmedabad which is also known as the commercial hub of Gujarat was formally accorded the status of Indiaas first World Heritage City by UNESCO on Friday.
The certificate declaring Ahmedabad as a aWorld Heritage Citya was presented byA UNESCO Director General Irina BokovaA to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Gandhinagar.
Gujarat: Ahmedabad formally accorded World Heritage City status, UNESCO Dir Gen, Irina Bokova handed over the certificate to CM Vijay Rupani pic.twitter.com/PHdRgMdnZU a ANI (@ANI) September 1, 2017
In July, the UN agency had inscribed Ahmedabad as Indiaas first World Heritage City at a meeting held in Poland.
Speaking after receiving the certificate, Rupani said it was a moment of pride for Gujaratis.
He slammed the previous governments for anot doing enougha in the past to get this tag for the city, said an official press release issued by the state government.
aAhmedabad received this tag late because the previous governments did not pay any attention to it. Our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, saw this dream in 2010 (when he was Gujarat the chief minister). His dream of getting the world heritage tag for the city has now been realised,a Rupani was quoted as saying in the release.
Rupani appealed the citizens of Ahmedabad to maintain the pride and glory of the newly crowned aWorld Heritage Citya.
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New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was looking forward to fruitful discussions and pragmatic outcomes at the upcoming BRICS summit in China.He emphasized that it has to make vital contributions in sustaining peace and security and address global challenges.
"I look forward to building upon the results and outcomes of the Goa Summit. I also look forward to productive discussions and positive outcomes that will support the agenda of a stronger BRICS partnership under the chairmanship of china," the PM said in a statement.
Modi will leave tomorrow for Xiamen to attend the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) summit on September 4.
The visit comes days after India and China managed to end the 73-daylong Dokalam standoff.
About his first bilateral visit to Myanmar, Modi said both countries will look at strengthening existing cooperation in areas of security and counter-terrorism, trade and investment, infrastructure and energy, and culture.
Also Read: BRICS 2017 | Can't divulge what PM will speak at summit: MEA
On BRICS, the Prime Minister said he will have the opportunity to meet leaders bilaterally on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit. Replying to a specific question, the Ministry of External Affairs yesterday did not rule out a possible meeting between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the summit, saying it is a common practice to arrange bilateral meetings on the sidelines of such multilateral.
India had hosted the previous BRICS summit in Goa last year. "India attaches high importance to the role of BRICS thathas begun the second decade of its partnership for progress andpeace.
BRICS has important contributions to make in addressing global challenges and upholding world peace and security," the prime minister said.
The prime minister said he was looking forward to engaging with leaders of nine other countries, including BRICS partners, in an Emerging Markets and Developing Countries Dialogue, being hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 5.
"We will also interact with the BRICS Business Council represented by captains of industry from all five countries," he said. On his Myanmar visit from September 5-7, Modi hoped itwill help in charting a roadmap for closer cooperation betweenthe two countries.
He said both countries will review developments inbilateral ties with a focus on "extensive" program of development cooperation and socio economic assistance India is undertaking in Myanmar.
Also Read: China not in favour of discussing Pakistan's counter-terror record at BRICS summit
Both sides will also explore new areas of cooperation. The prime minister said he was looking forward to payinga visit to the famed heritage city of Bagan, where the Archaeological Survey of India has done "stellar work" inrenovating the Ananda Temple, and where it will be undertaking further restoration work on a number of pagodas and murals that were damaged in last year's earthquake.
Modi had visited Myanmar in 2014 to attend the ASEAN-India Summit. The prime minister will meet President U Htin Kyaw and hold talks with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. The Myanmarese president and Suu Kyi had visited India last year.
"I am also keen to meet and interact with the Indian-origin community of Myanmar, whose history goes back more than a century.
"I am confident that the visit will open a bright newchapter in India-Myanmar relations and will help in charting aroadmap for closer cooperation between our governments, our business communities and at the people to people level," Modi said.
For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:
Tamil Nadu CM announces ex-gratia of Rs 7 lakh to the family ofA Dalit girl who allegedly committed suicide on Friday after fighting against NEET-based medical examinations in Supreme Court.
According to reports, Anitha was reportedly upset after she came to know that Tamil Nadu will not be exempted from the ambit of National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET).
She was daughter of a daily wage earner, Anitha dreamed of becoming a doctor. She was found hanging at her house in a village in this district, police said. The Dalit girl had approached the apex court last month opposing a plea seeking admissions to under graduate medical courses only on the basis of the NEET score.
#Anitha managed to study in difficult circumstances. She was concerned about NEET. What wrong had she done,who will answer?: Anitha's father pic.twitter.com/7oibWB86Ie a ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
The police said they were investigating the matter. Meanwhile, the residents held a 'road roko' in the village, slamming the AIADMK-led state government for the death of the girl.
"District police superintendent, district collector andother senior officials are present on the spot for coordinating the legalities post the death of the girl," apolice official told PTI. The body has been taken to a government hospital for autopsy, he said.
Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijaya baskar told reporters that he was deeply pained by the death of the girl. Education Minister C Sengottaiyan expressed grief and anguish and said steps were being taken to prepare students for any competitive exam. He said such instances must never be repeated.
DMK working president M K Stalin expressed concern over the death of the girl and called the government "inept". "Students are the future of the nation and they should never attempt to do such things," he said while asking the state government to own up responsibility for the death. Various political parties have been cornering the state government for its failure to get exemption from the NEET. Actor Rajinikanth also condoled the death of the teenage girl.
"What has happened to Anitha is extremely unfortunate. Myheart goes out to all the pain and agony she would have undergone before taking the drastic step. My condolences toher family," he said in a tweet.
VCK chief Thol Thirumavalan, a Dalit leader, expressed anguish at the death of the girl and said no student should attempt ending their lives as there were a lot of opportunities to pass examinations. Anitha had scored an impressive 1,176 out of 1,200 marks in class XII board examinations.
In NEET, she did not fair well and missed out on getting a medical seat. Although she could not get admission to MBBS, she had the high score to secure the admission for several other courses, including engineering. She was even reportedly offered a seat in the prestigious state-run Madras Institute of Technology here for aeronautical engineering.
With PTI Input.
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New Delhi:
In a major development in heart-wrenching Gorakhpur tragedy, Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Saturday arrested Dr. Kafeel Khan, in-charge of encephalitis ward at BRD Medical College and Hospital, reported news agency ANI.
Dr. Kafeel was hailed as a hero by the media for arranging oxygen cylinders to save children at Gorakhpur's BRD medical college and hospital. But the investigators held him accused of negligence as he was the ward in-charge.
At least, 30 kids died at Gorakhpur's BRD medical college in a span of 48 hours last month after the liquid oxygen supply was cut off over non-payment of the bills.
On August 24, on the orders of state government, an FIR was registered against Dr. Kafeel Khan, Dr. Rajeev Mishra- former BRD college principal and 7 others in connection with the tragic incident of children deaths.
Earlier, a court issued non- bailable warrant (NBW) against seven people, including Dr. Kafeel Khan, in connection with the death of children at the BRD Medical College hospital.
After the incident, Dr. Kafeel Khan had been removed as the Nodal Officer for the Department of Pediatrics of Baba Raghav Das Medical College after an investigation accused him of negligence.
The opposition had accused the government of using Kafeel Khan as a scapegoat and demanded the resignation UP CM Yogi Adityanath and Health Minister Siddhartha Nath Singh.
Also Read | Gorakhpur hospital tragedy: Congress terms children deaths murder, demands CM Yogis resignation
#GorakhpurTragedy: Uttar Pradesh STF arrests accused Dr Kafeel Khan from Gorakhpur. pic.twitter.com/rFnXqc3EP9 News Nation (@NewsNationTV) September 2, 2017
More details awaited.
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New Delhi:
A Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Ishfaq Paddar was killed in an encounter with security forces in Tantrypora area of Jammu and Kashmirs Kulgam district on Saturday.
According to the reports, the terrorist killed in the encounter has been identified as Ishfaq Paddar, a resident of Machiwa. Ishfaq was involved in the killings of Lt. Umar Fayaz, a Kashmiri Army officer.
On May 10, a bullet-ridden body of a 22-year-old Fayaz was found in Shopian district's Herman area in South Kashmir.
After the encounter of Fayaz, mobile internet services were temporarily suspended in Shopian and Kulgam districts in wake of protests.
J&K: The LeT terrorist Ishfaq Padder gunned down by security forces in Kulgam's Tantrypora was involved in killing of Lt Umar Fayaz. ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
Earlier on Friday, Terrorists had attacked a bus of security personnel in Srinagars Pantha Chowk. Five policemen were injured in the attack. one succumbed to injuries.
Also Read | Jammu and Kashmir: Security forces gun down Hizbul militant in encounter in Anantnag
The bus carrying personnel of the Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police came under fire from the militants in the evening. The vehicle was going from Bemina to Zewan, a police official said.
J&K: Encounter begins between security forces & terrorists in Kulgam's Tantrypora. One terrorist killed. Encounter underway. pic.twitter.com/TQwS0N5hsh ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
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New Delhi:
Ahead of the cabinet reshuffle on Sunday, a series of meetings took place in New Delhi on Saturday. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg.
Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan met BJP president Amit Shah at his residence. Pradhan may get higher portfolio in the cabinet.
PM Modi to include nine new faces
As per reports in news agency ANI, nine new ministers will be inducted into cabinet on Sunday.
Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Shiv Paratap Shukla, Virendra Kumar, Anantkumar Hegde, Raj Kumar Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Satya Pal Singh, Alphons Kannanthanam to take oath on Sunday.
Satyapal Singh said that he has not been officially informed, but whatever is party and PM's decision he is ready for it.
"Have always fulfilled responsibilities the party leadership gave me. Thank PM, Amit Shah and senior leaders," said Virendra Kumar.
"Want to thank PM that he trusted me with such a responsibility, it's a chance to work for country," said Gajendra S Shekhawat.
"I will try to justify the faith that PM Modi entrusted to me," said Ashwini Kumar Choubey.
"I will believe the information to be authentic only when I get it from official sources," said Shiv Pratap Shukla.
As per sources, Shankarbhai Vegad, Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, is also coming to Delhi. He can get a berth in cabinet.
Andhra Pradesh BJP state president and Visakhapatnam MP K Hari Babu may take oath on Sunday. He is on his way to Delhi along with family.
Sources in the party say that party wants to introduce fresh faces in Cabinet. A source said that Karnataka BJP MP Prahalad Joshi and Bagpat MP Satyapal Singh could be inducted in the government.
It is said that Giriraj Singh could be asked to resign while Union minister Uma Bharti has wished to quit citing health reasons.
Source also say that Union Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari is likely to get Railways and incumbent minister Suresh Prabhu could get the charge of Ministry of Environment.
It is also believed that AIADMK's Thambidurai could be given cabinet berth if his party (AIADMK) joins NDA.
Sources said that Union minister of state for energy Piyush Goyal may get the charge of Ministry of Defence.
JD(U), AIADMK not in list
Earlier, there were reports suggesting that JD(U) and AIADMK may also be included in the cabinet.
However, uncertainty looms large over them joining cabinet as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has denied about any information regarding inclusion of JD(U) in the cabinet. He asserted that there are no talks about it.
Reports also say that both JD(U) have yet not been apprised about the cabinet reshuffle.
JD(U) MP Kaushalendra Kumar said that it would have been good for Bihar if they would have been included.
Ahead of the reshuffle, three union ministers have resigned from the government. Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjeev Balyan and Mahendra Nath Pandey tendered their resignation on Thursday.
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New Delhi:
Political parties, students' bodies, and pro-Tamil outfits have come on the streets to demand "justice" for the 17-year-old Anitha who dreamed of becoming the Doctor.
To pay the tribute to a medical aspirant, people like Dhinakaran has made a beeline from the Anitha's native village.
A daughter of daily wage labor fought courageously against discriminatory NEET- based medical examinations in the southern state.
But she allegedly committed suicide at her house in the Ariyalur district of the state. According to the reports, she was distress after it became known that Tamil Nadu will come under the ambit of the NEET.
Protesters have blocked road and rail services and ventured to demonstrate at the government offices. They also denounced the ruling AIADMK and the BJP party.
Police detained students while they are staging the protest near Chief Minister K Palaniswami's house. Lawyer Nalini, wife of senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram drew a flak by protesters. She represented pro-NEET supporters in court.
The CPI(M) and its student and youth affiliates, SFI and DYFI, also blocked the road and the police detained the party'state unit secretary G Ramakrishnan.
Protesters raised slogans against the central and state governments on the issue of NEET.
Tamil Nadu: People in Ariyalur district's Kulumur protested over death of #Anitha who appealed against NEET in SC, demand justice pic.twitter.com/l79Fh5LaR6 ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
At Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli district, a "wailing protest" was held by women members of pro-Tamil 'Naam TamizharKatchi'. Hundreds of students and workers of various political parties and organizations were arrested at Coimbatore when they attempted to stage agitation on the issue.
A few students asked the Tamil Nadu government to take moral responsibility and step down from office and sought a judicial inquiry into the incident, police said. A group of workers belonging to Viduthalai ChiruthigalKatchi (VCK) assembled near Gandhipuram bus stand, blocked the road and raised slogans against the government and sought an exemption for Tamil Nadu from NEET.
Some workers also attempted to burn an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Coimbatore, but the police prevented them. Police arrested 11 persons in this connection.
Protests were also held in Salem, Madurai and Rameswaramby students' and youth outfits who demanded justice for the girl and sought immediate withdrawal of NEET.
Also Read| NEET activist S Anitha's suicide: Tamil superstars Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan condemn incident, urge government to take notice
Meanwhile, Anitha's mortal remains were kept at her native village in Ariyalur for the public to pay tributes. Among others, Dhinakaran, VCK founder Thol Thirumavalavan, DK leader K Veeramani and a host of social activists, cinema personalities, and others paid tributes.
Some locals also raised slogans against Dhinakaran when he arrived at the girl's native village. Some of them claimed they opposed his visit as "he is part of the (ruling) AIADMK".
Dhinakaran later said that despite scoring "high marks" of 1176 out of 1200, Anitha could not get a medical seat.
"In the interest of the people of Tamil Nadu, Central government should cancel NEET," he said. Traders had also shut down shops in Ariyalur. At the receiving end for the teen's suicide, the BJP said NEET was a "pan-India issue" and that its admissions were based on the merit lists following a Supreme Court verdict.
NEET is being held in Tamil Nadu following the apex court order, BJP state President Tamilisai Sounderrajan said even as she regretted the death of Anitha. She claimed rural students have benefited more from NEET and that they have been highlighting the three attempts in the exam.
"Let this not be highlighted as brutal politics. State BJP wants no more Anithas," she said. Union Minister of State, Radhakrishnan said Anitha's death has caused "unbearable pain."
Condoling her death, he also expressed sympathies with her family. He further exhorted children to face their future with mental grit and urged politicians, activists, and others to make encouraging remarks for children.
Senior AIADMK leader and Lok Sabha Deputy SpeakerM Thambidurai said his party was not in favour of NEET and expressed regret over Anitha committing suicide.
Also Read| Tamil Nadu: Chennai teen who led fight against NEET commits suicide
"She could have avoided taking the step," he said. The apex court had last month asked the state government to start counseling for admissions to MBBS and BDS seats in the state based on NEET merit list.
It had given the directive after Centre told the court that it was not in favour of a recent ordinance passed by the state to exempt it from NEET this year.
Political leaders including DMK working president M K Stalin and Thol Thirumavalavan and actors Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth, among others, had condoled Anitha's death. Political parties and other outfits in Tamil Nadu are opposed to NEET, saying it will affect rural students.
Early this year, the state assembly had unanimously adopted two resolutions to ensure the continuation of medical admissions in the state based on Class XII marks and not through an entrance exam, as envisaged by NEET.
(With PTI Inputs)
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New Delhi:
Wide-range protests erupted across Tamil Nadu a day after the suicide of Dalit student S Anitha, who fought against National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET), a common entrance exam for medical colleges in Supreme Court. The National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) is conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for admission to MBBS/BDS courses.
Anitha committed suicide on Friday after her dream to become a doctor shattered as she didn't get admission into a medical college.A She had scored 1,176 out of 1,200 marks in 12th and had a cut off of 196.75 for medicine.
But she got only 86 marks in the NEET examination.A Her suicide has drawn widespread condemnation from celebrities and politicians.
Tamil superstar Rajinikanth took to Twitter to pay his condolences while stating that the death of Anitha is extremely unfortunate.A
Kamal Haasan claimed that he considers Anitha as his own daughter and will raise voice for her. The Vishwaroopam actor also blamed State and Central Governments for her suicide.A
Dhanush also expressed his displeasure and sadness over the tragic incident.
#RIP anitha .. this is really really sad !! a Dhanush (@dhanushkraja) September 1, 2017
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New Delhi:
Ahead of the cabinet reshuffle on Sunday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has denied about any information regarding inclusion of JD(U). He asserted that there are no talks about it.
"We have no information, no talks about it. We got information only from media," said Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on cabinet reshuffle.
The statement came at a time when there are many reports suggesting that JD(U) might be included in the cabinet.
Earlier on Thursday, Union ministers Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Mahendra Nath Pandey, Faggan Singh Kulaste and MoS Water Resources Sanjeev Balyan resigned from cabinet.
The cabinet reshuffle will take place on Sunday at 10 am.
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New Delhi:
Wide-range protests erupted across Tamil Nadu a day after the suicide of Dalit student S Anitha, who fought against National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET), a common entrance exam for medical colleges in Supreme Court.
Around 1,500 protesters thronged the city of Chennai and shouted slogans against the E Palaniswami government in the state and the BJP at the centre. The protesters alleged the both state and centre government have failed to get an exemption from NEET for admissions in medical colleges.
The police have detained as much as 300 CPM workers for trying to block Chennai's busy Anna Salai road.
Chennai: Protest by Revolutionary Students and Youth Front (RSYF) members over the death #Anithaa; Protesters detained by Police. pic.twitter.com/JKwA3vtrmn a ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
Medical aspirant S Anitha commited suicide on Friday after her dream to become a doctor shattered as she could not get admission into a medical college. Anitha, a school topper had scored 1,176 marks out of 1,200 in her board exam but failed to perform well in the NEET.
Anitha was a Dalit and belonged to a very poor family of Tamil nadu's Ariyalur district. Her father is a daily wage labourer. After her death, shops in Ariyalur were shut on Saturday in protest.
Last Year, the Supreme Court had ordered that admissions in all the medical colleges across India will be decided through one common entrance exam NEET.
The students of Tamil Nadu protested the decision and requested the court to exempt the state from NEET as it was allegedly more suitable for CBSC schools.
However, the SC last year exempted Tamil Nadu from the NEET but refused to continue the exemption this year.A
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Vrindavan:
The attacks on RSS workers in Kerala and West Bengal came up for discussion on Friday at a crucial Sangh Parivar meeting during which steps taken by the Centre to curb stone-pelting in Kashmir were lauded, RSS sources said.
Senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionaries made presentations on the violence allegedly targeting Sangh workers in the two states, the sources said, adding that the situation in Kerala was deemed particularly dangerous and participants dubbed it a case of state-sponsored violence.
The inaugural session of the three-day coordination exercise was addressed by RSS general secretary Suresh (Bhaiyyaji) Joshi and senior functionary Suresh Soni and the participants included BJP chief Amit Shah.
This is the first RSS conclave in Uttar Pradesh after the BJP came to power in the state earlier this year.
The security situation in J-K was discussed on the first day of the meeting attended by top leaders of the saffron family, including RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, and Shah, according to the Sanghs Sahkar Bharti Mahamantri, Uday Joshi.
Forty allied organisations of the Sangh are also taking part in the event being chaired by Bhagwat.
At the end of todays session, Shah had a meeting with Bhagwat where frontline RSS functionaries including Dattatreya Hosabale, the Sanghs joint general secretary, Soni, Krishna Gopal and Ram Lal were present.
What transpired at the meeting was not yet known, but unconfirmed reports said the rejig of the Union Council of Ministers on Sunday came up for discussion.
A senior functionary of the RSS, Arun Kumar, spoke on the situation in Kashmir, Joshi said.
Kumar spoke about the internal security situation in Kashmir and stressed on bringing stone-pelters to the mainstream.
He also said that cases relating to stone-pelting and terror have come down in recent time, for which the central government must be appreciated, Joshi said.
Kumar is the former prant pracharak of the Jammu and Kashmir chapter of the RSS.
The meeting, being held at Keshav Dham here, will take stock of the work done by the Sanghs various organisations, an RSS leader, who did not want to be named, said.
Senior Sangh functionaries Dattatreya Hosabale and Krishna Gopal, and VHPs Pravin Togadia were present at the meeting.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is expected to join the conclave tomorrow, the RSS leader said.
Shah, along with BJP organisation secretary Ram Lal, reached earlier on Friday after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital.
Issues such as the recent violence in Haryana after the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in rape cases will also be discussed, he said.
Some state BJP leaders are also likely to attend the meeting.
RSS prachar pramukh Manmohan Vaidya had called the meet a routine affair and said it was a platform for all sections of the Sangh to share details of the work done by them in their respective fields.
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New Delhi:
Amid indications that he may join politics, veteran actor Kamal Haasan on Friday addressed the issue of his political affiliation, saying his colour is definitely not saffron.
Haasans statement after a meeting with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan comes days after he told his fans to be prepared to march to Fort St George in Chennai, the seat of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, to ensure that corrupt politicians are not re-elected in the state.
During the meeting at the chief ministers official residence Cliff House here, Haasan, 62, discussed the political situation in neighboring Tamil Nadu. The actor was treated to a feast arranged as part of the Onam festival celebrations.
On being quizzed about Tamil Nadu politics, the multilingual actor said the governor should intervene in the present situation.
I do not like to see this drama (going in Tamil Nadu). I am not anyone to call for a floor test or speak to the governor, but I am using this podium to call for it, he said.
Sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran is involved in a tussle for power in Tamil Nadu and has upped the ante since the merger of the two factions led by Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam on August 21.
When asked about his political affiliation, the actor said he had been in the film industry for 40 years, but I can tell you one thing, my colour is definitely not saffron.
Haasan said he had come to Kerala for a personal visit.
Most of the leftists are my heroes. I want to be in the middle of things and not take sides, he said.
Look at the statistics of Kerala, you are pushing it to the standards of western countries. Mine is not blind admiration, it is sensible - about why choosing Pinarayi Vijayan, he remarked.
Talking about the meeting on his Facebook post, Vijayan said he shared a healthy friendship with the actor.
Whenever he visits Kerala, he used meets me. However, this is the first meeting after I assumed the office of chief minister, he said.
Though it was a courtesy meeting, politics of south India, especially the situation in Tamil Nadu, also came up for discussion, he added.
Talking to reporters before leaving to meet the chief minister, the actor said his visit was a political education tour.
Definitely, as far as I am concerned, this is an education tour to me, he said.
Actually I was supposed to come to Kerala last year itself. But I could not make it as I met with an accident, Haasan said.
The actor had congratulated the CPI(M)-led LDF government headed by Vijayan for providing good governance when it completed one-year in office in May this year.
Haasan had been vocal against the Tamil Nadu government on the issue of corruption, thus incurring the wrath of several state ministers, who have accused the actor of speaking in general terms and dared him to provide evidence of his charges.
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New Delhi:
In a shocking incident, one student was shot by his classmate inside the classroom at Industrial Training Institute in Sonipat in Haryana on Friday, police said.
According to Deputy Superintendent of Police, Sonipat, Rahul Dev the suspect brought a country-made pistol hidden inside his bag.
"A CCTV footage purportedly shows two boys approaching the victim from behind, who was chatting with other students in the classroom. One of the two boys then took out a pistol from his bag and shot the victim in the back", the DSP said.
The reason behind the crime in susepcted to be a argument that took place a few days ago between the two students who come under the age group of 16 to 17 years.
"The victim was rushed to a hospital at Sonipat from where he was referred to PGIMS at Rohtak where he is undergoing treatment", the DSP said.A
A
#WATCH: One classmate shoots another inside a classroom of ITI Sonipat. Police says investigation is underway. #Haryana. pic.twitter.com/EW5tPnm2Vk a ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
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New Delhi:
Family members of a pregnant woman protested at Vijayawada's Old Government General Hospital, alleging that doctors' negligence had resulted in paralysis of the patient's hand.
According to a report in Times of India, the incident took place on August 26, when a local resident named A Prasad admitted his wife in the hospital for delivery. His wife Mamatha gave birth to a boy through cesarean surgery.
The doctors had asked Prasad to arrange white blood cells and he did the same. He brought the white blood cells from Surakshita blood bank.
Prasad was quoted as saying to Times of India that his wife's right hand was paralysed after being injected with the white blood cells by doctors. She developed a major infection right after that.The husband blamed the doctors for his wife's condition stating that she never had any such issues with her hand.
He added that doctors did not notice the scar on his wife's hand while they were injecting the white blood cells. He also alleged that doctors arranged an ambulance and asked them to admit the patient to a private hospital.
Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas sent an official to enquire about the same. According to him, the doctor found out that there was a block in the woman's blood vessels, which proved to be the main reason behind her infection.
The Minister denied any sort of medical negligence.
The hospital has been embroiled in another controversy recently when a woman developed an infection due to attendant's negligence. The attendant had done an enema on the woman and then cleaned the table with a harmful toxic cleaning agent.
District collector Lakshmi Kantham has ordered a probe regarding the matter.
New Delhi:
With each successful steps by scientists all over the world, robots are becoming a human-like object day by day, making our life way easier as never before. It will be no wonder if they soon start acting as our tour guides and delivering pizzas, moving among crowded places without getting in the way of humans.
According to latest reports, a group of engineers at MIT are working hard to make this happen and teaching a robot the pedestrian behaviors and the way of being human, one of the most challenging aspects in the entire process. The tinny autonomous object is at present on training and trying to understand the unpredictability of human nature in order to navigate crowded places.
"Socially aware navigation is a central capability for mobile robots operating in environments that require frequent interactions with pedestrians. For instance, small robots could operate on sidewalks for package and food delivery. Similarly, personal mobility devices could transport people in large, crowded spaces, such as shopping malls, airports, and hospitals," Lead researcher Yu Fan 'Steven' Chen was quoted while talking about the research.
Also Read: Peggy Whitson returning to Earth after spending 288 days in space
Several number of webcams, a depth sensor and a high-resolution lidar sensor have been installed in the robot to successfully avoid collisions and move smoothly alongside humans in crowded open spaces, said a group of engineers from MITs Stata Center.
Researchers taught the robot to analyse its surroundings and decide its way without a collision with people in busy crowded areas.
Talking about their latest study co-author Michael Everett has said, We're not planning an entire path to the goal it doesnt make sense to do that anymore, especially if youre assuming the world is changing."
"Crowds have a different dynamic than individual people, and you may have to learn something totally different if you see five people walking together," Michael added further.
Also Read: Scientists discover new species of titanosaurian dinosaur in Tanzania
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New Delhi:
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is all set to return to Earth after saying bye-bye to the International Space Station (ISS), the US space agency has said. She has completed a 288-day long mission.
Whitson and her fellow Expedition 52 Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA and Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos will be returning to Earth after undocking their Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft from the ISS. The trio will land in Kazakhstan at 9:22 pm EDT.
Yurchikhin will hand over the station command to NASAs Randy Bresnik.
Whitson has completed a 288-day mission that kicked off in November 2016, spanning 122.2 million miles and 4,623 orbits of Earth her third long-duration stay on the outpost.
Moreover, she is the only American astronaut who will have accrued a total of 665 days in space over the course of her career, achieving the eighth rank on the alltime space endurance list. On the other hand, Mr Yurchikhin and Mr Fischer, who launched in April, will complete 136 days in space at the time of their landing.
Also Read: Scientists discover new species of titanosaurian dinosaur in Tanzania
At the time of their landing on Earth Mr Yurchikhin will have completed a total of 673 days in space on his five flights and ranked seventh on the all-time endurance list.
The expedition is somehow a bit affected by Hurricane Harvey and NASA is reviewing return plans to Houston of Ms Whitson, Mr Fischer and the science samples landing in the Soyuz spacecraft. The crew is also set to go through a standard post-flight medical check-ups.
According to NASA's latest report, the entire group of scientists have conducted several number of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard humanity's only orbiting laboratory.
After being seperated from Expedition 52, Expedition 53 is scheduled to begin aboard the station under the command of Randy Bresnik soon.
Roscosmos's Sergey Ryazanskiy and Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) will operate the station until the arrival of Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA and Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos in the crew.
Also Read: Scientists discover two potentially habitable 'Earth-like' planets
The group of three is said to launch on September 12 from Kazakhstan.
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New Delhi:
In the latest breakthrough research, scientists have discovered 5.7 million human-like footprints from Greece's largest island Crete which may contradict fortified theories of early human evolution.
The evolution of the human lineage has been thought to lie in Africa ever since the discovery of fossils of Australopithecus in South and East Africa during the middle years of the 20th century.
This is not the new case, earlier also 3.7 million-year-old Laetoli footprints from Tanzania which show human-like feet and upright locomotion.
This proved the idea that hominids originated in Africa and remained isolated there for several million years before.
The 5.7 million-year-old human-like footprints discovered by researchers at the Uppsala University in Sweden. Human feets have a unique shape and features, completely different from all other land animals.
The amalgamation of a long sole, five short forward-pointing toes without claws, and a giant toe which is larger than the usual toe, is completely unusual.
Also Read: Asteroid Florence has close encounter with Earth, massive space rock passes 4.4 million miles from our planet
The footprints of the Laetoli which was made by the Australopithecusare mostly similar to those of modern humans with one exception which is the heel is narrower and the sole lacks a proper arch.
The 4.4 million-year-old Ardipithecus ramidus from Ethiopia, the oldest known hominin has an ape-like foot.
The newly discovered footprints have an unmistakably human-like form. The big toe is identical to our own in shape, size, and position.
It has also associated with a distinct 'ball' on the sole which is absent in apes.
The foot sole is comparatively shorter than in the Laetoli prints, but it has the same general form. The structure of the Trachilos prints indicates unambiguously that they belong to an early hominin, somewhat more primitive than the Laetoli trackmaker.
"This discovery challenges the established narrative of early human evolution head-on and is likely to generate a lot of debate", said Ahlberg.
"Whether the human origins research community will accept fossil footprints as conclusive evidence of the presence of hominins in the Miocene of Crete remains to be seen", he added.
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New Delhi:
The worlds most powerful X-ray laser called the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) was officially inaugurated in Hamburg, northern city of Germany on Friday.
The 3.4km-long European XFEL will act as a high-speed camera that can capture images of individual atoms in a few millionths of a billionth of a second.
The facility that is housed in a series of tunnels up to 38 metres underground will generate up to 27,000 pulses per second which is 200 times more than other X-ray lasers.
It will allow scientists to map atomic details of viruses, create films of chemical reactions, and study the processes deep within stars and planets.
Read more: Exoplanets orbiting TRAPPIST-1 may hold water, says study
"The laser is the biggest, and the most powerful, source of X-rays ever made", said Olivier Napoly, a member of the French Atomic Energy Commission who helped build the complex.
The facility will provide qauntam leap in arenas of medicine, biology, chemistry, energy and information technology, according to its official website.
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Washington:
United States President Dobald Trump has announced his plans to appoint James Brideenstine-a former Navy piolt and Republican Congressman to head the NASA- the US space agency.
During the Presidential election camapign, Bridenstine had backed the Trump and he had been long considered the favourite for the job of NASA administrator.
But the nomination drew criticism from two US senators from florida who questioned the Oklahoma representative's qualifications to lead such complex and highly technical agency.
Senator Bill Nelson, the ranking Democrat on the committee that oversees NASA, told the news site Politico the agency's new leader should be "a space professional, not a politician." Marco Rubio, the state's other senator and a Republican, said the choice of Bridenstine "could be devastating for the space program."
Also read: US President Donald Trump to nominate economic expert Ken Juster as US ambassador to India
"I would hate to see an administrator held up -- on(grounds of) partisanship, political arguments, past votes, orstatements made in the past -- because the agency can't afford it and it can't afford the controversy," he told Politico.
Bridenstine, who was elected to Congress from Oklahoma in 2012, is a member of the House Armed Services Committee andthe Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
According to the trade publication Space News, Bridenstine has been a big proponent of giving the private sector a larger role in space. The space agency is involved in all aspects of space exploration, as well as in Earth observation missions from space and in the development of new aerospace concepts.
Since the end of NASA's space shuttle program in 2011, the United States has had to rely on Russia to ferry their astronauts to the International Space Station.
NASA is currently developing a heavy launcher and capsule capable of taking astronauts to Mars in 2030 and beyond. But it faces competition from billionaires like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, who runs SpaceX and Tesla. NASA's proposed 2018 budget comes to a little more thanUSD 19 billion.
Also Read: Decision on immigrants brought illegally as children in US on Tuesday: White House
Bridenstine's experience is mainly in the military, as a pilot who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as a member of the naval reserves has flown counter-drug missions in Central and South America.
He served as executive director of the Tulsa Air andSpace Museum and Planetarium. He is also a member of the Oklahoma Air National Guard. He has degrees from Rice University and Cornell.
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Beijing:
Five banks of the BRICS Bank Cooperation Mechanism have agreed to establish credit lines in the national currencies and cooperate on credit ratings.
The agreement was signed ahead of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in Chinas Xiamen city on Sunday in which leaders of the five countries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi are scheduled to take part.
Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), Vnesheconombank, Export-Import Bank of India, China Development Bank and Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) have signed an agreement to establish credit lines in the national currencies, as well as a memorandum of cooperation on credit ratings, Russian news agency TASS Reported.
There was no word from Export-Import Bank of India in this regard. The Chinese official said the decision was taken in order to bolster further cooperation.
ALSO READ | BRICS Summit 2017: Looking forward to productive, positive outcomes, says PM Modi
The agreement on credit ratings reportedly enables them to share information about internal credit ratings and rating assessment.
Ahead of the BRICS summit, the New Development Bank (NDB) of the BRICS countries has approved USD 1.4 billion loans for sustainable development projects in China, India and Russia.
The Board of Directors of the bank have approved four infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the three countries, the NDB had said.
For India, the Bank has approved USD 470 million loan for Madhya Pradesh?s Multi-Village Rural Drinking Water Supply Scheme Project.
ALSO READ | BRICS 2017: Can't divulge what PM will speak at summit, says MEA
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New Delhi:
After the Supreme Court nullified last months election, Kenyas president Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday promised to fix the judicial system. As the country prepares for a new presidential vote, he warned the chief justice and judiciary not to interfere with the electoral commission.
The president once again accused the apex court of overturning the will of the people. It is to be noted that he was declared the winner of the August 8 election.
Calling for a new election within 60 days, the court on Friday said that the electoral commission had committed irregularities in the vote.
The countrys judiciary has a problem and his administration will revisit the issue once it is re-elected, Kenyatta said.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga had petitioned the court challenging Kenyattas win, claiming manipulation. He now wants the electoral commission disbanded.
(With PTI inputs)
ALSO READ: Uhuru Kenyatta wins second term as Kenyan President with 54.27 percent vote in elections
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New Delhi:
Thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees have offered Eid prayer in Bangladesh today. The Rohingya community celebrated Eid amid escalated tensions in Bangladesh. Myanmar's Rakhine has forced scores of Rohingya- a stateless ethnic minority to seek refuge in Bangladesh.
In a five-year crisis, it is the deadliest incidents that have divided Rakhine along ethnic and religious lines, dislocated the Rohingya in vast numbers and piled up International condemnation on Myanmar's army and the government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
"I had everything at my home... but now I've become a refugee. There's nothing much to celebrate. Yet it is our duty to perform the Eid prayer," said 39-year-old Makbul Hossainwho made the dangerous crossing from Rakhine to the Bangladesh border town of Cox's Bazar last week.
Goats, sheep, and cows are slaughtered worldwide to celebrate the major Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Adha, which is known as the Feast of the Sacrifice.
"I used to sacrifice my own animals during Eid," said 60-year-old farmer Deen Mohammad. But he was forced to flee for his safety after the latest round of violence erupted late August when Rohingya militants warmed police posts, killing 15 officials and burning villages.
Also Read: Rakhine violence: 16 Rohingya, including children, drown fleeing Myanmar
According to the recent report of UNHCR, tens of thousands more people have crossed by boat and on foot into Bangladesh in the last 24 hours as they flee violence in Western Myanmar. Many people drowned as they attempt to cross the border river in makeshift boats.
Both Myanmar's security officials and insurgents from the Rohingya ethnic minority are blaming each other for the violence. The military said nearly 400 people, mostly insurgents have died in armed clashes.
The United Nations(UN) has also released data on the population of Rohingya in Bangladesh, according to that, nearly 60,000 Rohingyas have arrived in Bangladesh since the violence erupted on August 25.
According to the refugees who get shelter in Bangladeshi fishing village of Shah Porir Dwip, Myanmar's security officials exploded bombs and burned alive Rohingyas in Myanmar.
Human Rights Watch show has analyzed that hundred of buildings had been destroyed in at least 17 sites across Rakhine.
Ali Hossain, a deputy commissioner in Cox's Bazar, said Bangladesh was struggling to cope as "the flow of Rohingya refugees is continuing by boat and the land route."
Also Read| Myanmar government evacuates 4000 non-Muslims from Rakhine state
The Red Cross has sent teams to refugee camps, incoordination with the local Red Crescent Society, to "assess the refugees' requirements. The influx is scattered at different places. The task is challenging for us," said
The violence in Myanmar erupted on Aug. 25, when insurgents attacked Myanmar police and paramilitary posts in what they said was an effort to protect minority Rohingya. In response, the military started what it called "clearance operations" to wipe out the insurgents.
Advocates for the Rohingya, an oppressed Muslim minority in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, say security forces and vigilantes both have attacked and burned villages, shooting civilians and causing others to flee.
The government blames the insurgents for burning their own homes and killing Buddhists in Rakhine. Longstanding tension between the Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists erupted in bloody rioting in 2012, forcing more than 100,000 Rohingya into displacement camps, where many still live.
Bangladeshi police said Thursday that three boats carrying refugees had capsized in the Naf River, killing at least 26, including women and children, spokeswoman Misada Saif.
(With PTI Inputs)
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United Nations:
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday warned of a looming humanitarian catastrophe in western Myanmar and urged the countrys security forces to show restraint after 400 peoplemost of them Rohingya Muslimsdied in communal violence.
The secretary-general is deeply concerned by the reports of excesses during the security operations conducted by Myanmars security forces in Rakhine State and urges restraint and calm to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe, said a UN spokesman.
The violence has sent tens of thousands of Rohingya fleeing across the border into Bangladesh, while scores of desperate people have drowned trying to cross a border river in makeshift boats.
Reports of massacres and the systematic torching of villages by security forcesas well as by militantshave raised fears that the violence in Rakhine is spinning out of control.
Guterres recalled that it was the governments responsibility to provide security and allow aid agencies to reach those in need.
On Tuesday, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told Myanmar that its security forces must refrain from attacking civilians and aid workers in its response to attacks by Rohingya militants in Rakhine State.
The UN Security Council met behind closed doors on Wednesday to discuss the violence, but there was no formal statement on the crisis.
British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, who requested the meeting, said council members called for de-escalation.
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Moscow:
Russias foreign ministry on Friday accused the US authorities of threatening the security of Russian citizens and violating its diplomats immunity with a planned FBI search of the San Francisco consulate.
The demands of the US authorities create a direct threat to the security of Russian citizens, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
American special services intend on September 2 to carry out a search of the consulate in San Francisco including of the apartments of employees who live in the building and have immunity.
The United States on Thursday ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco as well as two annexes in Washington and New York, in a tit-for-tat response to Moscows forced reduction of US diplomatic staff in their country.
The State Department said the decision was made in the spirit of parity, adding that the closures needed to be completed by Friday.
Zakharova said that the FBI had ordered diplomats to leave their accommodation for 10 to 12 hours with their families including young children and babies.
We are talking about invasion into a consulate and the accommodation of diplomatic staff, whats more they are being chucked out so that they dont get in the way of the FBI agents, Zakharova said.
We express a resolute protest over Washingtons actions that ignore international law, and as is customary in diplomatic practice, we reserve the right to take retaliatory measures. Thats not our choice. They are forcing us into it, Zakharova said.
Earlier on Friday, presidential aide Yury Ushakov was quoted by TASS news agency as describing the latest US measures as a kind of illegal takeover.
We will think how to respond, he added.
The latest US move came as a September 1 deadline was reached for Washington to comply with a Kremlin demand to slash staff numbers at its Russian diplomatic mission by 755 personnel.
The fresh diplomatic spat is the latest twist in tortured ties between the US and Russia, which have slumped to their lowest point since the Cold War following the Kremlins seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
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The hunting season for dolphins using a controversial "drive-hunting" method began in the whaling town of Taiji in western Japan on Friday, but an approaching typhoon forced the hunt to be called off on the first day without a catch.
The traditional hunting method, in which fishermen herd dolphins and small whales into a cove before sealing the area with a net, has drawn criticism from animal-rights groups. But there was no obstruction on Friday even though an unidentified pair of people likely connected to an antiwhaling group was seen filming departing fishing boats.
Twelve boats left port in the Wakayama Prefecture town early in the morning, but all returned due to high waves caused by Typhoon Sanvu.
Local police deployed officers in and around the town to prevent activists from obstructing dolphin hunting after they set up an ad hoc police box near the fishing port. The Japan Coast Guard also sent personnel to the area.
Speaking to reporters before the boats departed for the hunt, Mitsunori Kobata, head of the local fisheries cooperative to which the boats belong, expressed hope for "another good fishing season."
Chiba Prefectural Police have arrested two women in the quick-strike theft of nearly two billion yen from ATMs nationwide last year, reports TV Asahi.
Police arrested Ai Kirisawa and Ami Yamamoto for allegedly using forged credit cards in the withdrawal of 2.1 million yen from ATMs at convenience stores in Tomisato City on May 15.
According to the Kisarazu Police Station, Kirisawa and Yamamoto both admit to the allegations. Yamamoto told police that Kirisawa asked her if she wanted to partake in the caper.
The suspects are considered a part of a gang of thieves that used similarly forged credit cards with data leaked from a bank in South Africa to steal approximately 1.86 billion yen from ATMs nationwide in 2.5 hours on that same day.
The gang targeted more than 1,400 ATMs in convenience stores in 17 administrative districts, including Tokyo and the prefectures of Kanagawa, Aichi, Osaka and Fukuoka.
Police have previously arrested more than 170 persons in the case, including members of six criminal syndicates.
Sep 02 (ANNnewsCH) - aaaATMa18aaaaSaaaaaaaaaYaaaaceaaaaaaYa2aaeaaaaaYa
Many thought this car didn't even exist. Ferrari had, in fact, only ever commissioned one street version of its Daytona with a full aluminum body.
But for the last 40 years, this one-off was nowhere to be found. That's because it was gathering dust in a Japanese barn after being shipped out of Italy in 1971.
Between 1969 and 1973, Ferrari produced over 1,200 units of its 365 GTB/4, a two-seat grand tourer capable of 174 mph and unofficially nicknamed "Daytona."
It also commissioned five lightweight alloy versions of the car, to compete in the endurance race 24 Hours of Daytona. And just one alloy version that was street legal.
This is that very car, bearing the chassis number 12653 and featuring an all-aluminum body by renowned car designer Sergio Scaglietti, whose "Carrozzeria" has been doing chassis and body assembly on Ferrari cars since the 1950s.
Completed in 1969, the car was exported to a Japanese dealership in 1971 and then featured in the January 1972 issue of Car Graphic, a Japanese motoring magazine.
After passing hands several times, it ended up in the barn of its last owner, Makoto Takai, some time around 1980.
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For the second summer in a row, researchers set out on Candlewood Lake armed with a radio detector to track 48 grass carp carrying tracking devices in their bellies.
The 48 fish, each bearing a surgically inserted radio transmitter, were released last summer to help researchers understand carp behavior and draw conclusions about the Candlewood Lake Authoritys carp program.
About 3,800 carp were released into the lake without trackers in 2015 and another 4,450 this summer as part of the program, which aims to turn their voracious appetites against invasive Eurasian watermilfoil.
The study, as did a similar survey last summer, not only found most of the tagged fish, but confirmed that they are staying in milfoil-dense areas and most likely grazing, as hoped, on the troublesome weed.
For me, you can say with certainty that the fish are in the milfoil beds, said Theodora Pinou, the Western Connecticut State University professor that led the study both summers. And they have to be eating something.
Last summer, Pinou was able to locate 71 percent of the tagged fish over the course of the summer. She started by looking for them near the four points around the lake where they had been released, but when that proved difficult, decided to visit 63 milfoil beds instead.
Pinou returned to the same 63 sites this summer with interns Emily Van Vlack and Luke Mueller, who joined the project as part of the universitys new Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program.
The team, assisted by the Candlewood Lake Authority and several volunteers, were able to find 79 percent of the tagged carp after visiting each site three times in the course of the summer. Over the two years, a total of 83 percent of the carp have been found.
The researchers also tried to determine whether the signals they detected were from live fish a difficult task, because the carp dont move much once they find a bed of milfoil and small movements are hard for the detecter to pick up.
Pinou said Van Vlack and Mueller were able to create a micro-scale to measure the intensity of the signals and use them to conclude which fish were moving.
A lot of these fish remain in the same location, but it doesnt mean theyre dead just because theyre in the same place, Van Vlack said.
Only one signal appeared to be stationary, suggesting that the fish had died. Van Vlack said this suggests that the majority of the 48 tagged fish are alive and that they are likely eating the milfoil.
The fish are alive and theyre eating something to stay alive, Van Vlack said. Milfoil is the predominant species of plant in the lake and...each time we found a fish, it was in or around a milfoil bed. So we know the fish are in the beds, whether its for hiding or eating. Were hoping its eating.
This new finding was probably the most significant contribution made this summer, Pinou added, which she largely credits to having full-time fellows this year instead of paid research assistants like last summer.
The reality is, with a fellowship its an honor to get it and you really need to deliver, Pinou said. Theres a sense of accountability, so its a very different thing.
Van Vlack said the fellowship program, which was open to both WCSU students and students from other universities, ensured that those who were chosen had a passion for the project.
For Van Vlack and Mueller, who are now juniors at Boston University and the University of New Hampshire, respectively, the carp study also had a personal connection.
Both students grew up in New Fairfield and had participated in Project CLEAR, a program that lets high school students assist with research on the lake. They also interned with former CLA Executive Director Larry Marsicano during a study on zebra mussels.
My entire neighborhood is surrounded by the lake, Mueller said. Thats where I learned to swim and where I went to camp for the past 10 years, so its had a huge impact on my life. I thought this was the perfect opportunity to give back to the lake that meant so much to me.
Van Vlack added that she and Mueller became invested in the study, sometimes venturing out on kayaks to check on problem fish in between research trips.
She was surprised and happy to see that many lake residents showed up to see the interns presentation on the study, held last month at WCSU.
So many people were interested in the project, Mueller agreed. All the people who had donated and put so much stock into the lake...being able to meet those people and work with them and bring good news to the community was (the most rewarding thing).
aquinn@newstimes.com
. To do so, first type the original number into the text box. Then click on the "Scientific Notation" option located at the top of the floating window. Finally, click on the "Standard" button found beneath the text box to display your result. This program is useful for scientists and engineers working with decimal-based numbers. It provides easy access to those who need to convert those numbers into more compact forms without having to do heavy math calculations first.
Scientific notation is a way to express very large or very small numbers. It is used in physics, chemistry and other fields where large numbers are common. Those numbers are written as a power of 10 followed by a number with an exponent. For example, 1,000,000 (one million) is written as 1 103. The exponent shows how many zeros are after the first digit. For example, 1,000,001 is written as 1 102. Scientific notation is a useful tool for making calculations easier. You can use it to write down very big or very small numbers in one step instead of writing out both the large and small numbers separately. You can also use it to express large or small numbers in terms of other units like centimeters or millimeters.
Scientific notation solver is an online tool that can be used to convert any number into scientific notation. Simply enter any number to the left of the decimal point and it will automatically convert it into a scientific notation equivalent. This web tool can be very helpful when you need to convert a large number into scientific notation. However, please note that this online tool can only convert numbers that are in scientific format. For example, it cannot convert a non-scientific number like "1,085" into a scientific notation equivalent. It is also important to keep in mind that this web tool only works when converting numbers from one particular format to another. For example, if you want to change a non-scientific number like "1,085" into standard format, then you will have to use another online tool like NumberFormatting.com.
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DANBURY After Donald Neary died in March, his family asked that donations in his memory be sent to the local nursing home where he spent the last three and a half months of his life.
Neary, a longtime resident of the Danbury area, was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease in 2011. As his health deteriorated, Neary, a retired aerospace engineer and an avid pilot, went to live at St. John Paul II Center, a nursing home on Lincoln Avenue. He died on March 6 at the age of 85.
Nearly six months later, many of Nearys family members gathered at the nursing home for a special dedication in his honor. The center received about $450 in donations and staff decided to use it to transform a dark dated room into the Neary Relaxation Room.
This is a dementia unit and oftentimes residents get anxious, said Linda McCue, the 48-bed units program director. The staff and I really wanted to create a special place that would be more calming to residents.
The room was designed to be a comfortable and quiet space that would calm down a frustrated resident struggling with behaviors stemming from dementia. The once brown walls were painted a purple hue and colorful artwork was hung up.
He always used to be sitting in there, said Nearys daughter, Donna Reynolds. He seemed to enjoy that room.
Its very heartwarming and I thank all the people who donated money to make this happen, Reynolds added.
Reynolds was joined by many other family members including Nearys wife, children, siblings and grandson outside of the refurbished room recently for its dedication and ribbon-cutting. Some family live locally and others traveled to Danbury from other states, including Virginia and Minnesota.
McCue had a plaque made with Nearys name inscribed on it and a quote from Mother Teresa Peace begins with a smile.
Its wonderful, said Nearys wife, Irma. I didnt know it was going to happen.
Off and on for two years, a young man in his early 20s lived in the woods in New Milford.
Local social service providers werent aware of his situation because he didnt seek out help and didnt seek refuge at shelters.
But about a year ago, he started to work with local providers after a breakfast aimed at engaging local homeless people.
He was out there for years and we didnt know he existed, said Michele Conderino, director of homeless services for Catholic Charities of Fairfield County.
But recently, Catholic Charities and other local agencies were able to place the young man in permanent housing in Danbury.
Tracking down homeless youth defined as those under 25 can be a difficult task, even though homeless counts are conducted annually by surveying those living in shelters and on the streets.
They are a tricky population to track, because theyre not at shelters and sometimes they dont see themselves as homeless, Conderino said.
In its first statewide youth count in 2015, the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness identified 3,000 homeless and unstably housed youth. A second, more comprehensive youth count was held this January, and those results were given to a demographer who estimated that 4,396 young people were homeless or in unstable housing at that time.
In Danbury, an estimated 49 young people are homeless or unstably housed. Other area towns are estimated to have fewer than five each.
More Information Estimate of youth with no permanent housing in Danbury area Redding: 1 Brookfield: 2 New Fairfield: 2 Bethel: 3 Ridgefield: 3 New Milford: 4 Newtown: 4 Danbury: 49 See More Collapse
Instead of using shelters, young people are likely to stay with friends, to couch surf, or to sleep in cars, abandoned buildings or the open air. They also dont access social services as much as older homeless adults.
Getting youth to identify themselves as homeless can be the largest obstacle in providing services to them, Conderino said. We have found a lot of youth dont see what is happening to themselves as homelessness.
This makes sense in a way, as we have created an idea in America about what a homeless person looks like, she added. Our youth cant identify with that.
The state has a goal of ending homelessness for anyone under 25 years old by 2020. And the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development started requiring states to collect data about youth homelessness this year.
During the statewide youth count in January, volunteers including youth who had been homeless in the past surveyed nearly 2,300 people across the state and identified 439 youth who were homeless or unstably housed. The majority were 18 to 24 years old, and the average age was 20.
Fifty-two percent of those counted were male and 43 percent female. Forty-three percent reported involvement with the state Department of Children and Families, 23 percent also identified as LGBTQIA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual) and 23 percent indicated they were parenting or pregnant.
When asked where they slept on the night of Jan. 24, the majority said they had stayed with a friend.
Eighteen percent said someone had encouraged, pressured or forced them to exchange sexual acts for money, drugs, food, a place to stay, clothing or protection.
Lack of youth-specific services
Like many cities in Connecticut, Danbury has no services specifically for homeless youth, Conderino said.
Young people need different resources to be successful than other single adults, she added, the first being that many youth dont need a permanent housing intervention. They need a stable place to live as they are in school, beginning work, or determining their future, but will, in many cases, only need that intervention for a short period.
One of the first thoughts our homeless outreach team tries to impress on youth experiencing homelessness is that this is temporary; this is not a sign of how your life will always be, she said. You deserve more than this and we are going to work alongside you to achieve the future you deserve.
Having resources in Danbury specifically designed for youth will be a powerful tool in backing those statements up and will ensure that our youth in the greater Danbury area have the opportunity for success on their own terms, Conderino concluded.
Connecticut hopes to bolster its youth-specific homelessness resources using new state-funded programs and a $6.6 million grant from the federal government.
The state Department of Housing is now accepting applications for the two state-funded programs one that provides money for supportive housing for homeless youth and another that helps pay for improvements to existing homeless shelters, with a priority for renovations that will better accommodate young adults.
The federal grant will be used to create new housing with support service programs to serve youth experiencing homelessness.
Connecticut was one of only ten areas in the country selected by HUD to receive this award out of over 130 applicants. The state received the largest allocation of any grantee under this program.
Dan Arsenault, spokesman for the state Department of Housing, said state officials are creating a detailed plan for the money, which the state expects to submit to HUD this fall.
Arsenault said that the goal is to be certified by the federal government as having effectively ended youth homelessness. Achieving this goal does not mean that youth in the state will never again experience homelessness, he said, but that the state has built a system to ensure that episodes of youth homelessness are brief, rare and non-recurring.
Arsenault said that several initiatives have been undertaken since 2011 to prevent and end homelessness.
In February 2016, Connecticut was the second state to receive certification to have effectively ended veteran homelessness, and in December 2016 the state met its own goal of matching all chronically homeless people to housing.
What was once only a dream - ending homelessness across all populations - is now within our grasp, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said in a statement. We know that with smart investments and providing needed services we can accomplish this goal.
By focusing on youth homelessness in particular we are protecting those most vulnerable to abuse and neglect, he said. Assisting with access to safe and consistent housing for children isnt just smart policy it is the morally correct action to take.
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Firefighters do a lot more than fight fires these days.
In fact, with many communities seeing a decline in structure fires during the past decade, more and more departments find themselves helping with other problems, from chemical spills to air conditioners on the fritz.
Nowadays, if someone in the community has a problem and they dont know who to call, they call us, said Danbury Deputy Chief Bernie Meehan. If we dont have the right skill set, then well find someone who does.
New Milford Chief Todd Wheeler agreed.
The type of calls have certainly changed over the years, he said . We get a lot more animal rescues, dogs stuck in pipes, that kind of thing, that we didnt get before. When people dont know who else to call for help, they call the fire department.
Meehan said many firefighters have worked previously as plumbers, carpenters, mechanics and roofers skills that often prove valuable when unusual calls come in.
Earlier this summer, for example, a call came in from a woman who couldnt get her air conditioner to work, Meehan said. Firefighters fixed it for her.
And when another call came in that someones heat wasnt working, firefighters fixed the thermostat.
Weve had guys who have put up handrails in bathrooms for the elderly or suggested they move area rugs because they could cause a fall, Meehan said. Basically we are in the safety business, and these guys are going above and beyond every day.
And naturally there are variations on the cat-stuck-in-a-tree calls that firefighters have always made.
About a year ago, Meehan recalled, a kitten climbed into a car engine and somehow got stuck. It took firefighters more than half an hour to disassemble the engine and free the kitten, which Meehan has since adopted and named Mona Lisa.
Danbury Assistant Chief Mark Omasta added that firefighters recently helped free a dog whose paw had become stuck in a bathtub drain. They removed part of the drain fixture from the tub, freed the dogs paw and put the tub back together.
Every call is an opportunity to make an impact in someones lives, and we try to make the best possible impact we can every day, Omasta said. We are always here for the citizens, both the people who live here and the people who visit, and we want to do the best job possible helping them with their needs.
But for all the help they render, firefighters still spend most of their time dealing with serious emergencies.
Vaughn Dumas, president of the Connecticut Firefighter Association, said its true that new technology and stricter building codes have reduced the number of structure fires over the years, but other types of emergencies are more common than ever.
Water rescues, for example.
Just yesterday, we had a car that drove off the road and into the Housatonic River, Dumas said. And with distracted driving, the number of crashes have been on the increase.
Many departments have developed specialized teams to deal with other emergency situations.
A sign of the times is that many departments are responding to a lot more calls of suspicious packages, Dumas said. There have also been an increased call volumes in the state for hazardous materials or suspicious powders.
In Danbury, Meehan said, the department has more than a dozen specialized vehicles, including one for trench rescues, a decontamination trailer and a mobile hospital.
Because we are the largest career department in the area, weve become a regional hub for many of the more specialized units, he said. But they are available to any town that needs them. If we get a request, we dont say no. We just go where we are needed.
Fire departments themselves have also become community gathering places, particularly in times of stress and trauma. Such was the case during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, when nearby volunteer firehouse became the central staging hub for parents and first responders
The firefighters in these situations often end up providing a variety of support to their residents, from offering refreshments to a shoulder to cry on, Dumas said.
The fire service is evolving into areas weve never been before. As society evolves, so must we.
dperrefort@newstimes.com
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Roy Anthony Brown waited at a bus stop on a sidewalk outside of the Stew Leonards in Danbury.
Brown, who lives in the nearby East Ridge Condos, uses HARTransit buses to get to work and to appointments. He can use a sidewalk to get to the bus stop, but thats not always the case near other stops on his route.
Of the 40-odd bus stops along the Route 7 bus line from Danbury to New Milford, only five abut sidewalks continuous more than 100 yards in either direction, and at most a handful of others have paved walkways nearby. The rest of the stops are little more than patches of dirt or grass, often at roads edge.
But Danbury-area municipalities are starting to consider expanding the sidewalk network as they complete revitalization projects, as in Brookfields Four Corners, or as new businesses are approved along major road corridors, as in New Milford.
Sidewalks are common in municipal centers, but are far from common in suburban areas. Even when they exist, they are often discontinuous, running from one edge of a property to another and then disappearing.
The disjointed sidewalk network isnt just a matter of safety or convenience; its a factor in how customers use the regional transit network.
Richard Schreiner, director of service development for HARTransit, said having to walk through mud or tall grass or close to busy roads can deter people from using public transportation, especially if they are elderly or disabled.
Anything that makes it easier to get on and off the bus is going to encourage them to use the bus, he said.
Schreiner said the shift toward sidewalks began several years ago, largely due to the state Department of Transportations push for complete streets, which includes bike lanes and other amenities. Before that, road design was aimed more toward the motorist than the pedestrian or cyclist.
Its not something that, up until recently, was at the front when planning streets years ago, Schreiner said. You had (strip) shopping development, and pedestrian access was kind of an afterthought.
Danbury has invested in sidewalks for decades, especially in high-density residential and commercial areas, said Sharon B. Calitro, Danburys planning and zoning director. The city has submitted a state grant application to repair and replace sidewalks connecting places with high foot traffic to bus stops and train stations.
Approvals for new development along these corridors often include a sidewalk requirement, because its the citys chance to fill in the gaps, Calitro said.
Weve always been looking at the provision of sidewalks as it makes sense, she said. Making a community walkable has a lot of benefits.
Having sidewalks promotes economic development and a healthy lifestyle, as well as provide access to schools and businesses and theyre important for safety.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., knows that well. Last month, he completed his second walk across the state, and most of his route took him along roads without sidewalks, and sometimes without shoulders to speak of.
I definitely feared for my safety at a lot of different moments during my walk, he said.
He said its difficult to build sidewalks in Connecticut because its an long-settled state where private property lines tend to go right up to the road.
Its a really tricky problem, he said.
Even with these challenges, communities are finding ways to create more sidewalks, while town and state officials strive to create the walkable communities people increasingly demand.
Brookfield is getting some of its first sidewalks. Road crews were busy laying concrete near the bus stop outside of Panchos and Gringos Mexican restaurant on Federal Road this week as part of the project to turn the Four Corners area into a town center.
First Selectman Steve Dunn said the town had discussed creating a town center for about 40 years, but work really began about four years ago with the creation of the Route 7 bypass, which alleviated traffic in the Four Corners and made it more attractive for developers. Town officials decided to enhance the area with sidewalks and other amenities to attract residents to new housing in the neighborhood.
Infrastructure really sets the base for new development, he said.
Public transportation will play a key role in helping people get around without cars, Dunn said, but it will be years before behavior changes significantly.
In time, I could see people living in Brookfield and taking a bus to downtown Danbury for work, he said.
Like many towns, Brookfield is working with HARTransit to improve access to buses by adding sidewalks and pull-offs to bus stops as part of the Four Corners project.
Everyone is really getting on board, Schreiner said.
New Milfords town planner and zoning enforcement officer hope to create a formal sidewalk plan that would include a study and analysis of existing sidewalks and highlight areas where sidewalks are needed. The plan would include building and paying for new sidewalks.
Murphy said more people are moving into walkable downtown areas where public transportation is available. He said they are more likely to settle in areas where they can be safe and walk on sidewalks, rather than on a shoulder.
Theres a massive renaissance of mass transportation in our state, but thats hard to have happen without sidewalks, he said. Investing in pedestrian transportation also helps convince people to move back to our urban centers.
kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345
Monday
The Valley Shore Toastmasters: meets from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Madison Senior Center (cafe), 29 Bradley Road. Email valleyshoretm@yahoo.com or visit http://valleyshore.toastmastersclubs.org.
Tuesday
The Milford Chamber of Commerce Tuesday Morning Leads Group: meets at 8:30 a.m. at the Chamber, 5 Broad St., Milford. Call 203-878-0681.
The Rotary Club of Hamden: meets each Tuesday. For meeting time and location please visit the calendar section of their website at www.hamdenctrotary.org.
The Nutmeg Chapter of Toastmasters International: meets at 7 p.m. at The Willows Care and Rehab Center, 225 Amity Road, Woodbridge. Visit http://764.toastmastersclubs.org.
The New Haven chapter of the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America: meets at 6 p.m. at Brazis Restaurant, 201 Sargent Drive, New Haven. Dinner is $30. Call 203-234-9542.
The Rotary Club of New Haven: meets at 12:15 p.m. at the Graduate Club, 155 Elm St. Call 203-624-3197.
The Rotary Club of North Haven: meets at 7:15 a.m. at the Breakfast Nook, 448 Washington Ave. Visit www.nhrotary.org.
Wednesday
The Rotary Club of Branford: meets from 7:15 to 8:30 a.m. at the Parthenon Diner, 374 E. Main St., Branford. Call 203-315-2444, ext. 450.
The Devon Rotary: meets at 7:30 a.m. at the Bridge House Restaurant, 49 Bridgeport Ave., Milford. Visit www.devonrotary.org.
The Milford Chamber of Commerce Wednesday Morning Leads Group: meets at 8:30 a.m. at the Chamber, 5 Broad St., Milford. Call 203-878-0681.
The Rotary Club of Guilford: meets at 12:15 p.m. at The Maritime Grille, 2548 Boston Post Road, Guilford. Call 203-453-0774.
The Greater New Haven Business & Professional Association: meets at 11 a.m. at 192 Dixwell Ave. Call 203-562-2193.
The Rotary Club of Wallingford: meets at 12:10 p.m. at Il Monticello, 577 S. Broad St., Meriden. Call 203-235-3816.
North Branford Rotary: meets at 6 p.m. at Nataz, 2025 Foxon Road. Call 203-484-7707.
The Greater New Haven Breakfast Club: meets at 8 a.m. at Clarks Pizza & Restaurant, 68 Whitney Ave., New Haven. Email info@rosnerdoherty.com.
The Rotary Club of West Haven: meets at 12:15 p.m. at Apps Ristorante, 283 Captain Thomas Blvd.
Thursday
Quota International of New Haven: a service club attending to the needs of the hearing impaired and disadvantaged women and children, meets at 6 p.m. at the Graduate Club, 155 Elm St., New Haven. Call 203-732-3200.
The Seymour Oxford Rotary Club: meets at 7:15 a.m. at Route 67 Diner, Klarides Village, Route 67 in Seymour. Fellow Rotarians and all interested persons are invited to attend. Contact Nancy Valentine at nvbv@hotmail.com or 203 734 6945.
The New Haven Lions Club: meets at 7 p.m. at Brazis Italian Restaurant, 201 Food Terminal Plaza. Public is invited; for information, call Jim Traester at 203-562-9868.
The Madison Rotary Club: meets at 8 a.m. at the Madison Senior Center, 29 Bradley Road. Call Robert Anderson, 203-907-9032.
The Clinton Rotary Club: meets 6:30 p.m. at Clinton Country Club, Old Westbrook Road. Call Dee Tully at 860-388-7013.
The East Haven Rotary Club: meets at 5:45 p.m. at Twin Pines Diner Restaurant, 34 Main St., East Haven.
The Milford Rotary Club meets: from 12:15-1:15 p.m. at Gusto Restaurant, 255 Boston Post Road. Visit www.milfordrotary.org.
Friday
The Orange Rotary Club: meets at 12:15 p.m. at Racebrook Country Club, 246 Derby Ave. Call 203-799-2327.
The Woodbridge Rotary Club: meets at 12:15 p.m. for a luncheon meeting at Woodbridge Social, 12 Selden St., Woodbridge. For more information, call Mary Ellen LaRocca at 203-389-3429.
The Legislative Action Committee of the Milford Chamber of Commerce meets: visit the calendar section of its website at www.milfordct.com.
The Milford Chamber of Commerce Friday Morning Leads Group: meets at 11 a.m. at the Chamber, 5 Broad St., Milford. Call 203-878-0681.
Send notices of business events to Business Datebook, New Haven Register, 100 Gando Drive, New Haven 06513 or email to business@nhregister.com, at least a week before the event.
The New Haven-area economy continues to perform well, even in the midst of Connecticuts current fiscal crisis.
All eight economic indicators used to measure the regions economic health were headed in a positive direction in July, according to Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research for New Haven-based DataCore Partners and the author of the scorecard.
The New Haven area added 2,800 jobs in July compared to the same period a year ago, Klepper-Smith said.
The other two employment indicators that are included in the compilation of the scorecard labor force and unemployment also got positive marks from Klepper-Smith.
The regions total labor force grew by 9,400, or 2.9 percent, in July, compared to the same period a year ago, he said. Labor force is defined as the number of people who are willing and able to work.
At the same time the New Haven areas labor force was growing, the regions unemployment rate for July was 0.4 percent lower than it was during the same period in 2016.
Even with the positive employment news for the New Haven area, Klepper-Smith warned that the regions economic good fortunes are unlikely to last if Connecticut lawmakers cant come up with a budget before Gov. Dannel P. Malloys executive orders go into effect.
Right now, weve got an economy that is hitting on all cylinders, Klepper-Smith said of the New Haven area. But if the legislature cant agree on a budget and municipalities are forced to send out supplemental tax bills because of the governors executive orders, youre going to see consumer spending power go down pretty quickly.
Real disposable income in Connecticut during the first six months of this year was up by a half a percentage point compared to the same period in 2016, he said.
A decline in disposable income also would have an impact on the housing market, according to Klepper-Smith.
New housing permits in the 14 New Haven area towns that are used in the scorecard each month were up by 20 percent in July. And median single-family housing prices in New Haven County were up by $9,000, or 3.9 percent.
But if residents are forced to ante up more money to pay for supplemental tax bills, its going to create a downward pressure on home prices, Klepper-Smith said.
Even at current levels, home prices are still well below the peaks that we saw 10 years ago, said Timothy Warren Jr., chief executive officer of the Warren Group, which provides the Connecticut housing data used in the economic scorecard.
Call Luther Turmelle at 203-680-9388.
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HOUSTON >> The Latest on Harvey and the storms aftermath (all times local):
11:45 a.m.
President Donald Trump is expected to meet with Harvey victims during his second trip to storm-ravaged Texas in the past week.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived in Houston on Saturday and were greeted by Gov. Greg Abbott at Ellington Field, a military reserve base in the southeast part of the city. Four Cabinet members including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are joining the president on this trip.
The president is expected to meet with Harvey victims at the air field before heading to a relief center. He did not interact with victims on his trip Tuesday to Corpus Christi and Austin.
Trump will head to Louisiana later Saturday.
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11:40 a.m.
Some people who were forced from their homes by flooding from Harvey have begun the process of getting their lives back in order.
Among them is 28-year-old Kim Martinez, who was waiting Saturday for insurance adjusters to come to her Houston neighborhood, which was devastated by the storm.
The mother of two was hosting a watch party for the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight last Saturday when the waters reached several feet and forced about 15 people to the attic. They eventually got to safety.
Martinez says her insurance adjuster promised to call when he arrived from Florida but didnt say when. Her sister is housing her family and three others who evacuated until they get federal disaster aid.
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11:25 a.m.
Officials in Beaumont, Texas, say water was handed out to 6,000 vehicles during a drive-thru giveaway meant to help the Harvey-smacked city get by until its water system up and running again.
Beaumont officials began giving out water on Friday and are doing so again Saturday. They have been struggling to cope since Thursday, when the swollen Neches River inundated the main water intake system and backup pumps failed.
The Army Corp of Engineers has sent pumps to help restore service, and an ExxonMobil team built and installed a temporary intake pipe to the city treatment plant. Exxon has a refinery and chemical plants in Beaumont.
Some Beaumont residents have water pressure, but a boil order is still in effect.
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10:45 a.m.
Firefighters have extinguished a large blaze at a building on Houstons west side that is surrounded by flooding from Harvey.
Fire department spokeswoman Sheldra Brigham says no one was hurt in the fire on Saturday.
Brigham says the building had about 1 foot (30 centimeters) of water inside.
Houston TV station KTRK reported that firefighters were hampered by burglar bars on windows around the building, which appears to be a multi-family dwelling.
Mayor Sylvester Turner on Friday told people in the area to evacuate because ongoing releases from two nearby reservoirs could keep thousands of homes flooded for up to 15 days.
Harvey dumped up to 50 inches (1.3 meters) of rain on the Houston-area after making landfall last week.
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10 a.m.
Firefighters in Houston are battling a blaze at a building still surrounded by Harveys floodwaters on the citys west side.
Houston TV station KTRK reported Saturday that firefighters were being hampered by burglar bars on windows around the building, which appears to be a multi-family dwelling.
Parts of west Houston are still inundated from the release of floodwater from nearby reservoirs that are designed to catch storm runoff.
Mayor Sylvester Turner on Friday said the ongoing release of water could keep thousands of homes flooded for up to 15 days. He told residents that if they stayed and later needed help, first responders resources could be further strained.
Harvey dumped up to 50 inches of rain on the Houston-area after making landfall last week as a powerful hurricane.
NEW HAVEN >> Houston might be 1,500 miles away, but Pam DeLise of Branford felt a little bit closer in Wooster Square Friday.
She was dropping off relief supplies to provide comfort to people she never met.
I see the devastation of what people are experiencing, and you know, you feel so remote being on the other side of the country, but it hits home, and I wanted to be able to do at least a little something to know that maybe I helped someone be able to brush their teeth or do something that can just give them some self-care. I really feel, really feel, for what people are going through, said DeLise.
Rabbi Hershey Hecht, of the Chabad in Orange, along with his brother Rabbi Mendy Hecht, of the Chabad in New Haven, have been collecting donations in a U-Haul truck and plan to drive to Texas Sunday to deliver the clothes, food, toiletries, cleaning supplies and other items.
He said people are not just giving money, not just swiping a credit card, theyre actually getting out of the house, choosing what they want to give and putting it on the truck. They get to see where it goes. Theyre more involved that way.
They are not alone.
Hurricane Harvey has caused unprecedented flooding and at least 39 storm-related deaths, and more than 37,000 homes have been heavily damaged. Despite receding floodwaters and rescuers searching for more potential victims, the affected states face long-term recovery that will take years and billions of dollars.
And despite Connecticuts distance, organizations and individuals across the Nutmeg State are doing their part to help out.
Police officers, teams and volunteers have been deployed or are ready and waiting to head to the disaster area to provide aid in the wake of the hurricanes devastating impact.
Officers from the New Haven-based Coast Guard Long Island Sound sector have already been sent and more than two-dozen active and reserve officers are expected to be deployed to Houston over the next few months, said Ensign Rodion Mazin, the sectors public affairs officer.
The Coast Guard personnel in Texas are focusing on incident management and search and rescue. Mazin said the officers are helping out in any way they can and filling in where they are needed, depending on the command centers operational needs.
Seven American Medical Response EMTs and paramedics from the New Haven area and 20 others from across the state have been deployed at the request of the federal government, said Chuck Babson, regional director for AMR. The crews are working under the guidance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well as state and local EMS agencies to provide patient transportation.
Currently, the crews are on a [seven] to 14-day activation, but that can change as the situation changes, Babson said. The crews will stay in the area as long as they are needed.
Laura Krueger, spokeswoman for the Southern New England Salvation Army, said one person has been deployed to the area and between 50 to 60 emergency disaster personnel are available in Connecticut and Rhode Island and are ready to deploy if called. She said the people preparing to deploy would be working to organize relief efforts, serving food at the canteens, working at shelters, providing spiritual and emotional care and generally offering help to those in need.
Thousands of American Red Cross volunteers and employees including more than 60 from Connecticut, with the number increasing by the hour, have been dispatched to Texas and support locations to help those affected, Richard Branigan, chief administrative officer for the Connecticut and Rhode Island region of the American Red Cross, said.
Branigan said the Red Cross has also launched a relief response, as well, which includes partnering with other organizations, to raise donations and sheltering the thousands of residents seeking refuge. Eversource Energy, for example, is donating $50,000 to the Red Cross to help residents in the greater Houston area who have been displaced by massive flooding in the region.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford also will hold a special collection for the victims Sept. 9 and 10 at all of its Masses. The funds will be used to support the humanitarian and recovery efforts of Catholic Charities USA and provide pastoral and rebuilding support to impacted dioceses.
While network food banks in the region are delivering food, water and other supplies to the communities devastated by Hurricane Harvey, Connecticut Food Bank CEO Bernie Beaudreau said the food banks will need help long after the waters recede, as [t]heir recovery will be measured in months and years and will mean increased demand on food banks struggling to rebuild their own operations.
Connecticut knows first-hand how important assistance and resources are during storm recovery, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman said, referring to the states two significant storms since 2010: Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
However, catastrophic situations can be opportunities for fraud. Scam charities often solicit funds through email, telephone and pop-up ads on social media. Instead, Gov. Dannel Malloy advises residents providing donations to nonprofit organizations, assisting with Hurricane Harveys response and recovery, to take precautions to ensure their charitable contributions are being used as intended.
It is always important to research a charity before donating by visiting the organizations website, calling to ask questions and making sure they have the appropriate credentials. Consumers are also encouraged to donate to organizations they are familiar with to ensure their money is going to the best place possible.
Past experience has taught us that the best way we can help survivors in a disaster, particularly in the first days, is to donate funds to trusted charitable organizations that are often on the front lines working in close partnership with first responders, Malloy said. These funds will help those in need as the Houston region begins to recover. We are grateful to these organizations and to the first responders for all the direct assistance they are providing to the people impacted by this storm.
WASHINGTON - House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans on Friday urged President Donald Trump not to rescind an Obama-era program that allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants to stay in the country legally, reflecting fears among some GOP leaders that his decision could be politically damaging for the party.
The entreaties came as Trump neared a decision on whether to dismantle the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which has provided two-year work permits to nearly 800,000 immigrants known as "dreamers" who have been in the country illegally since they were children.
White House officials said Trump would make an announcement Tuesday, the deadline set by Texas and several other states to pursue a legal challenge of DACA if Trump does not terminate it. But in another sign of how politically charged the issue has become, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III announced Friday that the state was withdrawing support for the case, citing the "human" costs and calling on Congress to work out a legislative solution.
Speculation has mounted among immigrant rights groups that Trump will begin to unwind the program, which President Barack Obama created in 2012 through executive action. But the late-stage opposition from some top Republicans - as well as from hundreds of major corporations such as Facebook, Google and Apple - has raised the pressure on Trump to preserve it.
Asked on a radio program whether the president should end DACA, Ryan said: "I actually don't think he should do that."
"I believe that this is something that Congress has to fix," Ryan told WCLO, a station in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin. He said GOP leaders have been clear that Obama lacked the legislative authority to create the program.
The speaker emphasized, however, that DACA recipients "are people who are in limbo. These are kids who know no other country, who were brought here by their parents and don't know another home. And so I really do believe there that there needs to be a legislative solution."
During a brief appearance in the Oval Office, Trump responded to shouted questions from reporters by saying he would decide the issue soon. During his campaign, Trump had repeatedly referred to DACA as an "unconstitutional executive amnesty" and had pledged to end it on his first day in office.
Instead, the Department of Homeland Security has issued an estimated 200,000 new work permits or renewals since Trump took office. The president has wavered between his desire to appear tough on immigration enforcement and his personal empathy for the dreamers, according to aides.
"We love the dreamers," Trump told reporters Friday. "We think the dreamers are terrific."
Trump made immigration enforcement a centerpiece of his campaign, but his equivocations over the fate of the dreamers has reflected the political predicament for Republicans. The party has struggled for years over a sharp split between immigration hard-liners and moderates who have supported legal status for some undocumented immigrants.
Polls show broad public support for the dreamers, and Democrats and immigrant rights groups have promised to wage a fierce political effort against the White House, and Republicans, if Trump chooses to end DACA.
At the same time, conservative Republicans and talk show hosts have grown impatient for Trump to make good on his campaign promise. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was an immigration hard-liner while serving as a Republican senator from Alabama, has said publicly that the Justice Department might not be able to defend DACA in court.
Texas led a coalition of 26 states that successfully won a federal court injunction that stopped a larger deferred action program Obama announced in 2014 that would have provided work permits to undocumented immigrant parents of U.S. citizens.
The office of Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who opposes DACA, said in a statement Friday that the program's "legal future is in jeopardy."
Trump is considering a plan that would instruct DHS to stop issuing new work permits or renewing existing ones, while those enrolled in the program would be allowed to continue until their work permits expire. That would result in more than 1,000 people per day losing their jobs through 2018, according to a recent study by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, and FWD.us, a high-tech group that promotes immigration.
In addition to Ryan, several other leading Republicans, including Sens. Orrin Hatch (Utah) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.), also lobbied the president not to kill DACA.
In a statement, Hatch said Congress must provide "a workable, permanent solution for individuals who entered the country unlawfully as children through no fault of their own and who have built their lives here." Flake, in a tweet, said lawmakers must "take immediate action to protect #DACA kids."
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), a longtime Trump backer, weighed in with a statement as well: "These kids must be allowed to pursue the American Dream, and Congress must act on this immediately."
Legislative action, however, is viewed as a long shot. Three major efforts on immigration reform under Presidents George W. Bush and Obama failed on Capitol Hill, including the Dream Act in 2010 that would have offered the immigrants a path to citizenship.
A small group of congressional Republicans is pitching a "conservative Dream Act" that would reimagine the legislation in a way that could be more palatable for the GOP.
Another bipartisan proposal, called the Bridge Act, would extend DACA protections for three years to give Congress time to enact a permanent fix for the dreamers. In his letter Friday, Slatery, the Tennessee attorney general, said the Bridge Act "would be a very good start."
Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., who represents a Denver swing district, said Thursday that if Trump ends DACA, he would use procedural maneuvers to force a vote on the Bridge Act - an encouraging sign for Democrats, who have long said that they need just a handful of Republicans to join with them to force a vote on such legislation.
Most House Republicans, however, oppose DACA and legal status for undocumented immigrants.
The uncertainty has led employers to warn of potential costs for their businesses and consumers if Trump ends the program without a legislative alternative in place.
The end of DACA would require forcing employers to police their workforce and fire those immigrants whose work permits have expired, said David Bier, an immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute. That would impose a massive cost, estimated at $6.3 billion, because of worker turnover, Bier concluded in an analysis posted Friday using government data.
Companies would have to fire nearly 7,000 employees every week for the next two years, at a cost of $61 million a week for recruiting, hiring and training 720,000 new hires.
"That's a really substantial hit that you're forcing employers to incur as a result of ending DACA," Bier said in an interview. But it would be American consumers who will pay the ultimate cost, he added, because a contracting workforce would translate into higher prices.
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The Washington Post's Tracy Jan and David Weigel contributed to this report.
Frontline rights group International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) on Friday morning released indicting evidence against top Nigerian Military and Police chiefs dragged before a United States District Court for alleged brutal suppression of pro-Biafra protests in Nigeria and the killing of some secessionists.In Part One of a statement entitled John Doe, et al. v. Buratai & 15 Ors (Civil Action No: 17-cv-01033-ESH (USA: DC): How It All Started, Intersociety traced the history of the crackdown on the Bafranists and SHiites, directly implicating Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, and erstwhile Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase.Apart from Buratai and Arase, 12 other top Nigerian Military and Police officers are joined in the US suit, as well as Governors Willie Obiano (Anambra) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia).The Intersociety joined the fray via a statement issued in Onitsha, signed by the Board Chairman Emeka Umeagbalasi; Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Programme, Barr Obianuju Igboeli; and Head, Intl Justice and Human Rights Programme, Barr Ndidiamaka Bernard. It reads:On 11th November 2015, the Nigerian Army issued a violent threat against protesting pro Biafra activists and their leaders in the Southeast and the South-south zones of the country. The Army also labeled peaceful assemblies especially those organised by pro Biafra activists as treason and insurrection. On 16th November 2015, the Nigerian Military through the Chief of Defense Staff issued a further violent threat and ordered violent crackdowns including shoot-at-sight against unarmed and defenseless pro Biafra protesters in Southeast and South-south Nigeria.The violent threat was immediately followed and backed by a presidential statement. The peaceful and nonviolent street protests organized by IPOB led pro Biafra campaigns were fueled by the arrest of the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Director of Radio Biafra London (RBL), Prince Nwannekaenyi Okwu Kanu (Nnamdi Kanu), who was arrested on 14th October 2015 and taken into the SSS solitary dungeon.The Nigerian Militarys threats of shoot-at-sight and other forms of military violence were also repeated and extended to members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (Shiites) by the Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai in his various television appearances and other media interviews. We had then found and still find such military terrorism to be a grave affront to rights to peaceful assembly and association; and rights to freedoms of expression and thought, conscience and religion; guaranteed and democratically granted to all citizens of Nigeria by Sections 40, 39 and 38 of Nigerias 1999 Constitution as well as the African Charter on Human & Peoples Rights of 1981 and the Intl Covenant on Civil & Political Rights of 1976 (etc); all ratified by Nigeria in 1983 and 1993 respectively.Consequently, on 13th November 2015, the leaderships of Intl Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) and the Southeast Based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations (SBCHROs) issued a joint statement warning the military and police authorities of the national, regional and international consequences of their planned violence against pro Biafrans, if carried out. Intersociety had earlier on 12th November 2015 released its own statement condemning the two statements of the Nigerian Military. Intersociety and SBCHROs statements were in response to that of the Military issued on 11th and later repeated on 16th November 2015 in which the Military tagged nonviolent protests by pro Biafra agitators as treason and insurrection and threatened the protesters with shoot-at-sight and other forms of military violence.The Army statement and those of Intersociety and SBCHROs are available on their website . As if the Military threats of violence were not enough, the then Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, followed up and damnably issued another threat of violent crackdown against unarmed and defenseless pro Biafra protesters and specifically directed his then Police Zonal Commanders and Commissioners of Police in the Southeast and the South-south Zones to use maximum force or violent crackdown against any gathering or protest in connection with pro Biafra agitation or any protest calling for the release of key IPOB leaders.The then IGPs violent order was issued in the morning of 2nd December 2015. The then IGPs threat of violence Intersociety and SBCHROs had in their said statements of 12th and 13th November 2015 vowed to explore available local or national, regional and international justice remedies (both civil and criminal) to get the would-perpetrators to account for their would-be regime atrocities no matter how long it would take; should their threats of military violence against unarmed and defenseless pro Biafra campaigners or activists be carried out.In the noon of 2nd December 2015, a combined team of police (including SARS), army, SSS and navy personnel, etc; mobilized by the Government of Anambra State under State Joint Security Taskforce; and in collaboration with the Nigerian Police Force and the Army, opened fire with live bullets on pro Biafra protesters, killing not less than 12 and injuring dozens of others.The killings took place between the axis of Onitsha Upper Iweka, Obodoukwu Road and Onitsha Niger Bridgehead. The police personnel of the Anambra State Police Command had earlier on 30th August 2015, opened fire with live bullets on pro Biafra protesters in Onitsha and Awka, killing not less than six persons and injuring several others. The Nigerian security forces had on same 30th August 2015 opened fire on pro Biafra protesters in Enugu, Yenagoa, Port Harcourt, Uyo and Asaba, killing scores and injuring dozens of others.On 17th December 2015, following an Abuja Federal Court judgment ordering for the unconditional release of Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, soldiers stationed at the Onitsha Niger Bridgehead, drafted from the Onitsha Military Cantonment; opened fire on jubilant IPOB members, killing 13 and injuring several others. Three of those killed were later on 21st December 2015 dumped by the soldiers at the Onitsha General Hospital after their lifeless bodies were taken away from the scene of the killing on 17th December 2015. Hospitals where the wounded were being treated were also invaded by soldiers in the late night of 17th December 2015 who also abducted them from their hospital beds and dumped them inside their barracks for several hours without medical treatments.On 12th December 2015, the Nigerian Army convoy with the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai on board; genocidally opened fire with live bullets on unarmed and defenseless members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (Shiites); killing hundreds and wounding many others. The massacre took place in Zaria during the annual religious procession of the Shiites. The COAS turned around and hurriedly raised a false alarm; claiming that there was an assassination attempt on his life.As if that was not enough, the soldiers regrouped on 13th and 14th December 2015 and went on further menacing killing spree; massacring and maiming hundreds of Shiites as well as razing to rubbles their holy places of worship located in Zaria (Kaduna State). The leader of the nonviolent Muslim sect, Sheik Ibrahim El-Zaky and his beloved wife-Zeenatu were also severally shot at and lacerated with live bullets. The Sheiks three sons and his younger nephew were also killed in his presence while his 70yrs old sister was burnt alive by soldiers during the same genocidal attacks of 14th December 2015. The Shiite Muslims have lost not less than 1120 members mostly in the hands of the Nigerian Army since June 2015.Till date, Sheik El-Zaky and his beloved wife are still detained without trial. A total of 1000 unarmed and defenseless Shiite members/citizens of Nigeria have remained unaccounted for since 12th, 13th and 14th December 2015 till date. The leadership of the IMN had as recently as on 30th August 2017 specifically told Amnesty International with verifiable pieces of evidence that not less than 650 of their members have not been accounted for or have disappeared in the hands of Lt Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai led Nigerian Army since 12th, 13th and 14th December 2015.Killing and maiming of unarmed and defenseless pro Biafra activists also took place on 18th and 29th January and 9th February (Aba massacre) 2016 in Aba as well as 29th and 30th May in Nkpor, Onitsha and Asaba (Nkpor massacre). There was pro Trump rally killing in Port Harcourt on 20th January 2017; all leading to not less than 270 deaths and 370 injuries.For full details, please visit our website: www.intersociety-ng.org or google our press statements of 18th and 22nd June 2017; titled: Nigerian Armys False Claims Against Slain Innocent Biafra Activists: Graphic Accounts (1) and Nigerian Armys False Claims Against 270 Slain Innocent Pro Biafra Activists & 370 Injured Others: How They Were Massacred And Maimed (Concluded). For those that have not read our special report, titled: welcome to bleeding republic of Nigeria: a land flowing with blood and tears: March 2017; please visit our website above or google the report as titled.We had also on 16th February 2016 sent a 10-page memo to the Minister of Interior (Abdulrahman Bello Dambazzzau, PhD) and the Chief of Defense Staff (Major General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin). The memo was titled: Ceaseless Killing Of Unarmed Citizens In Nigeria: Why Security Chiefs Must Desist From Provoking More Insurgencies Capable Of Plunging Nigeria Into Syrian Style Violence. The memo contained a catalogue of regime atrocities perpetrated by army and police personnel against unarmed and defenseless pro Biafra activists including killing and dumping inside an Aba burrow pit of 13 members of pro Biafra group (IPOB). The memo specifically called on the present Federal Government of Nigeria to end the butchery and investigate and punish all the perpetrators and their accomplices. As expected, nothing was done.Between November 2015 and this August 2017, over 60 advocacy positions had been taken by our organisation with respect to the subject matter under reference; drawing the policy and administrative attentions of the present Federal Government of Nigeria and its relevant security establishments for the purpose of frontally addressing the butcheries and related regime atrocities complained of; yet the regime atrocities have not only continued but also reached an alarming proportion. As recently as 6th July 2017, we addressed another 17-page memo to then Acting President on the same issue. The memo was presidentially received on 11th July 2017; yet we have neither been communicated nor did our complaint frontally and judiciously look into till date.It is therefore extremely important to inform that the long journey to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, ably presided over by Hon Judge Helen S. Huvelle (appointed by President William Clinton) came as a result of the conspiracy and monumental failure of the present Federal Government of Nigeria in the named regime atrocities which clearly constitute crimes against humanity, prosecutable or adjudicatory within and beyond borders or in any part of the world especially in those countries with conformity jurisdictions or legislations such as the USAs Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act of 1991, Pub.L.102-256, 106 Stat. 73 (March 12, 1992) (TVPA) and 28 U.S.C.&1350. The civil action suit, referenced: 17-cv-01033-ESH (USA: DC), filed on 30th May 2017 is just the beginning and one out of more to come in coming calendar months/years.The US Civil Action suit is also designed to track down locally, regionally and internationally the regime atrocities perpetrators and their conspirators in Nigeria to account for their heinous crimes against humanity using their positions of authority in a most reckless, wicked, brazen and beastly manner and reminiscent of the Rwandan regime atrocities perpetrators under the infamous regime of Gen Juvenal Habyarimana, who atrociously served as Rwandas President from July 5, 1973 to April 6, 1994. On 6th April 1994 Gen Habyarimanas regime atrocities caught up with him and bounced back on him, leading to his perfect killing using his private falcon jet crash on 6th April 1994. His aviation killing instantly snowballed into the Rwandan Genocide of 6th April to 15th/21st July 1994; leading to the mass death of 800,000-1,000,000 people.The concluding part of this statement is in the making, to be released in few days.
The Federal Government on Thursday said it would work with government of the United Kingdom to stimulate more direct private sector investments into Nigeria.
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma said this in Abuja during a meeting with a delegation from the British government led by the Secretary of State for International Development, Mrs Priti Patel.
He told the delegation that Federal Government was intensifying efforts at ensuring the ease of doing business in the country and would welcome more foreign investments.
Patel and her team are in Nigeria to have an on-the-spot appraisal of the situation in the North East of the country to enable the British Government to decide on how to assist the Nigerian government in addressing the situation in the region, as well as other development initiatives.
Acknowledging the various interventions by the British Government in aid of the countrys developmental challenges, the minister said although Nigeria would appreciate more foreign aid from the British Government, it would be looking more in the area of investments from companies in that country coming into Nigeria.
He explained governments efforts toward ensuring the ease of doing business and particularly mentioned the creation of industrial hubs in the six geo-political zones of the country that would have the basic facilities required for manufacturing to thrive smoothly.
The British government, he said, could help in encouraging manufacturers in the United Kingdom to outsource some of their productions to Nigeria and take advantage of the special economic zones.
The minister said that the Federal Government was committed to creating a successful economy, pointing out that the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan launched early this year was meant to serve as vehicle to drive governments diversification policy.
Udoma said Federal Government had constituted an Inter-ministerial Task Force under the chairmanship of the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning to properly handle and coordinate humanitarian assistance efforts to the North East.
This, he noted, was to ensure proper delivery and effective utilisation of funds and materials.
In her comments, Patel assured that the British Government would continue to assist Nigeria in addressing its humanitarian and developmental challenges.
She said her team would discuss further with the Federal Government to look at more proactive ways of dealing with the fallouts of the North East crisis.
She added that more work would be done in the areas of investment in education, international partnerships, capacity building, scaling up of farming in local communities among, other development issues.
Boko Haram insurgents have killed 11 people on Friday in a raid on a camp for civilians displaced by the Islamist groups violent insurgenc...
Boko Haram insurgents have killed 11 people on Friday in a raid on a camp for civilians displaced by the Islamist groups violent insurgency.
The insurgents reportedly invaded the camp in Banki on Nigerias border with Cameroon, which camps over 45,000 internally displaced people (IDP), using knives to kill their victims silently.
At around 12:30 am (2330 GMT Thursday) this morning some Boko Haram terrorists broke the barricade securing the IDP camp from the rear towards the Cameroon border and entered to seize food from IDPs, a senior military officer told newsmen on Friday.
They killed 11 IDPs and wounded two in the attack, said the military officer who would not want his name mentioned.
Adamu Ahmad, a member of a civilian militia charged with protecting the Banki camp, confirmed the incident.
He said the attackers used knives to kill their victims instead of firearms to avoiding alerting soldiers at a military base adjacent to the camp, Ahmad said.
The raiders also stole food aid rations given to those living in the camp, said the military officer.
Boko Haram is reported to be running desperately low on supplies after Nigerian security forces successfully cut off supply lines to the groups bases.
The Minister of Communications, Barrister Abdul-Raheem Adebayo Shittu has declared that the return of President Muhammadu Buhari from his m...
The Minister of Communications, Barrister Abdul-Raheem Adebayo Shittu has declared that the return of President Muhammadu Buhari from his medical vacation in London has brought stability, happiness and joy to Nigerians.
Shittu, who addressed journalists shortly after he observed this years Eld-Kabir prayers along with other Muslim Ummah in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on Friday stated that it would have been another story if the President has not recovered fully enough to come back to Nigeria.
He said it had shown that the prayers of Nigerians for the safe return of the President was answered.
Shittu said number one, we should thank Almighty Allah that he Has made it possible for our dear President to come and celebrate Eld in Nigeria.
I know that a lot of Nigerians have been praying over the last few months urging Almighty Allah for his speedy recovery and we thank God that, that prayer has been answered.
That has certainly brought a lot of serenity, a lot of stability, a lot of happiness and joy to the faces of Nigerians. It would have been a different story if the President has not yet recovered fully enough to come back.
Shittu then urged Nigerians to continue praying to God for their leaders.
Secondly, we should continue to pray for this government, certainly our President needs prayers in the sense that is the one President you can trust, Nigerians can trust or can entrust their common wealth.
He is the President who is not greedy, he is one who will not steal public money, he is the one President that can manage the resources.
I will also use this opportunity to say that Nigerians should thank the Vice President who has been acting in the absence of the President; he stablized the polity and he did well.
The Deputy Chief Imam of the Abuja National Mosque, Dr. Muhammad Kabir Adam yesterday pleaded with the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, the main umbrella body of University lecturers in the country to arrive at a common ground and call off the strike in the interest of the students.According to him, it has become imperative for both the Federal government and ASUU to end the on-going strike in order to help the students go back to their studies.The Deputy Imam, in his Eid- El- Kabir sermon yesterday at the National Mosque, Abuja also called on Christians and Muslims to embrace peace.
The General Overseer of Mount Zion Faith Global Liberation Ministries Inc. Nnewi, Anambra State, Bishop Abraham Chris Udeh, has written to ...
The General Overseer of Mount Zion Faith Global Liberation Ministries Inc. Nnewi, Anambra State, Bishop Abraham Chris Udeh, has written to the secretary general of the United Nations and other world leaders, including United States of America, Russia and Israel to urgently wade in and save Igbo youths from being wiped out by the Nigerian military.
He said he listened to Buharis recent nationwide broadcast where he ordered service chiefs to crush members of the IPOB alongside other terrorist groups.
Speaking with newsmen at his cathedral church, Nnewi, yesterday, Bishop Udeh said after listening to the broadcast, he now had a vision where the spirit of God showed him how the military troops were drafted to Igbo land to clear Igbo youths.
Let the UN, USA, Russia, Israel and others intervene now to stop the military from wiping out innocent Igbo youths who are merely agitating for self determination within the ambit of the law, he appealed.
He said he was highly disappointed that rather than coming back to thank Nigerians for their prayers which led to his recovery and return to the country to resume work, Buhari was giving an order to the military to massacre Ndigbo just because they were agitating for self determination, which was allowed by law.
He also urged Buhari to vacate the seat now based on health ground for his own good.
I can see that Buhari wants to die on the seat of power. I have always advised him to resign on health ground but the cabal in the presidency does not want him to leave the seat for another tribe.
He should resign now because we are tired of military commanders. If he fails to resign, I shall resurrect my earlier call for his impeachment by the National Assembly, he stated.
Chief Ayo Adebanjo, a staunch follower of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, has been in the forefront of agitation for restructuring of the country.The Afenifere chieftain warns that the 2019 general election may not hold if the country is not restructured. He bared his mind on other burning national issues. Excerpts:On arrival from his medical vacation, President Muhammadu Buhari declared that the countrys unity is not negotiable, what is your take on that?We have told him that that is not tenable. He is the President and that is the modest he can say. Olusegun Obasanjo was there for eight years. How can you say people of heterogeneous nature, coming together in unity, should accept the conditions created by only a section of the Federation? Many people oppose restructuring and unity without thinking about our background.Before independence, Nnamdi Azikiwe championed the unitary form of government, Chief Obafemi Awolowo championed federalism, while Sarduana, Sir Ahmadu Bello, did not want unitary. That was what led to the crisis of 1953 after the late Anthony Enahoro moved the motion for self-government. The Sarduana was very fierce and said he was not going to be part of Nigeria and went for a different programme.Eventually, through the process of crisis, the Action Group withdrew their ministers from the cabinet when the Governor-General, McPherson, said that Action Group ministers should not take part in the motion for self-government. The ministers then told him (McPherson) that nothing could stop them, saying that they were representing the people. He then threatened that if they took part, he would sack them. The ministers told him that before he would sack them, they would go and they left, including the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Aderemi.As the Constitution was at that time, each region sent ministers to the centre. The AG withdrew its ministers after which there was a crisis. That was what led to the colonial office then to invite all the political parties in Nigeria to London.Awolowo told the gathering that all over the world, the unitary government was no longer practicable and he gave empirical examples. Eventually, he was able to convince the conference including the Sarduana, that only a federal form of government would work and they agreed on federalism.Upon return from that conference, it was at the airport that the late Nnamdi Azikiwe declared that federalism was imperative.It was on that note that the position of premiership was established in the regions. That was what convinced Sarduana to stay in Nigeria. Devolution of power, resource control, and state police are all components of federalism.Now, some say they dont understand what restructuring means. Some say it is resource control, while some say it is devolution of powers, they are talking as if they are talking to babies.But the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said that the Federal government has started its own restructuring with community policingI thought Lai Mohammed was more intelligent as a lawyer. What are the components of federalism? Devolution of powers, state policing and others were those things we had at independence. That is why I said the APC is a government of deceit. When they put restructuring in their manifesto, what do they understand by restructuring? I listened to Bolaji Abdullahi, the APC spokespersons interview. It was different from what Lai Mohammed is saying.The APC spokesperson said they are the ones championing restructuring and that the PDP did not do anything about it. So, where do we go from here? The more they (APC) deceive the people, the more we will enlighten them. They (APC) want to confuse the people as if restructuring means a different thing from resource control, state police, devolution of powers and local government. That is nonsense. If he (Mohammed) does not know, I did not know he was that ignorant.When you talk of restructuring, restructuring came into our lexicon after the military. When the military took over, it de-structured Nigeria and the constitution that the colonial office gave us. That was the Constitution we were enjoying until independence. They set the constitution aside and imposed one dominated by the north.What is causing the problem now is the de-structuring of Nigeria by the military, dominated by the north and their decision to favour the north and against the south. The question of restructuring and devolution of power had been settled in the constitution we operated during independence.So, they (APC) should stop confusing the people and that is why I said that anyone opposed to restructuring is Nigerias enemy number one. They should stop deceiving the people that the unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable.What does he mean by the unity of the country is non-negotiable? Is it the unity of the horse and the rider, where they are the rider and we are the horse? We will not accept their stance.What do you think may happen if Nigeria is not restructured before the 2019 elections?That is the end of Nigeria. There are no mincing words about that because the south will not agree to be cheated and work with the constitution we did not make. We did not make this constitution and we are demanding the Constitution agreed upon by our founding fathers. That should not be a problem. To ask what restructuring means is to talk unintelligently.Those, who are lawyers and are members of the APC, are a shame to the profession. How can a lawyer say he does not know what restructuring means? How can a lawyer split the components of federalism as if they are different things? Federalism takes care of all the demands.What do you have to say about the decision of Northern youths to withdraw the quite notice given to the Igbo?That statement was very arrogant. They said they were suspending it. How can a section of the country tell some people to get out of their region? Some are asking for restructuring and your reply is that they should leave your territory. How can such not be regarded as treason? That is insulting.If they dont know, I can say it positively that the federal government led by Buhari is treating us (South) like this because they know they have enclosed us in this country. The government did that by ensuring that our security is entrusted to northerners only.If we make any move, they may mow us down. Let Buhari deny this. The security agencies are in the hands of the north, we have been surrounded with herdsmen all over the country. There is no where they dont exist armed with AK 47. I ask Buhari, I ask Bello Danbazzau is AK 47 part of the tools to rear cattle? Is that the practice before Buhari came into power?I really feel bad when people are insincere. What the northern people want is not to rule, but to dominate. Since the herdsmen have been operating around the country, what has Buhari said? They rape and they kill. What do they take us for? They now come around and talk about unity. But they are the ones really creating disunity. The Yoruba in the APC cabinet, how effective are they in that cabinet? There was a plot to relegate Bola Tinubu to the background. Does he have a voice in that government today?What is the Yoruba summit all about?The summit is about one agenda.What is that?It is to show that Yoruba land, irrespective of political affiliations, agrees on the restructuring of the country. When these people want to confuse the issue, they say that restructuring means separation. There have been all sorts of inconceivable and unintelligible interpretations as if those of us talking did not go to school.That is why I said they are not honest. All we are going to say on September 7 is that as far as Yoruba land is concerned, irrespective of what party people belong to, we stand on the restructuring of the country to federalism. That is what we want to say on September 7.We know we have not got guns but we will tell the world that this is where we stand. We are not an inferior partner in this federation. What Afenifere, the Southern Leaders Forum and everyone in the south are fighting for is equality in the federation. Nobody wants to break the federation and Buhari should prove that by administering justice.
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday said he would abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court in Kenya which nullified his reelection victory l...
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday said he would abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court in Kenya which nullified his reelection victory last month.
The judgment, which was delivered by the court Friday morning, saw three of the six-man bench dismiss Mr. Kenyattas victory as null and void. The judges ordered that a re-run poll be conducted within 60 days.
The presidential election held on August 8 was not conducted in accordance with the constitution, Chief Justice, David Maraga ruled, according to Kenyas The Nation Newspaper.
Mr. Maraga was joined in the majority opinion by two other judges. Two judges dissented in the ruling while the last judge was at the hospital, according to Kenyan media reports.
The ruling favoured Raila Odinga, head of the countrys main opposition who had challenged the electoral commissions announcement of President Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner last month.
In a nationwide broadcast which was later uploaded on the Internet, Mr. Kenyatta said he would abide by the judgment, although he didnt necessarily agree with its principles.
We believe in the rule of law, the president said, before lashing out that, six people have decided they will go against the will of the people.
He rallied Kenyans to remain peaceful while expressing confidence in his popularity and ability to emerge victorious in the re-run.
Your neighbour will always remain your neighbour regardless, he said.
Mr. Odinga said he would channel some energy into fighting the electoral commission officials whom he castigated as criminally biased.
IEBC committed a criminal act and belong to jail, Mr. Odinga said of Wafula Chubakati, head of Kenyas Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
But Mr. Chebukati pushed back against allegations of unfairness, vowing to remain in office amidst calls for his resignation.
African democracy experts deemed Fridays development an affirmation of Kenyas robust judicial system, in comparison to most countries on the continent.
The courts in Kenya have long been the envy of activists and pro-democracy forces throughout Africa, said Jeffrey Smith, Executive Director of the Vanguard Africa Movement.
Todays Supreme Court decision only reinforces that perception and further bolsters the rule of law, today and going forward, in Kenya.
Mr. Smith, whose organisation focuses on advancing good governance and reform across Africa, said Kenyan leaders must take caution to avert the aftermath of a similar ruling in Cote dIvoire in 2010.
A major crisis broke out in the West African country following the annulment of the election victory of Alassane Ouattara by the Constitutional Council, the countrys equivalent of a supreme court.
The court then pronounced Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent at the time who had challenged the results, winner of the election. It was the first time a court will annul the victory of a presidential candidate in Africa.
But the international community, including Ecowas, rejected the conclusion of the council and recognised the victory of Mr. Ouattara, then leader of the opposition.
Mr. Ouattara was later inaugurated as president. He won a reelection in 2015 with 84 per cent of the votes.
Mr. Gbagbo was arrested in April 2011 and was transferred to the International Criminal Court where hed been facing charges since 2016.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges, which include murder and rape.
Lets hope the same does not happen in Kenya, and that elected leaders in particular urge calm, peace, and deference to the law, Mr. Smith said.
The coalition of Niger Delta militants, yesterday, withdrew the October 1 quit notice they issued to northerners and Yoruba living in th...
The coalition of Niger Delta militants, yesterday, withdrew the October 1 quit notice they issued to northerners and Yoruba living in the region.The Pan Niger Delta Peoples Congress (PNDPC), a new group that claimed to have the mandate to negotiate for the Niger Delta with the Federal Government and other interested stakeholders, said the issuers of the quit notice gave them the mandate to withdraw it.The coalition had disbanded the Chief Edwin Clark-led Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) after passing a vote of no confidence in the group and constituted PNDPC as the new negotiator for the region.The militant groups appointed His Royal Majesty Pere Ayemi-Botu, paramount ruler of Seimbiri Kingdom as the head of the PNDPC and named Chief Mike Loyibo as the coordinator/ convener of the group.The coalition comprises the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers; Niger Delta Joint Revolutionary Crusaders Council; Niger Delta Supreme Egbesu Fighters; Niger Delta Red Scorpion Fighters; Niger Delta Youth Mandate for Justice; Niger Delta Peoples Liberation Force; Niger Delta Fighters for Resource Control; Niger Delta for Urhobo Resource Control; and Bakassi Peoples Liberation Force.Loyibo, whom the coalition said was appointed following his track records of integrity and honesty, confirmed that the coalition mandated the PNPDC to announce the withdrawal of the quit notice.He said the youths were remorseful after he and members of the new group met with them and told them the implications of the quit notice to the peace and development of the region.He said: People should disregard the quit notice from our youths. I have spoken to many of them and they mandated me to withdraw it on their behalf.They have called off the quit notice and discharged it. Everybody in the region in the west, east and north should go about their normal business. I can guarantee them of their safety.The entire Niger Delta people are not in agreement with the quit notice issue. The boys that issued it are very remorseful. So, they have asked me, because they mandated me to speak for them and the region, to discharge the quit notice. Loyibo noted that such unpatriotic remarks like issuance of quit notices had their origin from the cold war involving the countrys founding fathers during the precolonial era.This quit notice and counter quit notice found their foundations from the precolonial days. The three leaders that negotiated the independence of Nigeria did not love themselves.It was the crisis that extended to our era where everybody begins to struggle for their own. I dont believe in regional or tribal considerations. As Ijaw people, those that had been good to us did not come from our region, he said.He said the youths were only suspicious that the Federal Government was trying to weaken them through promises that they might not fulfill at last.Loyibo said the leaders also told the youths to also hold their governors, appointees and regional interventionist agencies responsible for lack of leadership and development.He blamed the Arewa youths for causing tension in the polity and frowned on the way and manner the government treated them.He noted that nobody should be treated as a second class citizen adding that all must be held as equal stakeholders in the Nigerian project.The Ijaw leader, however, said the youths in the region still believed in the integrity of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and their ability to fulfill the promises they made to the region.He said: We are peaceloving people. Our diversity is our strength. Mr. President has brought a lot of integrity to governance and he came in with massive goodwill. So, I believe that this is the time he should be addressing the issue.The late President YarAdua took the bull by the horn and declared amnesty and today amnesty is working. The place is being transformed in human capacity building.This is not the time for us to bring violence. When the militants and the agitators and the people of the Niger Delta named us to represent the Niger Delta as the new face, it did not come to us as a surprise because some of us have long history of integrity and openness.We believe that Nigeria will continue to remain as one under a peaceful situation. So, I hereby, use this medium to formally discharge that quit notice. It is of no effects and there is no element of seriousness and the people that did it are very remorseful after we met with them and scolded them.
The Anambra State chapter of the Buhari Support Group has rejected the outcome of the recent All Progressives Congress primary for the November governorship election in the state over alleged irregularities.The exercise was also rejected by the Coalition of Civil Society Groups, with over 30 affiliates.The coalition, therefore, demanded a total re-verification of the delegates list as used in the primary for authentication through a confirmation process.While the BSG urged the appeal panel to critically look into the anomalies or it would mobilise its members to support another candidate, the CCSG threatened to seek redress in court to compel the APC to declare the election which produced Tony Nwoye null and void.The BSGs position was contained in a petition to the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, signed by its Anambra State Coordinator, Dr. Emeka Nwaofor, and Secretary, Chief (Mrs.) Stella Obiora, while CCSGs threat was contained in its petition to the Director-General of the Department of State Services, Mamman Daura, signed by its President, Etuk Bassey Wiliams, and Secretary-General, Ibrahim Abubakar.The CCSG said, We wish to conclude in expectation of justice that if no significant step or action is taken, we shall approach a court of competent jurisdiction to compel the party to do the needful. The partys principles should not be undermined and swept under the carpet.Elections are for people who have good pedigree and can justify their capabilities; they must have track records of achievements and not self-seeking individuals who have maintained the role of spoilers in every election. We assure you of our readiness to provide all the necessary evidence with respect to all the allegations contained in this petition as we attached overleaf copies of some pieces of evidence.The BSG, on its part, said as members of the APC loyal to the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, the party had a good chance of defeating the incumbent governor, Willy Obiano, because of the Buhari factor, adding that but with the emergence of Tony Nwoye, the party will lose out.The group added, Our reason for this generational call is borne out of malpractices which contravene the electoral act perpetrated by him [Nwoye] which include but not limited to financial inducement and swapping of delegates.The BSG also alleged that thugs were used to harass innocent party faithful while 2,700 identity cards were produced in connivance with officials of Anambra State in Area 10 Shopping Mall, Abuja, which were used for the swapping of the 2013 delegates list used for the primary.While accusing Nwoye of allegedly blackmailing Buhari on several occasions in Anambra State before he defected to the APC, the group alleged that he was being sponsored by a multi-billionaire and an alleged sworn enemy of President Buhari who allegedly worked against him in the 2015 general election.
FAIRFIELD -- An alleged serial burglar and a teenager were arrested for a middle-of-the-night break-in at a Route 46 pizzeria, police said.
Brian Barone
Brian Barone, 51, of Clifton and a 15-year-old, whose name wasn't released because of his age, were arrested Aug. 30, five days after police said they stole cash from Puzo's Pizzeria and Ristorante.
The owner of the restaurant was notified of an alarm activation at the business at about 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 25.
After remotely viewing surveillance cameras and seeing nothing amiss, he cancelled the police department's response. That's when, police say, Barone and the juvenile entered the restaurant through a rear door they had already forced open.
The duo made off with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Their actions were allegedly captured on surveillance cameras, whose footage was shared with various police agencies. Detectives from the Clifton and Bloomfield Police Departments recognized the man and boy.
Barone is employed as an electrician by a Passaic business and makes service calls at stores such as Staples, Kmart and Trader Joe's. While on those calls, police said, he would seek out other nearby businesses to burglarize.
The pair have also allegedly been linked to commercial burglaries in Yorktown and Mamaroneck, New York.
Barone was charged in the Fairfield case with burglary, theft, possession of burglar tools, employing a juvenile in the commission of a crime and conspiracy. He was transported to the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark pending a bail hearing.
The juvenile was charged with burglary and conspiracy and will be referred to family court.
"This has been and still is a great cooperative effort between various law enforcement agencies resulting in the arrest of a serial commercial burglar and his young accomplice" said Fairfield Police Chief Anthony G. Manna. "The investigation is still ongoing and we are hoping that it will result in clearing other open burglary cases in both this state and others."
Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AllisonPries. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
HARRISON TWP. -- At full maturity, the Carolina Reaper pepper is deep red and about 2 million Scoville units, making it the hottest pepper in the world.
On a bright and breezy Friday morning, Ali Houshmand, Rowan University's president, pulled a baby reaper off the vine, still green and not much bigger than a thumbnail. "Let's see how this is," he said, before taking a tiny bite.
"Ooh," he winced. "That was a mistake. Even this young, they're still hot."
Then he went back to picking colorful peppers with colorful names -- chocolate habaneros, purple jalapenos, devil's tongues, scotch bonnets, bishop's crowns.
The peppers, tended to in a plot at the South Jersey Technology Park on Route 322, will soon be simmered in vinegar for hours to make a hot sauce according to a recipe Houshmand has been making for years.
He used to make the hot sauce in his garage -- he even mentioned it when he introduced himself to readers -- and he would provide small jars to friends, relatives and Rowan staff. It was something he did in his free time.
Now, it's somewhat of a business venture.
A small batch was jarred and labeled for sale at the annual holiday luncheon last year, with the proceeds going to student scholarships. Now, there's a waiting list to get a jar, and about 1,000 will be made next month.
They'll be sold for $19.23, the year the school was founded. For an extra donation, he will sign the jars.
This month, Houshmand traveled to the Rutgers University Food Innovation Lab to plan logistics of producing the sauce in large quantities.
"We made a big batch for them," he said. "And they can help with everything: jarring, labeling, producing."
The pepper plot was planned in November, when Houshmand custom-ordered seeds for several of the hottest pepper plants around, including a large portion of habaneros to form the base of the sauce. (The "super hot" peppers like the Carolina Reaper are used to flavor and spice up the most intense version of the sauce.)
"Every day I've been coming in here, watering them, taking care of them," Houshmand said.
Last week, during one of several recent harvests of the pepper crop, several wooden baskets were filled with a variety of heat. Houshmand had Lauren Bitzer, the student government association president, and Rbrey Singleton, the student trustee, helping him.
Bitzer, as she removed the stems from a cluster of Thai peppers before putting them in a bucket, explained that she hasn't tried the sauce yet.
"I'm really hoping I get a jar out of this," Bitzer said.
Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Bayonne Muslims gathered in 16th Street Park on the Newark Bay today to mark Eid ul-Adha with prayers and a celebration.
The holiday commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son to God.
The celebration featured plenty of sweets and treats for kids and today's perfect weather made for great photo taking on the waterfront.
Freelance photographer Dina Sayedahmed captured some special moments for The Jersey Journal.
JERSEY CITY - A two-story building with a business on the first floor was gutted by a four-alarm fire that started in an auto mechanic shop at the rear of the structure on the Jersey City/Union City border this evening.
"It's a total loss," Jersey City Fire Chief Steve McGill said as he stood in the street at the intersection of Kennedy Boulevard and Secaucus Road at 6:25 p.m.
The first alarm was sounded at about 5:10 p.m. and the stubborn blaze was still smoldering at 6:55 p.m.
Hundreds of people lined the sidewalk on the Boulevard as firefighters continued to pour water on the building that housed the Top Deli and Tony's garage.
"My friend called me and said, 'My building is on fire,'" Elvis Gonzalez of Union City said of his friend, who lived on the second floor of the now gutted building.
Gonzalez rushed to the scene and found his friend had "his dogs, his daughter and his wife" on the street.
"The flames were everywhere," Gonzalez said.
Smoke towered into the air and could be seen for miles.
McGill said it appears the fire was started by an acetylene tank that "blew" in the garage, which wraps around the building and has an entrance on the Boulevard on the right of the building. Work was being done on a vehicle and people in the garage tried to put out the flames but could not, he said.
It further appeared that the tank wasn't being used and may have had a leak, McGill said, adding that the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The blaze went to four alarms due to the volume of fire and because there was an issue with using fire hydrants across the Union City line that had different fittings, officials said.
No one was injured in the fire, the chief said, but two families were displaced. The Red Cross is responding to the scene.
In addition to Jersey City, firefighters and trucks also responded from Bayonne, Hoboken and North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue.
Public Service Electric & Gas has responded to work on cutting gas service to the building.
Teresa Mull, School Choice Weekly -
The recent violent events surrounding Civil War statues in Charlottesville, Virginia as well as the follow-on protests, defamations, and vandalism at other cities across the country could have their root in what is taught, and not taught, in our nations schools. The Washington Post appears to have just realized this week that what kids are taught in schools has consequences? Good job, WaPo. And now, since what students were taught in government schools seemingly contributed to the Charlottesville disaster, how about we put two and two together and get government out of schooling? READ MORE
How can police better serve your community? The NOPD wants to know.
Three of them conveyed their disappointment to Illinois Review after the bill signing.
SPRINGFIELD - Those that have suffered the loss of family members at the hands of non-citizens in the country illegally were categorically denied calls from Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner before he signed a controversial immigration law into effect Monday.
Brian McCann, whose brother Dennis was killed when a drunk illegal alien ran over him crossing the street in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, was especially disappointed. Dennis' killer was released from Chicago Police detainment after he posted a $25,000 bond. The killer is now living in Mexico, yet to be punished for the crime.
Governor Bruce Rauner told reporters at the bill signing he didn't know anything about the families that wanted to speak with him. McCann was told that his cell and phone numbers were on the governor's call list a week before the signing. McCann never heard from the governor.
"Insult to injury continues," McCann told Fox News' Mike Tobin. "They know better. This is an issue of safety."
Dan Rosenberg's son Drew was killed while riding his motorcycle in San Francisco seven years ago. He, too expressed disappointment with Rauner's lack of interest in hearing from victims' families.
"This is just another example of a less-than public servant caring more about the potential votes he thinks he will get protecting illegal aliens at the expense of law abiding Illinoisans," Rosenberg told Illinois Review. "Rauner promised to meet with some of the families who were victims of illegal aliens on national television and then refused. A lousy governor and a liar."
Eric Brady's wife Jeannie of Mahomet, IL was killed January 1, 2017 by a Guatemalan in the country illegally who was driving with an alcohol level three times the legal amount. He told Illinois Review he was very disappointed in the new law.
"I find this to be terribly disappointing. It's embarrassing to the honest Illinoisans, who work hard and care about the safety of their fellow Americans," Brady said. "It continues to underscore that the leadership of this State has no interest in the citizens it's sworn to serve. It proves once again that there is no fiscal responsibility in Springfield."
The new law will mean those in the country illegally will be protected while citizens are exposed to safety risks.
"Most tragically, [the new law] will continue to allow criminals, like Esteban Tomas, the man who killed my wife, to operate above the laws that citizens are expected to adhere to," Brady said. "My heart goes out to the next husband to lose a wife, the next parent to lose a child, the new brother to lose their sibling. I will be praying for them."
Legal immigrant Sabine Durden's son Dominic was killed by an illegal alien who had been convicted twice of driving drunk. The Guatemalan national was punished with just 90 days in jail.
"It breaks my heart to see how once again, cheap labor and votes are more important than the citizens and legal immigrants of Illinois," Durden said.
She said it was shameful of the governor to claim on tv "to make himself look compassionate" that he would meet with the victims families, and never give them "a minute of his time."
"I hope people of Illinois take this blatant disregard for their safety and well being seriously and wake up," she said.
Illinois Governor Rauner firmly stated at the bill signing that law officials have told him SB 31 will make their job easier and the public safer.
Other Illinois Review stories on Illinois' new immigration policy:
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
Two 5-year-old students at Carter Lake Elementary who wandered away from school grounds Wednesday were later found safe and sound, according to school officials.
Principal Doreen Knuth said in a statement released to parents Thursday that the students left the playground during physical education class but were quickly found.
As soon as the teacher noticed the boys were missing, I was notified and we jumped into action, Knuth said in the statement.
Carter Lake resident Kelsea Lyons was terrified when she got a call from the school saying her son, Justin, was missing.
Very scared, she said. Justin came home but the doors were locked, so he walked down to his papas.
Justin was found by a Carter Lake Police officer while he was walking near the police station, she said. The other boy walked home and was returned to school by his parents, school district spokeswoman Diane Ostrowski said.
Ostrowski added the students were missing for about 17 minutes from leaving the playground to when the teacher realized they were gone. The district has already begun to review its policies on outdoor activities, and it will keep students closer to their teachers while outside.
There will be more frequent checks of roll call and reminders of all teachers and staff to be more vigilant with students, Ostrowski said.
Lyons said she appreciated how quickly the district stayed in contact with her and how the changes would help ensure such an episode doesnt happen again.
We take this very seriously, Ostrowski said. All our teachers care about the students and their safety.
Wherever Himmy goes, the sunshine (or should I say Sonshine) goes with him.
If I were to describe a young Christian servant, I would be describing Himmy. He lives and breathes good Christian
characteristics.
On a Sunday morning in March at Bethel Church a few minutes are spent greeting each other. Himmy struck up a conversation with me and instantly connected.
When I needed another driver to take me to Bethel Church on Sunday mornings I was thrilled to find out Himmy volunteered for the job.
It didnt take much prodding from my other driver/friend, David Olson, when he suggested that it was time for me to write about Himmy.
That afternoon Himmy came to Linden Court and thought we were going to sort through some of my emails. I had other plans for him.
When I told him of my plans to feature him in my column, he quickly waved his arms and said, No. no no. I havent done anything that is worth a story in your column. I begged to differ.
I explained how I needed to share his wonderful faith and story with my readers.
Everyone at church knows him because he is always helping someone. And I wanted other people to see what I see.
He reluctantly agreed and settled in for the interview.
Himmy, who insists he is not a writer, sat down at the computer and began typing the answers to my questions. It didnt surprise me at how eloquent he was. His words just seemed to flow.
What follows is our conversation:
Mary: Tell me your background.
Himmy: I was born in Hong Kong, China. I am 25 years old and my name means Humble son in Chinese.
Mary: What brought you to the U.S?
Himmy: I received training in agriculture that I hope to use to serve God in developing countries. I want to share both technical knowledge and the love and message of Jesus Christ.
Mary: What are you doing in North Platte?
Himmy: I am studying irrigation at UNL experimental station
Mary: Why is that so important to you?
Himmy: As I was exploring career paths during high school, I felt strongly that I wanted my life to contribute to something greater than myself, to furthering Gods kingdom. Agriculture was the specific path that interested me and that seemed to allow me to do that. God has led me along each step of the way, from Shanghai, China; to Ithaca, New York; to Lincoln, Nebraska; and now North Platte.
Mary: Are you pleased about your journey?
Himmy: It has not been always easy, but God has always been good. There are times when I want to give up, but God places people in my life who reach out to me and care for me. The people here are truly family in Christ, since my biological family is literally halfway around the world. My friends here have been such an amazing source of support and encouragement. God has provided far more and far better than I can ever ask or imagine.
As you can see, he has an amazing story. I am eager to tell you more. I will continue this journey of this gifted servant of God in my next column.
Mary Hepburn is in her 22nd year of writing Church News & Views for the North Platte Telegraph.
North Platte Regional Airport will be left without service for about 6 months
Plans for maintaining airline service in North Platte ran into some turbulence Thursday.
Last month, PenAir announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and was working on a restructuring plan that would cease operations to its Denver hub.
Initially, the plan was to provide service in North Platte, Scottsbluff and Kearney, along with Liberal and Dodge, Kansas until another airline was up and running.
That changed Thursday when PenAir advised the U.S. Department of Transportation that it will not be able to continue flights along Essential Air Service routes in Nebraska and Kansas after Sept. 10, according to airline news industry site ch-aviation.com.
An announcement on the North Platte Regional Airports website stated that the airport would be without scheduled air service for approximately six months.
During an Aug. 16 Western Nebraska Regional Airport meeting in Scottsbluff, representatives from PenAir told the board it would be staying in Scottsbluff until a new airline could be secured. In its letter to the DOT, Penair said the need to cease operations early was due to a pilot shortage, according to ch-aviation.com.
At the time it filed these notices, PenAir fully intended to continue its EAS at the five communities in Nebraska and Kansas until a replacement carrier was selected and was in place to commence service, the filing says. However, there has been a massive exodus of Saab 340 pilots. As of today, a total of 17 PenAir Saab 340B pilots submitted resignation notices or have already left to work for other airlines.
The airline stated that it cant move pilots from other areas because it would create a domino effect of adverse impacts on its services.
In July, the Scottsbluff Airport Authority asked to cancel their contract with PenAir because they were unhappy with the service the company was providing. At the time, North Platte Regional Airport manager Mike Sharkey said the decreasing number of pilots in the system makes it difficult for small airlines to provide the service thats expected to them. He said the issues werent the fault of the company, but instead placed the blame on lawmakers.
Its time we placed the blame for the regional airlines problems where it belongs namely, Congress, Sharkey said in July. The flight time and pilot certification requirements they placed on commercial pilot new-hires beginning in 2015 are unnecessarily restrictive.
Sharkey could not be reached for comment Friday night.
PenAir was selected to serve the area in April 2016 and the first flight from North Platte to Denver took off in November. Following the filing in August, Melissa Roberts, PenAirs vice president of marketing and sales, stated that customers who purchased tickets to fly into Denver would be eligible for full refunds.
Irene North of the Scottsbluff Star-Herald contributed to this report.
At the beginning of 2017, Ultra Foods had 16 stores throughout Northwest Indiana and the Chicago area.
Now only one is left standing, and it will soon be converted into a Strack & Van Til.
Indiana Grocery Group Chief Executive Officer Jeff Strack said the Highland-based company will soon rebrand the Ultra at 6001 Broadway in Merrillville as a Strack & Van Til. The Highland-based grocery chain is now renovating the store and expects to switch out the signage by mid-September.
"We just felt we wanted to consolidate down to the Strack & Van Til and Town & Country Market brands," Strack said. "It fits in with the plan we have to bring exciting things into the marketplace, and we just want to manage two brands instead of three."
Town & Country Fresh Food Market is a well-established brand in Porter County, where Strack & Van Til operates stores under that name in Portage and Valparaiso.
"We feel for the time being they're best left as Town & County," Strack said. "That may be evaluated at some time in the future."
Strack said it was just more efficient and cost-effective in terms of signage and marketing not to operate a standalone Ultra store in Merrillville. Started in Highland in 1981, the no-frills off-brand discounter Ultra Foods grew to where it had locations in Chicago, Gary, Merrillville, Lansing, Crestwood, Downers Grove, Lombard, Wheaton, Joliet, Chicago Heights, Calumet Park and Forest Park.
Ultra used to offer customers discounts of 25 percent to 30 percent off traditional grocery stores, but the marketplace changed and it faced competition from huge multinational discounters like Walmart and Aldi, Strack said.
"When Ultra first opened it was a low-price leader," he said. "That field has gotten much more competitive, and we're making the strategic decision to focus on our 20 Strack & Van Til and Town & Country stores."
Known for its green and yellow color scheme and Ultra Saver comparison pricing, Ultra Foods ran television commercials throughout Chicagoland, including one in 2011 that promised "Ultra moms" could save on 36,000 different items and a 2013 ad set to classical music that promised epic savings and a massive selection in Crestwood.
Though it soon will vanish from the Northwest Indiana landscape after 36 years, the Ultra Foods brand may not be gone for good.
Indiana Grocery Group acquired the Ultra name and trademark as part of its purchase of the 20 remaining Strack & Van Til store. Strack said a new store or stores could be opened under the Ultra name at some point in the future, perhaps with a tweaked or entirely different concept, but that the immediate focus was on getting the grocery chain back on track after the grueling nine-month bankruptcy of its parent company Central Grocers.
"It's a sad story, but it might not be final," he said. "There may be an opportunity in the future to bring it back."
After a decade, the stir-fry has stopped sizzling at Northwest Indiana's only Mongolian Grill.
Yes Mongolian Grill at 219 W. U.S. Hwy. 30 in the Deer Run Plaza strip mall in Schererville, shuttered earlier this year. The restaurant, named after how Mongolian warriors cooked on the back of their shields, centered around a wok where diners watched the chef dramatically cook their food on the flaming iron plate.
The restaurant opened in 2006, according to the Indiana Secretary of State's Office. While Northwest Indiana is home to many Asian restaurants like BC Osaka in Merrillville, Little Tokyo in Munster and Exotic Thai Cuisine in Highland, Ye's was the only Mongolian Grill serving up create-your-own stir-fry meals.
Customers could pick chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, octopus, scallops, mussels and white fish and mix their preferred protein with the sauce, spices, noodles and vegetables of their choosing. The restaurant also served beers imported from China and Japan.
It's one of several Region restaurants to close recently, including Joe's Crab Shack in Hobart, Woodmar Deli in Hammond, Phat Phil's in Crown Point, Skeeter's Diner in Whiting, Tequila Restaurant in Crown Point and T.J. Maloney's in Merrillville.
Ultra Foods changed the Northwest Indiana grocery landscape when it arrived at the highly trafficked boulevard of Indianapolis Boulevard and Ridge Road in Highland in 1981.
Strack & Van Til debuted its discount warehouse concept, which has since become popularized nationally by Costco, Aldi and Sam's Club. The layout was bare, the shelving was spartan, all the items were off-brand and many were sold in bulk.
One could buy Wildwood Cola in a vending machine outside for a quarter. The focus was on making everything as cheap as possible: breakfast cereal for instance was sold in plastic bags without the customary cardboard box.
The 36-year-old Highland Ultra Foods was the flagship supermarket in a discount chain that once had 15 locations across Northwest Indiana and the Chicago suburbs in Illinois. Today it closed.
A total of 139 workers lost their jobs, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
The supermarket at 8401 Indianapolis Blvd. closed this morning after a liquidation sale cleaned it out. A video posted to Facebook Wednesday showed all the aisles were closed off, the remaining shelves were bare and only baked beans and a few other scant items were left. The Ultra had been selling groceries, wine and other items for as much as 80 percent off as it looked to scorch its remaining inventory.
"It's the end of an era," Indiana Grocery Group Chief Executive Officer Jeff Strack said. "It's a sad day for that discount food store. That was the vision of Larry Raab, Andy Raab and Dave Wilkinson. They really built up the Ultra brand into the Illinois market."
The only Ultra Foods left standing is located at 6001 Broadway in Merrillville, just south of Andrean High School.
Bankrupt Central Grocers closed 14 Ultra stores this year, including the original Highland location of a chain that once ran television ads and had the slogans "Finest quality lowest prices!" and "The Freshest Way to save!"
Though Jewel-Osco had initially expressed interest in buying the Highland Ultra, it ultimately chose not to bid for it and was outbid for the 20 remaining Strack & Van Til by the founding Strack and Van Til families anyway. Indiana Grocery Group acquired 20 Strack & Van Til stores, including the Ultra in Merrillville.
No one stepped forward in an auction to buy the Ultras in Kankakee, Illinois or Highland.
The Highland Ultra once drew many customers from North Lake County, but suffered when a Super Walmart opened 1.5 miles north on Indianapolis Boulevard, closer to the Borman Expressway.
Highland-based Strack & Van Til just pumped millions of dollars into a renovation at the Highland Ultra in 2015, adding amenities like an expanded produce section, a salad bar, a sushi bar, and a full-service seafood counter. The store, a staple in Highland, employed more than 300 workers as recently as the 1990s, according to Times archives.
Union membership may be declining nationally but their voice in political circles has not grown quiet.
Even as the country's labor landscape continues evolving and some jobs move offshore, mostly in manufacturing and traditional union strongholds, unions have not let up on advocating for their members. The National Institute for Labor Relations Researchs 2016 Election Cycle Analysis of big labor political spending estimates unions spent $1.7 billion during the 2016 election cycle.
While unions mostly are associated with labor, the reach of unions extends beyond that traditional group, said Marie Eisenstein, associate professor of political science at Indiana University Northwest.
"Unions have a huge voice in electoral politics," Eisenstein said. "What people don't always consider is that unions don't just cover blue collar labor. There are public sector unions who are likely to (have members who are) college educated, including teachers, police and firefighters and government employees."
Eisenstein said when people think of labor in the historical sense, unions can be credited for improving working conditions, better pay and securing benefits for workers. During the past four decades, other industry sectors, including some white collar positions, followed suit with labor unions, got organized and also realized benefits.
"Pay and even benefits in many instances for the federal government workforce generally is better than what people who may hold similar positions in the private sector (receive)," Eisenstein said.
U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, said he regularly meets with labor groups to remain updated on their concerns. He said in August he met with Region representatives of the Teamsters, carpenters union and United Steelworkers.
"Their greatest concern is the retention and creation of good paying jobs and growing the Northwest Indiana economy," Visclosky said.
He said through meetings with labor groups, it's provided him with more insight on fair trade, which has led to successes in improving trade enforcement laws and implementing "Buy American" requirements.
"I will continue to do all I can to amplify the voice of workers in Washington, D.C.," Visclosky said. "I (also) will continue to support organized labor in their quest for fair wages, a sound retirement, a safe workplace and good affordable health care."
Eisenstein said as membership in traditional union groups decline, whether their voice remains heard is uncertain.
"'Will it be sustainable?' That's the more difficult question to answer," she said. "Where will they be 10 years from now as their ranks get smaller and older."
CROWN POINT Michelle Hughes, one of seven co-defendants charged in the kidnapping and murder of two teenage brothers in 2015, rejected a plea agreement offer by Lake County prosecutors during a pretrial hearing Friday with Lake County Criminal Court Judge Diane Boswell.
The 28-year-old Lake Station resident, who has been held in the Lake County Jail without bail since her arrest on Sept. 28, 2015, insisted on a jury trial. Appearing in green Lake County jail attire and shackled, she smiled and nodded to people sitting in the courtroom before and after the hearing.
Hughes is charged with two counts of murder, two counts of murder in perpetration of kidnapping and two counts of kidnapping in the execution-style killings of Arreon Lackey, 18, and his brother, Antonio Lackey, 16, in June 2015.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys Robert Persin and Michelle Jatkiewicz said the plea agreement was offered several weeks ago to Hughes public defender Joseph Curosh. The plea agreement would have allowed Hughes to plead guilty to two felony level 3 kidnapping charges.
The prison sentence would have a floor of five years, Persin said, adding that the maximum prison sentence for these charges would be 16 years.
This is the time to take the plea. The deadline is today. This is absolutely the last chance, Jatkiewicz said. Its been two years. We want this resolved.
Turning to Hughes, Boswell asked her, What is your pleasure?
I want to go to trial, said Hughes standing next to Curosh.
Boswell set the final pretrial conference for Oct. 5 and reaffirmed the jury trial date to begin Oct. 23.
In addition to Hughes, those charged in the killings of the Lackey brothers include Gary residents Aarion J. Greenwood, 19; David "Dooney" Johnson, 21; Kiontay L. Cason, 23; David Johnson III; 64, Jeri L. Woods, 35; and David "Pops" Johnson IV, 39.
Jeri Woods was found guilty on all counts by a jury on June 2. Boswell sentenced her to 120 years in prison on June 29.
The co-defendants were alleged to have kidnapped the brothers June 26, 2015, from a Merrillville hotel while searching for a stolen firearm, according to court records.
When the firearm wasnt found, the brothers were taken in cars to a wooded area of northeast Hobart known as The Farm and forced to march shoeless on a rugged road, the records indicate.
During Woods trial, a co-defendant turned state witness said the brothers were ordered to strip and were shot execution-style. Their bodies were discovered later that summer.
CROWN POINT The sharing of intel among local, state and federal law enforcement agencies helped LaPorte County police in August nab 15 significant arrests tied to larger narcotics trafficking crimes.
"Every one of those arrests represents months of investigations," LaPorte County Sherrif John Boyd said Friday following a meeting with law enforcement leaders and U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Indiana, about the federally funded High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area initiative.
With an annual budget of just under $3.8 million, local police in Lake, Porter, LaPorte, and Marion counties are continuing to partner with federal and state agencies such as the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration in an effort to better coordinate investigations into drug-related crimes, said Indiana HIDTA Executive Director Chuck Porucznik.
"It's all about information sharing," Porucznik said.
Boyd and Sgt. Andy Hynek, also with the LaPorte County Sheriff's Department, credited HIDTA intel for helping the agency connect the dots between small time dealers and their suppliers across the four counties funded under HIDTA.
Created by Congress in 1988, the HIDTA program provides local agencies access to federal resources to combat drug dealing operations and increase enforcement efforts. Lake County joined in 1997, Porter County followed a few years later. LaPorte County was added in January.
Marion County was also added recently, allowing law enforcement in the Region to coordinate with police in Indianapolis.
Police believe dealers and gangs use Interstate 65 as a pipeline to Marion County, so bringing Indianapolis police into the mix is critical to combat drug trafficking across the state, Boyd said.
Sen. Joe Donnelly on Friday said the HIDTA team is doing "tremendous work."
"One of the great things ... is all of the stovepipes and all of the different silos are knocked down so that you have everyone communicating with each other," Donnelly said. "It's a four-county effort that is almost seamless. they're doing a tremendous job."
Hynek said HIDTA funds allow overtime costs to be reimbursed by the federal government, along with equipment used by local police.
Porucznik said he also knows they can't arrest their way out of this problem. HIDTA funding is also used for education purposes, he said.
Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey is using some of the federal funds to offer educational sessions about how to use naxolone, an opiate overdose reversal drug, he said.
He also said the Indiana HIDTA is seeking additional discretionary funding on top of the annual $3.74 million to bring in more resources, in part, to fight the area's opioid epidemic.
"It's about helping the smaller communities act on the intel we provide," he said.
GARY One person is dead and three others wounded in separate shootings across the city this week.
Temica Spencer, 31, of Gary, was shot to death Tuesday night in the 500 block of Mount Street, according to police.
Spencer was taken to a Methodist Northlake Campus in Gary for treatment, but was later pronounced dead at 11:02 p.m., according to the coroner.
In a separate shooting Tuesday night, a 45-year-old man from Gary told police he was standing by his car drinking beer with a friend when a white, older model Buick Regal drove by and someone inside opened fire, according to Gary police Lt. Dawn Westerfield.
Police were dispatched at about 11:30 p.m. to Northlake Methodist Campus in Gary. There, the victim told police the shooter struck him twice in the pelvic area, Westerfield said.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Detective Sgt. Jon Basaldua at 219-881-1210. To remain anonymous, call 866-CRIME-GP.
In another shooting, police believe a 24-year-old woman was shot in the torso Thursday night in the 2000 block of Monroe Lane. She reportedly drove herself to the hospital, where police were dispatched to at 7:46 p.m. for a report of a gunshot wound victim.
The woman was uncooperative with hospital security and staff, Westerfield said. Police had received a call of shots fired moments before the shooting in the same block it was believed to have occurred, she said.
A 48-year-old Gary man was shot in the hand at about 7:20 p.m. Thursday while driving in the area of 21st Avenue and Harrison Street, according to police.
He told police the suspect and he were talking about money when the suspect pointed a handgun and shot at him two or three times, Westerfield said.
The victim fled and drove himself to Northlake Methodist Campus in Gary.
Anyone with information about the shootings of the 48-year-old and the 24-year-old is asked to call Detective Sgt. Dan Callahan at 219-881-1210. To remain anonymous, call 866-CRIME-GP.
HOBART Police said Friday they were able to identify a Hebron man as a suspect in an armed robbery within minutes after releasing surveillance images from a Hobart gas station earlier this week.
Bryan M. Smith II, 37, was arrested Wednesday on a felony charge alleging he robbed the Luke gas station Tuesday in the 3200 block of West 37th Avenue in Hobart, police said.
Smith is accused of entering the gas station about 9:50 a.m., demanding money and implying he had a gun.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Smith told police he took $170 from the clerk at the front desk and used it to buy drugs. He told police he didn't actually have a gun, Lake Criminal Court records said.
Smith is being held at the Lake County Jail on a $3,000 cash bond, Hobart police Lt. James Gonzales said.
ST. JOHN TOWNSHIP Large increases in home values has many St. John Township residents up in arms and trekking to the township assessors office to file an appeal.
In a letter to The Times, Ann Noldin asked, Are they trying to drive us out of St. John Township?"
Noldin said the notification she received at the beginning of August stated the value of her Lakeview Subdivision property had increased $58,000 in the past year, although she made no improvements to it that would account for the 22-percent increase. After talking to some of her neighbors, she found they, too, had received similar sticker shocks, some worse than hers.
If Noldin were considering selling her property, the assessed value might be considered good news, but she plans to stay there, which means the biggest impact will be on her property taxes.
Im on a fixed income, and it gets to be a bit much, she said.
The house is the same as it always was 20 years ago when we bought it. The last assessment was $270,000, and I could understand it going up 5 or 10 percent. I understand the housing market is good. My son built the house, and I love the property and dont want to move, but if its going to go up like this, I might have to move.
Township Assessor Debbie Watson said more than 80 people have filed appeals so far, and she encouraged anyone concerned about their increase to come to the office, and township staff would assist in filling out the appeal form. The deadline to file an appeal is Friday.
The assessment was done by Nexus Group, a Zionsville, Indiana, company hired last year by former assessor Melody Kikkert, who resigned a year ago to take a job in the private sector.
Watson said part of Noldins increase was from the reclassification of her fireplace from prefab, which was how former assessor Hank Adams had listed it, to masonry. That increased the value of the home somewhat, but the rest of the increase was due to the hot market for homes in St. John Township in the past year, Watson said.
Lake County Assessor Jerome Prince said the only other places hes noticed dramatic increases were a couple of neighborhoods in Hammond. He said his office will look at all the appeals and check the sales prices to make sure the changes were justified.
Prince believes part of the problem is people still have not made the connection between assessed value and market value, which is what it is based on. The assessed value is supposed to reflect the price a willing buyer would pay for the property.
Full reassessments are done on a four-year cycle with a quarter of the more than 7,000 properties in the township done each year. The values of the rest of the properties are based on a method called trending: A sampling of home sales in each neighborhood is checked by Nexus to determine the trend in sale prices. Then all the reassessments are based on that trend.
Watson said the assessed value of her home went up about $9,000, because its an older home in a diverse neighborhood of new and old homes and apartments. She said the values of some older homes were not updated over the years to reflect improvements, such as new roofs, furnaces, additions or remodeling. Nexus is correcting those changes as well.
Another Lakeview resident said her homes assessed value went up $60,000, to more than $300,000.
I almost fainted, she said. Thats a lot of money."
Both she and Noldin have filed appeals at the township office. Watson said the appeals are forwarded to Nexus, and the company will be required to justify any increases of more than 5 percent. If residents still arent satisfied, they can take the appeal to the county or the courts.
Property taxes are allocated to each taxpayer proportionate to the value of the taxpayer's property and the amount of spending by local government within the tax district.
A 2015 Times story noted those living in unincorporated St. John Township enjoyed the lowest rate less than $1.69 per $100 per assessed value. Eagle Creek, Cedar Creek, West Creek and the rural portions of Ross Township have rates under $2 per $100 assessed value. In 2015, Gary and East Chicago remained at the top of the chart with tax rates of more than $6 per $100 assessed value.
Noldin said she is concerned with what happens if her appeal isnt heard before she has to pay her property taxes based on the higher amount next May.
Nobody is going to be happy about this, she said in her letter. "We need to stand together on this."
HIGHLAND A Chesterton man was pronounced dead early Saturday morning after his Harley Davidson collided with a GMC Envoy on U.S. 41 near Martha Street, authorities said.
Highland Police Cmdr. John Banasiak said Joseph Zych III, 40, of Chesterton, was northbound on U.S. 41 on his 2002 motorcycle Friday night when he made a left turn in front of the GMC heading southbound.
Witnesses say both vehicles had a green traffic signal, Banasiak said. He said a preliminary investigation shows Zych failed to yield because he did not have a green arrow when he made the left turn onto Martha Street.
The Lake County Coroner's Office listed Zych as being from Duson, Louisiana, but Banasiak said Zych lived in Chesterton.
Zych was unconscious when officers arrived at about 11:36 p.m. He was transported to Munster Community Hospital, where he died from his injuries, Banasiak said.
A passenger on Zych's motorcycle, a 43-year-old woman from Munster, was taken to Methodist Hospitals Northlake Campus in Gary for injuries to her hips and legs.
The driver of the GMC, a 64-year-old woman from St. John, was not injured, Banasiak said.
Investigators ruled Zych dead at 12:16 a.m. Saturday. He suffered blunt force trauma in a motor vehicle crash.
Banasiak said the Highland Fire Department, Prompt Ambulance, and the Lake County Sheriff Department assisted at the scene.
*This story has been changed. Due to incorrect information provided from the Lake County coroner's office, the man's last name was incorrect in the initial story.
On Wednesday Mark Ocitti made one year as managing director of Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) with a media roundtable at Silk Liquid to deliberate on his experiences as well as the future of the industry.
Government recently announced plans to outlaw the production of alcohol in sachets due to their being unhygienic.
UBL MD Mark Ocitti (R) and Charity Kiyemba, the legal and corporate relations manager
I view the sachet ban as part of a larger conversation around alcohol regulation. In particular the sachet ban deals with an issue of standardization of packaging formats for alcohol. We are pro-alcohol regulation and we are open to supporting the Government to come up with balanced regulation for the industry, said Ocitti.
Nevertheless and specifically on sachet, in my view this format has been abused by many of the spirits manufacturers, which means that we must regulate it immediately if we are to preserve our much-loved local gins.
FINANCIAL UPTURN
Ocitti also revealed that in 2017, UBL grew seven per cent in volume from last year with the key performing brands being Uganda Waragi, Senator and Smirnoff.
Our profit delivery came out at a higher gearing with a 31 per cent growth driven by great brand positioning, productivity initiatives and managing our cost, he said.
Growth acceleration was driven by intense increase in outlet coverage to almost double, focused regional initiatives to target the exclusive needs of each region, explosion of innovations brands, and offering quality and affordable brands.
Recently, Ivan Matthias Mulumba, a surveyor by profession, launched his two works: The Honking and Rumblings of a Tree at the Uganda museum.
The budding author began writing scripts for these works eight years ago.
I began writing in 2009, my first year at university. And during the writing process, my personal computers were stolen two times yet I had no backup. I had to re-write everything, Mulumba told book lovers who attended the launch.
I learnt my lesson of backing up my work the hard way.
Scripts for The Honking were also lost and perhaps because of that, the author got a writers block that lasted from 2012 to 2015.
Set in Makerere University and its surroundings like Nankulabye and Wandegeya, among others, The Honking captivates the Ugandan reader since it is about places they relate with. It is a novel that best describes the life at and around Makerere University.
The book starts by capturing the readers attention with the gruesome murder of a student in a hostel as her friends watch.
The verbal exchange between a taxi conductor and an unidentified female passenger over transport fares also sets the scene and what to expect from the novel. And indeed, Mulumba meticulously weaves the lives of characters to tell a moving story a Ugandan, or Makerere alumnus, can easily relate with.
The main characters, Kaggwa and Sylvia, are involved in an extramarital relationship and the lecturers wife usually sneaks out to meet the student.
Despite her husband having enough money and a bungalow, Sylvia finds comfort in Kaggwas chest even though he lives in a shack with corrugated iron sheets in the ghetto of Katwe.
For anyone who has been at university, alcohol and fornication are part of the script, and Mulumba adds them to The Honking.
He, however, doesnt use the vile language usually employed by Lumumba hostellers when the students rebel but this time for the right reason; protesting the deaths of their fellow students.
Mulumbas novel is not like James Joyces Ulysses or Djuna Barnes Nightwood. Its a book any Ugandan reader can easily comprehend since it uses simplified vocabulary.
Nonetheless, his short sentences tend to limit his descriptive skills and the characters are not allowed to grow more skin before they are sent out to battle with the assignments he gives them.
For now, The Honking might not be able to sit among Ugandas greatest books, but it stands not far from the works of the likes of Barbra Kimenye.
The Honking is Mulumbas first novel, and can be purchased at Shs 30,000 from all major bookshops across the country. His other poem collection, The Rumblings of a Tree, costs Shs 20,000.
abumay1988@gmail.com
Nebraska insurance officials will buy some advertisements to remind people to sign up for Affordable Care Act individual health plans between Nov. 1 and Dec. 15, the open enrollment period for 2018, although the word may not be spread as far as in the past.
The reason: The White House says it will cut federal spending for the open enrollment ads to $10 million from $100 million last year because it says the ads were getting diminishing returns. Grants to about 100 nonprofit groups that help people enroll also would be cut to $36 million from $63 million because the groups havent met their enrollment targets.
Chance McElhaney, a spokesman for the Iowa Insurance Division, said the office has concerns about any decision that causes fewer Iowans to access health insurance.
But he said the rates for ACA plans have reached a level that is crushing for middle class Iowans and may cause between 18,000 and 22,000 Iowans to drop their insurance.
No amount of advertising in Iowas collapsed ACA market is going to cause a healthy 55-year-old couple that makes roughly $66,000 ... to pay roughly $33,000 in premiums, McElhaney said. Thats an example cited in a study of next years potential prices.
Medica Health, the only company planning to offer ACA plans in Nebraska and Iowa next year, said it had no position on the White Houses cutbacks for advertising and outreach. Medica is planning premium increases for next year averaging 57 percent in Iowa and 16.9 percent in Nebraska.
The problems with the ACA do not extend to employer-sponsored insurance, Medicaid, Medicare or other government-sponsored health plans.
Iowa is seeking a waiver of ACA rules, called a stopgap measure, for 2018 so that more insurance companies would offer plans in the state. The measure would use some federal funds differently to reduce monthly premiums so more healthy people would sign up, keeping the ACA going in Iowa until Congress revises the system.
Bruce Ramge, director of the Nebraska Department of Insurance, also said the cost of ACA plans is the main problem. He said Nebraskans who want to buy ACA plans should visit the federal HealthCare.gov website and enroll between Nov. 1 and Dec. 15. Last years open enrollment period was extended to Jan. 31.
Ramge said the department will buy a few advertisements to promote the enrollment dates and the importance of shopping for plans on the ACA website.
Ramge said insurance companies that will discontinue their ACA plans in 2018 have informed their customers. Those people may be crosswalked into Medica plans for 2018, he said, automatically enrolling them in similar plans for the coming year. To keep those plans in effect, consumers must continue paying their monthly premiums.
Ramge said consumers should shop for plans on the HealthCare.gov website and should work with insurance agents or brokers if they have questions.
The advertisements are paid through federal grants to the department, Ramge said, and this years costs havent been totaled. Most of the advertising is still in the planning stage.
Ramge said the main concern with the ACA for 2018 is the health plans pricing, including monthly premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket annual maximums.
Fake Vs original; Trouble for the DUSU President as allegations of fake documents rises
ABVP demands practical poll reforms ahead of DUSU elections
India
pti-PTI
New Delhi, Sep 2: Blamed for defacing the city with posters in the run-up to Delhi University students' polls this month, the RSS-affiliated ABVP on Saturday pitched for reforms in Lyngdoh Committee recommendations to avoid "impracticality".
The demand for reforms was put forth as the BJP's student body felt the committee's recommendations in confining the election process to 10 days was "impractical" considering the number of voters and colleges which are affiliated to Delhi University Students Union (DUSU). DUSU elections will be held on September 12.
"In the present scenario, posters are the only way a candidate can reach out to over a lakh students of 51 colleges spread across the city in a short time alloted for campaigning," ABVP national media convener Saket Bahuguna said, adding that a consensus was needed from all stakeholders on reducing reliance on paper.
"DUSU is a large election and there cannot be one-size- fits-all approach confining elections to just 10 days," he said.
The body also said it was also urging DU election authorities to allocate separate "democracy walls" in colleges as space for putting up posters.
"Allocate a separate wall and we will ensure none put up posters across the city," Bahuguna added, saying that reaching out to large number of students without using posters was not possible. He also termed Rs 5,000 cap on poll expenditure as "impractical" as it was too less to contest in elections of on a large scale.
"Even to campaign on single autorickshaw in all the colleges would cost much more than Rs 5,000," he said, adding that social media would be able to help reduce reliance on posters in future though not immediately.
He also suggested presidential-style debates like the ones that happen in JNU before its polls.
"There should be presidential debates conducted online as holding it directly would not be feasible considering the scale of students who would attend the event," Bahuguna said.
Attacking Congress-led NSUI for hurling corruption allegations against ABVP, Bahuguna said it was a "lie" and "manipulation of facts".
"DU administration should audit DUSU funds and bring it in public domain to know the real picture," he said. ABVP will release its poll manifesto on Monday.
PTI
Actor Dileep to step out for a day after spending close to two months in jail
India
oi-Anusha
Malayalam actor Dileep who is currently lodged in the Aluva sub-jail has been granted permission to step out for a day on September 6. Dileep has been granted permission to take part in his father's death anniversary rituals.
The actor who was arrested on July 10 has spent close to two months in jail accused of conspiracy in the February 2017, actress molestation case. Dileep will step out of jail and take part in the rituals that are scheduled to be held at Aluva Manapuram from 7 AM to 11 AM on September 6.
[Actor Dileep's bail plea rejected by Kerala High Court, again]
The prosecution argued that permission should not be granted to the actor since he had skipped the ritual last year as well. Despite the argument, Dileep was granted permission. The actor's custody has been extended till September 16 while the Kerala High Court rejected his bail petition for the third time earlier this week.
Accused of conspiring the abduction and assault of an actress, Dileep is currently lodged at the Aluva prison. Desperate pleas by his family seeking his release to the government of Kerala has elicited no response. Dileep has contended that he is a victim of a conspiracy and has nothing to do with the actress molestation case.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 16:37 [IST]
Assam declared ' disturbed' for first time in 27 years
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
For the first time in three decades, Sarbananda Sonowal-led BJP government exercised its power under the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act by declaring the entire state 'disturbed' for the period of six months.
The notification that came in to affect from Friday was issued by the state home and political department and it declared Assam 'disturbed' area for a period of six months, unless withdrawn earlier, as per power conferred under the AFSPA 1958, an official release said.
The armed forces deployed in disturbed areas are empowered to arrest, search any premises and even shoot anyone without any warrant.
According to Section 3 of the AFSPA, it can be invoked in places where "the use of armed forces in aid of the civil power is necessary". Both the central and the state government can declare any area as 'disturbed' under the Act.
Assam was first declared 'disturbed' area under the AFSPA in 1990 when the state had witnessed massive violence perpetrated by the banned insurgent group ULFA and president's rule was imposed after dismissing the then AGP government headed by Prafulla Kumar Mahanta.
Since then, the central government has been exercising the powers given under the AFSPA.
The move to allow the state government to exercise the powers under the AFSPA came at a time when both the central and the Assam governments are ruled by the BJP.
The official release said the declaration has been made after assessing the present law and order situation in the state which has continued to be a matter of concern due to some violent incidents by underground outfits.
A home ministry official said in New Delhi that there were 75 incidents of violence in Assam in 2016, in which 33 people, including four security personnel, were killed and 14 others were abducted.
However, the central government order declaring the 20 km belt in Meghalaya bordering Assam, three districts of Arunachal Pradesh -- Tirap, Changlang and Longding - and areas falling within the jurisdiction of 14 police stations in nine other districts in Arunachal Pradesh as 'disturbed' will continue till September 30.
The violence was perpetrated in Assam by insurgent groups like ULFA, NDFB and others, the official said.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 6:08 [IST]
Bald, beautiful women of Assam tonsure their heads to protest against BJP
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia
Guwahati, Sep 1: Apart from models, actors and those who visit religious places like the famous Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh, in India we hardly see women shaving their heads and going bald.
Women generally like to keep long hair as it is considered to be a matter of pride in the country. Those with long, black and silky hair are also revered a lot by certain sections.
However, three women in Assam on Friday decided to do something "shocking". In an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) protest in Guwahati, the three women decided to shave off their long hair to make their voices heard.
The anti-BJP protest was hosted by Swadhin Nari Mancha, a newly formed women's group in Assam, at the famous protest site, Dighalipukhuri, in Guwahati. At least 100 women took part in the event, however, only three of them decided to tonsure their heads in full public view.
The three women-- Rekha Talukdar, Geeta Barua and Mousumi Prabhat Bora-- said that they decided to shave off their hair as they regretted voting for the BJP in the last Assam Assembly elections in 2016.
In the 2016 elections, the BJP defeated the Congress and managed to form its government for the first time in the northeastern state.
The women protesters added that it was a "mistake" to vote for the BJP as the saffron party took several steps that went against the "indigenous" people of the state. Moreover, they said that the BJP was going against its own poll promises.
"By shaving our heads, we wanted to signify that the government is dead here and we are guardian-less," said Mousumi.
"We made a great mistake by casting our vote for the BJP in last Assembly elections. The government is like our guardian. But in the last few months, the work and decisions of the BJP-led state government made us feel like orphan. So we shaved off our heads in protest," she added.
Mousumi's friend Rekha said that the BJP was repeating the same mistakes committed by the previous governments in the state. "I am a homemaker. I never joined any protest before. In the last election, we thought that the BJP would bring about change. Both the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Congress were already cheating us. So the BJP was our last hope. But it is repeating the same mistakes committed by the AGP and the Congress," added Rekha.
The women activists accused the Sarbananada Sonowal government for failing the people of the state during floods.
"Our Chief Minister is only busy in pleasing the high command in Delhi and has no time for the issues that affect the people at the grass root level. We hope that our protest at least pricks the conscience of the government," said one of the protesting women.
The protest led by Assam women reminded people of the Northeast region of the one in Manipur on July 15, 2004, when 12 elderly women staged a nude protest outside the Kangla Fort in Imphal, then occupied by the Assam Rifles, holding placards that read "Indian Army Rape Us".
The protest was against the rape and murder of 32-year-old Thangjam Manorama by the 17th Assam Rifles.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 9:53 [IST]
"Want to be doctor", Anitha's appeal goes viral, protests across TN against NEET
India
oi-Anusha
Massive protests are being witnessed across Tamil Nadu over the suicide of Anitha, a petitioner against NEET 2017 in the Supreme Court.Various political and student organisations carried out demonstrations in various districts of Tamil Nadu outraged over Anitha's death.
Members of Students' Federation of India in Tamil Nadu protested at Chennai's Mount Road on Saturday over Anitha's death. A protest was held by members of Revolutionary Students and Youth Front (RSYF) on Saturday after which protestors were detained by the police. Political outfit, Naam Tamilar Katchi members paid tributes to Anitha and staged a protest over her death. The party demanded that NEET be scrapped before it claims more lives.
Anitha's distraught father asked who was responsible for her death. "Anitha managed to study in difficult circumstances. She was concerned about NEET. What wrong had she done? Who will answer?," he asked the media on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties in Tamil Nadu have lashed out at the state government's inefficiency and for failing students of the state over NEET 2017. An ex-gratia announced by Cheif Minister Edappadi Palanisamy did little to make up for the loss of a student who fought all odds to emerge a winner, only to kill herself over a medical seat.
"Becoming a doctor is my ambition"
The unfortunate death of Anitha, a petitioner against NEET 2017 has sparked off a debate on who is responsible for her death. A heart-wrenching video on Anitha making an appeal to help her achieve her dream of becoming a doctor is now going viral on social media.
Anitha, a 17-year-old Dalit student from one of the most backward districts of Tamil Nadu emerged a topper in the state board class 12 examinations. Lack of a level playing field in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test ended disastrously for Anitha who took the extreme step on Friday. Despite scoring 1,176 out of 1,200 Anitha could not secure a medical seat in the first round of counseling after failing to top NEET
Tamil Nadu student who petitioned against NEET 2017 kills self
In a video appeal, that is going viral now, Anitha is seen explaining the difficult background that she hails from. The only girl among her siblings, Anitha lost her mother a decade ago. A father who works as a casual labourer supported the family and encouraged Anitha to study. "My dream is to become a doctor and serve the society," Anitha is seen saying in the video.
OneIndia News
Bihar Congress on the verge of split, rebel MLAs likely to join JD(U)
India
oi-Anusha
The rot is running deep in Bihar Congress with more than a dozen MLAs all set to join the JD(U). Sensing that the state unit is on the verge of a split, Congress central leadership has summoned state unit chief and the legislative party leader in the Bihar assembly to New Delhi.
Out of the 27 Congress MLAs in Bihar, 14 are mulling joining Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and add strength to the JD(U)-BJP coalition in the state. Congress' Bihar unit chief Ashok Choudhary and Legislative Party leader Sadanand Singh met Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Thursday. The central leadership is said to have expressed great concern over failure on party of state leaders to keep their flock together.
The party has six MLCs in addition to its MLAs in the state and now faces a threat of 14 MLAs quitting to join the government. The biggest shock to the Congress came when MLAs wrote to the central leadership that state unit chief Ashok Choudhary
was seeking signatures from MLAs to quit Congress and join the JD(U). After Thursday's meeting, both state leaders claimed that there was no rift in the party unit and that all MLAs will continue to be with the Congress.
Even as efforts are on to woo the rebel MLAs, some are said to have decided to quit the party over the failure of the grand alliance between the JD(U), RJD and Congress. The failure of the alliance has revived the Yadav aggression in the state, putting legislators from other castes in a spot of bother. Incidentally, the anti-defection law cannot apply to the Congress MLAs who choose to jump to the JD(U) if the number reaches two-thirds of current assembly strength of the party. The rebellion will then be considered a split in the party.
While the current JD(U)-BJP coalition is strong on its own, an additional support of more than a dozen MLAs will add strength to the government in the face of attacks by Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav. Refusing to acknowledge the possibility of a split in the party, the Congress has accused the JD(U) of attempting to 'poach its MLAs'.
OneIndia News
BRICS 2017: Free to raise any issue, including Pakistan, India says
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
India rejected a suggestion by China that it should not raise the Pakistan issue at the BRICS summit. "Your intervention or any leader's intervention is that leader's intervention...So you are free to speak what you want at the conference," External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told a media briefing when asked about remarks by his Chinese counterpart that it would not be appropriate for India to discuss its concerns over Pakistan on terrorism at the summit.
He however added that he would not like to pre-empt what the document of the summit would say on the subject adding that it is a matter of consensus.
Asked whether the Doklam issue that triggered tensions between the two countries could come up in discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit, he said that schedule of bilateral discussion with leaders has still not been finalised.
Giving details about the summit, Kumar said Modi will arrive in China on September 3 and attend the BRICS restricted session and its plenary session on September 4. He said the restricted session is expected to discuss the global economic situation, international economic governance, national security and development and international and regional issues.
Kumar said the plenary session will discuss the practical cooperation for common development, people-to-people exchanges, cultural cooperation and institution building.
In the evening, the BRICS leaders will attend a cultural festival and an exhibition, followed by a meeting with the BRICS business council. He said later four documents are expected to be signed at the summit - BRICS action agenda for economic and trade development, BRICS action agenda on innovative development, strategic framework for BRICS custom cooperation and MOU between BRICS business council and New Development Bank.
On the fourth evening, the BRICS leaders will be joined by leaders of the five guest countries for a welcome. The guest countries are Thailand, Mexico, Guinea, Egypt and Tajikistan.
On September 5, there will be BRICS emerging markets-developing countries dialogue, which the spokesperson said is an opportunity for BRICS member countries to exchange views with the developing world and build broader partnership for development. Kumar said the Prime Minister will leave for Myanmar on September 5 afternoon on the second leg of his visit.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 6:28 [IST]
Raj Kumar Singh
RK Singh is a Lok Sabha MP from Arrah, Bihar.Singh is a 1975 batch Bihar cadre Indian Administrative Service officer and former Home Secretary of India.He contested the election as a BJP candidate in Arrah, beating his nearest rival by a margin of over 135000 votes.
He is a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committees on Health and Family Welfare, Personnel, Pensions and Public Grievances and Law & Justice.
(Image courtesy - PTI)
Hardeep Singh Puri
Hardeep Puri is a decorated former IFS officer of the 1974 batch, known for his experience and expertise in foreign policy and national security. Heserved as the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013.
He formerly served as Chairman of United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee, Vice President of International Peace Institute and Secretary-General of Independent Commission on Multilateralism in New York.
(Image courtesy - PTI)
Satyapal Singh
Satyapal Singh is a Lok Sabha MP from Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh. He is a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs and Chairperson of the Joint Committee on Offices of Profit. He is a distinguished former IPS officer of the 1980 batch. He has served as police commissioner of Mumbai. He is alsothe first serving Police Commissioner of Mumbai to resign from his post.
Positions held during career with police:
Superintendent of Police, Gadchiroli district
Superintendent of Police, Nasik district
Superintendent of Police, Buldhana district
Inspector General of Police, Nagpur Range
Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Mumbai
Special Inspector General, Konkan Range
Police Commissioner, Nagpur
Police Commissioner, Pune
Additional Director General of Police (ADGP Establishment and Law & Order), Maharashtra
Police Commissioner, Mumbai
(Image courtesy - ANI/Twitter)
Alphons Kannanthanam
Alphons Kannanthanam is a distinguished former IAS officer of the 1979 batch, Kerala cadre. He is also a practicing advocate. He became famous as Delhi's Demolition Man when he was Commissioner of the Delhi Development Authority, having cleared DDA areas of encroachment removing around 15,000 illegal buildings. This got him listed in Time Magazine's list of 100 Young Global Leaders in 1994. Kannanthanam retired from the IAS, to get elected as an Independent Member of Legislative Assembly for Kanjirappally in Kerala from 2006 to 2011.
(Image courtesy - PTI)
Ashwini Kumar Choubey
Ashwini Kumar Choubey is a BJP Lok Sabha MP from Buxar, Bihar. He is a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Estimates and Standing Committee on Energy.He is also a Member of Central Silk Board.
After it was announced that he would be inducted into the cabinet, Choubey told news agency ANI, "PM Modi ne bharosa jataya hai uss par khare utarne ka prayaas karunga(The PM has shown faith in me and i will try my best to fulfilresponsibilities entrusted to me)."
(Image courtesy - ANI/Twitter)
Anantkumar Hegde
Anantkumar Hegde is a Lok Sabha MP from Uttara Kannada, Karnataka. He is a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs and Human Resource Development.
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is a Lok Sabha MP from Jodhpur, Rajasthan. He is a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance and Chairperson of the Fellowship Committee. As a technology-savvy, progressive farmer; Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is a role model for the rural community. He has an MPhil & MA in Philosophy from Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur.
"Want to thank PM that he trusted me with such a responsibility, it's a chance to work for country," he told ANI when asked about him being inducted into the cabinet.
(Image courtesy - ANI/Twitter)
Shiv Pratap Shukla
Shiv Pratap Shukla is a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh.He is known for his work during his tenure as the Cabinet Minister in the state of Uttar Pradesh, when he initiated an Education for all scheme which tied together ten districts for the first time and for his efforts to reform conditions for prisoners, and various Rural Development Schemes.
(Image courtesy - PTI)
Virendra Kumar
Virendra Kumar is a Lok Sabha MP from Tikamgah, Madhya Pradesh. He has had a distinguished career in Public Service as a 6 term Lok Sabha MP. Highly qualified academically, Virendra Kumar has an MA in Economics and a PhD in Child Labour.
"Have always fulfilled responsibilities the party leadership gave me. Thank PM, Amit Shah and senior leaders," he told ANI after his name was announced for the cabinet.
(Image courtesy - ANI/Twitter)
Does Modi hate being questioned? BJP MP reveals details about angry PM
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia
Mumbai, Sep 2: The opposition parties on several occasions alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has adopted a "dictatorial" attitude and does not like being questioned about anything related to governance.
Fierce critics of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Modi too claimed being "gagged" for speaking against or questioning the government's policies.
Now, a BJP member of Parliament (MP) from Maharashtra alleged that "Modi doesn't like to take any questions" and "gets angry when raised issues".
On Friday, during a programme on farm distress hosted in Nagpur, BJP MP Nana Patole from Bhandara-Gondiya constituency said that Modi does not like being asked questions. Patole added the PM got angry with him when he tried to raise issues about the OBC ministry and farmer suicides at a meeting of BJP MPs recently.
"Modi doesn't like to take any questions and had got very angry when I raised some issues about the OBC Ministry and farmer suicides at a meeting of BJP MPs. When Modi is asked questions, he asks you if you have read the party manifesto and are aware of various government schemes," Patole said at the event.
The BJP MP alleged that Modi asked him to "shut up" when he raised a couple of questions at the meeting.
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"I had made certain suggestions at the meeting like raising green tax, OBC Ministry and more central investment in agriculture. Modi got angry and asked me to shut up. Modi regularly meets party MPs but he doesn't like questions being asked of him," the Maharashtra MP said.
According to media reports, Patole got an earful from Modi at the MPs meeting. The MP also took a dig at Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
"The CM is incapable of bringing central funds for the state. The Centre gives less to Maharashtra despite Mumbai contributing maximum to the country's coffers. The CM has also stopped taking meetings of party MPs in Mumbai before the beginning of the Parliament session," Patole said.
"All central ministers are always in a state of fear. So I am not interested in ministership. I am of late on the hitlist but I am not afraid of anyone," the MP added.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 8:21 [IST]
PFI ban 'dangerous' as every Muslim who speaks his mind can now be arrested: AIMIM chief Owaisi
Muslim man can't remarry if he's unable to take care of family: Allahabad HC
Why a terror angle should not be ruled out in the Coimbatore cylinder blast case
What if Owaisi had? Muslim users on Twitter blast Kejriwal for asking for Hindu God images on currency notes
Shoaib open fires in UP university after trying to start conversation with girls; arrested
Eid ul Adha 2017 prayers captured in pictures
India
oi-Chennabasaveshwar
By Chennabasaveshwar
Eid-ul-Adha or Bakri Eid is being celebrated across the country on Saturday. Muslims visited mosques and other areas marked out for the congregation to offer special Eid Namaz. After the customary hugs and greetings of 'Eid Mubarak', they set off for the ceremonial sacrifice of goats. The meat and other edibles are thereafter shared with friends, neighbours and kin.
Eid-ul-Adha is a "Sacrifice Feast", is the second of two Muslim holidays celebrated worldwide each year, and considered the holier of the two. It honors the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son, as an act of submission to God's command. Before he sacrificed his son God intervened by sending his angel Jibra'il (Gabriel), who then put a sheep in his son's place.
In commemoration of this, an animal is sacrificed and divided into three parts: the family retains one-third of the share; another third is given to relatives, friends, and neighbors; and the remaining third is given to the poor and needy.
Get the glimpse of Eid-ul-Adha in following pictures.
Prayers at royal mosque Muslims pray on the occasion of Eid al-Adha at royal mosque near Taj Mahal in Agra on Saturday. PTI Photo Prayers at Jama Masjid Muslims leave after Eid al-Adha prayers at Delhi's Jama Masjid on Saturday. PTI Photo Children in Jama Masjid Muslim children pose after Eid al-Adha prayers at Delhi's Jama Masjid on Saturday. PTI Photo Bandra station mosque Muslims pray to mark the festival of Eid al-Adha at Bandra station mosque in Mumbai on Saturday. PTI Photo 'Namaz' at Idgah Masjid Muslim devotees leave after offering prayer 'Namaz' at Idgah Masjid on the occasion of Eid al-Adha celebrations at Delhi-Jaipur Highway on Saturday. PTI Photo
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 15:06 [IST]
Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar says he had no role in Ram Rahim's parole
Film and Television Directors Association cancels license of rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim
India
oi-Chennabasaveshwar
By Chennabasaveshwar
The Indian Film and Television Directors Association (IFTDA) has cancelled the license of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh after his conviction in a rape case.
The self-styled 'godman' has produced, directed and acted in four movies.
The movies are:
Hind Ka Napak ko Jawab - MSG Lion Heart - 2, 2017
Jattu Engineer in 2017
MSG: The Warrior Lion Heart in 2016
The Messenger, MSG: The Messenger in 2015
Also, he has six music albums in his name: Thank You For That, Network Tere Love Ka, Chashma Yaar Ka, Insan in 2012, Lov Rab Se in 2013 and Highway Love Charger in 2014.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim was working on a new project 'Online Gurukul' in which he was speaking out against terrorism. In the movie, he was slated to play six different roles.
On 28 August 2017, a special CBI court sentenced Dera chief to a total of 20 years in jail, 10 years for each of the two rape convictions to be served consecutively. The trial for the alleged murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati will be held separately.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 9:49 [IST]
Former Infosys board members accuse Narayana Murthy of 'slander'
India
oi-Anusha
The mudslinging contest over the exit of board members from Infosys continues with three former executives lashing out at Narayana Murthy, accusing him of slander and personal attacks. Former chairman R Seshasayee along with two others hit back at Infosys founder Murthy for his comments against the then board members escalating the row further.
Independent directors Jeffrey Sean Lehman and John Etchemendy along with R Seshasayee who exited the board after Vishal Sikka's resignation and Nandan Nilekani's comeback deemed Murthy's statements "patently false and slanderous accusations" on Friday.
The board members said that they were "compelled to defend themselves," after Narayana Murthy's personal attacks. Vishal Sikka, the fourth board member who exited the company was not a signatory to Friday's statement. "Since my resignation from the board of Infosys, I have kept away from making any public statements, despite provocations, since I sincerely want the company to move forward, and not be bogged down with the issues of the past," Seshasayee said in the statement, which was issued jointly with Etchemendy and Lehman.
Sheshasayee added that was "patently offensive" on Murthy's part to quote an anonymous whistleblower letter that alleged many things, which were subsequently proved baseless and false through multiple investigations, in order to give an impression to the audience that he lied to the shareholders.
The statement added that Seshasayee's conversations with Lehman and Roopa Kudva were taken out of context.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 10:15 [IST]
Tuesday is now No Meeting Day in Haryana and officers to be with people on Friday
30 per cent down: How Haryana aced the decrease in stubble burning
Girl studying at Dera HQ missing
India
oi-PTI
Chandigarh, September 2: A girl, who was living in the Dera Sacha Sauda complex in Sirsa, has been missing after the rape conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
The family from Haryana's Tiwala claimed that they had not been in touch with Shraddha since 2008.
Her cousin, Parminder Singh, said the last time they got information about her was from a Dera-run magazine which described her as a yoga practitioner. The family along with other villagers are making frantic efforts to trace her in Sirsa.
"The caretaker of Sahe Baitiyan Baseera's (home for minor girls), Poonam, said that she had left the Dera after the sect's head was convicted," Singh said, adding that he tried to get in touch with other officials of the Dera.
Ram Rahim was sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping two of his female disciples by a special CBI court on August 28.
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"Shradhha was left in the Dera to pursue her education long time back. In 2008, we tried to meet her, but we were not allowed by the Dera functionaries," he alleged.
"I tried to contact the officials of the Dera on their mobile numbers, but it was futile," he said, adding that as the area around the sect's headquarter was still under curfew, it was difficult to get inside. Sources said that around 29 minor girls were in the Dera-run 'Sahe Baitiyan Baseera'. "Eighteen girls, all of whom are minors, said that they were happy and did not want to come out.
However, we persuaded the Dera management, and with their help brought them out," Sirsa Deputy Commissioner Prabhjot Singh had said earlier. The girls were sent to juvenile homes at different locations, including Sonipat, in Haryana, officials said.
"The girls said they were happy and safe inside. We found them in a healthy condition," the deputy commissioner had said.
Like Shradhha's family, relatives of Suchaitana and Aapar from Delhi are also eagerly waiting their return. The Sirsa district administration is also arranging transport for followers of the Dera to return home.
After the conviction of the Dera chief 41 people died and several were injured in incidents of violence in Panchkula and Sirsa districts of Haryana.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 14:20 [IST]
Gorakhpur hospital children death: Dr Kafeel Khan arrested by Uttar Pradesh STF
India
oi-Anusha
Dr Kafeel Khan accused of negligence in Gorakhpur's BRD hospital tragedy has been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force. Dr Khan who was hailed as a hero, in the beginning, was soon accused of stealing oxygen cylinders from the hospital leading to the death of infants at Gorakhpur.
The Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh police arrested the accused doctor, who was absconding, from his relative's residence early on Saturday morning. The doctor faces charges of negligence as well as financial irregularities. Dr Khan shot to fame after the media reported that he had personally managed to secure oxygen cylinders for BRD medical college on August 11-12 when the hospital was running critically low on oxygen.
24 hours later, in a strange turn of events, Khan was accused of stealing oxygen cylinders from the hospital for his private clinic. He along with six others were named accused in the tragedy. Khan was traced through electronic surveillance and was handed over to Gorakhpur police who are investigating the case.
After allegations of negligence and alleged theft leading to a shortage of oxygen were leveled against him, Khan was removed from all hospital duties. Kafeel Khan was the Nodal Officer of BRD Medical College's Department of Pediatrics. Dr Khan was hailed as a hero when he as Head of the Encephalitis ward, "sprung into action when he received a distress call from the hospital on the intervening night of August 12 and was informed of dwindling oxygen supply needed for his patients."
Dr Khan was also the member of the supplies department that managed stocks and storage of equipment. Khan was also held accountable for not apprising Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of erratic supply of oxygen cylinders or payments default by the hospital.
The investigators said that Dr Kafeel Khan, on August 11 sent three oxygen cylinders from his clinic to the hospital and had maintained that he had 'borrowed' those. Dr Khan along with former principal of BRD Medical College, Dr Rajiv Mishra and his wife Purnima Shukla were held responsible for the death of infants in the hospital.
OneIndia News
Karnataka government moves to make education till graduation free for girls
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia Staff Writer
Starting next academic year, the Karnataka government has decided to make education free of cost for all girl students in the state. The Siddaramaiah government in moving to fund the education of all girls from Class 1 to graduation in all public and aided private institutions except for professional courses.
While the scheme is open for all girl students in the state, the government hopes that only students from economically weaker sections will opt for the scheme. The funds allocated for the scheme is, however, merely Rs 110 crore. The government hopes that only students from families that have an annual income of less than Rs 10 lakh opt for the scheme.
18 lakh girl students, the government believes, will benefit from the scheme to make education free for till graduation. Punjab offers free education to girl students till Ph.D. while Telangana extends the scheme from kindergarten to post graduation. In an election year, the Karnataka government has already introduced a slew of welfare schemes. The free education for girls in only the latest addition to the list. Earlier schemes have been designed to specifically appeal to Dalit students, backward classes welfare and now women empowerment and girl child education.
Basavraj Rayareddy, the minister for Higher Education in the state said that the government would reimburse all fees except examination fees of girl students of Class 1 to graduation level, irrespective of their family's annual income. The scheme will apply to all private aided and government schools and colleges.
The students will have to pay the fees first and the same would be reimbursed by the government. The entire tuition fee will be reimbursed, according to the minister.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 15:22 [IST]
Modi, Shah set to meet today to finalise cabinet berths
India
oi-Vikas
By Vikas
Ahead of Sunday's major cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah are set to hold a meeting on Saturday evening to finalise the cabinet list, said reports.
Andhra Pradesh BJP chief and MP from Vishakapatnam, K Haribabu, will reportedly be inducted into the cabinet and he has already left for Delhi.
Reports say that Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari will retain his portfolio. NDTV, while quoting sources, said that Modi is "very happy" with the performance of Gadkari.
The BJP is said to have considered moving Gadkari to Railways Ministry, but wasn't keen to take the responsibility.
"It is PM Modi's prerogative who should be given what responsibility. He is the one to decide on tomorrow's (Cabinet reshuffle)," Gadkari told the media on Saturday.
Meanwhile, BJP MP from Bihar, Ashwini Choubey, has left for Delhi from Patna ahead of the crucial reshuffle. It is not yet clear if he would be inducted into the cabinet.
JD (U) may not join the cabinet as was earlier reported. Nitish Kumar, in fact, said he had no information about the cabinet reshuffle.
"We have no information, no talks about it. We got information only from media," news agency ANI quoted Nitish as saying when asked about cabinet reshuffle.
It was earlier being speculated that JD (U), which joined the NDA recently, may get two cabinet berths.
[Have 'no information' about cabinet reshuffle: Nitish Kumar]
BJP ally Shiv Sena also said that they were not informed about cabinet reshuffle and came to know about it only through the media.
Among those likely to get a promotion are Piyush Goyal, Manoj Sinha, and Dharmendra Pradhan.
OneIndia News
Mumbai has 14,000 'farmers', government surprised over loan waiver applications
India
oi-Anusha
If the number of farm loan waiver applications are anything to go by, Mumbai has 14,000 farmers. Out of the 14,000 'farmers' who have applied for the loan waiver, 13,000 are from Mumbai city shocking the Maharashtra government.
The Devendra Fadnavis government announced the biggest farm loan waiver scheme in the country earlier this year. In a bid to ensure that the waiver reaches the correct beneficiary, the Maharashtra government opted for an online process to receive applications for loan waiver. To further make it a watertight process, the government insisted on Aadhaar-linked applications to cross verify details of each beneficiary.
The government announced that farmers can register for loan waiver schemes online at 26,000 'Aaple Sarkar' centers across the state starting July 24. So far 47.75 people claiming to be farmers have registered online. In all, 14,121 farmers from Mumbai have applied for the farm loan waiver while 13,204 of them are from Mumbai city. The numbers have confused the state government that is ensuring a transparent process to help farmers avail loan waiver.
The agriculture ministry officials believe that the data including address may be the result of faults with Aadhaar cards. Officials believe that since Aadhaar card was mandatory to register online, farmers who did not possess one may have gotten an Aadhaar card done in Mumbai but perhaps own farm land in other districts.
The Congress had torn into Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in July when he tweeted that farmers including 813 from Mumbai will be eligible for farm loan waiver. Mumbai city has no agricultural land and this time around the government has made it clear that the loan waiver scheme will only apply to cultivation and not agro-based industries.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 12:26 [IST]
Mumbai University results 2017: Law student gets 21 marks for paper she never took
India
oi-Anusha
Another deadline has passed and students are still awaiting Mumbai University Results 2017. While many have complained of being marked absent for exams they took, a student who was absent for one examination has received 21 marks, much to her surprise.
The University has come under severe fire for delaying the announcement of results and missing multiple deadlines from June. Despite the Governor's and Bombay High Court's directions, the University has failed to meet a fresh deadline that it gave itself, August 31. On Thursday the University told the Bombay High Court that results of most of the major exams have been declared, but have not been uploaded to the university's web portal yet.
Results of 16 Law examinations were declared on Thursday. This is when the student noticed the discrepancy. The girl told a newspaper that she received 21 marks in Indian Penal Code (IPC) paper despite being absent for the exam. While on one hand students have been crying foul over being marked absent for exams that they took, this student was not only marked present for an exam she took but also received 21 marks.
While 7,420 papers have been assessed till now, the results of 30 papers are pending. The University told the Bombay High Court that 151 out of 153 examinations of Arts courses, 45 of 47 examinations of science courses, 32 of the 36 management examinations and 170 of the 175 technology courses have already been declared so far. Out of the 50 commerce courses, results of 30 have been declared and 20 will be declared shortly, the court was told.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 8:59 [IST]
Gujarat Assembly polls: Saurashtra region, with 48 of 182 seats, is the piece everyone's eyeing
Proud moment for Gujarat: Ahmedabad becomes Indias 1st World Heritage City
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia
Ahmedabad, Sep 2: It was a proud moment for entire Gujarat as the city of Ahmedabad on Friday was formally accorded the status of India's first World Heritage City.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Director General Irina Bokova handed over the certificate in this regard to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.
"Gujarat: Ahmedabad formally accorded World Heritage City status, UNESCO Dir Gen, Irina Bokova handed over the certificate to CM Vijay Rupani," tweeted ANI.
Gujarat: Ahmedabad formally accorded World Heritage City status, UNESCO Dir Gen, Irina Bokova handed over the certificate to CM Vijay Rupani pic.twitter.com/PHdRgMdnZU ANI (@ANI) September 1, 2017
Rupani said Prime Minister Narendra Modi did a lot of hard work to get the heritage city tag for Ahmedabad from the UNESCO. The CM accused the earlier United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for not trying enough in this matter.
The CM informed that Ahmedabad was selected out of 250 cities in the race for the coveted status. He also thanked the UNESCO and the Culture Ministry.
Speaking on the occasion, Bokova said, "It was indeed a great experience to visit India's first UNESCO World Heritage city, a symbol of intercultural dialogue and unity in diversity. A city that boasts life, culture, and joy everyday with its extravagant lifestyle. A symbol of religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence."
"Significance of the city lies beyond the physical beauty of its architectural heritage. A landmark city where (Mahatma) Gandhiji began India's freedom struggle," the UNESCO official added.
On July 8, India secured the nomination for Ahmedabad on UNESCO's World Heritage list during the 41st Session of World Heritage Committee.
The honour makes the walled city of Ahmedabad the first city in India, and the third in Asia, to be on the list. India now has a total of 36 World Heritage Inscriptions -- 28 cultural, 7 natural and 1 mixed site.
India is second after China in terms of number of world heritage properties in ASPAC (Asia and Pacific) region, and overall seventh in the world.
The walled city of Ahmedabad was founded in the 15th century on the eastern bank of the Sabarmati river. The city also has 28 Archaeological Survey of India's centrally protected monuments.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 13:37 [IST]
Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar says he had no role in Ram Rahim's parole
Ram Rahim's Twitter account withheld in India
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
The Twitter account of Gurmeet Ram Rahim, the Dera Sacha Sauda chief convicted on rape charges has been withheld. When one opens the account the message reads, " Withheld in India."
The account page, @Gurmeetramrahim, now bears the message, "@Gurmeetramrahim's account has been withheld in: India."
All the tweets too carry the message, " withheld in India." This means none of his followers in India can see what is being posted. However followers outside India will be able to view the posts.
The access was blocked based on a request made by the Haryana police. The police are also looking at blocking the other social media accounts belonging to the Dera chief.
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While Twitter will not comment on personal accounts, an article on the support section of their website says representatives of governments and law enforcement agencies can request potentially illegal content to be removed. The "withheld" account and its tweets remain unavailable in the jurisdiction where the request was made from.
Ram Rahim was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment after being held guilty for rape. Following his conviction wide spread violence broke out in Haryana in which over 30 people were killed.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 7:54 [IST]
Revenge done: Indian Army guns down terrorist who killed their own
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
It was sweet revenge that the Indian Army took when it chased and gunned down Ishfaq Padder a Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday. The Armed Forces were on the look out for this terrorist who was wanted in the killing of Lt Ummer Fayaz who are mercilessly killed in May. The 22 year old brave officer had gone home on leave and some locals gave out his information which terrorists used to kill him. The officer was martyred at Shopian.
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The Army had been working on information relating to Padder. He was a resident of Machiwa in Kulgam, the security forces said. Intelligence Bureau officials say that the killing of the officer was aimed at sending out a message to the youth of Kashmir not to join the forces.
It was a planned killing aimed at sending out a message to the youth, officials say. However the killing of the terrorist should be a message to all youth that terrorism will not pay.
In the week hours of Saturday Padder was killed in an encounter with security forces at Kulgam, Jammu and Kashmir.
The encounter broke out in the wee hours of Saturday morning at the Tantrypora area of Kulgam.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 12:44 [IST]
Tuesday is now No Meeting Day in Haryana and officers to be with people on Friday
30 per cent down: How Haryana aced the decrease in stubble burning
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Student shot at inside classroom by classmate in Haryana
India
oi-Chennabasaveshwar
By Chennabasaveshwar
A student allegedly shot at his classmate inside the classroom at Industrial Training Institute (IT) in Sonipat, Haryana.
#WATCH: One classmate shoots another inside a classroom of ITI Sonipat. Police says investigation is underway. #Haryana. pic.twitter.com/EW5tPnm2Vk ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
A private TV channel reported that two boys approached the victim inside the ITI lab and one of them shot at his classmate in the back from close range with a country made pistol. Later the duo fled the scene.
Reports also say that an altercation between the students might have led to the incident. The injured boy was rushed to the hospital and his condition is said to be stable.
Police registered an attempt to murder case against the absconding boys. All the boys are in the age group 16-21.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 10:47 [IST]
These 5,000 Rohingya Muslims under IB's close watch
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
Under the scanner of the Intelligence agencies is a number of Rohingya Muslims living in and around Delhi. Intelligence Bureau reports suggest that these persons are likely to fall prey to a group of terrorists who had infiltrated into the Kashmir Valley recently.
The latest intelligence report states that a group of Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists who have infiltrated into the Valley are trying to get in touch with these people in an attempt to radicalise them. The warning comes in the wake of the Supreme Court agreeing to hear a petition against the deportation of Rohingya Muslims by India.
In addition to this Bangladesh has shared fresh information with India about the radicalisation plans by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. There have been repeated attempts by groups such as the Lashkar to instigate the Rohingya Muslims in India.
While rights groups have been arguing that deporting them would not be the right decision, the Indian government wants to take no chances.
It is a highly sensitive issue. One of the camps in Jammu and Kashmir too is very vulnerable to radicalisation, the IB says. They are easy prey for terror groups and repeated attempts are being made to take them into their fold, IB officials also say.
The IB also signaled the respective state police to keep a close watch on the Rohingya Muslims. States such as Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana among others also have a considerable presence of Rohingya Muslims, the IB says.
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 6:49 [IST]
This Telangana village plays national anthem on loudspeakers daily and everyone stands still
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia
Hyderabad, Sep 2: In recent times, we have witnessed several controversies over the issue of playing of national anthem. While last year, the Supreme Court asked all cinemas to play the national anthem before a film is screened "for the love of the motherland", many still say that forcing "nationalism and patriotism" on the countrymen is against the ethos of our democracy.
Amid all these debates over the national anthem, a village in Telangana has come up with a unique idea to ensure that the entire village in unison stands still during the playing of the song every day.
According to a report by news agency, ANI, Jammikunta village in Karimnagar district of the state plays the national anthem on 16 loudspeakers at 7.54 am daily. While the song is being played on loudspeakers, the villagers stand still to pay their respects to the national anthem.
No matter where one is at that time, it is mandatory for all to stand still when the national anthem is being played in the morning.
Telangana: Jammikunta village in Karimnagar district comes to a standstill at 7:54 am everyday for national anthem played on 16 loudspeakers pic.twitter.com/Aq1nNDFid3 ANI (@ANI) September 1, 2017
The idea of playing the national anthem on loudspeakers was to ensure that everyone in the village can easily hear the song loud and clear while being played. A villager said that 16 loudspeakers are enough for the entire village to be reverberated in the beat of patriotism every morning.
"We play the national anthem every day to showcase our love for our motherland. We are all Indians and we are proud of it. Jai hind!" said another villager.
Several pictures taken by a lensman of ANI showcase how villagers leave all their chores behind and stand still as the national anthem is being played. Even movement of vehicles comes to a halt when the national anthem is on.
OneIndia News
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Uttarakhand: Muslims offer prayers in Gurudwara on Eid-ul-Adha
India
oi-Chennabasaveshwar
By Chennabasaveshwar
In a show of communal harmony and mutual respect, Sikh community offered space to Muslims to offer namaz on the occasion of Eid-ul-Adha on Saturday.
A Gurudwara in Joshimath, Uttarakhand, helped Muslim community members as they were unable to offer namaz at Gandhi Maidan due to heavy rains.
Uttarakhand-Devotees offered prayers at a Gurudwara in Joshimath as they were unable to do it at Gandhi Maidan due to heavy rains #EidAlAdha pic.twitter.com/FIzQientks ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
"It was raining heavily and to spare our Muslim brethren the inconvenience of offering namaz in the open we offered to them the precincts of our Gurudwara in Joshimath for the purpose," Hemkund Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee chief Sardar Seva Singh told PTI. The HGPC chief said they have offered their space for offering namaz to the Muslim brethren under similar circumstances in the past as well.
(With agency inputs)
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 18:33 [IST]
Why AIADMK is being kept out of the Modi Cabinet reshuffle
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
The AIADMK is being kept out of the Modi Cabinet reshuffle which is to take place on Sunday at 10 am. While there were expectations that at least two from the AIADMK may join the government, that is however unlikely to happen.
BJP sources tell OneIndia the issues within the AIADMK are not fully sorted out as yet. Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not want to take any chances until the entire issue is sorted out.
There is a likelihood that in the days to come Sasikala's nephew TTV Dinakaran may formalise ties with E Palanisami. Once that process is completed, then talks of the AIADMK formally joining the NDA would commence.
On the AIADMK front, BJP sources say that the issue was not discussed. Only inducting two JD(U) MLAs was discussed, the source also added.
BJP chief Amit Shah had met Lok Sabha deputy speaker M Thambidurai on Thursday after the latter had met the PM. But there was no discussion on the AIADMK joining at the Centre. As for Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) national executive committee had held a meeting on August 19 to endorse the party's entry into the NDA.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 6:41 [IST]
Xi Jinping tells Chinese army to prepare for war, fight and win it
Japan shouldn't slap sanctions on North Korea: China
International
pti-PTI
Beijing, Sep 2: China has advised Japan not to impose sanctions unilaterally on North Korea after it launched a test missile that flew over Japan, said reports.
The test-firing Tuesday has intensified fear and reignited a debate in Japan about revising its defense plan after decades of pursuing more pacifist policies.
A statement from China's foreign ministry today says the minister also urged his Japanese counterpart a day earlier not to consider unilateral sanctions in response.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said "unilateral sanctions are not in line with the spirit of the (UN) Security Council resolutions, and there is no basis in international law for them, (therefore) Japan should not make a misjudgment."
In a bid to defend the country from more North Korean weapons launches, Japan's Defence Ministry is seeking a record-high budget to add missile interceptors and other equipments.
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by Graham Pierrepoint
Two sides to two different debates have opened up this week after multi-billion cosmetics giant LOreal chose to fire a model who was their first transgender representative after being hired as part of the chains #allworthit campaign with some choosing to support the model in question Munroe Bergdorf via hashtags such as #boycottloreal and others standing by the brands controversial choice. However, while some may assume that the decision was related to Bergdorfs gender from headlines alone, it appears that the issue is related to racism and that LOreal made the decision based on Bergdorfs comments on Twitter being at odds with company values.
LOreal champions diversity. Comments by Munroe Bergdorf are at odds with our values and so we have decided to end our partnership with her. L'Oreal Paris UK (@LOrealParisUK) 1 September 2017
It is reported that Bergdorf who hails from London made the claim on Twitter that all white people were responsible for racial violence on the grounds that white people dont even realise or refuse to acknowledge that (their) existence, privilege and success as a race is built on the backs, blood and death of people of colour. Bergdorfs words, while spoken from the heart, were not taken well by LOreal, who advised publicly that her comments were in direct antithesis to the image they had chosen her to represent as she was brought on board to celebrate modern diversity.
Bergdorf has defended her comments in stating that she was addressing the fact that western society as a whole, is a system rooted in white supremacy designed to benefit, prioritise and protect white people before anyone of any other race. Bergdorf also tweeted to state that in tearing me down, you are proving everything that I said to be true. The model has no shortage of support from fans and followers on Twitter, with many starting a boycott of LOreal in response to the decision that has only recently been made. The corporation has further cemented its stance on the issue by stating that Bergdorfs comments were at odds with the values the company stood for therefore meaning that their relationship required termination.
The model is said to have made such comments in light of the violence that unfolded in Charlottesville, Virginia in recent weeks where anti-racism protestors clashed with white supremacist protestors in a violent clash, killing one. Among others, President Trumps slowness to decry the events has been criticized as has his decision to offer a balanced view on the tragedy that unfolded.
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Outdoor Security Turnstile Market Analysis- Regional Outlook, Segments And Forecast To 2017
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Moreover, it provides dynamic and statistical insights pertaining to the market at both regional as well as global level.Get Free Sample Copy of this Report @:Application segments such as demolition and construction as well as products used in the manufacturing of engineering equipment come under heavy industries. In addition, heavy industries also include ancillary industries that have their relation with these applications. These industries are mostly capital intensive in nature, have huge barriers to entry and low transportability. The industry mostly includes heavy electrical, huge buildings and machine tools. Rising construction of high rise buildings is one of the primary growth factors of Outdoor Security Turnstile market.Recognizing the rising prevalence of Outdoor Security Turnstile market, this research report proves to be a primary source of guidance and detailed data on the market at global scale. The report evaluates the present scenario and status as well as changing trends in the market to project its outlook and prospects. This report is a systematic research study based on the market and analyzes the competitive framework of the global Outdoor Security Turnstile industry. A holistic report covers exhaustive information obtained from reliable industrial sources and through proven research methodologies. The data thus obtained is then combined with relevant tables and graphs to support the information revealed. Thus the report features graphs, figures, and data and provides a high-level blueprint of the global market.Browse full report with Table of Content @:Various competent analytical tools have been used to offer a comprehensive assessment of the market. The report comprises of each aspect of the global market for Outdoor Security Turnstile. Here, the market is basically segmented by its product type, application and region. It starts with the basic information and then advances to the market classification and segmentation based on different criteria. It analyses the key segments and the regional subdivision of the market and helps determine the future of the market in the global arena.Major regions, countries, and sub-segments have been analyzed for providing the better understanding of the market scope worldwide. The report studies the market by evaluating the manufacturers, manufacturing chain, contribution in the industry, regulations, prevalent policies and cost structures. The regional markets for the Outdoor Security Turnstile market are analyzed by evaluating the raw material price trend analysis, logistics, demand, and supply, production capacity, as well as the historical performance of the market in the given region.The report also provides insights on the competitive landscape of the global Outdoor Security Turnstile industry with the leading players profiled in the report. The company profiles, trends, tactics, merger & acquisitions, business strategies, financial metrics of the major participants operating in the global Outdoor Security Turnstile market have been reviewed in this study.Ask for Discount @:Some Points Of Table Of Content:1 Outdoor Security Turnstile Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Outdoor Security Turnstile1.2 Outdoor Security Turnstile Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Outdoor Security Turnstile Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Outdoor Security Turnstile Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Single Interlocking Layout Configurations1.2.4 Double Interlocking Layout Configurations1.3 Global Outdoor Security Turnstile Segment by Application1.3.1 Outdoor Security Turnstile Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Factories1.3.3 Warehouses1.3.4 Stadiums1.3.5 Amusement Parks1.3.6 Universities1.3.7 Public Transport Stations1.3.8 Retail Sites And Casinos1.3.9 Other1.4 Global Outdoor Security Turnstile Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Outdoor Security Turnstile Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Outdoor Security Turnstile (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Outdoor Security Turnstile Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Outdoor Security Turnstile Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)2 Global Outdoor Security Turnstile Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Outdoor Security Turnstile Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Outdoor Security Turnstile Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Outdoor Security Turnstile Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Outdoor Security Turnstile Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Outdoor Security Turnstile Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Outdoor Security Turnstile Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Outdoor Security Turnstile Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Outdoor Security Turnstile Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Outdoor Security Turnstile Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, ExpansionAbout us:Reportbazzar.com is your trusted source for the most inclusive and informative assortment of market research reports designed to empower you with the latest in industry information that translates to time and cost savings for your business. We not only help you give wing to your latent business ideas but also facilitate you in taking the best informed and strategic decisions that guarantee success in your most promising business endeavors. Our intelligence database comprises of vast arrays of strategically analyzed and high-level market research reports that encompass all major industries worldwide. All the specialized research reports available at Reportbazzar.com are tailor-made to suit your every business need, no matter how diverse or demanding it is.Contact for more details:Report BazzarUnited States30 Wall Street, 8th floor,New York, NY 10005.US: +1 (212) 389-6363
Global Liquid Foundation Market Size, Industry study & Forecast Report 2017-2022
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The Global Liquid Foundation market size will be million (USD) in 2022, from the million (USD) in 2016, with a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) from 2016 to 2022.This report studies Liquid Foundation in Global market, especially in United States, Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, China, Japan, India, Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, Brazil, Middle East and Africa, focuses onThe top Manufacturers in each country, covering :- L'OReAL- KIKO- ESTEE LAUDER- LVMH- REVLON- Christian Dior- Chanel- AMORE PACIFICRequest a sample copy of Liquid Foundation Market Reports @- SHISEIDO- P&G- Johnson&Johnson- Kao- POLA- Walgreens Boots Alliance- Laura Mercier- KOSe- AVON- Stylenanda- Elizabeth Arden- BurberryMarket Segment by Countries, this report splits Global into several key Countries, with sales, revenue, market share ofTop 5 players in these Countries, from 2012 to 2017 (forecast), like :- United States- Canada- Mexico- Germany- France- UK- Italy- Russia- China- Japan- India- Korea- Southeast Asia- Australia- Brazil- Middle East- AfricaSplit by Product Types, with sales, revenue, price, market share of each type,Can be divided into :- Sheer- Light- Medium- FullSplit by applications, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate of Liquid Foundation in each application,Can be divided into :- 10 to 20- 20 to 30- 30 to 40- 40 to 50- Above 50- OthersClick the link below to read the complete report :Table of Contents2017-2022 Global Top Countries Liquid Foundation Market Report1 Liquid Foundation Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Liquid Foundation1.2 Liquid Foundation Segment by Types1.2.1 Global Sales Market Share of Liquid Foundation by Types in 20161.2.2 Sheer1.2.3 Light1.2.4 Medium1.2.5 Full1.3 Liquid Foundation Segment by Applications1.3.1 Liquid Foundation Consumption Market Share by Applications in 20161.3.2 10 to 201.3.3 20 to 301.3.4 30 to 401.3.5 40 to 501.3.6 Above 501.3.7 OthersAbout Bharat Book Bureau:Bharat Book Bureau is the leading market research information provider for market research reports, company profiles, industry study, country reports, business reports, newsletters and online databases Bharat Book Bureau provides over a million reports from more than 400 publishers around the globe. We cover sectors starting from Aeronautics to Zoology.Contact us at:Bharat Book BureauTel: +91 22 27810772 / 27810773Email: poonam@bharatbook.comWebsite:Follow us on : Twitter|Facebook| Linkedin |Google Plus
Food Glass Packaging Sales Market Overview - Competitive insights, Key Futuristic Trends and Opportunities 2022
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ReportBazzar has released its latest research-based report entitled Food Glass Packaging Sales market.' This comprehensive report provides a holistic approach to the market growth with a detailed and precise analysis of the overall competitive scenario of the Food Glass Packaging Sales market worldwide along with the key trends and latest technologies, playing a prominent role in the Food Glass Packaging Sales market growth over the next eight years.It also takes into account the market trends, aspects such as drivers, constraints, challenges, and opportunities that impact the market and presents statistical and analytical account on it. This research report features a comprehensive discussion about the current scenario to estimate trends and prospects of the Food Glass Packaging Sales market. Moreover, it provides dynamic and statistical insights pertaining to the market at both regional as well as global level.Get Free Sample Copy of this Report @Application segments such as demolition and construction as well as products used in the manufacturing of engineering equipment come under heavy industries. In addition, heavy industries also include ancillary industries that have their relation with these applications. These industries are mostly capital intensive in nature, have huge barriers to entry and low transportability. The industry mostly includes heavy electrical, huge buildings and machine tools. Rising construction of high rise buildings is one of the primary growth factors of Food Glass Packaging Sales market.Recognizing the rising prevalence of Food Glass Packaging Sales market, this research report proves to be a primary source of guidance and detailed data on the market at global scale. The report evaluates the present scenario and status as well as changing trends in the market to project its outlook and prospects. This report is a systematic research study based on the market and analyzes the competitive framework of the global Food Glass Packaging Sales industry. A holistic report covers exhaustive information obtained from reliable industrial sources and through proven research methodologies. The data thus obtained is then combined with relevant tables and graphs to support the information revealed. Thus the report features graphs, figures, and data and provides a high-level blueprint of the global market.Browse full report with Table of Content @Various competent analytical tools have been used to offer a comprehensive assessment of the market. The report comprises of each aspect of the global market for Food Glass Packaging Sales. Here, the market is basically segmented by its product type, application and region. It starts with the basic information and then advances to the market classification and segmentation based on different criteria. It analyses the key segments and the regional subdivision of the market and helps determine the future of the market in the global arena.Major regions, countries, and sub-segments have been analyzed for providing the better understanding of the market scope worldwide. The report studies the market by evaluating the manufacturers, manufacturing chain, contribution in the industry, regulations, prevalent policies and cost structures. The regional markets for the Food Glass Packaging Sales market are analyzed by evaluating the raw material price trend analysis, logistics, demand, and supply, production capacity, as well as the historical performance of the market in the given region.The report also provides insights on the competitive landscape of the global Food Glass Packaging Sales industry with the leading players profiled in the report. The company profiles, trends, tactics, merger & acquisitions, business strategies, financial metrics of the major participants operating in the global Food Glass Packaging Sales market have been reviewed in this study.Some Points Of Table Of Content:Global Food Glass Packaging Sales Market Report 20171 Food Glass Packaging Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Food Glass Packaging1.2 Classification of Food Glass Packaging by Product Category1.2.1 Global Food Glass Packaging Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Food Glass Packaging Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Colorless Glass1.2.4 Colored Glass1.3 Global Food Glass Packaging Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Food Glass Packaging Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Carbonated Beverage1.3.3 Alcoholic Beverage1.3.4 Other1.4 Global Food Glass Packaging Market by Region1.4.1 Global Food Glass Packaging Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Food Glass Packaging Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Food Glass Packaging Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Food Glass Packaging Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Food Glass Packaging Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Food Glass Packaging Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Food Glass Packaging Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Food Glass Packaging (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Food Glass Packaging Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Food Glass Packaging Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 Global Food Glass Packaging Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Food Glass Packaging Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Food Glass Packaging Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Food Glass Packaging Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Food Glass Packaging (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Food Glass Packaging Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Food Glass Packaging Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Food Glass Packaging (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Food Glass Packaging Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global Food Glass Packaging Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4 Global Food Glass Packaging (Volume) by ApplicationAbout Us:Reportbazzar.com is your trusted source for the most inclusive and informative assortment of market research reports designed to empower you with the latest in industry information that translates to time and cost savings for your business. We not only help you give wing to your latent business ideas but also facilitate you in taking the best informed and strategic decisions that guarantee success in your most promising business endeavors. Our intelligence database comprises of vast arrays of strategically analyzed and high-level market research reports that encompass all major industries worldwide. All the specialized research reports available at Reportbazzar.com are tailor-made to suit your every business need, no matter how diverse or demanding it is.Contact for more details:Report BazzarUnited States30 Wall Street, 8th floor,New York, NY 10005.US: +1 (212) 389-6363Email: sales@reportbazzar.com
Global EDA market is anticipated to grow at a steady rate and will post a CAGR of more than 5% during the forecast period By 2022
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This report studies the global Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) market, analyzes and researches the Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeCadence Design SystemsMentor GraphicsSynopsysAgilentAgnisysAldecAnsysJEDA TechnologiesMunEDASigrityZukenMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaDownload Sample Report Copy From Here:Market segment by Type, Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) can be split intoCAESIP (semiconductor intellectual property)IC Physical Design and VerificationPrinted Circuit Board (PCB) and Multi-chip Module (MCM)Market segment by Application, Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) can be split intoAutomobile IndustryHealthcare IndustryDefense & Aerospace IndustryOther IndustryTable of ContentsGlobal Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA)1.1 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Overview1.1.1 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market by Type1.3.1 CAE1.3.2 SIP (semiconductor intellectual property)1.3.3 IC Physical Design and Verification1.3.4 Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and Multi-chip Module (MCM)1.4 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Automobile Industry1.4.2 Healthcare Industry1.4.3 Defense & Aerospace Industry1.4.4 Other Industry2 Global Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Cadence Design Systems3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Mentor Graphics3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Synopsys3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Agilent3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 Agnisys3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 Aldec3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 Ansys3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 JEDA Technologies3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.8.5 Recent Developments3.9 MunEDA3.9.1 Company Profile3.9.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.9.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.9.4 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.9.5 Recent Developments3.10 Sigrity3.10.1 Company Profile3.10.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.10.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.10.4 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.10.5 Recent Developments3.11 Zuken4 Global Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA)5 United States Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size (2012-2017)5.2 United States Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)6 EU Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Development Status and Outlook6.1 EU Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size (2012-2017)6.2 EU Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)7 Japan Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Development Status and Outlook7.1 Japan Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size (2012-2017)7.2 Japan Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)8 China Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Development Status and Outlook8.1 China Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size (2012-2017)8.2 China Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)9 India Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Development Status and Outlook9.1 India Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size (2012-2017)9.2 India Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)10 Southeast Asia Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Development Status and Outlook10.1 Southeast Asia Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size (2012-2017)10.2 Southeast Asia Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2017-2022)11.1 Global Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size (Value) by Regions (2017-2022)11.1.1 United States Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.2 EU Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.3 Japan Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.4 China Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.5 India Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.6 Southeast Asia Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.2 Global Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size (Value) by Type (2017-2022)11.3 Global Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Size by Application (2017-2022)12 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Dynamics12.1 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Opportunities12.2 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Challenge and Risk12.2.1 Competition from Opponents12.2.2 Downside Risks of Economy12.3 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Constraints and Threat12.3.1 Threat from Substitute12.3.2 Government Policy12.3.3 Technology Risks12.4 Cloud Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Market Driving Force12.4.1 Growing Demand from Emerging Markets12.4.2 Potential Application13 Market Effect Factors Analysis13.1 Technology Progress/Risk13.1.1 Substitutes13.1.2 Technology Progress in Related Industry13.2 Consumer Needs Trend/Customer Preference13.3 External Environmental Change13.3.1 Economic Fluctuations13.3.2 Other Risk Factors14 Research Finding/Conclusion15 AppendixMethodologyAnalyst IntroductionData SourceBuy Now This Report From Here:Global QYResearch() is the one spot destination for all your research needs. Global QYResearch holds the repository of quality research reports from numerous publishers across the globe. Our inventory of research reports caters to various industry verticals including Healthcare, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Technology and Media, Chemicals, Materials, Energy, Heavy Industry, etc. With the complete information about the publishers and the industries they cater to for developing market research reports, we help our clients in making purchase decision by understanding their requirements and suggesting best possible collection matching their needs.Unit 1, 26 Cleveland Road, South Woodford, London,E182AN, United KingdomCall: +44 20 3239 2407sales@globalqyresearch.com
Global embedded software market will grow steadily over the next four years and post a CAGR of more than 9% by 2022
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This report studies the global Embedded Software market, analyzes and researches the Embedded Software development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeDexcel Electronics DesignsGraphene SemiconductorIntegra Micro SystemsQualitat SystemsStesalit SystemsJohnson ControlsSTMicroelectronicsFlaircomm MicroelectronicsGreen Hills SoftwareInfineonIBMIntelMentor Graphics (Siemens)XilinxAdvantechMicrosoftTexas InstrumentsMitsubishi ElectricHidden BrainsDownload Sample Report Copy From Here:Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, Embedded Software can be split intoC++AssemblyJavaNETMarket segment by Application, Embedded Software can be split intoAutomotiveHealthcareConsumer ElectronicsMilitary & DefenseIndustrialTelecommunicationIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of ContentsGlobal Embedded Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Embedded Software1.1 Embedded Software Market Overview1.1.1 Embedded Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Embedded Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Embedded Software Market by Type1.3.1 C1.3.2 C++1.3.3 Assembly1.3.4 Java1.3.5 NET1.4 Embedded Software Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Automotive1.4.2 Healthcare1.4.3 Consumer Electronics1.4.4 Military & Defense1.4.5 Industrial1.4.6 Telecommunication2 Global Embedded Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Embedded Software Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Dexcel Electronics Designs3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Embedded Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Graphene Semiconductor3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Embedded Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Integra Micro Systems3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Embedded Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Qualitat Systems3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Embedded Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 Stesalit Systems3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Embedded Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 Johnson Controls3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Embedded Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 STMicroelectronics3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Embedded Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 Flaircomm Microelectronics3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Embedded Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.8.5 Recent Developments3.9 Green Hills Software3.9.1 Company Profile3.9.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.9.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.9.4 Embedded Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.9.5 Recent Developments3.10 Infineon3.10.1 Company Profile3.10.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.10.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.10.4 Embedded Software Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.10.5 Recent Developments3.11 IBM3.12 Intel3.13 Mentor Graphics (Siemens)3.14 Xilinx3.15 Advantech3.16 Microsoft3.17 Texas Instruments3.18 Mitsubishi Electric3.19 Hidden Brains4 Global Embedded Software Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Embedded Software Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global Embedded Software Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of Embedded Software in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Embedded Software5 United States Embedded Software Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Embedded Software Market Size (2012-2017)5.2 United States Embedded Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)6 EU Embedded Software Development Status and Outlook6.1 EU Embedded Software Market Size (2012-2017)6.2 EU Embedded Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)7 Japan Embedded Software Development Status and Outlook7.1 Japan Embedded Software Market Size (2012-2017)7.2 Japan Embedded Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)8 China Embedded Software Development Status and Outlook8.1 China Embedded Software Market Size (2012-2017)8.2 China Embedded Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)9 India Embedded Software Development Status and Outlook9.1 India Embedded Software Market Size (2012-2017)9.2 India Embedded Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)10 Southeast Asia Embedded Software Development Status and Outlook10.1 Southeast Asia Embedded Software Market Size (2012-2017)10.2 Southeast Asia Embedded Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2017-2022)11.1 Global Embedded Software Market Size (Value) by Regions (2017-2022)11.1.1 United States Embedded Software Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.2 EU Embedded Software Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.3 Japan Embedded Software Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.4 China Embedded Software Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.5 India Embedded Software Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.6 Southeast Asia Embedded Software Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.2 Global Embedded Software Market Size (Value) by Type (2017-2022)11.3 Global Embedded Software Market Size by Application (2017-2022)12 Embedded Software Market Dynamics12.1 Embedded Software Market Opportunities12.2 Embedded Software Challenge and Risk12.2.1 Competition from Opponents12.2.2 Downside Risks of Economy12.3 Embedded Software Market Constraints and Threat12.3.1 Threat from Substitute12.3.2 Government Policy12.3.3 Technology Risks12.4 Embedded Software Market Driving Force12.4.1 Growing Demand from Emerging Markets12.4.2 Potential Application13 Market Effect Factors Analysis13.1 Technology Progress/Risk13.1.1 Substitutes13.1.2 Technology Progress in Related Industry13.2 Consumer Needs Trend/Customer Preference13.3 External Environmental Change13.3.1 Economic Fluctuations13.3.2 Other Risk Factors14 Research Finding/Conclusion15 AppendixMethodologyAnalyst IntroductionData SourceBuy Now This Report From Here:Global QYResearch() is the one spot destination for all your research needs. 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Regenerative Medicines Market is estimated to reach USD 67.6 billion at a CAGR of 18.9% by 2019
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Reports And Markets Publish a New Market Research Report On "Regenerative Medicines Market - Growth, Trends and Forecasts (2017 - 2022)"Access Full Report With Table Of Contents @The global regenerative market is estimated to reach USD 67.6 billion by 2019, from USD 16.4 billion in 2014, growing at a CAGR of 23.2 %. Small molecules and biologics show immense potential in the market and are estimated to grow at a CAGR of 18.9%.Regenerative medicines have the ability to restore the lost functionality of tissues or organs, unlike conventional medicines which are palliative.Global Regenerative Medicines Market- Market DynamicsThere are several factors driving and restraining the global regenerative medicines market. Some of these are listed below.DriversTechnological innovations in stem cell therapy and tissue engineeringGrowing prevalence of bone and joint diseasesGrowing need of orthopedic surgeriesIncreasing awarenessAdvancements in nanotechnologyIncreased in innovation in stem cell therapyRestraintsRules laid down by regulatory bodiesEthical issues related to regenerative medicinesCost of the treatment.The market is segmented on the basis of technology, applications, and geography.By technology, the market is divided into stem cell therapy, biomaterial, and tissue engineering.By type of applications, the market is segmented into bone graft substitutes, osteoarticular diseases, central nervous system and cardiovascular.By geography, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World.North America and Europe account for more than three-fourths of the revenue in 2013. However, technological advancement and research emphasis are growing in the Asia-Pacific region, so this is going to be a potential market for regenerative medicines.Request For Sample Report @Some of the key players in the market are:Anika Therapeutics, Inc.Arthrex, Inc.Baxter International, Inc.CONMED CorporationDePuy Synthes, Inc.Medtronic, Inc.What the Report OffersA wide and in-depth analysis of the market share and market size estimation based on products, applications, and services.High-level analysis of the competitive landscape, which in turn includes mergers & acquisitions, collaborations, new product launches and new strategies which major players are following to keep pace with the market.Market analysis for the regenerative medicine market, with region-specific assessments and competition analysis on the global and regional scale.Market definition along with the identification of key drivers and restraints.Identification of factors instrumental in changing the market scenario, rising prospective opportunities, and identification of key companies that can influence this market on a global and regional scale.Identification and analysis of the macro and micro factors that affect the market on both global and regional scale.A comprehensive list of key market players along with the analysis of their current strategic interests and key financial information.A wide-ranging knowledge and insights about the major players in this industry and the key strategies adopted by them to sustain and grow in the studied market.Insights on the major countries/regions where this industry is blooming and to also identify the regions that are still untapped.Check Discount @For more information or any query mail at sales@reportsandmarkets.comAbout Reports And MarketsReports And Markets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Are you mastering your market? Do you know what the market potential is for your product, who the market players are and what the growth forecast is? We offer standard global, regional or country specific market research studies for almost every market you can imagine.Contact PersonSanjay JainManager - Partner Relations & International Marketinginfo@reportsandmarkets.comPh: +1-214-377-1121 (US), +44-020-3286-9338 (UK)
Cancer Therapies Market is estimated to grow at 17.6% CAGR to reach $38.2 Billion by 2019
cancer therapies market, cancer therapy market size, cancer drugs market, cancer drugs market share, antihormonal cancer therapies
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Reports And Markets Publish a New Market Research Report On "Cancer Therapies Market - Growth, Trends and Forecasts (2017 - 2022)"Access Full Report With Table Of Contents @The global Cancer therapy market is estimated to grow at 17.6% CAGR to reach $38.2bilAA Aion by 2019. Breast cancer therapy is the largestmarket expected to reach $26.8 billion by 2015 at an estimated CAGR of 15%.Rise in cancer incidences and access to modern therapeutics, population of aged people, Increase in innovations, improvements and approvals promote growth of the market. Furthermore, efficiency and High process magnetize manufactures also contribute to the growth of the market .Major restraints are high price of therapies, change in reimbursement policies, and challenges faced in clinical trials.Market is segmented based on therapies i. e Targeted cancer therapies ( Hormone therapy, Signal transduction inhibitors, gene expression modulators, Apoptosis inducers etc.), Hormone therapies( Forms of hormone therapy) , immunotherapy( Monoclonal antibodies, Cancer vaccines, Non specific immunotherapies) ,Chemotherapy.Request For Sample Report @Based on geography market is segmented into North America (US, Canada), Europe, Asia and Rest of the world. Major players are focusing on marketing their products in emerging markets such as India, Japan, Brazil, and China. Oncology spending remain concentrated to America and Europe which totally accounts for 65% of the total market. Targeted therapies have increased their share of global oncology from 11 percent to 46 percent last year.Major companies in the market include Dendreon, Galena Biopharma, Newlink genetics, Peregrine pharmaceuticals, Inovio pharmaceuticals.Players are implementing new innovations, strategies, new product launches to gain a competitive edge.What makes our report Unique?1) The report discusses what the market is about, current trends in the market and future forecasts of the market. Market share analysis of various companies based on the product and geography.2) We give you a longest possible segmentation of the market based on products, applications, type of therapies available and geography.3) High level analysis of the market size, competitive landscape of major players which include mergers & Acquisitions, collaborations, new product launches, and strategies followed to sustain in the market.Check Discount @For more information or any query mail at sales@reportsandmarkets.comAbout Reports And MarketsReports And Markets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Are you mastering your market? Do you know what the market potential is for your product, who the market players are and what the growth forecast is? We offer standard global, regional or country specific market research studies for almost every market you can imagine.Contact PersonSanjay JainManager - Partner Relations & International Marketinginfo@reportsandmarkets.comPh: +1-214-377-1121 (US), +44-020-3286-9338 (UK)
Global Polymer Based Thermal Interface Materials (TIM) Market 2017 Forecast to 2022
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Polymer based thermal interface materials (TIM) are polymer based materials used for supporting heat sink to remove heat from the heat sources in various equipment. They are generally used in the form of a secondary thermally conductive material to replace the thermally insulating air between the two surfaces. Besides helping in the efficient transfer of heat, TIM also act as adhesives and strengthen the mechanical link between surfaces. Polymer-based TIM are the most commonly used TIM, and owing to their superior conductive and adhesive properties, they find extensive usage for thermal management applications in various industrial sectors, including electrical and electronics, telecom, and automotive.Request A Sample copy of Polymer Based Thermal Interface Materials(TIM) Market @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Polymer Based Thermal Interface Materials (TIM) in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers Dow Corning Henkel Honeywell Laird Technologies 3M SEMIKRON ShinEtsu Momentive Aavid AI Technology Huitian Kingbali HFC Boom New Materials AochuanMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, covers Polymer Based Thermal Sheet Polymer Based Thermal Tapes Polymer Based Thermal Liquid OthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into Lighting Industry Computer Industry Energy Industry Telecom Industry OthersTo Browse the Entire Report, Visit:ChaptersThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Polymer Based Thermal Interface Materials (TIM) market.Chapter 1, to describe Polymer Based Thermal Interface Materials (TIM) Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Polymer Based Thermal Interface Materials (TIM), with sales, revenue, and price of Polymer Based Thermal Interface Materials (TIM), in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Polymer Based Thermal Interface Materials (TIM), for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the market by countries, by type, by application and by manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Polymer Based Thermal Interface Materials (TIM) market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Polymer Based Thermal Interface Materials (TIM) sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceAbout Bharat Book Bureau:Bharat Book Bureau is the leading market research information provider for market research reports, company profiles, industry study, country reports, business reports, newsletters and online databases Bharat Book Bureau provides over a million reports from more than 400 publishers around the globe. We cover sectors starting from Aeronautics to Zoology.Contact us at:Bharat Book BureauTel: +91 22 27810772 / 27810773Email: poonam@bharatbook.comWebsite:Follow us on: Twitter|Facebook| Linkedin |Google Plus
Nuclear Medicine Market growing at a CAGR of around 12.29%
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Reports And Markets Publish a New Market Research Report On "Nuclear Medicine Market - Growth, Trends & Forecasts (2017 - 2022)"Access Full Report With Table Of Contents @The global nuclear medicines market is expected to reach USD 17,600 million by the end of 2020, growing at a CAGR of around 12.29% from 2015 to 2021. Nuclear medicine utilizes the radioisotope for application in diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The drugs containing radionuclides are called radiopharmaceuticals. The uses in radiological imaging include Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computerized tomography (CT), Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Single Proton Emission Tomography (SPECT).The use of nuclear medicines for diagnostic purposes has gained huge popularity all around the world. There has been increased use of SPECT, PET, CT, and MRI for diagnosis of cardiac diseases, brain diseases, cancer and many others. Nuclear medicine is being used for therapeutic purposes for treatment of Alzheimerdisease, coronary heart diseases, bone metastasis, cancers and different medical conditions affecting the thyroid gland, and scar tissue removal. Advancement in diagnostic imaging is bringing in more use of nuclear medicine. Nuclear cardiology has gained great popularity in North America.Global Nuclear Medicines Market- Market DynamicsThe report lists several driving and restraining factors for the global nuclear medicines market. In addition, it sheds light on several opportunities that exist for the market players. Some of these are listed below.DriversIncreasing incidence and prevalence of cancer and cardiac ailmentsIncreasing application of SPECT and PET with advancement of technologyGrowing awareness amongst physiciansPublic awareness for better healthcareRestraintsShort half-life of radiopharmaceuticalsHigh capital investment required for developmentStringent regulatory guidelinesOpportunitiesIncreasing imaging technologiesPotential radioisotopes in pipelineIncreasing neurological applications and cyclotron based productionRequest For Sample Report @The global nuclear medicine market has been segmented based on type, application, and geography.Based on the type of product, the market has been segmented into the diagnostic market and therapeutic market, wherein the diagnostics market has been further subdivided into SPECT radioisotopes that include Technetium-993, Thallium-201, Iodine-123, Gallium and PET radioisotopes (subdivided intoRubidium-82, Flourine-18). The therapeutics category has been segmented into Alpha emitters (Radium-223), Beta Emitters (includes Iodine-131, Samarium-153, Lutetium-177, Yttrium-90) and Brachytherapy (includes iodine-125, Cesium-131, Palladium-103, & Iridium-192).The segmentation based on the application has been similarly subdivided based on diagnostic and therapeutic application. The diagnostic application includes the application of SPECT and PET in cardiology, neurology, oncology and others. The therapeutic applications include application in oncology, thyroid, endocrinology and various other therapeutic areas.The global nuclear medicine market has been geographically segmented into North America (includes United States, Canada, and Mexico), Europe (includes Germany, UK, France, Italy Spain, Russia and Others), Asia-Pacific (includes China, Japan, India, Australia South Korea and Others), Middle East and Africa (includes UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and others), and Latin America (includes Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and others). Due to high technological advancement coupled with a developed economy, North America has the largest market share, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific.Currently, the segment of diagnostics holds the largest share in nuclear medicines market, where SPECT has the largest share. In the segmentation based on type, the Beta Emitters hold the largest share.Some of the key players in the market are:Bracco Imaging S.P.A.BRACCO PHARMACambridge Isotope Laboratories, Inc.Cardinal Health, Inc.Fujifilm Holdings CorporationGE Healthcare (Subsidiary of General Electric Company)Nordion, Inc.Taiyo Nippon Sanso CorporationWhat the Report OffersMarket definition for the nuclear medicines market along with identification of key drivers and restraints for the market.Market analysis for the nuclear medicines market, with region-specific assessments and competition analysis on a global and regional scale.Identification of factors instrumental in changing the market scenario, rising prospective opportunities and identification of key companies that can influence the market on a global and regional scale.Extensively researched competitive landscape section with profiles of major companies along with their strategic initiatives and market share.Identification and analysis of the macro and micro factors that affect the nuclear medicines market on both global and regional scale.A comprehensive list of key market players along with the analysis of their current strategic interests and key financial information.Check Discount @For more information or any query mail at sales@reportsandmarkets.comAbout Reports And MarketsReports And Markets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Are you mastering your market? Do you know what the market potential is for your product, who the market players are and what the growth forecast is? We offer standard global, regional or country specific market research studies for almost every market you can imagine.Contact PersonSanjay JainManager - Partner Relations & International Marketinginfo@reportsandmarkets.comPh: +1-214-377-1121 (US), +44-020-3286-9338 (UK)
Software Geographic Information Systems Market Analysis- Size, Share, overview, scope, Revenue, Gross Margin, Segment and Forecast 2022
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ReportBazzar has released its latest research-based report entitled Software Geographic Information Systems market. This report provides a holistic approach to the market growth with a detailed and precise analysis of the overall competitive scenario of the Software Geographic Information Systems market. The report also provides a detailed analysis of key trends playing a prominent role in the Software Geographic Information Systems market growth. The overall market provides detailed dynamic and statistical insights pertaining to the market at both regional and global level.This report studies the global Software Geographic Information Systems market, analyzes and researches the Software Geographic Information Systems development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia.Get Free Sample Copy of this Report @Application Insights:Various competent analytical tools have been used to offer a comprehensive assessment of the market. The report comprises of each aspect of the global market for Software Geographic Information Systems. It starts with the basic information and then advances to the market segmentation based on different criteria such as technology, industry areas and regions in general. A detailed analysis is given on the areas of industries it is used and basically how the technology is helping the particular industry or driving the market growth of that particular industry.Regional Insights:Major regions, countries, and sub-segments have been analyzed for providing the better understanding of the market scope worldwide. The regions taken into consideration are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Central & South America. The regional markets for the Software Geographic Information Systems market are analyzed by evaluating the demand, and supply, the assembly of the products, how it is getting connected with the human interface as well as the historical performance of the market in the given region.Competitive Insights:The report also provides insights on the competitive landscape of the global Software Geographic Information Systems industry with the leading players profiled in the report. Company profiles are purely tentative in nature and we can profile companies according to your interest at free cost. The company overview, trends, tactics, merger & acquisitions, business strategies, financial metrics of the major participants operating in the global Software Geographic Information Systems market have been reviewed in this study.Browse full report with Table of Content @Some Points Of Table Of Content:1 Industry Overview of Software Geographic Information Systems1.1 Software Geographic Information Systems Market Overview1.1.1 Software Geographic Information Systems Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Software Geographic Information Systems Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Software Geographic Information Systems Market by Type1.3.1 Desktop1.3.2 Mobile1.3.3 Cloud-based1.3.4 Other1.4 Software Geographic Information Systems Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Disaster Management1.4.2 Land Information1.4.3 Map Viewing1.4.4 Infrastructure Management1.4.5 Business Information1.4.6 Mineral Exploration1.4.7 Military & Defence1.4.8 Other2 Global Software Geographic Information Systems Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Software Geographic Information Systems Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Pasco Corporation3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Software Geographic Information Systems Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Ubisense Group3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Software Geographic Information Systems Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Beijing SuperMap Software3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Software Geographic Information Systems Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Hexagon3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Software Geographic Information Systems Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 Schneider Electric3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Software Geographic Information Systems Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 Environmental Systems Research Institute3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Software Geographic Information Systems Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 Bentley Systems3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Software Geographic Information Systems Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 Autodesk3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Software Geographic Information Systems Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.8.5 Recent Developments3.9 Pitney Bowes3.9.1 Company Profile3.9.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.9.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.9.4 Software Geographic Information Systems Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.9.5 Recent Developments3.10 MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates3.10.1 Company Profile3.10.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.10.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.10.4 Software Geographic Information Systems Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.10.5 Recent Developments4 Global Software Geographic Information Systems Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Software Geographic Information Systems Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global Software Geographic Information Systems Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of Software Geographic Information Systems in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Software Geographic Information SystemsAsk for Discount @About Us:Reportbazzar.com is your trusted source for the most inclusive and informative assortment of market research reports designed to empower you with the latest in industry information that translates to time and cost savings for your business. We not only help you give wing to your latent business ideas but also facilitate you in taking the best informed and strategic decisions that guarantee success in your most promising business endeavors. Our intelligence database comprises of vast arrays of strategically analyzed and high-level market research reports that encompass all major industries worldwide. All the specialized research reports available at Reportbazzar.com are tailor-made to suit your every business need, no matter how diverse or demanding it is.Contact Us:ReportBazzar30 Wall Street, 8th floor,New York, NY 10005.United States.US: +1 (212) 389-6363India: +91 20 66528525
By PTI: By K J M Varma
Beijing, Sept 2 (PTI) Five banks of the BRICS Bank Cooperation Mechanism have agreed to establish credit lines in the national currencies and cooperate on credit ratings.
The agreement was signed ahead of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in China?s Xiamen city tomorrow in which leaders of the five countries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi are scheduled to take part.
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"Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), Vnesheconombank, Export-Import Bank of India, China Development Bank and Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) have signed an agreement to establish credit lines in the national currencies, as well as a memorandum of cooperation on credit ratings," Russian news agency TASS Reported.
There was no word from Export-Import Bank of India in this regard.
The Chinese official said "the decision was taken in order to bolster further cooperation."
The agreement on credit ratings reportedly enables them to share information about internal credit ratings and rating assessment.
Ahead of the BRICS summit, the New Development Bank (NDB) of the BRICS countries has approved USD 1.4 billion loans for sustainable development projects in China, India and Russia.
The Board of Directors of the bank have approved four infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the three countries, the NDB had said.
For India, the Bank has approved USD 470 million loan for Madhya Pradesh?s Multi-Village Rural Drinking Water Supply Scheme Project. PTI KJV NSA
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Marketing Automation Software Market - By Deployment Model, End User Industry, Vendors and Geography - Forecasts and Trends (2017 - 2022)
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The Asia Pacific Marketing Automation market is estimated to increase in the near future because of the increased usage of this software in E-Commerce websites. Internet penetration in Asian markets has boosted the e-commerce market in Asia Pacific. There are more than a billion people in the APAC region who use the internet. Global companies like eBay and Amazon have invested heavily in the APAC market because of its huge sales and revenues. Domestic Companies like Flipkart, Alibaba and Rakuten etc. have an established market in their countries and are expanding heavily. The enormous amount of data that is generated is tracked and analysed by the software effectively.ACCESS FULL REPORT AND TOC:With the increased usage of SaaS by small and medium companies and a lot of developments in Cloud Computing, the demand for marketing automation software is increasing. Marketing automation is a very active segment of the CRM software market. Marketing Automation helps the firms in getting leads faster and helps the sales team to coordinate among themselves. The marketing team uses the data it gets and formulates the strategy for campaigns. This helps them get better results for the campaigns.The Software assists firms in developing, executing and tracking campaigns in a streamlined and more effective manner so that the managers can automate workflows, manage collateral, track prospect behaviour and qualify leads before they are passed to sales.This also helps in the management of the allocation of resources by the firm as the software can be used to provide advanced reporting and analytics tools to measure the performance of initiatives. The report provides a detailed analysis of the usage of Marketing Automation Software by various kinds of users from B2B sellers to email marketers.Detailed market shares are given and the dynamics of the market are forecasted for the next five years. The major companies in the market like IBM, HP, Evolven are studied and their strategies are analysed. Recent developments and their impact on the market are analysed.The industry landscape is shifting with the acquisition of smaller firms by big companies like Adobe and Salesforce. The increasing number of options has resulted in a fierce competition for low prices, this cost shift, however, has opened up new markets for smaller businesses now being able to afford the software.SAMPLE REPORT:What the report offers:1) Market definition for Marketing Automation Software with information on drivers and restraints.2) Market Analysis involving major markets, and usage of Marketing Automation Software in the industry.3) Identification of factors instrumental in changing the market scenarios, rising prospective opportunities and identification of key companies which can influence the market on a global and regional scale.4) Extensively researched competitive landscape with profiles of major companies along with their market share.5) A comprehensive list of key market players along with the analysis of their current strategic interests and key financial information.Reasons for buying this report:1) We provide you with the most comprehensive market segmentation.2)Would be of assistance in providing a comprehensive analysis of the major trends, innovations and associated prospects for market growth over the coming half a decade.3)Wide-ranging information provided about the leading market players, major strategies adopted by them and new products launched by them.About Reports And MarketsReports And Markets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Are you mastering your market? Do you know what the market potential is for your product, who the market players are and what the growth forecast is? We offer standard global, regional or country specific market research studies for almost every market you can imagine.The marketing research reports consist of market analysis with statistical and analytical information on the markets, applications, industry analysis, market shares, technology and technology shifts, important players, and the developments in the market.Do you want to know more on a specific company? Our Company Reports collection contains thousands of profiles of major industrial companies. These reports typically contain information like a company overview, business description, company history, major products and services, key facts, SWOT analysis, key employees, subsidiaries, and company locations.On ReportsAndMarkets.com you will find all the globally available market research and company reports from well-respected market research companies, all leaders in their field. Reports And Markets is totally independent and serves its customers by providing the most reliable market research available, as we understand how important this is for you.Sanjay JainManager - Partner Relations & International MarketingPhone: +1-214-377-1121 (US)+44-020-3286-9338 (UK)info@reportsandmarkets.comOffice No: 206 Empress Mill SocietyShree Nagar, Nagpur - 440015Maharashtra India
Global Fashion Design Services Market Report 2017
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Fashion Design Services Market Global Report 2017Including: Fashion Clothing Design, Footwear Design, Jewelry And Accessory Design, Textile Design, Other Design ServicesCovering: Design Principles, LLC, Savvy Apparel Studio LLC, stylecouncil, Marcie Designs Inc, London PortfolioUse of 3D technology has brought a transformative change in the fashion industry. Fashion Design agencies are coming up with new design patterns with this technology to offer variety of designs to the consumers. This technology is enabling design agencies to create prototypes or engage in production without the involvement of middlemen.Request a sample copy of Fashion Design Services Market @Fashion Design Services Market Global Report 2017 from The Business Research Company provides the strategists, marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global fashion design services market.Reasons to Purchase Outperform competitors using accurate up to date demand-side dynamics information. Identify growth segments for investment. Facilitate decision making on the basis of historic and forecast data and the drivers and restraints on the market.Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and study.Stay abreast of the latest customer and market research findings Benchmark performance against key competitors. Develop strategies based on likely future developments. Utilize the relationships between key data sets for superior strategizing. Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and study Gain a global perspective on the development of the market.Report will be updated with the latest data and delivered to you within 3-5 working days of order.DescriptionWhere is the largest and fastest growing market for fashion design services? How does the market relate to the overall economy, demography and other similar markets? What forces will shape the market going forward? The fashion design services market global report from the Business Research Company answers all these questions and many more.The report covers market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional and country breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends and strategies for this market. It traces the markets historic and forecast market growth by geography. It places the market within the context of the wider fashion design services market, and compares it with other markets. The market characteristics section of the report defines and explains the market. The market size section gives the market size ($b) covering both the historic growth of the market and forecasting the future. Drivers and restraints looks at the external factors supporting and controlling the growth of the market. Market segmentations break down market into sub markets. The regional and country breakdowns section gives an study of the market in each geography and the size of the market by geography and compares their historic and forecast growth. It covers all the regions, key developed countries and major emerging markets. It draws comparisons with country populations and economies to understand the importance of the market by country and how this is changing. Competitive landscape gives a Description of the competitive nature of the market, market shares, and a Description of the leading companies. Key financial deals which have shaped the market in recent years are identified. The trends and strategies section highlights the likely future developments in the market and suggests approaches companies can take to exploit this. The fashion design services market section of the report gives context. It compares the fashion design services market with other segments of the fashion design services market by size and growth, historic and forecast. It analyses Expenditure Per Capita, Fashion Design Services Indicators Comparison, Fashion Design Services Enterprise And Employee ComparisonTo read the complete report, click the link :ScopeMarkets covered: Fashion Clothing Design, Footwear Design, Jewelry And Accessory Design, Textile Design, Other Design ServicesCompanies mentioned: Design Principles, LLC, Savvy Apparel Studio LLC, stylecouncil, Marcie Designs Inc, London PortfolioCountries: China, India, Japan, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, USA, BrazilRegions: Asia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, Africa, Oceania.Time series: Five years historic and forecast.Data: Ratios of market size and growth to related markets, population, GDP, Expenditure Per Capita, Fashion Design Services Indicators Comparison, Fashion Design Services Enterprise And Employee ComparisonData segmentations: country and regional historic and forecast data, market share of competitors, market segments.Sourcing and Referencing: Data and study throughout the report is sourced using end notes.Bharat Book Bureau is the leading market research information provider for market research reports, company profiles, industry study, country reports, business reports, newsletters and online databases Bharat Book Bureau provides over a million reports from more than 400 publishers around the globe. We cover sectors starting from Aeronautics to Zoology.Bharat Book BureauTel: +91 22 27810772 / 27810773Email: poonam@bharatbook.comWebsite:Follow us on : Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Google Plus
Global Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022
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This report studies the global Medical Transcription Software (MTS) market, analyzes and researches the Medical Transcription Software (MTS) development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeNagarsoftNuanceEvolveMedAcusisSMARTMDNarratekEntradaNCH SoftwareM*ModalTotalmed TranscriptionCybernation InfotechMercedes TranscriptionMTBCNuScribeMDofficeManagerWebgazer Software CompanyTransDyneAthreonMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, Medical Transcription Software (MTS) can be split intoWeb-Based MTSCloud Based MTSOn-Premise MTSDownload Sample Report Copy From Here:Market segment by Application, Medical Transcription Software (MTS) can be split intoPhysiciansDiagnostic LabsPharmacistsOthersIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of ContentsGlobal Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Medical Transcription Software (MTS)1.1 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Overview1.1.1 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market by Type1.3.1 Web-Based MTS1.3.2 Cloud Based MTS1.3.3 On-Premise MTS1.4 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Physicians1.4.2 Diagnostic Labs1.4.3 Pharmacists1.4.4 Others2 Global Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Nagarsoft3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Nuance3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 EvolveMed3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Acusis3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 SMARTMD3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 Narratek3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 Entrada3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 NCH Software3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.8.5 Recent Developments3.9 M*Modal3.9.1 Company Profile3.9.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.9.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.9.4 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.9.5 Recent Developments3.10 Totalmed Transcription3.10.1 Company Profile3.10.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.10.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.10.4 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.10.5 Recent Developments3.11 Cybernation Infotech3.12 Mercedes Transcription3.13 MTBC3.14 NuScribe3.15 MDofficeManager3.16 Webgazer Software Company3.17 TransDyne3.18 Athreon4 Global Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of Medical Transcription Software (MTS) in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Medical Transcription Software (MTS)5 United States Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size (2012-2017)5.2 United States Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)6 EU Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Development Status and Outlook6.1 EU Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size (2012-2017)6.2 EU Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)7 Japan Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Development Status and Outlook7.1 Japan Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size (2012-2017)7.2 Japan Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)8 China Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Development Status and Outlook8.1 China Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size (2012-2017)8.2 China Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)9 India Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Development Status and Outlook9.1 India Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size (2012-2017)9.2 India Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)10 Southeast Asia Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Development Status and Outlook10.1 Southeast Asia Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size (2012-2017)10.2 Southeast Asia Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2017-2022)11.1 Global Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size (Value) by Regions (2017-2022)11.1.1 United States Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.2 EU Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.3 Japan Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.4 China Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.5 India Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.1.6 Southeast Asia Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)11.2 Global Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size (Value) by Type (2017-2022)11.3 Global Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Size by Application (2017-2022)12 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Dynamics12.1 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Opportunities12.2 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Challenge and Risk12.2.1 Competition from Opponents12.2.2 Downside Risks of Economy12.3 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Constraints and Threat12.3.1 Threat from Substitute12.3.2 Government Policy12.3.3 Technology Risks12.4 Medical Transcription Software (MTS) Market Driving Force12.4.1 Growing Demand from Emerging Markets12.4.2 Potential Application13 Market Effect Factors Analysis13.1 Technology Progress/Risk13.1.1 Substitutes13.1.2 Technology Progress in Related Industry13.2 Consumer Needs Trend/Customer Preference13.3 External Environmental Change13.3.1 Economic Fluctuations13.3.2 Other Risk Factors14 Research Finding/Conclusion15 AppendixMethodologyAnalyst IntroductionData SourceBuy Now This Report From Here:Global QYResearch() is the one spot destination for all your research needs. 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Clinical Trials Market growing at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 7.5%
clinical trials market size, clinical trials market, clinical trials market analysis, clinical trials market share, clinical trial
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Reports And Markets Publish a New Market Research Report On "Clinical Trials Market Growth, Trends and Forecasts (2017 - 2022)"Access Full Report With Table Of Contents @The global clinical trials market has been estimated to reach USD 14.2 billion in 2016 and is projected to reach around USD 22 billion by the year 2021, growing at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 7.5%, during the forecast period 2016 to 2021. Clinical trial is a part of clinical research that follows a regulated protocol. Clinical trials are primarily performed to get data on safety and efficacy of the new developed drug. Clinical trial data is mandatory for further approval of the drug and to bring it into the market.The increasing disease burden is propelling the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry to bring up new chemical entities into the market at a higher rate. Most companies are outsourcing the clinical trials of their newly developed drugs to various contract research organizations as this could save them the hassles of regulatory issues and patient recruitment burden from the research and development phase. Clinical trials allows the drug to be tested for safety by different ethnic population. Due to the higher medical needs and increasing disease prevalence, developing countries are becoming a hub for clinical trial execution. Since 2006, there has been an increased number of trials registered worldwide and it is estimated to increase further in the coming years, which would contribute to the market growth.The United States and Canada have the highest market share in the clinical trials market, followed by Europe where Germany leads the market followed by Poland and Western Europe. Asia is one of the fastest growing markets. India, China, Singapore and South Korea are the major players involved in this market. This high growth is attributed to the fact that the cost involved in performing a trial is less and the huge domain it provides in the aspect of diseases and patients.The report identifies the different trends and key opportunities in clinical trials market, and provides the market share of major segments and geographical regions. The major companies profiled in this report includes Quintiles, Paraxel, ICON Plc, PPD, and Charles River, among others. The report provides strategic insights on industry competition, and covers key facts, business overview, service portfolio, SWOT analysis and financial analysis of leading players in the market.Request For Sample Report @1. INTRODUCTION1.1 Study Assumptions1.2 Market Definition2. RESEARCH APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY2.1 Introduction2.2 Analysis Methodology2.3 Study Phases2.3.1 Secondary Research2.3.2 Discussion Guide2.3.3 Market Engineering & Econometric Modelling2.3.4 Expert Validation2.4 Study Timeline3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY4. MARKET OVERVIEW4.1 Introduction4.2 Clinical Trials Design4.3 Clinical Trials Phases4.4 Post Trials Marketing Structure4.5 Safety Measures4.6 Patient & Physician Recruitment4.7 Ethical Values involved in the Clinical Trials4.8 Regulatory Affairs4.9 Clinical Trials Setup & Funding5. MARKET DYNAMICS5.1 Market Drivers5.1.1 Demand for Clinical Trials in Emerging Markets5.1.2 High Spending in Innovation5.1.3 Increasing Prevalence of Diseases5.1.4 Increasing number of CROs5.2 Market Restraints5.2.1 Lack of Skilled Clinical Research Workforce5.2.2 Regulatory Quality in Emerging Markets5.2.3 Stringent Regulations for Patient Enrollment5.2.4 Delay in Clinical Trials Approval5.3 Porter's Five Forces Analysis5.3.1 Bargaining Power of Suppliers5.3.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers5.3.3 Threat of New Entrants5.3.4 Threat of Substitute Products and Services5.3.5 Degree of Competition6. GLOBAL MARKET SEGMENTATION6.1 By Phases6.1.1 Phase I6.1.2 Phase II6.1.3 Phase III6.1.4 Phase IV6.2 By Design6.2.1 Treatment Studies6.2.1.1 Randomized Control Trial6.2.1.1.1 Double Blind Randomized Trial6.2.1.1.2 Single Blind Randomized Trial6.2.1.1.3 Non-Blind Trial6.2.1.2 Adaptive Clinical Trial6.2.1.3 Non Randomized Clinical Trial6.2.2 Observational Studies6.2.2.1 Cohort Study6.2.2.1.1 Prospective Cohort6.2.2.1.2 Retrospective Cohort6.2.2.1.3 Time-Series Cohort6.2.2.2 Case Control Study6.2.2.3 Cross Control Study6.2.2.4 Ecological Study7. GLOBAL MARKET- SEGMENTATION BY GEOGRAPHY7.1 North America7.1.1 US7.1.2 Canada7.1.3 Mexico7.2 Europe7.2.1 UK7.2.2 France7.2.3 Germany7.2.4 Spain7.2.5 Italy7.2.6 Rest of Europe7.3 APAC7.3.1 China7.3.2 Japan7.3.3 India7.3.4 South Korea7.3.5 Rest of Asia-Pacific7.4 South America7.4.1 Brazil7.4.2 Argentina7.4.3 Rest of South America7.5 Middle East & Africa7.5.1 GCC7.5.2 South Africa7.5.2 Rest of Middle East & Africa8. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE8.1 Mergers & Acquisitions8.2 Agreements, collaboration and partnerships8.3 New Product Launches9. COMPANY PROFILES9.1 Quintiles9.2 Parexel9.3 PPD9.4 Covance9.5 ICON9.6 Quotient Bioresearch9.7 Charles Rivers9.8 Pharmnet9.9 Wuxi9.10 Accovion9.11 Pfizer9.12 CenterWatchCheck Discount @For more information or any query mail at sales@reportsandmarkets.comAbout Reports And MarketsReports And Markets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Are you mastering your market? Do you know what the market potential is for your product, who the market players are and what the growth forecast is? We offer standard global, regional or country specific market research studies for almost every market you can imagine.Contact PersonSanjay JainManager - Partner Relations & International Marketinginfo@reportsandmarkets.comPh: +1-214-377-1121 (US), +44-020-3286-9338 (UK)
After two teachers went rogue on his watch, Portland Public Schools put the principal of a North Portland school on leave and called in an outside investigator.
The findings were troubling: Many teachers rated Principal Karl Newsome as an incompetent leader, noting he feared confrontation, failed to follow up and fell asleep when conducting teacher observations. While kindhearted, he let school operations at Astor K-8 School degenerate into chaos, they said.
The scathing report didn't lead to Newsome's demotion or termination, however. Instead, Portland Public Schools put him in charge of an even larger school. Newsome is now principal of Sellwood Middle School, which serves an empowered community of families from Sellwood and Westmoreland.
Portland Principal Karl Newsome
The lack of consequences for Newsome, who continues to hold a high-profile six-figure job, is another sign that Oregon's largest school district doesn't appear to hold employees accountable, even when their bad conduct or poor performance harms students' educations or puts them at risk.
For years, auditors have said Portland Public Schools fostered a culture sorely lacking accountability. Last summer, a lead in drinking water scandal forced this long-festering problem to the forefront. Some officials within the district as well as some outside critics pinned the too-forgiving attitude on then-Superintendent Carole Smith, who stepped down more than a year ago. New district leaders promised to do better.
But the treatment of Newsome indicates a culture change is far from taking hold.
Assistant Superintendent Antonio Lopez
Assistant Superintendent Antonio Lopez oversees all principals and directly supervised Newsome's two most recent bosses. Lopez has worked in the district since 2003, when he was hired as an elementary principal, and has been in his powerful position since 2014.
District spokesman Dave Northfield said it was up to Lopez to say how the Newsome situation was handled.
Lopez would not agree to be interviewed for this story or respond to written questions.
Newsome did not respond to requests in writing and by phone for comment.
Newsome was placed on paid leave following a heated meeting with Astor parents in October 2016.
Although the meeting, attended by a reporter from The Oregonian/OregonLive, was called after police responded to a classroom incident involving a teacher, parents seemed largely unconcerned with that. Instead, Newsome fielded questions for more than an hour and half from distraught parents who wanted to know why their years of complaints about poor instruction and other problems at the school had gone unaddressed and what they should do when Astor continually failed their children.
It was so bad, Newsome's boss stood up to tell the crowd of parents how sorry she was.
"I just want to apologize for (Portland Public Schools) and what your kids have experienced," senior director Molly Chun said. "It is not right, it is not just, and we need to take care of it."
The next day, Newsome was on leave. But the district didn't task the investigator with getting to the bottom of those concerns. Instead, attorney Ryan Gibson was given the narrow scope of determining if Newsome failed to assess the safety risks posed by the two teachers.
On that question, Gibson cleared Newsome.
What happened during those two incidents is unclear, as the district redacted all details.
During his inquiry, Gibson was inundated with complaints about Newsome's poor leadership. He noted several times in his report that his assignment was narrow. Still, complaints about Newsome were so voluminous and consistent, he wrote, that he couldn't help but conclude the principal was a substandard school steward.
At the meeting, Chun told parents there were no records of any previous complaints. That baffled parents who felt they'd made their fears clear.
Records of their complaints did in fact exist. Gibson wrote that he reviewed 250 pages of emails that he described as consisting mostly of parent complaints.
The state of the school was so bad, his report said, the principal who took over for Newsome broke down crying even talking about it.
"In a nutshell, I have not found evidence of any working systems or operations at Astor that I feel are adequate," said Dana Jacobs, a longtime Portland Public Schools principal tapped to lead Astor while Newsome was on leave.
The report speculates that Newsome's faults may have been exacerbated by ineffective oversight.
Chun had only overseen Newsome for a few months when she apologized to families for how the school had been run
The report says Chun and others told the investigator they strongly suspected Newsome's prior supervisors didn't give him enough support.
Newsome became Astor's principal in 2011.
It was his first time as a principal.
Chun and Frank Scotto, an administrator tapped to help principals in need both told the investigator that Astor consumed a disproportionate amount of their time, with Scotto saying Newsome needed extra "hand-holding" compared to other principals.
When Interim Superintendent Bob McKean took charge of the district, he stressed the need to instill accountability. During his tenure, which spanned last school year, he spoke out about the need for central administrators to be more plugged in when the teachers union complained of several "chaos schools" where the working climates were untenable.
Newsome was put on leave during McKean's time at the top.
The investigator's report is dated April 25. In June, McKean announced Newsome as Sellwood's next principal.
Astor parent Darrell Grenz called the decision to put Newsome at Sellwood "mind-boggling" and said he'd love to know why the district made that choice.
"It's a bigger thing with (Portland Public Schools). I don't understand the way they make decisions," he said. "Karl is such a good, kind-hearted guy, but professionally I'm not sure what the best role for him is ... I put that blame on the district not on Karl."
He said it was frustrating for parents to be told their complaints weren't documented, as it was obvious that claim wasn't true. In the end, the turmoil prompted many families to leave the school, he said. Unrest existed mostly in Astor's sixth- through eighth-grades, he said, making the decision to place Newsome in charge of a middle school particularly confusing.
Other Portland Public Schools personnel decisions have upset parents, employees and even school board members. A manager who harangued employees was relieved of all management duties but kept on as a manager. An educator accused of sexual misconduct with students kept his job until he was criminally convicted of assaulting a coworker. The employee assigned to keep students safe from environmental hazards had no training about lead and actively resisted parent and employee requests to test water that would prove to be tainted.
At Astor, parents complained that Newsome's failure to manage substitute teachers led to months of learning opportunities lost. Grenz pulled his son out of the school last year. His daughter, who was in elementary last year, still attends Astor.
Newsome has a history at Sellwood. He served as its assistant principal from 2006 to 2010.
Portland's seven-member school board, which got an infusion of three new members over the summer, has pledged better days are ahead. A new superintendent will take over in October, though he's already become the public face of the district by showing up for key events despite still living in San Francisco.
Top of mind, board members say, is the district's complaint process. Many of them know firsthand how broken the system is from their experiences as parents.
But parents are accustomed to empty promises. Grenz says it appears par for the course for the district to avoid a real solution. Instead, the approach appears to be "just throwing something against the wall to see what sticks," he said.
"I wonder why there is such a big lack of accountability," Grenz said. "Parents shouldn't have to work so hard to advocate for their kids."
Bethany Barnes
Got a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.com
Portland Public Schools may dismiss students two hours early on Tuesday if temperatures rise as high as forecast, making schools unhealthy, officials said Friday.
All but a handful of schools in the district are more than 40 years old, and some are more than 100. Most are not air-conditioned.
The National Weather Service's current forecast calls for the temperature to reach 95 degrees by 3 p.m., when schools normally let out. At 1 p.m., the forecast predicts it will be 90 degrees.
Portland school leaders plan to announce for certain on Monday whether schools will close early.
It was unclear Friday whether other school districts will follow suit. Suburban districts tend to have newer buildings and more air-conditioning.
Most Portland-area school districts will hold their first day of class Tuesday. Portland, West Linn-Wilsonville and Lake Oswego started last week.
-- The Oregonian
UPDATED Wednesday, April 4: Man gets 11 years for killing of teen outside Salem convenience store in 1998
***
SALEM, Ore. Police have made an arrest in the killing of a teenager outside an Oregon convenience store almost 20 years ago.
Salem police Lt. Dave Okada said Friday that 16-year-old Alfredo Lopez-Nabor was fatally shot after a gang-related fight on May 9, 1998. Investigators developed probable cause to arrest Fernando Cortez, but the suspect who was 19 at the time fled to Mexico.
A Salem police detective reopened the investigation a decade later as a cold case. He found that Cortez had returned to the U.S., and was possibly living under a false name in California.
The detective, Jamie Vasas, arrested Cortez on a murder charge this week in Oxnard, California. He's in the Ventura County Jail, awaiting extradition back to Oregon.
The Associated Press
Four regional humane societies came together Friday afternoon at Hillsboro Airport to welcome 34 dogs evacuated from San Antonio in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
They were moved to make room in shelters for rescued pets affected by the devastating storm.
"It is by far the largest national deployment of animal rescue resources," says Scott Beckstead, Senior Oregon Director for the Humane Society of the United States. HSUS has reached out to their network of over 370 emergency shelters nationwide.
The Oregon Humane Society, Columbia Humane Society (St. Helens), Humane Society of Southwest Washington (Vancouver) and the Humane Society of Central Oregon (Bend) will transport the dogs back to their shelters for veterinarian examinations and further evaluation before being put up for adoption.
The trip was funded by GreaterGood.org and flown by Wings of Rescue with the coordination of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
Twenty cats will continue on the plane to Lynnwood, Washington.
Oregon is a "natural fit" as a new home for these dogs, according to Beckstead. Citizens here "have strong humane values."
Only after Hurricane Katrina was it realized that ignoring animal friends was creating more harm.
"You saw people refusing to leave without their pets, risking their lives to stay behind," says Kelly Peterson, an HSUS senior vice president of state affairs,
"Helping animals is helping people," adds Peterson. "For people who have lost everything, their pets are what give them hope."
There are about 300 dogs that are being evacuated from the storm area to states across the country, including New Jersey, Virginia, Washington and Colorado. Beckstead says that number will likely rise to 1,000.
Updated 9:33 a.m. Sunday
Taking a page from former President Barack Obama's playbook, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, invoked language of hope and unity in an op-ed published in Iowa's Des Moines Register on Friday.
Onlookers say the message points to his interest in joining the 2020 race for the presidency, which has its first contest in Iowa.
Look who has an op-ed in state with first contest of 2020 presidential primary season. https://t.co/5NHZO0emFR via @DMRegister Jeff Mapes (@Jeffmapes) September 2, 2017
"We can absolutely say he's running now," said Jim Moore, a Pacific University professor who studies Oregon politics. "There's no reason for him to write to people in Iowa, other than he's testing the waters."
In an email, Merkley spokeswoman Sara Hottman didn't reject the possibility of a presidential run, saying "the senator is focused on supporting his colleagues in the the 2018 races right now."
The Oregon politician has enjoyed increased attention this year, positioning himself as one of the Senate's most outspoken opponents of President Donald Trump. He was the lone sitting senator to endorse Bernie Sanders in last year's presidential campaign.
After Trump's election, he railed against the president's executive orders to prevent those from Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S., and voted against many of his cabinet nominees.
Most notably, he delivered a 15-hour speech from the Senate floor in an attempt to stall the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
That attempt ultimately failed, but the move threw him into the spotlight and boosted his name recognition.
Oregonian politicians rarely come within striking distance of the presidency. In 1968, former Oregon Gov. Mark Hatfield landed on Richard Nixon's short list for vice president, but the appointment went to Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew.
"That kind of high-level stuff with Oregonians is kind of rare," Moore said. "But here we are."
Does Merkley have a real shot at the White House? It depends, Moore said. He could capture the progressive Bernie Sanders base, if its momentum continues into the election. But if the election is about identity politics if voters want a woman or a person of color in office Merkley could struggle, Moore said.
Merkley doesn't yet have the name-recognition of progressive darlings like Elizabeth Warren, Moore said, but it's still early.
"He has as good a shot of anyone, which means I don't think he has a great shot right now," he said. "But that's where everybody starts. And this is a first step."
Despite the partisan politics he has displayed since Trump's election, Merkley paints a picture of harmony in his op-ed, insisting that from what he's seen from Oregon town halls, liberals and conservatives aren't that different, after all.
"Back in D.C., everyone breaks out into their tribes girded for battle, but at home in Oregon (and in Iowa, too, I imagine), people just want answers," he wrote. "They want a health care system that is easy to understand and there when they need it. They want a job that pays a decent, living wage. They want to go to college without mortgaging their future and a fair shot to make their mark, without having to jump through extra hoops because of their race, gender, or anything other than work ethic and talent."
Next, he echoed Obama's 2008 campaign slogan, emphasizing the Constitution's opening words, "We the people."
"If we embrace the powerful forces that unite us, we can create an America that inspires hope and optimism again," he wrote.
Merkley drew on his blue-collar background his dad worked as a millwright and a mechanic and said he was looking forward to attending a Sept. 10 corn feed held by liberal advocacy group Iowa for the Progress. He will speak alongside South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack.
"Iowa has some big elections coming up in 2018, a chance to choose what kind of state it wants to be," Merkley wrote. "And because of Iowa's outsized role in national politics, its example matters."
If Iowa voters choose correctly, he hinted, America could overcome some of its most pressing problems.
"We can meet those challenges," he wrote, "in Iowa and across the nation, if we rise up together to take back our country in the name of We the People."
This story has been updated with additional comments from professor Jim Moore and a comment from Sen. Merkley's office.
-- Anna Marum
amarum@oregonian.com
503-294-5911
@annamarum
Records show federal authorities deported Martinez 12 times and sent him back to Mexico a 13th time under a procedure called a withdrawal. On one of the deportations, immigration officials said they couldn't find records that Martinez left the U.S. after the order was signed.
April 21, 2009 Deported to Mexico at Laredo, Texas, based on a removal order approved by an immigration judge.
March 15, 2010 -- Deported to Mexico through the San Ysidro, Calif., border crossing after ICE reinstates his removal order.
May 24, 2013 -- Turned over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, issued an expedited removal order and deported to Mexico through San Ysidro. Expedited removals allow immediate deportation of people at a port of entry when they enter with fake ID or falsely claim U.S. citizenship, for example. Martinez presented a California ID under a false name, Erick Acosta, according to court records.
July 2, 2014 -- Released to ICE in Los Angeles by the Bureau of Prisons, removal order reinstated and deported to Mexico through San Ysidro.
April 8, 2015 -- Released to ICE, removal order reinstated, deported to Mexico through San Ysidro.
April 9, 2015 Sought admission at San Ysidro by falsely claiming U.S. citizenship. Brought back into the United States to be prosecuted for felony re-entry.
April 28, 2015 -- When the prosecution didn't proceed, Martinez was allowed to withdraw his application for admission to the U.S. and returned to Mexico. ICE calls this a withdrawal.
May 6, 2015 -- Arrested by ICE officers after his release from the Los Angeles County Jail, removal order reinstated and deported to Mexico through San Ysidro.
May 10, 2015: -- Arrested by Customs and Border Protection near the Calexico, Calif., crossing and held for illegal-re-entry prosecution. The re-entry case was dismissed May 22 and ICE reinstated the removal order. ICE can't find records that Martinez returned to Mexico this time.
Aug. 19, 2015 -- Turned over to ICE, removal order reinstated, deported to Mexico through San Ysidro.
Dec. 21, 2015 -- Ordered removed by an immigration judge in San Diego, deported to Mexico through San Ysidro.
March 8, 2016 -- Ordered removed by an immigration judge in San Diego; deported to Mexico through San Ysidro.
April 12, 2016 Ordered removed by an immigration judge in San Diego, deported to Mexico through San Ysidro.
Nov. 28, 2016 -- Arrested by Customs and Border Protection while trying to enter the country near Imperial Beach, Calif. Deported to Mexico through San Ysidro after removal order reinstated.
Re-entry Prosecutions:
Dec. 7, 2009 Convicted in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles of illegal re-entry, sentenced to eight months in federal prison.
Nov. 17, 2015 -- Convicted in U.S. District Court in San Diego of illegal entry, sentenced to time served.
Feb. 11, 2016 -- Convicted in U.S. District Court in San Diego of misdemeanor improper entry by an alien, sentenced to two months in federal prison.
Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
By PTI: Ahmedabad, Sep 1 (PTI) Gujarats commercial capital Ahmedabad was today formally accorded the status of Indias first World Heritage City by UNESCO.
UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova handed over the certificate declaring Ahmedabad as a World Heritage City to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Gandhinagar.
In July, the UN agency had inscribed Ahmedabad as Indias first World Heritage City at a meeting held in Poland.
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Speaking after receiving the certificate, Rupani said it was a moment of pride for Gujaratis.
He slammed the previous governments for "not doing enough" in the past to get this tag for the city, said an official press release issued by the state government.
"Ahmedabad received this tag late because the previous governments did not pay any attention to it. Our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, saw this dream in 2010 (when he was Gujarat the chief minister). His dream of getting the world heritage tag for the city has now been realised," Rupani was quoted as saying in the release.
Rupani appealed the citizens of Ahmedabad to maintain the pride and glory of the newly crowned World Heritage City.
On the occasion, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said the city was previously known for trade and commerce across the globe. "But now, it has acquired one more tag of World Heritage City and gained recognition globally," said Patel.
The walled city of Ahmedabad, believed to be founded by Ahmed Shah some 600 years ago, has 26 ASI-protected structures, several places that capture the essence of community living and numerous sites associated with Mahatma Gandhi who lived here from 1915 to 1930.
In 1984, the first study for conserving heritage structures was carried out in the city. A heritage cell was also set up by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). PTI PJT PD RSY ANB
--- ENDS ---
Here's how some other places handle ICE requests for information on inmates:
Washington County
If Sergio Martinez had been arrested in Washington County, immigration agents would have learned of it right away.
Sheriff Pat Garrett said his office shares a daily report with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the foreign-born people booked into jail. For those already sentenced, the report includes a release date. For those awaiting trial, the report usually doesn't include a release date because those decisions are fluid.
Washington County Sheriff Pat Garett said his jail won't recognize civil detainer request from ICE but does share daily reports on foreign-born nationals booked into the jail. "It's about public safety, and it's about following the law. I'm comfortable that what we're doing today's the right thing.''
"It's about public safety, and it's about following the law,'' he said. "I'm comfortable that what we're doing today's the right thing.''
Garrett's jail won't recognize an immigration detainer request. When they do come in, the jail puts a red stamp on it that reads: "Detainer request declined Federal Dist. Court ruled unconstitutional See Miranda-Oliveras v. Clackamas County.'' Then the sheriff's office files the forms away.
"Every Oregon jail will honor an arrest warrant issued by an actual judge, jails do so routinely," Garrett said. "What we cannot honor is an imitation 'arrest warrant' issued by an ICE agent."
"We also have a shared responsibility that our Latino community feels comfortable calling the police, and that a Latino mother who gets raped is going to call us to report it. If they can't trust us, we haven't done our job,'' Garrett said. "We can't ignore that because we have a responsibility to protect our entire community.''
His jail won't give notice by phone ahead of time to immigration officials to alert them of a person's release from jail. "I'm not staffed to do that,'' Garrett said.
But immigration agents are welcome to wait outside the jail to pick someone up, he said.
"It's clear current conflicts between federal and state law put sheriffs in a very difficult and risky position in regard to immigration enforcement,'' he said. "As long as those conflicts remain, the stark reality is that another incident like the Martinez case could happen that involves any Oregon jail on any given day.''
State Department of Corrections
When new prisoners enter the system, the department notifies ICE of any foreign-born inmates who don't have immigration holds so federal agents can investigate whether to file a detainer request.
The department also provides the immigration agency with lists of foreign-born inmates who are about to be released and arranges times for agents to pick them up upon completion of their sentences, said spokeswoman Betty Bernt.
Yamhill County
Yamhill County sends a daily automated report to ICE of all the inmates booked, including their names, charges and places of birth, Yamhill Sheriff's Capt. Jason Mosiman said.
If immigration officers call to ask for someone's release date, the jail would provide it if available.
Recently, Yamhill County sheriff's detectives discovered that a 26-year-old man facing child sex abuse allegations in their county was being held at the ICE detention center in Tacoma pending deportation.
The detectives worked with immigration officials in Oregon to transfer Jonathan Alcantara Romero to county custody. ICE officers brought Romero to the immigration agency's office in Portland, where Yamhill County detectives picked him up. Romero was arraigned Wednesday in Yamhill County Circuit Court in the case. He's set to enter a plea on Sept. 21.
Romero will be released to ICE once his case is done in the county, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Oregon U.S. Attorney Billy Williams said the case was an "example of how law enforcement should cooperate to ensure public safety, procedural due process and officer safety. It's a two-way street.''
-- Maxine Bernstein
mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonian
Top Portland police command staff would get a 5 percent boost in their annual base pay if they live in the city, according to a proposal that will go before the City Council next week.
The council characterized the proposal as an emergency ordinance that would go into effect immediately to serve as an incentive for the newly selected Portland police chief, Danielle Outlaw of Oakland, to find a place to live in Portland.
Outlaw, a 41-year-old deputy chief in Oakland and the first African American woman named to lead the Portland Police Bureau, has expressed a desire to live within the city limits. Outlaw is searching for a home in Portland, according to the mayor's spokesman Michael Cox.
The 5 percent boost would be added to Outlaw's base salary of $215,000, bringing her annual pay to $225,750. She's expected to start Oct. 2.
The 5 percent premium pay for high-ranking supervisors, including the chief, assistant chiefs, commanders and captains who live in the city, would match the same residency incentive pay granted to police lieutenants in the city's 2015-2018 union contract with the Portland Police Commanding Officers Association.
Anna Kanwit, manager of the city's Bureau of Human Resources, has estimated the residency incentive pay for the top ranked officers will cost the city between $30,000 and $50,000 annually, based on the 2016 payroll file of command officers who now live within the city limits.
Rank-and-file officers are not required to move to Portland. If an officer does, the city will reimburse the officer for relocation expenses.
A captain's salary ranges from $128,000 to $139,000. A commander's salary ranges from $144,00 to $159,000. An assistant chief's salary ranges from $113,000 to $162,000.
The City Council will consider the proposal at its Wednesday meeting at 9:30 a.m. in City Hall.
-- Maxine Bernstein
mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonian
Sergio Martinez returned to Portland after nearly a decade's absence. But he'd been busy in the meantime: Deported 12 times. Convicted three times for illegal re-entry. A rap sheet of crimes from burglary to theft in three states.
Immigration agents noticed his name on a Multnomah County list of jail inmates last December. They asked the Sheriff's Office to alert them before releasing Martinez so they could send him back to Mexico one more time.
But they never heard a word. Martinez spent a night in the downtown jail, then was out.
Police in Portland arrested Martinez five more times over the next six months. Each time, he was booked into jail. Each time, immigration agents had no idea that he'd been arrested, booked and released.
On July 24, seven days after his last release, Martinez, 31, crawled through a window in a 65-year-old woman's Northeast Portland apartment, tied her up with scarves and socks and sexually assaulted her, police said.
That night, he grabbed a 37-year-old woman at knifepoint as she walked to her car. He forced her into her car, but she escaped and he followed, tackled her and repeatedly bashed her head into the concrete until others arrived and he ran off, police said.
Martinez's record has become Exhibit A in a polarized political landscape that pits the Trump administration's vigorous push to curtail illegal immigration against states like Oregon with powerful sanctuary movements.
Martinez's latest arrest inflamed a national debate that shows no signs of waning. Top federal law-and-order leaders from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to Oregon U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams decried the local jail's silence on a criminal who had earned the label of "serial immigration violator." Multnomah County itself had labeled Martinez's chances of committing another crime and failing to appear in court as "100 percent."
"The fact that these things happened to these two women is inexcusable,'' Williams said.
Williams and immigration officials say the sheriff has misconstrued state and federal law, arguing that nothing prevents local police and jails from sharing information with federal agents about people in the country illegally who face criminal charges. Other Oregon counties and the state Department of Corrections routinely provide that information.
"We can't do our job and enforce federal immigration law without that shared information,'' Williams said. "This is information going from one law enforcement agency to another and it's about public safety. It's that simple.''
Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese defended the jail's actions, saying it was following state law and federal case law. He turned the tables, asking why federal officials allowed Martinez to enter the country illegally more than a dozen times.
Reese said he felt "distressed and heartbroken'' that Martinez is accused of preying on women after his release from jail.
But he said sheriff's deputies will notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about an inmate or hold that person longer only when they get a federal criminal arrest warrant signed by a judge. The ICE "detainer" for Martinez was an administrative request and doesn't meet the jail standard, he said.
"While I certainly respect U.S. Attorney Billy Williams and his thoughts on this, he represents ICE so his policy is specific'' to the immigration agency's interests, Reese said.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in an Aug. 16 address in Miami, cited the arrest of Sergio Martinez in a sex assault case and blasted Multnomah County's refusal to alert immigration officers of his release from jail in December. "How can these politicians hear this story and do nothing?'' he asked. "By protecting criminals from immigration enforcement, cities and states with so-called 'sanctuary' policies make all of us less safe.'' (Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images)
"We're trying to build relationships of trust with immigrant communities. Having our police officers involved in immigration enforcement would damage our ability to keep our community safe,'' the sheriff said.
Michael Kagan, a legal expert on immigration issues, said the law allows the jail to make a simple notification to ICE about an inmate's release.
"If a locality is choosing not to share that information, that's their policy choice," said the law professor from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "The Constitution is not a shield on that.''
But Kagan added that there's nothing to stop immigration officials from seeking an arrest warrant to detain someone. He noted that ICE isn't set up to do that and hasn't devoted the resources to change.
ACLU of Oregon attorney Mat dos Santos said he believes immigration agents have the wherewithal to check jail rosters and pick up people they want. They don't need to enlist local help.
"The problem with information sharing," he said, "is it sweeps up many, many people who have low-level offenses into this increased enforcement regime.''
COMMUNICATION WITH ICE EVAPORATED OVER TIME
Multnomah County, with by far Oregon's busiest jail system, now follows the strictest interpretation of the state's sanctuary law, essentially cutting off direct communication with immigration agents on inmate arrests and releases.
From 35,000 to 38,000 people get booked into the system here each year, including an estimated 4 percent who report being born in other countries.
The Martinez case highlights how the county's relationship with ICE has evaporated over time, but especially after President Donald Trump's election. It also has exposed a gap in sharing jail fingerprint records that immigration agents can use as a back-up way to find people.
Reese changed the rules shortly after Trump took office.
House Bill that was amended to say a law enforcement agency "may exchange info with United States Immigration and Naturalization Service in order to a/ verify the immigration status of a person if the person is arrested for any criminal offense...''
Oregon's statute on "Enforcement of federal immigration laws'' was designed to prohibit the use of public resources to arrest people "whose only apparent violation of law'' is their illegal immigration status a civil offense, not a crime. The 1987 law was intended to prevent police from using immigration regulations to profile or harass people based on their race, testimony on the bill showed.
Before its adoption, legislators added an amendment at the request of Oregon State Police to make sure local authorities could exchange information with ICE for people arrested on a non-immigration criminal offense.
For years, immigration agents had regular shifts at Multnomah County's downtown jail, allowed to review booking registers to look for people who faced deportation.
But that stopped after a federal magistrate judge in 2014 ruled Clackamas County was liable for damages after it held an inmate beyond her release date at the request of immigration agents who were still investigating her immigration status.
Senate Judiciary co-counsel Eric Carlson wrote in 1987 about the bill: "The measure does provide that law enforcement agencies may contact the INS to verify immigration status of people who are arrested for a criminal offense.''
U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice M. Stewart decided that Clackamas County violated Maria Mirandas-Oliveras' Fourth Amendment right by keeping her in jail 19 hours after settling her state case for violating a domestic violence restraining order.
The judge ruled that ICE hadn't provided sufficient probable cause to hold her and the jail shouldn't have honored the request. The ruling started a ripple effect in the state, causing jails and police to no longer agree to such civil detainers.
Instead, Multnomah County and other jails started providing weekly reports to immigration officers on all people born outside the country booked into their jails, their names, ages and charges.
But on Jan. 27, Multnomah County stopped sharing those reports. That change came two days after the sheriff stood at a news conference with county Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury, the ACLU's dos Santos and others, pledging to defy President Trump's call to hold undocumented immigrants for deportation amid threats to withhold federal funding to sanctuary cities.
Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese in late January stopped sharing with federal immigration officers the jail's weekly reports on bookings of foreign-born inmates. He said he changed the jail's practice after "robust conversations with county counsel and stakeholders." He said he was advised that providing reports specifically to ICE may violate the state's 1987 sanctuary law.
Reese said the weekly reports are gleaned from inmates who self-report their home countries and are shared with foreign consulates to provide legal representation for their citizens, but no requirement exists to send the reports to ICE.
He said he changed the jail's immigration policy after "robust conversations with county counsel and stakeholders." He was advised that providing reports specifically to ICE may violate the 1987 sanctuary law, he said.
Instead, he said, immigration agents can access the sheriff's public website on inmates in custody or contact the corrections records unit for public information if they want to track arrests.
"Our public website is our source of sharing information with everyone, including ICE,'' the sheriff said.
Elizabeth Godfrey, a regional supervisor for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations based in Portland, said county officials have "grossly mischaracterized and misinterpreted'' the state law.
"Concluding that the law somehow prohibits information sharing is frankly inaccurate and is unsupported by its legislative history and relevant case law,'' she said.
Local jails clearly could follow the sanctuary law's provision for exchanging information in cases like Martinez's -- when accused offenders face criminal charges, she said.
The county sheriff also has misapplied the federal judge's ruling, Godfrey said.
ICE, though, no longer requests that Oregon sheriffs hold someone on a civil detainer beyond their typical release date, she said, recognizing that the 2014 court case "aroused concern among local law enforcement."
But the sheriff's stance of requiring a criminal arrest warrant is unrealistic because it can take days or weeks and ICE isn't set up to do that, she said. Very few illegal immigrants that the agency encounters are subject to federal criminal prosecution, she said, and in those cases, agents must first know they've been arrested, which requires an exchange of information.
"We weren't given that opportunity'' in the Martinez case, Godfrey said.
FINGERPRINT SNAFU FURTHER HAMPERS ICE
Martinez's mother brought him to the United States when he was not yet 1. His father died when he was a few months old and his stepfather died when he was about 10.
He attended elementary school in the Los Angeles area but started displaying mental health problems and was considered "emotionally disturbed'' by the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, court records say.
He was sent to several residential mental health treatment centers. His mother couldn't care for him and sent him back to Mexico at various times, court records indicate.
He often walked across the Mexican-U.S. border, sometimes with fake IDs. Asked in 2013 why he kept returning to the United States, Martinez said, "To come to live with my family,'' noting he had three sisters born here, court records show.
His record in California includes convictions for burglary in 2008 and battery, theft and obstructing an officer in 2015. California authorities typically alerted ICE when Martinez was released from prison there, as state corrections officials do in Oregon. Federal authorities said he also was charged in Texas in 2012 with misdemeanor criminal mischief under a false name.
Last year alone, Martinez was deported to Mexico from California three times before he was arrested by Beaverton police in December on a 2008 Multnomah County arrest warrant, charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, possession of a stolen vehicle and nine other charges.
He was taken to Portland and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center at 9:40 a.m. on Dec. 7.
Immigration agents learned of Martinez's arrest through the sheriff's weekly report to the federal agency on foreign-born detainees before Reese halted the practice. They then faxed a detainer form to the jail, asking for notification before Martinez's release.
Martinez was released from jail the next day at 1:35 p.m. A Multnomah County prosecutor dropped the 2008 charges because eight years had gone by long past the three-year mark for a speedy trial.
Sergio Martinez was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center in downtown Portland five times between February and June, but federal immigration officers had no idea.
Martinez was booked into the jail five more times from February to June:
-- Feb. 13: On a failure to appear warrant on a January allegation of criminal trespass from a disturbance at Pioneer Place mall. He was released on his own recognizance the same day.
-- March 3: On warrants alleging possession of methamphetamine and failure to appear for the trespass charge. By then, court officers highlighted that he had five earlier felony deportation violations, three failures to appear in Multnomah County court and a history of mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse. He was released the same day and ordered to report to a pretrial supervision officer.
-- March 21: On another failure-to-appear warrant for the trespass allegation. He was released on his own recognizance the same day.
-- April 6: On an accusation of interfering with public transportation and theft of services in an alleged TriMet fare jumping case. He was released the same night on his own recognizance.
-- June 16: On an escape warrant from a Feb. 17 encounter with police when he ran as officers tried to serve him with a warrant in the trespass case. This time, he was held for 31 days. A court officer called Martinez an unsuitable candidate for release, citing his lack of stability, history of drug and alcohol use, criminal record, history of missing court dates, mental health problems, earlier deportations and a score of 8 on a risk assessment tool that correlated to a "100 percent failure rate.''
On July 17, Martinez pleaded guilty to interfering with an officer. His other charges were dismissed. He was sentenced to time served and released from custody that day.
Even without the notification from the jail of the releases, immigration agents thought they had a stopgap way to track Martinez, but that failed, too.
The jail is expected to take fingerprints of everyone booked into jail and is supposed to send them electronically to Oregon State Police, which then shares them through the National Fingerprint File with the FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Typically, immigration officers would have received alerts when Martinez's fingerprints appeared in their system each time he was booked into the downtown jail. But they got none after his five arrests this year.
The county jail contracts with the Portland Police Bureau's Forensic Evidence Division to take the fingerprints. Portland police send the fingerprints of people arrested for the first time to state police, but "many repeat misdemeanor arrests do not get sent to OSP each and every time due to lack of resources,'' police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said. Police don't have the time or staff to handle the load, he said.
Maj. Tom Worthy, a supervisor with the state police Public Safety Services Bureau, said police can scan and immediately send biometric prints, so there's no reason why the prints shouldn't go to state police every time someone gets booked.
"We want to have a definitive record of people committing crime in Oregon," he said.
On July 24, Martinez entered a woman's apartment in the 1700 block of Northeast Irving Street through an open first-floor window and sexually assaulted her, threatening her with a metal rod in his hand, police said. Martinez then left with her keys and phone and drove away in her Prius.
The woman ran to a neighbor's unit for help.
"I searched for this apartment for a long time, and for the past 7 years was confident I had found the perfect home," she wrote later on the social media site Next Door. "That has been ruined for me. I cannot return.''
About 6 p.m. that same day, Martinez is accused of pulling a knife on a woman as she was walking to her car in a parking garage in the 2100 block of Northeast Halsey Street.
She offered him money, her phone, her purse, her computer, but he insisted he just wanted to talk, though he added, "If you say another word I will kill you,'' according to police. He ordered her into her car and locked the doors. She unlocked them and ran out. He tackled her and she screamed, "Help, he has a knife. He's trying to kill me!'' He ran back into her car and tried to drive off but couldn't, then fled on foot as police chased after him.
Police followed him as he ran into an apartment on Clackamas Street. An officer, with his Taser drawn, ordered Martinez to the ground.
Martinez is now being held on $3.6 million bail. He's pleaded not guilty to a 27-count indictment, charging him in the two assaults on the women, including multiple charges of sodomy, sexual abuse, kidnapping and robbery.
FEDS WANT 'SHARED RESPONSIBILITY'
Oregon's U.S. attorney and immigration officials said they hope Martinez's case will spur change.
Oregon's U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams says the sheriff has misconstrued state and federal law, arguing that nothing prevents local police and jails from sharing information with federal agents about people in the country illegally who face criminal charges. "This is information going from one law enforcement agency to another and it's about public safety. It's that simple,'' he said.
They no longer hold out hope that sheriffs in Oregon will keep someone in their county jail on an immigration hold.
But they're asking sheriffs in Oregon to give ICE agents as much advance notice as possible before releasing inmates sought by immigration officers.
They also want to allow immigration agents to pick up the inmates within a jail entry or other controlled space to safeguard officers and avoid a potential escape.
"Tell me we don't have a shared responsibility not to release people like this individual back into our community to commit more crimes,'' Williams said.
Godfrey, the deputy ICE field office director, said she would sit down with sheriffs to address their concerns.
"It's my interest to keep that line of communication open and honest,'' she said. "Some level of cooperation is critical in support of our collective interests in promoting public safety.''
But sheriffs and immigration rights advocates argue against altering long-held policy based on a worst-case scenario.
They point out that many of Martinez's arrests in the past year were for nonviolent crimes and that it's difficult to predict when someone's behavior will escalate to violence.
They also don't want to make undocumented immigrants afraid to call police if they become crime victims for fear of drawing attention to their immigration status.
"Of course we want people who are committing really dangerous and violent crimes to be held accountable, but it seems to me they're using this example to try to get Portland to walk back on what it stands for protecting documented and undocumented members of our community,'' said dos Santos of the ACLU.
Kagan, the Nevada law professor, suggests a middle ground: Have the jail alert immigration agents about the release of people considered dangerous and streamline a system to notify the immigration agency about people it wants to pick up for deportation proceedings.
So far, Multnomah County isn't budging.
If ICE wants to pursue an inmate for illegal entry into the United States, Reese said, "We suggest they seek a criminal arrest warrant.''
-- Maxine Bernstein
mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonian
Heres a look at Sergio Martinezs encounters with police since last December to his arrest in July for allegedly sexually assaulting one woman and assaulting another.
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Multnomah County Sheriff's Office photos
Dec. 7, 2016
Beaverton police arrest Sergio Martinez on a 2008 Multnomah County warrant and hes transferred to the Multnomah County Detention Center. Hes booked into the jail at 9:40 am., accused of having alcohol in a park, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, reckless driving, reckless endangerment, failure to perform duties of a driver and second-degree criminal mischief.
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Multnomah County Sheriff's Office photos
Dec. 8, 2016
Martinez is released from the downtown Portland jail after prosecutors dismiss the 2008 charges due to lack of speedy trial.
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The Oregonian/OregonLive/File photo
Jan. 14, 2017
Martinez is cited and released for second-degree criminal trespass at Pioneer Place mall in downtown Portland after he first caused a disturbance in the Apple Store and then went inside the mall, police and mall security officers said. He was highly intoxicated, a police report said. A security officer escorted him out of the mall and warned that hed be arrested if he returned. Martinez ran down the block, re-entered the mall and went to into Eddie Bauer store. Security took him into custody. Martinez began to vomit and was taken by ambulance to OHSU. An AMR paramedic thought Martinez was faking illness to avoid jail, the police report said. He was taken to the emergency room. Police gave him a citation to appear in court on Jan. 31 for second-degree criminal trespass.
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Photo by Stephanie Yao Long | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Feb. 2, 2017
Portland police arrest Martinez under the Burnside Bridge at Northwest First Avenue when he was seen heating a pipe. Police found a wrapped bindle of methamphetamine in his jeans pocket, they said. Police took him to Central Precinct to be booked, but while outside the precinct, Martinez suffered an anxiety attack, so police called an ambulance to take him to OHSU for medical treatment first. There, an officer issued a citation to Martinez to appear in court Feb. 22 for methamphetamine possession. He wasnt booked into jail.
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Multnomah County Sheriff's Office photos
Feb. 13, 2017
Martinez is arrested and booked into the downtown Portland jail at 7 a.m. on a failure to appear warrant on the criminal trespass citation from Pioneer Place. He was released on his own recognizance around 1 p.m.
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The Oregonian/OregonLive/File photo
Feb. 17, 2017
Police spot Martinez at Northeast Seventh Avenue and Broadway and see he has another warrant for failure to appear on the criminal trespass citation, according to a police report. Martinez ran from police. Police, stop! Youre under arrest! yelled Officer Thomas Marshall, who chased after Martinez but lost him. A police dog was called to search for Martinez in a parking garage at Northeast Clackamas Street and Seventh Avenue, but officers couldnt find him.
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Multnomah County Sheriff's Office photos
March 3, 2017
Martinez is arrested and booked into the downtown jail about 2 a.m. on a warrant for the Feb. 2 methamphetamine possession charge and a failure to appear warrant in the trespass case. He was released after 2 p.m. and ordered to report to a pretrial supervision officer.
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Multnomah County Sheriff's Office photos
March 21, 2017
Martinez is arrested and booked into the downtown jail about 2 am. on a failure to appear warrant for the trespass citation. He was released on his own recognizance at 12:55 p.m.
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Multnomah County Sheriff's Office photos
April 6, 2017
Martinez is arrested and booked into the downtown jail about 9 p.m. on new charges of interfering with public transportation and theft of services in an alleged TriMet offense at Northeast Halsey Street. He was released on his own recognizance before 11 p.m.
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Photo by Stephanie Yao Long | The Oregonian/OregonLive
June 6, 2017
At 10 a.m., police stop Martinez after hes seen running off a MAX train at the Hollywood transit station as officers board the train. Police said he initially gave a false name and birth date. Finally, he provided his real name and officers arrested him on warrants in the earlier methamphetamine possession case and failure to appear in court in the trespass case.
Realizing it makes no sense at all to give someone a citation for fail to appear, as they already show no responsibility, we explained that he was going to jail, the officer wrote in his report.
When Martinez arrived at the jail, he told staff that he had swallowed two bags of heroin. The jail refused to accept him. Police took Martinez to their Transit Division office. Once there, he claimed to have medical issues.
Police cited him for false information to the police and tampering with physical evidence for allegedly swallowing heroin. He also was kicked off TriMet for 60 days. He was taken by ambulance to Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center. Martinez left as soon as he arrived and was never admitted to the hospital. In a police report, Officer West Helfrich called Martinezs medical complaint a ploy to get out of going to jail.
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Multnomah County Sheriff's Office photos
June 16, 2017
Portland police are called around 4 p.m. to Lloyd Center mall about a man refusing to leave. When told his name, the officers recognized him. Sergio Martinez has run from us in the past. He is also a drug user and chronic drunk in the area, Officer David McGuffrey wrote. Police asked for several more police cars to respond, as well as a police dog. When police arrived, Martinez was at the north entrance of the mall. They arrested him and he was booked into the downtown jail on a warrant for escape and interfering with an officer stemming from Feb. 17 when police said he ran from officers in Northeast Portland.
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The Oregonian/OregonLive/File photo
July 17, 2017
Martinez pleads guilty to interfering with police. All other charges are dismissed. He was sentenced to time served, 31 days in custody, and released.
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The Oregonian/OregonLive/File photo
July 24, 2017
Martinez is arrested at 7 p.m. in connection with a sexual assault of a 65-year-old woman earlier that day and an attack on a 37-year-old woman in Northeast Portland that night. Police took him to a local hospital, where he was treated for a meth-induced psychosis, according to court records.
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Multnomah County Sheriff's Office photos
July 25, 2017
Martinez is booked into jail at 2:15 p.m.
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Multnomah County Sheriff's Office photos
Aug. 2, 2017
A grand jury returns a 27-count indictment against Martinez. In the morning attack, he faces 17 charges -- four counts of first-degree burglary, two counts of first-degree sodomy, three counts of first-degree sexual abuse, two counts of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of first-degree robbery and one count each of second-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, unauthorized use of a vehicle and identity theft.
In connection with the second attack, he faces nine more charges -- two counts of first-degree robbery, two counts of first-degree kidnapping and one count each of attempted first-degree sexual abuse, second-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, unauthorized use of a vehicle and identity theft.
A final count of first-degree criminal trespass stems from a separate allegation that he entered an apartment on Northeast Clackamas Street in Portland as he fled from the second offense. It's also the place where police captured and arrested him. He was found with a bloody serrated knife with a blade about 6 inches long, according to court records.
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Photo by Maxine Bernstein | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Aug. 3, 2017
Martinez pleads not guilty to the indictment. He is being held on $3.6 million bail.
Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
By Jamie Hale | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Oregon has had several cities that have served as statewide hubs: Oregon City, originally, as well as Portland, Salem and, for a brief time, Corvallis. But Baker City, far removed from the Willamette Valley in the high desert of eastern Oregon, was once as big and bustling as the rest.
The town wasn't platted until 1865, but quickly established itself as a regional center of commerce, backed by productive gold mines, timber and the arrival of the railroads. In the 1890s and early 20th century, it was known as the "Queen City of the Inland Empire," using its wealth to replace the wooden structures of the Old West with modern buildings made of brick and stone.
Locals fashioned Baker into a Victorian-style city in the high desert, complete with an opera and a grand hotel. By 1900 it was the largest city between Portland and Salt Lake City, and a popular stop among those traveling west. Better yet: All the growth came just ahead of the Great Depression, so while the city struggled along with the rest of the country, the opulent facade remained intact.
Baker's influence waned throughout the 20th century, as bigger cities in Oregon firmly established themselves farther west. Today, with a population of less than 10,000, it barely cracks the top 50 most populated cities in the state, but it still holds an outsize influence in eastern Oregon, and is still a popular stop for those traveling along Interstate 84.
That influence shows in the horde of bikers who arrive in town for the annual Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally, in the many artifacts at the Baker Heritage Museum, and in the beer brewed at Barley Brown's. Big things are still happening in Baker City, and while it might not have the influence it once had, there's no reason it can't still be the Queen City of eastern Oregon.
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
1. Barley Brown's
Founded in 1998, the small family-owned brewery in Baker City has since become one of the most respected and best known breweries in eastern Oregon. But since you can drink its famed Pallet Jack IPA just about anywhere in Portland, spend your time at the tasting room or brewpub drinking its other excellent brews that don't get the same distribution.
Tasting room open 2 to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 2200 Main St.; 541-523-2337.
Brewpub open 4 to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 2190 Main St.; 541-523-4266.
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
2. Baker Heritage Museum
The building was originally designed as an indoor community swimming pool, but today it houses the rich and varied history of Baker City and the surrounding region. The Baker Heritage Museum is more fascinating and chock-full of artifacts than most local history museums, focusing on notable locals, life in the Old West, and artifacts from Chinese and Native American communities. It also boasts a world-class collection of rocks, minerals and fossils, worth the meager cost of admission on its own.
Open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, 2480 Grove St.; 541-523-9308. $6 for adults, $5 for kids and seniors.
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
3. Architecture
Baker City first rose from the Oregon desert in 1865, buoyed by the discovery of gold in the area. Productive mines brought wealth to the city, resulting in an abundance of nice buildings, constructed around the turn of the century as architectural styles evolved across the western U.S. Wander around Historic Baker City to see a great display of the towns architectural variety theres no better in eastern Oregon.
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
4. Chinese cemetery
Dedicated in 2002, but used long before that, the Chinese cemetery on the outskirts of Baker City is a small but important part of the town's history. A few headstones, a small pagoda and a traditional stone prayer house stand on the land, though most bodies originally buried there were exhumed and sent back to China.
Windmill Road, .2 miles from Campbell Street
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
5. Elkhorn Mountains
Technically part of the Blue Mountains, the Elkhorn Mountains are a small range (by Oregon standards) west of Baker City. The Elkhorn Scenic Byway passes through the mountains. The lakes throughout the range make good destinations for day hikes or backpacking trips as well.
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Zach Urness/Statesman-Journal via AP
6. Rock Creek Butte
The highest point in the Elkhorn Mountains, Rock Creek Butte offers beautiful vistas of the surrounding area, including a view of Rock Creek Lake, just below. The 9,106-foot peak is home to many mountain goats, but is among the less popular climbs for Northwest hikers. A difficult 12.5-mile out-and-back hike will get you to the top.
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
7. Sweet Wife Baking
There's a good buzz around town about the small bakery on Resort Street in downtown Baker City. But while Sweet Wife bakes plenty for special orders and events, it's open to the public only on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, when you'd do well to show up early. The selection of pastries and other baked goods differs based on the day of the week.
8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, 2080 Resort St.; 541-403-6028.
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
8. Glacier 45 Distillery
Started in 2016, the new distillery in historic Baker City specializes in vodka, specifically flavored vodkas, including pepper, cucumber, huckleberry and cinnamon. You can taste a few at the tasting room, with a view of the Glacier 45 facilities behind glass windows.
1901 Main St.; 541-519-0081
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
9. Leo Adler Memorial Parkway
The 2-mile paved pathway cuts through Baker City, running along the Powder River past local businesses and residential areas. It's popular among cyclists and walkers, and makes for a nice scenic stroll.
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
10. Sumpter
The tiny Old West town of Sumpter is about 30 miles west of Baker City and home to a pair of fascinating attractions: the gold dredge and the railroad. It's definitely worth stopping at the historic dredge, which you can tour at the Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage Area. The historic Sumpter Valley Railroad is a little more elusive, but worth a journey as well, whisking you back in time on one of the railroad's vintage trains.
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian/OregonLive
11. Geiser Grand Hotel
The opulent Geiser Grand hotel opened in 1889 as one of the finest establishments in the region. It's still a local landmark in downtown Baker City and still accepts guests. Rooms, which range from $99 to $299 per night, are elegantly decorated in historic style, with modern amenities, of course.
Make reservations at geisergrand.com; 1996 Main St.; 541-523-1889
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12. Annual events
As a hub of eastern Oregon and a beautiful locale to boot Baker City hosts several big events every year, from the ordinary to the outrageous. There's the big Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally, the quirky Salt Lick Art Auction and the popular short-film festival We Like 'Em Short. Not to mention the several rodeos throughout the county and the Miner's Jubilee, which celebrates local history.
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
13. Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
There's no better place to get an intimate look at what life on the Oregon Trail looked like than at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center just outside Baker City. Visitors can look inside covered wagons both authentic and replica and get a feel for life on the trail via life-size mannequins, their faces dirty and hardened with emotional toil. The site, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, can easily be toured in an hour or two.
Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, 22267 OR-26, Baker City; 541-523-1843
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
14. Scenic byways
Oregon has 16 scenic byways, and remarkably, five go through Baker City. The Hells Canyon, Journey Through Time, Elkhorn, Blue Mountain and Grande Tour scenic byways all run through town, leading to other scenic points in the region. Take a long afternoon and drive one end-to-end there are few better ways to see so much Oregon beauty in a single day.
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15. Phillips Lake
The sizable reservoir between Baker City and Sumpter is known as a good place for fishing. Anglers can catch coho salmon, largemouth and smallmouth bass, rainbow trout, black crappie and yellow perch. Boaters, hikers and picnickers also populate the lake.
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Jamie Francis/The Oregonian
16. Funky shops
Baker City has a number of small, funky stores, many advertised as antique shops, but containing so much more. Unfortunately, they all seemed to be closed when I visited in July, forcing me to satiate my curiosity by peering through the windows. Weekend afternoons might be your best chance of getting inside.
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Oregonian file photo
17. Colton Carriage Service
Whether you're touring Baker City in summer or the dead of winter, you have the opportunity to see the town aboard one of the horse-drawn carriages driven by Colton Carriage Services. Cowboy Ron Colton runs the local business, and is usually hitched up at Geiser Grand. In the winter, he trades his carriage for a sleigh to tour the snowy city.
Make reservations by calling 541-523-5701.
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18. Leo Adler House
Leo Adler was one of the most beloved and influential residents of Baker City. After his death at 94, his 1889 home was renovated and restored, transformed into a museum that shows how the philanthropist lived. It also gives a peek into the general lifestyle of wealthy Oregonians in the early 20th century.
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
19. Armstrong Nugget
You probably won't ever see a hunk of gold quite as big as the Armstong Nugget. The 80.4-ounce nugget was found west of Baker City in 1913, and is worth more than $105,000 today probably much more as a collector's item. But the nugget is instead on display in the lobby of the U.S. Bank branch in downtown Baker City. You can see it, just don't ask to hold it.
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
20. Geiser-Pollman Park
The spacious public park hosts several events throughout the year; it's also a great spot to relax, stroll or let the kids run around. Geiser-Pollman features a playground, lots of grassy areas, picnic tables and a large pavilion. The Leo Adler Memorial Parkway runs through it, and the Baker Heritage Museum is just across the street.
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Honorable mention
D&J Taco Shop, Baker Tower, Sorbenots Coffee, Lone Pine Cafe.
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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian
NORTHWEST TRAVEL GUIDES
Reasons to love Joseph: Head to the far northeast corner of Oregon to take in the town of Joseph, home of mountain views, Hells Canyon and bronze.
Caves of Oregon: Spend the waning days of summer deep in Oregon's volcanic caves, found primarily around the central Cascades.
Portland Hiking Guide: It's still warm out, and you don't have to leave Portland to find a good place to enjoy nature.
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--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB
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The Naam Tamilar Katchi said that making NEET the sole criterion for medical admission was wrong and relaxations must be given to provide better representation of the state board students.
By India Today Web Desk: A day after the suicide of Ariyalur Dalit girl Anitha, who led a campaign against NEET, Tamil nationalist outfit the Naam Tamilar Katchi today staged a protest demanding scrapping of the entrance exam.
The Naam Tamilar Katchi said that making NEET the sole criterion for medical admission was wrong and relaxations must be given to provide better representation of the state board students.
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Meanwhile, Anitha's father has said that she was deeply concerned about entrance exam. He said that despite adverse circumstances, Anitha managed to focus on her studies. "What wrong did she do and who will now answer for her death," asked Anitha's father.
As the huge number of people visited Anitha's home to pay their last respects to the departed soul, her body was kept at a public place in Kuzhumur near Senthurai. A number of relatives, friends and politicians visited the spot to pay their last respects to the 17-year-old girl.
A strike has been called by various political parties in Ariyalur district. Shops and other public outlets were closed in support of the strike. All major establishments remained shut.
About 14 students from Trichy today declared an indefinite hunger strike against NEET. Anitha ended her life after she failed to secure a medical seat on the basis of NEET score.
Students' Federation of India members protest at Chennai's Mount Road over death of Anitha. Students' Federation of India members protest at Chennai's Mount Road over death of Anitha.
AIADMK LEADER ERRS
While messages of condolences are pouring in after Anitha's suicide not only from Tamil Nadu but also outside the state, an AIADMK joint secretary has a tweet what could be described as insensitive.
AIADMK joint secretary (IT wing) Hari Prabhakaran, while lauding her efforts to take the anti-NEET campaign to the Supreme Court, asked who sponsored the deceased's expenses of her flights to New Delhi.
The AIADMK leader later removed the tweet following uproar over social media and used Anitha's photograph as his profile picture on Twitter to make amends. He has been tweeting in solidarity with Anitha after the goof-up.
Also Read:
NEET suicide: Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan express grief over Anitha's death
Tamil Nadu girl Anitha who spearheaded fight against NEET commits suicide
ALSO WATCH | Anitha suicide: Massive protests in Tamil Nadu against NEET
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By PTI: Jalandhar, Sep 2 (PTI) An Indian worker in Saudi Arabia, who was allegedly being exploited by his employer, has appealed for help from the government through a video posted on social media, BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia said today.
The former Punjab minister, who came across the video as it went viral, today said he has brought it to the notice of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
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"I saw the video on a social media site and immediately sent it to Sushma Swaraj, appealing her to help the labourer, hailing from Bihar, back to India from Saudi Arabia," the BJP leader said in a press conference here.
In the video, the labourer, who claimed his name was Lankesh Kumar, said anybody who comes across the video, please take it to the prime minister and the external affairs minister, he said.
"The union minister has assured me that the video will be examined and efforts would be made to bring him back," he said, adding that he has also sent the address and phone number mentioned by the man in the video to the union minister.
Kumar alleged that he had been offered 1,200 (Riyal) by a company, but for the last few months he was being paid between 200 to 400 (Riyal), the BJP leader said.
Kalia claimed that in the 2:18 minute video Kumar claimed that he had no money or food, and wanted to return to his home in Bihar. PTI SRT ANB
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For the third time in the last five years, Stephen Schultz of the Okemos-based law firm Fahey Schultz Burzych Rhodes PLC, has been selected by his peers as "Lawyer of the Year" in the latest edition of The Best Lawyers in America.
Schultz is one of two attorneys in the firm designated as a 2018 "Lawyer of the Year" and one of five firm attorneys recognized by Best Lawyers in America as preeminent attorneys.
Schultz was named the 2018 Mid-Michigan "Lawyer of the Year" in Employment Law. Only one lawyer in each subject area and region of the state is honored with a "Lawyer of the Year" award, based upon the collective opinion of other Michigan Employment and Labor Law lawyers. His "Lawyer of the Year" acclaim is in addition to his recognition in the 2018 Edition of Best Lawyers in America for expertise in Municipal Law, Employment Law - Management, and Labor Law - Management.
In the Midland County area, Fahey Schultz Burzych Rhodes PLC regularly represents Edenville Township, Hope Township, the Village of Sanford and the Midland County Drain Commissioner in their legal matters.
"We are honored that Steve has again been recognized by the legal community as the Employment Law 'Lawyer of the Year,' said Mark Burzych, president of the firm. "Steve is the best employment law lawyer in the state, so it's no surprise that others hold Steve in high esteem. His 'three-peat' selection by The Best Lawyers in America validates our firm's philosophy of providing legal services: focus on what we do best and be the best at what we do!"
Sentences may vary based on previous offenses committed by the defendant. Some sentences include other fees imposed by the state. Compiled by reporter Kelly Dame.
The following people were sentenced recently in Midland County's 42nd Circuit Court by Judge Michael J. Beale or Judge Stephen P. Carras:
Richard David Altman, 46, North Eight Mile Road, was sentenced for failing to pay child support and third-offense domestic violence. The offenses occurred from Nov. 2, 2015, to Nov. 2, 2016, and Dec. 30, both in Midland. Carras sentenced Altman to 10 months in jail for each offense to be served at the same time with credit for 133 days, $2,500 fines and costs, left restitution open, five years probation in the MI Hope program, to be monitored for 180 days by an alcohol tether and no contact with the victim. As of Nov. 2, 2016, Altman was $16,920.69 in arrears.
Michael Stanley Bula, 48, West Bradford Road, was sentenced for retaining a financial transaction device without consent. The offense occurred on Dec. 17 in Mount Haley Township. Carras sentenced Bula to 11 months in jail with credit for 178 days, $1,250 fines and costs, and left restitution open.
Kyle Thomas Dobson, 38, Beaverton, was sentenced for failing to register as a sex offender. The offense occurred on Sept. 2, 2016, in Edenville Township. Carras sentenced Dobson to 180 days in jail with credit for 144 days.
Clay Michael French, 27, Beaverton, was sentenced for third-offense drunken driving. The offense occurred on Dec. 17 in Midland. Carras sentenced French to 180 days in jail suspended with credit for four days, $1,250 fines and costs, two years probation, 60 days community service and to complete a recovery program in Gladwin County. French previously was convicted of drunken driving on May 18, 2009, in the 80th District Court, and on Feb. 11, 2016, in the 74th District Court.
Cody Allen Hammond, 25, Ronan Street, was sentenced for third-degree home invasion and malicious destruction of a building. The offenses occurred on Jan. 29 in Midland. Carras sentenced Hammond to 26 days in jail with credit for time served, $1,350 fines and costs, $400 restitution, three years probation, to be monitored by an alcohol tether for six months and no contact with the victim.
Jeffrey Richard Reisig, 53, Jane Drive, was sentenced for second-offense drunken driving. The offense occurred on Nov. 2 in Midland. Carras sentenced Reisig to $1,250 fines and costs, $630 restitution and three years probation. Reisig previously was convicted of impaired driving on July 30, 2013, in the 81st District Court, and of drunken driving on Jan. 3, 2014, in the 89th District Court.
Christa Marie Robel, 27, McCann Drive, was sentenced for controlled substance possession. The offense occurred on April 20 in Lee Township when Robel possessed codeine. Carras sentenced Robel to 11 months in jail with credit for 127 days.
Experienced business owner/manager Michelle Judd will share her expertise with other Bay County...
"There was nothing pressing that could not be held off," said Chair Mark Bone. "In the past...
By PTI: (Eds: With additional information)
Ghaziabad, Sep 2 (PTI) A local BJP worker was killed and his friend injured when unidentified assailants fired at them this afternoon in Ghaziabads Khora colony, police said.
Gajendra Bhati (32) and his friend Balbir Singh Chouhan were on a motorcycle in Khora colony when the two bike-borne attackers came near them and opened fire, City Superintendent of Police Arun Kumar Singh said.
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The two were rushed to a private hospital in neighbouring Noida where doctors pronounced Bhati dead on arrival, he said, adding Chouhan (42), who was critically injured, is undergoing treatment in the hospital.
Bhati had received four bullet injuries while one bullet hit Chouhan.
On receiving information about the incident, Bhatis supporters reached the hospital in large number, Singh said.
Heavy police force has been deployed outside the hospital to prevent any untoward incident, the City SP said.
An investigation is underway in the matter, he added.
Bhati had joined the BJP in 2014.
He was also facing some cases of murder and attempt to murder, the police said. PTI CORR DIP
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One-on-one between Modi and Xi will be a focal point, especially after the protracted military standoff along the Sino-India border in Doklam.
By Indo-Asian News Service: The three-day BRICS summit is set to begin on Sunday in China's southwestern city of Xiamen where India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are likely to meet on the sidelines.
Although economic, security and other multilateral issues will figure in the annual meet of the five-member grouping, a probable one-on-one between Modi and Xi will be a focal point, especially after the protracted military standoff along the Sino-India border in Doklam.
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"Since the (Doklam) dispute has been resolved, the Xiamen meeting (bilateral meet between Modi and Xi) will be a turning point," Wang Dehua, an expert at one of China's top think tanks the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told IANS.
Wang, who was one of the Chinese experts threatening India with war during the standoff at Doklam, said "there was no reason for India and China to be hostile to each other".
"I always advocate 'Chindia' which is integration of China and India. I think it is a turning point. If we work together, the world will listen to us," Wang said.
MODI-XI TO MEET AFTER DOKLAM STANDOFF
The troops of India and China were locked in an over two-month standoff over stopping construction of a Chinese road by the Indian Army in Doklam, at the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan.
The dispute, which had begun to threaten the success of the BRICS summit, was resolved on Monday.
"It's good news that Modi is coming, but the reasons causing such kind of stand-offs increase strategic mistrust," Hu Shisheng, director of the Institute of South and Southeast Asia and Oceania Studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told IANS.
Asked about the issues he expects that will figure in the meet, Hu said: They (Modi and Xi) should give a kind of signal that this standoff does not happen again."
When questioned what if Modi raises India's concerns over terrorism emanating from Pakistan, Hu said: "This is the time of recovery. They will meet in the general way to discuss bilateral issues."
"It will take some time to recover from the damage," he said referring to the face-off.
China has ruled out discussion on India's concerns over terrorism emanating from Pakistan at the summit.
This is one of the thorny issues between India and China.
Beijing's Belt and Road project, whose key artery the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor passes through a disputed Kashmir area claimed by India, is another sore point between the two nations.
Issues like counter-terrorism and the global financial crisis will also come for up discussion.
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The proposed BRICS rating agency will be one of the key issues at the 9th meet of the grouping, which will be chaired by Xi.
The five-member bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa was formed in 2006. They comprise 42 percent of the world's population, have 23 percent of global GDP and 17 percent share in world trade. The theme of the ninth BRICS summit is `Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future'.
Also Read:
China says 'not appropriate' to discuss concerns on Pakistan terror at BRICS
Meet Prime Minister Modi's key men who cracked Doklam for him
Between India and China, who won in Doklam? World media seems divided
Also Watch:
India, China agree to disengage on Doklam ending two-and-a-half-month-long standoff
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Salt Lake City police apologized Friday for arresting a nurse who, citing hospital policy, refused to let officers draw blood from an unconscious crash victim. The arrest of Alex Wubbels, who was later released without charge, was captured on body camera video that the police chief said was alarming.
The incident happened July 26, when a crash victim was admitted to the University of Utah Hospital burn unit in a coma. Though the man was not a suspect in the wreck, which killed the other driver, police asked for his blood to be drawn.
Wubbels, the charge nurse in the burn unit, presented the officers with a printout of hospital policy on drawing blood and said their request did not meet the criteria. Hospital policy specified police needed either a judge's order or the patient's consent, or the patient needed to be under arrest, before obtaining a blood sample.
"I'm just trying to do what I'm supposed to do. That's all," Wubbels tells the officers, according to the body camera video.
Wubbels' attorney, Karra Porter, said Friday the university and Salt Lake City police had agreed to the policy more than a year ago and "the officers here appeared to be unaware of" it.
"There's no dispute that the blood draw policy was jointly prepared and in effect for quite some time," Porter told CNN.
After Wubbels refuses, the video shows Salt Lake police Det. Jeff Payne walk quickly over to Wubbels, who backs away as he says, "Oh, please. We're done here. We're done. We're done."
Wubbels shrieks as Payne forces her out the door toward a police car. She screams for him to stop, saying, "I've done nothing wrong! I've done nothing wrong! Why is this happening? This is crazy!"
She asks out loud why the officer is "so angry."
Payne handcuffed Wubbels and placed her in the police car, where she sat for about 20 minutes, according to CNN affiliate KSL. She was later released without a charge.
"I was alarmed by what I saw in the video with our officer and Ms. (Wubbels)," Salt Lake City police Chief Mike Brown said in a news conference Friday. "I am sad at the rift this has caused between law enforcement and the nurses we work so closely with."
The department opened an internal affairs investigation, he said, and Friday evening the police department said Payne and another "employee" were placed on full administrative leave as a result of a criminal investigation into the incident. The department said the second person was an officer, but did not identify that officer.
The officer's account
In a police report, Payne said when he arrived to the hospital, Wubbels said he needed to get permission from the hospital administrators.
After more than an hour waiting, Payne said, he called his supervisor who advised him to arrest Wubbels if she refused to let him draw a blood sample.
"I told them we wanted to blood sample to protect him, not punish him," he wrote.
An after-hours message left with the Salt Lake Police Association, the union representing officers, regarding Payne's status was not immediately returned.
Brown said the department has apologized and that its "blood draw policy" has been replaced with a new one that officers are now using.
His statement did not mention the policy that was in place at the time of Wubbels' arrest or why police would need a new one.
Why nurse came forward
Since the incident, Wubbels and her attorney said they have met with the city and police department to encourage them to reeducate their officers about the policy.
But Porter said they were not encouraged by their discussions with the University of Utah police and the Department of Public Safety, which provides security for the hospital. Officers from both departments were present for the arrest and did nothing to stop it, she said.
Wubbels said the lack of "forward progress" they felt in those meetings spurred them to come forward this week with the body camera footage.
"I felt obligated to release it on behalf of anyone that's ever gone through something like this" but didn't have evidence or video, Wubbels told CNN. "Just being bullied by police for any particular reason in a health care setting."
Wubbels also said she hopes to raise awareness of the policy.
"This should never have happened and it should not happen again," she told CNN. "We have to have a conversation and a discussion."
Wubbels said she received calls from the mayor and police chief to apologize and felt they were sincere.
Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski called the actions of the officers "completely unacceptable" and apologized to Wubbels.
"It was not necessary, and that's what we are here to say and we are truly apologetic," the mayor said at a news conference Friday.
BLOOMINGTON Police are seeking a man charged with posting on Facebook sexual images of residents of a nursing home in McLean County.
Michael Shawn Scurlock, 47, last of Lexington, and Samantha J. Brown, 29, have been indicted on charges of nonconsensual dissemination of sexual images.
Brown, whose address was not available, posted $1,035 and was released until a Sept. 8 arraignment, but police still were seeking Scurlock as of Friday night and issued an appeal through Crime Stoppers of McLean County.
McLean County State's Attorney Jason Chambers said the charges were the result of a sheriff's department investigation of an incident involving a nursing home in McLean County that recently resulted in a fine by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
He and Sheriff Jon Sandage declined to identify which nursing home was involved.
Officials said at the time that two former Meadows employees and a third person not associated with Meadows were under investigation after the third person allegedly posted the images.
Two of the six images were "inappropriate," Meadows CEO Jay Biere told The Pantagraph at the time.
Biere said a boyfriend of a former Meadows certified nursing assistant posted the images on social media.
Meadows officials filed an appeal of the fine with IDPH, saying they took action as soon as they found out about the images. They immediately notified IDPH, the sheriff's office and the families of the residents whose pictures were posted, Biere said, and Meadows terminated the employment of two workers suspected of being involved in the matter.
Chambers praised the thoroughness of the sheriff's department's investigation, noting it involved reviewing about 55,000 pages of documents, including records from Facebook and internet service providers.
Chambers said Brown had been an employee of the nursing home involved in the incident, and she had a personal relationship he declined the characterize further with Scurlock.
He is described as 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing 250 pounds. He has brown hair, green eyes, fair skin and a large build.
Crime Stoppers will pay cash rewards of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest and indictment of people who commit felony crimes in McLean County. Call 309-828-1111.
SPRINGFIELD Dr. Farruhk Kureishy lost more than his money when his longtime office manager took more than $400,000 from his practice, according to his statement Friday to a federal judge who will sentence the former employee.
"She not only started managing our office but our finances. Basically we trusted her like family," the Clinton doctor said of his relationship with Veronica Luster, who pleaded guilty in March to mail and wire fraud in connection with the scheme to embezzle funds from Clinton Internal Medicine.
U.S. District Court Judge Sue E. Myerscough granted a defense request to postpone Luster's sentencing on Friday to allow her to receive a psychiatric evaluation. Defense lawyer L. Lee Smith told the judge he believes a doctor should determine if Luster suffers from kleptomania, a disorder marked by the inability to refrain from stealing.
Luster's arrest in Bloomington in July on a retail theft charge raised the question of a possible mental health diagnosis, said Smith. He said the request for the evaluation was prompted when he watched before Friday's hearing a store video of Luster's alleged theft of a Waterford crystal vase from a Twin City department store.
Luster, 48, was transferred to the Livingston County jail on Friday where she will be held until she is taken to the Bureau of Prisons for the evaluation.
No date has been set for the sentencing hearing; Luster is eligible for 20 years on each count.
In his emotional statement, Kureishy said the losses that piled up over about four years starting in 2011 forced him to close his private practice last year and return to a medical practice at Warner Hospital and Health Services in Clinton where he had worked before opening his office in 2004.
The dwindling finances and mounting bills meant longer hours for the doctor and a second mortgage on his home.
"I had to work harder and harder to make ends meet. We were not at all suspicious that anything was going on," said Kureishy, who said he stopped drawing paychecks in order to cover payroll for 11 employees.
The embezzlement scheme became apparent in 2014 after Luster was pressed by Kureishy's accountant for documents needed to prepare tax returns. Luster was indicted in 2015 on federal wire and mail fraud charges.
Fighting back tears, the doctor explained that the theft took an emotional toll on him and his family.
Kureishy said he is being sued by a credit card company for an outstanding bill for $60,000 worth of purchases made by his former worker. The paperwork uncovered during the fraud investigation showed designer clothing, vacations and $30,000 paid to Luster's son for cleaning the office all paid with money from the medical practice, said Kureishy.
The 56-year-old doctor said his retirement plans have changed as a result of the losses and he has struggled to pay college expenses for his four children.
In her court filing asking that the McLean County retail theft charge not impact her sentence, Luster argued that no evidence has been produced by Kureishy to prove his claim that the loss caused him to close his practice.
"A mere change in employment, standing alone, is not a 'substantial financial hardship,'" said the defense filing.
Luster will be required to pay restitution estimated at $370,000, according to a presentence report compiled by federal prosecutors.
Luster suffers from a lengthy list of medical conditions, including chronic back pain and glaucoma, according to the defense. She intends to make a restitution payment of $11,541 before she is sentenced, according to Smith.
The Normal Town Council on Monday will consider an ordinance for the 2022 property tax levy estimated to be $13,381,652, which is the same as last year's levy.
By PTI: By Aditi Khanna
London, Sep 1 (PTI)A 26-year-old Bangladeshi origin man arrested for allegedly planning to carry out a terror attack with a Samurai sword near Buckingham Palace earlier this month was originally on his way to Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth II?s royal residence, some 20 miles away from London.
However, Mohiussunnath Choudhury, a self-employed Uber driver, ended up at a pub by the same name due to his cars GPS error and then decided to drive on to the monarchs London residence instead, Westminster Magistrates? Court was told yesterday.
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"Officers approached the vehicle and spoke with the male driver and as they did so the male took hold of a large sword from inside the vehicle and whilst still in the vehicle shouted Allahu Akbar [God is greatest] several times," prosecutor Mark Carroll told the court.
Choudhury, from Luton in the east of England, has been charged with engaging in the preparation to commit an act or acts of terrorism on August 25 and has been remanded in custody to appear before the Old Bailey court in London on September 21.
He is also accused of injuring three police officers in the course of the attack as they approached his Toyota Prius car, used by the self-employed Uber driver.
According to details emerging of Choudhurys life in the UK, he attended St. Lawrence Primary School and Uxbridge High School in west London where he was said to be well liked.
A school friend told The Times: "He was really nice to everyone and he was everyone?s friend. At school he hung around with all the other brainy kids, I think he was quite intelligent. He always got on with everyone.
"His family were quite nice ? there was his mum and his dad and him and his sister."
Scotland Yards Counter-Terrorism Command had earlier revealed details of the attack, which took place on August 25 night when a man stopped his blue Toyota Prius car in a restricted area near a police vehicle on the Mall roundabout near Spur Road.
Officers at the Mall spotted a large bladed weapon in his vehicle and went to arrest him.
During the course of detaining the man, three male police officers suffered minor injuries to their arm.
Two of the injured officers were taken to hospital for treatment and have since been discharged.
Choudhury, who spoke in court only to confirm his name, was also taken to a London hospital for treatment of minor injuries.
Commander Dean Haydon, the head of the Met?s Counter Terrorism Command, had said:"We believe the man was acting alone and we are not looking for other suspects at this stage. While we cannot speculate on what the man was intending to do ? this will be determined during the course of the investigation ? it is only right that we investigate this as a terrorist incident at this time."
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A second 30-year-old man was detained on suspicion of terrorism offences a few days later at an address in west London in connection with the palace attack.
He was released without charge earlier this week.
Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the royal family were not in BuckinghamPalaceat the time.
The 91-year-old monarch was at Balmoral Castle in Scotland and other senior members of the royal family are also away during the summer holiday season in the UK. PTI AK ZH
--- ENDS ---
Finding a solution to Illinois school funding has eluded everyone who has tried. Until now.
Gov. Jim Edgar defeated a Democratic rival in 1994 who championed a tax swap idea. Comptroller Dawn Clark Netsch wouldve traded an income tax hike for local property tax reductions and an overall funding increase to local schools. For years, property taxes had been rising while the states share of overall education funding had plummeted. But Edgar focused on the income tax hike in Netschs plan and pummeled her at the polls.
Well into his second term, Edgar unveiled his own plan, which turned out to be eerily similar to Netschs proposal. His proposal was backed by Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who had spoken briefly during the 1970 Illinois Constitutional Convention in favor of school funding reform. The plan was killed by Senate President Pate Philip, a suburban Republican who said voters had already thoroughly rejected Netschs proposal.
Philip strongly opposed a last-minute provision to help Chicago Public Schools pay for its teacher pensions. The state picks up all the employer and legacy costs of teacher pensions for the suburbs and downstate, but not Chicago. And that has been a bone of contention for years.
James Meeks, an African-American minister from Chicagos South Side, was elected to the Illinois Senate as an independent in 2002. Meeks threatened to run as an independent candidate for governor in 2006 if incumbent Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich didnt come up with his own plan.
Blagojevich convinced Meeks to get out of the race by unveiling a proposal that vastly increased school funding by privatizing the lottery. But after Blagojevich was safely reelected, he double-crossed Meeks and didnt follow through.
Meeks spent the next few years attempting to pass a huge tax hike package, mainly to help public schools. But it stalled when Speaker Madigan wouldnt put his House majority at risk.
Along the way, Meeks attempted to organize a boycott of underfunded Chicago Public Schools and brought busloads of kids to suburban Winnetka in a failed bid to enroll them in the top-ranked New Trier High School. He also championed the idea of using tax money to help kids enroll in private schools.
It turns out that a Winnetka resident at the time, Bruce Rauner, wound up being elected governor a few years later. Meeks backed Rauner in 2014 and Rauner, a school choice champion, appointed Meeks chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education.
State Sen. Andy Manar, a Democrat from Bunker Hill, had already been working on the school funding problem. Manar had quit his job as Senate President John Cullertons chief of staff to run for the legislature in 2012, so he had far more skills and experience than the typical freshman.
After he was inaugurated, Rauner hired Beth Purvis, and put her in charge of a study commission that actually wanted to get something done.
The next 2 years were filled with excruciating political infighting that made even the most hardened insiders blanch. It almost went off the rails when the governor used his amendatory veto powers in July on a bill passed by both the House and Senate in May.
Rauner constantly derided that bill as a Chicago bailout. But his amendatory veto introduced new concepts that hadnt been discussed by his commission and, therefore, brought opponents out of the woodwork.
Faced with yet another revolt, Rauner was finally convinced to pare back his excessive demands.
Rauner did win a school choice component a five-year income tax credit for donations to private and out-of-district public school tuition scholarship funds that Chairman Meeks backed. But he also ended up signing a bill that provided more money for Chicago Public Schools than the one he vetoed, including, finally, some significant state cash for Chicago teacher pensions, a proposal he vetoed almost two years ago.
Without Manar, Purvis and Meeks and those who preceded them, none of this would've happened. And now we can move on to the next Illinois crisis.
Bangladesh: They have come in their thousands, crossing hills and rivers, marshes and rice paddies for the chance to cross into Bangladesh and escape the mass killings they say are being perpetrated against their people.
This is how in-depth coverage of the crisis in Burma by Euan McKirdy, Rebecca Wright and Z. Saeed, of CNN begins.
According to UN estimates, they continue, 50,000 Rohingya (a predominantly Muslim ethnic group in Burma*) have been forced to flee their homes, over half reaching neighboring Bangladesh, the rest either internally displaced or dead. There is already an estimated 200,000 500,000 internally displaced Rohingya in Burma, living in makeshift camps often without access to doctors, clean water, or adequate food. This has led some on the ground to call current events a genocide. Others use terms such as massacre as reports come in on the killing of hundreds or thousands of civilian Rohingya by the Burmese military and mobs.
Aung San Suu Kyi, once heralded as a beacon of hope in the region, has distanced herself from damning reports against her countrys government and her office has in turn accused Rohingyas of inciting violence and using child soldiers.
This story is, sadly, not new. Two of my lengthy and broadly researched articles below (2015 Understanding Buddhist-Muslim Relations, and 2013 Ethnicity, Ideologies, and) offer historical background to the problems facing Burma today. The country is extremely fractious and, while it is easy to see Buddhists killing Muslims there, it is also the case that Buddhists have been fighting and killing Christians and fellow Buddhists in the various ongoing civil wars in the country.
The difference in scale, however, is stark, and international observers are clear that the fault here lies squarely with the government and Buddhist majority.
Buddhists in the West have not been silent over the years. In 2012, Danny Fisher and Joshua Eaton penned an open letter on Buddhist Islamophobia in Burma, signed by hundreds of Buddhist teachers around the world. In 2015, Buddhist Global Relief established an emergency fund for the Rohingya of Burma and a letter of appeal from US Buddhist Teachers.
I expect we will see another letter soon.
However, I am pessimistic. The complexity of the situation, internally and in broader geopolitics, along with the depth of entrenchment of many in the area leaves me with little hope for an easy solution.
* The name was changed to Myanmar by the current military dictatorship in 1989. To retain the previous name may be seen as throwing allegiance to a colonialist past, as Burma is the name for the nation first designated by the British who ruled over the country from 1824 to 1948. However, Burma is also widely used by dissidents who do not recognize the legitimacy of the current regime and its choice to change the name.
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It would seem so, given the manner in which he questioned Russell Vought, President Trumps nominee for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, about a piece he wrote in light of last years Wheaton College controversy. (See The Atlantic, and elsewhere.)
As The Atlantic presents the story:
Sanders took issue with a piece Vought wrote in January 2016 about a fight at the nominees alma mater, Wheaton College. The Christian school had fired a political-science professor, Larycia Hawkins, for a Facebook post intended to express solidarity with Muslims. Vought disagreed with Hawkinss post and defended the school in an article for the conservative website The Resurgent. During the hearing, Sanders repeatedly quoted one passage that he found particularly objectionable: Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ his Son, and they stand condemned. In my view, the statement made by Mr. Vought is indefensible, it is hateful, it is Islamophobic, and it is an insult to over a billion Muslims throughout the world, Sanders told the committee during his introductory remarks. This country, since its inception, has struggled, sometimes with great pain, to overcome discrimination of all forms we must not go backwards.
Sanders continued to press the issue that he interpreted this statement as Islamophobic and offensive to all Muslims and announced that, on this basis, he would vote no on the nomination.
The author of the article, Emma Green, suggests that Sanders misunderstood Vought, and believed that the condemnation was a this-world matter of intolerance for Muslims, rather than the theological belief that theyll go to hell in the next world. But she also cites Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who said that Im a Christian, but part of being a Christian, in my view, is recognizing that there are lots of ways that people can pursue their God. That is, Van Hollen seems to claim that Vought is not a real Christian if he believes that non-Christians go to Hell which I suppose means that he thinks hes not imposing a religious test because he considers the belief, non-Christians go to Hell not to be a matter of Christianity, or of a religious belief, per se, but a moral belief no moral person would believe such a thing.
And thats the trick, isnt it? Its fine with Sanders, or Van Hollen, or plenty of others, if you believe that God, in the person of Jesus, came to earth, died, and was resurrected; or that God plucked Mohammed out of obscurity to tell his secrets to; or that your soul is reincarnated after you die. Its also fine to observe certain quirky customs regarding food (kosher) or dress (veiling), so long as those are understood to be limited to your specific religious group or your own personal choice, with no general applicability. (And Islamist groups that say, all women should veil and are asking for it if they dont, and all people should be obliged to follow Sharia law dont get a pass because of Religious Freedom, but because of that alternate principle, Thou shalt not criticize an ethnic minority group and Muslims are treated like a race/ethnicity.)
But the freedom to hold religious/moral beliefs about whats right or wrong in general, or any sort of belief that has to do with people outside your religion, or, really, other than you yourself, hasnt been considered acceptable by the Left for a long time. So it really is not a big surprise that Sanders, or anyone from the Left, would deem non-Christians go to Hell to be an unacceptable, immoral belief.
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWomen_in_burqa_with_their_children_in_Herat%2C_Afghanistan.jpg; By Arnesen (Woman and Children) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Gibraltar-based IVPN has a small network of servers, but mostly excellent speeds, and a solid privacy policy. Its pricier than other VPN services, but for those who want a solid set of privacy features including better anonymity than most services its a good choice.
IVPN in brief:
P2P allowed: Yes (company asks users not to use U.S. servers)
Yes (company asks users not to use U.S. servers) Business location: Gibraltar
Gibraltar Number of servers: 36
36 Number of country locations: 13
13 Cost: $100 per year
When it comes down to it, there are really two kinds of VPNs: those that promise an unbelievable number of country connections and those that dont. This review is looking at a service of the latter type. IVPN is a small service officially based in Gibraltar that offers what you need in a VPN, including the right privacy promises, excellent speeds in at least some regions, and an easy-to-use Windows app. The companys mobile support for Android could use a little more work, but no service is perfect.
Note: This review is part of our best VPNs roundup. Go there for details about competing products and how we tested them.
Features and services
Ian Paul/IDG IVPNs Single Hop tab.
IVPNs Windows app is very basic when you first fire it up. Similar to other VPNs such as Mullvad it uses a small single-pane window. There are only two tabs in the window: Single Hop and Multi Hop. If youre not familiar with Multi Hop, its a feature that allows you to connect through two VPN servers instead of the usual one, to further obscure your IP address.
Using the Single Hop option is simple enough. You click on the Server panel at the top of the tab to change the location if need be, and then click Connect. Once you start connecting, IVPN has a firewall setting that will block all internet traffic should the VPN drop its connection. Otherwise all internet traffic goes through the VPN.
Ian Paul/IDG Multi Hop lets you route your internet connection through two servers instead of one.
Multi Hop works pretty much the same except that instead of choosing one server you choose two. One is marked as the entry serverthe server you connect to firstand the other is the exit server. The exit server is the one where you connect with the wider internet and its location is where your traffic will appear to be coming from.
IVPNs settings, available from the top-right corner of the window, dont offer a ton of options. The General tab has some basic settings such as starting at login (not enabled by default) and the option to automatically connect to the last server on startup. Theres also an option to automatically connect to the server you last used when youre on an insecure Wi-Fi network.
The Connection tab lets advanced users specify UDP or TDP protocols and ports.
IPVPN Firewall gives you an option to have it always on, which means that when the program is active, it will block all internet traffic even when not connected to the VPN. If youre going to use that option make sure you also tell IVPN to start at login under the General tab.
Finally, the Diagnostics tab lets you enable logging should you need support help from IVPN.
Thats all there is to IVPNs Windows app. Its incredibly simple, without a lot of options. One annoyance I had with it is that the program cannot be dismissed from the taskbar without shutting it down. That means that as long as your VPN connection is active IVPN has to sit on your taskbar despite the fact that theres also an icon in the system tray.
IVPN also offers apps for Mac and iOS, as well as instructions for how to set up the VPN on Linux, Android, routers, and NAS boxes.
IVPN also has a nice guides section with helpful information, including how to do a VPN leak test and how to set up IVPN on a Raspberry Pi.
Performance
Ian Paul/IDG IVPNs app with an active connection.
IVPNs overall speed score was only about 33 percent of the base speed, but that doesnt tell the whole story of its capabilities.
The service has some of the best speeds weve tested for U.S and UK connections. The U.S. connection was 55 percent of the base speed, while the UK connection was 74 percent. Other areas werent so strong. The German connection was surprisingly weak. Most other VPNs have fast speeds out of Germany, but IVPNs at the time of our testing was the second slowest. Hong Kong was pretty good at nearly 20Mbps, and Iceland (standing in for the lack of an Australian server) was lethargic, not even breaking 3Mbps in our test.
If you need an Icelandic server IVPN may not be for you, but if youre only interested in speedy UK and U.S. servers IVPN is well worth looking at.
Privacy, anonymity, and trust
Similar to many other VPNs, IVPN only asks for your email when signing up. This requirement tries to strike a balance between knowing as little as possible about you, while having enough information to keep you engaged as a customer. Its not the gold standard that Mullvad achieves by knowing nearly nothing about you, but its not bad. If you need the best anonymity possible dont use one of your primary email addresses when signing up.
Once youre signed up, IVPN assigns you a nondescript username using a combination of letters and numbers for connecting to the VPN. Your email, meanwhile is used to sign in to the web area where your account details are. The password is the same for both.
Payment options include credit cards, PayPal, Bitcoin, and cash. Most of those are run-of-the-mill for VPNs, with the exception of cash, which is rarer but not uncommon. These options allow you to pay with varying levels of anonymity, depending on your comfort level.
Ian Paul/IDG IVPNs settings window.
IVPNs mailing address is Privatus Limited, 5 Secretarys Lane, Gibraltar, GX11 1AA, according to the companys Terms of Service page. The companys CEO is Nicholas Pestell and the chief technical officer is Fedir Nepyivoda. Other members of the team appear on the companys about page, but without last names.
Although the companys offices are in Gibraltar, the team appears to be spread out through the world. A number of employees appear to be based in Ukraine based on some basic searching on LinkedIn. The holding company behind IVPN is called Privatus Limited as noted above in the mailing address.
IVPN has a no-logging policy for its users, meaning the company wont keep any logs about which websites youve visited. The company also doesnt store any bandwidth usage, DNS requests, or other session data, according to its privacy policy.
When you visit the companys website it uses the Piwik analytics platformself-hosted on its serverto gather information about website visits. This includes information about your browser user-agent, system language, screen resolution, referring website (link you clicked to get to the website), IP address, and other information. IVPN says it discards the last two octets (16 bits) of your IP address to reduce the amount of information it has about you.
Overall, IVPNs trust level is not bad. A few months ago there was a discussion on Reddit about IVPNs desktop program EULA, which said that any disputes over the service would be handled in a Texas court. That suggested the company was based in the U.S., and not Gibraltar. That problem has since been changed and the EULA clearly states disputes will be settled in the EU.
Conclusion
IVPN is fairly expensive at $100 per year at the best price. Nevertheless, its got a straightforward privacy policy, offers the ability to pay cash, and has some pretty good speeds. Its a worthy choice for anyone looking for U.S. and UK connections. IVPN offers a free, three-day trial to new subscribers and Id encourage any potential new customer to try it out before subscribing.
Editors note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on Thursday launched the tax stamp policy as part of governments effort to address the counterfeiting of products on the markets and to improve revenue generation.
He said the implementation of the tax stamps policy was not an imposition of additional tax by government but a measure to protect genuine businesses from counterfeiters and also to ensure that more people and businesses pay their due taxes.
Tax stamps are small stickers with security features, supplied by government to some manufacturers and importers and to be affixed to their products before they are released onto the market.
These stamps once they are seen on a product provide significant guarantee that the products are authentic.
In line with the Excise Tax Act, 2013, government would begin implementation with Tobacco, Alcoholic and non-Alcoholic drinks, bottled water and textiles when the policy takes-off in January 2018.
Mr Ofori-Atta said through the use of tax stamps, government seeks to partner businesses that may have fallen or could fall victim to product counterfeiting to fight the anti-business phenomenon.
Once the tax stamp policy has been adequately rolled out, government will lead the campaign to remind consumers that patronage of products that ought to have tax stamps but do not have tax stamps is unsafe and that consumers do so at their own risk, he said.
Mr Ofori-Atta said when the enforcement of the tax stamp policy starts, products that are required to carry the stamps but do not do so, would be removed from the market and the appropriate sanctions imposed on offenders.
The Minister said government would continue to work closely with traders and manufacturers from now to the close of the year to finalise arrangement for the affixing of the stamps by businesses that are required to do so.
He said while the Excise Tax Stamp Act required businesses to bear the cost of the stamps, it gives freedom to government to subsidise the cost, government would from January 1, 2018 to June 30, 2018, bear the entire cost of the stamps supplied to businesses.
Also, between June and the close of the year 2018, government will still bear half the cost of the stamps.
Mr Emmanuel Kofi Nti, the Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority said the implementation of the excise tax stamp policy seeks to control the importation and local production of excisable goods for revenue purposes, check under-declaration of goods and check illicit trading, smuggling and counterfeiting of excisable products.
He said the tax stamp is not an introduction of a new tax, rather a new way of administering the already existing excise tax.
Mr Nti said the Stamp would enable the GRA to effectively monitor the payment of Excise Tax to ensure that the correct quantum of tax is paid, adding that, the GRA would between now and the ends of the year mount an intensive public education on the implementation of the policy.
He urged local manufacturers and importers of excisable products to register with the GRA to enable them to obtain the stamp.
To ensure a smooth transition, Mr Nti said importers, wholsalers and retailers would need to clear the stocks of excisable goods without the stamp before the effective date of implementation.
He said persons, who display, sell or distribute excise goods without a stamp at the end of the transitional period would be punished according to the law with a fine not exceeding 300 per cent of the duties and taxes involved or to a term of imprisonment of not more than five years or to both.
Mr Robert Jackson, the US Ambassador to Ghana, said the implementation of the stamp policy would go a long way to protect consumers from the negative consequences of the consumption of counterfeit products.
He said the stamp would also help stem the tide of smuggling.
Professor George Yaw Gyan-Baffour, the Minister of Planning, who chaired the launch ceremony, emphasised that, the tax stamp was new, but a simple measure aimed at checking the loopholes in the administration of excise tax in the country.
Source: GNA
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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Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Food and Agriculture, says the petroleum and gas Industry is not conducive for the creation of jobs and must focus more on generating money to be invested in other job-creating sectors such as agriculture.
He said the future of Ghanas oil and gas sector would be mainly automation, with limited employment in the sector, thus initiatives, such as the KOSMOS Innovation Centre (KIC) were important for economic growth of the country.
He made the statements at a ceremony to announce investment awards for the second KIC Agritech Challenge.
He recounted a visit, with President Akuffo Addo, to a huge state-of-the-art gas complex in Malabo-Equatorial Guinea, during a state visit two weeks ago, where he saw what government wanted to see with the future of Ghanas oil and gas industry.
He noted that during the over two-hour tour of the facility, no personnel was seen, with only three people and a bank of computers in the control room controlling everything in the entire complex.
The complex, according to the Minister of Energy of that country, employed only 400 people.
It tells you that the petroleum and gas industry is not friendly to employment. If you want to generate employment in your country, you dont go to petroleum and gas. What you do is for petroleum and gas to generate the cash, then you put it in the ground.
What KOSMOS is doing with this competition, to me, is exactly the intention of what we saw in Malabo. That they, as a petroleum and gas company, are trying to cultivate the interest of the youth of this country in agriculture is terribly commendable and I commend KOSMOS for their work, he stated.
Dr Akoto said Ghanas agriculture sector was down by all indicators, a phenomenon that was deepening rural poverty in the country, thus the essence of governments Planting for Food and Jobs policy; aimed at increasing productivity in agriculture. To do this, he said, technology in improved seeds, fertilisers and others were important.
Source: GNA
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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At a meeting of corporate customers of the erstwhile UT Bank and Capital Bank in Accra, the Managing Director of the Bank, Mr Anselm Ray Sowah, explained that the reduction in the rates would be at the level consistent with GCBs existing corporate clients.
The meeting was the first of its kind since GCB assumed the management of UT and Capital Banks and it was designed to reassure customers of the advantages, benefits and business opportunities in doing business with GCB.
It provided the avenue for the customers to have direct interaction with the Management of GCB and to chart the way forward. Corporate customers at the meeting expressed delight at the openness of the GCB Management and commitment to meet their expectations.
Mr Sowah said: The decision to assume the management of the two institutions was taken seriously to grow the GCB brand and to create the environment for your business to thrive.
I wish to assure you that you will have access to a bigger bank with over 200 branches all of which will be fully networked as part of the six-month programme of integration. This will provide a wider scope to operate from than previously, the MD said.
He said GCB had the right balance sheet to support big transactions and large ticket deals, adding that GCB will offer customers a one-stop solution to their banking needs rather than having to deal with different banks. He emphasised that the passion to grow local business was ingrained in the procedures and practices of GCB and as the MD his ambition was to bring back passion into the way GCB manages the local entrepreneur space in Ghana.
Mr Sowah said: We have embarked on a campaign to win, nurture, support and grow Ghanaian businesses to enhance the national economy.
The Chief Operating Officer of GCB Bank, Mr. Samuel Sarpong, assured the customers that their funds are in good hands as GCB has been a trailblazer in the banking sector for six decades. He added that the integration of the systems will be done in the coming weeks to help customers bank at ease and to help in the smooth flow of operations.
Source: Classfmonline
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An Accra Circuit Court has ordered the arrest of Arnold Asante, a businessman, who is accused of defrauding Kofi Adams, the National Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Asante is said to have failed to appear before the court to answer a charge of defrauding by false pretences.
The prosecutor Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Stephen Adjei, prayed the court for a bench warrant to arrest Mr Asante, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kamsak Limited Ghana.
He is alleged to have defrauded Mr Adams of GH840,000 under the pretext of using the money to pre-finance tyres supply contract secured from Goldfields Mining Ghana at Tarkwa and pay same, but refused to do so.
Source: GNA
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Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, has said the Ghana Army needed to upgrade its armoured vehicles to efficiently offer protection and mobility in difficult and hostile terrains.
Speaking at the 2017 Armoured Vehicles and Future Fires Africa Conference and Defence Exhibition in Accra on Thursday, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said Ghana was currently ranked the seventh largest contributor of troops to the United Nations Peace Support operations.
The conference, hosted by the Ghana Armed Forces, in collaboration with the International Quality and Productivity Centre (IQPC), aimed to digest fires available to the military and examine the way forward for optimum application in contemporary warfare.
The event, on the theme; Ensuring Survivability and Ground Superiority through Protected Mobility and Enhanced Firepower, aimed to engender benchmarking, debate, and collaboration in the area of procurement of new platforms, maintenance and upgrade of existing vehicles and equipment.
It brought together security agencies from Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Cameroun, South Africa and Botswana among others.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng noted that internal and expeditionary challenges in West Africa had demanded the procurement of increasing numbers of armoured vehicles and protected mobility solutions for the rapid deployment of assets across vast areas.
This has resulted in significant defence expenditure to secure borders, defend populations and natural resources as well as aiding in peacekeeping missions, he added.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said as African countries made investments in improving the quality of firepower and mortars, there was the need for the Military to explore new and emerging topics at the forefront of strategic and technological thinking in defence.
Digitised weapons system vulnerabilities, munitions, and employment of organic firepower by Special Forces are beneficial, he added.
He said the event would expose guests to unique opportunities, meeting leaders in the armoured vehicles and future fires industry.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng urged military leaders and stakeholders in defence to take advantage of the event to develop a well-integrated plan to ensure survivability and ground superiority through protected mobility and enhance firepower in the armed forces.
He said the battalions would be equipped with Armoured Personnel Carrier and infantry Assault Vehicles in order to provide protection for personnel, enhance mobility across rough terrains and provide a more integrated fire power for both internal security duties for peace support operations.
He said this would enhance the Ghana Armys ability to react efficiently to any threats to national peace and security from internal and external sources and expand the deployment of its troops on peacekeeping duties.
Major General William Azure Ayamdo, the Chief of the Ghana Army Staff, said: The current security challenges across the world will require us to procure the advanced amour vehicles and protected mobility solutions that will enable us to deploy rapidly to intervene in crisis situations.
He said: We have to invest to improve on the platforms we have for such rapid deployments and also improve the quality of indirect fire support available to the Ghana Armed Forces.
He said Armies and security services across the world would have to explore new strategic and technological thinking in defence architecture to be able to combat the sophisticated enemy both internally and externally.
Source: GNA
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Mr Sam Sole, an Investigative Journalist in South Africa, said the phenomenon of fake news has presented a systematic threat, which is enough to engender a rethink of the boundaries of free speech and media.
He said it was unfortunate that technology could now be manipulated to achieve social and political outcomes, rendering the population fragile and confused.
Technology makes the manipulation of populations possible in ways that undermine our basic understanding of the authenticity of the popular will of democracy itself. That is where the danger is, he said.
Mr Sole, also Chief Executive of amaBhungane Centre of Investigative Journalism, said this at the ongoing 21st Highway Africa Annual Conference in Grahamstown, South Africa.
It is under the theme: Media, Accountability and Local Governance, which coincided with the South African Communicators confab.
The Conference is hosted by the Highway Africa in partnership with Rhodes Universitys School of Journalism and Media Studies and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Barclays Bank, Telcom and MTN.
It is facilitating the continental debate on the interface of journalism, media, and information and communication technology (ICT) for development.
Mr Sole said the propensity for fake news to often play on peoples emotional responses, tended to solicit fear, anger or outrage and that called for a real rethinking.
Technology can now automate this process, as we saw with Trumps army of Twitter bots during the US election, he said.
He said the ubiquitous smart phone and the dominance of population connectedness via social media meant that surveillance of whole populations was now within reach.
The Ace Investigative Journalist said the scariest of the reality was that propaganda worked adding: Research shows that repeated exposure to false information could propel people to believe that it is the truth.
We have our own example right here, where the so-called Gupta trolls though the links to the Gupta family are not proven have succeeded in embedding a White monopoly capital discourse as an alternative narrative to the state capture narrative that has been used to frame the Gupta story, he said.
Unfortunately, we are only at the beginning of this revolution. Bots are currently quite easy to spot, but advances in artificial intelligence will change that, he said.
Mr Sole said technology would make it easier to produce fake news that looked real mimicking politicians and the affluence in society.
He said the precise targeting of commercial and political speech at individual consumers, based on a sophisticated and automated analysis of their online persona, was already a reality, adding This is only going to get more sophisticated and intrusive if we continue on the current laissez-faire trajectory.
We will be deceiving ourselves if we don't recognise this as a 'systemic' threat that must force us to rethink the boundaries of free speech and media, which is not commercially 'free' at all, he said.
Source: GNA
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New Patriotic Party (NPP) firebrand and Member of Parliament for Assin South, Ken Agyapong has accused the police of 'spreading falsehood' against him.
The Police are warned, if they dont take care theyll forever regret their actions. Because they asked me a question about Abu Jinapor and I told them I dont have any information on Abu. Now I believe its the police who are spreading such falsehood and it has gone viral on social media. You inform the media that youve invited Ken Agyapong and even go ahead to say he fought when he came to meet the police, when Ive not stepped my foot there, then you turn around and give me a call wanting to see me. Ill not give them any information anymore, Ill even go and take my evidence from the police, for whatever will happen to happen he fumed on his Radio Station, Accra based Oman FM.
Even though he didn't mention the police officers who were spreading the falsehood against him, he believes their (police) agenda is to pollute the minds of the public against him.
Earlier reports that emerged indicated that Mr Agyapong was invited by officials of the Criminal and Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to substantiate allegations against some unnamed presidential staffers.
However, he claims he was never invited.
Nobody has called me to come to the police station; I am not a thief or have lodged a complaint with the police.even if they call me I wont go. I will even go and take my evidence from the police he stated.
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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Update
Police are searching for missing Temple University student who was last seen early Thursday morning, according to a report from Philly.com.
Jenna Burleigh, 22, was last seen at about 2 a.m. Thursday, in the area of Pub Webb, a bar and restaurant along the 1500 block of Cecil B. Moore Avenue, according to the report.
"The Burleigh family came to Temple Police on Thursday evening to report the student missing. Temple Police is collaborating with Lower Salford and Philadelphia police to review cameras and investigate," according to a report from The Temple News.
Anyone with information about Burleigh is asked to contact police at 215-204-1234 or a confidential tip line at 215-204-6493.
BELLEFONTE - It sounds crazy to say after eight days of preliminary hearings, but now the real work begins.
With Magisterial District Judge Allen Sinclair having ordered 12 Penn State students to trial Friday in connection with the February death of Timothy Piazza after a Beta Theta Pi fraternity party, the case now enters a lengthy, pre-trial phase in Centre County court.
A tentative trial date of Dec. 4 is set, but no one familiar with the case is expecting anything to go to court before sometime in 2018.
Piazza, a 19-year-old engineering student from Lebanon, N.J., was fatally injured in a series of falls that he sustained after becoming drunk during a Feb. 2 bid acceptance party at the fraternity.
Piazza suffered head and spleen injuries that, according to medical reports, passed the point of recovery as he spent a fitful night on the fraternity's ground floor, lacking any professional medical attention.
He was pronounced dead at Hershey Medical Center on Feb. 4.
Sinclair threw out the most serious counts against eight of the fraternity members Friday - involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault - and Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller quickly vowed to refile those.
But for the moment, Parks Miller said, that should not hold up the counts against 14 remaining defendants - counting two that waived preliminary hearings this spring - that Sinclair has sent to court.
Ostensibly, the next step will be formal arraignments, a point at which the 14 remaining defendants enter a formal plea and mandatory sharing of evidence begins. That is expected, in this case, to be a paperwork exercise.
The who's who of attorneys working this case will then likely paper the old courthouse here with habeus corpus motions aimed at getting more of the remaining counts tossed for various legal reasons.
If those fail, expect to see a separate series of pre-trial motions covering everything from demands for separate trials to limits on evidence that gets to the jury to, possibly, a request for jurors from another county.
"There is a lot that will go into this," Michael Engle, attorney for defendant Gary Dibileo, said Friday of the work that remains.
Behind the scenes, plea negotiations could also develop in which some defendants explore whether it's worth their while to lock-in some lesser degree of punishment - especially given the seemingly air-tight nature of some of the remaining counts - and avoid the uncertainty of a trial.
But that is not expected to be a top priority right now, for a couple of reasons.
First off, there is significant bad blood between some of the defense attorneys and Parks Miller, a fiery prosecutor who is currently facing disciplinary action by the state.
The Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court has scheduled a Nov. 29 hearing to consider whether Parks Miller committed professional misconduct in texts with judges that discussed pending cases and by using a fake Facebook account to obtain information on defendants.
The Office of Disciplinary Counsel's petition for discipline filed in February said Parks Miller contacted judges about cases without informing defense lawyers. It also said she misled the disciplinary counsel's investigators.
Parks Miller has denied any wrongdong, but those strained relations means that the requisite degree of trust needed for two adversarial parties to strike a deal just isn't there.
And more to the point, those lawyers can literally wait Parks Miller out: the incumbent district attorney lost her re-election bid earlier this year and will be succeeded by State College lawyer Bernie Cantorna next year.
For those reasons, most observers believe the defense lawyers, collectively, will continue to fight the charges aggressively for the time being, at least until all viable efforts to win pre-trial dismissals have been played out.
Parks Miller, however, has promised a zealous effort on behalf of Timothy Piazza's family for the remainder of her term.
Besides the promised refiling of the charges dismissed Friday, she noted Friday that she is still awaiting forensic examinations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of video cameras from the Beta house to see if additional footage from the bid acceptance night party was erased.
If corroborated, Parks Miller has warned, that could lead to new charges in the case.
As for the new guy on the job, PennLive's efforts to reach Cantorna for this story were not successful. In prior interviews, however, Cantorna has steadfastly declined to speak publicly about this or any cases he will inherit.
There's a lot to watch for as the case moves forward.
By Eugene Robinson
Just so there's no confusion: Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer emailed Vladimir Putin's personal spokesman? Seeking help from the Kremlin on a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow? During the presidential campaign?
Eugene Robinson (PennLive file)
Yes, this really happened. While most attention was rightly focused on the devastating flood in Houston, there was quite a bit of news on the Russia front -- all of it, from President Trump's perspective, quite bad.
The revelations begin with a Trump business associate named Felix Sater . A Russian emigre who bragged about his Kremlin connections, Sater was a principal figure in development of the Trump Soho hotel and condominium project in lower Manhattan. Sater wrote a series of emails to Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, touting the Moscow Trump Tower project as a way to help Trump win the presidency.
In November 2015 -- five months after Trump had entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination -- Sater wrote to Cohen that he had "arranged" for Trump's daughter Ivanka, during a 2006 visit to Moscow, "to sit in Putins private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin."
The email went on, "I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected. We both know no one else knows how to pull this off without stupidity or greed getting in the way. I know how to play it and we will get this done. Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this."
Could Sater be just a blowhard who exaggerated his influence with the Russian president? Perhaps. But Ivanka Trump did tell the New York Times that she took a "brief tour of Red Square and the Kremlin" during that 2006 visit. The Times reported she said that "it is possible she sat in Mr. Putin's chair during that tour but she did not recall it."
There is no evidence that Cohen, one of Trump's closest associates, found anything improper in Sater's pledge to get Putin "on this program." Nor did Cohen or anyone in the Trump Organization bother to disclose the emails -- or the Trump firm's effort, even during the campaign, to profitably emblazon the Trump name on the Moscow skyline -- until the correspondence was turned over to the House Intelligence Committee on Monday.
And there's more: In January 2016, with the Moscow project apparently stalled, Cohen went straight to the top to get it back on track -- or at least tried to. He sent an email to Dmitry Peskov, Putin's longtime personal spokesman, "hereby requesting your assistance."
Peskov confirmed that the email was received but said he did nothing about it and that it was not given to Putin.
So Trump was lying when he tweeted, shortly before his inauguration, that "I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA -- NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!" The truth is that in October 2015, on the same day he participated in a GOP candidates' debate, he signed a letter of intent for the Moscow Trump Tower project.
That is a "deal," and Trump's hunger to keep it alive may explain his reluctance to say anything critical about Putin. Or it may tell just part of the story.
The other part involves the whole question of collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign to meddle with the election and boost Trump's chances. Sater's boasts, by themselves, are hardly definitive. But of course there is the larger context, which includes the infamous meeting that Donald Trump Jr. convened in New York at which he hoped to receive dirt, courtesy of the Russian government, on Hillary Clinton.
Thus far we have the president's son, son-in-law Jared Kushner (who was at that meeting), then-campaign manager Paul Manafort (also at the meeting) and now his personal lawyer all seemingly eager for Russian help in the election. Who in the campaign wasn't willing to collude?
All of this is under scrutiny by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and the various congressional committees that are conducting investigations. Some have suggested that Trump's pardon of Joe Arpaio, the unrepentant "birther" and racial profiler, might have been a message to Trump associates facing heat from prosecutors: Hang tough and don't worry, you'll get pardons.
But there was more bad news for the president: Politico reported that Mueller is now cooperating and sharing information with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Presidents can only issue pardons for federal offenses, not state crimes. Uh-oh.
Eugene Robinson is a columnist for The Washington Post. His work appears on Saturdays on PennLive.
A painting of the Virgin de Guadalupe hangs from a tree branch Friday, Sept. 1, 2017, in a Crosby, Texas, neighborhood wiped out by Harvey's floodwaters. Residents returning to the working class mostly Hispanic neighborhood Friday for the first time found their homes moved from the foundations, large trees with their roots reaching into the air and recreational vehicles crumpled like tin cans. (AP Photo/Jason Dearen)
By PTI: New Delhi, Sep 1 (PTI) The Congress has decided not to contest the September 24 Gurgaon municipal corporation election on its party symbol as per past practice.
This was decided by the party at a meeting of leaders from the state with Congress general secretary in-charge of Haryana Kamal Nath.
"After consultation with the state leaders, Kamal Nath, General Secretary AICC (In-Charge, Haryana) has announced that the Congress party shall not be contesting the elections on symbol as per established past practice," a party statement said.
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Nath alleged the state BJP government has "utterly failed" in creating and providing infrastructure, civic amenities, and law and order in the Millennium City and that the BJP-led Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) is principally responsible for the same.
Nath has also asked the PCC president, Congress Legislature Party leader and all state leaders to work in unison to ensure that the new MCG is constituted of people who share the Congress partys ideology and who would truly help in transforming Gurgaon into a city with modern infrastructure and amenities.
The schedule of elections to Gurgaons (Gurugram) municipal body has been announced and polling is to be held on September 24. PTI SKC KUN
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Ethan Bresnahan (left) and Jeff Nowak, two of the cofounders of Boost Linguistics, hold up visual aids representing the emotions their software aims to help those who write marketing content evoke. Read more
You know how something frustrating or depressing, thrilling or sad makes you want to eat a pint of Bassetts Pralines & Cream? That's an emotional connection.
So is when you ooh and ahh and feel all warm and fuzzy when a puppy and a Clydesdale share a tender nose-to-nose moment in a Budweiser commercial.
A message that strikes an emotional chord is marketing gold, a powerful motivational tool when it comes to inspiring a purchase, experts say. And in today's sensory-overloaded marketplace of push notifications, banner ads, and email blasts, making such connections is harder than ever for businesses.
"Companies are struggling to break through," said Michael Brenner of West Chester, an authority on content marketing. "Ads don't work."
In that struggle, three Drexel University students saw business opportunity. In July 2015, they created Boost Linguistics, a start-up based at the school's Baiada Institute that is using artificial intelligence to help marketers select the emotionally charged language most ideal for engaging their target audience.
"Our goal is to be able to provide people with the means to use language as an effective way of conveying ideas," said Ethan Bresnahan, 22, a Boost Linguistics cofounder along with Jeff Nowak, 23, and Alexandra Dodson, 23. Nowak and Dodson have graduated; Bresnahan will finish classes in December and graduate in June.
Their product, Boost Editor, launched Wednesday at http://boostlinguistics.com/boosteditor, following a Thunderclap campaign in which supporters with more than one million total social-media followers pledged to spread the word.
Boost Linguistics is one of 26 finalists in this year's second annual Stellar StartUps competition, presented by Philadelphia Media Network, parent company of the Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com, and sponsored by MassMutual Greater Philadelphia. It is competing in the student category. Winners in all eight categories will be announced at an event at the Franklin Institute's Fels Planetarium from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sept 12. Tickets can be purchased at www.philly.com/stellarstartups.
In a recent interview at Baiada Boost Linguistics won one year of free access to the on-campus incubator in November, as part of its third-place finish in Drexel's Startup Day competition Nowak, a Northeast Philadelphia native who majored in legal studies, offered this simple premise of their entrepreneurial venture: "Word choice matters."
Confirming that was Brenner, the content-marketing consultant whose clients include systems developer SAP (where he was vice president of global content marketing until 2014), Bloomberg LP, Adidas, and Marketo Inc., a California-based maker of marketing-automation software.
"Human emotional types of messages are just much more effective at reaching us," Brenner said, citing a study in the United Kingdom that found them "three times more effective than promotional ones. Emotion beats promotion."
For Brenner's advisory help, Boost Linguistics has given him a small equity stake in the company that only last week had a product to sell. Money "wasn't even the motivation for me," Brenner said. "I'm happy to help these young kids who have a great idea."
Boost's founders, he said, are "capitalizing on this desperation companies are really feeling to connect with consumers" and a recognition that artificial intelligence is "going to be part of our lives every day."
For many, it already is. Voice-activated home assistants such as Amazon's Alexa and Google's Home greet us with "Good morning," turn on music at our request, place shopping orders, and remind us about birthdays and anniversaries.
At a conference he attended recently, Brenner said, he learned of AI's ability, upon analyzing 50 Facebook posts by a person, to identify 40 personality characteristics about that individual and predict their behavior better than a spouse or other relative could.
Results released in August of a survey of more than 100 retail marketing leaders by WBR Digital, a research firm, and Persado, worldwide developers of cognitive content software, revealed 86 percent planned to invest in AI/machine learning solutions in 2017. Nearly 50 percent said they expected to spend up to $50 million, with 25 percent planning to budget as much as $100 million, according to the study.
Boost Linguistics' target market is businesses with much smaller marketing budgets. Its Editor platform is designed to analyze text for emotion and suggest verb and adjective changes to enhance the impact on those reading it. Such work is something few content creators especially freelancers have the time to do on their own, Boost's principals say.
"We have spoken with over 120 content marketers, creators, and strategists who confirmed that they lack the time to craft emotionally compelling content," Boost Linguistics said on its Stellar StartUps application. Most of them were bloggers, Bresnahan and Nowak said. They cited studies showing that firms that used emotionally charged language in marketing experienced, on average, conversion rates of nearly 50 percent over competitors that did not.
Which words are appropriate depends on the product and the desired emotion. Eliciting joy is most effective for increasing brand awareness and love is the word that best induces joy, they said while sadness increases brand empathy. Disgust is among the most extreme emotions, something, for instance, Clorox Co. wants consumers to feel about flu season, Nowak said. Buy now induces anxiety.
Since its founding, Boost Linguistics has been able to recruit two former machine-learning developers from Comcast Suresh Allampati and Warren Kushner to keep the company relevant in a quickly evolving tech niche, one with such sizable competitors as Persado, which was started in London and has a U.S. headquarters in New York, and Atomic Reach in Toronto. Grammarly, the eight-year-old San Francisco start-up that has had tremendous success with its AI-driven spelling- and grammar-checking services, raised $110 million earlier this year to expand.
In the next month or two, Boost Linguistics hopes to raise $100,000. That would be enough operating capital for 12 months, and would enable the founders and Allampati and Kushner to collect a "minimal" salary, Bresnahan said. Two employees might be hired in the next six months, he said.
Initially, Boost Editor users will have to copy and paste any content they want analyzed into the platform. But next year, the company plans to offer plug-ins to enable Editor users to remain within the systems they are writing in, such as Microsoft Word, Google Drive or WordPress.
There is a 50-cent charge for each of three available functions analysis, receipt of suggestions, and follow-up analysis assessing the impact of changes for a total of $1.50 per piece of content. Boost Linguistics' founders are projecting $450,000 in revenue within two years, based on an average user spending $750 annually, with monthly fees ranging from $10 to $90.
"Our goal is to democratize this AI so it's accessible to small- and mid-size businesses," Bresnahan said.
By PTI: ritual
Kochi, Sep 2 (PTI) A magistrate court today granted permission to Malayalam actor Dileep, arrested on charges of plotting the abduction and sexual assault of a south Indian actress, to attend his fathers death anniversary ritual on September 6.
The actor had filed an application before the judicial magistrate court at Angamaly seeking permission to attend his fathers shraadh.
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"The court has permitted Dileep to attend the ritual," the actors legal team said.
The ritual will be held at his house and Manappuram in Aluva.
Meanwhile, the court extended the actors judicial custody till September 16.
Earlier this week, the Kerala High Court had denied his bail plea after considering the evidence against the actor produced by the prosecution in a sealed cover.
Dismissing the bail petition, the second by the actor since his arrest on July 10, the court had ruled that the investigation in the case was still progressing and there appeared to be no substantial change of circumstances (since the previous bail plea).
The court had also considered the prosecution argument that the actor was a highly influential person capable of tampering with evidence and influencing witnesses if he was granted bail.
It had dismissed Dileeps first bail petition on July 24 after finding that the probe into the case was progressing and the mobile phone, which the prosecution stated as a key evidence in the case, had not been recovered.
Opposing the bail plea, the prosecution had contended that the original memory card in which the video of the incident had allegedly been stored was yet to be recovered. It said the investigators were still attempting to unearth the material objects, including the phone and memory card.
Dileep, charged under various IPC sections including criminal conspiracy, has been lodged in a jail in his home town of Aluva since his arrest.
The police have claimed that the conspiracy to abduct and assault the actress in a moving car on February 17 as well as film the act was hatched by Dileep. PTI TGB BN SRY NTR
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A Northampton County, Pa., man removed from Sen. Pat Toomey's town hall meeting after he asked the Republican senator about nonexistent reports that Toomey's daughter had been kidnapped said Friday he was disappointed to learn that police intend to charge him.
For Simon Radecki, 28, the decision to charge him represents "a startling reminder of what it's like to live in the United States, or at least Pennsylvania, nowadays, where someone can literally be arrested and taken into custody for asking a pointed question."
Others found Radecki's question startling.
DaWayne Cleckley, vice president of marketing for PBS39, which hosted Thursday's town hall in Bethlehem, called the question inappropriate and said he preferred the approach taken by some protesters outside, who stood peacefully and occasionally marched.
"I think that speaks to the type of dialogue that we want to procure in our community, where people can really express themselves thoughtfully and meaningfully, but it has to be civil, especially now, when we are in the time period we're living [in] where our nation is so divided."
The Bethlehem Police Department on Friday said it intended to charge Radecki with disorderly conduct and disrupting a public meeting. They said he would receive a summons in the mail but did not indicate whether he would face misdemeanor or summary counts.
The decision highlights an ongoing national debate about what counts as free speech at a time when some argue political discourse in the nation is at an all-time low.
Toomey's town hall meeting his first in-person public meeting in months had a highly structured format. Nearly 400 people submitted questions for the Republican senator. A group of local journalists and academics weeded through them and selected ones to be asked during the hour-long session, which was broadcast live.
When Radecki's turn came about 40 minutes in, he said he chose to go off-script and ask a different question from his original submission.
He began by thanking the senator for his time and acknowledged that they had been gathered there "for a while."
"You probably haven't seen the news," he said, according to video of the event. "Can you confirm whether or not your daughter Bridget has been kidnapped?"
"Uh," the senator responded.
"The reason I ask is, because that's the reality of families," Radecki said before his words trailed off and people pulled him off stage and out of view of the studio audience.
"That's, that's a ridiculous question," the senator said.
A moderator then moved on to the next question, and the rest of the meeting continued without incident.
Radecki said Friday that the rest of his question would have asked the senator about his plans for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which offers protection to some young, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States to work or study when they were children.
President Trump has issued contradictory statements on DACA. Its end could potentially make thousands of young immigrants eligible for deportation.
Many immigrants in the Lehigh Valley call their children immediately after the school day ends because they fear that their loved ones will be deported, Radecki said.
"The reality for a lot of families is that they're having to contend with that fear every single day," Radecki said. Toomey "maybe experienced it for a brief moment, but there are families who live with that fear almost every single day."
He added later that he "wasn't advocating any kind of danger around anyone. I was using a hypothetical situation to make a point."
A spokesman for Toomey declined to comment Friday beyond reiterating the senator's comment Thursday night that he felt Radecki's statement was ridiculous.
Toomey told reporters after the town hall meeting Thursday that he felt the children covered by DACA were a "very sympathetic population." He said he objected to DACA because he believed that President Barack Obama, a Democrat, did not have legal authority to decide not to enforce "a whole category of the law."
The senator said he would like to see legislation to address DACA but did not offer specifics.
"We should do it at a time when we're also addressing other challenges in immigration, like making sure we have border security, making sure that we're not looking the other way when employers illegally hire people, but it's a sympathetic group of people and we should find a way to deal with them," he said.
A murder warrant was approved Friday for Derrick Rollins, the Philadelphia man suspected of fatally shooting a 29-year-old man in Haverford Township in an apparently random attack in July, police said.
Rollins, 24, was brought to Philadelphia on Friday afternoon from Georgia, where he had been hiding before his arrest last week, said Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives.
Rollins was also facing two counts of attempted murder for a shooting spree in Overbrook Park that occurred 45 minutes before John Le was fatally shot on July 29. Le was gunned down while walking in the 2300 block of Haverford Road to visit a friend. No one was injured in the shooting spree.
Rollins, who has a long criminal record, was being held in Philadelphia, but was expected at some point to be taken to Haverford Township to be charged there, Walker said.
The U.S. Marshals Service arrested Rollins on Aug. 22 in Decatur, just outside of Atlanta. He had been hiding at an apartment complex with a woman.
Police said Rollins fired 17 shots at people in Overbrook Park before going to Haverford.
Rollins did not know Le, a graduate of Lower Merion High School and Temple University, and it appeared that nothing was stolen from Le. According to one police theory, Rollins shot Le in a botched robbery attempt.
NAIROBI In a decision hailed as the first of its kind for Africa, Kenya's Supreme Court on Friday annulled the president's Aug. 8 reelection victory, citing irregularities, and ordered a new vote within 60 days.
The reversal of President Uhuru Kenyatta's win stunned this country, East Africa's economic powerhouse and a key U.S. ally in a fragile region. Analysts said it highlighted the growing independence of the courts, a major advance in a country that was effectively a single-party state until 1992. Some called the ruling a potential turning point for a nation where disputed elections have led to thousands of deaths in past years.
The 4-to-2 court ruling came in response to a petition filed by challenger Raila Odinga, 72, who alleged widespread fraud in the election.
Following the judgment, people in the court broke into cheers, with Odinga raising his fists in the air in celebration.
"This is indeed a very historic day for the people of Kenya and by extension to the people of the continent of Africa," he said outside the courthouse. "For the first time in the history of African democratization, a ruling has been made by a court nullifying irregular election of a president."
For his part, Kenyatta pledged to respect the court's decision but later assailed the judges. "They have been paid by white people and other trash," he told supporters, adding that his party would watch the court's moves. "Let's move on," he said. "But they will know we are also men."
His comments raised concerns that there could be fresh violence if he does not win the new election. Kenyatta is the scion of one of the country's most powerful political families; his father, Jomo, was a leader of the anti-colonial struggle that led to Kenya's independence from Britain in 1963. Jomo Kenyatta became the country's first president after independence, and Uhuru Kenyatta is only its fourth.
It is rare for a court in any country to throw out the results of a presidential election. But the ruling was particularly striking on a continent notorious for fraudulent and manipulated electoral processes. Just last month, Rwandan President Paul Kagame got nearly 99 percent of the vote in an election criticized as unfair by the United States.
In Kenya, Chief Justice David Maraga described the results of last month's election as "invalid, null and void." He promised to issue full details of the ruling later.
"Taking the totality of the entire evidence, we are satisfied that the elections were not conducted in accordance to the dictates of the constitution," he said.
The court decision came as a shock to many Kenyans and foreigners alike. International observers, including former secretary of state John F. Kerry, had said last month that the balloting appeared to be free and fair.
But the opposition presented evidence of numerous anomalies in the process of counting the votes and transmitting the totals to the regional and national electoral offices. Odinga's lawyer said that some of the forms submitted with results lacked key security features such as watermarks and the necessary stamps and signatures, raising questions about their validity.
Tina Alai, a Kenyan expert in constitutional and human rights law, said the court ruling was significant in that it was not based on whether the irregularities were enough to change the result of the election. Instead, it focused on whether the electoral procedures met the constitution's requirements to be accurate, verifiable and transparent.
"What the court made very clear today is that the constitution matters, the rule of law matters, the process of arriving at an election decision matters," said Alai, who heads the Kenyan office of Physicians for Human Rights.
That is particularly important because of the country's recent history of contested elections. Kenya is vastly more stable than war-torn neighbors Somalia and South Sudan. But it remains riven by tribal rivalries that come to a head at election time, largely between Kenyatta's Kikuyu tribe and Odinga's Luo community.
After Odinga lost in the 2007 election, the country was engulfed by a wave of ethnic violence that killed 1,400 people.
"The consequences of a contested election have been so frightening for us as citizens," Alai said. If Kenyans in the future can be confident that elections are transparent, she said, they "will cease to be the opportunity where politicians can prey on these divisions among us."
In many parts of the country, Odinga's supporters were celebrating the court ruling Friday. In Nairobi's sprawling Kibera slum, where six had died in clashes following the election, residents danced holding Odinga posters.
In coastal Mombasa, people rode motorcycles through the city, cheering.
According to Murithi Mutiga, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, the decision is unprecedented for the continent.
"I think this is an incredibly important moment for democracy for Africa," he said.
Mutiga noted that the judiciary had not always been so independent in Kenya but that under a new constitution adopted in 2010, magistrates were more insulated from pressure tactics of the executive branch.
Kenya's high court also showed its independence earlier this year when it overruled a government decision to shut the Dadaab refugee camp, one of the world's largest.
Odinga also had appealed to the court after losing the last presidential race, in 2013 and dismissed it as inept after it ruled against him.
On Friday, he said that the members of the election commission overseeing the vote should face criminal prosecution. Wafula Chebukati, head of the commission, promised to make changes to personnel and processes.
The court's decision did not quell fears of political violence. At least 24 people died in clashes after the election results were announced in August.
The country's business community, which backed Kenyatta's pro-business platform, was shocked by the result, with trading briefly halted on the Nairobi stock exchange after shares plummeted. The national currency dropped in value, as well.
In his campaign, Odinga appealed to the country's less fortunate, promising greater social justice and a fight against corruption.
His lawyer had alleged that some 5 million votes were marred by discrepancies. Electoral officials had said that Kenyatta won by 1.4 million votes out of around 15 million cast.
Cheryl Colleluori, the founder of Headstrong, at the home she and others are rehabbing in Swarthmore for use by out of town cancer patients and their caretakers while the patients are being treated at area hospitals. Read more
A Delaware County judge has affirmed approval for Nick's House, a home for cancer patients that became the center of a heated neighborhood debate in Swarthmore.
On Thursday, Judge Spiros E. Angelos denied an appeal that challenged the Borough Council's OK of the plan in December, according to the law firm Ballard Spahr, whose attorneys represented Headstrong, the nonprofit that plans to run the house.
"Headstrong will be able to pursue its mission of helping people who are sick, hurting, and away from home," attorney Matthew N. McClure said in a statement. "The evidence showed the Headstrong home will not have a material adverse effect on the community, and that the council acted properly in approving that use for the property."
James J. Byrne Jr., an attorney for eight couples and two individuals who live in the neighborhood and challenged the borough's approval, said his clients were "very disappointed."
"It is our belief, me as well as the neighbors, that there has never been any discrimination in this case. This case is a zoning case," he said.
Last year, Delaware County-based Headstrong purchased the seven-bedroom property at 200 S. Chester Rd., next to Swarthmore College's campus, and said it planned to use it to house as many as seven cancer patients at no charge.
Some neighbors cited concerns over traffic, parking, and zoning issues pertaining to having so many unrelated people in a home.
Joshua Hupperterz (right), 29, from North 16th Street was arrested for his involvement in the murder of Jenna Burleigh (left), a 22-year-old student at Temple University. She was last seen about 2 a.m. Aug. 31 near the campus in North Philadelphia. Read more
The man who was last seen with missing Temple University student Jenna Burleigh has been charged with her murder and was ordered held without bail Sunday morning, according to court documents.
Joshua Hupperterz, 29, admitted to "elements of the crime" in a partial confession, Philadelphia Police Capt. John Ryan, commanding officer of the homicide unit, told reporters Saturday night without providing details.
Hupperterz was arraigned at 4:52 a.m. Sunday on charges of murder, abuse of a corpse, and other crimes.
Burleigh, 22, a commuter student from Lower Salford Township, Montgomery County, was last seen near the Temple campus in North Philadelphia around 2 a.m. Thursday. She was reported missing by her father later that day.
Burleigh's body was found Saturday afternoon at the Wayne County home of Hupperterz's grandmother, Ryan said.
"Our Beautiful Angel Jenna is now in Heaven," Burleigh's father, Edward, posted Saturday evening on Facebook. "Now I know for sure that you can have a 'broken heart' RIP honey."
Police found blood, large quantities of drugs and cash in Hupperterz's North Philadelphia home, a police source said, which sits around the corner from Pub Webb, a bar where Burleigh apparently met him for the first time.
Hupperterz was picked up Saturday morning at his grandmother's home in Hawley, 140 miles north of Philadelphia.
While police officials discussed the facts of the case, Burleigh's family gathered inside their two-story brick house in a quiet, upscale subdivision in Harleysville. Candles flickered in their windows as a light rain fell outside. A family friend lamented the senseless nature of Burleigh's death, but said her parents were too grief-stricken to talk.
Ryan said the killing did not appear to be premeditated, and that police did not yet know a cause of death. Burleigh was killed in Philadelphia, he said, then her body was moved to the Jenkintown home of Hupperterz's mother and stepfather, before finally being transported to the Wayne County property where investigators made the grim discovery.
Sources said local surveillance cameras captured footage of Hupperterz, a former Temple student who last took classes in the spring, walking with Burleigh to his apartment early Thursday morning.
On Friday night, Philadelphia police executed a search warrant at that home in the 1700 block of North 16th Street, police spokeswoman Officer Tanya Little said.
In the home, police found blood spattered near the kitchen sink, rear door, and on a trash can lid, along with 10 to 15 pillow case-size bags of marijuana and about $20,000 in cash, a police source said.
A neighbor heard screams coming from the apartment around 4 a.m. Thursday, the source said.
Hupperterz had scratches on his face and a cut of some kind on his hand. He told detectives that he injured his hand on a broken bowl in his home, according to the source.
Ryan said Hupperterz was the only person in police custody and would be charged with murder and related offenses. He did not rule out the possibility of other arrests, though he described Hupperterz as the "primary individual" involved in Burleigh's death.
A roommate who lived with Hupperterz in the North Philadelphia property had obtained a lawyer, but had not made any statements to investigators, sources said.
Burleigh was a junior transfer student from Montgomery County College majoring in film and media arts.
Passionate about issues of social justice and equity, Burleigh was outspoken about racism, feminism, and LGBTQ rights.
"I truly believe in the good in people and the magic that can be found in all of us," she wrote in her most recent blog post in March.
"I will always fight for what's right. I will fight for intersectional feminism because the whitewashing has to stop," she wrote. "I will always fight for equality for ALL. And my journey is just getting started."
In a statement released Saturday evening, Temple University President Richard M. Englert said the school was "deeply saddened" to learn of Burleigh's murder. "Our deepest sympathies go out to Jenna's family and her classmates, both here at Temple and at Montgomery County Community College," he said.
According to court records, Hupperterz pleaded guilty in 2013 to theft from a motor vehicle and in 2011 to possession of drug paraphernalia. Hupperterz also popped up on the radar of police in Scranton in 2013, when he allegedly broke into a home and stole electronics, credit cards, laundry detergent, and a half keg of beer.
By Indrajit Kundu: The crackdown on the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in Darjeeling has resulted in a full-fledged confrontation between West Bengal and neighbouring Sikkim. The Bengal government has repeatedly alleged that Chief Minister Pawan Chamling, an ally of the NDA was fuelling the protests in Darjeeling. In fact, senior Bengal police officials have been stating that they have specific intelligence about Morcha chief Bimal Gurung operating out of the neighbouring state.
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Things turned ugly on Friday when a Bengal Police team launched sudden raids on the GJM camp in the border region. Police claim, the Morcha chief was conducting a central committee meeting and leaders from across Darjeeling had travelled to the area to attend it.
While Bimal Gurung, along with a few other leaders managed to escape, Bengal Police arrested nine GJM leaders from the site. Subsequently, a lookout notice was issued against Gurung who has been slapped with the stern Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
While the Bengal Police team went ahead with its operation, in a dramatic late night development, Sikkim Police filed an FIR against its Bengal counterpart terming its entry into the state as "unauthorised". A formal complaint was lodged against the police superintendent of Kalimpong district following the death of a 34-year-old GJM supporter in Sikkim.
GJM has alleged that Dawa Bhutia, its party worker from Kalimpong, was shot dead by a team of Bengal Police near Namchi in south Sikkim district. Following the incident, an FIR was registered at Namchi police station under sections 302 and 34 of Indian Penal Code(IPC) against Kalimpong SP Ajit Singh Yadav and his team.
Tensions have been on the rise between the two neighbouring states ever since Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling wrote to the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh supporting the Gorkhaland movement.
"The fulfillment of the constitutional demand of the people of the Darjeeling hills, which is deeply connected with the national identity of the Indian Gorkhas, will provide long-awaited justice to their patriotism. Creation of Gorkhaland state will also restore permanent peace and prosperity in the region and Sikkim will be hugely benefitted," Chamling had stated in his letter dated June 20.
Chamling's party, the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) has condemned Friday's Bengal police action against the GJM. A press statement released by SDF termed the Bengal police raid "unconstitutional" and against the federal structure of the country.
Meanwhile, continuing with its crackdown police on Saturday morning arrested Kurseong Municipality chairman Krishna Limbu along with another GJM activist. On its part, the GJM has announced its decision to expel Assistant General Secretary Binoy Tamang and Central Committee member Anit Thapa from the party. The duo, who had taken part in the first round of peace talks called by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have also been removed from their primary membership of the party.
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Interestingly, releasing a press statement, the GJM claimed that its central committee has unanimously decided to attend the next round of talks with the state government on September 12, but with the sole agenda to discuss the statehood issue.
ALSO READ:
Darjeeling unrest: GJM split wide open over decision to withdraw strike
Darjeeling unrest: Mamata Banerjee government begins dialogue with Gorkha leadership, next meet on Sept 12
Also Watch: Darjeeling unrest: Bengal and Sikkim Police get involve in scuffle
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In lifting the Obama-era restrictions on police acquisition of surplus military equipment, Attorney General Jeff Sessions misleadingly cited studies to claim that President Obama "went too far" and undermined public safety.
Sessions said the studies showed that surplus military equipment provided to local police departments "reduces crime rates" and "reduces the number of assaults against police officers."
They did say that, but authors of those studies said most if not all of that benefit derives from equipment that is unaffected by the restrictions imposed by Obama.
Amid rising concern about the "militarization" of police departments, President Obama in 2015 ordered the review of the 1033 program, which has for decades provided surplus military equipment and supplies to state and local law enforcement agencies for free.
In May 2015, a working group created by Obama's order made a series of recommendations that were adopted by the administration. The group created a "prohibited equipment list," a list of items that could no longer be given to police departments because there is "substantial risk of misusing or overusing these items, which are seen as militaristic in nature." Among the items on this banned list:
Tracked armored vehicles that provide ballistic protection
Weaponized aircraft, vessels and vehicles
Firearms and ammunition .50 caliber or higher
Grenade launchers
Bayonets
The group also created a "controlled equipment list." In order to obtain items on this list, local agencies would need to provide proper training and justification of need. So police departments could still get those things, but they'd need to demonstrate the equipment was needed and appropriate. Among the items on this list:
Wheeled armored vehicles
Specialized firearms and ammunition
Explosives
Riot shields and helmets.
But the vast majority of surplus military gear provided to local law enforcement agencies was unrestricted, according to authors of the studies cited by Sessions. That includes items like computers, furniture and protective gear, but also most military vehicles and weapons less than .50 caliber.
In remarks at a conference of the National Fraternal Order of Police on Aug. 28, Sessions said the Obama restrictions "put superficial concerns above public safety." The same day, President Donald Trump issued an executive order rescinding Obama's order.
Sessions justified the move by citing two studies he said showed the surplus military equipment provided to police departments "reduces crime rates, reduces the number of assaults against police officers, and reduces the number of complaints against police officers."
Sessions, Aug. 28: Studies have shown this equipment reduces crime rates, reduces the number of assaults against police officers, and reduces the number of complaints against police officers. Those [Obama] restrictions went too far. We will not put superficial concerns above public safety.
The Justice Department press office said Sessions was referring to two studies recently published in American Economic Journal: "Police Officer on the Frontline or a Soldier? The Effect of Police Militarization on Crime" and "Peacekeeping Force: Effects of Providing Tactical Equipment to Local Law Enforcement."
Both studies concluded that surplus military equipment provided to police departments helped to reduce crime, though they reached conflicting conclusions about whether it reduces assaults against police officers.
But those studies looked at a time period before the Obama order was enacted. They do not directly address the impact of the Obama-era restrictions on public safety.
And, since Obama did not entirely do away with the 1033 program, we don't know how much if any of the banned or restricted surplus equipment helped to reduce crime, or how much of the reduction in crime was attributable to other surplus equipment that was unaffected by the Obama order.
The Studies
The study "Peacekeeping Force: Effects of Providing Tactical Equipment to Local Law Enforcement" by University of Tennessee economics professor Matthew C. Harris as well as Jinseong Park, Donald J. Bruce and Matthew N. Murray speaks to the entirety of the 1033 program when it concludes that tactical military equipment provided to police departments has "generally positive effects: reduced citizen complaints, reduced assaults on officers, increased drug crime arrests, and no increases in offender deaths."
Harris, et al.: In the popular press and in our society, two divergent narratives have emerged around the 1033 Program and the apparent militarization of police. One narrative centers around the availability of tactical equipment transforming yesterdays community policeman into a thug. Our findings do not support that narrative. Specifically, we find that acquiring tactical items reduces citizen complaints. The other narrative centers around the necessity of these armaments as an input to the production of public safety from the modern, dangerous, well-armed violent or drug criminal. While this paper does not directly address need per se, we do find that the tactical items issued through the 1033 Program reduce assaults on and deaths of police officers, assist in drug interdiction, and may have deterrent effects on crime.
In a phone interview, co-author Harris told us the results don't necessarily mean the 1033 program is good policy, and the study does not speak to the Obama restrictions rescinded by Trump.
The study cautions that: "It is entirely possible that in certain jurisdictions these armaments may or may not be necessary, have not increased the efficacy of drug interdiction, or have led directly to increased violence by police against civilians. In other words, our findings do not necessarily mean that saturating our local law enforcement agencies with military hardware is good policy."
The authors of the study also say it would be a mistake to conclude that the positive impacts of military equipment found in their analysis are in any way hampered by the items restricted by Obama.
"Those specifically prohibited items are a very small percentage of the overall gear we were looking at in our report," said Donald Bruce, one of the co-authors of the "Peacekeeping Force" study. "You can't get anything out of our report that gets to the prohibited class of items. It was not intended to analyze those limitations."
The authors broke down the effectiveness of various categories of equipment provided to police departments. Specifically, the authors found, for example, that "weapons" provided to police departments led to a small decrease in crime and an increase in arrest rates. But while there are some items in the "weapons" category that are banned by Obama's order, the overwhelming majority are not, Bruce said.
For example, he said, only four counties in the nation received grenade launchers in 2015. In 2010, it was 10.
"These are very small numbers compared to the rest of the category," Bruce told us. "It is unlikely that the prohibited items are driving our results."
The other study, "Police Officer on the Frontline or a Soldier? The Effect of Police Militarization on Crime," co-authored by Vincenzo Bove and Evelina Gavrilova, provides even less support for Sessions' claim. While it, too, concluded that military aid reduces street-level crime and is cost-effective, almost all of that benefit was found to come from military equipment unaffected by the Obama order.
"Our own speculation is that by getting the diverse items from the 'others' category law enforcement agencies re-allocate the funds that they were supposed to spend to other necessities, and this somehow allows them to spend for e.g. less time on typing out reports because of faster computers and more time on e.g. patrol," Gavrilova told us via email.
Gavrilova told us the vast majority of the equipment provided to police departments was not banned by the Obama order. And so, she said, the decreases in crime rates detected in the study "are not due to the Obama restricted items."
The study found a modest reduction in crime. "By the most conservative estimate, a 10 percent increase in aid reduces total crime by 5.9 crimes per 100,000 population," it said. The impact was "relatively small" at just 0.24 percent of the crime rates on average. But "the annual average value of aid acquired by a county is around $58,000, suggesting that this is a very inexpensive crime-reducing tool."
According to the New York Times, Pentagon officials said the Obama order led to the return of 126 tracked armored vehicles, 138 grenade launchers and 1,623 bayonets. The studies cited by Sessions do not indicate how the denial of those particular items could potentially affect crime rates, assaults against police officers or complaints about police.
Some legislators upset by the Trump reversal, such as Republican Sen. Rand Paul, question how making those items available again to local police departments makes communities safer.
During a September 2014 Senate hearing on the distribution of Department of Defense weapons and equipment to state and local police forces, Paul asked Alan Estevez, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, what purpose bayonets were given out for. "I can't answer what a local police force would need a bayonet for," Estevez answered. Paul retorted, "I can give you an answer: None." According to the New York Times, "Trump administration officials said that the police believed bayonets were handy, for instance, in cutting seatbelts in an emergency."
Another study recently published in Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy, "The Risks of Operational Militarization: Increased Conflict Against Militarized Police," suggests there may also be some evidence of negative effects of the 1033 program. It found that the provision of things like surveillance, sonar and radar equipment led to an increase of assaults against police officers, though the authors could not be sure why.
"I think what the research tells us right now is this: The 1033 Program does have its benefits clothing and armor are reducing assaults against police, and perhaps are signaling a deterrence mechanism of a professional, army-based police department that is ready to take on crime," one of the co-authors of the study, Kevin Carriere, of Georgetown University, told us via email. "However, the impact of the purchases that Obama sought to ban in 2015 military grade weapons, tanks, explosives, and the like do not have a significant impact such that Sessions' notes confirmed by Bove & Gavrilova and Carriere & Encinosa, but disputed by Harris et al."
Harris, co-author of the study cited earlier, told us more study and greater transparency particularly about negative outcomes that police departments may be reluctant to share are needed to fully understand the consequences of the program.
Bove and Gavrilova also conclude in their study that the 1033 program in aggregate may have some crime-reduction benefits, but they stop short of asserting that this proves its overall benefit.
"[T]aken together, our results do not directly provide evidence in favor of or against the possibility that military equipment contributes to overly aggressive approaches by police units, which can in turn escalate to a standoff between urban communities and the officers that police them," the authors conclude. "This is a social cost that our analysis cannot duly capture and it is an important point for future research."
Those are also matters for political debate. On the question of whether surplus military equipment "reduces crime rates," studies suggest the program overall does. But those studies do not prove as Sessions implied that the Obama restrictions on the transfer of some of that equipment would therefore jeopardize public safety.
Floodwaters fill the road running through the Lakes on Eldridge North subdivision in the aftermath of Harvey. Read more
The magnitude of the disaster hit Peter Brown on Thursday.
On the Allentown native's first full day helping with Red Cross efforts in Houston, he watched an older man struggle to maneuver himself onto a cot inside a shelter in Houston's Third Ward.
"I kept thinking to myself, 'This man probably doesn't have a place to go back to,'" Brown said Friday morning. "You feel good you're doing some basic things to help, but you start to worry about what these people's lives are going to be like in three or four months."
On Wednesday night, Brown, 55, director of the Lehigh Valley-Bucks Chapter of the American Red Cross, arrived in the city for his first disaster deployment.
The father of three volunteered Sunday after he and his wife, Laura Goldy, watched cable news footage of Hurricane Harvey. The Category 4 hurricane dumped as much as 50 inches of rain in some parts of Southeast Texas and has left at least 38 people dead.
"I talked to her and said, 'I really feel like I need to go,'" said Brown.
He has joined throngs of volunteers who have come from across the country in the week since Harvey made landfall.
Those volunteers included many from the Philadelphia area. As of Friday, the Eastern Pennsylvania Red Cross had 29 volunteers responding or en route to Southeast Texas and other affected areas; 17 of them were from Philadelphia and its suburbs. The Red Cross' New Jersey chapter had 34 disaster workers deployed, with that count expected to rise to 45 by Monday.
Both states' emergency management agencies had deployed their "Task Force-1" response units earlier in the week, and volunteers from religious organizations and other aid groups were helping as well.
Among them was Kevin King, executive director of the Lancaster-based Mennonite Disaster Service, which helps with longer-term recovery efforts after search-and-rescue is complete.
"All the sights and the sounds playing through my mind over the last 48 hours," King said Friday, "it's overwhelming."
Over the last few days, King and three other members of the organization's assessment team have driven to affected areas to survey the damage. Their focus, he said, is on the poorer rural communities, which get less attention than big cities.
In one ravaged 600-resident town in coastal Victoria County, which bore the initial brunt of the storm, King said he came across a husband, a wife, and their four grandchildren.
"They're sleeping outside on a wet sofa under a makeshift tarp. They're sitting there, forlorn," King said, pausing as his voice caught. "Sorry, I try to stay cool "
As King composed himself, he recalled that he had asked members of that family whether they had registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They told King they had talked with FEMA, he said, but hadn't heard back. King said he told them, "We're coming back for you."
Mennonite Disaster Service plans to send teams of volunteers to the area over the weekend. King said those folks will work on "stage two" recovery, which includes mucking out and cleaning houses. In King's experience, this part alone could take nearly three months. Then, he said, crews will be deployed for "stage three," the part that involves rebuilding homes. That part could take years, he said.
King, a native of Lititz, Lancaster County, also assessed long-term recovery needs after Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 and Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. The devastation in Texas, he said, is among the worst he has witnessed.
"This hearkens back memories of Katrina," he said, noting, however, that cellphone service was not as widespread in the aftermath of Katrina.
Brown, the Red Cross worker who had never before been deployed to a disaster and expects to remain in the Houston area for about two weeks, said the experience has been even more chaotic than he expected.
Brown has experience in public relations, but when he arrived at the Red Cross' Houston headquarters, there was a need for help with getting supplies to shelters. Volunteers' roles are always changing, Brown said, and volunteers have been flexible in jumping on whatever assignment needs to be done at a given time.
It is easy to become overwhelmed, Brown said.
His assigned roommate, a Red Cross photographer, showed Brown aerial images of the city.
"The flooding is just devastating," Brown said. "On our way to the command center, we drove through a residential neighborhood. There were piles of debris down every side street. You just see street after street, house after house."
But amid all the devastation, there are bright moments, too.
"Disasters have a way of tearing down fences, and you discover your neighbor all over again," King said. "There is no left nor right. There's no red nor blue anymore. It's neighbor helping neighbor."
Brown said, "The general mood down here is people are really looking out for each other and helping each other," And those whose homes have been damaged or destroyed, "they're worried, but they're optimistic. They think their community is going to help them."
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Silicon Valley prides itself on "thinking different." So maybe it makes sense that just as a lot of industries have begun paying more attention to work-life balance, Silicon Valley is taking the opposite approach and branding workaholism as a desirable lifestyle choice.
An entire cottage industry has sprung up there, selling an internet-centric prosperity gospel that says that there is no higher calling than to start your own company, and that to succeed you must be willing to give up everything.
"Get out there and make sh*t happen": Startups like Uber require workers to "always be hustlin", as ousted CEO Travis Kalanick put it. Credit:Marlene Awaad
"Hustle" is the word that tech people use to describe this nerd-commando lifestyle. You hear it everywhere. You can buy hustle-themed T-shirts and coffee mugs, with slogans like "Dream, hustle, profit, repeat" and "Outgrind, outhustle, outwork everyone."
You can go to an eight-week "start-up hustle" boot camp. (Boot camp!) You can also attend Hustle Con, a one-day conference where successful "hustlers" share their secrets. Tickets cost around $US300 ($380) or you can pay $US2000 to be a "V.I.P. hustler." This year's conference, in June, drew 2800 people, including two dozen who ponied up for V.I.P. passes.
Some Uber observers were sarcastically relieved that new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's first meeting with employees on Wednesday went without a single sexist gaffe.
That part of Uber's history is probably behind it, given Khosrowshahi's reputation for low-key levelheadedness and the stellar record of his former company, Expedia, in hiring women (they make up 52 per cent of its staff and a quarter of tech employees, compared with 36 per cent and 15 per cent respectively at Uber).
But a less frat-like culture could make Uber a better employer without making it a more profitable company. On the business execution front, I have misgivings about Khosrowshahi at Uber.
These misgivings aren't about his worst business decision -- to pass on the ground-floor acquisition of Booking.com because its margins were too low and Expedia was, he thought, doing fine buying and reselling rooms from big hotel chains.
And before that the then communist countries ordered the destruction of Nazi statues. Indigenous broadcaster Stan Grant's mild suggestion that we should question the inscription on James Cook's statue that says Cook "discovered" this territory in 1770 has unleashed a host of commentators who maintain such statues are inviolate. Grant did not suggest that Cook's statue should be pulled down as is happening in the United States of America where statues of treasonous slave-owners are being toppled. No Australian should be upset by the proposals to change the wording on Cook's statue to say that he explored and mapped the coast of this territory. That's what he did and it was a major pioneering achievement worthy of note.
Much more controversial is his action in claiming the east coast of this continent for Britain. But that action would have meant little had it not been for the British conquest that began in 1788. There should be no evasion of the fact, invasion it was and military might imposed British authority. Governor Lachlan Macquarie might be credited with improving the street layout of Sydney and Hobart but he also authorised the education of Aboriginal children, sometimes by forcible removal and he ordered punitive expeditions to clear the country of Aboriginal tribes he considered to be troublesome. "In the event of the Natives making the smallest show of resistance or refusing to surrender when called upon so to do the officers Commanding the Military Parties have been authorized to fire on them to compel them to surrender; hanging up on Trees the Bodies of such Natives as may be killed on such occasions, in order to strike the greater terror into the survivors," he wrote in his diary.
Do we really need a stature honouring this man in central Sydney? If we must, it should record this ruthless aspect of his role in winning the war. Such invasions are not unique to Australia. They have been the way of the world. In Great Britain over centuries waves of Jutes, Angles, Saxons and Frisians invaded, to be followed hundreds of years later by the Normans. It might be possible to trace an individual modern-day Englishman's genetic lines but the people of England today are a mishmash of these tribes.
We don't know what battles were fought between the various clans in Australia in the tens of thousands of years before the British invasion but the evidence we have suggests that Aboriginal people were much like the rest of us. People don't need shields to hunt kangaroo or goanna. They're made for a purpose. Early Europeans noted inter-tribal wars, blood feuds, raiding and battles fought over territory, wells and women. Anthropologist T.G.H. Strehlow described a black-on-black massacre in 1875 in the Finke River region of Central Australia and in the late 1880s in the Coffs Harbour region a local man Walter Harvie witnessed a tribal battle with 500 fighters where three were killed outright and many seriously wounded. In Victoria, escaped convict William Buckley who lived with Aboriginal people in the early 1800s observed a number of fierce battles resulting in deaths.
And anthropologist Lloyd Warner concluded that about 200 men died from organised warfare in north-east Arnhem Land between 1909 and 1929. Many observers recorded the violent abuse of Indigenous women by Indigenous men. It's reasonable to conclude that Australia was not a peaceful paradise before the Europeans arrived. But this does not justify the European invasion and massacres. Historian Professor Lyndall Ryan has mapped more than 150 sites on the east coast where violent attacks on Aboriginal people took place.
At a number of these 60 or more people were killed and at Warrigal Creek in Gippsland in1843 over a period of about five days about 150 people lost their lives. Dispossession was not a one off event. Indigenous people who adopted European ways, established farms and grew crops, found their land confiscated yet again. In 1937 John Moseley, who had served as a tracker with the police and went on to clear land and build a cottage in northern NSW, was confronted by police who tried to oust him and removed his water tank. He wrote to The Macleay Chronicle, "I made a protest . . . and . . . was told that I own nothing . . . not even the land which I spent the best part of my life working and improving for the past forty-five years . . . I served my State with honesty. The very thing I took pride in, the Police Force, two days ago made me feel as small as a slug under an elephant foot."
First it was Fremantle, then Hobart and now Melbourne. Something is stirring. Local councils around the country are increasingly calling for something to change about our celebration of Australia Day on 26 January. That date marks the arrival of the First Fleet at Port Jackson in 1788 and the assertion of British sovereignty. The reality of the date of 26 January for Aboriginal people is not going to go away. The question is how, as individuals, communities and a nation, do we best respond? The answer is more obvious than we realise.
For some, calls for a change to the date of our national day are unpatriotic. Others see them as signs of increasing awareness and sensitivity to Aboriginal people. Perhaps we should see calls for change to Australia Day as markers of progress on our shared journey of Reconciliation.
The first day of Spring is National Wattle Day, as the yellow flowers blanket the Australian continent. Credit:Peter Rae
Wattle and National Wattle Day, 1 September each year, can help us solve the conflict and sadness around an Australia Day celebrated on 26 January. We could link National Wattle Day, with Australia Day as joint days on which we celebrate Australia, this land, its waters and environment, its people and our nation. National Wattle Day would not compete with Australia Day, rather it would complete Australia Day. It would do what Wattle has always done unite us.
Australia has several national symbols but perhaps there is one that more obviously unites us all. That symbol is our national floral emblem the Golden Wattle. It has been the great witness to the whole of the Australian story. It has been in our land for more than 30 million years. It has welcomed us all. It is a symbol that is as broad and inclusive, as its reach into history is long. It's colours, the green and gold, are our national colours.
Twenty years ago, the koalas around Mount Gilead near Campbelltown in Sydney's south-west, were considered safe with the area explicitly "not required for urban development under the Metropolitan Strategy".
That was then. Now, as pressures mount to grab ever more land for housing, Sydney's last koala holdouts making up some of the healthiest colonies of the marsupials in NSW are facing an increased threat.
Campbelltown Council is awaiting government approval to rezone a 210-hectare area of the Gilead Estate, covering a region where the Nepean and Georges rivers are at their closest point.
The council claims there are about 170 koalas in its local government area, while environmentalists say the number is more like 300.
The body that represents commercial TV networks has emphatically denied it blocked the broadcast of a Father's Day commercial on the grounds it was a political intervention in Australia's same-sex marriage debate.
Dads4Kids, which describes itself as a father's advocacy group and has campaigned against same-sex relationships in the past, accused Free TV Australia of rejecting a new ad that highlights the relationship between fathers and their children.
A still from the Dads4Kids commercial.
In a statement, the group said it released the commercials in the lead-up to each Father's Day as a "gentle encouragement to Australian dads and an affirmation that they are an important figure in the lives of their children".
Suggesting this year's ad would no longer be broadcast, Dads4Kids spokesman Ben Pratt said they had been told the material was deemed to be political.
Crossbench senator Derryn Hinch will not be referred to the High Court after advice from constitutional lawyers confirmed he was validly elected.
Senator Hinch attempted to refer himself to the court this week after concerns were raised he might be in breach of section 44 of the constitution, which would have rendered him the latest casualty of the citizenship fiasco engulfing Parliament.
According to the Victorian senator, Attorney-General George Brandis informed him he had been cleared of any breach by the government's legal experts.
It was revealed this week that Senator Hinch held a social security card number in the United States from his time living in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. He is also eligible for a pension there.
At the beginning of last year, my husband needed to have his wisdom teeth taken out. He had the rumblings of an infection and having the offending teeth removed along with a course of antibiotics was deemed the necessary course of action, so we booked it in.
As lifetime holders of private health insurance, we didn't give any thought to the medical bills that would be associated with the procedure. We have top hospital cover so assumed we would be covered. We weren't.
When the doctor's rooms rang a few days after the procedure to inform my husband our health fund had declined to pay the bill, we both thought there had been an error. There hadn't.
As it turned out, there was a single non-cosmetic hospital procedure that wasn't covered by our insurance, for which we pay upwards of $3000 a year, and that procedure was the one my husband required.
It was kind of hard being trans at an all-girls school so that was a thing. Most of my friends were supportive but I was still forced by my family to wear a dress. There wasn't pressure from my school, more so my family but compared to the formal I went to with Minus18 [an organisation for young LGBTI people], it was like hell basically. I wore a tux to the Minus18 formal; I actually borrowed my grandpa's tux. It fit like a glove. It actually felt like I was being myself for once, like I could be myself and I wasn't put into a box that I couldn't get out of. My grandpa knew and he was a bit reluctant but I kept pushing for it. I haven't been in touch with my school since, not at all." Jett Wickham, more comfortable in a suit. Credit:Simon Schluter Jett, 17, Elisabeth Murdoch College, Langwarrin
"I used to go to a religious high school until year 10, in which I moved to a public school. At the first school I was forced to wear the 'girls' uniform and hated every minute of it. I tried to get students on board with a petition to allow both sexes to wear whatever uniform, but everyone thought I was fighting a losing battle as well as one that was unnecessary. When I moved to my new school, at first I had to wear the girls' uniform. I didn't make friends easily because I was out of the closet. I later found out a lot of things were said behind my back. When the Safe Schools Coalition became a thing, my school joined and then the uniforms got separated into winter and summer, so I was allowed to wear the more masculine uniform that I was most comfortable in. My year 10 formal, I wore a suit. I was allowed to but I was terrified I wouldn't be allowed in. We had a meeting about the formal before hand and teachers had stated that 'guys, you have to wear a suit and girls, you have to wear a nice dress, OK?' The school didn't want people turning up in jeans and a T-shirt.
But even knowing the context, I was really scared I wouldn't be allowed in. I was but I ended up leaving early as it was obvious that people were staring, including teachers. One teacher even told me later that I shouldn't have worn a suit because he wanted to see me 'in a pretty dress, like the other girls'." Charlie Orlowski can wear anything he likes to school and the school formal. Credit:Simon Schluter Charlie Orlowski, 17, Alia College, Hawthorn East "I was previously at an all-girls school until mid-year 10. When I left, they were just introducing pants for the winter uniform. And students there are still trying to get shorts for the summer uniform. At my current school, it's casual clothes and there's definitely a higher ratio of queer and trans and gender-diverse students. Whether I wear a dress or trackies, people still refer to me as a boy and respect me for who I am.
At my old school you had to wear dresses because that's what was seen as feminine, but where I am now I can wear whatever I feel comfortable in. Our formal is actually the year 12s graduation because there's only about 80 students at this school so we all go and we dress up pretty fancy for it, it's like a formal, just for graduation. I was there for last year's graduation and it was really cool because anyone could wear what they wanted even and I'm a trans-guy, I could wear a dress and people would still respect me for who I am." Freya Corlis-Richards had a great time at her last school formal. Credit:Simon Schluter Freya Corlis-Richards, 16, St Leonard's College "I'm a 16-year-old trans-girl from Brighton and I go to St Leonard's College, which is a really good school for gender acceptance.
My year 11 formal was earlier this year and I have my year 12 one next year. It took a bit of work looking for stuff because a) I wanted something that would look good on me and b) would fit. And so I had some things shortlisted on Carousell and eBay and what it ended up being was this salmon-coloured, full-length dress and it was very typical for a ball gown. And that was paired with some flats because I can do heels but I'm not very good in them. Overall, that choice of clothing helped me embrace my femininity. My parents support me and help me with everything. From the start of the year, I was already wearing the female uniform and was already out to the school and they were using the correct pronouns and the names. So because of that, they were fine with me wearing whatever I wanted to. I went by the rules of any cisgendered [same gender since birth] girl.
The Turnbull government is set to crack down on schools and universities that send their students to volunteer in overseas orphanages, amid fears that they may be contributing to a new form of modern slavery.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham says he is appalled that well-meaning students could be unwittingly caught up in child exploitation through orphanage tourism and shonky volunteer programs.
Australian students could unwittingly be getting caught up in child exploitation through shonky volunteer programs.
Global demand for so-called "voluntourism" experiences is fuelling the targeted recruitment of children who are unnecessarily separated from their families to solicit profit from Western visitors.
Experts warn that it is not uncommon for recruiters to be sent into villages to convince families to give up their children for money or the promise of a better life.
"I've gone through those experiences that have made me stronger," Sergeant Valerie Wagstaff says. Credit:Janie Barrett Marriage equality, classroom syllabus and gender-transitioning children are increasingly frequent talking points in Australia. And organisations, from schools to police forces, are changing the way they operate to foster more inclusive environments. Wagstaff speaks to each round of police recruits about gender diversity, sharing her personal experience to hundreds of eager soon-to-be officers. "To stand in front of 200 to 300 officers and say, 'This is who I am', I think that shows incredible courage," says Assistant Commissioner Tony Crandell, the police sponsor for sexuality and gender diversity. "It really instils in students and police how important their position in society is and how critical it is to treat people with equity and fairness." Valerie Wagstaff with her mother. There are believed to be three transgender officers in the NSW Police Force.
Recently a police working group was established to look at transgender policies, with the hope of encouraging more recruits from the transgender community. Before joining the police ranks, Wagstaff grew up as one of four boys to loving parents in South Auckland, New Zealand. While her brothers gravitated towards the nation's renowned love for rugby union, Wagstaff preferred to shadow her mother with the household chores. "I just was always attracted to girl-like activities, I used to like helping mum around the house, I tended to hang out with girls as friends," she says. "I think it became evident that I wasn't going to be a rugby player." She always had a lingering sense that something was not quite right. She felt like an "oddball". She was bullied at school, teased about having a girly voice. During her college years, her brother Gary taught her to walk like a man to curb the nasty attacks from school mates. But, despite his best efforts, the endeavour was doomed for failure "due to my overwhelming feminine tendencies winning out," Wagstaff says, laughing.
After falling in love with a man in her late teens, only to return from a trip overseas to discover he had moved in with a woman, Wagstaff decided she needed to get away. She moved to Australia. "I did a couple of different jobs, still presenting as a male I suppose," she says. "What happens with the suppression thing is you think about it but then you put it away ... You think, 'Nah it's too much, what am I going to do? It's too much of a challenge. What are my family going to do? Are they still going to love me?'" she says. "But what happens is you will think about it once a year and then it becomes once every six months." It was when Wagstaff was working as a bus driver in NSW that she decided she couldn't suppress those thoughts any longer.
"I actually remember saying in my head, I am going to do this," she recalls. "I thought, 'I might be an ugly woman but I'm going to do what makes me happy. I don't know how people are going to react but I'm going to do what I need to do.'" In 1992, Wagstaff came up with a timeline for her transition that included electrolysis, hormone treatment, seeing a doctor and telling her parents. As the physical changes occurred, Wagstaff worked in male-dominated industries, first as a courier and then a bus driver. While working for a motorcycle company, a co-worker repetitively taunted her for being transgender. In a moment that now brings a smile to Wagstaff's face, she recalls finally confronting him, telling him she was "more of a man that he would ever be". The negative remarks stopped and she earned praise from her other male colleagues.
While working on buses, Wagstaff changed depots in the hope of making a fresh start, but rumours about her transition circulated. One devoutly religious employee stopped talking to her and another spread ignorant rumours that colleagues could get AIDS because Wagstaff (who didn't have the disease) shared the women's bathroom. Wagstaff was behind the wheel of a bus one day when she picked up a passenger at Darlinghurst's Taylor Square, ironically Sydney's symbolic heart for the LGBTI community. The man unleashed a torrent of abuse at Wagstaff, labelling her an "abomination". After bearing witness to the abuse, a female passenger gave Wagstaff a bunch of flowers, telling her "I think you are really beautiful". "I thought to myself at that point, from that experience you get bad people in this world and people that say nasty things," she says. "But from that one person you have a lot more people who are kind-hearted and loving and you need to focus on that." Seeking a new challenge, Wagstaff looked to the NSW Police Force in the late '90s.
The only hurdle in applying was changing her education qualifications from her male name to her female name. In a display of unwavering support, Wagstaff's father contacted her former education institutions in New Zealand to request new certification. "I am lucky because a lot of people who go through what I go through, they dump them like hot potatoes which is very sad," she says. "I have known a lot of people whose families never speak to them ever again. But I am lucky, my mum and dad loved me and he did that for me." Over the course of Wagstaff's policing career she has been targeted in only a handful of discrimination incidents. Her zero-tolerance responses have helped her view them as "defining moments". In the late '90s, Wagstaff was one of hundreds of aspiring police officers at a Goulburn-based training academy. At the local pub one night, a constable grabbed her arm, in view of his sheepish-looking mates, and called her a "dirty f---ing tranny".
"I just thought, 'I don't deserve that'," she remembers. "I am a good person ... I am, like everyone else, trying to get through this course and I want the eventual outcome to become a police officer." Embarrassed and confused about how to handle the situation, Wagstaff took it up with a higher-ranked officer at the academy. "There was that police officer who did the wrong thing but then I had someone in a senior position who treated me with respect and dignity," she says. "That gave me the confidence to know if that comes up, they would be there to support me." As the conversation turns to recent debate around LGBTI issues, including opposing views on raising children, Wagstaff pauses as a tear rolls down her cheek. Family is an issue that clearly touches her. "You question yourself: 'Why am I doing this?'" she says. "And I think the answer is, you see and hear the negativity that is out there at the moment, and you think, 'I am a good person, I have family and friends, just like everyone else'.
A Sydney hospital has apologised after a surgical needle was left in a young mother's uterus following a cesarean section.
Thi Nguyen, 19, had to have a second operation at Fairfield Hospital on Wednesday to remove the needle after she'd earlier that day had a baby boy.
"After the surgery, they left a needle tip inside her, and they didn't even tell me when they commenced the second surgery," her husband told the Nine Network on Saturday.
South Western Local Health District chief executive Amanda Larkin offered a "sincere apology" to the couple for any distress caused.
"Fairfield Hospital wishes to stress this is not a clinician error but a suspected product fault which was discovered quickly through hospital procedures and processes," she said in a statement on Saturday.
Melissa loves being a mum but the early years with her children were far from easy.
She struggled with a chaotic home life marred by complex health challenges. Her two older children were temporarily removed from her care.
Life is so much better for Melissa after undergoing the SafeCare program. Credit:Janie Barrett
Pregnant with her third child and determined to prove herself as a capable parent, Melissa signed up to an innovative pilot program under way in Sydney.
Called SafeCare, the intensive parenting program was designed by a team of academics from Georgia State University's School of Public Health with ongoing research showing promising results for families where children are at risk.
In two exams some 30 Gosford young women qualified for the equivalent of the bronze medallion and received certificates on Terrigal beach but didn't get their medals. One Sunday a photographer from the Department of Information arrived and took more than 30 pictures. They were then dispatched for publication throughout America and a Movietone Newsreel was distributed to show the women in action.
Step forward the ladies of Terrigal Surf Lifesaving Club which sought permission to enlist women because only four of its original 76 male members were available. The application to the controlling body, however, failed. But that wasn't about to get in their way.
Women who provided a surf lifesaving rescue service from 1942 -1945 as men went off to the Second World War are to receive their bronze medallions after a wait of 75 years.
Terrigal women lifesavers. Muriel Dibben, far left behind the reel, with Noreen Walsh third from right.
The women, the local paper reported, had already notched up one rescue to their credit ironically of a male lifesaver. In 1944 the Terrigal ladies were on hand again when a shark was spotted close in near the beach. The women lifesavers were rowing the surf boat when they spotted it. Hundreds of surfers were ordered out of the water.
The Terrigal women made history on the Central Coast as the first competitors in their branch Surf Lifesaving competition, as well as providing the first full patrols of women (with an occasional token male). Now plans are in place to give them due recognition on the 75th anniversary in November with the award finally of the bronze medallions. Eight of the original ladies are alive (one died last month) and will attend. Another 11 will be represented on the day by family members. A question mark hangs over another four it isn't known if they are alive. They are Bessie Campbell and (not related) Olive (Dinkie) Campbell, Dot Crick and Noreen Walsh.
Catherine Cole, historian of the Terrigal Surf Club said the Surf Life Saving Association of Australia refused recognition of female active members until 1980. In one case very early on in the lifesaving movement in Victoria, when a woman had passed her exam and applied for her bronze medallion with the men from her club, the governing body returned the request with, "What does E stand for? Edward? Elliot?" When informed it stood for Enid, the request was denied with "Get out of town, that's a woman. We don't have women!" She was was finally presented her legitimately earned bronze medallion 70 years later, a few years before she passed away.
Terrigal Surf Club patron Peter Wyllie said Terrigal was only a small fishing village of about 400 at the time of the war. "Women were filling in for men all over the place. They were more than capable of handling the reel and line work. I was 16 at the time. I tended to be a bit overawed by the older women."
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has failed to commit to a new deal for a better GST share for Western Australia, but told the party faithful only the Liberals can enable entrepreneurship and enterprise in the state.
A year after he received an enthusiastic standing ovation at the Liberal state conference in Perth by promising to protect WA's revenue by introducing a GST 'floor', the applause at this year's event was more restrained.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called for the United Nations Security Council to take action over the latest North Korean hydrogen bomb test. Credit:AAP
Since then he backed away from the deal while standing next to then Premier Colin Barnett in the middle of the Liberals' disastrous state election campaign.
WA currently gets back just 34 cents for every dollar of GST it raises, far less than any other state under the commonwealth "fiscal equalisation system".
Wallabies prop Pek Cowan says he will probably make the heartbreaking decision to continue his rugby career overseas if the Western Force are axed.
The Force's future hangs in the balance after the Australian Rugby Union decided to cut them from the Super Rugby competition.
Pek Cowan may move overseas if the Force fold. Credit:Jeffrey Chan
RugbyWA have appealed the decision to the NSW Supreme Court, with a judgement set to be handed down early next week.
Cowan has been with the Force from their inception in 2005, and the 31-year-old would have been a certainty to re-sign had the franchise not been under threat.
Nairobi: Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has denounced the country's Supreme Court judges as "crooks in the pay of whites" after it struck a stunning blow for judicial independence in Africa by nullifying his re-election.
Ruling that Mr Kenyatta's victory in the August 8 vote was marred by "irregularities and illegalities", the court on Friday ordered a fresh vote to be held within 60 days, the first time judges have ever overturned an incumbent president's victory in an African election.
Supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga kneel down and thank God as they celebrate the verdict in downtown Nairobi, Kenya. Credit:AP
Robed in red and black, the six judges on the bench upheld a petition by Mr Kenyatta's challenger, Raila Odinga, whose claim that systematic fraud had denied him victory was ridiculed by Western observers, who portrayed him as a sore loser.
The loser of four elections, all of them tarnished by allegations of impropriety, Mr Odinga was in court to savour his moment of triumph, allowing himself a smile as the chief justice, David Maraga, delivered his momentous ruling.
Bangkok: Australia and East Timor have reached agreement on developing billions of dollars of oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea, ending years of bitter disagreement.
A deal has been reached on a maritime boundary as well as sharing arrangements for the $US50 billion Greater Sunrise oil and gas field.
At least 10,000 people protest in Dili last year against Australia's stance on the oil and gas meridian line in the Timor Sea. Credit:Wayne Lovell/Timor Photography
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop hailed the agreement struck in confidential talks at The Hague as a "landmark day" in relations between the two countries.
Xanana Gusmao, the hero of East Timor's struggle for independence and leader of his country's delegation in the talks, described it as an "historic agreement that marks the beginning of a new era in Timor-Leste's [East Timor's] friendship with Australia".
The city of Los Angeles is under siege from a bushfire which the city's mayor has described as the largest in its history.
The fire, which is burning in the La Tuna area in the north-east of the city, has consumed about 2000 hectares of brush in the San Fernando Valley's Verdugo Mountains.
By late on Saturday three homes had been lost and another 700 homes had been evacuated, roughly 550 of them from the Burbank and Glendale areas, which are adjacent to the fire.
The Burbank neighbourhood is also home to three of the city's biggest film studios, Universal, Warner Bros and Disney.
Bangkok: Hundreds killed, including children. Villages burnt to the ground. Tens of thousands of desperate people fleeing, carrying their children, amid credible reports of a massacre.
The United Nations Secretary-General warns a "humanitarian catastrophe" may be unfolding by the day in Rakhine State, Myanmar.
Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority members walk through rice fields after crossing over to Bangladesh on Friday. Credit:AP
This is not happening under the watch of a mad dictator.
This is Myanmar, a member of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) whose de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was in 1991 awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her "non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights", one of her many international awards.
Rabba Square a day after authorities cleared the month-long sit-in. Credit:EPA "It was a Saturday when they took him and it was the hardest day of my life," she says. "I couldn't process what was happening and since then I haven't seen him." He had been to Rabaa and survived the violence, but a few days later he was captured for his supposed links to the Brotherhood in Zagazig, Morsi's hometown where there is a large Islamist constituency. She remembers the day well. Radwa Magdy, holds up a picture of her husband who disappeared during the dispersal of Rabaa sit-in in Egypt. Credit:Abdelrahman Mohamed "I could hear my sisters' screams coming from downstairs while I was running down dragging my mum. I saw elite forces lined up outside our house just like what you see on TV. It felt surreal, like an action film," she said. "What was weird is that the soldier gripped my father's arm while firing his AK-47 up in the air several times, like he was parading him in front of us to scare us."
She has been leading the search for him, along with her five sisters and brother, ever since. She has even sued the state to find out where her father is but the final hearing was delayed last week yet again. Supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi sit-in at Rabaa Square, Cairlo in July 2013. Credit:EPA If he was killed then where is his corpse? I have been looking for four years straight. Radwa Magdy, whose husband disappeared during the Rabaa massacre "For the past four years, my life has been on hold. I can't even remember my life before they snatched him." Ali diligently travels every week to Cairo to connect with other families of the disappeared, as well as to approach official bodies in search of her father, a surgeon.
A boy stands guard during the Muslim Brotherhood protest in Rabaa Square that ended when more than 800 people were killed after the military rolled in. Credit:EPA "Now I've become a man. I have taken on duties like a man, going from one institution to the next all in the hope of finding my dad," she says referring to strict gender roles still prevalent in Egypt. She is incensed that authorities have not responded to her requests and is adamant she will find him. Sara Ali remembers her father being grabbed by state security personnel. Credit:Abdelrahman Mohamed Egypt has used enforced disappearances to stifle dissent since the overthrow of the Brotherhood. Amnesty International estimates that at least 1700 people have disappeared, with hundreds ending up in secret detention facilities or executed without their kin knowing.
Sisi's crackdown is even more repressive than those under Morsi's predecessor, deposed president Hosni Mubarak, with more than 40,000 political prisoners and hundreds of critical websites shut down in recent months. Fairfax Media contacted the Egyptian Ministry of Justice and the Attorney-General's Office repeatedly for a comment on enforced disappearances to no avail. No security official or political figure has been held accountable for the atrocities at Rabaa. The Muslim Brotherhood - an Islamist group founded in Egypt in 1928 - has always had a Faustian pact with the rulers of Egypt, striking a balance between growing political influence and their grassroots social programs. Yet, since Rabaa, the group has been decimated, forcing many to go underground or flee overseas, mostly to Turkey or Qatar.
"We are talking about the largest state massacre in modern Egyptian history that happened all in one day," says Abdullah al-Arian, a history professor at Georgetown University in Qatar who has researched the Muslim Brotherhood extensively. The Brotherhood was declared a terrorist group in November 2013 by Egyptian authorities and Sisi's administration has lobbied Britain and the United States to follow suit. After the overthrow of Morsi and the Rabaa massacre, many Brotherhood youths ended up in Syria fighting alongside jihadists or planting bombs, and even burning churches as a form of retribution . "You have to go back to 1954 under Nasser's rule to find the closest moment where something like this has happened. You're not only just being outlawed but being actively pursued and hunted down by state security services," Arian added. Radwa Magdy, who speaks quickly, feels constantly under siege. She runs a support group for the families of the disappeared, helping them with the legal process of tracking down their relatives. In recent weeks, Magdy has become more attuned to the draconian measures of the authorities because her co-founder and friend was arrested in May as she searched for her own husband in a prison.
It is an all too familiar scenario for Magdy. Minutes before security forces snatched her husband as the sun was setting over billowing smoke, corpses and panic in Rabaa Square, Magdy spoke to him on a borrowed mobile phone. "He survived the whole day of the clearing of the square when the mosque was burnt and the stage demolished. He was there updating me all the time ringing from people's mobiles and since that fateful day I haven't heard from him," she tells Fairfax Media. Her husband Abdelaziz, an Arabic teacher with al-Azhar University was caught up in the violent melee. Hailing from a small town in the Nile Delta, around 100 kilometres north of Cairo, Magdy, 35, has turned into an amateur archivist of legal documents and has become well-versed in Egyptian laws in order to find her husband.
Bangkok: Survivors have described mass killings, including beheadings of children, and arson attacks in a dramatic escalation of the Rohingya crisis that the United Nations warns could be a humanitarian catastrophe.
A 41-year-old witness told the rights monitoring group Fortify Rights he found his brother and other family members in a field after attacks by Myanmar security forces on the Rakhine state village of Chut Pyin in Ratheduang township.
A young Rohingya boy from Myanmar carries a child on his back through rice fields after crossing over to the Bangladesh on Friday. Credit:AP
"They had marks on their bodies from the bullets and some had cuts," he said.
"My two nephews, their heads were cut off. One was six years old and the other was nine years old. My sister-in-law was also shot with a gun."
PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- Dr. Virginia Asin-Oostburg, Director of Surveillance, Disease Prevention and Control at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), in an interview with the Department of Communication (DCOMM) on Friday, said CARPHA along with other partners are monitoring Hurricane Irma.
At present, Hurricane Irma poses no immediate threat to any CARPHA member states.
According to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Irma is a major category 3 hurricane and given its potential to strengthen and impact the Caribbean, CARPHA urges member states to continue to monitor the progress of this system.
A number of countries have commenced preparatory activities and we stand ready to provide assistance upon request should the need be especially on issues relating to public health, water, hygiene, and sanitation.
Member States are encouraged to review their disaster plans and to carry out simulations to ensure that they can respond in the event of any emergencies.
We will continue to monitor the progress of Hurricane Irma and provide updates as necessary to member states as we receive these updates from CDEMA, Dr. Virginia Asin said on Friday.
Notebook: Notre Dame keeps blocking punts, WR Braden Lenzy hauls in amazing TD catch
Jack Kiser became the sixth different player with a blocked punt this year for Notre Dame.
Conservator Anna Funke prepares to spray sodium hydroxide on the Hunley at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston. The chemical helps extract salt from the structure of the submarine.
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Bir-Lehlu, September 2, 2017 (SPS) - The President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Gali, conveyed his condolences to Algerian President Abdelaziz Buteflika after a terrorist attack on the headquarters of the Tiaret Police, which claimed the lives of two Algerian police officers.
"In this difficult moment, we express to you, on behalf of the Saharawi people and Government, our most sincere expressions of condolence and through you to the Algerian brotherly people and the families of the victims," said the President of the Republic in a message to his Algerian counterpart.
The President of the Republic also expressed his strongest condemnation for the cowardly terrorist act that occurred on Thursday. (SPS)
Cyclists are getting ready for one of the biggest challenges in the Panhandle.
Each year, the Monument to Monument ride draws elite cyclists who spend their day riding between the Scotts Bluff National Monument and Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. Now in its sixth year, the event is primarily for intermediate to serious riders. This year, more options have been provided. Previously, riders needed to complete a 50- or 100-mile ride. There are now 25- and 75-mile options.
The ride attracts regulars each year as well as people who live out of the area and newcomers.
Many riders begin training for the ride in the spring.
The ones who are real serious will build up their endurance, said Harlan Trupp, chairperson. Its a challenge to push themselves.
Trupp said its important to have good equipment when riding 100 miles. A bike that is streamlined and lightweight will make the ride much easier than another bike like a mountain bike.
The two monuments were picked because of the scenery along the way. It was also a way to highlight two attractions in the Panhandle. The scenic ride to Agate is hilly as riders must climb their way out of the valley.
You see things and appreciate them a little differently than in car, he said. You have time to look around, hear the sounds and see the small things you dont normally notice.
Riders have the road mostly to themselves that day. Once they reach Agate, there is time to eat lunch and tour the visitors center and museum at Agate.
Trupp has been busy making all the preparations. If everything goes smoothly, he will be riding 50 miles on the day of the event. The ride will also have a support vehicle should anyone have any health or bicycle problems.
The full 100-mile, round-trip ride begins at 7 a.m. Riders can choose to ride 25, 50, 75 or 100 miles.
Also the same weekend is the YMCA Triathlon. It is being held a week later this year due to scheduling conflicts. Fitness Coordinator Lola Gonzales knew there would be a conflict, but said she was not aware of any people who ride in both events.
The events are two of many the YMCA puts on each year to motivate the community to leading healthier lives.
Lolas main goal is to find interesting activities to help keep people active and have fun while exercising, Trupp said. Riding bikes is a good way to do both.
Riders who want lunch must sigh up and pay $5 at the YMCA front desk by Sept. 11.
The Monument to Monument bike ride takes place Saturday, Sept. 16.
For more information or to register for either event, contact Lola Gonzales at the YMCA at 308-635-2318. To register online, visit www.ymcaofscottsbluff.org.
First United Methodist Church of Scottsbluff is gathering supplies and packing up flood relief buckets to send to victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas.
Church members volunteered to drive around town shopping with Pastor Craig Collins to gather cleaning supplies and materials.
The buckets will be packed on Wednesday evening by the youth group, church business manager Raylene Gies said.
The church started out with a goal of sending 10 flood relief buckets to Texas through United Methodist Committee on Relief. Each bucket is valued at about $65 based on UMCORs estimates.
Collins shared a little about how the flood bucket operations are going.
Were doing great. Were having so much fun, he said. Home Depot, they were awfully nice to us. They gave us $1,200 off plus they gave us 200 buckets. Those buckets, theyre worth about three bucks a piece. So, thats $600 worth of buckets they gave away, plus they gave us discounts on all of this.
Collins spoke highly of the workers who helped them at Home Depot.
Brian, the manager out there, he just went shopping with us, he said. And like we bought all these scrub brushes from him and he says Ill just go a dollar a piece on those scrub brushes. And they were like $3.97 retail and he sold them to us for a buck. He made us a good deal.
The volunteer shoppers also went to Car-Trumbull Lumber Company for gear.
We got some heavy duty trash bags from Car-Trumbull, Collins said.
UMCOR is gathering flood buckets from churches all around.
Were in a challenge with the Blair church in eastern Nebraska, Collins said. A friend of mine on Facebook saw the post and I said we had enough for at least 35 buckets. And he said 35? Thats the number to beat?
He said,No! I said At least, were going to get more than that. And he says sounds to me like we got a challenge on. And I said Well, if it will help get more buckets lets do it.
Collins said they have spent less than $1,100 so far on flood bucket materials.
We spent about $1,100 right here and weve got, so far, weve got $2,300 set aside, he said. So we can double this amount. So, weve been to three retailers, weve got to hit some more retailers, were buying them out of stuff that theyve got.
Collins explained their plan to go to Menards and Safeway to buy more cleaning supplies.
He also said the church didnt take up a specific offering for the flood buckets.
We just mentioned it in church last Sunday and people have just been generous. We talked about how we are the body of Christ, Collins said. In fact, this Sunday, the message is on how were called to love one another, and not to pretend to love each other, but really love each other. So this is putting rubber to the road is what I said on Sunday.
Collins talked about how so much more can get done when people work together.
We can pull together, this is something we can make a huge impact with if we work together, Collins said. You know, one family could do a flood bucket. But if we pool our ideas and energy, were going to have lots of flood buckets to send out.
Collins said the buckets will be hauled to an UMCOR location in Lincoln on Sept. 13. They will then be taken to Louisiana and eventually Texas and given to victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Theres no administration cost, Collins said. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to people in need.
Collins said anyone who wants to help with the flood bucket project can call the church office at 308-635-2069.
Illinois regulators have approved the state's first hydraulic fracturing permit more than four years after the controversial oil-drilling practice was allowed.
The state Department of Natural Resources posted notice of approval online of an application from Woolsey Companies Inc. of Wichita, Kan. The energy development company was the first to apply for a permit under the state law enacted in June 2013. Woolsey plans to drill the first well near Enfield, in White County. [That's about 120 miles southeast of St. Louis, about 30 miles from Indiana border.]
"The permit covers the construction, completion, operating, monitoring and reporting requirements for this well," the department stated in the 14-page approval notice.
Mark Sooter, Woolsey's vice president of business development, said Friday the company expects to complete the first well by the end of the year, though he said production might not begin until early 2018. He added that Woolsey plans only one well for now.
"At this point, we'll drill only the well we got the permit for," said Sooter. "We'll study those results and evaluate additional wells."
Hydraulic fracturing relies on high-pressure chemicals and water to release oil and gas from deep-earth shale formations. Opponents who consider the practice a major threat to the environment and public health condemned approval of the Woolsey permit.
"The IDNR decision to approve the first fracking well, despite the mass disapproval of Illinois residents, is blatant pandering to the energy industry and an affront to public opinion," said a statement from Food and Water Watch, which has pushed for a nationwide ban on fracking.
Jenya Polozova, an organizer for Food and Water Watch in Illinois, said opponents submitted several thousand comments opposed to the permit, as well as extensive scientific documentation on the dangers of fracking. She pointed out regulators had to ask for multiple corrections before approving the Woolsey permit.
"We're really concerned that DNR was very patient despite the fact they (Woolsey) were submitting seriously flawed applications," said Polozova. She added that opponents could continue to work for an outright ban in Illinois or at least even tougher rules for permits.
The group lobbied for a ban that recently took effect in Maryland.
Department of Natural Resources spokesman Tim Schweizer said approval of the permit clears the way for well construction. One other company, New York-based Kimmeridge Tri-State Exploration, has registered for hydraulic fracturing in Illinois but has not filed for a permit. A third company voluntarily withdrew its registration.
Salman Rushdie has garaged the magic carpets and dived deep into 21st-century America, with its concerns about identity, guns, the 1 percent and even superheroes.
For his new book, The Golden House, the Indian-born, British-raised and American-adopted Rushdie sought to write a realistic novel focused on the contemporary moment. Its, he says, about whats going on, whats in peoples heads, whats eating at people right now.
Yes, that means a presidential candidate from New York, a brilliant man on the autism spectrum and another who thinks he might become a woman. There are references to Bollywood, private islands, Jessica Chastain, people who claim Barack Obama is Muslim, and fatal shootings.
The narrator asks: What is heroism in our time? What is villainy? How much we have forgotten, if we dont know the answer to such questions anymore.
Rushdie will talk about his new work Sept. 9 at the St. Louis County Library (ticket required). The Golden House goes on sale Tuesday, one of the first big books of the fall season.
The master writer has been an American citizen for less than two years. Hes one Muslim-born immigrant who cant be deported: I slipped in under the wire, he says dryly, talking by phone Tuesday from New York.
His comment is followed by a laugh, but becoming a U.S. citizen was far from a light decision: Once youve made that decision, thats who you are. Even if, as he says, in this time when the movies are being taken over by superheroes and supervillains, it seems as so is America.
Despite his novels satirical edge and implied criticism of some current issues, at age 70, Rushdie doesnt ignore history. And hes more than willing to keep fighting for what he believes and writing novels that depict people as more than cartoon cutouts.
We live in a world in which were encouraged to be simple things. Literature is one of the places you can go to that shows how human nature really is.
In fact, some of the new books themes are classic. References to politicians and such function as background, Rushdie says. The foreground is about a man who has taken a new identity, Nero Golden, and brought his sons to New York to start a new life.
It will be a rather tragic story, made obvious by the fact that the father has changed his first name to that of a Roman emperor who was the last of his line (and who had his own mother executed). Rushdie says the story is realism pushed in the direction of Greek tragedy. Operatic realism, he says.
Instead of constant allusions to ancient gods or rulers (although there are some), Rushdie uses movies as the prominent motif, comparing one gangster to The Godfather, a disturbed ranter to actor Klaus Kinski and N.Y. facades to Rear Window. A would-be president is called the Joker, of Batman fame.
Rushdie had been thinking about his Golden family for maybe a decade and finally realized they could move to New York. His narrator who observes the mysterious Goldens (to some degree like Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby) became not a writer but a would-be filmmaker.
Ive been a kind of film addict all my life, Rushdie says. I was finally able to use some of that in the book and to play certain kinds of cinematic games with the way the book is written.
He wanted to divert sharply from 2015s Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, saying he feels hes taken his fabulist writing as far as he can, noting that hes always been interested in modernism although hes often placed in a magic realism box.
Rushdies literary reputation had been cemented in 1981 with Midnights Children, which has twice been voted as the best Booker prize winner of all. Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, the author became more of a household name after 1988s The Satanic Verses, which offended the Ayatollah Khomeini, who called for Rushdies assassination.
He hasnt been in hiding for many years during a 2002 interview he told me he lived an ordinary life and in 2009, when he was to receive the St. Louis Literary Award, he said hed rather talk about the literary content of The Satanic Verses rather than the politics around it. Yet the identity theme in his new novel may remind the reader of the years the author was known as Joseph Anton to security forces.
More overt, though, is one fictional characters struggle with his gender. Rushdie says the character agonizes over possible transitioning much more than two of the authors own friends did. Although he expresses great sympathy for the issue, his book pokes a bit of fun at the confusing choice of various pronouns.
Another personal link to The Golden House is that it almost functions as his own sort of immigrant novel, a great ongoing, energizing tradition in American literature.
Im an immigrant American too. I can bring stories from elsewhere.
Now is a rich time for new writers here, he says.
But whatever the theme or subject, Rushdie seeks space for readers to form their own conclusions:
A MAN in his 20s has died in a crash that involved a motorbike, van and car.
It happened just before 7pm yesterday, Thursday, 31st August, on the B4100 near Warmington, on the far eastern reaches of Stratford-on-Avon district.
A Warwickshire Police spokesman said: "Emergency services attended and a man in his 20's was pronounced deceased at the scene.
"Next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specially trained officers.
"A road closure was put in place as a result of the collision and was reopened.
"If you witnessed the collision or have any information in relation to it please contact Warwickshire police on 101 referencing incident 343 of 31/08/2017."
Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday maintained that Pakistan wants a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.
Asif was responding to Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghanis statement about a comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan. He asserted that Pakistan s position on Afghanistan has always been clear.
Read more: Peace with Pakistan is our national agenda: Afghan President
Pakistan is already a part of bilateral, trilateral and quadrilateral mechanisms for dialogue and those should be utilized to their full potential, Asif said.
He said that Pakistan is playing its due role in restoring peace in Afghanistan.
Young or old, we seem to have a special affinity with bunnies.
Theres the Easter Bunny, Bugs Bunny, Peter Rabbit, Nutbrown Hare of Guess How Much I Love You fame and Roger Rabbit from the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Our love of the little fluffy creatures should, therefore, ensure that this years Waipuna Hospice fundraising tea towel flies off the shelves.
Local artist Mandy Williams has once again donated one of her designs to the annual fundraiser a bunny by the name of white wabbit.
The high-quality cotton tea towels will be on sale for $14 each from next week at all Hospice shops and the Waipuna Hospice website www.waipuna-hospice.co.nz as well as a few other retail outlets around Tauranga.
About 25 volunteers attended a foldathon recently to package up the 2500 tea towels. Ten dollars from each tea towel will go to hospice.
Communications manager Ingrid Hennessey says the tea towels are a perfect size to pop in the post and will make a nice little thank you gift.
The tea towel fundraiser now in its fifth year is one of many fundraisers Waipuna Hospice is involved in each year to come up with the $2.7 million it needs to meet the shortfall between its government funding and operating costs.
Waipuna Hospice provides specialist medical care for Western Bay of Plenty people living with a life-limiting illness, as well as providing support services for their families. This year it expects to care for about 1000 patients.
Some Tauranga school buses look likely to survive the changing bus contracts following recommendations adopted by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council Public Transport Committee.
The earlier proposal to ditch most school buses was revised following a public backlash.
New proposals have been developed for each of the affected schools.
The council says it wants to address concerns raised by schools and parents while looking for opportunities to encourage students to use BayHopper buses, walk or cycle to school. The proposals also including keeping school buses for Year 7-8 (intermediate) students.
Council staff are in the process of discussing feedback with most of the affected schools and asking them to identify improvements that can be made.
Schools will be asked if they would like the council to notify parents about the changes, or have meetings with parents to discuss the new proposals.
So far council staff and committee chair Lyall Thurston have met with four schools that say they want to further explore options and for council staff to meet with parents to discuss proposals.
They are Aquinas College, Bethlehem College, St Marys Catholic School and St Thomas More Catholic School.
So far staff have met with the following schools that say they are comfortable with the proposals, subject to minor variations and would like to keep parents informed of any decisions.
They are Mount Maunganui Intermediate, Tauranga Intermediate, Otumoetai College, Otumoetai Intermediate, Tauranga Boys College and Tauranga Girls College.
Council staff have yet to meet with Maungatapu School, Papamoa College and Papamoa Primary.
Of the 290 students likely to lose their bus service, 80 will be eligible for Ministry of Education transport assistance; 100 are from Tauranga Girls and Boys Colleges, 40 from Otumoetai College and Otumoetai Intermediate and the remainder are from other schools. The majority of students who will no longer have access to school services are located on a direct public bus route to their school.
After significant discussion and engagement with schools, we have now developed school-led solutions for five schools and are continuing to work with a further seven schools. During this time we are also continuing our discussions with the MOE and Tauranga City Council to ensure the school bus network addresses community feedback, says Lyall.
A Wytheville man convicted of abusing a 3-year-old female in his care was sentenced to jail time on Wednesday.
Nicholas Colon Hall, 22, was convicted of felony child abuse after entering an Alford plea, where defendants deny guilt but admit the prosecution has enough evidence for a conviction. The commonwealth dropped an additional charge of aggravated sexual battery.
According to an evidence summary from Commonwealths Attorney Jerry Mabe, Hall and another man were babysitting the girl and other children on Dec. 5, 2016, when the girl accused Hall and the other man of pulling down her pants and touching one of them with his penis her genitals.
A medical professional who examined the girl said she had an abrasion and trauma around her genital area.
As part of a plea agreement with the commonwealth, Hall was sentenced to seven months in jail with credit for time served. Hes been locked up since his January arrest.
Hall will be on probation for three years, during which time he can have no contact with the girl or any minors without his probation officers approval. He will also waive his Fourth Amendment protections, which means police can search him at any time without a warrant.
Mabe said the girls parents agreed with the plea deal.
Also facing charges of aggravated sexual battery and child abuse, co-defendant Timothy Wayne Minor, 36, of Wytheville is scheduled to enter a plea on Nov. 20. Hes free on bond while awaiting trial.
In other cases heard on Aug. 30:
Leanne C. Grubb, 37, of Woodlawn, a former Aflac employee, was convicted of bilking the insurance company of thousands of dollars by creating fake policies and filing false claims.
As part of a deal with the commonwealth, Grubb pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining money by false pretenses and the prosecution dropped an additional 16 counts.
According to evidence summarized in court, Grubb collected commissions from the fake policies and claims and claimed a district sales coordinator encouraged the practice.
Grubb was given a 10-year suspended prison sentence and will be on probation for three years, during which time she has to pay the company $10,314.57 in restitution.
A co-defendant, Leslie N. Weaver of Glade Spring, is set to enter a plea on Nov. 1. The district coordinator, Shannon Jones of Mt. Airy, North Carolina, was indicted in April but is listed as a fugitive in court records.
Grubb was ordered to cooperate with authorities regarding Jones case as a part of her plea deal.
Musicians from the Jefferson String Quartet will be joined by Symphoria's principal clarinetist, Allan Kolsky, in a benefit concert to support the Center for New Americans, a resettlement program for refugees who live in Central New York. The performance is the third in a series sponsored by Concert for a Cause, founded by Madison County activist Maureen Campanie.
"The idea behind Concert for a Cause is that music unites us. Even though we may feel divided as a country, we can use our passions to do good work and benefit local organizations," Campanie says of the grassroots initiative.
The beneficiary of the upcoming concert provides services to help refugee families reestablish their lives. The organization resettles up to 600 new refugees each year, and assists an additional 1,200 families who have been in the U.S. for less than five years.
The first Concert for a Cause, held in April, promoted awareness of climate change and raised $4,000 for Citizens Campaign for the Environment. In July, the series sponsored a spin-off, "Comedy for a Cause," which raised money for mental health awareness and education benefiting Samaritan Counseling Center in Utica and Pathways Wellness Center in Oneida.
The Jefferson String Quartet is comprised of Peter Rovit and Amy Christian, violins; Arvilla Rovit, viola; and Lindsay Groves, cello. With Kolsky, they will perform the Mozart Clarinet Quintet, the Dvorak "American" String Quartet, a contemporary piece for clarinet and CD by Nikola Resanovic, and new arrangements Kolsky has created especially for this program.
"We are pleased to perform in support of Interfaith Works," Kolsky says. "We'll be playing some great music that highlights cross-cultural values and human harmony. We will demonstrate the power of music to bring people together."
THE DETAILS:
Who: The Jefferson String Quartet with Allan Kolsky, clarinet
What: Chamber music to raise money for Center for New Americans
Where: Nelson Odeon Theater, Nelson, N.Y.
When: Sept. 10, 7 p.m.
Tickets: $20
Purchase: Online at the Nelson Odeon website or Concert for a Cause Facebook page
Syracuse, N.Y. -- Residents on the east side of Syracuse reported an odd sight this week - a small plane circling overhead for long periods over several days.
Syracuse.com heard from a half-dozen people who wanted to know what was going on with the plane. Who was flying it? Was it on some type of search and rescue mission? Perhaps taking aerial photographs?
Witnesses described the craft as a single-engine "Cessna-type" plane. Some thought it was painted blue on the bottom but mostly white everywhere else. One person said it was gray.
Since we love mysteries, we decided to look into it. First, we checked with the Army's Fort Drum in Watertown. Were they sending aircraft down to Syracuse on some kind of mission?
Nope. A spokesperson said Fort Drum only operates helicopters, not planes.
So then we checked out our second hunch. Could the aircraft have something to do with the Air National Guard's MQ-9 Reaper drones, which have been flying daily out of Syracuse Hancock International Airport since December 2015?
A remotely piloted MQ-9 Reaper operated by the New York Air National Guard's 174th Attack Wing flies a training mission over Central New York on Oct. 23, 2016. The Civil Air Patrol provides chase plane operations for the Reaper to and from restricted air space.
Witnesses said the plane's propeller was on the front of the craft. That ruled out the Reaper, which is powered by a rear-mounted prop. But what about the planes that follow the Reapers while they are in unrestricted airspace?
We called the Civil Air Patrol, the U.S. Air Force's civilian auxiliary. Its small, single-engine planes follow the Reapers from the time they take off from Hancock until they reach restricted airspace over Lake Ontario.
The FAA requires the Air National Guard's 174th Attack Wing to have humans, either on the ground or in the air, observe the remotely-piloted Reapers the entire time they are in unrestricted airspace to watch out for other planes. This reduces the risk of collisions with other aircraft.
Sure enough, Lt. Col. Dean Anderson, commander of the Civil Air Patrol's Central New York affiliate, said the planes were from the auxiliary.
The patrol operates four small planes - three of them painted red, white and blue, and one painted military gray. Members of the unit and volunteers from throughout the country fly the planes almost daily providing chase duty for the Reapers.
Anderson said the planes normally escort the drones from Hancock to Lake Ontario on their daily training missions. The drones are operated by pilots sitting in control stations on the ground at Hancock Field, the Air National Guard base at the airport. The planes also escort the drones back to Hancock, he said.
The missions do not normally require the planes to fly around in circles. But at times, the drones' takeoffs are delayed by maintenance issues or by other aircraft using the runways, Anderson said. In those cases, the chase planes fly in circles southeast of the airport, an area that includes the east side of the city and parts of DeWitt, while waiting for the Reapers to take off, he said.
The circling usually does not last very long. But the Civil Air Patrol often has two planes on drone chase duty each day, so what people thought was a single plane circling around for an extended period was likely two planes at different times of the day, he said.
Contact Rick Moriarty anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-470-3148
LAS VEGAS, N.V. -- A suspect wanted for allegedly shooting and killing a man in the parking lot of a Rome bar has been caught while fleeing to Las Vegas, Rome police announced Friday night.
Robert W. Coffin, 35, is accused of shooting Thomas E. Shepherd, 25, twice in the head, killing him, around 3 a.m. in Rome on Aug. 19. Police said the pair had gotten in a dispute near Sammy G's bar and grill. Coffin fled.
He was caught on a bus headed to Las Vegas late Friday evening, police told news outlets. He'll soon appear in court in Las Vegas for extradition proceedings, according to the Rome Daily Sentinel.
Rome police said on the department's Facebook page that the United States Marshals Service assisted in capturing the suspect, as did the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Coffin has been on parole since 2013 after being convicted of first-degree reckless endangerment and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon in 2005, according to state inmate records.
Police said they'll release more information at a news conference either Saturday or Sunday.
Microsoft and Amazon this week announced a deal that will let their voice-controlled digital assistants, Cortana and Alexa, engage in cross-platform communications, a move that could expand radically both companies use of artificial intelligence.
Microsoft customers will be able to access Alexa voice commands by saying Cortana, open Alexa on any device that supports Cortana, which is available on millions of desktops, laptops, tablets and other devices.
Under the agreement, Microsoft customers first will be able to access Alexa via Cortana on Windows PCs, and later on Android and iOS devices, noted Andrew Shuman, corporate vice president, Cortana Engineering.
The Amazon products are integrated with a growing ecosystem of smart home devices, such as automated security systems, lights, window blinds and more.
Users of Alexa-controlled devices the Amazon Echo, Dot and other smart speakers, as well as Amazon Fire tablets, Amazon Fire TV and Amazon Kindle tablets will be able to access appointments, reminders, email and other functionality by saying Alexa, open Cortana.
There are going to be multiple, successful intelligent agents, each with access to different sets of data and with different specialized skill areas, said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Mutual Interest
Amazon and Microsoft have an interest in developing the ability to communicate with each other, because neither company has enough presence in the mobile space to stand alone, observed Mark Beccue, principal analyst at Tractica.
Neither MIcrosoft nor Amazon have the market penetration in mobile that Apple and Google do, he told TechNewsWorld. Their virtual assistants are not very multimodal yet. Maybe they feel stronger together.
The companies each offer their own set of core competencies, said Adam Marchick, CEO of VoiceLabs, as Microsoft is stronger in productivity and search, and Amazon is stronger in e-commerce and has a vast ecosystem of skill applications, including many related to smart home technologies.
There isnt enough of a competitive environment right now to feel like someone is taking the other ones cheese, Marchick told TechNewsWorld.
Still, each company will need to work on its respective voice assistant technologies to make sure which system is best suited for specific type of queries, said Paul Teich, principal analyst at Tirias Research.
This is going to require deploying more AI in the front-end interaction with people, so it will raise the cost of interaction, he told TechNewsWorld.
Smart Speakers
Amazon this spring had an installed base of about 11 million people using smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Dot, using voice commands to shop on Amazon or control smart home gadgets, according to data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.
We think customers will like this because Microsoft has a lot of vertical data sets that are unique to them, said Amazon spokesperson Dawn Brun. You can imagine there are a lot of work use cases if your company uses Outlook.
The commands to control the devices will be the same for Cortana as they are for Alexa, she told TechNewsWorld.
Further, earlier reports that Amazon would not preclude future agreements with Apple or Google regarding their voice-controlled AI technologies, Siri or Google Assistant, were accurate, Brun confirmed.
Cortana is available on 145 million devices, including computers and mobile devices, according to Microsoft.
Microsoft later this fall plans to launch its own smart speaker, Invoke, under a partnership with Harman Kardon. Several other new speakers are expected, including Apples HomePod, which is scheduled to launch in December.
The new entrants will face stiff competition not only from Amazons Echo line, but also from Googles Home, which so far is Amazons only significant rival in the smart speaker market.
Microsoft on Monday announced the availability of its first public release candidate for SQL Server 2017, which includes full support for Windows, Linux and Docker containers.
SQL Server on Linux improves on earlier previews with several key enhancements, including active directory authentication; transport layer security to encrypt data; and SQL Server Integration Services that add support for Unicode ODBC drivers.
SQL Server 2017 has demonstrated faster performance than competitive databases or older SQL Server versions with new benchmarks, Microsoft said, including the world record TPC-H 1-TB non-clustered data warehousing benchmark achieved this spring using SQL Server 2017 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and HPE DL380 Gen 9 hardware.
Among early adopters are Dv01, a financial technology startup, which began using an open source database on a rivals cloud, but got 15 times faster performance on SQL Server 2017, according to Microsoft.
Another customer, Convergent Computing, has moved some Tier 2 applications to inexpensive, white box servers using SQL Server 2017 on Linux.
Convergent started fiddling with SQL on Linux last year, said Rand Morimoto, president of the company.
After evaluating the initial performance of the new platform, Convergent added applications as Microsoft added functionality, he told LinuxInsider.
Convergent now has half a dozen business applications including financial systems data analysis and client communications management systems running successfully on Linux, Morimoto said.
The company can get the same performance while running these SQL/Linux instances on lower power, he said, allowing it to recapture resources allocated to other applications.
Were anticipating over the next 24 months that will translate to a decrease in costs of at least 34 percent, Morimoto said. As we scale our SQL instances using SQL/Linux, we feel we can effectively increase capacity by 40 to 50 percent without having to allocate more resources.
Advantage Azure?
The move is the latest indication of Microsofts growing warmth toward open source. CEO Satya Nadella has shifted the companys philosophy away from competition and toward cooperation.
It recognizes that forcing customers onto Windows servers isnt a good long-term play for a couple of reasons, noted Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of research at Nucleus Research.
For starters, Microsoft is laser-focused on bringing customers to Azure, making the desire to fight the Windows server battle less important, she told LinuxInsider.
Windows is still a dominant player in the enterprise server space, Wettemann acknowledged, but with the growth of people writing for Linux, and the growth of Linux servers in the enterprise, Microsoft recognizes that customers want to run their database of choice on Linux so opening SQL to Linux puts Microsoft into the hands of more potential users.
The release seemed timed to coincide with last weeks announcement of Microsofts Azure Stack, which likely will have a huge impact on the private cloud market, noted Paul Teich, principal analyst at Tirias Research.
The availability of SQL Server on Linux will ensure that Microsoft customers that dont want a full off-premises commitment to the Azure cloud have a familiar and licensed database available for on-premises deployment of Azure Stack, he told LinuxInsider.
Its a half step for customers who want to modernize their code a little bit but have concerns that keep them out of a multitenant cloud, Teich said. They want the flexibility to take advantage of a hybrid cloud if needed.
Customer Demand
There is demand for stable, scalable databases, said Ron Pacheco, director of product management for Red Hats platform business unit though he could not speak to any specific level of demand that might be driving Microsofts strategy.
Customers are openly embracing the open source development model, even for their own internally developed applications, he told LinuxInsider, as it leverages the collective intelligence of a large community of mutually interested parties that yields very fast innovation.
Microsoft first announced plans to offer SQL on the Linux platform early last year, noting that it was important to make the database available across multiple platforms. Enterprise customers have gravitated toward Linux not only for its relatively lower costs, but also for its fewer security risks.
Linux is the dominant operating system of the cloud and of open source tools and platforms, said Doug Henschen, principal analyst at Constellation Research.
Microsoft needed to make Azure attractive to cloud developers across platforms, he pointed out.
Microsoft had to fill that gap, Henschen told LinuxInsider, and indeed, it recently introduced a MySQL cloud service the open source database that runs on Linux.
There are several takeaways from Microsofts announcement of SQL Server 2017 RC1, suggested Al Gillen GVP for software development and open source at IDC.
Microsoft is truly supporting a mixed open source/Windows support model, he told LinuxInsider.
Further, SQL Server on Linux is a competitive alternative to Oracle on Linux, giving customers that want an enterprise-quality database that is commercially supported on Linux two choices, Gillen pointed out.
Clearly, he said, there is room to grow the SQL Server business into the Linux space.
After skipping for the smartphone scene for some time, Motorola has officially brought back its Moto X line. The fourth-gen Moto X, or the Moto X4 as it's called, isn't a flagship by current standards, but it's close.
It fills Motorola's midrange category but elevates it in unique ways. It doesn't look what you'd expect a midrange handset to look, covered with a metal and glass design combo that makes it look both fresh and premium. Its Gorilla Glass 4 protection prevents severe scratches, and it's also IP68 water and dust resistant.
Moto X4: Dual Cameras
Very few midrangers have dual cameras yet the Moto X4 does. It's a 12- and 8-megapixel combo with apertures of f/2.0 and f/2.2, respectively. The selfie shooter is also a stunner at 16 megapixels. It features what Motorola calls "adaptive low-light mode" which delivers better-lit photos in low-light scenes.
Moto X4: Processor And Memory
Because the Moto X4 is a midrange device, its Snapdragon 630 chip and 3 or 4 GB of RAM can't hold a candle to Snapdragon 835-carrying flagships with 4 or 6 GB of memory. That's just the kind corners Motorola had to cut to keep the price down.
The Moto X4 has a 5.2-inch screen with a 1080p resolution, which is already good for a midrange device. It packs a 3,000 mAh battery, which Motorola says can last up to 24 hours between charges. Included in the box is a TurboPower charger that gives six hours of power in just 15 minutes of charging.
Moto X4: Amazon Alexa
One of the Moto X4's key features is the native integration of the Amazon Alexa digital assistant, which is quite rare. Those in the United States, UK, or Germany will be able to make voice commands to Alexa. It also functions much of the same way as it does on Echo devices. If you don't fancy Alexa, there's still support for Google Assistant, which is just standard fare, this being an Android Nougat device.
Moto X4: Pricing And Availability
The Moto X4 launches in Europe for 399, which puts it around $475. Available in either Super Black or Sterling Blue, the phone is expected to launch in the United States later this fall.
The Moto X4 certainly looks like an excellent midrange device, but it's in an awkward sitting position among Motorola's other offerings. It almost costs as much as a Moto Z2 Play, which, unlike the Moto X4, supports Moto Mods accessories and is a truly premium device.
Thoughts about the Moto X4? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
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[September 01, 2017] Arcserve Announces Departure of CEO Mike Crest; Names Interim CEO
MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 01, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arcserve, LLC, whose breakthrough data protection and availability solutions deliver enterprise power with small team simplicity, today announced that Mike Crest has resigned as CEO, effective September 8, 2017. Dave Hansen, the companys Chairman of the Board, will serve as interim CEO as final preparations are made for Mikes successor. This transition comes shortly after the company announced its accelerated growth and rapid progress toward delivering the industrys first cost-effective disaster avoidance solution.
The companys Board of Directors expresses its gratitude to Mike for his dedication and invaluable contribution to the companys establishment as an independent organization and subsequent momentum after its divestiture in 2014. Mike was a tremendous asset in laying the foundation for our robust future, and we understnd his decision to pursue another growth opportunity, said Hansen. As an organization that values people above everything else, we remain committed to exceeding the needs of our customers and partners.
It has been an enormous privilege to have led Arcserve during an important period of transformation, essentially growing from a start-up into a major player in the backup and recovery market, said Crest. The company is founded on the principles of empowering businesses through the best backup and availability technology, and it will undoubtedly enjoy continued success. While a search for Mikes successor is already underway, Dave Hansen, Chairman of the Board, will oversee the transition period until the appointment of a new CEO. Dave is a technology industry veteran with deep experience in software and cloud solutions. He spent ten years at CA Technologies holding several executive roles. Dave has held the CEO role at Numara Software and SafeNet Inc., and has served as Vice President and General Manager in the Dell Software group.
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Arcserve is a leading provider of data protection and recovery software that provides organizations with the assurance that they can recover their data and applications when needed. Launched in 1990, Arcserve provides a comprehensive solution for cloud, virtual and physical environments, on premise or in the cloud, backed by unsurpassed support and expertise. Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP), available on Arcserves appliance or your hardware, drives a full range of highly efficient and integrated data protection capabilities through a simple, web-based user console. Arcserve has a customer base of 45,000 end users in more than 150 countries and partners with over 7,500 distributors, resellers and service providers around the world. Arcserve is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with offices around the world. Visit www.arcserve.com. Media Contact: Leslie Keil Arcserve 952.903.5434 [email protected]
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[September 02, 2017] Huawei Reveals the Future of Mobile AI at IFA 2017
Today at IFA 2017, Huawei (News - Alert) Consumer Business Group unveiled a new era in smartphone innovation. As part of CEO Richard Yu's keynote address, he revealed Huawei's vision for the future of artificial intelligence with the launch of the Kirin 970. By combining the power of the cloud with the speed and responsiveness of native AI processing, Huawei is bringing AI experiences to life and changing the way we interact with our devices. "As we look to the future of smartphones, we're at the threshold of an exciting new era," said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group. "Mobile AI = On-Device AI + Cloud AI. Huawei is committed to developing smart devices into intelligent devices by building end-to-end capabilities that support coordinated development of chips, devices, and the cloud. The ultimate goal is to provide a significantly better user experience. The Kirin 970 is the first in a series of new advances that will bring powerful AI features to our devices and take them beyond the competition." After years of development, Cloud AI has seen broad application, but user experience still has room for improveent, including latency, stability, and privacy. Cloud AI and On-Device AI can complement each other. On-Device AI offers strong sensing capabilities, which are the foundation of understanding and assisting people. Sensors produce a large amount of real-time, scenario-specific, and personalized data. Supported by strong chip processing capabilities, devices will become more cognitive of user needs, providing truly personalized and readily accessible services.
Kirin 970 is powered by an 8-core CPU and a new generation 12-core GPU. Built using a 10nm advanced process, the chipset packs 5.5 billion transistors into an area of only one cm. Huawei's new flagship Kirin 970 is Huawei's first mobile AI computing platform featuring a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU). Compared to a quad-core Cortex-A73 CPU cluster, the Kirin 970's new heterogeneous computing architecture delivers up to 25x the performance with 50x greater efficiency. Simply put, the Kirin 970 can perform the same AI computing tasks faster and with far less power. In a benchmark image recognition test, the Kirin 970 processed 2,000 images per minute, which was faster than other chips on the market. About Huawei Consumer BG
Huawei's products and services are available in more than 170 countries, and are used by a third of the world's population, ranking third in the world in mobile phone shipments in 2015. Fifteen R&D centers have been set up in the United States, Germany, Sweden, Russia, India and China. For more information, visit: consumer.huawei.com/us. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170902005020/en/
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For my reading challenge list item for August, I asked my friends to recommend a book that they liked that was in a genre they generally disliked. My friend JoAnn suggested the historical fiction "The Colony of Unrequited Dreams" by Wayne Johnston, published in 1999. She says she found the book at a library sale and chose it for the title, and though she generally doesn't read stories set in that time period, she enjoyed it.
The novel is set in Newfoundland in the early 1900s and follows the fictionalized version of the story of real-life politician Joey Smallwood. Smallwood was influential in Newfoundland joining as part of Canada in the '40s and became the new province's first premier. Johnston takes the facts of Smallwood's life and legacy and weaves them with fictional possibilities and motives, in the process creating real human depth to a historic figure that most outside of Newfoundland likely know very little about.
Johnston imagines for Smallwood a fictional life-long foil -- writer and journalist Sheilagh Fielding, who from childhood on becomes a source of frustration, a thorn in his side, and also an unrequited love interest. Smallwood, while born into poverty, is determined to do something great and make a name for himself. When he strays from his idealism into corruption and gullibility, Fielding and her newspaper column are there to mock him. While Smallwood dreams big, Fielding and her acerbic wit bring him back down to size.
Smallwood is our narrator, however, Johnston portrays him so realistically with all his faults and failings that it can sometimes be hard to like our "hero" even through his own perceptions. We see a glimpse of what the real person might have been like behind the facade of the political legend.
Throughout the novel, Johnston has used Smallwood's travels to paint a beautiful if stark picture of early life in Newfoundland. We see families and hermits of all stripes in the many different settings of the island, which Smallwood describes as being so large that it was easy to forget it was not just a part of the mainland. The range of natural features and even weather is so broad that each trip Smallwood takes might as well be several vignettes set all over the world.
Between each chapter is a chapter of a fictional book called Fielding's Condensed "History of Newfoundland" which gives short tidbits of the major developments and events throughout the island's history. Real facts about Newfoundland are written about sarcastically by Smallwood's friend/foe, her irony reminiscent of the quirky British cynicism on display in Monty Python. These interludes are an enjoyable break from the real and imagined drama of Smallwood's life -- providing a nice contrast between Smallwood's history and that of Newfoundland to give the reader some perspective. It compels us to ask what is really important to us -- the details of history as we know them over a span of centuries or the minutiae of one person's life?
As Smallwood ages, he becomes ruthless in his pursuit of greatness. We watch him transform from a young man who is idealistic and righteous, fighting for the poor and to better his country, into a man of middle age who is selfish and ambitious and fights mostly for a chance to get his name in the history books. As he feels his time is running out to make his mark on the world, he becomes the type of person he has always hated. Thankfully for us, and for the eventual old age redemption of Smallwood, Fielding is always there to very publicly remind him of what he has become.
For me, the history was fascinating and Smallwood did lead a pretty amazing and interesting life. Yet, I found myself more drawn to the fictional character of Fielding than anything else. A mysterious incident that bound these two together in primary school keeps them intertwined their entire lives, and though we mostly see how this affects them through Smallwood's view, the effect it has on Fielding is a much more rewarding journey.
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Construction workers demonstrate in favor of the Vietnam War in New York on May 8, 1970.
Biological and chemical warfare has been used for centuries before WW II, but it was warfare lab at Fort Detrick and Dugway, Utah, authorized by President Roosevelt that delved into the animal disease or anthrax, brucellosis, and Black Plague that are feared and deadly to humans. Whenever anthrax was discovered in herds of sheep or cows, the whole herd would be herded into a dug ditch. Killed, bodies burned and covered with soil, and the land on which the herd grazed would be fenced off and kept free of all animals.
Britain collaborated with America on biological warfare. So when Winston Churchill threatened to bomb four German cities with anthrax bombs if Hitler didnt stop bombing England with V-2 missiles into England, Hitler stopped sending missiles. When the biological warfare labs combined anthrax DNA with a plant disease DNA, a new disease was created that was incurable for when it would be treated it would morph into another disease to fight off the disease was needed like smallpox vaccine.
As my job on the farm was to gather eggs and look after the chickens, I came down with chicken pox and spent a week or more in a darkened room to save my eyesight. But every year I still had to line up, have someone scratch left arm until blood flowed and get small pox vaccine.
Three weeks after 9/11, the secretary of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle opened a letter to Tom and the envelope contained a trillion spores of silicon coated anthrax. Tom had opposed President Bushs orders that took away Constitutional rights as did Senator Leahy. His secretary was also poisoned by anthrax spores. It was then blamed on Saddam Hussein but traced to the biological weapons laboratories at Dugway, Utah, and Fort Detrick, Maryland, that President Nixon had ordered closed in 1972 but were kept open.
The labs made synthetic viruses by injecting RNA plant diseases into the DNA of an animal disease to make a new biological warfare disease. They then prepared vaccine to immunize American soldiers going into a nation devastated by this disease. Prisoners in a Maryland prison were offered to have six months off their sentence if they agreed to be vaccinated. They all died but passed this disease on.
While politicians argue over Obamacare, they should push to ban biological warfare the whole world over. Chemotherapy cant distinguish between leukemia or neoplastic cells; transplanted stem cells can replace cells killed by chemotherapy or diseased or dead neural cells such as Alzheimer's, dementia, neural or muscular degeneration.
Paracrine soluble factors produced by stem cells, known as stem cell secretome, mediate the effect of degenerative, inflammatory, and auto-immune is being researched as a medical use itself as cell-free medicinal product. Prochymal was conditionally approved by Canada in 2012 for treatment of children. FDA has approved five hematopoietic stem cell products derived from umbilical cord blood. MSC is derived from bone marrow of adult donors that can make up 10,000 doses that are frozen and stored until needed.
I propose a treaty to halt biological warfare research and have governments work on regenerative stem cell therapies or like therapies that would do away with invasive surgeries, chemotherapy, drugs, to improve the health and lives of people all over the world.
A worker unloads 10,000 gallons of gasoline at an Exxon station in Santa Fe, Texas. Gas station operators across Galveston County continued to report fuel supply issues Thursday related to Harvey.
We welcome President Donald Trump to Louisiana today, and we thank him for his continuing attention to those affected by Hurricane Harvey.
The president has rightly focused on Texas, which took the brunt of Harveys wrath. His planned visit to Louisiana is a helpful reminder that the storms impact extended beyond our neighbors to the west. Louisiana experienced some coastal flooding, and state officials here, as well as volunteers such as the Cajun Navy, have been involved in responding to the ongoing crisis in Texas. The misery brought by the Harvey will last a long time, as those of us in Louisiana touched by earlier storm-related catastrophes well know.
The presidents visit to Louisiana today comes at a time of immense challenges to America abroad. From North Korea to the Middle East to the continuing quagmire of Afghanistan, our national security faces substantial threats.
But America cannot project strength abroad if it is not strong at home.
To demonstrate Americas resilience to friends and foes alike, its vital that we commit the full force of the federal government to advancing a robust recovery from Harvey.
But sadly, there is still much left undone in healing the wounds of last years Great Flood of 2016, a deluge that devastated the Baton Rouge area. Gov. John Bel Edwards, drawing on damage estimates from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, asked Congress for about $4 billion in recovery assistance for the flood. So far, lawmakers have approved only about half of that.
As Congress considers a recovery package for those impacted by Harvey, we call upon President Trump to support full funding for Louisianas recovery from last years flood.
Harvey brought a new and urgent reminder of the need for aggressive flood control measures throughout the Gulf Coast. To advance that goal, we urge the president to support completion of the Comite River Diversion Canal. For more than a decade and a half, some residents of East Baton Rouge, Ascension and Livingston parishes have taxed themselves to pay for a big chunk of the project, assuming the federal government would help out, too. But federal funding has been piecemeal, and the diversion project was still mostly incomplete when the heavy rains arrived last summer. The canal could not have prevented the flood, but it could have reduced its impact.
As Harvey also made clear, Gulf Coast residents need a newly authorized National Flood Insurance Program that will help drive continued investment in the regions homes and businesses.
As the nations energy corridor, the central Gulf Coast is key to Americas future. In marshaling recovery dollars, flood control and a stable flood insurance market for the area, the president can affirm this regions importance to the United States and, indeed, the world.
An Orleans Parish grand jury handed up murder charges Thursday against the two men who have been accused of killing the Carrollton-bred rapper
On your marks, Canberra. The Canberra Times Fun Run is kicking off for another year on Sunday, aiming to raise $125,000 for more than 250 charities.
And, whether you're donning a race bib or cheering someone on from the sidelines, here's everything you need to know this Father's Day:
Lace up those sneakers - the Canberra Times Fun Run is on Sunday. Credit:Jay Cronan
How to get there
First up, the basics. The 14km and 10km start lines are on Yamba Drive near Launceston Street, while the 5km starts on King George Terrace in front of Old Parliament House. But all events end up at the finish line on Rond Terrace along Lake Burley Griffin.
On Jan. 13, Eric Church kicked off his Holdin Your Own tour in front of 14,700 screaming fans at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
Fittingly, a pair of songs recorded at that show kick off 61 Days in Church, a 30-song playlist of live recordings from Church concerts that dropped Friday on the Apple Music streaming service.
The playlist opens with Like a Wrecking Ball, a song from near the end of the first set in the two-set, three-hour concert. The sultry mid-tempo rocker sounds good with a big room echo and plenty of noise from the crowd.
Even better is a swinging version of Two Pink Lines. Revamped from its 2006 version -- it was Churchs second single -- the pregnancy test tale (one of Church's best character-driven songs) was a second set highlight at PBA.
The next two songs on 61 Days in Church come from Churchs Sioux Falls, South Dakota, show the next night, then two from Grand Forks, North Dakota, and so on.
Fridays release is just the first version of 61 Days in Church as songs will be periodically added to the playlist throughout the year, presented in chronological order from the 61 stops that Church made on the tour that ended May 27 in Nashville.
61 Days in Church will be streaming exclusively on Apple Music for two weeks before it is made available to all streaming services.
LCD Soundsystem, American Dream
The only big album release this week -- Labor Day weekend is always a slow period for new music -- is American Dream, the first album from LCD Soundsystem since 2010s This Is Happening, a record that was supposed to be the bands farewell.
But, after working with David Bowie on Dark Star, James Murphy put the band back together -- or, truthfully, got himself back into the studio and created an album that just might be the best LCD Soundsystem release yet -- which is saying something.
The 10-song disc refines Murphys distinctive combination of art rock, synth-pop, disco and dance into jittery, propulsive, hook-filled uptempo songs and gorgeous slower numbers that hint at the Talking Heads, punk rock and, of course, Bowie, to whom the record seems to be something of a tribute.
Across those songs, Murphy delivers, in his talk-singing style, the funny, sardonic lyrics weve come to expect from him as he grapples with loneliness, dissatisfaction and the irrelevance of a middle-aged rock star. Grade: A
Despite the grey skies, Canberra turned into a sea of colour and glitter on Saturday, as protesters took to the streets in support of same-sex marriage.
Thousands of people gathered in Garema Place, many holding rainbow flags or large placards, before marching through Civic.
Some of the people among the thousands at the rally on Saturday. Credit:Jamila Toderas
The large protest came ahead of a $122 million national postal survey on whether laws should be changed to allow LGBT couples to marry.
The rally was organised by marriage equality organisation group Equal Love, the group behind the large protest in Melbourne last weekend, which saw more than 20,000 people take part.
Shame and disgrace upon us The latest announcement beggars belief. It seems Peter Dutton and, by extension, this government are completely devoid of compassion and humanity. They bring shame and disgrace to us all. Les Terill, Williamstown Inhuman policy confirmed, twice It seems the Department of Immigration and Border Protection believes asylum seekers are being treated too well. As reported in The Sunday Age, the first 100 of those who have been transported to Australia from offshore detention for medical reasons will immediately have their income support cut, and have three weeks to find somewhere to live. These people will have to support themselves, no dole for them, but they will be allowed to look for a job; fat chance. I thought, that's inhuman. Then on page 5 of the paper I read that the department has decided to replace the people who assess the security risk of asylum seekers with a computer algorithm. My thoughts of inhuman policy confirmed.
Brian Moynihan, Castlemaine FORUM Protect workers Coles worker David Suter summed up the award wage debacle when he said "I'm not looking for a handout, but a fair day's wage" ("McDonald's defends wage deal", The Sunday Age, August27). He is one of many thousands of lower-paid workers who are the victims of a deal between the major retail employers and the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, a deal that reeks of wage theft.
The Fair Work Commission quashed a deal done between Coles and the SDA in 2016; let's hope this is only the beginning. The commission has undertaken to make sure that it conducts a more thorough approach in future to determine whether workers were paid enough or fairly. It's incumbent on it to be more vigilant, ensuring that no employer or the union can pass off inferior award agreements on workers without adequate protection; their action in quashing the 2016 agreement is a admission that one, if not others, have slipped through the safety net Denis Evans, Coburg This bloke in ... Michael Carr-Gregg ("Bloody hands: Netflix under fire", The Sunday Age, 27 August) publicly accuses Selena Gomez, a TV executive producer on the other side the world, of having the blood of Australian children "on her hands". It's a serious accusation against a seemingly randomly selected target. His evidence? "A bloke in Canberra told me." A truly Trumpesque standard of truth. Gallesh Palinga, Flinders
... Canberra told me For my next university assignment, I'm going to try making whatever outrageous claim I want, with "a bloke in Canberra told me" as the citation. If it's good enough to publicly accuse somebody of wilfully harming children, surely it's good enough for my undergraduate psychology course. Penny Dreyfus, Preston Singled out The show 13 Reasons Why is created by eight executive producers, one producer, and countless writers, and is based on a novel by another author.
Yet Michael Carr-Gregg hyperbolically singles out just one young female executive producer, Selena Gomez, as solely responsible for having teenagers' "blood on her hands". Based on his comments, I sincerely doubt he knows anything about Selena Gomez or her relationship to the show in context. Georgie Willis, Brighton East This isn't pizza Lance Sterling (Letters, August 26), saying "I'm not a homophobe or bigot" doesn't make you any less discriminative. The fact you're implying that marriage equality ruins the lives of children and will wipe out the population shows that you do have prejudices towards the LGBTI+ community, especially when your "no" vote is based on contradictory fears brought up by biased commentators.
You either see the gay community as human beings or you don't. It's not like ordering a pizza where you can choose what you prefer and what you don't prefer. Human rights require one's full support. Nathan Milne, Hadfield This is not the end Lance Sterling seems to be labouring under the misapprehension that the legalisation of same-sex marriage will mean the end of heterosexual marriage. Not so. I am sure that heterosexuals will continue to marry (or merely cohabitate) and produce children. Heather Butler, Bairnsdale
Get out of the way Is Lance Sterling (Letters, The Sunday Age, August 27), inferring that LGBTQIA people are unsuitable as parents if they get married? This concerns me as it is already legal for people in any sort of a union or no union at all to have children via sexual intercourse, artificial insemination, IVF, surrogacy, adoption or foster care. There are people who have children in heterosexual relationships who are clearly unsuitable as parents but no one has the right to stop them having children. You have every right to think this way but please do not stand in the way of those who wish to have the benefits of marriage including the legal rights of a spouse. I have two children in solid long-term relationships, one can get married and the other can't. Go figure. That puts the one who can marry in a difficult situation, knowing his sister cannot marry her loved one of several years. Penny Butler, The Patch Create equality After reading "An impossibility" (Letters, August 26) that "the Marriage Act is about sex and the creation of families", I ask the writer: "In his ideal selfish world, does that mean at the age of 59, past the the age of creating children, that I along with young heterosexual couples who choose not to have children and any LGBTI couples should we all not be allowed to marry?"
Marriage is not necessarily about creating children but expressing commitment to one's love and relationship, with or without children. Bring on the changes to the Marriage Act to allow everyone the same choice not just some. Sharon Allan, Castlemaine It's simple, really Lance Sterling and Albert Riley (Letters, August 26) wonder about children and marriage equality. Sometimes two heterosexual people get married and have fertility issues. They end up having children where one parent may not be the biological parent. If you ask them, they would say they are still married and that both of them are the parents of their child. You would probably agree.
It is no different for homosexual couples. Like heterosexual couples, homosexual couples legally have both parents on their child's birth certificate whether one or both are biological. But remember, this debate is about whether two homosexual adults should have the same marriage laws as two heterosexual adults. That's it. Ange Mackie, Coburg Wasted money The latest move to force refugees off support and basically into homelessness while here for medical treatment is disgraceful. The question is how can we find the money to support them and many other people. It's a pity we are wasting $122 million on a question we already know the answer to. Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill
Dame's legacy Surely Dame Elisabeth Murdoch deserves a more imaginative legacy than this ("Neighbours fume over plans for Cruden Farm", The Age, August 30)? I challenge the state government and the property's trustees to seize this opportunity to devise a genuine public-private partnership that would realise Dame Elisabeth's enlightened wishes to preserve the integrity of the property while enabling public access and enjoyment. Jenifer Nicholls, Armadale Halt indignity The mayor of Banyule fallaciously believes that the majority of this electorate opposes the rescheduling of Australia Day. His evidence is feedback from "the people I have spoken to in the community" (The Age, August 29), that is, a tiny sample. Where is the community consultation process on this important issue? As a resident of Banyule I am ashamed that my local representatives have chosen to "dance on the graves" of the Wunundjeri nation who prospered here in Banyule for 50,000 years. By celebrating on January 26, the anniversary of the British invasion, we perpetuate this atrocity and indignity.
David Gentle, Heidelberg Broken system People opposed to Australia becoming a republic frequently use the "if it ain't broke, why fix it" line. Well, the current citizenship chaos, which is directly attributable to the constitution being adopted when Australians were British subjects, clearly demonstrates that the system is broken. Now is the time to fix it and once and for all establish Australia as an independent, self-determining country with our own head of state. Malcolm Fraser, Oakleigh South Returning control
Kon Karapanagiotidis at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre's offices in Melbourne. Credit:Darrian Traynor "Their lives are on hold, subject to arbitrary policy changes," says Karapanagiotidis. "They are caught up in a nightmare. Some may be deported in the short term, and others may have to wait for years, if ever, before receiving permanent protection." Early this week, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, as directed by its minister, Peter Dutton, signalled yet another shift in policy. The new visa affects up to 410 asylum seekers who have been transferred to Australia from Nauru and Manus Island at various times since 2013 - for medical treatment, mental health issues, to give birth or accompany sick loved ones. Some of the transferred women had been raped on Nauru. The group includes 50 babies, 66 children, single men and women, and families. A protest for water and power at the detention centre on Manus Island. Credit:Abdul Aziz Adam Known as the "Final Departure Bridging E Visa", the first 65 recipients were summoned to the offices of the department and told they will lose their accommodation within three weeks and be immediately cut off from basic services.
"The aim is to make them destitute," says Karapanagiotidis, "and make conditions so difficult that they will be forced back to Manus Island and Nauru, and returned to danger, the scene of their trauma." Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen On Monday morning, he called a meeting of staff to discuss this latest crisis. Even though the centre's resources are stretched well beyond its limits, the staff immediately agreed to take on the cases of asylum seekers affected by the new visa. "We have accompanied some of them to the department's offices. We've also tried to find at least one person willing to tell their story," says Kon. "They are confused, and too terrified. They fear they will be punished if they go public. They finally felt at home here, and had a chance to breath freely, make new friends, and regain trust. They had found a safe space to tell their story, face to face, with empathetic listeners. Now this. They are shattered. A vigil at the detention centre on Manus Island for Hamed Shamshiripour, a 31-year-old Iranian found dead on August 7. Credit:Abdul Aziz Adam
"The big story is that we cannot hear their story now. Worse still, they have been robbed of their stories and had them distorted. The minister has smeared them as con artists and fabricators, and accused them of robbing pensioners. "They have been turned into ghosts. It is terrifying." There has been one saving grace. Since the ASRC, and other community groups, posted details of the new visa on social media, the public response has been overwhelming. Many have expressed outrage and offered rooms for individuals, accommodation for entire families. Sanctuary. Others have offered employment, material aid, or contributed to the emergency appeal set up to help those affected.
There has been much talk about Australian values in recent times. Those who have responded to the crisis are expressing the universal principle of philoxenia, meaning, literally, friend of the stranger. It is the ancient custom of receiving the traveller, the passing seaman, the shipwrecked sailor. First the stranger is welcomed, fed and given a roof over their head. Only then are they asked questions. This, for instance, is how Odysseus begins his epic story, as recounted in The Odyssey. He is washed up on the shores of the island of the Phaeacians. Only after his basic needs are taken care of does the king ask: "And now, speak and tell us truly: where have you been in your wanderings? Which parts of the inhabited world have you visited? ... Did you meet hostile tribes with no sense of right and wrong, or did you fall in with hospitable and god-fearing people?" The practice of welcoming the stranger features in island and desert communities. There is a simple reason for this. Seafarers and desert travellers know that with just one shift in the wind, they too could become the stranger. The displacement of peoples worldwide, fleeing persecution, is on the increase. It is a challenge which affects us all. At the heart of the challenge is the name and the story. Carl Jung said we all have a story to tell and the denial of this story leads to despair. Each of us, give or take a few generations, except for indigenous peoples, have a story of a forebear who arrived on these shores to begin life anew. The men, women and children affected by the new visa should be allowed to stay, and those who remain marooned on Nauru and Manus Island, allowed to join them. They have suffered enough.
Sydneysiders have woken to another hazy morning as hazard-reduction burns to the city's north and west funnel smoke into the Sydney basin.
The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting areas of haze on Sunday morning before winds from the north strengthen and swing around to the south by the evening.
The partly cloudy day will likely see the mercury climb to 28 degrees in the city and much of the west.
If reached, it would be Sydney's warmest day since mid-autumn and about eight degrees above the September average.
The winds should be stronger than on Saturday when smoke from fires in regions such Hornsby, along the Wakehurst Parkway and near Katoomba combined to blanket much of the city.
Pollution levels reached hazardous levels in Chullora and Earlwood, and were very poor in other suburbs before afternoon winds dissipated the particles.
The drop in air quality prompted NSW Health to warn people with respiratory conditions to take extra caution.
"If you have asthma you should follow your Asthma Action Plan and take your relieving medication where necessary and if symptoms get worse, seek medical advice," NSW Health Director of Environmental Health Branch, Dr Ben Scalley said.
A man is fighting for his life after a two-truck crash at the Port of Brisbane on Friday night.
Emergency services were called to Port Drive at Lytton after a semi trailer and B-double crashed into each other about 9.20pm.
A 53-year-old man is fighting for his life after a head-on smash in Brisbane. Credit:7 News Queensland
Acting Inspector Steve Watters told media at the scene one of the trucks had crossed onto the wrong side of the road.
One of the drivers, a 58-year-old man, suffered life-threatening injuries and was rushed to Princess Alexandra Hospital in a critical condition.
When Genevieve Grieves embarked on her doctorate a few years ago, she surveyed the monuments in Melbourne's CBD to pinpoint who was being commemorated and why. Her findings were stark.
Of the 520-odd memorials, statues and monuments Grieves considered, only a dozen were not "dead, white, men".
"There aren't memorials to frontier conflicts in the 19th century, or Aboriginal heros and resistance fighters," says Grieves, who is the acting director of the Indigenous Studies Program at the University of Melbourne, and a Worimi woman from NSW.
"Melbourne's memorial landscape only represents colonial landscapes and heroes. Indigenous people are not present. Women aren't represented."
"We have no illusion. We know these [gold diggers] will establish themselves in another place," General Gustavo Dutra said, referring to Brazilian authorities' inability to monitor the country's vast and open borders. Romeu Iximawateri Yanomami, behind the camera, and Silvano Ironasiteri Yanomami, to his right, organise Yanomami children for a video shoot. Credit:Flavio Galvao/Xapono Media Centre Gold mining heavily pollutes the pristine Amazonian rivers and contaminates their fish with mercury. A 2014-2016 study by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, which works with the Health Ministry and not-for-profits in Brazil, found mercury contamination in 92 per cent of Yanomami people sampled in 19 villages. Mercury is a highly toxic metal used in gold mining that leads to loss of vision, heart disease and other cognitive and motor impairments. It can cause birth defects. The Yanomami people came to the attention of the English-speaking world in the late 1960s, when Western anthropologists such as the controversial Napoleon Chagnon depicted them as "the last major primitive tribe left in the Amazon basin, and the last such people anywhere on Earth" living "in a state of chronic warfare". Such accounts were contested by other anthropologists and the indigenous peoples themselves. Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, right, with his son Dario, has travelled the world telling of his people's plight. Credit:Reuters/File
Along with Trobriand Islanders, the Nuer and the Navajo - who became shared points of reference in anthropological textbooks the Yanomami needed to learn and tolerate the presence of foreigners, with their cameras, recorders and interpretation of culture. But now they are trying to take back control over their own stories. The Xapono Media Centre seeks to counter misrepresentations and misappropriation of Yanomami image rights and give a voice to the people. Davi Kopenawa takes a message to 10 Downing Street in 2007. Credit:PA/Alamy "The Yanomami have a peculiar way of representing us white people, but they also need the means to tell their own struggles," says Frenchwoman Anne Ballester Soares, who organised the workshops. Soares has lived among the Yanomami since 1994, organising publications in their language. She believes the Yanomami will be better off communicating autonomously.
"They are not free to express themselves and yet they have so much to tell. Indigenous health is worsening due to misuse of funding. Their own healing methods are not respected and there are new threats from mining prospects ... they want to be able to resist," she says. Using crowdfunding, the media centre is running two workshops to teach the indigenous community how to use audio and video capture and editing, how to best use language, presentation and analysis as well as scriptwriting, post-production, compression formats and broadcast media. "We are developing ethnic media to speak from an indigenous aesthetic. The Yanomami have a distinctive way of seeing the world, their vision is educated in different ways," says Daiara Tukano, radio reporter of the indigenous online station, Radio Yande. She tells Fairfax Media that apart from independent initiatives, different indigenous peoples are getting together to reflect on their place in the world and develop strategies for survival. "We are trying to break with the Eurocentric ways of seeing native peoples by showing how dynamic our civilisations are," she explains.
Shaman and activist Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, co-author of the acclaimed 2013 book The Falling Sky - Words of a Yanomami Shaman, spoke to Fairfax Media over a mobile phone on his way back from visiting neighbouring Roraima to his isolated community further down the Demini River, in the western part of Yanomami territory. "The Yanomami need to tell their own story to keep Yanomami [culture]. Today is much different from 50 years ago. Today the Yanomami thinking is way too confused. The white men brought diseases, invasion of our land, cutting the forests. They only think of money." As a child in the early '60s, Kopenawa saw his community wiped out by two successive epidemics of infectious diseases brought by missionaries and government employees. He grew up to condemn the white man's way. "They only talk about work or things they want to possess. They live with no joy and get old earlier, always busy and always yearning for new products. Then their hair gets white, they die and the work, that never dies, survives all of them. Then, their children and grandchildren keep doing the same," he wrote in the book. Despite adopting the Christian faith, Kopenawa gave it up for what he perceived to be its fanaticism and obsession with sin.
Omaha state Sen. Joni Craighead announced her resignation Friday from the Legislature, a stunning move that came four days after she announced plans to seek re-election next year.
The race for Craighead's central Omaha legislative seat promised to be one of the most competitive of 2018.
Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha, the daughter of former Democratic Congressman John Cavanaugh, announced her candidacy in July.
Craighead and her campaign manager said her decision to resign, announced late Friday, was due to challenges in her private job as a real-estate broker as well as family issues. Her husband underwent hip surgery on Monday, said campaign manager Rod Edwards. And she wants to spend time with her 1-month-old grandson.
"Working as a state senator has always been a difficult balance of family, business and legislative responsibilities and recent additions to my family and work commitments have made me realize that I cannot dedicate the time needed to my legislative responsibilities," Craighead said in a news release.
Her resignation is effective at 5 p.m. Sept. 8.
"This has not been an easy decision, but at this time it is the right decision," Craighead said. "I am confident that Governor Ricketts will appoint someone well qualified to fill my seat."
Ricketts issued a statement Friday evening thanking Craighead for her service. During her time in the Legislature, she successfully advocated for Nebraska's women and supported efforts to cut red tape and reform licensing requirements for key professions, he said.
"We wish her well as she steps away from public service to support her family," Ricketts said. "She will be missed by her colleagues here at the state Capitol."
She will look forward to being active in the community and seeing what the future has in store, she said.
Craighead, who was elected in 2014 to represent Legislative District 6, had announced Monday she would seek a second term, ending speculation that she was considering a run for Douglas County Assessor.
Edwards said Friday that Craighead considered running for county assessor but changed her mind.
Despite Monday's announcement that she planned to seek re-election to the Legislature, Edwards said Craighead's resignation wasn't a last-minute decision or triggered by any political or legal issue.
"It's something she's been thinking about for a while," Edwards said.
Still, her departure within days of announcing her re-election campaign surprised a number of people.
She attended a fundraiser in her honor Tuesday in Omaha in which both Mayor Jean Stothert and former Gov. Dave Heineman were named as hosts and spoke in support of her re-election.
Heineman could not be reached Friday evening for comment. Craighead also did not immediately return a phone call.
Craighead serves on the Legislatures Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee; the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee; and the Planning Committee. She chairs the Committee on Committees, which assigns each senator to various other committees.
During her time in the Legislature, she has proposed and supported health and safety legislation for women, she said. Her 2017 priority bill, called Cheris Law, ensures that doctors inform women with dense breast tissue that a normal mammography might not reveal cancer. She has also supported legislation strengthening stalking and sex-trafficking laws in Nebraska.
Craighead, 63, is a real estate broker and developer, and has a bachelor of science degree in medical technology and a master's degree in public administration.
At first blush, Jared Hoerle's case, which landed in front of the Nebraska Supreme Court this week, looks like it's about one guy's bad timing.
After all, a jury in Lincoln found him guilty of a felony DUI one day before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled police need warrants to obtain blood tests from suspected drunk drivers.
The Lincoln officer who stopped Hoerle on April 11, 2015, didn't have one.
But what became clear in oral arguments Thursday is that his was just the first such case to make it to the state's highest court and that the decision justices reach will inform judges across Nebraska dealing with the same questions.
Asked if there's just a limited number of cases to which their decision will apply, Assistant Attorney General Nathan Liss said there are some significant cases manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide and DUIs causing serious injury still out there pending with "pre-Birchfield blood draws."
"I do think it's conceivable we could see a number of cases," he said.
Liss was referring to Birchfield v. North Dakota, a 2016 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court found laws imposing criminal penalties for failing to take a blood test, such as Nebraska's, violate the U.S. Constitution.
For Hoerle's attorney, Mark Rappl, it comes down to this: His client did not provide valid consent for officials to take his blood, later used as evidence at his trial, because he was told he was required to submit to it or he'd face a separate charge.
"I think one of the main issues in this case is going to be whether or not the good-faith exception applies in this case," Rappl said.
In other words, can the evidence still be used if police were acting in good faith at the time, following the law as they understood it to be?
"Isn't the prophylactic to change what the officers do?" Chief Justice Michael Heavican asked Rappl.
Rappl said it's a little bit different in a consent case.
"How can there ever be good faith if the consent is involuntary?" he argued.
In a brief, Rappl wrote: "Never has the U.S. Supreme Court or Nebraska Supreme Court held that evidence obtained during a nonconsensual search was nevertheless admissible because the officer reasonably believed the consent was voluntary."
In the courtroom Thursday, Liss argued that consent becomes irrelevant if the good-faith exception applies, as he argued it should here because the officer had used the standard police form to advise motorists of their need to submit to the test.
"If an officer's use of that is objectively and reasonably sufficient, then we're good," he argued.
Justice John Wright said that applies to actions before Birchfield.
"Right," Liss said. "(After Birchfield) good faith is gone."
A Lancaster County District judge affirmed a Lincoln man's misdemeanor conviction for DUI for a stop Dec. 17, 2015.
At issue? The blood draw.
Brazos Valley schools are easing their admissions requirements to get children displaced by Hurricane Harvey into classrooms.
"They just need to come, and we will help them," says Chrissy Hester, director of student services for the College Station school district. "We will get them in school."
As schools remain closed in coastal Texas, a few families have enrolled their children in Brazos Valley Schools. Officials aren't sure how many more to expect, but as of Friday, College Station and Bryan school districts have had three and 10 students, respectively, enroll after being displaced by Hurricane Harvey.
"Our biggest priorities are helping these children feel welcome and safe while we have the opportunity to educate them," said Brandon Webb, executive director of communications and public affairs.
Both districts -- and many surrounding districts -- are expediting their registration process. Hester said the district is waiving requirements for proof of residence, proof of immunization shots as well as transcripts and withdrawal forms from the student's previous school.
"We don't care about any of that right now," she said. "We just want you in school and to serve you."
She said the district's priority is meeting the needs of students as they come in. These needs vary among the few on College Station campuses this week -- who span from a student enrolled in Head Start to a high school senior who needs to be able to transfer back to her home district in January.
In addition to meeting the student's academic needs, the district has a floating counselor with trauma training who is available to meet with incoming students if families want this.
Other area schools have seen fewer evacuees enrolling. Brazos Valley Christian Schools hasn't had any evacuating students enroll, but Robin Beard director of admissions for the private school, said the school has had calls from parents asking about the campus.
Beard said the school is also considering streamlining the application process.
"We normally require school records and recommendations from teachers and some things along those lines," she said. "We realized that that may not be possible, so we are reviewing that and looking at some best practices going forward."
Brenham ISD is offering an expedited registration process to students displaced by Harvey, though Jessica Johnston, communications director for the district, said there hasn't had any such enrollments and the district doesn't expect to have many, if any at all.
Collecting donations, she says, is the district's main focus when it comes to helping those affected by the disaster.
"We've sent three semitrucks full of donations from Brenham ISD in three days,"Johnston said.
Like much of Texas, Chuck Glenewinkel, director of communication for College Station schools, said the district is ultimately seeing what comes of Harvey and doing the best it can to meet the need caused by the disaster.
"I think our community has an opportunity to really help the situation as much as we can," Glenewinkle said. "We live in a great community that has already responded in a big way, and I think there will be more opportunity to come in the coming weeks and months."
Plans to close down 17th Street through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus and sell the land to the university are apparently in political limbo.
In late June, UNL put up barricades, closing down two of the three lanes on 17th Street north of R Street, in anticipation of imploding the Cather-Pound dorms in December, and in hopes of getting people used to a restricted 17th Street.
The closure of 17th Street through the city campus is part of the long-range university plans to reduce the number of vehicles on campus and make it safer for pedestrians. The city has also converted 16th Street from one-way to two-way and replaced intersection signals to four-way stops as part of that goal.
However, the plans to sell 17th street to UNL have not moved to the City Council, though it's been more than six weeks since early public discussions of the plan and an appraisal indicated the sale price would be about $80,000.
Some council members have indicated privately they would like to get more money, or more concessions from UNL.
The council has not been informed of anything, beyond a pre-council meeting where plans to close 17th Street were laid out, said Roy Christensen, council chair.
"I have yet to see anything appear on the agenda and I have no further information about when they are putting it on the agenda. I am perplexed," Christensen said.
In addition, Richard Schmeling, president of Citizens for Improved Transit, has raised several safety-related and bus issues with the current plans for 16th and 17th streets.
Schmeling said the ordinance to close and sell 17th Street is in limbo and there are plans to meet on the issues.
Schmeling has suggested the city retain 17th Street through the campus, but limit it to vehicles delivery trucks and buses.
The delay is part of the normal process for an application to vacate, according to Jon Carlson, an aide to Mayor Chris Beutler.
"UNL is hoping that the cost could be reduced for the vacated city land and we are looking into that," Carlson said in an email response. "Historically, when we work with UNL (like Lincoln Public Schools), we often have other project cost offsets or land swaps that could balance the cost of the vacated land."
"So, neither city nor UNL are holding it up. We are working together to see what might be possible for cost offsets or land swap," he wrote.
Two lanes of 17th Street have been closed since late June while UNL negotiates transfer of the street with the city administration. The negotiations include the value of the street, its condition and potential price point, said Brooke Hay, UNL's assistant director of facilities planning and construction.
Until a plan is agreed upon between the city and university, 17th Street could remain partially closed until as late as next summer, according to Hay.
In 1979, Capt. Tom Shanahan, commanding officer of the USS Canisteo, did something no U.S. Navy officer had done since the Revolutionary War. He refused to take his ship to sea.
It wasnt mutiny. Shanahan declined to certify the ship and crew as seaworthy. The Canisteo was short-staffed, its crew inadequately trained.
Shanahans stand sparked a firestorm of public controversy over the hollowing out of the American military, which occurred after the Vietnam War.
Today, history looks to be repeating itself.
Recent collisions involving U.S. naval ships at sea and a spate of U.S. Air Force accidents have heightened already high concerns about how chronic underfunding of our armed forces over the past six years has eroded readiness and raised risks among those in uniform.
These concerns are well-founded. While defense spending soared after 9/11, the lions share went to pay for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan not to refurbish the force fighting the war. Investments to rebuild our military never got made.
The pace of deployment has remained high, even as the number of troops has been cut and spending on repairs and training have been scaled back. In the Navy, for example, some of the maintenance backlog for deferred repairs goes back four years.
The problem is bigger than just unready ships, pilots and crews. The U.S. military is too small to cover the missions it has been assigned. While it is true our Navy has some of the best ships on the planet, each of those ships can be in only one place at a time.
Insufficient force size, combined with insufficient resources to keep the force ready, much less modernize it, leaves the Navy and other services sailing into a perfect storm of unpreparedness.
Here is what the Navy needs.
First, we need to think ahead. The ships we build today will constitute the majority of the fleet in the 2030s and beyond. Currently, the Navy has 277 ships.
The Navy says it needs 355 assuming it will be able to build more-capable ships. Some outside experts say as many as 459 ships will be required.
Regardless of future ship and platform capabilities, the fleet will need to grow. And it must start growing now to keep up with missions to protect vital U.S. interests. Those interests span the seven seas, extending even to the upper reaches of the Arctic.
The Navy wouldnt have to cover all that water if the sea lanes were safe. Keeping them secure and open is vital to the prosperity of our nation, our allies, and indeed, most everyone in the world.
Of the worlds 195 nations, 147 border an ocean or sea. Forty percent of the worlds population lives within 63 miles of an oceanic coast. In addition, maritime trade via international shipping lanes comprises more than 90 percent of global commerce.
What goes on under the sea is important, too. Ninety-nine percent of all international data conveyed via phone, texts, and internet are transported via approximately 200 undersea fiber optic cables at speeds eight times faster than by satellite.
Yet today, China poses a growing maritime security threat in the South China Sea and the Pacific. A resurgent Russian Navy has established new bases in Syria and the Arctic while cementing its hold in Crimea. Threats from Iran and North Korea are growing as well.
America has a long to-do list to meet these challenges. At a minimum, it must sustain a modern force of 12 aircraft carriers. It must develop and deploy a new frigate-class ship as well as a next-generation platform for destroyers. Most critical of all, it must retain its competitive advantage in undersea warfare.
And did I mention readiness?
James Jay Carafano is the director of the Center for Foreign Policy Studies and the deputy director of the Institute for International Studies at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank on Capitol Hill. Write him at Heritage, 214 Massachusetts Ave. NE, Washington, D.C., 20002-4999. Distributed by Tribune News Service.
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WESTPORT Thousands of blues and barbecue enthusiasts gathered along the banks of the shores of the scenic Saugatuck River to celebrate a decade of Blues, Views and BBQs this weekend.
The beloved festival, organized annually by the Westport Downtown Merchants Association, kicked off Saturday as the sounds of live music and the aroma of barbecued delicacies filled the air.
For Stamford resident Joe Pigott and his daughter, the festival offers a unique opportunity for a little taste of a Texas-styled barbecue with a side of blues.
Good food sounds right up my alley, Pigott said. The live music is just the icing on the cake.
A mix of locally-based bands and national acts split time between the events main stage, the Levitt Pavilion Stage, and the Jesup Jam Stage for nearly 18 hours of live music over two days.
The excitement for live music was evident as early as noon Saturday as tie-dye- and flannel-clad attendees jostled for prime seating in front of the main stage.
The crowds here are great, man. Theyre very friendly and certainly receptive. Their enthusiasm is just infectious, said performer Ramblin Dan Stevens, who has been featured on the main and secondary stages in the five years he has performed at the festival.
Even after 10 years, the event has continued to evolve. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, one of the festivals most popular attractions the Cooking for A Cause competition will have a new wrinkle. Instead of donating all proceeds to the Womens Club Food Pantry as in past years, funds generated by the competition will go to victims of Hurricane Harvey this year.
Food is the universal constant all around the world; it connects us all. So, the fact were here cooking barbecue to benefit Texas, which has a great barbecue tradition, it just seems fitting, said Gary Seaborn, a Fairfield resident representing the Krewe Du Cue team in the competition.
Young children were not neglected during the event, as the Westport Library was transformed into a kids wonderland with bounce houses of all different shapes and sizes, from a mini-mechanical bull ride to bouncy slides. Parents could bring their kids to get their face painted or, if they had worked up an appetite, to choose lunch from a wide array of food trucks.
We came primarily for the music, but weve been stuck over here ever since kids saw all the activities, said Paul Ust, a Darien resident who brought his wife and two children out for a day on the town.
Saturday featured a bevy of a musical talent, from the thumpin, funkin grooves of Baby Dynamite to National Blues Music Award-nominated Slam Allen. Saturdays lineup ended with a funky performance from the nationally acclaimed Galactic.
The festival continues from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, featuring returning acts like School of Rock and new faces like Jackson Kinchloe, of the famed seven-piece soul and rock band Sister Sparrow.
Festival favorite and renowned jam band, Deep Banana Blackout, will close out the festival with an hour-and-a-half show, starting at 7 p.m.
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In the first six months of this year, Wilton has experienced as many car burglaries as it did in all of 2016 a trend that has crossed town borders and afflicted many neighboring and nearby communities.
Car thefts and burglaries have skyrocketed across Fairfield County, with most area towns reporting a double- or even triple-digit increases in these crimes through the first six months of 2017.
Wilton police spokesman Sgt. Rob Cipolla said car-related crimes in town saw an uptick around November 2016 and have been trending upward since, with prospective thiefs typically targeting soft targets like high-density housing complexes and unmonitored parking lots.
Its a high-value, low-risk crime, said Lt. David Farrell, a Westport police spokesman.
Car thieves routinely use the stolen vehicles for joyrides and additional thefts, according to interviews with area police officials.
In early August, a Westport resident called police to report a group of young people breaking into an unlocked car on Chapel Hill Road.
The suspects aborted the theft and drove away in another vehicle a GMC Acadia stolen out of Waterbury. Norwalk police caught up with the young suspects all seven of them after they crashed the SUV on the shoulder of the Route 7 connector.
In spite of what police are calling a largely preventable crime, car thefts have substantially increased in the Norwalk over the past year.
In 2016 there were 314 reported car burglaries in Norwalk. In the first eight months of 2017 alone, that number is 315. At this rate, Norwalk is on track for 472 car break-ins this year a 48 percent increase over last year.
Norwalk police have issued numerous reminders urging vehicle owners to lock their cars and remove keys and valuables.
Dont make it this easy. Please lock your cars and bring your valuables and your car keys into your house, Lt. Terry Blake, a Norwalk police spokesman, said in a message to residents. Please help us help you by being responsible and accountable for your property.
Blake said that car break-ins are largely a preventable crime if people take precautions and lock cars, remove keys, and store valuables out of sight.
Please remember that the majority of vehicle break-ins and thefts occur with unlocked vehicles. In this type of crime, they look for unlocked cars. If the car is locked they move on, Blake said.
Police said most incidents are crimes of opportunity. With many cars left unlocked, thieves dont even need to break open windows.
Oftentimes, with the new push to start key fobs, people leave them in the vehicle, Fairfield police spokesman Lt. Robert Kalamaris said. The end result is that the doors dont get locked, and the car ends up getting stolen once the perpetrator presses the brake pedal and sees the green light illuminate on the start button.
After the SUV stolen in Waterbury and seen in Westport was wrecked, the occupants were reportedly uninjured, but they were hit with serious criminal charges. In a news release describing the incident, police urged residents to lock their cars and keep keys in the house.
Kalamaris department, like others in the county, has gone beyond the news releases and repeated the same message in almost every medium at its disposal but the opportunities still exist.
The majority of these cars that have been stolen in our town and in surrounding towns, the keys are left in the vehicle I think people are comfortable living in a community like Wilton, but crime still does happen so remove your valuables, your keys and your key fobs from the vehicle and lock your cars, Cipolla said.
Many cars are stolen in the winter, when people leave them running in the driveway to warm up. But plenty of area vehicle thefts happened this spring and summer. And data gathered from police departments show motor vehicle thefts increased in most area towns and cities in the first six months of 2017, compared to the same period the previous year.
Most of the car crimes over the past year have largely been traced back to urban centers like Bridgeport, Waterbury and New Haven, per area police officials.
Teenagers, particularly males aged 15 to 19, are the most likely group to steal cars, according to state crime reporting data from 2015.
Thieves suffer consequences such as arrests, but the subsequent increase in high-speed police pursuits can lead to fatal outcomes.
In mid-August, a struggle ensued between a Rowayton homeowner and a man who was trying to steal a car from his driveway. The man broke free and fled to a vehicle that was parked nearby.
Police said that vehicle, possibly driven by an accomplice, took off at a high rate of speed.
These types of incidents put civilians, officers and potentially even the suspects at risk of injury or even death, said Blake.
Stolen from suburbs, found in cities
Most stolen cars are recovered, according to state data. But theyre often taken for a joyride or a crime spree first.
Looking for a stolen car? Bridgeport police advise checking in the North End or around Newfield Park, between Interstate 95 and the docks along Seaview Avenue.
They find the keys to one car and (then) take another car, said Stratford police spokesman Capt. Frank Eannotti. A: because the car they came in they know is hot, and B: because they know that the car they steal wont be reported stolen until the owner wakes up in the morning.
Stolen cars are not only dumped far from where theyre stolen, but are often used in crimes. In the last six months, police have linked stolen cars to a number of robberies and at least one drive-by shooting. Stolen cars provide criminals with cover because the vehicles are not easily traced back to them.
Identity theft and forgery have also been closely linked to car thefts and burglaries, Cipolla said. Oftentimes, burglars take the credit cards left in stolen vehicles and use them for fraudulent purchases until the credit card companies recognize the illegal activity and deactivate the cards.
Why is it still a thing?
Car thefts and tool-free burglaries were supposed to be eliminated by modern vehicle security. In the 1980s and 1990s it was totally different cars were easy to steal and people could make real money selling them to chop shops.
Gone are the days of slim-jimming and hot-wiring, Farrell said.
Motor vehicle theft rates have fallen nationally from 659 per 100,000 in 1991 to around 220 over the past five years, according to FBI statistics. The theft rate was 148.9 in Connecticut in 2015.
But the recent uptick in cars stolen with key fobs and used for inter-town havoc has police departments considering an old approach in response.
We used to have a regional task force, which dealt with car thief rings that have been nearly eradicated, Bridgeport police Capt. Roderick Porter said. Its something that we could look at again.
But others point to a much simpler means of prevention.
I think it could all be avoided if people just locked their cars and, you know, put their valuables inside their house, said Eannotti, the Stratford police spokesman.
Leslie Lake contributed to this story.
Stuhr Museum is one of the winners in the USA Today 10 Best Readers Choice Travel Awards Contest.
Behind only Omahas Henry Doorly Zoo and the Scottsbluff National Monument, Stuhr Museum ranked third in the competition, which listed 20 different attractions in Nebraska and asked the public to vote for their favorite.
Birth announcements
MONSON To Andrew and Heather (Miller) Monson of Grand Island, a son born Aug. 9, 2017, at Mary Lanning Healthcare in Hastings. Grandparents are Dennis and Gayle Miller and Randy and Lori Wallace, all of Grand Island, and Mike and Deb Monson of Wood River.
SAMUELSON To Michael and Amy (Meyer) Samuelson of Grand Island, a son born Aug. 30, 2017, at CHI Health St. Francis. Grandparents are Herman and Jody Meyer of Doniphan and Doug and Marsha Samuelson of Hastings. Great-grandparent is Marlene Samuelson of Hastings.
NAGEL To Vincent Nagel and Crystal (Potter) Dahlke of Grand Island, a daughter born Aug. 24, 2017, at CHI Health St. Francis.
HUENEFELD To Carson and McKenna (Powell) Huenefeld of Aurora, a son born Aug. 24, 2017, at Mary Lanning Healthcare in Hastings.
BRANDT To Philip and Kristen (Thernes) Brandt of Shelton, a daughter born Aug. 22, 2017, at Mary Lanning Healthcare in Hastings. Grandparents are Nick and Cindy Brandt of Shelton, Mike and Carol Woodman of Kearney and Dean and Tammy Thernes of DeWitt.
MULLIGAN To Josh and Amber (Hayes) Mulligan of Hastings, a son born Aug. 24, 2017, at Mary Lanning Healthcare in Hastings.
Police/Sheriff
Anyone with information about any crime in the state may call the Grand Island-Hall County Crime Stoppers, (308) 381-8822. Callers will remain anonymous.
A reward of up to $1,000 will be paid after law enforcement agencies have determined the seriousness of the crime and the usefulness of the information.
Inmate custody status can be obtained by calling the VINE hotline at (877) NE 4 VINE or by visiting www.vinelink.com. Information is available 24 hours a day.
If you see a crime happening, call the Grand Island-Hall County Emergency Center 911.
Grand Island Police
The following felonies were reported:
Rainy Call was arrested on a failure to appear arrest warrant for possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia Thursday morning at 2105 W. Second St.
Gabriel Pena was arrested Thursday morning at 2105 W. Second St. for possession of a controlled substance, possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person and first-degree forgery.
Matthew Roberts was arrested for terroristic threats Thursday night at 2808 Cottonwood Road.
Clearwater Counseling, 1811 W. Second St., reported fraud Thursday evening. The case is still under investigation.
Bridget Wright reported a burglary to a garage Thursday morning at 627 MacArthur Ave. The case is still under investigation.
Gregg Young auto dealership, 1803 S. Locust St., reported a vehicle missing from its car lot Thursday. The case is still under investigation.
Hall County Sheriff
Law enforcement arrested six people on warrants in seven cases. There were 20 calls for service.
For more information visit www.hallcountyne.gov and click on the sheriff link.
Court report
Hall County District Court
Christopher A. Cowell, 31, Grand Island, attempt of a Class 3 or Class 3A felony, 18 months probation, $450 probation fee.
Matthew A. Silversmith, 41, Grand Island, third-degree domestic assault/subsequent offense, 90 days in jail with credit for 16 days, 24 months probation, $600 probation fee.
Jose F. Gueta-Lopez, 19, Inman, failure to stop and render aid with no serious injury, 18 months probation, $180 probation fee, license revoked one year, ordered not to drive one year.
Courtney A. Dibbern, 23, Grand Island, third-degree assault, 12 months probation, $300 probation fee. Also guilty of attempt of a Class 4 felony, 12 months probation.
Chante Harrison, 22, Chapman, attempt of a Class 2 felony, 30 months probation, 60 days in jail, $300 probation fee, ordered to sign up with Nebraska Sex Offender Registraty.
Mikayla J. Potter, 25, Central City, attempt of a Class 3 felony, 24 months probation.
Hall County Court
Chol Kot, 21, Grand Island, attempt of a Class 4 felony, $250 fine. Also guilty of possession of 1 oz. or less of marijuana, first offense, $300 fine.
Brandy K. Guerrero, 43, Grand Island, was charged with committing theft by shoplifting totaling $0 to $500, third or subsequent offense, on May 20. Arraignment set for 2 p.m. Sept. 13.
Thomas J. Epperson, 58, Lincoln, was charged with driving while revoked from DUI/refusal on Aug. 26. Arraignment set for 1:30 p.m. Sept. 13.
William Bingen, 30, Estherville, Iowa, was charged with delivering, dispensing, distribution, manufacture or possession of an exceptionally hazardous drug, second-degree criminal trespassing and possession or use of drug paraphernalia, all on Thursday. Preliminary hearing set for 10:30 a.m. Oct. 3.
Matthew D. Roberts, 45, Grand Island, was charged with terroristic threats on Thursday. Preliminary hearing set for 3 p.m. Oct. 10.
Rainy A. Call, 28, Grand Island, was charged with failure to appear when on bail for a felony on Aug. 22. Preliminary hearing set for 10:30 a.m. Oct. 10.
Gabriel A. Pena, 32, homeless, was charged with possession of a controlled substance and two counts of possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person, all on Thursday. Preliminary hearing set for 9:30 a.m. Oct. 10.
Driving Under the Influence Jesus J. Romero, 22, Grand Island, $500 fine, six months probation, drivers license revoked 60 days; Adam C. Burchess, 39, Grand Island, $500 fine, six months probation, drivers license revoked 60 days; Joel A. Santos-Reyes, 30, Evans, Colo., $500 fine, six months probation, drivers license revoked 60 days. Also guilty of attempt of a Class 1 misdemeanor, $75 fine; Colt Aaron Swanson, 35, Wilcox, second-offense DUI, $500 fine, 12 months probation, drivers license revoked 18 months, ordered not to drive 45 days, 240 hours community service. Also guilty of attempt of a Class 1 misdemeanor, $300 fine, 12 months probation, 240 hours community service, required to pay $300 probation fee; Dallas J. Hayman, 38, Grand Island, enhanced DUI, $500 fine, two days in jail with credit for one day served, six months probation, drivers license revoked one year.
SUGAR LAND, Texas The dramatic water rescues slowed somewhat for the Nebraska National Guard in Texas, and the daily grind of trying to navigate a post-Harvey landscape has set in.
And that takes food. Water. Radios and Humvee tires, and generators and toolboxes.
And an aerial delivery system.
Residents and rescuers alike are in need of basics that are in short supply because of impassable roads and massive demand that have stripped the shelves of Walmarts and the Texas-based H-E-B grocery stores.
But the two cavernous, twin-engine CH-47 Chinook helicopters from the Nebraska National Guard have spent the past few days hauling relief crews and thousands of pounds of supplies around Texas, bypassing the deluged roads for the now sunny skies.
Theyve shuttled cases upon cases of water and MREs meals ready to eat between Austin and Sugar Land, just southwest of flood-ravaged Houston. They took a Black Hawk helicopter engine to San Antonio and picked up Texas National Guard soldiers who needed to move from Austin to the Houston area, a 159-mile trip that took only about an hour in the powerful Chinook.
A few of the soldiers dozed inside the cabin, despite the 100-decibel roar of the engines.
The Chinooks have a hoist that can be used for rescue missions if necessary, but our job is cargo, Chief Warrant Officer Dallas Bundy said.
The Chinooks are from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment, based in Grand Island.
The two helicopters and their crews arrived in Texas on Monday and have been in high demand since. Chinooks are workhorses that can haul thousands of pounds of supplies while still flying faster than the smaller and more compact Black Hawk helicopters often used for aerial water rescues.
While the Chinooks hauled supplies and people on Thursday, the two more nimble Black Hawks from the Nebraska National Guard continued to lift people from the flooded landscape.
The people that they pluck out of the water, they need food and water and equipment, said Capt. Paul Proctor.
Once the Chinooks have dropped off supplies, smaller aircraft, trucks or other forms of transportation can ferry the water or food to the places that need it most: hospitals, shelters or temporary military bases.
Were just trying to bring all the supplies and equipment that these guys need to set up operations, Bundy said.
The days have been long and busy, and theyre starting to blur together, Proctor said. Soldiers know to grab sleep, bathroom breaks and food and water whenever the opportunities arise during shifts that have stretched on.
Inside the Chinook on Thursday, soldiers on opposite sides of the 30-foot-long cabin threw MREs and water bottles mixed with Crystal Light raspberry iced tea to each other.
On missions, there is no shortage of false starts, bad tips and communication mix-ups. A FEMA crew that was supposed to be picked up outside Austin was a no-show. Another request earlier this week to haul a bunch of inflatable boats was canceled at the last minute.
Theres just so many agencies, so many moving parts it just doesnt always get back to us through those communication channels, Bundy said. I tell these guys, youve got to have patience, otherwise it makes these things very painful.
But military personnel and other relief organizations need infrastructure to bring Houston back to some semblance of normalcy.
Trade and federally subsidized crop insurance were among the issues addressed by all five members of Nebraskas congressional delegation Friday at the Nebraska State Fair.
Sens. Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse and Reps. Adrian Smith, Jeff Fortenberry and Don Bacon attended the Farm Bill hearing. During the two-hour session, representatives of 10 farm organizations from Nebraska also gave testimony before the delegation. A brief question-and-answer session followed.
There were more than 50 people in attendance at the Bosselman Conference Center at the Heartland Events Center. Nebraska Department of Agriculture Director Greg Ibach moderated the event.
Giving testimony were representatives of the sorghum, sugar beet, dry edible bean, soybeans, corn, wheat, cattle, hog and dairy industries, the Nebraska Farm Bureau and Brad Lubbe, an economist from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
A theme driving the importance of the 2018 Farm Bill, Fischer said, is the need for good risk management tools, federally subsidized crop insurance and trade as a vital part of the new Farm Bill because of the ongoing economic crisis in rural America.
This is a difficult time for production agriculture, Fischer said. We are witnessing one of the worst farm eras in our economy since the 1980s. Producers are looking at depressed commodity prices, high property taxes, and some very tight margins.
Fischer said her top priority with the new Farm Bill is to make sure farmers and livestock producers have an affordable and viable farm safety net.
But this wont be easy as we are hearing from some groups in Washington who are targeting the Farm Bill as the No. 1 program to eliminate, she said. That cannot happen. Strong and dependable crop insurance remains one of the best tools to help our ag producers plan for the future,
The federal government pays about 60 percent, on average, of the crop insurance premiums for farmers, with producers paying the remaining 40 percent. The federal government reimburses private insurance companies for their administrative costs. Private insurance companies sell and service insurance policies purchased through the program.
Fischer said without a risk protection program in the Farm Bill provided by federally subsidized crop insurance there would be more ad hoc federal bailouts for producers who face catastrophic losses from increasingly volatile weather patterns. Nebraska farmers and ranchers have dealt with drought, severe thunderstorms with heavy rain, hail and strong winds this year.
Federal crop insurance has become the most important and vital piece of the Farm Bill, said Steve Nelson, Nebraska Farm Bureau president. One doesnt need to travel far to hear Nebraska farmers talk about instances where crop insurance was the only thing that stood between them and total financial disaster. Nebraskas yearly sporadic weather patterns nearly always result in haves and have nots when it comes to timely rains, drought, hail or anything else Mother Nature throws at us each year.
In 2016, Nebraska farmers placed more than 17.4 million acres, or 90 percent of Nebraskas total crop production acreage, into the federal crop insurance program. That same year, Nebraska farmers paid over $217 million in premiums. While the federal government provides premium assistance, Nebraska farmers on average pay 5 percent more of their overall crop insurance costs than the national average.
Nelson said there are those in Washington who want to make cuts to the federal crop insurance program.
We are told that little cuts here and there wont make much of a difference to most farmers who rely on the protection offered by this program, Nelson said. Yet, it is important to remember that every small cut, every small restriction, and every small tweak has the potential to throw this vital program off balance.
Nelson said like any insurance product, crop insurance rates are complex and are balanced with farms of many shapes, sizes, and risk levels.
Rep. Adrian Smith, whose 3rd Congressional District is the nations largest agricultural district, said a strong federally subsidized crop insurance program provides stability for producers, which benefits both consumers and taxpayers, especially when it comes to preventing ad hoc disaster payments.
Sasse said there were so many misimpressions and misunderstandings out there about the way these (Farm Bill) programs work.
For example, he said, When you ask people across the country what happens in a Farm Bill, they assume it is mainly price supports. But, he added, 80 percent of Farm Bill spending goes to the nutrition program that helps the poor, elderly and school children.
There is uncertainty about trade as the new administration has taken the U.S. out of the Trans Pacific trade agreement and is currently renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, who make up more than 40 percent of Nebraskas agriculture trade. There is strong support from commodity groups and the congressional delegation on the importance of a strong trade component in the new Farm Bill.
They agreed trade is important because with the expected low commodity prices and a record corn and soybean crop this fall, prices could be further suppressed without a proactive, bilateral trade policy.
In touring the state, Sasse said trade is one of the top issues on the minds of producers. Trade is fundamental to our states economy, he said.
Sasse said he and other members of the delegation are working hard to make the administration know how trade works.
Trade is good for consumers on both sides of any border in a trading relationship and it is good for producers in both countries, he said.
The importance of trade also was the emphasis of Jim Eschliman, a dairy farmer who represented the states $300 million dairy industry.
Nationwide, Eschlimann said, 30 percent of the milk and milk products are exported, with much of it going to Mexico. Many Mexican citizens also immigrate to the U.S. to fill the void of workers needed on dairy farms in Nebraska and across the country.
Jim Miller, who represented Nebraskas soybean industry, called on the delegation to support a robust trade title in the new Farm Bill as soybeans and other soy products are among Nebraskas top exporting products with a value of nearly $600 million last year.
Beef and beef products are Nebraskas top export products at over $1 billion. Troy Stowater of the Nebraska Cattlemen echoed the thoughts of others in testifying in support of trade. Nebraska is the nations top cattle slaughtering state, with much of that beef traveling to Asian markets, including China, he said.
A hearty Saturday Salute goes today to the 19 National Guard members from Grand Island who are taking part in the rescue and aid response to Hurricane Harvey in Texas, as well as the many groups in our area that are mobilizing aid efforts.
The Grand Island-based Company B, 2nd Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment sent 19 soldiers and four helicopters to Texas.
Back here in Grand Island, Abundant Life Christian Center and Grand Island Evangelical Free Church are both collecting donations for Harvey victims. Abundant Life will be sending a team with two to three trailers of supplies to Texas next week and will later send a team to help with the rebuilding process.
The Lutheran Church Charities comfort dogs in Central Nebraska will also be going to Houston sometime next week, according to handler Don Moeller. Moeller works with Grand Islands Eddie the comfort dog. He said Moses the comfort dog in Cairo and Katie the comfort dog in Fremont plan to join Eddie in Houston.
Donations can be taken to Abundant Life Christian Center at 3411 W. Faidley Ave. Those donating items should look for the I (heart) GI trailer. If that is full, they also have a storage closet that will be marked and open during donation times. Donation times are Thursday and Friday at 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday (Sept. 2) 9 a.m. to noon, Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Monday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
At GI Free, donations are being collected in the church lobby at 2609 S. Blaine St. People can also make cash donations at www.gifree.org/give or by making checks payable to GI Free Church with Harvey Relief Fund in the memo.
The American Red Cross also deployed an Emergency Response Vehicle to the disaster area on Thursday from the Grand Island Chapter Office. In addition, seven Red Cross volunteers from Central Nebraska, including Grand Island and Kearney, have gone to Houston to help with relief efforts.
In the coming weeks, many more churches and organizations in Central Nebraska will surely get involved with the relief efforts. It is heartening to know that in times of need, we Nebraskans will be quick to help.
Junior ROTC molding
young leaders at GISH
A salute also goes to the 175 Air Force Junior ROTC cadets who were installed at Grand Island Senior High on Wednesday.
These cadets are not only committing themselves to military training and following a code of conduct, but also to many hours of community service.
One of their goals for this school year is to complete 3,100 hours of community service as a group.
It was also great news that about 200 freshmen have been recruited into the AFJROTC program. Hopefully most of them will stick with it and begin a valuable involvement with the program that will last throughout their years in high school.
The four command sergeants have determined eight goals and more than 120 objectives for the cadets to achieve this year. Thats a daunting plan that means they will all have to be dedicated to following through to achieve their goals.
We salute them all in these efforts and know our community will be better off because of the community service work they do.
As the flooding subsides in the Gulf Coast, more devastation will be revealed.
And just because the water will soon return to normal levels, doesnt mean the victims of Hurricane Harvey will not need help.
For that reason a local non-profit organization is planning a major relief effort to help both animals and humans in need.
Jennifer Hays, founder of the Illinois Angels Animal Rescue and Disaster Relief, has been busy working the phones and organizing.
She is gathering donations of pet supplies and relief items for the people who lived through the devastation caused by the storm.
We arent going to go to Houston," Hays said, We are going to go to some of the smaller communities on the outskirts of Houston that might not be getting a lot of attention. We will also be working in some areas of Louisiana that have major flooding.
Hays said the organization has worked on relief efforts for four hurricanes, a major flooding event in Pontoon Beach and the Joplin, Mo., tornado.
The smaller communities are the ones that need help, she said. We want everyone to know that the people and the animals in the smaller towns will not be forgotten by the Angels.
A driving factor in her relief efforts in the smaller communities came from a phone call.
A man who the organization helped during the Joplin tornado relief called Hays and requested assistance. After the tornado, he had moved to a small town in Texas that has suffered major flooding.
Hays has built a solid team to lead the organizations relief effort.
Many local businesses have donated items; she has been on the phone with law enforcement and emergency management officials from towns in Texas and Louisiana. She has also secured veterinary services from Texas A & M. Also on the relief team is a man Hays worked with during Hurricane Katrina who operates a horse rescue group in Texas.
This is a group effort. We are all working together, she said. We are not just focusing on household pets. Where we are going is farm country lots of cattle and horses -- and all of the feed for the livestock has been destroyed.
The relief group has secured donations of hay from Kate Saulle of Greenville.
This will be like delivering gold to the ranchers down there, Hays said. We are in desperate need of getting more hay and livestock feed donated so we can help these farmers.
The organization is in desperate need of veterinarian supplies as well and Hays encourages any veterinarians in the area to donate medicines and supplies for the care of livestock and household pets.
Donations will be accepted through Sept. 9
Donations can be dropped off at:
City of Troy Municipal, 116 E. Markey St., Troy, 9 a.m. 4 p.m.
Ladd Insurance, 1021 Century Dr., Edwardsville, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
American Legion, 58 Route 157, Edwardsville, 8 a.m. 8 p.m.
Lerch Properties ,2921 N Center St, No. 6 Maryville, 9 a.m. 5 p.m.
ReMax Alliance - 120 S Buchanan St. Edwardsville, 4215 Route 159 No. 3, Glen Carbon, IL / 1099 Beltline Rd, Collinsville, IL / 12547 Route 143, Highland, IL 9 a.m. 6 p.m.
Staunton American Legion - 120 Henry St, Staunton, 11 a.m. 10 p.m.
First Christian Church - 310 S. Main St, Edwardsville, 9 a.m. 5 p.m.
Mayors Office Pontoon Beach - 1 Regency PKWY, Pontoon Beach, 9 a.m. 5 p.m.
Annies 245 S Buchanan St, Edwardsville, / 11 Illini Dr, Glen Carbon. Business hours
Edwardsville Moose Lodge, 7371 Marine Rd, Edwardsville, 10 a.m. 8 p.m.
Items needed include veterinarian medical supplies, Excede, Bute paste and powder, antibacterial soap, Betadine, Dawn dish liquid, Dexamethasone, thrush treatment, eye ointments, vet wrap, Elastikon, Benamine, tetanus anti toxin, Gamgee and Wet Foot.
Equine needs are buckets, hay bags, halters, lead ropes and brushes.
Other animal needs are shavings, bottled water, bowls, collars, leashes, cat litter, litter boxes, dog food, puppy food, cat food, kitten food, bleach, towels, crates, welded wire rolls, T-posts, hay and grain for livestock, trash bags, rubber gloves, newspapers, disinfectant, 5 gallon and 2 1/2 gallon buckets, respirators, duct tape, insect repellant, box cutters, breakfast bars and emergency snacks, empty spray bottles.
Supplies for people are totes, trash bags, ziplock bags, razors, bleach, shampoo/conditioner, feminine hygiene items, toothbrushes, tooth paste, hand wipes, laundry soap, bath soap, baby clothes, diapers, baby wipes, bottles, pacifiers, bottled water, masks, blankets, towels flashlights and batteries.
Hays also said if people want to purchase gift cards at Farm and Home Supply in Alton or PetSmart and Petco, they can leave them at the store and the organization will pick them up.
To find out more about how to help, contact Hays at 550-4513.
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Linkedin Eva Aruperes (The Jakarta Post) Manado Sat, September 2, 2017 16:38 1898 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aee6f32 1 National police,Tomohon,Talaud-Islands,North-Sulawesi,guns,illegal-gun-possession Free
A Philippine national identified as RQG, aka Bobong, has been arrested by members of the Tomohon Police's mobile brigade for allegedly possessing a 38-mm-caliber revolver without a permit.
Tomohon Police spokesperson Sec. Insp. Johnny Kreysen said Bobong was arrested in the Talaud Islands, North Sulawesi, after the police received a tip off from residents.
We received the information in July that Bobong, who lived in Teling village in Tombariri district, Minahasa regency, possessed a gun without a permit, Johnny said on Wednesday evening.
The Tomohon Police sent a team led by First Insp. Adj. Bobby Rengkuan to search for the suspect who was later discovered to be in the Talaud Islands. Detectives pursued him to the location using a fish boat.
Read also: Three governors pass military training, issued guns by TNI
After days of sailing the sea, the team found Bobong 132 miles off Talaud coast and brought him to the Tomohon Police headquarters on Wednesday morning.
Johnny said the suspect originally came from Said Kalupang, General Santos City, the Philippines. One of his recent addresses was is in Mahawu village in Tuminting district, Manado.
The police seized a 38-mm-caliber revolver with two bullets, which had allegedly been brought by Bobong from the Philippines.
On Thursday, Bobong was transferred to the North Sulawesi Police headquarters in the provincial capital of Manado for further investigation.
As of Friday, it was not yet known if the suspect was involved in a larger criminal ring. (dra/bbs)
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Linkedin Bambang Muryanto (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta Sat, September 2, 2017 20:28 1898 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aeeda53 1 National Yogyakarta,sultan-HBX,Sri-Sultan-Hamengku-Buwono,Kraton,Yogyakarta-Palace Free
The Yogyakarta kraton (customary sultanate) may see its first sultana take the throne in the future as a recent court ruling has paved the way for Sultan Hamengkubuwono X to name his daughter his successor.
The Constitutional Court (MK) has ruled in favor of a judicial review petition challenging the 2012 law on Yogyakartas special status, which scraps the patriarchal domination in the Yogyakarta sultanate.
Hamengkubuwono has welcomed the ruling.
The state shall treat men and women equally. It is in the Constitution, the sultan said in Yogyakarta on Thursday.
Hamengkubuwono has called on family members who rejected the idea of having a female sultan to accept the ruling.
Like it or not, the courts ruling must be accepted. The law is about [Yogyakartas] governor anyway, and does not directly correspond to kraton paugeran [palace regulations], he said.
Read also: Yogyakarta becoming more intolerant: Study
Under its special status, the sultan is the ex-officio governor of Yogyakarta, while the duke of Pakualam principality is the exofficio deputy governor.
The petition was filed on Sept. 5, 2016, amid internal conflicts within the Yogyakarta royal family.
Hamengkubuwono X, who became sultan in 1989, has five daughters and no sons.
In 2015, he issued a royal proclamation (sabdaraja), naming his eldest daughter, GKR Mangkubumi, as the crown princess. Yogyakartans criticized the move, arguing that only a man could be sultan, in line with traditions of the Javanese Palace. Therefore, Hamengkubuwonos younger brother should be his successor.
GKR Mangkubumi appreciated the ruling, saying there should be no more gender discrimination. (bbs)
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Linkedin Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Kudus, Central Java Sat, September 2, 2017 15:32 1898 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aee60b6 1 National Central-Java,Kudus,road-accident,fatal-accident,police,Transportation Free
The death toll from a fatal multi-vehicle road accident in Kudus regency, Central Java, has risen to five. A victim passed away on Thursday night at the Mardi Rahayu Hospital in Kudus, several hours after he was admitted.
Four people were initially found dead while at least 43 were injured when a speeding bus full of passengers failed to stop at a red light in Proliman Tanjung, Jati, on Thursday at around 6:30 p.m.
The bus veered to the left, hitting at least three cars and seven motorcycle before it eventually rolled over and stopped.
The bus had reportedly departed from Surabaya, East Java, for the Central Java provincial capital of Semarang.
It was at least the second fatal road accident in Central Java in three days.
An officer from the Kudus Police traffic unit, First Insp. Ngatmin, confirmed the bus had been speeding but the cause of the accident was still being investigated.
Read also: Multi-vehicle accident kills four in East Java
The bodies of the dead victims were taken to Mardi Rahayu, while the injured victims were rushed to either Mardi Rahayu or the Kudus Regional Public Hospital.
Fatal crash: Residents gather at the location of a multi-vehicle collision on Jl. Raya Soekarno-Hatta KM 32, Bawen, Semarang regency, Central Java, on Aug.29. (Antara/Aditya Pradana Putra)
Two days earlier, five people died in a collision involving three trucks and several motorcycles on the Semarang-Bawen highway, Central Java.
The multi-vehicle collision occurred when the driver of a container truck, traveling at high speed on a downhill sloping road from Bawen to Semarang, lost control of the vehicle. (dra/bbs)
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Linkedin Bagus Saragih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, September 2, 2017 17:25 1898 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aee862b 1 SE Asia ASEAN,Cambodia,APHR,press-freedom,human-rights,Southeast-Asia Free
Members of parliament from ASEAN countries have expressed grave concerns over the "worsening human rights situation in Cambodia" which has seen authorities continue to crack down on independent media outlets and civil society organizations.
This crackdown is a dramatic escalation of the [Cambodian] governments moves against critical, independent voices and is deeply concerning for the fate of Cambodian democracy, particularly with national elections less than a year away, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) Chairperson Charles Santiago of Malaysia said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Last week also saw attacks against Cambodias independent press, ahead of the national elections, scheduled for July 2018.
Read also: Jokowis vague ASEAN policy
At least 15 independent radio stations were ordered off the air by the government, along with all broadcasts of Voice of America and Radio Free Asia outside the capital. Meanwhile, The Cambodia Daily, a prominent independent newspaper publishing in both Khmer and English, has been hit with a US$6.3 million tax bill and ordered to shut down by Sept. 4 if it fails to pay up.
The closing down The Cambodia Daily is nothing more than a transparent attempt at limiting the amount of information Cambodian people can access on controversial issues, said Philippine Congressman Tom Villarin, an APHR member.
Parliamentarians called on ASEAN member states, as well as the wider international community, to work to uphold commitments to support the development of democracy and human rights in Cambodia, including those contained in the 1991 Paris Peace Accords.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Sat, September 2, 2017 19:28 1898 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aeec5c6 1 SE Asia JimlyAsshiddiqie,Myanmar,Aung-San-Suu-Kyi,Nobel-laureate,Nobel-Peace-Prize,Rohingya,persecution,Muhammad-Yunus,Kofi-Annan Free
Myanmar Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has come under fire amid the ongoing violence against Rohingya people in Myanmar that has reportedly left hundreds dead and thousands of other displaced in the Buddhist-majority country.
Former Constitutional Court chairman and Islamic scholar Jimly Asshiddiqie has said that Suu Kyi did not deserve to receive the Nobel peace prize that was awarded to her in 1991.
She did not fight for humanity but only for herself, Jimly said after an Idul Adha prayer at the Al Azhar mosque in Jakarta on Friday as quoted by kompas.com.
Read also: RI distributes aid to Rohingya as govt continues pressure
The Guardian published an article about the criticism from more than a dozen Nobel laureates toward Suu Kyi for the military crackdown on the Rohingya minority.
An open letter to the UN security council from a group of 23 activists, published on the Facebook account of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2006, warned that "the army offensive had killed of hundreds of people, including children, and left women raped, houses burned and many civilians arbitrarily arrested."
Meanwhile, anti-corruption activist Emerson Yuntho has initiated an online petition to request a retraction of Suu Kyi's Nobel Prize.
Jimly also urged Buddhists in Indonesia and the rest of the world to care about the Rohingya.
Jimly said a report published by The Advisory Commission on Rakhine State initiated by former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan was a good start, but that a cultural movement was also needed.
[The role of] Buddhist figures is important. It would influence internal politics [in Myanmar]," he said. (dra/bbs)
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta Sat, September 2, 2017 15:10 1898 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aee5264 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Belitung,international-flights Free
On Sept. 10, the H.A.S. Hanandjoeddin International Airport in Belitung is set to welcome its first ever international flight that departs from Malaysia.
This will be the first international landing after the airport has been upgraded to an international airport. A total of 188 tourists from Malaysia will travel with Sriwijaya Air, arriving at 10 a.m., said Belitung Tourism Agency head Hermanto.
It takes 1.5 hours for a direct flight to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Belitung.
The plan is for these tourists to be welcomed by Belitung Regent H Sahani Saleh and East Belitung Regent Yuslih Ihza. There will be a welcome dance as well and the head of the tourist group will be given a souvenir and traditional scarf, added Hermanto.
Read also: Fancy a holiday in mining wasteland?
Afterwards, the group will be taken to East Belitung where they will hear a presentation about investment opportunities in the region followed by a lunch event.
The tourists will then travel to Belitung regency and Tanjung Kelayang that has been listed in the Tourism Ministrys 10 priority destinations list.
We will showcase several arts and cultural performances. These tourists will continue their journey to Singapore after dinner, told Hermanto.
Prior to becoming an international airport, the H.A.S. Hanandjoeddin only served domestic routes such as Belitung Pangkal Pinang, Belitung Palembang and Belitung Jakarta.
According to Tourism Minister Arief Yahya, the airport upgrade is a critical success factor in order to boost the tourism development in Belitung.
Apart from the airport, theres also a cruise terminal that can welcome 3,000 tourists and a marina for yachts that will be developed soon, Arief said. (kes)
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta Sat, September 2, 2017 13:06 1898 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aee3f63 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,tarakan,Hong-Kong Free
After recently welcoming participants of Sail Indonesia 2017, Tarakan plans to launch a direct flight from Hong Kong to the city in December this year.
After welcoming the yachts, [Tarakan] will launch six direct flights per month from Hong Kong. Weve met with travel agents and airlines to discuss this plan. This is a great news for tourism in Tarakan, said Tarakan Mayor Sofian Raga during the gala dinner of Sail Indonesia 2017 on Aug. 30.
Please explore Tarakan, enjoy its beauty and friendliness. One of our [tourist attractions] is a mangrove forest located in the middle of this city, which is home to bekantan [Proboscis monkey]. There used to be only four of them but now up to 45 of bekantan [live in Tarakan], Sofian added.
Read also: Fantastic animals of Indonesia and where to find them
At the welcoming event of Sail Indonesia 2017, participants were welcomed with Iraw Rengkayu traditional dance and each was given a traditional Tarakan scarf.
The Tarakan city in North Kalimantan is also home to the World War II Museum located downtown, Ovan Ladang Park, Amal Beach, Juwata Crocodiles Captive Breeding, seedbed tourist site, Rumah Bundar Museum, Grand Tarakan Mall, Gusher Plaza and Tanah Kuning Beach. (kes)
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta Sat, September 2, 2017 14:08 1898 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aee4d67 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,art-and-culture,art-festival,Europe Free
For four months starting Oct. 2017, countries in Europe will be treated to the beauty of Indonesias cultural diversity in a biannual event dubbed Europalia Arts Festival 2017.
Up to 460 artists from different parts of Indonesia are set to entertain guests from the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland, France and Austria at the festival's 228 cultural events, including 69 dance and theater shows, 71 music performances, 36 literature works, 38 movie works and 14 exhibitions.
Read also: Artist Tintin's struggle to uncover the truth
The festival will also host an architecture program dubbed Specific Generic Tribe with heritage, contemporary, creation and exchange as the main theme.
The culture director general at the Culture and Education Ministry Hilmar Farid said the Europalia event is a platform to present both contemporary and traditional arts and cultures of Indonesia.
"We have done around 90 percent of preparation; there will be around 480 artists not including technical personnel and staff who will be in charge for 220 events, said Hilmar.
Additionally, an Indonesian comic books exhibition is also set to be held in Brussels, Belgium, the comic book capital of the world.
Read also: Bumi Langit [R]evolusi: Bringing back local superheroes
We will bring tons of museum artifacts and art objects to be shown [at the exhibition] along with 400 people who will be there for 104 days; it is a truly huge art mission, told Hilmar.
Indonesia is said to be the fourth Asian country and the first in Southeast Asia to be the guest of honor of Europalia Arts Festival that was first established in 1969.
As the guest of honor, Indonesia is expected to showcase the many varieties of Indonesian arts and cultures that are tolerant, democratic and modern, said Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Puan Maharani.
Puan said the art and cultural works presented at the festival were previously curated by Europalia Indonesia and Europalia International curators.
As part of promotion, the ad for Europalia Arts Festival 2017 has been broadcasted on several TV channels such as the BBC and Bloomberg, as well as on the internet such as TripAdvisor, Google, YouTube and social media.
In France, around 16 buses will be plastered with the advertisement as well as black cabs in London and several places in Belgium.
According to the ministry's data, UK contributed the most in tourist arrival among countries in Europe. The ministry has set a target to attract at least 400,000 British tourists to Indonesia this year. (kes)
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Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta Sat, September 2, 2017 16:14 1898 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aee635c 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Pesantren,religious-tourism,halal-tourism Free
In an effort to boost religious tourism in Indonesia, the Tourism Ministry lends its support to a religious event held by Islamic boarding school Pesantren Sirnarasa Foundation dubbed Pesantren Charm Week.
The event is currently being held for one week until Sept. 3 at Pesantren Sirnarasa in Panjalu, West Java.
Themed "One Voice to Save the World Resources", the event is expected to attract 60,000 visitors.
The ministry's Archipelago Tourism Marketing Development deputy Esthy Reko Astuti said the event aims to promote the pesantren culture.
Another goal is to combine several religious cultures that are relevant with pesantren as well as encouraging the provincial administrations together with stakeholders to develop destinations for religious tourism that have high competitive values, said Esthy.
Read also: Hundreds of pesantren to form alliance to promote moderate Islam
This event also serves as a syukuran (a gathering to express thanks to God) for the 75th anniversary of Maulid Pesantren Sirnarasa and Abah Aos. Every day, this place welcomes 500 to 1,000 santri, ikhwan and akhwat, added the ministry's head of Cultural Promotion Wawan Gunawan.
Activities at the Pesantren Charm Week are divided into several categories, including a religion one such as Musabaqoh Tilawatil Quran, Murattal Quran competition, speech competition and book exhibition of the works of Abah Gaos, the founder of Pesantren Sirnarasa.
In the education and health categories, there are civics seminar, free medical treatment and alternative medical therapy and mass circumcision.
The event also hosts entrepreneurship training in the economy category, leisure stroll and environmental cleanup in the environment category and performances of Wayang Ajen, Seni Gembyung, Rampak Dalang, Sepeda Balong, Gubyag as well as Liwet cooking competition in the arts and culture category. (kes)
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Seoul Sat, September 2, 2017 12:03 1898 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aee31e4 2 News travel,#travel,traveling,#traveling,travel-ban,North-Korea,#NorthKorea Free
Washington's ban on US citizens traveling to North Korea came into force on Friday, with the two countries at loggerheads over Pyongyang's weapons ambitions.
The measure was imposed following the death of student Otto Warmbier in June, a few days after the 22-year-old was sent home in a mysterious coma following more than a year in prison in the North.
He had been convicted of offenses against the state for trying to steal a propaganda poster from a Pyongyang hotel and sentenced to 15 years' hard labor, with President Donald Trump blaming Pyongyang's "brutal regime" for his plight.
On its website the State Department said it took the decision due to "the serious and mounting risk of arrest and long-term detention of US citizens".
Three Americans accused of various crimes against the state are behind bars in the North, which is engaged in a tense standoff with the Trump administration over its banned missile and nuclear weapons programs.
Earlier this week Pyongyang launched a missile over Japan, in a major escalation, and it has threatened to fire rockets towards the US Pacific territory of Guam.
In July it carried out its first two successful tests of an intercontinental-range missile, apparently bringing much of the US mainland into range.
Exemptions to the travel ban are available for journalists, Red Cross representatives, those traveling for humanitarian purposes, or journeys the State Department deems to be in the national interest of the United States.
But NGOs working in the North privately express concerns about how the process will function and the potential impact on their work.
A few remaining US citizens in the country left on Thursday, reports said.
Read also: What not to do in North Korea
- 'Demonic, rapacious wolves' -
Americans represent around 20 percent of the 5,000 or so Western tourists who visit the North annually -- although that is expected to fall significantly this year because of the wider tensions as well as the ban -- with standard one-week trips costing about $2,000 and budget journeys about half that.
Simon Cockerell, general manager of market leader Koryo Tours, said the ban would remove all Americans from the tourism industry but have no effect on the North itself.
"It will do nothing other than surrender the opportunity of presenting to even a few local Koreans a more balanced and rounded portrayal of Americans counter to the official portrayal of Americans in national media - of demonic, rapacious wolves," he told AFP from Pyongyang.
"Any soft power advantage the US enjoyed through the decency of its citizens who traveled here has now been removed in a paternalistic and somewhat un-American act."
The vast majority of tourists visiting the country are Chinese, and North Korean tourism development officials have said the ban will not affect the economy, with one telling AFP in July: "If the US government says Americans cannot come to this country, we don't care a bit."
Other curious foreigners still travel to the North, and an art symposium in Pyongyang this week saw foreign artists, most of them European, working together with North Koreans.
Norwegian artist Marius Engan Johansen and his North Korean counterpart Ri Pak sculpted clay busts of each other on either side of the same stand.
DMZ Academy organizer Morten Traavik told AFP that one of the events' aims was "to show the wider world in this special critical time that communication is possible".
"By working together and by trying to understand each other... it is possible to communicate when both sides have a will and wish to do so," he said.
I always enjoy trying different restaurants - it is not only fun to try new dishes, but also very inspiring to learn about other businesses and their specialties.
During my last visit to Skylands, my home in Seal Harbor, Maine, I visited The Lost Kitchen in the small town of Freedom - an intimate and charming 40-seat restaurant housed in a restored 19th century gristmill. The restaurant is open four-nights a week from May through New Years Eve, and includes a single prix fixe meal of about 10 courses made by self-taught cook, restaurateur and author, Erin French. The Lost Kitchen books-up quickly - in fact, it received more than 10-thousand calls in 24-hours, when the reservation line opened in early April. If you ever plan time in the area, I encourage you to add a visit to The Lost Kitchen - you'll love it. And please take a look at the wonderful story we did on The Lost Kitchen in our July/August 2016 issue of Living - to read it, just click on the highlighted link.
Enjoy these photos.
(front page)
Socialist Workers Party: Protest racist attacks!
Liberals, antifa combine to deal blows to political rights
Above, Reuters/Elijah Nouvelage.
Inset, AP/Josh Edelson Above, Aug. 26 San Francisco anti-racist protest drew some 6,000 participants. Inset, antifa thugs in Berkeley Aug. 27, like those at far right, attacked supporters of President Donald Trump who came to debate and discuss with protesters.
BERKELEY, Calif. A crowd of 4,000 gathered in Berkeleys Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park Aug. 27, the culmination of a weekend of protests against racism in the San Francisco Bay Area. The previous day 6,000 marched through the streets of San Francisco, gathering at three separate locations.
Members and supporters of the Socialist Workers Party joined in both actions, asking workers to join with them in speaking out against racist attacks and discussing and debating how to build this fight among working people.
A small portion of those who assembled in Berkeley, some 200 self-proclaimed antifa, short for anti-fascist, thugs dressed in black and wearing bandanas over their faces broke out of the crowd and carried out assaults on several of three dozen supporters of President Trump and others who had come to the park to debate with the protesters.
Cops mobilized in the hundreds by progressive Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin retreated and did nothing to stop the attacks, only intervening after some individuals had been beaten.
It was clear this was the plan of the liberal government in Berkeley all along. We made a strategic decision to move officers, police spokeswoman Jennifer Coats told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The Bay Area demonstrations came on the heels of the mobilizations against racism in Charlottesville, Virginia, and a big action of 40,000 in Boston Aug. 19 to speak out against racism. The Bay Area actions were called to counter two other rallies called for the weekend. In San Francisco a conservative group called Patriot Prayer organized by Joey Gibson from Portland, Oregon, announced they were going to hold a rally in Crissy Field Park.
In Berkeley, Amber Cummings, a transgender supporter of President Trump, called a No to Marxism in America rally, targeting the anti-free speech actions of antifa forces. Both organizers stated that they are not racists and did not want support for their actions from neo-Nazis or other white supremacists.
Liberal Democratic Party politicians on both sides of the Bay and several members of Congress, including Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, mounted a campaign calling for the conservative actions to be shut down. The Chronicle and other media outlets in the Bay Area joined in, playing up the threat of violence. Berkeley officials denied Cummings a rally permit.
In the midst of the violence-baiting attacks on them, and antifa threats of physical attacks, both Gibson and Cummings called off their events. Gibson then announced a press conference for Alamo Square Park.
Early on Saturday he canceled his press conference. In spite of this, 3,000 people came to the park. But overnight the cops had fenced it in and a cordon of hundreds of them stood inside the fence. Initially the cops prevented many who wanted to protest from being able to enter from adjacent streets. As the crowd grew at several intersections, the cops opened the streets and the anti-racist protesters gathered and listened to speakers.
Many in the crowd on both days carried homemade signs denouncing racism, hate, and white supremacy. Impacted by extensive media coverage of racists demonstrating in Charlottesville, some argued that fascist threats are growing in the United States.
Cecele Carter, a history teacher from San Jose, carried a sign at the San Francisco Civic Center with pictures from Nazi Germany and a decades-old Ku Klux Klan rally. I tell my students if they arent interested in history and learn its lessons, they are doomed to repeat it, she told the Militant.
The antifa thugs didnt try to differentiate between Trump supporters, supposed white supremacists looking to debate politics, journalists, or any others they chose to target like one person wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Greek philosopher Socrates. Their goal was to limit and overshadow the outpouring against racism that motivated most in the weekend crowds. A majority of those this reporter spoke to opposed the antifa attacks, and many said they resented how these physical threats and attacks led to many leaving the park. They are a distraction from the message today of protesting racism, said Bill Gregory, a veteran of social protests in the area.
Obviously I am not a Klansman, Jordan Davis, 25, who carried a pro-Donald Trump banner in Berkeley, told the Chronicle. They are trying to lump Trump supporters in with a group that is pretty much nonexistent.
Dennis Richter, organizer of the Los Angeles Socialist Workers Party, joined the actions on both days. He intervened in Berkeley with a few other protesters to halt an antifa attack on a man not far from a Socialist Workers literature table.
They claim to be against fascism, but these attacks on individuals who you dont agree with are in fact stock and trade of fascists. These methods of attempting to shut down civil discourse are alien to the working class, Richter said. They echo the liberal Democrats and media who blame workers for the election of Donald Trump, saying it reflects a rise in racism among Caucasian workers.
This is false, Richter said. Our party discusses politics with workers at their homes all over this country. There is less racism now than anytime in U.S. history.
Immediately following the actions, Berkeley Mayor Arreguin urged the University of California there to cancel a conservative campus groups plans for a Free Speech Week in September.
Related articles:
SWP: Join debate on how to fight effectively
SWP builds protests, takes discussion to working class
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home
(lead article)
Social crisis in Texas is product of capitalism
The social catastrophe for working people and farmers unfolding in Texas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey is first and foremost the consequence of capitalism and its insatiable drive for profits at all costs.
Despite knowing for at least two days that a major storm packing torrential rains would hit land Aug. 25 in the Houston area, local, state and federal government officials did next to nothing to either organize a disciplined evacuation or get food and other necessities to people if told to shelter in place. Millions were left to just fend for themselves.
Government officials gave conflicting advice to residents of Houston, the fourth largest city in the country, with some 2.3 million residents, or others in the region. Evacuate, dont evacuate. Call 911, dont call unless youre in immediate danger. With lines overloaded, thousands of people couldnt get through.
This refusal of officials to plan or take responsibility for a serious response and the ruling classs disdain for working people were captured in the photo of senior citizens at the La Vita Bella assisted living home in Dickinson, with water up to their waists, waiting for help.
Officials told the homes owner the night before not to evacuate, WTVR news reported, because the area had not flooded in the past. At 9 a.m. Aug. 26, the owner sent her daughter the photo. The daughters husband then tweeted it with the message, Need help asap emergency services.
Some four hours later, the National Guard rescued 15 people there by helicopter. Rockport, Texas, where the Category 4 hurricane first made landfall, suffered extensive damage, mostly from the high winds. About 40 percent of the 24,500 people who live there and in Aransas County didnt respond to a mandatory evacuation order.
Many remember their experiences in 2005, when an unprepared and unorganized mandatory evacuation order that left everyone on their own to flee in face of Hurricane Rita led to a giant traffic jam and more deaths there than from the storm.
The more than 10,000 who left have not been told when they can return. Referring to those who stayed and whose homes are damaged, county official C.H. Mills Jr. told the Texas Tribune, We cant take care of them.
Christina Tucker, 30, a Rockford waitress, went to a school that had been converted into a shelter Aug. 25 as the storm battered the town. But nobody was in charge. Tucker organized with others to create a sign-in sheet, assign cots and prepare meals. It wasnt until the next day, with 129 people checked in, that government medical workers and other officials showed up.
Working people left on their own
Working people from Houston and around the region and others took into their own hands organizing to rescue people using whatever they had at hand water skis, kayaks, canoes and motor boats in the face of government inaction.
In Port Arthur, more than 100 local guys got in their boats and monster trucks and went out looking for people to help, Stephanie Lee, a retail store manager there, said by phone. The government had nothing to do with it.
One of my wifes relatives spent 12 hours floating on an air mattress waiting for help, Randy Warren, 66, a Houston retail worker, told the Militant by phone. After weathering the first part of the storm, Warren had to abandon his house because county officials were getting ready to release water from the overfilled Addicks Reservoir. It could be weeks before we can come back, he said.
Flooding was no surprise
This is Houstons third so-called 500-year flood in three years. But the way the experts define flooding has little to do with how frequently a flood can be expected to hit or how bad.
In reality the designation is used to avoid stricter building regulations that lower profits for capitalist developers. It also lowers insurance liability for areas outside high-risk flood zones. Buildings there must be constructed 12 inches above 100-year flood levels. That rule doesnt apply in the less restrictive zones.
By claiming that the larger storms are unusual or once in a lifetime, government officials can wash their hands of responsibility for not taking stronger measures. Those measures are no mystery.
Houstons drainage systems were built in the early 1900s and only meant to withstand a 10-year flood. City officials are now working to widen the channels a little to handle a 25-year-flood. For the capitalists, further lowering the risk to lives of city residents would not be cost effective.
The ruling capitalist families weigh the costs of adequate protection against the odds and costs of catastrophe, and choose what eats into their profits the least.
A construction boom over the last two decades has wiped out 38,000 acres of wetlands that act like sponges for excess water. The only reason to not develop and maintain wetlands is profits for capitalist developers.
No wonder that Business Insider headlined an article, Houston Was a Ticking Time-Bomb for a Devastating Hurricane like Harvey.
As of Aug. 28 nearly 300,000 people were still without electricity. The Houston convention center is overfull with people who lost their housing, and city officials are working to open new locations.
As of Aug. 31, government officials say at least 38 are dead. But many homes and vehicles are still under water and many people are missing.
Rockport officials say that 30 to 40 of those who called at the peak of the storm are still unaccounted for because crews didnt make it to everybody they wanted to get to.
CBS News estimates that as many as 200,000 homes have been damaged by high winds or flooding. As of Aug. 31 more than 10,000 people had taken refuge at the George R, Brown Convention Center, double its capacity.
Many arrived there to find no cots available to sleep on. Houston wasnt prepared. The government wasnt prepared. The mayor wasnt prepared, Michelle Lavan told CBS News from inside the center Aug. 29. What did she and her family sleep on? Deflated air mattresses. Cardboard boxes, she said.
The Bowers Civic Center in Port Arthur was set as the citys emergency shelter. Virtually every single one of the 20,000 homes in the city is flooded. But the center itself flooded Aug. 29, leaving refugees huddled in the bleachers.
And many people are still trapped in their homes, unable to make it out.
I spoke to Maria, a friend of mine who lives on the southwest side of Houston, Amanda Ulman told the Militant Aug. 29. There is a shelter just a couple of blocks away, but they cant get there because the water is too high. Theyre hoping the water doesnt rise any more.
Example of revolutionary Cuba
The disorganization, lack of planning and elevating of profits above human lives by U.S. officials and businesses stands in stark contrast to the way the workers and farmers government of Cuba faces hurricanes.
Every year mass organizations in revolutionary Cuba practice what to do in the face of major storms. Last year as soon as it was known that Hurricane Matthew was heading toward the island, Cuban President Raul Castro toured Guantanamo province. He participated in a meeting of the Provincial Civil Defense Council, which oversees disaster preparedness. Castro and the council set up a camp nearby to lead the effort to protect the population and minimize economic losses.
Brigades of electrical workers and soldiers headed to the region before the hurricane hit so they could begin repairs as soon as the storm was over. Medicine and food was sent to shelters before the storm landed. More than 1 million residents were evacuated.
This was possible because Cuban working people made a revolution in 1959, ousting the Washington-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, and taking their destiny into their own hands.
Cindy Jaquith and Steve Warshell in Miami contributed to this article.
Related articles:
Disaster shows need for workers power
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home
(front page)
SWP: Join debate on how to fight effectively
OAKLAND, Calif. Seventy-five people attended a public meeting here Aug. 26 sponsored by the Socialist Workers Party, many of whom had joined in anti-racist protests in San Francisco a few hours earlier.
The meeting was part of a special weekend hosted by the SWP that included participating in actions against racist attacks in San Francisco and in Berkeley the next day.
Two dozen party members and supporters were in Oakland from around the country to take part in a meeting of the partys Walmart trade union fraction.
The featured speaker was Dennis Richter, a member of the SWPs National Committee and organizer of the SWP branch in Los Angeles. Also speaking was Mary Martin, SWP candidate for mayor of Seattle and a participant in the fraction meeting.
We were out in the streets today. We debated and discussed, found agreement and disagreements, as we stood with the anti-racist protesters, said Richter. We introduced them to books by Jack Barnes and Mary-Alice Waters, leaders of the Socialist Workers Party, and to the Militant newspaper. We sold 20 copies of Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by Barnes, which is the best explanation of the struggles of the working class, the roots of racism and the history of the Black nationality.
Richter noted that President Donald Trump had given a pardon the previous day to the hated and recently convicted former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona.
There is no rise in anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. working class, said Richter. Arpaio is disliked widely for his anti-immigrant attacks and abuse, particularly directed at Latinos. He is infamous for incarcerating arrested immigrants in tents in the sweltering Arizona desert.
Richter said several participants had argued with him at the protest earlier that racism is on the rise among working people. I pointed out that over 200 working-class counties that Barack Obama won in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections went for Donald Trump in the last election, Richter said. Did those workers just become racist? I dont think so. There were a total of 500 racists who joined a national march in Charlottesville, Virginia. Thats the best they could do.
Richter pointed to the 40,000 people who turned out to march against racism in Boston a week earlier, responding to the events in Charlottesville. This was a serious protest, he said, describing how it was in continuity with the mid-1970s battles that took place in Boston to desegregate the citys schools. Richter explained that he joined marches in Boston during that struggle and the SWP was part of its leadership.
Racism has declined sharply
The working-class mobilizations led by African-Americans that overthrew Jim Crow segregation changed things forever in U.S. politics, Richter said. Racism has declined sharply and workers have found it much easier to work and fight together.
Richter called attention to the attractive seven-panel display at the side of the room. The displays had first been used to help amplify political points in talks by Barnes, Waters and Steve Clark at the SWPs Active Workers Conference in June. They detail how the working class bears the brunt of the consequences of the world capitalist crisis, said Richter.
Donald Trump called it carnage and hes right on that, he said. But the ruling rich, the meritocracy and broad layers of professionals are doing quite well. That is not the case for tens of millions of working people.
The fraction meeting of Walmart workers discussed how workers there need a union to lead the fight against how the bosses are foisting the crisis of their capitalist system on workers backs. Mary Martin explained how their meeting was recessed so they could join in the anti-racist protests in San Francisco.
Well do the same thing tomorrow, she said, so we can be at the Berkeley protest.
More U.S. troops to Afghanistan
A few days before the public meeting President Trump told the nation the government is increasing troop levels in Afghanistan. On a world scale U.S. imperialism remains the worlds strongest military power, but we see its being forced to retreat, said Richter. The U.S. rulers have been unable to win a war since the first Gulf War in 1991. Trump has no strategy to win a war in Afghanistan. The propertied rulers are trying to come up with a strategy of how not to lose the war.
Its the working class who are the soldiers who are the cannon fodder. The response to their deaths and maiming will lead to protests, and their families and young people will be part of them, much like those turning out across the country at these anti-racist protests, Richter said. Trumps no more a war monger than Hillary Clinton, actually less. He inherited this. Hes doing what any chief executive of the U.S. imperialist government would have to do.
Richter hailed the not guilty verdicts for Richard Lovelien, Steven Stewart, Eric Parker and Scott Drexler, who faced frame-up charges for going to the ranch of Cliven Bundy in Nevada to join the fight against the governments seizure of Bundys cattle after he refused to pay federal grazing fees. Two were acquitted and the other two acquitted on most charges.
The government owns over 80 percent of the land in Nevada. The Bundys have been ranching there for 100 years, said Richter, who had attended the first day of the Las Vegas trial in solidarity with Bundy and all the defendants. Other ranchers have been driven off the land by the federal government, but the Bundys have refused. Hundreds of people stood with them in defense of their grazing rights.
During a lively discussion period one participant said he disagreed with Richter. I take issue that there is no rise in white supremacy, he said. Another said he thought the Bundy family was racist.
How do you explain that no other political organizations on the left are interested in the Bundy fight other than the Socialist Workers Party? another asked.
We went to talk to workers at their homes in a neighborhood of Latinos, Blacks and Caucasians in Las Vegas. They knew about the restrictions ranchers face from all the agencies of the federal government today. The ranchers call it federal overreach when the government prevents you from making a living off the land, Richter said. Theres an identification there thats deep by workers who face all kinds of red tape, taxes and tickets from local, state and federal governments. They appreciated information about the ongoing trial in Las Vegas and expressed support for the defendants. Workers and farmers need to organize together against the dictatorship of capital.
Mary Martin detailed her experience covering the Portland, Oregon, frame-up trial against the occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016. Bundys sons Ammon and Ryan and others were acquitted there. The jury didnt buy the governments version, she said.
When supporters of the Bundys came out of the courthouse in Portland, a Black Lives Matter march was passing by. John Lamb, a chicken farmer from Montana, joined their march. Some of the participants tried to stop him, saying, If you support the Bundys, you are a white supremacist! Martin said.
Lamb said, No, I am not, Martin said. We have people of many races in our group, including African-Americans and Native Americans. Im against what the government and police are doing to Black people just like Im against what they are doing to the ranchers and the Bundys. He was welcomed in the protest.
Richter invited those at the forum to join the SWP in continuing to speak out and march against racism, and in going with party members to discuss politics with workers on their doorsteps.
Race is controversial. We are all workers, Ysenia Gavila, a 21-year-old receptionist at a fitness center, said in the informal discussion after the meeting. The common ground we all have is that were all workers in whatever industry we work in.
I do like how everyone here is organized, said Brian Chavez, 22, a member of the Glaziers Union. The SWP has a good way to get people together.
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SWP builds protests, takes discussion to working class
Socialist Workers Party members and supporters have been joining marches against racism in cities across the country and discussing with workers and youth at these actions and taking the discussion more broadly to the working class, going door to door in neighborhoods across the country.
They also discussed President Donald Trumps announcement Aug. 21 that Washington will send thousands more young soldiers to continue the U.S. rulers 16-year-long war in Afghanistan the longest in U.S. history.
In Berkeley, California, SWP member Joel Britton set up a display of party literature near where a few thousand anti-racist protesters were rallying.
I showed people Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes, the Militant and other books by party leaders, said Britton, who sold three of the Workers Power books in an hour. Among those buying the book was a woman originally from Vietnam, Britton said, who was intrigued by photos about Malcolms opposition to the U.S. imperialist war there and by GIs opposed to the war. He added, I also bumped into an older Iranian man who told me he already had the book in Farsi. Twenty copies of the book were sold overall, at this action and another the day before in San Francisco.
An important part of the discussion was explaining the SWPs working-class course in contrast to antifa thuggery, how thats a danger to the working class, said Britton. This group attacked conservatives, Trump supporters and others they deemed to be fascist who were in the park where the protest took place. (See article on page 6.)
The cops pulled back and allowed some antifas into the park, carrying long thick clubs with small green ecology flags attached to the top clearly prepared for using the clubs, said SWP member Dennis Richter, who was part of a table in the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park in Berkeley where the rally took place. It became a center for discussion and debate on what was going on.
Richter and other protesters intervened after seeing some of these thugs beating up a man at the action and helped force them to back off.
At the SWP table, he had a discussion with a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, who had purchased a Militant in San Francisco at an anti-racist protest the day before and said he supported the actions of the antifas.
There is no serious threat of fascism today, Richter said. He described how the SWP, which was centrally involved in Teamsters union organizing battles in Minnesota in the 1930s and over-the-road organizing efforts across the Midwest, responded when there were serious threats to workers from company goons and ultrarightist outfits. Mass labor action, accompanied by organized and disciplined union defense squads, were key not small groups of self-appointed thugs.
Richter explained how thuggish actions by antifas give city governments and their police forces openings to close down space for workers to organize and conduct further actions against police killings and racism. I didnt convince him but he listened, Richter said.
In Augusta, Georgia, more than 200 people participated in a rally Aug. 24 demanding a memorial to the Confederacy that was erected in 1877 be taken down. The action was organized by the Augusta NAACP. I came to this rally to learn about this issue, college student Twyla Wallace told Lisa Potash, SWP candidate for Atlanta mayor, at the action, as she got a copy of the Militant.
At a rally against racism attended by a few thousand people in Seattle Aug. 26, Tanner Osborn, 17, a student at Everett Community College was attracted to the Socialist Workers Party members there and their literature. I was a bit surprised to see all these revolutionary books, he said. Osborn purchased a Militant subscription and a copy of Is Socialist Revolution in the US Possible? by SWP leader Mary-Alice Waters.
Along with the book Workers Power book and the one by Waters, SWP members and supporters are also introducing workers to Are They Rich Because Theyre Smart? and The Clintons Anti-Working-Class Record, both by Barnes.
Farmworkers in Washington state recently went on strike following the death of a farmworker who was denied medical treatment by the bosses, Mary Martin told the Militant. Members of the SWP went to support them and told them about the silver miners strike against Hecla Mining bosses in Idaho, where the main issue is union control of safety and working conditions, she said.
The farmworkers made a solidarity video in Spanish. They sent it to the mineros and the Idaho miners posted it on their website, she said. One veteran miner posted a response, saying, I dont speak Spanish but I understood every word. Good luck to you brothers in your struggle.
Want to see what youre saying
In Colorado, SWP members have been discussing these questions going door to door in working-class neighborhoods in Denver, Aurora and Pueblo. I want to see what you are saying about the world instead of the talking heads on TV, Chris Kettle, who recently got a Militant subscription, told SWP member Diana Newberry after she knocked on his door. He said that a lot more people are talking about socialism because of Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Sanders believes that the system can be reformed, Newberry said. We believe that it is the capitalist system that is the problem and the working class needs to take political power so we can build a society based on human solidarity, not dog-eat-dog capitalist exploitation for private profit.
In Pueblo, a truck driver told SWP member Alyson Kennedy that he voted for President Trump because he says what he thinks and may be able to do something about these problems.
Working people are fed up with the Democratic and Republican parties because they do nothing for us. said Kennedy. The SWP is totally different. We are a working-class party that has a revolutionary perspective of building a workers movement that can take political power.
That will never happen, the truck driver said, because we are being replaced by robots.
Yes, the bosses try to use technology to squeeze more production out of us. But they havent and cant replace the working class, Kennedy said. The meritocratic layers who honeycomb the government and associated nongovernment organizations and colleges wish we could be replaced, because they increasingly fear the deepening class struggle they see coming down the pike. And it is coming. The working class will have its day.
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White House sends more soldiers for US rulers war
in Afghanistan
U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Justin Updegraff
Washingtons military intervention in Afghanistan the 16-year-long war already the longest in U.S. history will continue indefinitely under President Donald Trumps new strategy, which includes sending several thousand additional troops. He announced this Aug. 21 in a nationally televised speech before troops assembled at Fort Myer, Virginia.
The decision flows from the effort of the U.S. propertied rulers to defend their political and economic interests in the Middle East and South Asia as the post-World War II imperialist order continues to fray.
The move also reflects the weakened position of U.S. imperialism since the fall of the Stalinist regimes in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the 1990s. For decades Washington had relied on the Stalinist misleaders to block revolutionary struggles by working people around the world.
Trumps decision to hold the line on U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan reverses his original instinct, which was to pull out, he said in his speech. In so doing he now owns the war.
The weak Afghan government, cobbled together by Washington and propped up by its firepower, would be easily overthrown by the Taliban if U.S. forces pulled out, Trump said. The reactionary Islamist organization, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 with many of its leaders coming from forces Washington backed to challenge Soviet rule there in the 1980s, has retaken control of almost 40 percent of the country.
The Trump administrations Afghan war plans are consistent with previous administrations. The goal? Not to lose.
Its the same forever war, Doug Ollivant, a fellow at the New America Foundation and former U.S. Army officer, told the Washington Post.
It involves a few thousand more troops, stepped-up bombings, more pressure on the Pakistani rulers to back off support for the Taliban and additional pressure on Kabul to tackle endemic corruption.
A side benefit, Trump said, will be obliterating ISIS [Islamic State] and crushing al-Qaeda forces there.
We see this as a long-term campaign, an unidentified U.S. military official in Kabul told the Post. By investing in the war, he said, the administration and its NATO allies will be able to chart a way forward well into the 2020s, the paper reported.
This entire effort is intended to put pressure on the Taliban to have them understand: you will not win a battlefield victory, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told a State Department briefing the day after Trumps speech. We may not win one, but neither will you. At some point, we have to come to the negotiating table and find the way to bring this to an end.
President Trump tried to differentiate his war policy from that of the Barack Obama administration. I share the American peoples frustration. I also share their frustration over a foreign policy that has spent too much time, energy, money and, most importantly lives trying to rebuild countries in our own image instead of pursuing our security interests above all other considerations, he said.
But despite the rhetoric, the Trump administrations plan amounts to no more than tweaking the policy of the Obama administration.
Washingtons murderous war
Six days before Trumps announcement the Taliban issued an open letter to Washington declaring that the military situation facing the imperialist forces in Afghanistan is far worse than you realize.
Previous experiences have shown that sending more troops to Afghanistan will not result in anything other than further destruction of American military and economic might, the Taliban said.
Afghanistans 33 million people, 90 percent who are Sunni Muslim, are among the poorest in the world. Few steps have been taken to advance modern infrastructure and capitalist development. Illiteracy is 60 percent and life expectancy is 51 years. Three-quarters of the population live in the countryside. Less than 50 percent have access to electricity.
Despite being landlocked, Afghanistans location is strategic. Washington and its capitalist competitors in the region are looking to control the development of oil and gas pipelines linking Central with South Asia. To advance their interests in the region, both Tehran and Moscow are deepening ties with different factions of the Taliban.
Since the war started in 2001 more than 110,000 Afghan civilians and soldiers have been killed along with over 2,400 U.S. soldiers and 1,000 from the 38 other NATO countries that have troops there. Civilian war deaths have been rising steadily from about 2,750 in 2012 to 3,500 last year according to the United Nations.
Related articles:
Afghan refugees protest deportations in Sweden
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Occasionally, a story about a Nebraskan that almost seems too grandiose to believe pops up, and, at first glance, H. D. Watsons ventures in Kearney seem just such a tale.
Then, with a bit of investigation, one finds that he was all that and more.
Early in 1888, Watson, a publisher and manufacturer from Massachusetts, traveled through Kearney and was so impressed with the areas potential he returned a few months later. He bought shares in G.W. Franks 2-year-old West Kearney Investment Company becoming the firms corporate secretary and general manager.
During the same period, Watson purchased more than 8,000 acres of land which was later described as stretching from Kearney to Odessa from the Platte River to north of what would become U.S. Highway 30. A major building on the land, which had been owned by David Anderson, was a 40-room house.
Watson and Frank separated with Watson deciding to concentrate his efforts on farming and ranching.
One of his first ideas revolved around cattle and dairying. To that end, he hired professor Oscar Erf of Ohio State University to design a barn. Watson was eager to build it as proposed, but Erf urged him to proceed in steps, building only one third of the concept at the start.
Completed in 1900, the one-third portion was 317 feet long, 96 feet wide and 56 feet tall. The barn was built into the side of a hill so that feed could be unloaded directly onto the top level. Cattle feed then was loaded into trolleys inside the barn for distribution, with the trolleys doubling as a means of removing waste. The barn could house 3,400 head of cattle, calves and horses as well as 900 tons of hay. A silo on one end added storage of 1,000 tons of silage. A steam-powered creamery was built next to the barn.
In order to put the barn into service and initiate the dairy, Watson bought a train car full of Holsteins from Iowa State College, and, to broaden the farms base, built a three-story chicken house.
Another experiment revolved around Watsons certainty that the introduction of a new crop, which had never been attempted, would revolutionize farming. The crop was alfalfa, which could survive and thrive even in a drought. The first 15 acres was successfully planted signaling a large additional planting which also bore fruit.
But local farmers were skeptical, and though Watson successfully fed his own cattle, the balance of the alfalfa proved unsaleable and literally rotted. Ultimately, however, others began following his lead, growing and feeding alfalfa, but it never produced a profit for Watson.
About 1902, the Watson Ranch was in full force with so much freight coming and going that Union Pacific built a siding and depot there. With about 3,000 acres in flowering alfalfa, the ranch began raising bees and hired an expert to capitalize on honey production. A bunkhouse was erected south of the big house to sleep 45 men and a reported 52 cottages were built for laborers and their families. The ranch often was described as a small city rather than a ranch, while area farmers and ranchers dubbed the barn Watsons Folly.
In 1903, the creamery burned and Watson decided not to rebuild but focus on farming, adding cherry and apple orchards to his experimental crops. Pioneer photographer and historian Solomon Butcher took a number of photos at the ranch which added to the already growing publicity.
Unfortunately, a national depression unfolded in 1907, and the highly leveraged ranch operation was lost in bankruptcy, with a mortgage held by the Manchester, New Hampshire National Bank, which foreclosed on it. The resulting 1917 farm sale was noted as the largest ever held in central Nebraska. American Breeder magazine described the farm as covering 4,208 acres over 1,000 of which were under irrigation, 3,000 apple and cherry trees, 52 worker cottages, a stock of approximately 8,000 birds, 40 odd incubators and the largest barn in the world.
Much of the land was purchased by Woods Brothers Realty Co. of Lincoln in the 1917 sale and that November was advertised by them as having 24,000 acres of farm land for sale besides the 1733 Ranch at Kearney, Nebr. The Watson Ranch had been renamed 1733 Ranch at the time when Kearney advertised itself widely as the Midway City, 1,733 miles from both Boston and San Francisco.
In 1935, the barn was disassembled yielding, in one observers words, lumber stacked shoulder high in every direction as far as you could see.
Watson was considered a visionary by many having experimented with apples, cherries, squash, bees, corn, potatoes, rye, barley, sugar beets and asparagus. He was also lauded in Ripleys Believe It or Not and called the father of alfalfa and the man who introduced the Chinese (Ring-necked) pheasant to the Midwest.
On the negative side, it was estimated that investors in the Watson Ranch lost up to 80% of their investment and that Watsons method of financing (was) described as taking from Peter to pay Paul but never giving Paul as much as was taken from Peter.
Actress Chloe Bennet has said she had to alter her surname because Hollywood is racist and wouldnt cast me with a last name that made them uncomfortable.
Bennet, 25, is best known for her role in Marvels Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and altered her surname from Wang to Bennet.
post one that makes you look "fun" she said to herself in sweatpants alone A post shared by Chloe Bennet (@chloebennet) on Aug 21, 2017 at 6:08pm PDT
Ed Skrein The actress was responding to a comment on an Instagram post in which she had praised British actor
announced this week Skrein, 34,he was stepping down from the upcoming reboot of Hellboy, after his casting sparked claims of whitewashing.
Chloe Bennet at the Los Angeles premiere of Captain America: Civil War in 2016 (Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)
Bennet replied to a fan, whose comment appears to have been deleted, writing: Changing my last name doesnt change the fact that my BLOOD is half Chinese, that I lived in china, speak mandarin, or that I was culturally raised both American and Chinese.
It means I had to pay my rent, and Hollywood is racist and wouldnt cast me with a last name that made them uncomfortable.
Im doing everything I can, with the platform I have, to make sure no one has to change their name again, just so they can get work. So kindly love, f*** off.
Deadpool actor Skrein was cast in Hellboy as Major Ben Daimio, who is of Asian heritage in the comics that the films are based on.
The announcement triggered an outcry, with critics accusing Hollywood of whitewashing where Caucasians are chosen for roles that should have gone to actors from other ethnicities.
Ed Skrein arrives at the MTV Movie Awards (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
Skrein explained on Twitter and Instagram that he did not realise the character was of Asian heritage when he accepted the part and that he was stepping down from the role so it could be cast appropriately.
In her Instagram post to her more than 1 million followers, Bennet posted a screen grab of Skreins statement and thanked him for standing up against Hollywoods continuous insensitivity and flippant behavior towards the Asian American community.
She continued: There is no way this decision came lightly on your part, so thank you for your bravery and genuinely impactful step forward.
I hope this inspires other actors/film makers to do the same. Also, dayum cute af AND a pioneer for social injustice?!
Fellas, take note. Thats how its done.
Bennet describes herself as Mostly Asian, always hungry. Sweatpants connoisseur. Also, Skye/Daisy Johnson on Agents of Shield on her Twitter bio.
In Benfleet, Essex, around the corner from Southend-on-Sea, theres a growing business led by an ambitious young entrepreneur.
The trade? Onions. Not just any onions though James Staercks business personalises the humble vegetable with googly eyes and a message of your choosing and they put greetings cards to shame.
Our favourite onion sent out today to Liverpool, UK! Good luck to a Liverpudlian Daniel, nice little surprise for you on its way! Posted by Onion Express on Thursday, August 24, 2017
It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, the 24-year-old, who gave up a career in teaching to start the business, told the Press Association. I had an onion and thought: Why dont I put googly eyes on them?'
Staercks site, For 6.49,site, Onion Express , offers to get an onion (sourced from Aldi) with your message to its recipient in three days with a red or white onion to choose from.
(Onion Express/Screengrab)
Some people read a card once and then chuck it, but an onion hits you straight away, said Staerck . I dont think youd ever forget the day you were given an onion on your birthday or Valentines Day.
Its down to personal preference but I think I would use a red onion for a girl or guy you like, its romantic.
But a white onion is more generic its just an onion.
(James Staerck)
Since its official launch two weeks ago, Staerck says business is growing, amassing over 450 orders through marketing on Facebook and Instagram and the businessman says present turnover is 2,950, with total operating profits of 1,300.
With good exposure we expect this to accelerate, added Staerck, who said with the expected growth will be looking to start sending the onions overseas in due course.
(James Staerck)
What do you do with the onion when you receive it, then?
They can put them on their shelf and on display, said Staerck . At the moment we advise not to eat the onions because there is ink on them.
Despite Staercks success, it seems his mum isnt too pleased with the abundance of onions filling his bedroom.
I do need to think of a different plan on where Im going to store them, said Staerck .
(James Staerck)
So what does the future hold for this budding entrepreneur and his onions?
There is actually a company in America which has had a lot of success with eggplants and they are a bit of an inspiration at the moment, said Staerck . We will focus on the onion for now but we will see potential other veg or goodies, depending on how it does.
(James Staerck)
You cant help but wish him the best of luck.
Now, if only there was an innovative way of sending him that message
When Your Child Struggles with Reading, Writing and Spelling will be presented from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12 at the Horizons Community Church, 3200 Grainger Pkwy. The presentation is provided by the Nebraska Dyslexia Association.
Gwelda Carlson will discuss getting help for learning difficulties. The dyslexic brain differences and the effect they have on learning will be addressed. The presentation will also explore the Nebraska Department of Education Rule 51 regarding Specific Learning Disabilities and dyslexia and the NDE Technical Assistance Document for Dyslexia as well as LB645 passed by the 2017 Nebraska Legislature.
In the federal government and in most states, there are consequences when governments deprive Americans of their constitutional right to liberty -- through, say, wrongful imprisonment.
So why aren't there more meaningful consequences when states deprive Americans of their constitutional right to vote?
Again and again, "voter fraud" has been shown to be virtually nonexistent. Yet in the name of eradicating this imagined scourge, state officials around the country have been systemically and aggressively disenfranchising American citizens. To prevent a handful of votes from possibly being cast illegally, officials purge thousands of eligible voters from state rolls, toss ballots and pass modern-day poll taxes.
This year alone, at least 99 bills restricting access to registration and voting have been introduced in 31 states, according to New York University School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice.
And this doesn't even capture the full extent of voter-suppression efforts, given that some changes have been done administratively rather than through legislation.
A few states have proved to be especially bad actors.
In the 2016 election, for example, Kansas threw out more than three times as many ballots as any similarly sized state did, according to a recent Associated Press analysis.
Some Kansans' ballots were tossed as a result of recent policy changes. But others were eliminated because of a stupid software bug. That is, some people arrived at the polls incorrectly believing they had already legally registered, because the state's online registration system had mistakenly told them so..
All this occurred of course under the leadership of Kansas Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach, now spearheading President Trump's "election integrity" commission.
Texas has likewise repeatedly tried to suppress minority (and predominantly Democratic) votes. Last week, a federal court struck down the state's voter ID laws, which the judge determined had been "enacted with discriminatory intent -- knowingly placing additional burdens on a disproportionate number of Hispanic and African-American voters."
The same court had found the state's voter ID law discriminatory in 2014 and determined that a new, watered-down version was no better. While a challenge had been working its way through the judicial system, a "discriminatory" law was in effect for multiple statewide elections.
Where is the justice for those denied suffrage in Kansas, Texas and other states?
Their elections are effectively tainted, but they're also over. Nothing to be done about them now.
There should be, though.
If we want state officials to stop erring so often on the side of disenfranchising voters, we need to start punishing them for illegally denying Americans the right to vote, rather than just have courts say, "Hey now, don't do that again."
The costs are much too low for public officials who, whether deliberately or mistakenly, disenfranchise Americans.
On very, very rare occasions, if a plaintiff can prove that an election was sufficiently tainted, a judge could order a new election. Also on very, very rare occasions, individuals can be charged with a criminal offense if they can be proved to have intentionally interfered with someone's votes.
But for the most part, policies that systemically disenfranchise thousands of voters -- and possibly swing election results -- go unpunished. A state's bad law or administrative policy gets struck down, and officials are just forced to do things differently in the next election.
In which case, state officials might respond by introducing a new bad law, a la Texas.
One way to change the system would be for courts to more often grant preliminary injunctions against new election laws undergoing a legal challenge.
This would address only deliberate policy changes, though, not incompetence (as in Kansas' software glitch). So why not raise the possible costs to getting things wrong, to change the calculus?
Congress or state legislatures could, for example, pass laws making it easier for state officials to be held liable for monetary damages if they have illegally denied someone their right to vote. Right now these officials likely have qualified immunity from such suits, according to Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.
For American citizens, voting is a sacred and constitutionally enshrined right. It's time the country, and those paid to serve the public, actually treat it as such.
In my thinking thoughts, I considered recent confusion generated by claims and counter claims regarding Liberians who are holders of American passports. Overtime, it has been alleged that these citizens of the United States of America, instead of fronting for political positions in their country, have surged on Liberia and qualified by the National Elections Commission (NEC) to vie for presidential and legislative seats. While focus is on American passports, there is another group who are green card holders in possession of US and Liberian voting cards; they are either in government, or in the race. Suffice these claims to be true, it can be safely declared that these people have Dry Face; they are shameless, and brave enough to infiltrate the leaky NEC elections system and bamboozle our sovereign nation.
Dry Face Makes Pig Fat
In Liberian parlance, dry face means for one to put all shame face aside, be brave, and try his luck to achieve something knowing it could be wrong or impossible, with equally slim assurances of success and failure. If you play dry face and fail, fine; if you succeed, you enjoy and live well. We have a cliche in Liberia which says, Dry face makes pig fat
You see, pigs can eat anything that other human beings and animals would not readily consume because they have shame face or are selective. For pigs, they will not even taste see if it is good or bad, whether nasty or juicy; their mouths make the determination and as they chop with unbelievable zeal. Some of the things we say are bad or nasty that we cannot eat, before your very eyes, pigs can wrap (eat them); so we say dry face makes pig fat because he eats anything at anytime, in the presence of anybody just to survive. Some human beings like pigs, have also applied dry face to survive in their lives.
Back in the days when boys were boys, some of our friends had God Mas. These were older ladies who were either widows or wives who chose to cheat on their husbands using more potent and stronger young boys. Those of our friends who had God Mas usually mocked us saying we were suffering because we did not have Dry Face to approach older ladies who were our mothers ages.
You see, the God ma would be your girl friend and would take care of your financial and subsistence issues including your school fees, clothing and food. When the husband was around, you would keep low profile, but when he was away, you played dry face and took over your God ma who was your mothers age, as if you were her equal. Pekin, that old ma correct you would boast to others. Because those friends ate on time and were satisfied, they look more prosperous and healthier than us with our boney faces and flat stomachs almost hitching to our spinal cords from hunger. When we attempted to mock them for being shameless and brave to venture into a love relationship with women of their mothers ages, they simply replied, My man, dry face makes pig fat
It is this same dry face that people who know very well they are American citizens and are foreigners may be venturing into our elections even at the point of wanting to be President Lord have mercy!!
American Passport Dry Face Issues
The issue of people holding American passports and vying to govern Liberia is a grave issue that is usually watered down. You see in Liberia, there is a something called the two-week morale whereby we make noise over an issue for two weeks and later forget about it.
Few days ago, a group in support of Unity Party (UP) standard bearer Hon. Boaikai announced to the whole world that Senator George Oppong Weah is a US citizen and in possession of an American passport. After a rebuttal from a Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) stalwart, much has not been heard about that allegation and sooner or later it would be watered down and forgotten. If it is true that Oppong indeed holds an American passport and wins anyway, our country would be ruled by a foreigner and that would be serious Dry Face victory declared on October 11 or thereabout.
Before the Oppong issue, another group claimed the standard bearer of the Alternative National Congress (ANC) Alex Cummings is a US citizen having lived and worked so long in the USA. No court action was taken but overtime Cummings was certified by the NEC and confirmed by the Supreme Court as eligible to be President of the Republic of Liberia. If Cummings wins, and if he is actually an American passport holder, a foreigner would be inaugurated as Dry Face President in January 2018.
Few months ago, it was reported that the Chairman of the National Elections Commission, (NEC) Jerome Kokoyah, is an American citizen. After two weeks, the case died as usual and we do not hear anything about it again. If per se it is true that Hon. Kokoyah holds a US passport, it would mean that our elections are being managed by a foreigner. That kind of Dry Face would be an opportunistic audacity that Hon. Kokoyah would be applying. Dont we have qualified and trustworthy Liberians to manage our own elections affairs and have to bring in a foreigner? This is opportunistic Dry Face.
In the last elections of 2011, a candidate who was contesting with Hon. Edith Gongloe-Weh for a Nimba County seat was said to be in possession of an American passport. Surprisingly, the gentleman won Edith while it was surprisingly disclosed that Edith herself was half citizen or was in possession of a Green Card and was a Permanent Resident of the United States of America fronting to sit as a law maker in Liberia, West AfricaYou legally living in America but you fighting to rule people in Liberia. Ayy, ay yah Dry Face
Edwin Snowe Green Car Dry Face Issues
For the sake of the layman, a Green Card is like an ID card that the United States government awards applicants who have legal statuses. For example if you won the DV, you were automatically qualified as a permanent resident of the United States; some people who have other forms of legal immigrant statuses are issued green cards. You address in this doggone underdeveloped Liberia is not permanent anymore because you have now become a legal Permanent Resident of the United States of America with all benefits appertaining. After holding the Green Card for six years, you can apply for citizenship and receive it on silver platter.
However, if you left your residence in your well developed America, and came to this underdeveloped Liberia to front for positions and took a job to take care of your issues in the America where you are legally domiciled, you really get dry face like Edwin Snowe who will soon take over a Bomi County seat while he is still domiciled in Montserrado county and representing a Montserrado District, based on the Domicile clause. You will agree, green card holders are no different from the dry face that Edwin Snowe is playing on the people of Bomi County, and no different from the people who are US citizens but playing real day light dry face and want to be President. That kind of dry face I would brand Edwin Snowe domicile Dry Face
Leaky NEC Elections Terrain
For the sake of being civil, I am hesitant to say the National Elections Commission (NEC) is weak; I would rather say it is leaky, for it has its own strengths. Do you remember how it denied poor Abu Kamara and approved other people for the same reason and nobody did anything? Karnwea went to court and had lawyers but I did not see Cummings and Mills Jones who also had desires in court. So the NEC has its own muscles it can flex.
But I can say without equivocation that the NEC is a leaky system where cunning politicians have applied their chicaneries and shenanigans to escape the standards set, avoid the regulations and have their names and photos on ballot papers. NEC does not appear to be doing due diligence and depending on whistle blowers to do its work. That is why we would inaugurate an American President on January 6, 2018. May God help our dear Liberia.
Just a day ago, the NEC was fined US$500 by the Supreme Court for being in error. Imagine the extent to which that US$500 error has damaged somebody elses whole future. Imagine the damage that would be caused by other errors that are going unnoticed and would be awarding imposters, inept and ineligible people at high positions to the disadvantage of those who are truly deserving. NEC is a leaky system because some people with green cards and US passports are said to be in possession of voting cards, or maybe the law does not bar half citizens The NEC is leaky because it could not even successfully complete the voters verification and left many peoples fate in limbo. NEC is so leaky that it is unable to do due diligence before certificating candidates. Initially its registrars could not even spell Daniel and placed e before the I in Daniel. In spite of its leakage, the NEC also played dry face and has printed ballots and declared everything on course, and Liberians will vote on October 10, 2017. The dry face that the alleged US citizen Kokoyah is playing is really an opportunistic dry face. You the readers may define this yourselves.
Audaciously Bamboozled Liberia
If per se all of the instances of people holding US passports and being passed by the NEC are true, I am sorry to say this nation, this small West African nation which used to be the bastion and mainstay of peace and tranquility, has been bamboozled
To be audacious is to be brave, with dry face, may I add, and to bamboozle means to deceive, to con, to dupe, or to swindle. If Kokoyah is a US citizen and is sitting over our elections with dry face, then he has swindled our resources and opportunities; if Oppong, and Cummings are holders of American passports, and playing dry face and running neck and neck with Brumskine and Urey who are Liberian citizens (we do not know for sure though, if they too have US passports), then they have conned Liberia; If any of the political aspirants for legislative seats possess green cards but fighting to overtake bona fide Liberians in the race, they are Edwin Snowe Domicile Bamboozler-crooks. If any of them win, we would have swindlers, deceptive and a con president with legislators who are bamboozlers.
You see, when people with American Passports and Green Cards, who are foreigners and half foreigners deceive the NEC and infiltrate our elections system, and are competing with the genuine bona fide citizens, one can only say they are audacious, brave and have real dry face to try to leave their country and come here to bamboozle our own-Liberia. Well, such could be the time, such could be the situation and such could be our fate. I submit.
Benediction
Compatriots, as we approach October 10, let me haste to urge you to go about your normal businesses and use their conscience to vote. Advocacy on behalf of a leaky NEC, to expose the deficiencies, vices and disregard of the elections rules and regulations have all failed. What politicians should do now, instead of mudsling is to focus on the strategies and commitment of their voters. Sometimes numbers and crowds change when they enter the voting booths. Remember Robert Sirleaf and Varney Sherman.
Now, after all said and done, may the Lord bless all Dry Face American passport holders who because of our leaky elections system may have infiltrated; may God bless the alleged US citizen Jerome Kokoyah; may the Lord make His face to also shine upon all malicious domicile Edwin Snowe green card dry face people, and may they never ever be caught until they arrive at the gate of heaven where Angel Michael will be standing with a red hot iron tooth brush, and some questions; in Jesus; precious name. Let all American passport and green card holders in the race sayAAAAA-men!!!!
I am simply thinking thoughts
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: The Rivercess man, Mwalimu-Mku Moses Blonkanjay Jackson is a triple Ivy League product trained at Harvard, Yale, UPENN and St. Josephs U in Education, Mathematics and Physics. Mwalimu-Mku Jackson diligently served the Government of Liberia for four years as World Bank Project Consultant, and Assistant Minister for Teacher Education and returned to private practice as Social Advocate, Researcher, Education Expert, and Consultant. The Rivercess man can be contacted at +231 886 681 315/+231 770 206 645
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Senator Varney Sherman
VP Boakai (L) & Speaker Nuquay (R)
Senator Varney has drawn the "Red Line" in the sand telling President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to literally get lost that the presidential campaign of VP Joseph Nyumah Boakai " does not need her support" means it is going to be a bloody fight to the finish. So be vigilant till the end.
This is what many of us who support Mr. Boakai have been saying the last few years. But the honorable and respected Mr. Boakai will not come out ranging as Senator Sherman. Others must do the dirty work for him and Sherman is quite suited for the fight.
It is one thing for Ellen to dabble in her lip service and lukewarm support for Mr. Boakai, while at the same time, she is still encouraging the exodus of party hierarchies to leave the party. This disdain and contempt for Mr. Boakai by Ellen is so apparent for all to see.
In late August or early September of 2015, Ellen hosted a daylong meeting at her seafront mansion of her ruling party executives to discuss who would succeed her. VP Boakai was among those present including senators, representatives, cabinet ministers, heads of public corporations and virtually anyone who was appointed to a job in her government.
But not a single press release was issued on the outcome of the meeting. A few days later, VP Boakai in early September, went to Gbarnga and at the home of then Bong County Superintendent Selena Mappy-Polson, met with the leadership of the Peoples Unification Party (PUP). According to Mr. Boakai, his meeting with the PUP leadership was intended to "discuss collaboration for the 2017 campaign."
The PUP came into existence and consists of former disgruntled and marginalized members of the Unity Party. Their CREED, according to the founders of the PUP is to "support only native candidates." Could it be one of the reasons Ellen is dishing Mr.Boakai? Who knows?
Ellen's support for Charles Brumskine of the opposition Liberty Party is an open book. She hired Brumskine's party chairman Fonati Koffa as her personal lawyer, as a Deputy Minister of Presidential Affairs and also made Mr. Koffa chief prosecutor in the Sable Minining bribery case going after Ellen's political enemies including her former party chairman, Senator Varney Sherman and former House Speaker Alex Tyler. Reports have it that about $750,000.00 was funneled to the Brumskine campaign through the Fonati-led Presidential Task Force that went after Senator Sherman and others.
At the ruling Unity Party convention in Gbarnga last July, the tense atmosphere for the control of the party saw sparks flying between Ellen and outgoing chairman Sherman. In the end, the Boakai-Sherman-Wilmot Paye faction prevailed and took control of the party, defeating the Ellen sponsored candidates of Medina Wisseh-Len Eugene Nagbe and others.
Then came the Ellen encouragement of party heavyweights to leave her ruling party now firmly under the control of Boakai-Sherman-Paye faction. But while the political prostitutes were defecting from the Unity Party, Ellen allowed some of them to keep their party-led government jobs.
The exodus was led by Musa Bility. Then he was followed by Medina Wisseh who both jumped to Brumskine's Liberty Party. Bility would brag that he had sought Ellen's political blessings to carry his "winning formula" over to Brumskine.
Former Ambassador to the United States Jeremiah Sulunteh resigned to team up with Alex Cummings of the ANC. Former Forestry Development Authority head Harrison Karnwea resigned from the party but was allowed to keep his party government job. Karnwea is since Brumskine's vice presidential running mate.
And once the Supreme Court of Liberia flip-flopped on the Court of Conduct law, declaring it constitutional in previous rulings, the Court somersaulted and said it was unconstitutional when it came to Karnwea, Sulunteh, and then they were all coming out of their hiding foxholes to join the exodus: Julia Duncan Cassell, Len Eugene Nagbe, Ellen's niece Ciatta Bishop, Ciatta Clinton Johnson and many more....while still keeping their party-government jobs.
Now we are told that Ellen has withdrawn her support from Brumskine because she feels Brumskine will not be elected president. Thus, EL-They-Say have it that Ellen's one-time political whipping boy George Mannah Weah of the CDC has won her heart. In the 2005 elections, Team Ellen didn't play with Weah calling him dummy. Indeed, this is how times have changed.
But can Weah, who is supported by former warlord turned-president-turned-prisoner Charles Taylor, captain a team with Taylor, Ellen, Cyril Allen, Jewel Taylor, Robert Sirleaf, John Richardson, Coco Dennis, Milton Gbezongar Findley, militants and Ellen's former jailbirds Mulbah Morlu and Jefferson Koijee all wear the same jersey for the same team? I smell trouble.
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Charlie Brumskine with Charlie Taylor
So, who actually started or reignited the dreaded Natives versus Congua divide in this election? I certainly did, and Mr. Joseph Nyumah Boakai have been blamed by Liberty Party presidential candidate Charles Walker Brumskine of making this ugly divide in our history a campaign issue. I will set the record straight.
Mr. Brumskine is like the proverbial man who lives in a glass house and throws stones at by-passers, and cries wolf when the by-passers return his favor.
This hypocrisy by Brumskine needs to be exposed after he and the Congua have thrived on this divide at the expense of the native majority since the beginning of our nationhood nearly 200 years now.
Ironically, Mr. Brumskine who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth as a result of this divide wants to blame the victims (natives) in this debate. And as a victim I am not going to sit by and let Brumskine get away with his lies.
Mr. Brumskine is on record for raining insults of "nonsense" against native presidential candidate Joseph Nyumah Boakai and has accused Mr. Boakai of "encouraging the Native-Congua divide."
But the record will show otherwise that Mr. Brumskine is deeply entrenched in this dogma of Congua superiority and Native inferiority.
As recent as in 1998, Mr. Brumskine as Senate Pro Temp in the rubberstamp legislature during the Charles Taylor bloody dictatorship, espoused this false doctrine/dogma and preached the rebirth of Congua superiority and domination in his official capacity as Senator.
Official records in documented Senate communications revealed that Senator Brumskine referred to a fellow (native) Senator, Bedel Fahn of Margibi County in 1998 as a "Country Fool."
In the widely circulated letter on the Internet and debated on radio stations in Monrovia, Senator Fahn's letter of complaint dated February 3, 1998 and addressed to then Vice President Enoch Dokoleah, noted how an enraged Senator Brumskine stormed into Senator Fahn's office and belittled him like his houseboy in the pre-1980 era of Congua domination and the marginalization of natives, an era he still fantasizes today.
Senator Fahn's "crime" centered around a simple issue: money to facilitate the foreign trip of a Congua senator (Evelyn Diggs Townsend).
Senator Fahn stated in his letter that Senator Evelyn Diggs Townsend, the wife of a former prominent congua official wanted to travel to Brussels, Belgium to attend an international meeting. As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Ways and Means, Senator Townsend requested for funds to pay her trip to Belgium.
Senator Fahn politely told Senator Townsend there was no money in the budget to pay for her trip. But Mrs. Townsend would not have that talk from a "country/native" man to deny her from traveling. She wanted something done at once. Senator Townsend went to see Senator Brumskine.
An angry Brumskine stormed Senator Fahns office as his fellow native senators were present with him. And Brumskine, emboldened by his friend Charles Taylor as President, barked at Senator Fahn: "Your [yall] country fools killed her husband in 1980 and a Fahn is trying to stop a Townsend from traveling?"--Fahn quoted Brumskine as saying.
Brumskine again went on a tirade: "this is why we are taking our country back from you country fools; and I will see to it that you are removed as committee chairman;" Brumskine arrogantly told Fahn.
Yet, Mr. Brumskine is accusing Mr. Joselh Nyumah Boakai of "encouraging this nonsense of Congua-Native divide; that Congua-Native will put food on the table, build good schools, build good roads, provide good healthcare system, provide good jobs," Brumskine retorted. But these are the necessitates the Congua refused to provide for the citizens when they ruled the country for over 130 years.
Mr. Brumskine, his family and the Congua benefited from native exploitation and their slave-like treatment. Both Brumskine and Boakai are old enough and saw the marginalization of natives by the Congua before 1980.
Natives were forced at gun-point to pay taxes that paid the salaries of Brumskine's father who was then a Representative in the Congua-only legislature, and by extension paid for Brumskine's education.
Natives were forced like human horses to carry on their heads in hammocks Congua government officials to collect the dreaded hut tax from natives in remote areas where the government neglected to build roads.
When you have witnessed your fathers being humiliated by the Congua; when you witnessed your fathers auctioned off for $20 00 per person to slave plantations in Fernando Po, Sao Tome & Principe and elsewhere like a cattle rancher would sell his cows; when your father is called a "boy and country ass" by Congua....and Mr. Brumskine is talking about "taking our country back from you country fools," then you will agree with me what the elections are all about.
Therefore, it is not by accident that the arrogance of Brumskine and the Congua to return to the ugly days of native marginalization are manifested in the manipulations of some so-called "educated natives" by encouraging the natives to abandon Mr. Boakai.
How else does one justify the exodus of natives who faithfully served under a Congua President Ellen Johnson to now abandon the ruling Unity Party because a native Joe Boakai is heading the party only for them to run away to serve as vice president under Congua candidates?
But in his King Solomon-like wisdom, the humble and fatherly Joseph Nyumah Boakai has not returned their venomous hatred with hatred, but with love and respect. He has been provoked, lied on, called all sorts of names but Uncle Joe has kept his dignity, reputation, pride and cultural discipline intact.
Mr. Brumskine rained insults of "nonsense" on him. Alex Cummings calls him an "obsolete race car." Beninoi Urey calls him a "rebel warlord" and wants to send Uncle Joe to a war crimes court, but promises to protect and not to prosecute Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who publicly confessed to funding the 14-year Liberian genocidal holocaust. All from Urey who got rich from gun running for his boss Charles Taylor?
George Weah says Boakai is too old and belongs in a nursing home, and then he accuses the oldpa of wanting to assassinate/kill him Weah without any evidence to back up his claim. Joseph Joe is a killer? You see our trouble fellow Liberians?
But look at the people Weah surrounds himself with: Taylor's NPFL-NPP remnants and Ellen's gravy train chasers, Milton Findley, Gayeeah McIntosh and company. Those are the people Weah needs to worry about.
I rest my case on why me and my family members and friends...and the majority tribal/native people are staying with Uncle Joe. So, called me a tribalust all you want because it is who I am and all I have known and continue to experience and will die a native. Da me say so again.
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In his recent Phoenix rally, President Donald Trump bashed one his favorite go-to scapegoats, the news media. We vex him with our insistence on reporting facts that he doesn't like to hear.
Instead of focusing on right-wing extremists, he said, we should focus on "antifa," short for anti-fascist. He was talking about the alliance of anti-fascist and anarchist groups who he said turned out in their "helmets and the black masks" to protest and often disrupt Trump rallies and other farther-right groups.
At an earlier news conference, Trump attacked "the alt-left," a label that Fox News commentators and others on the right have attached to antifa and its fellow travelers.
"You had a group on the other side that was also very violent," he declared. "Nobody wants to say that."
Quite the contrary, many have said that, including such leading voices on the left as Noam Chomsky, the linguistics and political philosophy scholar. He recently called antifa a "minuscule fringe of the left, just as its predecessors were," and a "major gift to the right, including the militant right, who are exuberant."
I agree. I was appalled, for example, by the video that went viral this past weekend of five masked and black-clad antifa protesters beating an unidentified white man who is balled up on the ground at Sunday's "Rally Against Hate" (an ironic title as a backdrop for this video) in Berkeley, California.
But just before the clip ends, a flash of humanity and decency appears in the form of a young African-American man in a red T-shirt, his long dreadlocks tied back in a long ponytail. He jumps in front of the attackers, waves them back and protects the man from further injury with his own body until the man can get away.
Mother Jones journalist Shane Bauer, who took the video, identified the aggressors only as members of antifa and their victim as a suspected member of the alt-right.
I was curious about the spontaneous hero, who can be seen wearing a headset and a sound recorder strapped to his body. He turned out to be Al Letson, host of public radio's excellent "Reveal" documentary magazine program, produced by the California-based Center for Investigative Reporting.
By telephone, Letson told me that the beating triggered memories of another viral video, the brutal videotaped beating of a black man in Charlottesville by several white men with poles and sticks after the white-power rally broke down. At least one 18-year-old suspect has been arrested and more are being sought.
"All I could think of was that guy in Charlottesville," Letson said. "Nobody came to help him and I didn't want that story to repeat."
Anyone with a level head in the antifa movement should thank Letson for preventing even more bad news for their movement.
Antifa's actual violence pales statistically in comparison to terrorism rooted on the far right, according to the Anti-Defamation League, one of the groups that keeps track of such things. Of the 372 politically motivated murders recorded in the United States between 2007 and 2016, the ADL finds, right-wing extremists committed 74 percent. Left-wing extremists committed less than 2 percent.
Trump, unlike his predecessors in office from both parties, resists denouncing white racist groups -- in an apparent move to hold onto as many votes as he can, regardless of where they come from. He instead insists that "both sides" are to blame for recent violence at the white-pride "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, which equates the neo-Nazi side with protesters against Nazism. Americans can do better than that.
If President Trump really wants to get rid of antifa, the best way would be for him to stand up and fight the white supremacist and other far-right movements to which antifa is rising in reaction.
As for antifa, they should remember -- as the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., among others, nobly showed -- you maintain your moral authority by resisting the temptation to adopt the violent tactics that you deplore in your opponents.
For those of us in education, a new school year signals new beginnings. This is a time to set our sights higher as we consider our opportunities to transform the lives of young people and the communities we serve.
Ive been an educator my entire professional life as a teacher and administrator, in K-12 and higher education, with experience in the U.S. and abroad. I arrived in Nebraska two-and-a-half years ago with little knowledge about this state or its people beyond the fact that together they had built a great public university that had the potential to change the world.
Heres what I know today: That potential is as great as it has ever been.
In fact, I know of few institutions that have the kind of impact the University of Nebraska has on the people and places it serves. Thats a credit to elected leaders who are working hard to serve our state and strengthen Nebraskas economy. And its thanks to parents, community leaders, alumni and thousands of donors who have supported their university for almost 150 years because they recognize the vital link between education and Nebraskas continued success.
Whats most exciting is that together with our partners, the university can grow its impact on Nebraskas economy and quality of life even further. The fiscal challenges were facing only add to the urgency of joining hands on a plan to grow this state.
Thats what Im thinking about in this new academic year.
Im focused on our 52,500 students, Nebraskas future workforce, who come to us from all 93 counties and places around the world. Theyre the next generation of farmers and ranchers, nurses and doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs and scientists.
Theyre here because they recognize a college degree is the surest path to success in an economy driven by new knowledge and innovation. And theyre here because they know they can get an outstanding education without accumulating the student debt levels we see in the national headlines.
Im focused on our economy and what we need to do to stay competitive. The University of Nebraska already grows our state by $3.9 billion annually, a 6-to-1 return on Nebraskans investment. I hear from legislators and taxpayers alike how proud even taken aback they are that their university provides that kind of return. We can do even more to leverage public investments with an unprecedented level of private support to move our state forward.
Im focused on the University of Nebraskas role in addressing the health needs of the day. Were working to produce more health care professionals who are in especially short supply in rural areas. And the newly opened Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center is making Nebraska a destination for cancer care and research a source of hope for the one of every two Nebraskans who will be diagnosed and a point of pride for our entire state.
Im focused on research that benefits Nebraskans. Our work in improving crop yields is transforming agriculture here and abroad, bringing new resources to bear in the fight against global hunger. Our partnership with USSTRATCOM is yielding new methods for keeping our men and women in uniform safe. Our leadership in battling infectious disease means Nebraska is well-positioned to manage one of the most urgent public health challenges of our time.
Nebraskas current fiscal environment means we cant do everything we want to do. Like any family or business, were making difficult decisions about how to invest our limited resources. As Ive told our faculty, staff and students, cuts during a period of remarkable momentum are a painful reality that we will manage to the best of our ability. Were doing everything we can to rethink our operations for the future so we can reduce spending while keeping tuition affordable and maintaining our academic quality.
But we cant cut our way to excellence. Nebraskas university must be a part of the solution for growing our way out of this challenge. We have unlimited opportunities to make our state an even better place to live, work and raise a family. Im excited to work alongside Nebraskans to make that happen because I believe our best days are ahead.
Tabitha Meals on Wheels are delivered to people who cannot prepare their own meals for health-related reasons. The basic menu, listed below, includes bread, margarine and milk. To order meals, get more information or volunteer, call Tabitha Meals on Wheels, 402-486-8589, or call 402-484-9669 for a prerecorded message on menus and program updates.
Kafeel Khan, the head of the encephalitis wing in BRD hospital in Gorakhpur and one of the key accused in the deaths of over 60 children, was arrested by Uttar Pradesh police on Saturday while trying to flee the country.
A Special Task Force of the state police arrested Khan, the third prime accused in the case, from Gorakhpur while he was trying to flee possibly to Nepal, informed sources told IANS.
An FIR was lodged against him and six others earlier this week and a non-bailable warrant was issued by a fast track court on Friday.
Khan, a paediatric and nodal officer of the 100-bed AES (acute encephalitis syndrome) ward in the hospital, has been accused of dereliction of duty and not informing seniors and the administration of the paucity of oxygen, which led to many of the deaths.
Over 60 children lost their lives between August 10 and 14 at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur, the home constituency of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. At least 30 of them died within 48 hours due to shortage of oxygen supply.
Former Principal of the medical college Rajeev Mishra and his wife Poornima have already been arrested and are in a 14-day judicial custody.
Mishra has been accused of sitting over bills of the vendor supplying oxygen.
Reports said despite an allocation of Rs 4.54 crore for the financial year 2017-18, Mishra did not clear a payment of Rs 63.65 lakh. His wife has been accused of stalling the payment by pressurising him.
The couple was arrested on August 29 from Kanpur when they were visiting a lawyer, seeking legal counsel against their impending arrest.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said from now on, modern technology will be used for managing solid waste and no new mountains of garbage will be allowed to take shape.
Fresh garbage being generated should not become a mountain of garbage at landfill sites. No country in the world disposes off garbage this way its an ancient way, Kejriwal told the media after holding a meeting with Lt Governor Anil Baijal here.
The Chief Minister said: Modern technology to manage solid waste will be used now. Garbage compactors have been ordered and waste-to-energy plant will be built. Garbage will directly go there, but all this will take some time. Till then landfill sites will have to be used.
Kejriwal said he had asked the Lt Governor if some scientists and companies could be consulted on how this mountain of garbage should be cleaned or disposed of. Most important thing is there should be no fresh mountain of garbage, he added.
A day after a huge portion of a landfill in east Delhis Ghazipur collapsed causing two deaths, Baijal on Saturday banned dumping of solid waste at the site.
The LG held an emergency meeting for immediate measures to be taken in view of Fridays garbage slide incident and ordered an immediate halt to dumping of solid waste at the landfill and clearing the site within two years.
Kejriwal said he met the Lt Governor and it had been decided that no fresh garbage would be dumped in Ghazipur and Bhalswa landfill sites.
Two landfill sites, one each in north and east Delhi, have been identified and fresh garbage will be dumped there. The existing garbage dumps will be used by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), he said.
The Lt Governor also said that the NHAI would begin the process of lifting, segregating and processing the solid waste by November 2017, for which requisite processes were being fast-tracked, Kejriwal said.
The dumped waste would be used for construction of service roads and the entire landfill site would be cleared within two years.
On Friday afternoon, two persons, including a woman, were killed when a huge portion of the landfill in Ghazipur collapsed.
The collapsed mounds debris swept away a car and a two-wheeler, along with their riders, into the nearby Kondli canal.
The Ghazipur landfill is among the four dump sites in the national capital and the collected waste had reached a height of 50 metres, as tall as a 15-storey building.
Superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who is hosting TED Talks India: Nayi Soch says Googles India-born CEO Sundar Pichai is one of his favouritest people in the world.
The actor, 51, described Pichai, who was present at the talk show via video, as funny innovator boss man
Shah Rukh tweeted a photograph from TED Talks India: Nayi Soch and captioned it: One of my favouritest people in the world. The very funny innovator boss man Sundar Pichai graces TED Talks India. Thanks man.
TED Talks India: Nayi Soch a global first Hindi TV talk show created in partnership with TED, a non-profit organisation devoted to ideas worth spreading.
The show on Star Plus will feature speakers sharing big ideas in TEDs signature format of short, powerful talks. This is the first time TED is collaborating with a major network and megastar to produce a TV series featuring original TED Talks in a language other than English.
Hollywood screenwriters toil their lives away trying to come up with the next crazy, catchy story to pitch. Yet, sometimes, history does the work for them.
Tom Cruises latest vehicle American Made, directed by Doug Liman, sees the A-lister play the infamous Barry Seal a pilot who became a drug smuggler, who in turn became an informant, finding himself at the centre of the Iran-Contra scandal of Ronald Reagans era.
Seals love of flying blossomed early; he took his first solo flight at the age of 15, before gaining a pilots licence at 16, earning money by towing advertising banners.
After serving in the Louisiana Army National Guard and Army Reserve, he joined Trans World Airlines in 1968 as a flight engineer, before becoming one of the youngest command pilots in the entire fleet.
According to his wife Deborah Seal, he became involved in drug smuggling in 1975. During the early 1980s, he developed a close relationship with the Medellin Cartel, whose leadership included Pablo Escobar. It was then that he moved his operations from his home state of Louisiana to an airstrip in rural west Arkansas. In 1983, however, Seal was caught in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as he tried to smuggle a shipment of Quaaludes into the country.
By his own admission, he had by then flown more than 100 flights of 600 to 1200 pounds of cocaine each, equating to between $3bn and $5 billion worth of drugs into the US. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Former FBI agent Del Hahn, however, describes how Seal was desperate to avoid jail time; after his offer to turn snitch was turned down multiple times, he eventually flew straight to DC and the office of the vice presidents drug task force.
They sent him to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Seal was soon enlisted into a sting operation. The aim?
The Reagan administration was keen to see the Contras militia overthrow the revolutionary Sandinista government, which had installed itself in Nicaragua; Seal claimed the Sandinistas had made a deal with the Medellin Cartel, and proof of such could lend justification to the USs support of the Contras, despite accusations of human rights violations amongst the counter-revolutionaries.
And so, the pilot flew into an airstrip in Nicaragua with CIA cameras installed on his plane, snapping pictures, which showed Escobar and several other members of the Medellin Cartel loading kilos of cocaine onto a plane with the aid of Sandinista soldiers.
Seal claimed that one of the men present, Federico Vaughan, was an associate of Tomas Borge of the interior ministry of Nicaragua.
However, Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Kwitny threw doubt over Seals accusations, claiming there was no evidence tying any Nicaraguan officials to the drug shipment. Others, however, jumped on Seals testimony. And that would be his undoing.
A front page story in The Washington Times by Edmond Jacoby about links between Sandinista officials and the Medellin Cartel discussed Seals mission and appeared to out him as a government agent. The DEA cut him loose, but that also left him vulnerable.
He was later arrested by the FBI in Louisiana, though only received six months supervised probation; a condition of his sentence was that he spend every night, from 6pm to 6am, at the Salvation Army halfway house in Baton Rouge.
It was outside of this building that he was shot and killed on 19 February 1986.
A friend said of the incident, I saw Barry get killed from the window of the Belmont hotel coffee shop.
The killers were both out of the car, one on either side, but I only saw one shoot, because Barry saw it coming and just put his head down on the steering column. Colombian assassins sent by the Medellin Cartel were apprehended trying to leave Louisiana soon after Seals murder.
Three of the men were convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. However, some believe the CIA was behind the killing.
After his death, Louisiana attorney general William Guste hand-delivered a letter to US Attorney General Edwin Meese in protest at the governments failure to protect Seal.
Though he called him a heinous criminal, Guste added, At the same time, for his own purposes, he had made himself an extremely valuable witness and informant in the countrys fight against illegal drugs.
Barry Seals murder suggests the need for an in-depth but rapid investigation into a number of areas. Why was such an important witness not given protection whether he wanted it or not? Theres still no real answer to this question today.
(The independent)
The cozy ritual of parents reading bedtime stories to their children is in todays world, fraught with interferences, by the presence of modern day innovations beginning with television, mobile phones and the Internet.
We need to assess whether todays innovations are better than reading a story to a child before bedtime. Or has the practice of reading bedtime stories to children disappeared altogether?
Perhaps it has and we must analyse what a child may be losing. Recent research explains that bedtime stories begin to develop a childs brain.
These gains range from improved logical skills to lower stress levels. The most startling benefit of bedtime stories is the way by which they help rewire childrens brains and thus facilitate their mastery of language.
Dr Lyon, of the NHS, UK, reports about a clear indication of a neurological difference between kids who have been read to and those who were not. Studies underway at Yale University, US, have observed images of brains of children considered poor readers, showing less activity in the verbal processing areas.
But after researchers spent two hours a day reading to the poor readers for eight weeks and conducting other literary exercises, the childrens brain activity changed and began to resemble images of brains of good readers.
Rewiring works in the following way if a child is read Margaret Wise Browns classic bedtime story, Goodnight Moon, and the reader exaggerates the sound oo of moon, what the reader successfully accomplishes is stimulating connections related to the part of the brain that handles language sounds or the auditory cortex. In English there are 44 of these sounds called phonemes, ranging from ee to ss.
So the more often children hear these sounds, the faster they begin processing words with those phonemes. Virginia Walter, assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, US, states that when children listen to a book being read often, they notice patterns and sequences. Experts suggest that parents should continue reading stories into the childs teenage years.
This encourages conversations of different topics, such as racism, as in Harper Lees classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. The book, published in 1960, was in a period when mobile phones and the Internet were still decades away.
Reading was a pastime integral to most people. With the average age for children receiving their first mobile phone being about 12, a child with a mobile phone on a bedside table is at a disadvantage.
A new study reveals that bedtime phone use causes a child to sleep less, thereby being tired the next day and resulting in repercussions to health. Dr Ben Carter, says, Sleep is crucial to the development of a healthy child. Poor sleep can lead to obesity, reduced immunity, and poor mental health.
Researchers from Kings College, London, reviewed 20 studies involving 125,198 children with an average age of 14. Studies revealed that devices being used at bedtime, including television, resulted in poor sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness.
In contrast reading stories at bedtime imparted better quality of sleep. We must realise that parents need empowerment and support from teachers, in an integrated approach, leading to a proper routine, of regulating use of mobile phones, the Internet or television. Bedtime stories, for kids, are brimming with endearing characters.
Goodnight Moon was published in 1947. It narrates the tale of a little rabbits bedtime routine, the importance of rituals and the in-nocence of early childhood. On the other hand, The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is about a small caterpillar that emerges from his egg and begins eating all the vegetables in sight, and then is no longer small! This tale of science and gluttony is colourful and a bold affirmation of the beauty of nature. An additional input is teaching kids the days of the week.
A study was also conducted about reading by teenagers during World Book Day (2 March) in the UK. The event was designated by Unesco, which reported that teachers and librarians do not encourage teenagers to read challenging titles.
The top 10 books to shape and inspire teens was listed. Some of the authors in the list include the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, George Orwell and Harper Lee. In fact, it may be recalled that Orwells Animal Farm, was in the syllabus for the Cambridge Board exams during the late 1960s in Indian schools.
Harry Potters adventures were high up in the list, although critics do not envisage Rowlings books becoming classics but she poses some questions in her books, like standing up to authority or sacrificing everything for an ideal.
These factors are close to a teenagers thoughts. Similar to books for younger kids, books for teens also need to equate and relate to the reader.
Matisse (1869-1954) loved stuff. He collected objects all his adult life pewter jugs, African carvings, fluted porcelain bowls.
They travelled wherever he went like a working library. His letters frequently request some cherished pot or hanging to be sent on from Paris to Nice or Tangiers where it will be painted in different groupings over and again. A famous photograph from 1946 shows 40 prized possessions arranged by size and perhaps seniority like a school photograph. On the back, Matisse has written Objects which have been of use to me nearly all my life.
The phrase speaks of gratitude, and that feeling is borne out by the sight of the real things paired with their depictions in this gorgeous exhibition. Each is granted its complex nature with a kind of loving delight. The bulbous bottle and truculent jug may appear dynamically opposed or deep in companiable conversation; the same vase may appear mutable, as we all do.
Yet every image is radiant and full. Matisse was anguished, irritable, assailed; a ruffian (he said) in the studio. There is surely a kind of morality, for such a man, in making the world so beautiful. For what strikes straight away is the eccentricity of the objects Matisse amassed.
They are curious and even ungainly, which is immediately revealing in a show devoted to the close workings of his mind. In the first gallery is a large Spanish vase, made of green glass, hands on hips like a tough Andalucian woman. In one painting, she squares up to us, bold and flirtatious, sunlight pouring through her skirts to reveal the stems of the roses she holds.
In another, she stands defiantly at an angle, looking out through the window to the Mediterranean beyond. The roses match the pink evening sky that promises a fine day tomorrow, but the vase is now dark and pensive.
Matisse adored a rococo chair brought back from Venice. Its seat and back are two giant seashells carved out of wood, framed with reptilian arms, poised on legs like the watereaten rocks of some 18th-century grotto. The effect is almost sinister. But there is no estrangement in Matisses depictions; he angles the chair in extreme close-up so that it fills the frame like some undulating waterfall. Or he uses it as a benign table top for apples and flowers.
Two marvellous drawings in coloured pencil show the flowers bursting forth, their radiating forms twining with the cockle-shell ribs, as if the chair were all part of the same fabulous bouquet. The artists work is peopled by his beloved possessions, which in turn begin to look like Matisses in this beautifully cluttered journey.
Now you could say that Matisse in the Studio is all veryworld of interiors; that nobody needs to see the knick-knacks and furnishings to understand his genius. But there is an unexpected interplay here between objects and images, coexisting as they do in the same space. Chinese willow pattern hints at blue and white cut-outs; African masks speak to Matisses inscrutable portraits; Arabic screens inspire scintillating all-over compositions.
But then the same appears true in reverse. Everything, from the Cambodian statue to the flowered hanging and the calligraphic frieze, starts to look like a Matisse.
Matisse owned a Roman statue a small female torso carved in ancient marble. It is elegant and curvaceous, but nothing like as suave as the works that derive from it. First, Matisse elongates and simplifies the torso in a seductive bronze sculpture; then he reprises the bronze in a stunning pair of cut-outs cobalt blue blazing out of white, and the same in reverse reducing the form to fiercely beautiful near-abstraction.
And what links the cut-outs straight back to the Roman torso, in turn, is the sleek hint of a classical urn. But as with its de facto predecessor, Matisse: His Art and His Textiles, at the Royal Academy 12 years ago, you can make up your own mind about the precise correlations between Matisses possessions and his art.
To be in this show, as a photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson taken in Vence in 1944 illustrates, is to feel as if you are in Matisses multitudinous studio.
The poet Louis Aragon once said that objects were like vocabulary for Matisse, and they are in some deep sense elements of a language that is reused, reworked, transformed into new phrases and poems.
The truth of his theory is made real more than once in this show. The silver chocolate pot reappears in a sequence of miniature sketches, playing on its mischievous relationship with a fat tureen and its birdlike appearance; and these vignettes all appear on tiny swatches of different colours as Matisse tries out different line and colour combinations to change the story.
But best of all is the final room, where the curators present a Chinese calligraphic panel given to Matisse by his wife. It once hung above his bed in Nice, and now it hangs above some of his late cut-outs like flowers, figures, nudes and fronds dancing through space with all the contained but sinuous motion of Chinese characters. The cut-outs suddenly seem a form of script.
In such perfect juxtapositions, one truly has the chance to see Matisses mind at work. Matisse in the Studio is being displayed at the Royal Academy, London until 12 November.
Dawn/ ANN
Racine AAUW has scheduled some educational and thought-provoking programs for 2017-18.
Deborah Ford, chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, will talk about the changes she has helped create at the university and the plans for the 50th anniversary in 2018 on Tuesday, Sept. 12.
Then, in October, Ross Astoria from UW-Parkside, will talk on The U.S. Electoral College: Pros & Cons.
Other subjects that will be addressed this year include homelessness, protecting our water resources and the Racine Art Museum. In January, John Nichols, associate editor of the Capital Times in Madison, will speak on People Get Ready for a Jobless Society.
AAUW dinner/program meetings are held at various venues. While the programs can be attended at no charge, it is asked that people make reservations in advance via email at aauwracine@hotmail.com so that enough chairs can be available.
A complete list of the programs can be found on at www.racineaauw.org.
The American Association of University Women advances equity for all women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy and research. By joining AAUW, members belong to a community that breaks through educational and economic barriers so all women have a fair chance.
Membership in AAUW is open to women and men holding an associate, bachelor or advanced degree from an accredited institution of higher learning. A list of programs, study groups and other activities can be found on the website.
To find out more about Racine AAUW, go to the website or email aauwracine@hotmail.com.
Book sale
The next Racine AAUW Used Book Sale is scheduled for Oct. 20-23 and 27-29 in the lower level of CVS Pharmacy, 1122 West Blvd. Book donations can be brought to the site from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays, Sept. 16 and Oct. 14.
Donations can also be left in the box at the bottom of the inside staircase at CVS. Encyclopedias, textbooks and Readers Digest condensed books are not accepted. Proceeds from the sale are used for higher education for women.
MSOE Summer Camp
As part of the 2017 Girls Empowered through Math and Science (GEMS) Conference that Racine AAUW helped sponsor earlier this year, the organization also sponsored one of the girls to a week-long camp at Milwaukee School of Engineering. Gurpreet Singh, an eighth-grader from McKinley Middle School, attended the camp in July.
She said the best part of attending the MSOE camp was meeting new people and meeting people who are not from Wisconsin. After attending the GEMS Conference and the MSOE summer camp, I have a good understanding of what I might want to look into for when I do have to decide what I want to do in the future, said Singh.
Sailing
Racine AAUW also sponsored eight girls from Girls Inc. for sailing classes at the Racine Yacht Club.
The American Association of University Women supports promoting and strengthening science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, especially for girls and other underrepresented populations. These efforts will increase Americas competitiveness by reducing barriers that deter women from pursuing academic and career goals in these fields, according to the AAUW National website www.aauw.org.
The 9th BRICS Summit began here on Sunday, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to meet on the sidelines of the three-day event.
The Modi-Xi meeting, which both sides have indicated, comes after a dragging border row ended last week.
On Saturday, Modi, slated to arrive in Xiamen later on Sunday, said he would also meet other BRICS leaders.
Xi and Modi last met bilaterally during Junes Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Astana, Kazakhstan.
They met informally at G20 in Germany the following month amid the border crisis.
Modi might raise Pakistans terror links at the event. China has said the summit was not the appropriate place to discuss the issue.
Modi will attend the BRICS restricted session and its plenary session on Monday.
The session is expected to focus on the global economic situation, international economic governance, national security and development, and international and regional issues.
The proposed BRICS rating agency will be one of the key agenda issues.
The five-member bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa was formed in 2006
NDA partner Shiv Sena has not received any communication from the BJP over the inclusion of its members in the Union Cabinet expansion scheduled for tomorrow, party chief Uddhav Thackeray today said.
I have got news about the Cabinet expansion only from media. I have not enquired about it (from the central BJP leadership). I have neither received any communication from anybody nor are we hungry for power, Thackeray told reporters here.
Today everyone is busy with the Cabinet expansion at the Centre. However, we are only busy about ensuring the (good) health of Mumbai citizens (after the deluge earlier this week,) Thackeray told reporters here.
The Sena chief said the partys ideology for the last 50 years has been 80 per cent social work and 20 per cent politics.
Though a long-time ally of the BJP, Sena has often been at loggerheads with the senior partner. Its lone member in the Union ministry is Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to undertake a reshuffle of his council of ministers at 10 am tomorrow, a top government official said.
It will be the third such exercise since he took office in May 2014.
India said on Friday that it has not changed its policy on refugees or illegal immigrants and the issues concerning Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar has several aspects.
As to refugee policy, I dont think there is any change in Indias long-stated policy. Insofar as illegal immigrants are concerned, that is also a very long-stated policy and based on Indian law which we will continue to follow. There is absolutely no change, Sripriya Ranganathan, Joint Secretary, Bangladesh and Myanmar, in the Ministry of External Affairs told the media here in response to a question about the Rohingyas.
At a special press conference along with External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on Prime Minister Narendra Modis first visit to Myanmar and China, she said the Rohingya situation in Myamnars Rakhine state had a variety of aspects developmental, humanitarian and security aspect.
A report prepared by a committee headed by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan which had correctly highlighted these, she said.
What we have been trying to do, ever since the problem acquired the proportions that it has is to encourage the government to find ways of stimulating socio-economic development in the area (Rakhine).
If there is active economic activity in the state, many of the problems will be at least be reduced, she said, adding that India was working in that direction.
Asked about last year surgical strikes in the northeast, she said it is very well-known that the actions that were carried out by the Indian Army were carried out along the border.
It is a difficult border on which the exact location of boundary can sometimes be difficult to make out. I dont think there is any misunderstanding between us and government of Myanmar on what we sought to do and what we will continue to do.
The problem of the activities of insurgents who are trying to take advantage of this kind of geography to work against Indian interests is something which has remained a matter of discussion between leadership of two countries, she said.
Ranganathan said there is full confidence on both sides about each others good intentions and the desire to prevent any hostile activities from taking place from Myanmar soil into India.
About Modis first state visit to Myanmar, she said he will arrive there on September 5 and will be accorded a ceremonial reception. He will subsequently meet President U Htin Kyaw and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
During his visit, Modi will also meet Indian community and and pay tributes at shrine of the exiled last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.
Ranganathan said important agreements in the pipeline were in sectors like maritime cooperation, health, development cooperation projects, culture and capacity building.
Noting the bilateral trade is $ 2.2 billion, she said India has invested $750 million in Myanmar by way of private and public investment and the development programme was quite sizeable with commitment of $1.75 billion, mostly by way of grants and aids.
Myanmar is a very, very important partner for us in our Act East policy and Neigbhourhood first policy. It is our gateway to ASEAN, she said.
President Ram Nath Kovind will visit Gujarat for two days from Sunday during which he will launch an irrigation project in the states Rajkot.
Begining his two day tour by visiting Sabarmati Ashram on Sunday, he will lay foundation stone of the irrigation project on Monday.
On Sunday, Kovind will also attend the launch of various social welfare programmes in Mehsana on the occasion of the 83rd birthday of Rashtrasant Acharya Padmasagarsuriji.
On Monday, he will lay the foundation stone of Saurashtra Narmada Avataran Irrigation Yojana (SAUNI) Phase-II Link-4 at Rajkot, said a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique.
The SAUNI project, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims at filling 115 major dams by diverting floodwaters overflowing from the Sardar Sarovar Dam across the Narmada river to the drought areas. The water is to be carried through giant pipes.
President of Switzerland Dorsi Leuthard has reaffirmed her countrys support for Indias fight against black money.
The Swiss government, the federal council, is committed to support Indias fight against black money also like automatic exchange of information of fiscal matters, Leuthard said while addressing the launch event of 70 Years of Swiss Indian Friendship here on Friday night.
And we hope this year to have cleared the approval of that agreement, she said.
India and Switzerland signed an agreement for automatic exchange of financial information in November 2016.
On Thursday, following delegation-level talks headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Leuthard, both countries agreed to enhance cooperation in the fight against tax fraud while acknowledging the need for a global level playing field for implementation of the international standards on tax transparency.
A joint statement issued said that both leaders emphasised their willingness to further enhance cooperation in the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion.
Leuthard also said that trade and investment between the two countries have been growing and high-level bilateral visits have become more frequent.
Modi visited Switzerland in June 2016 in what was the first prime ministerial visit from India to that country in several decades. Swiss Presidents have earlier visited India in 1998, 2003, and 2007.
Over 200 Swiss companies are present here in India having created more than 100,000 jobs, Leuthard said.
Switzerland is number seven when it comes to trade and 11th biggest foreign investor in India, she stated.
Vice-versa, India has around 140 companies with offices in Switzerland, making Switzerland the seventh largest recipient of Indian investment.
Stressing that the protection of these mutual investments is important, she said that Switzerland was working to renew the investment protection agreement with India.
She said that Switzerland was also working with its European Free Trade Area (EFTA) partner countries for a free trade agreement with India.
The Swiss President also said that there were many subjects of common interest between Switzerland and India like skilling our workforce, railways, building environment-friendly cities and communicating high-tech research to everyone.
In Fridays event, eminent personalities, including Father of the Green Revolution M.S. Swaminathan, were honoured as Swiss-Indian Friendship Ambassadors. The others were Sushil Premchand, Barbara Maim, Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava.
While 94-year-old Swaminathan is a close collaborator with the Swiss Development Cooperation on food security and climate change for over 10 years, Premchand is a former president of the Swiss-Indian Chamber of Commerce and is considered a strong pillar of the Indo-Swiss business community.
Maim, a Swiss citizen based in Bengaluru, is a co-founder of the Swiss start-up Minsh, a community messaging system and private social network.
Echanove and Srivastava are co-founders of the Urbz platform in Geneva and Mumbai and are engaged in projects involving architecture, design, planning, anthropology, pedagogy and technology.
India and Switzerland signed their friendship agreement on August 14, 1948.
Succulent kebabs, spicy curries and flavourful biryanis food, especially mutton delicacies form the core of the festival of Eid-Al-Adha or Bakra Eid being celebrated across the country on Saturday.
Muslims celebrate Eid-ul-Azha in honour of Prophet Ibrahim, who was willing to sacrifice his son Ismail to please Allah. According to belief, Allah replaced Ismail with a ram just as Ibrahim was about to sacrifice him.
On the day of the festival, after offering prayers, the customary sacrificing of animals takes place. The meat is then split into three equal parts for own consumption, for relatives, friends, and for the poor.
The celebrations usually continue for at least a week as different dishes are prepared at home everyday and friends especially non-Muslims are called over for a feast.
Here are the top five dishes that you must try to get into the festive spirit:
Deep liver fry curry:
On the first day of the festival, it is customary in many Muslim households to prepare a dish consisting of the sacrificed goats liver. Liver fry and liver curry are the preferred choice and are eaten with khameeri rotis round fluffy breads made of flour.
Mutton Kebabs:
There are many varieties, including kakori, shami, galouti and the ubiquitous seekh kebabs. These are to be eaten with soft rumali rotis and mint chutney with onions. And instead of the famed Old Delhi restaurants, try the kiosks and push carts opposite Jama Masjid that have mastered the art of making all types of kebabs.
Mutton Nahari:
Hands down, this is one of the best mutton dishes that you can have in Old Delhi and there is no dearth of iconic eateries around Jama Masjid that have been serving this dish for generations right from Kallu Nihari to Haji Shabrati Nihariwale. However, dont forget to top your bowl of spicy nahari with chopped green chillies and ginger julienne.
Mutton Korma:
The quintessential Mughlai fare is a must have on Eid along with Khameeri rotis. Al-Jawahar and Kareems near Jama Masjid and Jahangeer in Darya Ganj are your best bet for a bowl of lip smacking mutton korma.
Mutton Biryani:
Different hues of saffron, red and white, the aroma of a varied mix of spices and rose water coupled with tender pieces of mutton hidden beneath a layer of flavourful basmati rice. A well-prepared biryani can easily bring your gastromonic journey to a logical end. Dil Pasand biryani near Jama Masjid is highly recommended!
So, make most of your weekend and plan a visit to the walled city for a Saturday night dinner or a Sunday brunch!
Singaporeans will head to the polls to pick a new president on September 23. Or maybe not. For just how to go about selecting a successor to Dr Tony Tan, who completed his six-year term on Thursday, now hangs in the balance.
Whether there will be an electoral contest, or a walkover on Nomination Day on Sept 13, turns on the decisions of a six-man Presidential Election Committee (PEC), helmed by Public Service Commission chairman Eddie Teo. The committees role is to ensure that potential candidates for the job meet a set of qualification criteria set out by Parliament.
These aim to ensure that anyone who aspires to the post has the experience, independence and financial nous to play its custodial role of safeguarding the nations financial reserves and appointments to some key government posts.
Its work takes on greater significance this year since the election is a reserved one, meaning that for the first time, Parliament has mandated that only members of the countrys Malay minority community will be eligible to run. It thought it necessary to do so as Singapore has not had a Malay president since 1970.
Pity Teo.
For he now faces the unenviable task of having to decide which of several conflicting principles each important in itself he and his committee will uphold, or give more weight to. There is just no pleasing everyone, much as they might try.
Consider the principles at stake. First, that the presidency should be open to all races that make up this ethnically disparate nation, with each having a realistic chance of aspiring to the Republics top job. This is critical if the nation is to live up to its pledge of being one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, a founding tenet that goes to the heart of Singapores reason for being.
Second, that given the importance of the presidents custodial powers, the best man or woman should be chosen for the job, in line with Singaporeans strong belief in meritocracy, which has been reinforced in the public mind over the past five decades of independence.
Third, that the president should be voted into office by the people, to give him the mandate to stand up to, and oppose if need be, an elected government that he thinks is unwisely drawing on the reserves or making dubious appointments to certain top jobs.
This provision that the president should be popularly elected was introduced in 1991 when the largely-ceremonial role of the President was expanded to include the new custodial powers over the reserves and appointments. Prior to this, the President had been nominated by Parliament, which exercised its judgement to select a respected Singaporean, who was manifestly up to the job, and able to draw support from a wide spectrum of society.
That practice, which was widely accepted, allowed for an informal rotation of the post among the various races. Last year, a proposal was floated by a constitutional review commission that the country revert to the old practice which, in my view, would have been the best way to deal with the conflicting principles mentioned above but it was shot down by government leaders. They argued that having moved to a system where the president was chosen by voters, there was just no turning back.
They also insisted that, for all the progress the country has made over the years towards developing a common Singaporean identity, it was foolhardy to shy away from the reality that race continues to be a powerful factor influencing electoral choices and outcomes. Hence, they concluded that a minority candidate would face an uphill task in an open contest, which led to the decision to hold a reserved election. This remains controversial, but to my mind, is neither unreasonable nor unrealistic.
Yet, even if you accepted this contention, the solution proposed poses problems, as is manifested in the present quandary faced by Teo and his panel. So far, only three candidates have expressed interest in standing for election, although there is an off-chance that more might emerge over the next few days. But of these three, only one meets the criteria to do so. She is none other than Madam Halimah Yacob, who qualifies in light of her previous role of Speaker of Parliament, one of several top posts mentioned in the Constitution as an automatic pass to qualification.
The other two would-be contenders Farid Khan, 61, chairman of a marine services firm, and Salleh Marican, 67, chief executive of a listed property company do not meet the requirement of having led a company with an average shareholder equity of $500 million in the three most recent years. The presidential election committee is empowered to exercise discretion and could, if it chose, over-ride these criteria and allow one or both of these businessmen through, thereby setting up a contest for the election.
But doing so comes at a cost, for it would set a significant precedent, making future efforts to uphold the financial requirements for the job all but impossible.
Many in Singapores Malay community also feel uncomfortable about such a concession being made for them, contrary to the deeply-held meritocratic ethos of the country.
Yet, should Teo and his team choose to hold the line and rule that the two men do not meet the standards that Parliament had mandated, the result would be the first-ever reserved election being won by a walkover, also a less than ideal outcome, not just for the Malay community but also all round.
Singapore has seen presidents elected unopposed in the past, but doing so this time, when Parliament had gone out of its way to restrict the election to Malay candidates to allow one of them to be voted in by the people, will leave not a few people disappointed, to say the least. Hence, the deep dilemma facing those who have to decide on how best to proceed, given that there is just no way to check all the three boxes of the principles listed above.
In all likelihood, the committee will not be able to deliver on the triple goals of equal access to the office for all races, upholding standards and meritocracy, and an electoral contest for candidates to win a mandate through a vote. Something, as they say, will have to give. So what is Teo and his committee to do? Well, the best that can be done under these difficult circumstances, in my view, would be for the committee to accept that there is only one candidate who qualifies under the present rules spelt out by Parliament.
Madam Halimah might then be declared elected into office unopposed on Nomination Day. This seems to be the option most people are now anticipating, going by the betting talk making the rounds. The committee might also point out that the next election, as spelt out in the constitution, will be an open one. The upshot of this is that while the new president might seem to have won an easy victory, she will have her work cut out for her.
She will have to work hard at connecting with the people, upholding the office and generally doing a stellar job, in the hope of winning over some of the doubters, over time. Then, six years from now, she should stand again, to defend her position in an open contest.
Given her nearly four decades of service to the community, as union leader, MP and Speaker, as well as her likeability and common touch, some believe she could well win on her own merits, perhaps even now. But in any case, she should be ready to be put to the test in an open fight in a few years time once people have had a chance to see her perform in the job. This will not satisfy the purists. But it is a pragmatic approach that Singaporeans are familiar with.
After all, Singapore has long had a system of Group Representation Constituencies, where newbie potential ministers and minority candidates are fielded as a team with established leaders to help them gain a foothold in Parliament. Once there, they are expected to establish their own credentials and defend their positions at subsequent polls.
The same now goes for the coming presidential contest. The GRC system have never been popular in some quarters, but many Singaporeans would grant, however grudgingly, that it has worked to achieve its purpose of ensuring ethnic representation in Parliament, thereby contributing to the hard- won racial harmony the country now enjoys.
(The writer is Editor-in-Chief of Singapores The Straits Times, and its sister publications in English, Malay and Tamil. This is a series of columns on global affairs written by top editors and columnists from members of the Asia News Network and published in newspapers and websites across the region.)
Sanjeev Sanyal, noted economist and former managing director and global strategist at Deutsche Bank, is the principal economic adviser in the department of economic affairs of the Finance Ministry. Sanyal, who graduated from Shri Ram College of Commerce, spent two decades working in international financial markets before joining the government.
He is a prolific writer and has authored books such as Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of Indias Geography, The Indian Renaissance: Indias Rise After a Thousand Years of Decline, The Incredible History of Indias Geography and The Ocean of Churn. Sanyal is known for arguing that conventional economists are wrong to demand perpetual global balance.
In an interview to PRASHANT MUKHERJEE, he speaks of how the Prime Ministers vision of New India can bring in a fundamental change in governance of the Indian economy.
Excerpts:
Q. In the last three years of BJP rule, the Prime Minister has coined new terminologies. In 2014, he promised Acche Din that won him the general elections. In 2015, it was Make in India and Swachh Bharat, 2016 was about Digital India and Start-Up India and now it is about New India. What does this New India mean?
A: There are many elements to this New India. But taking it from the socio-economic perspective one important element is going to be moving India from a patronage-based society to becoming a rule-based society. Secondly, this will be an India based on Manthan.
Q. What do you mean by Manthan?
A: By Manthan we mean a churning of ideas, social churn, social mobility, we mean entrepreneurship. Its an India that allows continuous churning of ideas, society, economic activity, new technologies. So, its an India of continuous change.
Q. Do you think the country is prepared for this continuous change without any thought given on what would be its impact on people?
A: Our current systems are not set up to allow for this continuous change that happens in the context of a rulebased society. But this is what the Prime Minister is aspiring for. Consequently, many of the changes that are being made have to be seen in the context of creating this churning of society.
Q. But how do the kinds of changes that have been made so far fit with this new agenda?
A: For example, one of the most important reforms that the government has undertaken is reform of the bankruptcy code. Why the bankruptcy code and not any other reform? The reason is that if you want a genuinely entrepreneurial society then you have to allow for the fact that when you take risks, some of them go wrong. If you do not have an exit policy, the churn will not happen. An important corollary of this is that society must not hold business failure as some sort of a moral failing. This should be seen as a part of the churn. There should be no social stigma attached to bankruptcy. Fraud is a different thing that should be tackled. So, at one end we want to create a simple bankruptcy system that deals with business failures and allows continuous exit so that the resources that are stuck in these failed businesses can be liquefied and redeployed. At the same time, we need to get rid of this social stigma of failing.
Q. In a sense what you are saying is that we must allow businesses to file for bankruptcy at the cost of capital of ordinary people, putting it in the context of rising NPAs in the banking system?
A: This is in reference to the same context in which we need to clean up our banks and NPAs. The old idea was that we somehow need to keep the bad loans evergreen, because the evergreen process at least keeps these old businesses alive. In the churning system, it is much better to settle, resolve, liquidate and then create a new wave of investment that comes. That is why it is a fundamentally different way of thinking about it. The same idea also applies to the enormous effort being made to curtail corruption and improve tax compliance. This is an attempt to create a rule-based society. It is a culture change that we are attempting to do.
Q. In that case, will there be any safeguards for consumers?
A: Yes, there have to be some safeguards. When you create a churning society you need to create some basic safeguards. The Finance Minister also said some sort of solution should be provided to those who bought flats in the project. But we have to be careful that in the name of protection to the common man, we do not perpetuate the failures of the past system.
Q. When you say constant churning, people are already feeling the pinch with the implementation of GST. Earlier,they have felt the same with demonetisation.
A: I think that the New India is beginning to understand this new culture. The old way of thinking was that we would spend five years to plan and design and then another five years in implementing it and then we would be completely surprised that after 10 years we did not succeed. We have to get away from this thinking. The new way of implementing things is that we accept that whatever we are doing is not perfect. The way we move forward is through feedback and adaption. Yes, it looks messier. When you are implementing something like GST, the fact is that there are all kinds of unintended consequences. No plan is ever going to be perfect. Instead of wasting a large amount of time to create a perfect system, it is much better to create a basic framework and to implement it. And as you implement it, you fix it along the way. This is a feedback loops and flexibility-based governance system.
Q. Dont you think too many changes in a short span of time will impact growth?
A: The whole point is that we are a young nation which is ready for rapid change. It is screaming out for new ideas, screaming out to take risks. This is the New India that is willing to change.
Q. Dont you think this sort of governance can be successful only when there is a proper balance maintained?
A: The balance in such a system is not provided by grand plans. First of all, we need a good judicial system that enforces contracts. Second, we need social capital and third, we need clear rules. These are the three anchors of the system.
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)
Today
Snow showers this evening. Becoming partly cloudy later. Low 28F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 60%..
Tonight
Snow showers this evening. Becoming partly cloudy later. Low 28F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 60%.
KENOSHA In honor of what would have been her 18th birthday Sunday, the father of slain Kenosha teen Olivia Mackay opened a scholarship fund to help others.
Kelly Mackay posted his daughters sweet 16 photo, remembering how it made him feel.
Olivias sweet 16 party photo ... Every child dreams of one day becoming an adult. On that day, moms and dads smile at each other or maybe wipe their brows and let out a sign of relief that their baby is finally ready for their journey into adulthood, Kelly Mackay said.
He started the Olivia Mary Mackay Scholarship Fund with a goal to raise $30,000 through crowdfunding and community charity events, including last weeks benefit concert at tgs Restaurant and Pub, 4120 Seventh Ave., Kenosha. The 17-year-olds artwork helped bring awareness to a fund with the goal to give students a chance to study abroad.
Olivia often talked about all the things she was going to do when she turned 18, Kelly Mackay said. On her next birthday, Sept. 3, 2017, please help us celebrate Olivias life and dream of studying abroad by donating a gift to the scholarship fund created in her name.
Olivia had a passion to travel, he said. By working a part-time job, she financed a trip to China last year and was planning a trip to France this summer.
Olivia, who had been a student at Indian Trail High School and Academy in Kenosha, talked of attending either Carthage College in Kenosha or Loyola University in Chicago because of their respective study-abroad programs.
For more information on Olivias memorial fund, go to: http://bit.ly/2gqMaFh.
Case moves forward
Olivia as found dead in the 11000 block of Louis Sorenson Road in Mount Pleasant on July 24. Daniel Tate, 19, of Kenosha is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the case.
Jamari Cook, 17, also of Kenosha, is accused of stealing Olivias car and hiding her body in it.
According to Aug. 15 court testimony from police, Cook witnesses Tate strangle Olivia on the beach of Lake Michigan near the Pennoyer Park bandshell on Seventh Avenue in Kenosha. Both of them drove her body to a rural area in Racine County.
Cook is in jail on a $20,000 cash bond. If convicted of the most serious charge, Cook could see up to 7 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
Tate is in jail on a $1 million bond and faces life in prison.
Both defendants have a pre-trial conference scheduled for Oct. 26.
The last days of the Newfie Pride
There were many nights he didnt sleep. The numbers and scenarios turned over and over in his mind, making rest impossible. Id get up two, three oclock in the morning, night after night, come out to the kitchen table and work the numbers every ...
CALEDONIA Following the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, a Caledonia resident who owns property damaged by the historic storm, is planning a trip to Texas to clean up her damaged property.
Two years ago, Theresa Isaacson, who co-owns Yogi Bears Jellystone Park in Caledonia, bought the Raintree RV Park in Rockport, Texas, a little more than two miles from the Gulf of Mexico.
Its much different than (Caledonia) ... very much a fisherman, winter retreat area. It was in the eye of the hurricane, Isaacson said. Its a beautiful little town, but not right now.
Isaacson was shocked to receive pictures through her phone from her staff in Texas showing the destruction, including five of eight rental cabins damaged or completely destroyed.
Its unbelievable. Its something were not used to seeing in Wisconsin, Isaacson said.
Isaacson said her insurance is not going to cover the damage, so shes looking into grants and digging into contingency funds from her business in Caledonia to repair the damage.
We called the city down there and they dont want us to come. They want us to stay away. However, its not a good answer when you own something that could be salvageable, Isaacson said.
With an $850,000 mortgage to pay down on the Texas property, Isaacson decided to lead a group of friends and an employee down to Rockport clean up the RV park and get it ready for campers and potentially those displaced by Harveys destruction.
Isaacson managed to arrange for a trash bin and portable toilets to be delivered and is taking a compact track loader and other supplies with her to Rockport to get the park back into shape.
While Isaacson is in Rockport, the longtime RV park owner will be without electricity, water or sewer for her RV, but shes prepared until services can be restored to the city.
Its bad. We have to be pretty much be self-sufficient when we get there, Isaacson said. Every week well take our trailer to a dump station off site, an hour away.
Isaacson said her staff has to travel 30 minutes away from the area to get cell service.
Its going to be so hot there. Im trying to think about what we need to take, Isaacson said.
Opportunity to help
In the midst of the crisis, there have been signs of opportunity. Staff members are getting a number of calls from insurance adjusters interested in using Isaacsons 80 motor home sites in Rockport as temporary housing for evacuees.
Reportedly as many as 40,000 homes in the region were destroyed by the storm or the deluge of rain that caused historic flooding.
Isaacson said shes open to working with government to move in temporary FEMA trailers, but its too early for that discussion.
When you have no income now and a bank loan we have to do what we can do get it operational or you give up. But thats not us, Isaacson said. Were going to do whatever it takes to make it happen.
Patnaik's close aides say that to understand him, one has to understand his empathy
By Pratul Sharma/Photos Sanjay Ahlawat
RACINE With the future in limbo for undocumented immigrants who are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, House Speaker Paul Ryan believes Congress needs to find a humane solution so that these kids dont have this turmoil hanging over their heads.
I understand their angst, Ryan said of DACA recipients. These kids dont know any home other than this country. I do believe there needs to be a legislative solution that is humane to fix this problem. Its going to take us time to figure that out.
Ryan, who represents Racine County in Congress, was in Racine Friday to meet with The Journal Times Editorial Board. Immigration, tax reform and health care were among topics discussed.
There have been reports that President Donald Trump may end DACA on his own, but Ryan said it would be helpful for the administration to give us time to figure this out legislatively because thats where the issue belongs.
Through conversations with the White House, Ryan said Trump wants a humane solution to DACA.
When asked what humane means, Ryan said: Not deporting people tomorrow.
I think (Trump) is willing to give us that time, Ryan said. Law will ultimately have to be made.
The program was first put into action by President Barack Obama in June 2012.
Recipients of DACA, which protects undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, have been fearful that the program will soon be repealed or changed in a significant way.
Most of these kids dont know any other country, Ryan said. They were brought there through no fault of their own, not of their own volition, and theyve lived here for a long time and this is their country.
Tax reform must
get done
Recently Ryan has visited businesses in the Wisconsin 1st Congressional District to tout tax reform, which hes confident will get passed in the fall.
I think between the House, the Senate and the White House, weve basically all got on the same page, Ryan said. We have not had the political consensus in years to that that like we do now. Thats why we have to get this done.
Countries like Canada, Ireland and England, with lower corporate tax rates than the U.S., are hurting American businesses in the global market, Ryan said.
Were killing ourselves competitively, Ryan said. The rest of the industrialized world has reformed their (tax) code over and over and over again to the point where were really in an un-competitive position.
Ryan said he wants to lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to under the international average tax rate which is 22.5 percent.
We have to do this in a deficit-neutral way, Ryan said. Were trying to get to as close to 20 percent as we possibly can for the corporate rate.
Ryan also wants to establish territorial system to allow American companies headquartered overseas to repatriate their money with a one-time tax when they bring it back to the U.S.
I anticipate hundreds of billions of dollars coming back, like next year, when we do this, Ryan said.
Inversion companies moving their headquarters overseas is something Ryan said has become too common.
We see a huge trend of these inversions coming, Ryan said. This is happening left and right, American companies, especially publicly traded ones, are becoming foreign companies. The only way to stop that from getting worse is to fix our tax system.
Unlike health care reform, which failed in the Senate by one vote, Ryan said tax reform is a much simpler process and hes confident it will pass.
We could only put parts of what we wanted to do in that (health care) bill it was very incomplete and complicated and really political, and thats probably why it failed in the Senate, Ryan said. Tax reform, the entire bill can be in this one bill. The whole thing, soup to nuts, can be done with the one bill.
McCain surprised everybody
On health care, Ryan said the Senate is still trying to pass a bill but time and pressure will force us to do something. I hope the Senate figures something out.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was the deciding vote on July 28 that killed the latest attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Leading up to that vote, Ryan said he called McCain to assure him that Congress would go into conference to resolve the differences on the bill.
I was going to keep Congress in session and go to a conference committee, Ryan said. He surprised everybody and just voted the other way. I dont think anybody saw that coming.
Ryan said the House health care bill, which passed May 4, covers catastrophic illnesses like cancer but also provides a tax credit to help individuals purchase more affordable insurance.
Let people buy the benefits they want or need, Ryan said. By funding catastrophic illnesses, then you basically stop-loss everybody, you re-insure insurance we just have to decide as a society, which is what the House bill does, we, federal and state will just cover this. By doing that, you totally stabilize the insurance markets.
The tendency to splurge while in possession of a credit card is something to worry about.
And not all because the conventional wisdom of not spending more than what one earns is forgotten in the era of the all-important EMIs; this splurging is what drives the growth of the economy.
While consumption is meant to drive the growth of the economy, the Reserve Bank of India is concerned about the sustainability of a consumption-led economy.
For one, it transpires that much of the consumption by households, meaning individuals, has increased, leading to growth. But the consumption has been not based on earnings, increased salaries and savings, but on borrowings from banks and other lending agencies. This apparently leads to a loan-led growth, and not growth based on actual incomes.
The RBI, in its annual report, points out that the GDP growth in India has been consumption-led, particularly in 2013-14 and 2016-17. In such a phase of growth, consumption grows faster than GDP, either in nominal or real terms, so that the consumption-to-GDP ratio increases over time, or alternately real consumption growth exceeds real GDP growth," the reports says, suggesting high household indebtedness.
According to the central bank, such consumption-led growth can arguably lead to a slackening of future growth if it entails growing imbalances due to limits to capacity creation and rising debt burdens, particularly for households.
Worries over growth slackening had hitherto rested on the premise of low consumption or low demand, be it for goods consumed by households or capital goods.
This loan-led-consumption comes with the debt-servicing burden, which may affect future consumption adversely.
Private consumption significantly contributes more than half of India's GDP growth. By nature, it is not very volatile. Given the size of the Indian marketremember former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan's suggestion that it should be "make for India" rather than make in India"the central bank also believes private consumption "may be the inevitable means" of economic growth.
But in the short term, the RBI says, the negative impact of such loan-based, consumption driven growth was not statistically significant.
Prime minister Narendra Modi flies to China on Sunday to take part in the three-day BRICS leaders summit. While Modi going to China itself is big news, given that some days ago, even that seemed unlikely with the Doklam cloud hanging over the bilateral ties of the two neighbours, the BRICS meeting is important on several other counts, too.
There is a lot in common between the member nations, as well as great differences. BRICS spans four continents, and has different political ideologies. India, South Africa and Brazil are democracies, while Russia and China are not. Russia is part of the developed west, the others are still considered 'emerging economies'. Together, however, these countries were once seen as the future superstars of the world. Some countries have little people to people contact, while others are rubbed raw with friction (India-China and the Doklam standoff being the most recent illustration.)
The theme of this summit, stronger partnership for a brighter future itself is poignant.
To make BRICS relevant into its tenth year and beyond is a challenge before the group. Terrorism is the big issue at all global meets, and this one will be no different, even though China has clearly mentioned that the BRICS platform would not be appropriate to raise the issue of Pakistan and terrorism. But the subject is likely to pop up in some form or the other, even if Pakistan is not mentioned.
Four documents are expected to be signedthe MoUs on economic and trade development, innovative development, a strategic framework for BRICS custom cooperation and MoU between BRICS business council and New Development Bank.
The last is important, as it gives direction to the bank within BRICS that Modi had proposed in his first outing at BRICS. Given the more democratic setup of the bank as compared to west-dominated financial institutions, it is important for BRICS nations to ensure the bank becomes a robust institution. Some of the largest economies of the world contribute to it.
This is the first summit after the ascension of Donald Trump in the US. BRICS, which is built on a foundation of globalisation, could make a statement on the subject. It remains an important multi national club in a time of protectionism.
The Xiamen outing will also give Modi opportunity to strengthen bilateral ties with his counterparts. Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of the external affairs ministry (MEA) said the bilaterals were not yet finalised, but were still being coordinated. But a pull aside with Jinping would greatly add to the truce the two countries have worked out over the tri-border standoff. It would also help sweeten building rancour, thanks to China's One Belt One Road Initiative.
There is some noise from Beijing on the need to expand BRICS into a BRICS Plus forum. India, however, is not in favour, said the MEA. China has invited five nations as guests. These are Egypt, Kenya, Tajikistan, Mexico and Thailand, taking a cue from India, which, last year, had invited the BIMSTEC nations, too, to the Goa venue where BRICS summit was hosted. The host country is free to invite guests, that does not mean BRICS will expand,'' Kumar said.
As Prime Minister Nadrendra Modi-led NDA government is gearing up for a cabinet expansion on Sunday, Uttar Pradesh is likely to see its representation dwindle at the Centre.
According to sources, party high command has made up its mind to relieve four ministers from UP and will pick only two new faces in their place. Currently, there are 15 ministers from the state in Modis council of ministers.
Party sources claim that Union ministers Kalraj Mishra, Uma Bharti and Sanjeev Baliyan have handed over their resignations to the prime minister, while a fourth minister Mahendra Nath Pandey has been given the charge of UP. Members of Parliament from UP, who are likely to be promoted to the council of ministers in Sunday's expansion, include Satyapal Singh (Baghpat MP), Harish Dwivedi (Basti MP), Virendra Singh (Bhadohi MP), Sharad Tripathi (Sant Kabir Nagar MP), Bhartendu Singh (Bijnor MP) and Shiv Pratap Shukla (Rajya Sabha).
The decision to reduce the number of ministers from UP has been taken keeping in mind the upcoming polls in other states. Sources say the move will not have any adverse effect because Home Minister Rajnath Singh, President of India Ram Nath Kovind and many others who hold important positions belong to the state.
Speculations are ripe that Union minister Kalraj Mishra, who resigned today, is likely to become the Bihar governor. Party sources claim a number of ministers from Bihar, too, will be cut down but the loss will be compensated by inducting new faces from the JD (U).
Since Uma Bharti and Nirmala Sitaraman are likely to quit from the Union council of ministers, there are speculations that they might be replaced with other women MPs itself to balance womens representation. The probables include Barabanki MP Priyanka Rawat, Lalgunj MP Neelam Sonkar and Behriach MP Savitri Bai Phule.
The CID West Bengal on Friday issued look out notices against three Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leaders, including party chief Bimal Gurung, as tensions continued to mount in the northern West Bengal hills following a rift within the Morcha leadership.
Lookout circular was issued against Gurung, Party's General Secretary Roshan Giri as well as party leader Prakash Gurung, sources said, for their alleged role in various incidents, including blasts in Darjeeling and Kalimpong.
Gurung's supporters on Friday stepped up rallies and picketing, completely stalling flow of life in the region and effectively negating the suspension of the strike that was announced by GJM Joint Secretary Binay Tamang a day ago.
The GJM leadership which convened a central committee meeting in Sikkim on Friday expelled Tamang and senior party leader Anit Thapa, accusing them of conspiring to derail the Gorkhaland movement.
A GJM activist was allegedly killed in police firing while at least nine party leaders were arrested by the police during a raid in south Sikkim's Namchi.
Thousands of pro-shutdown activists hit the streets at various places in the hills, including Kurseong, Sonada, Rangan and Darjeeling, in shrill condemnation against Tamang and Thapa, who had called off the shutdown for 12 days, starting from September 1.
Hailing Gurung as the undisputed leader of the Gorkhaland movement, the agitators pledged to continue the impasse till the statehood for the region is realised. Slogans like "Binay Tamang murdabad" and "We want Gorkhaland" were raised.
Streets in Darjeeling and other parts of the hills looked deserted. Shops, schools, colleges and offices remained closed since Friday morning.
Gurung, in a purported voice clip from an undisclosed location, has accused some of his party leaders of joining hands with the West Bengal government and of conspiring to foil their agitation for a separate state of Gorkhaland.
Terming the renewed agitation in the hills as people's movement, GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri said people in the hills favoured continuing the shutdown till a separate state of Gorkhaland is created.
"This is a people's movement. The poor people of the hills are ready to suffer even further for the cause of Gorkhaland. We won't let their sacrifice go in vain," Giri said.
Claiming that the situation was under control, police in Darjeeling said they would not intervene if the agitation is conducted in a democratic, peaceful manner.
"Some miscreants tried to create ruckus by pelting stones yesterday night. But we dispersed the crowd. Some activists are agitating again today. Police are keeping a close watch. We will not intervene if the agitation is done in a democratic way," a senior police officer said in Darjeeling.
State Tourism Minister Goutam Deb said the state government is "keeping a close watch" on the situation.
"We hope for an amicable solution to the problem," Deb said.
Madhya Pradesh had the highest number of ministers in union cabinet after Uttar Pradesh. Excluding Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan there was a time when nine leaders from state occupied ministerial berths. However, three fell vacant after Union Environ and Forest Minister Anil Madhav Dave passed away a few months back, Najma Heptaullah was made Governor of Manipur and Faggan Singh Kulaste resigned on Friday.
The other ministers are Narendra Singh Tomar, Sushma Swaraj, Thavar Chand Gehlot (all Lok Sabha members) Prakash Javdekar, M.J. Akbar (Rajya Sabha member) and Uma Bharti, former MP chief minister but Lok Sabha member from Jhansi of Uttar Pradesh.
With the three seats from state falling vacant, it is expected that at least two leaders will be accommodated from state keeping in mind the assembly polls next year. Prahlad Patel, member of Lok Sabha from Damoh seat, is a front-runner as he was a minister of state during previous NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
With leaders like Narendra Singh Tomar already having two major portfolios of rural development and urban ministry is likely to be eased with one of the department.
With Union minister of state for health Faggan Singh Kulaste who is a tribal face of party in south-eastern Madhya Pradesh asked to resign and rumours of Uma Bharti, too, meeting the same fate, the vacancy might be given to new faces of state.
Besides Patel, other front-runners from the state are Virenadra Kumar, a dalit MP for seven times, Ganesh Singh, MP from Satna seat and Rakesh Singh, MP from Jabalpur. Since BJP is expecting an electoral downslides in the regions represented by these leaders they may be promoted to infuse energy among the cadres of their respective regions.
Sources say that BJP national president Amit Shah has already discussed the issue of the prospective names with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan along with the party organisation.
Interestingly, no one is ready to comment on the reported resignations of ministers. When Uma Bharti was confronted with journalists who asked about the rumours of her resignations, she said, I am not authorised to speak on the issue; you can ask party president or the person authorised by him.
BJP has 26 MPs from the state which has a total of 29 parliamentary seats. The remaining three Congress seats are represented by senior party leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kamalnath and former union minister Kantilal Bhuria.
BJP national president Amit Shah, during his recent visit to Bhopal, had asked party unit to focus on the three Congress seats.
With the proposed Union cabinet reshuffle, it is expected that some new leaders may be promoted keeping an eye on these Congress seats as BJP has made it a prestige point to defeat these invincible Congress leaders.
The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), which is spearheading separate statehood in Darjeeling, has shot down the argument of the Union government that it would not be proper on the part of the Centre to accept demands for separate statehood for Darjeeling or by a section of people in Tripura.
Union parliamentary affairs minister S.S. Ahluwalia, who is also an MP from Darjeeling, said in Delhi on Thursday, Central government would not accept separate statehood demand of people in West Bengal hills and Tripura unless the governments of the states concerned suggested it.
Sources said Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar has expressed his satisfaction over the decision of the Narendra Modi government. But it sent a shock wave across the GJM leadership in Darjeeling. GJM has been a supporter of the BJP.
GJM general secretary Roshan Giri told THE WEEK, It is very disappointing on the part of central government to come out with such an argument. Had state government accepted our demand, would there have been any agitation like this for more than 80 days?
Giri said that GJM would not accept the proposal of the central government though it is part of NDA.
We held several rounds of meeting with the government regarding the Darjeeling crisis. But there was no hint that the Union government would come out with such an idea, he said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on August 29 held the first round of talks with the GJM representatives at state secretariat where she said that it would not be possible to accept the statehood demand as it did not fall under her administrative jurisdiction.
Sources in the BJP has confirmed that Union home minister Rajnath Singh had asked Mamata government to hold the reconciliation meeting with the Gorkhaland agitators and assured the chief minister that the Union government would not take any step to break West Bengal.
Only after that, Mamata Banerjee has agreed to sit with the agitators. She, however, acknowledged their rights to demand a separate state, said a senior BJP leader in West Bengal.
Giri said that agitation in Darjeeling is peoples agitation and it would not be withdrawn.
We will fight till the end. By fighting we will convince the central government. We are sure they would change their opinion, he said.
The most interesting thing in the entire episode was that the Union government chose Ahluwalia to denounce Gorkha agitation. In 2014, Ahluwalia had promised the people of Darjeeling a separate Gorkhaland if BJP came to power.
Now he has no face to hide after this, said a GJM leader. Chances are high that Ahluwalia would not stand from the Darjeeling in 2019 election. His statement against the statehood demand has dampened his chances to get reelected from Darjeeling again.
Giri, however, said that Ahluwalia was forced to toe party line.
I cannot blame him entirely. He was very sincere in his actions initially. But now he became victim of politics. Its his political compulsion, said Giri, without clarifying whether GJM would accept his candidature in 2019 or not.
I think the election is far away and we would sit down before that to decide whom to support, said Binoy Tamang, assistant secretary of GJM.
Cabinet rejig has ministers of state on tenterhooks
Namrata Biji Ahuja
If the cabinet reshuffle is making news in the media, there is as much or more buzz in the North Block on Raisina Hill which houses a large number of ministers of state (MoS)a total of five in number, all holding crucial posts and waiting for a possible promotion.
The top ministries of home and finance have four ministers of state (two each) besides MoS PMO Jitender Singh. While finance ministry has Santosh Kumar Gangwar and Arjun Ram Meghwal, there is Kiren Rijiju and Hansraj Ahir in the union home ministry. A few steps away from their offices within the North Block is the office of the minister of state in prime minister's office Jitender Singh.
Not to forget, on the opposite side of the road in South Block, there is MoS Subhash Ramrao Bhamre .
All the MoS don't stay very far away from each other which makes the atmosphere even more charged as their personal staff as well as bureaucrats are glued on to keeping track of possible changes in these North Block and South Block offices .
Many are even asking media persons about what they have heard about the reshuffle .
It comes as no surprise as traditionally the top ministries of home and finance in North Block and defence ministry in South Block are considered crucial posts for ministers.
The buzz is that if changes are effected in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet, Raisina Hill may see some big changes specially since the post of the defence minister is being held as an additional charge by finance minister Arun Jaitley.
Other than the possibility of a new defence minister taking charge, the MoS race in North Block is noteworthy.
Rijiju and MoS PMO Jitender Singh are top contenders for independent charge even as their work in their respective departments has been appreciated both by the party and the government, a senior official commented. There is also a possibility some MoS may leave Raisina Hill to try their hand at other ministries like sports, skill development and human resource which also need focus.
Whether these MoS are due for promotion or making way for new talent being offered by partners of the NDA government like JD(U) and AIADMK is something corridors of North Block are eagerly waiting to know. If that happens, there will be new faces on Raisina Hill very soon.
(File photo) PM Modi with Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba
India realises importance of smaller nations, thanks to Doklam crisis
R. Prasannan
The Doklam crisis did one one good turn to India-Nepal ties. It opened New Delhi's eyes to the importance of engaging its small neighbours.
The one who got feted in the wake of the crisis was Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba who came on a five-day visit, around the time when the endgame in the Doklam crisis was being played out. Delhi, which has of late been a bit snooty towards the small neighbours, rolled out the red carpet for him.
Though India had been viewing Nepal and Bhutan as its strategic protectorates, Nepal had been straining at the leash longer and more forcefully than Bhutan. Nepal was outraged when India sent its foreign secretary to openly ask Nepal's lawmakers to make changes in their draft constitution so as to accommodate Madhesi interests. Anti-India feelings came out in the open during the Madhesi-imposed economic blockade of Kathmandu valley for which most Nepalis blamed India.
Nepal's move to send a delegation to attend Xi Jinping's one-belt-one-road durbar, which India had boycotted, was a setback for India. South Block realised that things were going out of hand. And then came the Doklam stand-off which signalled to India that even Bhutan, which had boycotted the OBOR durbar in deference to Delhi, couldn't be taken for granted.
The first to benefit from all this was Deuba who arrived in India on a five-day visit late August. Delhi was all ears when he and his delegation talked about the need to prioritise the Kushinagar-Lumbini-Kapilavastu and Bardibas-Birgunj rail link projects, and the proposal to upgrade the Birgunj-Pathlaiya-Narayanghat and Butwal-Pokhara roads into expressways.
Delhi's concern is that China, which has built a rail line to link mainland China to Lhasa in Tibet, has already extended the line up to Shigatse from where it is now being built to link to Kathmandu. Once goods trains start running between Chinese Tibet and Nepal, Nepal's trade figures would look northward, literally. And if nothing else there could be a flow of tourists, who come from all parts of the world to Shigatse to get a Shangri-La experience.
There was also discussion on building an international airport at Nijgadh, at least to give competition to China which is building an airport at the tourist paradise of Pokhara.
(File photo) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj
Sushma Swaraj has a busy schedule ahead
by Rekha Dixit
After her recent Kathmandu outing after a long hiatus due to ill health, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's calendar is filling up with travel schedules. Swaraj, who is in Colombo now for the two-day Indian Ocean Conference, will head to Russia from September 5 to 7 to take part in the third Eastern Economic Forum. Her visit will be to Vladivostok.
With the minister now fully in control, are two ministers of state a little too many in the ministry? With the cabinet reshuffle on Sunday, both Gen V.K Singh and M.J Akbar must be wondering.
Senior lawyer Indira Jaising is not impressed with the recent judgment of the Supreme Court, which by a majority of 3:2, had struck down the practice of triple talaq as unconstitutional. Jaising said she was disappointed that the apex court did not use the case as an opportunity to emphasise the pre-eminence of constitutional law over areas that are deemed to fall under family laws.
The triple talaq judgment is a disappointment of the highest order. It was the most important opportunity the Supreme Court was provided with for actually introducing constitutional law into family law, Jaising said.
We are unable to separate the secular from the theological, said the eminent lawyer. She was participating in a discussion on the book Intimacy Undone: Marriage, Divorce and Family Law in India, written by Malavika Rajkotia, a noted lawyer specialising in family laws.
Jaising said that it has been the bane of the family court from day one that constitutional law is not fully invoked into personal law. An effort has to be made to sanitise family law from religion. What efforts are we making in that direction? she asked.
She noted that in the triple talaq case, Justices Rohinton Nariman and U.U. Lalit found the practice to be in violation of Article 14, or the Right to Equality. This shows that there is no inherent contradiction between family law and Constitution, she said.
Jaising was especially critical of Justice Kurien Joseph's judgment. Justice Kurien Joseph did not agree with Justices Nariman and Lalit. He explicitly says he does not agree with them. He said what is theologically wrong cannot be legally accepted, she said.
The mixing of theology and law, she said, is problematic.
RACINE COUNTY Road work has closed a section of Taylor Avenue in the Georgetown neighborhood.
The County Trunk Highway X construction project officially began in early August and is slated to last eight to 12 weeks; however, the project is approximately two weeks behind schedule due to utility conflicts and delays with communication companies, county officials said.
The project will include the reconstruction of Taylor Avenue (Highway X) and close the road to through traffic southwest of Meachem Road during the project, according to a pamphlet handed out to area residents.
Culvert and storm sewer work began Monday. After the culverts are replaced, the road will be pulverized and milled, county officials said.
Drivers may use Taylor Avenue to get to their homes and businesses, but through traffic should follow the posted detour.
The projects contractor plans to excavate in the area to improve existing drainage ditches along Highway X from Bankers Road in Mount Pleasant to Meachem Road in Georgetown.
Improvements will include road-base repairs, with small changes to the pavement to improve cross-road intersections. The ditches and new storm sewer pipes, which are also being installed as part of the project, will ultimately reduce storm water flooding along the new highway.
The pavement will be improved by raising utility manholes to create smoother roadways along the route.
Residents are urged to allow more time to travel during the construction project due to any traffic delays that may occur.
The county project is estimated to finish in early November, weather permitting, county officials stated.
For information about the project, contact Racine County Public Works at 262-886-8440.
As the recent infants deaths in Gorakhpur highlight the breakdown of the state's public health system, a new study has revealed the implementation failures in Uttar Pradesh's Integrated Child Development Services, a social welfare programme that provides food, preschool education and primary healthcare to children under six years of age.
Published in June, the study was undertaken by The School of International Development University of East Anglia, UK, and is titled Indias food security entitlements: implications for agriculture and nutrition. It was funded by the Leveraging Agriculture for Nutrition in South Asia, an international research partnership.
Findings from the implementation of ICDS from UP show worrying trends in the statecorruption, and high staff absence from duty have rendered the ICDS near dysfunctional", it says. The study reveals the pathetic state of affairs at the anganwadis (rural mother and childcare centre). Apart from serving as a centre for monthly immunisation services, few services of consequence are provided at the aanganwadi, it says. These centres are usually closed, and even when open, they are "unattractive" and used "by a fraction of eligible children".
The study also highlights corruption by service providers, especially in the case of the Take Home Rations (THR) and the Hot Cooked Meal services. For instance, a large portion of daliya supplies are lost in leakages. Anganwadi workers make illegitimate monthly payments of Rs 500 each to be shared through representatives of the system in lieu of daliya supplies, the study says. Only a small proportion of the daliya supplies are distributed to the community, and a majority is sold as cattle feed, with each sack containing 20 packets of 1-kilogram daliya traded for Rs 200.
Funds for hot cooked meals have been inconsistent and available for approximately six months in the year, the authors point out. The majority of supervisory and managerial staff live in the state capital, which is far from the district centres, a fact that the study says contributes to staff absence and cripples a programme where field presence is indispensable.
The findings assume even more importance when juxtaposed with the state of child nutrition in UP. According to a report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), in UP, stunting among children under five years of age ranges from 32 per cent to 65 per cent. Stunting is the impaired growth and development children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. Children are defined as stunted if their height-for-age is more than two standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median. In 61 out of 71 districts, more than 40 per cent of the children are stunted, according to the IFPRI report.
Ishfaq Ahmed Paddar, one of the militants involved in the abduction and killing of Lieutenant Umar Fayaz on May 7, was killed in an encounter with the security forces on Friday.
Umar was abducted on May 7 from the residence of his maternal uncle Muhammad Maqbool at Batepora, Neldag in Shopian where he had gone to attend the wedding of his cousin sister Masarat Maqbool on May 9 and later his body was found from village Harmain.
Three masked militants had scaled the wall of the house of Mir and tip toed to the second floor and abducted Umar on gun point.
Umar was showing some funny video to Masarat and her cousin on the new cell phone that he had bought to record the wedding.
Umar's mother Jameela had resisted his kidnapping in the courtyard but the militant one of the militants had prevented her from chasing them by blocking the main gate.
He had told Masarat that he wanted to show his colleagues how a Kashmiri wedding is performed.
A resident of Kulgam, his killing has evoked widespread condemnation for the killers and sympathy for his family.
Paddar was killed in an encounter with security forces at Kulgam.
Police said on specific input a joint team of police and 62 Rashtriya Rifles laid an ambush to trap Paddar at Tantray Pora in Kulgam.
Paddar fired indiscriminately to break the cordon but couldn't escape. In the ensuing encounter, he was killed.
Paddar, police said, was involved in bank robberies at Kader branches of Jammu and Kashmir Bank and Ellaquai Dehati Bank.
He was also involved in the firing incident on at Yaripora police station. One AK 47 rifle, two AK 47 magazines, 42 AK 47 rounds and one pouch was seized from the slain terrorist.
Paddar first joined Hizbul Mujahideen and then shifted Lashkar-e-Tioba recently.
Meanwhile, protests and stone pelting rocked Eidgah in Srinagar after Eid prayers prompting the forces to use smoke shells to disperse the mob.
Rowan Gormley spent his formative years as a surfer bum, riding waves on South Africa's East Coast. This might not necessarily surprise you to look at him.
His shirts could use a good iron, his hair is in dire need of a comb and his flushed chops sprout permanent four-day whiskers. He's affable, jocular, a seasoned raconteur and, as you might expect from the chief executive of Majestic Wine, enjoys a tipple or two.
His topsy-turvy career has seen him make a few million, lose the lot and then make it all back again. What an engaging character Gormley is.
Gormley's idea was to make Naked Wines like a social network, where customers were urged to review its wines and interact with each other.
He came in to the wine industry with the help of Sir Richard Branson, who poached him from private equity in 1994 when Beardie was looking for new business opportunities.
Gormley's bright idea was to use Virgin's trusted brand name to start a bank. The result - Virgin Money - proved a great success, leaving Gormley, aged just 33, with 5m in his back pocket.
Buoyed by a new found entrepreneurial self-confidence, Gormley thought that he could pull off a similar wheeze with wine, which he had developed a nose for in his teenage years. He ploughed his money into what became Virgin Wines in 2000 - though this time success was to prove trickier.
He made what he terms 'classic dotcom' mistakes - swanky London offices, big ad campaigns - none of which created any traction. The workforce was cut by 90 per cent, and Gormley was forced to move the firm to Norwich, feeling considerably humbled.
Things improved, and five years later the company was bought by Direct Wines, whose bosses then promptly made a decision to sack him. The experience was brutal.
By the time Gormley learned of his dismissal, his work phone had been disconnected. He dashed over the road to get a new handset, contacted a dozen members of staff he wanted to poach, and set about creating a rival business, Naked Wines.
Gormley agreed to take the top job at Majestic when it snapped up his company Naked Wines.
The idea was to make it like a social network, where customers were urged to review its wines and interact with each other. They were also encouraged to become 'angels', paying a direct debit of 20 a month, in exchange for wines at wholesale prices.
Having built a network of some 320,000 angels, Naked Wines was snapped up by Majestic in 2015 for 70m. Gormley's 29 per cent stake netted him 5m.
Instead of retiring to his home in the Norfolk countryside, he agreed to take the top job at Majestic.
As part of his turnaround plan, he's scrapped the company's minimum six-bottle order and introduced next-day delivery. Worldwide sales currently stand at 300m, which he now aims to raise to 500m by 2019.
Despite his success, Gormley admits his own personal finances are shambolic, and leaves the household expenditure to wife Jenny. They met on a blind date in South Africa where, ironically, he was working as an accountant.
She had bought a one-way ticket to London, and so Gormley, loathing the stuffy world of accountancy - where he had to shave every day - decided to follow her, and they were engaged within six weeks.
His staff seem to love him, and it's not hard to see why. A visitor to California, where he and Jenny based themselves for a while when running Naked Wines, recalls them regularly hosting barbecues for employees and local winemakers.
When Majestic bought Naked Wines, many of his workers were able to pay off their mortgages with their shares. Gormley also declined 7m of stock in the new firm, preferring it to be redistributed among staff should certain targets get met.
Despite his job, he has no truck with expensive wine. His describes the perfect glass as 'whatever is in front of me.' The most expensive bottle he has ever bought, he claims, was a 50 Napa Cabernet he ordered at his son's 21st in California.
When not home in Norfolk, he and Jenny enjoy sailing holidays around Croatia and Thailand. Gormley likes to skipper the boat himself, which allows him to sail his own course.
Just as he's done throughout his eventful business career.
The meteoric rise of fitness shoe brand FitFlop continues with sales increasing 10 per cent thanks to strong growth across all major markets including Asia, the US, Europe and the Middle East.
The brand, founded by Canadian entrepreneur Marcia Kilgore who also created beauty brands Bliss Spa and Soap and Glory has a huge celebrity following that ranges from Oprah Winfrey and Uma Thurman to David Cameron, who famously sported them on holiday.
The shoes are now sold in more than 50 countries.
Sole mates: FitFlops were sported by David Cameron on holiday with wife Samantha
Accounts just filed for the British-based company reveal an increase in turnover from 97million to 106million last year.
The previous years pre-tax loss of 3.1million was turned into a 7.2million profit due in part to an improved performance in the US market where most of its sales are.
Directors for the company, which is ultimately owned by a Maltese trust, said that they expected both increased sales and profitability for 2017 and they paid out a 9.6million dividend during the year.
The company manufactures in Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia and it offsets its carbon emissions by planting trees in the UK and the Amazon.
Forget love and romance, the real secret of a long and happy marriage is separate bank accounts, according to a report.
More than a quarter of cohabiting and married Britons blamed divorce-inducing quarrels on outdated monetary ties.
Although the majority of couples still accepted that a joint bank account has the potential of building trust and openness, one in four claimed that amalgamating income - and especially savings - was likely to cause irreversible rifts that could end in break-up or divorce.
A survey by MoneyMagpie.com found that couples are choosing to keep their finances separate
The poll of more than 2,000 adults was commissioned by the consumer finance website MoneyMagpie.com as part of a wider study by Opinium Research into Britain's spending habits.
Founder and consumer affairs expert Jasmine Birtles said the findings reflect positively on newlyweds who are taking proactive steps to reduce the risk of unnecessary conflict before it arises.
She said: 'The results of this research appear to suggest that more people than ever before are choosing to keep their finances separate after getting married or moving in together.
'For a considerable number of people, it seems, the decision to retain financial autonomy is not based upon money at all but rather upon on the long-term health of their relationship.'
While joint bank accounts could be a simple way of managing household spending for newlyweds, the survey suggested that couples were increasingly reluctant to lose their financial independence.
More than 2000 adults took part in the survey which revealed that that couples were increasingly reluctant to lose their financial independence
Of the 2,005 adults polled, 34 per cent of married and living-as-married couples opted to keep their bank accounts separate.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, older couples who had been together for more than 30 years were by far the most likely to have a joint account - 80 per cent.
But the number of joint accounts dropped markedly among those in relationships of less than six years, 52 per cent, while fewer still were shared by those in relationships of less than three years - 40 per cent.
Of those without joint accounts, the overwhelming majority, 81 per cent, said the primary driver was financial independence.
Some 24 per cent of those with joint accounts admitted to feeling 'guilty' using combined funds for their own personal use or enjoyment and more than a third, 34 per cent, of all respondents agreed that having individual accounts was fairer on their partner, in that it reduced the risk of excessive spending.
Ms Birtles said a joint account is far easier to manage - and access - in the event of a partner's death.
However, she added: 'There has clearly been a trend among younger couples, or couples in young relationships, to move away from joint bank accounts. In the view of some respondents, doing so will prevent the inevitable rows - which in some extreme cases may be divorce-inducing - that excessive spending will cause.'
Oregon Loses Key Gun
Rights Overnight
By Firearmdaily.com. August 30th, 2017
Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed and approved a gun control law, Senate Bill 719A, this week. This legislation is based on a similar law passed in California in 2014, and is effective immediately.
Of course, this didn't leave law-abiding Oregonians a lot of time to actually read through the bill, so let's take a closer look at what it does.
What does SB 719A Do?
SB 719A is a state law that allows for the creation of an "Extreme Risk Protection Order" or ERPO. Under this new law, an ERPO could be requested by a police or law enforcement officer, someone living in the home, a family member or other individual; the ERPO would deprive the person targeted of their rights under the Second Amendment without requiring an additional hearing or procedure.
Under SB 719A, the process to deprive someone of their 2nd Amendment rights is outlined. Basically, an order is requested by someone who knows the individual or who is a law enforcement official. Once the order is granted by a civil court judge, the person is not allowed to possess, carry or buy a firearm or ammunition for one year.
If the person already has firearms or ammo, the police are then able to search for and seize those items, even if they are stored with a third party or gun dealer, according to the NRA. Once an ERPO has been requested, the individual targeted has 30 days to request a hearing to contest it.
SB 719A Concerns .......
We discussed the possibility of this bill going through a while ago - and now here it is. It effectively gives malicious individuals the opportunity to place a false accusation against someone who then, with minimal due process or chance to defend themselves, can be stripped of their Second Amendment rights. It is beyond infringement.
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MBABANE Amabenjamin gang from Lobamba are now trying their luck in Mbabane but the people of the city centre would not allow them.
The gang of 10 men tried to attack one of the popular drinking holes in the city centre last week Saturday and was assaulted by a mob.
Gugulethu Sihlongonyane (20) from Mvutshini, who is one of the gang members, was the only one caught by the mob while the other nine ran for their lives and managed to escape.
Sihlongonyane was assaulted such that he had to be admitted to hospital and was discharged on Wednesday.
He made an appearance before Magistrate Sifiso Vilakati where he was facing three counts of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
In the first count, it is said he stabbed one Wini Jele in her left hand. count two; he allegedly stabbed Fisiwe Nhlabatsi in her right eye and the last count states that he allegedly stabbed Khanyisile Dlamini in the face.
When he made his appearance before court, he was remanded until September 8 and his trial date was set for October 2.
He was granted E3 000 bail.
Another gang member then returned on the Wednesday to avenge the assault of his friend at the bar and he got more than he had bargained for as he was also heavily assaulted.
This Amabenjamin gang member has since been admitted to hospital due to the seriousness of his injuries.
MAHLANYA When His Majesty King Mswati III commissioned the thousands of maidens to fetch the reed, he asked for Gods protection and guidance before wising the young girls a safe journey.
His prayer request was answered.
I wish you a safe journey, may the Almighty God and the ancestors be with you, the monarch was quoted saying when commissioning the maidens on Wednesday.
Yesterday, the maidens returned safely from the swamps where they were cutting the reed. The old maidens, who were led by Princess Sikhanyiso, cut the reed at Mpisi Farm while the younger ones who were led by Lizinyane Sakhizwe, fetched the reed at Bhamusakhe.
They expressed their joy while marching from their various camps to Ludzidzini Royal Residence where they are expected to take a rest today.
Led by emazinyane for several kilometers from Bhamusakhe, the young maidens were singing and dancing under the calm weather.
Motorists complied with the traffic police and gave way to the maidens during their march. They also gave way to the buses ferrying the maidens to Mahlanya.
Those who were transporting corpses moved away from the main road to give way to the regiment as per the norm.
The regiment met at Lobamba where they were then led by their leader, Princess Sikhanyiso and Indvuna Nonduduzo Zubuko to Ludzidzini Royal Residence.
EZULWINI About 70 people returned home without free meat at the Ezulwini Mosque after a power failure.
The power blackout spoiled the party for about 50 children and 20 adults who were hoping to receive meat parcels from the Mosque yesterday.
This was during the first day of Eid ul-Adha, an Islamic festival where cattle, sheep, and goats are slaughtered and given to the less privileged and the public at large.
The electricity glitch happened in the afternoon as the meat distribution process was about to start. However, this happened at a time when more than a hundred people had already received the hand-outs.
News of the distribution stopping came at a time when children as young as three had formed a line waiting for their turn to receive the meat. The children were eventually told that they would not be receiving their portions because of the power challenges.
They were told to return today as the distribution would continue until tomorrow.
The Corporate Communications and Marketing Manager at SEC, Sifiso Dhlamini apologised for the power cut and explained that from this reporters explanation of what transpired, the outage was not planned. Dhlamini also explained that such outages were caused by disruptions and were not on purpose.
We are sorry that such a significant festival had to be disturbed.
Saied Matsebula, the local Muslim Liaison Officer said that they were hoping to have the problem sorted soon. Matsebula stated that they would try to have the meat sliced elsewhere so that the process could continue.
SIKHUPHE It was a meeting of big guns when MTN Group President and Chief Executive Officer (ceo) Rob Shuter met the Prime Minister, Sibusiso Dlamini, in private, yesterday.
The meeting was held after Shuter had met with Swazi MTN management and staff and also after paying a courtesy call to the minister of Information Technology and Communications (ICT).
Efforts to get comment from government spokesperson proved fruitless as his phone rang unanswered. The last effort was made at around 8pm.
Shuter, who was appointed the Group CEO in July, arrived in the country in the morning through the KMIII International Airport.
He was met at the airport by Swazi MTN CEO Ambrose Dlamini who was accompanied by some members of his management and junior staff.
In a brief interview, Shuter said his main objective to be here was to meet with MTN operations and other important stakeholders.
Im very pleased to meet with the honourable prime minister and also the minister of ICT - trying to understand their vision for the country, and what role can MTN play, he said.
He disclosed that he would also have a session with staff members of Swazi MTN during his short visit.
Shuter noted that the local entity showed strong performance when gauging it against the other operations which were in 22 countries. We are expecting a lot of things from our team here, he said before being ushered into his vehicle to Ezulwini where he met staff.
MBABANE As if it was not bad enough that they were not informed before the press conference announcing the universitys closure, a driver was sent to deliver the letter.
This is among the issues that the Swaziland Christian University (SCU) is struggling to come to terms with following governments decision announced on Wednesday.
The SCU is still baffled by the decision and has called on the Swaziland Higher Education Council (SHEC) to unpack the decision to suspend its operation.
On Wednesday, the minister of Education and Training, Phineas Magagula, made a shocking announcement of suspending operations at the university with immediate effect and until further notice.
This essentially means that the registration of students, which was ongoing, would stop and that those who had expected to graduate this year will not be doing so.
Sipho Vilakati, the Executive Director Administration of SCU said the decision was taken during the universitys council meeting held yesterday. Council looked at the communication and it found that it does not say much. And then Council found that it needs an explanation from SHEC on what this suspension means for the ongoing students, employees and academic staff. It has implications right across.
Vilakati said because the information was not coming out clear, it was resolved that the council writes to the chairperson of SHEC requesting for a meeting next week Tuesday.
He stressed that this was a request to unpack the decision adding that students had been informed about the communique presented by SHEC.
Advance bus ticket booking for Dashain opens on Thursday
Advance booking of bus tickets for the Dashain festival is scheduled to open from Thursday, according to the operators.
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By Naeisha Rose
JAMAICA The police were searching for a male suspect wanted for questioning in a grand larceny that occurred on the J-line platform within the confines in Jamaica.
On the morning of Aug. 6 a 50-year-old man was waiting at the subway station at Sutphin Boulevard and Archer Avenue as the unidentified suspect, a slim black male, possibly between his late teens or early 20s, approached and removed the victims cell phone from his hand, according to police.
The suspect was last seen wearing a red jacket and pants, the NYPD said. The suspect was also wearing a white tank top and sneakers.
It was not known in which direction the suspect fled.
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By Mark Hallum and Naeisha Rose
A drive to support the victims of Hurricane Harvey will be held Saturday at the Bayside LIRR station, hosted by City Councilman Paul Vallone (D-Bayside) and state Assemblyman Edward Braunstein (D-Bayside), along with Bob Reid and Bayside Little League, the 306 Fire Station and Bayside Live TV.
Accepted items include first aid supplies, baby products, non-perishable food, feminine products, jackets, shoes, packaged clothing, flashlights, batteries and cleanup supplies. The drive will begin at 10 a.m.
Other drop off locations will be at the 306 Fire House, One Station Plaza, Our Lady of Blessed Sacrament and the Bell Club.
In response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, Mayor Bill de Blasio has deployed emergency workers from across the city to aid the 6.6 million people impacted by the storm in Houston.
The Mayors Fund to Advance New York City will be helping to raise funds to send members of the NYPD, FDNY and EMS to Houston to support relief efforts, noting the tens of thousands who donated to assist Sandy recovery efforts in New York.
All donations will be dispersed to organizations helping with the cause. To contribute to the fund, contact the mayors office at 212-788-7794 or go to the Emergency Relief page at nyc.gov.
CIAA seeks authority to probe pvt sector, NGOs
The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority has urged lawmakers to expand jurisdictions of the anti-graft body to enable it to probe the private sector and non-government organisations.
Did you vote in the midterm elections as if your countrys existence depended on it?
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WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's long-awaited decision on continuing legal status for young ''dreamers'' happens Tuesday the same day a group of conservative attorneys general have designated as the deadline for filing a lawsuit should the White House choose not to revoke it.
In the meantime, New York dreamers are steeling themselves for disappointment over the possible demise of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the Obama-era policy that has given young immigrants a ray of hope for the future.
''If DACA was taken away, I don't know what I will do,'' said Yatziri Tovar, a Queens resident who came over from Mexico at age 2. ''But even then, as a daughter of immigrants I won't allow this administration to attack my community, and use us as pawns for its hateful agenda. We are here to stay.''
After Trump himself said the decision could come anytime between late Friday and Monday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters the DACA decision would be Tuesday.
Republican state attorneys general led by Ken Paxton of Texas have said they will file a lawsuit against the administration that day if DACA is not rescinded.
''We are working on the best decision possible and will announce it Tuesday,'' said Sanders. ''This is not a decision the president takes lightly.''
Asked about the future of DACA and dreamers at a White House meeting Friday, Trump said, ''We love the dreamers. We love everybody. ... We think the dreamers are terrific.''
Obama's policy gave legal status and work permits to approximately 800,000 young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. About 42,000 of those are in New York.
A negative decision would subject dreamers to deportation. Their loss would deprive New York of $2.6 billion a year in lost economic activity, according to Daniel Altschuler of Make the Road New York, an immigrant rights group.
A positive decision would ensure the dreamers' continued legal status, at a minimum.New York political and education figures were rallying around the dreamers.
''As a diverse city where more than one in ten of our residents were born in a country other than the United States, Albany stands with cities across the nation by calling on our president to continue this important program,'' said Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan in a statement.
''Ending a policy that is just, humane and economically advantageous to score cheap political points is shortsighted, cruel and bad public policy,'' said Commissioner of Education Mary Ellen Elia and Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa in a joint statement. ''We will continue to fight for our Dreamers because it is the right thing to do.''
Trump won the White House in part on a promise to deport anyone in the U.S. illegally and build a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border.
But he has agonized publicly over the dreamers, who had no choice in whether to come here, and know no home other than the U.S.
Conservative Republicans have pressed him to end the program, citing the lack of a statute authorizing accommodations for dreamers under U.S. immigration law.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a staunch immigration hard-liner, reportedly has told Trump he cannot defend the administration against a lawsuit by the conservative state attorneys general.
But some Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, have either supported DACA extension or urged caution or delay in repealing it.
''There needs to be a legislative solution,'' Ryan said in a Wisconsin radio interview. ''We want to give people peace of mind.''
Congress so far has failed to pass legislation protecting dreamers. And with both House and Senate in Republican hands, it remains to be seen whether a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans could push a measure through House and Senate.
In the meantime, N.Y. dreamers are not holding their collective breath.
''It's hard to believe anything that Donald Trump says,'' said Antonio Alarcon, a Queens youth organizer for Make the Road New York who came from Mexico at age 11. ''So we hope for the best, but we prepare for the worst. And, whatever Trump says on Tuesday, we are here to stay and will keep fighting for our families.''
TROY The president of the Troy Police Benevolent Association, the union representing the citys police officers and sergeants, will resign next week, officers and city officials said Friday.
Detective Aaron Collington will step down after less than a year in office. His decision to leave the post comes at a time when the PBA is facing internal issues and the union is in its sixth year without a contract.
Collington said he has no comment about union issues. He said he would be prepared to say more next week.
Officer Nick Laviano, the PBAs second vice president, referred all questions to Collington, who as president speaks for the union. Laviano is expected to succeed Collington.
Mayor Patrick Madden said Collington called him to to say he was resigning. He said Collington effectively represented his members.
Collingtons decision to leave office has raised questions, City Council President Carmella Mantello said. Mantello said she is trying to determine what exactly is going on in the PBA. She said she has contacted Chief John Tedesco in an effort to learn more.
Collingtons departure comes as Troy police officers await the naming of a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation of a police-involved shooting that left Dahmeek McDonald, a parole absconder, wounded when Officer Jarrold Iler fired his service pistol; the completion of a State Police investigation of the city police departments drug unit for allegedly covering up a warrantless search for drugs; and the convening of a grand jury by the state Attorney Generals Office to investigate Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abeloves presentation to a grand jury of an April 2016 incident in which Sgt. Randall French fatally shot Edson Thevenin during a traffic stop. No charges were filed by the grand jury.
The PBA is headed to arbitration over the lack of a contract with the city.
TROY -- Deputy Police Chief Richard J. Buddy McAvoy is retiring after serving 39 years in city police force where he rose through the ranks from a beat cop to second-in-command of the 130-member department.
McAvoy is the author of the forces motto of Service, Trust, Professionalism thats emblazoned on its patrol vehicles.
McAvoy grew up in the citys North Central neighborhood. Hes been relied upon to serve as a calming influence during tense times in the citys poorest neighborhoods where he was well known. Hes recognized across the city as a reliable, straight shooter who can be counted upon during the times when the department faces its greatest stresses, colleagues say.
The loss of his institutional knowledge and the connections he has in the community is irreplaceable, Mayor Patrick Madden said. Hes a smart cop and a great human being.
As deputy chief, McAvoy commands the investigative bureau.
McAvoy was named deputy chief in 2010. Prior to that he served as a patrol sergeant, detective sergeant, patrol captain, detective captain and assistant chief in charge of the detective bureau.
A walk-out ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept 8, at police headquarters.
Hes been part of the city for 39 years. I wish him well in his retirement. He will be missed, said Councilwoman Kim Ashe-McPherson, chairwoman of the City Council Public Safety Committee.
McAvoy filed his retirement papers with the state Comptrollers office on Aug. 25. His official retirement date is Sept. 9. He has until that date to withdraw his retirement. McAvoy could not be immediately reached for comment about his decision to retire.
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McAvoys departure will set in motion a series of promotions through the department once his position is filled. Madden said the department needs someone at McAvoys command level to help lead the agency. He said a review will be made of the departments structure before an appointment is made.
The top four candidates on the citys civil service list for the job are all Troy police captains. They are captains Christopher Kehn, who oversees training; Daniel DeWolf, a patrol captain commanding the second platoon and the department spokesman; Brian Owens, who is in charge of grants and technology; and Richard Sprague, head of the detectives.
The deputy chiefs salary is budgeted at $107,938.
Lt. Nicholas Hurley, a member of the Navy and a Saratoga Springs native, will share the stage for a song with the Zac Brown Band during its 7 p.m. concert on Saturday at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
A graduate of Saratoga High School and Keuka College, Hurley told The Saratogian that he'll be appearing in his dress blues thanks to his wife, Keri, who belongs to a fan club known as "Zamily." Relatives will be attending the concert from as far afield as Florida.
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The older stars are shining the brightest at the Venice Film Festival and having much of the fun.
A playful Robert Redford and Jane Fonda brought undimmed glitter to the festival on Friday along with their late-life romance "Our Souls at Night."
More than five decades after they first shared the screen, they star in the Netflix-produced drama as widowed neighbors who forge a relationship.
Judging by the star-struck reaction from Venice audiences, the chemistry that lit up the 1967 romantic comedy film "Barefoot in the Park" remains strong.
Fonda said she loves the fact "that these films bookend our careers."
In "Barefoot in the Park," she told reporters, "we played that young love just getting married and now we've played old people's love and old people's sex."
The 81-year-old Redford and 79-year-old Fonda each received a lifetime achievement award from the festival Friday.
They are among many of older stars at the Venice fest. Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Donald Sutherland and Michael Caine are all due to make appearances onscreen and on the red carpet.
Redford produced "Our Souls at Night," which he said he did in part because the youth-obsessed movie business doesn't make enough films for older audiences.
Fonda said she thought the representation of older people was improving, pointing to the Netflix show "Grace and Frankie," in which she plays a newly single woman. "I've had three lovers already in that series," she said.
And she said love and sex got better with age, "because, first of all, we're braver what the heck to we have to lose? So my skin sags so does his."
The two screen icons say they were thrilled to work together again, and it shows in their on-screen relationship.
"I wanted to do another film with her before I died," Redford said.
Fonda said her characters were often in love with Redford's, and "I wanted to see what it was like to fall in love with him again."
"It was fun to kiss him in my 20s and then to kiss him again in my almost-80s," she said.
Associated Press
New season excites Ripa, Seacrest
On his first appearance on "Live with Kelly and Ryan," Ryan Seacrest had butterflies. Kelly Ripa was nervous too. Then, almost instantly, everything was fine.
By now, the rapport these co-hosts radiated four months ago is simply taken for granted by all concerned as they begin their first full season together this week.
Ripa calls herself "fortunate and thankful" to have Seacrest by her side. Seacrest says he's excited to be seeing her every day.
Apparently, no one is sweating a new player on the horizon: NBC's "Megyn Kelly Today," which goes head-to-head against the syndicated "Live" starting in late September.
"Live" executive producer Michael Gelman explains they're busy putting on the show its viewers want to see and their focus isn't on the competition.
Associated Press
There's no escape for this serial killer
Tests show that the remains in a suburban Philadelphia grave are indeed those of a 19th-century serial killer, quelling rumors that he had conned his way out of execution and escaped from prison.
A judge approved the exhumation of Dr. H. H. Holmes' grave earlier this year. Descendants requested it for a series called "American Ripper" on the History Channel. Part of the show looked at whether Holmes escaped, and scientists' findings were revealed in this week's final episode.
Holmes killed dozens of people at his hotel of horrors during the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. But it was the murder of his business partner that led to his conviction and hanging in Philadelphia in 1896.
Associated Press
Takedown on train filming as a movie
Clint Eastwood is in France directing a film that re-enacts the dramatic end to an attempted Islamic State group attack on a high-speed train that saw three Americans take down the gunman.
After renting a Thalys train for five days of filming "The 15:17 to Paris," work was wrapping up in Arras, the town where the express ended up after Ayoub El Khazzani was overpowered by passengers, including the childhood friends from California. They received the Legion of Honor, France's highest decoration. Variety has reported that the friends will play themselves in the movie
Associated Press
TROY A top aide to state Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin accused him of roughing her up during a heated argument that took place in early August.
McLaughlin, who is seeking the Republican nomination for Rensselaer County executive, emphatically denied that he ever assaulted his aide and accused his GOP opponent of dredging up the claim. He conceded that he had made several vulgar references to the woman, who remains on his taxpayer-supported payroll, but noted that the woman had later made statements that he characterized as recanting her allegation.
In an audio recording of the incident obtained by the Times Union, the woman warns the assemblyman that at least two neighbors may have witnessed an argument between them. The Times Union is not naming the female legislative staff member.
You put your hands on me for the last time today, the aide is heard telling McLaughlin on the recording. Did you ever think I was going to let you beat me up and get away with it?
Now Playing: Warning: This video contains vulgar and offensive language throughout. This recording of state Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin talking to a top aide was obtained by the Times Union. After this audio was presented to McLaughlin's campaign, he produced a recording of a Aug. 31, 2017, conversation in which the aide told him that her allegation was intended to "bait" him. (Emily Masters / Times Union) Video: Times Union
McLaughlin, 53, responds: I didnt touch you. I didnt (expletive) touch you.
You didnt? My earring shows different, she says.
McLaughlin, of Troy, has in the past been mentioned as a potential GOP gubernatorial candidate. He faces fellow Republican Chris Meyer, the current deputy county executive, in a Sept. 12 primary. Andrea Smyth, a Democrat, is also seeking the post on the November ballot.
On the recording, one of four incendiary conversations between the assemblyman and his aide obtained by the Times Union, he says to her: Youre still fat. You are. Not attractive and youre a (expletive) awful human being.
Warning: The below videos contains vulgar and offensive language throughout.
In a series of interviews with the Times Union this week, the female staffer, who provided documentation indicating she is on medical leave from her Assembly job, acknowledged that the conversations took place. She said that she and McLaughlin have abrasive conversations regularly, but she asserted that, contrary to what she said to him on the tape, he has never physically harmed her.
In her interviews with the newspaper, she characterized the heated exchanges with McLaughlin as private conversations that she said took place when they were driving together in Troy in early August.
Theres nothing there, the woman said. Youre going to ruin a guys political career.
The aide, who has worked for McLaughlin for several years, said that she would never tolerate any physical abuse by him.
If a man was ever to put his hands on me, I would be in jail for beating him, she said. If Steve ever hit me, I would tell my husband.
McLaughlin issued a statement to the Times Union on Friday afternoon blaming the disclosure of the audio recordings on Meyers campaign.
As is expected, my opponent is sadly launching a false and desperate attack in the last days of his failing campaign, the statement reads. The serious allegations are completely untrue, and have been denied by the person who made the recording.
Meyer, in turn, said McLaughlins allegations against his campaign are false.
I am disgusted by his comments and embarrassed that he represents us in the Assembly, Meyer said Friday. If this is his management style, he has very serious problems. I feel extremely sorry for the person he has subjected to these remarks and directed his anger towards. No one, especially someone he supervises, deserves to be treated this way.
McLaughlin, in his statement, said he has apologized to the female aide for his remarks.
(The aide) and I have worked together for seven years, and she continues to be a member of my staff, he said. Like many co-workers, we have had arguments. During our time working together, I have wrongly said things to her, and have apologized to her for statements I made to her.
On Thursday evening, McLaughlins top campaign aide, Richard Crist, came to the Times Union with a recording that he said he had recorded earlier that day in which the aide and McLaughlin spoke about the recordings during a telephone call. Crist said the recording shows the aide concocted the allegations.
On Feb. 16, the aide posted on Twitter a photograph showing her with a black eye, accompanied by a message that included McLaughlins Twitter handle.
Cant believe I have this black eye, she wrote. All because people cant be honest and flip when the truth is expose @SteveMcNY.
She later removed the post.
In the Thursday conversation between the aide and McLaughlin that was recorded by Crist, she informed the assemblyman that she had told the Times Union her eye was injured on Super Bowl Sunday when she struck it on her car door while pumping gas.
In one of her interviews with the Times Union this week, the aide without prompting said that soon after the injury she was pulled aside by a state trooper at a Capitol security checkpoint. She said the trooper asked her if she was a victim of domestic violence. The aide said McLaughlin was walking into the Capitol with her at the time, but kept going because he was late for an Assembly session.
When the aide was asked by the Times Union to explain her Twitter post, she said that it was directed at the state trooper.
In an interview late Friday, McLaughlin said he does not recall walking through a checkpoint with the aide when a trooper stopped her. That never happened in my presence, McLaughlin said, though he noted that the aide told him later that day what had happened.
In the recording made by Crist, when McLaughlin pressed his aide about her statements to the Times Union about her black eye, she tells the assemblyman that she told the paper how the trooper asked me if I was OK, if it was domestic violence. My goddamn door did it to my eye. Nobody put their hands on me. My husband would never hit me. Steve McLaughlin didnt give me the black eye.
What did (the Times Union) say? McLaughlin responds to her in Crists recording, asking about the newspapers reaction to her explanation.
Dropped it right then and there about the eye, she tells him.
Yeah, well, I dont think theres any friggin story here, to be honest with you, McLaughlin says to her.
The assemblyman then turns the conversation back to the argument they had on Aug. 7, when she accused him of roughing her up.
We have an argument and Im sick and I (expletive) snap a little bit, he says to her on the recording. You record it wrongly, its out of context.
I baited you, she tells him. I was mad at you because I thought I was losing my job ... and I figured that would save my job.
So thats basically extortion, you know that, right? McLaughlin says.
Well, then, its extortion and I get arrested for it, Steve, the aide tells him. Ill do what I have to do, I said.
McLaughlin responds: Well, how about you just not be like that and dont be psychotic. I mean, what the hell. ... You accuse me of hitting you.
I know and I was wrong. I was wrong, she says. I just did it ... I did that thinking you would just cave.
Crist, in his meeting with the Times Union on Thursday night, said the recording exonerates McLaughlin from the allegation that he was physically abusive with the aide.
In a subsequent interview, the aide said she had not been aware that Crist had recorded her conversation with McLaughlin earlier that day. Asked to explain why she had not previously explained her abuse allegation as an attempt to save her job, she said she was embarrassed.
The recordings that she made of her arguments with McLaughlin in early August show him heaping obscenity-laden criticism on her.
Youre an embarrassment, he says in one of the recordings obtained by the Times Union. You dont know how to handle yourself on the phone. ... You have no vision politically.
Warning: This video contains vulgar and offensive language throughout.
On Friday, McLaughlin reiterated that he regrets speaking to a staff member like that.
Now Playing: This recording of state Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin talking to a top aide was obtained by the Times Union. (Emily Masters / Times Union) Video: Times Union
Obviously it was the heat-of-the-moment stuff, he said. That was inappropriate language, and I apologized to her already for that. I had no idea at all I was being recorded.
He also said his decision to keep her on his staff, despite her statement this week that she recorded their conversations to bait him, was in part based on their long-standing work relationship.
I think sometimes she was just a little bit hot-headed, maybe, he said. I dont think you just cut people off.
A former airline pilot, McLaughlin has been a member of the state Assembly since 2011.
At the end of the recorded conversation in which the aide accused McLaughlin of putting his hands on her, he says again, I didnt do anything.
She responds: Yeah, I heard screaming. Oh, and Cindy Doran? Shell confirm.
Cynthia Doran, a Rensselaer County legislator, lives in McLaughlins neighborhood. When contacted by the Times Union on Wednesday, Doran initially said she was reluctant to be involved in a matter involving one of her neighbors. But when told of the allegations made by the aide, including her statement that Doran may have witnessed the argument, the legislator agreed to discuss what she saw. She said that just after 11 a.m. Aug. 7, she was out for a walk and heard screaming coming from McLaughlins residence.
I heard a woman and a man screaming, Doran said. It sounded like a child having a tantrum. I heard her saying something about the neighbors.
Doran who does not know the aide said a woman matching her description emerged from the house after the screaming stopped and climbed into a black Ford Explorer. She stayed in the vehicle for several minutes. Doran said she passed the house again during her walk and saw the woman standing on the front porch with McLaughlin.
Doran said the incident was so disconcerting that while the screaming was unfolding she sent a text to herself to make note of the license plate on the black SUV.
The aide confirmed this week that she drives a black Ford Explorer. The Times Union confirmed that the SUV parked in front of McLaughlins house that day belongs to the aides husband.
Still, the aide denied that she and McLaughlin fought at his residence on Aug. 7, or on any other day.
She initially said that she had never been to McLaughlins residence. But in a follow-up interview, she acknowledged she has been there many times to let his dog out. The woman said the argument on the audio recording in which she accuses McLaughlin of roughing her up took place later that day as she and the assemblyman drove back to his Troy office on Hoosick Street after lunch.
McLaughlin on Friday said that he does not recall an argument with the aide at his residence on Aug. 7. He said she would stop by his residence occasionally, including to pick up paperwork if he was sick.
There was no screaming match, I can tell you that, he added.
The female aide said she believes the audio recordings were leaked to damage McLaughlins political standing. She filed a complaint with State Police about her claim that the electronic communications were improperly obtained.
State Police Capt. Doug Keyer on Thursday confirmed they received a complaint from the female aide, but said they did not determine it to be a criminal matter.
Everything has been determined to be civil, Keyer said. Again, we have not found anything criminal.
blyons@timesunion.com 518-454-5547 @brendan_lyonstu
Exporters may have to sell 20pc goods in local market
The government is mulling over making it mandatory for exporters, who receive cash incentives, to sell at least 20 percent of their products in the domestic market. The Commerce Ministry said on Thursday that the move was intended to expand the market for local products within the country.
STILLWATER The arrest of village Mayor Rick W. Nelson on child pornography charges Thursday marked at least the fifth time in the last 42 years that the former school bus driver has been accused of victimizing children or teenagers.
Nelson, 62, faced three separate sex crime cases between 1975 and 1986 with one of the latter cases including allegations of rape and sodomy. And in 1982, the future mayor was accused of inappropriate behavior toward a 5-year-old who the school bus.
Nelson was never convicted. And none of that past prevented him from winning election in 2015 over a 23-year incumbent, Ernest Martin, who had been the longest-serving mayor in Stillwater history.
Nelson's son, Patrick, is now seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, to represent the 21st Congressional District.
Reached late Friday, the son, who is 27, told the Times Union the prior allegations against his father were made before he was born. He said he has faith in the justice system.
"I only know what I've been told, which is that he was acquitted," Patrick Nelson said. Asked about the new allegations, he said, "I'm still personally torn between sadness, anger and many other emotions."
In his father's euphoric inauguration speech two years ago, which is on his mayoral Facebook page, Rick Nelson praised supporters whom he said suggested he run for the village's top spot. He specifically recalled a casual conversation he had with then-village Trustees Tim Campbell, Ellen Vomacka (now a Town Board member) and Trustee Judith Wood-Shaw about who would run for mayor if Martin retired.
"At the end I asked, 'Who would be our next mayor?'" Nelson said on the video. "And the answer surprised me: Why not you, Rick?'"
On Thursday, State Police provided a possible answer when they announced the mayor was charged with promoting and possessing a sexual performance by a child. He could face up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Police investigated after learning that an internet address in Stillwater had downloaded photographs depicting child pornography. It led them to search his home and eventually to his arrest.
In 1975, Nelson was charged with sexual misconduct with a 14-year-old girl. Then-Town Justice Kenneth Petronis, now a Town Board member, adjourned the case in contemplation of dismissal, which allowed the charge to be dismissed if he avoided legal trouble for six months, which he did.
Petronis would later say he sent word to Stillwater school administrators that based on the 1975 incident, Nelson "should not be working for the district." Nelson ultimately resigned.
In 1986, Saratoga County prosecutors charged Nelson in two cases that went to trial. In one case, they alleged he raped and sodomized a mentally challenged 18-year-old girl. In the other they accused him of first- degree sexual abuse unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a 15-year-old girl.
Nelson was acquitted both times.
The alleged victims were students on Nelson's school bus. In the rape and sodomy case, Nelson's defense attorney, John McMahon, argued thecharges against Nelson came from an April Fools prank played on him client by the 18-year-old, her sister and a friend. McMahon questioned a gap in time and why the tachometer of the bus was not entered into evidence.
Referring to one woman's testimony, McMahon told jurors, "Sometimes if you say a thing long enough, even if it's untrue, you get to believe it."
The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Thomas McNamara, a future Court of Claims judge who is now retired, fired back: "I'm offended that a (question) has been raised that I used some power I may have to get a young, beautiful woman in the true sense of the word, to say something that didn't happen."
In 1982, Times Union records show, Nelson was the subject of a complaint that he acted improperly with a 5-year-old girl on his bus. The school board determined the girl was upset and that Nelson had tried to calm her down. The girl was transferred to another bus and a notification of the incident was placed in Nelson's personnel file.
The mayor did not respond to attempts to contact him Friday. The Times Union reached out to him and Village and Town Board members asking for comment on the mayor's arrest and inquiring if they were aware of his past.
"Absolutely not," Town Councilwoman Lisa Bruno replied in an email. "Never even met Rick Nelson prior to his election. The town had nothing to do with the village election. It was a nonpartisan election. I'm a resident of the town and didn't vote in the village election. Hadn't heard of what occurred 33 or so years ago."
She added: "Very sad situation for all involved. I have faith in the justice system today and justice will be served."
SCHENECTADY - Prosecutors said they want DNA samples from an alleged hit man and his accomplice accused of driving from Delaware to Schenectady to carry out a contract killing last year, court papers show.
The application and affidavit for the search warrant seeks to collect DNA from Joevany "Moon" Luna and Kyshaan Moore by swabbing the inside of their cheeks with a cotton-tipped swab.
Luna and Moore along with Tarchand Lall have been charged with multiple felonies in connection with the Nov. 19 slaying of Charles Dembrosky, 49, who was found shot in the neck outside his Campbell Avenue home.
The court document also reveals that Lall took out a $150,00 life insurance policy on Dembrosky through National Benefit Life Insurance Company, a division of Primerica Insurance on May 23, 2016. Authorities have said Lall, 52, paid Luna $10,000 to kill Dembrosky so Lall could collect the the death benefits.
Lall told city detectives that he "prompted Dembrosky to obtain the policy and that he and Dembrosky falsely represented that they were domestic partners on the application."
Lall would occasionally hire Dembrosky to perform general contracting and landscaping work.
The warrant related to the DNA also seems to leave the door open that Moore may have killed Dembrosky even though prosecutors have always maintained that Luna was the trigger man.
"Based on the evidence identified, there is reasonable cause ... to believe that either Kyshaan Moore or Joevany Luna shot and killed Charles Dembrosky or assisted the person that did," the legal papers state."Based on this evidence, there is reasonable cause to believe that the genetic profiles from both will provide relevant evidence for comparison to the genetic material recovered from the railings and shell casings found at the scene of the homicide. "
Schenectady police swabbed two railings that spanned the cement steps next to Dembrosky's body.
"The application may help in assisting in determining if both are either liable either as an accomplice or principal," said Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney Friday.
The 42-year-old Luna and Moore, 26, pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges during separate arraignments earlier this week in Schenectady County Court. Both remain in custody.
The pair, both of whom are from Delaware, worked at the same Dunkin' Donuts restaurant in Wilmington in the fall of 2016, the warrant indicates.
Meantime, Lall is scheduled Friday to be arraigned on the first-degree murder charge and other felonies for his alleged role in the murder-for-hire plot.
Defense attorney Lee Kindlon said his client is innocent.
"This idea that my client was involved in this crime is preposterous," said Kindlon. "The two (Lall and Dembrosky) were friends and he's just as sad that the victim is dead, he had nothing to do with it."
Moore is being represented by Michael Mansion. He said Friday that after his client initially refused the buccal swab, he advised him to take the DNA test.
Mark Juda, Luna's lawyer, said Friday, that as of Tuesday, his client had not yet submitted to given his DNA to the Schenectady police or sheriff's deputies but that he was "sure they're going to get it."
Asked about the possibility that his client might have been the trigger man, Mansion said,"prove it."
"It's easy to say it, but now you have to prove it," added Mansion.
New York
A once-imprisoned radical Islamic cleric is behind bars again, this time because of an unusual investigation that took New York City police officers far beyond their jurisdiction, to the Middle East, to make contact with a member of the Islamic State group.
The international sting that led to the arrest of Abdullah el-Faisal in Jamaica last week was pulled off by the New York Police Department without the involvement of the FBI or federal prosecutors, and without the target ever setting foot in New York.
Many details of how the investigation unfolded are still secret, but an indictment filed in state court in Manhattan said an undercover NYPD officer posing as a budding jihadist connected on social media with el-Faisal. El-Faisal is accused of trying to recruit the officer to become a medic for the militant group.
The indictment said the cleric introduced the officer to a facilitator based in the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa, Syria, who exchanged phone messages with the officer earlier this year.
The NYPD's Intelligence Division dispatched a team of investigators to the region in the late stages of the yearlong probe, authorities said in a statement that didn't offer further details of the NYPD's activities abroad.
The police department said it got U.S. Department of Justice clearance to extend its investigation overseas.
Instead of working with federal prosecutors, the NYPD teamed with a special unit of local prosecutors, formed in 2015 by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., which relied on rarely used New York anti-terrorism laws to seek an indictment under the cleric's birth name, Trevor William Forrest.
"It became clear to me that the Manhattan district attorney's office, sitting in a city that's the nation's No. 1 terrorism target, should have the ability to support the country's counterterrorism fight," Vance said.
It's unusual for the FBI-NYPD's Joint Terrorist Task Force not to take the lead on a terrorist investigation, especially one with an international reach. Nor did the case involve any local suspects or a direct threat to the city that would explain why the prosecution is being conducted at the state level.
Floodwaters create havoc in Nuwakot
Around 100 ropanies of land was swept away by Kudulle stream in Panchakanya Rural Municipality-2, Nuwakot on Friday.
HARRISBURG Five universities are in line to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding thats been held up for months by the L
[September 01, 2017] IASIS Healthcare Sending RN Support to Sister Texas Hospitals
Over the next two days 72 IASIS Healthcare workers from Arizona, Utah, Northeast Texas, and Colorado will be flying to Texas to give relief to their counterparts that have been caring for flood victims over the past week. IASIS has four hospitals in Southeast Texas, St. Joseph Medical Center and St. Joseph Medical Center in the Heights, located in Houston, The Medical Center of Southeast Texas located in Port Arthur, and The Medical Center of Southeast Texas-Victory Campus in Beaumont. All four facilities have remained open and operational during Hurricane Harvey and the catastrophic flooding that followed. "We sent out a communication to our unaffected hospitals to see who would be willing to travel to our Southeast Texas hospitals and assist. Within a few hours we had 72 volunteers," said Tedd Adair, Chief Clinical Officer for IASIS Healthcare. "We are enormously proud and grateful that so many of our IASIS team members were willing to go and support their fellow employees during these extremely trying times." When Hurricane Harvey swept into the region early Saturday, IASIS hospitals teams in the path of the storm were well prepared and remained operational when many other area hospitals had to either close or offer limited services. Hundreds of employees worked around the clock, not leaving the hospital for days, many not knowing if they had homes to return to. Their efforts have been truly heroic for the communities that they serve and now IASIS team members from across the country have a chance to support them as they provide care to so many in need.
While in Texas the medical teams plan to stay for a 10-day period, with many being housed in the hospitals where they are stationed. Some will fly into the Austin area and then travel by bus or van for up to 24 hours to reach their final destination. Hundreds of IASIS Healthcare employees who live in Southeast Texas have suffered both personal loss and loss of homes and property. If you would like to help our employees affected by this disaster, please visit www.IASISHealthcare.com for more information.
About the IASIS Healthcare IASIS Healthcare owns and operates 17 acute care hospitals, one behavioral health hospital and multiple other access points in high-growth urban and suburban markets throughout the U.S., including in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Texas and Utah. In total, we have more than 3,600 licensed beds and employ more than 13,000 dedicated professionals. For more information, visit iasishealthcare.com. Follow IASIS Healthcare at facebook.com/iasis.healthcare.services. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170901005778/en/
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[September 01, 2017] Government of Canada Signals Action to Restore Rail Service to Churchill, Manitoba
OTTAWA, Sept. 1, 2017 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada recognizes the important role this rail line plays in connecting communities in northern Manitoba. Today, the Honourable Jim Carr, Minister of Natural Resources and Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South Centre, signalled the Government's actions toward restoring rail service to Churchill, Manitoba. The Government of Canada's top priorities are ensuring that goods and supplies are delivered to those who need them and restoring the Hudson Bay rail line to Churchill. OmniTRAX Inc. has legal obligations to repair the rail line and its tracks. To this end, we have formally demanded that the Hudson Bay Railway Company repair the rail line in line with the terms of its 2008 contribution agreement with the Government of Canada, which requires the company to operate, maintain and repair the entire Hudson Bay Railway Line in a diligent and timely maner until March 31, 2029.
The Government is willing to look at all options, including exploring the possibility of working with a new owner toward the repair of the rail line. To this end, senior government officials are engaging to find a solution on rail track repairs, ensuring a continuation of rail service for Churchill and surrounding communities. Quote
"The Government shares the concerns of the citizens of Churchill and northern Manitoba, where the loss of the rail link has had significant impacts on businesses and families. We remain committed to the people of northern Manitoba and are currently exploring ways in which we can speed up the repairs of the rail line, while keeping in mind the immediate needs of the communities." Jim Carr
Minister of Natural Resources Quick Facts The Government is looking at all options to ensure that contracts and obligations are respected and fulfilled, including enforcing its rights under its agreement to seek repayment of the $18.8 million contributed to the Hudson Bay Railway Line in 2008. Follow us on Twitter: @NRCan (http://twitter.com/nrcan) NRCan's news releases and backgrounders are available at www.news.gc.ca. SOURCE Natural Resources Canada
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[September 01, 2017] Rocky Mountain College Of Art + Design Hires Chair Of Liberal Arts
DENVER, Sept. 1, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design (RMCAD) is pleased to announce Dr. Bruce Mackh as the Chair of the Liberal Arts Department. About the Department
The Liberal Arts Department at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design is committed to promoting academic excellence through rigorous and engaged pedagogical practices. Through our own professional development, as academics and educators, Liberal Arts provides the necessary skills for artists to develop as professionals, engaged citizens, and actualized human beings prepared to flourish in a complex global world. Students in Liberal Arts engage a variety of academic disciplines that emphasize the skills necessary for informed, meaningful, and effective writing and the capacity to think critically about their lives, their work, and the larger world. About the Chair
Bruce Mackh earned PhD in Critical Studies from Texas Tech University in 2011. He also has a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2006) and an MFA from Tulane University (2008). Beginning in 2012, Bruce served as the Director of the Melon Research Project at the University of Michigan, ArtsEngine. This project resulted in Bruce's book "Surveying the Landscape" (2015), the first comprehensive guide to best practices in the integration of the arts into the research university. Bruce joined the faculty at Michigan State University in 2015, where he was the founding program Director of Arts & Cultural Management.
Dr. Mackh is an accomplished photographer, and his largest collection of images is part of the permanent collection of the Louisiana State Museum. He is a member of numerous professional organizations including the College Art Association and the National Council of Arts Administrators, which awarded him a prestigious 2014/2015 Emerging Arts Administration Fellowship. Bruce has a strong interest in curriculum development, pedagogy, and faculty development. He has also earned a reputation as an effective curricular and programmatic consultant. Bruce was recently hired at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design as Chair of Liberal Arts. As a professional scholar and writer, a dynamic educator, and an experienced director, Bruce brings exceptional abilities into this position. Bruce will be joining a robust department that includes veteran educators and professional scholars including Dan James, Thomas Keefe, Alison Leedy, Amanda Olson-McCoy, and Jeremiah Snyder.
About Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design
A premier arts school in the Denver area, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design is an innovative, rigorous, and community-oriented global learning environment that inspires passion for critical thinking and prepares learners to be forces of change in the creative industries, our communities, and the world. Find more information at www.RMCAD.edu or by calling 800.888.ARTS. MEDIA CONTACT:
Neely Patton
[email protected]
720.556.0438 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rocky-mountain-college-of-art--design-hires-chair-of-liberal-arts-300513268.html SOURCE Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design
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[September 01, 2017] C Spire President Stephen Bye to talk on data-driven business decisions
STARKVILLE, Miss., Sept. 1, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- C Spire President Stephen Bye will be a special guest speaker on the value of using data in business and public policy decisions at the 2017 Data Summit on Sept. 15 at Mississippi State University in Starkville. Bye will appear along with Breck DeWitt, CTO and Director of K-12 and Higher Education for Dell EMC, top state elected officials and agency heads, business executives and others at the day-long summit featuring presentations, panel discussions, product demonstrations and breakout sessions. The summit, which aims to shine a spotlight on the growing use and influence of data in business, government and education planning, development and policy, is hosted by the MSU-based National Strategic Planning and Analysis Research Center. "As a company that aspires to transform Mississippi through the intelligent use and deployment of technology and telecommunications, I'm looking forward to joining other leaders at the summit to discuss and share best practiceson how we can more effectively leverage data to help us make better decisions that benefit everyone in our state," Bye said.
C Spire, a Mississippi-based diversified telecommunications and technology services company, is one of the state's leading employers and contributors to its overall economy. The company's wireless unit is the sixth largest in the U.S. wireless industry and the largest privately-held mobile services provider in the nation. Sessions at the summit will cover a variety of topics, including how data can transform student progress in early education, help build "smart cities" and guide job seekers into fulfilling careers.
"We are happy to welcome back old friends and to meet some new faces as we work collaboratively to use data-driven solutions to improve the quality of life for Mississippians and beyond," said NSPARC Executive Director Domenico "Mimmo" Parisi. "Unlike opinions or personal biases, data have the best potential for leading to innovative answers to a wide variety of challenges, and it's exciting to see a data-driven approach being embraced." The Data Summit is free, but registration is required by the Sept. 10 deadline. For more information, including a full list of sponsors, visit datasummit.nsparc.msstate.edu, and follow the summit on Twitter with #msdatasummit2017. About NSPARC
The National Strategic Planning and Analysis Research Center (NSPARC) at Mississippi State University is where information meets innovation. The center is committed to making positive impacts in people's lives through practical solutions based on data science. At NSPARC, scholars and professionals from diverse backgrounds work together to examine 21st century challenges that affect Mississippi, the United States, and the world. For more information, visit nsparc.msstate.edu. About C Spire
C Spire is a diversified telecommunications and technology services company that provides world-class, customer-inspired wireless communications, 1 Gigabit consumer Internet access as well as a full suite of dedicated Internet, wireless, IP Voice, data and cloud services for businesses. This news release and other announcements are available at www.cspire.com/news. For more information about C Spire, visit www.cspire.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cspire or Twitter at www.twitter.com/cspire. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/c-spire-president-stephen-bye-to-talk-on-data-driven-business-decisions-300513276.html SOURCE C Spire
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[September 01, 2017] 24 Hour Fitness Offers Club Access To All Houston Area Residents
In the spirit of support for Houston area residents, 24 Hour Fitness is welcoming all residents to its Houston area clubs during the month of September, regardless of membership status. Almost all Houston-area club locations have reopened following Hurricane Harvey, with additional clubs being added to the list daily. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all those impacted by Hurricane Harvey, which includes our members, employees and their families," said Chris Roussos, CEO, 24 Hour Fitness. "In times of crisis, the stress of our circumstances often causes us to overlook our own physical and mental wellbeing. Whether you need a place to work out, shower, or just relax, we hope our clubs can provide some brief respite." 24 Hour Fitness operates 71 clubs in the state of Texas, with 33 clubs in the Houston area. With the arrival of Hurricane Harvey, Houston area clubs were closed and have since begun reopening, with several Houston area clubs still undergoin repairs and restoration. Out of respect for local authorities and some communities' curfews, normal club operating hours have been modified for those Houston area clubs that are currently open. Houston residents are encouraged to check with local 24 Hour Fitness clubs prior to arrival, to ensure hours of operation to serve members, guests and all residents.
For more information about Houston club locations, please visit www.24hourfitness.com About 24 Hour Fitness
As an industry leader for more than 30 years, 24 Hour Fitness changes lives every day through fitness. Conveniently located clubs, furnished with a wide variety of strength, cardio and functional training equipment, are the perfect environment for fitness professionals to deliver dynamic personal and group training programs. GX24 and cycle studios feature a popular array of live studio classes included with membership. A multitude of additional offerings engage and inspire every member to lead a full and healthy life both inside and outside of the club. Opening new clubs on average at the brisk pace of one every few weeks, 24 Hour Fitness is headquartered in San Ramon, CA (News - Alert) and serves nearly 4 million members in over 420 clubs nationwide. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170901005794/en/
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[September 01, 2017] DOLLAR GENERAL INVESTIGATION INITIATED by Former Louisiana Attorney General: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Investigates the Officers and Directors of Dollar General Corporation - (DG)
Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF"), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into Dollar General Corporation (NYSE: DG). Throughout the year 2016, Dollar General executives caused the Company to misrepresent the true negative effect that reductions of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ("SNAP") benefits would have, and were having, on the Company's present and future revenue, net income and earnings growth, resulting in the Company's stock trading at artificially inflated prices throughout much of 2016. When the truth was finally revealed, on August 25, 2016, Dollar General's stock collapsed over 17%, instantly wiping out more than $4 billion in shareholder equity. Thereafter, Dollar General and certain of its executives were sued in a securities class action lawsuit charging them wth failing to disclose material information, violating federal securities laws.
KSF's investigation is focusing on whether Dollar General's officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to its shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws. If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of Dollar General shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ([email protected]).
About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170901005234/en/
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BNL girls thump Mitchell at The Hive
Bedford North Lawrence defeated Mitchell 78-20 at the Hive on Saturday evening. The win moved the Stars to 3-0 on the season.
Former Kamlaris in Bardiya receive ID cards
Former Kamlaris (indentured girl labourers) have started receiving ID cards four years after the government announcement to abolish the practice of bonded labour.
Jason Kander is sending his former campaign manager to Iowa, the state that holds the first presidential caucus, to run a field office for his national voting rights organization. Kander, a Kansas City Democrat and former Missouri secretary of state, has been floated as a possible candidate for president in 2020 after his narrow defeat against Republican U.S.
COUNCIL DUDE SCOTT WAGNER WINS THE FIRST KANSAS CITY MAYORAL POLL BY A 10-POINT MARGIN!!!
The Kansas City silly season is closer than locals think and so we reached out to the top ranking denizens of our blog community to provide thecritical look at the mayoral race.Better than consulting firm hype, our blog community has a reputation for keeping it real whether we like it or not. For instance, TKC blog community denizens accurately called the latest fair wage vote far before any other pollster weighed in . . . And now, let's start the Mayoral talk in a poll that's just a bit better than MSM propaganda.Checkit:We asked and top ranking blog community denizens answered . . .and the man who could permanently represent the Northland at the 12th & Oak top spot.And then . . .A little more thanin our introductory polling. This was a bit of a surprise and a hint that he might be a stronger candidate than expected.After a tough week and so many ethics questions . . .Council Lady Jolie Justus came it at a paltry 3rd place in this Mayoral polling contest withand quite a few denizens of our community doubting her ability to confront or shake herself from corporate entanglements.Finally . . .Our blog community sadly had to confirm some research by other pollsters as we found that 6th district Council Dude Scott Taylor garnered onlyfrom our blog community . . .Nevertheless . . . There are other contenders still waiting to declare their candidacy and, like it or not, there's a long way to go before the Mayoral contest is complete.As always, this list has been compiled according toand it's a weekly comprehensive guide to local powerful people.
History Of Kansas City Clothes
Museum Expansion Highlights Garment Manufacturing History In Kansas City Nestled between Kansas City's downtown business district and the River Market are a bunch of buildings that once literally hummed with the sound of fashion. From the 1940s through the early 1980s, Kansas City had one of the largest garment industries in the nation.
Lesson In KCPS Accusations
KC school district retaliated when he blew whistle on illegal activity, lawsuit alleges A former Kansas City Public Schools administrator misused district funds and discriminated against a high school principal, then retaliated against the principal for blowing the whistle on the illegal activity, according to a lawsuit filed in Jackson County.
Kansas City Dreamer Crackdown Nightmare
As DACA decision looms, many in the metro anxiously awaiting news from White House KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The White House says the decision on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is coming on Tuesday. People here in the metro are watching closely. "It`s scary, because DACA has provided us with Social Security, being able to get a driver`s license, and us being able to get better jobs," said 28-year-old Pascual Murguia, who was born in Mexico.
SI And The Kansas City Hometeam
Kansas City Chiefs Season Preview Get expert analysis, unrivaled access, and the award-winning storytelling only SI can provide-from Peter King, Tom Verducci, Lee Jenkins, Andy Staples, Grant Wahl, and more-delivered straight to you, along with up-to-the-minute news and live scores.
Kansas City Breaking Balboni
Alexander gets unlikely save; Royals hold off Twins 7-6 (Sep 01, 2017) | FOX Sports MINNEAPOLIS (AP) With Kansas City's closer on the mound and a three-run lead, odds were pretty good that Scott Alexander could watch the final inning from the bullpen. Instead, he got his second save of the year.
Weekend hotness begins withand her leggy superstar winning as we start Saturday with these Kansas City MSM links. Take a look:is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . .
Fulbari Resort closed due to labour dispute
The five-star Fulbari Resort and Spa in Pokhara has remained closed for more than six months due to a dispute between management and employees over pay and other facilities.
There was a misunderstanding regarding the application deadline to the Region of Central Macedonia where the site belongs
Greeces Ministry of Culture is making an effort to correct the blunder of not including the Amphipolis tomb in the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) EU-funded program for 2014-2020.
Culture Minister Lydia Koniordou announced that there was a misunderstanding regarding the application deadline to the Region of Central Macedonia where the site belongs. The regional authority that handles the NSRF funds rejected the proposal to include the project in the 2010-2020 program.
She answered to a parliamentary question posed by main opposition New Democracy MP Foteini Arabatzi, who brought the issue to the parliaments attention.
Obviously, there was a lack of communication and delayed contact, and that was the reason we had this rejection. Nevertheless, we are interested in moving ahead with this brilliant project together in co-operation, because only in co-operation we can achieve things. There is a historical role that we perceive all of us, but above all, the Ministry of Culture agencies and the people that you have admitted that they did a brilliant work, was Koniordous answer to the opposition lawmaker.
The Minister of Culture noted that a new meeting will take place on September 20, so that more clarifications needed would be given in order for the project to advance and be incorporated in the NSRF 2014-2020 program.
Read more here.
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Unknown License: CC-BY-SA
Source:greekreporter.com
Dubai-based Propertyfinder Group, a leading real estate portal in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, has bought around 17 per cent stake in Turkish property portal Zingat.
One of the fastest growing property and information marketing platforms in the country, Zingat was founded in 2015 by Ahmet Kayhan and Mehmet Erkek, the duo behind the Dubai-based real estate data provider ReidIn.com, alongside with Turkish conglomerate Dogus Group.
It was officially launched in January last year and since then, it has grown by leaps and bounds attracting over 6 million monthly visitors and more than 18,000 real estate agents.
With this key investment, Michael Lahyani, the founder and CEO of Propertyfinder Group, joins Zingats board of directors.
On the key deal, Lahyani said: "We already knew Erkek and Kayhan from their former start-up, Reidin in Dubai. We are happy to become a shareholder of Zingat."
"We will work together to make Zingat the most prominent property portal in Turkey by sharing our experience and resources. We firmly believe in Turkey and Turkeys stability," he added.
Kayhan said the company's goal was getting consumers together with the right property professionals using the power of data and information.
Lahyani and his team, with the help of an impressive list of shareholders, built Propertyfinder Group to be the biggest and strongest real estate portal network in the region. Now, proudly, Zingat has become a key part of that network, he added.
According to Lahyani, the Dubai group had been closely following Dogus Group chairman Ferit F. Sahenks vision and ventures into new sectors. "We believe this new partnership will prove to be very successful," he noted.
Husnu Akhan, the CEO of Dogus Group, said: "Although Zingat is relatively new to the market, Propertyfinder Groups investment into Zingat proves that this venture is on the right track."
"Furthermore, our platform is the first among the Turkish property portals to attract major foreign investment. We have been putting much emphasis on real estate investments; Propertyfinder Groups experience and extensive Mena network will strengthen Zingat and become the most significant platform for property investors," he added.
Zingats chairman and advisor to Dogus Groups chairman Izi Adato said the Emirati groups investment in Zingat is an outstanding opportunity for promoting Turkish property market to Middle Eastern investors, he observed.
"Property professionals will have the opportunity to introduce their inventory in multiple markets including UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi, Lebanon, Egypt, and Morocco where PFG has on the ground operations and a large audience of investors," he noted.-TradeArabia News Service
Bahrains Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) held on Monday (August 28) a workshop entitled Strategic Direction for Cloud Computing for governmental ministries.
The workshop, headed by iGA acting vice chief executive of Operations & Governance Shaikh Salman bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, was held at the Ministry of Finance Meeting Hall in collaboration with Amazon Web Services.
It brought the attendance and participation of more than 60 specialists representing public and semi-public entities in the IT field.
Shaikh Salman stressed that the workshop was conducted based on the adoption of Cloud First Policy for the Kingdom following its resolution by the HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information & Communication Technology (SCICT) during its eighth meeting conducted last June placing Bahrain to become the first Arab country to adopt this policy.
He directed all investments, related to ICT, towards Cloud Computing with the purpose of reducing operational expenditures of IT systems and services, enhancing the quality of services as well as keeping abreast with the rapid developments in the field of information technology provided to beneficiaries from every society segment.
Shaikh Salman stated that since the SCICT assigned the authority to set the necessary procedures in order to implement the policy along with enlightening government entities with the approved policy and procedures for implementation; the authority has immediately prepared and arranged the organizational structure and the suitable environment to host government systems and IT services more securely and efficiently on the Cloud Computing for the Amazon Services.
He also highlighted that the authority has developed a plan which comprised the smooth and organized transfer of a set of governmental systems while ensuring continuity of work as it succeeded in shifting 10 government websites to the Cloud Computing system in cooperation with Amazon Web Services.
The workshop was organized following the authoritys responsibility and role in supporting the strategic direction of the Kingdom in the process transformation and gradual transition of the public entities to the cloud by enhancing communication in order to remove any obstacles and challenges together with studying and setting necessary policies to implement this direction which is reflected by the delivered services to citizens and society institutions.
During the workshop, the Cloud Computing Policy was presented while addressing security procedures accompanied by procurement and contracting operations. Transition stages of the Cloud Computing were also showcased with the purpose of facilitating the operations of transferring systems to the Cloud Computing environment this contributes to delivering high quality services that benefit users. TradeArabia News Service
Russia and Iraq officials discussed key issues of bilateral and multilateral co-operation in energy sector, including within the Opec and non-Opec ministerial summit, at a meeting held in capital Moscow.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak met the visiting Iraqi delegation led by Oil Minister Jabbar Ali Al Allaibi and held talks on issues related to the oil market, reported Emirati news agency Wam.
According to the Russia - Sputnik International, Novak indicated that Russia and Iraq were interested in further development of mutually advantageous economic co-operation, it added.
IBN, Hongshi to seal deal on Sunday
The Investment Board Nepal (IBN) will soon achieve another milestone in brokering a deal with a foreign investor with the signing of project investment agreement (PIA) with Hongshi Shivam Cement, a Nepal-China joint venture, on Sunday.
Images of emotions
Ask artist Nabendra Limbu about his painting process and hell give you a detailed rundownfrom canvas stretching to the final layer of paintas if he is talking about life incidents.
Chandigarh: The doctor of the GMCH, Sector 32, who first examined the 10-year-old rape victim told the court today that the girl was 24-week pregnant when she was brought to her. Another doctor submitted the ultrasound report of the girl in the court as both recorded their statements.
A head constable of the Chandigarh Police, who had prepared the site plan of the crime spot, also recorded his statement in the court today. An official from the girls school also recorded a statement and presented an age proof of the girl. The statement of the girl and her mother has been recorded in the court and the girl has identified the accused, her uncle. The next hearing is scheduled for Monday. TNS
Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 1
Having ordered Rs 10-lakh compensation to a 10-year-old rape victim who delivered a baby girl recently after her plea to abort the unwanted pregnancy was turned down, the Supreme Court today asked the Chandigarh Administration to extend her the necessary care and assistance.
We make it clear that there will be no multiplicity of authorities and the responsibility vests with the Director, Department of Social Welfare; there should not be any hindrance or obstruction in providing the necessary care and assistance, a Bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur said.
The support person as well as the counsellor and liasion officer appointed by the Child Welfare Committee should be in regular communication with the committee as well as the Director of the Department of Social Welfare and it is not as if they should perform their responsibilities only on the asking of the parents of the victim, it said.
The top court asked the Director, Department of Social Welfare, to look after the educational needs of the minor rape victim in consultation with State Legal Services Authority member-secretary Mahavir Singh and posted the matter for hearing on September 22.
The Bench issued the directions after perusing a status report filed by member secretary of the Chandigarh State Legal Services Authority. The rape survivor and her child were being looked after with the assistance of a support person as well as a counsellor and liasion officer appointed by the Child Welfare Committee, it said.
It also perused a medical report dated August 29 prepared by the Government Medical College and Hospital in Chandigarh which said the newborn and the mother were in a stable condition.
As senior advocate Indira Jaising, who is assisting the Bench as amicus curiae, said the support person appointed should be a qualified counsellor to assist the victim, who is still a child, the Bench directed Singh to obtain the necessary information about the expertise of the support person, counsellor and liasion officer.
On August 25, the Bench had asked the Chandigarh Legal Services Authority to release Rs 1 lakh to the rape survivor immediately and keep the rest Rs 9 lakh as a fixed deposit in a bank in the name of the minor to help her in the future.
The top court had on July 28 dismissed the plea for permission for terminating the 32-week-old pregnancy of the 10-year-old rape survivor, after a medical board of doctors from the PGI, Chandigarh, opined against it. The minor had become pregnant after being allegedly raped by her uncle.
Rajinder Nagarkoti
Tribune News Service
Panchkula, September 1
The violence by Dera Sacha Sauda followers and the death of Premis in a clash with the security forces have left a number of school students in a trauma. The district administration, the Health Department and psychologists have started providing them psychological support.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Rajesh Jogpal, who is also the Administrator of Jainendra Public School, Sector 1, said they organised a seminar for children as many of them had witnessed the violence. The seminar was also addressed by Dr Chhaya Prasad, a renowned developmental and behavioural paediatrician. Many kids reported psychological trauma and emotional disturbances, besides insomnia and headache. An assessment had been made to provide individual psychological support to these kids, he said.
The district administration, along with the Health Department and the psychology department of the GMCH, Sector 32, Chandigarh, had planned to organise an orientation programme for principals and counsellors on September 5, Jogpal said.
At the seminar, Dr Chhaya Prasad gave tips to students on how to remain stress-free.
Dont follow babas blindly: Girl
During the seminar, a girl student of Class V said the public should not respect babas who do not respect women. The girl student said people should not blindly follow these babas.
Violence robs student of sleep
At the seminar, students shared their experiences regarding the killings and burning of vehicles witnessed by them. A Class X student said he had not been able to sleep properly during the past few days. Scenes of burning of vehicles and bodies lying on roads come to my mind, the student told psychologists.
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 2
A triennial report on the poverty scenario in South Asian countries was released for the first time in north India at the Institute for Development Communication (IDC), here today.
The report has been produced by the Nepal-based South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE). A Chandigarh-based study circle, Dialogue Highway, in collaboration with the IDC, facilitated the release of the report.
Dr Harish Khare, Editor-in-Chief, The Tribune Group of Publications, released the report at the mega event. This was followed by a Dialogue on governance for the margins with reference to South Asia. A special lecture on Contesting claims of inclusion of diversity: Challenges and opportunities, was delivered by one of the countrys foremost sociologists, Prof Shiv Vishwanathan.
While addressing the gathering, Vishwanathan said: We need to ask if the Indian Constitution is complete to deal with the aspirations of a diverse people, the nature. Is it violent, built on genocide of dialects? Does it represent the voice of the defeated, minority and those at the margins? I suggest that the Constitution should include diversity and the nature as its purpose.
The SAAPE report, in its essence, brings out the failure of South Asian countries to lift their masses out of poverty and withdrawal of the state from providing basic needs such as food, education, health and safety to the people at the margins, Dialogue Highway managing trustee Devinder Sharma said.
Dialogue Highway has participation from France also.
SAAPE is a regional platform of civil society organisations, social movements and peoples network fighting against the structural causes of poverty and social injustice in the region and beyond.
While launching its fifth Poverty Report, SAAPE, which has been publishing the triennial South Asia Poverty Report since 2003, questioned the existing development paradigm. This report is a knowledge document that brings out the commonality of experiences of all South Asian countries.
While sharing some of the findings of the report, Prof Netra Timsina, regional coordinator, SAAPE, Nepal, said: While South Asia houses 22 per cent of the worlds population, the region, however, has only 1.3 per cent of the worlds income. The idea that the market will correct imbalances through demand and supply has led to the gradual withdrawal of the state from publicly providing services such as education and health.
Punjabi University Vice-Chancellor Prof BS Ghuman said the report should form the part of the policy planning. A social audit of poverty alleviation programmes should also be included in the process to assess the results of poverty eradication. The policy should not be top down but participatory. In a scholarly exposition, Dr Pramod Kumar, Director, IDC, said the state had been usurped by the market and the people at the margins do not have a voice.
Nepal-based SAAPE produced the report
The report has been produced by the Nepal-based South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE). A Chandigarh-based study circle, Dialogue Highway, in collaboration with the IDC, facilitated the release of the report. SAAPE is a regional platform of civil society organisations, social movements and peoples network fighting against the structural causes of poverty and social injustice in the region and beyond.
Srinagar, September 1
A policeman, identified as Kishan Lal, was killed and four were injured when their vehicle was ambushed at Zeewan on the outskirts of Srinagar late this evening. Militants fired indiscriminately at the vehicle of the J&K Armed Police at 8 pm, wounding at least six jawans.
They have been taken to a hospital. The condition of one of them is critical, a police officer said, adding the police vehicle was on its way back to Zewan from Bemina. Locals rushed to help the injured policemen. The area was later cordoned and a hunt for the assailants launched.
The attack occurred despite inputs that militants were planning to strike around Eid. Militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba has claimed responsibility for the ambush.
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Meanwhile, ASI Kamaljit Singh (50) of the Border Security Force, who on Thursday had sustained injuries in enemy fire from across the Line of Control while deployed at a forward post in the Krishna Ghati Sector, died today.
Kamaljit Singh, who joined the force in 1988, hailed from Malkana village, Talwandi Sabo, Bathinda. In this hour of grief, the Border Security Force stands in solidarity with the bereaved family of the martyr and remains committed to their dignity and well-being, a BSF spokesperson said. TNS
Likhe: A character three decades in the Making
Sharad Poudels popular character Likhe first appeared in his story series in a magazine, NawaYuwa, and eventually became the protagonist of his novel of the same name.
Tribune News Service
Kulgam, September 2
A Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant was on Saturday killed in a brief encounter with security forces in Kulgam district of south Kashmir.
The slain militant, who has been identified as Ishfaq Padder, was involved in the killing of Lt Umar Fayaz.
The Army launched an operation in Yaripora area of Kulgam following information about presence of militants in the area, a police official said.
He said one unidentified militant was killed in the gunbattle.
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On Friday, a policeman succumbed to injuries after militants attacked a bus carrying security personnel in Pantha Chowk area on the outskirts of Srinagar.
At least six police personnel were injured in the attack. The bus was on its way from Bemina to Zewan.
On Friday, an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Border Security Force (BSF) also lost his life in Pakistan sniper fire in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district. With agencies inputs
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 1
As the Ministry of Defence readies to look at procuring fighter jets in big numbers, global plane makers, attracted by billion-dollar projects, are back in the Indian market.
India needs at least 400 fighter jets over the next 10 years with a mix of single-engine and twin-engine options. It has just about kick-started the single-engine jet programme and will look at the twin-engine options in the near future.
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Swedish military equipment maker Saab today announced its India partnership with the Adani Group. The notable immediate is to produce Gripen-E fighter jets in India. Saab president and CEO Hakan Buskhe announced the partnership with the Adani group.
Terming it as strategic collaboration, Adani group chairman Gautam Adani said: We announce cooperation in defence and aerospace, including the Gripen.
Besides Saab, the other major global single-engine plane maker, Lockheed Martin of the US, had in July this year announced a tie-up with Tata for making Block 70 of the F-16 jets in India.
In February this year, the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had announced the need for 400 fighter jets over the next decade and promised to start the process within 2017.
The Ministry of Defence has okayed the need for 100 single-engine jets from a foreign maker. The remaining 120 singleengine planes, the Tejas, are being made by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the Bangalore-based MoD-owned public sector undertaking. The previous such bid to have fighter jets was officially launched in 2001 to get 126 twin-engine modern technology jets. It was scrapped 14 years later in 2015.
New Delhi had ended up buying only 36 of the twin-engine Rafale jets from Dassault Aviation, France. The need for some 160-odd twin-engine jets still remains.
On August 28, Dan Gillian, Boeing vice-president, said in New Delhi: We are talking about creating a next generation facility in India. We think the F/A 18 Super Hornet (a twin-engine plane) is the most advanced airplane that India can manufacture.
In January this year, Russia unveiled its latest MiG-35 jet and offered to have production line in India. European offer for the Eurofighter Typhoon is another option on offer to India and so is Rafale looking at more orders.
Xiamen (China), September 2
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday, as he visits the country days after both New Delhi and Beijing decided to end their more than two-month long standoff at Doklam plateau.
The prime minister will visit the country for BRICS nation summit that will have Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa attend it. The summit, which will begin on Sunday at Xiamen a southeastern Chinese city in Fujian province remains on schedule despite a typhoon alert in the countrys coastal areas.
Modi said on Saturday that he was looking forward to productive discussions and positive outcomes at the summit.
"I look forward to building upon the results and outcomes of the Goa Summit. I also look forward to productive discussions and positive outcomes that will support the agenda of a stronger BRICS partnership under the chairmanship of China," the Prime Minister said in a statement.
Neither India nor China has thus far ruled out a meeting between the two state leaders.
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India's External Affairs Ministry has said bilateral talks were not common on the sideline of such multilateral meetings, while its Chinese counterpart has said it could be arranged it time permitted.
READ
However, there is likely another sticking point before the meeting: terrorism, especially that originating in Pakistan, its all-weather ally. China has already stated explicitly that the forum was not appropriate to raise the issue.
However, government sources claim that Modi was likely to take up the issue and flag its own concerns strongly at the summit, although External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar has refused to "preempt" Modis agenda during his intervention at the summit on Monday.
In the summit held last year, which India hosted, Modi had called Pakistan the "mothership" of terrorism and demanded decisive global action against terror outfits.
The summit, which completed 10 years since its establishment in 2016, is likely to discuss the path for the BRICS countries emerging economies over the next 10 years.
Xiamen is geographically close to Taiwan and separated by a narrow strip of Taiwan Straits.
China has said it had high expectations from the summit that Russian President Vladimir Putin, South Africa's Jacob Zuma and Brazil's Michel Temer will attend.
The BRICS nations together account for 23 per cent of the 2016 global economy almost double their share in 2006 and 44 per cent of world population. They have contributed more than half of world economic growth in the past 10 years, becoming the strongest engines of the global economy.
Both India and China agreed to end their 73-day standoff at Doklam on August 28. The standoff began on June 16, when the Chinese military tried to build a road in a disputed territory that both Beijing and Thimphu claim but the latter holds.
Indian troops entered the territory to block the road construction fearing that it could potentially cut off Indias access to its northeastern states.
The 89-square-km patch of territory in the Chumbi valley sitting between Sikkim and Bhutan is an unresolved boundary dispute Beijing has with Thimphu. The two countries have failed to resolve it despite 24 rounds of negotiations since 1984. PTI
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 1
The process for the swearing-in ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan at 10 am on Sunday has begun amid speculation on who has made the cut in what is likely to be the last major reshuffle of Prime Minister Narendra Modis Council of Ministers before the 2019 General Election.
Several new faces, including those from NDA allies, are expected to join the government the third such exercise since Modi took over as the PM on May 26, 2014.
Edit: Why reshuffle
The exercise is expected to be a balancing act, catering to caste and regional factors as also the prevailing mood in the country because of a lacklustre economy, jobless growth and agriculture distress. Interestingly, there is talk of a Chief Minister being inducted into the Cabinet at an important position. In fact, the rumour mills are abuzz that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may join in as the Deputy PM.
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Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, who have so far kept things under wraps, are expected to confer again before the D-day.
So far, five ministers of state Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjiv Kumar Balyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Mahendra Nath Pandey and Bandaru Dattatreya have submitted their resignations. Two Cabinet ministers Uma Bharti and Kalraj Mishra are also believed to have offered to resign to make way for new inductions.
Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti has said only Shah or someone on his behalf can speak on the issue. Meanwhile, Shah, who spent the day at an RSS meeting in Vrindavan, is said to have also consulted the senior Sangh leadership. About 40 RSS affiliates, including the BJP, are attending the three-day annual coordination committee meeting there. In Delhi, it was being anticipated that ministers of state Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Rajyavardhan Rathore could be elevated to the Cabinet rank. Sources said Shah was asked to fill in the important Defence Ministry portfolio, which he declined.
Senior organisation men like Bhupendra Yadav, Ram Madhav, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Om Mathur and MPs Prahlad Patel, Suresh Angadi, Satyapal Singh and Prahlad Joshi are the other names doing the rounds.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who offered to resign after consecutive accidents, could be new Environment Minister a portfolio he held earlier too. Speculation is also on whether Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh will survive the reshuffle.
JD-U Rajya Sabha members RCP Singh and Kahkashan Perween are said to be the probable picks from the new ally. From the AIADMK, M Thambidurai and V Maitreyan may be included in the new Council, though there is no confirmation.
The Constitution prescribes that the total number of ministers, including the PM, in the Council cannot exceed 15 per cent of the total strength of the Lok Sabha, which is 545. There are some vacancies as senior ministers are holding dual portfolios. Arun Jaitley is in charge of two ministries Finance and Defence and so are Harsh Vardhan, Smriti Irani and Narendra Singh Tomar.
Wont matter in one-man govt: Cong
PM may appoint, remove anyone, and change any portfolios, it will make zero difference because he believes in complete concentration of power... Are we functioning like a Cabinet form of government? Key ministries for more than 3 yrs are without a Cabinet Minister. Anand Sharma, Cong spokesman
PK Jaiswar
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, September 1
Six armed men freed gangster Shubham Singh from police custody at the Rayya bus stop in broad daylight today, shooting Assistant Sub-Inspector Sukhjinder Singh in the leg.
The ASI was rushed to a Jalandhar hospital. He was heading a police team escorting the gangster to the Amritsar courts from the Kapurthala jail for a hearing. They were travelling in a Punjab Roadways bus. At Rayya, six armed gangsters boarded the bus and threatened to kill passengers if Shubham was not released.
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The ASI and constables Sajjan Singh and Kuldeep Singh resisted, but the gunmen shot the ASI in the leg and fled with the prisoner in a car parked nearby. Senior police officials, including SSP Parampal Singh, reached the site. A high alert was sounded.
Shubham is an accused in 12 cases, including attempt to murder. He is also facing cases under the NDPS Act.
The SSP said the attackers came in two cars. They boarded the bus as it stopped at Rayya and put a gun to each cops head. To ensure there was no passenger casualty in the bus, the policemen put up a fight only after they had de-boarded along with Shubham. One of them was injured, he added. One of the assailants has been identified as Sahil of Hansawala village in Tarn Taran. He is wanted in five cases filed under the NDPS Act and Arms Act besides attempt to murder. Also, he is wanted by the Tarn Taran and Amritsar Rural police for carrying fake currency notes.
Shubham was arrested by the Amritsar Sadar police in August 2016 after he and his accomplices allegedly shot a tavern owner and his employee at Majitha Road on the night of July 25. He was recently shifted to the Kapurthala jail because of security concerns at the Amritsar Central Jail.
Inefficiency or rusting weapons?
The two constables escorting Shubham Singh were armed with SLRs. When Shubham tried to flee, Constable Sajjan Singh tried to open fire but the bullet got stuck in the barrel, say sources. This enabled the gangsters to flee without any obstacle.
Tribune News service
Lucknow, September 2
A Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh police on Saturday in Gorakhpur arrested encephalitis ward in-charge Dr Kafeel Khan in connected to the mass death of children within a week in August at the BRD Medical College.
Kafeel Khan, the third prime accused in the case, was trying to flee the country possibly to Nepal when he was arrested.
An FIR was lodged against him earlier this week along with six others and a non-bailable warrant was issued by a fast track court on Friday.
Over 60 children lost their lives between August 10 and 14 at the Baba Raghav Das Medical College in Gorakhpur, the home constituency of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
At least 30 of them died within 48 hours due to shortage of oxygen supply. Khan, the nodal officer of the 100-bed AES (acute encephalitis syndrome) ward has been accused of dereliction of duty and not informing seniors and the administration of the paucity of oxygen, which led to the deaths.
Former Principal of the medical college Rajeev Mishra and his wife Poornima have already been arrested and are in a 14-day judicial custody.
Mishra has been accused of sitting over bills of the vendor supplying oxygen.
Reports said despite an allocation of Rs 4.54 crore for the financial year 2017-18, Mishra did not clear a payment of Rs 63.65 lakh. His wife has been accused of stalling the payment by pressurising him.
With IANS inputs
Shahira Naim
Tribune News Service
Lucknow, September 1
The Allahabad HC has stayed any further development of the 4,500 acres of land allotted to Baba Ramdevs Patanjali Ayurved Limited in Gautam Budh Nagar by the earlier Samajwadi Party government.
Taking serious view of the felling of 6,000 trees, a Division Bench of Justice Tarun Agarwala and Justice Ashok Kumar passed the interim order on a PIL filed by Ausaf and 13 others.The case will next be heard on September 4.
According to the petitioner, 200 bighas were allotted to the Baba for plantation on a 30-year lease. This land later became part of the 4,500 acres allotted to Patanjali Ayurved Ltd for a food park which, the petitioner alleged, was illegal and contrary to the lease deed.
The court issued notices to the Principal Secretary (Industrial Development) to explain how and under which rules the Divisional Commissioner, Meerut, had transferred the land. The HC asked the GB Nagar District Magistrate and the CEO Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority to file counter-affidavits, explaining how and under whose orders so many trees were allowed to be uprooted. The DMs report is expected to furnish details of the officers and policemen present at the time of felling.
Oppn MPs accuse NC of delaying poll bills
Opposition lawmakers on Friday accused the ruling Nepali Congress of delaying two laws necessary for holding the federal and provincial parliamentary elections.
Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 1
The Haryana Police have issued a lookout notice for Honeypreet Kaur, the adopted daughter of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, and Dr Aditya Insan, a dera spokesman, for their alleged involvement in inciting violence and possible role in a conspiracy to free the dera chief soon after he was convicted by a CBI court on August 25.
Honeypreets name had cropped up during interrogation of dera journalist Surender Dhiman Insan, who surrendered before the Panchkula police yesterday. Dr Insan, a close aide of the dera chief, was seen talking to followers shortly before the conviction.
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Commissioner of Panchkula Police AS Chawla said the two were wanted for investigations in the FIR registered at the Sector 5 police station soon after arson and violence.
Sources said airports, bus stands and railway stations across the country had been put on alert. There was speculation that Honeypreet had fled the country, but police believed she was possibly hiding in the house of a dera follower in the Rohtak area.
DCP Manbir Singh said Honeypreet allegedly gave a signal (to the crowds) to instigate violence.
Haryana Police IG KK Rao alleged that soon after the conviction, the dera chief had sought a red bag from his vehicle, which was in fact a signal to followers to indulge in violence so that he could flee in the chaos. But the conspiracy failed as Ram Rahim was handed over to the Army and taken to the helipad from where he was flown to Rohtak, where he was lodged in jail.
Honeypreet accompanied Ram Rahim in the AgustaWestland helicopter. The police are now investigating who allowed her to accompany the convict.
Questions are being raised over the delay by the security forces in entering the Sacha Sauda premises. It is also alleged that the Haryana Government is going soft on the dera and giving it time to remove incriminating documents and cash received in the form of donations and offerings.
Illegal arms and explosives in the form of chemicals, petrol and diesel cans have already been recovered from dera followers.
Locals claim they have seen vehicles frequently move in and out of the dera even after the governments claims that it has been evacuated.
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 1
Feeling vindicated about its stand on demonetisation, the Opposition has begun its mass outreach across the country with the first public contact programme held in Indore on the day the RBI published demonetisation data.
Leaders of 18 political parties will participate in these public programmes with JD-U rebel faction leader Sharad Yadav leading the camp. The outreach was held today in Gujarats Ahmedabad and will soon be held in Jaipur with an objective to apprise people of the damages inflicted by demonetisation.
Congress sources said the 18 party non-NDA front has decided to hammer the point that impacts the lives and livelihoods of many people. They are not sure though if the message will resonate politically.
Demonetisation has hit people hard. Ask families whose members died in queues, who lost jobs and those whose businesses were closed, a senior Opposition leader said.
The saffron message continues to centre on governments anti-graft image which is what the Opposition seeks to blunt and expose. Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram has already asked the government if demonetisation was meant to convert peoples black monies into white considering hardly any black money was unearthed.
Chennai, September 2
Political parties and pro-Tamil outfits on Saturday staged state-wide protests over the suicide of a 17-year-old girl who had moved the Supreme Court against NEET- based medical examinations.
They sought immediate withdrawal of the entrance exam.
Anitha's father before her last rites said: "Anitha managed to study in difficult circumstances. She was concerned about NEET. What wrong had she done, who will answer.
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The CPI(M) and its student and youth affiliates, SFI and DYFI, staged a road blockade here over the suicide of the Dalit girl. The party's state unit secretary G Ramakrishnan and many others were detained, the police said.
Similarly, VCK party workers were held when they staged a road blockade at Kilpauk here.
A students' outfit tried to picket the government Multi- Super Speciality Hospital at Omanthurar Estate on the main road and its members were detained. The protestors raised slogans against the central and state governments on the issue of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).
At Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli district, a "wailing protest" was held by women members of pro-Tamil 'Naam Tamizhar Katchi'. Protests were also held at Coimbatore, Salem and Rameswaram by students' and youth outfits who demanded justice for the girl and sought immediate withdrawal of NEET.
Daughter of a daily wage earner, Anitha dreamed of becoming a doctor. She was found hanging at her house in a village in Ariyalur district yesterday. She was reportedly upset after it became known that Tamil Nadu will not be exempted from the ambit of NEET.
The apex court had last month asked the state government to start counselling for admissions to MBBS and BDS seats in the state based on NEET merit list.
It had given the directive after Centre told the court that it was not in favour of a recent ordinance passed by the state to exempt it from NEET this year.
Political leaders including DMK Working President MK Stalin and VCK founder Thol Thirumavalavan and actors Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth, among others, had condoled Anitha's death.
The state government had announced relief of Rs 7 lakh to her family, besides offering a government job on compassionate grounds.
Political parties and other outfits in Tamil Nadu are opposed to NEET, saying it will affect rural students.
Early this year, the state assembly had unanimously adopted two resolutions to ensure for the continuation of medical admissions in the state based on Class XII marks and not through an entrance exam, as envisaged by NEET. PTI
Washington, September 2
A 22-year-old Sikh software engineering student has been stabbed to death in his taxi allegedly by an American student who was upset over not getting admission into a university.
Gagandeep Singh, a third-year student who was also working as a taxi driver, was allegedly attacked by the 19-year-old passenger he had picked up at Spokane International Airport in Washington State on August 28. The accused, Jacob Coleman, was charged with first-degree murder.
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Coleman is said to have flown from Seattle to Spokane to start as a new student at Gonzaga University, but upon arrival he was denied entry. He became angry and began to have homicidal thoughts," police said, after claiming he was denied entry to Gonzaga University.
The university said it "has no record of an application" from Coleman and that it was cooperating with law enforcement. Coleman reportedly left, hailed a taxi and asked Gagandeep to drive him to a fictitious friend's house in Bonner County, Idaho. He admitted that during the journey he "became homicidal" and bought a knife.
Singh later stopped his car in Kootenai city after realising he had been sent to an erroneous location. That's when Coleman reportedly stabbed Gagandeep multiple times.
Gagandeep, originally from Jalandhar, had been living in Washington since 2003. PTI
Washington, September 2
President Donald Trump on Saturday announced his intent to nominate Kenneth I Juster, a top economic aide and an expert on India, as the US ambassador to India.
In June, the White House said that Juster, 62, will be America's new ambassador to India.
Juster, who is the Deputy Assistant to the US president for International Economic Affairs and Deputy Director of his National Economic Council, would replace Richard Verma if nominated and confirmed by the Senate.
The position has been lying vacant since January 20 when Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.
Juster has previously served as Under Secretary of Commerce from 2001-2005, Counselor (acting) of the State Department from 1992-1993, and deputy and senior adviser to the Deputy Secretary of State from 1989-1992.
In the private sector, he has been a partner at the investment firm Warburg Pincus LLC, Executive Vice President at Salesforce.com, and senior partner at the law firm Arnold & Porter.
He has also served as Chairman of Harvard University's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and as Vice Chairman of The Asia Foundation.
Juster holds a law degree from the Harvard Law School, a master's degree in Public Policy from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and a bachelor's degree in Government from Harvard College. PTI
New Delhi, September 2
A cloud of uncertainty hangs over the participation of the AIADMK and JD (U) in the Union Cabinet as Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertakes its reshuffle on Sunday.
Internal troubles in the Tamil Nadu party, which has been hit by a rebellion led by TTV Dhinakaran, can prove to be a stumbling block in its joining the government as it works to defuse the crisis.
JD (U) sources said they were still not informed about their participation in the government.
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Our MPs are in Delhi. There was never any issue in the party over participating in the government but there has been no communication to us even though the reshuffle is on Sunday, a senior JD (U) leader said.
BJP sources, however, played down the confusion over whether or not the two parties would join the government, saying things would fall in fall in place before the event.
Read:
No word on Union Cabinet expansion: Thackeray
Union Minister Kalraj Mishra resigns ahead of reshuffle
More than half-a-dozen ministers are expected to make way for several new faces in the reshuffle, being seen as a balancing act between Modis avowed thrust on merit and demands of realpolitik.
A process has been set in motion for the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan at around 10 am on Sunday, a top government official had said on Friday.
Union ministers Kalraj Mishra, Bandaru Dattatreya, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjiv Kumar Balyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahendra Nath Pandey had resigned on Friday ahead of the rejig.
Uma Bharti also had offered to resign but her fate remains in the balance amid speculation that there might be a few more exits.
Bharti, who is the water resources minister, had said only Shah or anyone on his behalf could speak on the issue.
The media sought my reaction on reports in circulation since yesterday. I have said that I have not heard the question, will not hear nor will I answer it, she tweeted.
Shah had met Modi on Friday and the two leaders are understood to have finalised the changes in the council of ministers.
Arun Jaitley, who held the charge of two heavyweight portfolios--finance and defence--might retain only one, sources said.
Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, seen as one of the more capable ministers, can be given more responsibility.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who had taken moral responsibility for a string of train accidents and indicated his willingness to resign, might be moved to another ministry, sources said.
Other incumbents, including Steel Minister Birender Singh, may be moved to other ministries.
BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav, partys vice president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Prahlad Patel, Suresh Angadi, Satyapal Singh, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Anurag Thakur, Shobha Karandlaje, Maheish Girri and Prahlad Joshi are being talked about within the party as among the probable ministers.
Power Minister Piyush Goyal, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha are seen among the good performers in the government, a party leader said, adding that some of them could be elevated.
With the Nitish Kumar-led JD (U) also likely to join the government, its leaders RCP Singh, who is its parliamentary party leader in the Rajya Sabha, and Santosh Kumar are the likely picks from the new NDA constituent.
AIADMK leader Thambidurai had met Shah on Friday, and he, besides party leaders P Venugopal and V Maitreyan, might be the likely representatives from the Tamil Nadu party if it decided to join the government. However, the southern party has not confirmed it so far.
There are also talks of a greater representation from existing allies like the TDP and Shiv Sena.
The current strength of the council of ministers, including the prime minister, is 73 and the maximum number of ministers cannot go beyond 81.
According to a constitutional amendment, the limit cannot exceed beyond 15 per cent of the total strength of the Lok Sabha which is 545.
While there are some vacancies, a number of senior ministers are also holding dual portfolios.
Besides Jaitley, Harsh Vardhan, Smriti Irani and Narendra Singh Tomar are handling additional charges.
After assuming office in May 2014, Modi expanded his council of ministers twice--first on November 9, 2014 and then on July 5, 2016. PTI
Chandigarh, September 2
The State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has sent a missive to the Punjab government to remove the notorious Blue Whale Challenge from the internet after a Ludhiana teen committed suicide allegedly after taking part in it.
Abhishek, 17, reportedly took his life last month. Taking cognisance of the case, the commission's chairman Sukesh Kalia wrote to the chief secretary to take such "games" off the internet.
He also asked the state education department to organise lectures for schools students to educate them in this regard.
The commission also wrote to the principal secretary of the department of school education, asking him to help create awareness among teachers and parents so that they could keep a watch on any unusual behaviour, he said.
"The commission is apprehensive about vulnerability of more children falling victim if preventive measures are not taken," he said.
"The letter was also sent to state owned telecom operator BSNL for prompt action to 'take off' 'Blue Whale challenge' from the internet, either operated by government or private internet service providers which is inducing vulnerable teens to such life threatening challenges," said Kalia.
The Blue Whale Challenge, which originated in Russia, starts by asking participants via social media to draw a blue whale on a piece of paper. The participants are then asked to carve the shape of a whale onto their body.
They are given other "challenges" or "tasks" such as watching horror movies alone. These challenges or dares include committing acts harming oneself. The last stage is suicide. PTI
Dehradun, September2
Rains on Saturday failed to dampen the festive spirit of Muslims on Eid al-Adha who offered morning prayers at a gurdwara in Joshimath after they were unable to do so at Gandhi Maidan due to heavy downpour.
Uttarakhand-Devotees offered prayers at a Gurudwara in Joshimath as they were unable to do it at Gandhi Maidan due to heavy rains #EidAlAdha pic.twitter.com/FIzQientks ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
It has been raining since morning at many places in Dehradun.
They greeted each other in the festival that symbolised sacrifice and dedication.
Heavy police presence was ensured around mosques and some sensitive places in the state.
ANI
Washington, September 2
Mysterious health attacks on the American diplomatic community in Cuba continued as recently as August, the United States said on Saturday, despite earlier US assessments that the attacks had long stopped. The US increased the tally of US government personnel affected to 19.
The new US disclosures came the same day that the union that represents American diplomats said mild traumatic brain injury was among the diagnoses given to diplomats victimised in the attacks, offering the most detailed account to date of the growing list of symptoms.
Permanent hearing loss has also been diagnosed, and the American Foreign Service Association said additional symptoms had included brain swelling, severe headaches, loss of balance and cognitive disruption.
At the State Department, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US was continually revising its assessments of the scope of the attacks as new information was obtained. She said the investigation had not been completed.
We can confirm another incident which occurred last month and is now part of the investigation, Nauert said.
US officials had previously said that the attacks, initially believed to be caused by a potential covert sonic device, had started in fall 2016 and continued until spring 2017. Last week, Nauert had said at least 16 Americans associated with the US Embassy in Havana had been affected, but that the incidents were no longer occurring.
The revised assessments suggested that US officials were still a long way away from any thorough understanding of what transpired in the unexplained attacks. US investigators have been searching to identify a device that could have harmed the health of the diplomats, believed to have been attacked in their homes in Havana, but officials have said no device had been found.
We cant rule out new cases as medical professionals continue to evaluate members of the embassy community, Nauert said. She added that the embassy has a medical officer and has been consistently providing medical care to those who have reported incidents. AP
NAIROBI, September 1
Kenyas Supreme Court on Friday nullified President Uhuru Kenyattas election win citing irregularities and ordered a new poll within 60 days, a rare move in Africa where judicial power is often seen as an extension of government.
The ruling, broadcast to a stunned nation on national television, sets up a new race for the presidency between Kenyatta, 55, and veteran opponent Raila Odinga, 72.
Kenyatta called for calm and respect for the ruling, while Odingas cheering supporters paraded in the streets of his western Kenyan heartland. Last months election results sparked protests and sporadic violence that killed at least 28 people.
Kenya, a US ally in the fight against Islamists and a trade gateway to East Africa, has a history of disputed votes.
A row over the 2007 poll, which Odinga challenged after being declared loser, was followed by weeks of ethnic bloodshed that killed more than 1,200 people. Kenyas economy, the biggest in the region, slid into recession and neighbouring economies wobbled. Judge David Maraga announced the Supreme Courts verdict that was backed by four of the six judges, saying the declaration of Kenyattas victory was invalid, null and void. Details of the ruling will be released within 21 days.
In the court room, a grinning Odinga pumped his fist in the air. Outside, shares plummeted on the Nairobi bourse amid the uncertainty, while Kenyattas supporters grumbled. But there was no sign of frustrations spilling over into anger on the streets.
The judge said the election board failed, neglected or refused to conduct the presidential election in a manner consistent with the dictates of the constitution. Kenyas judiciary went through sweeping changes after 2007 election violence, on a continent where many complain of judiciaries that rubber stamp government or presidential decisions.
Official results had given Kenyatta 54.3 percent of the vote, compared to Odingas 44.7 percent, a lead of 1.4 million votes. For the first time in history of African democratisation a ruling has been made by a court nullifying irregular elections for the president, Odinga said. Reuters
History of Disputed elections, bloodshed
Tika R Pradhan is a senior political correspondent for the Post, covering politics, parliament, judiciary and social affairs. Pradhan joined the Post in 2016 after working at The Himalayan Times for more than a decade.
Houston, September 1
Rescue work has intensified in Texas with officials launching search operations and saving people stuck in the receding floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, one of the most destructive storms in American history that has claimed at least 47 lives so far.
Nearly a week after Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Texas coast, residents remain stranded without food and water in the wake of unprecedented flooding.
Authorities are searching for survivors and have made helicopter rescues from rooftops. Houston fire officials said they would begin going door-to-door in search for trapped residents, a process that could take up to two weeks. Thousands of emergency rescue officials are helping people affected by the deluge.
Brazoria County officials have warning that roughly 517 km of the county will be inundated with water from the Brazos River, which is projected to continue rising.
Beaumont city, home to more than 118,000 people, 145-km away from Houston, woke up without drinking water supply yesterday.
The Baptist Hospital in Beaumont city is evacuating patients and shutting down emergency services because the city is without a working water supply. Harvey yesterday hammered the Gulf Coast with more punishing cloudbursts and growing threats that included reports of pops and chemical reactions at a crippled chemical plant and the collapse of the drinking water system in a Texas city. PTI
Washington, September 2
The White House has sought a whopping $14 billion for the Hurricane Harvey relief work in the aftermath of the trail of devastation left by the most destructive storms in American history that claimed at least 50 lives.
In a letter to Congress, the White House requested an initial $7.9 billion down payment toward Harvey relief and recovery efforts that will be quickly followed by a request for another $6.7 billion.
Prolonged high winds, storm surges, and torrential rains have contributed to unprecedented and widespread flooding that has upended the lives of residents and damaged more than 1,00,000 homes, the White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney said in his letter.
More than 43,500 people are in shelters and more than 4,36,000 households have registered for support for temporary rental assistance, hotel/motel costs, and essential home repairs to help restore their lives to normal as quickly as possible.
Mulvaney said these additional Federal resources would enable the affected states to address disaster response and immediate recovery needs in the areas most affected by the Hurricane.
These funds would be used to continue life-saving response and recovery missions; begin to address housing repair costs unmet by insurance; and provide low-interest loans to businesses and homeowners.
Because the need for this funding arises from an unforeseen, unanticipated event resulting in the loss of life and property, these resources should be provided as emergency funding, he wrote.
Earlier in the day, the US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation declaring this Sunday a National Day of Prayer for those affected by the Hurricane.
He also heard from the heads of the Salvation Army, American Red Cross, and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief on their efforts throughout the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders said.
Trump will be back in Texas tomorrow to visit with storm survivors and tell them personally that the federal government will back them in any way that it can, Sanders said.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran said his committee is prepared to do its part to make resources available to those affected by Hurricane Harvey through the Disaster Relief Fund and other federal channels.
These actions will support the commendable efforts of first responders, relief workers and volunteers. The Senate Appropriations Committee will move swiftly to consider requests for relief funding as it receives them, he said. PTI
TIKRIT (Iraq), September 2
Suicide bombers attacked a state-run power station north of Baghdad early on Saturday, killing seven people and forcing the facility to shut down, police and army sources said.
At least three gunmen wearing explosive vests attacked the power station around 0300 local time, near the northern city of Sammara, about 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad. They used grenades to enter the facility.
"I was in my night shift and suddenly heard shooting and blasts. A few minutes later I saw one attacker wearing a military uniform and throwing grenades through the windows," said Raied Khalid, a worker who was injured by shrapnel.
Security sources said the three gunmen briefly took control of the station, but police managed to regain control after three hours.
Four policemen and three workers were killed in the attack, in which 13 were wounded, police and medical sources from a nearby hospital said.
One of the attackers, who was cornered by security forces, detonated his suicide vest near one the power generators, causing a fire.
The two other gunmen were killed, security sources said, either by blowing themselves up or in clashes with the security forces.
Operations at the facility were expected to be suspended briefly, while repairs were under way, electricity officials said. Reuters
LONDON, September 2
The opposition Labour Party will propose changes to the government's EU repeal Bill to ensure it does not exclude Britain remaining in the single market and customs union as part of a transitional Brexit period, The Times reported.
On Thursday, British lawmakers will hold their first full parliamentary debate on legislation dubbed the 'Great Repeal Bill' that will sever the country's ties with the European Union.
Their first opportunity to put forward amendments to the Bill, either proposing changes or adding new clauses, comes at a later stage.
Labour will call on Prime Minister Theresa May to make a series of changes including allowing parliament to replicate any new EU laws on employment rights, the environment and consumer protection, The Times reported, citing a letter sent by Labour's Brexit spokesman to minister David Davis.
The party, led by leftist Jeremy Corbyn, will also say that Britain should continue to participate in the customs union, single market and the European Court of Justice during a transitional period. It is hoping to attract support from pro-European Conservative lawmakers.
Labour did not offer an immediate comment when contacted by Reuters on Saturday.
The party said last week that it wanted to keep Britain in the European single market and customs union for a while after Britain formally leaves the EU in 2019, offering an alternative to the Conservative government's stance.
The legislation's passage through parliament could make or break May's future after she lost her outright parliamentary majority in a June snap election, reopening the debate on the nature of Brexit. Reuters
Washington, September 2
The US and South Korea on Saturday vowed to strengthen their alliance through defence cooperation to fight the threats posed by North Korea with President Donald Trump giving a conceptual approval to sell Seoul American military equipment worth billions of dollars.
On Tuesday, North Korea fired a missile over Japan, prompting Trump to insist that all options were on the table in an implied threat of pre-emptive military action.
Trump in a phone call with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in discussed a coordinated response to deal with the destabilising and escalatory behavior of North Korea, the White House said.
(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)
Trump and Moon pledged to continue to apply strong diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea and to make all necessary preparations to deter and defend against the growing threat posed by North Korea, it said.
The two leaders agreed to strengthen the alliance through defence cooperation and to strengthen South Koreas defence capabilities.
Trump provided his conceptual approval of planned purchases by South Korea of billions of dollars in American military equipment, the White House said.
In a separate call, Trump spoke with President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan to discuss the two countries 25-year relationship and his recently announced South Asia strategy.
Trump expressed appreciation for Kazakhstans regional and global leadership, including its upcoming tenure as Chair of the United Nations Security Council in January, and congratulated President Nazarbayev on hosting the Astana Expo 2017, the White House said.
Trump also spoke with President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia.
President Trump stressed the importance of Colombia doing its utmost to eliminate the production and trafficking of illegal drugs, it said. PTI
Caracas, September 2
Venezuelan former Defence Minister Raul Isaias Baduel, a government critic whose whereabouts have been unknown for three weeks, is being held by the intelligence service, his family has said.
Baduels daughter Andreina on Friday told a press conference the family was only told of his whereabouts in a phone call from new attorney general Tarek William Saab, and that she and her brother were taken to see him.
They have him in the SEBIN at Plaza Venezuela, known as The Tomb, she said, referring to the intelligence service headquarters in Caracas.
Baduel was spiritually and physically strong despite the conditions he was being held in, she said.
Considered by the opposition to be one of the countrys most prominent political prisoners, the retired former army chief, 62, was wearing the same clothes as when he was last seen on August 8 during his transfer from a military prison outside Caracas, his daughter said.
On Friday, Baduels wife accused Saab of a cover up for concealing his whereabouts.
The Opposition maintains there are around 590 political prisoners in Venezuela, which is suffering an economic crisis that has caused shortages of food and medicine.
International powers accuse President Nicolas Maduro of dismantling democracy by taking over state institutions in order to resist opposition pressure for him to quit.
Defence minister in the government of Maduros predecessor Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013, Baduel helped to restore the then president after an April 2002 coup briefly removed him from power, but then became his adversary.
He was due to be released last March after serving a nearly eight-year sentence for corruption.
However, the prosecutors office charged him with alleged conspiracy to oust Maduro for which he could face up to 26 years in prison.
He was conditionally released from his original sentence in August 2015 but jailed again in January this year when he attended a routine court hearing. AFP
The Most Powerful Person (MPP)
We all know of our Very Very Irritating Persons (VVIPs) who get free vehicles, security, fuel and chiya kharcha from the State, while they continue to loot the state treasury, extort from our civil servants and contractors and continue to exploit the common folks for their own self interest.
Haiti 10 Documentary with 5x GRAMMY Winner Victor Wooten DebutsSAN MARCOS, CA Culturally and spiritually, music has an impact on communities around the world. This new 69 minute documentary focuses on a Haitian family who helps their neighbors in a time of great distress and later, their son gets a surprise visit from his hero, five-time GRAMMY Award-winner Victor Wooten. This basic human truth is celebrated in Haiti 10, an incredible story of faith, love, and music helping a community rise above the horrific 2010 earthquake that devastated the island nation. Now available for public viewing on YouTube, Haiti 10 will inspire new audiences with its positive message of hope and resilience.The magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010 left hundreds of thousands dead and more than 1 million homeless. While photojournalist Jon Moyer was visiting the country in September 2010 to help with recovery efforts, he met a pastor, his wife, and their 10 children, who were doing extraordinary things to help their community recover. With the support of their congregation, Pastor Pierre and his family committed to raising 20 orphaned or homeless children. On a second visit to Haiti in 2011, Moyer learned that Pastor Pierres second eldest child, Bekenson Pierre, played bass guitar, but his instrument was damaged after the earthquake. Moyer, with colleague Pete Johnston, teamed up with music industry insider Josh Vittek to help give this aspiring musician the greatest surprisea visit from his musical hero, Victor Wooten.In 2012, Wooten and his wife Holly, along with a film crew consisting of Moyer (director), Johnston (director of photography), Vittek (producer), Kindra French and Joe Brandi (co-producers), flew to Haiti to meet the Pierre family and deliver musical instruments. Manufacturers donated generously to this project. Dean Markley USA donated a lifetime of bass strings, shirts, wristbands, and glow-in-the-dark, guitar-shaped lapel pins for children in the community; Hartke provided a new A25 Bass Combo amplifier; and Cort Guitars donated an EARTH100 acoustic guitar and Arona 5 electric bass, the latter of which is featured prominently when Bekenson and Wooten have the opportunity to play for each other.When I first heard the story of Bekenson and his family, I knew I wanted to help. When I heard that Bekenson was a fan of my music, I knew that God had made a way, Wooten narrates.Haiti 10 shows how music helps to inspire and heal an amazing community. Now the films production team is excited to make this documentary available on YouTube for free viewing, while recognizing that Haiti is still recovering from the earthquake as well as the devastation of Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Ultimately, this film conveys a message of unity, both within the Haitian community and with support from other nations.I cant wait for my kids to see this film because I think its not only going to help them, but I think this film can help the world, Wooten concludes.Haiti 10 The Documentary With 5X GRAMMY Winner Victor Wooten
The storm named Harvey put not just people but key pieces of the countrys energy infrastructure in harms way.
The infrastructure impacted by the storm included a portion of Tulsa-based Williams Cos. key asset, the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line.
Transco begins in Texas with facilities in Houston and Corpus Christi. Those facilities have historically been the starting point for imported natural gass journey north and east. Its critical to millions of people thousands of miles away who rely on the gas for heating homes and generating power.
Williams, like many other energy companies, has spent the past week worried about the safety of employees while focusing on keeping its Gulf operations working and safe, which is not only critical for its business but the countrys economy.
We are still assessing the condition of Williams onshore and offshore facilities. So far no significant operational issues have been identified, according to a company statement released Friday. We are starting to see some offshore production starting to come back online. There is now about 255 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of offshore gas supply being shut in by Gulf producers feeding the Transco system. We expect to see that number continue to improve this weekend.
Critical piece of infrastructure
The Transco system is a vital piece of American infrastructure, the largest natural gas pipeline in the country. Hundreds of miles of pipe have been added in recent years as both the supply of natural gas and demand has surged.
From Texas Gulf Coast ports, it cuts across the southeast; starting to turn north at Atlanta; passing near Charlotte and Raleigh. Then it goes along Virginias coast, past Washington, D.C., and Maryland before ending near New York City.
It features about 10,200 miles of pipelines, which is far more than the direct distance from the Gulf to New York City.
If you look back to 2010 and compare at what our maximum delivery capability was then compared to where it will be when we place our expansion projects in service in 2018, well have essentially doubled the size of the pipeline, said Frank Ferazzi, who is in charge of Transco as the head of Gulf Atlantic operating segment of Williams.
The change on both sides of the supply and demand curve, Ferazzi explained, is due to the U.S. shale revolution the explosion of American oil and natural gas production in recent years.
Independent producers have started the U.S. on the path to being an exporter of natural gas, and the same pipeline that brought gas in from the coasts is now being used in some places to send it out for exporting.
The key to the future
Transco is part of the key to Williams Cos. present and future. The company has realigned in recent months, simplifying its business model to focus on what it does best.
We have focused very much on natural gas, said Williams Cos. CEO Alan Armstrong in an interview with Tulsa World. We actually have looked and seen the abundance of low-cost natural gas here in the U.S. and think we are going to have to build out to help move those volumes.
Analysts see Transco as the key to companys business and prospects.
Specifically, we highlight ... Transco pipeline as an instance of a ... asset that underpins attractive returns for the entire franchise. Transco connects the Northeastern gas markets with the Gulf, a Morningstar analyst noted.
From historically discrete and fragmented markets, Transco has provided a platform for producers to reach new markets. Williams Companies has used this strategic asset to not only lock in longer-term, fee-based shipper volumes on the mainline but also leverages this asset to facilitate a series of other adjacent midstream investments in regions along Transcos nearly 10,000 miles.
Armstrong said that any attempt to buy Williams would come from an interest in the companys positioning in the midstream natural gas market, not just Transco. However, Transco is vital to the companys effort to be the dominant transporter of natural gas, a fuel that Armstrong likes a lot better than oil at the moment.
He noted that even with low crude oil prices, natural gas is a better value than oil.
It means that worldwide that gas is a better value at driving economies, and its cleaner, said Armstrong.
Helping renewables
How clean a fuel burns grows increasingly relevant to Williams and the country. Climate change continues to carry weight in the public conversation.
Armstrong said the reason the countrys greenhouse gas emissions have fallen is because of the substitution of natural gas for coal in power generation. The Environmental Protection Agency has credited that for the decrease in U.S. emissions between 2005 and 2015.
We are all over helping renewables on a level playing field ... because its a real positive for natural gas, said Armstrong. Because if you go build wind and solar, you have to also invest in a backup for that. And the low-cost backup is natural gas.
The regulation of greenhouse gas emissions has been coals loss and natural gass gain. Utilities and electricity generators across the U.S. have been forced by regulation, cost or some combination of the two to shutter their electric plants that relied on coal. Duke Energy, a dominant utility in the southeast part of the U.S, is a notable example and a Transco customer.
The decline of nuclear energy is another opportunity for Williams and Transco, Ferazzi said. It will allow natural gas to capture more of a share of the power generation market in the coming years.
He compared Transco to Interstate 95, which runs along the Eastern Seaboard.
If you dont have a freeway, that means you cant get to where youre going, said Ferazzi. If you dont have natural gas, that means you cant heat your home, cant heat your water, the lights dont turn on. ... Industry stops. ... Its a pretty essential piece of day-to-day life.
Increased visibility
Pipelines have been traditionally a piece of the nations infrastructure that goes largely unnoticed until it fails.
A Harvey-related Williams pipeline system leak caused a shelter-in-place warning in La Porte, Texas, on Monday. The leak was contained that night, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Recently, theres been another reason that pipelines have come to the public light activism against them. That activism, and how best to adapt to it, is a new consideration for energy companies.
Energy Transfer Partners Williams one-time suitor brought a lawsuit against environmental activist group Greenpeace on Aug. 22, the day before Armstrong spoke with the World.
ETP was accusing Greenpeace of vandalizing its Dakota Access Pipeline during protests that grabbed nationwide attention.
Armstrong noted that the public perception of his industry is changing and how Williams should adapt to that shift is something he thinks more about these days.
He explained how Williams helped fund a Georgia State University study of white-nose syndrome in bats during the routing of the Dalton pipeline, a Transco expansion in northeastern Georgia. He used it as an example of how Williams has handled pipeline-related issues differently than most.
Sometimes, the company faces opposition no matter what it does. The Pennsylvania-based Atlantic Sunrise, another expansion project, cleared key regulatory hurdles last week but not before being the target of a legal battle with a group of nuns.
Armstrong believes the opposition to pipelines has spilled out of the debate over fossil fuels and climate change. Stopping hydraulic fracturing is more difficult than opposing a pipeline, Armstrong said, and activists focus has shifted.
Approximately 500 soldiers from the Oklahoma National Guard deployed to Austin, Texas, on Saturday in support of Hurricane Harvey relief operations.
The soldiers are from the 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, forming Task Force 179, and are being deployed in order to provide general security, distribution, maintenance and shelter operations, the Guard said in a statement.
The group left from the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Norman.
The Oklahoma Army and Air National Guard already has more than 60 soldiers and airmen deployed to Texas in support of relief efforts and is preparing more than 1,500 Guardsmen to deploy in the coming days.
One of Tulsas oldest charismatic ministries will launch Harrison Christian University on Tuesday, an online school focused on both faith and business.
Faith Christian Fellowship was once Tulsas largest charismatic church, associated with what was then known as the word of faith movement.
It was started in 1977 by Buddy and Pat Harrison, son-in-law and daughter of the late Kenneth E. Hagin, founder of the Rhema ministries in Broken Arrow.
Faith Christian Fellowship International has since grown into a diverse network of ministries that oversees hundreds of churches in the United States and more than 50 other nations, as well as licensing and training ministers.
Pat Harrison, founder and president of the new school, said she and her late husband for years had a vision for education that involved faith and business.
My husband had always been involved in business and continued to work in business part time after going into the ministry, she said.
Over the years they provided various education opportunities but never really set up a school per se, she said.
About five years ago, she said, the Lord brought up the education side of it, and we began to look into how we could do it. We felt that an online school would be the best way to go.
She said the school will benefit people who want to learn more about the Bible and people who want to learn basic business principles.
She said the school will be of value to ministers who may have the biblical training but need practical help with running the business side of a church.
Raymond Wilson, dean of academic affairs for Harrison Christian University, said, We believe if pastors dont know about business they wont succeed, and if business people dont know the word of God, they wont succeed.
Wilson said the school will offer a bachelors degree in several tracks in the College of Business and the College of Theology.
In the College of Theology, students will choose one of three tracks: pastoral studies, Christian ministry and biblical studies.
The College of Business will offer four areas of concentration: entrepreneurship, small business ownership and management, pastoral leadership, and church administration.
Courses will be on five-week modules, 10 per year, each worth three credits.
Each course will have 12 hours of video teaching, reading assignments from books that the students can purchase online from various publishers and self-assessments that must be passed before moving to the next step.
Students can advance at their own pace. A student who takes one course at a time can complete the bachelors level program in four years, Wilson said.
About 30 instructors for the past six months have been preparing video teachings for about 90 courses. Some of them are well-known teachers in the charismatic world, Wilson said, and others are local pastors and business leaders.
The cost is $300 for each three-credit course. Some discounts are available, and some credit may be offered for past education and experience, he said.
Wilson said the school hopes to enroll 50 students this fall, and grow from there. Masters and doctoral level courses are being developed.
The school is accredited with Transworld Accrediting Commission International, but not with the U.S. Department of Education, he said.
For more, go to hcuonline.org.
By some estimates, Americans have already pledged more than $150 million to various Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, and more donations are coming in every day. But with that much money at stake, scammers and con artists are trying to get in on the action, Oklahomas attorney general said Friday.
People need to be careful about where they send contributions, AG Mike Hunter warned.
Use caution and research to ensure that a charity is registered to solicit in the state, he suggested. A list of registered charities can be found at www.sos.ok.gov/charity.
Hunters other advice included:
Donate only to well-known and established charities.
Be suspicious of a charity that seems to have been established in response to this specific disaster.
Ask for written information about the charitys name, mission, administrative costs and how donations will be used.
Listen carefully to a charitys name and be suspicious if it seems to mimic a better-known, reputable organization.
Avoid any charity that uses high-pressure tactics or promises a prize in exchange for a donation.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued a similar warning about con artists collecting donations nationally. The FTC offered several warning signs that a solicitor might not represent a legitimate charity. Be suspicious if the solicitor:
Wont provide proof that a contribution is tax-deductible.
Thanks you for a pledge you dont remember making.
Tries to collect a donation immediately, without giving you time to think about it.
Asks for a contribution to be made in cash or wants you to wire money.
Offers to send a courier or overnight delivery service to collect the donation.
Meanwhile, one legitimate charitable organization, the Tulsa Community Foundation, has collected nearly $800,000 from Tulsa donors for hurricane relief efforts, officials said Friday.
The foundation will support mid- and long-term relief for victims of Hurricane Harvey by supporting charitable and nonprofit organizations in the impacted areas, said Phil Lakin Jr., the foundations chief executive officer.
Early support from Tulsa has exceeded our expectations, Lakin said. It shouldnt be a surprise, though, considering how generous the city has been after previous disasters.
More than 15 Dominos Pizza stores in the Tulsa area are teaming up to raise money for the American Red Cross in support of its hurricane Harvey relief efforts.
All day Wednesday, Sept. 6, participating Dominos franchise owners will donate $2 to the nonprofit for each large pizza sold, according to a news release.
The entire Dominos team is heartbroken by the devastation hurricane Harvey brought to our neighbors in Texas, said Eddie Hall, a Dominos franchise owner with 15 stores across Oklahoma. We are grateful to have an opportunity to raise funds to support the American Red Cross as they work diligently to improve the dire situation along the Gulf Coast in the coming days, weeks and months.
Halls stores, along with other franchises in Claremore, Bartlesville, Bixby, Broken Arrow, McAlester, Muskogee, Okmulgee, Owasso, Sand Springs, Sapulpa and Tahlequah, will be participating in the fundraising event from open to close Wednesday. Dominos stores in south Texas unaffected by the floods have been donating thousands of pizzas to shelters, first-responders and others in the impacted regions.
The American Red Cross is helping people affected by hurricane Harvey in Houston and across the Gulf Coast through immediate relief and long-term support.
To find a local Dominos store or order online, visit dominos.com.
Two years ago on September 2, 2015 three-year-old Alan Kurdi drowned whilst fleeing from Syria to Greece by way of Turkey. The image of the toddlers lifeless body sparked a surge of emotion that moved countless people worldwide to take action.
Now Khaled Hosseini, the celebrated author of The Kite Runner and a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, has written Sea Prayer, an imagined letter in the form of a monologue, from a Syrian father to his son on the eve of making the sea crossing to Europe.
In collaboration with UNHCR, The Guardian has produced and made Sea Prayer into the first narrative, animated, virtual reality film created using Tilt Brush, a tool for painting in a 3D space with virtual reality. You can view the film here.
Click here to find out more about Sea Prayer and how to stand #withrefugees.
1. Yes. The ordinance goes against state law and is not in the best interest of the cities.
2. Yes. At the very least, it should be amended to give police officers some discretion.
3. No. Voters approved the ordinance by large majorities; the councils cant ignore that fact.
4. No. The petition process has to be given a chance to work. Leave the ordinance alone.
5. Unsure. Its hard to say how the cities should move forward regarding the ordinance.
Vote
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Las Vegas fashion stylist Jenna Doughton will host the fifth annual style with a cause (swac) event benefitting Communities In Schools of Nevada (CIS of Nevada) on Wednesday, Sept. 27 at Andiron Steak & Sea from 5:30-9 p.m. (Guests at 2016 style with a cause Photo courtesy: style with a cause).
The fun and fashion-filled night will include beauty bars from Sephora, a fall fashion show presented by Dillards, and honor local unsung she-roes. Proceeds from the evening will benefit CIS of Nevadas programs to help increase graduation rates and prepare for college.
Photo courtesy: style with a cause
CIS of Nevada is the local affiliate of the nations largest and most effective organization dedicated to keeping kids in school and helping them succeed in life. Working with both schools and the surrounding community, the leading dropout organization is the only nationwide program proven to both decrease dropout rates and increase graduation rates. CIS of Nevada currently operates in 59 school sites across the state, serving more than 58,000 students.
Doughton has selected a member of CIS of Nevada to receive a head-to-toe beauty transformation, which will be unveiled at the event. A recipient of CIS of Nevadas services will also be selected to intern for Doughton at style with a cause at the end of the school year to gain valuable work experience in the retail, event, and marketing worlds.
Photo courtesy: style with a cause
I love that style with a cause creates a way for our community to come together to celebrate each other while experiencing how simple things can profoundly change lives for the better, said Doughton. Nothing is more powerful than people coming together with good intentions.
Today our Italian Food, Wine and Travel group (#ItalianFWT) is covering the region of Emilia Romagna centrally located in northern Italy. This region is full of gastronomic pleasures especially known for prosciutto di parma, parmigiano reggiano and the authentic balsamic vinegar of Modena. I traveled there for my honeymoon some years back and there was plenty to indulge in.
romagna albana grape. When it comes to wine, Emilia Romagna is probably best known by the average wine consumer for lambrusco, but of course like every region of Italy there is so much more, especially the indigenous grapes of a particular region. I cover many of those on my Emilia Romagna page including lambrusco, pignoletto and sangiovese. Today we're adding to that list with the
First, to start off, Vino Travels has slowed down a little with a 14 month old running around the house and packing up our house for a move next spring. So forgive me during this slower time. Even bigger news though I have to share with you is that the Vino Travels family will be expanding by one as of December 3rd! Therefore, I won't be sharing with you a particular wine that I tasted for a couple reasons due to lack of time to seek out a bottle and even though I can sip and spit, I'd really hate to purchase and waste a whole bottle ; )
first white wine in the area receiving DOCG status when it was established in 1987. So let's get back to the topic at hand, romagna albana. The grape's name stems from the latin word, alba, meaning white since this is a white grape. It's in the same family as the garganega grape most commonly found in the Veneto and that is used to make up the wines of soave . Albana di Romagna was actually thewhen it was established in 1987.
You can find romagna albana mostly produced in the provinces of Ravenna, Bologna and Forli-Cesena. I've been to two of 3 of these towns excluding Forli-Cesena, but boy do I wish I loved wine back then. There is so much I could've explored trying wines all over Italy.
My visit to the prosciutto di parma museum
The clusters of grapes of romagna albana are distinct long narrow bunches of grapes of beautiful yellow color.
Albana grapes photo copyright of Gianluca Giunchi
It's most known for it's passito style where the grapes are dried for a short period of time, concentrating the flavors in the grapes and the wines they produce. They are then aged at least 10 months exuding strong floral aromatics and intense flavors of apricots, honey along with some spice. You can also find amabile, dry and dolce versions of this grape. There are sparkling wines made from romagna albana known as Romagna Albana Spumante, but they can only be labeled under the DOC designation.
Has anyone had a chance to try this grape or even better yet visited this region?
There is so much more to be shared on this wonderful region of Emilia Romagna so please continue with my fellow Italian food and wine lovers. If you can join us this Saturday at 11am EST on Twitter we'll be chatting live at #ItalianFWT. Hope to see you there!
Lynn Gowdy from Savor the Harvest highlights two of the region's main attractions in Italys Heart and Soul of Wine and Food. highlights two of the region's main attractions in Italys Heart and Soul of Wine and Food.
Jill Barth, author of L'occasion serves as our guide to a favorite local tradition with Ancient + Native: Rural Festival Emilia. serves as our guide to a favorite local tradition with Ancient + Native: Rural Festival Emilia.
Katarina Andersson, host of Wines of Italy Live Stream and Grapevine Adventures, explores Podere Palazzo - An Organic Winery in the Heart of Romagna. explores Podere Palazzo - An Organic Winery in the Heart of Romagna.
Camilla Mann from Culinary Adventures with Camilla introduces us to a unique specialty of the region with Nocino: A Green Walnut Liqueur from Emilia-Romagna. introduces us to a unique specialty of the region with Nocino: A Green Walnut Liqueur from Emilia-Romagna.
Lauren at The Swirling Dervish will delve into The Winemaking Traditions of Cantina Braschi. Our host today,will delve into The Winemaking Traditions of Cantina Braschi.
Join us back here for another edition of Italian Food, Wine and Travel Saturday October 7th as our host Jeff Burrows of Food Wine Click will be featuring a Chianti extravaganza.
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The deal was inked between Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation (PVEP), and PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation (PV Gas), Japans Mitsui Oil Exploration Co., Ltd. (MOECO), and Thailands PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP).
The partners signing the contract on the gas price (Photo: PVN)
According to PetroVietnam general director Nguyen Vu Truong Son, this signing ceremony played an important role in the development strategy of this large-scale project as a basic foundation for partners to give their final investment decision and put the project into implementation.
This project, Son added, has quite a complicated geological structure, which requires exploitation methods similar to gas projects in the Gulf of Thailand.
In July, PetroVietnam submitted a gas field development plan to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, claiming that the exploitation will need up to 1,000 drilling wells and 50-60 oil rigs.
Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Cao Quoc Hung said Block B-O Mon is one of the two biggest gas projects in Vietnam, with a total investment of $10 billion.
With an annual output of 5 billion cubic metres, the project will supply gas for O Mon Power Centre and Ca Mau gas-power-fertiliser complex.
The Production Sharing Contract of Block B&48/95 was signed in May 1996 and Block 52/97 in October 1999. In February 2015, PetroVietnam successfully acquired Chevrons assets in these blocks and the pipeline and officially became the project operator.
PetroVietnam seeks pipeline partners Vietnams state-run oil and gas group PetroVietnam announced a bid to entice new investors to the group-led $8 billion Block B-O Mon gas exploitation and pipeline complex following the withdrawal of the US oil giant Chevron from the strategic project to fuel future southern gas-fired power plants.
PetroVietnam acquires Chevrons assets in Vietnam State-run oil and gas group PetroVietnam last week announced its complete acquisition of US Chevron-owned assets and rights in three gas developments in Vietnam, after almost one and a half years of negotiations on the foreign partners pull-out.
Every early autumn, the whole nation celebrates historic days. Ba inh Square in downtown Ha Noi is a must-visit destination for all Hanoians and the Vietnamese people as a whole, as it hosted a ceremony on September 2nd, 1945 to announce the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam.
National pride: Representatives of people from all walks if life march in procession to celebrate the 70th National Day in September 2016 at Ba inh Square. VNS Photo oan Tung Reporters from Vietnam News Agency captured some of the nations historic moments. Glorious crowds: A mass meeting gathers thousands of patriots at the square in front of Ha Noi Opera House to launch a revolution to gain power held by the Viet Minh Front on August 17, 1945. VNA/VNS Photo Iconic building: Hanoians take the Tonkin Palace in August 1945 back from the French regime. VNA/VNS Photo Birth of a nation: President Ho Chi Minh reads the Declaration of Independence on behalf of the provisional government to announce the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam. VNA/VNS Photo Historic moment: A scene from the meeting on September 2nd, 1945 at Ba inh Square to announce the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam. VNA/VNS Photo VNA
Multiple Honda models are affected by the case, including Civic, Accord and CR-V, dating back to 2001, (Photo: AFP/Saul Loeb)
WASHINGTON: Japanese carmaker Honda reached a US$605 million settlement in a lawsuit over defective airbags in millions of cars on American roads, the legal team for the victims said Friday.
Honda joins Nissan, Toyota, BMW, Mazda and Subaru in agreeing a deal to settle a lawsuit, replace the defective airbags from now-bankrupt Takata, and to compensate car owners.
The latest agreement was filed in the US District Court in Miami.
Peter Prieto, one of the lawyers leading the team going after Takata, said the deal, which still has to be approved by the court, will "improve driver safety by accelerating the removal of defective airbags from our roads."
It also will provide compensation to owners of up to US$500 plus expenses, including rental cars while their vehicles are repaired.
"We will continue prosecuting our claims against Ford and other automobile manufacturers to ensure that our clients receive the relief they deserve," Prieto said in a statement.
Multiple Honda models are affected by the case, including Civic, Accord and CR-V, dating back to 2001.
The airbag defect has been linked to 16 deaths and scores of injuries worldwide, as the safety devices can inflate with excessive force, sending shrapnel from the inflator canister hurtling toward drivers and passengers.
The issue led to the biggest car recall in history of about 100 million vehicles worldwide.
Takata in February pleaded guilty to fraud for hiding the defect, and paid a $1 billion fine.
Nguyen Van Phung, director of the Tax Management Department for Large Enterprises
The 2016 audit report of the State Audit of Vietnam on the valuation of some state-owned enterprises before equitisation has shown that state capital worth trillions of dong might be lost since the methods used to value enterprises are still inadequate.
It points at the need to renovate the mechanisms and policies related to the valuation of state-owned enterprises in order to measure the enterprise value accurately, and at the same time, speed up the SOE equitisation process that is still too slow.
Commenting on the typical deviation between the values of equitised firms, which have been announced recently, and their actual selling prices, Nguyen Van Phung, director of the Tax Management Department for Large Enterprises under the General Department of Taxation, said: Basically, prices are determined by the market. The enterprise values suggested by valuation agencies are only used as one of the grounds for authorities to set the offering prices when launching SOEs initial public offerings. Phung also warned that if the IPO is meant to be performed at any cost or tends to pursue a particular target, it might face major risks of market manipulation.
The par value of shares is fixed at VND10,000 (roughly $0.44). However, through IPOs, some businesses could sell their stocks at VND15,000-20,000 per share to the primary market (about $0.66-0.88 per share), for example Petrolimex (averagely VND15,032 or $0.66 per share), while some could only sell at VND6,000-8,000 per share ($0.26-0.35), such as Cai Lan Port Investment JSC. (averagely VND5,900 or $0.26 per share). Could you explain this disparity?
First, limitations in expertise inevitably constrain appraisers in effectively evaluating the profitability of a business in the future or to predict the potentials of the market.
Second, when conducting appraisals, valuation agencies hired to determine the values of the firms do not receive sufficient records, documents, and information on assets and inventory, receivables and liabilities, leased and borrowed assets, joint-venture capital contributions as well as other financial investments of the equitised enterprises.
Third, it takes quite a while from the valuation of a business to public disclosure (usually more than six months) and even longer until the IPO is officially launched. During this time, the market might undergo a host of fluctuations, even some major volatility, not to mention that government policies always have a tendency to evolve through times. This also exerts considerable influence on the value of the enterprise from the time of appraisal until public disclosure and the event of the IPO.
For this reason, current regulations are set to allow equitised enterprises to adjust their proclaimed values when uncontrolled incidents occur or 12 months after the completion of appraisal when the IPO has not been executed.
Is it possible to attribute the inadequacies in firm valuation to the lack of experience of valuation agencies?
At present, only those accounting firms, securities companies, and valuation agencies are permitted to provide appraisal services for SOEs pursuing equitisation which have at least five years of experience in the areas of appraisal, auditing, accounting, financial consultancy, and consulting services for business ownership restructuring.
Additionally, during the last three years, appraisers must have conducted at least 30 contracts to provide services in the abovementioned domains each year. Also, appraisers need to employ at least three appraisers holding the appraiser practitioner certificate of the Ministry of Finance.
Foreign appraisal agencies must be highly reputable, well-qualified, and well-known organisations and must have at least five years of experience in the areas of appraisal, auditing, accounting, financial consultancy or consulting services for business ownership restructuring to be allowed to provide valuation and consultancy services to SOEs during the course of equitisation.
Given our strict conditions on the provision of valuation services for SOEs over the equitisation process, I believe that the quality of valuation agencies in general and their appraisers in particular are not posing serious problems.
However, the cost of equitisation, in which the cost to determine the current value of an enterprise is usually limited, has so far restricted enterprises from hiring more competent appraisal agencies. The Decree replacing Decree No.59/2011/ND-CP will remove the control of equitisation expenses, hoping that the value of each enterprise will be more accurately weighed as you usually get what you pay for.
Valuation agencies often choose the asset-based approach to measure the value of a business, which often causes a major gap between the appraised and the actual value of the business. Do you think agencies should use a variety of different valuation methods?
Appraisers have the right to freely choose any method to value an enterprise, so it is true that they often employ the asset-based method, as this approach is the most easily implemented.
Although there were many advantages, this method also carries many limitations as it is conducted based on a static state. Therefore, the calculations do not reflect the actual situation in many cases and ignore the intangible value that is not accounted for in the financial statement. Also, it led to a decrease in the appraised asset value, distorting the value of the enterprises and to some extent affecting the interests of the state.
Hence, in addition to the asset approach and the discounted cash flow analysis, which are common ways to determine the value of a business, additional options such as the market approach, the comparable transactions method, and the capitalisation of earnings method should also be adopted.
Current regulations do not prohibit valuation agencies from using different valuation methods, but in practice they are difficult to apply, even the comparable worth method which is considered the easiest one. For example, as the comparison between Habeco and Sabecotwo similar firms in the beverage industryis very complex, it is nearly impossible to appraise the value of Sabeco by of comparing it with Habeco and vice versa.
Are you saying that the value of an enterprise provided by a valuation agency only acts as a basis to help authorities determine the scale of its charter capital and the offering price for its IPO, while the actual value of the business will be determined by the market?
Yes! In fact, the shares of Vinamilk are extremely popular, while the shares of other dairy firms might not be so attractive. Nobody can imagine that in Vietnam, while the stocks of companies providing cheap installation services keeps sagging, the stocks of film companies are on fire. The market has its own reasons that are difficult to explain. The matter is that it is critical to ensure transparency and unambiguity at all stages of the equitisation process to minimise the loss of state capital and assets.
I think if we are paying too much attention on a particular target, such as finding a strategic investor, launching an IPO at any cost or trying to list shares on the stock market, we might fall into the trap of market manipulation where state capital and assets will be lost through purchasing undervalued state-owned shares.
So far, evidence suggests that the difference between the appraised value of SOEs and their actual value was due to the distortion aspect of professional weaknesses in valuation agencies, not to mention other factors influencing share prices and keeping them undervalued.
In fact, the poor valuation of enterprises has delayed the equitisation process of SOEs. Therefore, ensuring the soundness of SOE valuation should be seen as a mandatory requirement to improve the efficiency of the equitisation process.
SOEs need re-evaluation before listing: experts State-owned enterprises (SOEs) in line for equitisation and listing should review their financial situation and re-evaluate their assets before going public, experts say.
Vietnams top brewers set for state divestment in 2017 Following a slow start to the equitisation at Vietnams two top brewers Habeco and Sabeco, the sales of state stakes will be carried out this year.
406 SOEs under divestment: exciting opportunities for investors The government has just announced the list of 406 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to be divested in the 2017-2020 period, drawing heavy attention from investors. The list includes many big names, such as Vietnam Engine and Agricultural Machinery Corporation (VEAM), Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), Vietnam Airlines, PVOil, and PVTex, promising interesting market prospects ahead.
State to make $835 million on radical divestment bout The Vietnamese government continues to publicise the portfolio of investment assets to be restructured. This time, it laid out the detailed list of state-owned enterprises marked for divestment during the 2017-2020 period. The opportunity to renew the asset structure of state-owned enterprises is being shifted to the private sector.
"On August 31, two German nationals were detained in Turkey for political reasons," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr said, adding that the ministry was trying to provide consular assistance. (Photo: AFP/David Gannon)
"On August 31, two German nationals were detained in Turkey for political reasons," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr said, adding that the ministry was trying to provide consular assistance. (Photo: AFP/David Gannon)
The latest arrests bring the total number of German political prisoners in Turkish custody to 12 at a time when ties between the two countries have badly frayed.
There is "no legal basis" for detention in most of these cases, Merkel said, according to remarks carried by Germany's DPA news agency.
"And that's why we need to react decisively here," she said, adding that the government would "perhaps have to rethink" its policies vis-a-vis Turkey.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr said earlier Friday that "on Aug 31, two German nationals were detained in Turkey for political reasons".
The German consulate in the western city of Izmir was first informed of the arrests. Confirmation of the arrests then came not from the Turkish government but from Antalya airport police, Adebahr said.
She declined to give further details about the case, saying only that German authorities had not yet been allowed access to the two.
"Our demands to Turkey are very clear," said Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert. "We expect Turkey to release the German nationals who were arrested on unjustifiable grounds."
Of the 55 Germans currently detained in Turkey, 12 of them - including four with dual German-Turkish citizenship - are being held for political reasons, the foreign ministry said.
Relations between the two NATO allies have deteriorated sharply after Berlin sharply criticised Ankara over the crackdown that followed last year's failed coup attempt.
The arrest of several German nationals, including the Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yucel, the Istanbul correspondent of the Die Welt daily, further frayed ties.
Yucel has now spent 200 days in Turkish custody ahead of a trial on terror charges.
German journalist Mesale Tolu has been held on similar charges since May, while human rights activist Peter Steudtner was arrested in a July raid.
Following Steudtner's arrest, Germany vowed stinging measures impacting tourism and investment in Turkey and a full "overhaul" of their troubled relations.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for his part, has also sparked outrage after charging that Germany is sheltering plotters of last year's coup, as well as Kurdish militants and terrorists, and demanded their extradition.
Erdogan added to the tensions this month when he urged ethnic Turks in Germany to vote against Merkel's conservatives and their coalition partners, the Social Democrats, in Sep 24 elections.
On Friday, Merkel hit out against Erdogan's call, saying Germany's election "will be decided only by the people in our country, who have German citizenship".
The escalating tensions have split the Turkish community in Europe's top economy, the largest diaspora abroad, which is a legacy of Germany's "guest worker" programme of the 1960s and 70s.
Visitors' queue in front of President Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
At 6 oclock on September 2, 2017, a crowd of people queue up waiting to pay tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum while the national anthem echoes in Ba Dinh Square.
A group of young people from Thai Nguyen province in sport red shirts with yellow stars: September 2 is our National Day. We come here with immense pride in our nation and national leader.
Im overwhelmed with national pride.
They begin to file in to the mausoleum at 7:30 to pay tribute to President Ho Chi Minh.
Nguyen Thi Huong from Ha Giang province said, I am very happy and moved. People from all corners of the nation have representatives here to pay tribute to President Ho Chi Minh on National Day.
At Ba Dinh Square 72 years ago, President Ho Chi Minh proclaimed Vietnams independence.
Since then, September 2 has been a national holiday.
Tong Van Chung, a war veteran from Ninh Binh province, said, I realized the significance of National Day when I grew up and joined the revolutionary mission. Only through independence and freedom could the Vietnamese enjoy a prosperous and happy life.
By historical coincidence, on September 2, 1969, President Ho Chi Minh passed away, occasioning great sorrow for the Vietnamese people and many international friends.
War veteran Nguyen Van Tan from Thanh Hoa province said, We were on duty and all of us shed tears when we heard that President Ho Chi Minh had died. The entire army unit continued to fight with great determination.
On this occasion, Vietnamese people burn incense or visit the mausoleum to pay tribute to the late President. They all recall the enormous contribution of President Ho Chi Minh, who sacrificed his life for national independence.
Do Ngoc Oanh, a student from Bac Giang province, said, I am so proud of President Ho Chi Minh. He helped the nation gain peace and independence. We should study hard to become good citizens and do good deeds for our country.
Deputy General Director of Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) Ninh Van Quynh was detained on Friday for deliberately violating State regulations and causing serious consequences for PVN. Photo vietnamnet.vn
Besides Quynh, the police also commenced criminal proceedings against four other former PVN executives for the same crime. They include Nguyen Xuan Son, ex-chairman of PVN, Nguyen Xuan Thang, Nguyen Thanh Liem and Vu Khanh Truong, former board members of PVN.
The police said their wrongdoings had caused losses of VN800 billion (US$35.2 million) for the State-owned oil and gas conglomerate when it contributed charter capital to Ha Noi-based Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Ocean Bank) in the 2008-2011 period.
Son, who was the CEO of Ocean Bank from 2008 to 2010 before being appointed to top positions and later chairman at PVN, was detained in 2015 and is standing trial for his wrongdoings at the bank. Thang was also arrested on Friday while Liem and Truong are not allowed to leave their residential areas.
The polices decision was made during the second phase of the investigation into a criminal case at Ocean Bank. The first-instance hearing of the case has been taking place since August 28, in which 51 defendants including the banks chairman Ha Van Tham and other top officials are charged with abuse of power and violations related to lending regulations and State regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences.
On Wednesday, Son told the court that at the time he was CEO of Ocean Bank, he had given VN30-40 billion a year to PVN, through Quynh, then the groups chief accountant.
Son said the money was to thank the groups leaders for their help in supporting the bank by asking its member companies and oil and gas contractors to use the banks deposit and payment services.
Quynh admitted that the groups leaders had supported the bank at the time following a co-operation agreement between the two sides, but rejected Sons charge of receiving the money.
From 2008 to 2011, PVN contributed a total amount of VN800 billion to Ocean Bank three times.
In the 2009-2013 period, approved financial statements showed PVN received dividends worth VN244 billion.
However, a series of inspections by the State Bank of Viet Nam in 2014 showed the bank had performed poorly and incurred heavy losses. On May 6, 2015, SBV took over the bank at the price of 0 ong, citing the banks fragile operations with serious mismanagement. The takeover terminated all rights and interest as well as the status of existing shareholders at the bank, including PVN.
Photo: Zachary Freyman/Conde Nast
Shelley Berman, whos perhaps best known to television viewers as Larry Davids wise-cracking father on Curb Your Enthusiasm, has died at the age of 92 due to complications from Alzheimers disease. Bermans publicist confirmed the news to Deadline, noting that he passed away peacefully at his California home with his wife by his side. Bursting onto the comedy scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Berman alongside his contemporaries Mort Sahl and Bob Newhart pioneered the sit-down style of stand-up, in which he favored a stream-of-consciousness and anxiety-ridden storytelling style in favor of more traditional start, middle, and end monologues. He successfully crossed over into the mainstream soon thereafter, appearing in numerous shows and films such as Bewitched, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Best Man, and more recently, The Holiday and Boston Legal. His work on Curb netted him an Emmy nomination in 2008, and he also won the very first Grammy for Best Comedy Album (Spoken) in 1959.
Thank you, Shelley Berman. You changed modern stand-up. https://t.co/pnmpnTQQmv Steve Martin (@SteveMartinToGo) September 1, 2017
Shelley Berman has hung up the phone. RIP. The guy who inspired me to sit. Great comic. marc maron (@marcmaron) September 1, 2017
Interestingly, Berman also balanced his Hollywood lifestyle with an academic one he taught humor writing at the University of Southern Californias masters program for over 20 years, eventually becoming a Lecturer Emeritus. Hes survived by his wife and daughter.
Narcos MRO Season 3 Episode 5 Editors Rating 3 stars * * * Previous Next Previous Episode Next Episode Photo: Juan Pablo Gutierrez/Netflix
We need to talk about David. What is this guys problem?
The Cali Cartel partners are dealing with Gilbertos arrest in their own ways. Chepe moodily sips whiskey while wearing denim overalls. Pacho considers jumping ship, but ultimately decides against it. Gilberto comes to terms with his incarceration by putting on a tracksuit and going out to the yard to get swole. Meanwhile, Miguel reacts another way entirely: by giving unchecked power and an army of sicarios to his son David, a.k.a. Lil Caligula.
So, how does David assert his rise in the cartel? By hosting a purge at his modern-art house of horrors, of course. First, Calderon gets drowned, with an underwater camera trained on his face in whats maybe the most brutal murder weve seen on Narcos. Then, Jorges pal Cordova gets killed in a torture scene that lasts just too long for Jorge to rescue Cordovas wife, whom he discovers in a pool of blood.
Curiously, David is motivated less by a desire to secure the cartel and more by his hatred of Jorge, who has become something like Miguels surrogate son. But is that really enough to justify Davids rampage? Jorges the guy who saved him during the chlorine-poisoning fiasco. Its a big cartel, surely he can find another job to make his dad proud.
Im also not buying that Miguels friendship with Jorge is enough to turn David into a maniac, not after he was portrayed as such a buffoon in the chlorine-gas episode. Instead, Davids motivations remain inscrutable, partially because actor Arturo Castro plays him as an icy killer rather than a spoiled playboy who wants his dads attention. The rise of David the psychopath seems more about finding a new, unsympathetic character to blame for the shows increasingly shocking violence. Narcos cant make us care about Miguels budding relationship if hes the one ordering the murders of innocent women, so theyll just outsource the job to his son. Plus, Davids violent tendencies give Jorge another reason to betray the cartel to the DEA: If turning informant is less about snitching and more about finding a way out before this crazy guy kills him, its not much of a choice at all.
But Davids rise is pretty concerning for another reason: He isnt an interesting character. This has been the Serious Season so far, and Narcos will get even more tedious if the cartel plot becomes all about David killing Jorges friends and glaring at him while he does it. If were already getting Calderons terrified face in episode five, where are we going to be by episode ten? How much more violent can it get?
David might be taking the reaction to Gilbertos arrest too far, but the cartel does have reason to worry. In prison, Gilberto finally realizes that the token prison term he had hoped to win in negotiations will now turn into a three-year sentence. Meanwhile, the cartels allies are smelling blood: Even Miguels hit on Salazar comes back to haunt them, after an ambitious North Valley drug lord notices that Miguel is now living with his late allys widow. Thanks to Gilbertos arrest, Pena can even pitch Jurados wife on the idea that the money launderer needs to be the first to cooperate or hell get slapped with a lengthy prison term.
Gilbertos arrest also offers a new opportunity for Pacho to reveal how his sexuality ties him to the cartel. Amado wants him to join the Juarez Cartel, which is poised to flood the U.S. with cocaine now that NAFTA has been signed into law. It looks like the obvious right move: Cali is descending into internal purges, and Pacho doesnt really want to leave the drug trade. But Pacho reveals that Miguel and Gilberto didnt care when a blackmailer told them that Pacho was gay. Thats why hes sticking with Cali for now.
To be honest, itd be nice if Pacho had a plot in Mexico beyond hes gay. But then again, his only other defining characteristic is that he, too, is a sadistic murderer, and Narcos isnt running short on those.
Alas, the mansion murders have one more casualty: Van Ness and Feistls sweet bachelor pad. In a scene reminiscent of the first episode, when another pair of DEA agents got a phone call at what was supposed to be a secret apartment, Jorge calls the agents to tell them that theyve been made. This time, though, its not a threat its Jorges first betrayal of the cartel. David will be furious!
Cartel Club
Van Ness and Feistl hit Panama, armed to the teeth in their extremely 90s style: The worlds deadliest fanny pack, back in action.
Adios to Cordova, who distinguished himself mostly as the guy Jorge bossed around. Cordovas murder is the rare case of cartel justice actually finding its target, since Cordova was actually to blame for Gilbertos arrest and he had no compunctions about trying to frame Calderon.
Navegante may not be the hit man with a heart of gold I believed him to be.
The Jurado angle is going great for Pena so far he even got to do some old-fashioned Pena flirting at the bar with Jurados wife. In fact, its going a little too great. Those illegally recorded tapes will definitely come back to haunt him.
The mansion massacre echoes a scene in At the Devils Table, journalist William C. Rempels book about the real Jorge Salcedos life inside the cartel. As that book recounts, Salcedo arrived at a cartel mansion to find it stocked with Panamanian cartel associates who were suspected of making off with a shipment. The Panamanians thought they were there to party; instead, the cartels hit men went from room to room garroting them.
Gilbertos position has earned him some lopsided prison privileges. He can have a tracksuit and a phone, but he cant get a nicer cell or a mirror that doesnt have pussy written on it. What are all these bribes meant for?
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday the state has plenty of gasoline. But the price for regular unleaded in Greater Waco has jumped 23 cents the past week, and a convenience store in Houston allegedly was demanding $20 a gallon for gas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
With the arrival of Labor Day weekend, gasoline prices statewide averaged $2.36 a gallon on Friday, up from $2.26 on Thursday, AAA Texas spokesman Daniel Armbruster said.
There have also been unconfirmed reports of price gouging in Austin and Dallas and warnings by Attorney General Dan Patrick that his office will go after businesses seeking to take advantage of victims of the natural disaster.
Ive heard reports of one place in Dallas trying to charge $7 a gallon and one in Austin charging more than $4, Armbruster said. In both cases, Im told it was a case of employee error regarding the posting of prices.
Locally, Waco motorists faced an average of $2.29 for a gallon of regular unleaded, up from $2.06 a week earlier, according to GasBuddy.com. A year ago, local residents were making holiday travel plans having to budget only $1.99 a gallon for gasoline.
Waco resident Jessica Grigsby said the Valero convenience store she patronizes at North 19th Street and Lake Shore Drive had increased its price from $2.09 on Monday to $2.39 on Friday.
Grigsby said the 30-cent increase struck her as excessive.
I know price gouging is a problem with natural disasters, so I wanted to call attention to it, she wrote in an email.
The Texas Attorney Generals website said gouging means selling or leasing fuel, food, medicine or another necessity at an exorbitant or excessive price, particularly after a disaster is declared by the governor. But the site does not identify a tipping point at which the cost of doing business, including during emergencies, becomes excessive.
Valeros corporate office has not returned calls seeking comment on its fuel prices. Earlier this week, eight Valero-branded stores in Greater Waco said they were without gasoline all or part of the previous weekend. An employee of one location said he had no answer at the time for customers who inquired about when service would resume.
The entire petroleum distribution chain has been challenged with meeting an increased demand for gasoline and diesel during a time when fuel distribution and supply is strained, Paul Hardin, president of the Texas Food & Fuel Association, wrote in a statement Friday.
Hardin said supply will vary by location, and consumers are likely to see some gas stations without fuel.
There is no master list of gas stations that are out of fuel, he said.
The Texas Comptrollers Office said Friday it has suspended certain requirements for motor vehicles engaged in interstate disaster relief. Comptroller Glenn Hegar said he hopes this move makes it easier to get needed fuel and relief supplies into the state so that Texans can receive the help they need as soon as possible.
The Comptrollers Office will issue expedited licenses to motor fuel distributors, importers and transporters until Sept. 30. It will also waive bond requirements for distributors and importers, according to a press release.
The Office of the Governor has issued a temporary waiver of the International Fuel Tax Agreement, which will suspend requirements for trucking firms to pay tax on the amount of fuel they use in Texas when delivering relief supplies and fuel into the state.
I can tell you that up here in Dallas there is a challenge to finding gasoline, AAAs Armbruster said after a trip from Austin to the Dallas area Friday with a stop in Waco. Austin is having a little trouble, but I encountered no problems in Waco, though relatives have told me about stations there running out of fuel.
Armbruster said the scattered fuel shortages are coming when the nation is enjoying record levels of gasoline inventory.
The problem is with logistics, getting the product from one location to another, he said. Aggravating the situation is people panicking and topping off their tanks because they fear not having access to fuel.
Gas prices locally continue to represent bargains compared to those nationally, according to GasBuddy.com. It reported a national average of $2.56 a gallon Friday, up from $2.35 a week earlier.
Prices in Greater Waco late Friday afternoon ranged from $2.12 at the Stripes store at South Valley Mills Drive and Clay Avenue to $2.49 at several Chevron locations.
South Waco appeared to have the lowest prices in the area, as the Stripes on Franklin Avenue and at New Road and Bagby Avenue, the Murphy USA at New Road and Franklin Avenue, and the H-E-B and RaceWay locations on South Valley Mills Drive all were charging $2.15 for regular unleaded, according to figures provided by GasBuddy.com.
A local reception center for Hurricane Harvey evacuees will open Sunday in anticipation of displaced South Texas in need of shelter and assistance, city officials said Friday.
We are putting signs out on highways and are posting notices on social media to communicate under the direction of the state that we are on self-evacuee notice, City of Waco spokesman Larry Holze said. We have been told to be ready on Sunday afternoon and we will be responsive to that at our reception center.
Officials will open the Church of the Open Door, 900 N. Loop 340, on Sunday afternoon as a reception area to direct evacuees to shelters or other needed resources. The Waco-McLennan County Office of Emergency Management received a request from the state Friday to activate a shelter plan for self-evacuees.
This will not be a shelter evacuation hub where they bring buses and buses of evacuees in, Holze said. We are putting out a self-evacuee notice at the reception center, and from there, we will see if people do need sheltering or if they need other resources for the time being.
The city has established four shelters in Waco and will direct evacuees to those undisclosed locations if overnight shelter is needed, Holze said. He declined to identify the locations, saying the process is more efficient if evacuees register at the reception center first.
People with pets will be allowed to find shelter for their pets, and families will be accommodated as needed.
City shelters have been on standby since late last week when Harvey was approaching the coast. The storm made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane and dumped record-breaking rain along much of the coastal region.
The shelters are managed by The American Red Cross. Volunteers who have received mandatory training will see to their needs.
Since the shelters will accept self-evacuees, it is unclear how many people will seek assistance locally, McLennan County Emergency Management Coordinator Frank Patterson said.
In discussions with the state, they believe there will be more people self-evacuating over the next few days or weeks because there is no infrastructure to support them in those areas, Patterson said. The state still knows things are flooded, still are doing rescues and evacuations, so even as the water recedes in Houston, there will be additional people who couldnt get out. People will need help.
Holze agreed, saying the self-evacuation number is unpredictable, but hub shelters have not seen the influx of refugees that was expected. He said he knows displaced residents want to stay close to home, but Waco will be willing to help when needed.
That is a really hard gauge to give, but the hub shelters, like Dallas, San Antonio, and even in Bell County, do not have a large amount of people showing up at those, Holze said. We dont know how many people are out there looking for help, but right now, there is no way to know how many will come to the reception center.
Ongoing relief efforts
According to the Associated Press, an estimated 156,000 homes have been damaged in the Houston area. Locally, residents have been offering support and donations through nonprofits including the Red Cross and Salvation Army for the past week, as well as through several independent efforts.
At least 11 students from hurricane-affected areas have enrolled in McLennan County school districts, administrations told the Tribune-Herald on Friday. Many displaced families are staying with local residents before they return home to see the effects of the storm.
Salvation Army in Waco deployed volunteers, staff, food and equipment to Victoria earlier this week to assist with relief efforts. The local Salvation Army canteen served 800 meals, 1,000 drinks and 100 snacks in Port Lavaca on Thursday, according to an update from Maj. Anita Caldwell.
In the last three days, Salvation Army canteens have served people from Vidor, Spring, Houston, Victoria, Anahauc, Dayton, San Leon, Alvin, Pearland, Port Arthur, Caldwell said.
The Salvation Army is no longer taking clothing donations, instead referring people to local churches that are accepting clothes to be sent to the area. Cash donations and checks should have Hurricane Harvey written on them.
City and county officials said local efforts from McLennan County residents have been inspiring. Patterson said communities will continue to welcome evacuees as long as the recovery continues.
I think the state of Texas has responded very well, collectively, as a state, Patterson said. I think we have done a very good job as a community with great volunteers, great citizens and great support from all different levels.
For local residents wanting to donate to the effort, a list of agencies and specific items needed is available on the citys evacuee page at www.waco-texas.com/information-release-2.asp.
Act Locally Waco also has an extensive list of opportunities to help with the relief effort and other Hurricane Harvey information that has been updated regularly since Aug. 28, at www.actlocallywaco.org/wacoharvey-help.
According to the city:
The Salvation Army is accepting canned food and gift cards for food or gas
Highland Baptist Church is accepting sheets for all bed sizes, slightly worn clothes, bleach, personal toiletries and hygiene products
Robinson Church of Christ is accepting humidifiers, fans, interior and exterior extension cords and cleaning supplies
Bubbas 33 Restaurant is accepting water, sports drinks, baby supplies, blankets, non-perishable food items, cleaning supplies, pillows, towels, personal hygiene products and trash bags
Family of Faith Worship Center is accepting water, cleaning supplies, brooms, mops, trash bags, blankets, hygiene products
Faith in Action is accepting toiletries, first aid items, one gallon Ziploc bags filled with bath soap, lotion, shampoo, deoderant, wash cloths, combs, brushes, facial tissue, shaving cream, razors, tootbrushes, toothpaste and feminine hygiene products
Lorena ISD is accepting paper goods, diapers and school supplies
The Cen-Tex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is accepting diapers, toiletries, water, baby clothes, socks and underwear in original packaging, phone chargers, hand sanitizer, blankets and monetary donations.
A former federal magistrate who now specializes in patent litigation is expected to be appointed by President Donald J. Trump to fill the federal judge vacancy in Waco.
Alan D. Albright, 57, a partner with the Bracewell law firm in Austin, confirmed that, pending a background investigation by the Justice Department, Trump will name him successor to U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr.
Smith retired in September 2016 under the cloud of an investigation into inappropriate physical advances toward female federal employees in his chambers.
Albright said he has been interviewed by Texas U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, and they have forwarded his name to the White House as their nominee for the vacant judgeship. Albright also was interviewed by White House counsel in July and now the Justice Department is engaged in a thorough background investigation into Albrights past.
Albright, a former U.S. magistrate in Austin from 1992 to 1999, declined comment about his impending appointment while the FBI background check is ongoing.
Cornyn and Cruz established the Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee, a bipartisan panel of leading attorneys in Texas, to identify the most qualified candidates to help fill judicial vacancies, an aide in Cornyns office has said.
This panel reviews applications, interviews candidates and makes recommendations to the senators. The senators then send the recommendations along to the White House for the presidents consideration, the aide said.
There are 11 vacancies on the federal district court level in Texas, plus two openings on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Albright was born in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and moved to San Antonio with his family when he was 5. He grew up in San Antonio and graduated from Trinity University and the University of Texas Law School.
After his seven-year stint as a federal magistrate in Austin, he went to work at Bracewell, working in the areas of patent litigation, licensing, protection and enforcement of trade secrets and other matters confronting technology companies.
Albright is divorced and has two sons in high school.
Smith ended his 32-year tenure as Wacos federal judge with his retirement in September 2016.
The Judicial Council of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals formally reprimanded Smith in 2015 after finding he made inappropriate and unwanted physical and nonphysical advances toward a female courthouse staff member in his court chambers in 1998 and lied to investigators about the incident. While the council issued sanctions, it said the incident did not warrant impeachment.
Smith, former chief judge of the Western District of Texas, also was suspended for one year from hearing any new criminal or civil cases filed after Dec. 3, 2015.
The judicial council renewed its investigation into Smith after complaints surfaced that at least two more women had been mistreated by Smith in his chambers. His retirement ended the investigation.
In retirement, Smith continues to draw an annual annuity for the rest of his life that equals his annual salary of $203,100.
Grecia Cantu is living the kind of normal life that seemed out of reach a few years ago: driving her own car, owning a house and teaching elementary school.
Now that life is under threat along with the federal immigration program that has allowed her to live it: The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
Cantu is one of nearly 800,000 Dreamers, unauthorized immigrants who entered the country as minors and received temporary permission to live and work here under the 2012 Obama administration program. Now she is anxiously awaiting President Donald Trumps announcement Tuesday as to whether he will rescind the program.
That announcement may determine whether Cantu can continue to teach bilingual second-graders at Cedar Ridge Elementary School.
I have a fear of not being able to go back to the classroom because someone decided that 800,000 people working is a bad thing, she said. Thats always what it is for me, the ability to do what everyone else is doing legally.
Trump has been under pressure from a group of state attorneys general, led by Ken Paxton of Texas, who have threatened a lawsuit unless the White House starts phasing DACA out by Sept. 5. Paxton has argued that Obamas executive order on DACA usurped Congress law-writing power and is unconstitutional, and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has agreed. But Trump himself has made positive comments about Dreamers, and in the past week business leaders and Republican legislators including House Speaker Paul Ryan have warned him that dismantling DACA would be a blow to the nations workforce.
Wacos congressman, Bill Flores, R-Bryan, said he supports a legislative path to permanent residency and even citizenship for Dreamers such as Cantu, and he is considering signing on to one of three bills pending in Congress that would move in that direction.
I would say there is no reason for angst at this point in time, Flores said. I know there are a lot of emotional statements being hurled about DACA, but I really dont think theres reason to be anxious about it.
Cantu, 26, asked to use her mothers maiden surname for this story to protect other family members. But she herself has no intention of going into hiding, regardless of Trumps decision.
Cantu first went public in a 2010 Tribune-Herald article which described how a girl who came to this country with her Mexican family at age 7 became University High Schools valedictorian. Since then, despite her unauthorized status, she earned her college degree through presidential scholarships at McLennan Community College and Baylor University and she has been part of local immigrant advocacy groups.
Im very vocal about my status, Cantu said. I want everyone to understand that theres not an (immigration) application you can get. Theres not a line you can get in and wait. That wait is 15 to 20 years long. I have to vent about it with friends I can rely on, who can pray for me or motivate me.
DACA doesnt confer legal immigration status on unauthorized immigrants who came here as children, but it shields them from deportation through prosecutorial discretion for two years at a time and allows them to work. To be eligible, applicants have to have a clean criminal record, must be in school or have finished high school or earned a GED. They must be 30 or younger as of June 2012 and must have come to this country before they were 16. The two-year deferral carries a fee of almost $500.
Cantu didnt receive her DACA status until after she graduated college in 2013.
I didnt have DACA as a senior at Baylor, she said. I didnt have any legal status. I wasnt able to get internships like everyone else and I was a business major. Those contacts are really important.
Getting DACA was life-changing, she said.
In 2013, she married another Dreamer, Enoc, a Texas State Technical School graduate who already had his DACA status. They moved to Dallas, where she got a job teaching at a charter school and he worked in information technology.
I had a Social Security number, I got credit cards and I started building credit, she said. A year later, we bought a car under our name, which was really awesome. We were able to get our own apartment. We were functioning young professionals battling Dallas traffic.
Chief says SB 4 won't put Waco PD in immigration enforcement role Waco city and police officials are trying to assure immigrants that they have nothing to fear from legislation that took effect Friday intende
After two years, the Dallas charter school was facing difficulties, and the couple moved back to Waco, where they had always intended to settle down anyway. Enoc is now studying sound engineering at McLennan Community College and hoping to earn a bachelors degree, and Grecia Cantu is starting her third year at Cedar Ridge.
Cantu, a self-described workaholic who formerly worked in food service jobs, said she has found her calling as an elementary school teacher.
I love teaching, she said. Its really rewarding. I find it hard to see myself in a business environment, where youre with adults all day and just making money. Going from teaching kids basic life skills to making someone richer, I dont know if I could do that.
Pursuing life
She was alarmed when Trump was elected in November and started worrying she and her husband would lose their DACA protection. But the couple decided to keep pursuing the life they wanted together.
We took the plunge in May and bought a house, Cantu said. We just decided we couldnt let fear paralyze us. We needed to keep moving on, living the American dream.
Susan Nelson, a Waco immigration attorney, said the biggest concerns for her DACA clients are being able to work and drive. Texas allows undocumented students to attend college and even receive in-state tuition, she said.
Nelson said Trump may allow current DACA recipients to continue through the two-year term of their deferral, but it will only postpone the harm to families and the economy.
We have more than 200,000 people in Texas with DACA, and most have employers who are going to lose their employees if the program ends, Nelson said. Its going to be pretty traumatic for employers.
She said the majority of the public, both Democrat and Republican, favors DACA or similar avenues for Dreamers, but she doubts that Congress has the political will to pass legislation giving them legal status.
In an interview Thursday, Flores said he hopes the DACA program can remain in place until Congress crafts a legislative solution.
So far, President Trump has spoken, I think, fairly moderately on how to deal with the Dreamer population, Flores said. Because of that, I dont expect the Trump administration to rescind DACA anytime soon. The path forward is for Congress to get off its butt and do something.
Flores said he would like to see legislation that gives Dreamers a chance at immediate temporary residency that can be upgraded to permanent residency or even citizenship after a period of military or public service of some kind.
He said the bill closest to his ideals is the Republican-authored Recognizing Americas Children Act, and hes studying whether to sign on as a co-author.
Flores views on Dreamers and immigration in general have changed markedly since he was elected in 2010. In a 2010 interview about Cantu and other Dreamers, he opposed the Dream Act, which would have given them a path to legal status.
The Dream Act, by including a path to legalization, is asking the American people to accept amnesty and forgive lawbreaking before the federal government will even adequately secure our border, he said at the time.
But he said he quickly came to learn more about some of the thousands of Dreamers in his district.
The ones Ive met with are impressive kids, some valedictorians of their senior class, trying to get a good education, Flores said. Id have to say over the last six and a half years, my position on this has changed dramatically. For the first couple of years I was pretty hardcore against anyone here illegally. After some thinking and drilling into it, I came to believe in a path for legal status for noncriminal (immigrants).
Illegal valedictorian: Immigrant status stunts former University High grad's dreams Grecia Cantu is determined to continue her education, but her path after that depends on decisions made in Washington, D.C.
He said the pivot point was probably meeting with MCC president Johnette McKown, who urged him to consider the futures of Dreamers at her college, including a presidential scholar named Grecia. Flores said her story stuck in his mind.
Grecia Cantu said she would like to be a citizen someday, but she said she and her husband wouldnt mind continuing under DACA, even if it means they each have to continue to pay $500 every two years. She said that fee is worth it for the ability to do meaningful work and build a life here without fear of deportation.
Its knowing that we can have this that makes it hard, she said of the threats to DACA. Before, we didnt know that we were missing out.
Baylor president offers students support in wake of DACA decision Baylor University will not waver on its commitment to students in the wake of President Donald Trumps plan to end a program that extends lega
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin let on Thursday that the administrations tax plan, which President Donald Trump was out selling, will arrive in the next few weeks. Hmm. The budget expires in a little more than four weeks. Do we really think an actual tax reform bill will be introduced, debated and voted upon (as part of budget reconciliation) when there will be nothing in hand for weeks?
Given the need to pass the debt ceiling, keep the government running and fund Harvey hurricane relief and the usual dysfunction weve come to expect from the White House and GOP Congress, I wouldnt bet on tax reform getting done this year. And what about just a straight tax cut? Weve argued that a big tax cut for the rich is economically unnecessary and politically untenable. Beyond that, however, is the issue of how to pay for it a quaint notion in some quarters but one that should be revisited.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget argues, It is more important now than ever that tax reform does not add to the debt. This means that every tax cut needs to be replaced with an equivalent offset that ensures that tax reform does not make our unsustainable fiscal situation even worse. Several of CRFBs reasons for opposing debt-creating tax legislation deserve consideration.
First, the damage from skyrocketing debt should deter debt-adding tax cuts. As a share of the economy, debt held by the public is currently 77 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is higher than its been since the end of World War II and nearly twice the average of the last half-century. On its current path, debt will exceed the size of the economy by 2033 and exceed 150 percent of GDP by 2047. High and rising debt threatens economic and wage growth, the governments ability to respond to new challenges and the nations fiscal sustainability. Policymakers need to reduce the debt, not add to it.
Moreover, since the economy is humming along and U.S. unemployment is low, one could argue the harm from the debt increased by unpaid-for tax cuts outweighs any benefit wed derive from the cuts. Given that this administration has no desire to produce entitlement reform and that we will need to pay for Harvey rebuilding, theres no reason to ladle on even more debt.
Second, debt-creating tax plans dont work all that well. In fact, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated in 2011 that tax reform producing $600 billion of net revenue would produce about one-third more growth over the long run than revenue-neutral tax reform with the same structure. One could argue further that, especially for corporate tax reform, the benefit comes from simplification (flatter rates, less loopholes) that discourage unproductive business activity. You dont need to tax businesses any less to achieve that objective.
Third, whatever you hear from the administration, remember that tax cuts do
not
pay for themselves: While well-designed tax cuts can promote economic growth that leads to more revenue, there is no realistic scenario that this dynamic revenue will be as large as the initial tax cut. In order for a tax cut to pay for itself, it would need to grow the economy about $4 to $6 for every dollar of revenue loss. There is no historical case of a tax cut achieving this goal. Economic analysis has shown that tax cuts can only pay for themselves when the top federal rate is much higher than it is today many economists believe the top rate would need to be above 60 percent. At best, the dynamic revenues from growth could pay for a fraction of the tax cuts cost. Given our fiscal situation, tax cuts should be fully paid for without dynamic revenue so that the gains from economic growth can be used to address our mounting debt.
Id add two more reasons to avoid a big, unpaid-for tax cut. First, that sort of tax plan entails a big, disproportionate tax cut for the rich. Thats not what Trump ran on, and it will increase all the problems (e.g. wealth inequality, cynicism about government) that fueled the Trump phenomenon to begin with. Second, to pass muster under reconciliation the tax cuts would have to be temporary, which makes no sense in the corporate tax realm and will revisit the sort of political standoff we faced with the George W. Bush tax cuts (on which Republicans relented, allowing tax cuts on upper-income individuals to expire). Aside from the political gridlock it creates, this is no way to construct a tax system. Proceeding in this way simply increases what businesses and investors hate most uncertainty.
Out with Straus!
In 2016 Republicans won the Texas House by 97 to 53 and the Senate by 20 to 11, along with Republican Greg Abbott being elected governor, creating the most conservative Texas government in history. Elections should have consequences but, sadly, not in Texas. Why was so little accomplished in the 2017 legislative session that Gov. Abbott had to call a special session, where much important legislation continued to be passed by the Senate without even receiving a vote in the House?
Joe Straus, speaker of the House, is the Harry Reid of the Texas Legislature, killing many critical bills supported by a majority of Texans. By appointing liberals to key committee chair positions and to the House Calendars Committee, popular bills supported by a majority of representatives and voters are discreetly killed in committee without any accountability to voters. This is a shrewd but shameful way to defraud Texans!
State Rep. Doc Anderson and other Texas House members must put an end to Straus flagrant abuse of power by changing House rules that give the speaker so much political power that he had $8 million in his campaign war chest in the 2016 election cycle. The election of the speaker must be made by secret ballot. Committee chairs must be selected in an open process and not appointed by the speaker. Finally, rules must include the kind of discharge petition used in the U.S. Congress to make it impossible to kill bills in committee that are supported by a majority of the representatives, which happened frequently in the 2017 session.
Walter L. Bradley, Waco
Minimum wage
This Labor Day employers and employees have reason to be grateful: The union-backed campaign to eliminate starter jobs is failing.
The Service Employees International Union has spent at least $90 million since 2012 fighting for a $15 minimum wage. Thus far, the campaign has generated few organizing wins for the union but plenty of embarrassing headlines. In East and West Coast locales that have embraced the cause of labors wage warriors, small businesses have been forced to scale back or shut down entirely. A study from a team of economists at the University of Washington determined that Seattles minimum-wage experiment left many employees worse off when the mandated bump in hourly pay was offset by a loss of workplace opportunities.
Economists of all political stripes have denounced $15 minimum wage and even policymakers in left-of-center locales such as Cleveland and Baltimore have rejected it. Its no surprise SEIU has slashed funding for its campaign. That means less money for labors campaign and more opportunities for those doing the laboring.
Michael Saltsman, Employment Policies Institute, Washington, D.C.
MEAD Preparing for the worst, over 600 National Guard men and women from Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri descended on the Nebraska National Guard Readiness Center near Mead over the weekend to train for a potential mass-casualty event.
Its a very sobering experience, said Lt. Gov. Mike Foley, who spent Saturday afternoon watching the hazardous material clad National Guard members load live bodies on gurneys for transport.
The hypothetical scenario played out over four days as a series of explosions due to a pipeline rupture at a power plant east of Lincoln.
Close to 100 people were used as victims of the explosion and were made to look like they were injured.
As director of homeland security for Nebraska, Foley said preparedness is important for that day when something could happen.
Lt. Col. Brian Medcalf said the use of people instead of mannequins makes the scenario altogether different.
When using people, the training incorporates compassion for the person and helping to make them comfortable, he said.
National Guard men and women in hazardous material suits loaded the injured onto gurneys and transported them to a decontamination area. The initial groups expertise is in confined rescue and chemical protection.
Then the injured are transported to the medical teams and then sent on to hospitals for treatment, if necessary. Unfortunately, in events like this there will be fatalities, so a National Guard group from Iowa trained in mortuary services handles the dead, Medcalf said.
The National Guards role in these situations specialize in search, extraction, decontamination, medical and security. There is also a communication group that set up a portable operations base within 2.5 hours.
Its hard to do. Youve got to practice a lot, he said.
Medcalf said the exercise over the weekend took approximately a year to plan, but is necessary when working with that many groups.
With the myriad of guard units from across three states, logistics is an important part of making sure a mission like this succeeds.
Normally, the maximum amount of time a guard member can spend in the haz-mat suit is 40 minutes.
Members in the 754th unit of Lincoln managed the time and care of fellow Guard members in hazardous material suits that needed to come back and cool off before heading back out into the fray.
Medcalf said the exercise was an excellent training event, but there are always aspects to improve on.
The group was on standby for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, but has not been called to action for an event.
Foley said the training was extraordinary, considering that over 70 percent of the National Guard men and women involved have other careers.
They give so much of themselves, he said.
Emily Hale in 1914, the year T.S.Eliot left the US for a scholarship at Oxford. Credit:Sophia Smith Collection After that night of amateur theatre, Tom and Emily saw much of each other. In today's language, they dated. Eliot was in love, but what of Hale? It seems that in 1914, just before Eliot left for Oxford on a year's travelling scholarship, he went to Hale to profess his love. Just what was said at that meeting can only be speculated. But it seems that Eliot left with the distinct impression that his feelings had not been reciprocated. Even in his 70s, he recalled this meeting with pained awkwardness: the pain of that separation still fresh after a lifetime. For, although Eliot was the one who was leaving, he was the one who felt left. This early scene in the novel took continuous rewriting, the two of them, I imagined, like characters from a Henry James novel: circling each other, circling the thing they wanted to say, but never saying it. Hale was, it seems, in love with Eliot, but never said as much that day. It's one of those crucial moments in someone's life when history, geography, social manners and custom assert themselves, when what should have been a simple thing to say usually said in three words was never spoken. They were not simply like characters from a James novel, they were the living models that James would have drawn his fiction from. What was not said at that meeting may well have been crucial in determining their fate and a key reason they never married. Whole lives can turn on conversations like these: of confused messages, intimations and silences. Being young, Hale may well have thought she had all the time in the world to set things right, but events moved very quickly once Eliot left in 1914. (In his letters, Eliot vividly records being swept up by the outbreak of war.) Eliot and Hale did not meet again for at least another 12 years. When they finally did, they were different people.
Hale was kept a secret to avoid scandal. Eliot was a psychological mess as the result of his marriage breakdown. Had Eliot believed his feelings had been returned and that Hale was waiting for him back in Boston when he returned from his year at Oxford, he might never have taken the impulsive plunge into his first marriage. But in April 1915, not long after arriving in England, Eliot met the vivacious Vivienne Haigh-Wood at Oxford. From the north of England, she was sharp, witty and worldly. She was 26, had just come off a longish affair, and knew what sex was. Eliot was keen to unburden himself of his virginity. He was to say long after he left her that they should simply have had a short, passionate affair, then gone their separate ways. But they didn't. They married, hastily, in a registry office, and settled in London. It was a union made in hell. The wedding night seems to have been a disaster. Eliot became cold and withdrawn, and the more he withdrew, the more Vivienne demanded and sought attention. Often outrageously. It was a marriage so miserable it produced in 1922 Eliot's ground-breaking 434-line poem, The Waste Land. From 1915 to 1927 there seems to have been no contact between Eliot and Hale. But in 1927, when she was teaching in Wisconsin, Hale wrote to Eliot in London. He had, by this time, entered his years of fame: the author of The Waste Land, The Hollow Men and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. She wrote asking his advice in compiling a reading list for her students. She didn't need his advice: it was an excuse. Eliot, deeply unhappy, wrote back straight away.
By this time, Eliot was burning his bridges with his American past. In 1927 he became an English citizen and a strict High Anglican, rising at six every morning to pray. He felt he'd done enormous damage to Vivienne. His guilt was intense. For the misery he'd caused to have any meaning, it had to have been for more than simply leaving one relationship and beginning another. His atonement would not be found in human love, but in faith. The love between Eliot and Hale was to be a "higher" love. Although he welcomed Hale's letter, and welcomed her back into his life, he was still a married man. Had he not still been married, it's possible Eliot and Hale would have wed at this time, and their story would be completely different. But he was, and they didn't. Eliot had taken a vow of celibacy, and the relationship that followed was necessarily platonic. It stayed that way; they knew each other for most of their lives but their relationship was never consummated. Eliot finally left Vivienne when he sailed to the US to give a series of lectures at Harvard, which took out the academic year of 1932-33. Hale visited him at Harvard on numerous occasions. Marriage was out of the question while Vivienne was still alive, even though Eliot's solicitors had sent Vivienne a letter declaring his wish to separate. When Eliot returned to the UK he didn't return to their home, and didn't tell Vivienne where he lived. Every year, from the early 1930s until 1939 when war separated them, Hale and her guardians, the Reverend and Mrs John Carroll Perkins, travelled from the US to spend the summer in south-west England, in the postcard Cotswold town of Chipping Camden. And every year, Eliot rushed from London to meet her. He gave her a ring. He promised that when he was free they would marry. Throughout this time Hale was kept a secret - to avoid scandal. Eliot was a psychological mess as the result of his marriage breakdown, so it's quite possible it was already too late for them, that marriage to Hale would have failed.
Hale's consolation was to become his muse. In September 1934, they walked from Chipping Camden, where Eliot lodged with Hale's guardians while she stayed in the cottage next door, to the deserted estate of Burnt Norton. The result was Burnt Norton, the first of Eliot's four-part poetry series, Four Quartets. Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which we did not take Towards the door we never opened Into the rose garden. My words echo
Thus in your mind Hale is the "your". She and Eliot are the "we". The poem is a love letter. This is the most complex, intricate and intriguing phase of the whole relationship. She would never have called herself his muse, but, at the same time, she read aloud to her students in various colleges across the US sections of Eliot's letters to her. Made it clear that she, Miss Hale, was the "your" in Burnt Norton, the silent lady in Ash Wednesday, the young woman in La Figlia che Piange who flings flowers to ground. It was probably her way of making their secret relationship public. A kind of recognition of it. A confirmation. If the vanity of Hale was stirred, it was because no other part of her could be. To what extent did she agree to be his muse: to enter the role willingly, in either spoken words or silent consent? Give me my art and I will make you immortal? Was that the promise, and were they each complicit? Or was she used? And not just artistically; one biographer claims Eliot was homosexual and used her as a front, a claim dismissed by most other biographers. In 1939, the war divided Eliot and Hale. Eliot was in England, Hale in the US. Whatever chances they may have had of a life together were effectively gone. By the time they met again, in 1946, Eliot was 58, Hale 55.
Sean P. Sullivan is the editor of Washington Wine Report. He has been writing about and reviewing Northwest wine since 2004. Read a full biography on the About page. All articles written by Sullivan unless otherwise indicated.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff
Sep. 01, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY
By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 01, 2017 | 11:09 AM | PADUCAH, KY
McCracken County Attorney Sam Clymer is asking for help from the community to assist in relief efforts for those impacted by hurricane Harvey.
Clymers Office has secured Blair Beyer Trucking to provide a semi tractor-trailer to load and transport all donated items to the Houston area for distribution to those in need. Blair Beyer Trucking will donate the use of the truck, fuel and Blair Beyer will personally transport the donated items to the affected area.
Items specifically needed for donation are cleaning supplies, personal hygiene products, baby supplies, plastic totes, trash bags, construction or repair tools and hardware, and new bedding or clothing (still in packaging).
Monetary donations will NOT be accepted.
Donations will be accepted in the main parking lot of the McCracken County Courthouse on Thursday, September 7 between 8:30 am and 4:30 pm. Special arrangements for donations may be arranged by contacting the County Attorneys Office at 270-444-4709.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff Sep. 02, 2017 | 09:19 AM | HAZEL, KY
Four men were arrested on marijuana and other charges late Thursday night in Calloway County.
According to the Calloway County Sheriff's Office, deputies received a call of shots fired at a home in the 600 block of Green Plains Road in Hazel. When police arrived, they could smell a strong odor of marijuana coming from inside the residence.
A search warrant was obtained, and during the search, deputies found approximately nine pounds of processed marijuana and packaging that indicated that there had been a larger amount of marijuana processed for sale and distribution that had already been moved from the home. Police also found drug paraphernalia and two guns. According to police, the serial numbers of one of the guns had been removed and is presumed to be stolen.
Police arrested 21-year-old Kendric M. Lee, of Murray, for trafficking marijuana over five pounds, possession of drug paraphernalia, and improper display of a registration plate. Also arrested was 23-year-old Jaleel D. Lee, of Murray, for trafficking marijuana over five pounds, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a defaced firearm.
Twenty-four-year-old Javonte T. Hagan and 26-year-old Antwon R. Douglas, both of Owensboro, were arrested for trafficking marijuana over five pounds and possession of drug paraphernalia. During the investigation two subjects hiding inside the residence fled out the back windows and a foot pursuit ensued. Charges are pending on those two individuals for fleeing and evading law enforcement on foot.
As the nations highest court prepares to hear a case that found Wisconsins 2011 redistricting process to be unconstitutional, the Sauk County Board may weigh in on the issue.
Supervisor Peter Vedro of Baraboo has proposed a resolution that would encourage state lawmakers to create a nonpartisan procedure for redrawing political boundaries.
The boards five-person Executive and Legislative Committee will consider the proposal during a meeting Tuesday morning. If the committee approves it, the resolution would then be considered by the full board later this month.
Vedro said partisan redistricting such as the process used by Wisconsin lawmakers is flawed, because it allows politicians to pick their voters, rather than the other way around.
So you get skewed results that are anything but democratic, Vedro said. And those have serious repercussions on how government is run. So its a critically important issue.
Vedro also is working with the local chapter of a national political movement spawned by supporters of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. The local group, part of Our Wisconsin Revolution, is seeking signatures in support of an advisory referendum on redistricting reform.
A federal court ruled 2-1 last year that methods used by state Republicans to redraw district maps in 2011 were so partisan that they violated Democrats voting rights. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, and oral arguments are slated to begin in October.
More than 20 county boards throughout Wisconsin, including those in Milwaukee and Dane counties, have passed resolutions encouraging lawmakers to enact reforms that would make the process less partisan. The Wisconsin Counties Association may consider a similar resolution at its annual conference Sept. 24 in Wisconsin Dells.
Supervisor David Moore of Wisconsin Dells, who ran for a Wisconsin Assembly seat as a Republican in 2016, said hes not convinced that the process followed in Wisconsin was as secretive and sinister as has been alleged. He also doubts that handing redistricting responsibilities over to an independent panel would eliminate partisanship.
The truth of the matter is that everyone has some sort of built in preconceived notions or biases, Moore said, adding that he wont take a position on Vedros proposed resolution until hes had a chance to review it.
Reform proponents have suggested that Wisconsin adopt a redistricting process similar to one used in Iowa in which a nonpartisan agency works with an independent commission to redraw political boundaries, which are then considered by state lawmakers.
Jay Heck, director of Common Cause of Wisconsin, said although its true that no person is entirely nonpartisan, the Iowa model includes safeguards to prevent politics from seeping into the process.
With a state agency drawing the maps, theres a set of criteria that they have to abide by, Heck said. And that criteria is written into the law.
He said the redistricting that took place in 2011 has made roughly 90 percent of Wisconsins Assembly districts noncompetitive meaning the winner garnered more than 55 percent of the vote. That deters moderate candidates, Heck said, and leads to a fractured, polarized political system.
He said critics of redistricting reform often point out that Democrats likely would have done the same thing if they had held all the levers of power in 2011.
Im not going to argue with that, Heck said. I think its fair to say they probably would have. But that doesnt mean its good for voters.
In other business, the boards executive and legislative committee is scheduled to consider the following items:
Appointing Sauk County Principal Assistant Corporation Counsel Debra ORourke to serve as the countys interim chief legal counsel as officials seek a replacement for retiring Corporation Counsel Todd Liebman.
The possible recommendation of resolutions referred to the Wisconsin Counties Association by other county boards.
A resolution that would change the border between county supervisory district 14 in the city of Baraboo and district 21 in the town of Baraboo. The change resulted from a recent city-approved annexation that moved property including two homes and three people from the town to the city.
The eighth annual Patriot Tour presented by the Nation of Patriots roars into Beaver Dam on Sept. 9. The homecoming celebration will include a parade through downtown followed by closing ceremonies at the Dodge County Fairgrounds.
The Nation of Patriots is a volunteer-driven organization that raises funds to support wounded military veterans and their families. Its primary fundraising mechanism is the 110-day Patriot Tour, during which one American flag travels city to city through all 48 continental states on the back of a motorcycle. More than 150,000 riders participate annually and funds are raised at event stops and by volunteers in each state.
Executive Director Bill Sherer said the idea for the Patriot Tour came to him in 2009 while riding in the eastern United States. He carried the American flag on the back of his motorcycle in support of the sacrifices that his friends, mostly veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, had made on behalf of our country. He rode all 33 states east of the Mississippi, raising money for the families of wounded veterans. Ending in Milwaukee, Sherer worked with the VA Hospital there to direct the money he had raised to military families.
I realized that my voice was not strong enough to rally a nation, he said. So I founded the Nation of Patriots. I wanted to include as many proud Americans as possible to stand with me in a collective salute of appreciation to the U.S. military, Sherer said.
The 14,000-mile journey takes place each May to September and this summers tour will conclude following a final flag exchange at Reverend Jims Roadhouse, 6402 Millpond Road, Madison, at noon Sept. 9.
Over 450 riders are registered to escort the flag 40 miles north to Beaver Dam for a 2 p.m. parade through the downtown and a 3 p.m. homecoming celebration at the fairgrounds, Sherer said. If Mother Nature cooperates, we may have upwards of 600 coming.
Sherer gave credit to Brad Weber and Wade Fletcher from Hogz & Honeez in Beaver Dam for bringing the tour to the area.
They were active in getting us off the ground, he said. When the tour first came to Beaver Dam, we received an outpouring of support from the city. It was humbling, deafening and amazing to drive through downtown and see people waving flags from the (Highway 151) overpass.
This years parade will include 57 flags carried by volunteer flag bearers, representing all 50 states and the five branches of service, as well as a POW flag and the Nation of Patriots flag. The parade will finish at the fairgrounds, where the Junior Patriots will lead the Patriot Tour riders to the site of the homecoming ceremony.
Junior Patriots were added last year, Sherer said. We wanted to amplify the participation and create fond memories for the kids. Its important to teach them to be proud of the red, white and blue.
Up to 50 Junior Patriots, age 5 to 12, are being recruited to patriotically decorate their bikes and take part in the celebration. Participants will have the chance to win a new bike donated by Fast Eddies Bicycle & Hobby Emporium. Those interested should register with a parent or guardian at nationofpatriots.com.
The homecoming ceremony is a free family celebration that will include a bagpiper, a final roll call, a gun salute and the playing of Taps with the American flag center stage.
We are very close to reaching our 2017 goal of $200,000, Sherer said. The Nation of Patriots is an all-volunteer organization, so 100 percent of the funds raised go directly to wounded vets in need.
The organization works with local VA hospitals and other veteran liaisons to distribute funds. More than $185,000 raised by the Nation of Patriots was given to 60 veterans and their families across 19 states in 2016.
The Patriot Tour is a unified tribute to each and every one of our nations veterans, military personnel and their families, Sherer said. We understand their sacrifices and stand in awe of the contributions they have made and do make every day so that all Americans may walk free, live free, be free.
In times of crisis, a prime directive is do not panic. Lawmakers need to heed that wisdom as Harveys devastation of Houston continues to unfold.
Congress will take up disaster funding next week. Moving resources to parts of the country demolished by a freak act of God is a long-established role for government, and typically, even the stingiest fiscal conservatives are on board with such disaster aid. Where disputes have occurred, and theyre being refought these days, is over the cynical practice of using emergency relief bills to cram through non-emergency items.
Thats what Congress did a few months after Hurricane Sandy whacked the Northeast. Lawmakers passed a $51 billion relief package in January 2013. While most of the money was for parts of the country damaged by the storm, appropriators stuck in money for Alaska fisheries. Also, two-thirds of the money wouldnt even go out the door until 2014 or later. Thats not emergency spending. Thats just spending.
Its bad governing, not to mention duplicitous, to use an emergency process to pass non-emergency legislation. Its cynical to use the cover of emergency response to fund other priorities.
Cynicism in the face of catastrophe is the norm in Washington. Rahm Emanuel, as former President Barack Obamas chief of staff, laid it out clearly when he said, You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you did not think you could do before.
This is how congressional reporters and lobbyists surely see Hurricane Harvey. One lobbyist, speaking to a reporter, spoke of the the gift of Harvey greasing the skids for other GOP priorities.
Republicans need to eschew such thinking and to parcel out disaster aid at a fitting pace through the fitting process.
First, FEMAs Disaster Relief Fund has $1.3 billion already earmarked for catastrophes like Harvey. That money can bridge the gap until Congress returns next week.
Second, Congress should quickly pass a narrowly tailored emergency bill. Do not add any unrelated items or include spending that will go out the door in late 2018. A clean emergency bill will have the votes to pass the House through suspension of the rules and can pass the Senate by voice vote.
Maybe Congress could pass a small, urgent bill next week and a bigger emergency bill for a few months from now. Theres no need to cram all the money Houston might need into an immediate bill.
Houston, of course, will need aid in the long run. But money for the long run shouldnt be passed in a hurry. Harvey recovery money for later years should go through the regular spending process. That starts with authorization legislation by committee and then passage through appropriation bills into law.
Emergencies require quick, discrete action. Panic in a crisis is counterproductive. Exploiting a crisis is immoral.
Gasoline prices rose several cents overnight amid continuing fears of shortages in Texas and other states in the aftermath of Hurricane Harveys strike on the Gulf Coast.
The national average for a gallon of regular gas rose in one day from $2.45 Thursday to $2.52 Friday, the American Automobile Association reported.
Prices in Wisconsin and the Madison area have already risen in the week since Harvey hit. The average Madison gas price was $2.28 per gallon on Friday, Aug. 25, according to GasBuddy.com. On the first day of September, the average had risen to $2.42.
However, prices are unlikely to spike this weekend for travelers and tourists returning home from end-of-summer trips over the Labor Day weekend, said Patrick DeHaan, an analyst with GasBuddy.com.
Instead, he said, expect smaller increases over the weekend and a jump of as much as 20 cents over the next one or two weeks.
At least two major pipelines one that ships gasoline across the southern United States and to New York, and another that flows north to Chicago have been slowed or stopped because of flooding and damage.
But a cluster of gasoline refineries in the Chicago area have capacity to keep Wisconsins tanks full for the foreseeable future, DeHaan said.
AAA Wisconsin spokesman Nicholas Jarmusz said the roads over the weekend are expected to be crowded, but gas prices shouldnt be a worry.
Prices have gone up and theyll continue to rise, but it wont be significant enough that youre going to have trouble filling up at the end of weekend to get home, Jarmusz said.
Gasbuddy.com listed the average Wisconsin price at $2.48 Friday.
Gas prices rose at least 15 cents in 24 hours in several metropolitan areas including Dallas; El Paso, Texas; Athens, Georgia; and Dayton, Ohio, AAA reported Friday.
The average price of a gallon of gas had soared by at least 10 cents in eight states since Thursday: South Carolina, Ohio, Delaware, Maryland, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Texas.
Among those states, the highest 24-hour rise on average was in South Carolina, AAA reported. Its among several Southern states that are heavily reliant on the Colonial Pipeline for deliveries of gasoline.
Part of the pipeline that runs through Texas is shut down and inspections must be done before the entire system can be fully operational again, Colonial Pipeline spokesman Steve Baker said Thursday. The Georgia-based company remains able to operate its pipeline from Louisiana to states east and northeast of there, though deliveries will be intermittent, the company said. It hopes to return more sections of the pipeline to service by Sunday.
In Dallas, drivers lined up at gas pumps Thursday as some stations ran out of fuel.
One Chevron station in downtown Dallas that sold regular gas for $2.29 a gallon just before the storm was charging $2.99 Thursday. Others charged well over $3, and one downtown Shell station charged $3.97 for a regular gallon of gas.
The crunch prompted QuikTrip, one of the nations largest convenience store chains, to temporarily halt gasoline sales at about half its 135 stores in Dallas-Fort Worth. Instead, deliveries are going to designated stores across all parts of the metro area, QuikTrip spokesman Mike Thornbrugh said.
Analysts are urging drivers not to panic.
If people start hoarding gas, as some have in Texas, thats going to make the problem worse, and prices shoot higher and the event will last longer, with more disruption and shortages, DeHaan said.
His advice: Try to have a sense of calm.
Associated Press reporters Claudia Lauer and Jeff Martin and State Journal reporter Steven Verburg contributed to this report.
A driver passing through downtown Portage on Friday might have needed to squint a little to read, on Eva Schillings sign, a variation of a familiar adage.
When life gives you lemons, the sign said, in lemon-yellow letters, give Harvey Ade.
The sign pointed the way west, about half a block, to a lemonade stand operated by Evas sister, Olivia Schilling, and their cousin, Ava Swenson.
The stand, offering lemonade for 50 cents per glass, was set up in front of the Portage World War II History Museum, 119 W. Cook St., with the permission of the museums owner, Bret Esse. Thats because the money collected would go to Esse, for his upcoming trip to Texas to haul a truckload of water to victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Jennifer Swenson, Avas mom, said the girls had wanted, for much of the summer, to run a lemonade stand to raise money for a worthy cause.
When Esse posted on Facebook about his plans to haul water to Texas 6,912 bottles in all Swenson said that sounded like an opportunity to help a local citizen do his part to provide relief during a national catastrophe.
Much of the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana including the nations fourth-largest city, Houston has been affected by Harvey, once a Category 4 hurricane that caused extensive wind damage and massive flooding from torrential rains. As of Thursday, 44 people, just in Texas, were known dead as a result of the hurricane, and about 32,000 more had to seek shelter.
In addition to the downtown lemonade stand, the Swenson-Schilling contingent also set up a stand Friday on Carimaunee Drive just east of Portage. As of early afternoon Friday, the stands had raised about $100, Jennifer Swenson said.
That money can go a long way to aiding Esses effort, she said, whether its used to buy water or to pay travel expenses.
Eva Schilling acknowledged that Friday mornings temperatures, in the high 50s and low 60s, were not exactly lemonade weather, but business was still brisk.
And, every now and then, a driver would pause in Cook Street traffic long enough to hand Ava and Olivia a few dollars, but not take any lemonade.
And, said Eva, I got lots of friendly honks of the horn.
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Digital communication networks to be showcased at free Industry 4.0 seminar in Wrexham
This article is old - Published: Saturday, Sep 2nd, 2017
Digital communication networks which are enabling major advances in manufacturing are to be showcased at a free seminar.
Industry 4.0 is set to transform the UK economy over the next few years and will be the focus of the event at Wrexham Glyndwr University on Tuesday 26 September.
The seminar will help delegates understand how digital communication networks are a key factor when developing Industry 4.0 solutions.
Central to the discussion will be the use and practical application of PROFIBUS, PROFINET and IO-Link in industry (pictured above). These three networks offer a complete solution for industrial automation in process and manufacturing plants.
As well as being introduced to the technologies, managers and engineers attending the event will be able to catch a glimpse of Wrexham Glyndwr Universitys engineering labs, including an intelligent control panel which controls equipment and instrumentation using PROFIBUS. A Siemens PROFINET demonstration truck will also be on show.
James Robinson, Industrial Engineering programme leader, said: Were delighted to be welcoming PROFIBUS and PROFINET International to North Wales.
Their technologies are leading the way in industrial communications globally, and asset managers, design engineers and maintenance engineers will all benefit from this seminar.
Wrexham Glyndwr University has worked hard to develop its laboratories so students on our industrial engineering degree programmes have access to industry-standard equipment from Helmholz, Softing Industrial, Siemens, WAGO and Procentec. These will all be demonstrated on the day.
Industry 4.0 is one of the largest drivers which will transform manufacturing over the coming years and the UK government has announced an increase in funding for the area of 4.7 billion by 2020-21.
James will be joined at the event by fellow Wrexham Glyndwr University lecturer and cyber security expert Dr Paul Comerford, who will be giving a presentation on Cyber security for Industrial Ethernet.
System design and safety considerations through to fault-finding and maintenance with PROFIBUS, PROFINET and IO-Link in key application areas will all be considered.
These include mechanical handling and logistics, robotics, automotive engineering, electrical and electronics assembly, control systems and energy management, pulp & paper, chemical, utilities, pharmaceutical, packaging and printing.
The event runs from 8.45am to 4pm at the Catrin Finch Centre, Wrexham Glyndwr University.
Visitors will get the chance to win a free 20 minute flight in the universitys Merlin flight simulator and learn more about Wrexham Glyndwr Universitys Industrial Engineering degree
Attendance at the free seminar is by registration in advance online at http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=ycu456cab&oeidk=a07ee3d8b0x9055ee15
For more information contact James Robinson on james.robinson@glyndwr.ac.uk
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared Tuesday that Canada is monitoring the security threat posed by North Korea on a daily basis and reiterated his governments endorsement of the Trump administrations provocative incitement of the conflict with Pyongyang.
In a show of solidarity with Trumps threat to rain down fire and fury on North Korea and Defense Secretary James Mattiss comment that any conflict would lead to the destruction of the North Korean people, Ottawa sent 15 Canadian Armed Forces personnel to participate in the latest joint US-South Korean military exercise. That operation, which concluded August 31, was calculated to enflame tensions on the Korean peninsula and prompted Pyongyang to fire a mid-range missile over Japan.
Canadas participation in the exercise follows on the heels of the deployment of two CAF naval frigates to the Asia-Pacific, where they visited a base in South Korea. The ships also joined US-led freedom of navigation exercises in the South and East China seas. Such exercises are a key part of Washingtons concerted military and diplomatic drive to isolate, bully, and prepare for war with China.
Earlier this year, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan noted that Canada remains part of the UN Command under whose banner the US waged the Korean Wara war that killed millions, laid waste to most of the peninsula, especially the north, and during which US military commanders repeatedly pressed the Truman administration to use nuclear weapons.
Sajjan added that Canada would again be prepared to go to war against North Korea and, if requested to do so, would consider supplying troops through the UN Command.
Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland was even more strident than Trudeau in supporting Washingtons warmongering. The same day Trump declared that all options are on the table and ruled out any negotiations with Pyongyang, Freeland baldly asserted, North Koreas reckless violation of its neighbours territorial sovereignty and its direct threat to Japans citizens have threatened both regional and international peace and security.
Not a word of criticism has been forthcoming from Ottawa of Trumps bellicose threats, nor of Washingtons plans, initiated under the Obama administration, to spend upwards of $1 trillion on modernizing the US nuclear arsenal.
The Trudeau government is exploiting the Korean crisis to justify and escalate the militarist foreign policy it outlined at the beginning of June in its defence policy statement and a major speech by Freeland on Canadas foreign policy.
Freelands speech identified Chinathe real target of Washingtons aggressive war drive in the Asia-Pacificas potentially the greatest threat to Canadas national interests and said hard power, i.e. war, must be a key part of Canadian imperialisms global strategy. The defence policy review committed the government to a 70 percent hike in military spending over the next decade, new purchases of warplanes, ships, and drones, an expansion of the army and the development of offensive cyber-war capabilities.
A growing number of Liberals have also seized on the alleged North Korean threat to demand Canada revisit its 2005 decision not to participate in the US-led ballistic missile defence (BMD) shield. The program, its name notwithstanding, is aimed at creating the conditions for Washington to wage and win a nuclear war, the eruption of which has become ever more likely in recent months in light of US provocations from the Korean peninsula to Syria.
The House of Commons Defence Committee will hold an emergency sitting prior to the reconvening of parliament September 18 after the Liberal government acceded to Conservative and New Democratic Party (NDP) requests for a meeting on Canadas response to North Korea. While the NDP officially opposes Canadian participation in BMD, foreign affairs critic Helene Laverdiere urged Ottawa to work with allies, above all the US, to bring about a diplomatic solution of the North Korean crisis. The silence of all candidates in the NDP leadership race on the danger that US provocations could lead to war with North Korea further demonstrates the partys tacit approval of Washingtons aggressive stance.
Speaking after a meeting of the Defence Committee last week, John McKay, former parliamentary secretary to Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, declared he is in favour of Canada joining the ballistic missile defence shield. Canada wants to be in control of as much of its own sovereignty as it possibly can, he said. I think the threat is real. I think the military experts need to be listened to.
Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire, who is one of the principal Canadian proponents of the humanitarian imperialist Responsibility to Protect doctrine, added his voice to those in favour of joining BMD. Ignoring the fact that BMD makes a nuclear conflagration more likely by undermining deterrence and mutually assured destruction, he enthused, Were talking security, were talking new capabilities, were talking about potential technological spinoffs and advances.
Former Liberal defence ministers Bill Graham and David Pratt are also urging the Trudeau government to join BMD, as is former Conservative Defence Minster Peter MacKay. On Thursday, the current Conservative defence critic, Erin OToole, said it was time for Canada to revisit the 2005 decision.
Trudeaus remarks August 23, which ruled out Canadian involvement in ballistic missile defence at least in the short term, are worthless. The Liberal government has left the door open to Ottawas participation in the program by pledging to deepen military-security cooperation with the United States, particularly through the modernization of the North American Aerospace Defence (NORAD) command, which was established during the Cold War to target the Soviet Union.
Wayne Easter, a Liberal MP who was the partys defence critic prior to the 2015 election, admitted as much when he told the Hill Times that Trudeaus comments did not preclude the government from changing its mind.
A report from the Canadian Press this week noted that the Liberals did not provide costing in their new defence policy for modernization of NORADs radar systems for early detection of threats to the continent. It added that discussions on what this will entail are only in the early stages, but the possibility of including ballistic missile defence in the modernization will invariably be raised.
NORADs modernization is a key plank in the Trudeau governments strategy to deepen Canadas longstanding strategic partnership with Washington. Since Trump took office in January, Trudeau has gone out of his way to establish close working relations with the most right-wing president in American history.
With the NAFTA renegotiation, the Liberal government has embraced the idea of a North American protectionist economic trade bloc under Washingtons leadership, which will create the basis for US imperialism to aggressively confront its economic and geopolitical rivals around the worldChina and Russia chief among themas part of its reckless efforts to retain global hegemony. Canadian troops have also been deployed to Eastern Europe to lead one of the battalions involved in the US-led NATO encirclement of Russia, and Canadian Special Forces continue to serve alongside US troops in Iraq.
While politicians and media reports have focused on North Korea to justify reviving the ballistic missile defence debate, the Canadian ruling class is also motivated by growing conflicts in the Arctic. Ottawa lays claim to vast swathes of the Arctic Ocean and its resource-rich seafloor and confronts rival claims from Denmark, the United States, and, most significantly, Russia.
Responding to the crossing of the Arctic Ocean by a Russian tanker in record time last month, the Globe and Mail published an editorial warning of the mounting strategic threat in the region and urging Canada to set some rules. The editorial continued, The previous governments northern strategy may have been half-baked and sparsely funded, but at least its central thrust served to reconfirm Canadian sovereignty.
The Globe and Canadas ruling elite want that thrust to be intensified with an increased military presence. Upgrading the North Warning System is critical to this strategy, since it would enable Ottawa to monitor the increased activity of Russia in the far north and strengthen US-Canadian preparations for war with Russia.
New research in the study of the human genome has provided a new way to reduce or potentially eliminate inherited genetic disorders, such as those that lead to a higher risk of diabetes or cancer. This new method, published in the journal Nature, focuses on correcting harmful genetic mutations while the subject is still an embryo.
The findings were spearheaded by an international team led by researchers at the Oregon Health and Science University and included scientists from China, the Republic of Korea and the United States. They focused on a particular disorder known as familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), an enlarged heart, and used a technique known as CRISPRCas9 to fix the faulty part of the embryos DNA that eventually causes the disorder.
HCM leads to sudden death in one in every 500 young athletes, and in 40 percent of cases is caused by a defect in the gene MYBPC3. It is one of the more than 10,000 inherited disorders caused by a single defective gene, which in total affect millions of people worldwide. Besides an enlarged heart, such mutations can develop into breast and ovarian cancer, sickle cell disease, cystic fibrosis, polycystic kidney disease, and Tay-Sachs disease. Moreover, such diseases tend to manifest later in a persons life, generally after theyve had children, causing such problems to be unknowingly passed on to the next generation.
Presently, couples who wish to avoid passing such defects to their children and can afford in-vitro fertilization must have their embryos tested, selecting out the ones with the bad genes and attempting to conceive with the healthy ones.
Using the example of HCM, there is a 50 percent chance of the embryos inheriting the defective gene, Statistically, half the embryos should be mutation free. Correcting the gene could rescue the embryos carrying the defective gene, increase the number of embryos for transfer and improve pregnancy rates. Corrected embryos also imply that future generations would be spared the impact of this mutation on their life as well as those of their offspring.
The present study suggests that CRISPR-Cas9 is an effective and safe way to correct the DNA in these embryos. CRISPR-Cas9 is a molecular tool that can recognize specific genetic sequences and induce a break in the DNA and excise it. The cell then uses internal DNA repair mechanisms to attempt to correct this excised portion. One commonly employed mechanism, non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) pathways, is prone to introducing additional mutations. There is also an alternative mechanism called homology-directed repair (HDR) that rebuilds the DNA using the non-mutant homologous chromosome (the genes inherited from the other parent) as a template which allows for a correct copy to be inserted.
The authors of the study explain that CRISPR-Cas9 was being used to introduce mutations in genes and observing the impact on the development of the embryos. Because the HDR method is inefficient, gene editing for gene therapy had been thus far limited. Additionally, earlier attempts at corrective gene editing in one-cell embryos led to creating a mosaic offspring carrying the corrected as well as the defective cell type. Theoretically, the scientists were concerned that in attempting to correct a genetic defect new mutations would be introduced.
In an attempt to correct these problems, the researchers injected a sperm carrying the MYBPC3 defect into an oocyte (female egg) obtained from a healthy donor using the CRISPR-Cas9 technique. What they found was that introducing CRISPR-Cas9 at an earlier stage led to more efficient excision and a preference for the developing embryo to use the normal DNA from the mother to correct broken DNAthe HDR method for correction. This was a considerable surprise for the investigators, leading to a hypothesis that human embryos employ different DNA repair mechanisms than do somatic or pluripotent cells, probably reflecting evolutionary requirements for stringent control over genome fidelity in the germ line.
Using CRISPR-Cas9 in this manner produced embryos in which 82.4 percent had normal genes from both the mother and father. Moreover, as these embryos were allowed to divide into blastocysts, repeat genomic analysis demonstrated that the healthy DNA strands successfully replicated themselves in most cases.
More work is required to ensure sufficient safety standards before this technology is ready for clinical use. There may be other ways of increasing the percentage of healthy embryos and reducing the chance that the corrected DNA mutates again. Teams will need to correct genetic disorders other than HCM. More broadly, the gene editing technique will need to be further tested to ensure that other genetic disorders arent accidentally introduced. Ultimately, the process will need to be tested during an actual pregnancy.
As for the fears cited by some, Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, stated that she doubts a flood of couples will have edited children. She told the New York Times, Nobodys going to do this for trivial reasons. Sex is cheaper, and its more fun than IVF, so unless youve got a real need, youre not going to use it.
There are of course class questions regarding the creation of designer babies. The current experiments are privately funded, as reactionary laws prohibit US tax dollars from being used in embryo research. This means that the process of curing genetic disorders could become patented and turned into a source of profit, only available to the select few who are able to afford it. Or it could be weaponized by military contractors like Academi (formerly Blackwater and Xe Services) in order to make genetically engineered soldiers hired out to kill at the behest of US imperialism.
Such questions highlight the contradiction of the developments in genetic engineering. Their potential for abuse is high. At the same time, the fact that humanity has the scientific and technical prowess necessary to correct a defect in the DNA of a human embryo is a significant advance in our understanding of the development of life.
A team of researchers at New America Foundation, a Washington DC-based think tank that has received more than $21 million in funding from Google and its executives, were fired after they published a statement criticizing the Internet search company, the researchers said this week.
The researchers are led by Barry Lynn, who headed the foundations Open Markets initiative. They said in a statement that Google is trying to censor journalists and researchers who fight dangerous monopolies. The team has since founded their own group, Citizens Against Monopoly.
When our research team at the New America Institute criticized Googles monopoly practices, the chairman of Googles parent company [Eric Schmidt] threatened to cut its funding for New America, the researchers wrote in the statement, posted Monday to their website. Schmidt was chairman of New America until 2016.
The firing of the researchers is only the latest in a series of incidents in which the technology giant has sought to censor and manipulate opinions. While the media has prominently reported on developments related to the New America Foundation and Citizens Against Monopoly, both of which are connected to the Democratic Party, it has remained silent on the more significant and overt act of Google censorship, the blacklisting of left-wing websites, including the World Socialist Web Site, through the manipulation of search results.
In mid-2016, New Americas president, Anne-Marie Slaughter, a Princeton University professor who worked in the State Department under the Obama administration, warned Lynn not to run afoul of the corporate giant at a conference organized by the Open Markets initiative. We are in the process of trying to expand our relationship with Google on some absolutely key points, she wrote in an email made available to the New York Times, adding, just THINK about how you are imperiling funding for others.
On June 27 of this year, the European Commission fined Google a record 2.42 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules and abusing its market dominance by giving an unfair advantage to one of its own comparison shopping services.
The same day, Lynn issued a statement praising the decision, which was posted on New Americas website. The statement was removed after Schmidt contacted Slaughter, only to be inexplicably reposted within hours. According to the researchers statement, Google representatives threatened to cut off all funding for New America.
In an email subsequently released to the public, Slaughter, the director of the think tank, told Lynn on June 30 that the time has come for Open Markets and New America to part ways, declaring that the teams work was imperiling the institution as a whole.
Google is the most politically connected US corporation, spending a record $6 million on lobbying between May and July. The New York Times noted that Google donates to 170 nonprofits, according to its own disclosures, up from 45 in 2010. The monetary values of its donations, however, are kept secret.
The search giant has been spending a lot of money influencing public opinion, and influencing the opinions of leaders in government in very underhanded ways, Robert Epstein, senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, told the WSWS in a telephone interview. Thats really whats coming out.
They will stop at nothing to control peoples opinions, added Epstein, who has written regularly on Googles actions. They are paying scholars to write papers that support their viewpoint, and in many cases the scholars do not even acknowledge that they receive money from Google.
This is part of a larger pattern of an attempt to influence people, on a massive scale. They take down whoever they want to take down. They can take down any organization, any politician. Any political realm, statement, or idea, they can shoot it down.
The researchers claims have been met with denials by both Google and the New America Foundation. A Google spokesperson told the Guardian that blaming the tech giant for firing of the researchers would not be a fair characterization at all. She added, I can confirm that our funding levels for 2017 have not changed as a result of NAFs June post, nor did Eric Schmidt ever threaten to cut off funding because of it.
Slaughter issued a statement declaring, Todays New York Times story implies that Google lobbied New America to expel the Open Markets program because of this press release. I want to be clear: this implication is absolutely false.
All available evidence, however, including the correspondence that has now been published by New America itself, indicates that the statements by Google and New America are a cover-up.
If Google is in fact lying about this incident, in the face of documentary evidence, what else is it lying about?
The revelations of Googles censorship of antimonopoly scholars lends credence to extensively documented revelations by the World Socialist Web Site that Google is manipulating search results to demote left-wing, progressive, and antiwar websites, who have seen their search traffic plummet since April.
Googles censorship of left-wing websites is, however, an act of censorship on a much larger scale, as the search giant is not seeking to influence just one think tank, but to make a whole range of constitutionally protected speech unavailable to billions of people.
Notably, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and the Intercept have all run reports or statements documenting and denouncing Googles censorship of the Open Markets researchers. However, not one of these news outlets has even referred to the WSWSs revelations or the campaign launched by the WSWS against Internet censorship, which has received widespread international support. More than 3,000 people from over 80 different countries have signed the WSWSs petition in opposition to Googles censorship of left-wing sites.
The silence of the press on this issue is a testament to how politically explosive the WSWSs revelations are, and how integral the censorship of socialist viewpoints is to the strategy of the Democratic Party, with which all these news outlets are politically aligned.
The human health consequences from Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey will be long lasting and all but incalculable. Houston, Texas and the surrounding Gulf communities comprise the acknowledged petrochemical capital of the world. The Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coasts are commonly referred to as the chemical coast, where almost half of all the refining of gasoline and natural gas in the US is done.
Houston proper, 30 miles from the coastline, is situated in Harris County, and is also home to at least 12 Superfund sites, the most of any county in the state. These are sites designated by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as polluted locations requiring a long-term response to clean up hazardous material contamination.
The number one thing were concerned with in a flood is chemicals, Renee Funk of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told Reuters. Funk was recommending what has been unfeasible for most of the flooded area residents since the onset of the catastrophic storm: to bathe immediately after flood water contact. The EPA was recommending that people avoid skin contact with chemical containing water altogether.
But for those trapped by and wading through the fetid floodwaters, such recommendations are all but impossible to heed. Dr. Richard Bradley, chief of Emergency Medicine and Disaster Medicine at McGovern Medical School at University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, told Time, Flood water mixes with everything below it. If it covers a field with pesticides, it picks up the pesticides. It can also carry animal waste from fields and forests.
Petrochemical plants and Superfund sites
There is also the risk of raw sewage and industrial compounds and solvents being mobilized from treatment plants, petrochemical facilities, and Superfund sites and moved into neighborhoods by the surging flood currents. These pollutants are then deposited in yards, school grounds, ball fields and parks citywide, wherever the flooding occurred. Extremely toxic compounds will then be left in sediment residues to poison the city residents for decades to come.
Dr. Bradley also noted that the bacterial count in the floodwater is extremely high and that therefore the chance of getting a skin infection is really quite serious. E. coli and Salmonella bacteria from sewage treatment facilities can infect minor skin wounds and cause severe systemic illness. Health authorities also point out that keeping immunization up to date is key to preventing complications from exposure to foul floodwaters.
When the floodwaters recede, countless stagnant ponds will foster a mosquito bloom. Aedes aegypti mosquitos carry and transmit Zika, chikungunya, dengue and yellow fever. Cases of West Nile Virus encephalopathy, an inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, doubled the year after Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi. Crowded shelters for flood victims are also breeding grounds for outbreaks of diarrheal illnesses that are very difficult to contain.
The hundreds of thousands of flooded homes will also put people at high risk for respiratory illnesses associated with the growth of molds on interior surfaces. After Katrina, 46 percent of the homes inspected by the CDC had hazardous levels of mold.
Wes Highfield, a Texas A&M University at Galveston scientist, told the Washington Post this week that he became alarmed at the flooding near the Brio Refining toxic Superfund site in south Houston, which drains into the watershed where he lives in Friendswood. He drove to the site during the storm and found neighborhood kids swimming in the residue ponds where Brio dumped ethylbenzene, chlorinated hydrocarbons and other deadly compounds before the EPA had them removed.
Other Superfund sites include the low-lying San Jacinto River Waste Pits, which the Army Corps of Engineers in a report last year designated as subject to flooding with storm surges inland from Galveston Bay, as well as the Many Diversified Interests site near central Houston, the Crystal Chemical Company site southwest of Houston, the Patrick Bayou site near the Houston Ship Channel, and the Jones Road Plume dry cleaning waste site.
The Superfund sites are known to contain compounds that are dangerous to inhale and touch, including perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene, chlorinated hydrocarbons and an array of toxic substances that are known carcinogens, as well as kidney, liver, reproductive, and developmental poisons.
Toxic air pollutants
At least 11 refineries and chemical plants shut down due to Hurricane Harvey. During a shutdown, the plants often vent much greater amounts of toxic air pollutants, known in the industry as spikes. Since they report that such practices are undertaken to prevent plant explosions during shutdowns, they are exempted from pollution fines. Air quality monitors in Houston were shut off during Harvey, with the ludicrous explanation by city officials that they were expensive to replace.
Neighborhoods in Houstons East End, near the petrochemical plants, have been exposed to high levels of air pollution for years. Residents have reported smells that are unbearable. Daniel Cohan, an associate professor of engineering at Rice University with a specialty in air pollution, says the low-income neighborhoods of the East End have more exposure to air toxics than almost anywhere in the country.
Juan Parras, director of the environmental justice group called TEJAS, told Democracy Now, We know that we have elevated levels of cancers all along these areas. There have been many reports to show increased rates of childhood leukemia if you live within two miles of the Houston Ship Channel, for example. TEJAS told The New Republic that during a shutdown for flooding, if East End people cannot evacuate, they literally get gassed by these chemicals.
In filings with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), ExxonMobil reported a shutdown of two refineries due to the heavy rains, including its facility in Baytown. During shutdown, it released double the allowed amount of volatile organic compounds.
Shell shut down its plant at Deer Park and released its share of deadly cocktails of benzene, toluene, and xylene. Dow Chemical in Freeport, Texas poured out benzene, hexane and toluene well over what is permitted by TCEQ. Equistar Chemicals in Channelview lost power during the storm and released a series of toxins not even listed on its polluting permit.
BASFs Agro division in Beaumont, Texas reported that its toxic wastewater reservoirs were overflowing into the environment without any ability to stop the dangerous pollution until the cessation of the heavy rains, if then.
In May of 2013, a study titled The Toxic Flood was published by Food and Water Watch of Washington, DC and the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Investigators concluded in an examination of the US EPAs Toxic Release Program (TRP) documents and figures from 2009 that American corporations dumped over 200 million pounds of carcinogens, neurotoxins, reproductive and developmental poisons in US waterways.
Hospital evacuations
As a result of the flooding from Harvey, some 27 hospitals in Houston and the coastal area closed. Another 25 facilities reported problems functioning due to storm damage. Over 1,500 hospitalized patients were evacuated upstate to San Antonio and other communities. St. Lukes Health hospital in Houston evacuated inpatients by airboat, after floodwater breached its power plant.
Memorial Hermann Sugar Land hospital evacuated all its patients after the Brazos River flooded the surrounding area. Cypress Creek flooded the neighborhood of Vintage Hospital in northwest Houston, and all inpatients were removed by airboat to higher ground hospitals. Victoria, Texas hospitals were all evacuated by large patient transport buses that each had 20 beds aboard.
The elderly and the mentally ill are most at risk of disease and infection from the floodwaters and the shortages of medicines and treatment facilities. A 2009 study showed that 60 percent of the deaths in Hurricane Katrina were of those who were 65 years and older. People of all ages are threatened with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the trauma of losing everything they have in the floods.
As people attempt to return to their waterlogged homes, those without adequate financial resources will be forced to live in unsanitary conditions, with their health endangered by mold, bacteria and other toxins left in the ruins of their homes.
The visit of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trumps son-in-law and advisor, and his daughter, Ivanka Trump, to Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) exposed for all to see that the so-called peace process is dead.
The visit, which followed several meetings with leaders in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan to discuss Trumps plans for the region, also included his special envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, and Dina Powell, deputy national security adviser.
However, the inclusion of Kushner ends all pretence that Washington is acting as an honest broker between Israel and the Palestinians, and has exposed the growing crisis of Trumps foreign policy.
Kushner, whose pro-Israel bias is no secret to anyone, was reported to have said, in off-the-record comments to a casual gathering of congressional interns leaked to the media, that there may not be a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Coming just four months after Trump promised to present the ultimate deal to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, there were no proposals advanced, despite dozens of meetings between his administration and Israeli and Palestinian officials in the intervening period.
The last face-to-face talks between Israel, the most powerful-armed force in the Middle East, and the PA, bankrupt and heavily dependent upon funding from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf oil sheikdoms, took place more three years ago and lasted a few hours.
Following his three-hour-long meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, Kushner praised him, saying, We really appreciate the commitment of the prime minister and his team to engage very thoughtfully and respectfully in the way that the president has asked them to do.
Kushner also sought to flatter Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, telling him that Trump was very appreciative of his efforts to suppress Palestinian unrest and his desire to achieve an agreement with Israel, despite the inevitable concessions.
He apparently told Abbas that the US was committed to making supreme efforts to broker a historic peace between Israelis and Palestinians, while Greenblatt said that Washington would soon formulate a detailed plan setting out Trumps vision of peace in the Middle East. That this was a lie was evidenced by the embarrassment when Abbas asked for the timetables and goals of the US moves.
Although the US refused to even endorse the two-state solution, saying that doing so would bias Washington, Abbas said, We affirm that this [US] delegation is working toward peace, and we are working with it to achieve soon what Trump called the peace deal.
Just days earlier, Abbas had said he had met with US officials 20 times since Trump took office in January, but still had no idea what Israeli-Palestinian peace plan they have in mind. He said, Each time they reiterate their commitment to a two-state solution and to stop settlement building. I urge them to tell [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu that, but they refrain.
Once again, he issued his futile threat to revive an international campaign for recognition of the PA as an independent state and go to the United Nations General Assembly in September if no real progress was made on their peace plan within 45 days.
The willingness of the corrupt PA to work with the US, Israels paymaster, and accommodate itself to Trumps Middle East policy only serves to discredit Abbas and the PA even further in the eyes of the Palestinians. Abbas faces increasing domestic opposition to the PAs policing of the Palestinians on Israels behalf.
Emboldened by Trumps support, Israel has expanded its West Bank settlements. According to Israels Bureau of Statistics, 2,630 housing units were constructed or partially constructed in West Bank settlements in 2016, an increase of 40 percent compared with 2015.
Last Monday, Netanyahu pledged he would not evacuate any settlements. He told a crowd of thousands at an event marking 50 years since the founding of the first settlement in the West Bank, We are here to stay forever. There will be no more uprooting of settlements in the land of Israel.
Furthermore, Netanyahu has insisted that Abbas and the PA recognise Israel as a Jewish state as a precondition for talks. Any such recognition would pave the way for Netanyahu to impose draconian measures on Israels Palestinian citizens, including loyalty oaths and an end to their demands for political reformamid threats to move them to a Palestinian state and/or designate the Little Triangle as part of a Palestinian statelet in exchange for the annexation of the West Bank settlements. The Triangle and its main city, Umm al-Fahm, are home to around 300,000 Palestinian citizens and borders the West Bank.
Netanyahu has also been pushing a new basic law that would define Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, rather than of Israels entire population, thereby weakening Israels Palestinians claim to citizenship. In a move tantamount to annexation, he has also backed legislation extending Jerusalems municipal borders to include several large settlements in the West Bank.
The PA has sought to bolster its position by renewing its contacts with European states and other states that supported it in previous UN votes, as well as seeking ties with China. Abbas visited Beijing last month, where President Xi Jinping said that China planned to initiate its own peace plan to advance talks between Israel and the Palestinians, whom he called friends, partners and brothers.
Washingtons going through the motions of seeking a resumption of peace talks is seen as necessary to provide the political cover for the imperialist powers ongoing interventions in the Middle East and increasing belligerency towards Iran. It takes place under conditions where the position of the US and its allies has been seriously weakened by the disastrous wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and the debacle of the proxy war for regime change in Syria that has strengthened Tehrans regional influence.
In the last few years, the Sunni Arab monarchs have worked closely with Israel against the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad in a bid to isolate Iran, and are preparing to normalise relations with Israel in the interests of forging a broader alliance against Iran. But, facing increasingly restive and impoverished populations angry at their betrayal of the Palestinians, they cannot publicly work with Tel Aviv without making a show of supporting the Palestinians.
To this end, Saudi Arabia and its allies have even dropped their earlier demands for a two-state solution that would leave Palestinians trapped in a fragmented, Israeli-dominated mini-state. Now they merely call for minor concessions, such as the freezing of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the easing of trade restrictions on the Gaza Strip. Even this is unacceptable to Netanyahus right-wing coalition government.
In moves seen as an attempt to placate the Arab masses, Trump stalled on his election campaign pledge to move the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and even hosted Abbas last May at the White House.
Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry had initially refused to meet Kushner in Cairo in protest over the US decision to withhold some $300 million of military and financial aid, amid concerns over the military juntas crackdown on dissent and human rights abuses.
French President Emmanuel Macron is to visit the Middle East, including Israel and the Palestinian territories, next spring. He told a meeting of French ambassadors, We will continue our efforts with the United Nations to find a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine, living safely side-by-side within borders recognised by the international community, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states.
His purpose, too, is to pose as a friend to the Palestinian people, under conditions where his forces are playing an escalating role in military operations in the Middle East and North Africa.
Asia
South Korea: MBC program producers on strike
Around 400 reporters, TV producers, camera journalists and announcers at public broadcaster MBC have been on strike since August 7 following revelations of an MBC blacklist.
Workers claim that management has categorised journalists into different groups based on their involvement in a 170-day strike in 2012, their relations with the labour union, and loyalty to the company. The list, they allege, is used by management for personnel matters and intimidation. MBC workers began voting on August 24 on whether to extend the strike and stop all program production.
Over 300 MBC employees struck in 2012 in a dispute over political bias by management. Six journalists who were dismissed then as a consequence of the strike are still awaiting a final court ruling.
Striking Burmese garment workers sacked
At least 280 factory workers from DJY Knitting Myanmar, in industrial zone 3 at Hlaing Tharyar, have been on strike since August 7. They are maintaining a demonstration outside the factory. Management told workers their strike was illegal and they would not be reinstated. The factory employs close to 400 workers and over half of them are on strike.
The strike erupted when the workers leader was sacked for trying to form a union and making demands on their behalf. Workers want reinstatement of the leader and the right to form a union. They have ignored a management promise that employees 17 demands would be met if they ended the strike. Workers said they would continue the walkout until their leader is reinstated.
Terminated Cambodian garment workers picket factory
More than 100 workers from the Nantai Garment Factory in Steung Meanchey commune are protesting outside the factorys gates in a dispute over severance pay following a change in ownership. Workers were told that their contracts would not be renewed after September 1. Workers were only given $60 as severance, which they claim is contrary to what they are owed under the Labour Law.
Workers suspect that the company has gone bankrupt and so they are holding a 24-hour vigil at the factory gates to prevent equipment being removed before they are paid their full entitlement.
Bangladesh: Chittagong jute mill workers attacked by police
At least five protesting jute mill workers were left injured and three hospitalised in Chittagong city on Tuesday following an attack by police. Close to 500 workers of Amin Jute Mill were demonstrating on the Hathazari-Oxygen Road outside their mill demanding seven weeks unpaid wages. The walkout was sparked when mill authorities failed to pay wages by Tuesday, as promised.
Workers ended the demonstration after a tri-party meeting between the mill authorities, workers and police where the authorities promised to pay 50 percent of arrears before the Eid religious festival on September 2.
Bangladeshi tannery factory workers walk out
Over 3,000 workers from several factories in the Tannery Industrial Estate in Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka, walked off the job for two hours on Monday over wages and conditions. They demonstrated inside the estate demanding a 3,000 taka interim allowance, a hospital at the estate, a canteen at each factory and housing facilities. Their current salary is 5,400 taka ($US68) to 8,400 a month.
Following a government directive, the Bangladesh Tanners Association has been gradually relocating tannery factories from Dhaka into the Savar estate. Workers complained because there are no housing facilities at the estate and they have to travel long distances, with some employees paying up to 2,200 taka a month in travel expenses.
There are 90 factories at the estate employing more than 10,000 workers. At least another 90 factories are to be moved into the estate from Dhaka. A total of 45,000 workers are affected.
India: Tamil Nadu anti-malaria workers on strike
Around 220 anti-malaria workers from Greater Chennai Corporation Zone 7 have been on strike since August 22 opposing their transfer to a private company as contract workers. At least 109 were arrested when they demonstrated outside the corporations building in Ripon on Tuesday.
The workers were initially engaged under the Indian governments Swarna Jayanthi scheme and then under the National Urban Livelihoods Mission. They were not told of the transfer until after it happened. The workers are demanding a wage increase and that they be made government employees.
Indigo Airlines contract workers strike
Over 100 contract drivers and loaders from Indigo Airlines at Nagpur, the capital of Maharashtra, struck for 24 hours on August 29 to demand a wage increase and correction of pay irregularities. Contract workers, many employed for more than 10 years, are paid a maximum of just 8,500 rupees ($US133). They are on contract to M/s Taurus Aviation, a private firm.
The workers also want bonus payments, name correction in Provident Fund records, as well as salary slips and appointment letters. The contractor agreed to enter negotiations on a wage increase and review the other issues.
Pakistan: Punjab teachers continue campaign over pay and privatisation
Teachers from Punjab government schools protested outside the Lahore Press Club on August 24 as part of a long running campaign over several demands. These included a pay rise, in-service promotions, teaching allowances and other incentives. Some teachers have not had a pay-scale increase for over two decades.
The teachers also protested against the governments school privatisation program. They have been holding protests since early 2016 over the issue. The Punjab governments public-private partnership deal hands management of public schools to NGOs and private operators administered by the recently created Punjab Education Foundation. It will impact on more than 5,000 schools.
The central and provincial governments have either slashed or frozen education budget allocations. The already inadequate and crumbling service is on the verge of collapse and teachers fear that privatisation will eliminate free education in Pakistan.
The United Teachers Council has threatened to hold a sit-down protest outside the Punjab Assembly on September 16. Teachers held a two-day demonstration outside the Assembly in May.
Pakistan: FATA health workers demand overdue pay
Health workers of the Maternal, New-born and Child Health program in Bajaur Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have threatened to walk out and go on a hunger strike if the government fails to pay eight months overdue wages. More than 60 workers are affected, many of them posted to remote areas.
The workers also want better pay in place of the meagre 4,000-rupee ($US38) monthly wage to compensate for having to work in harsh conditions in isolated regions with poor living conditions and lack basic health facilities.
Lahore gas pipeline workers protest
Several dozen contract based workers of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL) protested outside the Lahore Press Club on Monday and in front of the state-run companys headquarters to demand their reinstatement.
The workers, many of them sub-engineers, alleged that their terminations were in violation of their contracts. According to their contracts, SNGPL should have made them permanent after five years.
Punjab health workers protest diversion of duties
More than 50 employees of the state-run Lady Health Workers program demonstrated in front of the District Health Authority (DHA) in Rawalpindi on August 26 to protest against diversion of their duties from the polio vaccination drive to the anti-dengue drive.
Workers said the transfer was in violation of their contract. The government threatened to withhold wages if they ignored the directive. The protest ended after the health department CEO met workers and agreed to withdraw the directive and pay their wages.
Australia and the Pacific
Brisbane bus drivers strike again
Following several weeks of limited strike action and work bans, Brisbane City Council bus drivers walked of the job on Thursday in two four-hour stoppages at 10am2pm and 6pm10pm. Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) members are opposed to the councils proposed new enterprise agreement. They were joined by other council workers from various unions in a demonstration outside the Brisbane City Town Hall during the morning strike.
The Services Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Electrical Trade Union, Professionals Australia, the Plumbers Union, the Australian Workers Union, the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, RTBU and the Transport Workers Union are all involved in the councils enterprise agreement negotiations.
The RTBU wants 3.5 percent annual pay increases, replacement of the outdated pay structure and an increase in the hourly rates for lower-ranked drivers and input into rostering schedules. The current base rate for drivers is $23 an hour. The council has proposed a 2.5 percent pay rise each year for three years, back pay, a $400 bonus and doubling of security guards on buses.
New South Wales: Court forces power utility workers to lift bans
Australias largest power distribution utility Ausgrid has won legal action in the Fair Work Commission (FWC) that forces staff members to travel to India and train a replacement workforce in line with companys outsourcing of critical information technology services. The outsourcing contract with Tata Consultancy Services will make 35 full-time Ausgrid workers redundant.
Ausgrid, which was privatised last year by the state Liberal government, claimed that members of the United Services Union (USU) and Electrical Trades Union (ETU) were involved in illegal industrial action by refusing to travel overseas to train contractors who will take their jobs.
The workers affected are from Ausgrids Geographic Information System section and responsible for developing and maintaining detailed mapping information of the electricity network. The company provides power to more than a million homes and businesses in Sydney, Newcastle, the Hunter and Central Coast.
The unions accepted the FWC directive, ordered workers to lift the ban, and claimed that they would be looking at all available avenues to save the 35 jobs from being sent to India. No further action has been considered.
The state Liberal government prior to privatisation of the power utility passed legislation that was supposed to protect power industry jobs by banning forced redundancies after privatisation. The intent was to make it easier for the unions to sell privatisation to their members.
Victoria: GrainCorp puts proposed new work agreement to its workers
Following nearly five months of failed negotiations, GrainCorp has by-passed the union and asked its Victorian workers to vote on its proposed enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA). The two-day secret ballot began on Thursday. The companys latest proposal includes annual 2 percent pay increases for three years and rollover of the current EBA.
About 80 permanent grain handlers, members of the Australian Workers Union (AWU), at sites in the Western District, Central Victoria, the North East, the Southern Mallee and the Wimmera, are refusing to work overtime or stagger their breaks in their dispute over the agreement.
Although GrainCorp has improved its pay offerincreasing it from zero to 2 percentan AWU spokesman said workers were opposed to the companys move to pay casuals and labour hire workers less than the permanent workforce. The union wants these workers paid the same wage as direct employees.
New Zealand fisheries officers issue strike notice
The National Union of Public Employees (NUPE), covering fisheries officers of the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) throughout New Zealand, has issued a strike notice for September. The notice was issued following failed negotiations with MPI on August 23 over a new work agreement. The main sticking point in negotiations was MPIs refusal to pay penalty rates for weekend work.
From September 1, fisheries officers will refuse to work outside the various MPI premises, which will impact directly on patrols. They will continue to attend office work.
The privatization of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) serving greater Boston is moving forward, amidst allegations of mismanagement and corruption on the part of state officials. This has included the hiring of a General Executive to head the system with no previous transportation experience and conflicts of interest in the hiring of contractors.
After record snowfalls in February 2015 caused the near-collapse of Bostons public transportation system, the administration of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker jumped at the opportunity to use the crisis as an excuse for the privatization of the system. The MBTA including buses, subways, trolleys, and heavy commuter rail had been a public agency for more than 50 years.
Baker created an unelected Fiscal and Management Control Board (FMCB), which has attacked workers benefits while privatizing cash handling, spare parts warehouses, customer service jobs, and now three of the systems bus maintenance yards. In December 2016 the FMCB used the threat of privatization to force Boston Carmens Union Local 589, the largest MBTA union, into a deal which slashed raises in a contract that wasnt set to expire for another two years.
A Human Resources Workforce & Strategy update, summarizing the first six months of this year and available on the FMCBs web site, states that 746 workers have been separated, through being either fired or goaded into early retirement agreements. The average yearly salary of these workers is $76,000; the average salary of the 348 new hires during this period is $60,900. The report boasts that 65 workers were fired during the first six months of this year for attendance violations.
However, neither price nor quality is being considered in the hiring of executives, who are euphemistically referred to as talent. On August 15 the MBTA announced that Luis Manuel Ramirez, a former Siemens and General Electric executive with no public transportation experience, has been hired as the systems General Manager.
The MBTA paid Lochlin Partners, a recruiting firm, $93,000 for the hire and will be paying Ramirez more than $300,000 per year plus bonuses.
After his GE career, Ramirez was President and CEO of Global Power Equipment Group from 2012 to 2015. Accounting and audit controls at the company were so bad that in March 2017 it submitted a filing to the SEC admitting that its financial statements from 2011-2015 could not be relied on. Its stock value has dropped by nearly 75 percent since then, according to a report aired on radio station WBUR.
On May 6 2015, less than two months after Ramirez left the company, Global Power issued a press release admitting that it had understated the cost of sales in its 2014 financial statements, the effect of which was to inflate the profits shown on its income statement. One week later a class action lawsuit against Global Power was filed by stockholders stating that the companys financial statements had been materially false and misleading. Ramirez had signed off on the 2014 financial statements.
Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, who made the decision without public input, told WBUR that she selected Luis Ramirez based on his long and successful career of transforming and turning around complex organizations. In other words, she hired a financial con man to accelerate the privatization of the MBTA and clamp down on workers.
After the February 2015 winter crisis, the Massachusetts legislature both houses of which were controlled by Democrats passed a measure sought by Governor Baker to exempt the MBTA from an existing law that limited the privatization of government services. The 2015 measure also gave the Transportation Secretary authority to hire a General Manager without the public input that was previously part of the process.
Pollack appointed a five-member advisory committee for the selection process, and it included two members of the FMCB. One of them, Monica Tibbits-Nutt, was interviewed by WBUR after the scandal broke.
Claiming that our job was to give the potential candidates a really thorough understanding of what the MBTA needs, Tibbits-Nutt told the interviewer that she had only two meetings with Ramirez and the second was just a handshake. She defended the hire with the excuse that a lot of litigation happens in the corporate world, and admitted that she had been told nothing about the lawsuit, the SEC investigation, or the financial restatements.
This combination of corporate plunder and irrationality is not limited to the hiring of a public transportation General Manager with no public transportation experience. On Tuesday the Boston Globe reported that a contract to CH2M Hill Companies to manage the construction of a 4.7-mile Green Line trolley extension has been canceled because an engineering company it would have managed on the project has bought CH2M Hill.
The MBTA plans to hire another contractor and is claiming that the project schedule will not change, but this development adds to 27 years of delays. The construction, which would extend trolley service from Lechmere station in Cambridge to Somerville and Medford, was first approved by the state legislature in 1990.
The project was almost cancelled at the end of 2015 because cost estimates had increased by more than $1 billion. An Interim Project Management Team was appointed and released its final report in May 2016, stating that not enough MBTA staff were working on the project to handle the dozens of consultants, and too much autonomy and authority was ceded to consultants who took full advantage by charging too much.
Money also would have been siphoned off by bond investors after then-Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, signed a law authorizing the issuance of $1.3 billion worth of capital bonds.
A cheaper construction plan was then devised which would eliminate escalators and toilets and reduce shelter at stops to open-air roofs over the platforms. The Medford Street and School Street bridges in Somerville, which would have been replaced to provide a better right-of-way, will instead have tunnels dug under their abutments.
The Democratic Party has enabled these schemes while working with the unions to contain workers anger. US Senator Edward Markey spoke at an August 11 picket at the Lynn bus maintenance facility, one of the three facing privatization.
However, all sides agree that the maintenance jobs must be saved at the expense of the workers. Indeed, the mechanics union has offered some $29 million in concessions in ongoing contract talks. The unions main concern is not workers jobs and benefits, but their right to continue the collection of dues payments.
Hospital surveillance and police bodycam footage released this week shows a nurse, at University Hospital in Salt Lake City, being unlawfully arrested and assaulted by a police officer.
The incident occurred July 26, at the University of Utah, when a semi-truck driver was brought into the hospital after being struck by a driver fleeing Utah Highway Patrol.
At the time, Alex Wubbles was working as the charge nurse. After refusing his demand to draw a blood sample from the injured patient, in accordance with hospital policy, Wubbles was arrested by detective Jeff Payne.
In the video, Wubbles can be seen explaining that a policy agreed upon by the hospital and police department indicates that blood cannot be taken without the consent of the patient, a warrant from a judge, or if the patient was under arrest.
As Detective Payne continued to demand a blood sample, a representative can be heard on Wubbles phone asking, Why are you attacking the messenger? Payne responds, Shes telling me no.
Told that he was making a mistake by threatening a nurse, Payne escalated the situation by telling Wubbles she was under arrest. He then violently grabbed Wubbles and pushed her outside the hospital. After placing Wubbles in handcuffs, Payne had a short exchange with other staff at the hospital where he was told that his actions were unnecessary. Payne responded that Im doing my job and Im leaving now, with her.
Throughout the encounter, Wubbles complained to the officer that he was hurting her.
The video ends with Wubbles being placed in a police vehicle. As is common in such cases, Wubbles was placed under arrest without being told why.
While officers are not required by law to tell someone why they are under arrest, it is clear that this case was a clear abuse of power.
All arrests without a warrant must be supported by probable cause that a suspect has committed a crime. What was Wubbless supposed crime? Following policy set by her employer and saying no to an officer.
The Salt Lake City Police Department has launched an internal investigation, but Detective Payne is still on active duty.
Georgia police officer assures woman we only kill black people.
A video released this week by WSB-TV shows an officer attempting to calm a nervous woman during a traffic stop by jokingly telling her that police only shoot black people.
It was a simple traffic stop, but the driver was anxious, telling the officer that she was worried to move her hands in fear of being shot.
The officer, Lieutenant Greg Abbott, attempted to reassure her by saying, But youre not black. Remember, we only shoot black people. Yeah, we only kill black people, right? All the videos youve seen, have you seen white people get killed?
The words by Abbott led the Cobb County Police Department to launch an internal investigation last year, when the incident occurred.
On Thursday, the police chief confirmed Abbott will be fired. I dont know what is in his heart, but I know what came out of his mouth, Cobb County Police Chief Mike Register said. We recommend that he be terminated and we are moving forward on that.
Abbott applied for resignation not too long afterward to avoid being fired.
Previously, Abbotts attorney had released a statement justifying the incident:
Lt. Greg Abbott is a highly respected 28-year veteran of the Cobb County Police Department. He is cooperating with the departments internal investigation and will continue to do so. His comments must be observed in their totality to understand their context. He was attempting to de-escalate a situation involving an uncooperative passenger. In context, his comments were clearly aimed at attempting to gain compliance by using the passengers own statements and reasoning to avoid making an arrest.
Regardless of whether or not Abbotts statements were intended to be harmless, the fact that an officer would use such gross language to try to deescalate a situation reveals something of the disturbed mindset of police in America.
The drivers fear reflects a legitimate worry among workers. On average, police killed three people a day in 2016. The epidemic of police killings is not the result of a few bad cops, poor training, a lack of public oversight or too few minority cops.
The increasing violence and militarization of police, especially in the past few decades, is rooted in the capitalist system. In a society with a massive gap between rich and poor, the ruling class must ultimately rely on state violence to defend its power and privileges and is preparing for social upheavals by putting in place the infrastructure of police-state rule.
Furthermore, Abbotts statements are not any sort of proof that police violence is a purely racial issue. While it is true that black people are killed more disproportionately than all other racial or ethnic groups, except for Native Americans, police kill workers regardless of race of ethnicity. The largest number of people killed by the police in a given year are white, a fact that the media and racialist groups such as Black Lives Matter ignore.
As part of its negotiations for another enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA), the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) branch at the University of Sydney held a 24-hour strike last Saturday during the universitys Open Day for prospective students.
Increasingly frustrated by restructuring, closures and other cuts to conditions, which are accelerating across the country, NTEU members at the university recently voted by 98 percent for industrial action, with 75 percent voting for indefinite strikes. The NTEU is trying to channel this anger as a bargaining chip to seal another regressive EBA with the management.
NTEU members manned pickets at university entrances but did not stop staff or students from entering. Instead they gave out balloons, flyers and candy. Around 100 staff attended a rally at midday outside Fisher Library, where senior trade union officials dominated the platform.
None of the union officials mentioned the cuts being unleashed at other universities, including the termination of the EBA at Perths Murdoch University (see: Australian government urges universities to tear up staff conditions).
Nor was any reference made to the role played by Labor governments going back to the early 1980s in instituting the pro-market restructuring of education. Even the current Liberal-National Coalition governments budget, threatening billions of dollars in more cuts, was mentioned only in passing.
These were not accidental omissions. The main political aim of the rally was to try to divorce the issues facing workers at the university from those confronting staff and students everywhere.
NTEU branch president Kurt Iveson limited his remarks to the current negotiations between the NTEU and the university. He said the union opposed the universitys pay offer of 2.1 percent per year, which is a real wage cut, and sought to ensure job security during restructuring.
Iveson spoke of introducing benefits for casual staff, including sick leave and 17 percent superannuation contributions by the university, and opposing the expansion of teaching-only roles for academics, which the union worked with management to introduce in 2012.
The unions claim to be fighting in defence of casuals is a cynical fraud. By the unions own admission, over half of all teaching at universities is now conducted by casuals. According to Iveson, 20 percent of staff at the University of Sydney are casuals, compared with 16 percent at the time of the last EBA in 2013.
The real figure could be much higher. According to the universitys 2016 annual report, 43 percent of all staff are on fixed-term contracts, which includes casuals, while half of all academics are on fixed-terms, many for as little as one semester.
Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey spoke of the commodification of education at university and ripping away conditions, pushing the economic responsibility back onto the lecturers and students. He was silent, however, on the fact that the 198396 Labor governments of Hawke and Keating began that process and that the single largest cut to university funding, of $2.3 billion, was inflicted by the Gillard Labor government in 2013.
Though Labor was not mentioned by name, the speakers covered up its record in order to once again corral workers behind this party of big business, while blaming workers themselves for their worsening conditions.
NTEU national assistant secretary Matt McGowan said people need to be reminded that their conditions are the work of the union. In reality, the NTEU, and every other union, has systematically imposed cuts to the conditions of university academics and staff over the past 30 years.
Another political purpose of the strike was to prevent a broader movement developing against the universitys restructuring as part of its 2016 20 Strategic Plan, which the union has facilitated.
Last year, for example, the union helped isolate an occupation of the Rozelle campus by Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) students, while negotiating with the university to shut the campus and merge the SCA with the underfunded Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
At least another 130 staff lost their jobs in the Faculty of Science after restructuring in which the union was complicit. All faculty- and school-based student information desks also were centralised into a new student centre, where workers are on lower pay and casual fixed-term contracts.
Behind the unions call for redeployment opportunities for staff and voluntary redundancies, is its anxiety to show the management it can be relied upon to assist staff members to accept further job cuts.
There is growing discontent among staff members. Iveson revealed that many who voted no to a 24-hour strike in the recent ballot voted in favour of indefinite strikes.
The low attendance at the rally did not express any lack of concern among staff but widespread lack of confidence in the union. During the negotiations for the last EBA the NTEU held seven 24 hour-strikes over 18 months. The result was the current insecure working conditions for many staff members.
The WSWS spoke with workers at the rally.
Jessie, who works for the Aboriginal Student Support unit said: We are picketing because the university is effectively offering us a pay cut. They are not guaranteeing that they will keep peoples jobs with the restructure of the university. They are not guaranteeing that permanent staff will be kept in their positions. They are not offering accessible ways for casual staff members to move into permanent staff roles.
I was a casual academic in indigenous studies for seven years. I was never offered a way to move into a permanent role... I was a higher degree research student at the time and there were no conditions available for when I was sick or when I had bereavement in the family.
As casuals, we arent invited to internal staff meetings. You never know whats going on. Basically were employed on a semester-by-semester basis. And we can be fired with an hours notice. Its pretty exploitative.
Theres no guarantee that Ill be able to move to another part of the uni if my position becomes void with this new restructure. My department was centralised over the last five years and a lot of people left. It has definitely affected the quality of the services we provide for Aboriginal and Torres Strait students Were dealing with students that might be homeless or suffering financial distress or not coping.
James works in the Physics department and has been a casual for three years. He said: Management restructures have meant that professional staff that previously developed expertise and knew the job well have been forced to move or been mapped to new positions. We think the ultimate goal is to turn us from being effective and specialised workers into being a jack of all trades so we can be moved at the whim of management.
In my department the three admin staff, all permanent, will now not be continuing into the next year. All of them were considered by the majority in the department as invaluable staff Its been a real loss. Theyre driving a corporate structure right through, from the faculty to the school to the individual research groups.
I get semester-by-semester teaching work. My casual contract is renewed annually but my teaching load isnt guaranteed by that contract. So I get different teaching loads every semester.
(WTXL) - Floridians and lovebugs have a hate-hate affair that intensifies when the small black flies swarm along highways and inconsiderately splash their guts on their cars.
One of the main times for lovebugs to make themselves a major nuisance is approaching.
Scientists say that twice yearly the lovebugs reach the peak of their mating season - four weeks in September and May - although the insects are out and about throughout the summer.
Automobiles are attractive to lovebugs, scientists at the University of Florida Extension Service theorize, perhaps because the exhaust fumes seem to the bugs like decomposing plant debris. Then, too, the lovebugs like heat.
Thus the lovebugs and automobiles are primed for the bugs' fatal, messy collisions that can result in damage to automobile paint if the insects are "baked" in the sun.
After a lovebug-filled drive, of course, the solution to saving your car's paint is to wash your car with water and scrub it to remove the lovebugs.
Some people take a preventive step to spare their car damage from spattered lovebugs, the addition of a hood air deflector or screen. Wax can also provide protection.
Lovebugs, despite a popular belief, were not introduced to Florida by the University of Florida, say the University of Florida Extension scientists.
"During the 20th century, lovebugs migrated from Central America, traveling through Texas and Louisiana before arriving in Friday," the scientists wrote on their site.
A couple of other facts about lovebugs:
Lovebugs are usually active between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. in temperatures about 84 degrees.
Chemical controls are ineffective because the lovebug is widespread and continually drifts onto highways from adjacent areas.
MOBILE USERS: Download our WTXL news app on your Apple and Android devices for the latest from South Georgia and North Florida. Also, download our WTXL Weather Now app for Apple and Android devices to get the latest local weather wherever you go.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (The News Service of Florida) - With the threat of a federal lawsuit looming, University of Florida officials said Friday they will consider allowing white nationalist Richard Spencer to speak on campus.
The university's decision came after UF President Kent Fuchs last month rejected a request by alt-right leader Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute, to appear Sept. 12 at a campus forum.
Fuchs cited security concerns in the wake of a deadly clash Aug. 12 in Charlottesville, Va., in which a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Two Virginia state troopers also died in a helicopter crash while monitoring the situation.
On Thursday, Gainesville First Amendment lawyer Gary Edinger --- who represents Spencer, the institute and Cameron Padgett, a Georgia State University student who is an organizer of the proposed Gainesville event --- threatened to take UF to court if Spencer was barred from speaking.
My clients are not unmindful of UF's legitimate security concerns, Edinger wrote. I caution, however, that the university's principal obligation in this regard is to ensure order so that the speech may go forward.
In a letter Friday to Edinger, UF interim vice president and general counsel Amy Hass wrote that the university was open to an appearance by Spencer.
It was never the intention of the university to permanently bar Mr. Spencer from speaking at an appropriate time and location at one of the university's dedicated forums, Hass wrote. If Mr. Spencer or the National Policy Institute, Inc. makes another formal request for a speaking date and location, we will make appropriate efforts to accommodate it in a manner consistent with generally applicable university policies, including important safety and security assessments.
Earlier this year, Auburn University paid $29,000 in legal fees for Padgett after he sued the school for denying Spencer the opportunity to speak.
Hass' overture appears to have put the possibility of a lawsuit on hold, at least for now.
For the first time, UF is acknowledging that its public forums are available to all and that Mr. Spencer will be allowed to speak. That was not the message coming out of UF in previous weeks, Edinger said in an email.
Edinger said he told the university that his clients will consider rescheduling Spencer's appearance if given a date certain and acceptable assurances that the university will not `change its mind.'
Hass' invitation to reapply appears to be a reversal of Fuchs' position as late as two days ago, expressed in a memo distributed to university staff after learning of the potential lawsuit.
We are prepared to vigorously defend our position. The safety of our students, faculty and staff is our highest priority, Fuchs wrote.
Last month, Fuchs said the decision to deny the National Policy Institute's request to rent space on campus came after assessing potential risks with campus, state, local and federal law-enforcement officials.
Continued calls online and in social medial for similar violence in Gainesville such as those decreeing: `The Next Battlefield is Florida' also played a role in the decision, Fuchs said.
Spencer, a controversial figure who has been an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, earned notoriety following a press conference where followers broke out in Nazi-like salutes in response to Spencer saying, Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!
In Friday's letter, Hass defended the university's decision to deny the request for the Sept. 12 speech, writing that the university believed its decision was prudent and constitutional.
Any new request by Mr. Spencer will be treated in the ordinary course consistent with all other such requests, she wrote, adding that the university is committed to upholding the First Amendment right to free speech and civil discourse and has a history of hosting controversial speakers.
Hass also said the university will use the same careful deliberation and consideration of safety and security factors when evaluating a new request for Spencer to speak.
The university's ability to restrict controversial figures like Spencer from appearing on campus is limited, even in the aftermath of the situation in Charlottesville, according to First Amendment lawyers.
One could understand how he (Fuchs) would prefer not to see a repeat of that in Gainesville and prefer to see that they not come. But if they have opened the university's space for the public to use for meetings or speakers, then he literally can't say no simply because he disagrees with someone who asks to use the space, Tom Julin, an attorney who specializes in First Amendment law, told The News Service of Florida last month. Simply because there has been an incident of violence, that doesn't mean that speakers affiliated with that violence lose their right to speak. That's the last thing you want to do.
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A commercial by construction firm Elad Israel to market its new TLV Park housing project in southern Tel Aviv was taken down amid criticism it was offensive, racist and disrespectful to people who live in the periphery and particularly to Mizrahi Jews.
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The commercial features a young Tel Avivian couple, Efrat and Omer, who left the city because of high rents and "because of the child. Not ours, the landlord's, who wanted to move into the apartment," they explain in the commercial.
They move to "the green Ganei Gan" where they praise their new place of living, with the emphasis on the fact they are clueless about how bad their new home is.
The young Tel Avivian couple
In one scene, they explain with a straight face how central the place they chose to live in is. "Only three bus changes and you're in Modiin," and "Only 11 hours (flight) from New York. Watch two movies and you're there."
In another scene a man runs past them on the street as he is being chased by two burly men, and the couple talks about the "new running groups trend that's catching on."
The local hairdresser has a big mustache, a shirt from the 70s and an ancient hair dryer. "So vintage," Efrat says enthusiastically, only to learn the hairdresser gives the same red bob haircut to all of the women in the neighborhood.
Vintage hairdresser
There is also a gag about the local kindergarten, which has a Mizrahi teacher who dances with the children to cheesy pop music.
The local restaurant, meanwhile, serves only deli meat sandwiches.
Criticism on social media focused on the fact the commercial seemingly includes "all stereotypes and prejudices in Israeli society," according to Mirit Mashiah, a real estate professional.
Elad Israel, a construction company owned by business magnate Yitzhak Tshuva, said in response to the criticism that "The TLV Park project is a young and fresh alternative for a public that is looking to live in Tel Aviv for attractive prices. The commercial is done humoristically, and it's a shame the heat of the summer is driving some people crazy."
President Donald Trump has sent lawmakers an initial request for a $7.9 billion down payment toward Harvey relief and recovery efforts.
The request, expected to be swiftly approved by Congress, would add $7.4 billion to rapidly dwindling Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster aid coffers and $450 million to finance disaster loans for small businesses.
Republican leaders are already making plans to use the aid package, certain to be overwhelmingly popular, to win speedy approval of a contentious increase in the federal borrowing limit.
A senior House Republican, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deliberations were private, disclosed the approach. It ignores objections from House conservatives who are insisting that disaster money for Harvey should not be paired with the debt limit increase. Other senior GOP aides cautioned that no final decision had been made, and Democrats, whose votes would be needed in the Senate, have not signed off on the approach.
The Interior Ministry has purportedly revoked the citizenship of hundreds, if not thousands, of Arab-Israeli Bedouins in the southern Negev region, instead granting them "resident" status.
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The ministrys representatives explained in a parliamentary session that the decision was being taken because in these cases citizenship was granted by mistake or to those that registered "erroneously" between 1948 and 1951.
Bedouin woman confronts Israeli policemen during the demolition of homes in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, Jan. 2017 (Photo: AFP)
Aida Touma-Suleiman, an Arab-Israeli legislator, called for an urgent session last year to raise concern over the move, while giving voice to the residents of Naqab, whose statuses were changed without their knowledge.
"I will not relent, either the Ministry stops the new policy and returns citizenship to the Arabs, or I will file a case with the Supreme Court," Touma-Suleiman told The Media Line.
Adalah, a legal center that supports the rights of Israels Arab minority, sent a letter to Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit urging them to cancel the new policy and demanding equal status for the Bedouins in question.
According to the group, the citizenship cancellations have been going on at least since 2010.
"Many Arab citizens, who had survived in their land after Nakba (the 'catastrophe' of Israels creation), were unable to register for citizenship due to the military rule imposed on them by the government," Touma-Suleiman explained. "In some other cases, people were not aware of the need to register at all."
"What is happening now," she continued, "is that Arabs in the southern area of Israel are applying to the ministry to renew their IDs or passports, and then, they are being informed of the revocation decision."
The stripping of citizenship, in general, is based on Israels 2008 "Nationality Law," which gives the courts the right to revoke citizenship in cases where there is a "doubt in loyalty to the State of Israel;" including, for instance, in the event of terrorist attacks.
Touma-Suleiman confirmed that a few individuals from the northern Arab-Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm have lost their citizenship as a result of "terrorist activities," but that this is not a scenario that applies to the Bedouins in the Negev.
In comments on Monday, an Interior Ministry spokesperson claimed that the number of people affected was inflated and that measures were being taken to rectify the situation. "The group of citizens includes about 150 people, and not 2,600," she said. "No one means to harm them. Now the ministry is asking them to legally re-register so they will remain citizens."
Speaking to The Media Line, Israeli parliamentarian for The Joint List, Dov Khenin, nevertheless slammed the Ministrys actions and said "it has no right to revoke citizenship, which is totally against the law."
"This can only be done in the event of terror acts, and even then this is done through the courts," he concluded.
Overall, there are some 1.7 million Arabs living in Israel, approximately 20% of the total population.
Reprinted with permission from
The Media Line
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Twenty-three years after arriving in the land of endless possibilities, Rasmea Yousef Odeh was ordered to leave the United States without returning.
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Odeh, who was born in the village of Lifta near Jerusalem, was found responsible for the murder of two Israeli civilians in a terrorist bombing at a supermarket in the capital on February 21, 1969.
Rasmea Yousef Odeh
On Thursday, a federal judge has ruled that the Palestinian terrorist will have to leave the country she has lived in for more than two decades on September 19, forcing her to start her life anew in Jordan.
Thus ended a long legal battle conducted by Odeh, 70, against the local immigration authorities who demanded her expulsionnot because of her terrorism conviction, but because of her conviction in fraud. Her attempt to conceal her past failed as it returned to haunt her in the US.
As a young activist in the ranks of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), she was sent to a Jerusalem supermarket to plant an explosive charge in a candy bag. The explosion took the lives of two Israeli students in their early 20s, Leon Kanner and Eddie Joffe, and wounded nine others.
After being captured, she was charged with murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. In March 1979, she was released as part of a prisoner exchange deal to release captive soldier Avraham Amram, and was deported from Israel to Jordan.
Fifteen years later she immigrated to the United States, and in 2004 received her American citizenship. Now Odeh is forced to relinquish it as part of a plea bargain which seals the long legal battle waged by her against the authorities.
Acted for womenand attacked Israel
Over the years, as an American citizen in the city of Chicago, Odeh has invested heavily in community activism and was one of the organizers of "A Day Without a Woman" which takes place on March 8, continuing the tradition of the women's march in Washington.
But while part of her time was devoted to women's rights, most of it was invested in the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), where she served as an associate director. In this framework, Odeh frequently attacked the State of Israel, accusing the state of racial segregation, discrimination and war crimes against the Palestinian people.
This activity may have been the thing to expose her to the authorities.
In 2010 FBI agents raided the organization's offices and interrogated some of its members as part of an investigation. None of them has been convicted of criminal activity, but some of the documents that were seized revealed that Odeh failed to disclose in her immigration application documents that she was a convicted felon, effectively defrauding the authorities and committing a federal offense.
An indictment was filed against her, and in November 2014 she was convicted of immigration fraud and sentenced to 18 months in prison, at the end of which she would be deported.
"We did not find justice in this court," Odeh commented at the time.
Odeh decided to file an appeal against her conviction, and it was acceptedin part because Odeh, who initially claimed that she did not declare her dubious past because she did not know English at the time, changed her version: This time she testified that she hid the information because of her unstable psychological condition at the time, which she claimed was caused by post traumatic stress after he experiences in an Israeli prison, claiming that she was tortured and even raped during her interrogation.
The court that accepted her appeal ruled that Odeh would be retried in 2016.
It was a great victory for her and her defense team. Her victory in the court led to a wave of demonstrations in her support. Pro-Palestinian organizations were motivated, and through protests and petitions of various kinds, sought to put pressure on the retrial.
Odeh supporters
Among other things, her supporters accused the immigration authorities of acting politically motivated on behalf of Israel, and demanded that the proceedings be halted, stating that " Rasmea Odeh is a freedom fighter" and that "resisting the occupation is not a crime."
In total disregard of her past as a terrorist, the pro-Palestinian organizations branded her a freedom fighter.
However, despite their spirit, in March of this year, Odeh decided to waive the retrial and sign a plea deal with the prosecutor Jonathan Tokelmainly because she claims that the authorities have the authority to deport her, even if she is found innocent.
The plea deal paved the way for the revocation of Odeh's citizenship and her deportation in three weeks, but as part of it she will not serve a prison sentence.
"From the start, this was a case of political persecution," said Odeh's lawyer, pointing an accusing finger at attorney Tokel. "Usually, given her twenty years of community activism, she would have been reprimanded but not indicted. The reason they decided to do so was because they wanted her to stop doing her work.
"The prosecutor who made the decision is a very pro-Israel guy connected to Zionist activity in the United States. He was determined to go through with it, and his motivation was political."
Pro-Odeh propaganda video
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According to Odeh's lawyer, Israeli officials were involved in the legal process.
"In order to win this case, the plaintiffs had to present old documents from the IDF and the Israel Police, and they could not have obtained them without the cooperation of the Israeli government, which provided them with the relevant paperwork."
He also mentions the members of the Israeli "Shurat HaDin" organization, headed by Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, who praised the prosecutor, Tokel: "He pursued Odeh with determination, revealed her lies and ensured that her families of her victims would have justice and closure."
The family of Eddie Joffe, who lost his life in the attack for which Odeh was convicted, was active in the efforts to increase awareness of Odeh's terrorist past. Eddie's niece, Terry Joffe Benaryeh wrote a column for the American news site The Huffington Post, in which she refuted Rasmea Odeh's saintly image. Her father, Basil Yoffe, was also present at the hearings and maintained contact with the prosecution.
Counterprotestors demonstrating against Odeh
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"We have no desire to confront the relatives of those murdered," Odeh's lawyer told Ynet. "There is no dispute that they lost their relatives, we respect that. Rasmea always claimed that she was innocent of that crime, and that she was not involved in the attack."
In response, Harold Yoffe, the late Eddie's brother, dismissed the lawyer's comments.
"The legal system in Israel determined that she was responsible for the murder, and a representative of the Red Cross confirmed that the trial was fair. Her claim of torture was also completely refuted, as she confessed to her actions within a very short period of time, and her accomplices confirmed that she was the perpetrator who carried out the attack, as well as an attempted bombing at the consulate.
"With regard to the charges in the US, it is absolutely clear that she is guilty of fraud. In fact, all her defense was based on turning her from a murderer into a poor, hurt woman, even mobilizing activism organizations for this purpose."
Enlisting the support of a Jewish leftist organization
The attempt by Odeh and her team to move the campaign from the criminal court to the political arena did not succeed in keeping her in the US, but it fed the pro-Palestinian organizations and the campaigns they initiated under the slogan "Justice4Rasmea."
Since the plea deal was filed in April, Odeh's supporters have been hanging on what they say is a victory in public perception. "Rasmea Odeha symbol of the Palestinian liberation movement is now a name that is known throughout the social justice movement in the United States," they said.
Indeed, many enlisted for her in the Afro-American community in Chicago, including Angela Davis, one of the well-known leaders of the Black Panthers in the United States in the 1960s.
Odeh receiving support by Chicago's Afro-American community
Among the supporters was the Jewish Voice for Peace organization, which even invited Odeh to speak at an event in April, a few days before the plea deal was made.
"When I came to the United States and turned it into my second home, I thought it would be my last stop in the tribulation I had shared with the Palestinian people since the Nakba and the 1967 occupation," Odeh said in her speech. "Now I face a similar Nakba, where I am forced to leave the country and the life I built for myself for 23 years in the United States, but I will continue my struggle for justice for my people wherever I go."
Even when her plea deal was approved on August 17, Odeh didn't miss the chance to slam Israel.
At the end of the court hearing, Odeh insisted on making a political statement. The judge interrupted her several times before threatening to accuse her of contempt of court, and she had to carry out her speech on the steps outside in front of demonstrators, journalists and television cameras.
Although the case against her deals with her defrauding the American immigration authorities, Odeh chose to use the stage not to defend herself but to attack the "Zionist entity", which "has no right to exist as a racist state of white settlers."
Odeh again claimed that she had been abused by the Israeli security forces and determined that the United States was a partner to these war crimes.
Odeh speaking to the press after her plea deal was approved
"Every Israeli government is moving more and more toward the extreme right, and Benjamin Netanyahu is the worst of them," she declared, linking the events in Charlottesville to what is happening in the territories. "When I saw the racist whites marching in Virginia, all I could think of was the white settlers burning Palestinian children or marching to attack my people in Jerusalem."
Odeh will continue her life, though, in Jordan.
"She has Jordanian citizenship so she will be accepted there, but it is not known whether she will move to another place from there," said her lawyer. "Obviously it's hard to move to another country, but she is strong and will manage to move on. She has friends and supporters there who will help her."
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend this month's United Nations General Assembly in New York, Russian news wire quoted his spokesman as saying on Saturday.
US President Donald Trump, a frequent critic of the United Nations, will seek to gather global support for reforming the world body when he hosts an event at UN headquarters in New York on Sept. 18, a day before he formally addresses the 193-member organization.
It was not immediately clear if Putin had planned to attend the event initially.
After the project "Hipstory" by Israeli illustrator Amit Shimoni was published all over the world, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg hired his services to draw her as a hipster for the upcoming elections in Norway on September 11.
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Shimoni drew former President Barack Obama, President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, Theodor Herzl, and many moreturning them all into colorful hipsters, young and full of character.
Erna Solberg (Illustration: Amit Shimoni)
Solberg's campaign manager saw Shimoni's illustrations and hired him for a campaign aimed at young voters in Norway. "The reactions we get are fantastic," the campaign manager said.
Illustration: Amit Shimoni
'Hipstory,' by Amit Shimoni
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The result exceeded expectations and won wide acclaim in Norway. Solberg was portrayed as a colorful, cool and peaceful figure. The leader was enthusiastic about the drawing, and the figure was stamped on shirts, posters, key chains, glasses and more.
Solberg and her campaign manager, seen wearing a shirt with her drawing (Illustration: Amit Shimoni)
"The offer from Norway was very flattering but did not surprise me," Shimoni said. "I think the project creates communication between people, it communicates in China as it does in the US, and it creates communication between a granddaughter and her grandmother.
Donald Trump (Illustration: Amit Shimoni)
Barack Obama (Illustration: Amit Shimoni)
"Teachers from all over the world tell me that they teach history with 'Hipstory.' So the campaign manager's strategy to appeal to the younger generation through the illustration seemed very natural to me, and to my joy it worked."
David Ben-Gurion (Illustration: Amit Shimoni)
"Hipstory" began as Shimoni's final project at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, three years ago. Shimoni drew a series of 12 Israeli leaders in contemporary versions, and from there the project grew and became international.
Golda Meir (Illustration: Amit Shimoni)
The project aroused interest and received media reactions and reviews in leading magazines, and even received responses from the families of the leaders themselves.
Vladimir Putin (Illustration: Amit Shimoni)
Nelson Mandela's grandson, for example, wrote Shimoni an encouraging e-mail and even wanted to create a philanthropic collaboration with him. The Dalai Lama Foundation was also enthusiastic about the illustration and ordered products that bore the Dalai Lama's liking from Shimoni.
Theodor Herzl (Illustration: Amit Shimoni)
This is the first time that Shimoni has received a request from a political campaign by an incumbent leader.
Hillary Clinton (Illustration: Amit Shimoni)
Shimoni painted former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the request of the New York Times, but before she announced her candidacy for the US presidency.
The newspaper presented the painting to Clinton as a gift at an event of the newspaper, which she attended.
Hezbollah on Saturday accused US-led forces of stranding a convoy of Islamic State fighters and civilians headed for Syria's Deir Ezzor province under an evacuation deal.
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The convoy carrying hundreds of ISIS fighters as well as civilians was meant to travel from the Lebanon-Syria border to jihadist-held territory in eastern Syria under a deal Hezbollah helped broker.
But the US-led coalition has pounded the road to Deir Ezzor with air strikes to prevent the convoy reaching the ISIS-held town of Albukamal on the Iraqi border.
Hezbollah fighters in Syria (Photo: Reuters)
Hezbollah, which has defended the deal to remove ISIS fighters from the Lebanese frontier, said US-led forces had effectively stranded most of the convoy's 17 buses in the Syrian desert, beyond government reach.
"They are also preventing anyone from reaching them even to provide humanitarian assistance to families, the sick and wounded and the elderly," the Hezbollah statement said.
The convoy left the Lebanon-Syria border region on Monday, but Hezbollah said six of the buses remained in Syrian government-held territory.
"The Syrian state and Hezbollah have fulfilled their obligations to transfer buses out of the area of Syrian government control without exposing them," a statement by Hezbollah said Saturday, noting the buses that left government-held areas were no longer the responsibility of the Assad regime or its allies.
One of the buses in the ISIS convoy (Photo: Reuters)
Hezbollah said there were old people, casualties and pregnant women in the buses stranded outside Syrian government control in the desert and called on the international community to step in to prevent them coming to harm.
A commander in the pro-Assad military alliance said earlier on Saturday that Hezbollah and the Syrian army were seeking an alternative way for the convoy to cross into Islamic State territory, having already tried two other routes.
"Work is under way to change the course of the convoy for a second time," the commander said.
About 300 lightly armed fighters were travelling on the buses, having surrendered their enclave straddling Syria's border with Lebanon on Monday under a deal which allowed them to join their jihadist comrades on the other side of the country.
The deal, brokered by Hezbollah with the support of its Syrian regime ally after a week-long offensive against ISIS, has been fiercely criticised by US-led forces and the Iraqi government.
One of the buses in the ISIS convoy (Photo: Reuters)
The international coalition fighting ISIS has said it is unacceptable for jihadists to be transported to the border with Iraq, where pro-government forces this week ousted the extremist group from the northern city of Tal Afar.
The coalition has vowed to continue monitoring the convoy and disrupting any effort it makes to cross into jihadist territory but said it would not bomb it directly because it contains about 300 civilian family members of the fighters.
In a statement overnight, the coalition said it had sent a message to Damascus through Syria's ally Russia to say that "the Coalition will not condone ISIS fighters moving further east to the Iraqi border."
"The Coalition values human life and has offered suggestions on a course of action to save the women and children from any further suffering as a result of the Syrian regime's agreement," it added, without providing further details.
The coalition said it would not strike the convoy, but acknowledged hitting ISIS fighters and vehicles "seeking to facilitate the movement of ISIS fighters to the border area of our Iraqi partners."
Hezbollah accused US forces of hypocrisy, saying they had previously allowed ISIS fighters to flee territories in Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has described the deal as "unacceptable" and an "insult to the Iraqi people".
In Lebanon some criticized it for allowing fighters suspected of killing Lebanese citizens to escape on "air-conditioned buses."
Deir Ezzor in Syria's east is one of the jihadists' last remaining strongholds, where they hold most of the province and parts of its capital of the same name.
The European Union has warned Israel that some agricultural exports to Europe will be cut at the beginning of 2018 if measures are not taken to stop the spread of the false codling moth, an agricultural pest.
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The false codling moth is known to attack more than 70 fruit and vegetable species, including citrus fruit, pomegranate, avocado, mango, guava, corn, cotton and more. Historically, the moth has been found mainly in Africa, but in recent years has caused increasing damage in Israel as well.
An avocado plantation in Israel (Photo: Eran Yoffi Cohen)
The Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement that several climate variants in Israel make the pest difficult to kill, including the fact the moth is active year-round, it lives and breeds quickly on several different species, and it is difficult to identify eggs or to know when the bugs have gotten into the fruit.
Further complicating matters for Israeli exporters, European Union regulations require the use of environmentally-friendly pesticides that are not very effective.
Agricultural authorities in Europe, North America and Asia have blocked entry to a large number of shipments from Israel over the past year due to concerns over the false codling moth, leading to the EU demand to ramp up measures to fight the pest.
According to the European demand, Israel will have to show a new protocol for fighting the pest and exporters who fail to comply with the new regulation will not be allowed to export their products to Europe.
A soldier serving as a Krav Maga instructor at an elite classified IDF unit accidentally shot and moderately injured a fellow soldier at a base in central Israel last month, Ynet has learned.
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The shooter was arrested immediately following the incident on August 15 and has been under arrest since. He will soon face trial on charges of aggravated battery under aggravated circumstances.
An internal investigation into the incident found the two soldiers were training in Krav Maga as part of a game, as they described it, and not as part of an official training session.
File photo: Shutterstock
Before starting their unsanctioned training session, the soldier who was injured put down his Glock 9 gun on the floor of the base's gym after having disassembled and reassembled it in the presence of other soldiers.
During their play, the defendant picked up the loaded gun from the floor, cocked it without checking whether it was loaded, and pulled the trigger.
The bullet hit the leg of the other soldier, moderately injuring him. The injured soldier was taken to a hospital in central Israel, where he underwent surgery.
The investigation found a series of serious safety failures: The soldier who was shot brought a loaded gun into the gym without a trigger lock, as orders require when entering an enclosed space.
In addition, the shooter did not check whether the gun had a trigger lock on or a magazine in before picking it up. According to the shooting soldier, he didn't know the gun did not have a trigger lock on.
The injured soldier, who might face charges as well, preferred to remain silent in his investigation, citing his friendship with the other soldier who accidentally shot him.
The case was kept secret so far, unlike other past cases of accidental shootings, including several in recent months: a Golani officer killed by accidental fire from a soldier under his command in Hebron; a soldier in the Kfir Brigade who was seriously injured when his friend accidentally shot him in an apartment in Tel Aviv; and a career soldier who was light-to-moderately injured from accidental fire while handling a weapon at a armory in the south.
The Jaffa military court is currently hearing a similar case against a lieutenant who served in the elite Yahalom special combat engineering unit and accidentally shot another officer while the two were in the unit's offices in March of last year.
The officer was charged with aggravated battery under aggravated circumstances. According to the indictment, after disassembling and reassembling a privately-owned Glock gun, which the officer kept on base in violation of army orders, he demonstrated to his friend how to cock the gun, which was loaded with 9mm bullets, and accidentally shot an officer standing nearby. The bullet hit the other officer in the stomach, moderately injuring him and leading to his early release from the IDF on medical grounds.
The IDF Spokesman's Office said in response to the incident, "The IDF gravely views the use of weapons not in accordance with safety instruction and is working to enforce these instructions. In the first incident, an indictment was filed against the soldier for aggravated battery under aggravated circumstances. In the second case, an indictment was filed to the military court against an officer for aggravated battery under aggravated circumstances and inappropriate conduct. The IDF will continue instilling weapon safety instructions to its soldiers and decisively enforcing the ban on playing with weapons."
Want to go on vacation, but don't want to leave your pooch behind? Bring your pup to Israel!
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Vibe Israel, a nonprofit organization leading initiatives to strengthen Israel's brand in the world, is inviting five dogs from the US along with their humans for a pampering five-star vacation to the Holy Land.
But not just any canine. Vibe Israel is looking for three dogs who have a wide following on Instagram, along with two others who are popular on the photo-based social media platform, but don't necessarily have to be online superstars.
Win a doggy vacay to Israel with your furry BFF
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The popular pups (or, rather, their owners) will post photos of their experiences on Instagram, for all to see and be peanut butter and jelly.
Vibe Israel is hoping the publicity from the star doggies can help market Israel as a country that loves and is welcoming to man's best friend.
Registration for the project is already underway and will be closed on September 12. A committee will examine the candidates and announce the five lucky pooches to win a dream vacation with their owners on September 15.
The competition is limited to small dogs that can travel in the cabin of the plane with their owners, to ensure the pups, like their humans, arrive in Israel in a good mood rather than traumatized by a flight spent in the cargo hold.
The dream vacation will last for five days in late October. The VIDs (yes, the Very Important Dogs) will get to enjoy everything a pup could dream of, including fun nature walks in the hills of Jerusalem, beach hangs or a dip in the pool, a special spa for canines where they will enjoy a rejuvenating massage, gourmet doggy food prepared especially for them by chefs who specialize in meals for dogs, doggy-dates with Israeli pooches, wild beach parties, and pet-friendly hotels.
One of the main stops of the Doggy Vacay to Israel will be Tel Aviv, the city with the most dogs per-capita in the world.
Their two-legged companions won't suffer either and will get to enjoy an incredible experience in Israel with their best friend by their side.
The dogs and their owners will also get to meet Israeli celebs with their own four-legged BFFs.
The humans will be in charge of documenting their pups' experience with photos and videos, and share the fun on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Joanna Landau, the founder and CEO of Vibe Israel, said, "Israel invests great efforts in explaining its policies to the world, but as we can see most of these messages fall upon deaf ears, especially when it comes to Millennials. That's why we decided, as an expansion of the tours of Israel we have been offering digital influencers for the last few years, to embark upon this unique, original and viral campaign that is aimed directly at the dogs."
A tiny male Bengal Tiger cub that was being smuggled into the United States is receiving care at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The young Tiger was confiscated by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers, who discovered the cub while inspecting a vehicle entering the U.S. from Mexico on August 23.
Photo Credit: San Diego Safari Park
Once the cub was safely at the Safari Park, veterinary staff performed a thorough health exam and determined that he was in good health. His heart and lungs sound good, his blood work looked great and, since he took a bottle from us, its a good sign hell continue to thrive, said Dr. Jim Oosterhuis, principal veterinarian.
I estimate the cub to be between 5 and 6 weeks old, and he weighs in at a little over 6 pounds, Dr. Oosterhuis said. He has teeth coming in, so hell be teething in the next week or twoso, animal care staff will have a little chore getting him through that.
The cub is being cared for in the Safari Parks nursery, and once his location became known, hundreds of eager fans gathered outside the nursery window hoping to see the tiny Tiger. He is now viewable most of the day, except when he is taking a catnap, according to his keepers. The cub receives a bottle six times a day with a special formula made for exotic carnivores and is thriving under the watchful eyes of his care team. He is steadily gaining weight and now weighs more than seven pounds. His teeth are coming in and hes chewing on everything in sightstuffed toys, blankets, even his paws.
Guests watching the cub through the nursery window might see keepers using a wet cotton ball to give the cub a bath. This procedure mimics how wild mother Tigers bathe their cubs after feedings.
See more photos of the Tiger cub below.
Beirut: A convoy of Islamic State fighters and their families being evacuated into jihadist territory in east Syria remained in government-held areas of Syria on Friday, US-led forces said.
"It has not managed to link up with any other ISIS elements in eastern Syria," said Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State.
There are about 300 fighters and about 300 civilians in the convoy, which the Syrian army and Lebanon`s Hezbollah group granted safe passage after the jihadists surrendered their enclave on Syria`s border with Lebanon.
But the coalition against Islamic State has used air strikes to block the convoy from crossing into the group`s main territory straddling Syria`s eastern border with Iraq.
The Islamic State fighters in the border pocket accepted a truce and evacuation deal after simultaneous but separate offensives by the Lebanese army on one front and the Syrian army and Hezbollah on the other.
It angered both the coalition, which does not want the fighters bussed to a battlefront in which it is active, and Iraq, which is fighting Islamic State across the border.
"We are continuing to monitor that convoy and will continue to disrupt its movement east to link up with any other ISIS element and we will continue to strike any other ISIS elements that try to move towards it," Dillon said.
The coalition has asked Russia to tell the Syrian government that it will not allow the convoy to move further east to the Iraqi border, the coalition said in a statement.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gave prayers on Friday for Islam`s Eid al-Adha festival in the town of Qara, near the enclave surrendered on Monday by the Islamic State fighters.
Confined to Damascus for long periods in the early part of Syria`s six-year civil war, Assad has grown more confident in travelling around government-held areas as the army and its allies have won a series of victories.
Assad was shown on state television standing and kneeling on a green carpet in a packed mosque alongside Syrian religious leaders as he followed the imam giving prayers.
The departure of Islamic State and other groups from the Western Qalamoun district means the border with Lebanon is Syria`s first to be controlled entirely by its army since early in the conflict.
Qara is only a few miles from the mountains delineating the frontier with Lebanon, in which Islamic State and other militant groups held territory until August.
Part of an agreed exchange under the truce went ahead on Thursday as wounded Islamic State fighters were swapped for the bodies of pro-government forces. But the fate of the main part of the convoy is uncertain.
"It was moving this morning and then they had stopped. ... I don`t know if they stopped for a break or were trying to figure out what to do," Dillon said.
The frontline between Syrian government forces and Islamic State in eastern Syria is active, as the army, aided by Russian jets and Iran-backed Shi`ite militias, presses an offensive to relieve its besieged enclave at Deir al-Zor.
On Friday, a Syrian military source said the army and its allies had made an advance against Islamic State in that area and had also taken several villages in a jihadist enclave in central Syria.
Patna (Bihar) : Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday not only blamed rats for causing the devastating floods in the state, but also held the Congress party and Lalu Prasad Yadav's Government responsible for the same.
"This is not a matter of today, this is happening from last 50 years. Rats damaged the river embankments, which caused the flood. Rats are not the only factor behind this. This issue has been taking place since the time the Congress and Lalu Yadav's Government were in power. They all are responsible for this," the Deputy Chief Minister told ANI.
Earlier on Friday, Bihar Water Resource Minister Lalan Singh, after reviewing the flood situation, claimed that rats had damaged the river embankments that in turn caused the floods.
The Opposition parties did not approve with the statement and claimed that the Bihar Governmentis only trying to hide its failure with such illogical statements.
As per reports, several big rivers such as Kamla Balan, Kosi, Gandak and Bagmati broke their mud embankments, displacing over 1.70 crore population and causing floods in half of the state.
Earlier, the Bihar Police had come under fire for arguing that the rodents had finished off hundreds of litres of alcohol that were seized from Bihar residents after the liquor ban.
It had only come to the fore when the media caught up with the police and discovered that the bottles were missing from police stores.
The floods have damaged 2,500 homes and claimed 514 lives.
New Delhi: Newly appointed Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani will not draw any salary at the company for his current stint, the IT major has informed BSE.
Nilekani, 62, who comes under the promoter category, holds 0.93 percent stake in Infosys.
"His last drawn remuneration for the fiscal 2010 in which he ceased to be a director was Rs. 34 lakhs," Infosys said in a BSE filing.
Meanwhile, company's interim CEO U B Pravin Rao will continue to recieve the same remuneration that he was drawing as chief operating officer.
"UB Pravin Rao will continue to hold the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) for which he will continue to receive the remuneration as approved by the shareholders vide postal ballot concluded on March 31, 2017," the statement said.
Rao will not receive any additional compensation for his role as the Interim-Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director," it added.
Nilekani, who was CEO of Infosys from March 2002 till April 2007 and its Vice-Chairman subsequently, quit the company in 2009 to head the Unique Identification Authority of India as its first Chairman till May 2014.
At a recently held press conference, he said that he was not going to run the company based on comments on Twitter and TV channels or on all kinds of reporting by the media, Nilekani said he was back at the request of all stakeholders to unravel a very complex situation and make sure that everybody was aligned and to take Infosys, which is a national icon, to its future.
Bengaluru: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is likely to shut nearly 800 engineering colleges across the country from the next academic year. The decision is believed to have been taken owing to a low rate of admissions and poor infrastructure.
After observing the colleges, AICTE has asked the respective authorities to submit a report by mid-September. The colleges with below 30 per cent admission in the last five years will be bound to either close down or merge with another nearby college.
There are nearly 10,361 engineering colleges across India, the maximum number of which is in Maharashtra followed by Tamil Nadu. Uttar Pradesh ranks third in the total number of colleges while Andhra Pradesh stands at fourth.
Some of the colleges have sought a time of one year from the council to improve the number of enrollment, reported NDTV.
With a view to improving the education quality, AICTE is expected to introduce six-month teachers training for the faculties who would be employed at the engineering colleges. The council has also put a mandate Industry Internship for second and third-year students.
Washington DC: With water getting warmer, carbon dioxide level rising and bleaching events becoming more frequent, a team of Australian researchers has issued advice that more research is urgently required to determine whether corals can acclimatise and adapt to the rapid pace of climate change.
The researchers from ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (Coral CoE) at James Cook University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) have recommended for future research.
These corals build the frameworks that provide shelter, food and habitat for an entire ecosystem and if corals are lost, the diversity and abundance of other reef organisms declines, until ultimately the ecosystem collapses.
They advised more research is urgently needed into the poorly-understood mechanisms that corals might use to survive in a rapidly warming world."There is still a lot to understand about corals," said lead researcher Gergely Torda from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia.
"While our only real chance for their survival is to reverse climate change, a nugget of hope exists - that the corals may be able to adapt to their changing environment," Torda added.Co-author Dr Jenni Donelson stated that the recent studies show that fish can acclimatise to higher water temperatures when several generations are exposed to the same increased temperature, but whether corals can do the same, and how they might achieve this, is largely unknown.
The team agrees that further research identifying how corals respond to climate change is critical, as the Earth undergoes an unprecedented rate of environmental change.AIMS Climate Change Scientist, Dr Line Bay said, "There is sufficient inertia in the climate system that we will not be able to prevent further climate-related disturbances affecting the reef in the immediate future."
"Solutions are required to help corals adapt and acclimate to near-term future climate pressures while we figure out how to reduce emissions and halt and reverse longer-term climate change," Bay stated.The researchers concluded that the time to act is now, as the window of opportunity to save coral reefs is rapidly closing.
New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party will hold a roadshow in Ahmedabad on September 17 to drum up support for the upcoming assembly elections later this year in Gujarat.
Delhi Rural Development Minister and AAP leader Gopal Rai said the party will hold a roadshow in Ahmadabad to highlight its vision of change in the state.
The Assembly election in the state will be held in December this year.
AAP said it will contest the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections, but will field candidates only on seats that meet certain criteria set by its central leadership.
Gujarat election in-charge Rai told reporters that the decision to contest the elections was taken at a meeting held yesterday between the AAP's state and central office-bearers.
To formally launch the campaign, the party will hold a road show in Ahmedabad on September 17, Rai said.
"The AAP has decided, after a long discussion, that it will contest the Gujarat assembly elections. We have framed three criteria and will contest on those seats which meet our criteria," Rai said.
He said the party will contest seats where it can find "competent candidates" who have no charges of corruption or criminal cases, and have upright character.
Elections to the 182-member Assembly in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are likely to be held by the year-end.
The assembly seats selected by the party should have in-charge in each booth. Also, the party members will have to raise money to fund their campaign and spend it as per the norms set by the Election Commission, the minister said.
"Fund raised in a particular seat will be spent on campaigning in that constituency only," Rai said.
"We will focus our energies on only those seats which we can win. For that, we have formed a state-level committee which will oversee election management works," he said, adding it is possible the party may end up fielding candidates on all the 182 seats.
The setback in civic polls in Delhi, where it lost to the BJP, had left a shadow on the AAP's plans to contest elections in Gujarat.
Though the Arvind Kejriwal-led outfit had emerged as the principal opposition in Punjab in the recently held assembly elections, the result had left the party disappointed as its leaders had been hopeful of wresting power in the state after the AAP's 2015 victory in Delhi.
However, it appears that the party has had a rethink after the recent win in Bawana bypoll.
Rai said the party has also appointed a team to oversee election preparedness, he said, adding AAP member Kishor Desai has been appointed its convener.
He said the party wants to provide an alternative to the people of Gujarat who are "tired" of the over two-decade- long rule of the BJP and feel the Congress is not a strong opposition party.
"We want to reach out to the people of Gujarat who understand that the BJP government has not been able to tackle their basic problems."
He said the AAP government in Delhi has created a model to help the common man through a host of initiatives in fields like education and health.
The fledgling outfit wants to place this model before the Gujarat voters, Rai added.
(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: The Congress party has decided not to contest the upcoming Gurgaon municipal corporation election on its party symbol as per past practice. This was decided by the party at a meeting of leaders from the state with Congress general secretary in-charge of Haryana Kamal Nath.
After consultation with the state leaders, Kamal Nath, General Secretary AICC (In-Charge, Haryana) has announced that the Congress party shall not be contesting the elections on symbol as per established past practice, a party statement said.
Nath alleged the state BJP government has utterly failed in creating and providing infrastructure, civic amenities, and law and order in the Millennium City and that the BJP-led Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) is principally responsible for the same.
Nath has also asked the PCC president, Congress Legislature Party leader and all state leaders to work in unison to ensure that the new MCG is constituted of people who share the Congress partys ideology and who would truly help in transforming Gurgaon into a city with modern infrastructure and amenities.
The schedule of elections to Gurgaons (Gurugram) municipal body has been announced and polling is to be held on September 24.
(With inputs from agencies)
New Delhi: Baba Ram Rahim has breached the trust and belief of thousands of his followers. His arrest has exposed the collaboration of politics and religious sects which work together for vote bank. Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO, ZMCL, is here with an depth analysis of how Baba Ram Rahim rose to popularity and strength from being a common man of Rajasthan and how he fell into ditches of defame from being cynosure of all eyes
Q. How Ram Rahim born as an ordinary person acquired celebrity status?
JC: Ram Rahim was born as ordinary man in Sri Ganga Nagar. He turned demon as a result of total failure of law and order agencies and blind faith in religion, belief and superstition. He is also a sad saga of political protection and vote bank politics.
Q. Was Baba having patronage of political parties and did he work as vote bank for them?
JC: In India, every political party aspires to garner votes in the name of religion and beliefs and get connected with those sects which control vote bank in large numbers. In general, it is observed that every political party aspires to attract such sects and religious leaders who wield their influence on vote bank. In this case, it is believed that Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) had given patronage to Ram Rahim. In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Baba campaigned openly for the BJP candidates. However, in the past he would have such relationship with Congress also. In the recently held Punjab elections, Baba joined with Capt Amrinder Singh and his Congress party.
Q. Is it true that daughter of Baba threatened to expose BJP?
JC: In Chandigarh, everyone says that he had struck some deal with BJP before elections, which some how was not honoured. Perhaps, because of this his daughter made it public out of frustration.
Q. Who will inherit Baba's Rs 5000 crore empire?
JC: Baba's son Jasmeen, people are talking about his coronation. Baba's mother, wife and son have reached to an agreement. Official announcement will be made after Baba signs on the inheritance papers. Baba had done two will14 years ago. And according to these will, one was in in the of his son and the other was in favour of his daughter. But it seems the entire empire which is worth around Rs 5000 crore spread across 18 cities will be succeeded by his son.
Q. Does Baba has assets in foreign countries also?
JC: CBI doesn't have any authentic information about his assets in abroad. But it is believed that when Baba has 16 million followers in India and abroad, it is but natural to have some properties and bank accounts in foreign countries. But CBI is not able to reach there.
Q. Will the empire remain safe after Baba is jailed?
JC: This is to be seen what his son does with his empire. It is also to be seen what would be the mental condition of Baba living in jail. Will he be able to run his sect from jail the way Jayalalitha operation her party. Else, he spends rest of his time as a prisoner in despair.
Q. Army has once controlled the law and order situation after Baba was jailed. Is there any chance of further violence?
JC: This is the fact that Army had controlled the situation this time but threat of lawlessness can't be ruled out in coming times. Baba has millions of followers in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. What would be their mood, what kind of violent behaviour they show, can't be ascertained. Government is on alert. In Rajasthan police has warned his 1 lakh followers in Hanumangarh that they don't get indulged in any kind of violence. Broadly, chances of violence are less but can't be ruled out.
Q. Baba has been charged with raping two female followers... how was it possible in his Dera in presence of thousands of followers?
JC: This is surprising, how Baba used to rape in presence of lakhs of followers and thousands of employees in a Dera spread across 700 acres. CBI says that there was a bed of 40X40 size bedroom worth Rs 10 lakh in Dera. Baba had a manager or a follower named Sudesh. She used to take that rape victim before Baba and he used to rape her. Security personnel of Baba used to guard that room. One body guard has given statement to CBI that when he used to be on duty, Baba would commit rape and sounds of women crying used to come out of that room.
Q. With how many female followers Baba would have committed rape?
JC: It is difficult to ascertain how many women would have fallen victim to his lust.. but broadly 48 women have registered charges of rape against him. CBI has arrested Baba's driver who is working with him for 20 years. He says there are 400 women in the Dera out of which it is estimated that Baba might have committed rape with 200.
Q. There are murder charges on Baba? How many murders Baba would have committed?
JC: This is the fact that there are charges of rape as well as murder on Baba. Broadly, there are charges of 3 murders on Baba. At first, the female follower who complained to Prime Minister in 2002... the woman had sent a complaint.. of which no action was taken... the complaint-letter of that woman was published in a newspaper of Sirsa... after the letter was published, the editor of that newspaper Ramchandra was murdered and before that brother of that female disciple also got murdered... after that third murder was found ... that of manager of Dera... CBI has admitted them as murders and is investigating these cases. Apart from that people have given statements that Baba used to commit murders in large number. It is not certain how many murders Baba would have committed... we will get to know only after CBI investigations.
Q. Are murderers and rapists misusing judicial process?
JC: It is certain that people across the country feel that criminals misuse judicial system to their advantage. Decision on rape case took 18 years... likewise the trial judgement of murder case which is likely to be pronounced has already taken 25 years. Criminals certainly misuse judicial system.
Q. What was the role of Haryana government in handling violent agitation after Baba was sent to jail?
JC: It is a general feeling that Haryana government collapsed while handling this agitation. This is called breakdown of system... central government has taken it seriously and the entire country has condemned Haryana government, chief minister and DGP. It is a general feeling that chief minister Khattar lacks administrative acumen, because if that he fails to handle such situations. Perhaps that was the reason why DGP, on the directions of CM, didn't take any action on followers who were gathering. The result of that decision cost dearly. The assurance which Baba gave to Khattar turned false.
Q. Is Manohar Lal Khattar once again proved to be a weak chief minister after Jat agitation? Will Khattar be removed?
JC: As far as Manohar Lal is concerned the high command will change him In Chandigarh. Despite utter failure in handling Jay agitation, he was exonerated. But this time high command is strict ... if Narendra Modi gives priority to delivery then he should change the CM but it didn't happen. Amit Shah summoned Khattar, had a long meeting, gave him warning but finally the out cone was there is no change in leadership in Haryana.
Q. What was the role of judge of CBI court in this entire episode? Have people once again started trusting in judiciary?
JC: This is an eternal fact that the trust for judiciary has risen among people in the country after the verdict in this case.... in the entire episode, the judge of CBI court has emerged as a hero. It's a matter of pleasure that democracy is still alive in India.
Q. Was Baba recommended for Padma award? Who all had given recommendations?
JC: This is the fact, Baba had been recommended five times for Padma award. Baba had applied himself for 3 times while in total 4000 people had recommended government to award him with Padma Shree.
Q. How Baba managed to get Z+security and an entry into VIP lounge of airports?
JC: This is extremely shocking that home ministry had given Z+ security to Baba and the most saddening fact is Baba used to commit rape in Z+ Security cover. This is misuse of security cover provided by central and state governments. As far as VIP lounges of airports are concerned, Baba used to go there and would sit there without any permission. Now government is probing when there is permission for any one to sit in the VIP lounge except Dalai Lama, how Baba was getting this facility. CBI will probe into it and officials will be made accountable. But this saddening that through their political influences these religious leaders and fake Baba receive security cover and enter Airport without any interference. This has to be stopped.
Q.What is the future of other Babas Rampal and Asaram? Now who is next on radar after Baba Ram Rahim?
JC: It is believed in Delhi that there are 6 Babas in controversy which include Asaram, son Asaram and Rampal. In future time will expose more such Babas. Rest only destiny will tell.
Q. What is the reaction of Baba Ramdev after the arrest of Ram Rahim?
JC: Baba Ramdev is a prestigious saint. He is disappointed with such incidents because it has defamed all religious sects. Baba Ramdev has responded like a responsible citizen.
Q. Who is Baba's beautiful darling Honeypreet?
JC: To a successful person follows such beautiful darling. Police is searching Honeypreet every where and soon she will be behind the bar like Baba.
New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh STF on Saturday arrested doctor Kafeel Khan in connection with the death of scores of children at Gorakhpur's BRD hospital. Khan, who was the nodal officer, has already been removed from the post.
Khan, the third accused so far in the case was trying to flee the country possibly to Nepal when he was arrested, reports claimed. Khan was reportedly involved in stealing of oxygen cylinders for his private clinic from the BRD hospital. STF's DIG Manoj Tiwari confirmed the development.
Earlier on Friday, Gorakhpur court had issued non-bailable warrants against seven people including incharge of AES ward Dr Kafeel Khan, anesthetist Dr Satish, pharmacist Gajanan Jaiswal, accountant Sudhir Pandey, assistant clerk Sanjay Kumar Tripathi and gas suppliers Uday Pratap Singh and Manish Bhandari.
The state-run BRD hospital attracted global attention when more than 70 children, mostly infants died within the span of a week last month. The issue also acquired a political colour with the opposition attacking the government over it.
On August 12, a day after the deaths of children were reported at the hospital Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath had formed a committee to investigate the matter.
The Allahabad High Court had also sought a "detailed report" on the infrastructure and medical facilities at the medical college.
(With inputs from agencies)
New Delhi: The government on Saturday issued an alert on spread of new malware 'Locky Ransomware' that can lock computers and demand ransom for unlocking them.
"Alert regarding spam spreading Locky Ransomware issued today by @IndianCERT...," Electronics and IT Additional Secretary Ajay Kumar tweeted.
Ransomware is a malicious software and the Locky Ransomware is learnt to be demanding ransom of half bitcoin, which at present rate is equivalent to over Rs 1.5 lakh.
The alert, issued on Cyber Swachhta Kendra, said it has been reported that a new wave of spam mails is circulating with common subject lines to spread variants of Locky Ransomware.
"Reports indicate that over 23 million messages have been sent in this campaign. The messages contain common subjects like 'please print', 'documents', 'photo', 'Images', 'scans' and 'pictures'. However, the subject texts may change in targeted spear phishing campaigns," the alert, which described severity of the ransomware as "high", said.
The system infected by Locky Ransomware is getting locked or encrypted with random numbers with "extension [dot] lukitus or [dot] diablo6", the alert stated. The instructions contain installation of "a TOR browser and visiting (dot) onion sites and demanding ransom of .5 Bitcoins", it added.
To target users, spams showing links to fake dropbox websites is being used to spread Locky variants.
"Users are advised to exercise caution while opening e-mails and organisations are advised to deploy anti-spam solutions and update spam block lists," the alert stated.
May saw a series of cyber attacks involving ransomware WannaCry.
"Among more than 100 countries that were hit by WannaCry (an advanced ransomware attack), India was the third-worst affected," an Assocham PWC report said.
New Delhi: One terrorist has been killed in an encounter with security forces in Tantrypora area of Kulgam district in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, news agency ANI reported.
A counter-operation is currently underway in the area. According to the reports, the slain militant has been identified as Ishfaq Paddar, a resident of Machiwa.
J&K: Encounter begins between security forces & terrorists in Kulgam's Tantrypora. One terrorist killed. Encounter underway. pic.twitter.com/TQwS0N5hsh ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2017
Earlier on Saturday, Border Security Force (BSF) trooper was killed on Friday in a ceasefire violation by Pakistan troops on the line of control in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, police sources said.
"A BSF trooper was killed when Pakistan Army violated ceasefire in Barnoi area of the LoC in Poonch. Indian positions have retaliated strongly and effectively," a police sources said.
The ceasefire violation came a day before the Muslim holy festival of Eid-ul-Adha.
New Delhi: A day ahead of much-awaited reshuffle in the Modi cabinet, Janata Dal United (JD(U)) spokesperson KC Tyagi said that they were yet to be informed about their participation in the government.
"Our MPs are in Delhi. There was never any issue in the party over participating in the government but there has been no communication to us even though the reshuffle is tomorrow," Leading agency PTI quoted senior JD(U) leader.
Earlier in the day, it has been reported that Janata Dal United (JD (U)) leaders RCP Singh and Ramnath Thakur are likely to be inducted into the Union Cabinet tomorrow.
On the other hand Internal troubles in the AIADMK, which has been hit by a rebellion led by T T V Dhinakaran, can prove to be a stumbling block in its joining the government as it works to defuse the crisis. It was reported that AIADMK leader Thambidurai had met Shah and he, besides party leaders P Venugopal and V Maitreyan, may be the likely representatives from the Tamil Nadu party if it decides to join the government.
Meanwhile, Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Kalraj Mishra has submitted his resignation. Mishra said that he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and gave his resignation. He claimed the Prime Minister told him that his performance in the ministry was good.
Some Cabinet ministers have already stepped down from their posts, viz. Bandaru Dattatreya, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjeev Baliyan and Faggan Singh Kulaste.
Yesterday, the newly appointed Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Mahendra Nath Pandey also hinted at quitting his Cabinet post.
Speaking to ANI, the Uttar Pradesh BJP chief said he has already forwarded his resignation to BJP President Amit Shah and will soon be talking to Prime Minister Modi in this regard.
"I have to tender my resignation as the state union minister, as Uttar Pradesh is a huge state and there are lots of responsibilities," Pandey said, adding that he will be meeting Prime Minister Modi regarding this.
Pandey has replaced Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya who was serving as UP BJP chief.
Modi will reshuffle his Cabinet on Sunday at 10 AM, before leaving for China to attend the BRICS Summit. Reportedly, this will be last major recasting of PM Modi's council of ministers before the next Lok Sabha polls in 2019. After assuming office in May 2014, Modi expanded his council of ministers twice- first on November 9, 2014 and then on July 5, 2016.
(With inputs from agencies)
New Delhi: Nine new faces will join the Union Council of Ministers on Sunday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi goes for a massive overhaul of his Cabinet to weed out the non-performers.
The reshuffle, which will also see a rejig of key portfolios including those of a few cabinet ministers, could be the last major revamp of Modi government ahead of the crucial 2019 general elections.
The ministers to take oath are Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Shiv Paratap Shukla, Virendra Kumar, Anantkumar Hegde, Raj Kumar Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Satya Pal Singh and Alphons Kannanthanam.
Puri is a decorated former IFS officer of the 1974 batch, known for his experience and expertise in foreign policy and national security, while Satya Pal Singh is the former Police Commissioner of Mumbai and Member of Parliament of the BJP from Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh.
RK Singh is a former IAS officer and served as a home secretary. He is an MP since May 2014.
"The new ministers are going to be strategically placed in key ministries, especially focusing on last mile delivery directly to the people," PTI quoted a source as saying. "Six incumbent ministers have already resigned," he added.
Some of the non-performers are likely to be edged out in line with Modi's vision of minimum government and maximum governance.
Union ministers, including Bandaru Dattatreya, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Kalraj Mishra have already put in their papers over the last two days.
Currently, there are 73 ministers in the Union council but the prime minister has the option to expand it to a maximum of 81 members.
The new ministers will be sworn in by President Ram Nath Kovind in a ceremony at 10 am in the Rashtrapati Bhawan, just before the prime minister leaves for the BRICS summit in China.
But there is still some suspense over new allies like the AIADMK and the JD(U) joining the government.
There has been speculation that the reshuffle could see the entry of JD-U nominees into the Union Council of Ministers.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Saturday that there has been no proposal as yet for his party to join the government at the Centre. Kumar said that if his party gets any such proposal he will take a call.
From the JD-U quota, Rajya Sabha MP R.C.P. Singh and Santosh Kumar are strong contenders.
Also, AIADMK's entry into the union government remained uncertain. Party leaders Thambidurai, P Venugopal and V Maitreyan may be the likely representatives if it decides to join the government.
AIADMK leader Thambidurai has reportedly met Amit Shah on Friday but the details of their meeting have not been divulged.
NDA partner Shiv Sena has also not received any communication from the BJP over the inclusion of its members in the Union cabinet.
PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah reportedly held discussions on Thursday to select the candidates who could be considered for induction.
Shah had also briefed the top RSS leadership on Friday about PM Modi's Cabinet reshuffle.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted the nation and wished for harmony and brotherhood in the society, on the occasion of holy Id-ul-Zuha.
Taking to Twitter, Modi wrote, "Best wishes on Id-ul-Zuha. May the spirit of harmony, brotherhood and togetherness be furthered in our society."
Best wishes on Id-ul-Zuha. May the spirit of harmony, brotherhood and togetherness be furthered in our society. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 2, 2017
Id-ul-Zuha, also known as sacrifice feast or Bakr-Id, is the second of two Muslim holidays celebrated worldwide each year.
It honors the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son, as an act of obedience to God's command. Before he sacrificed his son In commemoration of this, an animal is sacrificed and divided into three parts: one third of the share is given to the poor and needy; another third is given to relatives, friends and neighbors; and the remaining third is retained by the family.
Like Eid al-Fitr, Id-ul-Zuha or Eid al-Adha begins with a prayer of two rakats, followed by a sermon.
Traditionally, the festival of Eid al-Adha is celebrated two days after the beginning of the Hajj pilgrimage. The starting date of this festival depends on the sighting of the new crescent moon. It begins on the 10th day of the one of the holiest months of the Islam calendar.
(With inputs from ANI)
Noida: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev began his training of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel the 39 Battalion Campus in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, on Saturday morning. The ITBP has been given the responsibility of guarding India's borders with China, Nepal and Bhutan.
The Training of Trainers (TOT) yoga camp will last for a week.
Baba Ramdev held his first yoga session with over 500 ITBP officers and personnel.
Elaborating on the objectives of the camp, Baba Ramdev told ANI that the ITBP has tough mental and physical job of guarding India's frontiers, and it was his view that yoga is one of the best ways to keep them healthy and fit.
He said, "Some 9000 soldiers keep us protected at a height of 19000 feet above sea level. They protect us day and night. It is important to keep them healthy."
He stressed on the importance of yoga to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
"Yoga means being attached to our health and consciousness. Yoga can be the way to harmony," he said.
The ITBP was raised on October 24, 1962 and is a specialized mountain force which has professionally trained mountaineers and skiers.
Nay Pyi Taw: The first consignment of high speed diesel from India will reach Myanmar on September 3, Parami Energy Group CEO Ken Tun has said.
Ken Tun told Mizzima News that his group is importing the diesel under a joint venture agreement with India`s Numaligarh Refineries or NRL.
Two trucks, each loaded with 4,000 gallons of high speed diesel or HSD, will reach Moreh on September 3, he said on the sidelines of a seminar on `Myanmar in BIMSTEC` here. Moreh is a town located on the India-Myanmar border in the Indian state of Manipur.
"They will be formally received by Parami Energy officials in Tamu (in Myanmar, on the border crossing with Moreh) and the event will be viewed on screen by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and other ministers and officials of her government," Ken Tun said.
Modi arrives in Myanmar on September 5 on a three-day visit from Xiamen in China, where he is going to attend the BRICS summit.
Ken Tun said Parami Energy will import between 10 to 20 trucks of High Speed Diesel from NRL every day for three months before India takes a call on whether to go for a pipeline to transport diesel to Myanmar,
"We will see whether the demand stabilises and then check if the volumes are big enough to justify construction of a pipeline to bring down transport costs. If we have a big demand, a pipeline is the only way we can compete with others who import petroleum products by sea," Ken Tun told Mizzima.
He said 40 per cent of Myanmar`s daily consumption of 200,000 barrels of High Speed Diesel is in Mandalay and other parts of northern Myanmar.
"It makes business sense to source this supply from northeast India," Ken Tun said.
The Numaligarh Refinery is Assam`s biggest among the four in the northeastern state.
"Initially, tankers will be used to take diesel from Numaligarh by road to Myanmar. We might explore possibilities of laying a pipeline to export diesel at a later stage if technically feasible," a senior NRL official said, unwilling to be named.
Myanmar requires some 5 million tonnes of diesel annually and the oil-rich state of Assam can easily meet the demand, he said.
"It would be a profitable business proposition, and eventually we might think of exporting other petroleum products," the senior official of Assam`s state-owned Numaligarh Refinery said.
He said natural gas could also be imported from Myanmar to India using a separate pipeline.
"Between four to six trillion cubic feet of gas reserves were discovered recently in Myanmar. It would be economically cheaper to wheel back gas (through a pipeline) from Myanmar for use in India," the official said.
Ken Tun said Parami Energy was also looking at importing electricity from northeast India, like Bangladesh is doing at the moment.
San Francisco: A day after a report went viral criticising Google for using its muscle to bury anything that is spoken against it, a former Forbes reporter has claimed that she was also put under pressure by the tech giant to `unpublish` a story.
Kashmir Hill wrote a piece on Friday on online technology news platform Gizmodo saying Google had pressurised her and her publication to take down the story regarding its then-new social media platform "Google Plus".
She said "the incident happened in 2011, around the same time that a congressional antitrust committee was looking into whether the company was abusing its powers".
Her claims follow a story regarding Google`s "abuse of power" that was published in the New York Times on Wednesday which explained how Google -- unhappy with a scholar`s statement who hailed European antitrust regulators` decision to fine the company $2.7 billion in late June -- fired nearly 10 scholars of the team from the tech giant-funded think tank The New America Foundation.
After this story, Hill wrote that when she was working for Forbes she was pressurised to withdraw a story.
At the time, in addition to writing and reporting, Hill helped Forbes run social media, and therefore, she attended a meeting with Google salespeople about Google Plus.
"The Google salespeople were encouraging Forbes to add Plus`s `+1` social buttons to articles on the site, alongside the Facebook `Like` button and the `Reddit` share button. They said it was important to do because the Plus recommendations would be a factor in search results -- a crucial source of traffic to publishers," Hill recounted.
"I asked the Google people if I understood correctly: If a publisher didn`t put a +1 button on the page, its search results would suffer? The answer was yes," she noted.
After the meeting, Hill approached Google`s public relations team and the press office confirmed that the Plus button would influence the ranking, saying: "If you don`t feature the +1 button, your stories will be harder to find with Google."
The reporter later published a story headlined, "Stick Google Plus Buttons On Your Pages, Or Your Search Traffic Suffers", that included bits of conversation from the meeting.
"Google promptly flipped out and never challenged the accuracy of the reporting. Instead, a Google spokesperson told me that I needed to unpublish the story because the meeting had been confidential, and the information discussed there had been subject to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) between Google and Forbes," she said.
Reportedly, Google also pressurised the higher-ups at Forbes by saying the article was problematic and had to come down.
Soon after the report was unpublished, search results stopped showing the original story at all.
"Deliberately manipulating search results to eliminate references to a story that Google doesn`t like would be an extraordinary, almost dystopian abuse of the company`s power over information on the internet," she wrote, adding that she does not have any proof supporting her claim.
Meanwhile, Google on Saturday responded to Hill`s claims saying they had nothing to do with removing the article from the cache.
Google`s Vice President of Global Communications Rob Shilkin, said that like Google`s other client meetings that discuss new features, the meeting with Forbes at that time was held under a non-disclosure agreement.
"Our sales team called their fellow attendees of the meeting from Forbes to express surprise that the article was based on a meeting held under NDA. I understand that one of our PR reps raised this concern to you, and then your editor. I understand that our PR rep asked that the piece come down from Forbes` website, as it was reporting on a confidential business meeting," Shilkin said.
"As for the Google cache, it`s trivial for a website owner to request its cache to be cleared. I assume this is what happened because we had nothing to do with removing the article from the cache," he added.
The executive said that Google wouldn`t engage in this type of behaviour -- never have, never will.
Srinagar: The Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist, involved in Lieutenant Ummer Fayaz's killing was gunned down by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, reports said.
LeT terrorist Ishfaq Padder was killed in an encounter in Kulgam`s Tantrypora area today morning.
Meanwhile, mobile internet services have been temporarily suspended in Shopian and Kulgam districts after the killing of the LeT terrorist.
The young Army officer's bullet-riddled body was found in Harmen area of Shopian in South Kashmir on May 10.
The 22-year-old Army personnel was abducted by terrorists while attending the marriage of his maternal uncle's daughter in Batapura village around 10 pm on May 9.
The killing caused anger among locals who demanded that the terrorists responsible be identified and punished.
Army officers posted with Rajputana Rifles had said Fayaz was loved by his colleagues and he was known for immaculately performing the alloted tasks.
A school was renamed after Lieutenant Ummer Fayaz and his family was handed over a cheque for Rs 75 lakh by the Army.
New Delhi: Samsung has kicked off the pre-registration for its recently launched Galaxy Note 8 in India.
People can visit the official website of Samsung India to register for the new handset. After registering on the site, they will be provided with all the latest updates.
Apart from the basic details, users need to fill in with what they are looking for in Samsung Galaxy Note 8. Related options are:
a superior camera
a premium and stylish design
enhanced battery life
water and dust resistance
powerful gaming performance
enhanced virtual reality experience
Users are allowed to select more than one check boxes as per their interest.
After accepting Samsung's Privacy Policy, users can choose whether they would like to have further communications from the company, and type a code appearing in the box right below.
Once they are done, they can click on 'Register' to pre-order the new device.
Reportedly, Galaxy Note 8 will hit the Indian retail market sometime in last week of September and most probably, the first batch of manufactured units are expected to mark its delivery in Delhi-NCR around September 24.
The company is making Galaxy Note 8 available in US and South Korea from September 15. It will be priced at $930 (in INR Rs 59,561 approximately) in US. Top highlights of the smartphone are its 6.3-inch Super QuadHD + Super AMOLED 'Infinity' display and dual rear camera setup.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 in India
The brand new Samsung smartphone is expected to be priced at Rs 65,000 for the base model with 64GB storage in India. Initially, the company could only bring two variants- 64GB and 128GB while the model with 256GB option could become available later.
Specifications
New Delhi: Cine And TV Artistes Association on Sunday unanimously terminated the work permit of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the Dera Sacha Sauda chief who has been convicted in two rape cases and sentenced to 20 years in jail, on grounds of criminality and moral turpitude.
Also, Indian Film & Television Directors' Association canceled Ram Rahim's license after his conviction in the rape case. The same was confirmed by ANI on Twitter recently.
Fifteen years after he raped two of his female disciples, Ram Rahim was on Monday sentenced to 20 years in jail for rape and criminal intimidation and fined Rs 30 lakh.
The rapist sect chief was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in each of the two instances of rape. The sentences will run consecutively.
Lucknow: The stringent Gangsters Act would be invoked against those who sacrifice cow, buffalo, camel, or ox as 'Qurbani' during Bakr Id in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district on Saturday.
"I have passed the order that in the time of Bakr-Id, from Septemeber 2 to Septemebr 4, no cow, buffalo, ox and camel will be sacrificed. If it`s done, then under Gangster Act, that particular person will be convicted, with immediate effect."," SDM Sambhal Rashid Khan said.
Besides, the movable and immovable property of those involved in such a sacrifice will be impounded, he said.
The SHOs have been asked to take strict action against anyone sacrificing these animals on the festival day, the SDM said.
Till last year, animal sacrifice was carried out at government slaughterhouses but their closure has created a difficult situation in UP and confusion is prevailing among the Muslim community on the eve of Bakr Id.
After coming to power, the Uttar Pradesh government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityantah ordered closure of all illegal slaughter houses in the state and stated there would be no compromise on illegal abattoirs.
Khan said the SHOs have been asked to extensively tour their areas and see that no such incident takes place from September 2 to 4.
The Uttar Pradesh police had issued a terse warning in June that those involved in cow slaughter and illegal transport of milch animals will be booked under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) and Gangsters Act.
Under NSA, the government can detain a person for as long as it wishes and the authorities need not disclose the grounds of detention.
A person booked under the provision of Gangsters Act becomes part of a gang listed in police records. It entitles the police to keep track of those booked under the Act and issue summons to them for attendance at the local police station for questioning even if no fresh case is lodged against them.
The Act permits the police to seek remand of an accused for a maximum of 60 days as compared to a maximum of 14 days under normal circumstances.
A government order to ban cow slaughter and illegal transport of milch animals was passed during the previous SP government in the state but was never strictly implemented.
The Centre has recently issued a notification imposing a blanket ban on the slaughtering of cattle - cows, bulls, buffaloes, camels, heifers - bought from animal markets.
Id-ul-Zuha, also known as Sacrifice Feast or Bakr Id, is the second of two Muslim holidays celebrated worldwide each year. It honors the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son, as an act of obedience to God`s command.
In commemoration of this, an animal is sacrificed and divided into three parts: One third of the share is given to the poor and needy; another third is given to relatives, friends and neighbors; and the remaining third is retained by the family.
Like Eid al-Fitr, Id-ul-Zuha or Eid al-Adha begins with a prayer of two rakats, followed by a sermon.
Traditionally, the festival of Eid al-Adha is celebrated two days after the beginning of the Hajj pilgrimage. The starting date of this festival depends on the sighting of the new crescent moon. It begins on the 10th day of the one of the holiest months of the Islam calendar.
District of Columbia: The United States and South Korea agreed Friday to strengthen Seoul`s defenses and Washington gave a nod to billions in arms sales to the country, the White House said, days after North Korea fired a missile over Japan and threatened further launches.
In Seoul, the presidential Blue House spokesman confirmed that US President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in agreed to enhance the country`s deterrence against North Korea by boosting its missile capabilities.
Pyongyang fired an intermediate-range Hwasong-12 over Japan early on Tuesday, which it said was a mere "curtain-raiser" for the North`s "resolute countermeasures" against ongoing US-South Korean military drills.
It came as US and South Korean forces were nearing the end of the 10-day annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint exercises, which the North regards as a rehearsal for invasion.
Trump has insisted that "all options" are on the table in an implied threat of pre-emptive military action, while on Thursday US heavy bombers and stealth jet fighters took part in a joint live fire drill in South Korea intended as a show of force.
Trump and Moon spoke on the phone Friday about North Korean`s "continued destabilizing and escalatory behavior," the White House said in a statement.
"The two leaders agreed to strengthen our alliance through defense cooperation and to strengthen South Korea`s defense capabilities.
"President Trump provided his conceptual approval of planned purchases by South Korea of billions of dollars in American military equipment."
Park Soo-hyun, the spokesman for Seoul`s presidential office, said the leaders had reached an agreement in principle to loosen -- "to the extent hoped by the South Korean side" -- limits on the South`s ballistic missile capability.
Under a bilateral agreement with the United States, Seoul is currently restricted to ballistic missiles with a maximum range of 800 kilometres (500 miles) and payload of 500 kilogrammes (1100 pounds).
The South wants the maximum warhead weight doubled to one tonne, and the Pentagon has said it was "actively" considering the revision.
Signed with the US in 2001 -- the year South Korea joined the MissileTechnology Control Regime (MTCR) -- the agreement initially limited Seoul to rockets with a range of just 300 kilometres, due to US concerns about triggering a regional arms race in Northeast Asia.
However, after a long-range rocket test by North Korea in 2012, Seoul managed to negotiate the near three-fold increase in the range limit to 800 kilometers, putting North Korean military facilities which were previously out of range within reach, as well as parts of China and Japan.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years after a series of missile tests by Pyongyang.
Calls are also mounting in South Korea for Seoul to build nuclear weapons of its own to defend itself as nuclear-armed North Korea`s missile stand-off with the US escalates.
The South, which hosts 28,500 US troops to defend it, is banned from building its own nuclear weapons under a 1974 atomic energy deal it signed with Washington, which instead offers a "nuclear umbrella" against potential attacks.
Park said the two leaders reaffirmed the need to bring Pyongyang back to dialogue by applying maximum sanctions and pressure.
However, Trump said after the latest missile test that negotiations with Pyongyang were "not the answer."
Beirut: Syrian opposition activists say dozens of Islamic State group members and their families have crossed into areas controlled by the extremists despite US threats to bomb the convoy.
Saturday's announcement came hours after the US-led coalition fighting IS said the 17-bus convoy of IS militants and their families that left the Lebanon-Syria border six days ago is still stranded in the Syrian desert.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said dozens of fighters and civilians left the buses and drove into IS-held parts of the eastern province of Deir el-Zour in 12 civilian vehicles.
Opposition activist Omar Abu Laila, who is from Deir el- Zour and currently lives in Europe, gave an account similar to that of Abdurrahman adding that most of them have crossed.
New Delhi: A man has been booked on Saturday after he incited a terror alert on a Ryanair flight by shouting 'Allahu Akbar' and warning of explosive on board.
The 51-year-old Belgian was reportedly travelling with eight male friends. Following the incident, all eight of them were thrown off the flight at Brussels Airport.
A bomb squad reached the spot after the crew members alerted the police. They undertook a search operation by evacuating the fellow passengers.
The flight was allowed to depart only after nothing suspicious could be found. It took off at around 9.25 AM while its scheduled departure time was two hours ahead.
All the suspects were later interrogated. Hailing from Wallonia, the 51-year-old is likely to face prosecution for threatening a terror attack.
"The flight commander refused to take the nine people," INDEPENDENT quoted federal police spokesman Peter De Waele as saying. "One of them was a stupid joker and called 'Allahu Akbar'," he added.
A Ryanair spokesman said, "The crew of this flight from Brussels to Madrid requested police assistance after a number of passengers became disruptive prior to departure. Police removed and detained the individuals before the aircraft departed to Madrid."
He further added, "We will not tolerate unruly or disruptive behaviour at any time and the safety and comfort of our customers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority. This is now a matter for local police."
Islamabad: Pakistan's opposition party Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Khawaja Izhar Hassan on Saturday managed to escape unhurt after unknown assailants on three motorcycles attacked him as he left the Karachi's Buffer Zone Eidgah after Eidul Azha prayers.
Hassan, who is the leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, escaped unhurt, but at least four others are reported to have been injured in the attack, The Dawn reported.
@IzharulHassan escaped assassination attempt, still at ground. 3 of his police guards took bullets, 1 martyred, few namazis as well pic.twitter.com/XrzCGTI6Su Faisal Subzwari (@faisalsubzwari) September 2, 2017
MQM leader Faisal Sabzwari informed on Twitter about the attack. He said three of Hassan's guards took bullets, while one was killed in the attack.
The Police have shot dead one of the attackers and recovered a 9mm pistol.
New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed the importance of artificial intelligence in modern science and said whoever masters it will rule the world.
Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind, Putin said on Friday. September 1 is the start of the school year in Russia.
It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict.
Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world, Russian television channel RT quoted Putin as saying.
But, Putin said he will not like to see anyone monopolizing the field.
If we become leaders in this area, we will share this know-how with entire world, the same way we share our nuclear technologies today, he said.
On the occasion, he also discussed space, medicine and the capacity of the human brain.
The movement of the eyes can be used to operate various systems, and also there are possibilities to analyse human behaviour in extreme situations, including in space, Putin added.
The Russian president's 45-minute open lesson was reportedly attended by students and teachers from 16,000 schools.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan issued a congratulatory message on the occasion of the Independence Day of Artsakh, the Presidents Office told ARMENPRESS.
The Presidents message reads:
Dear Compatriots,
I congratulate you on the Independence Day of the Republic of Artsakh. This very day twenty-six years ago, the Armenians of Artsakh proclaimed their independent statehood.
They were able to rise like a phoenix from the ashes and ruins of the war and present themselves to the world with a heroic army, functional state institutions, serious economic progress, exemplary educational and cultural institutions, and finally, a well-organized society, which holds on to its national traditions, but at the same time is modern and capable of localizing all the good that mankind boasts in science and culture, economy, politics, and other areas.
Over the past twenty-six years, Artsakh has evolved successfully to become a solid, free and democratic State. The peace-loving Artsakh has not only the necessary fighting capacity, but it is also viable and competitive. The defenders of Artsakh are good at fighting and they know what they are fighting for. The armed forces of Artsakh are defending the safety of not only Artsakh, but also Armenia and, at large, the entire Armenian nation.
Last Aprils hostilities, which were initiated by Azerbaijan, demonstrated once again the impossibility of a military solution to the Artsakh issue. That shady enterprise was doomed to failure as the Defense Army is strong with Armenia and the whole Armenian nation at its back.
On this glorious day, we bow to the memory of those who perished for the sake of Artsakhs freedom.
Long live the free and independent Artsakh!
Long live the Republic of Artsakh!
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS. The Air Defense Unit of the Armenian Armed Forces, led by Colonel Arthur Poghosyan the deputy chief of the Air Defense Forces, is participating in the Combat Commonwealth 2017 joint military exercises since August 29 in the Ashuluk training range in Russia.
The defense ministry told ARMENPRESS the live-fire military exercises include air defense units from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.
The purpose of the drills is improving interoperability of air defense forces of the CIS during combat and exchange of skills and experience.
The active phase of the drills will begin September 4.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan held a meeting with Terry Tornek, Mayor of Pasadena, California.
The City Hall told ARMENPRESS the meeting began with Mayor Margaryan introducing the city and the administration system to the American delegation.
Emphasizing the role and significance of the Disapora in strengthening ties with Armenia, Margaryan highlighted the participation of representatives of the Armenian community of Pasadena in Mr. Torneks delegation.
Mayor Tornek thanked for the warm reception and mentioned that the Armenian community of Pasadena indeed has its unique and important role in the development of the city.
Sharing his impressions of the Armenian capital, the Pasadena Mayor said he has already toured Yerevan and mentioned that it is indeed a very warm, safe and convenient city.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS. In 2018, the candidate for the PMs office will be chosen by the Republican Party led by Serzh Sargsyan, chairman of the Parliaments foreign relations committee Armen Ashotyan told reporters September 2.
The ruling party will decide who will be the Prime Minister, and the leader of this party is Serzh Sargsyan. The next Prime Minister of Armenia will be decided by his leadership, Ashotyan said.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani shooting in Armenias Tavush province during an OSCE monitoring mission was a blow at OSCE and another attempt to discredit the organization, chairman of the foreign relations committee of the Armenian parliament Armen Ashotyan said.
This was a shooting at OSCE. This was another attempt of discrediting the organization. The Azerbaijani leadership is in a deadlock in the negotiations process in terms of diplomacy, and Azerbaijani cannot de facto give its agreement to the well-known provisions. This is a consequence of duality, feed its own society with certain statements, and make other statements abroad. Azerbaijan is making efforts to change the negotiations game, Ashotyan said.
He mentioned that OSCE and UN are busy with restoring their lost influence and are unable to respond more rapidly to such incidents.
According to Ashotyan, the OSCE is avoiding the final cutting of ties with Azerbaijan. He said OSCE knows very well who is doing the shooting, and it simply avoids opposing in order not to give Azerbaijan the chance to doubt OSCEs regulatory mandate.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan released a statement September 2 congratulating the 26th anniversary of Artsakhs independence, the governments press service said.
On behalf of the Armenian government, I cordially congratulate all on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of independence of the Republic of Artsakh, the PM said in the message.
We bow before the heroes who fought for the independence and freedom of Artsakh, Karapetyan continued.
The Armenian government always stands shoulder to shoulder with Artsakh and is ready to maximally support the implementation of projects regarding economic development, Karapetyan said, wishing peace, progress and achievements to the people of Artsakh.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 2, ARMENPRESS. The security guarantees given by the Azerbaijani Parliament to the Euronest PA Co-Chairs give grounds to continue the preparations for participating in the upcoming assembly in Baku, chairman of the foreign relations committee of the Armenian Parliament Armen Ashotyan told reporters September 2.
We dont have complexes to limit ourselves, if the event was decided to be organized in Baku, then we want and can go there. Recently the Azerbaijani Parliament addressed a letter to the co-chairs giving all participants security guarantees, Ashotyan said.
According to him, Armenia has presented a bid on holding the sessions of Euronests four committees in Armenia next year.
The Armenian delegation will participate in the Euronest PA session on September 22 in Baku.
DENVER, Colo.In an order issued yesterday, U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch found that forcing three plaintiffs, all men, to register with law enforcement officials under the Colorado Sex Offender Registration Act amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, violating their rights under both the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, not to mention the due process clauses of the Fourteenth, in large part because the registry is a public document and had led to adverse consequences for the plaintiffs.
For example, one plaintiff, David Millard, pled guilty in 1999 to second degree sexual assault on a minor, and as part of his sentence, he was on work release for 90 days and served an additional eight years on probation, during which time he completed sex offender treatment and committed no further criminal acts. However, the Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) required Millard to register as a sex offender for ten years after the completion of his probationand that's where the problems started. Millard almost lost his job with an Albertsons supermarket after a customer recognized him from a listing on the SORA website, and some of Millard's fellow employees spread the information to other store employees, forcing the company to relocate Millard to another storeand to warn him that he would lose his job if employees at the new store found out about his listing on the registry.
Millard had also been forced to move from his apartment when his appearance on the registry became known, and though he now lives in what was his mother's house, local cops have visited the residence to make sure Millard still lives there, and if he's not home, they leave what the court described as "prominent, brightly-colored 'registered sex offender' tags on his front door notifying him that he must contact the DPD [Denver Police Department]. On one occasion a DPD officer hung a tag on his door even though Mr. Millard had spoken with the officer by telephone and explained he was at work and would not be home at the time of the visit. ... In following up from that incident, two DPD officers came to his house, banged noisily on the door, and loudly told Mr. Millard, in front of and in earshot of watching neighbors, that they were there to do a sex offender home check."
Another plaintiff, Eugene Knight, became a stay-at-home dad after serving prison time for pleading guilty to "attempted sexual assault on a child." Though Knight successfully completed his parole for the offense, a previously ordered probation has never been revoked, and Knight isn't eligible to petition to be taken off SORA until 2021. That's created several problems for him, not the least of which is that the local school district won't allow him to walk his kids into their school and pick them upor, indeed, to be present on any school groundsdue to his status on the registry. Again, Knight had completed sex offender treatment and had not had any run-ins with law enforcement at any time during his parole or probation.
The third plaintiff, Arturo Vega, pled guilty to third degree sexual assault at age 15, for a crime committed when he was 13. He spent two years in a juvenile detention facility, where he received treatment for his sex offense and also for anger management, and upon release was placed on parole for one year, during which time he continued his therapy. Trouble was, he didn't understand the requirements to register as a sex offenderafter all, he was a juvenileand was convicted of a misdemeanor for failure to register. Though Vega doesn't appear on the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) website, he's still listed as a sex offender on SORA, and that's cost him jobs. He's filed two petitions to be removed from the registry, but both were denied, even though he had fulfilled all the requirements for removal. The reason? Vega couldn't prove to the magistrates' satisfaction that he wasn't "likely to commit a subsequent offense of or involving unlawful sexual behavior." In other words, contrary to the U.S. Constitution, Vega had to prove he would be unlikely to offend againan impossible standard, and one which the court later described as "Kafka-esque."
After hearing the unrebutted testimony of the plaintiffs and several non-party witnesses who were either former offenders themselves or people who were close to such people, Judge Matsch found, after a long discussion citing several Ninth Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court cases, that, "Weighing the factors considered in Smith v. Doe leads to the conclusion that SORAs effects on these Plaintiffs are plainly punitive, negating the legislative intent... The Colorado General Assemblys disavowal of any punitive intent is an avoidance of any responsibility for the results of warning the public of the dangers to be expected from registered sex offenders. The register is telling the public DANGER STAY AWAY. How is the public to react to this warning? What is expected to be the means by which people are to protect themselves and their children? As shown by the experience of these plaintiffs and the experience of others who have testified, the effect of publication of the information required to be provided by registration is to expose the registrants to punishments inflicted not by the state but by their fellow citizens." [Emphasis in original]
"The record in this case reflects that maintaining the sex offender registry, requiring internet publication of information on the registry, and permitting republication of the information by private websites have effects that are analogous to the historical punishment of shaming and further resemble and threaten to result in effective banishment," Judge Matsch continued. "All three Plaintiffs have experienced these effects in varying degrees... Other evidence shows that these experiences are not isolated or unusual and that Plaintiffs experiences, fears, and anxieties are not exaggerated or imagined."
The judge also found that with the SORA's requirement that registrants also report to authorities all of their "e-mail addresses, instant-messaging identities, or chat room identities prior to using the address or identity, as well as any changes of such addresses or identities," SORA registrants are effectively denied their First Amendment rights to communicate freely, and that in its operation, SORA was clearly punitive, even for defendants who had putatively served their sentences successfully and should have no more legal requirements upon them attendant to their crimes.
"[A] convicted offender is knowingly placed in peril of additional punishment, beyond that to which he has been sentenced pursuant to legal proceedings and due process, at the random whim and caprice of unknowable and unpredictable members of the public," Judge Matsch observed. "This risk continues for the entire time a sex offender is on the registry, and perhaps even beyond that if he is fortunate enough to eventually deregister."
In the end, Judge Matsch awarded the three plaintiffs "declaratory relief" from the "cruel and unusual punishment" effects of the SORA upon them, though he failed to issue a permanent injunction that would have kept them off the registry in the futurebut the plaintiffs' attorney Alison Ruttenberg suggested that the judge's decision could have much farther-reaching consequences, especially if upheld by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
"I would characterize this as a landmark case," Ruttenberg told the Denver Post. "My goal eventually is to get rid of this sex offender registration altogether, at least as it applies to a public registry that people can pull up on a website. I would be surprised if the state doesnt appeal the decision."
The ruling could also prove to be important to adult content producers and retailers, in part because three of the offenses that can land a person on the SORA in Colorado are "wholesale promotion of obscenity to a minor," "promotion of obscenity to a minor," and "criminal attempt, conspiracy, or solicitation to commit any of the acts specified in this paragraph."
Let's say you're a brick-and-mortar retailer in Colorado, and you inadvertently allow a minor to come into your storeand while the minor is there, police enter and bust you for the offense. No matter what criminal sentence or fine you receive from the magistrate, Colorado law appears to require that you register as a sex offenderand be subject to some of the same deprivations of rights as the three plaintiffs in this case. The same might apply equally to someone running a sexually explicit website or e-tail site based in Colorado, who allows access to, or allows a purchase by, a minor.
And that's not all. In some states (not Colorado, though, for example, Ohio), an adult producer who makes "obscene" content or an adult retailer convicted of selling an "obscene" DVD to any customer can also be required to register as a sex offender, and could suffer the same consequences as the three plaintiffs here.
Just something to think aboutand perhaps work to get rid of publicly accessible sex offender registries.
(H/t to Bill Dobbs for the info)
House and Senate enact redistricting plan, just beating court-ordered Sept. 1 deadline
The House and the Senate finally passed redistricting maps after weeks of contentious committee meetings and public hearings.A three-judge U.S. District Court panel gave the General Assembly a Sept. 1 deadline to present new legislative maps after the court ruled the districts enacted in 2011 were an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The court will decide whether to accept the new maps for the 2018 election. Whatever the panel decides, the losing party could appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.The Senate took up House Bill 927 during a brief session Wednesday with Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, arguing the bill meets the criteria established by both the House and Senate redistricting committees.Hise explained.Nevertheless, Sen. Angela R. Bryant, D-Halifax, urged legislators to reject the bill, citing concerns of racial gerrymandering and incumbency protection.Bryant argued, pointing to a lack of compactness in several counties and violations of the provision requiring counties not to be split when possible.Bryant also cited districts in Wake and Mecklenburg counties which were not affected by the court decision but still redrawn. She said this violates the constitutional provision forbidding redistricting outside the 10-year census cycle unless ordered by the court.Bryant questioned.Despite the concerns of Democratic lawmakers, the bill passed 30-15.House Democrats voiced similar criticisms over Senate Bill 691, but like the House bill, S.B. 691 passed 68-47.Rep. David R. Lewis, R-Harnett, said race was not considered when drawing up the new maps and said the bill remedies any racial disparities pointed out by the court ruling.Lewis said.Some lawmakers called for the creation of an impartial redistricting commission and argued the people of North Carolina should draw the lines.Rep. Joe John, D-Wake said.Rep. Carla Cunningham, D-Mecklenburg, criticized Republican lawmakers for not considering race when drawing new district lines. She also questioned whether Republicans were willing to share power.Cunningham argued.Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, fired back at some of the Democratic representatives' criticism.Dollar said. He alluded to the geographic distribution of voters in North Carolina, with Democrats gravitating toward cities and Republicans residing more in rural and suburban areas.Dollar also pointed out Senate Republicans won a supermajority in 2010 under maps drawn to favor Democrats.Dollar said.
The Democrat leadership has made constant, profound and incredible pronouncements that one's supportive vote for Republicans is tantamount to surrendering Democracy forever. Understanding their sincere thinking in their extreme position: How will you still vote on this election day?
Democrat; because the continuance of this Democracy from the existential threat of extreme Republicans is paramount.
Republican; the process of having a choice is the democratic method within what so called "Democracy" does exists.
President Trump, The First Lady, and cabinet meet Governor Abbott in Texas: Above.
Salvation Army.
Southern Baptists.
Thank you very much. The First Lady and I are pleased to welcome Gail McGovern of the American Red Cross, David Hudson of the Salvation Army, and Kevin Ezell of Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. These people have been absolutely incredible at what they've done.I would like to thank them, and their staff and volunteers for the incredible work they're doing and in helping people affected by Hurricane Harvey. Sounds like a very innocent name but it's not an innocent hurricane, that I can tell you. It's of epic proportion.These organizations and the many other non-profits involved represent the generosity, determination, and unbreakable spirit of the American people.And Mike Pence was there yesterday and represented his country so well, in the love and the care, and I had so many just great comments about your visit, so I appreciate it.Thank you Mr. President.When a disaster strikes, they work to help others in the time of need, which was over the last week, believe me. They've already provided tens of thousands of displaced Gulf Coast residents with meals, water, shelter, fresh blankets, and clean clothing.When one American suffers -- and I say this quite a bit, especially lately, when you see what's going on -- we all suffer. We're one American family brought together in times of tragedy by the unbreakable bonds of love and loyalty that we have for one another. And there is a great love and a great loyalty in this country, and I think we've all seen it, maybe more so than ever before over the last four days. So I think we really have seen it. Nowhere is our unity more evident than in the actions of our volunteer and charitable organizations that rally to their neighbors' aid when disaster strikes.The people of Texas and Louisiana were hit very hard by a historic flood. In their response, they have taught us all a lesson -- a very, very powerful lesson: There was no outbreak in crime. There was an outbreak of compassion only -- real beautiful, strong compassion. And they've really inspired us as a nation. To be honest, they've inspired the world, because the world is watching.We're pleased to receive an update from Gail, David, and Kevin on the work of the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief. The federal government is on the ground bringing in significant resources to bear. And I want to assure these organizations and the others involved that we will continue to coordinate with them and bring all of the relief and the comfort and everything else that we absolutely can to the Gulf Coast.And I want to also thank the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Texas. They have been outstanding. Just the coordination and the level of relationship has been, I think, pretty much unprecedented. So I just want to thank them. I want to thank all of the folks working on the ground for the administration. Tom Bossert is here today. Tom, thank you very much, we appreciate it. Every American heart is with the people of Texas and Louisiana. They're strong and resilient, and they have really overcome.And we're in the process of just about, where I can I say, overcome this horrible devastation. Now it's going back to work, but the Coast Guard in particular, I have to also thank. They saved probably thousands of lives -- we were just talking about it -- going onto seas that very few people would want to be on in the worst of times, when they were saving a lot of people out there.Together, we will help them all recover from this tragedy. We'll renew our hope and community, and we'll renew our hope and rebuild those homes, and businesses, and schools, and places of worship where the strength and vigor that comes from the love within our souls.And I just authorized and signed a proclamation for prayer. And we're going to have, on Sunday, a prayer Sunday. And, Mike, that was something that was very special, just took place. So I think it's going to be something to see and to witness. It's been a long time. And our country deserves it right now.I want to thank my wife, Melania, the First Lady. She's been so involved in this and helping so much. And so I want to thank you. Would you like to say a few words to start off?It's great to be here with amazing people, and I want to thank all the volunteers all across the country dedicated to help to Texas -- and fantastic job. And we're going tomorrow to visit them, and I just want to tell them to be strong and everything will be okay.See, I didn't tell her I was going to do that, Stewart. And she did a great job. (Laughter.) But she really has; she's been so dedicated to this. This has very much affected her, what's happened in Texas and neighboring states, frankly.So I want thank you, First Lady. Thank you.Yes, well, we're first of all very appreciative of this opportunity, appreciative of our partners in service. We are working hand-in-hand with groups like the Red Cross, where they provide shelter for people, and we're able to provide meals. And even though we're limited in being able to get in to a lot of the impacted areas, we've already served hundreds of thousands of meals, and literally millions of meals will be served.And we can only do this as we partner together. And as I've told my coworkers, this is a time that we're all Texans. And no matter where you're from, we're all about serving Americans in need. And I'd like to thank you, Mr. President, the Red Cross, and the Baptists and all the other agencies that partner with us. Together we can make a difference.Thank you very much. That's very nice.We're three different organizations, but we work best as one. And the joy of this is we really do lock arms and have the capacity to feed over 400,000 people a day. And, Mr. President, thank you for FEMA. They've been incredible through this. We've gone through many disasters, and they've done just a fantastic job stepping to the plate and being prepared and allowing us to volunteer (inaudible).Well, I think we should thank Brock Long and all of the people at FEMA, and the people at Homeland and, I have to say General Kelly, who has been so much involved. As you know he just left, and he's now in the White House. But his spirit and anything else that's been involved over the last few weeks getting ready. Because, really, this has been probably now almost two weeks since we felt that it was probably going to hit that area. But General Kelly has done a fantastic job. And Elaine Duke has been terrific. So I want to thank all of our folks.Red Cross, how are we doing?Sir, first of all, our hearts go out the people of Texas, and on behalf of the entire American Red Cross, so many people have lost everything and presented in our shelters with just the clothes on their back. I visited one of the shelters outside of Austin, and it housed about 200 people. And I had the opportunity to call to all the families -- everyone from a six-month-old baby to a 6'8" man -- and everybody in between.And you heard stories of heartbreak and heartache. But the one thing that I hadn't seen in the nine years that I've been with the American Red Cross is the incredible resiliency of the American people. They are bound and determined to build back, and there are about 40,000 people in our shelters right now across the state of Texas. And our volunteers are pouring in, giving them comfort, hope. We served about 390,000 meals and snacks. And the incredible thing is our partners are there. They are getting the hot meals into our hands so that we can serve them.Government has just been phenomenal. And when we had a hard time getting our volunteers in, the city gave us dump trucks so we could get volunteers and cots in. The Department of Defense gave us high-water vehicles -- 20 of them -- so we could break in and bring needed supplies.So I'm just so appreciative of the teamwork. I'm appreciative of your support. And again, our hearts go out to the people of Texas.Thank you very much. Very nice. 390,000 --Meals and snacks.And that's up until now. Just up to -- as of last night.You'll be doubling that. That's a tremendous job.I'm quite sure we will.Tremendous job.Mike, would you like to say something?Just, Mr. President, having -- I just returned from southeast Texas yesterday. We heard the resilience, the character, and the faith of the people of east Texas. We heard their gratitude to you and the First Lady for the administration's support, for your compassion, your admiration for our first responders from FEMA, down to local leadership.But I also heard, Mr. President, about their gratitude for volunteer organizations that have literally been there from the very outset of this storm. And I want to thank you and the First Lady for taking the opportunity to call attention to the Salvation Army and the Red Cross and Southern Baptist Disaster Relief.Anyone looking on should know that while the federal government is going to be there at your direction, we'll be seeking resources from the Congress to make sure that disaster relief is available for individuals and businesses. Literally, the work of meeting people's human needs each and every day will take all of us, and these volunteer organizations need resources and they need people.And I would just add, Mr. President, that anyone looking on can go to NVOAD.org -- it's our website where all these organizations are listed. People can find out how they can be supportive of national volunteer organizations that at this very hour, and for weeks and months ahead, will be coming alongside families as they rebuild their lives.That's good. Thank you, Mike. Thank you very much.This is just some of the locations that over a very short period of time, they and others have managed to go to some of these locations, as you know very well. Some of the press has been there, and I will say they are devastated. Two days ago there was water like nobody has ever seen before. I guess in the history of our country we've never had an amount of water like we've had. And yet you were able to occupy all of these different locations and take care of people -- you and the others.So we want to just thank you. That's really a special, special job. Thank you all very much. Appreciate it.We'll be releasing on DACA sometime over the weekend, probably Sunday, Saturday. Latest will be Monday. Great feeling for DACA.Oh, we'll be making a request. Absolutely. For the state of Texas, yes -- and Louisiana.And tomorrow I'm going to Louisiana with the First Lady, and Texas. So it will be Texas, Louisiana.Thank you, everybody.White House
Cleveland Amory was a trailblazing advocate for animals from the 1950s until his death in 1998. His wit and gift for the spoken word were his sharpest weapons. Photo by The HSUS
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Its hard to believe that Cleveland Amory, who was without question one of the most important and influential animal advocates of the 20th century, would be 100 today. When it came to animal protection, he was a man of resolve and action. With the whipping winds and pelting rains of Harvey approaching the Texas land mass, he would have been first on the scene to shake his fist at the weather gods, to help with animal rescue, and to call upon his legions of followers to pitch in. He reinforced that instinct in me, and our team members on the ground are today acting as his proxies in a state where he left such a kindhearted footprint, by founding Black Beauty Ranch, the nations biggest large-animal sanctuary located southeast of Dallas.
Cleveland was a trailblazing advocate for animals from the 1950s until his death in 1998. His sharp wit and gift for the spoken word were his sharpest weapons. As the founder of the Fund for Animals (The Fund), which marks its own 50th anniversary in 2017, Cleveland was an unfaltering and fearless champion of animals, especially wildlife. If animals were at risk because of human greed or malice, and he could do something about it, he never hesitated to stand in the breach.
Somewhere along lifes pathway, this scion of New England wealth and privilege caught the same fever that so many of us have: the burning desire to secure a measure of justice for animals, and a determination to make the case for them in the public arena. It was my remarkably good fortune to be able to learn from Cleveland, and to work for him, and it is the rarest of days when I do not reflect back upon his example of courage, poise, and toughness in the face of searing cruelties and stacked odds. His unwarranted confidence in hiring me as a 23-year-old and his mentoring of me in subsequent years, along with his soulmate Marian Probst (who took over The Fund after Cleveland passed in 1998), set me on a definite trajectory as a full-time advocate and strategist for the cause. Ill be forever grateful to them both.
Cleveland was an early board member of The HSUS, but hes better known for founding the Fund for Animals in 1967 with Marian and others, with the goal of producing more and better and harder-edged advocacy for animals. His 1974 work, Man Kind? Our Incredible War on Wildlife, was a full-throttle denunciation of American wildlife managements numerous cruelties, reflecting Clevelands knack for picking the right kinds of fights, the ones that would make public the practices that hunters, trappers, ranchers, wildlife managers, and others preferred to keep private. That book earned a remarkable and unprecedented editorial in The New York Times unheard of before or since in the world of publishing.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Cleveland tapped into the thinking of the silent majority of animal lovers with a best-selling series of books which turned into a memorable trilogy about his cat Polar Bear. But these works too were really about promoting awareness and advocacy on behalf of animals, reaching people who might not otherwise open up a polemical book concerning humane work. Later, his account of Black Beauty Ranch, Ranch of Dreams, told the story of the plight of all animals through the animal ambassadors at his beloved animal sanctuary. Today, the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch, at 1,400 acres, is the crown jewel of the Funds sanctuary and direct care programs, and with the Fund itself, a part of the HSUS family.
Its hard not to think of Clevelands grit and determination in the current moment, when many vital gains for wildlife are in serious jeopardy across the nation. Wild horse and burro roundups, ruthless predator control programs, land-and-shoot hunting of grizzly bears, captive hunts its an extraordinary array of threats. Federal and state governments are colluding with private special interests to put wild animals in the crosshairs. The war against predator species is once again in full swing, along with an effort to roll back Endangered Species Act protections. Not since the days of the zealous cabinet secretary James G. Watt in the 1980s have we seen a more alarming set of policies issuing forth from the U.S. Department of the Interior and from key lawmakers in Congress. In the background, pushing all out for these renewed assaults, the Safari Club and other groups are determined to eliminate any sort of restraint on their ability to kill rare species, for trophy heads, for body parts, or just for fun.
Cleveland, of course, would have had plenty to say about it, and he would have done something about it, too. He was an immensely witty and gifted writer, never at a loss for a clever turn of phrase. I have always cherished his wonderful parallelism, were building a kind of army, an army of the kind, because it showed his comprehension of a fundamental fact: the cause of animal protection can only succeed and can advance its core mission with a base large enough to overcome the tremendous forces of malice and hostility arrayed against them in so many walks of life.
In Clevelands day, the Fund had a gallant group of field representatives feisty, intelligent, tough, and genuine foot soldiers in the organizations campaigns. Today, were trying to populate the field with a massive volunteer force ready to make the case for animals every day, everywhere, and in every way. Everyone who does something to help animals is a part of that army, with millions of others whose commitment to animal protection keeps them actively engaged. Its been said that an army marches on its stomach. But the one that Cleveland inspired, the one of which we are all a part, marches to the beat of its heart.
Happy birthday, Cleveland. Your work endures with so many of us whom you inspired.
Mike Shaughnessy, professor of German at Washington & Jefferson College, translated a letter written one Ernst from Cologne, to his cousin in Pittsburgh, U.S.A. Sent in 1936after Hitler's rise to power, but before World War II and the Holocaustit refers glibly and approvingly to the removal of Jews from civil life, even as it reflects the anxieties and growing paranoia of life under fascist government.
Shaughnessy's translation:
Koln, Machabaerstrasse 46. January 6, 1936.
Dear Wilhelm and Family!
I've been waiting a while to get a letter from you in which you would send me the letter from Mr. Fruh about your inquiry. Apparently you haven't received anything, so I'll inform you that I've had to give the government very positive, specific details about our ancestry and where our assets are currently.
You told me a lot previously, but I need more specific details. I thought you had heard something from Mr. Fruh that could be useful to me. Please be so kind and tell me everything, even the smallest details. The matter is indeed starting to take shape. I haven't heard anything from Gersweiler and Mr. Kugler also seems to know nothing. People here keep speculating about everything and are becoming suspicious of each other. I don't have a lot of news to report. I wrote to that guy "Becker" in Hundheim. Maybe I'll hear something there.
Things in Germany are looking up thanks to our Fuhrer and the cleansing of the population from the Jews (Those exploiters who are the misfortune of humanity). Since 1/1/1936, they can't employ Germans as their service personnel, because of the desecration that those good-for-nothings did on the German girls. If one of them even dares nowadays, even if they just insult a girl, they will be put in prison straightaway those rapists. In addition, German citizenship was revoked for all of them, they are not Germans foreign to the German race, and should be sent to Palestine where a lot already ran off to, those bastards.
The winter relief fund was a great success and even a lot of foreigners took part. A lot still needs to be done, because countless people have lost their belongings due to the war and the government run by Jews afterwards. I also lost 500,000 Reichsmark and could therefore make good use of the inheritance.
Well then, I look forward to hearing from you and I wish you and your family a good new year from the bottom of my heart, and hope we resolve the issue soon.
In the meantime I send you heartfelt greetings,
Your Cousin,
Ernst Ries
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - A car bomb at a checkpoint killed four troops from Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar's forces on Thursday, in an attack claimed by Islamic State, officials and security sources said. Haftar's Libyan National Army is one of the most powerful armed brigades in Libya, where rival factions and their military backers have competed for control since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in a 2011 uprising. "The car bomb explosion that targeted a checkpoint in Nawfiliya town has resulted in two killed of Sirte Security Directorate and some other wounded," LNA spokesman Ahmad Mesmari told Reuters. Two security sources later said two more soldiers had died. Islamic State claimed the attack, according to the militant group's AMAQ news agency. Haftar's forces have been fighting against Islamist militants and other foes in eastern Benghazi and are besieging the city of Derna to try to oust militants there. Thursday attack in Nawfiliya was 80 km (50 miles) from Ras Lanuf, part of Libya's "Oil Crescent" and one the OPEC country's major oil exporting terminals. Libyan officials are concerned Islamic State may try to regroup there after defeat in nearby Sirte city last year. (Reporting by Ayman Al Warfalli; writing by Patrick Markey, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
By My Pham and Matthew Tostevin HANOI (Reuters) - Tensions are high on the South China Sea as Vietnam faces off against China over their overlapping maritime claims. But for the boatmen on the junks cruising the calm expanse of Vietnam's Ha Long Bay, another growing Chinese presence in the region is very welcome indeed. "More than half our tourists are Chinese now," said Nguyen Van Phu, 33, who has spent six years working on the boats that chug between the bays spectacular stone towers. "If they stopped coming it would be a big problem, if not a disaster." The number of Chinese tourists in Vietnam has surged this year, just one sign of the growing economic ties between two long-time enemies. Chinese investment in Vietnam is also increasing rapidly, as is trade between the two countries. But while tourists, trade and investment are being welcomed, they also present a challenge for a fiercely independent country like Vietnam, which has been wary of Chinas growing influence in the region. "The rising economic dependence on China makes it more difficult for Vietnam to decide how far to confront China on the South China Sea," said Nguyen Khac Giang, a researcher at the Vietnam Economics and Policy Research Institution. Vietnam would suffer far more than China economically in the event of political instability given its smaller size, he said. China exports more goods to Vietnam than any other country in Southeast Asia, sending textiles to be made into shirts and sneakers, and electronic components for mobile phones and large flat-panel displays. Those completed products are exported around the world, as well as back to China. Vietnam also makes electronics components for factories in China, and exports computers for Chinese consumers. Manufacturers see Vietnam as an attractive base, with wages as little as a third of those in coastal regions of China, according to employment consultants. And while proximity has historically been a source of friction between the two countries - they fought a border war as recently as 1979 and armed clashes flared for years afterwards - for manufacturers it's a boon. "We strategically invested in Vietnam because of its geographical advantage closer to China and hence lower cost on materials, transportation and relatively shorter production lead time," said Bosco Law, chief executive of the Hong Kong-based Lawsgroup. The company makes clothes for brands such as Gap, whose global operations include scores of outlets in China. Businesses contacted by Reuters declined to talk openly about the risks for them of tension between Vietnam and China. Chinese trade and investment has surged across Southeast Asia in recent years as companies search out new bases for manufacturing and consumers for their goods. China has also invested in infrastructure and plans to pour development funds into Southeast Asia as part of its sprawling Belt and Road initiative. That has already had a political effect. Big recipients of Chinese investment such as Cambodia and Laos are promoting China's line on the South China Sea at regional meetings. President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, meanwhile, has cited Chinese investment pledges as he softens his country's stance on its maritime disputes with China. MISTRUST Tensions between Beijing and Hanoi have been high since mid-June, when Chinese pressure forced Vietnam to suspend oil drilling on a block that overlaps the line China says marks its claim to almost all the South China Sea. As Vietnam has emerged as the most vocal regional opponent of China's maritime claims in Southeast Asia, it has drawn Beijing's ire. Its growing defense links to the United States, Japan and India also make China suspicious. The Vietnamese government has also had to contend with public pressure at home. A row over Chinese oil drilling in disputed waters in the South China Sea in 2014 sparked anti-China riots in Vietnam in which foreign factories thought to be Chinese were set on fire, before the rig was removed. Tourism dipped in the aftermath, but quickly bounced back. Trade has also risen steadily since then. Exports to China jumped nearly 43 percent to $13 billion in the first half of 2017 from a year earlier, according to customs data. Imports rose more slowly, climbing 16 percent. Chinese tourist arrivals, meanwhile, soared 60 percent to nearly 1.9 million in the first half of 2017 to account for around one third of all foreign visitors. For the most part, the government has welcomed the boost from Chinese tourism, as it strives to meet a 6.7 percent target for annual economic growth. INVESTMENTS WELCOMED Vietnam is also welcoming Chinese investments, if cautiously. "We should be careful but at the same time we should take advantage," said Nguyen Mai, the president of Vietnam's Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises. The biggest foreign direct investors in Vietnam have long been from South Korea and Japan, particularly in the electronics sector. More than 100,000 Vietnamese work for Samsung alone in Vietnam. However, Chinese investment is growing quickly, nearly doubling last year to almost 8 percent of total foreign direct investment. Investment went into solar panel and plastics factories, among other areas. Direct U.S. investment accounts for about 2 percent of the total so far this year; the United States is also Vietnam's second-largest trade partner. For a graphic on Vietnam-China trade, click: http://tmsnrt.rs/2fIhfYc (Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen)
Edmonton firefighters deploy naloxone nearly every other day as Alberta opioid crisis continues
Edmonton firefighters administered naloxone almost every other day from June to August, new numbers from the province show.
The life-saving medication is used as an overdose antidote to opioids such as fentanyl, a powerful and often deadly narcotic.
Fire rescue staff in Edmonton used naloxone during 58 medical events from February to August, according to an Alberta Health report released August 16. Of those events, 27 occurred in the 61 days between June 8 and August 8.
"The amount of overdose calls Edmonton Fire Rescue Services receives is troubling," spokesperson Maya Filipovic wrote in an email to CBC News Thursday.
"However, we are pleased that our crews are trained and equipped and ready to respond and help," she added.
"It is sad to note that that number of people have needed the injection this year, but our firefighters have arrived in a timely fashion and been able to assist in these overdose situations."
More than 600 dead
In Alberta, 609 people died from apparent drug overdoses related to fentanyl between January 2016 and August 2017.
More than one-third of the deaths occurred in the first half of 2017.
To curb Alberta's opioid crisis, Health Minister Sarah Hoffman said the province is pushing for federal permission to open new supervised injection sites.
"When we get that approval, we'll make sure that Edmonton is up and operational as soon as possible," Hoffman told reporters at the Alberta legislature Thursday.
In May, Edmonton city council voted unanimously in favour of opening three supervised injection sites at local community centres.
Edmonton has accounted for one-third of the province's fentanyl-related drug overdose deaths in 2017. Most people who overdosed lived outside the city centre, according to the Alberta Health report.
Since January 2016, the number of overdose deaths in Alberta appears to have stabilized but remains significant, the report concludes.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Venezuela's former chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega met Mexico's attorney general on Thursday, a Mexican official said, weeks after she fled her homeland accusing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of involvement in corruption. Ortega, who was removed from her position earlier this month, said a week ago she had evidence that Maduro was involved in graft with construction company Odebrecht. The 59-year-old Ortega has said she would give details of the corruption cases to authorities in the United States, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. Mexican attorney general Raul Cervantes met Ortega for around 10 minutes in Mexico City, an official at the attorney general's office said. He gave no further details of the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity. Late on Thursday, Ortega posted a picture on Twitter of herself with Cervantes in Mexico, saying the two had met to "coordinate actions in the fight against corruption." Pictures posted on social media earlier on Thursday showed Ortega arriving at Mexico City airport. Ortega says she has been persecuted by opponents in an effort to hide details of high-level corruption and that she has proof of it. She was a key player in Venezuela's government before breaking with it in March. Ortega left Venezuela for Colombia and traveled to Brazil to meet prosecutors last week. Odebrecht admitted in a settlement with U.S. and Brazilian prosecutors to paying bribes across 12 countries to win contracts. According to a U.S. court ruling, Odebrecht paid about $788 million in bribes in countries including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela between 2001 and 2016. Mexico's government has been sharply critical of the Maduro administration, accusing it of undermining democracy. (Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Paul Tait)
By John Irish PARIS (Reuters) - France's foreign minister said on Friday he wanted major powers to agree on a transition plan that would be imposed on Syrians, but ruled out any role for President Bashar al-Assad, who he said had "murdered" part of his population. Jean-Yves Le Drian's comments come despite what has appeared to be a softening in Paris' position since the arrival of President Emmanuel Macron. Macron's election victory gave Paris, which is a key backer of the Syrian opposition and the second-largest contributor to the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State, a chance to re-examine its Syria policy. Macron proposed dropping demands Assad step down as a pre-condition for talks, although French officials still insist he cannot be the long-term future for Syria. Le Drian, defence minister under former president Francois Hollande, said the anticipated defeat of Islamic State militants meant there was an opportunity for a compromise. More than 300,000 people have died in six years of fighting and millions more have fled Syria. "He (Assad) cannot be part of the solution. The solution is to find with all the actors a calendar with a political transition that will enable a new constitution and elections," Le Drian told RTL radio. "This transition cannot be done with Bashar al-Assad who murdered part of his population and who has led millions of Syrians to leave" their homeland, he said. Critics accused the Hollande administration of intransigence over Assad's future, although it later said Assad would have to leave only once a transition process was complete. CONTACT GROUP That position has put France at odds with Russia and Iran, who back Assad and say the Syrian people should decide their own future. While Britain has said Assad must go, diplomats say the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has yet to outline a vision for a political process in Syria and is focusing primarily on defeating Islamic State and countering Iran. The U.N. Security Council has already adopted a Syria transition roadmap and two diplomats said the latest French idea was to get the five permanent members of the council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - to agree first how to move forward. The Security Council would then bring into fold the main regional powers, although diplomats said it was pointless without Iran's involvement. There were also questions on how to win U.S. support given the Trump administration's staunch anti-Iranian position. "That's what we want to do now even before Assad leaves. We do that independently because if we wait for the Syrians to agree we will wait a long time and there will be thousands more dead," Le Drian said. Macron has said the initiative would begin to see light during the U.N. General Assembly in mid-September. Le Drian has previously said the contact group would aim to help U.N.-brokered peace talks in Geneva. They have stalled in large part due to the weakness of opposition groups and the Assad government's refusal to enter substantive negotiations, given its strong position on the ground. The last major international attempt to resolve the crisis ended in failure when the International Syria Support Group, which included Iran, was disbanded after Syrian government forces retook the rebel stronghold of Aleppo in 2015. (Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Jon Boyle)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's foreign ministry on Friday announced an agreement with Tajikistan to establish exchanges of security intelligence as part of an upgrade to diplomatic relations during a state visit by Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to China. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Rahmon on Thursday established a "comprehensive strategic partnership" between the two countries, according to a statement released on the foreign ministry's website. The two sides agreed to bolster efforts to combat the threats of terrorism, separatism and religious extremism, as well as international criminal groups and drug trafficking by launching professional intelligence exchanges, the posting said. "Both sides will strengthen communications between defense, security and law enforcement departments and deepen intelligence exchanges," it said. China's plan to rebuild the ancient Silk Road by reconnecting trade routes from its borders into Central and South East Asia, dubbed the Belt and Road Initiative, has raised new security concerns for the country and its companies. Beijing has worked to deepen security cooperation with countries in Central Asia and elsewhere to make up for shortfalls in its own intelligence and security measures to combat terror groups and other threats in the region. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security bloc established in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to fight radical Islam, has expanded to now include nearly twenty states as members or partners. In September last year, China agreed to finance and build several outposts for Tajik border guards and other facilities along the porous 1,345-km border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. (Reporting by Christian Shepherd; Editing by Tom Hogue)
Ahmedabad's Walled City gets World Heritage City Certificate
Published: September 2, 2017
The 600-year-old Walled City in Gujarats commercial capital Ahmedabad was formally accorded status of Indias first World Heritage City by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In this regard, UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova handed over certificate declaring it as World Heritage City to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Gandhinagar. The status recognises heritage value of walled citys unique heritage.
Walled city of Ahmedabad
The walled city of Ahmedabad was founded in the 15th century by Ahmed Shah of Gujarat Sultanate. It is situated on the eastern bank of Sabarmati River. It presents rich architectural heritage from sultanate period, notably the Bhadra citadel, walls and gates of Fort city and numerous mosques and tombs, as well as important Hindu and Jain temples of later periods. It has 28 Archaeological Survey of Indias centrally protected monuments. The 5.5 km walled city area has approximate population of four lakh living in century old wooden residences in around 600 pols or neighbourhoods
Important Facts
The walled city of Ahmedabad is first city in India to get World Heritage City status and third in Asia after Bhaktapur (Nepal) and Galle (Sri Lanka). India now has total 36 World Heritage Inscriptions 28 cultural, 7 natural and 1 mixed site. India is second after China in terms of number of world heritage properties in Asia and Pacific (ASPAC) region, and overall seventh in world.
World Heritage Cities Programme
It is one of six thematic programmes formally approved and monitored by World Heritage Committee (WHC) of UNESCO. It aims to assist state parties in the challenges of protecting and managing their urban heritage sites.
Month: Current Affairs - September, 2017
Category: Places in News Current Affairs
Topics: Ahmedabad Art and Culture Places in News UNESCO Walled City World Heritage City
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India-ETFA to hold FTA talks
Published: September 2, 2017
India and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) will meet shortly in an attempt to conclude their long pending negotiations on Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
So far, 16 rounds of negotiations have taken place which had started in 2008. Both sides had resumed talks on the agreement in January 2017 after a gap of three years
Key Facts
The proposed FTA between India and EFTA covers trade in goods and services, investments, IRPR protection, trade facilitation, customs cooperation and public procurement. The early conclusion of the proposed FTA between India and EFTA as well as an investment protection framework will boost economic ties between the two sides. The India-EFTA bilateral trade was worth $19 billion in 2016-17 from $21.5 billion in 2015-16. The trade balance was in favour of EFTA members.
European Free Trade Association (EFTA)
EFTA is regional trade organisation and free trade area consisting of four European states, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It operates in parallel with European Union (EU), and all four member states participate in the European single market.
It was established in May 1960 thorough Stockholm Convention to serve as an alternative trade bloc for those European states that were unable or unwilling to join then European Economic Community (EEC) (which subsequently became European Union).
EFTA is not a customs union and member states have full rights to enter into bilateral trade arrangements with third-country. Moreover, it does not envisage for political integration nor issue legislation. Its secretariat is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
Month: Current Affairs - September, 2017
Topics: European Free Trade Association Free trade agreement India-EFTA National Trade
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President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has launched the Afghan governments new compact - a commitment to key reforms aimed at improving security and creating a more peaceful, stable, and prosperous society.
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert commended the Afghan governments plan to fight corruption and improve its governance.
The implementation of the new commitments, which include benchmarks in four key areas governance, security, peace and reconciliation, and economics they carry with them the opportunities to improve the delivery of government services, stem official corruption, and prepare for secure national elections in 2018, said Ms. Nauert.The benchmarks are tied to global standards of good governance put forward by the World Bank and other leading institutions.
The development of the compact and its ultimate implementation was an important consideration in the development of the administrations new South Asia strategy. Chief Executive Abdullah highlighted the fact, when he said that nation building is a job for the Afghans themselves to do and not the United States or other countries. So we congratulate Afghanistan on that and look forward to any way that we can assist them, said spokesperson Nauert.
In his address explaining the new U.S. South Asia strategy, President Trump said America will work with the Afghan government as long as we see determination and progress. However, our commitment is not unlimited, and our support is not a blank check. The government of Afghanistan, said President Trump, must carry their share of the military, political, and economic burden. The American people expect to see real reforms, real progress, and real results.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
By Seba Aghayeva Trend:
Making illegal visits to the Armenian-occupied Azerbaijani territories, Canadian MPs are becoming tools of propaganda in Armenias hands, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hikmat Hajiyev told The Globe and Mail.
The Globe and Mail article notes that Canadian MPs Tony Clement and Rachael Harder were placed on Azerbaijans list of undesirable persons for visiting the territories occupied by Armenia, which have been the scene of bloody clashes over the past 16 months.
Talking to The Globe and Mail, Hajiyev said that Armenia is ignoring four resolutions of the United Nations Security Council calling for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
One million Azerbaijanis have been subject to ethnic cleansing. Imagine Canadian MPs visiting these territories and, in a way, giving their support to this ethnic cleansing, Hajiyev said. It is completely unacceptable.
Commenting on his visit to the occupied territories, MP Tony Clement told The Globe and Mail that he was on a humanitarian mission and is not endorsing anyone.
Adam Austen, press secretary at the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, said the country recommends against all travel to the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and fully supports the OSCE efforts for comprehensive conflict settlement.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
Trend:
Three Azerbaijani citizens (Namiq Salmanov, Movlud Rashidbayli and Farid Aliyev), who were imprisoned in Libya, were released Aug. 31, 2017 following long negotiations held by Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry with the relevant structures of Libya, the ministry told Trend.
The above-mentioned Azerbaijani citizens, members of crew of the Kalkanlar 1 vessel owned by a Turkish company, were declared wanted on February 27, 2016 as missing. Subsequently, the missing Azerbaijani citizens contacted the members of their families by phone and said that they had sunk the ship, however they couldnt provide detailed information.
After the investigation by Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry, it was established that the Azerbaijani citizens were taken hostage by militants of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in the Libyan city of Sirte.
Due to suspension of Azerbaijans diplomatic mission in Libya, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry asked for consular assistance to the Turkish diplomatic mission in Libya. Also, contacts were continued with the embassy of Libya in Azerbaijan.
As a result of the measures taken, the citizens of Azerbaijan were released, and they were brought to the territory under the control of Libyan state authorities.
They were accused of causing serious damage to Libyas budget due to the illegal export of diesel fuel via the territory of Libya.
During this time, the staff of the Turkish diplomatic mission in Libya visited the Azerbaijani citizens in the detention center and ensured their communication with members of their families by phone.
On September 2, the Azerbaijani citizens were taken to Istanbul, and after that they were sent by a plane to Baku.
Details added (first version posted on 09:24)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
Trend:
Three Azerbaijani citizens (Namiq Salmanov, Movlud Rashidbayli and Farid Aliyev), who were imprisoned in Libya, were released Aug. 31, 2017 following long negotiations held by Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry with the relevant structures of Libya, the ministry told Trend.
The above-mentioned Azerbaijani citizens, members of crew of the Kalkanlar 1 vessel owned by a Turkish company, were declared wanted on February 27, 2016 as missing. Subsequently, the missing Azerbaijani citizens contacted the members of their families by phone and said that they had sunk the ship, however they couldnt provide detailed information.
After the investigation by Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry, it was established that the Azerbaijani citizens were taken hostage by militants of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in the Libyan city of Sirte.
Due to suspension of Azerbaijans diplomatic mission in Libya, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry asked for consular assistance to the Turkish diplomatic mission in Libya. Also, contacts were continued with the embassy of Libya in Azerbaijan.
As a result of the measures taken, the citizens of Azerbaijan were released, and they were brought to the territory under the control of Libyan state authorities.
They were accused of causing serious damage to Libyas budget due to the illegal export of diesel fuel via the territory of Libya.
During this time, the staff of the Turkish diplomatic mission in Libya visited the Azerbaijani citizens in the detention center and ensured their communication with members of their families by phone.
On September 2, the Azerbaijani citizens were taken to Istanbul, and after that they were sent by a plane to Baku.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
Trend:
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to Captains Regent of the Republic of San Marino Mimma Zavoli and Vanessa DAmbrosio.
On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my most sincere congratulations to you and all the people of the Republic of San Marino on your countrys national holiday Republic Day, Ilham Aliyev said in his letter.
On this remarkable day, I extend my best wishes to you and wish the friendly people of San Marino lasting peace and prosperity.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
Trend:
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of the Jalilabad-Astanli-Jangan-Soltankand highway as part of his visit to Jalilabad district.
The highway was reconstructed by Azeravtoyol Open Joint Stock Company.
Chairman of Azeravtoyol Open Joint Stock Company Saleh Mammadov informed the head of state of the reconstruction work.
The 21.2-km road connects 23 villages with a total population of 20,000 people. The two-lane road is 6 meters in width.
President Ilham Aliyev cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the Jalilabad-Astanli-Jangan-Soltankand highway.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
Trend:
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of Avangard LLCs cereals and pulses cleaning and packing complex in Jalilabad.
The plant features state-of-the-art equipment. The total area of the complex is five hectares, and it includes a grain storage, a mill, and a pulses and flour products packing plant.
The facility has a capacity of 5 tons per hour. The 10,000-ton grain storage and the mill, which has a processing capacity of 30 tons per hour, feature the Azerbaijani- and Turkish-made equipment. The pulses and flour products packing plant is supplied with the Turkish-made equipment.
The project will create nearly 80 jobs.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
Trend:
As part of his visit to Lankaran President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has viewed a tea plantation of local farmer Araz Yagubov`s Yashil Chay LLC.
The head of state was told that the tea leaves harvested from the plantation are processed and packed at the company`s production facility. The company produces high-quality Lankaran tea.
President Ilham Aliyev also viewed a mulberry plantation, which features 12,000 saplings brought from China.
The head of state spoke with workers here and posed with them for photographs.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
Trend:
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has visited Astara Chay LLC`s plantations in Lankaran.
The head of state was told that the total area of tea plantations in the country is 1,016 hectares, including 568 hectares in Lankaran, 345 hectares in Astara, 60 hectares in Zagatala and 43 hectares in Masalli districts.
Astara Chay LLC has 289 hectares of tea plantations.
President Ilham Aliyev spoke with the company`s workers and posed with them for photographs.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
Trend:
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the opening of Khazar Palace hotel complex in Lankaran.
The head of state cut the ribbon symbolizing the opening of the hotel.
The complex is two hectares in area. Construction of the five-storey 39-room hotel started in May 2015 and was completed this August.
President Ilham Aliyev was told that the hotel staff, which are mainly Azerbaijani nationals, completed special trainings. The hotel houses a conference hall and several restaurants, which offer dishes of the Azerbaijani and world cuisine.
President Ilham Aliyev viewed rooms and gyms of the hotel.
Khazar Palace hotel will provide 100 people with permanent jobs. There are also eight cottages in the hotel`s area.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
Trend:
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has viewed Janub Agro LLC`s rice paddies and inaugurated a rice plant as part of his visit to Lankaran.
The head of state was told that the complex occupies a total area of 225 hectares. The rice paddies occupy an area of 35 hectares, which will be expanded by 27.5 hectares in the future.
President Ilham Aliyev was informed of the latest technologies used to cultivate rice. Rice farming is being developed in the district`s Girdani, Veravul, Urga, Siyavar, Hirkan, Kholmili, Shikhakaran, Mamusta, Separadi and other villages.
The head of state then launched the rice plant, which is one hectare in area. Construction of the plant started last November and was completed this August.
President Ilham Aliyev viewed production process here. The plant has a monthly processing capacity of 300 tons and drying capacity of 900 tons. It created 15 permanent jobs. The capacity of the plant will be increased twice in the future, while the number of staff will reach 60.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
Trend:
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has viewed Gunashli-Agro LLC`s Agropark as part of his visit to Jalilabad.
The head of state viewed a stand highlighting the technical indicators of the Agropark. The facility features 563-hectare barley, 530-hectare sugar beet, 219-hectare wheat, 160-hectare cotton, 68-hectare maize and 60-hectare clover plantations.
President Ilham Aliyev was informed of the Agropark of Gunashli-Agro LLC as well as other agroparks that were and will be built in the districts in accordance with proposals of the Ministry of Economy.
The Agropark occupies a total area of 1,600 hectares. State-of-the-art pivot irrigation systems were installed in an area of 1,200 hectares.
The head of state toured the Agropark. The complex features two cattle farms and milking systems. It has maize reaping machines, mowers, oil tankers, 40 electronic and 20 mechanical milking machines, three Belarus tractors, three ploughs, and other equipment.
A milk processing plant with a daily capacity of 20 tons and costing AZN5 million as well as a meat plant with an annual capacity of 1,000 tons and costing 1.5 million will be built in the Agropark. Once fully implemented, the projects will create nearly 350 jobs.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
Trend:
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended the launch of water supply and sewage systems in the city of Jalilabad.
Chairman of Azerbaijan Melioration and Water Management Company Ahmad Ahmadzade informed the head of state of the project to reconstruct the citys water supply system and build a sewage infrastructure.
The project is being implemented under the National Water Supply and Sanitation Project, funded by the World Bank. The project provides for the improvement of water supply and sewage infrastructure for 77,000 people in the city of Jalilabad.
President Ilham Aliyev met with local residents there. Local resident, Honored Teacher Garanfil Ahmadova thanked the head of state for his attention to the development of Jalilabad.
President Aliyev pressed a button to launch the water supply system.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
By Kamila Aliyeva Trend:
US President Donald Trump and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev had a phone conversation Sept. 1, the press service of Kazakh Presidential Palace Akorda reported.
During the talks, the US president congratulated Nazarbayev on successfully holding the international exhibition EXPO 2017 in Astana and highly appreciated the participation of an American delegation in the event.
The two leaders noted the importance of their May 21 meeting during the 2017 Riyadh Summit in strengthening of cooperation between Astana and Washington.
Nazarbayev informed the US president about the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Summit on Science and Technology, which is to be held in Astana Sept. 10-11.
The two sides discussed the state of the Kazakh-American relations and prospects for their development, as well as topical issues of regional and international agenda.
They also agreed to step up bilateral trade and economic cooperation.
During their phone conversation, Nazarbayev and Trump paid special attention to the state of US-Russia relations. Nazarbayev expressed hope for normalization of the dialogue between Washington and Moscow.
Trump also invited the Kazakh president to visit Washington.
At the end of their conversation, the heads of state confirmed their intention to maintain regular dialogue on issues of mutual interest.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
By Kamila Aliyeva Trend:
The next high-level international meeting on Syria within the framework of the Astana process will be held on Sept. 14-15 in Astana, according to the information published on the website of Kazakh Foreign Ministry.
The agenda of the forthcoming meeting includes consideration of a number of documents regulating the activity of the control forces of de-escalation as well as continuation of work on coordinating the composition of the control forces in Idlib
The participants intend to approve maps of de-escalation zones in the provinces of Idlib, Homs and East Gut, draft regulations on the Coordination Center, the working group on the release of detainees/hostages, the transfer of dead bodies and the search for missing persons, according to the guarantor countries.
The sides are expected to adopt a joint statement on the humanitarian demining of historical monuments in Syria included in the UNESCO World Heritage list and discuss other issues of mutual interest.
The guarantor countries also plan to hold a meeting of the Joint Working Group Sept. 13.
To date, five rounds of negotiations on the ongoing Syrian conflict were held in Astana. Guarantors of a nationwide Syrian ceasefire regime - Russia, Turkey and Iran - had agreed on May 4 in the Kazakh capital, Astana, to establish "de-escalation zones" in war-torn Syria. The zones would cover the city of Idlib and certain parts of Latakia, Homs, Aleppo and Hama as well as Damascus, Eastern Ghouta, Daraa and Quneitra.
Syria has been locked in civil war since March 2011. According to UN's special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, around 400,000 people have died in the conflict while half the population has been driven from their homes.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
By Kamila Aliyeva Trend:
A telephone conversation between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev was held Sept. 2, according to the information published on the official website of Kazakh President.
Erdogan congratulated Nazarbayev on the holiday of Kurban Ait, wished him good health and success, and prosperity to the people of Kazakhstan.
During the conversation, the two sides discussed the state and prospects of bilateral cooperation, as well as the upcoming official visit of Turkish President to Astana on September 9 this year.
The leaders of the countries also exchanged views on the issues of holding the first OIC Summit on Science and Technology, which is to be held in Astana Sept. 10-11.
The sides agreed to continue constructive dialogue for further deepening of Kazakh-Turkish relations in a wide range of areas.
The conversation took place on the initiative of the Turkish side.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Sept. 2
By Demir Azizov Trend:
Today, on Sept. 2, Uzbekistan marks the Day of Remembrance of Islam Karimov, the first president of the country, Uzbekistan National News Agency (UzA) reported.
Islam Karimov served as Uzbek president for more than 25 years. He passed away Sept. 2, 2016 at the age of 78 after suffering a stroke. Islam Karimov was buried in Samarkand city, his hometown.
In early December 2016, presidential election was held in Uzbekistan, and Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who previously served as prime minister, gained victory at the election.
At the end of January this year, Mirziyoyev signed a decree on commemorating the first president of Uzbekistan. According to the document, Karimovs birthday will be celebrated every year on Jan. 30, and the day of his remembrance on Sept. 2.
In accordance with the decree, the Tashkent International Airport, the car plant in the city of Asaka, Tashkent State Technical University, the Palace of Arts in the city of Fergana were named after the first President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov. Streets in several cities of the country were also named after the first Uzbek president.
Today, Samarkand also hosted a ceremony of opening a monument to the first president of Uzbekistan.
A monument to Islam Karimov was erected in a park near Registan Square, not far from the house where he grew up. The monument was opened by Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who arrived to attend the ceremony, and Tatyana Karimova, widow of the first president. Flowers were laid at the foot of the monument, and the national anthem of Uzbekistan was played.
Tehran, Iran, August 28
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
A Chinese investment company has said it will help Iran build a railroad in return for Iranian crude oil, Tasnim news agency reported August 28.
The offer was made by the representative of the company in a meeting with officials of the Iranian Ministry of Transport.
The preposition of the Chinese side was to "swap technology for oil".
According to Deputy Minister of Transport of Iran Kheirollah Khademi, the railway in question would be an express train track between Tehran and Tabriz (northwest Iran) with the length of 700 kilometers.
Iran has been trying in the wake of its 2015 nuclear deal, which lifted economic sanctions on the country, to refurbish its railway system.
Recently news outlets said a Russian bank had agreed to provide 1 billion euros to electrify a 500 km railway route in northern Iran.
The loan is related to a 1.2 billion euro deal that Russia and Iran signed to electrify the Garmsar to Inche Burun line during a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Tehran in November 2015.
The railway line extends into Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, linking Central Asia to the Persian Gulf and beyond.
A month earlier, Russias largest manufacturer of locomotives and rail equipment, CJSC Transmashholding, signed a 2.5 billion euro deal with IDRO Group in Tehran for joint production of rolling stock in Iran.
In July, Iran signed another deal worth 1.2 billion euros with Italys state railway company Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) to build a high-speed railway between the central cities of Arak and Qom.
Under a national plan, Iran seeks to stretch out the nationwide railroad line to 25,000 kilometers by 2025 from under 15,000 kilometers now.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
By Fatih Karimov Trend:
Having ties with the entire world is in favor of Iran, says the Islamic Republics Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
In todays world, we cannot have relations only with a certain part of the world and forget about the rest, the Iranian governments news portal quoted Zarif as saying Sept. 2.
The top Iranian diplomat further said that any country has to communicate with the entire world in order to have a successful foreign policy.
He added that President Hassan Rouhanis administration plans to expand Irans ties with rest of the world in coming four years.
However, he underlined that the policy should be carried out within certain principles.
Zarif said the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also emphasized that Irans international ties should not be limited to certain regions.
Tehran, Iran, Aug. 29
By Mehdi Sepahvand Trend:
Iranian government is prepared to provide more political freedom in the four-year term ahead, according to spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht.
"As Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has said, his ministry is prepared to consider a wider space for activities of political groups," Nobakht told Trend Aug. 29.
Asked how the political atmosphere of the country would differ from that of the past four years notwithstanding the fact that in both terms the Interior Ministry has been headed by the same person, the spokesman said the body of the government will use its policy of moderation and tolerance to promote the activities of political parties.
President Hassan Rouhani was elected on May 19 for a second four-year term. Recently, his proposed cabinet received vote of confidence from the Parliament.
Both in his previous term and in the current one, Rouhani promised increased freedom of expression and political activity and inclusion of various viewpoints.
Iraqs military has redeployed troops from Baghdad to Kirkuk for a fresh campaign aimed at retaking Kirkuks Al-Hawija district from the Daesh terrorist group, the Defense Ministry said Saturday, Anadolu reported.
In a statement, the ministry said that additional units of the Iraqi Federal Police (IFP) had been sent from the capital to participate in the upcoming operation.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Police Captain Jabbar Hassan said that army troops and IFP units had arrived in Mosuls southern Al-Qayyarah district on Saturday after being withdrawn from recently-liberated Tal Afar in Nineveh province.
According to Hassan, these forces will be employed in the planned campaign to retake Al-Hawija in southern Kirkuk.
Most of the troops who participated in the liberation of Tal Afar will participate in the Hawija campaign, Army First Lieutenant Fayeq Numan al-Salim told Anadolu Agency.
Along with army and police units, the Al-Hawija campaign will also likely include Iraqs Hashd al-Shaabi (a Shia fighting force incorporated into the army last year) and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, according to the military officer.
Preparations for the campaign began several weeks ago, but they were stepped up following the recent recapture of Tal Afar, al-Salim said.
He went on to predict a speedy victory over Daesh in Al-Hawija, similar what we saw in Tal Afar.
Late last month, Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition captured the Tal Afar district in Nineveh province following a 10-day campaign.
A predominantly Turkmen district, Tal Afar was overrun by the terrorist group -- along with large territories in northern and western Iraq -- in mid-2014.
The international community has the responsibility to formulate a long-term solution to the Rohingya crisis in Myanmars western state of Rakhine, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Friday.
Turkey will continue to maintain its constructive and determined attitude for a solution, Kalin said in a Twitter post.
He called the worlds silence in the face of the persecution of Rohingya Muslims by security forces of the southeast Asian country a portrait of shame.
Turkey is continuing our intensive efforts and initiatives at every level to end the humanitarian tragedy in Rakhine, according to the presidents aide.
He noted that Turkish humanitarian aid agencies, including the Turkish Red Crescent, Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), and Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), are involved in these efforts.
Turkish authorities are in contact with authorities in Myanmar and Bangladesh -- where thousands of Rohingya have fled -- to supply humanitarian aid to the Rohingya people, Kalin stressed.
Violence erupted in Myanmars Rakhine state on Aug. 25 when the countrys security forces launched an operation against the Rohingya Muslim community. It triggered a fresh influx of refugees towards neighboring Bangladesh, though the country sealed off its border for the refugees.
Media reports said Myanmar security forces used disproportionate force, displacing thousands of Rohingya villagers and destroying their homes with mortars and machine guns.
The region has seen simmering tension between its Buddhist and Muslim populations since communal violence broke out in 2012.
A crackdown launched last October in Maungdaw, where Rohingya make up the majority, led to a UN report on security forces human rights violations and crimes against humanity.
The UN documented mass gang-rape, killings -- including infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances. Rohingya representatives have said that some 400 people have been slain during the crackdown.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend:
Turkeys intelligence service detained an Iraqi citizen linked to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group.
Turkish media say the detainee is one of the main couriers of the IS.
The detained Iraqi national was carrying documents containing information on coordinates and location of important strategic facilities in Turkey.
The Iraqi national was detained in a special operation at the Sabiha Gokcen International Airport in Istanbul before leaving for Baghdad.
Searches on the Iraqi national also revealed a list with names of Turkish and foreign citizens who have close ties with the detainee.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend:
Holding an independence referendum in Iraqs Kurdish Autonomous Region will destabilize the situation in the region, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said, the countrys media reported Sept. 2.
Bozdag noted that Turkey always supported the territorial integrity of Iraq, and has repeatedly called on Erbil to postpone the independence referendum.
He added that Turkey expects Erbil to cancel the holding of the referendum.
Iraqs Kurdish Autonomous Region is expected to hold an independence referendum on September 25.
Earlier, Masoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, had warned that opposition to the referendum would be met with a bloody war.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said that the Kurdish administration of Iraq will regret if it holds an independence referendum.
Iraqs integrity is a priority for Turkey, noted Erdogan, adding that a referendum on independence of the Kurdish autonomy means the beginning of Iraqs disintegration.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
KYODO NEWS - Sep 2, 2017 - 13:14 | All, Feature
As Japan's lifetime employment culture crumbles, younger Japanese are becoming increasingly familiar with pursuing parallel careers.
Nanako Shibata is a Tokyo staffing agency PR employee, but also a professional dancer who practices seven hours a day, four days a week to perform on stage.
Shibata, 27, started working at the staffing agency, b-style Inc., as a full-time regular employee in 2013, but soon found the work too hard for her to continue concentrating on dancing. She considered quitting, but on the advice of the company's president, she instead switched her status in 2015 to part-time contract worker, working three days a week.
Her wages dropped but she became "happier," she told Kyodo News in late July during a practice session for an imminent stage show.
Shibata has not lowered her work performance target since changing status. With support from her co-workers, she said, she was given an in-house award for excellent achievement.
Her supervisor said Shibata's work style has provided a "good motivation" for younger colleagues.
The company currently plans to launch a new system to allow regular employees to choose to work three days a week without changing their status to contract workers like Shibata.
"Regular employees are our core workforce who share the philosophy and vision of the company," an official of b-style said. "We plan to launch a program enabling them to work flexibly."
Shibata is one of the young Japanese pursuing so-called "parallel careers" who hold multiple jobs or engage in various activities in addition to regular work.
The government has been encouraging workers to take side jobs as part of its "work system reform" initiative under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's growth strategy.
Masayuki Tanaka is a 35-year-old Tokyo resident running a consultant business on his own while also working under contracts commissioned by a consulting agency and a nonprofit organization.
Tanaka left a major think tank in April because the long work hours made it hard for him and his working wife to look after their young child.
He expected his income to fall after quitting the think tank but luckily avoided a steep decline and now has more free time.
Volunteer activities in which young workers can utilize their work skills are also popular.
According to Yuko Gendo, 34, representative of Social Marketing Japan, a body that acts as a bridge between individuals wishing to work as volunteers and NPOs in need of them, most applicants work on a full-time basis.
"Many of them can improve their professional work through synergy effects from experiencing outside cultures," she said.
Mitsunari Kubota, 31, who has engaged in volunteer activities through Social Marketing, said, "The experience gained from being a volunteer is useful to my work."
Natsuko Hagiwara, a professor at the Department of Sociology at Rikkyo University well versed in the trend of parallel careers, said, "Having multiple footholds is a risk management practice now that (Japan's) lifetime employment system has collapsed."
"Environments that enable people to pursue multiple careers, such as a system allowing them to return to work after retirement, need to be created with the involvement of companies and the government," she said.
Hagiwara also cautioned that people who want parallel careers should have an "unshakable axis of what they want to do."
Srinagar: Two jawans are martyred yesterday in Jammu and Kashmir. If there is a terrorist attack in Srinagar, Pakistan has broken the ceasefire in the district of Poonch. Firing by the terrorists on the Jammu-Kashmir police bus in Pantha Chowk, Srinagar. In the firing, a young man was killed while three jawans were injured.
On the other hand, BSF's sub inspector has been martyred in Pakistan's violation of the ceasefire. So far 47 soldiers have died.
At the same time, in Kulgam this morning, security forces have killed a terrorist in an encounter, the encounter has happened in the Tantipora area of Kulgam.
Terrorists attacked a police bus in Pantha Chowk area of Srinagar yesterday. In this attack, a young man was killed and three others were injured. A police official said that the terrorists attacked the bus carrying the personnel of Jammu Kashmir Armed Police. The vehicle was going to buy food.
He said that four policemen were injured in the attack, they were admitted to Army's 92 Base Hospital here in Badami Bagh Cantonment where injured head constable Kishan Lal was killed. They said that three other conditions are stable.
BFF jawan dies in the sniper attack in Poonch:
At the same time, a troop of Border Security Force (BSF) was killed in a sniper attack by Pakistani troops across the Line of Control in Poonch district. The sub inspector (ASI) Kamaljit Singh (50) was injured in 'enemy firing' across the Line of Control (LoC) at around 5:00 pm yesterday.
Army official said that the first treatment of Singh posted on an advance post in Krishna Valley area in Poonch was done. When he was taken to a military hospital, he succumbed to his injuries. The official said that ASI was from the village of Malkana village in Bathinda district of Punjab. He was involved in the force in 1988.
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To say new Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has his work cut out for him would be an understatement.
When the 48-year-old former Expedia (EXPE) chief executive starts on Tuesday, hell inherit an embattled company rocked by numerous scandals, including allegations of sexual harassment, and a board of directors fractured from months of infighting.
New Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
But its not all doom and gloom for Khosrowshahi. For one thing, Uber remains a juggernaut, valued at nearly $70 billion as of February. According to a study from digital research firm eMarketer, Uber will capture 85% of the ride-hailing market in the U.S. this year, with 44.4 million adults expected to use Uber at least once this year up from 28.5% in 2016.
To keep that momentum going, however, Khosrowshahi will have to right the ship in a number of ways, starting from within.
Create a set of core values
Corny as it sounds, a companys core values are more than just feel-good gobbledygook. Theyre the principles the company abides by and instills in its workplace on a day-to-day basis.
Uber, to be clear, has no official list of core values.
In the beginning, it was a lifestyle company, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick told me in 2012. You push a button and a black car comes up. Whos the baller? It was a baller move to get a black car to arrive in 8 minutes.
That kind of bro-like attitude and rhetoric permeated through Ubers halls for years and created an atmosphere where male employees allegedly sexually harassed female employees without consequences.
Charlene Li, founder of the San Francisco-based research firm Altimeter Group, contends that having a core sent of values and having executives, managers and human resources enforce them could help repair Ubers overall image. Adopting these values could also help the companys current difficulty attracting top-shelf talent.
Its a fantastic brand, but its very tarnished because of the problems, Li added. They need to re-establish trust in the workplace. But what does Uber stand for? They need to clarify that.
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Double-down on self-driving car technology
Unfortunately for Uber, most of the headlines this year around its self-driving car technology focused on an ongoing legal battle with Waymo. The self-driving car business, which Google (GOOG, GOOGL) spun out in latest 2016, alleges that former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski downloaded nearly 14,000 confidential files in late 2015 related to Googles self-driving car technology before leaving the company to co-found Otto, a startup that developed self-driving technology for truck rigs. Uber then acquired Otto for a reported $680 million in August 2016.
Uber would be wise to double down on its self-driving car technology efforts, regardless of how things shake out with Waymo, simply because self-driving rides are expected to cost less than todays Uber or Lyft rides with human drivers. And for a business like Uber, having a sustainable cost advantage against rivals like Lyft, which is also developing self-driving car tech, is tantamount to long-term success.
Make several, smart acquisitions
In addition to shoring up its self-driving car efforts, Uber would also be wise to make some smart acquisitions. Sometimes, the best way to succeed in an aggressively competitive market like ride-hailing is to acquire talent and technology from outside companies. Although Ubers acquisition of Otto last year sparked the lawsuit from Waymo, its the type of strategic move Khosrowshahi should replicate.
They havent been doing very many acquisitions, Li explained. They need to think about acquisitions that help them achieve scaleable, sensible profits.
As luck would have it, Khosrowshahi is already in a good position to acquire other types of transportation companies. The Iranian-American executive is an investor in Convoy, a Seattle-based startup with an Uber-like app that connects over 10,000 trucking companies with shipments from 300 businesses including Anheuser-Busch (BUD) and Unilever (UL) to transport thousands of shipments each and every week.
Acquiring a company like Convoy would be a practical way to expand Ubers vast reach and an excellent way for Khosrowshahi to kick off his first year as the companys CEO.
JP Mangalindan is a senior correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Email story tips and musings to jpm@oath.com. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise is a lot lighter now than it was a year ago.
The data center technology company said Friday that it closed an $8.8 billion deal in which it spun off its software business to Micro Focus, an IT software company based in the United Kingdom.
HPE first announced the deal last September, during which CEO Meg Whitman pitched it as a big step to help HPW be an even stronger company, well positioned to the future.
Here are four reasons why the deal is important.
1. It seems to have boosted HPEs stock, at least for the day.
HPEs hpe shares were up 1.7% to $14.24 at 12:10 PM PST after the company said the deal closed. The enterprise hardware maker needs any help it can get to lift its stock price, which has been falling ever since the beginning of this year. HPEs shares have plummeted nearly 40% since the beginning of January as sales of its servers and other data center gear keep declining each quarter as more companies continue to buy on-demand computing resources from businesses like Amazon amzn , Microsoft msft , and Google goog .
Still, HPE said that its stock price is actually performing better because of the two spin offs it did this year.
We have spun off two companies, which have each included the distribution of 50.1% of the new companys stock to our shareholders, An HPE spokesperson wrote to Fortune in an email. If you owned a share of HPE on Dec 31 ($23.20) then that share is worth about $25.75 today. That is a little better than a 10% increase.
2. Its one more thing Meg Whitman can check off her to-do list.
Whitman has been trying to nurse HPE back to health through multiple major initiatives including splitting the company from its PC and printer sibling HP Inc. hpq in November 2015.
At the beginning of 2017, HPE said it would buy data center hardware startup Simplivity for $650 million, followed by the $1 billion purchase of storage hardware startup Nimble Storage in March.
These big transactions are intended to revive HPE amid a rapidly changing technology landscape, but they have yet to make a big impact with HPE missing its sales projections for four straight quarters, as Bloomberg News noted.
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Whitman has stated multiple times that she doesnt intend to leave HPE until she believes the company is healthy enough, although she was recently negotiating to become CEO of ride-sharing company Uber.
3. It closes the books on HPEs disastrous purchase of Autonomy
One of the software units Micro Focus is inheriting from HPE is the Autonomy software unit that HPE, then led by CEO Leo Apotheker, bought in 2011 for $11.1 billion. Analysts criticized the deal as being overpriced, and HPE eventually took an $8.8 billion writedown in 2012.
4. It makes Micro Focus the biggest tech company in the United Kingdom
By acquiring HPEs software businesswhich includes data analytics, security, and application monitoring softareMicro Focus has overtaken business software company Sage Group as the U.K.s biggest tech company, according to Bloomberg News.
And Micro Focus wants to continue to get bigger.
Our funding ability has increased now that we are bigger Micro Focus executive chairman Kevin Loosemore told Bloomberg News. There is no practical cap in terms of size of future deals.
Update: September 1, 2:30 PM PST with HPE statement on its stock.
Apartment Investment and Management Company AIV better known as Aimco has been actively revamping its portfolio by shedding non-strategic properties and reinvesting the proceeds in desired markets. This has helped the company record decent growth in the last quarter despite new supply in the primary markets.
In fact, the company revised its third-quarter 2017 pro forma funds from operation (FFO) per share guidance upward. Further, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter 2017 has inched up 1.6% to 62 cents in a months time.
Aimco has been enhancing its portfolio through opportunistic acquisitions in core operating markets. It is concentrating on select apartment homes which can provide higher rents, superior margins and higher-than-expected growth. Specifically, the company increased ownership in A class homes, decreasing its B and C+ apartment holdings.
Recently, Aimco shelled out $451.5 million for the complete ownership of three Palazzo communities. This transaction is anticipated to improve the average age of portfolio holdings, internal rate of return and average monthly revenues per apartment home.
In addition, the company aims to sell around 10% of its total apartment communities in its portfolio, in order to enhance portfolio quality and achieve a favorable mix of portfolio holding. It carries out the dispositions through leverage neutral pair trades.
Further, Aimco has a solid portfolio, diversified both in terms of geography and price point. This should help the company meet the rise in demand for apartment properties from echo boomers children of the baby boomer generation. This diversification cushions the companys performance despite new supply in various markets.
Although demand for residential properties is expected to shoot up in the upcoming quarters, increasing construction activity leading to new supply remains a major concern. The company suffered a slowdown in rent growth in Los Angeles, Denver and Boston markets due to competition from new supply. This rise in supply is expected to put pressure on new lease pricing at the high price point.
Moreover, disposition of assets will limit the companys bottom-line growth, as sell-offs result in earnings dilution in the short term.
Looking at its price performance, the stock has lost 1.1% year to date, versus the industrys 4.7% growth.
Story continues
Aimco currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks in the REIT space are Equity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. ELS, Independence Realty Trust, Inc. IRT and Seritage Growth Properties SRG. All three stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Equity LifeStyles 2017 FFO per share estimates moved up 0.3% to $3.59 over the past 60 days.
Independence Realtys 2017 FFO per share estimates climbed 1.4% to 75 cents in a months time.
Seritages 2017 FFO per share estimates inched up 0.5% to $2.01 during the same time frame.
Note: All EPS numbers presented in this write up represent funds from operations (FFO) per share. FFO, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income.
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Apple (AAPL) Enters Bidding Race for Toshiba's Chip Business Reportedly, Apple Inc (AAPL) has been roped in by a consortium led by Bain Capital to strengthen its offer for the Toshiba's lucrative chip business.
Apple Inc AAPL has entered the race for buying Toshiba Corp.'s chip unit at the eleventh hour. Per reports, Apple has been roped in by a consortium led by Bain Capital to strengthen its offer for the Japanese conglomerates lucrative chip business.
In June, Bain Capital along with Innovation Network Corp of Japan (INCJ) and Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) reportedly submitted a fresh bid of 2.1 trillion yen (approximately $19 billion).
It is reported that Apple will inject around 400bn (possibly upfront) while South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix and Bain will provide about 1.1 trillion with Toshibas banks supplying the remaining funds.
Apple Inc. Price
Apple Inc. Price | Apple Inc. Quote
Why is Apple Interested in Toshiba?
Notably, Toshiba is the second largest NAND flash memory maker, a technology that is now preferred over legacy hard-drive storage systems due to speed and reliability. Apple sources flash memory for iPhone and iPods from Toshiba.
Analysts observe that by acquiring Toshibas chip business, Apple can not only reduce its dependence on Samsung but also maintain competitive pricing.
Bloomberg quoted Michael Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, saying There are supply shortages of that type of memory. Theyre always looking to work closely with key suppliers and lock in long-term supply agreements.
Toshiba Fails to Meet Creditors Deadline
At its board meeting held on Thursday morning, Toshiba failed to arrive at any consensus, thereby failing to meet the deadline set by its creditors to sell its chip business. Reportedly, in a statement, Toshibas board said While Toshiba exercised its best efforts to reach a mutually satisfactory definitive agreement with one of the consortia seeking to purchase TMC, the negotiations with each consortium have not reached the point which will allow Toshiba's Board of Directors to make a decision.
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The chip unit, which Toshiba values at 2 trillion yen, has attracted a number of suitors. With many backing out including Broadcom (AVGO), Toshiba at present is considering three offers, per media reports.
One is the abovementioned Bain consortium-led offer. The second bid is led by Western Digital WDC. Now Western Digitals division SanDisk and Toshiba jointly run a flash memory factory in Japan. The two have been at loggerheads over the sale of the chip business for quite some time now.
Citing the joint venture (JV) agreement, Western Digital insists that it has the rights to approve/disapprove any transaction that involves the JV. However, Toshiba counterclaimed that the JV agreement doesnt give the right to either party to block the other from selling its share. It also pointed out that Western Digital bought SanDisk without seeking or receiving Toshibas approval. There continues to be high level tension between the companies with claims, counterclaims and arbitrations involved.
Western Digital is looking to get its hands on the memory business as it will strengthen Western Digitals competitive position in the profitable NAND flash memory market.
The final bid is from a group of buyers, which includes Taiwanese electronics maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, parent company of Foxconn. Chances of Hon Hai striking the deal are relatively low due to its significant presence in China. This is not going to go down well with the Japanese government.
Toshiba is in a awful situation. The company needs to raise capital to remain a listed entity. Currently, the company has negative shareholders equity after it posted a colossal loss of 950 billion yen (almost $8.6 billion) in the fiscal year ended March. Most of the loss stemmed from write-downs pertaining to its now-defunct Westinghouse nuclear business.
Zacks Rank and Share Price Movement
At present, Apple carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Notably, the company has outperformed the industry in a year. Shares of Apple have surged 54% compared with the industrys 52.3% increase.
Stocks to Consider
Better-ranked stocks in the broader tech space include Garmin Ltd. GRMN and The Trade Desk, Inc. TTD, both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Garmin and Trade Desk have delivered average positive earnings surprise of 22.89% and 483.79%, respectively in the trailing four quarters.
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Drivers this Labor Day weekend will quickly discover that the aftereffects of Hurricane Harvey have caused fuel prices to spike nationwide. The good news: Prices should return to normal after a few weeks.
The national average price of unleaded gasoline is at its highest point so far this year, at $2.45 per gallon, the American Automobile Association reports. Jeanette Casselano, a AAA spokeswoman, says consumers can expect prices to continue to tick slightly upward for a few weeks before they come back down to pre-Harvey levels.
AAA predicts that 35 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more this holiday weekend.
Gas Prices Wont Spike for Long
Consumers will see a short-term spike in the coming weeks with gas prices likely topping $2.50 a gallon (nationally), but they should be quickly dropping by mid- to late September, Casselano says. She added that limited damage to oil refineries and related infrastructure should mitigate any long-term price increases.
Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst at Gas Buddy, agrees that the nationwide uptick is only temporary. Increases will fade in the next week, he told Consumer Reports, but the overall amount of time it will take prices to go back to pre-Harvey levels may be 4 to 6 weeks, maybe longer.
Who will be hit the hardest? Casselano says that not surprisingly, the South and Southeast will see gas prices increase the most because they receive the bulk of the gasoline produced along the Gulf Coast.
Here are the highest price increases per gallon so far since Harvey came ashore in Texas, according to AAA:
South Carolina: +19 cents
Delaware: +18 cents
Kentucky: +17 cents
Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina: +16 cents
Maryland: +14 cents
Alabama, Kansas: +13 cents
Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia: +12 cents
Arkansas, Iowa, Michigan, Texas, Virginia: +11 cents
The Northeast is stepping in to barge fuel shipments to points South, DeHaan says. Because of that, areas of the Northeast could see another increase of 15 to 35 cents per gallon, he adds.
Story continues
The West Coast and Rockies regions will see increases, but not to the extent of the rest of the country, Casselano says.
In Houston, Empty Stations and Price Hikes
Gas is scarce in Houston itself, one resident told CR, and because some stations in Texas are reportedly charging higher than normal prices, the Texas Attorney Generals office is asking consumers to report those stations. Consumers can lodge complaints here or call 800-631-0508.
Houston resident Terese Pierce found pricey gas yesterday at a station in North Texas. She and her family have been unable to get back into their home after their subdivision was flooded, so she headed to Denver to drop one of her daughters off at college.
Normally, Pierce told CR on Friday, she would refill her car only when the gas tank was down to a quarter full, but this trip, I havent even touched a half-a-tank because I dont want to be stuck and not be able to get my kid to college, she said. There are tons of gas stations all around Houston that are empty.
As she and her daughter approached Fort Worth from the south on I-35W, they stopped at a station that seemed to have gas. I didnt even notice the price at first, she said, but it was $3.59 a gallon. She was so taken aback by the price that she posted a photo of the pump price on Facebook. She had earlier paid just $2.19 a gallon in Brookshire, Texas, she said.
AAAs Casselano says gas prices should not be subject to wild swings upward, even though theyve gone up in recent days. As in any national or local state of emergency, we expect gas prices to be held in check up and down the gasoline supply chain, unless there is a clearly justifiable reason for an increase.
How to Save on Gas
To improve your fuel economy, Consumer Reports recommends:
Drive at 55 mph instead of 65 or 75. It will save you money. When CR drove a Honda Accord at a steady 65 mph, the cars fuel economy dropped to 42 mpg from 49 mpg, its fuel economy when it was driven at 55 mph. Driving 75 mph dropped results to 37 mpg. Aerodynamic drag increases exponentially the faster you drive, says John Ibbotson, chief mechanic at CR. It simply takes more fuel to power the car through the air.
Avoid hard acceleration and braking whenever possible. In CR tests, frequent bursts of acceleration and braking reduced one test cars mileage by 2 to 3 mpg, says Jake Fisher, director of auto testing at CR.
Dont carry things on top of your vehicle when you dont have to. When we installed bikes on a rooftop carrier atop the Accord driving 65 mph, fuel economy dropped a whopping 35 percent, to 27 mpg from 42 mpg, Ibbotson says. Even the empty rack created enough drag to suck gas mileage down 5 mpg.
More from Consumer Reports:
Top pick tires for 2016
Best used cars for $25,000 and less
7 best mattresses for couples
Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright 2017, Consumer Reports, Inc.
From Woman's Day
OFFICIAL RULES
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING
1.WINNER SELECTION: Winners (individually and collectively, the "Winner") will be selected on or about 11/31/2017 in a random drawing from among all eligible entries received. Each sweepstakes is a different drawing that must be entered separately. All the sweepstakes in these Official Rules are individually and collectively the "Sweepstakes." In the event the Sponsor does not receive any eligible entries, the Sponsor has the right to cancel the Sweepstakes. Drawing will be conducted by Woman's Day, whose decisions are final. Odds of winning will depend upon the total number of eligible entries received. In the event Canadians are eligible to enter as specified in the Eligibility paragraph below, and if there is a Canadian Winner, the Winner will be required to correctly answer a mathematical skill testing question as a condition of receiving the prize. Important Notice: You may be charged for visiting the mobile website in accordance with the terms of your service agreement with your carrier. Please consult your wireless service provider regarding your pricing plan. You must use a Smartphone device to participate via your mobile phone. Not all mobile phone providers carry the necessary service to participate. Check your phone capabilities for specific Internet instructions. If your data usage exceeds what is allotted by your data plan, you could be subject to additional fees by your carrier. Please contact your mobile service provider with any questions regarding your bill.
2.WINNER NOTIFICATION: Winner will be notified within one (1) month of the last day of the Sweepstakes, via e-mail, and/or at Sponsor's discretion, via phone or postal mail. In the event the Winner doesn't respond to Sponsor's notification or does not accept the prize within five (5) business days of notification, the prize will be deemed forfeited and an alternate Winner will be selected. In the event that any one or more potential Winner(s) fails to respond as stated above, declines the prize or fails to provide signed affidavits or releases, such Winner(s) will be deemed to forfeit the prize and Sponsor will select an alternate Winner(s) from the remaining eligible entrants. If any alternate(s) similarly fails to respond or declines the prize, Sponsor will use a reasonable number of attempts, in its discretion, to award the prize(s) to another alternate(s) but if it is unable to do so, the prize(s) will be finally forfeited and Sponsor shall have no further liability in connection with said Sweepstakes. List of Winner(s): For the name(s) of the Winner(s), send a separate self-addressed, stamped envelope to September 2017 Woman's Day 80th Anniversary Sweepstakes Winners' List, Hearst Communications, Inc., 300 West 57th Street NY, NY 10019 within two (2) months from the Winner notification date as specified above.
Story continues
Oral-B Sweepstakes: Enter beginning September 2, 2017, at 12:01 a.m. (ET) through November 2, 2017, at 11:59 p.m. (ET) (the "Entry Period"). Go to womansday.com/giveaways on a computer or wireless device and complete and submit the entry form pursuant to the onscreen instructions. PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR ENTRY WILL NOT BE COMPLETED UNTIL YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE OFFICIAL ENTRY FORM AND ENTERED YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION. Prizes & Approximate Retail Value: Two (2) winners will receive an Oral-B 8000 Genius Toothbrush (ARV: $250). Total ARV of all prizes awarded: $500. Any difference between the stated ARV and the actual value of the prize will not be awarded in any form.
3. ENTRIES: Limit one (1) entry per person per day for each Sweepstakes. Multiple entries from the same person per day for the same sweepstakes will be disqualified. Entries become the property of the Sponsor and will not be returned. Proof of submission does not constitute proof of receipt. If applicable, illegible, inaccurate, lost, late, misdirected, incomplete, mutilated, postage due or mechanically reproduced entry forms or entry forms that have been tampered with will be disqualified. Online entrants must have valid email address and it is entrant's responsibility to update Sponsor of any change in email address. The mobile phone number and wireless service provider/carrier of mobile entrants (if applicable) will be automatically captured in the Sweepstakes database and all participation will be limited to that phone number unless entrant notifies Sponsor of a change. If there is a dispute as to the identity of an online or mobile entrant, the prize will be awarded to the authorized account holder of the email address or mobile phone. The "authorized account holder" is defined as the natural person to whom the email address or mobile phone is assigned by an internet service provider, online service provider, carrier, mobile phone provider or other organization (e.g., business, educational institution, etc.) that is responsible for assigning the email addresses for the domain associated with the submitted email address or responsible for assigning the mobile phone number.
4. ELIGIBILITY: For the Oral-B 8000 Genius Toothbrush, open to legal residents of the 48 contiguous United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii), the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their state or territory at time of entry. For all the other sweepstakes, open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, who have reached the age of majority in their state or territory of residence at time of entry. Legal residents of Canada (excluding Quebec) who have reached the aforementioned age in their province of residence at time of entry are also eligible to enter. Void in Puerto Rico and where prohibited by law. Employees of Sponsor, its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries, participating advertising and promotion agencies, independent judging organizations, and prize suppliers (and members of their immediate family and/or those living in the same of household of each such employee) are not eligible.
5. CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION: Expenses not specifically included in prize description and all taxes are the sole responsibility of the Winner. Each prize is awarded "as is" with no warranty or guarantee, either express or implied outside of manufacturer's limited warranty. No transfer, assignment or substitution of a prize permitted, except Sponsor reserves the right to substitute prize for an item of equal or greater value in the event an advertised prize is unavailable. The Winner is required to comply with any and all applicable federal, state, provincial, if Canadians are eligible to enter, and local laws, rules and regulations. All federal, state and local taxes, and any other costs not specifically provided for in these Official Rules are solely the Winner's responsibility. If the actual retail value of any Winner's prize is $600 or more, the Winner must complete a W9 form and supply Sponsor with his/her social security number for tax purposes. An IRS Form 1099 will be issued in the name of the Winner for the actual value of the prizes received. Sponsor shall have no responsibility or obligation to the Winner or potential Winner who are unable or unavailable to accept or utilize prizes as described herein. Entrants agree to be bound by the terms of these Official Rules and by the decisions of Sponsor, which are final and binding on all matters pertaining to this Sweepstakes. Winner may be required to sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility, a Liability Release and where legally permissible a Publicity Release within seven (7) days following the date of first attempted notification. Failure to comply with this deadline may result in forfeiture of the prize and selection of an alternate Winner. Return of any prize/prize notification as undeliverable may result in disqualification and selection of an alternate Winner. Winner hereby further agrees that it will sign any documents necessary to transfer copyright of his/her submitted entry, if applicable, to Sponsor within seven (7) days following the date of first attempted notification. By entering, Entrant grants permission for Sponsor, and any of its affiliates and subsidiaries, participating advertising and promotion agencies, and prize suppliers to use the entrant's submission (including an altered form of the entry), if any, for editorial, advertising and promotional purposes without additional compensation, unless prohibited by law. If images are being submitted to Sponsor as a requirement for entry, Entrants agree that they have all rights to use the images submitted and to allow Sponsor, any of its affiliates and subsidiaries, participating advertising and promotion agencies, and prize suppliers to reuse any of the images, without any liability, for editorial, advertising and promotional purposes. Additionally, acceptance of the prize by Winner constitutes permission for Sponsor and any affiliates and subsidiaries, participating advertising and promotion agencies, and prize suppliers to use Winner's name and/or likeness and biographical material for editorial, advertising and promotional purposes without additional compensation, unless prohibited by law. By accepting prize, Winner agrees to hold Sponsor, its advertising and promotion agencies and their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners, representative agents, successors, assigns, officers, directors, and employees harmless for any injury or damage caused or claimed to be caused by participation in the Sweepstakes or acceptance or use of the prize. Sponsor is not responsible for any printing, typographical, mechanical or other error in the printing of the offer, administration of the Sweepstakes or in the announcement of the prize.
6. INTERNET/MOBILE: Sponsor is not responsible for electronic transmission errors resulting in omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operations or transmission, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alterations of entry materials, or for technical, network, telephone equipment, electronic, computer, hardware or software malfunctions or limitations of any kind, or inaccurate transmissions of or failure to receive entry information by Sponsor or presenter on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet, at any Web site, or via the mobile phone or any combination thereof. If for any reason the Internet or mobile phone portion of the program is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes which corrupt of affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Sweepstakes, Sponsor reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Sweepstakes. Sponsor reserves the right to select winners from eligible entries received as of the termination date. Sponsor further reserves the right to disqualify any individual who tampers with the entry process. Sponsor may prohibit an entrant from participating in the Sweepstakes if it determines that said entrant is attempting to undermine the legitimate operation of the Sweepstakes by cheating, hacking, deception or other unfair playing practices or intending to abuse, threaten or harass other entrants. Caution: Any attempt by a participant to deliberately damage any Web site or undermine the legitimate operation of the Sweepstakes is a violation of criminal and civil laws and should such an attempt be made, Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages from any such participant to the fullest extent of the law.
7. DISPUTES/CHOICE OF LAW: Except where prohibited, each entrant agrees that: (1) any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with this or any prize awarded shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by state or federal courts situated in New York, NY, (2) any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, but in no event attorneys' fees; and (3) no punitive, incidental, special, consequential or other damages, including without limitation lost profits may be awarded (collectively, "Special Damages"), and (4) entrant hereby waives all rights to claim Special Damages and all rights to have such damages multiplied or increased. New York State law, without reference to New York's choice of law rules, governs the Sweepstakes and all aspects related thereto.
8. SPONSOR: The Sponsor of these Sweepstakes is Hearst Communications, Inc., 300 W. 57th Street, New York, NY 10019.
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elon musk
SpaceX recently held a Hyperloop competition for students across the globe, but the company has since used the occasion to puts its own system to the test.
A Hyperloop is a nascent transportation system that pushes pods through a vacuum-sealed tube, and the goal is to transport people between cities at speeds of up to 700 mph. SpaceX first challenged students in 2015 to design and build a Hyperloop pod, and we got to see the results of their efforts on Sunday at SpaceX's competition.
SpaceX and Tesla designed a "pusher pod" to help some students get their pods going. A few days ago, SpaceX and Tesla decided to see how their pusher pod performed. It hit a top speed of 220 mph, the fastest recorded time to date.
We took the SpaceX/Tesla Hyperloop pusher pod for a spin by itself a few days ago to see what it could do when not pushing student pods (some need a push to get going, e.g. passive maglev). Got up to 355 km/h (220 mph) before things started . Kind of like racing with a tugboat. Maybe able get past 500 km/h (about half speed of sound) next month with a few tweaks or maybe tiny pieces A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Aug 30, 2017 at 10:27pm PDT on Aug 30, 2017 at 10:27pm PDT
WARR Hyperloop, the student-run team that won SpaceX's competition, hit 201 mph on the same track. The track is only 1.25 kilometers, so both pods could feasibly reach higher speeds with a longer runway.
Hyperloop One, a startup pursuing the system for commercial use, reached a top speed of 192 mph in August on its 500-meter test track in Nevada.
Musk has said he wants to build a commercial Hyperloop between New York City and Washington, DC, through his newest venture, the Boring Company.
NOW WATCH: Elon Musk says he got government approval for an underground Hyperloop here's the footage of the first major Hyperloop test
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August was full of news about hacks, leaks, and even hacks that led to leaks. But it was nature that arrested our attention and dominated the news cycle.
On August 21, a total solar eclipse cast a shadow over a large part of the US. For two and a half minutes, much of the nation turned its attention skyward to witness a cosmic marvel. Not a week later, on August 25, Harvey made landfall along the Texas coast, morphing from a category 4 hurricane to a tropical storm that lingered over Houston for days. The city is starting its recovery, rebuilding homes and systems.
WIRED reported on this and much more over the past 31 days. Below, a selection of the most-read stories on WIRED.com
The best way to observe this astronomical event is to be somewhere in the path of totality that will experience total darkness in the middle of the day. If you can't do this, you have two other options: Buy a pair of solar glasses or make a pinhole.
As for me, I will use a pinhole because it's fun to make stuff. Rhett Allain
The Los Angeles company leading the race to fulfill Elon Musks dream of tubular transit tested its pod for the first time last weekend. That pod is 28 feet long and made of aluminum and carbon fiber. It looks a bit like a bus with a beak. A fast bus with a beak. Once loaded into a 1,600-foot-long concrete tube in the Nevada desert, the pod hit 192 mph in about 5 seconds, using an electric propulsion system producing more than 3,000 horsepower. Alex Davies
What is many tumors? I asked. He looked defeated, saying they stopped counting after 10. Matt Bencke
If the finale of the seventh season of Game of Thrones says anything, it is that this show has failed its fans, and has been doing so slowly for a long time. It did not want to admit it, nor did they. But alas, it's happened and all that hope and emotional investment has been reduced to a series of bullet points and cartoons, an empty dragon breathing blue fire with all the CGI fury of a broken promise with too much momentum behind it to do anything else. Laura Hudson
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The science in James Damores memo is still very much in play, and his analysis of its implications is at best politically naive and at worst dangerous. The memo is a species of discourse peculiar to politically polarized times: cherry-picking scientific evidence to support a preexisting point of view. Its an exercise not in rational argument but in rhetorical point scoring. And a careful walk through the science proves it. Megan Molteni, Adam Rogers
Aaron Cashatt pushed open the unlocked door, walked into the hotel room, and closed the door behind him. Even in his meth-addled state, he was so taken aback by his success in hacking his way in that he laid down on the rooms king-size bed for perhaps a full minute, his heart racing.
Then he sat upright and started thinking about what he could steal. Andy Greenberg
A group of researchers from the University of Washington has shown for the first time that its possible to encode malicious software into physical strands of DNA, so that when a gene sequencer analyzes it, the resulting data becomes a program that corrupts gene-sequencing software and takes control of the underlying computer. Andy Greenberg
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Prior to Kushner's talk, Katie Patru, the deputy staff director for member services, outreach, and communications, told the assembled interns, "To record todays session would be such a breach of trust, from my opinion. This town is full of leakers, and everyone knows who they are, and no one trusts them."
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Hasan was greeting people after Eid al-Adha prayers when gunmen struck in a north Karachi neighborhood.
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Based on reporting by AP and dawn.com
But they are mistaken, for the amount of energy required to concentrate the juice is far greater than the energy difference in the juices transport.
bold
greatest additional support for the editorials conclusion
REPHRASE: STRENGTHEN THE IDEA THAT CONSUMERS DO NOT SAVE ENERGY BY DRINKING FROZEN CONCENTRATED OJ.
A. Freezer trucks use substantially more energy per mile driven than do any other types of trucks.
- Passage reads "...drinking frozen concentrated orange juice". If (A) were the case, consumers are not saving energy b/c it takes a ton more energy/mile to transport frozen OJ.
B. Frozen juice can be stored for several years, while not-from-concentrate juice lasts a much shorter time.
- We're not interesting in not-from-concentrate juice. Further, this does not address energy consumption at all
C. Oranges grown in Brazil make up an increasing percentage of the fruit used in not-from-concentrate juice production.
- out of scope. who cares where oranges are grown? nevertheless, does not address energy consumption at all
D. A serving of not-from-concentrate juice takes up to six times more space than a serving of frozen concentrated juice.
- out of scope. who cares about (shelf) space? does not address energy consumption at all
E. Though frozen concentrated juice must be kept at a lower temperature, not-from-concentrate juice is far more sensitive to small temperature fluctuations.
- out of scope. who cares how sensitive not-from-concentrate juice is? does not address energy consumption at all
Editorial: Consumers in North America think that by drinking frozen concentrated orange juice, they are saving energy, because it takes fewer truckloads to transport it than it takes to transport an equivalent amount of not-from-concentrate juice.< (Conclusion inWhich of the following, if true, would provide the->Easy to see how the Answer is A. By constantly remembering what the Conclusion is (and whether your goal is to Strengthen/Weaken it), you're better able to see which A/C does not even address the issue you need to solve forKudos please if you find this helpful
amitanand wrote:
not only did space shuttle astronauts retrieve an orbiting satellite, it was done simultaneously while avoiding being rear-ended by a passing ultraviolet telescope.
A. not only did space shuttle astronauts retrieve an orbiting satellite, it was done simultaneously while avoiding
B. not only was an orbiting satellite retrieved by space shuttle astronauts, but they also simultaneously avoided
C. an orbiting satellite was retrieved by space shuttle astronauts who also avoided simultaneously
D. space shuttle astronauts retrieved an orbiting satellite, simultaneously while avoiding
E. space shuttle astronauts retrieved an orbiting satellite and simultaneously avoided
Show Spoiler Hi Experts,
Could anyone look into the following question:
I was stuck between D & E.....Could anybody clarify?
thanks
-AMit Performing a risky maneuver that required precision flying,being rear-ended by a passing ultraviolet telescope.A. not only did space shuttle astronauts retrieve an orbiting satellite, it was done simultaneously while avoidingB. not only was an orbiting satellite retrieved by space shuttle astronauts, but they also simultaneously avoidedC. an orbiting satellite was retrieved by space shuttle astronauts who also avoided simultaneouslyD. space shuttle astronauts retrieved an orbiting satellite, simultaneously while avoidingE. space shuttle astronauts retrieved an orbiting satellite and simultaneously avoided
This is one of "those" questions in which one can "feel" when a structure in an answer choice does not seem to convey the intended meaning. However, it is difficult to explain WHY answer D is inferior to answer E.Breaking down the answer choices to their core structures:D: "Performing a risky maneuver, astronauts retrieved an orbiting satellite, simultaneously while avoiding being rear-ended by a telescope."E: "Performing a risky maneuver, astronauts retrieved an orbiting satellite and simultaneously avoided being rear-ended by a telescope."Issue 1: Possible RedundancyThe structure "I performed Action A WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY performing Action B" may not technically be "Redundant." At the very least, in the cases in which the usage does seem Redundant, it is not egregiously so."While" is a subordinating conjunction that is used to indicate that both things are happening, so the usage alone does not always fully stress that the two actions are occurring at the same instant in time. There are times when you want to emphasize the fact that the two actions really are occurring at the same instant in time.Consider the following examples:ex: "The general was running towards the skirmish to engage the battalion while simultaneously urging his soldiers to fight."If we were to drop the Adverb "simultaneously" from the sentence, it would lose some of its dramatic flair. In the given problem, I would argue that "retrieving an orbiting satellite while simultaneously avoiding being rear-ended by a telescope" might be one of those cases in which you want to emphasis the difficulty of performing both actions simultaneously.Issue 2: the Placement of the Adverb "simultaneously"The major issue present in answer D is the placement and usage of the Adverb "simultaneously."Generally, when a "comma + modifying phrase" is placed at the end of, and separated from, the main clause, the result is one in which the Main Idea/Action of the preceding clause is modified.With this in mind, we can analyze answer D:'.....astronauts retrieved an orbiting satellite, SIMULTANEOUSLY while avoiding being rear-ended by a telescope.""While", as stated above, is a Conjunction."While avoiding being rear-ended by a telescope" is an example of a "comma + -ing"-type of Modifier in which the Implied Subject is the Subject of the Main Clause being modified: the "astronauts"If we were to change the Modifier at the end of answer D to a Dependent Clause (in this case a Verb-less Clause):"Astronauts retrieved an orbiting satellite SIMULTANEOUSLY while avoiding being rear-ended by a telescope."This is a similar structure to the example above. However, because of the placement of "simultaneously," the meaning conveyed is Illogical. In this example, as well as in answer D, "simultaneously" is not used to emphasize that the two actions were done concurrently.Since the Adverb appears BEFORE the Conjunction "while," the meaning conveyed is that the "astronauts retrieved an orbiting satellite SIMULTANEOUSLY." This does not really make any sense. You can not perform ONE action "simultaneously."Furthermore, when compared to answer E, the double "-ing" is an inferior usage. The gerund noun phrase "being rear-ended by a telescope" sounds much better as a direct object of the verb "avoided" in answer E than the phrase does as a complement of the participle modifier "avoiding."in other words: "...and avoided being rear-ended..." ---- comes across much better than --- "while avoiding being rear-ended"More importantly than this issue, however, answer E fixes the placement of the Adverb "simultaneously" such that the meaning conveyed actually is "the two actions were performed simultaneously."E: ".... astronauts retrieved an orbiting satellite AND simultaneously avoided being rear-ended..."In answer E, it is clear that the 2nd Action "avoided" is the action performed "SIMULTANEOUSLY" with the 1st Action. In answer D, this intended meaning is not conveyed.For the above reasons, answer E is preferred.
CanCanuck90 wrote:
Applying 2018 and/or 2019.
Work experience: 3.5 years. Office manager is official title. No name Construction equipment company. Have grown from 1M annual sales and 3 employees to 4M annual sales and 10 employees. 60% CAGR. No official promotions but received 8-10% annual pay raises with very favorable reviews. No where to go in terms of promotions...
Going to ask to have titles amended to show progression from inventory control to office manager and finally operations manager but not a sure thing owner will bite. My duties definitely align with this last title much closer in my opinion.
LOR would be from owner and likely a professor or two from undergrad.
Responsible for: supply chain management, competitive pricing analysis, general market research, purchasing 500K budget, order management, invoicing and logistics, inventory management, reorder point analysis, EOC, inside sales, general accounting, report construction and report analysis through Sage50 and Excel. Helped build inventory ordering macro to automate. Facility layout. Outside sales and marketing support, designing and implementing the social media plan, recruiting, interviewing and hiring in conjunction with the owner. Oversee 3 of 10 employees and mentor interns (4 total).
Extra curriculars: VP of finance for student union, admissions recruitment volunteering, Financial website writer over 250,000 unique views, founded and ran investment meet up in GTA for 1.5 years with 40+ members.
Undergrad school/major: BBA, Canadian Uni with 4.0 GPA
Other education/coursework: CFA L2 Candidate, CPA Candidate.
Minority : No
Age: 26
Sex: M
GMAT Score: 730 (Q49)(41) AWA 5.0
Goal of MBA: Career transition to consulting for economic dev policy in developing world, strategic business consulting for medium to large enterprises or IB/PE with M&A focus. Develop additional skills, broaden and diversify peer network. Don't enjoy my job or industry. I will craft a much better story, any direction recommendations?
Reach: Yale, Haas, Tuck
Target: Fuqua, Darden, Anderson, Johnson, Rotman (Canadian)
Fall back: Schulich (Canadian)
Will my small business work experience hurt? It seems to be the weakest aspect of the application to me. Also should I forgot the goal written and focus on something that builds a more coherent story like construction consulting, general management F500 construction etc. Finally can you highlight pros and cons and what I should be highlighting to adcoms.
Thanks
mbaMission Senior Admissions Consultant
Chicago Booth Alum, over 70 5-star reviews on GMAT Club
Sign up for a free 30-minute consultation at https://www.mbamission.com/consult/mba-admissions/
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Kate RichardsonmbaMission Senior Admissions ConsultantChicago Booth Alum, over 70 5-star reviews on GMAT ClubSign up for a free 30-minute consultation at https://www.mbamission.com/consult/mba-admissions/Read our Insider's Guides to the top b-schools: http://www.mbamission.com/guides.php?category=insiders Signature Read More
Hi there!First, on timing -- I would go ahead and apply in 2018. I don't see a strong reason to wait since you've got strong GMAT/GPA stats and advancement is tough in your current role.Next, I would definitely push for at least a title change. It sounds like you are doing WAY more than what your title implies. I don't think your small business experience will hurt you, but it does present a challenge in that your experience and progression will look quite different from a typical applicant. But I'd focus on the positives, like the fact that you've had a chance to manage people, have been a part of a growing company, and have had the chance to wear a lot of different hats.You will definitely need to pick a focus area for your career goals. I don't think you need to say something construction related...if your heart's not in it, that will be tough to "sell" in your essays. Plus, plenty of people use the MBA to change careers / industries. Of the options you mentioned, the PE route seems toughest (you really need to do IB first). I think IB is plausible, if you play up the CFA and investing experience outside work. The strategic business consulting also seems very plausible, it's a popular post-MBA field, and will make good use of many of the project management and problem solving skills you've built. I'm not sure about the economic dev policy angle, I don't see a strong connection between that and your experience, but maybe I'm missing something. That also seems like a pretty niche area of consulting. As you research further, check out our free career primers: https://shop.mbamission.com/collections/career-primers I think you have a good list of schools, with a range of options. If a school like Tuck is a top choice, plan ahead and apply in their early action round!One last thought -- it's not typical for undergrad professors to write MBA recommendations -- schools usually like to see professional ones. Is there anyone else at your company who could write one? Even someone that's at more of a peer level, or an outside vendor/supplier?Best of luck!Kate_________________
omerrauf wrote:
The answer should be E . Here is how.
The conclusion to the argument by the Sales Manager is that " Desirability of meals has increased ".
Accountant concludes that " Desirability has decreased " because the number of meals sold at certain restaurants has decreased.
Now you have to see that the accountant is referring to a " particular " group of restaurants, he is not talking about the overall sales.
He is only talking about restaurants that have been open for two years. The cumulative " number of meals " from all restaurants (including the ones that just opened or opened last year are higher, we already know that from the Sales Manager's contribution to the argument). Now the accountant says that desirability has decreased based on numbers from restaurants that have been open for at-least 2 years. So in order to override his argument we need to find a reason to establish that the low sales in these restaurants are not attributed to " desirability " but "something else is responsible for the low sales (for this particular group of restaurants)" .
E. Most of the company's restaurants that were in
operation throughout both last year and the
year before are located in areas where
residents experienced a severe overall decline
in income last year .
Option E does just this, it takes the blame off of desirability and puts it on the lack of disposable income.
All of what you said is correct, I want to add more something.First, the question is quite long and it has many confusing details, and so do options.Secondly, B,C,D are out of scope. => A is wrong b/c A only talks about last year, and new dishes have nothing to do with desirable meals.
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Iran News Update pointed out that this incident contributed to a bleak picture of the future of womens rights under the Rouhani administration and beyond. Other contributors to that picture include videos depicting the forcible apprehension of women accused of inadequate veiling. Estimates from within the Iranian regime indicate that an average of 2,000 women are accosted in this way each day in cities throughout the Islamic Republic. And Iranian officials have reportedly committed to intensifying the crackdown even further. This may account for some of the pressure that was exerted on Joneidi to dress in a manner that is more in line with hardline expectations.
Underscoring the intensifying crackdown, Iran Human Rights Monitor reported on Tuesday that the public prosecutor in Mazandaran Province had recently vowed that the judiciary would aggressively prosecute women for bad hijab, even in semi-private areas. The prosecutors highlighted the phenomenon of women removing their veils while alone in cars. This is the means by which some women participated in the widely popular My Stealthy Freedom campaign, in which they posted images of themselves on social media after privately removing their veils.
Iranian authorities had already made efforts to crack down on this trend, announcing new legal guidelines for the impounding of vehicles in which women have been found to have violated the Islamic dress code. Now the Mazandaran public prosecutor has made clear that the province intends to aggressively follow through on those guidelines, as well as taking other measures to discourage clothing violations, as by monitoring and controlling the manufacturers and sellers of clothing deemed appropriate by clerical authorities.
Mazandaran is by no means alone in its proactive approach to forced veiling. In recent years, various provincial and local authorities have taken up the cause, including the mayor and city council in Tehran, where gender segregation in public spaces and in the workplace have dramatically expanded. And these local-level efforts are in line with preoccupations that have been established at the national level, particularly by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the final authority in all matters of Iranian policy.
In 2015, Khamenei announced broad-ranging initiatives to reduce access to birth control while encouraging Iranian women to eschew education and the workplace in favor of raising large families at an early age. This roughly coincided with legislation aimed at increasing the power of the Revolutionary Guards-linked Basij militia to harass women and men in public for perceived violations of Islamic laws and guidelines.
Meanwhile, there have certainly been contrary pressures regarding womens rights and gender issues. These come not only from activists like the participants in the My Stealthy Freedom campaign but also from a handful of relatively reform-minded legislators in the Iranian parliament. Yet legislative measures in this area meet with severe resistance from powerful hardline voices. And wherever this is the case, the legislation is unlikely to be made law regardless of its level of support among legislators, since all bills are vetted by the Guardian Council for compliance with the supreme leaders guidelines and his vision of Islamic law.
This phenomenon of hardline resistance was highlighted recently by the Center for Human Rights in Iran, which reported that Zabihollah Khodaian, the Iranian judiciarys assistant for legal affairs, had expressed strong opposition to legislation aimed at preventing and punishing domestic violence. This proposal has some 100 articles, 70 of which describe situations with criminal implications, he objected. They impose prison sentences for every little tension between couples.
The CHRI report notes that studies have shown that approximately one third of all women in Irans urban areas and two thirds of all women in its rural areas have been victims of domestic violence. Nevertheless, conservative lawmakers and government officials, including hardline female members of parliament, have disregarded the issue and used it as an opportunity to lash out against Western society.
CHRI quotes one such female MP, Fatemeh Alia, as speculating that her reformist colleagues are only trying to impress international organizations with their legislation in defense of women. She also asserted that violence against women is rare in Iran but a constant trend in Western countries. According to the domestic violence resource center, approximately 29 percent of women in the United States have been subjected to rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by a partner. While this is slightly below the figure for Iranian urban areas alone, there is a much greater difference in the two countries rates of violence against women if one takes into account the state-sanctioned instances of violence perpetrated by Irans morality police.
The signs, data, and remarks made by regimes officials and experts about the new cabinet appear to be that it has not been formed to respond to the countrys contradictions and problems, but, instead, to address the demands of regimes rival bands. Even regimes own experts acknowledge that the current problems are too serious to resolved through a cabinet reshuffle.
According to Fararoo state website, July 31, 2017, one expert said, I have no hope for the 12th cabinet, adding I believe that as long as we have an infected economy which is widely influenced by capital, it wont be significantly affected by anyone. An efficient cabinet is the one with a strategy and plan, the terms governments in Iran have nothing to do with.
As well, according to Afkarnews website, July 25, 2017, a political expert of the regime declared that economic recession is not an issue that can be resolved by merely replacing ministers. Likewise, having 6-8 million unemployed is not going to be over by replacing the labor minister. The economic slowdown wont be fixed by replacing the economy minister. Even if the very Adam Smith was the minister of such economy, he wouldnt be able to fix our economic problems.
Regarding the governments budget deficit problem, experts are saying when a ministry is not adequately funded, what the minister is capable of doing?
An article published by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) says, Another important obstacle is the deep, widespread corruption which has totally engulfed the regime. The dimensions of the corruption are so huge that even if the current budget is raised 10 or 100 times, it still wont be able to fix any part of this economic mess. As a matter of fact, the countrys revenues from selling oil alone reached an incredible 700 billion dollars during Ahmadinejads two terms in office, surpassing the countrys total oil revenues ever since oil exploration and extraction began a century ago. Meanwhile, what Iranian people got out of these huge revenues was nothing but more deprivation and a deteriorated economic situation.
In the Velayat-e-Faqih system, the issue is rooted in the nature of the regime, which bears little resemblance to Iranian societys historical characteristics or the requirements of the current era. The regime uses the countrys facilities and wealth to preserve its own existence and maintain its security. Meeting its peoples needs and resolving problems are regarded as minor issues.
Rouhanis new cabinet and some of its ministers proves this.
Domestic and international opinion forced Rouhani to replace Mostafa Pourmohammadi, who was revealed to be one of 1988 massacres main executioners. Rouhani gave Pourmohammadis seat to Alireza Avayee. However, Avayee was also actively involved in the 1988 massacre as Khuzestans Revolutionary Prosecutor General. Many of the other cabinet members are veterans of regimes intelligence ministry.
Meanwhile, we see how Khamenei sets out conditions in his validation decree for Rouhani and his cabinet, with Khameneis head of judiciary Amoli Larijani also stressing on those same directives, including paying attention to peoples livelihood and having widespread interactions with the world, as a roadmap not only for president and his colleagues, but for all regimes bodies and forces as well, writes the NCRI, and adds, It goes without saying that making such useless generalized comments are not going to resolve any issue or put forward a way out of regimes dangerous situation, to which Khamenei refers as decisive days while speaking at Rouhanis validation ceremony. In his speech, Khamenei even refused to once again point to his useless resistance economy nonsense, on which he used to repeatedly emphasize in the past.
Khamenei raises the issue of peoples livelihood, while knowing that the countrys economy is collapsing and production is being devastated. He, himself, acknowledged in March 2016, that more than 60 percent of the countrys production capacity has been shut down. Now, with new US sanctions in place, transferring money through international banks will be impossible.
Rouhani highlights the nuclear deal as the only resolution to regimes crises. Khamenei speaks of peoples livelihood, interaction with the world, and regimes internal unity. Meanwhile, neither one has a plan.
Instagram,Twitter and YouTube are blocked in Iran, but widely visited by Iranians using proxy servers. In recent weeks, local media reports that these companies are co-operating with Tehran to block or censor immoral content.
Its clear that Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, the new communications minister, intends to make good on his promise to citizens that they will have easier access to the internet and app platforms. Iranian newspapers quote him as claiming that the government is in talks with social media companies to allow them to operate more freely within Iran if they adhere to the countrys strict morality rules. Last week he said, [Twitter] has announced that it is prepared to negotiate to resolve problems, and added that officials had also contacted YouTube representatives.
At 36, Mr. Azari Jahromi is the youngest person to ever serve as minister in Iran. In fact, he is the only minister who was born after the 1979 Islamic revolution. However, President Hassan Rouhani has been criticized by human rights groups over this appointment to his cabinet. The right groups do not trust the new ministers intentions, as they say he was involved in surveillance efforts during the mass anti-regime protests of 2009. He denies this claim.
The Supreme Council of Cyberspace (SCC) has also initiated talks with managers at Instagram to block immodest pages from being viewed within the country, according to outgoing communications minister Mahmoud Vaezi. He said earlier this month, We have contacted the managers of Instagram and they have responded that they are ready to from a moral perspective to filter pages that have criminal content.
Most social media platforms remove violent and pornographic material under their terms of service. The newly proposed definition of immoral content worries freedom of expression organizations, who are concerned that it may be used to include messages, pictures, or video that would be of interest to the Iranian government, such as those which betray anti-regime sentiment or a users sexuality.
Irans Committee for the Promoting Virtue and Prohibiting Vice sees the Interest as a corrupting influence. Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Movahedi Kermani, who heads the Committee, said in a speech last December, Bad hijab is a bad thing but cyberspace is a hundred times worse. He added, Cyberspace can uproot religion and Islam completely.
The Supreme Council of Cyberspace reports to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supposedly to shield Iranians from the internets blasphemous or sinful content, but it also stifles freedom of speech and expression. Communications monitoring can lead to serious trouble for Iranian activists, or anyone who breaks the countrys conservative social rules.
Access to potentially censored versions of Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube has a precedent which was set in how encrypted messaging app Telegrams relationship with the Iranian government has changed over the last two years, according to Kaveh Azarhoosh, an internet policy analyst and masters candidate at Oxford Universitys Internet Institute. He stated, Our hunch the whole time was that the Iranian government claimed they were talking to high-level people at Telegram, but they werent really, and it was all just propaganda.
Contradictory statements from the Iranian authorities and the software company in 2015 caused fears for journalists, artists and activists, over interception and censorship among its 40 million Iranian users.
In the end, Telegram ended up moving part of their physical server actually into Iran, Mr. Azarhoosh said, and continued, Telegram insists that the service is still fully encrypted, and they did it to to increase speeds, which may be the case but it shows there has been at least some level of interaction between Telegram and the government.
More frightening is Mr. Azarhooshs statement, Whats dangerous is if these companies are not transparent about their dealings with Iran. The Iranian government is one of the biggest abusers of limiting information in the world. These proposed measures would invade peoples privacy and right to expression and could be a matter of life and death for bloggers and other activists.
Additionally, on August 30th, the Italian Parliamentary and Citizens Committee for a Free Iran sent an open letter to the more than 20 hunger striking political prisoners in Gohardasht Prison. In this letter they condemned the crimes of Tehrans regime, and express admiration for the prisoners commitment to non-violent struggle and self-sacrifice.
The following is a translation of the text of the letter:
Rome, 30 August 2017:
The Italian Parliamentary and Citizens Committee for a Free Iran has been following the human rights situation in Iran for many years and wishes freedom, democracy and peace for the Iranian people. It welcomes your commitment and your fight, conducted without violence and with great capacity for sacrifice, against torture and harassment by the regime.
We Italian parliamentarians have been informed about your situation and your resistance for a few weeks and have appealed to the Italian, European and United Nations authorities to ask the Iranian regime to respect the obligations of international law on human rights, due process and respect for the lives, health and dignity of political prisoners.
We know that you are now subjected to constant monitoring, with closed-circuit cameras and listening devices everywhere, and without any privacy; that your cells have windows covered with metal plates and very little ventilation; that you have no access to drinking water; that family visits and phone calls are prohibited; and that some of you were kept in isolation for up to 12 days.
We have also denounced the massacre of 30,000 political prisoners by the regime in 1988 in all the relevant courts.
While we strongly condemn the crimes of the mullahs regime, we express our full solidarity and support. Therefore, we ask you, as Italian parliamentarians, to stop the hunger strike, and we confirm our commitment to your rightful requests being accepted in accordance with the rules of international law.
Also, on August 30th, MEP and Chair of the Friends of a Free Iran in the European Parliament, Gerard Deprez, sent a letter of his own to the hunger striking political prisoners in Iran.
His letter reads as follows:
Dear Friends,
I am writing to you as chair of Friends of a Free Iran in the European Parliament which enjoys the support of around 300 MEPs from different political tendencies. I would like first to express our highest regards and admiration to all of you. By your brave resistance you have shown the world about the nature of this religious dictatorship.
On the start of the second month of your hunger strike, you have proved that to restore your rights and to fulfil the wish and request of the people of Iran, which is freedom and democracy, you are prepared to pay any price. You are really continuing the path of those 30,000 political prisoners who were brutally executed in summer of 1988, just because they wanted freedom.
In the past 4 weeks that you have been on strike, we in the European Parliament have issued several statements in support of your legitimate demands and tried to be your voice. During this strike, the Iranian regime has been forced to accept some of your requests but you and we have a long way forward to reach our goals.
In the present circumstances please allow us to urge you not to continue your hunger strike in the second month. We promise to fully support your legitimate demands. We need you to get well soon and have enough energy, so you can continue your fight and campaign for freedom much better than before.
Your brother,
Gerard Deprez MEP
Chair, Friends of a Free Iran
European Parliament
Brussels
August 30, 2017
In a televised address, he said, Our commitments to the world are clear our relations with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Association) are defined by rules, not by the US. He added that Iran was still committed to the nuclear agreement, but we do not accept bullying. Rouhani claimed, I see it as unlikely that the IAEA will accept the request for inspections, but even if they do, we will not.
Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, Irans government spokesman, told reporters that Ambassador Nikki Haleys demand wasnt worth any attention. Iran will not accept any inspection of its sites and especially our military sites. He said the sites and all information about them are classified.
Haley met with IAEA chief Yukiya Amano and discussed accessing Iranian military sites so Irans compliance with the 2015 JCPOA deal could be ensured.
International sanctions were eased under the landmark accord, in exchange for stringent controls on Irans nuclear program with close IAEA inspections. The inspections are designed to prevent nuclear material being moved from nuclear centers to other areas, including military bases. The IAEA continues to report that Iran is in compliance with the deal.
Rouhani said that US President Donald Trump would struggle to get support for tearing it up, as Iran has the support of Europe and other signatories, and added, The US is in the most difficult situation in its history for creating unity against us and I think its not possible for it to do so now. Twenty-eight EU countries, which are Americas allies, clearly say we are committed to the JCPOA.
French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed his commitment to the deal on Tuesday, and said there was no alternative.
Foreign policy adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati, called the reported demand for inspections as sloganeering by the new US administration for domestic consumption. He added, The Americans should take the dream of visiting our military sites, using the pretext of the JCPOA or any other pretext, to their graves.
However, the deal remains under threat, as the US has strongly criticized recent Iranian missile tests, and imposed new, non-nuclear sanctions.
Rouhani responded in mid-August by saying that Iran could easily walk away from the deal within hours if forced to do so.
Haley stated that new US sanctions against Iran relate to Irans support for worldwide terrorism and other destabilizing activites in the region, and said Tehran could not use the nuclear deal to hold the world hostage.
Iran has made deals with some of the worlds largest aircraft companies in order to buy a new, modern fleet for what they claim is commercial purposes. Maghsoud Asadi Samani, secretary of Irans Aviation Companies Association, told state-owned media that these deals come with modernization packages, including technology and education, that allow Iran to participate in producing aircraft parts and equipment.
Claiming there is no evidence that Iran is violating international law and its commitments to the nuclear deal, Irans advocates ignore its history of using its commercial airlines for military purposes.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, president of the International American Council, writes in his article for Arab News, Irans commercial airlines, specifically Iran Air and Mahan, are the primary tools used for the illicit transport of weapons and military staff, including members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its elite Quds Force and the Basij militia. These airlines do not fly to Syria on pre-announced scheduled days, as other commercial airlines do. They choose random days and destinations in Syria.
In a letter demanding a formal investigation by the Trump administration, several US congressional leaders wrote, Irans use of commercial aircraft for military purposes violates international agreements as well as Iranian commitments under the JCPOA (nuclear deal). We believe these photos mandate a thorough investigation of these practices and a comprehensive review of Irans illicit use of commercial aircraft During this investigation, the United States should suspend current and future licenses for aircraft sales to Iran.
The lawmakers added, These photos seem to display militiamen sitting on seats clearly labeled with the Iran Air logo. These individuals are believed to be members of an Iranian-backed militia, trained and funded by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), actively fighting for the Assad regime in Syria.
Mahan was under international sanctions for shipping weapons to the Syrian regime and Hezbollah, prior the nuclear deal, which were lifted after the agreement.
Irans enhancement of its military capabilities should not facilitated by Western airlines. According to several governmental and intelligence reports, Iran is the worlds top state sponsor of terrorism, and is top of the 2016 Basel Anti-Money Laundering Index Report.
Tehran has been acquiring the skills necessary to easily convert modern commercial aircraft into military ones since 1979. By itself, the US cannot by itself prevent Tehran from doing this, so more countries must join the cause. The international community must hold Iranian leaders accountable for violating international law, as well as the terms of the nuclear deal.
Corporations that sell modern aircraft and technology to Iran should realize that they are facilitating Tehrans support for terrorist groups, crimes against humanity and the Assad regimes atrocities against innocent civilians, according to Dr. Rafizadeh.
We present the short story "A Retrieved Reformation," by O. Henry. The story was originally adapted and recorded by the U.S. Department of State.
In the prison shoe-shop, Jimmy Valentine was busily at work making shoes. A prison officer came into the shop, and led Jimmy to the prison office. There Jimmy was given an important paper. It said that he was free.
Jimmy took the paper without showing much pleasure or interest. He had been sent to prison to stay for four years. He had been there for ten months. But he had expected to stay only three months. Jimmy Valentine had many friends outside the prison. A man with so many friends does not expect to stay in prison long.
Valentine, said the chief prison officer, youll go out tomorrow morning. This is your chance. Make a man of yourself. Youre not a bad fellow at heart. Stop breaking safes open, and live a better life.
Me? said Jimmy in surprise. I never broke open a safe in my life.
Oh, no, the chief prison officer laughed. Never. Lets see. How did you happen to get sent to prison for opening that safe in Springfield? Was it because you didnt want to tell where you really were? Perhaps because you were with some lady, and you didnt want to tell her name? Or was it because the judge didnt like you? You men always have a reason like that. You never go to prison because you broke open a safe.
Me? Jimmy said. His face still showed surprise. I was never in Springfield in my life.
Take him away, said the chief prison officer. Get him the clothes he needs for going outside. Bring him here again at seven in the morning. And think about what I said, Valentine.
At a quarter past seven on the next morning, Jimmy stood again in the office. He had on some new clothes that did not fit him, and a pair of new shoes that hurt his feet. These are the usual clothes given to a prisoner when he leaves the prison.
Next they gave him money to pay for his trip on a train to the city near the prison. They gave him five dollars more. The five dollars were supposed to help him become a better man.
Then the chief prison officer put out his hand for a handshake. That was the end of Valentine, Prisoner 9762. Mr. James Valentine walked out into the sunshine.
He did not listen to the song of the birds or look at the green trees or smell the flowers. He went straight to a restaurant. There he tasted the first sweet joys of being free. He had a good dinner. After that he went to the train station. He gave some money to a blind man who sat there, asking for money, and then he got on the train.
Three hours later he got off the train in a small town. Here he went to the restaurant of Mike Dolan.
Mike Dolan was alone there. After shaking hands he said, Im sorry we couldnt do it sooner, Jimmy my boy. But there was that safe in Springfield, too. It wasnt easy. Feeling all right?
Fine, said Jimmy. Is my room waiting for me?
He went up and opened the door of a room at the back of the house. Everything was as he had left it. It was here they had found Jimmy, when they took him to prison. There on the floor was a small piece of cloth. It had been torn from the coat of the cop, as Jimmy was fighting to escape.
There was a bed against the wall. Jimmy pulled the bed toward the middle of the room. The wall behind it looked like any wall, but now Jimmy found and opened a small door in it. From this opening he pulled out a dust-covered bag.
He opened this and looked lovingly at the tools for breaking open a safe. No finer tools could be found any place. They were complete; everything needed was here. They had been made of a special material, in the necessary sizes and shapes. Jimmy had planned them himself, and he was very proud of them.
It had cost him over nine hundred dollars to have these tools made at a place where they make such things for men who work at the job of safe-breaking.
In half an hour Jimmy went downstairs and through the restaurant. He was now dressed in good clothes that fitted him well. He carried his dusted and cleaned bag.
Do you have everything planned? asked Mike Dolan.
Me? asked Jimmy as if surprised. I dont understand. I work for the New York Famous Bread and Cake Makers Company. And I sell the best bread and cake in the country.
Mike enjoyed these words so much that Jimmy had to take a drink with him. Jimmy had some milk. He never drank anything stronger.
A week after Valentine, 9762, left the prison, a safe was broken open in Richmond, Indiana. No one knew who did it. Eight hundred dollars were taken.
Two weeks after that, a safe in Logansport was opened. It was a new kind of safe; it had been made, they said, so strong that no one could break it open. But someone did, and took fifteen hundred dollars.
Then a safe in Jefferson City was opened. Five thousand dollars were taken. This loss was a big one. Ben Price was a cop who worked on such important matters, and now he began to work on this.
He went to Richmond, Indiana, and to Logansport, to see how the safe-breaking had been done in those places. He was heard to say: I can see that Jim Valentine has been here. He is in business again. Look at the way he opened this one. Everything easy, everything clean. He is the only man who has the tools to do it. And he is the only man who knows how to use tools like this. Yes, I want Mr. Valentine. Next time he goes to prison, hes going to stay there until his time is finished.
Ben Price knew how Jimmy worked. Jimmy would go from one city to another far away. He always worked alone. He always left quickly when he was finished. He enjoyed being with nice people. For all these reasons, it was not easy to catch Mr. Valentine.
People with safes full of money were glad to hear that Ben Price was at work trying to catch Mr. Valentine.
One afternoon Jimmy Valentine and his bag arrived in a small town named Elmore. Jimmy, looking as young as a college boy, walked down the street toward the hotel.
A young lady walked across the street, passed him at the corner, and entered a door. Over the door was the sign, The Elmore Bank. Jimmy Valentine looked into her eyes, forgetting at once what he was. He became another man. She looked away, and brighter color came into her face. Young men like Jimmy did not appear often in Elmore.
Jimmy saw a boy near the bank door, and began to ask questions about the town. After a time the young lady came out and went on her way. She seemed not to see Jimmy as she passed him
Isnt that young lady Polly Simpson? asked Jimmy.
No, said the boy. Shes Annabel Adams. Her father owns this bank.
Jimmy went to the hotel, where he said his name was Ralph D. Spencer. He got a room there. He told the hotel man he had come to Elmore to go into business. How was the shoe business? Was there already a good shoe-shop?
The man thought that Jimmys clothes and manners were fine. He was happy to talk to him.
Yes, Elmore needed a good shoe-shop. There was no shop that sold just shoes. Shoes were sold in the big shops that sold everything. All business in Elmore was good. He hoped Mr. Spencer would decide to stay in Elmore. It was a pleasant town to live in and the people were friendly.
Mr. Spencer said he would stay in the town a few days and learn something about it. No, he said, he himself would carry his bag up to his room. He didnt want a boy to take it. It was very heavy.
Mr. Ralph Spencer remained in Elmore. He started a shoe-shop. Business was good.
Also he made many friends. And he was successful with the wish of his heart. He met Annabel Adams. He liked her better every day.
At the end of a year everyone in Elmore liked Mr. Ralph Spencer. His shoe-shop was doing very good business. And he and Annabel were going to be married in two weeks. Mr. Adams, the small-town banker, liked Spencer. Annabel was very proud of him. He seemed already to belong to the Adams family.
One day Jimmy sat down in his room to write this letter, which he sent to one of his old friends:
Dear Old Friend: I want you to meet me at Sullivans place next week, on the evening of the 10th. I want to give you my tools. I know youll be glad to have them. You couldnt buy them for a thousand dollars. I finished with the old businessa year ago. I have a nice shop. Im living a better life, and Im going to marry the best girl on earth two weeks from now. Its the only lifeI wouldnt ever again touch another mans money. After I marry, Im going to go further west, where Ill never see anyone who knew me in my old life. I tell you, shes a wonderful girl. She trusts me.
Your old friend, Jimmy.
On the Monday night after Jimmy sent this letter, Ben Price arrived quietly in Elmore. He moved slowly about the town in his quiet way, and he learned all that he wanted to know. Standing inside a shop, he watched Ralph D. Spencer walk by.
Youre going to marry the bankers daughter, are you, Jimmy? said Ben to himself. I dont feel sure about that!
The next morning Jimmy was at the Adams home. He was going to a nearby city that day to buy new clothes for the wedding. He was also going to buy a gift for Annabel. It would be his first trip out of Elmore. It was more than a year now since he had done any safe-breaking.
Most of the Adams family went to the bank together that morning. There were Mr. Adams, Annabel, Jimmy, and Annabels married sister with her two little girls, aged five and nine. They passed Jimmys hotel, and Jimmy ran up to his room and brought along his bag. Then they went to the bank.
All went insideJimmy, too, for he was one of the family. Everyone in the bank was glad to see the good-looking, nice young man who was going to marry Annabel. Jimmy put down his bag.
Annabel, laughing, put Jimmys hat on her head and picked up the bag.
How do I look? she asked. Ralph, how heavy this bag is! It feels full of gold.
Its full of some things I dont need in my shop, Jimmy said. Im taking them to the city, to the place where they came from. That saves me the cost of sending them. Im going to be a married man. I must learn to save money.
The Elmore bank had a new safe. Mr. Adams was very proud of it, and he wanted everyone to see it. It was as large as a small room, and it had a very special door. The door was controlled by a clock. Using the clock, the banker planned the time when the door should open. At other times no one, not even the banker himself, could open it. He explained about it to Mr. Spencer. Mr. Spencer seemed interested but he did not seem to understand very easily. The two children, May and Agatha, enjoyed seeing the shining heavy door, with all its special parts.
While they were busy like this, Ben Price entered the bank and looked around. He told a young man who worked there that he had not come on business; he was waiting for a man.
Suddenly there was a cry from the women. They had not been watching the children. May, the nine-year-old girl, had playfully but firmly closed the door of the safe. And Agatha was inside.
The old banker tried to open the door. He pulled at it for a moment. The door cant be opened, he cried. And the clockI hadnt started it yet.
Agathas mother cried out again.
Quiet! said Mr. Adams, raising a shaking hand. All be quiet for a moment. Agatha! he called as loudly as he could. Listen to me. They could hear, but not clearly, the sound of the childs voice. In the darkness inside the safe, she was wild with fear.
My baby! her mother cried. She will die of fear! Open the door! Break it open! Cant you men do something?
There isnt a man nearer than the city who can open that door, said Mr. Adams, in a shaking voice. My God! Spencer, what shall we do? That childshe cant live long in there. There isnt enough air. And the fear will kill her.
Agathas mother, wild too now, beat on the door with her hands. Annabel turned to Jimmy, her large eyes full of pain, but with some hope, too. A woman thinks that the man she loves can somehow do anything.
Cant you do something, Ralph? Try, wont you?
He looked at her with a strange soft smile on his lips and in his eyes.
Annabel, he said, give me that flower you are wearing, will you?
She could not believe that she had really heard him. But she put the flower in his hand. Jimmy took it and put it where he could not lose it. Then he pulled off his coat. With that act, Ralph D. Spencer passed away and Jimmy Valentine took his place.
Stand away from the door, all of you, he commanded.
He put his bag on the table, and opened it flat. From that time on, he seemed not to know that anyone else was near. Quickly he laid the shining strange tools on the table. The others watched as if they had lost the power to move.
In a minute Jimmy was at work on the door. In ten minutes faster than he had ever done it beforehe had the door open.
Agatha was taken into her mothers arms.
Jimmy Valentine put on his coat, picked up the flower and walked toward the front door. As he went he thought he heard a voice call, Ralph! He did not stop.
At the door a big man stood in his way.
Hello, Ben! said Jimmy, still with his strange smile. Youre here at last, are you? Lets go. I dont care, now.
And then Ben Price acted rather strangely.
I guess youre wrong about this, Mr. Spencer, he said. I dont believe I know you, do I?
And Ben Price turned and walked slowly down the street.
Download activities to help you understand this story here.
Now it's your turn to use the words in this story. Are you a bad person just because you break the law? Can a bad person become a good person? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook page.
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QUIZ
Quiz: A Retrieved Reformation Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz
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Words in This Story
shop n. a building or room where goods and services are sold or worked on
safe(s) n. a strong metal box with a lock that is used to store money or valuable things
coat n. an outer piece of clothing that can be long or short and that is worn to keep warm or dry
cop n. a person whose job is to enforce laws, investigate crimes, and make arrests
lovingly adv. done in a way that shows love
proud adj. very happy and pleased because of something you have done, something you own or someone you know or are related to
cake n. a sweet baked food made from a mixture of flour, sugar, and other ingredients
corner n. the place where two streets or roads meet
Chinese police are investigating a new accusation against one of the ruling Communist Partys most wanted exiles.
The man, New York-based billionaire Guo Wengui, is being accused of rape.
Two Chinese officials with direct knowledge of the investigation spoke to the Associated Press (AP). They said police are requesting a second Interpol arrest order for Guo. The 50-year-old is accused of attacking his former personal assistant.
The AP reported on Thursday that Guo and his representatives failed to answer repeated requests for comment.
Chinese government lawyers had been building a case against the businessman before this latest accusation. He is under investigation for at least 19 major crimes. They include bribing a top Chinese intelligence official, kidnapping and financial wrongdoing.
Who is Guo Wengui?
Guo Wengui was born into poverty in central China. He started as a small investor, buying and selling fuel supplies, but quickly rose to become a real estate leader. Chinese media say Guos rise resulted mainly from his ability to befriend powerful Chinese security officials.
It is reported that Guo won the rights to build the Pangu tower in 2006 for the Beijing Olympic Games by working with Ma Jian. Ma later became Chinas chief of counterintelligence operations.
In 2015, anti-corruption investigators detained Ma and later accused him of accepting $8.8 million in bribes from Guo Wengui. Guo fled the country.
In recent months, Guo has been widely followed on social media with his claims of wrongdoing within the Communist Party, even among President Xi Jinpings closest allies. Most of the claims have yet to be confirmed.
Guos posts on Twitter and in YouTube videos tell about what he says are top leaders hidden finances and property holdings. He has promised to continue reporting on the Communist Partys secrets until China frees his relatives from detention and releases his property.
Unusual willingness to talk with media
The Associated Press examined documents related to the rape investigation. It confirmed their details with Chinese official sources in Beijing. The officials asked not to be identified in return for discussing the case.
The willingness to talk to the press is unusual given the political sensitivity of Guos case in China. It suggests an urgency in detaining Guo and in stopping any possible trouble leading up to the Chinese Communist Party congress next month.
China and the United States do not have an agreement about surrendering criminal suspects to each other. China hopes that increasing evidence will persuade the U.S. government against extending Guo Wenguis visa. His visa is believed to expire in October, Chinese officials said.
Top U.S. and Chinese officials have discussed the accusations against Guo, said another person with direct knowledge of the talks. That person spoke on the condition that he or she would not be identified. The source also said Chinese officials are asking the U.S. to cancel Guos visa.
It is unclear what steps U.S. officials plan to take, if any. The Trump administration would not comment on the issue.
Chinas efforts to gain control of Chinese seeking refuge in the U.S. have become an increasingly divisive issue between the two nations.
The U.S. government often has refused Chinas demands for corruption suspects. But in the past three months, the government surrendered two crime suspects to China. One of them is accused of rape.
The case against Guo
In April, China asked Interpol to release a red notice seeking Guos arrest on corruption-related charges. Chinese officials later sentenced several of his employees for wrongdoing.
Police in central China opened the rape investigation July 5 after a former employee came forward, the officials said.
The woman, whose identity is being withheld by the AP, said she worked as Guos personal assistant. She said that Guo raped her several times in New York, London and the Bahamas.
She said people working for Guo took her smartphone, computer, passport and keys. She also said she was barred from leaving her room in his London home.
Police documents say the woman secretly met a lawyer friend in London earlier this year to give a written statement about her experience. The documents say she kept her underclothing, pregnancy tests and abortion pills as evidence.
Chinese officials gave the AP permission to speak with the woman by telephone. She confirmed the story and described fleeing Guos apartment to the Chinese Embassy in London in April. There she sought a new passport before returning to China. She said Chinese police had promised her she could bring charges against Guo without facing punishment for having worked for a crime suspect.
I just want him to face justice for what he did to me, she said.
Guo did not answer several AP requests for comment. Lawyers representing him at a New York law office also did not answer requests for comment.
In April, Guo told the AP he believed the Interpol notice released at the time was evidence of state intimidation. He said China had provided false documents to the international police organization.
Interpol refused to comment about the latest arrest order China is seeking. It told the AP to present questions to China.
I'm Caty Weaver. And I'm Dan Friedell.
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Words in This Story
bribe v. to try to get someone to do something by giving or promising something valuable (such as money) : to give or offer a bribe to (someone)
real estate n. the business of selling land and buildings
congress n. a formal meeting in which representatives or experts discuss important matters, make decisions, etc.
expire v. to end: to no longer be valid after a period of time
abortion pill n. a drug to end a pregnancy
intimidation n. the act of making (someone) afraid
The Tropical Storm Harvey in the Unites States and the monsoon in South Asia have again shown how dangerous and destructive floodwaters can be.
More than 1,200 people have died across India, Bangladesh and Nepal as a result of flooding. In the American state of Texas, more than 40 people have died and at least 30,000 have been displaced.
These are the latest examples of powerful storms striking heavily populated areas, followed by extreme flooding. But storms alone are not the only cause of flooding.
Increasing development has been blamed for taking away natural drainage areas that used to limit flooding in cities.
The latest U.S. flooding following Hurricane Harvey was in Houston, Texas, Americas fourth largest city. Areas around Houston have been hit with serious storm-caused flooding in the past, the last time in April 2016.
At the time, scientists and experts blamed the flooding on continued growth across the city, according to the Texas Tribune. They called on officials to pass laws limiting developers from paving land that used to take in large amounts of rainwater.
G.K. Bhat is head of the think tank Taru Leading Edge. On the flooding in India, he said In a normal ground outside the city, nearly 80 percent of the rain would have got absorbed with concrete and tarmac all around, we are creating almost a near-total impervious area. Thus, the flood gets amplified in urban areas.
Rising sea levels
Another big concern is rising sea levels that are predicted to put major areas of the world under water in coming decades.
Numerous scientific studies have confirmed that global sea levels began rising in the 19th century. The levels increased 14-17 centimeters during the 20th century and just keep rising.
In July, hundreds of scientists from around the world gathered in New York City for a major conference to examine sea-level rise. The conference was organized by the not-for-profit World Climate Research Programme, with support from the United Nations, the U.S. Space Agency NASA and other organizations.
In its closing statement, the group said global sea levels are currently rising at a rate of about 30 centimeters per century. The group predicted that if climate conditions stay the same, world sea levels could rise one meter or more throughout the 21st century, possibly reaching several meters by 2300.
A recent report by a group that analyzes climate changes in the Arctic said the area is currently warming faster than anywhere else on earth. The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme said melting ice in the Arctic currently causes about 35 percent of global sea-level rise. Over a period of decades, experts say rising sea levels worldwide could cause disastrous flooding conditions.
Numerous U.S. communities face this same threat. Many coastal areas already experience regular flooding problems, according to the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists.
Erika Spanger-Siegfried is a senior analyst with the organizations Climate and Energy Program. She oversaw two reports that identified areas across the U.S. experiencing what the group calls chronic inundation. It defines this as flooding that prevents people or businesses from carrying out normal daily activities.
What we see just in the next couple of decades is the expansion of areas that are chronically inundated to other currently unaffected parts of the coast. And really, mid-century and beyond is when we start to see major metropolitan areas affected by this chronic inundation as well.
What are the solutions?
Spanger-Siegfried suggested three main possible solutions to fight rising sea levels. The first is to build seawalls or levees. The second is to build homes elevated or create waterways to carry floodwaters. The third would be for people to relocate to areas not threatened by flooding. She says communities will likely use a combination of these methods in the short term.
It is human nature to reach for defensive measures and to try and simply keep the water out and keep, maintain things as they are within communities, which is fully understandable.
Michael Bogin is a New York environmental lawyer. He told VOA that the US government under President Barack Obama had taken steps to give local officials more power to regulate development as a way to prevent flooding.
Bogin said one idea to deal with the problem is for governments to buy land from homeowners in areas with a high flood risk.
Such a program was used in Staten Island, New York, after Hurricane Sandy caused widespread damage in the area. Owners of destroyed or damaged homes were made offers to sell the property to the state. Buyers of the property were then required to follow post-Sandy flood rules when building new homes.
But Bogin says clearly that's not going to be a complete solution for cities with populations of four, six or eight million people, like New York or Houston.
He added that in New York City, officials have explored the building of more environment-friendly infrastructure. The idea is to take areas that have been paved over and turn them back into natural land areas that can take in extra water during floods.
Im Bryan Lynn.
Bryan Lynn reported this story for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.
We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
drainage n. process of removing water or liquid from a place
glacier n. very large area of ice that moves slowly down a slope or valley or over a wide area of land
greenhouse gases n. carbon dioxide and other gases that scientists have linked to rising global temperatures
metropolitan adj. relating to a large city
levee n. wall made of earth or other material built to keep water from flooding an area
elevate v. lift up
pave n. cover earth with a material to form a hard surface
impervious adj. not allowing liquid to pass through
regulate v. make rules or laws to control something
infrastructure n. the basic equipment and structures (such as roads and bridges) needed for a country or organization to function properly
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Bank of Montreal provides diversified financial services primarily in North America. The company's personal banking products and services include checking and savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and financial and investment advice services; and commercial banking products and services comprise business deposit accounts, commercial credit cards, business loans and commercial mortgages, cash management solutions, foreign exchange, specialized banking programs, treasury and payment solutions, and risk management products for small business and commercial banking customers. It also offers investment and wealth advisory services; digital investing services; financial services and solutions; and investment management, and trust and custody services. In addition, the company provides life insurance, accident and sickness insurance, and annuity products; creditor and travel insurance to bank customers; and reinsurance solutions. Further, it offers client's debt and equity capital-raising services, as well as loan origination and syndication, and treasury management; strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and recapitalizations, as well as valuation and fairness opinions; and trade finance, risk mitigation, and other operating services. Additionally, the company provides research and access to markets for institutional, corporate, and retail clients; trading solutions that include debt, foreign exchange, interest rate, credit, equity, securitization and commodities; new product development and origination services, as well as risk management advice and services to hedge against fluctuations; and funding and liquidity management services to its clients. It operates through approximately 900 bank branches and 3,300 automated banking machines in Canada and the United States. Bank of Montreal was founded in 1817 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.
Alpine to make 3 electric crossovers
Number of injured in Istanbul blast rises to 81
Paul McCartney sells guitar for $77,000 to support Ukraine
Erdogan says preliminary findings after Istanbul bombing point to terrorist attack
Erdogan says number of victims of Istanbul bombing rises to six
Authorities forbid TV channels to broadcast from Istanbul bombing site
Istanbul blast: Governor reports 4 dead and 38 wounded
Media: Terrorist attack considered as one of versions of bombing in Istanbul
Blast in Istanbul: victims reported
Reuters: National Bank of Ukraine prepares banking system for power outages
Explosion hits pedestrian street in Istanbul
Former Pentagon official Michael Rubin calls for Turkey to be recognized as sponsor of terrorism
Bloomberg columnist says Japan may be preparing for war with China
Reuters: U.S. to demand EU colleagues to continue aid to Kyiv at G20
Washington Post: U.S. intelligence believes UAE tried to interfere in U.S. politics
Yeni Safak: Turkey increases sales of winter products, blankets in EU by almost third since beginning of year
Fox News: Trump has been silent on social media for over 24 hours amid Republican failures
Lebanon extradites to Iraq relative of Saddam Hussein
Financial Times: Kyiv plans to nationalize more private companies
U.S. Senate declares 'death' of Republican Party after congressional elections
Head of U.S. Customs resigned
President of Georgia Zourabichvili says about 100 thousand Russians settled in country
CNN: Democrats to retain control of Senate after congressional elections
Alen Simonyan: We are truly and sincerely committed to the peace agenda
Artak Beglaryan: Genocidal purpose is apparent
French maritime services rescue more than 140 migrants trying to swim across English Channel
Biden says he is satisfied with results of midterm elections in U.S.
Slovenia holds second round of presidential elections
'Witch' burned alive in India, 14 arrested
COVID-19 cases are expected to surge in Germany this winter
Dollar makes worst showing in week since early days of COVID-19 pandemic
Macron confirms France's readiness to support normalization of relations between Yerevan and Baku
Germany withdraws from Energy Charter Treaty
Is Jordan country that has not supplied arms to Armenia?: 'The press usually has reliable information'
European Commission approves nationalization of Russian Gazprom's German subsidiary
Pashinyan: If the state interferes with the exchange rate unnecessarily, the economy will only suffer
U.S. to work with strategic coalition of Southeast Asian countries
Armenian PM: To reform army, it is necessary to make military service more attractive
Putin and Raisi discuss topical issues of the bilateral agenda
Blinken: Ukraine must decide on timing and content of any talks with Russia
Catholicos expresses hope that Russia efforts will contribute to ensuring free, safe life of Artsakh Armenians
More than 50 of poorest developing countries are on brink of bankruptcy, says UN official
Armenia ex-ombudsman: We are facing serious national security issues (PHOTOS)
Biden has no plans to meet with Saudi crown prince at G20 summit
EU offers natural gas price cap assurances amid disagreements with member countries
Scholz is against establishment of ceasefire in Ukraine on Kremlin's terms
Turkologist: Turkey does not support agenda of achieving peace with Armenians
Sweden to not permit deployment of nuclear weapons on its territory after joining NATO
Erdogan signs decree on appointing Turkey ambassador to Israel
Information security expert: Some Armenia officials received letter that they were victims of national hackers attack
Armenia FM meets with France minister of foreign trade
Foreign Policy: US to resume nuclear arms control talks with Russia
Armenia opposition MP: Artsakh army reduction is impermissible
Biden to warn Chinas Xi that North Korea path could lead to increase in US military presence
US Treasury chief: India can buy as much Russian oil as it wants
Newspaper: Armenia authorities trying to find legal grounds for signing peace treaty
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Texas woman sentenced to death for killing pregnant woman, removing fetus from victim
Van Gogh's painting sold for a record $117 million
Gentiloni: EU countries have accumulated enough gas to get through the coming winter
Several dozen activists detained at protest rally in Baku: They chant slogans 'Freedom!', 'Resign!'
Princess Haya seeks asylum in Wales
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Pashinyan: Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan listened to presented proposals
Volvo reveals its flagship EX90 electric crossover
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Pashinyan: Russia cannot withdraw from Karabakh unless it creates additional guarantees for peacekeeping mission
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Russia bans entry of Biden's family and White House press secretary
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Pashinyan says positions voiced by some member countries of CSTO are unacceptable
19 countries that use euro currency will slide into recession over winter
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Pashinyan: Russia should say whether their version of peace settlement is still circulating?
Pashinyan: Maybe Azerbaijan doesn't want Armenia to receive revenues?
Pashinyan: Azerbaijan must withdraw its troops from Armenia
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Lavrov and Mirzoyan discuss regional agenda
Harut Sasunyan: The best way to achieve peace is to be prepared for war
Turkish prosecutor demands court to ban Istanbul mayor from political activities
German business leaders warn against leaving China
Sasunyan: Russia and US pursue their own interests in South Caucasus
British economy shrinks in three months, foretelling prolonged recession
Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan summoned to Foreign Ministry
Euro rises above dollar for first time in long time
Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister calls Council of Turkic States 'forum of peace' and praises Turkey
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Armenia defense minister receives China ambassador, military attache
Lemkin Institute condemns Azerbaijan president's genocidal rhetoric
Dollar goes up, euro rises sharply in Armenia
U.S. warns Europe that conflict over Taiwan will cause massive global economic shock
EU calls on Armenia, Azerbaijan to moderate their rhetoric
Erdogan says Turkey has been waiting at door of EU for 52 years and will give answer when time comes
STEPANAKERT. During our visit, we realized that the Armenian people have one homeland, which is divided into two geographical areas. The rights of the Armenian people should be protected, and we urge the international community to recognize this fact.
Canadian MP Rachael Harder said the aforementioned at a press conference Saturday in Stepanakert, the capital city of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic/NKR), reported ARTSAKHpress news agency.
We are here for two main reasons, she stated. To meet with Artsakh and Armenian officials, military personnel and the families of the war veterans. And the second reason is to see the real picture of the war, to understand and to hear the opinions of the local people who passed through all these and now only want peace.
Canadian deputy Tony Clement, for his part, said in Artsakh he had met with parents who lost relatives during two conflicts.
As to the reactions in Azerbaijan concerning our visit, they threaten us, he added. I am here to find out the truth within the frameworks of the humanitarian mission.
If Azerbaijan is hostile towards me, I can imagine how they treat their neighbors. In this regard, I do not condemn the Azerbaijani people, but only wish peace, and this is the attitude we have towards the Azerbaijani government and people.
As reported earlier, the One Free World International (OFWI) human rights organization has concluded a four-day fact-finding missionwhich Canadian MPs Rachael Harder and Tony Clement have joinedto Armenia and Artsakh to investigate reports of war crimes committed by Azerbaijani forces during the April 2016 war between Artsakh and Azerbaijan.
The OFWI will present its respective report in Canada, the US Congress, and the European Parliament.
Charli XCX: True Romance (2013)
Natalia Kills: Trouble (2013)
Rachel Stevens: Come And Get It (2005)
Ronika: Selectadisc (2014)
Cocknbullkid: Adulthood (2011)
V V Brown: Samson and Delilah (2013)
The Xenomania and Richard X golden age of commercial UK pop may be over, but the Brits have kept producing brilliant, idiosyncratic pop artists. The problem is they're just not selling all that much anymore. Here are six fantastic albums which may have passed you by.#85No, strategically aligning herself with more basic forces such as Icona Pop, Iggy Azalia, John Green and Halsey has kept Charli relevant even as her albums stay underperforming or unreleased.Because it's an amazing, sexy, big-hearted and relentlessly cool album which is never less than affecting and true.#70 (UK info n/a)No, being a dumbass on X Factor New Zealand did. But Trouble was to be her last album as Natalia Kills, as she has now assumed the identity of "Teddy Sinclair" and is currently making (great) music with her suit-inventor husband Willy Moon as Cruel Youth.Oh the irony of Natalia finding fame for lambasting some poor mug for lack of originality, when discerning pop fans had waited for her to stop leaning on others' swag for her whole career (Gaga for Perfectionist, Lana for Trouble). But while Trouble is pretty obviously influenced by Born To Die and Electra Heart, this road trip through broken American dreams and doomed youth is easily the equal of both of them and arguably holds up even better.#28Her music career, yes. Unless you count being a judge on X Factor New Zealand, but like, have standards.Because it was even better than her well-received debut which had an actual hit single in Sweet Dreams (My L.A. Ex). Come And Get It is a confident, exciting pop album with not a single bad track on it, some of them still have the power to make you cry into your ice cream a decade plus later.n/aNo, but her second (also very good) album Lose My Cool has been released to evenfanfare as Ronika's too busy with her new bb to promo.Okay, Ronika's brand of glittering 80s retro disco pop probably was never going to set the charts alight, but you'd think it'd at least have provided her with a rabid stanbase ala Charli and Carly.n/aAs Cocknbullkid, pretty much. Blay went on to the dance act Anthony & Cleopatra and has since worked as a songwriter for acts like Neon Jungle and Little Mix.Because it's a hugely likeable pop album that takes the unlikeliest, naffest influences (lyrically you can hear traces of Morrissey, Noel Coward and Anita's fave Neil Hannon, sonically the songs bounce and shine like Sandie Shaw and Cilla Black) and turn them into something modern and brilliant, and Anita's voice is pure velvet.#158Kind of. Her next album GLITCH was crowdfunded and she recently told fans on instagram she's quit the music business.Samson and Delilah is an edgy, harsh, conceptual pop record which was never going to enter Britney territory commercially speaking, but V V definitely deserved to be mentioned in the same breath as people like Ladytron, Peaches, Fever Ray etc after its release. It's a huge artistic achievement and a lot of people would probably have become obsessed with it if they only got to hear it.
OnMilwaukee reruns this story in honor of the 30-year anniversary of the tragic Norman Hotel fire.
It has been 30 years since fire destroyed The Norman apartment building, 634 W. Wisconsin Ave. Many of the former residents are still impacted by the tragic event today, mostly because lives were lost, but also because the massive blaze incinerated a structure that housed a community steeped in personal and artistic freedom.
"The Norman was full of drag queens and drug dealers and artists and musicians and dancers. It was a hotbed of alternative lifestyles. It was amazing," says Norman tenant Ricky Becker.
The possibility of a fire at The Norman was predicted even joked about for years. It was called a fire trap, a tinder box, and the fact the fire department was located across the street from the once opulent, five-story building became both a source of comfort and irony for residents.
"We knew when we lived there that the place could easily burn down someday," says Keith Brammer, who lived in the mixed-use building "around 1981" with his bandmates from Die Kreuzen.
When The Norman actually did catch fire on Jan. 12, 1991 at approximately 9:30 a.m., neither the predictions of the residents nor the proximity of the fire station could stop the blaze from consuming the building along with the lives of four people and about a dozen pets.
Phyllis Chobot, Margaret Joyner and Joyners two children, Fredrico and Nicolas Joyner, were unable to make it out of the building in time and died in the fire.
The fire also destroyed first-floor businesses Alan Preuss Florists, You Light Up My Life (a T-shirt shop), Denmark adult book store and a submarine sandwich shop.
The decrepit building was constructed primarily of wood and featured a massive wooden staircase that stretched up the center of the structure. This was one of the main reasons for the buildings swift flammability.
Warren "Ski" Skonieczny, a now-retired deputy chief of the Milwaukee Fire Department, was among those who fought the five-alarm fire.
"There was an atrium in the center of The Norman from the first floor to the roof the center was like Lambeau Field and the apartments were like the seats so when the fire started on the second floor, it created a cyclone up the middle. It created its own storm," says Skonieczny.
Plus, because of the transient nature of the tenants, many of the apartments and hallways were overstuffed with abandoned belongings so there was plenty of fuel to keep the flames blazing.
"It was always my joke that The Norman spontaneously combusted because of all the bad art. There was a lot of it. And some of it was mine," says Norman tenant Stanley Ryan Jones.
The force of the "cyclone" of flames and the gusting winter winds blew pieces of the Norman roof as far away as Bay View. However, the fact it was winter most likely saved other buildings and lives.
"The buildings were close together and the snow on the roofs probably stopped the fire from spreading," says Skonieczny. "But it took six hours to gain control of that fire. We couldnt do anything until the fire decided it had enough and burned itself out. It did what it wanted to do."
The Norman was built in 1888 as the lavishly appointed Norman Flats. It had five floors featuring 28 units, all of which were constructed with brass fixtures, intricate moldings and fireplaces in each unit which were later blocked off.
At one point, Miller Brewing Company owned the building and The Norman was a prized property because of its proximity to the celebrated Grand Avenue (now Wisconsin Avenue) theaters, clubs and restaurants.
By the 1970s, however, the west end of Downtown became less reputable with strip clubs, boarded buildings, the adult bookstore, a gay bath house and a 24-hour Dunkin Donuts referred to as "Drunkin Donuts" by Norman residents.
"The Norman was run down, but it was old and interesting and beautiful," says Brammer.
Despite the wear and tear of time and Downtowns struggle to remain vibrant, The Norman remained an eclectic building. It was home to successful and starving artists, families, musicians, prostitutes, junkies and the elderly, mostly because of the low rent (about $225-$350 a month) and large apartments.
The Norman represented counterculture at both its worst and its best.
There was a woman who wore a snake around her neck named Fluffy, an impressive collection of hookers spent condoms in the rear stairwell and so many cockroaches they became the subjects of art projects.
"It was very communal. People moved in, people moved on," says Mike Podolak, who lived in The Norman for roughly four years in the early 80s. "We were all fledgling punk rockers and alcoholics. It was a weird scene. You never knew what you were going to find when you came back home. Im almost sure my closet was the portal to Hell."
Jones, an artist and photographer, lived in The Norman from 1987 until the fire.
"The Norman had a faded elegance, a Chelsea hotel movie set feel to it," he says.
Jones moved into The Norman after he was injured as a U.S. Forest Service firefighter / smoke jumper in the western states.
The irony of the fact he was on disability from a firefighting incident at the time of The Norman fire is not lost on Jones. In fact, it almost worked against him. Because of his fire fighting background, Jones says he was briefly a suspect.
"The investigators were keen on me because firefighters sometimes start fires. They may or may not be pyromaniacs they might just want the extra work but eventually they realized I wasnt their guy," says Jones.
On the morning of the fire, Jones was at the apartment of his girlfriend, who lived next door in the building. Suddenly, Jones heard someone yell, "fire!"
Jones threw on a pair of pants, ran into the hallway, broke the glass encasing a fire extinguisher and sprayed a couch burning in the hallway. Flames were already spreading up the wall and onto the ceiling.
Jones, who was not wearing shoes or a shirt, quickly realized the fire was beyond stopping or controlling and so he ran to his apartment to grab a few items and make sure his girlfriend escaped.
He located his camera bag and a plastic zebra print bag filled with photos, but the glass above the door exploded. Jones knew it was time to get out.
He ran out the back of the building where he found himself face-to-face with a fireman struggling with a wooden ladder. Jones set down his bags to assist the firefighter who was trying to rescue another resident, Guy Roeseler, hanging from a second floor window that was billowing black smoke.
Becker observed this interaction from the ground. He remembers Roeseler handing the firefighter a "wiggly pillow case" before climbing out of the window.
"His cat, Mr. Legolas, was in that pillowcase," says Becker.
After assisting the fireman, Jones turned back and realized his camera bag was gone, but luckily, his portfolio bag was still on the ground. He grabbed his photos and walked across the street.
"I remember standing there, across the street from the fire, and thinking it was really a pretty fire. There was such a gray sky that day and the flames were really dramatic against it. It was really quite sublime," says Jones.
Becker lived in The Norman in two different apartments from 1987 until the fire.
"I had just graduated from UWM and I was in the process of doing a performance art / fashion show," says Becker, who was 27 at the time.
The show was only a week away and Beckers apartment was filled with clothing and costumes, much of which he had designed or silk screened.
"I had just taken a shower, and I heard a sound like a train and then a pop," says Becker.
Suddenly, his closet door flew open and a "black, sparking cloud" came flying out. It immediately started a 1940s wedding dress art piece on fire and, within seconds, the room was in flames.
"I was buck naked," says Becker. "It happened so fast. I realized there was no way to get out of my room."
Becker leaped through the flames and ran down the hallway where his roommate, Danielle, was sleeping. He started yelling she needed to get out of the apartment.
"Ricky, she said, half awake, youre naked," he says.
Becker ran to another floor to make sure people were making it out safely and he found his friend, Susan B. Melin, who passed away a few years ago, coming out of her apartment with her cat carrier. She was wearing a bathrobe and her hair was completely burned off on one side of her head.
She told him one of her walls exploded and she couldnt find her other cat. Then paused and said, "Ricky, youre naked."
From there Becker went to the third floor where he found a sweater on a chair in the hallway. He wrapped it around his waist and ran out of the building onto the back porch and scrambled down the stairs and into the Dunkin Donuts.
"Unfortunately, they kicked me out because I wasnt wearing shoes," says Becker. "It was their policy. You had to have a shirt and shoes. I had neither."
So Becker ran to Jims Time Out (now Stella's), 746 N. James Lovell St.
"Thats when I freaked out. I started smoking that day. I had never smoked before and suddenly I was smoking three cigarettes at once. People were walking up to me and handing me money and I was saying, Thank you but I have nowhere to put it," he says.
Eventually, a man in the bar took off his socks and long underwear and gave them to Becker.
"I lost everything that day my entire portfolio, antiques. But I shouldnt complain. I ran out with my life," says Becker, choking up.
Roeseler and his partner at the time, Don Sefton, moved into The Norman in 1986. The couple was known among neighbors for having the most attractive apartment in the building.
"It was a beautiful apartment with 12-foot, vaulted ceilings. We painted the floors cream and the walls jungle green and school bus yellow and dark rose," says Roeseler.
The couple split up about six months before the fire and Sefton moved to the fifth floor.
On the morning of the fire, Sefton was reading a cookbook on his couch in his boxer shorts when he heard Jones yelling and pounding on doors in the hallway. Before he could walk from the couch to the door smoke started pouring into the apartment.
Sefton ran back to the bedrooms and woke up his roommate and new boyfriend. Within minutes, the entire apartment was filled with smoke, so they climbed onto the balcony, where they quickly realized the fire had consumed the back steps. Forced back into the apartment, they ran into a bedroom and climbed out a window onto the roof of the apartment building next door.
"If you werent out in a couple of minutes, you were dead," says Sefton, who was forced to leave behind two cats, Lena and Jimmy.
Once outside, Sefton could see his neighbors huddled in front of the Dunkin' Donuts.
"And then I saw Ricky, wearing nothing," he says.
Windows exploded, a woman ran out of the building with a parrot cage. And suddenly, Sefton realized he had not seen Roeseler and started yelling, "Wheres Guy? Has anyone seen Guy?"
Another resident said they saw him inside an ambulance and at that very moment, Sefton saw an ambulance turn on its lights and siren and speed off down the street.
"We were broken up, but I still cared for him," says Sefton.
Roeseler was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and the fear that Sefton felt watching the ambulance drive away affected him for decades.
Three weeks prior to the fire, Norman resident Jimmy von Milwaukee, an artist and gallery owner who ran for mayor, threw a New Years Eve party in the building. He made invites and called it "The Last Blue Moon Party."
"It was a beautiful party," he says."Little did I know it was really going to be a last."
Von Milwaukee had slept at a friends place and was still there the morning the fire broke out. He lost all of his belongings and his cat, Larry, in the fire.
"For a year, I kept beating myself up that I didnt get the cat out," he says.
Like Sefton, von Milwaukee was emotionally scarred from the blaze.
"I had a lot of anger. I did a lot of drinking. I said I was never going to live with poor people again," he says.
After the fire, most of the residents were not allowed back inside the building, so Jones dressed in what a friend called "construction worker drag" and inconspicuously went into the building with a large gym bag to retrieve some of his personal belongings, photos and slides.
Among the things he recovered was a stack of photos printed on cheap, plastic-coated paper used primarily for proof sheets.
The photos mostly of the Milwaukee music scene and national acts like David Byrne, Iggy Pop and The Ramones had melted into a brick-like mass, but Jones soaked them in water and was able to peel them apart revealing completely new images. He later donated 83 of these photos to the Milwaukee Art Museum where they remain in the permanent collection.
After the fire, there were benefits and fundraisers for the residents, most of whom did not have rental insurance, including one at the now-defunct Cafe Melange.
"Unfortunately, someone stole the money before the nights end," says Jones. "But aside from that, there was an outpouring of goodwill and everyone donated tons of stuff. All of the dumb stuff was back instantly. Suddenly I had sheets, towels, three old TVs."
There were numerous post-fire meetings with the police and firefighters and insurance investigators, but the residents never received any solid information as to exactly how or why the fire started. Some believed it was because of old wiring, others are certain it was arson.
"It was all very suspicious," says Jones. "Most of us felt this way."
Wisconsin law closes the public record on cases after seven years. Consequently, documents pertaining to The Norman fire are no longer available.
"Unfortunately, because of the number of years that have passed since the incident, we dont have any records available that include a disposition," says Milwaukee Police Lieutenant Mark Stanmeyer.
However, a couple of years after the fire, when the case was still open, Jones obtained a report that declared the fire to be of an undetermined origin and cause.
"Somebody got away with murder," says von Milwaukee.
Skonieczny reported the fire started on the second floor, an important detail that was confirmed by Jones.
"I saw it spread before my very eyes. It started to climb the wall. I knew we all had to get the f*ck out," Jones says.
Although Jones lost almost all of his belongings, it was not the focus of his post-fire grief.
"You might miss this or that, but when people die you cant get too emotional about your appliances. Not even the family photo album," says Jones.
Becker shared similar post-fire sentiments. He also still suffers from the loss of his neighbors.
"Phyllis and Dorothy lived next door to me at The Norman. We called them Pete and Repeat because whatever Dorothy said, Phyllis would repeat it," says Becker. "Phyllis was always very nervous and afraid. She must have been terrified during the fire."
Becker moved to New York in 1994 where he now owns a vintage clothing business called Spooky Boutique. He plans to move back to Milwaukees North Side in January, however, to spend more time with his mother.
The fire changed Becker's life and it's one of his primary reasons for leaving Milwaukee. But he realized he couldn't move far enough to escape it.
"Anytime I smell fire, it freaks me out," says Becker. "I think I still have some PTSD. When I first moved to New York, my roommate fell asleep smoking in bed and the place filled up with smoke and I totally freaked out. I know how quickly it can all go up in flames."
After the fire, Roeseler moved to Seattle, and in 1992, Sefton had saved enough money from working at The Coffee Trader and the Hyatt, and he moved there, too.
Roeseler, after living in Hawaii, moved back to Milwaukee with his partner to open Ono Kine Grindz, 7215 W. North Ave. The Hawaiian eatery suffered a minor fire in 2012.
Sefton continued to suffer from PTSD and would cry uncontrollably every time he heard a fire truck's siren, remembering the fear and anguish he felt that January morning.
In 2009, Sefton decided he was going to find closure. So, on the anniversary of Sept. 11, Sefton reached out to local firefighters and offered to make them dinner.
He brought them steak, salad and dessert. Hes done this repeatedly since.
"It has helped me tremendously," says Sefton, who married his partner in 2013. "Its my homage to firemen. In a small way, Im thanking those people for everything they do and it has totally transformed the PTSD."
Sefton says he still has uneasy feelings when he hears a siren, but its much better. And he has started to recognize what the tragedy taught him about starting over and not being overly attached to material items.
"As I look back, I try to find an element of comfort in that there is something cathartic about letting go of everything," he says.
Within a week after the fire, Jones rented a place on Milwaukees South Side and he later bought a house a couple blocks away. "That was one of the only good things about the fire. It was the impetus for me to buy my house," he says.
However, to this day, Jones says he sees his life in two stages: before the fire and after the fire.
"It was a very traumatic event," he says. "It was the fire of the season."
The long-anticipated Bronzeville location of Petes Fruit Market, 2303 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Dr., is set to open its doors on Sept. 14.
The family-owned grocery store, located in the heart of the Historic King Drive Business Improvement District, will offer fresh and healthy food to Bronzeville and the surrounding community.
"I love this neighborhood. I love the diversity of this neighborhood," said Theodore Tsitiridis, owner of Petes Fruit Market, explaining why he is opening a store in Bronzeville.
Tsitiridis added that he looks for neighborhoods that are considered food deserts, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture defines as low-income areas without easy access to fresh and healthy foods.
Community activist Denise Wooten praised the new addition to the neighborhood. "I applaud the owners of Petes embracing this wonderful opportunity to breathe more life into the 53206/53212 (ZIP codes) with a quality venture that is long overdue," she wrote on the Petes Fruit Market-Bronzeville Facebook page.
Tsitiridis said 20 workers have been hired for the Bronzeville location, with approximately 75 percent of them coming from the surrounding area. The store plans to hire 15 more workers before the opening.
The market held two job fairs in the past year in the community, said Francesca Asiuras, office manager at the market. Open positions included cashiers, stockers, maintenance, meat clerks and customer service representatives.
"Petes has been very hands-on in hiring people from the community," said Kalan Haywood, founder and president of Vangard Group. The development company worked to bring the fruit market to Bronzeville.
"It was the communitys idea, not just the developers," Haywood noted.
Plans to transform the former Walgreens into Petes Fruit Market were announced in April 2016. At the time, Mayor Tom Barrett called it a "family-owned business with a well-earned reputation for great quality food and great prices." It was initially expected to open at the end of 2016.
JCP Construction, a minority-owned business enterprise, is managing the renovation.
Petes provides locally sourced produce when it is available. Asiuras said that the store works with local farmers to provide in-season produce. Petes Fruit Market also has a farm at 1561 S. Muskego Ave., in partnership with CORE/El Centro and Milwaukee Countys University of Wisconsin Extension.
The 13,700-square-foot grocery store will serve Bronzeville and surrounding neighborhoods including Brewers Hill and Halyard Park, but Tsitiridis said he hopes to serve the broader Milwaukee area.
After a Walgreens moved out of the building in 2013, residents were promised a grocery store. A Dollar Tree planned to move in, but after strong community opposition and demands for a full-service grocery store, Dollar Tree gave up on the location.
The original Petes Fruit Market, 1400 S. Union St., was opened in 1993 by Pete Tsitiridis, Theodores father.
5 Principles for Meaningful Tax Reform
There has never been a more promisingor criticaltime for tax reform. Returning from the recess, Congress will be eager to move on from the bruising battle over healthcare. Leaders from both parties agree that tax reform is long overdue. But this also means failure would be disastrous for American businesses and consumers as well.
We know that all businesses want tax reform, but can we find clear, compelling principles that all stakeholders can agree upon to create a simpler, fairer, more competitive tax code that will grow the economy, create millions of good-paying jobs and put money back into the depleted pockets of American families?
Tax reform should be designed to lift the financial burden on hardworking American families, not increase it.
The last major overhaul of our tax system took place all the way back in 1986over 30 years ago. Since then, Americas tax code has been saddled down with higher rates, additional brackets and more loopholes. Meanwhile, countries around the world have been cutting tax rates, putting the United States at a severe competitive disadvantage.
Today, U.S. companies face a tax rate of nearly 39% compared to about 22% for the rest of the world. According to the non-partisan Tax Foundation, 75 countries have corporate tax rates below 20%, compared to just three countries that tax companies more than 35%.
The opportunity now exists to get meaningful tax reform passed into law. But how can Congress and the Trump Administration bring together the diverse coalition of supporters they need to make tax reform a reality? We believe there are five key principles that should guide tax reform as we move forward.
1. Tax reform should be fair for all industries. Tax reform should not only lower rates, it should eliminate tax credits and incentives that favor some industries over others. This will free businesses to make the best decisions economically, rather than hiring more accountants and lawyers in a never-ending effort to try to game the tax code. Eliminating these tax credits will not only make the tax code fairer, it will also raise revenue and help to underwrite the projected cost of tax reform.
2. Tax reform needs to apply to all businesses regardless of operational form. Whether a business is a C-corporation or a pass-through, whether it owns or leases its stores, sells online or at brick-and-mortar locations, a business should not face a higher tax burden because of its operational decisions. This principle assures that companies will make organizational decisions based on what makes them grow and thrive, not how best to avoid taxes.
3. Tax reform shouldnt burden consumers. Forcing Americans to foot the bill for Washington spending every time they buy an article of clothing or the latest flat-screen TV will not spur economic growth. Tax reform should be designed to lift the financial burden on hardworking American families, not increase it.
4. Tax reform should be permanent. To boost economic growth and job creation, businesses need certainty. That means tax reform should favor permanent changes over expiring tax credits or temporary tax provisions.
5. Tax reform should include an adequate transition period. Businesses, including millions of retailers, need time to plan for any changes to the tax code. Transitioning to a new tax code should be seamless, rather than disruptive.
Many of these principles are already embodied in the tax reform plans circulating between Congress and the White House. We must build on these current plans and create ardent champions for tax reform among all American industries and businesses.
Speaker Ryan warned that we cant let this once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform our tax code slip by. By taking guidance from these clear principles, we can seize that opportunity to grow the economy and give consumers a much-needed boost.
About NRF
NRF is the worlds largest retail trade association, representing discount and department stores, home goods and specialty stores, Main Street merchants, grocers, wholesalers, chain restaurants and internet retailers from the United States and more than 45 countries. Retail is the nations largest private sector employer, supporting one in four U.S. jobs 42 million working Americans. Contributing $2.6 trillion to annual GDP, retail is a daily barometer for the nations economy.
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Ohio State researchers believe they have developed and validated a new method to identify which people are narcissistic.
And, the beauty is that the tool is only a single question.
In a series of 11 experiments involving more than 2,200 people of all ages, the researchers found they could reliably identify narcissistic people by asking them this exact question (including the note):
To what extent do you agree with this statement: I am a narcissist. (Note: The word narcissist means egotistical, self-focused, and vain.)
Participants rated themselves on a scale of one (not very true of me) to seven (very true of me).
If you are curious about the test or want to know how narcissistic are you? The test is found at http://tinyurl.com/ovsf54v.
Results showed that peoples answer to this question lined up very closely with several other validated measures of narcissism, including the widely used Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI).
The difference is that this new survey which the researchers call the Single Item Narcissism Scale (SINS) has one question, while the NPI has 40 questions to answer.
People who are willing to admit they are more narcissistic than others probably actually are more narcissistic, said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and a professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University.
People who are narcissists are almost proud of the fact. You can ask them directly because they dont see narcissism as a negative quality they believe they are superior to other people and are fine with saying that publicly.
Bushman conducted the study with Sara Konrath of the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy (formerly of the University of Michigan) and Brian Meier of Gettysburg College.
The study has been published in the journal PLOS ONE.
Understanding narcissism has many implications for society that extend beyond the impact on the individual narcissists life, Konrath said.
For example, narcissistic people have low empathy, and empathy is one key motivator of philanthropic behavior such as donating money or time to organizations.
Overall, narcissism is problematic for both individuals and society. Those who think they are already great dont try to improve themselves, Bushman said.
And narcissism is bad for society because people who are only thinking of themselves and their own interests are less helpful to others.
Bushman emphasized that the one question tool (SINS) shouldnt be seen a replacement for the longer narcissism questionnaires (NPI, etc) as other instruments can provide more information to researchers, such as which form of narcissism someone has.
But our single-item scale can be useful for long surveys in which researchers are concerned about people getting fatigued or distracted while answering questions and possibly even dropping out before they are done, Bushman said.
He noted that if it takes a person 20 seconds to answer the single question in the SINS measure, it would take him or her 13.3 minutes to answer the 40-question NPI.
That is a big difference if youre doing a study in which participants have to complete several different survey instruments and answer a long list of other questions, he said.
The 11 different experiments took a number of different approaches to determine the validity of SINS. Some used undergraduate college students, while others involved online panels of American adults.
One experiment found that SINS was positively related to each of the seven subscales of the NPI which measure various components of narcissism (vanity, exhibitionism, exploitativeness, authority, superiority, self-sufficiency, and entitlement).
Another study found that that participants tended to have similar scores on SINS when tested 11 days apart.
One experiment replicated past work that showed people scoring high in narcissism were more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors and had difficulty maintaining long-term committed romantic relationships.
People who scored higher on narcissism on the SINS had both positive and negative outcomes, Bushman said. They reported more positive feelings, more extraversion, and marginally less depression.
But they also reported less agreeableness, and more anger, shame, guilt, and fear. In addition, people scoring high on SINS showed negative interpersonal outcomes, such as having poor relationships with others and less prosocial behavior when their ego was threatened.
The advantage of SINS compared to other measures, Bushman said, is that it allows researchers to identify narcissists very easily.
We dont think SINS is a replacement for other narcissism inventories in all situations, but it has a time and place, he said.
Source: Ohio State University
With global oil prices flailing, Saudi Arabia is turning to another natural resource: billions of dollars gained from religious tourism as the kingdom hosts the annual hajj pilgrimage. Shops line the packed esplanade of the Great Mosque of Mecca, one of the holiest sites in Islam, lowering their awnings only at prayer time and re-opening their doors minutes after the mosque empties. Saudi authorities have reported 2.35 million Muslims are participating in this year's hajj, the pilgrimage to the western Saudi Arabian city of Mecca that forms one of the five pillars of Islam. Of those, around 1.75 million pilgrims from 168 countries arrived from abroad, according to the state-run SPA news agency. Even at the foothills of Mount Arafat, where Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed delivered his last sermon, carpet merchants were scouting for customers among the faithful. "The money spent by pilgrims this year could be from 20 to 25 billion riyals (5.3 to 6.7 billion dollars)," said Maher Jamal, head of Mecca's Chamber of Commerce and Industry -- an estimated 70 percent increase from the previous year. Jamal told AFP the jump in revenue stemmed from a 20 percent increase in the number of pilgrims compared with last year. Each of them contributes on average thousands of dollars to the kingdom's domestic economy, spending money on food, lodging, souvenirs and gifts. - 'Religion and commerce' - The increase in numbers is no accident but rather part of the ambitious Vision 2030 plan aimed at diversifying the Saudi economy, which was dealt a serious blow after oil prices plummeted in 2014. According to historian Luc Chantre, whose research focuses on hajj during colonial times, "even before the advent of Islam, Mecca was a place for merchants". "It was an area of international exchange, where religion and commerce were always linked," Chantre told AFP. "Until the discovery of oil, the hajj was Saudi Arabia's primary source of revenue." Saudi Arabia -- the world's top crude oil exporter -- has announced a plan to shift the kingdom's economy away from oil dependency toward other sources of revenue, including religious tourism. The Vision 2030 plan aims to draw six million pilgrims to hajj annually. In addition, the kingdom hopes to attract 30 million pilgrims to umrah, a lesser pilgrimage that can be completed during the rest of the year. Years before the 2030 targets were unveiled, work was already under way to expand the capacity to accommodate as many pilgrims as possible during the five-day hajj. The past decade has seen cranes rise above the Great Mosque for projects including the expansion of the holy mosques of Mecca and Medina, an underground metro line and new flooring built around the Kaaba -- a black masonry cube which pilgrims circumambulate through now-air conditioned or ventilated corridors. The expansion projects have been met with some criticism for distorting the ancient sites, sparking major safety concerns along the way. In September 2015, a construction crane crashed over pilgrims congregating at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, leaving more than 100 people dead. Later that month, the hajj saw its worst ever disaster when a deadly stampede along the route killed around 2,300 people. The stampede drew fierce criticism, in particular from rival Iran which reported 464 of its citizens killed. After refusing to send pilgrims in 2016, Iranian authorities say more than 86,000 of their nationals are taking part this year. On Friday, as pilgrims carried out the last major ritual of the pilgrimage, Saudi authorities held a televised press conference to report that the 2017 hajj had passed without major health or safety upsets.
The wife of one of Venezuela's top jailed opposition figures said airport agents on Saturday stopped her from traveling to meet the leaders of France, Germany, Spain and Britain. Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez's wife said on Twitter that immigration officials confiscated her passport on orders from the chief prosecutor's office. Lilian Tintori was set to hold meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and British Prime Minister Theresa May to discuss the political crisis in Venezuela. International powers accuse President Nicolas Maduro of dismantling democracy by taking over state institutions in order to resist opposition pressure for him to quit, amid an economic crisis that has caused shortages of food and medicine. Tintori posted a picture on Twitter showing her at the airport with the ambassadors of Spain, Germany and Italy, who she said were "witnesses to this outrage by the dictatorship." "They just stopped me from leaving the country. The dictatorship wants to prevent us from making a very important international tour," Tintori said. "I was ready to report that there are human rights violations in Venezuela; that it is a dictatorship, that there are 590 political prisoners; and that 53 percent of our children are malnourished." she stressed. Julio Borges, head of opposition-led National Assembly, earlier tweeted that he would be traveling to meet the same foreign leaders. It was unclear if Borges had already left the country. Tintori and Borges, however, are scheduled on Rajoy's agenda for a Tuesday meeting. "We condemn the timing of this decision," a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said, adding that it hopes Tintori would be permitted to travel soon. "It is the responsibility of the Venezuelan government to avoid further steps that increase tension and take Venezuela away from democracy," she added. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that he was waiting to meet Tintori in Europe. "The Venezuelan opposition must remain free," he added. Tintori's husband was sentenced in 2015 to nearly 14 years in prison on charges of inciting deadly violence in street protests. In July, Lopez was moved to his home and placed under house arrest after spending nearly 3.5 years in a military prison. Venezuela is suffering an economic crisis that has caused food and medicine shortages. Prosecutors say some 130 people were killed this year in four months of anti-government protests. Maduro says the crisis is a US-backed conspiracy. He has vowed to request an Interpol notice for Ortega's arrest.
Douglas Dynamics, Inc. operates as a manufacturer and upfitter of commercial work truck attachments and equipment in North America. It operates through two segments, Work Truck Attachments and Work Truck Solutions. The Work Truck Attachments segment manufactures and sells snow and ice control attachments, including snowplows, and sand and salt spreaders for light trucks and heavy duty trucks, as well as various related parts and accessories. The Work Truck Solutions segment primarily manufactures municipal snow and ice control products; provides truck and vehicle upfits where it attaches component pieces of equipment, truck bodies, racking, and storage solutions to a vehicle chassis for use by end users for work related purposes; and manufactures storage solutions for trucks and vans, and cable pulling equipment for trucks. This segment also offers up-fit and storage solutions. It also provides customized turnkey solutions to governmental agencies, such as Departments of Transportation and municipalities. The company sells its products under the BLIZZARD, FISHER, SNOWEX, WESTERN, TURFEX, SWEEPEX, HENDERSON, BRINEXTREME, and DEJANA brands. It distributes its products primarily to professional snowplowers who are contracted to remove snow and ice from commercial and residential areas. The company was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Scientists at the US space agency NASA recently discovered the neighbouring star systems with seven planets that might host life TRAPPIST-1. Since then scientists and astronomers have observed the star system thoroughly and the latest data beamed back by the Hubble Space Telescope reveals that the outer Earth-sized planet might boast water necessary to support life. In addition, three planets in the TRAPPIST-1 star system are in Goldilocks zone and have an excellent chance to harbour alien life.
The remarkable discovery was made on February 22, 2017, which lit a ray of hope in every scientist about the possibility of life on other planets other than our very own planet Earth. These planets are located in the Aquarius Constellation around a small sized and a faint star. All the planets are nearly equal in size, and the size is approximately equivalent to that of the earth.
For the study, researchers observed the amount of ultraviolet radiation entering the planets atmosphere. Ultraviolet radiation is an important factor in the atmospheric evolution of planets, explained lead researcher Vincent Bourrier from Geneva Observatory. As in our own atmosphere, where ultraviolet sunlight breaks molecules apart, ultraviolet starlight can break water vapour in the atmospheres of exoplanets into hydrogen and oxygen, Bourrier said.
Scientists further explained that ultraviolet rays break water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen. Since hydrogen is lighter than Oxygen, it can escape the planets atmosphere which can later be detected by the Hubble Space Telescope.
The study appeared in the Astronomical Journal shows that each planet has lost more than three Earth-oceans of water. Since outermost planet is farthest from the Sun, it receives less ultraviolet rays which further signifies that it has lost lesser amount of water when compared to other planets in the star system.
About the Star: TRAPPIST-1
The planets are orbiting a dwarf star named as Trappist-1. The star is only marginally larger than the Jupiter. The star is very small and cold, and hence the seven orbiting planets are temperate. The star shines very feebly, that is about 2000 times dim; when compared to Sun.
Illustrations so Far:
It is for the first time that so many planets resembling the size of the earth are found together that too around the same star. Since the planets are temperate than there are the chances of availability of water on them. The discovery plays a very important role in determining the possibility of life outside the Earth and our Solar System.
The discovery resembles the news of locating three planets around the same dwarf star that was announced in May 2016; now the difference is just the number has increased to 7.
The size of the planets differs from Earth in the aspect of 10% larger to 25% smaller. According to research, the three outermost planets preferably called as Trappist-1e, 1f and 1g are considered most habitable planets out of the seven that were discovered. However, Trappist-1f gaining the top-notch position even amongst the three. The temperature of this planet is a slight difference on the colder side in comparison to Earth but with ample amount of Greenhouse gases and desired atmosphere.
The planets are only 40 light-years away from the Earth. It is the first ever rocky system in orbit alike our solar system is discovered. However, the news has increased the anxiety in many researchers. Because, in any way, if the life-sustaining system can be successfully determined around Trappist 1 it will prove to be an award-winning answer to age-old efforts.
Astronomers are analysing the data sent by James Webb Telescope to find the presence of alien life on TRAPPIST-1. If these planets have atmospheres, the James Webb Space Telescope will be the key to unlocking their secrets, said Doug Hudgins, Exoplanet Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. In the meantime, NASAs missions like Spitzer, Hubble, and Kepler are following up on these planets.
These are the best Earth-sized planets for the James Webb Space Telescope to characterize, perhaps for its whole lifetime, said Hannah Wakeford, postdoctoral fellow at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. At Goddard, engineers and scientists are currently testing the Webb telescope which will be able to view these planets in the infrared, beyond the capabilities we currently have. The Webb telescope will increase the information we have about these planets immensely. With the extended wavelength coverage we will be able to see if their atmospheres have water, methane, carbon monoxide/dioxide and/or oxygen.
NASA is exploring the solar system and beyond to better understand the universe and our place in it. Were looking to answer age-old questions, like how did our universe begin and evolve; how did galaxies, stars, and planets come to be; and are we alone.
The US has ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco and buildings in Washington and New York that house trade missions. The announcement is the latest in tit-for-tat measures between the two countries that have helped to drive relations to a new post-Cold War low. Last month, Moscow ordered the United States to cut its diplomatic and technical staff in Russia by more than half. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson informed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of the closures in a phone call on Thursday, a senior Trump administration official said. Lavrov expressed regret about Washingtons decision. Moscow said it will closely study the new measures announced by the Americans. The two men plan to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckerbee said: These closures have to be completed by September 2nd. Weve taken a firm and measured action in response to Russias unfortunate decision earlier this year. We want to halt the downward spiral and we want to move forward to build towards better relations. Well look for opportunities to do that but we also want to have equity in the decisions. And anything beyond that, anything beyond that I would refer you to the State Department. The latest US move caps eight months of back-and-forth retaliatory measures between the two countries spanning two US administrations. In December, the administration of Barack Obama closed two Russian countryside vacation retreats in Maryland and New York, saying the compounds had been used for intelligence-related purposes. The closures were part of a broader response, including the expulsion of 35 suspected Russian spies, to what US officials have called cyber interference by Moscow in the 2016 elections. The Kremlin has denied the allegations. Trump came into office wanting to improve relations with Russia, a desire that was hamstrung by the election interference allegations. The new sanctions passed by Congress conflicted with Trumps goals, but he grudgingly signed them into law this month. The United States said last week that it would have to sharply scale back visa services in Russia, a move that will hit Russian business travelers, tourists and students.
B&G Foods, Inc. manufactures, sells, and distributes a portfolio of shelf-stable and frozen foods, and household products in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The company's products include frozen and canned vegetables, vegetables, canola and other cooking oils, vegetable shortening, cooking sprays, oatmeal and other hot cereals, fruit spreads, canned meats and beans, bagel chips, spices, seasonings, hot sauces, wine vinegar, maple syrups, molasses, salad dressings, pizza crusts, Mexican-style sauces, dry soups, taco shells and kits, salsas, pickles, peppers, tomato-based products, baking powder and soda, corn starch, cookies and crackers, nut clusters, and other specialty products. It markets its products under various brands, including Ac'cent, B&G, B&M, Back to Nature, Baker's Joy, Bear Creek Country Kitchens, Brer Rabbit, Canoleo, Cary's, Clabber Girl, Cream of Rice, Cream of Wheat, Crisco, Dash, Davis, Devonsheer, Don Pepino, Durkee, Emeril's, Grandma's Molasses, Green Giant, Joan of Arc, Las Palmas, Le Sueur, MacDonald's, Mama Mary's, Maple Grove Farms of Vermont, McCann's, Molly McButter, New York Flatbreads, New York Style, Old London, Ortega, Polaner, Red Devil, Regina, Rumford, Sa-son, Sclafani, Spice Islands, Spring Tree, Sugar Twin, Tone's, Trappey's, TrueNorth, Underwood, Vermont Maid, Victoria, and Weber and Wright's. The company also sells, markets, and distributes household products under the Static Guard brand. It sells and distributes its products directly, as well as through a network of independent brokers and distributors to supermarket chains, foodservice outlets, mass merchants, warehouse clubs, non-food outlets, and specialty distributors. The company was formerly known as B&G Foods Holdings Corp. and changed its name to B&G Foods, Inc. in October 2004. B&G Foods, Inc. was founded in 1822 and is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey.
The following companies are subsidiares of Ingersoll Rand: 13125882 Canada Inc., 211 E. Russell Road LLC, 4458664 Canada Inc., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES ASIA PTE. LTD., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES BORROWER S.C.A., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES LLC, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES MIDDLE EAST FZE, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES SERVICES LIMITED, ASTRUM IT GmbH, Accudyne Industries Acquisition S.A r.l, Accudyne Industries Canada Inc., Accudyne Industries S.A r.l., Air Dimensions, Air Dimensions Inc., Albin Pump SAS, BOC Edwards Global Low pressure Air business, CISA S.p.A., Cameron-Centrifugal Compression, Comercial Ingersoll-Rand (Chile) Limitada, Comingersoll-Comercio E Industria De Equipamentos S.A., CompAir, CompAir (Hankook) Korea Co. Ltd., CompAir Acquisition (No. 2) Ltd., CompAir Acquisition Ltd., CompAir BroomWade Ltd., CompAir Finance Ltd., CompAir GmbH, CompAir Holdings Limited, CompAir International Trading (Shanghai) Co Ltd, CompAir Korea Ltd, CompAir South Africa (SA) (Pty) Ltd., Consolidated Distribution Holdings Ltd., DV Systems Inc., Dosatron International SAS, Emco Wheaton Gmbh, Emco Wheaton USA Inc, Enza Air Proprietary Limited, FlexEnergy Holdings LLC, Frigoblock Grosskopf Gmbh, GD Aria Holdings Limited, GD Aria Holdings Limited, GD Aria Investments Limited, GD First (UK) Ltd, GD German Holdings GmbH, GD German Holdings I Gmbh, GD German Holdings II GmbH, GD German Investments GmbH, GD Global Holdings II Inc., GD Global Holdings Inc., GD Global Holdings UK II Ltd., GD Global Ventures I B.V., GD Global Ventures II B.V., GD Global Ventures III B.V., GD Industrial Products Malaysia SDN. BHD., GD Investment KY, GD UK Finance Ltd., GPS Industries, Gardner Denver (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Austria GmbH, Gardner Denver Bad Neustadt Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Belgium NV, Gardner Denver Brasil Industria E Comercio de Maquinas Ltda., Gardner Denver CZ + SK sro, Gardner Denver Canada Corp (Canada), Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments II Limited, Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments Limited, Gardner Denver Deutschland GmbH, Gardner Denver Engineered Products India Private Limited, Gardner Denver FZE, Gardner Denver Finance II LLC, Gardner Denver Finance Inc & Co KG, Gardner Denver France SAS, Gardner Denver Group Svcs Ltd, Gardner Denver Holdings Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Investments Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Ltd, Gardner Denver Iberica SL, Gardner Denver Inc., Gardner Denver Industries Ltd., Gardner Denver Industries Pty Ltd., Gardner Denver International Inc., Gardner Denver International Ltd., Gardner Denver Investments Inc., Gardner Denver Italy Holdings S.r.L., Gardner Denver Japan Ltd., Gardner Denver Kirchhain Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Korea Ltd., Gardner Denver Ltd., Gardner Denver Machinery (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Nash Brasil Industria E Comercio De Bombas Ltda, Gardner Denver Nash LLC, Gardner Denver Nash Machinery Ltd., Gardner Denver Nederland BV, Gardner Denver Nederland Investments B.V., Gardner Denver Oy, Gardner Denver Polska Sp z.o.o., Gardner Denver Pte. Ltd., Gardner Denver S.r.l., Gardner Denver Schopfheim GmbH, Gardner Denver Schopfheim Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Schweiz AG, Gardner Denver Slovakia s.r.o., Gardner Denver Sweden AB, Gardner Denver Taiwan Ltd., Gardner Denver Thomas GmbH (f/k/a ILMVAC GmbH), Gardner Denver Thomas Inc., Gardner Denver Thomas Pneumatic Systems (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Thomas Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Garo Dott. Ing. Roberto Gabbioneta S.r.l., Ghh-Rand Schraubenkompressoren Gmbh, HASKEL EUROPE LTD., HASKEL HOLDINGS UK LIMITED, HASKEL INTERNATIONAL LLC, Hamworthy Belliss & Morcom, Haskel France SAS, Haskel Sistemas de Fluidos Espana S.R.L., Hibon Inc., Highspeed Newco LLC, Hingerose Limited, ILMVAC (UK) Ltd., ILS Innovative Labor Systeme, ILS Inovative Laborsysteme GmbH, INGERSOLL RAND ITS JAPAN LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND (CHANG ZHOU) TOOLS CO. LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND (CHINA) INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING CO. LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND CHINA LLC, INGERSOLL-RAND COMERCIO E SERVICOS DE MAQUINAS E EQUIPAMENTOS INDUSTRIAIS LTDA., INGERSOLL-RAND DE PUERTO RICO INC., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL COMPANY B.V., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL SP. Z O.O., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL U.S. INC., INGERSOLL-RAND PHILIPPINES INC., INGERSOLL-RAND SPAIN S.A., INGERSOLL-RAND U.S. HOLDCO INC., IR HPS Holdco. Inc., ITO Emniyet, Ingersoll Rand Cyprus Investments Ltd., Ingersoll Rand Finance LLC, Ingersoll Rand Global Investments LLC, Ingersoll Rand Global Ventures LLC, Ingersoll Rand Hong Kong Investments Limited, Ingersoll Rand Inc., Ingersoll Rand Investments (SG) Pte. Ltd., Ingersoll Rand Investments B.V., Ingersoll Rand Schweiz Investments Gmbh, Ingersoll Rand Technology R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand (Australia) Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand (China) Investment Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (Guilin) Tools Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (Hong Kong) Holding Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (India) Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Ab, Ingersoll-Rand Air Solutions Hibon Sarl, Ingersoll-Rand Beteiligungs Und Grundstucksverwaltungs Gmbh, Ingersoll-Rand Colombia S.A.S., Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited (Uk), Ingersoll-Rand Company South Africa (Pty) Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Cz S.R.O., Ingersoll-Rand De Mexico S.A. De C.V., Ingersoll-Rand Equipements De Production S.A.S., Ingersoll-Rand Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Industrial Ireland Limited, Ingersoll-Rand International (India) Private Limited, Ingersoll-Rand International Holding Llc, Ingersoll-Rand Italia S.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Italiana Manufacturing S.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Korea Holding Llc, Ingersoll-Rand Korea Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Lux Investments II S.A R.I., Ingersoll-Rand Lux Investments S.A R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Luxembourg Industrial Company S.A R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Machinery (Shanghai) Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Malaysia Co. Sdn. Bhd., Ingersoll-Rand S.A. De C.V., Ingersoll-Rand Services And Trading Limited Liability Company, Ingersoll-Rand Services Company, Ingersoll-Rand Services Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Singapore Enterprises Pte. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand South East Asia (Pte.) Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand Superay Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Technical And Services S.A.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Technologies And Services Private Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Technology R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand Tool Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Trading Gmbh, Ingersoll-Rand Vietnam Company Limited, Instrum Rand JSC, Interflex Datensysteme, Ir Canada Holdings Ulc, Ir Canada Sales & Service Ulc, Ir France Sas, Kryptonite corp, Lawrence Factor Inc., LeROI, LeRoi International Inc, MILTON ROY (HONG KONG) LIMITED, MILTON ROY (UK) LIMITED, MILTON ROY EUROPA B.V., MILTON ROY EUROPE SAS, MILTON ROY INDUSTRIAL (SHANGHAI) CO. LTD., MILTON ROY LLC, MILTON ROY US PURCHASER INC., MP Pumps Inc., Maximum AG Technologies Inc., Maximus Solutions, Mb Air Systems Limited, Nash Elmo, Officina Meccaniche Industriali Srl, Oina VV, Oina VV Aktiebolag, Plurifilter D.O.O., Pt Ingersoll-Rand Indonesia, Robuschi, Runtech Systems, Runtech Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Runtech Systems Inc., Runtech Systems OY, SEEPEX, Seepex (M) SDN, Seepex Australia Pty Ltd, Seepex Beteiligungs-Gesellschaft mit Beschrankter Haftung, Seepex France S.a.r.l., Seepex GmbH, Seepex Inc., Seepex India Private Ltd., Seepex Italia SRL, Seepex Japan Co. Ltd., Seepex Nordic A/S, Seepex OOO, Seepex Pumps (Shanghia) Co. Ltd., Seepex UK Ltd., Shanghai CompAir Compressors Co Ltd, Shanghai Compressors & Blowers Ltd., Shanghai Ingersoll-Rand Compressor Limited, Shenzhen Bocom System Engineering Co., Superay, Syltone, TIWR Real Estate GmbH & Co. KG, Tamrotor Marine Comp AS Norway, Tecno Matic Europe s.r.o., Thomas Industries Inc., Trane Technologies, Tri-Continent Scientific Inc., Vacuum and Blower Systems division, Welch Vacuum Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zaxe Technologies Inc., Zeks Compressed Air Solutions Llc, Zinsser Analytic, Zinsser Analytik GmbH, Zinsser NA Inc., and crayon interface.
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The Travelers Companies, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides a range of commercial and personal property, and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals in the United states and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Business Insurance, Bond & Specialty Insurance, and Personal Insurance. The Business Insurance segment offers workers' compensation, commercial automobile and property, general liability, commercial multi-peril, employers' liability, public and product liability, professional indemnity, marine, aviation, onshore and offshore energy, construction, terrorism, personal accident, and kidnap and ransom insurance products. This segment operates through select accounts, which serve small businesses; commercial accounts that serve mid-sized businesses; national accounts, which serve large companies; and national property and other that serve large and mid-sized customers, commercial trucking industry, and agricultural businesses, as well as markets and distributes its products through brokers, wholesale agents, and program managers. The Bond & Specialty Insurance segment provides surety, fidelity, management and professional liability, and other property and casualty coverages and related risk management services through independent agencies and brokers. The Personal Insurance segment offers property and casualty insurance covering personal risks, primarily automobile and homeowners insurance to individuals through independent agencies and brokers. The Travelers Companies, Inc. was founded in 1853 and is based in New York, New York.
Pediatric specialists from New Mexico are sharing expertise with their counterparts from a city near Moscow thanks to a project funded by a Russian supermodel with a rags-to-riches story.
Natalia Vodianova has been the face of Calvin Klein campaigns and shes graced the cover of Vogue. Shes also the founder of the Naked Heart Foundation whose mission is to support people with disabilities. The organization has many projects, including funding dozens of all-inclusive play parks in Russia and creating support networks for families of children with disabilities.
Staff and faculty from the University of New Mexicos departments of neurology, physical therapy, speech and language therapy, and from Carrie Tingley Hospital are participating in a Naked Heart Foundation program aimed at bringing new ideas about working with children with special needs and their families to facilities in Russia through international exchange experiences.
We want to learn modern approaches to working with children with disabilities, said Tatiana Morozova, a child psychologist from St. Petersburg who is on the Naked Heart Foundation board and an adjunct professor in the Neurology Department at the University of New Mexico.
Morozova, fellow Naked Heart Foundation board member Svyatoslav Dovbnya, a St. Petersburg child neurologist, and a group of physicians and therapists from a hospital in the city of Tula, near Moscow, recently visited Albuquerque to observe techniques used here to help children with cerebral palsy.
The goal of the intercultural exchange is to introduce staff from the Tula hospital to modern approaches to supporting children with cerebral palsy that can be implemented at their location, said Dr. John Phillips, a UNM Professor of Neurology and Medical Director of the Mind Research Network.
Phillips has worked for many years with doctors in Russia who are involved in the treatment of children with cerebral palsy. The condition is the result of a brain injury or brain malformation, typically at or before birth. It affects body movement and muscle coordination and can involve intellectual, visual and hearing impairment.
When the opportunity to participate in the Naked Heart Foundation program arose about two years ago, he saw it as a great opportunity. He said it has been the custom in Russia to put children with cerebral palsy and autism in orphanages.
In the United States, Phillips said, the approach has shifted to developing support services for the children and their families with the emphasis being on quality of life.
Children with cerebral palsy can make good functional progress with the right kind of support, said Phillips.
Thats where the connection with the Russian supermodel comes in. Vodianova, nicknamed Supernova, came from a poor family in Nizhny Novgorod. Growing up, she helped care for her half-sister who was born with cerebral palsy and autism. After she became a successful model, she started the Naked Heart Foundation to provide play parks and supportive environments for children with disabilities.
Phillips said the hospital in Tula has similar facilities to Albuquerques Carrie Tingley Hospital, which provides therapy and rehabilitation services to children with physical and developmental disabilities. He and Marybeth Barkocy, assistant professor in the physical therapy department at UNM, have visited the Tula hospital in the last two years to demonstrate how they work with children.
Barkocy said they showed the Russians how to assess childrens capabilities and collect data that could help show their progress over time. They discussed how physicians and therapists here work as a team with each child, involving the childs family in developing a care plan.
Its always a family-centered approach, said Barkocy.
A group from Tula visited UNM in 2016 to observe the techniques and they maintain regular contact via Skype with Phillips, Barkocy and others from UNM to discuss ongoing progress.
Funding from the Naked Heart Foundation enabled another group of 13 Russians to travel to Albuquerque this summer. Their visit Aug. 20-26 included a tour of the New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Albuquerque. The school has 46 students ages 3 to 6 years old from around central New Mexico. About half are blind or visually impaired because of a brain-related problem, many have cerebral palsy.
The schools lead therapist Ellen Kivitz and speech language pathologist Jessica Mount Matney guided the Russians through the classrooms showing how teams of teachers and therapists work together to assist children in developing skills in movement, play and communication.
We havent worked with children in this way before. Special education is different in Russia. We want to be able to show a different reality for them. Children have the same needs worldwide, Morozova said.
Police arrested a woman early Friday morning, after she crashed a stolen vehicle into a officers car, according to an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman.
Just bad luck is all it was, Officer Tanner Tixier said.
Tixier said two police cars were traveling through southeast Albuquerque when 22-year-old Leann Aragon struck one of them at the intersection of Coal and Yale SE.
The officer and Aragon were not injured in the crash, he said.
Our officers were in no way involved with that vehicle at all, they were simply cruising southbound Yale to a different call, he said. Ms. Aragon was coming eastbound Coal, without any headlights on in a stolen vehicle, and slammed into our second officer.
Aragon is charged with receiving and transferring a stolen vehicle.
SANTA FE New Mexicos voter rolls have decreased by more than 85,000 people since last years general election but thats likely not due to voter apathy or concern over a federal voter commission created by President Donald Trump.
County clerks in all 33 counties conducted a purge of the states voter rolls this year that led to the removal of 98,442 registered voters, according to the Secretary of States Office. But some newly eligible voters have also registered since November, which could explain the difference between the two figures.
Per state and federal law, New Mexico conducts purges in odd-numbered years to remove voters no longer eligible to cast ballots such as voters who have died and those who have moved from the states rolls.
After the latest purge, New Mexico has slightly more than 1.2 million registered voters. Of that amount, roughly 46 percent are registered Democrats, and 31 percent are registered Republicans, with the rest either identifying as independent or affiliating with other political parties.
Those voter affiliation percentages were largely unchanged from the 2016 general election.
Meanwhile, voter rolls have dropped in other states in recent months.
In Colorado, more than 5,300 voters withdrew their registrations in a recent monthlong period, after Colorados secretary of state prepared to send certain voter information to the federal election panel set up by Trump.
New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver has twice rejected requests to share state voter information including birth dates and partial Social Security numbers with the panel, officially called the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.
At least two dozen other secretaries of state around the nation have also reportedly refused to provide at least some types of voter data to the federal commission.
We certainly havent seen an influx of voters requesting that their registrations get canceled like they did in Colorado, New Mexico Secretary of States Office spokesman Joey Keefe told the Journal.
The federal commissions vice chairman has said the information being sought would be used to cross-check state voter data with information in a federal database to determine how many ineligible voters might be registered in each state, including noncitizens and dead individuals still on voter rolls.
Police officers used less lethal force to take a man into custody because they say he refused to put down a knife after threatening a woman in a Northeast Albuquerque park Friday afternoon.
Officer Daren DeAguero, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said around 3 p.m. police were called to Conchas Park, near Candelaria and Eubank NE, because a man was pinning a woman down and arguing with her. He said the man had a knife in his hand.
Officers arrived and make contact with the male and female, DeAguero wrote in an email. The female was able to get away as this was being done.
He said after the woman was safe police tried to arrest the man but he refused to drop the knife. Thats when DeAguero said officers used beanbag rounds to take him into custody.
The male is currently in custody and being charged with several felonies, DeAguero said. The female received minor injuries from the male but is refusing to cooperate at this time.
He said the man was checked out by an ambulance but didnt need to go to the hospital. He didnt say what the man was charged with.
DeAguero said a nearby school was put on lockdown but was lifted once the man was in custody. He didnt say which school.
Two days after New Mexico State Universitys regents discussed enrollment declines when voting to start a search to replace Chancellor Garrey Carruthers, the school issued a news release touting its largest increase in first-time freshmen in more than 17 years.
The Las Cruces university has 2,051 freshmen this fall, according to preliminary counts released Friday. Thats up 11.3 percent since 2016 and marks the first year-over-year freshman gain since 2009.
Overall enrollment, however, continues to trend downward. The universitys total head count sits at 14,453, the new numbers show. Thats down 2.7 percent from last year.
The Board of Regents on Wednesday decided to launch a search to replace Carruthers when his contract expires next July, effectively denying his offer to stay an additional two years.
The vote followed weeks of drama surrounding the former New Mexico governors future at the university. He announced last month that he would retire at his contracts end, but later said the decision came after regents told him they were not planning to renew his contract.
Carruthers said he would be willing serve another two years if they changed their minds, and lawmakers, students, businesspeople and others urged the regents to keep him.
Some questioned whether politics were involved. The governor appoints the regents, and Carruthers has been critical of Gov. Susana Martinez, a fellow Republican.
Martinezs office has denied any involvement with regents regarding the chancellor position.
As the regents voted 4-0 to proceed with a search for a new chancellor Wednesday, Chairwoman Debra Hicks mentioned enrollment.
The board has expressed ongoing concern about significant enrollment lost, Hicks said during the meeting, noting enrollment is down 27 percent.
The schools total enrollment has fallen 13.8 percent from Carruthers first year and the preliminary 2017 figures provided by NMSU. There has been a 27 percent dip in NMSUs graduate student head count since 2010 but only 14.4 percent during Carruthers tenure.
Hicks in a Saturday email called the 27-percent figure a misquote, but added that the decline since NMSUs 2010-11 recession peak exceeds 20 percent.
NMSU is not alone in shrinking head counts. College enrollment has trended downward across the state.
Between 2013 and 2016 the latest year for which data is available on the New Mexico Higher Education Department website statewide postsecondary enrollment fell 9 percent.
The University of New Mexico, the states largest university, saw a total student decline of 5.5 percent between 2013 and 2016. UNM has not issued 2017 figures yet.
But Hicks said in her email that nearby University of Texas El Paso has gained students in recent years.
NMSUs increase in freshmen enrollment is encouraging, and the result of a great deal of recent focused, prioritized effort, she wrote. Unfortunately, overall enrollment has decreased much more (than) the other two (New Mexico) research universities and UTEP, which has had consecutive years of enrollment growth.
NMSU spokesman Justin Bannister said Friday that Carruthers was not doing interviews. But Fridays news release did include the following statement:
I certainly feel we are turning the corner when it comes to enrollment, Carruthers said. From what we know so far, our increase in first-time freshmen is incredibly strong, if not the highest in the state. The strategies weve deployed in marketing and recruitment are definitely paying off, even while we have increased our admissions standards and established a first-year, on-campus residency requirement.
Hicks, however, said it is too soon to know whether NMSU was turning the corner, since the board uses other data to determine success, like student retention and research expenditures. Both of those have dipped in the last four years, she said.
The Bernalillo Public Schools Board of Education has boosted the districts support for immigrant students with several new measures, including more explicit privacy protections.
The resolution passed unanimously with little discussion during Thursdays board meeting.
Interim Superintendent Keith Cowan said Bernalillo Public Schools has not had any issues with immigration, but board members are being proactive.
We wanted to refresh the policy and just really ensure, as a district, that we were making sure all of our students were protected by the law and that all of our students are treated with equality, he said. I commend the board for wanting to take a look at this policy and other policies that we have in place just to ensure that we are meeting the needs of all of our students as best we can.
Bernalillo Public Schools already had a policy stating that all children within its boundaries have a right to educational services and benefits regardless of documentation. The new additions add more explicit protections for immigrant students:
No school district staff can take any steps that would deny students access to education based on immigration status.
The superintendent will review district record-keeping policies to make sure no data is collected on student immigration status or place of birth. Cowan said the district was not asking these questions, but the policy makes it explicit.
The superintendent will tell district personnel that they should not report undocumented students to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and must refer any ICE requests to the superintendent to ensure standards of a judicial warrant and get agents contact and badge information.
The superintendent will create a rapid response plan to help children whose parents or guardians have been detained or deported.
Employees are allowed to discuss the districts immigrant student policies during class time provided the discussion is age-appropriate and does not promote political candidates or partisan activities.
District service providers, such as bus companies and community agencies, will be notified of the policies and required to follow them.
Cowan said the board crafted the language after reviewing resolutions from several other New Mexico districts.
Administrators across the state have discussed immigrant student protections this year.
Albuquerque Public Schools collaborated with organizers from Listo Nuevo Mexico, a coalition of Latino groups, to disseminate information about its policies.
There is a certain level of fear and anxiety that there might be increased deportations, Katarina Sandoval, APS former associate superintendent for equity and access, told the Journal in January. We just dont know the rhetoric is such that its unknown at this time.
In February, the Bernalillo town council approved a resolution emphasizing that the community is immigrant friendly.
Cowan said he is happy with his districts new student protections and hopes they can reassure families.
We want to make sure that we are sending a message to our students that they are in a safe environment, that they are here to learn and we are looking out for their best interests, Cowan said.
Carla Sanchez attended Wherry Elementary in the mid-to-late 80s.
Today, two of her daughters go to school there.
Its definitely a major improvement, she said. It gives them more incentive to want to come to school because they have new buildings. Theyre not having to deal with old buildings that are breaking down, ceiling tiles falling.
All three were in attendance to celebrate the grand opening of the newly rebuilt Wherry Elementary School, which boasts 61,000 square feet of new construction and 11,000 square feet of renovated space, on Thursday night.
The event was a mix of schoolchildren, their families, Wherry staff and men and women in uniform, as most of the project was financed through a $16.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defenses Office of Economic Adjustment.
Wherry, originally built in 1952, is located along Gibson SE near Pennsylvania on the property of Kirtland Air Force Base, though outside of the fence line.
Only a small percentage of the 420 or so students who attend are the children of military members, but it was enough to qualify the school for the grant.
It was identified as a public school located on a military installation in dire need of repairs on a 2011 Department of Defense priority list, where it was ranked 11th out of 156 schools.
I cant speak to the condition of Wherry before the construction, but I know it must have been in true need of upgrade because not many schools would qualify for that, said Col. Richard Gibbs, Commander of the 377th Air Base Wing at Kirtland.
Albuquerque Public Schools put in $5.5 million for the first phase of the project completed in 2011.
Improvements include new and larger classrooms, new computer labs, library, cafeteria and kitchen and music and art wing.
The building now actually reflects the quality of teaching and learning that is the history of Wherry, said APS school board member Barbara Petersen, who once taught at the school and represents the district Wherry is in.
Copyright 2017 Albuquerque Journal
A judge said Friday that he will consider an Albuquerque television stations request to unseal court records about three former Archdiocese of Santa Fe priests who have been accused in dozens of lawsuits of sexually abusing children.
If 2nd Judicial District Judge Alan Malott approves the request, it would mark the first significant public disclosure of archdioceses records since the 1996 release of a deposition by former Archbishop of Santa Fe Robert F. Sanchez.
Malott said he would begin next week reviewing records obtained from the archdiocese by Albuquerque attorney Brad Hall, who has filed more than 70 clerical abuse lawsuits since 2011.
Malott said he would review the records with an eye toward what is appropriate for public disclosure.
The records have remained sealed under a confidentiality agreement Malott approved in 2014 that bars public disclosure of a wide variety of records produced by the archdiocese in clerical abuse lawsuits.
Malott will review the records in response to a request by KOB-TV LLC, which filed in July as an intervenor in seven clerical abuse cases for the purpose of obtaining court records.
We just think the public has a right to know whats going on in this courtroom in these cases, KOBs attorney, Geoffrey Rieder, told Malott.
The attorney for the archdiocese, Robert Warburton of Albuquerque, said release of the records would endanger the archdioceses right to a fair trial, and endangers the privacy rights of victims and their families.
If Malott releases records about the three priests, there is nothing to prevent KOB or other members of the news media from later expanding the scope to include other priests, Warburton wrote in a motion objecting to the disclosure.
Hall compiled the records to support allegations against three former archdiocese priests: Sabine Griego, Arthur Perrault and Jason Sigler. The records include contents of the priests personnel files and witness depositions, he said.
Hall said he compiled the records to support timelines he uses in ongoing lawsuits against the archdiocese. He filed his 71st priest abuse lawsuit on Aug. 24.
Hall said he has received similar requests for the records from attorneys, media organizations, and others.
It is just a matter of time until some reasonable, principled, rational discussion about how to release documents should take place, Hall told Malott. Its inevitable.
Mayoral candidate Michelle Garcia Holmes says she has the experience and knowledge to quickly and effectively attack Albuquerques epidemic crime problem, and earlier this week she released a document outlining the steps she would take.
The 13-page plan, which she has dubbed her Crime Impact Program, contains familiar ideas, such as increasing the number of officers in the Albuquerque Police Department; working with former chiefs and other public safety experts to find an interim and then a permanent chief for the department; and building a new mental health/addiction treatment center using money generated by Bernalillo County through a gross receipts tax previously adopted. But the plan also focuses heavily on combating auto theft, with Garcia Holmes noting that Albuquerque is No. 1 in the nation for that crime.
I think its really crucial and essential right now that we have a crime fighter in the mayors office, she said. Ive worked in this system. Im not going to go into the mayors office and have a learning curve. I think its too risky to elect someone who doesnt have public safety knowledge right now.
In a news release announcing her plan, Garcia Holmes, a retired police detective and a former chief of staff for the state Attorney Generals Office, said, We cant risk our safety to amateurs at this crucial moment in time.
Her plan calls for filling all 1,000 of APDs budgeted officer positions, then evaluating whether more are needed. Currently, APD has about 850 officers.
Other ideas include:
Working with the district attorney to create a Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program at APD, essentially a referral program for addicts who commit minor crimes. She said restitution and proper court adjudications would be part of the program.
Investing in a District Attorney Liaison Unit to ensure that APD is providing fully investigated cases including all lab work and crime lab analysis necessary to obtain convictions.
Making sure the Crime Analysis and Prevention Team unit has the resources it needs. She said the unit would work with area police chiefs, sheriffs and district attorneys to combat auto theft.
And seeking a new state statute allowing finger prints and/or DNA found inside stolen cars to be acceptable probable cause to make an arrest, the plan states. This change will give law enforcement another tool to fight auto theft. She said she would also ensure that evidence and stolen property found in recovered vehicles is processed appropriately and completely.
Crime has really had a big impact on our businesses, she said, adding that she will work with small businesses to get them back on track.
Copyright 2017 Albuquerque Journal
An Albuquerque City Council candidate accused in an ethics complaint of using fraudulent tactics to obtain public campaign financing acknowledged that a small number of his representatives made human errors during the qualifying process, but denied any intentional effort to defraud the city, he said in a hearing this week.
Javier Benavidez said that he and his representatives acted in good faith to gather the required number of $5 donations from voters, which allowed him to qualify for about $38,000 in public campaign financing.
Investigators with the citys Office of the Inspector General who interviewed 40 District 1 voters found that some registered voters indicated that they did not contribute all or a portion of the required $5. Investigators prepared the report at the direction of the citys Board of Ethics.
Anger and accusations of criminal wrongdoing flew both ways during a six-hour city Board of Ethics hearing on Wednesday that included heated exchanges between witnesses and attorneys. Even audience members traded testy comments, prompting the board president to warn people not to interrupt the hearing.
Benavidez testified that private investigator Carlos McMahon, one of two people who filed the ethics complaint, went to Benavidezs office in June and demanded a payment of $5,500 in exchange for McMahon dropping the complaint. McMahon, who recently changed his name from Carlos Villanueva, denied the accusation in his testimony.
Benavidez was required to collect $5 donations from at least 381 voters to qualify for public campaign funding. Benavidez collected 455 donations, of which the City Clerks Office accepted 399, qualifying him for $38,131 in city funds.
Benavidez will square off Oct. 3 against District 1 City Councilor Ken Sanchez and challengers Johnny Luevano Jr. and Sandra Mills.
Albuquerque attorney Pat Rogers, who filed the ethics complaint in July on behalf of McMahon and write-in mayoral candidate Stella Padilla, accused Benavidez of fraud and perjury for allegedly falsifying forms submitted to the City Clerks Office.
Theres no excuse for failure to collect the $5, Rogers told board members. He alleged that Benavidez and his campaign workers paid all or part of the required $5 donation for some voters. In exchange for their signature, some people were given money, Rogers said.
Benavidez, a community activist and self-described progressive champion, has accused Rogers of targeting him for his political views. Rogers, who served as a Republican National Committeeman from 2008 to 2016, has denied targeting Benavidez for political reasons.
The Board of Ethics plans to meet in executive session on Sept. 11 to discuss the case, board President Andrew Schultz said. The board has only limited authority, Schultz said after the hearing. A $500 fine is the maximum penalty the board can order. It can also recommend that the City Council not seat a councilor, if he or she is elected. If the board believes it has found evidence of criminal behavior, it can recommend that a law enforcement agency investigate the allegations.
The board does not have the authority to order a candidates name removed from the ballot, Schultz said. Nor can it order a candidate to repay public campaign funds, he said.
Nothing about how she graduated from high school was easy. It was not traditional. It was not usual.
Maybe thats because shes not the usual kind of student. And maybe she is more usual than we know.
Liset Lozano always knew she wanted to be a high school graduate, always knew she wanted to make her family proud.
It was always my dream to become the first to graduate from high school in my family, she said.
Her parents never made it far in school. Lozano, the youngest in the family, watched her six siblings get only so far in school, then drop out, get married, have children and get into what jobs they could to get by.
Its hard when you dont have someone to show you how to get through school, how possible it is, how important it is, she said.
So Lozano tried.
But during freshman year at Manzano High School, she encountered trouble with a school official and left school in the second semester.
She transferred to Highland High School, but because she was out of her school boundaries, transportation was a problem. Her parents could not afford to drive her to school, and the city bus was hit or miss, she said.
After one semester, she dropped out.
I just felt I couldnt do it, she said.
Like some of her siblings, she worked at a fast-food restaurant, quickly becoming shift manager, a job that still paid less than $10 an hour.
At 17, she met Carlos Lopez. At 18, they married and became the parents of a baby girl named Aylin.
Still, Lozano said, she could not give up her dream.
I just didnt know a way to get back in school, said Lozano, now 21. It just seemed unlikely.
But while waiting at a clinic for her daughters checkup, the way back came right up to her in the guise of a community engagement director for the New Mexico Center for School Leadership, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming traditional education models to fit the changing needs of nontraditional students.
The center operates four charter schools ACE Leadership High, Tech Leadership High, Health Leadership High and Siembra Leadership High each focused on a different industry, all with the idea that one-size-fits-all schools are not always practical in todays myriad-sized world.
These are still full-fledged schools, but these are smaller schools that support the students, provide more of a real-world practical focus through projects, mentorships and problem solving, said Mistie Gallegos, director of operations.
Lozano was intrigued. And then she was hooked.
I really felt a part of a family, she said. The school welcomed us, even my husband and my daughter.
The school she chose Health Leadership High to pursue a career as an ultrasound technician worked as a family. On days when she could not find a baby sitter for Aylin, she took her daughter along. Her classmates, ranging in age from 16 to 23, became close, supporting one another through rigorous days.
We all had that same feeling, that we were in this together and we were in it to give our kids a better life, she said.
Lozanos days began at 5:30 a.m. at the fast-food restaurant, where she worked until 1:30 p.m. Then she would go home to shower and change clothes before showing up at her mentorship in the community from 2 to 4 p.m., and then class until 8 p.m.
After three years, Lozano graduated in May, her entire family in attendance as she walked the line with her 44 classmates.
I felt I made my parents proud, she said.
This summer, Lozano quit the fast-food business after being chosen for an internship at the Leadership center with Gallegos as her mentor. Lozano impressed Gallegos so much that she was hired two weeks ago as an administrative assistant.
I love her drive, Gallegos said. She is always pushing herself to get things done. Shes a learner. And shes our biggest cheerleader. When she talks to students, they listen because they know shes been where they are.
All of which is heady stuff to a young woman who had a dream to succeed somehow.
I never pictured myself being in a professional environment wearing professional clothes, she said. I sometimes thought I would always be wearing a fast-food uniform.
Leadership high schools have not scored well in the states standardized testing. But Leadership Executive Director Tony Monfiletto argues there is more to school than what can be captured on a bubble sheet.
That appears true for Lozano. This week, she began attending classes at Central New Mexico Community College to continue her academic pursuits.
She may not have taken the usual route to get there, but for her it was the right one.
UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
PHOENIX One of two men charged in the killings of two women in one victims home in a Phoenix suburb has been sentenced to life prison terms after pleading guilty to murder and burglary.
Andrew Lauro of Goodyear was sentenced Friday in Phoenix in convictions stemming from the February 2016 killings of 70-year-old Barbara Leslie of Surprise, Ariz., and her visiting friend 75-year-old Ruth Schwed of Albuquerque.
Officers found Schwed, a longtime Albuquerque elementary school teacher, shot dead on the floor of the home in Sun City Grand, a retirement community in Surprise, according to a previous Journal report. Leslie was dead next to her.
Judge Erin Otis of Maricopa County Superior Court sentenced Lauro to two concurrent life sentences, with the possibility of release after serving 25 years in prison, for two counts of first-degree murder.
Lauro was also sentenced to 10.5 years in prison for burglary. That term will run consecutive to the life sentences.
Co-defendant Montez Lavell Wright III, of Southfield, Michigan, awaits trial.
The director of the Air Forces School for Advanced Nuclear Deterrence Studies on Kirtland Air Force Base has been charged in the rape of a 4-year-old girl, according to a news release from the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office.
Adam Lowther, 41, was arrested and charged Wednesday with one count of first-degree criminal sexual penetration of a child under 13 and two counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor. He was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he remained Saturday.
According to a motion for pretrial detention filed in the 2nd Judicial District Court, the victim told a teacher about the abuse soon after the incident occurred.
The sheriffs office responded after being asked for assistance by state investigators.
A forensic interview and physical exam revealed evidence of abuse, the sheriffs office said.
James Fisher, a spokesman for Kirtland Air Force Base, confirmed the arrest and Lowthers identity.
Fisher said Lowther, a civilian, did not live on base. Fisher did not know where the alleged abuse occurred.
Military law enforcement and the investigative agencies on base are working with outside law enforcement, Fisher said.
According to Lowthers LinkedIn profile, he has a doctorate in international relations from the University of Alabama.
Lowther has been the schools director since its inception in 2015.
Lowther is due in court Tuesday.
The Delhi High Court order yesterday (September 1, 2017) has disposed of the interim application for injunction asked for by Times Group against Republic TV.
It may be recalled that Times Group had approached the Delhi High Court, alleging breach of employment contract and the misuse of intellectual property of Times Now by Republic TV.
At the heart of the matter are the audio tapes played during two stories aired on Republic TV on Sunanda Pushkar and Lalu Prasad Yadav.
In a short oral order, Justice Manmohan stated: On 26.5.17, senior counsels for defendants (Republic TV) had specifically denied that clauses are violated. Lawyers for Republic TV stated they had no intention to violate aforesaid clauses. The said statements made by them in terms thereof are accepted by this court as an undertaking and defendants are held bound by it. In view of this, the interim injunction application is disposed of in terms of above.
Panasonic India has rolled out their festive offers for this year India Ka Tyohaar. Panasonic Ka Uphaar giving consumers the opportunity to celebrate the ongoing festival season by availing exciting offers and incentives on Panasonics wide range of products. With 99 years of legacy and celebration of Japanese technology, the highlight of the offer is the easy finance offer with only 99 down payment on selected products. Valid from September 1 to October 22, 2017, the company is also offering assured gifts, extended warranties and discounts along with its range of TVs and home appliances for the customers.
Participating in the festive fervor, Panasonic has introduced offers like including combo offer of UA7 sound system with selected models of LED TVs and up to 35 per cent off on grooming products. To double the joy, the electronic giant also presents assured gifts on purchase of every washing machine, microwave ovens and refrigerators. With its 99 on 99 finance offer, the consumer will be able to buy products with only 99 down payment and balance in 15 equal installments.
Speaking about this years festive offers, Manish Sharma, President and CEO, Panasonic India, said, As we move closer towards completing 100 years of Panasonic, we want to ensure that our customers rejoice with every purchase and get the maximum of our Japanese technology and products. The offers will allow us to establish a strong customer connect and be part of the festive celebrations. With festive season at its high and good monsoon, we can see demand rising from both urban and rural areas.
Highlighting on the Diwali offers, Ajay Seth, Head - Sales & Services, Panasonic India, said, With the arrival of the auspicious festive season, Panasonic India is set to woo its consumers with exciting offers. At Panasonic, we aim to provide products and services that offer more value to our customers. Adding greater joy to festive season this year, our India Ka Tyohaar. Panasonic Ka Uphaar offer brings in assured gifts offer, extended warranties, discounts and easy financing offer on purchase of Panasonics wide range of products. We are confident that the special offers across categories will enhance the festive fervor and be much appreciated.
The Google Play Store as it stands today, is available in the vast majority of countries around the world. But there are still quite a few countries that Googles Play Store is not available in. Of course, the most well-known of those countries is China, and thats due to the country actually banning everything that Google has. Now it looks like the Play Store may soon be arriving in China, Cuba, Iran, Macau, Myanmar and Sudan. These countries all showed up in the Google Play Developer Console area, where developers would be able to make their app available to users in those countries. Meaning that a Google Play Store launch is pretty imminent.
For China, the Google Play Store notes that in-app purchases are not available because users are not able to purchase through the Google Play Store in that country. This could be one of the many things that gets taken out of the Chinese Google Play Store when it launches. It has been rumored to have been preparing to launch for a couple of years now. The search giant was supposedly working with the Chinese government on a censored version of the Google Play Store so it could come back to China. But so far nothing has become official just yet. But Google may have waited to long to re-enter the Chinese market. Seeing as with Google out of the market, many other app stores have popped up, making it increasingly difficult for Google to come back and gain a foothold there.
While the Google Play Store has been available in some of these countries already as noted by several users on reddit Google has opened up in-app purchases and paid apps for some of these countries. Like Macau and Iran. Which is also a big deal, as it allows developers to start selling their apps and games in those new countries and still make some money from them, which is definitely important for any developer these days. Theres no official word from Google just yet on this, but that should be coming soon, or when everything is worked out on their end.
The Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2017) which some industry insiders believe will be marketed as the Galaxy Tab A2 S will cater to the youngest demographic, sources said earlier this week, adding that the device will compete in the entry-level segment of the market and feature a Kids Mode. Its currently unclear whether that particular functionality will be identical to the Kids Mode app which Samsung has been pre-loading on some of its offerings for a while now, though that seems like a probable scenario. The feature will presumably allow parents to lock any apps they want and allow their children to simply use the device for gaming, watching age-appropriate content, and browsing whitelisted websites.
The South Korean original equipment manufacturer (OEM) prematurely published the official manual for the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2017) last week, revealing that the product is also set to ship with a physical button for activating Bixby, the companys new artificial intelligence (AI) companion which has so far been exclusive to the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus and is only expected to expand its availability later this month with the release of the Galaxy Note 8. Provided that the information revealed in the manual was accurate, the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2017), Galaxy Tab A2 S, or however Samsung ends up calling its successor to the original Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 will be the first tablet from the company to feature a physical Bixby button.
The device was also recently certified by Chinese regulatory agency TENAA, with its listing suggesting that Samsung equipped it with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 427, an entry-level SoC with four 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 cores clocked at a maximum frequency of 1.4GHz and the Adreno 308 GPU. That particular silicon is said to be coupled with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal flash memory expandable via a microSD card slot by a still-unspecified amount. The rear panel of the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2017) is said to feature an 8-megapixel camera module, whereas its top bezel reportedly accommodates a 5-megapixel imaging sensor. The upcoming device is thought to run Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box, with the OS itself likely being skinned by Samsung to a significant degree. The Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2017) is also said to be 4G-enabled, though it remains to be seen whether Samsung also opts to release a Wi-Fi-only variant of the tablet. Given its TENAA-issued certification, the device will almost certainly be released in China and may also make its way to more markets later this year.
But can the Gen 2 GT3 still be case in the role of a daily driver? Well, pro racer Oliver Webb has recently set out to prove the practical side of this Porscha.While you might expect the athlete to have taken the GT3 for a trip around the continent, allow us to point out that the steering wheel wielder went for a completely different approach.Instead of slipping into the driver seat of the 991.2, Oliver decided to... fall asleep inside the frunk of the thing. We are kidding you not - jump to the 10:10 point of the clip below and you'll notice the stunt.It's worth noting that the pro driver went all the way - while other aficionados that have pulled such stunts considered that climbing inside the trunk was enough, Oliver went all the way, getting locked in.Speaking of daily driving, the clip will bring you into the YouTube review side of the world wide web and you'll get to see plenty of driving impressions.We're looking at the first example of the 2018 Porsche 911 GT3 to have landed in the UK. And, since the rear-engined animal is dressed in Miami Blue, you'll be in for quite a visual experience.Nevertheless, since the Neunelfer only had 500 miles on its odo at the time when this adventure was caught on camera, you shouldn't expect the kind of all-out giggles delivered by other GT3 videos we've brought to you - here's an example that involves drifting , one that will help you get your hooning kicks.
A newly built second highway connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh was inaugurated in the presence of President Serzh Sarkisian and other senior officials on Friday.
Work on the 115-kilometer -long road began in 2011 and was essentially completed months before the inauguration ceremony, costing 17 billion drams ($36 million) in funding. The Armenian and Karabakh governments footed 56 percent of the bill.
The rest of the sum was raised by the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund in annual telethons broadcast from Los Angeles in 2013 and 2014. In a statement on the ceremony, the pan-Armenian charity headquartered in Yerevan noted the strategic significance of the project.
Passenger and cargo traffic between Armenia and Karabakh has until now been mainly carried out through a highway passing through Lachin, one of the seven districts in Azerbaijan proper that were partly or fully occupied by Karabakh Armenian forces during the 1991-1994 war.
The Lachin road stretches for more than 80 kilometers from the Karabakh capital Stepanakert to the southeastern Armenian town of Goris. It was built in 1997 with the financial assistance of the Armenian Diaspora and the late U.S.-Armenian billionaire Kirk Kerkorian in particular.
The second highway runs from the northern Karabakh town of Martakert to Vartenis in eastern Armenia through the Kelbajar district that has been under Karabakh Armenian control since 1993.
Officials say that the new highway will not only shorten travel time between Yerevan and northern Karabakh but also stimulate economic activity in nearby rural communities and bring more tourists to the Armenian-populated territory. In particular, it will significantly facilitate visitors access to two medieval Armenian monasteries located in the area.
The Vartenis-Martakert road should also benefit an Armenian company mining gold and copper in northern Karabakh. It is Karabakhs single largest corporate employer and taxpayer.
Prime Minister Karen Karapetian refused to be drawn on his political future when he visited Gyumri on Friday.
I have answered this question on many occasions. Let me not repeat myself, he told reporters after meeting with government officials and entrepreneurs in Armenias second largest city behind the closed doors.
Karapetian indicated early this year that he would like to continue serving as prime minister after the end of President Serzh Sarkisians final term in April 2018 if his cabinet succeeds in improving the socioeconomic situation in the country.
The 54-year-old former business executive claimed to have accomplished many things during his almost yearlong tenure. He said he and other government members will soon present detailed reports on their activities.
Karapetian said his latest trip to Gyumri is part of a second round of nationwide visits and much more substantive meetings with provincial and local government officials. We have taken stock of problems and mapped out our tasks, and each agency knows what it has to do, he said. And such meetings will be regular.
I think that you will feel the change, he added.
Earlier this year, Karapetian initiated a $10 million reconstruction of Gyumris historic old town which his government says will attract many tourists and stimulate economic activity in the impoverished city. One of its two main streets is due to be refurbished by the end of this month.
We have no other places with so much potential for tourism, said Karapetian. Gyumri is simply unique and we will consistently carry on with this project.
The premier promised in February that his family will invest $500,000 of its own money in the project.
2 September 2017 11:23 (UTC+04:00)
By Trend
Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev has sent a congratulatory letter to President of Vietnam Tran Dai Quang.
On behalf of the people of Azerbaijan and on my own behalf, I extend my sincere congratulations to you and all your people on the occasion of the national holiday of your country Independence Day, Ilham Aliyev said in his letter.
Azerbaijani-Vietnamese relations are based on good traditions. I believe that our steps aimed at strengthening and developing friendship and cooperation between the two countries will further serve the best interests of our nations.
On this remarkable day, I wish you the best of health, success in your activities, and the friendly people of Vietnam peace and prosperity, Ilham Aliyev said.
Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Teacher's Day in India is celebrated in his name. With this itself one can guess what a legendary teacher he must have been. Radhakrishnan who was the first vice president and second president of India was born in Thiruttani, Tamil Nadu in 1888. He completed his Masters in Philosophy at the age of 21. He gave importance to spiritual education and gained very high acknowledgement for sharing the most difficult concepts of philosophy. He has enlightened students at Madras Presidency College, University of Mysore and even served as a vice chancellor for Andhra University. He represented the University of Calcutta at International Congresses in the UK and the US and has presented a lecture at Oxford on Comparative Religion. He was a friendly soul even with his students and would take classes for them at home as well. Such a great educator, his thirst for knowledge never ended until he passed away in the year 1975.
Savitribai Phule Savitribai Phule is known as the first female teacher of India. She created a revolution in India, when she, along with her husband, opened a school for untouchable girls in Pune, in the year 1848. So many people were against it. Despite all the problems, she opened five more similar schools by the end of that year. Her journey as a teacher was not an easy one as she was often condemned by the upper caste. Her contribution to education was recognised by the British government. She is also known as the founder of modern Marathi poetry.
Anne Sullivan This American teacher is known to be the mentor of Helen Keller. Helen was both deaf and blind. Sullivan was 20 when started teaching Helen, who was 6 years old. They worked together for the next 49 years until Sullivan's death. She created history by using a special type of sign language to teach Helen which included writing on her palm. Helen went on to become the first deaf and blind person to get a masters degree in arts. Sullivan left a mark in education by making the world understand the importance of educating disabled children.
Madan Mohan Malaviya Madan Mohan Malaviya was born in 1861 in Varanasi. He was an educationist and an independence activist. He founded the largest residential university of Asia, the Banaras Hindu University. He was the vice chancellor for the same for almost two decades. The university catered to around 35,000 students in various fields, such as science, medicine, engineering, technology, law, agriculture, arts and performing arts. He was the one who popularised the slogan of India "Satyameva Jayate".
French cosmectics giant L'Oreal has sacked its first transgender model to appear on a British advertising campaign after she described all white people as racist on Facebook.
London-based model Munroe Bergdorf had announced on her Facebook page on August 27 that she was to be part of the French cosmetics brand's new advertising campaign celebrating diversity.
Munroe Bergdorf was L'Oreal's first transgender model, starring in its diversity campaign.
On Instagram, she had proudly posted a video of the campaign:
They'll take a break after a couple of hours Juno will probably wolf down some raw chicken, lap up a bowl of water and stretch all four of his legs.
Fowler will wear virtual reality goggles and viewers will be able to watch on a screen as he navigates landscapes and interacts with young Juno, who will also have a sensor attached to him.
His name is Juno, he's just a year old and he's about to have the eyes of the art world on him. Throughout Australia's premier international art fair, Sydney Contemporary, he and artist Hayden Fowler will be locked together in a steel cage the size of an average bedroom.
"I'm in the process of dingo-proofing my yard, because they like to climb," says Fowler, pointing to the back of his Marrickville studio where he is in the process of customising the fence to add extra height. Juno is arriving in 48 hours from Sydney Dingo Rescue and for the next three weeks man and beast will be living together and getting to know each other before the fair opens.
An icy wind is blowing when I meet Fowler and he explains that there's a strong police presence in the area because a siege is underway around the corner. Then he shrugs and offers a cup of tea. The 44-year-old has lost none of his laconic New Zealand demeanour, despite moving to Australia almost two decades ago. With his beard, flat disc earrings and hairstyle with mullet-like tendencies, he looks like an inner-city barista.
Born in Te Awamutu ("the same place as Neil and Tim Finn"), he grew up in Hamilton, a town that boasts a statue of Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, because Richard O'Brien lived there while writing the musical. What was it like growing up there?
"It was horrible," he says. "I was gay, for a start, so that didn't help. As a teenager I spent a lot of time on my own. Luckily I had grandparents who I was really close to. They lived on a farm, further down south in Taranaki, so all my school holidays I stayed down there. It was a really formative place for me. I did a lot of thinking in that landscape. I also read a lot and most of what I was reading was Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, these people who were working in the field, studying animals."
Despite being a creative kid, he left school to complete a degree in biology and didn't attend art school until the age of 24. It was there that he found his calling, creating works that investigate our connection to and disconnection from the natural world.
When Jane Harper was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's award for an unpublished manuscript she realised she was close to her goal possible publication of her novel. Fast forward a couple of years and not only has her outback crime novel The Dry come out here and in many other countries, but it is a bestseller that has won a host of prizes.
On Friday she added the Ned Kelly for best first novel at the Australian Crime Writers Association awards to the best novel and the people's choice awards she picked up last weekend in the Sisters in Crime's awards for women crime writers. Only a few months ago she won the Australian Book Industry book of the year award. The book has also been optioned by Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea's production company.
Authors Adrian McKinty and Jane Harper have been presented with Ned Kelly Awards by the Australian Crime Writers Association. Credit:Joe Armao
"If anyone had told me that two years on this is where The Dry would be, I couldn't have believed them. I still can't really," she said.
Harper's second novel, Force of Nature, is due out in a couple of weeks and she concedes that writing it was a different experience. "When I was writing The Dry it was just my own private hobby really. With the second there is the expectation and anticipation. The Dry did better than I expected so it did add an element of pressure."
STATES OF UNDRESS
Series return
8.30pm, SBS Viceland
Fashion ambassador (but not in the traditional champagne-sipping sense) Hailey Gates wastes no time in the second season of her international documentary series in jumping straight into a burning social issue concerning clothing. Our own Federal Member for Oxley could do well to tune in to this streetview of the ramifications of banning Muslim religious dress. In France, where the burqa has been banned in the street, and the niqab in schools, Gaites meets women affected. It's a sobering warning.
States of Undress: burqa bans.
THE WRONG GIRL
9pm, Ten
Back from her hiatus in New Zealand with hunky chef Jack (Rob Collins), Lily (Jessica Marais) is still not sure if she still loves Pete (Ian Meadows), not that he'll ever know because she can't bring herself to utter the four-letter-word. Tonight she feels even more insecure when Jack's former flame shows up. Thank goodness for the on and off-screen cast at The Breakfast Bar (Craig McLachlan, Madeleine West, David Woods and Doris Younane), who give this soap some spark.
There are always moments of chaos in the Lin-Wu household - that's the way of things with two-and-a-half year old twin boys whizzing around.
But Jeremy and Jonathan's parents Travis and Chan-Feng absolutely adore their family.
Chan Feng Lin-Wu and Travis Lin-Wu with their two and a half year old twins Jonathan (left) and Jeremy (right). Credit:Jamila Toderas
"Being fathers - we'd have to say it is amazing, but also tough," Chan Feng said. "Getting up to do night feeds when they were little, and at all hours when they are sick."
Before their two bundles arrived as newborns the couple undertook close to two years of planning and research on becoming parents through surrogacy.
A man faced court on Saturday charged with stealing more than $3000 worth of stock from stores across Canberra.
John Krieg Ashlee Russell, 44, was allegedly part of a group that stole items from Woolworths Dickson and the Woden and Canberra Airport Big W stores.
A Canberra man is on trial in the ACT Supreme Court this week accused of sexually assaulting his partner in their home. Credit:Louie Douvis
Other members of the group remain unidentified, with police continuing to investigate.
Russell and his accomplices allegedly filled trolleys at each location before proceeding to provide retail staff at each location with numerous vouchers, each bearing a coat of arms and "Royal Bank of Australia" before leaving with the items.
Deakin is the man-drought capital of Australia according to data released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
There are only 81 males for every 100 females in the southside suburb.
Women outnumber men across Canberra, with 98.8 males for every 100 females. Credit:Karleen Minney
The Belconnen suburb of Page also cracked the top three suburbs in the country for women outnumbering men, with 84.9 men for every 100 women.
Other ACT suburbs among lowest ratio of men to women included Ainslie (86.4 men for 100 women), Hughes (89.9 men for 100 women) and Holt (90.1 men for 100 women).
"My mum's in danger," four-year-old Georgia Ritter told the triple zero operator.
She had just seen her mum's quad bike flip over, leaving her seriously injured and trapped beneath the vehicle on the family's 200-hectare cattle farm at Bundook, near Taree, in May this year.
So Georgia scaled a 75-degree slope to check on her mum and her injuries, and then ran for nearly a kilometre to reach their home.
This week, she became the youngest person in NSW Ambulance's 122-year history to receive the Commendation for Courage Community Award and Drop Ribbon Medal.
A small group of self-styled patriotic protesters gathered in Hyde Park on Saturday afternoon to demonstrate against recent graffiti vandalism on some of Sydney's colonial era monuments.
The group, known as the Party for Freedom, marched through the park to some of the statutes spray-painted a week earlier.
Self-proclaimed 'Patriots' gather for a rally in Sydney's Hyde Park to oppose any amendments to the colonial statues. Credit:James Alcock
Chairman of the party, Nick Folkes said the gathering of about 30 was to demonstrate opposition to what he dubbed an attack on Australia's colonial heritage.
"We want our statues to remain, we want them saved and we don't want history rewritten," he said.
A man accused of trying to kill a Queensland criminal "mastermind" by setting him on fire has been remanded in custody.
David Charles Edgerley, 34, did not appear when his attempted murder charge was heard in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Saturday and did not apply for bail.
Police inspect the boot of a car on scene. Credit:7 News Queensland
The Kooralbyn man allegedly doused accelerant on Victor Graveson, 65, while he was sleeping at his Alexandra Hills home on Friday morning.
The retiree remained in a critical condition at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital with burns to 80 per cent of his body.
An ice addict who fatally stabbed his ex-lover's father in the heart after threatening to slice him up has been sentenced to eight years behind bars.
Mitchell James Sayers was originally charged with murdering 54-year-old Ian Robert Jones but pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter on the second day of his trial.
Mitchell James Sayers was jailed after being convicted in the Brisbane Supreme Court of manslaughter. Credit:Robert Shakespeare
On Friday, the Brisbane Supreme Court heard Sayers went to Mr Jones' house on the afternoon of December 14, 2015 to try to find his one-time lover Jessica Haywood.
Ms Haywood had broken off a brief fling with Sayers weeks earlier but the 28-year-old took the rejection poorly.
Thousands of complaints are made about animals in Brisbane every year, ranging from attacks to insecure fencing.
Between April 2016 and June 2017, residents made 8087 animal complaints to Brisbane City Council, with 10 suburbs receiving more than 100 complaints.
The council said they conducted patrols at the citys dog parks to enforce responsible ownership practices. Credit:Elesa Kurtz
Inala, in Brisbanes south-west, received the most complaints with 304 lodged with the council, Wynnum had 181 complaints and Bracken Ridge 154.
Almost 25 per cent of all complaints made were about animal attacks, either on a person or another animal, while 358 reports of an attack turned out to not be a true attack.
This Father's Day, seven-year-old Max will buy three presents for his three dads.
Kids at school often ask Max: "Where's your mum?"
Jason Schutze-Stafford with his 7-year-old son Max Schutze-Stafford, former Brendan Schutze-Stafford (left) and current partner Wayne Noorman (right). Credit:Paul Jeffers
Max says he doesn't have one. Instead he has a "special lady" who helped his dads have him.
"He knows there was an egg donor and there was a surrogate. We've explained the process so that a seven-year-old can understand it," says one of his fathers, Jason Schutze-Stafford.
San Francisco: Peyton Eidson's former life in the tranquility of north Queensland's rainforests was a world away as he shuffled into a San Francisco courtroom with a motley crew of other bedraggled defendants.
"Let's go," a US Marshal said as the group came through a side door.
Marijuana plants in a grow house. Credit:New York Times
"Keep it tight."
Mr Eidson, 72, had lived a secret life for almost 30 years in Australia and became such a beloved member of the town of Julatten where he operated a health spa that two of Queensland's best known politicians, Federal MPs Warren Entsch and Bob Katter, publicly vouched for him after his identity was revealed.
New York: For two decades, Abdullah el-Faisal has preached jihad on the streets and online, first promoting the grim theology of al-Qaeda and then endorsing the Islamic State.
Imprisoned in England and later deported from Kenya to his native Jamaica, he has in recent years kept up his internet proselytising from his home near Kingston. His influence has turned up repeatedly in major terrorism cases.
Placards showing Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal are held up by demonstrators in Nairobi, Kenya, protesting the 2010 arrest of the radical Jamaican-born Muslim cleric. Credit:AP
"Faisal was ISIS before there was ISIS," Jesse Morton, a reformed American jihadi who worked closely with Faisal for years, said, using an alternative name for the Islamic State (IS).
Now his long run may have come to an end. A week ago, Jamaican authorities arrested Faisal in Kingston, the Jamaican capital, after he was indicted in New York on charges that he assisted an undercover officer who pretended to be trying to join IS in Syria. New York police have requested his extradition to the United States.
War is always first and foremost a breakdown in order. But what documents from the Islamic State's rule over cities like Mosul and Raqqa tell us is that governance of a kind can emerge even in the midst of violent conflict.
The Syrian war spawned not only the dark officialdom of Islamic State, but also lesser-known examples of rebel governance, such as the city of Daraya on the outskirts of Damascus.
In August 2016, when Daraya finally fell to the regime of Bashar al-Assad, one of the most promising democratic experiments of the Syrian civil war seemed to have come to an end. However, for Hosam, a local council member, and a group of around 30 of his friends, the bonds that were forged as a result of their experience in Daraya are impossible to break.
While the Syrian civil war constrained, and ultimately ended, the governance project in Daraya, Hosam says that he and his fellow pioneers in Daraya, "wanted our small city to be a kind of ideal city, a utopia".
Immigration is in the news, and thats not likely to change anytime soon. Weve all heard America is a nation of immigrants (as are many others), and that is largely true. Yet, that hasnt stopped many native-born Americans from having concerns about people leaving their home countries and moving to the United States. The truth is immigration is vital to our economy and future. There are reasons for concern, to be fair, but if we were to go into isolation, it would be disastrous.
Fortunately, most communities in the U.S. dont have much to worry about. The majority of immigrants moving to America are headed to a handful of large cities in search of jobs and opportunity. Research from job search site Indeed has revealed which specific cities those are.
This research sheds light on the U.S. metro areas and jobs that are most appealing to job seekers from Indeeds international markets, Indeed economist Daniel Culbertson said in Indeeds report. While job seekers are most attracted to metro areas that afford them the greatest amount of opportunity, cultural and geographic factors carry influence in job seekers preferences as well. Those metro areas that continue to capitalize on these inflows, and their employers, will benefit from greatly diverse and growing pool of workers.
From Indeeds data, here are the 10 major cities (in no particular order) attracting immigrant workers.
1. New York
Seeing New York City on this list shouldnt be a surprise. New York has long been a destination not only for people moving to the U.S. from other countries, but for Americans who are looking for better opportunities. Its the nations largest city and one rife with chances for those willing to make the jump. People from Israel and France top the list in terms of search queries for jobs in New York, per Indeeds data.
2. Los Angeles
Los Angeles is, in some ways, New York Citys antithesis. Its laid back and warm, for example. But its also very similar in that its a giant metropolis located on the coast. And its attractive for job seekers around the world. Indeeds data show the top job searches for L.A. include the terms studio, film, and actor. And the biggest share of those searching are from Taiwan and Korea.
3. Washington, D.C.
There are many immigrants looking for job opportunities in the nations capital of Washington, D.C. The search queries are more or less what you would expect: world bank, think tank, and embassy are among the most popular. As for where job seekers are coming from, Indeeds data says Austria and Korea top the list.
4. Chicago
The countrys third-largest city, Chicago, is another popular destination for incoming migrants. The search terms are a bit different from the other cities on this list, They include occupational therapist, senior accountant, and summer intern. The countries with the most queries regarding jobs in the Chicago area are China, Poland, and Chile.
5. Miami
Will Smith once had a song about how great Miami is. Clearly, people around the world bought in. Lots of would-be immigrants are looking for jobs in Miami, as evidenced by Indeeds data. Just look at the most popular search terms: yacht, aviation, airlines, and foreign language are all on top. Most searchers are from Latin America, too. Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, and Peru make up the top five.
6. San Diego
Who wouldnt want to live in San Diego? Its warm, sunny, and near Los Angeles. For those reasons and others, San Diego is high on anyones wish list when looking for places to live. According to Indeed, the top search terms are a bit scattered. They include LVN, shipyard, janitorial, and school district, so take from that what you will. Would-be migrants are doing the most searches from Mexico, Chile, Ireland, and Japan.
7. Seattle
Seattle is not in sunny California, but its a city with plenty of opportunities. Located in the cold, wet Pacific Northwest, Seattles tech sector has been growing fast in recent years, and for that reason, many people are looking for jobs there. Top search terms for Seattle include software development, along with Amazon-related terms, distribution and inventory. Most search traffic is coming from Asian countries.
8. San Francisco
Like Seattle, San Francisco has undergone a big tech revolution bigger than anywhere, in fact. Silicon Valley is nearby, and the Bay Area as a whole has become a major business hub. Popular search terms include product manager, ui ux designer, and software intern. Searches are coming in from Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong, along with European countries France and Ireland.
9. Boston
Dont forget about Boston. The New England city is yet another that is experiencing a lot of business and economic growth. Its home to many highly ranked colleges, too, meaning many students from other countries are in and around the area. Popular search terms for Boston include, oddly enough, dog walker, CFO, and neuroscience. Searchers are mostly from Europe, and those from Brazil and Taiwan are high up the list, too.
10. Houston
Houston is the final city Indeeds data singled out. Its a huge city within the top five largest in the country. Because of that, there are a lot of opportunities to find work. Engineering is big in Houston, as you can see in the popular search terms: structural engineer, piping engineer, instrumentation engineer, and reservoir engineer, for example. Searches are mostly coming from Latin America, with the exception of one: Saudi Arabia.
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$1.5 Trillion in Tax Cuts? These States Are the Big Losers (and Winners) in Trumps Tax Plan
The White House and Congressional Republicans talked about gearing up to overhaul Americas famously complex tax code and make taxes simpler, fairer, and lower for hard-working American families. Now, we have a plan two, actually, from both the House and Senate. Unfortunately, average Americans might not have much to celebrate. Thats the conclusion of a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which looked at the original Trump plan.
Earlier proposals from Trumps camp to streamline tax brackets, eliminate the alternative minimum tax, and get rid of many itemized deductions would result in $4.8 trillion in total tax savings through 2027. But 61.4% of all those savings would go to the top 1% of taxpayers and 14% of middle-income taxpayers would end up paying more in taxes, not less. Experts looking at the plan from House Republicans show similar numbers and another glaring feature.
A tax cut for the richest Americans?
Now that we have a Congressional plan, analyses are finding that outcomes arent much different. Aside from blowing a $1.5 trillion shortfall in the budget over the next decade, the plan will, at its core, act as a tax increase on blue states and redistribute it to red states.
Well focus on a key element of the Republican strategy here: Ridding the tax code of a couple key deductions. Namely, property tax deductions, and state income tax deductions. There are many other elements at play, but these are two very common deductions that, if scuttled, could act as a significant item on your tax bill.
Which states will lose and benefit the most? Lets take a look at the biggest losers first.
The tax plans losers (unless youre in the 1%)
Average Americans in the following seven states stand to lose the most from proposed changes to the tax code.
7. Connecticut
Property taxes are high in Connecticut among the top 10 in the nation.
Taxpayers in Connecticut stand to lose under the Republican tax plan. With a standard statewide property tax rate of 1.83% (plus local taxes), the inability to write that expense off can be difficult to grapple with. Add in that a huge percentage of Connecticut households have student debt (also not deductible under the Republican plan) and Connecticut taxpayers will end up getting slammed.
Next: Another blue state in the Pacific Northwest
6. Oregon
Taxpayers in Oregon are like those in Connecticut screwed.
Theres a big upside to living in Oregon: You dont need to pay sales tax on your purchases. Unfortunately, thats offset by other taxes, namely property and income taxes. For the majority of people, thats going to be 9% an amount that would no longer be deductible on your federal return.
Next: Massachusetts
5. Massachusetts
The state charges upward of 5% for income tax.
When it comes to Massachusetts, taxpayers can probably expect to see some extra mass on their tax bill. Like Connecticut, Massachusetts New England neighbor, the state charges an income tax of more than 5%. Couple that with a highly-educated (and thus bogged down with loans) populace, and high property values? It could get ugly.
Next: Another blue state on the Eastern seaboard
4. Maryland
Residents of Baltimore City, with its high property taxes, should be worried.
Marylanders wont be spared when it comes to the Republican tax bill. Its another blue, relatively high-tax state, and a lot of those taxes could soon become non-deductible on federal returns. State income tax maxes out at 5.75% for earnings above $250,000. That means middle class households (Republicans consider anyone earning less than $450,000 to be middle class) will feel the sting.
Next: The home of Tony Soprano and family
3. New Jersey
Just because Tony Soprano could get away with tax evasion doesnt mean you will too.
New Jersey just elected a fresh Democratic governor, but that wont do anything to stop the Republicans from passing their tax bill. Like the other states on our list so far, New Jersey relies on property and income taxes to fund local government. And if those are no longer deductible on federal returns, people will be paying higher, not lower, effective bills.
Next: One of the bluest states out there
2. New York
Income tax rates in New York start at more than 6%.
If Republicans and Trump wanted to nail blue states, this is certainly the way to do it. And it doesnt get much bluer than New York. New York has fairly high income tax rates (on top of sales tax) and varying property tax rates. But given the high value of real estate in and around New York City, that can lead to a pretty high write-off (which could soon disappear).
Next: The biggest, bluest stronghold in the nation
1. California
More people may experience negative outcomes in California than in any other state.
Like New York, California is very blue. And its also a place in which a lot of moderately wealthy people live including many members of the 1%. But its not those folks who will get burned its those dutifully paying Californias property taxes and income taxes (which top out at more than 13%). All those with student loans will also see their federal tax bill increase.
Next: The winning states
The tax reform winners
The following seven states would get a greater share of tax reform savings relative to their total population.
7. West Virginia
It was hard to find a state that swung harder for Trump than West Virginia.
Its not that West Virginia residents dont get screwed under the new tax plan. Many will. Its simply a matter of having less to lose. West Virginia isnt nearly as wealthy of a state as New York or California, and property values are significantly lower. In fact, West Virginia has some of the lowest property taxes in the nation, meaning the lost deductions are significantly smaller.
Next: The home of Mount Rushmore
6. South Dakota
South Dakota residents, like those in West Virginia, dont get bit nearly as hard by the tax proposal as people in blue states.
People who hate taxes generally love South Dakota. Its one of the least-taxed states in the country, and again, that means that there are fewer deductions on federal returns. That means theres less to lose if Republicans push their bill through, especially since theres no personal income tax to deduct.
Next: The state that Arkan saw
5. Tennessee
Like South Dakota, Tennessee has (nearly) no income tax.
And when you dont have an income tax, you dont get to deduct that from your federal return. So, youre less affected by the proposed tax plan than someone in New York or California. Likewise, home values in most of Tennessee arent that high, with a few notable exceptions in places like Nashville.
Next: The other Dakota
4. North Dakota
Unlike its sister state, North Dakota does have an income tax.
If theres one thing that North Dakota has in abundance, its open space. That means that property is fairly cheap compared to the (blue) crowded coastlines, and smaller write-offs on federal tax returns. The state does have an income tax, however, its very low; between 1% and 3% for the majority of taxpayers.
Next: A conservative Southern state
3. Mississippi
Like North Dakota, Mississippi has an income tax, but it, too, is fairly low.
In Mississippi, youll pay an income tax rate of 3%, 4%, or 5%, depending on your income level. But Mississippi is also one of those states in which a relatively small amount of money is written-off due to the state income tax deduction. Also, property taxes are typically low in some areas, theyre well below national and state averages.
Next: Louisiana
2. Louisiana
Property owners in Louisiana benefit from some of the lowest property tax rates in the country.
If it isnt plainly obvious by now, its not that states like Louisiana dont lose under the Republican tax plan. Its that they lose less than others. And they mostly lose less because fewer of the states residents depend on the deductions the new tax bill would kill. Like the other states weve discussed, Louisianas property and income taxes are lower than their blue-state counterparts. As such, Louisiana is in a better position than California or New York.
Next: The final state on our list.
1. Wyoming
The state of Wyoming has no income tax and very low property taxes.
If you really hate taxes, Wyoming is the place to be. The state doesnt have an income tax, meaning your paychecks are fatter, and its property tax rates are among the lowest in the country. As such, there isnt a whole lot of deductions being made on federal returns. And of course, that means that the Republican tax bill is less damaging to Wyoming residents than those in other states.
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Does Romans 13 give Donald Trump authority to 'take out' Kim Jong Un?
Does God give governments the right to wage war? Trump-supporting Rev Robert Jeffress thinks so; the pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas was widely condemned for appearing to encourage the US president to nuke North Korea, saying 'God has endowed rulers with full power to use whatever means necessary including war to stop evil. God has given Trump authority to take out Kim Jong-Un.'
He's now said people overreacted to his statement; he was simply referring to Romans 13: 1-7, where Paul writes of the authority of rulers. 'The authorities that exist have been established by God,' he says, adding that 'he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.'
Jeffress appears to have particularly in mind Paul's commendation of 'the one in authority': 'He is God's servant, an angel of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.'
A text like this, though, provides a prime example of how reading the Bible in a flat, literalistic way sometimes just doesn't work and it its worst, it can be used to justify the most horrendous abuses.
The trouble is that there are so many 'authorities' that are godless, oppressive and just plain wicked. What does the Eritrean Christian roasting in a shipping container think about verse 3, 'For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong'? What about the Christians in Iraq and Syria terrorised by the authority of Islamic State?
And when Paul says, 'he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted', how do American Christians whose national identity was forged in just such a rebellion against a legitimate authority read that verse?
In fact, we understand very well that Paul is speaking into a particular situation, writing to Christians in Rome, the heart of the empire, which with all its savagery at least had some concept of the rule of law. There are other authorities, though, which are not godly but Satanic, and should be resisted. As Roundhead rebels in the English Civil War and American rebels in the War of Independence knew, the possession of authority is in itself no indication that it has been given by God. Authority is to be judged on how it's used, and whether the ruler is behaving justly.
So if authority is conditional, it can't be appealed to unconditionally. Rulers are judged too, by whether what they do meets God's standards. They can't oppress their people, they can't be corrupt, they can't sow division and hatred, they can't begin wars of conquest, they cannot torture or steal or lie. And there are no exceptions for the democratically elected leaders of enlightened Western countries, either: they are all under judgment.
And so appealing to Romans 13 to justify action against North Korea is problematic, to say the least. It implies that if Trump decides to go to war, it's right because he has decided it, and God has given him the authority to do so and that just isn't true. It may it just may be necessary to fight a war in Korea, though it's very hard to find any strategist or diplomat who thinks so. But launching military action that isn't the absolute last resort would demonstrate more clearly than anything else that Trump is outside the will of God and that his 'authority' has been revoked.
Bad theology can be very dangerous when it emboldens the tyrant and the oppressor. It has to be challenged wherever we find it.
Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
Help Stop The Violence, Myanmar Bishops Beg Aung San Suu Kyi
Four bishops have met with Myanmar's leading political figure over the violence taking place in the north of the country. The Bishops visited Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss the long-running conflict in which Christian groups are deeply involved.
Ethnic groups in Kachin and Shan states, including many Christians, have long been opposed to the government in Yangon and have wages a decades-long campaign for greater autonomy. Fighting has been intensifying since 2011 and since summer 2016 the Burmese military has engaged in airstrikes, even though a peace conference is scheduled for next month.
Many of the 1.7 million residents of Kachin State are Christians, though Myanmar is an overwhelmingly Buddhist country.
La Croix reports that the Bishops met with Suu Kyi for an hour. "We stressed how the fighting leads to more displaced people, insecurity and difficulty dispensing humanitarian assistance," said Bishop Raymond Gam.
Despite winning the Nobal Peace Prize, for her democracy campaigns and long periods of house arrest, Suu Kyi has come under attack since her release for not doing enough to relieve the oppression of minorities, especially the Rohingya people who have been described as the world's most persecuted people.
Human Rights Watch recently reported on Christians in Myanmar. The organisation detailed attacks on Baptists and Catholics. It says, "For many years, Kachin and Shan civil society organizations have documented unlawful killings, torture, rape, forced labour and other abuses committed by Burmese military forces against civilians in Northern Shan and Kachin States."
Pope tells South Korean faith leaders to promote reconciliation
Pope Francis called on a delegation of South Korean religious leaders to promote reconciliation and spurn violence and fear on Saturday, amid a tense standoff on their home peninsula.
Representatives of several religions met the Argentine pontiff at the Vatican and listened to an address in which he said their work must begin by 'rolling up our sleeves'.
'Religious leaders are ... called upon to initiate, promote and accompany processes for the welfare and reconciliation of all people,' Francis told the 20-strong delegation.
'We are called to be heralds of peace, proclaiming and embodying a non-violent style, a style of peace, with words clearly different from the narrative of fear, and with gestures opposed to the rhetoric of hatred.'
Wealthy, democratic South Korea is technically at war with its poor, reclusive northern neighbour, which regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States.
North Korea ratcheted up tensions in the region last week with the launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific.
In response, the United States and South Korea agreed to revise a treaty limiting development of ballistic missiles, which the South wants to use to boost its defences.
Some of the visiting leaders, who included a Buddhist, wore traditional religious costumes. The Vatican did not say which other faiths were represented at the meeting.
Rohingya Muslims flee as more than 2,600 houses burned in Myanmar's Rakhine
More than 2,600 houses have been burned down in Rohingya-majority areas of Myanmar's northwest in the last week, the government said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest bouts of violence involving the Muslim minority in decades.
About 58,600 Rohingya have fled into neighbouring Bangladesh from Myanmar, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR, as aid workers there struggle to cope.
Myanmar officials blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for the burning of the homes. The group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on security posts last week that prompted clashes and a large army counter-offensive.
But Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh say a campaign of arson and killings by the Myanmar army is aimed at trying to force them out.
The treatment of Myanmar's roughly 1.1 million Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for the Muslim minority that has long complained of persecution.
The clashes and army crackdown have killed nearly 400 people and more than 11,700 'ethnic residents' have been evacuated from the area, the government said, referring to the non-Muslim residents.
It marks a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since October, when a smaller Rohingya attack on security posts prompted a military response dogged by allegations of rights abuses.
'A total of 2,625 houses from Kotankauk, Myinlut and Kyikanpyin villages and two wards in Maungtaw were burned down by the ARSA extremist terrorists,' the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said. The group has been declared a terrorist organisation by the government.
But Human Rights Watch, which analysed satellite imagery and accounts from Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, said the Myanmar security forces deliberately set the fires.'New satellite imagery shows the total destruction of a Muslim village, and prompts serious concerns that the level of devastation in northern Rakhine state may be far worse than originally thought,' said the group's deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson.
Near the Naf river separating Myanmar and Bangladesh, new arrivals in Bangladesh carrying their belongings in sacks set up crude tents or tried to squeeze into available shelters or homes of locals.
'The existing camps are near full capacity and numbers are swelling fast. In the coming days there needs to be more space,' said UNHCR regional spokeswoman Vivian Tan, adding more refugees were expected.
The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and regarded as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots that date back centuries. Bangladesh is also growing increasingly hostile to Rohingya, more than 400,000 of whom live in the poor South Asian country after fleeing Myanmar since the early 1990s.
Jalal Ahmed, 60, who arrived in Bangladesh on Friday with a group of about 3,000 after walking from Kyikanpyin for almost a week, said he believed the Rohingya were being pushed out of Myanmar.
'The military came with 200 people to the village and started fires...All the houses in my village are already destroyed. If we go back there and the army sees us, they will shoot,' he said.
Reuters could not independently verify these accounts as access for independent journalists to northern Rakhine has been restricted since security forces locked down the area in October.
Speaking to soldiers, government staff and Rakhine Buddhists affected by the conflict on Friday, army chief Min Aung Hlaing said there is no 'oppression or intimidation' against the Muslim minority and 'everything is within the framework of the law'.
'The Bengali problem was a long-standing one which has become an unfinished job,' he said, using a term used by many in Myanmar to refer to the Rohingya that suggests they come from Bangladesh.
Many aid programmes running in northern Rakhine prior to the outbreak of violence, including life-saving food assistance by the World Food Programme (WFP), have been suspended since the fighting broke out.
'Food security indicators and child malnutrition rates in Maungdaw were already above emergency thresholds before the violence broke out, and it is likely that they will now deteriorate even further,' said Pierre Peron, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar.
More than 80,000 children may need treatment for malnutrition in northern Rakhine and many of them reported 'extreme' food insecurity, WFP said in July.
In Bangladesh, Tan of UNHCR said more shelters and medical care were needed. 'There's a lot of pregnant women and lactating mothers and really young children, some of them born during the flight. They all need medical attention,' she said.
Among new arrivals, 22-year-old Tahara Begum gave birth to her second child in a forest on the way to Bangladesh.
'It was the hardest thing I've ever done,' she said.
Thousands of Christians flee Myanmar to escape persecution amid fighting between rebels and government troops
Tens of thousands of Christians in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, have been forced to abandon their homes and take refuge in foreign soil to escape the long-running campaign of persecution by the government.
More than 100,000 Christians from Myanmar are now in Malaysia as refugees, according to a report by TRT World, Turkey's national public broadcaster.
"Myanmar isn't safe for us. They killed people, sent people to jail because of religion," the news agency quoted a Christian refugee as saying.
The Christians in Myanmar belong to ethnic and religious minorities who have been fighting for greater autonomy in the states where they live. They have been resisting the military's efforts to assimilate them into the majority Burmese culture ever since the Southeast Asian nation achieved independence from British rule in 1948.
The conflict has not abated even with the election victory of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy in November 2015, ending nearly 50 years of military rule, and the election of Htin Kyaw as president and Myanmar's first civilian leader in March 2016. Htin Kyaw is a close ally of Aung San Suu Kyi, who is barred from the post by the constitution, but has said she will lead the country anyway, according to the BBC.
Fighting has even escalated between ethnic rebel groups and government troops, forcing more Christians and other non-Buddhist minorities to flee, according to reports.
Despite a ceasefire agreement during the election campaign period, the Myanmar military continued its attacks against ethnic minorities in Kachin and Shan State, according to Open Doors USA.
Aside from attacks by government forces, Christians in Myanmar also have to contend with persecution led by radical Buddhist monks. These monks, Open Doors says, have successfully helped introduce laws for the "protection of race and religion," creating tough hurdles for conversions and religiously mixed marriages.
Of Myanmar's current population of 54.8 million, there are an estimated 4.4 million Christians who live in states along the country's borders with China, Thailand and India, together with other ethnic minorities.
Some of the ethnic minorities have formed their own armies to resist government troops who are known to attack even without any provocation. Military attacks include landmine explosions, rape of women, indiscriminate killing of people and forced displacement, The Christian Post reported based on a report filed by the World Evangelical Alliance's Religious Liberty Commission.
Myanmar is ranked 28th on Open Doors' 2017 World Watch List of countries most hostile to Christians.
A wealthy Bronx, New York woman recently died and left part of her fortune to her beloved cats, according to local reports.
Ellen Frey-Wouter left $300,000 of her $3 million estate to ensure that Tiger and Troy would be properly cared for, WABC-TV reported.
Frey-Wouter, who was widowed, left detailed instructions that the cats "never be caged" and be well cared for, the New York Post reported.
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Tiger and Troy are being cared for by Frey-Wouters' former home health aides, the Post reported.
Dahlia Grizzle, Frey-Wouters' former home health aide, now cares for Tiger, who she said is a "wonderful cat." Grizzle told the Post it was no surprise that Frey-Wouter left the cats with a generous sum.
"The cats were like her babies," Grizzle said.
Frey-Wouters divided the rest of her fortune between home health aides, charities and her lawyer, the Post reported. If Troy and Tiger die before their inheritance runs out, the remainder will go to Frey-Wouters' sister in the Netherlands.
This isn't the first time a pet has been left and exorbitant amount of money by its owner.
In 2007, New York hotel heiress Leona Helmsley left $12 million to her dog, Trouble. The white Maltese died in 2011 at the age of 12 in Sarasota, Fla.
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This article originally appeared on USA Today.
The talks between the U.K. and Europe are taking up too much time and the British negotiating side needs to step up the pace, a top EU official told CNBC Saturday.
Speaking in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who leads the group of finance ministers for the euro zone, complained that Brexit "isn't going well."
"It's costing too much time and it's costing too much time for the British government to step up their pace," he said.
Negotiating teams concluded the third round of Brexit negotiations last Thursday, but Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, iterated that there hadn't been enough progress to allow talks to move to the next phase. The original timeline for Brexit talks had suggested that after October both sides would be in a position to discuss their future trading relationship, but discussions are still stuck on separation issues.
"I think you have to realize in the process of the separation that there will be a future relation that you can't walk away from it," Dijsselbloem said. "But we need to get through this phase (separation issues), let's make this phase as quick as possible with as little damage as possible."
Negotiations are supposed to focus for now on the future rights of EU citizens, the Irish border and the settling of accounts. But reports suggest the U.K. keeps insisting on discussing a future relationship between the two sides before settling these key separation issues.
The chief finance minister for the euro zone intends to keep going in his current role until the new year, despite a Dutch election in March that cast a major shadow over his presidency.
Speaking to CNBC on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum, Jeroen Dijsselbloem told CNBC that he will continue leading the group of euro zone finance ministers until mid-January when his term officially comes to an end.
Dijsselbloem saw his Labour Party become one of the biggest losers in the Dutch vote earlier this year, meaning that it was unlikely that he would keep his role as finance minister. Since March he has continued serving in the caretaker executive and as a result also as head of the Eurogroup a meeting of 19 finance ministers from the nations that share the euro. This is because Dutch politicians are still discussing how to form the country's next coalition government.
"Hopefully in one month, two months there will be light at the end of the tunnel (a new Dutch government). I'll finish my job for the euro zone, that runs until mid-January. That's my intention, and then after that we will see," he said in an exclusive interview.
Until January, his main focus will be the future governance of the euro area, which includes whether the 19-member zone should have a permanent head of its finance ministers. In the face of the economic recovery seen in the euro area since the debt crisis of 2011, Dijsselbloem said that international economic shocks - rather than internal affairs - are the biggest concern for the group.
"There's work to be done but I'm not very nervous about short term internal crisis in the euro zone," he concluded.
The U.S. sanctions against Russia will ultimately have more impact on Europe than on Moscow, Russia's deputy prime minister told CNBC Saturday.
America imposed fresh sanctions on Russia in early August, building on previous penalties that focus on interference in the 2016 U.S. election, human rights violations, the annexation of Crimea and the alleged destabilization of eastern Ukraine. These affect people and companies that, for instance, invest certain amounts into Russia's energy export pipelines. And Europe has strong links with Russia when it comes to its energy sector.
"My assessment is that U.S. sanctions eventually bring more harm to Europe than to Russia, also as a result of our counter-sanctions that create burden costs for the European economy," Arkady Dvorkovich, told CNBC on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy.
"We aren't happy about it but we had to react and Europe is suffering from that," he added.
A fire burns at the flooded plant of French chemical maker Arkema SA in Crosby, Texas, August 31, 2017. Adrees Latif | Reuters
Arkema SA is not exactly a household name, but its products are found in everything from plastics in automotive parts to adhesives for baby diapers. The company also claims to be the third-largest producer of hydrogen peroxide in the world. But now it has a new distinction after Arkema reported two explosions and black smoke coming from its plant in Crosby, Texas early Thursday morning, raising serious health and safety concerns. Records show that the plant, located about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Houston, was fined nearly $110,000 in February by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration over 10 safety violations found during an inspection. Investigators classified the violations as "serious," meaning there were workplace hazards that could cause an accident or illness that would "most likely result in death or serious physical harm."
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The gravity of six of the violations were rated a 10. But the electronic records don't further explain the circumstances of the violations, what investigators uncovered and any improvements Arkema pledged to make. OSHA later reduced its fines to just over $90,000. Arkema warned investors in its most recent annual securities filings published last year that its facilities were at risk from "accidents, fires, explosions and pollution" due to the nature of the hazardous and flammable materials it uses. It said accidents may leads to compensation claims, lawsuits and expensive delays in production. Based in Colombes, France, Arkema has 133 facilities spread throughout 50 countries and employs 19,637 people worldwide. Arkema's U.S. arm is headquartered in King of Prussia, Pa., with 26 locations throughout the country. It has four other facilities in Texas besides Crosby: in Bayport, Beaumont, Clear Lake and Houston. "This is a significant player," said Mark Eramo, a vice president at financial services company IHS Markit. "A responsible operator that has unfortunately faced an unprecedented situation."
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Second fire on Friday
Arkema makes adhesives that are used in everything from diapers to tiles and wallpaper, as well as chemicals for plastics in auto parts, clothing and eyeglasses. Its Crosby plant produces liquid organic peroxides found in countertops and acrylic-based paints and coatings in auto parts. Thursday's explosions was set in motion after Hurricane Harvey's floodwaters knocked out power and backup generators, disabling the refrigeration needed to keep the organic peroxides stable. One police officer helping to secure the site was reportedly taken to a nearby hospital after inhaling fumes, while nine others admitted themselves as a precaution. Residents living within a 1.5 mile (2.4 kilometer) radius of the French chemical group's site had been evacuated as the company warned there was a risk of explosions and fire. "Organic peroxides are extremely flammable and, as agreed with public officials, the best course of action is to let the fire burn itself out," the company said Thursday. On Friday afternoon, a second fire was triggered at the Crosby plant with local television stations showing flames and thick black smoke escaping from the site. Business and relief officials said the new fire occurred at around 5 p.m. local time, according to Reuters. Shares of Arkema were more than 2.5 percent lower in Paris during early afternoon deals on Thursday. The stock was off by around 1.5 percent immediately after reports of the Crosby blast emerged Thursday, before slipping to a three-month low shortly after midday. By the session close on Friday afternoon, shares had recovered most of their losses, trading at 92.49 euros a share. Year-to-date the stock is down 0.48 percent.
Initially spun off from Total
Seldom a day passes without a call for the Conservatives to make housing a priority. Often this is linked to another much raised theme in the Party the lamentation about the failure to capture a higher share of the youth vote. In fact home ownership has become such a struggle that it is not only a concern amongst the young. The average age of a first time buyer is 32.
Yet the aspiration for home ownership remains very strong. This is a deeply held and well established ambition of those with a Conservative outlook and it proves that huge numbers of younger voters who voted Labour at the General Election this year have their hearts in the right place.
The Sun today reports that:
Ruth Davidson has warned that capitalism could be defeated if governments do not act to build more homes. The Scottish Tories leader called for tens of thousands of new houses to be built in a desperate bid to prevent the public turning against free markets. She added that without a revolution in housing, Britains economy will become dominated by a small group of wealthy older people. And she claimed that prospect risks delivering the country into the hands of anti-trade populists like Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn.
While in the Daily Telegraph, Lara Prendergast writes:
Thanks to social media, its easy to communicate with potential members, as Labour has shown. The Tories could do the same. They could reinforce that they are the party that supports entrepreneurship and individualism. They could reclaim their mantle as the party of home ownership. They could add more youthful faces into the higher ranks, and they could at least try to seem comfortable with modernity.
I havent seen any dissent. So far as I can gather, all Conservatives are agreed, in principle, on a revolution in housing, with it becoming a priority and radical change being accepted. There may be political risks in being bold for instance in getting changes through the House of Commons but the risks of caution are surely greater.
In her speech Davidson talked about a market failure in housing. But the failure is due to the lack of a market. In a market the supply increases to meet the demand. State intervention prevents this from happening when it comes to housing. But she went on to identify the planning system as the critical culprit. It manages to both prevent enough new homes being built while determining that new buildings are usually ugly thus motivating resistance to their construction.
Davidson said:
Housebuilders complain that there isnt enough land available to build and are being deterred from doing so by a planning system that is almost designed to thwart investment.
She added:
To be clear, I am not talking about taking planning control out of the hands of local authorities and local communities. This is about national government providing the strategic direction that allows local communities to press ahead. It could restore trust in new housing.
Earlier this week, the director of Shelter, Polly Neate, said that nimbyism in the UK was often caused because communities dont feel listened to and because too many new homes are ugly or unaffordable.
She has a point.
So in building new homes we need to ensure that peoples views are heard and ensure that new developments add something to our natural environment.
And we need genuine national leadership which makes clear that new development is about making Scotland more beautifulthat we arent going to accept new building that is dumped down carelessly but instead that we are going to build with people in mind.
That is the way to restore faith and overcome peoples understandable concerns about new developments.
As she says the planning system has it all the way wrong. All construction is prohibited and you cannot build unless and until you have permission to do so. There should be a presumption to allow development if the design of a property is good. Those are the right principles.
What is missing is the resolve in Scotland and the rest of the UK to release far more public sector land for the development of attractive, traditional terraced housing and mansion squares. Until the Government does far more to tackle state land banking the constant protestations about wishing to help more people get on the housing ladder is mere rhetoric.
How big a Brexit bill would Labour pay? asked Mark Wallace yesterday on Left Watch. That is a fair question and I hope one that TV and radio interviewers will pursue. Not that they have any chance of getting an answer. There was an ICM poll for The Guardian this week which showed the strong level of public hostility to a substantial payment,
The wording of the question made the idea of handing over money to the EU sound as reasonable as possible:
It said:
As you may know the negotiation process necessary for the UK to leave the European Union is underway. There have been suggestions that the Prime Minister, Theresa May, and her negotiating team will have to make some compromises during Brexit negotiations. Do you think it would be acceptable or unacceptable for the UK to compromise in the following ways?
It then asked about willingness to pay various sums in view of commitments made by the EU when the UK was a member. A figure of up to 10 billion was considered acceptable by 41 per cent, not acceptable by 40 per cent. 20 billion was judged acceptable to 18 per cent and not acceptable to 65 per cent, 30 billion was acceptable to 11 per cent, unacceptable to 72 per cent. While 40 billion was acceptable to just nine per cent and unacceptable to 75 per cent.
Another poll, conducted for the LSE and reported last month, found that most of those who voted Remain, as well as Leave voters, were opposed to making any payment at all.
There is no legal basis for the EUs claim that we owe them money. So the justification for making a payment would be to secure a trade deal. But as Andrew Neil, asked on Twitter:
Is there any free trade deal in the world between major economies that involves one side paying the other for access (but not vice versa)?
On BBC Radio 4s Any Questions last night Jacob Rees-Mogg pondered what would happen if an EU member state that was a net recipient of EU finds had chosen to leave. Would the EU continue to make transitional payments to that nation after it had ceased to be a member?
It may, of course, be that excessive demands from the EU result in there being no deal and thus no payment. However some other EU member states have shown signs of exasperation at Michel Barniers obstructive approach. The Spectator this week noted:
The French government, too, seems to be growing weary of Barniers blocking tactics. It has proposed a compromise in which demands for Britain to pay a leaving bill of 100 billion would be dropped in return for us agreeing to continue paying our annual 10 billion contribution for a transitional period of three years. That would allow trade talks to commence, but Barnier and his team have rebuffed the idea.
The Prime Minister has said that no deal is better than a bad deal. There is a risk of that being forgotten. Amidst the drama and the media circus around the negotiations the feeling for David Davis is that coming away without a deal would be a terrible humiliation. Yet for many British taxpayers, it would be the handing over of billions to the EU after we have left, that would be the undesirable outcome.
A majority feel that, in the words of the Foreign Secretary, the Eurocrats should go whistle for the money.
I was in Connecticut last week to join friends at Members Credit Union and Nutmeg State Financial Credit Union in celebrating their recent National Juntos Avanzamos (Together We Advance) Award (more on that in a minute). I couldnt help but smile when I noticed via a lobby directory that Members Credit Union shares a building with the famous Chicken Soup for the Soul authors. I immediately thought about how credit union work could be considered food for the soul.
For those who dont know, Chicken Soup for the Soul is a publishing company predominately known for its Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books. The first book, like most subsequent titles in the series, consists of inspirational true stories about ordinary peoples lives. The book became a major bestseller in 1993, and remains something of a social phenomenon.
Credit unions rule
When it comes to finding inspirational true stories about companies committed to helping the financial lives of ordinary people, credit unions rule! I hear inspirational stories of how credit unions find ways to serve people who are struggling, overlooked, and under-appreciated almost every single day.
Trust me when I say that the happiest people in all of credit union land are those who are engaged in helping people especially people who really need their help. Its this service and outreach that, like chicken soup, nourishes the soul. It inspires the busiest of people to double down and do more, and inspires those around them to jump in, roll up their sleeves, and get to work. I believe that pursuing purpose is more rewarding than pursuing profit, and I know that Im not alone.
Consider the world we live in today, and how credit unions are clearly different and better:
At a time when Wells Fargo hoped the $142-million settlement of a class-action lawsuit over its agents creating up to 2.1 million unwanted checking, savings, and credit-card accounts between 2011 and 2015 would end the iconic companys headaches, a new report emerged of a similar scandal involving auto loans and insurance. At the time, I was engaged in conversations with the first-year class at the CUNA Management School specifically focused on credit-union best practices for serving underserved markets financial needs that remain unmet by most banks and targeted by tens of thousands of predatory lenders. These credit union leaders identified creative and impactful ways to respond to the underserved case studies I presented. I left that group inspired by their credit union spirit!
At a time when income inequality is growing rapidly and wages have been stagnating, creating qualify-of-life challenges for millions of people in the United States and billions of people abroad, credit unions have significantly increased their efforts to reach out to and serve the underserved and overlooked. In the United States, the number of Low Income Designated credit unions has exceeded 2,300. These special credit unions are committed to serving low-income consumers and their families. In my 30-year career, I dont believe awareness of and commitment to lower-income consumers has ever been higher. Thanks to the NCUA, National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, CUNA, National Credit Union Foundation, CDFI Fund, Leagues, and other trade associations, awareness and advocacy have never been higher. Today, more credit unions are engaging each other and their communities to identify educational and product opportunities to help lower-income consumers make better decisions, build financial assets and better credit all focused on creating a better quality of life for the person, family, and community. When it comes to people helping lower-income people financially, credit unions stand alone. I just completed a full-day Community Development Workshop sponsored by the Wisconsin Credit Union League and the Wisconsin Credit Union Foundation. It was cool: the workshop was at full capacity, with credit union leaders driving across the state to be part of the event. The audience included small, large, urban, and rural credit unions, each eager to find new ways to seek out and serve lower-income and underserved markets. The stories I heard from credit unions in attendance were certainly soup for the soul.
At time when talking heads are arguing for a 700-mile-long, 30-foot wall to keep people away (from a better quality of life for themselves and their families), credit unions across the country are actively engaged in building bridges to warmly welcome Latino immigrants with affordable financial services, regardless of citizenship status. These credit unions are making meaningful investments in providing this group of overlooked consumers with access to low-cost accounts, credit-building, and affordable access to transportation, housing, and even small businesses. Today, more than 70 credit unions have received the national Juntos Avanzamos designation, recognized for having the purpose, people, and products needed to successfully serve this market. How can one adequately measure the quality-of-life impact that accompanies citizenship and financial inclusion? Its high, and very desirable.
Why it matters
I dont know about you, but I desire chicken soup most when Im a little under the weather. Like the chicken soup analogy, credit unions work best when they serve those who need them the most. Its in our DNA, and for more than 100 years, credit unions have been helping those who need us the most: the overlooked and underserved.
At a time when the world seems to be heading down a path of greed, fraud, and deeper inequalities between the haves and the have-nots, credit unions can gain strides by seeking out and serving those who need us the most. When credit unions do this, they are relevant, and serving as the soup for struggling souls.
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. The company offers financial advice and solutions, and day-to-day banking products, including debit and credit cards, chequing and saving accounts, investments, mortgages, loans, and insurance to individuals; and business banking solutions comprising lending, deposit, cash management, and trade finance solutions to small, medium, and large businesses, including automotive financing solutions to dealers and their customers. It also provides wealth management advice and solutions, including online brokerage, mobile investment, full-service brokerage, trust, private banking, and private investment counsel services; and retail mutual funds, exchange traded funds, liquid alternative funds, and institutional funds. In addition, the company offers international banking services for retail, corporate, and commercial customers; and lending and transaction, investment banking advisory, and capital markets access services to corporate customers. Further, it provides online, mobile, and telephone banking services. The company operates a network of 954 branches and approximately 3,766 automated banking machines in Canada; and approximately 1,300 branches and a network of contact and support center internationally. The Bank of Nova Scotia was founded in 1832 and is headquartered in Halifax, Canada.
Emergent BioSolutions Inc., a life sciences company, focuses on the provision of preparedness and response solutions that address accidental, deliberate, and naturally occurring public health threats (PHTs) in the United States. The company's products address PHTs, which include chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosives; emerging infectious diseases; travel health; and emerging health crises and acute/emergency care. It offers BioThrax, an anthrax vaccine; ACAM2000, a smallpox vaccine; Botulism Antitoxin Heptavalent to treat botulinum disease; vaccinia immune globulin intravenous that addresses complications from smallpox vaccine; raxibacumab for the treatment and prophylaxis of inhalational anthrax; Anthrasil to for inhalational anthrax; reactive skin decontamination lotion kits; and Trobigard, a combination drug-device auto injector product candidate; and Trobigard, a combination drug-device auto injector product candidate. The company also provides NARCAN, a nasal spray for the emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose; Vivotif, an oral vaccine for typhoid fever; and Vaxchora, a single-dose oral vaccine to treat cholera. In addition, it is developing AP003, a Naloxone multidose nasal spray; AP007, a sustained release Nalmefene injection for treatment of opioid use disorder; AV7909, an anthrax vaccine; CGRD-001, a pralidoxime chloride/atropine auto-injector; CHIKV VLP, a chikungunya virus VLP vaccine; COVID-HIG for the treatment of SARS-CoV2; EGRD-001, a diazepam auto-injector; SIAN, an antidote for the initial treatment of acute poisoning of cyanide; and UniFlu, a universal influenza vaccine. Further, the company provides contract development and manufacturing services comprising drug substance and product manufacturing, and packaging, as well as technology transfer, process, and analytical development services. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Sanofi, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the research, development, manufacture, and marketing of therapeutic solutions in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Pharmaceuticals, Vaccines, and Consumer Healthcare. The company provides specialty care products, including human monoclonal antibodies; products for multiple sclerosis, neurology, other inflammatory diseases, immunology, rare diseases, oncology, and rare blood disorders; medicines for diabetes; and cardiovascular and established prescription products. It also supplies poliomyelitis, pertussis, and hib pediatric vaccines; and influenza, adult booster, meningitis, and travel and endemic vaccines. In addition, the company offers allergy, cough and cold, pain, liver care, physical and mental wellness, probiotics, digestive, and nutritional products; and other products, such as daily body lotions, anti-itch products, moisturizing and soothing lotions, and body and foot creams, as well as powders for eczema. Further, it has various pharmaceutical products and vaccines in development stage. Sanofi has collaboration agreement with GlaxoSmithKline to develop a recombinant Covid-19 vaccine; and a research collaboration with Stanford University School of Medicine to advance the understanding of immunology and inflammation through open scientific exchange. It also has a collaboration and license option agreement with Prellis Biologics, Inc. The company was formerly known as Sanofi-Aventis and changed its name to Sanofi in May 2011. Sanofi was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Paris, France.
Citigroup Inc. is one of the worlds largest financial institutions. It is the 13th largest bank globally by assets and 8th by market cap with operations in consumer and institutional banking. In the US, Citigroup is the 3rd largest bank by assets and one of the Big Four deemed systemically important and too big to fail.
Citigroup Inc. was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York. The bank was run by Samuel Osgood who led the company with success for many years, even throughout the War of 1812. The bank was later renamed the National City Bank of New York in 1865 and by 1895 is the largest bank in the US. In 1913 it was the first contributor to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a few years later it began to expand into overseas territories.
The bank became the First National City Bank of New York after another merger in 1955 and then later, the New York part was dropped off as part of the 150th-anniversary celebration. By 1974 the company is known as Citicorp which is still the operational branch of the business and a global banking powerhouse. A merger with Travelers insurance group in 1998 resulted in the name Citigroup but the joint venture did not last. By 2002 Travelers was publicly traded once again but Citigroup retained the new name.
Today, the company is headquartered in New York, New York but boasts more than 200 million customer accounts in 160 countries worldwide. As of mid-2022, it operated 2,649 branches in the United States, Mexico, and Asia. The company reports nearly 725 branches in the US and 1499 in Mexico with the rest scattered throughout its territory. Total annual revenue topped $75 billion in 2022.
Citigroup is a diversified financial services holding company that owns Citicorp among other assets. The companys mission is to serve as a trusted partner providing responsible financial solutions to its clients. Citigroup provides financial products and services to consumers, corporations, governments, and institutions. The company operates in two segments, Global Consumer Banking (GCB) and Institutional Clients Group (ICG).
The GCB segment offers traditional banking services including deposit and saving accounts, credit cards, personal loans, home loans, and investment services. This segment operates through local branches and digital means. The ICG segment offers wholesale banking products and services to corporate, institutional, public sector, and high-net-worth clients.
The following companies are subsidiares of Johnson & Johnson: 3Dintegrated ApS, ALZA Corporation, AMO (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AMO (Shanghai) Medical Devices Trading Co. Ltd Beijing Branch, AMO (Shanghai) Medical Devices Trading Co. Ltd Guangzhou Branch, AMO (Shanghai) Medical Devices Trading Co. Ltd., AMO ASIA LIMITED, AMO Asia Limited (Korea Branch), AMO Asia Limited Taiwan Branch (Hong Kong), AMO Australia Pty Limited, AMO Australia Pty Limited (New Zealand Branch), AMO Canada Company, AMO Denmark ApS, AMO Development LLC, AMO France, AMO Germany GmbH, AMO Groningen B.V., AMO International Holdings Unlimited Company, AMO Ireland, AMO Ireland Ireland Branch, AMO Italy SRL, AMO Japan K.K., AMO Manufacturing USA LLC, AMO Netherlands BV, AMO Nominee Holdings LLC, AMO Norway AS, AMO Puerto Rico Manufacturing Inc., AMO Sales and Service Inc., AMO Singapore Pte. Ltd., AMO Spain Holdings LLC, AMO Switzerland GmbH, AMO U.K. Holdings LLC, AMO United Kingdom Ltd., AMO Uppsala AB, AUB Holdings LLC, Abott Medical Optics, Acclarent Inc., Actelion Ltd, Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Actelion Pharmaceuticals Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Actelion Pharmaceuticals US Inc., Actelion Treasury Unlimited Company, Akros Medical Inc., Albany Street LLC, Alios BioPharma, Alza Land Management Inc., Anakuria Therapeutics Inc., Animas Diabetes Care LLC, Animas LLC, Animas Technologies LLC, AorTx Inc., Apsis, Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Aragon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Asia Pacific Holdings LLC, Atrionix Inc., Auris Health, Auris Health Inc., Backsvalan 2 Aktiebolag, Backsvalan 6 Handelsbolag, Beijing Dabao Cosmetics Co. Ltd., BeneVir BioPharm Inc., Berna Rhein B.V., BioMedical Enterprises Inc., Biosense Webster (Israel) Ltd., Biosense Webster Inc., Branch of Johnson & Johnson LLC (RU) in Kazakhstan, C Consumer Products Denmark ApS, CSATS Inc., Calibra Medical LLC, Campus-Foyer Apotheke GmbH, Carlo Erba OTC S.r.l., Centocor Biologics LLC, Centocor Research & Development Inc., Cerenovus Inc., ChromaGenics B.V., Ci:Labo Customer Marketing Co. Ltd., Ci:Labo USA Inc., Ci:z Holdings, Ci:z. Labo Co. Ltd., Cilag AG, Cilag GmbH International, Cilag Holding AG, Cilag Holding Treasury Unlimited Company, Cilag-Biotech S.L., CoTherix Inc., Coherex Medical Inc., ColBar LifeScience Ltd., Company Store.com Inc., Conor MedSystems, Cordis International Corporation, Cordis de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Corimmun GmbH, DePuy Hellas SA, DePuy International Limited, DePuy Ireland Unlimited Company, DePuy Mexico S.A. de C.V., DePuy Mitek LLC, DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., DePuy Products Inc., DePuy Spine LLC, DePuy Synthes Gorgan Limited, DePuy Synthes Inc., DePuy Synthes Institute LLC, DePuy Synthes Leto SARL, DePuy Synthes Products Inc., DePuy Synthes Sales Inc., Debs-Vogue Corporation (Proprietary) Limited, Dutch Holding LLC, ECL7 LLC, EES Holdings de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., EES S.A. de C.V., EIT Emerging Implant Technologies GmbH, Ethicon Endo-Surgery (Europe) GmbH, Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc., Ethicon Endo-Surgery LLC, Ethicon Inc., Ethicon LLC, Ethicon PR Holdings Unlimited Company, Ethicon Sarl, Ethicon US LLC, Ethicon Women's Health & Urology Sarl, Ethnor (Proprietary) Limited, Ethnor Farmaceutica S.A., Ethnor del Istmo S.A., FMS Future Medical System SA, Finsbury (Development) Limited, Finsbury (Instruments) Limited, Finsbury Medical Limited, Finsbury Orthopaedics International Limited, Finsbury Orthopaedics Limited, GH Biotech Holdings Limited, GMED Healthcare BV, GMED Healthcare BV (Branch), Global Investment Participation B.V., Guangzhou Bioseal Biotech Co. Ltd., Hansen Medical Deutschland GmbH, Hansen Medical Inc., Hansen Medical International Inc., Hansen Medical UK Limited, Healthcare Services (Shanghai) Ltd., Hickory Merger Sub Inc., I.D. Acquisition Corp., Innomedic Gesellschaft fur innovative Medizintechnik und Informatik mbH, Innovative Surgical Solutions LLC, J & J Company West Africa Limited, J&J Pension Trustees Limited, J-C Health Care Ltd., J.C. General Services BV, JJ Surgical Vision Spain S.L., JJC Acquisition Company B.V., JJHC LLC, JJSV Belgium BV, JJSV Manufacturing Malaysia SDN. BHD., JJSV Norden AB, JJSV Produtos Oticos Ltda., JNJ Global Business Services s.r.o., JNJ Holding EMEA B.V., JNJ International Investment LLC, JOM Pharmaceutical Services Inc., Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy (Holding) Limited, Janssen BioPharma LLC, Janssen Biologics (Ireland) Limited, Janssen Biologics B.V., Janssen Biotech Inc., Janssen Cilag C.A., Janssen Cilag Farmaceutica S.A., Janssen Cilag S.p.A., Janssen Cilag SPA, Janssen Development Finance Unlimited Company, Janssen Diagnostics LLC, Janssen Egypt LLC, Janssen Farmaceutica Portugal Lda, Janssen Global Services LLC, Janssen Holding GmbH, Janssen Inc., Janssen Irish Finance Unlimited Company, Janssen Korea Ltd., Janssen Oncology Inc., Janssen Ortho LLC, Janssen Pharmaceutica (Proprietary) Limited, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Janssen Pharmaceutica S.A., Janssen Pharmaceutical K.K., Janssen Pharmaceutical Sciences Unlimited Company, Janssen Pharmaceutical Unlimited Company, Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. Japan Branch, Janssen Products LP, Janssen R&D Ireland Unlimited Company, Janssen Research & Development LLC, Janssen Sciences Ireland Unlimited Company, Janssen Scientific Affairs LLC, Janssen Supply Group LLC, Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V., Janssen Vaccines Branch of Cilag GmbH International, Janssen Vaccines Corp., Janssen-Cilag, Janssen-Cilag (New Zealand) Limited, Janssen-Cilag A/S, Janssen-Cilag AG, Janssen-Cilag AS, Janssen-Cilag Aktiebolag, Janssen-Cilag B.V., Janssen-Cilag Farmaceutica Lda., Janssen-Cilag Farmaceutica Ltda., Janssen-Cilag GmbH, Janssen-Cilag International NV, Janssen-Cilag Kft., Janssen-Cilag Kft. Branch Office, Janssen-Cilag Limited, Janssen-Cilag Manufacturing LLC, Janssen-Cilag NV, Janssen-Cilag OY, Janssen-Cilag Pharma GmbH, Janssen-Cilag Pharmaceutical S.A.C.I., Janssen-Cilag Polska Sp. z o.o., Janssen-Cilag Pty Ltd, Janssen-Cilag Pty Ltd (Branch), Janssen-Cilag S.A., Janssen-Cilag S.A., Janssen-Cilag S.A. de C.V., Janssen-Cilag de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Janssen-Cilag s.r.o., Janssen-Pharma S.L., Jevco Holding Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Johnson & Johnson (Angola) Limitada, Johnson & Johnson (China) Investment Ltd., Johnson & Johnson (China) Investment Ltd. Beijing Branch, Johnson & Johnson (Egypt) S.A.E., Johnson & Johnson (Hong Kong) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Ireland) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Jamaica) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Kenya) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Middle East) Inc., Johnson & Johnson (Middle East) Inc. (DHCC Branch), Johnson & Johnson (Middle East) Inc. (JAFZA Branch), Johnson & Johnson (Middle East) Inc. Service Center (DAFZA Branch), Johnson & Johnson (Mozambique) Limitada, Johnson & Johnson (Namibia) (Proprietary) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (New Zealand) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Philippines) Inc., Johnson & Johnson (Private) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Thailand) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson (Trinidad) Limited, Johnson & Johnson (Vietnam) Co. Ltd, Johnson & Johnson - Societa' Per Azioni, Johnson & Johnson AB, Johnson & Johnson AB Eesti filiaal (Branch), Johnson & Johnson AG, Johnson & Johnson AG (Zuchwil Branch), Johnson & Johnson Belgium Finance Company BV, Johnson & Johnson Bulgaria EOOD, Johnson & Johnson China Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Consumer (Hong Kong) Limited, Johnson & Johnson Consumer (Thailand) Limited, Johnson & Johnson Consumer B.V., Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health Care Switzerland Branch of Janssen-Cilag AG, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Holdings France, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. (Dominican Republic Branch), Johnson & Johnson Consumer NV, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Saudi Arabia Limited, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Services EAME Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Del Paraguay S.A., Johnson & Johnson Dominicana S.A.S., Johnson & Johnson Enterprise Innovation Inc., Johnson & Johnson European Treasury Unlimited Company, Johnson & Johnson Finance Corporation, Johnson & Johnson Finance Limited, Johnson & Johnson Financial Services GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Financial Services GmbH (Branch Office), Johnson & Johnson Gateway LLC, Johnson & Johnson Gesellschaft m.b.H., Johnson & Johnson GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Guatemala S.A., Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc., Johnson & Johnson Health and Wellness Solutions Inc., Johnson & Johnson Hellas Commercial and Industrial S.A., Johnson & Johnson Hellas Consumer Products Commercial Societe Anonyme, Johnson & Johnson Hemisferica S.A., Johnson & Johnson Holding GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Inc., Johnson & Johnson Industrial Ltda., Johnson & Johnson Innovation - JJDC Inc., Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC, Johnson & Johnson Innovation Limited, Johnson & Johnson International, Johnson & Johnson International (Belgian Branch) (European Logistics Center), Johnson & Johnson International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Johnson & Johnson International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (Branch), Johnson & Johnson International Financial Services Unlimited Company, Johnson & Johnson K.K., Johnson & Johnson Kft., Johnson & Johnson Korea Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Korea Selling & Distribution LLC, Johnson & Johnson LLC, Johnson & Johnson Lda, Johnson & Johnson Limited, Johnson & Johnson Limited (Sri Lanka Branch), Johnson & Johnson Luxembourg Finance Company Sarl, Johnson & Johnson Management Limited, Johnson & Johnson Medical (China) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medical (Proprietary) Ltd, Johnson & Johnson Medical (Shanghai) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medical (Shanghai) Ltd. Beijing Branch, Johnson & Johnson Medical (Suzhou) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medical B.V., Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices & Diagnostics Group - Latin America L.L.C., Johnson & Johnson Medical GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Medical Korea Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medical Limited, Johnson & Johnson Medical Mexico S.A. de C.V., Johnson & Johnson Medical NV, Johnson & Johnson Medical Products GmbH, Johnson & Johnson Medical Pty Ltd, Johnson & Johnson Medical S.A., Johnson & Johnson Medical S.C.S., Johnson & Johnson Medical S.p.A., Johnson & Johnson Medical SAS, Johnson & Johnson Medical Saudi Arabia Limited, Johnson & Johnson Medical Taiwan Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Medikal Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Johnson & Johnson Medikal Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Ankara Branch), Johnson & Johnson Medikal Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Izmir Branch), Johnson & Johnson Middle East - Scientific Office, Johnson & Johnson Middle East FZ - LLC (Lebanese Branch), Johnson & Johnson Middle East FZ-LLC, Johnson & Johnson Middle East FZ-LLC (Ghana Branch), Johnson & Johnson Middle East FZ-LLC (Kenya Branch), Johnson & Johnson Middle East FZ-LLC Branch (TSO) (Saudi Arabia Branch), Johnson & Johnson Morocco Societe Anonyme, Johnson & Johnson NCB (Belgian Branch), Johnson & Johnson Nordic AB, Johnson & Johnson Pacific Pty Limited, Johnson & Johnson Pakistan (Private) Limited, Johnson & Johnson Panama S.A., Johnson & Johnson Personal Care (Chile) S.A., Johnson & Johnson Poland Sp. z o.o., Johnson & Johnson Poland sp. z o.o. oddzial w Warszawie "Consumer", Johnson & Johnson Private Limited, Johnson & Johnson Pte. Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Pte. Ltd. Korea Branch, Johnson & Johnson Pty. Limited, Johnson & Johnson Romania S.R.L., Johnson & Johnson S.A., Johnson & Johnson S.A. de C.V., Johnson & Johnson S.E. Inc., Johnson & Johnson S.E. d.o.o., Johnson & Johnson SDN. BHD., Johnson & Johnson Sante Beaute France, Johnson & Johnson Services Inc., Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision Inc., Johnson & Johnson Surgical Vision India Private Limited, Johnson & Johnson Taiwan Ltd., Johnson & Johnson UK Treasury Company Limited, Johnson & Johnson Ukraine LLC, Johnson & Johnson Urban Renewal Associates, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care (Shanghai) Ltd., Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc., Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Ireland Unlimited Company, Johnson & Johnson d.o.o., Johnson & Johnson de Argentina S.A.C. e. I., Johnson & Johnson de Chile Limitada, Johnson & Johnson de Chile S.A., Johnson & Johnson de Colombia S.A., Johnson & Johnson de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Johnson & Johnson de Uruguay S.A., Johnson & Johnson de Venezuela S.A., Johnson & Johnson del Ecuador S.A., Johnson & Johnson del Peru S.A., Johnson & Johnson do Brasil Industria E Comercio de Produtos Para Saude Ltda., Johnson & Johnson for Export and Import LLC, Johnson & Johnson s.r.o., Johnson Y Johnson de Costa Rica S.A., Johnson and Johnson (Proprietary) Limited, Johnson and Johnson Sihhi Malzeme Sanayi Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, LTL Management LLC, La Concha Land Investment Corporation, Latam International Investment Company Unlimited Company, Legal Entity Name, MDS Co. Ltd., McNEIL MMP LLC, McNeil AB, McNeil Consumer Pharmaceuticals Co., McNeil Denmark ApS, McNeil Healthcare (Ireland) Limited, McNeil Healthcare (UK) Limited, McNeil Healthcare LLC, McNeil Iberica S.L.U., McNeil LA LLC, McNeil Nutritionals LLC, McNeil Panama LLC, McNeil Products Limited, McNeil Sweden AB, Medical Device Business Services Inc., Medical Devices & Diagnostics Global Services LLC, Medical Devices International LLC, Medos International Sarl, Medos International Sarl succursale de Neuchatel (Branch), Medos Sarl, MegaDyne Medical Products Inc., Menlo Care De Mexico S.A. de C.V., Mentor B.V., Mentor Deutschland GmbH, Mentor Medical Systems B.V., Mentor Partnership Holding Company I LLC, Mentor Texas GP LLC, Mentor Texas L.P., Mentor Worldwide LLC, Micrus Endovascular LLC, Middlesex Assurance Company Limited, Momenta Ireland Limited, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc., NeoStrata Company Inc., NeoStrata UG (haftungsbeschrankt), Netherlands Holding Company, NeuWave Medical Inc., Neuravi Limited, Novira Therapeutics, Novira Therapeutics LLC, NuVera Medical Inc., OBTECH Medical Sarl, OGX Beauty Limited, OMJ Holding GmbH, OMJ Ireland Unlimited Company, OMJ Pharmaceuticals Inc., Obtech Medical Mexico S.A. de C.V., Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Inc., Omrix Biopharmaceuticals Ltd., Omrix Biopharmaceuticals NV, Ortho Biologics LLC, Ortho Biotech Holding LLC, Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical LLC, Orthospin Ltd., Orthotaxy, PT Integrated Healthcare Indonesia, PT. Johnson & Johnson Indonesia, Patriot Pharmaceuticals LLC, Peninsula Pharmaceuticals LLC, Pharmadirect Ltd., Pharmedica Laboratories (Proprietary) Limited, Princeton Laboratories Inc., Productos de Cuidado Personal y de La Salud de Bolivia S.R.L., Proleader S.A., Pulsar Vascular Inc., Regency Urban Renewal Associates, RespiVert Ltd., RoC International, Royalty A&M LLC, Rutan Realty LLC, SYNTHES Medical Immobilien GmbH, Scios LLC, Sedona Singapore International Pte. Ltd., Sedona Thai International Co. Ltd., Serhum S.A. de C.V., Shanghai Elsker For Mother & Baby Co. Ltd, Shanghai Elsker Mother & Baby Co. Ltd Minghang Branch, Shanghai Johnson & Johnson Ltd., Shanghai Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Sightbox LLC, Sodiac ESV, Spectrum Vision Limited Liability Company, Spectrum Vision Limited Liability Partnership, SterilMed, SterilMed Inc., Surgical Process Institute Deutschland GmbH, Synthes Costa Rica S.C.R. Limitada, Synthes GmbH, Synthes Holding AG, Synthes Holding Limited, Synthes Inc., Synthes Medical Surgical Equipment & Instruments Trading LLC, Synthes Produktions GmbH, Synthes Proprietary Limited, Synthes S.M.P. S. de R.L. de C.V., Synthes Tuttlingen GmbH, Synthes USA LLC, Synthes USA Products LLC, TARIS Biomedical, TARIS Biomedical LLC, TearScience Inc., The Anspach Effort LLC, The Vision Care Institute LLC, Tibotec LLC, Torax Medical Inc., UAB "Johnson & Johnson", UAB Johnson & Johnson Eesti Filiaal (Estonian Branch), Vania Expansion, Verb Surgical, Verb Surgical Inc., Vision Care Finance Unlimited Company, Vogue International, Vogue International LLC, Vogue International Trading Inc., WH4110 Development Company L.L.C., XO1, XO1 Limited, Xian Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd., Xian-Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd. Beijing Branch Office, Xian-Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd. Shanghai Branch Office, Zarbee's Inc., and Zarbee's Naturals.
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United Rentals, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as an equipment rental company. It operates in two segments, General Rentals and Specialty. The General Rentals segment rents general construction and industrial equipment includes backhoes, skid-steer loaders, forklifts, earthmoving equipment, and material handling equipment; aerial work platforms, such as boom and scissor lifts; and general tools and light equipment comprising pressure washers, water pumps, and power tools for construction and industrial companies, manufacturers, utilities, municipalities, homeowners, and government entities. The specialty segment rents specialty construction products, including trench safety equipment consists of trench shields, aluminum hydraulic shoring systems, slide rails, crossing plates, construction lasers, and line testing equipment for underground work; power and heating, ventilating, and air conditioning equipment, such as portable diesel generators, electrical distribution equipment, and temperature control equipment; fluid solutions equipment for fluid containment, transfer, and treatment; and mobile storage equipment and modular office space. This segment serves construction companies involved in infrastructure projects, and municipalities and industrial companies. It also sells aerial lifts, reach forklifts, telehandlers, compressors, and generators; construction consumables, tools, small equipment, and safety supplies; and parts for equipment that is owned by its customers, as well as provides repair and maintenance services. The company sells used equipment through its sales force, brokers, website, directly to manufacturers, and at auctions. The company operates a network of 1,360 rental locations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. United Rentals, Inc. was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.
Nabors Industries Ltd. provides drilling and drilling-related services for land-based and offshore oil and natural gas wells. The company operates through five segments: U.S. Drilling, Canada Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. It provides tubular running, wellbore placement, directional drilling, measurement-while-drilling (MWD), equipment manufacturing, and rig instrumentation services; and logging-while-drilling systems and services, as well as drilling optimization software. The company also offers REVit, an automated real time stick-slip mitigation system; ROCKit, a directional steering control system; SmartNAV, a collaborative guidance and advisory platform; SmartSLIDE, an advanced directional steering control system; and RigCLOUD, which provides the tools and infrastructure to integrate applications to deliver real-time insight into operations across the rig fleet. In addition, it manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and other drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools; and provides aftermarket sales and services for the installed base of its equipment. As of December 31, 2021, the company marketed approximately 301 rigs for land-based drilling operations in the United States, Canada, and in 20 other countries worldwide; and 29 rigs for offshore platform drilling operations in the United States and internationally. Nabors Industries Ltd. was founded in 1952 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.
President Donald Trump recently said he would not endorse "nation building" when he outlined his policy on Afghanistan.
Can a policy to upgrade Afghan troops hope to succeed without also strengthening the Afghan government? Also, if it nation building isn't a goal, will U.S. troops be a permanent fixture in Afghanistan in order to prevent the Taliban or ISIS from securing a sanctuary?
Later, President Trump seemed to contradict himself by stating that the Afghan government needs to eliminate corruption.
I am still at a loss to thoroughly understand America's policy for Afghanistan.
John Wetzel
Holmen
Best Buy Co., Inc. retails technology products in the United States and Canada. The company operates in two segments, Domestic and International. Its stores provide computing products, such as desktops, notebooks, and peripherals; mobile phones comprising related mobile network carrier commissions; networking products; tablets covering e-readers; smartwatches; and consumer electronics consisting of digital imaging, health and fitness, home theater, portable audio comprising headphones and portable speakers, and smart home products. The company's stores also offer appliances, such as dishwashers, laundry, ovens, refrigerators, blenders, coffee makers, and vacuums; entertainment products consisting of drones, peripherals, movies, music, and toys, as well as gaming hardware and software, and virtual reality and other software products; and other products, such as baby, food and beverage, luggage, outdoor living, and sporting goods. In addition, it provides consultation, delivery, design, health-related, installation, memberships, repair, set-up, technical support, and warranty-related services. The company offers its products through stores and websites under the Best Buy, Best Buy Ads, Best Buy Business, Best Buy Health, CST, Current Health, Geek Squad, Lively, Magnolia, Best Buy Mobile, Pacific Kitchen, Home, and Yardbird, as well as domain names bestbuy.com, currenthealth.com, lively.com, yardbird.com, and bestbuy.ca. As of January 30, 2022, it had 1,144 stores. The company was formerly known as Sound of Music, Inc. The company was incorporated in 1966 and is headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota.
CACI International Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides expertise and technology to enterprise and mission customers in support of national security missions and government modernization/transformation in the intelligence, defense, and federal civilian sectors. It operates in two segments, Domestic Operations and International Operations. The Domestic Operations segment offers information solutions and services to the U.S. federal government agencies and commercial enterprises in the areas, such as digital solutions, C4ISR, cyber and space, engineering services, enterprise IT, and mission support. The International Operations segment provides a range of IT services, proprietary data, and software products to the commercial and government customers in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, and internationally. The company designs, implements, protects, and manages secure enterprise IT solutions. It also offers software-defined, full-spectrum cyber, electronic warfare, and counter-unmanned aircraft system solutions; and platform integration and modernization and sustainment, as well as system engineering, naval architecture, training and simulation, and logistics engineering. In addition, the company provides enterprise cloud solutions for classified and unclassified networks; and intelligence support that ensures continuous advances in collection, analysis, and dissemination to optimize decision-making. CACI International Inc was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.
When the rain first started to fall on Houston, Texas, in September of 2008, it didnt seem that much different from any other storm.
But as the time ticked by, the difference between Hurricane Ike and the thunderstorms Id loved watching from the safety of my window as a kid in Wisconsin became abundantly clear.
I was a sophomore attending my first month of classes at the University of Houston in Texas on Sept. 4, 2008, when the storm named Ike became a Category 4 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. (It downgraded before its U.S. landfall.)
For days, I watched the local weather religiously, anxiously watching as the local NBC news affiliates meteorologist gave updates on the path of the storm and tried to impart exactly how seriously people should take this storm as he stood in a rain coat that threatened to catch the wind and blow him over on the island city of Galveston, Texas.
Its hard for a girl from the Midwest to truly appreciate what a hurricane means. I remember feeling like it was all so surreal like could never happen anywhere I was as I walked the grocery store aisles that were emptier than Ive ever seen before or since. It is really weird to see whole displays empty in a Walmart, guys. You never realize how accustomed you are to full shelves until theyre not full anymore.
It didnt really hit home until Sept. 11, two days before Ike hit Galveston. I had gone to school like normal and left to go home in the afternoon to find my usual entrance to I-45 blocked by police cars. According to what I saw on the news later, the entrances were blocked to keep rush hour Houston traffic from interfering with the evacuation of Galveston and other southern Texas towns, but at the time, all I knew was that my directionally challenged self had no clue how to get back home without the interstate.
I had gone to UH for barely a couple weeks and lived in the Houston area for a month. I had just gotten to the point where I could take my reliable route to and from school without checking my directions. To top it all off, in those days, my barely smart phone had a map but no GPS enabled, and it certainly wouldnt read me directions to get home. So naturally, I freaked out.
With the help of my amazingly patient friend Tim, I managed to get home by some route I couldnt recreate if I tried, all the while trying very hard not to think about the photos Id seen three years prior from Hurricane Katrina, with people boating up and down streets past the tops of cars that were nearly completely underwater.
Humble, Texas, the town where I lived with Tim and his wife, Sarah, was high enough that we didnt have to evacuate. Instead we stocked up on water, ice, food and alcohol and got ready to ride it out.
Ride it out we did.
My neighbors set up their grill in the garage and we grilled all kinds of great food while the rain drops started to fall. I sat and tried to relax and enjoy having a rare Friday off work. I texted some Wisconsin friends and my parents, sending them photos of the rain, which quickly started pounding into the pavement loud enough to drown out what people were saying. It was early Saturday, Sept. 13, when Hurricane Ike blew through, tearing siding and shingles from homes and tearing tree limbs apart.
Ike isnt as well-known as Katrina or Sandy, but it ended up being the third-costliest Atlantic hurricane of all time, with just fewer than 200 related deaths, as well as $37.5 billion in damages. I am never going to forget the photo from the island of Galveston, where a whole neighborhood of beach homes was reduced to one yellow house on stilts.
Humble came off pretty light, at least in my neighborhood. If I remember right, Tim and Sarah lost a tree. A neighbor needed a new roof. My regular route to the restaurant where I worked was unusable for a few days due to a couple of flooded intersections, and the tropical fish in the tank died when the building lost power for several hours.
But we were still without power for a week, which is no picnic in the 90-degree heat and humidity that sticks around in September in Houston.
Its been nearly a decade since Hurricane Ike hit the Gulf Coast. As I write this Friday afternoon, Houston is battening down for Hurricane Harvey, a Category 3 storm that stretches from the top of Texas to halfway through Louisiana right now. The National Weather Service is predicting 35 inches of rain in parts of Texas, and evacuations have begun.
Texas is about to have a very significant disaster, said Brock Long, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Ive been through a hurricane and cant imagine what the people of Corpus Christi, Texas, about halfway down the Gulf Coast, are going through as the National Weather Service informs them that flooding and strong winds could leave their homes uninhabitable for weeks or maybe months.
My heart goes out to them.
PulteGroup, Inc., through its subsidiaries, primarily engages in the homebuilding business in the United States. It acquires and develops land primarily for residential purposes; and constructs housing on such land. The company also offers various home designs, including single-family detached, townhomes, condominiums, and duplexes under the Centex, Pulte Homes, Del Webb, DiVosta Homes, American West, and John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods brand names. As of December 31, 2021, it controlled 228,296 lots, of which 109,078 were owned and 119,218 were under land option agreements. In addition, the company arranges financing through the origination of mortgage loans primarily for homebuyers; sells the servicing rights for the originated loans; and provides title insurance policies, and examination and closing services to homebuyers. PulteGroup, Inc. was formerly known as Pulte Homes, Inc. and changed its name to PulteGroup, Inc. in March 2010. The company was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Mistras Group, Inc. provides technology-enabled asset protection solutions worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Services, International, and Products and Systems. It offers non-destructive testing services; predictive maintenance assessments of fixed and rotating assets; inline inspection for pipelines; and develops enterprise inspection database management software and plant condition management software. The company also provides maintenance and light mechanical services, such as corrosion removal, mitigation and prevention, insulation installation and removal, electrical, heat tracing, industrial cleaning, pipefitting, and welding; engineering consulting services primarily for process equipment, technologies, and facilities; and utilizes scaffolding and rope access to access at-height and confined assets. In addition, it offers certified divers for subsea inspection and maintenance; unmanned aerial, land-based, and subsea systems for inspection applications; online condition-monitoring solutions; quality assurance and quality control solutions for new and existing metal and alloy components, materials, and composites. Further, the company designs and installs monitoring systems, as well as provides commissioning, training, reporting, technical support, and annual maintenance services; Web-based solutions; and custom-developed software. Additionally, it designs, manufactures, and sells acoustic emission sensors, instruments, and turnkey systems for monitoring and testing materials, pressure components, processes, and structures, as well as automated ultrasonic systems and scanners. The company serves oil and gas, commercial aerospace and defense, fossil and nuclear power, alternative and renewable energy, industrial, public infrastructure, petrochemical, transportation, and process industries, as well as research and engineering institutions. Mistras Group, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Princeton Junction, New Jersey.
When archery deer season opens Saturday, Sept. 16, mandatory testing for chronic wasting disease and restrictions on moving deer carcasses begins again in southeastern Minnesotas CWD management zone, deer permit area 603.
With archery deer season approaching, hunters are encouraged to plan ahead and be aware of the testing that will be required and the specifics about when they can and cant move carcasses out of the CWD zone, said Lou Cornicelli, wildlife research manager for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.Archery hunters in deer permit area 603which neighbors Houston Countys area, 349will be required to submit the head from all adult deer 1 year old or older so lymph nodes can be tested for CWD. Hunters cannot remove the carcass or carcass remains from the CWD zone until a negative test result is reported.
Carcass movement restrictions do allow hunters to immediately transport out of the zone quarters or other deer pieces without spinal column parts; boned-out meat; and antlers with a skull plate that is free of brain matter. Hunters should check page 65 of the 2017 Minnesota Hunting and Trapping Regulations Handbook for additional information.
Archery deer hunters also should check the DNR website for the DPA boundary map, Cornicelli said. As a reminder, the CWD management zone was created from DPAs 347 and 348, so hunters need to be mindful of what area theyre hunting.Hunters are required to register their deer. DNR will allow phone and Internet registration during the archery season in the CWD zone. The system will be monitored for compliance and may be turned off if needed.
Mandatory testing and carcass movement restrictions will remain in effect for area 603 throughout deer seasons for archery, firearm, muzzleloader and any late season hunts.
Head collection boxes will be located in:
Chatfield: Magnum Sports, 1 1st St., 507-867-4399.
Preston: DNR area forestry office, 912 Houston St., 507-765-2740.
Lanesboro: DNR area fisheries office, 23789 Grosbeak Rd., 507-467-2442.
Wykoff: Goodies and Gas, 104 E Front St., 507-352-2421.
Harmony: Oak Meadow Meats, 50 9th St., 507-886-6328
Archery hunters should do the following:
Field dress (gut) deer as normal.
Register deer via phone, internet or walk-in big game registration station. if harvest occurs late in the day, sample (head) submission and registration do not have to occur on the same day.
If the deer will be mounted, a video showing how to properly cape your deer is available at bitly.com/capeadeer.
Remove the head, leaving at least 4 inches of neck attached.
Hunters can take meat out of the zone immediately but the carcass (head with brain and spinal column) cannot be moved outside deer permit area 603 until a negative test result is received so hunters must make arrangements to refrigerate the carcass before the deer is processed; cut deer into quarters or other pieces; or bone-out the meat.
Ensure no spinal column or brain matter is included with the meat or on the antlers.
Properly dispose of carcass remains. There will be a dumpster at the DNR forestry office in Preston for hunters who dont have a way to dispose of remains.
The Preston dumpster is being provided as a courtesy for deer carcass disposal only. It will be removed if people attempt to process deer there or use the dumpster for trash disposal.
Bring the entire head of deer to one of five head box collection sites. Each collection box has specific instructions on how to properly submit the head for sampling.
Put heads in the plastic bags provided. Use the maps provided at each box to mark an X where the deer was harvested. Submit this map with sample.
Samples during the archery season will be submitted for testing on Mondays and Thursdays. It may take up to four business days for test results to be available. CWD test results can be searched using a nine-digit MDNR number online at www.mndnr.gov/cwdcheck.
Visit mndnr.gov/cwd for information.
Gannett Co., Inc. operates as a media and marketing solutions company in the United States. It operates through two segments, Publishing and Digital Marketing Solutions. The company's principal products include 230 daily print media with total paid circulation of approximately 1.9 million and Sunday circulation of 2.2 million; 249 weekly print media with total circulation of approximately 1.4 million; and 292 locally-focused websites. Its principal products also comprise 123 daily and weekly news media brands and approximately 80 magazines, and related digital platforms; sports network, as well as Reviewed.com, an affiliate marketing service; and USA TODAY NETWORK, a community events platform. The company also offers digital marketing solutions, such as online presence solutions, online advertising products, conversion software, and cloud-based software solutions. In addition, it produces niche publications that address specific local market interests, such as recreation, sports, healthcare, and real estate. Further, the company offers local market news and information, as well as advertising and subscriptions, and commercial printing and distribution services; and prints commercial materials, including flyers, business cards, and invitations. The company was formerly known as New Media Investment Group Inc. and changed its name to Gannett Co., Inc. in November 2019. Gannett Co., Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.
The Minnesota State Fair began this week. People from every corner of Minnesota are coming together to celebrate the very best of our state. During these troubled times in our country, the state fair reminds us that there is much more that unites us than divides us. It truly is the Great Minnesota Get Together.
Undoubtedly, the biggest draw of the Minnesota State Fair is the food. And the food itself celebrates the rich diversity that defines our state. Ice cream cones come courtesy of our states hard-working dairy farmers. Tater tot hotdish on a stick evokes memories of dinner at Grandmas house. Pork belly burgers, Spam sushi, and corn-filled wontons are a delicious testament to Minnesotas immigrant communities and the cultural fusion that makes up the fabric of our state.
The incredible performances at the fair also highlight how we all contribute to Minnesotas culture. From lumberjack log rolling competitions to West African drum performances to goat milking demonstrations, the fair captures just about every slice of Minnesotas diverse cultural scene. Its an amazing showcase of the rich patchwork that defines what it means to be Minnesotan.
Above all, the people watching at the fair demonstrates just how much we have in common. Who hasnt sat on a bench to eat something on a stick and been amazed by all the people who walk by? Working parents take time off to enjoy the state fair with their children; young couples go down the giant slide; 4-Hers take a nap next to their cattle; veterans are honored as they proudly march in a parade; and groups happily pass around buckets of chocolate chip cookies. We are all at the fair for the same reason: to enjoy the food, the lights, the rides, and the sense of togetherness as we bid goodbye to yet another summer.
The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party booth has a brand new look this year that celebrates this sense of togetherness. It is open and welcomingjust like our party! It showcases the DFLs values that truly are Minnesotan values. Please stop by to check out the new booth and talk with our elected officials about how they are working to improve opportunities for every Minnesotan.
Last year, the Minnesota State Fair set the highest attendance record in its history at 1,943,719 people. At a time when division feels rampant, lets break this record. Lets celebrate all that we have in common. Lets prove just how united we are as Minnesotanseven if that means saying yes to just one more mini-donut.
Global Payments Inc. provides payment technology and software solutions for card, electronic, check, and digital-based payments in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through three segments: Merchant Solutions, Issuer Solutions, and Business and Consumer Solutions. The Merchant Solutions segment offers authorization services, settlement and funding services, customer support and help-desk functions, chargeback resolution, terminal rental, sales and deployment, payment security services, consolidated billing and statements, and on-line reporting services. This segment also provides an array of enterprise software solutions that streamline business operations of its customers in various vertical markets; and value-added services, such as point-of-sale solutions, and analytic and engagement tools, as well as payroll and human capital management services. The Issuer Solutions segment offers solutions that enable financial institutions and retailers to manage their card portfolios through a platform; and commercial payments and ePayables solutions for businesses and governments. The Business and Consumer Solutions segment provides general-purpose reloadable prepaid debit and payroll cards, demand deposit accounts, and other financial service solutions to the underbanked and other consumers, and businesses under the Netspend brand. It markets its products and services through direct sales force, trade associations, agent and enterprise software providers, referral arrangements with value-added resellers, and independent sales organizations. The company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Tableau Software, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides business analytics software products. It offers Tableau Desktop, a self-service, powerful analytics product with data; Tableau Server, a business intelligence platform for organizations; Tableau Online, a hosted software-as-a-service version of Tableau Server; Tableau Prep, a data preparation product for combining, shaping, and cleaning data; and Tableau Public, a cloud-based platform for analyzing and sharing public data. In addition, it offers Visual Query Language (VizQL) for databases, which is a computer language for describing pictures of data, including graphs, charts, maps, time series, and tables of visualizations; Live Query Engine that interprets abstract queries generated by VizQL into syntax understandable by database systems; and Hyper, an in-memory data engine technology that helps customers to analyze a range of data sets by evaluating analytical queries directly in the transactional database. Further, the company provides support, maintenance, training, and professional services. It serves organizations in various industries, including business services, energy and telecommunications, financial services, life sciences and healthcare, manufacturing and technology, media and entertainment, public sector, and education, as well as retail, consumer, and distribution industries. The company sells its products directly, as well as through indirect sales channels, such as technology vendors, resellers, original equipment manufacturers, independent software vendor, and distributors in the United States, Canada, and internationally. Tableau Software, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
The following companies are subsidiares of American International Group: AGC Life Insurance Company, AIG APAC HOLDINGS PTE. LTD., AIG Aerospace Insurance Services Inc., AIG Asia Pacific Insurance Pte. Ltd., AIG Asset Management (Europe) Limited, AIG Asset Management (U.S.) LLC, AIG Assurance Company, AIG Australia Limited, AIG Brazil Holding I LLC, AIG CIS Investments LLC, AIG Canada Holdings Inc., AIG Capital Corporation, AIG Capital Services Inc., AIG Claims Inc., AIG Credit Management LLC, AIG Egypt Insurance Company S.A.E., AIG Employee Services Inc., AIG Europe Holdings S.a.r.l, AIG Europe S.A., AIG Federal Savings Bank, AIG Financial Products Corp., AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd., AIG Global Asset Management Holdings Corp., AIG Global Operations Inc., AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp., AIG Global Reinsurance Operations, AIG Holdings Europe Limited, AIG Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, AIG Insurance Company China Limited, AIG Insurance Company JSC, AIG Insurance Company of Canada, AIG Insurance Company-Puerto Rico, AIG Insurance Hong Kong Limited, AIG Insurance Management Services Inc., AIG Insurance New Zealand Limited, AIG International Holdings GmbH, AIG Investments UK Limited, AIG Israel Insurance Company Ltd, AIG Japan Holdings Kabushiki Kaisha, AIG Kenya Insurance Company Limited, AIG Korea Inc., AIG Latin America I.I., AIG Latin America Investments S.L., AIG Lebanon SAL, AIG Life Holdings Inc., AIG Life Limited, AIG Life South Africa Limited, AIG Life of Bermuda Ltd., AIG MEA Holdings Limited, AIG MEA Limited, AIG Malaysia Insurance Berhad, AIG Markets Inc., AIG Matched Funding Corp., AIG PC Global Services Inc., AIG Philippines Insurance Inc., AIG Property Casualty Company, AIG Property Casualty Inc., AIG Property Casualty International LLC, AIG Property Casualty U.S. Inc., AIG Re-Takaful (L) Berhad, AIG Resseguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Mexico S.A. de C.V., AIG South Africa Limited, AIG Specialty Insurance Company, AIG Technologies Inc., AIG Travel Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., AIG Travel Assist Inc., AIG Travel Assist Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., AIG Travel EMEA Limited, AIG Travel Inc., AIG Uganda Limited, AIG Vietnam Insurance Company Limited, AIG WarrantyGuard Inc., AIG-FP Pinestead Holdings Corp., AIG-Metropolitana Cia. de Seguros y Reaseguros S.A., AIGGRE Europe Real Estate Fund I GP S.a r.l., AIGGRE Europe Real Estate Fund II GP S.a r.l., AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I GP LLC, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund II GP LLC, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund III GP LP, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund IV GP LLC, AIU Insurance Company, AM Holdings LLC, Ageas Protect, AlphaCat Managers Ltd., American General Corporation, American General Life Insurance Company, American Home Assurance Co. Ltd., American Home Assurance Company, American International Group UK Limited, American International Realty LLC, American International Reinsurance Company Ltd., American International Underwriters del Ecuador-Holding S.A. en Liquidacion S.A., Arthur J. Glatfelter Agency Inc., Blackboard Insurance Company, Blackboard Specialty Insurance Company, Blackboard U.S. Holdings Inc., C.A. de Seguros American International, Commerce and Industry Insurance Company, Crop Risk Services Inc., Eaglestone Reinsurance Company, Ellipse, Franklin Life Insurance Company, Fuji Fire and Marine, Glatfelter Insurance Group, Glatfelter Underwriting Services Inc., Globe and Rutgers Insurance Group, Grand Isle SAC Limited, Granite State Insurance Company, Illinois National Insurance Co., Inversiones Segucasai C.A., Johannesburg Insurance Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, Laya Healthcare Limited, Lexington Insurance Company, Lexington Specialty Insurance Agency Inc., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh Pa., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Vermont, New Hampshire Insurance Company, PCG 2019 Corporate Member Limited, PT AIG Insurance Indonesia, Pine Street Real Estate Holdings Corp., Risk Specialists Companies Insurance Agency Inc., SAFG Capital LLC, SAFG Retirement Services Inc., Service Net Warranty LLC, Stratford Insurance Company, SunAmerica Asset Management LLC, Talbot Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Ltd., The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York, The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company, Travel Guard, Travel Guard Group Canada Inc./Groupe Garde Voyage du Canada Inc., Travel Guard Group Inc., Tudor Insurance Company, VALIC Financial Advisors Inc., Valic Retirement Services Company, Validus Holdings, Validus Holdings (UK) Ltd., Validus Holdings Ltd., Validus Reinsurance (Switzerland) Ltd, Validus Reinsurance Ltd., Validus Ventures Ltd., Volunteer Firemen's Insurance Services Inc., and Western World Insurance Company.
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The following companies are subsidiares of Pfizer: AH Robins LLC, AHP Holdings B.V., AHP Manufacturing B.V., Agouron Pharmaceuticals LLC, Alacer, Alpharma Holdings LLC, Alpharma Pharmaceuticals LLC, Alpharma Specialty Pharma LLC, Alpharma USHP LLC, American Food Industries LLC, Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc., Angiosyn, Array BioPharma, Ayerst-Wyeth Pharmaceuticals LLC, BIND Therapeutics Inc., BINESA 2002 S.L., Bamboo Therapeutics, Bamboo Therapeutics Inc., Baxter International - Marketed Vaccines, BioRexis, Bioren, Bioren LLC, Blue Whale Re Ltd., C.E. Commercial Holdings C.V., C.E. Commercial Investments C.V., C.P. Pharmaceuticals International C.V., CICL Corporation, COC I Corporation, Catapult Genetics, Coley Pharmaceutical GmbH, Coley Pharmaceutical Group, Coley Pharmaceutical Group Inc., Continental Pharma Inc., Covx, Covx Technologies Ireland Limited, Cyanamid Inter-American Corporation, Cyanamid de Argentina S.A., Cyanamid de Colombia S.A., Distribuidora Mercantil Centro Americana S.A., Encysive Pharmaceuticals, Encysive Pharmaceuticals Inc., Esperion LUV Development Inc., Esperion Therapeutics, Excaliard Pharmaceuticals, Excaliard Pharmaceuticals Inc., Farminova Produtos Farmaceuticos de Inovacao Lda., Farmogene Productos Farmaceuticos Lda, Ferrosan A/S, Ferrosan International A/S, Ferrosan S.R.L., FoldRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Foldrx Pharmaceuticals, Fort Dodge Manufatura Ltda., G. D. Searle & Co. Limited, G. D. Searle International Capital LLC, G. D. Searle LLC, GI Europe Inc., GI Japan Inc., GenTrac Inc., Genetics Institute LLC, Greenstone LLC, Haptogen Limited, Hospira, Hospira (China) Enterprise Management Co. Ltd., Hospira Adelaide Pty Ltd, Hospira Aseptic Services Limited, Hospira Australia Pty Ltd, Hospira Benelux BVBA, Hospira Chile Limitada, Hospira Deutschland GmbH, Hospira Enterprises B.V., Hospira France SAS, Hospira Healthcare B.V., Hospira Healthcare Corporation, Hospira Healthcare India Private Limited, Hospira Holdings (S.A.) Pty Ltd, Hospira Inc., Hospira Invicta S.A., Hospira Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, Hospira Ireland Sales Limited, Hospira Japan G.K., Hospira Limited, Hospira Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Hospira NZ Limited, Hospira Nordic AB, Hospira Philippines Inc., Hospira Portugal LDA, Hospira Produtos Hospitalares Ltda., Hospira Pte. Ltd., Hospira Pty Limited, Hospira Puerto Rico LLC, Hospira Singapore Pte Ltd, Hospira UK Limited, Hospira Worldwide LLC, Hospira Zagreb d.o.o., ICAgen, Idun Pharmaceuticals, Industrial Santa Agape S.A., InnoPharma, InnoPharma Inc., International Affiliated Corporation LLC, JMI-Daniels Pharmaceuticals Inc., John Wyeth & Brother Limited, Kiinteisto oy Espoon Pellavaniementie 14, King Pharmaceuticals Holdings LLC, King Pharmaceuticals LLC, King Pharmaceuticals Research and Development LLC, Korea Pharma Holding Company Limited, Laboratoires Pfizer S.A., Laboratorios Parke Davis S.L., Laboratorios Pfizer Ltda., Laboratorios Wyeth LLC, Laboratorios Wyeth S.A., Laboratorios Pfizer Lda., MTG Divestitures LLC, Mayne Pharma IP Holdings (Euro) Pty Ltd, Medivation, Medivation Field Solutions LLC, Medivation LLC, Medivation Neurology LLC, Medivation Prostate Therapeutics LLC, Medivation Services LLC, Medivation Technologies LLC, Meridian Medical Technologies Inc., Meridian Medical Technologies Limited, Monarch Pharmaceuticals LLC, Neusentis Limited, NextWave Pharmaceuticals, NextWave Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, P-D Co. LLC, PAH USA IN8 LLC, PF Americas Holding C.V., PF Asia Manufacturing B.V., PF PR Holdings C.V., PF PRISM C.V., PF PRISM Holdings S.a.r.l., PF Prism S.a.r.l., PFE Holdings G.K., PFE PHAC Holdings 1 LLC, PFE Pfizer Holdings 1 LLC, PFE Wyeth Holdings LLC, PFE Wyeth-Ayerst (Asia) LLC, PHILCO Holdings S.a r.l., PHIVCO Corp., PHIVCO Holdco S.a r.l., PHIVCO Luxembourg S.a r.l., PN Mexico LLC, PT. Pfizer Parke Davis, Parke Davis & Company LLC, Parke Davis Limited, Parke Davis Productos Farmaceuticos Lda, Parke-Davis Manufacturing Corp., Parkedale Pharmaceuticals Inc., Peak Enterprises LLC, Pfizer, Pfizer (China) Research and Development Co. Ltd., Pfizer (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Pfizer (Perth) Pty Limited, Pfizer (Thailand) Limited, Pfizer (Wuhan) Research and Development Co. Ltd., Pfizer AB, Pfizer AG, Pfizer AS, Pfizer Africa & Middle East for Pharmaceuticals Veterinarian Products & Chemicals S.A.E., Pfizer Anti-Infectives AB, Pfizer ApS, Pfizer Asia Manufacturing Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Asia Pacific Pte Ltd., Pfizer Atlantic Holdings S.a.r.l., Pfizer Australia Holdings B.V., Pfizer Australia Holdings Pty Limited, Pfizer Australia Investments Pty. Ltd., Pfizer Australia Pty Limited, Pfizer B.V., Pfizer BH D.o.o., Pfizer Baltic Holdings B.V., Pfizer Biofarmaceutica Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Pfizer Biologics (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd, Pfizer Biologics Ireland Holdings Limited, Pfizer Biotech Corporation, Pfizer Bolivia S.A., Pfizer Canada Inc., Pfizer CentreSource Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Chile S.A., Pfizer Cia. Ltda., Pfizer Colombia Spinco I LLC, Pfizer Commercial Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Commercial Holdings TRAE Kft., Pfizer Commercial TRAE Trading Kft., Pfizer Consumer Healthcare AB, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare GmbH, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare Ltd., Pfizer Consumer Manufacturing Italy S.r.l., Pfizer Corporation, Pfizer Corporation Austria Gesellschaft m.b.H., Pfizer Corporation Hong Kong Limited, Pfizer Croatia d.o.o., Pfizer Deutschland GmbH, Pfizer Development LP, Pfizer Development Services (UK) Limited, Pfizer Domestic Ventures Limited, Pfizer Dominicana S.R.L, Pfizer ESP Pty Ltd, Pfizer East India B.V., Pfizer Eastern Investments B.V., Pfizer Egypt S.A.E., Pfizer Enterprise Holdings B.V., Pfizer Enterprises LLC, Pfizer Enterprises SARL, Pfizer Europe Finance B.V., Pfizer Export B.V., Pfizer Export Company, Pfizer Export Holding Company B.V, Pfizer Finance Share Service (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Pfizer Financial Services N.V./S.A., Pfizer France International Investments, Pfizer Free Zone Panama S. de R.L., Pfizer GEP S.L., Pfizer Global Holdings B.V., Pfizer Global Supply Japan Inc., Pfizer Global Trading, Pfizer Group Luxembourg Sarl, Pfizer Gulf FZ-LLC, Pfizer H.C.P. Corporation, Pfizer HK Service Company Limited, Pfizer Health AB, Pfizer Health Solutions Inc., Pfizer Healthcare Ireland, Pfizer Hellas A.E., Pfizer Himalaya Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Holding France, Pfizer Holding Ventures, Pfizer Holdings Corporation, Pfizer Holdings Europe Unlimited Company, Pfizer Holdings G.K., Pfizer Holdings International Corporation, Pfizer Holdings International Luxembourg (PHIL) Sarl, Pfizer Holdings North America SARL, Pfizer Hungary Holdings TRAE Kft., Pfizer Inc., Pfizer Innovations AB, Pfizer Innovations LLC, Pfizer Innovative Supply Point International BVBA, Pfizer International LLC, Pfizer International Markets Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer International Operations, Pfizer International S. de R.L., Pfizer International Trading (Shanghai) Limited, Pfizer Investment Capital Unlimited Company, Pfizer Investment Co. Ltd., Pfizer Investment Holdings S.a.r.l., Pfizer Ireland Investments Limited, Pfizer Ireland PFE Holding 1 LLC, Pfizer Ireland PFE Holding 2 LLC, Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Ireland Ventures Unlimited Company, Pfizer Italia S.r.l., Pfizer Italy Group Holding S.r.l., Pfizer Japan Inc., Pfizer LLC, Pfizer Laboratories (Pty) Limited, Pfizer Laboratories Limited, Pfizer Laboratories PFE (Pty) Ltd, Pfizer Leasing Ireland Limited, Pfizer Leasing UK Limited, Pfizer Limitada, Pfizer Limited, Pfizer Luxco Holdings SARL, Pfizer Luxembourg Global Holdings S.a r.l., Pfizer Luxembourg SARL, Pfizer MAP Holding Inc., Pfizer Manufacturing Austria G.m.b.H., Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland GmbH, Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland Grundbesitz GmbH & Co. KG, Pfizer Manufacturing Holdings LLC, Pfizer Manufacturing Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Manufacturing LLC, Pfizer Manufacturing Services, Pfizer Medical Technology Group (Belgium) N.V., Pfizer Medicamentos Genericos e Participacoes Ltda., Pfizer Mexico Luxco SARL, Pfizer Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pfizer Middle East for Pharmaceuticals Animal Health and Chemicals S.A.E., Pfizer New Zealand Limited, Pfizer Norge AS, Pfizer North American Holdings Inc., Pfizer OTC B.V., Pfizer Overseas LLC, Pfizer Oy, Pfizer PFE ApS, Pfizer PFE AsiaPac Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Australia Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Australia Pty Ltd, Pfizer PFE B.V., Pfizer PFE Baltic Holdings B.V., Pfizer PFE Belgium SPRL, Pfizer PFE Brazil Holding S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE CIA. Ltda., Pfizer PFE Chile Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Colombia Holding Corp., Pfizer PFE Colombia S.A.S, Pfizer PFE Commercial Holdings LLC, Pfizer PFE Croatia Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Eastern Investments B.V., Pfizer PFE Finland Oy, Pfizer PFE France, Pfizer PFE Global Holdings B.V., Pfizer PFE Ireland Pharmaceuticals Holding 1 B.V., Pfizer PFE Italy Holdco 2 S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Italy Holdco S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Pfizer PFE Limited, Pfizer PFE Luxembourg S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Mexico Holding 3 LLC, Pfizer PFE Netherlands Holding 1 C.V., Pfizer PFE New Zealand, Pfizer PFE New Zealand Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Norway Holding S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE PILSA Holdco S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Peru Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Peru S.R.L., Pfizer PFE Pharmaceuticals Israel Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd., Pfizer PFE Private Limited, Pfizer PFE S.R.L, Pfizer PFE Service Company Holding Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer PFE Singapore Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Singapore Pte. Ltd., Pfizer PFE Spain B.V., Pfizer PFE Spain Holding S.L., Pfizer PFE Sweden Holding 2 S.a.r.l., Pfizer PFE Sweden Holding S.a.r.l., Pfizer PFE Switzerland GmbH, Pfizer PFE Turkey Holding 1 B.V., Pfizer PFE Turkey Holding 2 B.V., Pfizer PFE UK Holding 4 LP, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 1 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 2 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 3 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 4 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 5 LLC, Pfizer PFE spol. s r.o., Pfizer PFE Ilaclar Anonim Sirketi, Pfizer Pakistan Limited, Pfizer Parke Davis (Thailand) Ltd., Pfizer Parke Davis Inc., Pfizer Parke Davis Sdn. Bhd., Pfizer Pharm Algerie, Pfizer Pharma GmbH, Pfizer Pharma PFE GmbH, Pfizer Pharmaceutical (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Pfizer Pharmaceutical Trading Limited Liability Company (a/k/a Pfizer Kft. or Pfizer LLC), Pfizer Pharmaceuticals B.V., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Global B.V., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Korea Limited, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals LLC, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Pfizer Pigments Inc., Pfizer Polska Sp. z.o.o., Pfizer Private Limited, Pfizer Production LLC, Pfizer Products Inc., Pfizer Products India Private Limited, Pfizer Research (NC) Inc., Pfizer Romania SRL, Pfizer S.A., Pfizer S.A., Pfizer S.A. (Belgium), Pfizer S.A. de C.V., Pfizer S.A.S., Pfizer S.G.P.S. Lda., Pfizer S.L., Pfizer S.R.L., Pfizer SRB d.o.o., Pfizer Saidal Manufacturing, Pfizer Sante Familiale, Pfizer Saudi Limited, Pfizer Seiyaku K.K., Pfizer Service Company BVBA, Pfizer Service Company Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Services 1, Pfizer Services LLC, Pfizer Shared Services Unlimited Company, Pfizer Shareholdings Intermediate SARL, Pfizer Singapore Holding Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Singapore Trading Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Spain Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Specialties Limited, Pfizer Strategic Investment Holdings LLC, Pfizer Sweden Partnership KB, Pfizer TRAE Holdings Kft., Pfizer Trading Polska sp.z.o.o., Pfizer Transactions Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Transactions LLC, Pfizer Transactions Luxembourg SARL, Pfizer Transport LLC, Pfizer Ukraine LLC, Pfizer Vaccines LLC, Pfizer Venezuela S.A., Pfizer Venture Investments LLC, Pfizer Ventures LLC, Pfizer Worldwide Services Unlimited Company, Pfizer Zona Franca S.A., Pfizer spol. s r.o., Pharmacia, Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc., Pharmacia & Upjohn Company LLC, Pharmacia & Upjohn LLC, Pharmacia & Upjohn S.A. de C.V., Pharmacia Brasil Ltda., Pharmacia Hepar LLC, Pharmacia Holding AB, Pharmacia Inter-American LLC, Pharmacia International B.V., Pharmacia LLC, Pharmacia Limited, Pharmacia Nostrum S.A., Pharmacia South Africa (Pty) Ltd, PowderJect Research Limited, PowderMed, Purepac Pharmaceutical Holdings LLC, Redvax, Renrall LLC, Rinat Neuroscience, Rinat Neuroscience Corp., Roerig Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Roerig S.A., Sao Cristovao Participacoes Ltda., Searle Laboratorios Lda., Serenex, Servicios P&U S. de R.L. de C.V., Shiley LLC, Sinergis Farma-Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Site Realty Inc., Solinor LLC, Sugen LLC, Tabor LLC, The Pfizer Incubator LLC, Therachon, Thiakis Limited, Treerly Health Co. Ltd, US Oral Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd, Upjohn Laboratorios Lda., Vesteralens Naturprodukter A/S, Vesteralens Naturprodukter AB, Vesteralens Naturprodukter AS, Vesteralens Naturprodukter OY, Vicuron Holdings LLC, Vinci Farma S.A., W-L LLC, Warner Lambert, Warner Lambert Ilac Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Warner Lambert del Uruguay S.A., Warner-Lambert (Thailand) Limited, Warner-Lambert Company AG, Warner-Lambert Company LLC, Warner-Lambert Guatemala Sociedad Anonima, Warner-Lambert S.A., Whitehall International Inc., Whitehall Laboratories Inc., Wyeth (Thailand) Ltd., Wyeth AB, Wyeth Australia Pty. Limited, Wyeth Ayerst Inc., Wyeth Ayerst S.a r.l., Wyeth Biopharma, Wyeth Canada ULC, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare LLC, Wyeth Europa Limited, Wyeth Farma S.A., Wyeth Holdings LLC, Wyeth Industria Farmaceutica Ltda., Wyeth KFT., Wyeth LLC, Wyeth Lederle S.r.l., Wyeth Lederle Vaccines S.A., Wyeth Pakistan Limited, Wyeth Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Company, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals FZ-LLC, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals LLC, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Limited, Wyeth Puerto Rico Inc., Wyeth S.A.S, Wyeth Subsidiary Illinois Corporation, Wyeth Whitehall Export GmbH, Wyeth Whitehall SARL, Wyeth-Ayerst (Asia) Limited, Wyeth-Ayerst International LLC, and Wyeth-Ayerst Promotions Limited.
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Power Corporation of Canada operates as an international management and holding company in North America, Europe, and Asia. It operates through Lifeco, IGM Financial, and GBL segments. The company offers life, disability, critical illness, accidental death, dismemberment, health and dental protection, and creditor insurance; retirement and investment management; asset management; and reinsurance and retrocession; investment advisory, financial planning, and related services; and fund, protection, and wealth management services. It also provides employer-sponsored defined contribution plan, individual retirement account and drawdown, enrollment, communication material, investment option, and education services, as well as taxable brokerage accounts; private label recordkeeping and administrative services; payout annuities, equity release mortgages, life bonds, mortgage, securities, pension, private equity, debt and thematic fund, and financial services; and investment products, such as equity, fixed income, absolute return and alternative strategies, exchange traded funds, trust funds, and model-based separately managed accounts and portfolios. In addition, the company holds interests in various businesses, such as mineral-based specialty solutions; testing, inspection, and certification; cement, aggregates, and concrete; wines and spirits; sportswear and sports equipment design and distribution; materials technology and recycling of precious metals; disposable hygiene products; Atlantic salmon; customer experience and business process outsourcing; regional leisure parks; mobile game development and publishing; and bicycle manufacturing. Further, it generates renewable energy through solar and wind facilities; and designs, develops, and manufactures specification-grade LED solutions and zero-emission vehicles. The company was incorporated in 1925 and is based in Montreal, Canada. Power Corporation of Canada operates as a subsidiary of Pansolo Holding Inc.
I was at the office the other day pretending to do important work when my cell phone rang.
It was my wife, Sherry.
Hi. Youll probably want to kill me right now, but I just bought a goat.
I replied with the best time-honored spousal retort I could think of.
WHAT?
Yes, another domestic animal purchase had transpired telephonically, anyway. Sherry had struck a deal with an area family for a pygmy goat. She was calling to inquire when I could provide the transportation that would bring the goat to its new home.
According to nigerianpygmygoats.com, the breed pygmy goats, Capra hicus originated in Africa and was first imported into the U.S. in the 1950s. The precise breed is the Cameroon dwarf, which came from the former French Cameroon area.
The goats can be used as milk and meat producers, but I was informed that the purpose of our goat is simply to be cute and to become a petting magnet.
I tried to make the argument that we already had one old goat that isnt really cute anymore. And the petting thing could be a little awkward. Clearly when it comes to blame, I handle the scapegoat role like a pro perhaps even the greatest of all time, so to speak. Isnt that GOAT enough?
Actually, I didnt put up much of a fight. We are selling many of our sheep this fall, so adding an ovine cousin would be no big deal. I did, however, ensure that when Sherry said the goat was male that we were buying a wether and not a buck. Ive seen and smelled bucks. No thank you.
A few days later, I put the portable dog kennel in the back of the truck a kennel that has hauled as many sheep, pigs and chickens as it has canines and drove to pick up the goat. His name is Steve because thats what one of the children called him on his birth farm outside of West Salem. The goats came out of the barn they apparently have the run of the place and Steve was lured close with some grain.
When we arrived home, Steve scampered into the barn and seemed to be fine. But the next morning I witnessed a standoff. Several dozen sheep and two mini-donkeys were standing in the field. Steve was standing next to the barn. Whenever Steve disappeared around the corner, the flock starting coming toward the barn. When he reappeared, the flock backed up. It looked as though Steve was winning this battle.
It took a few days for the sheep and donkeys to accept their new roommate, who has a black body, a white spot on his face and ears, and a white tail. Because our Scottish Blackface sheep have horns, they are often mistaken for goats. Some of the ewes have realized they are much larger than Steve and like to butt his butt: They arent interested in having a dinner companion.
But Steve is quite agile and jumps directly into the hay feeders, which protects him from unwanted head butts. The donkeys dont mind if he shares a meal with them. He comes to the fence for chunks of grass and is slowly allowing a few pets. His soft bleats are a contrast to some of the harsh cries of our ewes.
Steve also has discovered that one of his safe spots is a 2-foot-by-4-foot ledge that runs around the inside of the barn. He nimbly jumps up on that ledge when he wants a better view. Perhaps Ill build him a goat playground with old pallets.
I suspect he will soon have another companion. Sherry has already talked about getting one more goat so the two can play together. Thankfully there will be no offspring.
Ive already eyed a few sagging spots in our woven-wire fence and figured Steve could clear those spots if he chose to. It wouldnt be our farm if I werent chasing some animal or fixing some fence.
Intrepid Potash, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the extraction and production of the potash in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Potash, Trio, and Oilfield Solutions. The Potash segment offers muriate of potash or potassium chloride for use as a fertilizer input in the agricultural market; as a component in drilling and fracturing fluids for oil and gas wells, as well as an input to other industrial processes in the industrial market; and as a nutrient supplement in the animal feed market. The Trio segment provides Trio, a specialty fertilizer that delivers potassium, sulfate, and magnesium in a single particle. The Oilfield Solutions segment sells water for use in the oil and gas services industry; and offers potassium chloride real-time mixing services on location for hydraulic fracturing operations and trucking services. The company also offers salt for use in animal feeds, industrial applications, pool salts, and treatment of roads and walkways for ice melting or to manage road conditions; magnesium chloride for use in the deicing and dedusting of roads; brines for well development and completion activities in the oil and gas industry; and metal recovery salt, a combination of potash and salt to enhance the recovery of aluminum in the aluminum recycling processing facilities. Intrepid Potash, Inc. was founded in 2000 and is based in Denver, Colorado.
RingCentral, Inc. provides software-as-a-service solutions that enable businesses to communicate, collaborate, and connect in North America. The company offers business cloud communications and contact center solutions based on its Message Video Phone? platform. Its products include RingCentral Office that provides communication and collaboration across various modes, including high-definition voice, video, SMS, messaging and collaboration, conferencing, online meetings, and fax; RingCentral Contact Center, a collaborative contact center solution that delivers omni-channel; and RingCentral Engage Digital, a digital customer engagement platform that allows enterprises to interact with their customers. The company's products also comprise RingCentral Engage Voice, a cloud-based outbound/blended customer engagement platform for midsize and enterprise companies; RingCentral Video, a video meeting service which includes our RCV video and team messaging capabilities and offers video and audio conferencing, file sharing, contact, task, and calendar management. In addition, it offers RingCentral Professional, a cloud based virtual telephone service that provides inbound call answering and management services for professionals; and RingCentral Fax that provides online fax capabilities. The company serves a range of industries, including financial services, education, healthcare, legal services, real estate, retail, technology, insurance, construction, hospitality, and state and local government, as well as others. It sells its products through a network of direct sales representatives, as well as sales agents, resellers, and channel partners. RingCentral, Inc. has strategic partnerships with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise; and Vodafone Business. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Belmont, California.
Rockwell Automation, Inc. provides industrial automation and digital transformation solutions in the United States and internationally. The company operates in three segments, Intelligent Devices, Software & Control, and Lifecycle Services. Its solutions include hardware and software products, and services. The Intelligent Devices segment offers drives, motion, safety, sensing, industrial components, and configured-to-order products. The Software & Control segment provides control and visualization software and hardware, information software, digital twin and simulation software, and network and security infrastructure solutions. The Lifecycle Services segment provides consulting, professional services and solutions, and connected and maintenance services. The company sells its solutions primarily through independent distributors in relation with its direct sales force. It serves discrete end markets, including automotive, semiconductor, warehousing and logistics, and other discrete markets, as well as general industries comprising printing and publishing, marine, glass, fiber and textiles, airports, and aerospace; hybrid end markets, such as food and beverage, life sciences, household and personal care, and tire, as well as eco industrial, including water/wastewater, waste management, mass transit, and renewable energy; and process end markets comprising oil and gas, mining, metals, chemicals, pulp and paper, and others. Rockwell Automation, Inc. was founded in 1903 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
ARCADIA Ashley Furniture Industries has been named one of Americas Best Employers by Forbes Magazine.
With manufacturing and distribution facilities in Wisconsin, Mississippi, North Carolina, California, Pennsylvania, Texas and Florida, Ashley Furniture is the worlds largest furniture manufacturer.
Forbes works with Statista, a research firm, to survey a group of 30,000 American workers to gather their opinions about their employers. The Best Employers in America list is compiled by asking questions such as On a scale of zero to 10, how likely are you to recommend your organization to friends or family? Statista also asked employees to recommend other companies outside of their own.
We strive for nothing less than earning the loyalty and trust of our employees and customers every day, said Todd Wanek, president and CEO of Ashley. Our employees are the heartbeat of our organization and we work together to continuously improve our business, our products and our customer experience.
In 1970, Ashley Furniture formed its first manufacturing facility in Arcadia with 35 employees. Today, Ashley has 16,000 employees nationwide, 26,000 worldwide, and more than 17 million square feet (400 acres) of capacity under roof, and offers a large product assortments to 6,000-plus retailer, more than 725 Ashley HomeStores and more than 20,000 storefronts in 123 countries.
Aetna Inc. operates as a health care benefits company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Health Care, Group Insurance, and Large Case Pensions. The Health Care segment offers medical, pharmacy benefit management service, dental, behavioral health, and vision plans on an insured and employer-funded basis. It also provides point-of-service, preferred provider organization, health maintenance organization, and indemnity benefit plans, as well as health savings accounts and consumer-directed health plans. In addition, this segment offers Medicare and Medicaid products and services, as well as other medical products, such as medical management and data analytics services, medical stop loss insurance, workers' compensation administrative services, and products that provide access to its provider networks in select geographies. The Group Insurance segment offers life insurance products, including group term life insurance, voluntary spouse and dependent term life insurance, group universal life insurance, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance; disability insurance products; and long-term care insurance products, which provide the benefits to cover the cost of care in private home settings, adult day care, assisted living, or nursing facilities. The Large Case Pensions segment manages various retirement products comprising pension and annuity products primarily for tax-qualified pension plans. The company provides its products and services to employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups, and expatriates. Aetna Inc. was founded in 1853 and is based in Hartford, Connecticut.
The Toronto-Dominion Bank, together with its subsidiaries, provides various financial products and services in Canada, the United States, and internationally. It operates through Canadian Personal and Commercial Banking, U.S. Retail, Wealth Management and Insurance, and Wholesale Banking segments. The company offers personal deposits, such as checking, savings, and investment products; financing, investment, cash management, international trade, and day-to-day banking services to businesses; and financing options to customers at point of sale for automotive and recreational vehicle purchases. It also provides credit cards and payments; real estate secured lending, auto finance, and consumer lending services; point-of-sale payment solutions for large and small businesses; wealth and asset management products, and advice to retail and institutional clients through direct investing, advice-based, and asset management businesses; and property and casualty insurance, as well as life and health insurance products. The company also provides capital markets, and corporate and investment banking products and services, including underwriting and distribution of new debt and equity issues; advice on strategic acquisitions and divestitures; and trading, funding, and investment services to corporations, governments, and institutions. It offers its products and services under the TD Bank and America's Most Convenient Bank brand names. The company operates through a network of 1,061 branches and 3,381 automated teller machines (ATMs) in Canada, and 1,148 stores and 2,701 ATMs in the United States, as well as offers telephone, digital, and mobile banking services. It has a strategic alliance with Canada Post Corporation. The Toronto-Dominion Bank was founded in 1855 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
United Parcel Service, Inc. provides letter and package delivery, transportation, logistics, and related services. It operates through two segments, U.S. Domestic Package and International Package. The U.S. Domestic Package segment offers time-definite delivery of letters, documents, small packages, and palletized freight through air and ground services in the United States. The International Package segment provides guaranteed day and time-definite international shipping services in Europe, the Asia Pacific, Canada and Latin America, the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, and Africa. This segment offers guaranteed time-definite express options. The company also provides international air and ocean freight forwarding, customs brokerage, distribution and post-sales, and mail and consulting services in approximately 200 countries and territories. In addition, it offers truckload brokerage services; supply chain solutions to the healthcare and life sciences industry; shipping, visibility, and billing technologies; and financial and insurance services. The company operates a fleet of approximately 121,000 package cars, vans, tractors, and motorcycles; and owns 59,000 containers that are used to transport cargo in its aircraft. United Parcel Service, Inc. was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
A new report shows the state Ethics Commission, in its first year in operation, investigated just one alleged violation of ethics, campaign finance and lobbying laws a far less active investigatory pace than its predecessor, the Government Accountability Board.
The disclosure comes from the first annual report issued by the commission, which, along with a new Elections Commission, replaced the accountability board last year.
The report gives a glimpse into the commissions workings, much of which are shrouded, by law, in secrecy. Hidden from public view under the law are complaints to the commission alleging violations of ethics, campaign finance or lobbying laws, as well as deliberations by the bipartisan, six-member commission on whether to investigate complaints.
From July 2016 through June 2017, the commission fielded 39 complaints of alleged legal violations, according to the commissions administrator, Brian Bell.
Thirty of those were within the commissions jurisdiction, and one led to an investigation of alleged use of public resources for private benefit, according to the report. Bell said the investigation is ongoing, precluding the release of further details about it.
The commission fielded 18 requests for legal advice and issued 14 legal opinions in response, according to the report. It also provides recommendations to lawmakers to clarify and streamline ethics, campaign finance and lobbying laws.
Republican lawmakers and Gov. Scott Walker passed a law in 2015 creating the commissions, contending the accountability boards approach was partisan, inconsistent and too guided by staffers. The accountability board came under particularly fierce fire for its role in the secret criminal probe into ties between Walkers campaign and outside conservative groups, which the state Supreme Court ended in 2015.
Critics of the creation of the Ethics Commission, which included Democrats and government-transparency groups, predicted it would be a far less aggressive watchdog of state ethics and campaign finance laws.
But Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said the commission has proven to be responsive to legislators and staff.
The Commissions success should not be judged based on the number of investigations but whether violations were prevented and the laws were followed, Vos said. The people of Wisconsin should be pleased that the new bipartisan commission is working and that the state is no longer operating under the Government Accountability Board, which was used as an instrument for partisan witch hunts.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, declined to comment.
More investigations in previous years
Investigating alleged violations of those laws is one though not the only means by which the commission may ensure compliance.
From fiscal 2010-11 through 2012-13, the now-defunct accountability board conducted 17 investigations of ethics, campaign finance or lobbying matters. That information is public through a 2015 audit of the accountability board by the states Legislative Audit Bureau.
The former director of the accountability board, Kevin Kennedy, said the three-year period examined in the audit is an imperfect benchmark because it included the recall elections of 2011 and 2012, which he said triggered an unusually large volume of complaints.
Bell said attempting to draw conclusions from the volume of enforcement actions by the commission could be quite misleading. He said the pace of investigations can be dictated by election cycles, which tend to bring more complaints, and other factors such as the extent to which candidates, elected officials and groups regulated by the commissions are educated on the law.
Other factors in play
A legal change that requires subjects to be notified when a complaint is filed also may play a role in the drop-off of investigations, Bell said. The law allows subjects of complaints to respond quickly and in writing, which Bell said gives commissioners both sides of the story when considering whether to open an investigation.
A new state law dialing back state campaign finance regulations also may play a role, said Kennedy and Jay Heck, director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, a nonpartisan government-transparency group that opposed the creation of the commission. That law was passed in tandem with the one creating the Ethics and Elections commissions.
Theres much less for (the Ethics Commission) to investigate because theres less regulation, Heck said.
The commission also is more restricted in its ability to probe alleged wrongdoing than was the accountability board, in part because it may not initiate investigations; it may only investigate in response to allegations made in formal complaints.
Heck said the report shows the Ethics Commission is operating exactly as it was designed.
It was designed to take a hands-off approach, Heck said.
Bell said the commission has taken other steps to boost enforcement and compliance. It increased auditing of campaign finance and other reporting, Bell said, and automated functions that enable staffers to respond more swiftly to complaints or requests for legal advice.
I would estimate that even though the Ethics Commission has a considerably smaller staff than the GAB did, we have either maintained or improved upon the timeliness with which the Ethics Commission has responded, Bell said.
Throughout this spring and summer, a debate over partisan attempts to take health care away from millions of Americans and raise costs for too many families consumed Washington.
In response, Wisconsinites joined people across our country in speaking out and fighting back against a number of Republican repeal plans that would have increased the number of people who are uninsured and forced many families to pay more for less care. Wisconsinites across our state made sure their voices were heard when Congressional Republicans advanced a plan with an age tax that would have priced many older Americans out of the individual market.
The people of Wisconsin did not send me to Washington to take peoples health care away. They have sent a clear message that they want us to work across party lines to make things better, not worse.
Earlier this month, I joined my colleagues Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and six other Senators to introduce the Medicare at 55 Act, which would provide the option for people between the ages of 55 and 64 to buy into Medicare.
Here is why I am supporting this reform. There are 41 million Americans between 55 and 64 years old, 3.6 million of whom lack any insurance coverage. Millions more are burdened by high insurance premiums, unaffordable deductibles and limited options.
These friends, family members and neighbors face unique health challenges and especially high health care costs. The average person in this age group pays more than $1,200 in annual out-of-pocket costs and is at a greater risk of suffering from chronic conditions such as diabetes or arthritis and medical emergencies such as heart attack and stroke. In addition, according to AARP, about four in 10 have a pre-existing condition.
Fewer and fewer employers offer coverage for workers who retire before 55. According to a recent study, in 2015 only 23 percent of large employers offered retiree coverage. The lack of affordable health insurance can have especially severe consequences for this populations health and retirement savings. We should work together to change this.
Our new legislation gives millions of older Americans another choice to buy affordable, quality health care coverage. For people between the ages of 55 and 64, the Medicare at 55 Act is a high-quality option that can help reduce health insurance costs and increase competition.
Medicare is an efficient, affordable health-care program that is already serving millions of Americans. With the Medicare at 55 Act, an individual between the ages of 55 and 64 who buys into Medicare would be entitled to the same benefits and protections as an individual enrolled under parts A, B and D, including the ability to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan.
Individuals who choose to buy into Medicare would be eligible for the same tax credits and cost-sharing subsidies they would otherwise receive selecting a private plan through the Health Insurance Marketplace.
By giving 55 to 64 year-olds this new option, we may be able to strengthen the individual market, lower premiums and help make coverage more affordable for younger and healthier individuals.
At the same time, our legislation protects our current generation of Medicare beneficiaries by ensuring that it wont impact their benefits or the solvency of the Medicare program.
If our goal is to lower health-care costs, which both parties agree we must address, then our legislation merits consideration as a critical piece of the solution.
Medicare is an essential pillar of our health-care system that has served Wisconsin families well for more than 50 years. Since 1965, Medicare has been a trusted source of affordable health care for millions of older and disabled Americans.
As we move forward to provide more Americans with more health-care choices, our Medicare at 55 Act can offer a quality option for people to get the affordable health care they need and deserve.
I strongly believe that if both parties look past the partisan debate in Washington, we can work together to find solutions that make health care more affordable and work for the American people.
Have you seen a coupon on your Facebook feed that seems too good to be true? If so, it probably is. Fake coupons can have a very real impact on your wallet if they turn out to be part of a scam. How can you tell if an online coupon is a deal or a dud? Follow our tips to stay safe.
Fake Coupons Are a Real Pain
While you may think there's no harm in a fake coupon other than not getting the deal you were hoping for coupon scams can steal your personal information or infect your computer with a virus.
SEE ALSO: Everything You Need to Know About Online Coupons
For instance, these coupons may direct you to a fake survey site, allowing scammers to collect data to steal your identity. Alternatively, they may direct you to sites packed with viruses that can also steal your personal information or even hold your computer for ransom.
Some scams are more blatant, asking for your credit card or other financial information before you can access the "deal." No matter what a scam coupon's goal is, it's never good.
Check the Source
A legitimate coupon will always come from a legitimate source. The scam coupons that circulate on Facebook or show up in your email may look real, but they won't come from a company's official social media page, website, or email account.
A fake coupon won't come from a company's official social media page, website, or email account.
However, you might have to be sharp-eyed to spot a source that isn't official. A fake coupon for Target, for example, might come from a Facebook page called "Target Coupons" or "Target Deals." But neither of those are actually Target; the retailer's Facebook page is simply named "Target." Coupons from any other source are suspicious at best.
If you aren't sure whether a coupon shared over social media is legitimate, look at the account to see if it has a blue circle with a white check mark next to the name that means it's a verified, official account on Facebook or Twitter. If you don't see a check mark, search the company's official webpage for links to its social media accounts. If the account doesn't match the coupon source, it's not legitimate.
If you can't spot any clues from the coupon's source, consider where the coupon is sending you. Going back to the Target example, this is the company website. Any other address is not Target and that means the coupon isn't real.
Branding Matters
While scammers are good at mimicking official corporate branding, sometimes you'll see signs that something is off. Always look out for:
Images or logos that are low resolution or grainy, which could be caused by a scammer copying an image from another source.
Fonts that change, which could be a sign that a scammer has pasted their own text onto a legitimate coupon.
Typos or awkward language, as scammers don't typically have the same quality control a big company does.
While none of these signs are definitive proof that a coupon isn't legitimate, remember that retailers typically take the time to make their advertising (and coupons) look good. If something looks off, the coupon is probably a scam.
Read the Fine Print
Real coupons are packed with fine print, but fake coupons skimp on the details. A legitimate coupon will usually list:
An expiration date, which should be found on almost all coupons (although some scams will list an incorrect date, like June 31).
Exceptions to the sale, which are common with flat-discount coupons.
The exact sizes of eligible items a grocery store may have a sale on 2-liter bottles of soda, but not on 20-ounce bottles.
If there's no fine print, the coupon definitely isn't legitimate.
Don't Give Out Your Information
No legitimate company will ask for personal information in exchange for a coupon. A popular scam is to offer coupons in exchange for completing surveys. Each survey completed nets the scammer cash from a survey company, or lets them collect information that can help them steal your identity.
One popular scam is to offer coupons in exchange for completing surveys.
Some fake coupons require you to "register" (or give out personal information) to access them. Once again, these scams are usually trying to steal your identity or access your online accounts. They may even ask for financial information or require a payment before giving you the coupons, which gives the scammer an immediate payday.
Our advice? No matter what you're doing online, you should never give out your personal information to an unknown source.
Don't Download Anything
If a coupon requires you to download software to access it, just don't. There's a good chance that instead of getting a coupon, you're getting a virus.
Do a Reality Check
Coupon scams try to get you to ignore your common sense by offering a truly great deal and that's the very first sign of a scam. Let's consider some examples from the past few years:
$100 anniversary coupon from Kohl's
$75 coupon from Costco
50% off your entire purchase at Target
$100 off at ALDI
$75 off any purchase at Bed Bath & Beyond
$50 off at Lowe's
Unfortunately, coupons promising huge discounts like this are usually too good to be true. Before clicking on a coupon like this, be sure to double-check everything we've mentioned above.
SEE ALSO: 10 Sneaky Ways Retailers Fool You Into Spending More
If you're still not sure, check with the company that supposedly issued the coupon. Although there's always a chance it could be real, it most likely isn't.
What to Do With a Fake Coupon
First things first: never share a coupon you think might be fake. While you may be tempted to send it to your friends just in case it turns out to be real, you're only exposing more people to a potential scam.
If you've found a coupon scam on social media, you can report it on both Facebook and Twitter. You can also report the scam to the company directly, which is a good way to help warn others of the danger.
Readers, have you ever tried to use a fake coupon? Did you report it? Tell us about your experience in the comments below.
Drive through a quaint renovated small village or town in Wisconsin, and you are likely seeing a downtown renovated with Historic Tax Credits. In my opinion the Historic Tax Credit is the most successful rural and small town economic development program administered by Gov. Scott Walkers Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. As the Legislature considers venturing into the great unknown on high-tech manufacturing with checks from our taxpayers for 15 years, that same Republican majority is planning to cap the Historic Tax Credit program.
This cap is defended as needed as an austerity measure. But clearly these budget cuts are not needed elsewhere. The Republican compromise budget announced by state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, earlier this summer caps total spending on the Historic Tax Credit at $20 million and limits the funding a project can receive at $5 million. These limits will have a significant impact on the programs success.
In 2014, 60 percent of the Historic Tax Credit projects renovated buildings that had been vacant for more than 20 years. The return on investment for taxpayer investments in the Historic Tax Credit has been proven to be eight to one. Capping the program will jeopardize projects that will revitalize our communities and provide a known payback to taxpayers. I have heard from local leaders from all over the state and the 27th Senate District asking to leave the program alone, so I know other legislators have received contact as well.
I cannot figure out why Gov. Walker has continually tried to kill this program and why Republican legislators would consider allowing it to happen. The year 2016 brought 38 projects into the Historic Tax Credit projects all over Wisconsin, including Plymouth, Superior, Fond du Lac, Evansville, Platteville, Darlington, Waupaca, Wausau, Prairie du Chien, La Crosse, Manitowoc, Watertown, De Pere, Oshkosh, Neenah and Kenosha. I know of projects in the works in the 27th District as well.
In the last three budgets, the Historic Tax Credit destruction has been defeated, but it appears we are at the cusp of a victory for Gov. Walker limiting the Historic Tax Credit for communities all over Wisconsin in planning phases for redevelopment. I truly hope that the final budget will save the Historic Tax Credit again and deter those who wish to punish communities that are working to redevelop their downtowns.
Please contact members of the Legislature and ask them to support the Historic Tax Credit as current law in the state budget. The Legislative Hotline is 800-362-9472 or you can email from the Legislative website: http://legis.wisconsin.gov,
LUGANO-MADRID, Sept. 2, 2017 - The vast majority of tumour marker tests in primary and secondary care are not necessary, according to a study that will be presented at the ESMO 2017 Congress in Madrid. (1) The tests assisted with a cancer diagnosis in just 2% of patients.
Tumour markers are molecules which may be present in higher than usual concentrations in the tissue, serum or other body fluids of patients with cancer. A tumour marker can be used to aid diagnosis in specific situations but testing for more than one marker is not recommended. (2,3)
"Inappropriate use of tumour markers for diagnosis can cause anxiety, lead to unneeded tests, delay the correct diagnosis and increase costs," said lead author Dr Craig Barrington, clinical oncology registrar, South West Wales Cancer Centre, UK. "After setting up our Acute Oncology Service we saw that clinicians in primary and secondary care were requesting a battery of tumour markers in patients with symptoms or tests suggesting they had cancer."
This study examined the number of multiple tumour marker requests from primary and secondary care over a six-month period within Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board in Wales. Multiple requests were defined as more than one tumour marker for a patient in a two-week period. The researchers looked at how many patients with multiple tumour markers measured were subsequently diagnosed with cancer, and whether the markers assisted with the diagnosis.
There were 1,747 multiple tumour marker requests from both primary and secondary care. Of these, 297 patients (17%) eventually had a cancer diagnosis, but a tumour marker contributed to the diagnosis in just 35 patients (2%).
Of the 985 multiple tumour marker requests in primary care, cancer was subsequently diagnosed in 50 patients (5%), with the tumour marker being useful in 5 patients (0.5%). Of the 762 requests that originated from secondary care, cancer was subsequently diagnosed in 244 patients (32%) and the tumour marker contributed to the diagnosis in 30 patients (4%). When extrapolated over a 12 month period the unnecessary tests cost just over 95,000.
"Most of the requests for multiple tumour markers did not lead to a cancer diagnosis," said Barrington. "And when patients were found to have cancer, in most cases the tumour markers did not contribute to the diagnosis."
The study did not investigate the impact of unnecessary tumour marker testing on patients, but Barrington said: "Our experience and previous studies suggest that unneeded tests create anxiety, delay diagnosis and treatment, lead to unhelpful extra investigations, and increase costs."
He concluded: "Education is needed to help clinicians understand when tumour markers can be diagnostically useful in patients suspected of having cancer."
Commenting on the results, Dr Judith Balmana, ESMO Faculty Coordinator, specialist in medical oncology, Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain, said: "This study shows that clinicians in primary and secondary care often ask for multiple tumour marker analysis in patients they think may have cancer. But this analysis has a low yield for cancer diagnosis and has economic implications."
She concluded: "When it comes to tumour marker testing, 'less is more' in some clinical areas. Incorporating tumour markers into routine clinical practice will probably provide a low yield for cancer diagnosis, be associated with high costs and, using common sense, be distressing for patients. Education is needed so that primary and secondary care clinicians know when it is clinically appropriate to request a tumour marker test."
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Notes to Editors
Please make sure to use the official name of the meeting in your reports: ESMO 2017 Congress
References
1 Abstract 1410P_PR 'The role of tumour marker testing in earlier diagnosis of cancer' will be presented by Dr Craig Barrington during Poster Display Session on Sunday, 10 September 2017, 13:15 to 14:15 (CEST) in Hall 8.
2 Cancers of unknown primary site: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Annals of Oncology. 2015;26(Supplement 5):v133-v138. doi:10.1093/annonc/mdv305
3 Metastatic malignant disease of unknown primary origin in adults: diagnosis and management. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Clinical guideline. 26 July 2010 nice.org.uk/guidance/cg104
Disclaimer
This press release contains information provided by the authors of the highlighted abstracts and reflects the content of those abstracts. It does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of ESMO who cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the data. Commentators quoted in the press release are required to comply with the ESMO Declaration of Interests policy and the ESMO Code of Conduct.
About the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)
ESMO is the leading professional organisation for medical oncology. With 16,000 members representing oncology professionals from over 130 countries worldwide, ESMO is the society of reference for oncology education and information. We are committed to supporting our members to develop and advance in a fast-evolving professional environment.
http://www.esmo.org
LAWRENCE -- Increases in charter school enrollment in Pennsylvania have led to a decrease in property tax revenue in public school districts of about 9.5% from 2005 to 2012, according to a study led by a University of Kansas researcher.
"Most discussions surrounding charter schools involve performance, such as testing data and graduation rates, but we know virtually nothing about the interaction between charter and public schools," said Eric Shannon, a doctoral student in the KU School of Public Affairs & Administration.
He said the research is important because it remains unclear whether policymakers understand the effects of charter schools on the finances of traditional public schools.
Shannon will present his research on Sept. 2 at the 2017 American Political Science Association annual meeting in San Francisco. He also serves as a research assistant at the KU Center for Research Methods and Data Analysis.
In Pennsylvania, a student's home district is required to provide payment to a charter school for each student's enrollment, even if the charter school is located in another district. School boards can offset this cost by setting property tax rates to generate a desired level of revenue.
The Great Recession led to reductions in virtually all districts' overall revenue post-2008, Shannon said, but a key finding in his analysis was that in districts with a charter school revenue decreased even further. This likely required school boards to raise property taxes in response to the shortfall.
"A common perception about school performance at charter schools is if we give them money, they'll perform better. But no one has any examples to support those results," Shannon said. "Charter schools might be siphoning money away from public schools."
The question is critical because it examines a sort of political paradox surrounding the charter school movement. Conservative policymakers generally support charter schools, as well as market-based education and lower taxes. However, in response to charter school growth, public schools might seek greater tax revenue.
"In a lot of cases, people tend to think of tax policy and education policy as separate realms," Shannon said. "But in a lot of states, the property taxes -- and in some states the income taxes -- are actually what is funding the schools, both charter and public."
The larger implication of the research is that people's understanding of charter schools likely has focused too narrowly on school performance outside of the broader context of public education policy, he said.
"When we're discussing how we look at charter schools, there's no a one-size-fits-all solution, and they interact in different ways with the public school system," Shannon said. "With the objective measures, it just puts focus on performance and tends to get overwhelming. There needs to be an objective, but more well-rounded, measure."
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Friday, September 1, 2017
Check out these presentations by Certified Thanatologist Gail Rubin open to the public during month of September. Many are free, so mark your calendar to come on out. Remember, just as talking about sex wont make you pregnant, talking about funerals and end-of-life issues wont make you dead. Lets get the conversation started!
Tuesday, September 12, 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Talking About Death Wont Kill You is the topic of Gails presentation at Jump Start Your Day with Jim at the Albuquerque office of Morris Hall estate planning attorneys, 9400 Holly Ave., Building 3, Suite B. Free, coffee and light refreshments provided, all are welcome. RSVP to 505-889-0100.
Wednesday, September 13, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Keys to Downsize and Organize Your Life through Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Corrales Community Center, 4940 Corrales Road, Suite 100, Corrales, NM 87048. Register for class 82223 for $20 through this link.
Tuesday, September 19, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Gail Rubin and Susan Cooper, both members of Albuquerque Challenge Toastmasters Club, speak at SouthWest Writers on How to Knock em Dead: Public Speaking for Writers. This free event is held at the New Life Presbyterian Church located at 5540 Eubank NE, Albuquerque, NM.
Wednesday, September 20, 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Gail speaks to Steve Brewers University of New Mexico class, Exploring the Creative Process: Meet the Authors. The class meets in the Honors College, which is downstairs from the Student Health Center, directly east of the Student Union Building. Classes begin in an area called the Honors Forum, and the public can attend.
Tuesday, October 11, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Albuquerque Death Cafe and preview of Before I Die ABQ Festival activities, at Palo Duro Senior Center, 5221 Palo Duro NE (just off San Mateo Blvd. north of Comanche), Albuquerque. Come drink some coffee or tea, eat a cookie, and talk about whats on your heart or mind about mortality issues. Free event. More information here.
Learn more about the upcoming Before I Die ABQ Festival, October 20-25, 2017: Six days of upbeat activities to get us thinking about, talking about, and doing something about our mortality. The festival website is www.BeforeIDieABQ.com.
Check out the Calendar of Events for other speaking engagements.
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(Editors note: The Clums were named the 2018 National Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year on Oct. 29, 2018.)
TIPPECANOE, Ohio When Koral and Randy Clum look at their 152-acre certified tree farm, they see a blend of trees, wildlife, plants and water. And sunlight. Dont forget the sunlight.
The professional foresters consider all the farms natural resources and fauna when theyre making their management decisions directing nature to develop the woodlands fullest potential.
We look at the woods holistically, from the salamanders on up, said Randy Clum.
Since they bought the farm in southwestern Harrison County in 1993, their management has yielded exceptional timber production enough that theyve completed five harvests, yielding 505,614 board feet from 1,929 trees. The woods is far from depleted, however, as they estimate their growing inventory is between another 650,000 and 700,000 board feet.
Theyve also been rewarded for their work as recipients of the 2017 Ohio Tree Farm of the Year honor.
A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.
Gustav Mahler
Lifes passion in the woods
The Clums arent your typical tree farm owners their careers are in the woods, too.
Koral Clum was the first female state forester in Ohio, first working on the 63,700-acre Shawnee State Forest in southern Ohio. A graduate of Iowa State University with a degree in forest management, she uncovered her career path at a forestry camp during high school.
I just fell in love and never turned back, she said. I just loved trees and wanted to know more.
Randy, who holds a degree in forest management from Ohio State University, managed 19 counties as an urban forester based in Findlay, Ohio, before joining Koral at Shawnee. They both became service foresters with the Ohio Division of Forestry in 1985; Randy working with private landowners in Harrison, Carroll and Stark counties, and Koral in Tuscarawas, Holmes and Wayne.
During their time as service foresters, they started searching for land of their own.
Our job is do give people advice, said Koral. But then you go home and you dont know if they did it or not.
They wondered if they would be able to follow their own advice, if they had their own place. When Randy found this property in Harrison Countys Washington Township, he was hooked. Bringing Koral to the site for the first time, he took her straight to one of the farms three waterfalls.
She took one look, turned to him, and said, We need to buy this.
They named the farm Hepatica Falls Tree Farm, after their favorite wildflower and those three waterfalls, but mostly we just call it The Farm, Randy said.
In 1997, Randy decided to leave government employment, and started his own business, Clum Forestry Consultants. Koral joined the business in 2000. They work with landowners within an hours drive of their home on the outskirts of Dover.
Along the way, the couple, who will celebrate their 36th anniversary in October, discovered owning their own tree farm made them better foresters starting with lessons learned during their first selective timber harvest in 1994.
Wed been doing timber harvests for people for 15 years, but this was so different, Koral said. There are emotions involved with trees.
We discussed every stinkin tree, Randy added, but it made us more sensitive to landowners, because now we knew how it felt.
Developing the tree farm
In 1994, the farm the Clums bought was a mix of uses 96 acres had always been woodlands (although part was home to a rock quarry in the late 1800s); 56 acres were pasture or fields; another 50 acres had been planted to pines in the 1950s. The woods is home to a diversity of species, including a few native American chestnut, akin to finding a woolly mammoth on your property, Randy said.
They divided the woodland into nine management parcels, ranging from 3 acres to 52 acres, and crafted a management plan for each. They also kept a small 3- to 5-acre parcel untouched, as a control.
Woodland ecosystem
On a four-wheeler, Randy Clum splashes through a muddy area on the trail. These used to bother me, but now I realize its a haven for tadpoles or a watering spot for deer.
When he approaches a particularly overgrown part of the path, he slows the ATV to point out a vibrant, yellow wildflower. We dont brush hog the trail when the giant wingstem are growing, because the pollinators love them.
That dead beech tree with the big hole? The Clums will let it stand, knowing wild animals or birds can use that cavity.
And Clum was rewarded that day on the trail, as a wild turkey flew out of a walnut tree right in front of his ATV.
Timber harvest myths
A passionate teacher, Randy Clum said he works hard to dispel three myths many landowners have: First, that cutting trees will destroy wildlife; second, that cutting trees will increase soil erosion; and third, that you need to replant in Ohio (theres such a seedbank in the soil in Ohio, that many trees will naturally regrow, he says).
The Clums get to practice what they preach, said Jeremy Scherf, ODNR service forester in Belmont, Guernsey, Harrison and Jefferson counties who was also the 2016 National Tree Farm Inspector of the Year. And in doing that, they get to learn.
Scherf, who has Randy Clums former service forester position, considers Clum a mentor. Were all passionate, but his enthusiasm is just contagious.
The two of them together make a nice balancing act, he added. They encourage each other to learn, too.
In addition to state forestry groups and local landowners groups like the East Central Ohio Forestry Association, the Clums are members of the Association of Consulting Foresters of America.
Tree farm tour
The Clums will host a tour of their tree farm from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Oct. 21. The event, which will be held rain or shine, will include static displays and walking tours, with tour stops manned by various professionals to highlight the farms diversity.
There is no parking at the farm, and visitors will be shuttled to the farm from the nearby former Lakeland High School, on state Route 800. Food will be available to purchase during the tour. No reservations are necessary. For more information visit ohioforest.org.
Hepatica Falls Tree Farm
2017 Ohio Tree Farm of the Year
Owned by Koral and Randy Clum
A Certified Tree Farm on 152 acres in Washington Township, Harrison County
Divided into nine management units, from 3 to 52 acres in size
Five timber harvests (selective, clearcut, thinning, salvage) since land purchased in 1994
Open house: Oct. 21, starting at 10 a.m.; no parking at tree farm; shuttles will run from the former Lakeland High School, 77520 state Route 800, Freeport.
The chief executive of the Tenant Farmers' Association (TFA) has aired his fear that disagreements between Westminster and the devolved governments of the United Kingdom could impede a post-Brexit agreement for agriculture.
Agriculture is the responsibility of the devolved governments of the UK under the current devolution settlement, but leaders in both Scotland and Wales have accused the UK Government of attempting to take back powers to Westminster as the country withdraws from the European Union.
Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones says the Welsh administration has been excluded from discussions about a new farming system across the UK following Brexit.
He says new Environment Secretary Michael Gove immediately cancelled meetings with ministers from the devolved governments on taking office.
Now, George Dunn, chief executive of the Tenant Farmers Association, says he is concerned about the effect of the disagreements on farming.
"The concern is that this is going to get in the way of sensible discussions if we can't sort the constitutional items quickly. Bear in mind Scotland thinks it is still going to be part of the European Union even after the rest of us leave. Northern Ireland hasn't got a government at the moment.
"Wales is really the only bit of the devolved architecture that's up to speed here. We share Carwyn Jones' concerns that the UK Government appears not to be understanding that there needs to be a collegiate approach to this new framework."
'Snaffle back powers'
The TFA chief executive spoke to FarmingUK following a meeting with Carwyn Jones.
He has also met with Michael Gove, pressing him to work together with the devolved governments on an agreed approach.
"The issue is that Welsh Government and others believe Westminster is trying to snaffle back some powers by putting itself in the position of the Council of Ministers when we leave the EU.
"My fear, therefore, is that rather than getting into sensible discussions about policy development, we spend the whole of the autumn and the winter talking about constitutional issues, which should have been resolved a long time ago, so we can get into the sensible discussion about what policy looks like.
"So we are not even able to get off first base because we haven't understood the constitutional architecture within which we will stand," he said.
'Negotiated UK framework'
George Dunn was accompanied by the chairman of TFA Cymru, Dennis Matheson, at the meeting with Carwyn Jones.
TFA Chief Executive George Dunn
Following the meeting they issued a statement, which read: "All agreed on the need for a negotiated UK framework to be in place for agricultural policy, which is a devolved matter, to ensure the smooth operation of the UK market and the policy environment for farmers across the four parts of the United Kingdom.
"It is deeply concerning, with only a little over 20 months left before we formally leave the European Union, that so little progress has been made on this front.
"It had been hoped that greater clarity would have been evident following the publication of the Great Repeal Bill but this opportunity appears to have been missed by the UK Government.
"The Welsh Government is certainly well ahead in thinking through the implications of Brexit in comparison to the UK Government and TFA Cymru looks forward to further productive discussions with ministers and civil servants in Wales."
George Dunn told FarmingUK that he had met with Michael Gove twice since the high profile Brexit campaigner had taken up his post at Defra.
"We are talking to governments across the English-Welsh border. We have had a couple of sessions with Michael Gove already. We are certainly encouraging the UK Government to be more open handed in dealing with the devolved issues," he said.
However, he added: "We are getting no feedback from our friends in the Welsh Government that things are improving as yet."
'Substantial devolution'
The TFA chief executive said that the United Kingdom had undergone substantial devolution since the country initially joined the Common Market in 1973.
"The way in which the Great Repeal Bill - the withdrawal bill - has been written is effectively being seen by the devolved administration as a power grab back to Westminster for agriculture. When Gove came into the office of Secretary of State he cancelled two of the pre-existing joint ministerial meetings, which should have been looking at these points pretty avidly," he said.
"The other connected point is that, whilst there is a voice for Wales and supposedly for Northern Ireland and for Scotland, there isn't really a voice for England. There's a UK voice but there isn't an English voice necessarily.
"There is a concern about England maybe being behind the curve. There is a lot to think about and this is the basic stuff, not even the complicated stuff. That's why we are very concerned with only 20 months to go."
Asked what his priorities were for a post-Brexit deal for agriculture, he said, "We need to make sure we have a post-Brexit agreement which allows farmers to have the same access to funding as they have now."
He said: "We also want the ability for governments to think about proper structures for grant aiding farm resilience. So, looking at infrastructure, grants for flood and drought management, things that are going to make us more productive.
"We want new agri-environment schemes going forward and we want the ability for government to be more involved in promoting the production from Wales and from England as being of good quality, high standard of choice for consumers both here domestically and internationally. So we need government to be much more involved in the marketing of the stuff we do."
Lower standards
Given his emphasis on good quality and high standard food, FarmingUK asked him whether he had any concerns about potential free trade agreements with other countries operating to lower standards.
"If we have a free trade agreement with the United States of America and we are, as a result, forced to take chicken that's been dipped in chlorine, beef that has had growth promoting hormones used on it, pork that has had substances used to raise that, we will be undermining our standards here and if our standards mean anything we need to be finding ways of supporting those standards."
George Dunn said the TFA's solution would be to insist on minimum standards of quality at the point of sale rather than at the farm gate.
Labour MP Angela Rayner has ignited a Twitter debate by using a Wind in the Willows meme to showcase her opposition to the badger cull.
Ms Rayner, who is Shadow Secretary of State for Education, tweeted: "As Tories gear up for the new badger cull, l will work with those who oppose the dreadful murder and slaughter of our badgers #StopTheCull".
She proceeded to attach an image of a satirical drawing from the Wind and the Willows with the caption "RATTY and MOLE search in vain for their friend BADGER but he's been murdered by the Tories".
Twitter
A supplementary cull has recently been given the green light in Somerset and Gloucestershire.
After a controversial reaction from other social media users, Ms Rayner tweeted again her opposition to badger culling, referring to those who defend it as "badger killers" and that she "stood with our badgers".
Twitter user Nick Hiscox (@mendipfarmerAngela) responded to Miss Rayner: "But what do you say to the guy who lost 50 cows this week, he has a closed herd and has no contact with neighbouring herds? Tough?"
Wyevalley Herd (@WyevalleyHerd) said: "What is YOUR strategy for dealing with TB in both wildlife and farm stock? Surely as shadow Ed u should review science and consult experts??"
Mike Weavers? (@Weaves14 said): "You do realise that rural reality is not like Wind in the Willows? What's your solution to bTB breakdowns? #positive"
Sheep rustlers have stolen more than 100 sheep from two farms in Powys, and police are appealing to the public for any information.
Between 65 and 75 ewes and an unknown number of new season lambs have been reported as stolen from the Eppynt common hill near Cefn Gorwydd.
A further 14 speckled ewes with twin lambs 42 in total have also been reported stolen from enclosed ground at a farm in the Cefn Gorwydd area.
The thefts are thought to have taken place between July 10 and August 23, 2017.
The livestock are Epynt hardy hill speckled type sheep, pitch marked with a blue G, and are wearing blue and yellow coloured ear tags displaying flock number UK720141. All have ear notches above both ears and a hole in each ear, and all have long tails.
PCSO Glyndwr James said: "These kinds of theft have both a financial and emotional impact on farmers, and we are appealing for anyone with information about this incident to get in touch so we can fully investigate the circumstances.
"Livestock thefts, in particular theft of sheep, provide for challenging investigations. Forensic opportunities in livestock investigation can be very limited. We therefore rely on people to come forward with information that could lead us to the suspects.
"The people involved must have knowledge and experience of handling livestock, the means to transport them and, if planning to sell them on, knowledge of the markets."
Attacks on livestock in the UK is becoming 'more and more of a problem' as rural police stations face closure, according to a report.
The cost of rural crime in the UK reached 42.5m in 2015 and NFU Cymru is asking the government to increase funding to help fight the rise in incidents.
If you have any information regarding this crime or knowledge regarding any other Powys sheep theft crimes, contact PCSO Glyndwr James or PC Jones at Llandrindod Wells police station or by calling 101.
Producers see losses increase to 26-28 per pig, estimates show
After Ash, Rani Approached For Malang?
According to Midday, after Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Rani Mukerji is being approached by Sanjay Dutt, director Aarambh Singh and the producers of Malang.
Sanjay & Rani Have Never Worked Together
The leading tabloid quoted a source as saying, "Sanjay, Aarambh and the producers of Malang are keen to work with Rani since they've never been paired on the big screen."
But, Rani Has To Look Fit
"Sanjay Dutt plays an investigating officer who falls in love with a lady cop. Rani Mukerji will need to look extremely fit for the part."
Dutt Wants To Work With Rani
"Sanju has a lot of respect for her and has been wanting to work with her for long. But, she has not signed a film outside of husband Aditya Chopra's banner in the last few years."
Theres No One Like Rani: Producer Sandeep Singh
When one of the producers of the film, Sandeep Singh was asked about the same, he confirmed the news by saying, "I want to make every film with Rani because I don't think there is anyone else with her kind of talent."
What About Aishwarya Rai Bachchan?
Not so long ago, director Aarambh Singh had admitted that Sanjay Dutt was keen to cast Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Malang. He had said, "Yes, Sanjay sir is keen on Aishwarya, we want to replicate their Shabd chemistry in our romantic-thriller."
We Wonder What Went Wrong..
"He plays an investigative officer and will require an actress who is physically fit as she is involved in the action too," Aarambhh had further added, while talking to a leading tabloid.
Meanwhile, Mr Dutt & His Team Waiting For Ranis Yes
"Sanju and she will look great on screen and will make for a couple that people will remember for years. We are keeping our fingers crossed and hope that she says yes."
Will Rani Say Yes To Malang?
On the other side, Rani Mukerji's spokesperson has also confirmed the news and said, "Omung has reached out to YRF and requested for a meeting with Rani Mukerji."
Pulsar Sunis Statement Regarding Madam
Earlier, Pulsar Suni, the main accused in the actress attack the case had come out in open to state that popular Kavya Madhavan is the Madam', who according to him had given the instructions.
What Was Kavya Madhavans Response?
Reportedly, Kavya Madhavan, who visited Dileep in the jail today (September 02, 2017), was flooded by questions from the media. The actress was asked about Pulsar Suni's statemenets and Kavya Madhavan and family chose not to react to the questions.
Remand Period Extended Further
The remand period of Dileep had originally ended today (Septemeber 02, 2017). But later, the Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court has further extended the actor's remand period till September 16, 2017.
Allowed To Attend Fathers Death Anniversary
Reportedly, the court has given a special permission for Dileep, to attend the rituals in connection with his father's death anniversary, which is on September 06, 2017.
Bail Pleas Rejected By The Court
The bail pleas of Dileep were rejected multiple times by the court. Initially, Dileep had approached for a bail with the Angamaly Judicial First Class Magistrate Court but was rejected.
Later, the actor approached the Kerala High Court for a bail, two times, but both the pleas were rejected by the higher court.
Syrah Resourceshas announced the government of Mozambique has approved a mining agreement which contractualises its mining rights for the Balama graphite project.The industrial minerals and technology companys wholly owned subsidiary, Twigg exploration, concluded the negotiations with Mozambiques ministry of mineral resources and energy.The company says the approval of the agreement represents a significant milestone and reaffirms Mozambiques commitment.Shares in Syrah Resourcesare trading 6.25 per cent higher to $2.89.
Intex creates a new milestone with record sale of 3 Lakh power banks in Aug, 2017 News oi -Samden Sherpa Intex attains leadership position in the power banks category in online sales.
Intex Technologies, one of the popular consumer electronics companies in India, has just announced that it has achieved a new milestone with sale record of 3 Lakh power bank units pan-India in the month of August, 2017.
Maximum sales were done at various online platforms thereby making Intex the No. 1 brand in the online space. Earlier this year, Intex was clocking 100K units per month and in August achieved 3 times the same. Intex's Power Bank's online to offline ratio stands at 85:15.
Commenting on this achievement, Ms Nidhi Markanday, Director & Business Head, Intex Technologies said, "We are thrilled to announce that Intex has sold 300K power banks in August 2017, out of which 85 percent sales came from the online platforms during the month, a clear vindication of brand Intex's increasing online reach and acceptance."
She further added, "Over the past few years, e-commerce and online shopping has been gaining immense traction in India driven primarily by tech savvy youth. We are sure of achieving same numbers in the following months of the festive period this year. Keeping consumers in mind, Intex has always partnered with popular e-commerce portals to increase its online reach and provide innovative products to a wider consumer base at competitive prices."
The highest selling models behind the record sales were IT-PB11K, IT-PB12.5K, and IT-PB20KPoly. Intex continues to increase its omnichannel presence across online, general trade and LFR segments to further enhance consumer reach.
Intex Power Banks are known to offer the best user experience at competitive market prices and are widely available across popular e-commerce platforms like Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, Paytm and others.
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LG V30 may head to India during festive season: Other Smartphones with same specs Features oi -Harish Kumar LG V30 is all set to be released in India during the festive season
The LG V30 went official at the IFA 2017 tech show in Berlin on Thursday. The smartphone comes with a superior design sans the secondary display at its rear as in the LG V20, its predecessor.
The LG V30 has been announced with the FullVision display as we have seen on the LG G6 that was launched earlier this year.
Smartphones that'll receive Android Oreo update: Find out when your phone will get it
The smartphone comes with an almost bezel-less design as we have seen before. The dual camera setup its rear is also pretty impressive as the one we have seen on the previous flagship smartphone.
Flipkart offers on Android Nougat Smartphones: Nokia 3, Moto G5 plus, Galaxy on Max and more
The LG V30 is all set to go on sale in the Korean market on September 21 and will arrive in India during the festive season. Given these details about the LG flagship, we have come up with a list of other smartphones that will feature similar specs.
Take a look at the same to get a similar performance from a non-LG phone. However, you might not be able to experience the LG exclusive aspects with these phones.
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LG V30 to cost under Rs. 50,000; hints LG News oi -Chandrika Although not in a direct manner, this information comes straight from LG.
LG recently unveiled its flagship V30 at the ongoing IFA. However, the company has not spoken clearly about the smartphone's global availability and price. Interestingly, LG may have already revealed how much the V30 going to cost in the US.
The South Korean company is running a contest on its USA Mobile's Twitter page for customers. Whoever wins the contest will get three LG V30 units for free. It goes without saying, there are some terms and conditions that are applicable for this contest. One of the legally required terms reveals an approximate retail value of the prizes offered.
We're giving away 3 LG V30s to celebrate the launch of the 3rd V series smartphone! RT for a chance to win. Terms: https://t.co/hmkBsMigrk pic.twitter.com/Mt7ewnAAlr LG USA Mobile (@LGUSAMobile) August 31, 2017
Well, guess what? Each LG V30 unit is said to be worth $749.99, which is approximately Rs. 48,000. Although not in a direct manner, this information comes straight from LG. So it is safe to say that the LG V30 will carry the same price tag, more or less.
So if our assumptions turn out to be true eventually, the LG flagship will be much cheaper than other flagships. For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, which is considered as one of its main competitors, will be sold for $930 (roughly Rs. 60,000) in most regions.
If you are wondering about the specs, the LG V30 has everything a flagship device should have. It is the first smartphone to feature a crystal clear glass-made lens with the highest f/1.6 aperture. The Hi-Fi DAC audio system is worth noting as well.
Other than that, the LG V30 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset clubbed with 4GB RAM and 64GB/128GB storage capacity.
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Mi 5X launch cancelled? Xiaomi to launch new series of smartphones in India News oi -Samden Sherpa Xiaomi has shared a new video teaser on twitter and it confirms it will be a new series smartphone.
We were looking forward to the global launch of the Xiaomi Mi 5X as the Chinese company had shared a picture on their Twitter handle, which read 'flagship dual camera'. While the teaser hinted at the probable launch of Mi 5X in India, but it seems the story has changed.
Xiaomi has more or less confirmed that its upcoming smartphone will not be Mi 5X but instead, the new smartphone will mark the launch of a new series. The company has shared a new video teaser on twitter which says that the company is going to introduce an entirely new series. Although "Flagship Dual Camera" is mentioned in the new teaser as well.
While Xiaomi has made it a mysterious case, with the new teaser we can only speculate that the new series will be an Android One phone. As far as rumors go, the device will most probably be called Mi A1.
Are you ready for a new series by Xiaomi? What do you think we're going to launch? #PortrayYourself pic.twitter.com/SZORlyKSwk Mi India (@XiaomiIndia) August 31, 2017
To elucidate Xiaomi has reportedly been working on a project with Google to develop an Android One smartphone. The device seems to be already in the phase of development and it will most likely take in the design language from Xiaomi's mid-range flagship Mi 5X which also comes with a dual camera smartphone. Reports suggest that it ill be a stock Android Xiaomi Mi 5X version.
Meanwhile, Google is collaborating with Xiaomi for their Android One device, as the Chinese company has grown significantly in the Indian market. Further, Xiaomi has already become a trusted brand in the country.
Unfortunately, we do not have any official word from the company yet. But again, we do not have to wait much longer as the launch event is scheduled for September 5 in India, so everything will be revealed at that time. Mark your calendars.
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Pre-order for Sony Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact starts in select markets News oi -Chandrika Sony launched the smartphones at the ongoing IFA 2017.
Sony just launched three smartphones at the ongoing IFA 2017. The company has added the Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact to its flagship XZ lineup. Besides this, Sony Xperia XA1 Plus has been announced as well.
During the announcement, the company said that all the smartphones would be available in Europe staring from September. Well, if you are a UK resident, you can now pre-order the Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact from a particular website. However, customers would have to wait for a while before they get their hands on the smartphones. The shipment for Xperia XZ1 will start from September 22, while XZ1 Compact's shipment will begin from September 29.
Talking about specs, both the Sony Xperia XZ1 and Xperia XZ1 Compact are the first smartphones to be released with Android 8.0 Oreo.
The Xperia XZ1 features a 5.2-inch full HD HDR display. As for innards, it comes equipped with an Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor running at 2.4GHz. The memory aspect is taken care of by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of inbuilt storage space.
On the optics front, there lies a 19MP Motion Eye sensor at its rear and a 13MP front-facing selfie shooter. The device packs a 2,700mAH battery for keeping the lights on.
Connectivity suite of the Sony Xperia XZ1 offers support for Bluetooth 5.0, USB 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB Host. Xperia XZ1 offers up to 1Gbps based on Gigabit Class LTE Cat16, depending on the margin.
Staying true to its name, the Xperia XZ1 Compact arrives with a 4.6-inch IPS LCD display with the resolution of 7201280 pixels. Powering the smartphone is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor clubbed with 4GB RAM and 32GB native storage capacity.
In terms of optics, it flaunts a 19MP rear-facing Motion Eye camera. The 8MP front camera is equipped with a wide-angle lens, which extends the field of view to 120 degrees. The smartphone is backed by a 2,700mAh battery.
The Xperia XZ1 Compact also comes with the new 3D Creator feature. As for connectivity, the smartphone offers up to 800Mbps based on Cat15, which will vary based on the region. There is also Bluetooth 5.0 on board.
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Government is finalizing cyber security standards for telephones: Ravi Shankar Prasad News oi -Priyanka Department had issued the notice to most of the mobile companies manufacturing smart phones they were asked to furnish details related to cyber security
With increasing internet penetration, the Government is also finalizing cyber security standards for telephones, union minister for IT & electronics and law & justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
"Let me tell all mobile manufacturing units that your product must be security-compliant, there shall be no compromise on that," said Prasad while addressing an ASSOCHAM conference on Cyber and Network Security.
He also said that IT and Electronics department had issued the notice to most of the mobile companies manufacturing smart phones they were asked to furnish details related to cyber security.
"I am very keen that cyber security initiative of India must become a lesson for the world," Prasad pointed out.
He informed that in last three years 93 mobile manufacturing factories have come up in India with Noida emerging as a big hub for mobile manufacturing where 32 such factories have come up."I have told the UP CM also that Noida and Greater Noida has great potential of becoming a center of software park, educational and management hub and other commercial activity," said Prasad.
Cyber-enabled security testing is going to become a big initiative in India. "We need low-cost cyber technology and low-cost well qualified cyber auditors," he said.
Highlighting various initiatives being undertaken by the government with regards to cyber security, he said, "Every digitally-connected industry must have cyber security officers who must be able to tell you what precautions you must take in an industry and business to keep cyber criminals at bay that is what we are insisting."
"We are also insisting all banks have cyber security auditors. We are unleashing a big challenge to have cyber security training, drills for officers, judges, and policemen," he added.
About the need to create the human resource in the field of cyber knowledge, he said that 44 universities and colleges have been identified in this regard.
"We are going to begin cyber security educational course as a big learning ground to make good graduates for a future requirement," Prasad stated adding that cyber security education is going to become a very good job giving education.
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Ill never forget the day my brother Ibrahim, an Irish citizen, was taken away by Egyptian security forces. We were visiting family in Cairo during the school holidays, in August 2013, when Ibrahim joined one of the protests sweeping the country. Egyptian forces broke up the protest he attended, fired on demonstrators, and arrested nearly 500 people. Ibrahim was shot and taken into custody. He was just 17.
Ibrahim never committed a single violent act; his only crime was exercising his right to peaceful, free expression. Nevertheless, for the past four years, he has been detained in a series of grim Egyptian prisons, tortured by prison guards, and subjected to a chaotic mass trial of 494 people. Based on no evidence, Egypt has charged Ibrahim with violent crimes that carry the death penalty, and tried him alongside hundreds of adults despite the fact that he was a juvenile when he was arrested.
Two days ago, the judge delayed Ibrahims trial for the 37th time in three years. This latest postponement came despite so-called assurances between our Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, and the Egyptian President. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi had promised the Taoiseach that at this 37th hearing the trial would end, and that Ibrahim would soon be sent home to Ireland.
World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty
Today, Ibrahim remains in prison, facing a death sentence, as he has for the past four years.
Ibrahim has been through four years of hell, and his daily reality in prison is horrifying. Our ageing parents, at home in Dublin, are sick with worry for their only son. My sisters and I have lost the chance to see our baby brother grow up.
Ibrahims ordeal is far from rare. In recent years, Egyptian courts have consistently tried children as adults on charges that carry the death penalty, and have sentenced children to death. Hundreds of people have been tried simultaneously in other mass trials, a practise the UN has said cannot possibly [meet] even the most basic requirements for a fair trial. Egyptian police and prison guards are also famous for torturing and even disappearing detainees.
Knowing all of this, it appalls me to know that the European Union and European governments including the UK are working closely with the Egyptian criminal justice system.
The human rights organisation Reprieve, which is supporting Ibrahim, has discovered that the EU is offering 10m in support, training and equipment for Egypts courts. As part of this EU project, a Northern Irish government body Northern Ireland Cooperation Overseas (NI-CO) has carried out refurbishments of juvenile courts in Egypt, supplying waterproof chairs for children to sit on during trials, benches for mass hearings, and steel bars for secure waiting areas.
I wrote to NI-CO more than eight months ago, asking them to reconsider their work, and requesting a meeting to discuss Ibrahims case. I am still waiting for their response.
Reprieve has also found that the UK government has provided nearly 2m in aid for security projects in Egypt, including support for policing, the criminal justice system and the treatment of juvenile detainees. The UK has refused to provide any details about these projects, including which arms of the Egyptian government are involved.
Apparently, none of this assistance has required Egypt to fulfil any conditions relating to improving human rights.
To be sure, the Egyptian criminal justice system needs reforming, and as a European, I support the idea that Europe should play a role in making Egypt more democratic. But it cant be right that the EU and the UK are providing unconditional assistance to Egyptian institutions that sentence children to death, torture detainees, and try people people like my brother in unfair mass trials.
If the EU and UK want to assist Egypts judiciary and police, Egypt should first have to commit to specific human rights reforms: the immediate release of my brother, the transfer of all juveniles out of adult courts, and an end to mass trials. The EU, the UK and NI-CO should have required Egypt to take these simple steps from the beginning, and it shocks me that they did not do so. Without obtaining these commitments, the EU and the UK are granting Egypt a fig leaf, allowing it to pretend at reform while continuing to subject people like Ibrahim to human rights abuses.
My brother needs to come home to our family now, and Egypt must bring an end to its use of the death penalty against juveniles. The EU, the UK and NI-CO should now suspend their assistance to Egypts criminal justice system until Ibrahim is free, and until Egyptian children no longer face the gallows.
Image: Wallpaper
Srinagar, Sep 2 (IBNS): At least one militant has been shot dead by security forces in a brief encounter, which took place in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday morning.
According to reports, the encounter took place at the Tantraypora village of the aforementioned district.
"We laid siege after having inputs about the presence of militants in the area. When our team reached the spot, the militants opened fire on the party, ensuing a brief gunfight," police officer said.
The officer added that one militant has been killed so far and the operation is still on in the area to eliminate any more threats.
This encounter comes a day after a policeman was killed by militants on the Srinagar Jammu National Highway on Friday evening.
(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
Image: Wallpaper
Lucknow, Sep 2 (IBNS): The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) on Saturday morning nabbed doctor Kafeel Khan from Gorakhpur, in connection with the government-run Baba Raghav Das Medical College tragedy, which led to the deaths of at least 68 children earlier this month.
The deaths occurred due to the lack of oxygen, investigation reports said.
The reports also revealed that Khan was involved in stealing oxygen cylinders from the facility for his private clinic.
Earlier, Khan, who served as the nodal officer of BRD Medical College's Department of Pediatrics, was stripped from his post after the allegations surfaced.
The former principal of the medical college cum hospital Rajiv Mishra, too has been arrested along with his wife Purnima Shukla a few days ago.
They have been sentenced to a 14-day judicial custody.
Mishra and his wife were arrested on the basis of an FIR lodged by the Uttar Pradesh government.
On Friday, a non-bailable warrant was issued against seven people, including Khan, by a Gorakhpur court.
New Delhi, Sept 2 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will commence his Myanmar visit on Sept 5.
He will be visiting the Asian nation at the invitation of U Htin Kyaw, President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
This will be Modi's first bilateral visit to the nation.
In a Facebook post before the visit, Modi said: "I am looking forward to meeting President U Htin Kyaw as also Her Excellency Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of President's Office. I have had the opportunity for discussions with both dignitaries during their visits to India in 2016."
"During the visit, we will review developments in our bilateral relations, especially the extensive programme of development cooperation and socio-economic assistance that India is undertaking in Myanmar, and explore new areas in which we can work together," he said.
Modi said: "We will also look at strengthening our existing cooperation on security and counter-terrorism, trade and investment, skill development, infrastructure and energy, and culture."
Modi said he is looking forward to visit the heritage city of Bagan.
"I also look forward to paying a visit to the famed heritage city of Bagan, where the Archaeological Survey of India has done stellar work on renovating the Ananda Temple, and where it will be undertaking further restoration work on a number of pagodas and murals that were damaged in last year's earthquake," he said.
He said: "I will end my visit in Yangon, where I look forward to visiting various historical spots that symbolise the shared heritage of India and Myanmar."
Modi said he is hopeful that the visit will open a new chapter in the India-Myanmar relations and will help in charting a roadmap for closer cooperation between two Governments, business communities and at the people to people level.
New Delhi, Sept 2 (IBNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be attending 9th BRICS Summit in Xiamen, China from Sept 3-5.
The Prime Minister will also be on the state visit of Myanmar from Sept 5-7.
In a series of Facebook posts from his account, the Prime Minister said:
"I will visit Xiamen, China for the 9th BRICS Summit from 3-5 September 2017."
"India had the privilege of hosting the previous Summit in Goa in October last year. I look forward to building upon the results and outcomes of the Goa Summit. I also look forward to productive discussions and positive outcomes that will support the agenda of a stronger BRICS partnership under the chairmanship of China," he said.
Modi said he will also interact with the BRICS Business Council represented by captains of industry from all five countries.
"In addition, I look forward to engaging with leaders of nine other countries, including BRICS partners, in an Emerging Markets and Developing Countries Dialogue, hosted by President Xi Jinping on 5 September," he said.
"I will have the opportunity to meet leaders bilaterally on the sidelines of the Summit.India attaches high importance to the role of BRICS that has begun a second decade of its partnership for progress and peace. BRICS has important contributions to make in addressing global challenges and upholding world peace and security," Modi said.
He also expressed his enthusiasm over visiting Myanmar.
He said: "I will visit Myanmar on 5-7 September 2017 at the invitation of His Excellency U Htin Kyaw, President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. I have visited this beautiful country earlier in 2014 for the ASEAN-India Summit, but this will be my first bilateral visit to Myanmar."
"I am looking forward to meeting President U Htin Kyaw as also Her Excellency Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, State Counsellor, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of President's Office. I have had the opportunity for discussions with both dignitaries during their visits to India in 2016," Modi said.
He said: "During the visit, we will review developments in our bilateral relations, especially the extensive programme of development cooperation and socio-economic assistance that India is undertaking in Myanmar, and explore new areas in which we can work together.
We will also look at strengthening our existing cooperation on security and counter-terrorism, trade and investment, skill development, infrastructure and energy, and culture."
Modi said: "I also look forward to paying a visit to the famed heritage city of Bagan, where the Archaeological Survey of India has done stellar work on renovating the Ananda Temple, and where it will be undertaking further restoration work on a number of pagodas and murals that were damaged in last year's earthquake."
He said: "I will end my visit in Yangon, where I look forward to visiting various historical spots that symbolise the shared heritage of India and Myanmar."
He said: "I am also keen to meet and interact with the Indian-origin community of Myanmar, whose history goes back more than a century."
"I am confident that the visit will open a bright new chapter in India-Myanmar relations and will help in charting a roadmap for closer cooperation between our Governments, our business communities and at the people to people level," he said.
Guwahati, Sept 2 (IBNS): Several prime accusing persons in two major cases have been able to get bail, after Assam police failed to submit charge sheets against them before the court.
On Saturday, secretary of the state irrigation department Kujendra Doley was granted bail by the Gauhati high court after police failed to submit charge sheet against him before the court.
The sleuths of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption of Assam had arrested Doley from his office in Dispur Janata Bhawan after taking bribe from a contractor on Mar 28 last.
Not only Kujendra Doley, 10 accused persons including three Assam Civil Service (ACS) officials, former members of Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) had granted bail by the Gauhati high court in connection with the cash-for-job scam of APSC, after Assam police failed to submit charge sheet against them.
According to the reports, for negligence of Assam police, over two dozen accused persons of several major corruption related cases were granted bail by the court in past two months.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data revealed that, the Assam police had failed to submit charge sheet in most of registered cases.
The charge sheeting rate in Assam is only 47 per cent and it is second lowest rate in the country.
The NCRB data of 2015 said that, while all India rate is recorded by 77.7 per cent, the Assam police had submitted charge sheets of only 47 per cent cases.
According to the NCRB data, the charge sheeting rate in Kerala is recorded by 97.8 per cent, 93.3 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, 91.9 per cent in Andhra Pradesh.
Among the north eastern states, highest rate is recorded in Mizoram by 91 per cent, 88 per cent in Tripura, 68.2 per cent in Sikkim, 64.5 per cent in Nagaland, 57.4 per cent in Meghalaya, 55.7 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh and 13.5 per cent in Manipur (lowest rate in the country).
According to the state home department, a total of 1,02,407 cases were registered in different crime heads in the state in 2016, but police had submit charge sheet of only 47 per cent cases.
On the other hand, a top source of state home department said that, Assam police has faced problems with shortage of man power.
Over 12000 posts in Assam police are still vacant and for this, a single officer has to handle few cases and difficulties arise in many occasions, the top source said.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
New Delhi, Sep 2 (IBNS): A major cabinet reshuffle in the Modi government, probably the last one before the 2019 Lok Sabha election, will be held on Sunday following the series of resignations submitted by the ministers couple of days ago, media reports said.
Some news reports said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet the new ministers at 7.30 a.m. before the swearing-in ceremony which is scheduled to take place at 10.30 a.m. at Rashtrapati Bhawan, a first under newly-elected President Ram Nath Kovind.
Seven ministers have resigned from the Modi government since Thursday.
The list of ministers who had resigned includes Uma Bharti, Kalraj Mishra, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Sanjiv Kumar Balyan, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Bandaru Dattatreya, Mahendra Nath Pandey.
Apart from them, few other ministers had also resigned in 2017 that led to a number of vacancies in Modi's cabinet.
Manohar Parrikar resigned as the Defence minister to become the Goa chief minister.
Venkaiah Naidu also resigned from the Information and Broadcasting ministry and the central government as he became the Vice President of India.
Presently, Arun Jaitley is handling the two portfolios, finance and defence ministries.
Speculations are rife that Minister for Road Transport and Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari, might get an additional charge of Railway ministry after Suresh Prabhu offered to resign from his post following multiple train accidents in recent times. Earlier, Prabhu said he was asked by the PM Modi to wait.
Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Sanjeev Balyan both said they were told to resign by the party and they unquestioningly did so.
"It's not my decision, it's the decision of the party, and I will follow (it)," Rudy told NDTV.
According to media reports, Rudy and Balyan are expected to be given key organisational roles in the BJP in preparation for the 2019 elections.
NDTV said the new-look council of ministers will include BJP leaders from states where elections will be held in the next few months, like Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also take the flight to China on Sunday to attend the BRICS Summit 2017.
New York, Sept 2 (Just Earth News): Even as countries continue to ratify and implement the international treaty prohibiting the use of cluster munitions, casualties from these notorious weapons doubled in the past year, with civilians accounting for nearly all the victims, according to a United Nations-backed civil society report.
The annual monitoring report released yesterday at the UN Office at Geneva by the Cluster Munition Coalition revealed that the use of cluster munitions in war-torn Syria and Yemen has caused even more civilian casualties. Moreover, in those two countries, conflict and insecurity are hampering clearance of the deadly weapons.
Of nearly 1,000 victims identified in 10 countries, almost all were from Syria, according to the Cluster Munition Monitor 2017.
The humanitarian devastation caused by cluster munitions is particularly acute in Syria, where use has continued unabated since mid-2012, the report's main editor and coordinator of the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor initiative Jeff Abramson told journalists in Geneva, warning that the real figure is therefore much higher.
Fellow report editor Loren Persi explained: The vast majority of those casualties occurred in Syria and mostly during attacks, there was really unrelenting use of cluster munitions in Syria and Syria has been the reason for the majority of cluster munition casualties since 2013, definitely. Actually in 2016, almost 90 per cent of the casualties occurred in Syria.
Abramson stressed that the only sure way to end this insidious menace is to have all States embrace and adhere to the international ban on these weapons.
The threat from cluster munitions is rarely short-lived, according to the report, which records casualties in places where the weapons have not been used for decades.
More than 100 people were known to have been killed or injured by previously unexploded cluster munition submunitions, the deadly landmine-like remnants left over from earlier attacks, including in South-East Asian countries such as Lao People's Democratic Republic. There, all of the 51 new casualties in 2016 were the result of remnants from cluster munitions used in the 1960s and 1970s.
Number of casualties in 2016 more than double the previously recorded high
Overall, the report identified at least 971 new cluster munition casualties globally in 2016, with 860 of these in Syria. This global number is certainly less than the actual total. Disturbingly, the number of casualties in 2016 is more than double the number recorded in 2015 (417), making it the second-highest annual figure since Cluster Munition Monitor reporting began in 2009 (the highest was in 2013).
Since August 2016, two countries have ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions (Benin and Madagascar), bringing the total number of States Parties to 102. Another 17 States have signed but not yet ratified the convention. Last December, 141 states, including 32 non-signatories to the convention, adopted a key UN General Assembly resolution supporting the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Efforts to grow the Convention's membership continue to be central to stigmatize the use of these weapons and to bring an end to the threat they pose. Convention members have a better understanding of the location and scale of contamination, and will more readily share information about it, compared with states outside the convention, said Amelie Chayer, acting Director of the Cluster Munition Coalition.
UN Photo/Mark Garten (file)
Source: www.justearthnews.com
Toronto, Sep 2 (IBNS): A Toronto-based charity, Rainbow Railroad, claimed that they helped 31 out of 35 LGBT from Chechens find asylums in Canada, media reports said.
Kimahli Powell, Rainbow Railroad executive director, told CBC News: "We have been working on a program with the Canadian government that allowed the entry of persecuted LGBTQ Chechens into the country."
According to CBC News, Powell said his organisation along with the Russian LGBT Network helped 140 LGBT so far to establish safe houses and communication channels for Chechens people to flee.
Powell said the Canadian government had a big role in the programme, though did not reveal the kind of support they got.
He also said about his visit to Russia where he interacted with the LGBT people seeking asylum.
Powell was quoted by CBC News as saying: "We began immediate conversations with [LGBTQ2] Special Adviser Randy Boissonnault and began conversations with Global Affairs Canada."
Expecting the programme to continue, Powell said: "So far, we are pleased with this partnership."
"But we expect this is not the end" he added.
There are still 40 Chechens in the safe houses who are waiting to leave Russia.
Speaking about Canada as a place to reside, Powell said: "Canada remains the best and safest option for many of the individuals."
Rainbow Railroad is a Canada-based charity which aims to help LGBT individuals to escape violence and persecutions.
Dateline Rakhine Attacks: How Should the Military and Govt Respond?
With conflict intensifying in Rakhine, The Irrawaddy discusses how the authorities can react to stabilize the situation.
Kyaw Zwa Moe: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! This week, well discuss the intensified conflict in Rakhine State. As everyone knows, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked about 30 police outposts in the early morning of August 25. So far about 100 people and more than 10 security personnel have been killed. From this, we can conclude that the Rakhine State problem has reached a new level. In the aftermath of the attacks, the government declared ARSA as a terrorist group. The Tatmadaw has also started clearance operations.
The Belgium-based International Crisis Group (ICG), which analyzes crises across the world, issued a statement on August 27, which provides a recommendation to the Myanmar government and Tatmadaw. The statement said a disproportionate military response without any overarching political strategy would once again play directly into ARSAs hands. The Irrawaddy Burmese and English news editors Ko Ye Ni and Ko Kyaw Phyo Tha will join me to discuss this. Im Irrawaddy English editor Kyaw Zwa Moe.
Ko Kyaw Phyo Tha, ICG said a disproportionate military response without any overarching political strategy would once again play directly into ARSAs hands. What does that mean?
Rakhine Attacks: How Should the Military and Govt Respond? Rakhine Attacks: How Should the Military and Govt Respond?With conflict intensifying in Rakhine, The Irrawaddy discusses how the authorities can react to stabilize the situation. Posted by The Irrawaddy English Edition on Thursday, August 31, 2017
Kyaw Phyo Tha: It seems that ARSA has predicted a certain result from its attacks this time. The government and especially the Tatmadaw would respond to its attacks. If there is a disproportionate military responseit [ARSA] wanted to recreate the same situation as October, 2016. That time, the military responses drew considerable criticism from the international community. Thats what ARSA wanted this time too, so that the Rakhine issue would be more highlighted on the international stage. That is its end.
KZM: They attacked police outposts in October, 2016. Then, Tatmadaw and security forces launched counter-attacks, which lasted for almost a month. Eventually this led to organizations like the United Nations raise questions and there were exaggerated claims of genocide. Now the governments counter-terrorism committee is responding. Ko Ye Ni, what is your assessment of the situation on the ground?
YN: I agree with ICGs recommendations. I dont think the attacks in Maungdaw can be solved through military means alone. The State Counselors Office and the government declared ARSA as a terrorist group, formally recognizing the arrival of terrorism in Myanmar, and declaring a war on terrorism. This reminds me of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in the United States in the recent past. The United States then launched wars on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. Initially, the broad conception was that its attacks were targeted at Muslims. Then the United States had to explain that they were not targeting Muslims, but terrorism and that there were also Muslims who oppose terrorism, and Muslim countries that oppose terrorism were supporting the United States. So, taking a look at the nature of its war on terrorism, it is a long fight and calls for minimizing repercussions, adhering to international norms and soliciting support from other countries. This is the case for the Rakhine issue. As the ICG has pointed out, military response alone will worsen the circles of violence. And the militarys blanket approach in countering terrorist attacks will play into the hands of the other side, which has claimed genocide.
KZM: That is one of two points ICG has madethe principle of proportionality. It said the Myanmar government should only use force proportional to the militants. But if it uses excessive force, it will create big troubles for the government. Another point is how to distinguish between ARSA terrorists and their supporters and civilians, and provide humanitarian assistance to civilians. Otherwise there is a possibility that counter-terrorism operations will be labeled as genocide. There were such accusations following the clearance operations in the aftermath of the October attacks last year. So, ICG made a good point regarding this. Ko Kyaw Phyo Tha, what is your assessment? Many international media agencies have alleged that the military shot civilians in its operations. And local media agencies still dont have access to the area.
KPT: Ive talked about this with many analysts. They have said it is important that the government and the military have a unanimous decision on resolving the ongoing attacks. Because it is no longer a domestic issue, but reached the international stage. They said they heard that ARSA was using children and women as a human shield. So, it is quite difficult for security forces to handle them. We cant leave this issue unsolved. This must be solved. Analysts pointed out that it is important that the government and the military make one decision regarding how to respond to those difficulties. Only then, will they be able to form a single voice and explain in the case of international allegations.
KZM: What is politically interesting to see is that attacks in Buthidaung, Rathedaung and Maungdaw were launched on August 25 immediately after the Arakan State Advisory Commission led by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan released its report and provided recommendations for the government. This shows that ARSA and their followers do not accept the recommendations of the Kofi Annan Commission. The commission was established last year. The government gave a mandate to the commission, but only for providing recommendations. That time, three institutions opposed the formation of the commissionthe Arakan National Party (ANP), the previous ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), and military representatives to Parliament. A motion was submitted to reject the commission in Parliament. But it failed, so the commission was formed. After the commission released its report [which was followed by attacks in Maungdaw], State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi immediately released a statement with her signature that terrorist attacks would not stop or deter her government from implementing the recommendations of the commission. This is an interesting point, I think. The military has completely different ideologies from the ARSA. They will do nothing else but fight them. But from a political point of view, it is an interesting thing to see.
YN: As Ko Kyaw Zwa has said, if the operation has reached a level of counter-terrorism, there must be new insights that fit the new level, and new approaches must be made to solve the conflict. If the government takes the same approach, the problem wont be solved. And taking a look at the attacks, we can clearly see how strongly [ARSA] has built its influence among the villagers by exploiting their grievances and anger. How can we reduce their influence and make [Rohingya people] owe allegiance back to the jurisdiction of our country? We already have an answer for this. The Kofi Annan commissions report has provided recommendations. I think it is better [for authorities] to do what they can rather than saying they can do nothing, otherwise the circle of attacks would start again.
KZM: What Ko Kyaw Phyo Tha has pointed out is also very important. It is important that the government and the military are in the same place. And surely, Arakanese people, and parties like the ANP that represents them make one voice. If they have different views, Im afraid places like Maungdaw and Rathedaung will become a breeding ground for terrorist groups. If that is the case, problems may arise in the years to come as Ko Ye Ni has mentioned. It all will depend on cooperation between the countrys leaders, military leaders, leaders of Rakhine parties, Arakanese leaders and surely the leaders of the Muslim population in Rakhine State. Thank you for your contribution.
Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
From the Archive History Behind Rakhine State Conflict
Dr. Jacques P. Leider / Zayar Hlaing
On August 25, the Arakan Rohginya Salvation Army attacked some 30 police outposts and an army base in Rakhine State, causing the Myanmar Army to respond with security clearance operations. The renewed violence has sent thousands of Rohingya Muslims and Arakanese Buddhists fleeing their homes to temporary camps in the region or across the border to Bangladesh.
In light of the renewed conflict, The Irrawaddy revisits this interview from July 2012 with Rakhine history expert Dr. Jacques P. Leider, who has been conducting research as well as contributing articles to academic journals on Rakhine State for more than two decades.
Question: What is the meaning of Rohingya?
Answer: [The term Rohingya] appeared for the first time at the end of the 18th century in the report of an Englishman who went to the Chittagong area, the Rakhine area. His name was Francis Buchanan-Hamilton. He was a medical doctor [and this term appeared] in one of the papers that was published by him. Now when we talk about scientific explanations and etymology of the word, it does not say anything about politics. You use this term for yourself as a political label to give yourself identity in the 20th century. Now how is this term used since the 1950s? It is clear that people who use it want to give this identity to the community that live there.
What about the history of the Muslim community in Rakhine State?
Everywhere in Southeast Asiasuch as Thailand, Indonesia and everywhereyou find Muslim communities. Islam has been growing in other areas where it did not exist before the 15th century in Indonesia, Malaysia and so on. You also have, it is not surprising, a Muslim community in Myanmar. [We know that] in the 15th century you have an emerging Muslim community there. The second part of the Muslim community there belongs to the colonial period, when many people from Bengal and that area came to settle in Rakhine.
What is the situation on the ground between Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims?
This is a very difficult question to answer for a foreigner who can only go to places in Rakhine where it is acceptable. I will not call the Rakhine Buddhist racist towards Muslims. There seem to be expression; the emotional reaction is extremely strong. Let me put it diplomatically like thisa very strong emotional reaction.
What are the roots of this reaction?
Well, I think from historical point of view, when you look at the situation of Muslims in Rakhine, in Burma, one big difference is that the Muslims in Rakhine have settled on the ground, they were farmers. They have been farmers since the pre-colonial period because Rakhine kings were deporting people from Bengal and bringing them to Rakhine and settling them. We know from a source in the 17th century that there were villages where there were only Muslims. They have been settled there by the Rakhine kings. The English stopped Indian immigration during the colonial period. Because there was no border there, so you figure out the people come and go from Bengal to Rakhine. Their demographic growth was tremendous. The Rakhine back in the 1920s, the Buddhist Rakhine, were feeling very awkward about this.
Do you agree with observers who say there is a third force behind the conflict?
There is no reason to look for a third force to explain [the conflict], to describe it and to talk about solutions. It is absolutely clear that in the context where Arakan is, you have a very particular situation which you do not have in other so-called minority areas. In Karen, Kachin or Chin, were normally talking about the majority Myanmar who confront the local minority group, which is actually a majority of that area. But here you have three involvedyou have Rakhine Buddhist, you have Muslim on the other hand and then you have the government. When you have three, it is always easy to have two against one. Now Muslims would argue they are Rakhine Buddhist and Myanmar Buddhist who play against us. Its always easy to argue that.
So what is the underlying reason behind the conflict?
I think that on the land that exists there, there are increasing numbers of people. Rakhine Buddhists have been seeing that there are Muslims there. The Muslims who are living in Rakhine, the population has been growing. The question is how much have they been growing. Apparently, it seems that they are growing faster. There is a feeling that they are growing; that they are there and there is this kind of resentment that these people are there and nobody is tackling the Muslims present there. All these resentments, all these feelings, have been there for a long time. Sheer violence is used to say that we have situation that we cannot bear anymore.
Would you say it is not a racial issue?
No, Rohingya use racist Buddhists and the other side will use that. There has been violence, there are a number of other words and we should be sensitive about the use of these words. Now when somebody comes to use the word genocide against Muslims, that is also way beyond anything that matches with reality. I think hate is okay as the term you can use as kind of a common word. But to use racism always supposes a kind of ideology. I dont see among Buddhists this kind of ideology. Its kind of dislike. You have xenophobia, you have ranges of other words you can use to describe more correctly and more justly what we see.
Is the international media mistaken when they use phrases like genocide of the Rohingya?
Yes, a lot. Journalists have to focus more on diversifying their sources of documentation. I agree it may not be easy. I think there is enormous responsibility on media in Myanmar now that is opening up. Myanmar writers, Myanmar ethnicities take a responsible stand on this. It will not help if they take sides. But you need to be critical and self-critical.
What is the best way forward to resolve the conflict?
I would probably say people should sit down and say what they want where there are problems. They want to have peaceful life, they want to have a happy life and see a future for their children. You see other people have what you dont have. In the other community, in the best of their mind, they realize that the other people will not disappearlike it or not, they are not going to disappear. They need to find one way or another to live together. There are many issues that people who are living there, whatever religion, could share. They will confront their own interest and future for the development of Rakhine State, for the people who live there. If they could work together, they could be more efficient instead of fighting together.
Are the Rohingya an ethnic group of Myanmar?
My answer is that Rohingya is not an ethnic concept. Okay, they can stand up and say we are an ethnic group inside Myanmar. But I think that is not the best way. When you argue we are Muslims and we have been living in Rakhine for several generations, nobody can deny it. For me, Rohingya is the term, which is an old word that has been claimed as above all as a political label after the independence of Myanmar. For the moment, I do not see that all the people there readily submit to one and a single label. When I was in Bangladesh, people pointed out Muslims to me who originally lived in Rakhine. They have now moved to Bangladesh and when you ask them, are you Rohingya coming from Rakhine? they say, no, we are Muslims who live in Rakhine, we do not take for us the label Rohingya.
News Soar in Dubious Twitter Accounts Since Rakhine Attacks
The Twitter application is seen on a phone screen August 3, 2017. / Thomas White / Reuters
YANGON More than 1,500 Twitter accounts posting provocative hashtags and messages commenting on the violence in Rakhine State were launched days after the Aug. 25 attacks.
Many of the accounts were posting identical tweets, had screen names ending in digits and used the default Twitter profile imageall bot-like activity common in automated accounts, said Raymond Serrato, a digital researcher and analyst who works on governance and democracy in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.
Serrato, who retrieved the data using Twitters Search API, said from August 23-30, there were 13,137 tweets that included the hashtag #Bengali, a term used by many in the government and Myanmar to describe the Muslim Rohingya, implying they are interlopers from Bangladesh.
These tweets came from a total of 3,605 users, with an average of three tweets per account. Of these accounts, 1,647 were created in the days following militant attacks on police stations in northern Rakhine that triggered ethnic violence, an army crackdown, and the exodus of tens of thousands of people in the region.
Serrato gauged the tweets content by analyzing the sentiment of words found in them such as kill and extremist. Nine accounts posting such terms were created on Aug. 25, with the number rising to 93 on Aug. 26, 328 on Aug. 27, and 773 on Aug. 28 before sloping to 383 on Aug. 29.
Similarly, Serrato noted an increase in new bot-like accounts: three on Aug. 25, 22 on Aug. 26, 77 on Aug. 27, 191 on Aug. 28 and then 96 on Aug. 29.
I also discovered other accounts with strong bot-like traits, but which are harder to detect using machine scanning, such as accounts that use screen names like @6fb55a2399a042b, he said over email.
All of these accounts also posted duplicate tweets, often only changing the images associated with them or one or two characters in the tweets text. Spellings sometimes differ from tweet to tweet too, which hints at human users curating the accounts.
The following tweet had the most cloned posts from separate accounts in the data57 altogether: Extremist #Bengali terrorists kill six innocent Hindi in #MYANMAR, August 27 #UN
The government declared Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) a terrorist organization soon after the groups early morning offensive on 30 police stations and an army base on Aug. 25, which it stated was a step toward restoring the rights of the stateless Rohingya.
This post from the official page of Myanmars State Counselor received the highest number of retweets841in the data, although the tweet has since been deleted: RT @MyanmarSC: #Extremist #Bengali #terrorists torch their homes Read More==> https://t.co/TQrB2bDMEn https://t.co/4UMgVXEAGq).
Out of the accounts, 527 have the default Twitter profile image and 505 accounts contain screen names ending in a sequence of eight digits.
Both these traits are strong indications of bots, but can also point to the setup of the many accounts in haste, where users select Twitters suggestion of a string of numbers after the name, said Serrato.
Its impossible to know who could be behind the setup of these mass accounts. All the tweets are in English, which strengthens the argument that they are intended primarily for an international or Western audience, he added.
Serrato said he was not aware of accounts posting views against the governments stance in a similar pattern.
Taking to Twitter
In a country where Facebook reigns supreme, with an estimated 14 million users out of a population of nearly 53 million, the terse format of Twitter is yet to catch on.
But in the wake of the recent attacks, some social media users are eyeing the social media site as the next platform to spread their views.
Digital marketer and blogger Maungthargi, also known as Khing Soe Aung, posted on Facebook a step-by-step guide on using Twitter, including instructions to follow and retweet the official State Counselor account, and to use hashtags #Bengali #Myanmar and #Stopterroristssupport.
The guide, which amassed 1,000 likes and nearly the same amount of shares, also accused those connected with the Rohingya community of spreading fake videos, asking users to report them.
When people around the world only see fake news about the Rohingya case posted by the Rohingya, they will misjudge the situation. Thats why we are encouraging Myanmar people to use Twitter, and to let the world know the truth, Maungthargi told The Irrawaddy.
On reports of automated Twitter accounts, he added, That is right. Those fake accounts spreading hate speech and arousing peoples anger are absolutely worth being reported.
Rakhine Information Wars
Yangon-based independent analyst David Matheison described the influx of seemingly pro-government Twitter accounts in recent days since the ARSA attacks as a disturbing escalation in the social media wars around Rakhine.
Where this activity is stemming from is still a mystery, but it could indicate pro-government social media activists expanding their presence on Twitter to counter the ARSA messaging, he said, adding that the social media platform has typically been the domain of foreigners in Myanmar.
Mathieson described the tweets as racist propaganda slogans that are a worrying development that will render marshaling the facts of the complex conflict in Rakhine even more difficult.
If Twitter becomes the social media battleground between ARSA, Rohingya activists and the government and their supporters, either in society or the military, then truth on Rakhine has all but ended, he finished.
Yangon regional lawmaker Nay Phone Latt, who has campaigned against online hate speech, cannot imagine Myanmars public flocking to Twitter when they are comfortable posting in the Myanmar language on Facebook.
But he welcomed a recent change to the name of the State Counselor Office Information Committees Facebook page to the Information Committee on Aug. 29.
Some of the news was biased and not the opinion of the State Counselor, he said. They did not obey a good standard. Sometimes they posted things they should not have.
The State Counselors Office Facebook page has previously dismissed independent reports of rape and atrocities in Rakhine. Created following militant attacks on border guard posts in the state in October 2016, a government spokesperson announced on Wednesday the page had been changed to show it represents the military, home, foreign and border affairs ministries, and the Presidents Office as well as the State Counselors Office.
People must be careful about the words they use, said Nay Phone Latt, adding that terminology such as Islamic State should not be used to describe the situation in Rakhine.
Some groups who want to create violence use the Rakhine issue and try to ignite the flame in other places, he said. Only one word can make a big problem.
News This Week in Parliament (August 28-31)
Two girls walk to school in Yangon. This week lawmakers discussed Myanmars need for teachers. / Reuters
Monday (August 28)
In the Lower House, lawmaker U Thet Naing Oo raised a question about the progress of the long-delayed Dawei Special Economic Zone. Deputy commerce minister U Aung Htoo said the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is conducting a master plan survey to revive the project suspended in 2013.
The Lower House approved lawmaker U Kyaw Aung Lwins proposal which called for responsible and sustainable extraction of Myanmars gems and minerals.
In the Upper House, member of parliament Daw Nan Ni Ni Aye asked about the Central Bank of Myanmars measures to ensure Kyats are used instead of foreign currency in border towns such as Muse, Tachilek, Myawady, Kawthoung, and Tamu on the China, Thailand and India borders. Vice-Governor of the Central Bank U Bo Bo Nge said the bank has opened exchange counters in those towns and action will be taken against those who use foreign currency.
The Upper House approved lawmaker Dr Win Myints proposal to establish a fishery university for sustainable development of the countrys fishing industry and domestic food sufficiency.
Tuesday (August 29)
The Lower House voted down parliamentarian Dr. Maung Thins proposal which urged the government to develop DNA profiles of each ethnic group in Myanmar.
The Upper House approved to debate lawmaker U Khin Myo Wins proposal to regulate fishing and fishery exports for the conservation of Myanmars water resources, and the sustainability of fishing industry.
Wednesday (August 30)
In Lower House, lawmaker U Aung Kyaw Kyaw Oo asked if the government has a plan to appoint graduates of education universities and college to schools to meet demand for teachers. Union education minister Dr Myo Thein Gyi said that his ministry has appointed 482 graduates from universities of education, and 9,953 from education colleges, totaling 10,435, as teachers to schools across the country in the 2017-18 fiscal year.
The Upper House approved lawmaker U Khin Maung Latts proposal to take action against suspected militants in northern Rakhine State under the 2014 Counter-Terrorism Law and help locals who have fled their homes because of killings in the area.
Thursday (August 31)
The fifth regular session of the two houses come to an end on Thursday.
The Union Parliament during the fifth regular session enacted eight new laws, amended 11 laws and scrapped one law.
In the Lower House, over 1,000 questions were asked and answered, 23 motions including two urgent proposals were submitted11 were approved. The Lower House debated 33 bills and approved 16 of them.
In the Upper House, over 400 questions and answers were asked and answered, and four proposals were approved.
According to Lower House Speaker U Win Myint, no lawmaker proposed amending the controversial colonial-era Unlawful Association Act during the fifth regular session. He also denied the military representatives allegations that he blocked their proposals about the attacks in Rakhine State. No military representative submitted such a proposal, he said.
COMMENT My faith in the AMD processor range has been reinforced by the impressive new Ryzen series.
I've nothing against Intel except their premium pricing a bit like Telstra, I suppose but have been using AMD processors in my desktop systems for well over a decade.
I was still pretty happy with the AMD 2012 vintage FX-8150 8-core processor, only lamenting that it didn't support an extra 8 threads like Intel's 8-core processors do. Then, in early July this year, disaster struck, in terms of my system powering off all the time and it turned out that the motherboard had developed an unfixable problem of some indeterminable sort.
I had no choice but to get a new motherboard. With that came the need to get new memory cards and a new processor. I was fortunate that AMD's Ryzen series was released earlier this year, and I pondered hard about whether I should get a Ryzen 7 8-core processor or one of the more recent and very keenly priced Ryzen 5 6-core processors.
I ended up going with the Ryzen 7 1700 model, which has the extra 8 threads that I desired. I have been deeply involved with system performance since I joined IBM Australia in 1970 (and also in my own business after retirement from IBM), and I can say with confidence that the past two solid months' usage during July and August have proved to me that the Ryzen 7 1700 performs excellently for my workload style, which is 99% mixed-mode computing, with occasional gaming (gaming enthusiasts would probably prefer faster Ryzen models).
My system gets pretty busy at times, with video conversions, search index updates, and other moderate to heavy tasks. I have found that the Ryzen 1700 handles all that I can throw at it with with aplomb, and it makes a fine partner for 64-bit Windows 10. You can get an idea of this from the accompanying screenshot (using the All CPU Meter gadget, which comes with 8GadgetPack) which shows a few seconds of system activity recorded while running a mixed-task medium workload (general user activities plus a modest video conversion assigned to cores 3 through 8).
What I also like about the Ryzen 7 1700 is its very modest 65-watt power consumption, roughly half that of my previous 2012-vintage AMD processor, yet providing significantly better multitasking while rarely encountering any noticeable overall system slowdown.
You have to hit the Ryzen 1700 really hard, with what I might call an artificially intense workload, before all 16 threads run flat out. Even so, with water cooling, the 65W system sits atop my desktop running whisper quiet.
I might have saved about $100 by selecting a Ryzen 5 1600 or 1600X model (6 cores with 6 extra threads), but the model I chose with its two extra cores (four extra threads) has extra headroom and the extra investment has proven to be well worth it. In my opinion, the Ryzen 1700 certainly hits the "sweet spot" in terms of price/performance.
Also, I could have selected a Ryzen 7 1700X or 1800X model. However they are pricier and their power consumption is higher. My detailed research indicated that they weren't worth the extra moolah for a not-all-that-great performance boost.
As you can gather, I'm extremely impressed and very happy to be using this AMD Ryzen processor, and would recommend the Ryzen series unreservedly.
For the very latest about AMD's Zen architecture models, see iTWire colleague Alex Zaharov-Reutt's report at FULL VIDEOS: AMDs impressive Ryzen Pro arrives in systems from Dell, HP, Lenovo and others
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By Brian Whitaker | ( Al-Bab.com)
Writing about conflicts in the Middle East for the New York Times yesterday, columnist Thomas Friedman talked of the power that is lost to a society like Syria or Iraq that needs an iron fist to make its many into one, and when that fist is removed, how the society fractures into small shards.
This brought a riposte on Twitter from investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald who commented:
Once every few months, Tom Friedman writes a racist screed about how Arabs need an "iron fist" or "big stick" or some other phallic object pic.twitter.com/HkctofothZ Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 30, 2017
Greenwald does have a point. A Google search reveals no fewer than 44 of Friedmans columns that feature the words iron fist. But is it wrong to talk of Arab countries in this way?
There are certainly plenty of Arabs who think a strong leader is exactly what they need even if he (and they invariably mean he rather than she) rules with an iron fist. Strength and manliness, more than wisdom, are things many admire in a ruler and they seen it in figures like Nasser and Saddam Hussein.
Bin Laden understood that too, though in his case it was religion that provided the big stick:
When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, they will naturally want to side with the strong horse. When people of the world look upon the confusion and atheism of the West, they see that Islam is the strong horse.
It isnt wrong to acknowledge that these attitudes exist they are actually central to the Middle Easts problems but it depends what conclusions people draw from them.
Characterising Arabs as fundamentally incapable of being ruled except by the rod is an old Orientalist trope, and one that has often been harnessed in the service of imperialism. Its a convenient pretext for foreign powers to prop up Arab dictators in the name of stability or to bring their own iron fist to bear when the dictators step out of line.
Friedman has played a part in that himself. Here he is in a video from 2003 explaining why he thinks the invasion of Iraq was unquestionably worth doing.
The second part of the trope is that once the fist is lifted, Arab society is liable in Friedmans words to fracture into small shards. Again, there is some objective truth in what he says. We have seen it happen in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen (though in Egypt and Bahrain the fist has returned with a vengeance, leaving only Tunisia as a rather fragile success story).
Viewing this turmoil, many people hark back to Sykes-Picot a century ago and the arbitrary drawing of borders by western powers. For some of the newly-independent Arab states that certainly created a burden they could have done without, but it can also become a lazy excuse for the failings of Arab regimes in the decades that followed.
Worldwide, there are very few pure nation-states; almost all have some elements of ethnic or religious diversity and many have coped with it far more effectively than Arab regimes.
From a dictators viewpoint, internal fissures are not necessarily unwelcome, though. They can be exploited to play one element off against another which is one reason why Ali Abdullah Saleh clung to power in Yemen for 34 years: divide and rule.
Nobody should be surprised when Arab countries fall apart because that, by and large, is how the state has been constructed in the expectation that when citizens are presented with a binary choice between dictatorship and chaos they will acquiesce in the former for fear of the latter. As the French saying goes: Apres moi le deluge.
The key here is to cut out the middle ground and ensure that other less authoritarian ways of running the country dont become viable or seen as even potentially viable: keep the public disengaged from politics as far as possible, restrict civil society activity and treat free speech as subversion.
None of that means Arabs need a big stick or that they will always have to be ruled by one. But it does mean they havent been given a free choice or a fair chance to explore ways of managing their own affairs.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Licence.
Via Al-Bab.com
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By Gregory Alonso Pirio | (Informed Comment) |
The importance of opposing the resurgence of emboldened KKK, Neo-Nazis and other hate-filled white supremacists that were on display in Charlottesville cannot be easily underestimated. Equally, if not more urgent, however, is the need to take advantage of the national disgust of hate groups by pivoting the publics outrage toward our system of structural violence that harms many, many more people of color (and increasingly marginalized whites) than do the hate groups.
At the root of this structural violence is the massive use of state power to incarcerate hundreds of thousands of poor, black, male (and, increasingly, female) young people due to mandatory minimum sentences and the fake War on Drugs. To be honest, anyone on the political scene praising American exceptionalism has to include, in the list of what distinguishes the American experience today, the fact that our country locks up more people than any other nation. Although home to only 5 percent of the worlds population, the United States has 25 percent of the worlds prison population.
African Americans constitute nearly 1 million of the 2.3 million persons incarcerated and are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites, according to the NAACPs Criminal Justice Factsheet. One in three African American men will experience prison; white mens risk is just 6 percent. Hispanic men are almost three times as likely to be imprisoned as non-Hispanic white men.
This massive incarceration amounts to extreme structural violence in the sense that it inflicts unspeakable forms of harm on people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs, contributing to community impoverishment, premature death and unnecessary disability. I can hardly even begin to imagine, for instance, the depth of the psychic wounds borne by the prisoners and their loved ones that result from the stigma and shame associated with unjust imprisonment.
Personalized accounts of the impact of mass incarceration are rare and shocking. In her 2004 book, author Jennifer Gonnerman provided us with a rare glimpse into the injustice of the War on Drugs. The book tells the story of African American woman, Elaine Bartlett, who spent 16 years behind bars as a first-time drug offender. Ms. Bartlett got involved in petty drug trade as a way to secure needed income. Bartlett was 26, with four small children, working off the books as a hairdresser in Harlem, when she agreed to take four ounces of cocaine by train from New York City to Albany, in exchange for $2,500. She wanted the money to buy furniture for her apartment and to put on Thanksgiving dinner for her large extended family.
Ms. Bartletts participation in the drug trade turned out to be a complete set up; she didnt know that the person who asked her to transport the cocaine was a police informant in need of filling a quota for drug-related arrests. After her release, Bartlett was determined to stop her familys downward cycle of imprisonment and impoverishment. The stark reality of her familys dysfunction, poor health and insecurity that Bartlett had to face upon her release is, well, enough to make an empathetic person cry. Multiply her situation by hundreds of thousands of times, and it becomes much easier to understand the horrific impact of structural violence on the vulnerable, whatever their skin color or ethnic identity.
Much of this imprisonment associated with the War on Drugs punishes those engaging in self-medication with street drugs. A much more compassionate approach is to provide mental health services to drug users to help them achieve greater mental wellbeing and resilience. As a nation of compassionate people, we have to find a way to consistently treat drug-use as an illness, not a crime. One important way to do so is through integration of former addicts into society through increasing employment opportunities and ensuring they are away from poor negative environments which might lead to continued abuse.
In her seminal work, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander, convincingly demonstrates that at its core, the War on Drugs was political. It introduced a way to disenfranchise African Americans. This is because in many states, a felony conviction deprives the felon of the right to vote. One in 13 African Americans of voting age is disenfranchised, a rate more than four times greater than that of non-African Americans. Over 7.4 percent of the adult African American population is disenfranchised compared to 1.8 percent of the non-African American population, according to the Sentencing Project.
The War on Drugs that accelerated in the 1980s focused overwhelmingly on punishing those using and trading in cocaine and crack cocaine, especially targeting African Americans. With the current widespread problem of opioid addiction especially by whites, there is a growing acknowledgment that drug addiction can stem from underlying mental health disorders. Lets use this acknowledgement to define addiction, no matter the drug, as a health issue challenge and not as a crime. This will require substituting the phase War on Drugs with public health language such as drug abuse epidemic.
It is not enough for Americans to reject the white supremacist groups mentioned above; it is critical that we Americans, including those of European descent like me, embrace all our children regardless of the color of our skin or economic class. Social justice and human decency require that we put behind us the we and they identities that tolerate structural violence against the other.
Important reforms have been taken to repeal or reduce mandatory sentencing requirements because of the skyrocketing costs of imprisonment. A truly compassionate approach requires an accelerated effort to reduce the size of our prison population out of concern for the victims of structural violence. It also means that we need to implement a robust system of mental health support for its many, many victims and strong supportive programs to help those who have been victimized by structural violence to become more economically and socially resilient members of society.
Important moves in this direction were made during the past administration, but much more criminal justice reform is in order. The higher punishments for crack cocaine that disproportionately penalized African Americans were reduced. The administration urged people to think about drug addiction as a health issue instead of a criminal issue. In addition, the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana by state governments is contributing to smaller prison populations and saving the taxpayers money that would otherwise be spent on the criminal-justice system.
Its possible to work across party lines to achieve further reform. The first step is not to engage in blaming for past misdeeds, but rather to recruit support for present-day rectifications. Republican Senator Rand Paul and Democratic Senator Kamala Harris are showing us the possibility of a bipartisan way forward. Paul and Harris argue that the requirement that defendants provide some cash to get bail and earn their release keeps hundreds of thousands of defendants behind bars awaiting trial on minor charges because they cannot afford to get out. They call it one of the most inequitable aspects of the criminal-justice system. Power to their efforts that serve as example of how we can overcome structural violence working together for the common good.
Gregory Alonso Pirio earned an M.A. in African Studies and a Ph.D. in African History from UCLA. His dissertation was entitled, Commerce, Industry and Empire: The Making of Modern Portuguese Colonialism in Angola and Mozambique, 1890-1914. He is also author of The African Jihad: Bin Ladens Quest for the Horn of Africa (Trenton: Red Sea Press, 2008). Dr. Pirio was editor of Rebuilding Shattered Nations and Lives: Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development in Africa (UNHCR, 2009), for which he wrote the introduction, African Conflicts in Historical Perspective. He has published and produced studies on numerous topics, including on media issues, Pan-Africanism, global health, African conflicts and terrorism.
Related video added by Juan Cole:
Democracy Now! Deandre Harris Was Savagely Beaten by White Supremacists in Virginia. Why Only Two Arrests So Far?
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By Mike Eckel | ( RFE/RL ) |
WASHINGTON Russias Foreign Ministry said that U.S. law enforcement officials intend to search its San Francisco consulate and some diplomatic residences, and it complained the U.S. demands were posing a direct threat to its citizens.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement posted September 1 that unnamed U.S. agencies plan to conduct the search on September 2, following the State Departments announcement this week ordering the consulate and two other trade annexes in New York and Washington closed.
Related video added by Juan Cole:
Why Was The Russian Consulate In San Francisco Burning? | All In | MSNBC
A State Department official would not immediately comment on whether any searches were planned or had been requested by U.S. law enforcement.
But in an e-mail to RFE/RL, the official said the U.S. order to close the facility as of September 2 meant Russia could no longer use it for diplomatic, consular, or residential purposes.
The facilities will be closed, and entry or access to the properties will be granted only with permission of the Department of State. The State Department will secure and maintain the properties in keeping with our responsibilities, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A senior U.S. administration official made similar comments to reporters on August 31, suggesting that U.S. law enforcement would potentially have access to the building as needed.
At this any facility, that is that they continue to own that is not recognized as a diplomatic annex, there the only authorized activities would be the protection and maintenance of the property, said the official, who also spoke on condition that he or she would not be named.
Calls and e-mails to the Justice Department were not immediately returned.
A man who answered a Russian Embassy emergency telephone line responded when asked by RFE/RL what was happening: No, no. Theres nothing going there. Dont be afraid.
Not long after the Foreign Ministry statement was issued, black smoke was seen billowing from a chimney at the consulate, prompting a response from San Francisco firefighters. A department spokeswoman later told the Associated Press that the consulate had a fire going in the fireplace and that unidentified items were being burned.
Late on September 1, AP reported that workers at the San Francisco consulate started hauling boxes out of the building to meet the September 2 deadline for evacuating the consulate.
The statement from Zakharova complained that the move amounted to a violation of diplomatic protocol and immunity and echoed comments earlier on September 1 from Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, who said the U.S. order amounted to a hostile takeover.
The demands of the U.S. authorities create a direct threat to the safety of Russian citizens, she said.
In announcing the closure order, the State Department said it was made in the spirit of parity invoked by the Russians a reference to the order by Moscow last month that the number of U.S. diplomatic personnel in Russia should be drastically cut.
Russia on July 28 said the number of U.S. personnel in Russia must be cut to 455 people by September 1, which President Vladimir Putin said meant cutting 755 people. Officials said that demand was Moscows response to a U.S. law strengthening sanctions over issues including Moscows alleged interference in last years presidential election.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on September 1 blamed Washington for the exchange of punitive diplomatic steps, but avoided specifically blaming President Donald Trump or his administration.
President Trump continues to say the same, and President Putin has expressed his interest many times, but this should be a two-way street based on mutual respect, Lavrov said.
The shuttering of the San Francisco facility will leave Russia with its embassy in Washington and three consulates in Seattle, Houston, and New York City.
The United States has its embassy in Moscow and consulates in St. Petersburg, the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, and the Pacific port of Vladivostok.
While Moscow forced a large cut in U.S. diplomatic staff, Russia will not be required to reduce its embassy staff in the United States despite the consulate and annex closures, and the United States does not intend to expel any of the staff who are displaced by those closures, the senior U.S. administration official said.
In December, then-President Barack Obama announced the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and the seizure of two diplomatic compounds in the United States in response to what U.S. intelligence officials said was a campaign of cyberattacks and propaganda to undermine the U.S. electoral system and weaken Trumps Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Via RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |
Extreme weather is in our future. Caribbean hurricanes of the future will be more and more violent and destructive because of manmade global heating. Sea level rise will open the coast to bigger storm surges. The number of coastal floods has already doubled since the 1980s because of people driving their gasoline cars and running their air conditioners off burning lumps of coal. Hotter air over hotter water will have more moisture in it, setting the stage for regular flooding. Hotter water creates more powerful winds within hurricanes.
So the bad news is that a fossil fuel energy system does not deal well with extreme weather.
Even just by Thursday, Harvey had shut down so many oil refineries that it had taken 20% of daily US gasoline production off line. By Friday it was being announced that so many refineries had been damaged that the major pipeline that brings 3 million barrels a day to the east coast, had been shut down. Altogether, 4.4 mn b/d of refinery capacity is off line now. About half a million barrels a day of refining capacity will remain shut down well into next winter.
Reuters quoted a market analyst as saying, Imports cant make up for this. . . This is going to be the worst thing the U.S. has seen in decades from an energy standpoint.
Not only is gasoline going to be more expensive as a result, but the pollution dangers from the damaged refineries are horrific.
But guess what? Texass wind turbines weathered Harvey. Some were pushed to the max by its powerful winds, but they just went on making electricity! Turbines shut down if the wind is 55 mph or more, but most wind farms affected by Harvey were able to keep operating. One shut down because the electrical wires were knocked down, not because the turbines stopped working!. On an average day, Texas gets 20% of its electricity from wind. That only fell to 13% the day of Harveys landfall.
Harvey also menaced a nuclear reactor, a la Fukushima, but we dodged that bullet this time.
Nuclear reactors no longer make any sense, and they remain dangerous and vulnerable to extreme weather events. Even if wind turbines did get damaged by a storm, they dont explode or spread around radioactive fallout.
Duke Energy has just abandoned plans for a nuclear reactor and is instead putting $6 bn into solar and wind.
So it turns out that not only would a rapid turn to 100% green energy, as California plans, forestall further global heating, it can help keep us safe during the extreme weather caused by . . . burning fossil fuels in the first place.
The problem of fossil fuels and global heating is only going to get worse. The National Institutes of Health warns,
The public health impacts of climate change in U.S. Gulf Coast statesTexas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Floridamay be especially severe and further exacerbated by a range of threats facing the coastline areas, including severe erosion, subsidence, andgiven the amount of energy production infrastructurethe ever-present potential for large-scale industrial accidents. The Gulf Coast population is expected to reach over 74 million by 2030 with a growing number of people living along the coastlines. Populations in the region that are already vulnerable because of economic or other disparities may face additional risks to health . . . The Gulf region is expected to experience increased mean temperatures and longer heat waves while freezing events are expected to decrease. Regional average temperatures across the U.S. Southeast region (which includes Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, North and South Carolina as well as the Gulf Coast) are projected to increase between 4 F to 8 F (2.2 C to 4.4 C) throughout the century. Hurricanes and sea level rise, occurring independently or in combination with hurricane-induced storm surge, are major threats to the Gulf Coast region [11]. Some portions of the Gulf Coastparticularly coastal Louisiana and South Floridaare especially vulnerable to sea level rise due to their low elevation.
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Related video:
CBS: Pumps running empty after Hurricane Harvey shuts down oil refineries
The Dodgers have designated outfielder (and partially converted pitcher) Brett Eibner and lefty Luis Ysla for assignment, per a club announcement. With Grant Dayton heading to the 60-day DL after undergoing Tommy John surgery, the club cleared the way for several September promotions.
As expected, top prospect Alex Verdugo and veteran Andre Ethier will both make their way onto the active roster. The former will be joined by first baseman/outfielder OKoyea Dickson in appearing in the majors for the first time. Ethier is headed back to the bigs for the first time this season after an extended DL stint.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles also announced that Clayton Kershaw has been activated from the 10-day DL. Outfielder/first baseman Rob Segedin like Dickson, a potential righty bench bat has also been recalled from optional assignment.
The scripture, Hebrew 13: 3 changed her perception about society and inspired her to put smiles on the faces of inmates for the past decade.
It reads: (Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body).
This became the foundation stone for the Angel-Zoe Foundation, which caters for prison inmates. She tells anyone who wants to go into philanthropy to be passionate and strategically minded.
Mrs. Abena Asomani Antwi, founder of the Angle-Zoe Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and a member of the Adenta branch of Action Chapel, shares her work as a philanthropist with The Spectator.
Her passion to put smiles on the faces of the incarcerated has won her awards such as the National Youth Achievers Award for Advocacy, MTN Heroes of Change Award for Social Protection, Glitz Woman of the Year for Advocacy, among others.
Currently, she is a member of the Governing Council of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and an Advisory Board Member of Innohub, an Investment company.
She also runs other consultancy services in customer care.
Angle-Zoe Foundation
Abena said she felt the need to support the vulnerable.
She, therefore, visited the former Borstal Home (now Senior Correctional Centre) to find out conditions there. She was dismayed at the poor conditions in the home, especially regarding feeding and facilities.
Abena began using part of her salary to buy provisions and toiletries for inmates at the home and other adult prisons in the country.
At the prisons the inmates started calling me Angel, due to the timely support and compassion for them, she said.
Thereafter, she came across the word, Zoe, which meant the transformational power of God. She considered it apt as part of her work and organised Christmas party for about 1000 prison inmates, with support from the defunct UT Bank.
Plans for her foundation
Abena, who is so passionate about the needy, has the hope of expanding her philanthropy by scouting for new prisons, enrolling some inmates into schools, and supporting the training of Prison officers.
In addition, she wants to reach out to mental health inmates who have been abandoned by their families.
Though the country is trying to achieve universal health coverage through the National Health Insurance, a lot remains to be done, she revealed.
Challenges
According to her, mobilising resources to assist the inmates remained a herculean task for most NGOs.
According to her, there was too much stigma associated with prison inmates which makes people reluctant to support their cause.
Additionally, she noted that NGOs do not collaborate and mentioned lack of synergies among them. She called for partnership on some projects they undertake.
Her desire is that the country would soon embrace non-custodial sentences for inmates.
Educational background
A wife, mother, philanthropist and businesswoman, Abena was born and raised in Kumasi.
She commenced her basic education at St. Johns Preparatory School and then continued to KNUST JHS, and later to Aburi Girls Senior High School.
She pursued BSc in Planning (Policy Analysis option) at KNUST, and later proceeded to University of Lincoln to study Management. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD in Health Economics at the University of Lille in France.
Work experience
Abena worked with Kapital Radio in Kumasi soon after senior high school as a receptionist. Though her father was not enthused about it, she went on to become the host of a programme dubbed Candle light.
At Kapital Radio, Miss Universe was introduced, and as someone registering the contestants, she was encouraged by ace broadcaster, Kafui Dey to be part of the audition.
Luckily, she was selected and competed with now Second Lady, Samira Bawumia, among others.
She later worked at Ernst &Young Ghana, then to Access Bank. She moved on to become the Deputy Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Environment, and later as a consultant to the Ministry of Health to coordinate the World Food Programme.
Parents and siblings
Mr Charles Asomani and Mrs Veronica Asomani are her parents. She has three siblings, Nana Adwoa, Yaa Konadu Preprah and Ama Asiedu, all married.
Angel Abena is married to Mr Kojo Antwi Odame, with whom she has three biological children and two adopted ones.
Hobbies, favourite food and music
Abenas hobbies are reading, writing, watching television, cooking and dancing. She loves anything with ripe plantain.
She enjoys gospel music and admires Kwabena Kwabena, Becca, Bisa and Sarkodie.
Producers and distributors of local movies, popularly known as Kumawood say the industry has collapsed.
Most of the producers have stopped producing movies and converted their shops into selling mobile phones, electrical gadgets and decoders among other products.
Investigations by The Spectator revealed that most of the producers have stopped producing movies for the past two years.
They used to sell over 100,000 copies of movies, but, currently, it is difficult for them to sell even 5,000 copies.
Some of the producers interviewed by The Spectator attributed the collapse of the industry to the sale of movies as cheap as GH200 to television stations, the influx of digital television, showing of telenovelas at prime time, lack of funding from government and guidelines to streamline movie production, coupled with poor copyrights protection systems among others.
The Chief Executive Officer of K Obouba Movie Production, Isaac Ofori Brimpong, who sells electronic gadgets in addition to few CDs now, and has 19 years of experience in the movie industry, said stalwarts in the industry, including himself had stopped producing, because it was no more lucrative.
He said local television stations which assisted to show movies at a cheaper rate later went for telenovelas from other countries which had collapsed the industry.
I will not say the industry is being destroyed. It has collapsed totally. It is dead, he emphasized, adding that We should reduce the frequency with which we produce movies, and get competent people to lead the industry,
The Executive Member of the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG) and owner of PaulGee Productions, Paul Adjei, who used to sell over 100, 000 copies of movies said he now sells less than 6000 copies.
According to him, he used to produce movies worth $60,000, when the industry was vibrant, but today, the story was different.
Speaking to this reporter, Mr Adjei, who has about 15 years of experience in the movie circles said the industry was sinking, adding that, it was difficult to get loans from banks to Pre-finance.
He bemoaned the lack of theatres in the various districts to encourage premiering of movies across the country.
Baffour Awuah of Baffour Awuah Production, who produced the likes of Agya Koo Sakawa, Agyakoo Trotro, and has about 40 movies to his credit, said most of the producers were out of business.
I used to sell six different movies in a year, but I have stopped now. I dont even remember the last time someone sold about 5,000 copies, he said.
I dont totally agree with those attributing the fall of the industry to insults in movies. It is the reality, if you see bad things in movies, dont emulate it, he noted.
Yaw Owusu Ansah of Liberty Film Production was optimistic that the industry would bounce back if those foreign contents are reduced, adding that he had not produced any movie within the last two years.
Charles Boateng of Antwi and Ceeboat Ventures fame, who has over 20 years of experience in the movie industry, maintained that The industry has collapsed. We need a lot of help. When the Broadcasting Bill is passed, it can alleviate our plight and encourage more local content, he said.
Charles Afreh Sika, Cedee Movie Production, and a distributor, Hayford Adjei shared the same sentiments.
Prominent actor, who most people refer to as the face of Kumawood, Kwadjo Nkansah, affectionately referred to as Lil Wayne, on his part said, Life cannot be rosy all the time, I will say the dumsor and relocation of the distributors from Kejetia as a result of the construction of the market worried us, he said.
According to him, though telenovelas were part of the woes facing the industry, there were other issues such as hate for the industry.
He said some producers used their family and friends, instead of using characters who have the merit.
Lil Wayne called for good directors and better costumes to enhance the quality of movies.
Akwesi Boadi, known as Akrobeto, said there were seasons when industries or institutions faced challenges and the movie industry was not an exception.
He was however optimistic that steps would be taken to revamp the industry.
President Nana Akufo-Addo is encouraging Muslim parents to ensure that their children, especially girls, are enrolled and made to stay in school.
According to him, that will help address challenges such as poverty and disease in their communities.
President Akufo-Addo made the comment in his speech at the national celebration of this years Eid-ul Adha at the Independence Square in Accra.
He said Muslim parents must take girl child education seriously.
I cannot end my statement without urging the education of the Muslim girl or woman. We must take the education of the girl child seriously he said, adding that we shall be perpetuating, ignorance, poverty, and disease if the trainers of generations of Ghanaians remain uneducated.
While urging the Muslim community to embrace the governments Free Senior High School education program, Akufo-Addo explained that Ghanaians will be in a better place to practice their religion if educated.
The prophet Mohammed is reported to have said that 'knowledge is the last property of the believer, let him or her find it wherever he or she will.' I believe the Muslim should embrace this policy because it allows the fulfillment of prophetic admonishment.
We are in a better place to practice our religion if we are educated. The free Senior High School policy eliminates one of the major barriers to seeking secondary education; poverty. It is my fervent belief that it is an educated population that can accelerate the development of our country, he said.
He also said the free SHS policy will help parents who hitherto could not afford school fees due to poverty to enroll their wards.
The Free SHS programme, scheduled to start in September 2017, will ensure that government absorbs the full cost of public secondary education.
Under the free SHS policy, beneficiaries will not have to pay admission fees, library fees, science centre fees, computer lab fees, examination fees and utility fees, according to the government.
The free SHS policy will also cover agricultural, vocational and technical institutions at the secondary school level.
The Member of Parliament for Weija-Gbawe Constituency, who is also Deputy Minister for Health, under the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led administration on Friday wished all Muslims in and out of her constituency well in all their endeavours as they commemorate Eid-Ul-Adha.
Hon. Tina Naa Ayeley Mensah in a statement filed from her office and signed by her wishes all Muslims in Weija-Gbawe Constituency and the country at large a happy and a peaceful celebration. She therefore underscored the importance for the celebration of Eid-Ul-Adha.
According to her, Eid-Ul-Adha is celebrated to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim to offer his son, Ishmael as a gesture of obedience to Allah, therefore Muslims in Ghana and cross the globe should emulate the unconditional obedience displayed by Ibrahim. She added that when people obey rules and authority, our societies will be a safe place for all to live.
The illustrious Member of Parliament who has achieved so much in just 7 months into Parliament as first timer, seized the opportunity of the occasion to advise her brothers and sisters who belong to the Islam faith to exercise some form of restraint in their attempt to have fun to crown the celebration of the festival.
She said, Prophet Mohammed is a peace loving person hence the meaning of Islam, therefore all Muslims must seek peace with their neighbours for full attainment of Allahs blessing for their homes, families and lives. She was of the opinion that Islam is one of the finest religion, so the people who share the faith must allow the doctrine to show in their way of life.
She pleaded with Muslims who holds ill opinions about this years Hajj in Saudi Arabia to let them go, since the human system cannot guarantee perfection accept the Almighty Allah. She was however optimistic that next years Hajj will be wonderful and the blessing thereafter will be in many folds.
Kosmos Energy has announced the three agric-focused enterprises as winners of the Kosmos Innovation Center (KIC) AgriTech Challenge.
After nine months of the competition, six business teams emerged with viable concepts worth supporting for development.
Kosmos Energy will provide US$50,000 in seed funding to two of these businesses, as well as sponsor them through a twelve-month incubation period at the Meltwater School of Technology (MEST) where they will learn how to turn their ideas into profitable businesses. The KIC selected teams are:
AgroInnova, with its product 'AKOKOTAKRA', is an enterprise mobile and web-based management system that enables poultry farmers to record, monitor, and track their operations in real time. With this innovative and comprehensive tool, poultry farm managers will have their farms at their fingertips for more effective and efficient operations. Their product will help poultry farmers in Ghana monitor and grow their businesses.
QualiTrace has developed a product to authenticate, track, and trace crop protection products used by farmers to increase their yields. Using a mobile validation system, the product aims to ensure that farmers and consumers in Ghana can identify genuine farm inputs and quality food produce. This tool will also help to thwart counterfeiting agricultural inputs in Ghana, a problem that accounts for the loss of about $1.5 trillion globally on annual basis.
In addition to the winners of the AgriTech Challenge, four other promising business teams who competed will be funded or supported by KIC partners:
Unlimited, which provides simple livestock management software, called AniTrack, that identifies and tracks the health status of individual livestock through RFID technology, is being funded by the Meltwater School of Technology and Entrepreneurship (MEST)
Complete Farmer, which provides agribusiness solutions services for an identified niche market of individuals through a practical, personalised and customised farming experience, is being funded by the Premium Bank of Ghana, with incubation sponsored by Kosmos
Agroseal, which is a logistics and transportation service company providing a platform which connects aggregators of fruits and vegetables to large scale farmers for timely truck service, is partnering with AgroCenta which uses an online platform that connects smallholder farmers directly to a wider online market to sell their commodities. Agrocenta found success when they participated in KIC's market research, skills training and capacity building program.
Rent-a-farm, which provides an agricultural land rental marketplace for renters who want to access arable land, is partnering CompleteFarmer to complement the company's agribusiness solutions services.
The winners were selected from the more than 400 young entrepreneurs who applied to be a part of the 2017 AgriTech Challenge, out of which 200 were shortlisted and interviewed, with a final 106 forming 25 businesses (teams) to compete for the ultimate prize.
Commenting on the successful program, Kosmos Energy vice president and country manager Joe Mensah said: The second AgriTech Challenge succeeded beyond our expectations, with all six finalist business teams receiving funding or other support from the Kosmos Innovation Center and its partners.
The quality of the teams, their entrepreneurial spirit, and the potential of their business ideas is a testament to the work everyone at the Kosmos Innovation Center has done in its short history. We look forward to similar success in the future with the AgriTech Challenge and our new acceleration program, which is aimed at helping established small and mid-sized businesses reach the next stage of growth.
We look forward to similar success in the future with the AgriTech Challenge and our new acceleration program, which is aimed at helping established small and mid-sized businesses reach the next stage of growth.
The Minister for food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto who attended the function indicated that encouraging the youth to go into Agricuture through the use of technological innovation is commendable
the goal of the Kosmos Innovation Center is to harness the youth to leverage information, communication, and technology (ICT) and innovation to solve some of the country's development problems, the choice of agriculture as your first focus sector, and particularly blazing the trail in nurturing and creating E-Agribusiness in Ghana must be commended! he said.
This intervention is timely and appropriate as the sector increasingly requires an infusion of new life to attract our youth to find their space within the agricultural value chain, he further stated.
Harare (AFP) - Zimbabwean first lady Grace Mugabe on Friday made her first public comments since facing assault allegations in South Africa, but she avoided any mention of the incident two weeks ago.
President Robert Mugabe's wife was granted diplomatic immunity by South Africa after she was accused of attacking a 20-year-old model at an upmarket Johannesburg hotel.
Speaking at a rally in the Zimbabwean city of Gweru, she described her 93-year-old husband as a "prophet" for other African leaders and said he would retire when he "feels his body is no longer able to keep up".
Grace Mugabe, 52, is alleged to have assaulted Gabriella Engels with an electrical extension cable at the hotel where the Mugabes' two sons, who are in their 20s, were staying.
South African model Gabriella Engels was allegedly assaulted by Zimbabwe First Lady Grace Mugabe
Engels suffered cuts to her forehead and the back of her head during the alleged August 13 assault.
President Mugabe, who also spoke at Friday's rally, is due to stand for re-election next year.
He has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980 in an era marked by repression of dissent, mass emigration and sharp economic decline since land reforms in 2000.
The Observer Missions that called Kenya's election free and fair have become a laughing stock in the country after a historic Supreme Court decision that annulled the results.
Kenyan journalist Rosaline Bala of the Standard Group said one of the judges called into question the composition of observer groups and its leading personalities.
Observer missions in Kenya for the August 8 general elections included the US group Carter Center led by former US Secretary of State John Kerry and the African Union Election Observer Mission (AUEOM) led by former South Africa President Thabo Mbeki.
There was also the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) headed by General Hassan Bushra of Sudan while Former President John Mahama headed the Commonwealth Observer Mission.
All the missions called the elections free and fair.
Their testimonies were used by lawyers for Uhuru Kenyatta during the election petition in which his arch rival Raila Odinga called for an annulment.
In a historic judgement Friday, the Supreme Court of Kenya has ordered a re-run in 60 days.
Speaking on Joy News, Rosaline Bala said the opposition camp of Raila Odinga feels justified in their view that President John Mahama's close friendship with Kenya President Kenyatta makes him unfit for the post as head of the mission.
"He shouldn't have been given the duty to lead observer mission," the journalist conveyed some sentiments from Kenya.
Former President Mahama and Kenya President share a friendship that has proven enduring. Uhuru Kenyatta was the Special guest of honour at Ghana's 59th Independence Day Celebration in 2016.
Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com
New York, September 1, 2017--The office of President Paul Biyaannounced August 30 that Cameroon is ending criminal proceedings against those detained during unrest in the country's two English-speaking regions.
Atia Tilarious Azohnwi, political editor of The Sun, Tim Finnian, editor of Life Time magazine, and Hans Achomba, a freelance documentary filmmaker, are among those released from jail in Yaounde last night, their families and colleagues told CPJ. Achomba and Finnian were arrested in January, and Azohnwi was jailed in February. All three faced trial by military tribunal under Cameroon's anti-terror law.
"We welcome the release of Cameroonian journalists Atia Tilarious Azohnwi, Tim Finnian, and Hans Achomba, but they should never have been jailed in the first place," said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal.
"We urge President Paul Biya to free other journalists jailed under the anti-terror law, including RFI correspondent Ahmed Abba, and to end authorities' abuse of the legislation to crackdown on critical voices and those reporting on unrest."
President Biya's Chief Scribe, Ferdiband Ngoh Ngoh signed a release on August 30, 2017, discontinuing legal hearings against scores of Southern Cameroons activists at the Yaounde military court and other courts.
For 10 months many Southern Cameroon activists were kidnapped and detained in Yaounde allegedly for terrorism and treason.
Many legal minds argued that there was no evidence supporting such charges.
After months of presenting people who barely hearkened to their fundamental rights enshrined in Cameroon's constitution and other international charters, Biya yielded to national and international pressure to unconditionally release all.
Questions are asked whether it is clemency or amnesty. Whatever! It is clear the State of Cameroun could not have its day in court against the accused.
Dozens of voices opposed to freedom and human rights have been heard congratulating Biya for his magnanimity releasing the activists.
We cannot just let a dictatorial regime walk away with such human rights abuses.
We cannot allow Biya and his gang walk away with such human frights abuses because it sets a terrible precedence and normalizes killing, rape, torture and gagging the wretched people of the earth.
It is unpardonable to rape young children, kill the youth and maim them. Whoever kills youths, kills the future; whoever rapes youths rapes the future and whoever maims the youth maims the future.
The monsters, all in their 80s could be heard saying their decision to discontinue hearings against the activists was to honour their own part of the bargain and Anglophone youths should be allowed to return to school.
It is a stitch too late as the whole fabric of the nation has collapsed. Even the Francophones are already positioning themselves, albeit, in cowardice to also taste from the Anglo filled chalice of freedom. Hopefully, their comfort, though slaves themselves, in the house of the master leaves them serene enough to decipher all the hallmarks of freedom.
Some of these frogs openly accuse their brothers of West Cameroon of trying to abandon them. If they could stand the hit of the kitchen, so let them be.
Many of these frogs came to West Cameroon brought by German evangelists and administrators or were forced in the 1950s when reprisals against UPC supporters erupted. They came to West Cameroon because they enjoyed our freedom and sense of autonomy. The the parents of Zackary Nkwo, Peter Esoka, Prof Victor Julius Ngoh, the Late Charles Nama and Michael Nama and John Lambo Ake all came to West Cameroon for freedom, justice and equal opportunities.
Because of these opportunities, Professor Peter Ntamark, Prof John Lambo, Prof Gottlieb Monekosso, Prof Victor Julius Ngoh and Martin Njeuma emerged. Left in their local Manguissa, Bassa and Mbouda, these icons of Cameroon would never have blossomed.
Today's generation of Anglophones simply wish to return to the ideal anglophone nation the parents of these ELEVENTH region citizens admired. Those who came from other regions certainly saw something good to cherish and live with. Instead of fearing the worst in our departure from the house of bondage, they should accompany us in reenacting that past.
Welcome freedom!!!
You cannot mend a fragile fabric. The thread you bring might be too strong for the decayed seams and would just rupture the whole fabric.
We have passed the clamour for federation for it is unworkable in a game where the rules keep changing and the goalpost is permanently shifted.
Only a master juggler can handle four constitutions at the same time. Cameroon is governed by four constitutions; the 1960 constitution of Cameroun; the 1961 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Cameroon; the 1972 Unitary Constitution abrogated by Biya in 1984 and reverting to the 1960 Constitution; and the 1996 Constitution. All these constitutions are still referred to whenever it suits the Head of State.
West Cameroon has suspended its identity and aspirations for 56 years. That was suicide. We must resurrect!!!!!!
Baroness Patricia Scotland, the Secretary General of the Commonwealth has praised Mr John Mahama and the Commonwealth Observer group for the commendable way it observed the recent elections in Kenya.
Speaking on BBC, the Secretary General said the members of group perfectly executed the role assigned them by the Commonwealth Secretariat.
She said accusations that the group and other observer groups did not present accurate report about the recently held elections in Kenya per the supreme court ruling are unfounded.
She said observer groups perform specific roles which are different from duties electoral commissions are mandated by their constitutions to perform.
She said basically, the Commonwealth observer group assess whether an election is in line with international standard, highlight specific recommendations for improvement, and demonstrate the support of the international community for genuine democratic elections.
She said the Commonwealth observer group led by former President Mahama, Excellently performed the role assigned it and the methods the group adopted are clearly defined in the declaration of principles for
international election observation.
She said issues concerning electoral technicalities such as transfer of votes, Issues about the server log etc were handled by the electoral commission.
She said the constitution of Kenya mandates its electoral commission to perform certain specific duties which are technically different from what the observer group was assigned to do in Kenya.
She advised, people making conclusive statements about the election based on the supreme courts ruling to wait for the full judgement (report).
She said all the constitution of Kenya guarantees aggrieved parties or persons to seek for legal redress and that point was clearly made by Former President John Mahama in his post elections statement.
This was what President Mahama said in his final statement "If there are still issues, then candidates can take the issue to the COURTS" Asked if she still have confidence in the team the Commonwealth dispatched to Kenya per the supreme Court's ruling, she said she has absolute confidence in the team.
Voters exercised their franchise without intimidation, votes were freely counted, there were no incidence of box snatching and other negative practices recorded in previous elections.
For the first time in Kenyan elections all the competing parties and other stakeholders adhered strictly to all the
guidelines.
The full list of Commonwealth observers is:
Chairperson:
His Excellency John Dramani Mahama
Former President of the Republic of Ghana
Members: (in alphabetical order of nationality)
Ms Natasha Stott Despoja
Former Ambassador, Senator and Party Leader
Australia
Professor Pierre Moukoko Mbonjo
Former Minister of External Relations
Cameroon
Mr Christopher Cobb
Journalist/Electoral Communication Specialist
Canada
Ms Pauline Welsh,
Director of Legal Affairs
Electoral Commission of Jamaica
Mrs Nana Asantewa Afadzinu
Executive Director, West Africa Civil Society
Institute
Ghana
Professor Aishah Bidin
Law Professor and Human Rights Commissioner
Malaysia
Mr Solomon Akintola Oyateru
Ambassador (Retired)
Nigeria
Hon Gideon Kayinamura
Ambassador (Retired)
Rwanda
Ms Angelique Pouponneau
Vice-Chairperson for Inclusion and Engagement
Commonwealth Youth Council
Seychelles
Mr Glen Mashinini
Chairperson/Commissioner
Electoral Commission of South Africa
Ms Elizabeth Lwanga King
Development Advisor
Uganda
Hon Canon Justice James Ogoola
Chairman
The Elders Forum of Uganda
Baroness Sandip Verma
Parliamentarian
United Kingdom
Hon Justice Damian Zefren Lubuva
Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice
and Justice at the Court of Appeal, and
Chairman of the National Electoral Commission
United Republic of Tanzania.
The Kuwaiti Ambassador to Ghana, His Excellency Mohammed Hussain Al-Failakawi, has been presented with the Humanity Magazine International Award for his contribution to the promotion of education in this country.
The honour done to Ambassador Hussain Al-Failakawi was in recognition of his tireless efforts in supporting educational endeavours in Ghana and other parts of Africa, which is at the heart of his countrys bilateral relations with the continent.
A certificate of honour presented to the envoy by the Publisher of Humanity Magazine International, Mr. YahayaAlhassan, said the award was in recognition of your Excellencys unprecedentedsupport for education in Ghana.
Mr. Alhassan told the media in an interview after the presentation ceremony in Accra that the award was also to acknowledge the Ambassadors efforts in promoting sound friendly relations between the Government of Ghana and the Government of Kuwait.
May Allah bless His Excellency and the good Kuwaiti Government for their continue care for the continent the certificates contains.
Mr. Alhassan revealed that the Board of Governors decided to recognize the contributions of Ambassador Hussain Al-Failakawiand the Government of Kuwait to serve as shining example of bilateral relations that bring mutual benefits to all parties involved.
The Humanity Magazine International campaigns for the promotion of corporate investments and businesses to ensure employment creation to benefit the youthful citizens of Africa.
We are optimistic that a strong partnership between businesses in Africa, especially in Ghana and their counterparts in Kuwait and other parts of the world would go a long way to ensure that such businesses expand and create unimaginable job opportunities he said.
Mr Alhassan added that the magazine alsoaims at promoting quality leadership by recognising the contributions of managers of public and private institutions, and the achievementsof diplomats to serve as shining examples for othersto emulate.
Ambassador Mohammed Hussain Al-Failakawi was grateful to the Humanity Magazine International for the recognition and he agreed that promoting diplomatic and business relations between his country and Ghana would ensure mutual benefits.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) says governments free SHS programme might be undermined if issues relating to funds are not addressed before it is rolled out.
The largest teaching body said the Education Ministry has refused to make funding available to the schools ahead of the arrival of fresh students, despite repeated calls.
Acting GNAT President, Philippa Larsen, told Joy News Ernest Manu heads of schools will be cash-strapped if the Ministry does not reconsider its position.
You know that in this particular package as soon as the students report you have to make sure they are accommodated, [and] are made comfortable in terms of feeding so a certain percentage [say] 20 or 30 could be released, she said.
Related Article: Free SHS takes off in 2 weeks as Akufo-Addo outdoors logo
The free SHS programme will be rolled out in September and hundreds of junior high school (JHS) students are expected to benefit from it.
Under the programme, first year students who qualified to the senior high secondary schools will not be charged admission, library, science centre, computer laboratory, examination and utilities fees.
The free SHS logo was launched on Thursday by the President, announcing government's preparedness to roll out the programme in the coming weeks.
But GNAT said the programme might not witness a smooth take-off as has been anticipated if some funds are not made available to schools to cater for some needs.
"The Education Minister said when the students report you have to submit a list of students before disbursement is made," Mrs Larsen lamented.
In his defense, the programme Coordinator, William Darkwah has explained some monies would be made available to the schools but not the entire package.
He said the Free SHS Secretariat wants to be convinced about the number of students the schools admit before the "bulk" of the money would be disbursed.
Meridian Ports Services, the company operating the container terminals at Tema port, has signed a purchase agreement with Shanghai Zhenhua at the ZPMC Head Quarters, Shanghai, as part of efforts to leverage cutting edge technology to promote efficient and timely container terminal services in Ghana.
The short but colourful ceremony saw the Chief Executive Officer of MPS, Mr Mohamed Samara, sign on behalf of MPS whilst the President of ZPMC, Mr Fred Huang, appending his signature on behalf of ZPMC.
By the terms of the agreement, Shanghai Zhenhua has to deliver 27 new gantry cranes for the new Tema Port Expansion. The purchase agreement covers the construction, delivery and commissioning of 7 units ship-to-shore (STS) container handling cranes and 20 units Electrical Rubber-Tyred-Gantry cranes (ERTG), including, but not limited to, training, spare parts, certificates, manuals and drawings to be provided pursuant to the Agreement.
The $82 million investment marks an enviable milestone in MPS effort to position Tema Port as one of the top container terminal operators in Africa. Indeed it is the largest single state-of-the-art container gantry cranes purchase in West Africa, a development that hands a great deal of boost to the Tema Port Expansion Project.
The Minister for Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, who led the Ghanaian delegation from Ghana Ports and Harbours (GPHA) and Meridian Port Services (MPS) to the signing ceremony, reiterated Ghana Governments commitment to improving efficiency, stress free and seamless port service system in the country.
While hinting at a number of initiatives in this direction, he noted The Government of Ghana has committed to creating an enabling environment for the private sector to invest and thrive. This is what has informed our decision to reduce the human interfaces, which has traditionally, served to impede speedy and seamless transactions at Ghanas ports.
The Minister indicated that ZPMCs operations was beyond the sale of cranes.
It is my hope that this signing ceremony will establish the foundation for ZPMC to set up a strategic cooperative partnership with our nation as we seek the continuous development of our seaport as well as the various sectors of our economy in the years to come, he added.
Mr Mohammed Samara, CEO of MPS, observed that the acquisition of the state-of the-art gantry cranes was demonstrative of MPS Shareholders (APM Terminals, Bollore Transport & Logistics and GPHA) readiness to ensure that the Tema port was adequately equipped and technologically positioned to manage the huge import and export traffic, which is expected to grow on the back of Ghanas steady socio-economic credentials in the sub-region.
Expressing optimism over the huge economic potential of the Tema port expansion, he noted The Tema Port is bound to be the first port of call for the major liner mother vessels. Shipping lines are already deploying the largest vessels that can dock along the West African routes; therefore, boosting the MPS port capacity and operational efficiency, will, undoubtedly, create new opportunities for the shipping lines at the Centre of the World.
Mr Paul Asare Ansah, the Director General of GPHA, highlighted Ghanas economic revolution over the past decade. He expressed delight over the tripling of the import and export volumes through the Tema Port, a development he predicts will continue.
GPHA has developed the Master Plan for the seaports in Ghana and while MPS will be implementing the container terminal inside the new Tema Port Expansion, there are other projects being perused by GPHA, he said.
The delegation toured the assembly lines of the STS Cranes, where they inspected and witnessed, at first hand, the various stages of the production in the factory and the massive 5 km long quay on the waterfront. There were about 100 STS Cranes being assembled in the impressive and vastly manpowered production lines of 16,000 workers.
Meanwhile, the preliminary preparations for MPS Cranes to enter its production cycle are at an advanced stage with delivery expected in December 2018.
Our attention has been drawn to reports on JOY FM and its other sister stations since Monday 28th August 2017, imputing wrongdoing in the award of contract to some subsidiaries of the JOSPONG GROUP with particular reference to the fact that the quoted sum of $74,040,000 is inflated. The inaccurate report carried by the Multimedia Group on its various platforms purported to be an investigation by your reporter Manasseh Azure Awuni is unfortunate.
We respond to the specific allegations as follows:
Allegation of Inflated price
That the price is inflated is misconceived and misleading. Firstly, this agreement is a Pre Financing and Credit Sale contract. The total number of waste bins to be supplied under the initiative is 1,000,000 at a supply rate of $60 per piece (to be paid at the prevailing Bank of Ghana interbank exchange rate) plus 900,000 (nine hundred thousand) pieces of Biodegradable Bin Liners at $15.60 per piece. The total contract sum of 74,040,000 United States Dollars was to be pre financed by the companies, which therefore allowed the Government of Ghana flexibility payment terms for a period of 24 months. Definitely a cash sale has different terms as compared to a credit sale.
Further to the production cost involved in the above, a major component of the contract is the transportation and distribution of the bins to households within the 216 districts in Ghana by the companies involved which has additional cost implications, and same was factored into the pricing. It should be noted, contrary to claims, the bins are durable; coming with a replacement warranty and a competitive price to the international market price.
Allegation of payment of the contract sum.
It must be placed on record that none of the five companies has supplied any item under the contract and neither has any payment been made by the Ministry of Local Government to the said companies.
3. The reports and statements in the Multimedia Group, authored by Manasseh Azure Awuni, to the effect that the contract price has been inflated in excess of one hundred and thirty million Ghana cedis (GH130,000,000.00) is, therefore, grossly misleading and unfortunate to say the least. Clearly, there was no wrong doing in the procurement or award of the contract.
4. Splashing pictures of waste bins
We wish to state categorically that the references made to waste bins in the district with pictures displayed online by Joy FM were meant to mislead the public that, because some assemblies have not distributed existing bins, there was no need for distributing the bins as required by the contract is unfortunate.
It should be noted that, The One million Bins Distribution Programme is meant to ensure that households in Ghana have bins to enhance waste management, disposal and collection in all communities. Currently, the lack of such bins in houses is leading to poor waste disposal and indiscriminate dumping of waste generated daily.
On the face of the evidence, we deem the publication in question by the Joy FM and Manaseh Azuri Awuni as malicious and calculated to tarnish the hard-won reputation of the Jospong Group, the Chief Executive and its subsidiaries.
Accordingly, we call on Joy FM and its sister stations to retract the defamatory statements made against the Jospong Group and the Chief Executive of the Jospong Group, Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, within three days upon receipt of this rejoinder, failing which the company may be constrained to take any further action that it deems appropriate without further recourse to the Multimedia Group.
You may kindly contact the undersigned for further clarification
Sophia Lissah
SIGNED
Group Head of Communication
Jospong Group of Companies
[email protected]group.com
Read mjoyonline story: Scandal! Waste bins contract to Jospong may be inflated by GHS130m
Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com
The Ghana office of Engage Now Africa (ENA), a development-focused non-governmental organisation, on August 30 launched this years International Literacy Day, coinciding with the official launch of its adult literacy campaign.
The launch of Engage Now Africa Literacy project at the International Press Centre in Accra is meant to officially unveil the organisatons relentless campaign to improve adult literacy in Ghana.
ENA, which present in Ghana and four other African countries Sierra Leone, Namibia, Uganda and Ethiopia has been a champion of numerous development initiatives since 2002 in a bid to help individuals, families, and communities to develop through education, provision of clean water, among others.
Speaking at the simultaneous launch of ENA Literacy project and the International Literacy Day, Ghana Director of ENA, Cecilia Amankwah, urged the government to spread internet connectivity across the country and invest in adult literacy.
For many, digital technologies provide better access to information and knowledge that used to be out of reach or costly, while facilitating the use of obtained information and knowledge. Digital technologies also enable host services including administrative, educational, health and agricultural ones to be delivered in a more accessible efficient way, she said.
Photo: Mrs Amankwah (L) and Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Elizabeth Sackey.
Mrs Amankwahs call fits into the theme for this years International Literacy Day, Literacy In a Digital World which is slated for September 8.
International Literacy Day, celebrated annually on 8 September, is an opportunity for Governments, civil society and stakeholders to highlight improvements in world literacy rates, and reflect on the world's remaining literacy challenges.
Literacy is a key component of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
ENA is operational in all ten regions of Ghana, but currently runs its adult literacy programmes in eight regions. The official launch of the literacy programme, according to Mrs Amankwah, signals moves to spread into the remaining two regions.
Related: Engage Now Africa makes further strides in adult literacy campaign
Related: Engage Now Africa seeks gov't, NGOs collaboration to train more adult literates
The ENA adult literacy project has a learner population of 5,487, comprising of 3,018 females and 2,469 males. More than 1,000 adult learners have already graduated with ENA literacy certificates.
Present at the launch of ENA Literacy project on Wednesday was Deputy Minister of Education, Barbara Ayisi, who stated governments resolve to reducing illiteracy figures across the country.
She notes that Ghanas socio-economic development lags behind with high illiteracy rate figures as those who can neither read nor write are unable to benefit from the opportunities presented by the digital information age.
Government of Ghana is working through various policies to change this trend, she said.
Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mrs Elizabeth Sackey, who delivered a short speech at the launch event lauded ENAs efforts and promised the support by her outfit.
Watch more in the video below
The Anti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Police Service, has arrested two suspected human traffickers in Accra.
Both are Nigerian women in their mid-twenties who were picked up by a Police Patrol Team after they were named by their victims.
Four of the victims, who are also Nigerian, have been rescued during a police patrol Wednesday. They were spotted by the Police at Abeka-Lapaz in Accra and are under police protection.
They said, they were brought into the country by the suspects with the promise that they will be engaged in domestic work.
But their traffickers forced them to engage in prostitution.
According to JoyNews Daniel Dadzie, before engaging in prostitution, their traffickers demanded armpit and pubic hair for rituals.
The rituals, he said, is meant to "bind them" to do prostitution.
Supt. Mike Baah of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit told JoyNews there is sufficient reason to suspect this was an organized crime which involved many other people.
Last March, two Nigerian women were also arrested by the police for allegedly trafficking six women from their country to Ghana, for prostitution.
The suspects, Ify Mba,33, and Amanda Eze Chioma, alias Faith, were reported to have told the victims from Abia, Delta,Enugu and Anamora states in Nigeria, aged between 21 and 26 years, that they were sending them to Germany and Dubai to be employed as househelps.
The leader of the gang, only identified as Angel, is on the run, and being sought by the police.
The suspects on arrival at Ghana, were said to have made their victims swear oath to engage in prostitution at some nightclubs at Baastona in Accra, and each was expected to pay 555,000,00 Naira (equivalent to $2,000) to the suspects.
President Nana Akufo Addo says he is expecting a smooth take off of the free senior high school policy despite anticipated problems.
In two weeks, new entrants to the Senior High School will enjoy tuition and other amenities free of charge.
It will be a fulfilment of a long held campaign promise made as far back as the 2008 elections.
The promise gathered momentum in the 2016 elections despite an attempt by the previous NDC government to implement the policy.
Having won the elections, the Nana Akufo-Addo government says it will not compromise on implementing the flagship policy despite a number of criticisms some of which came from within the government in power.
The president, at any given opportunity never fails to mention the policy and his obsession to execute it through his vibrant and energetic Education Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh.
During one of such programmes- the launch of a logo for the free education policy- President Akufo Addo said the government is determined to sustain the policy.
I hope all of us in Ghana can see the connection between that event and the where America is today as the economic power of the world. I believe if we understand that connection, we will all support this initiative, he said.
..If we understand that this is important not because a political party has made it a mantra and that the promise made is being fulfilled but because it goes to the heart of what we need to do to get our country going, he said.
Presidential correspondent Elton John Brobbey who was at the launch said apart from free tuition the president announced there will be no fees collected for the library, computers, utilities etc. There will also be a free hot meal for day students as well.
Education Minister in charge of tertiary institution, Dr Kwasi Yankah said the free education policy offers the needed equality in education needed for the future generation.
It will ensure a fair and just society where there is equality, he said.
According to him, there will be qualitative instructional materials as well as teacher motivation modules to make the project successful.
02.09.2017 LISTEN
The Transport Minister, Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, has announced government will oversee the building of the Takoradi Multi-purpose terminal.
The $370 million project is expected to be funded by Ghanaian private business men under a public private partnership arrangement.
The project, when completed will allow for servicing of all vessels used at the Takoradi Harbour.
There has been an ever increasing pace in marine transport technology across the world and with the new government poised to industrialise Ghanas economy, the need to improve Ghanas ports services has become even more crucial.
Announcing the multi-purpose terminal project in Takoradi, the Transport Minister Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah said the government will resist any attempt by international bodies to thwart their efforts.
He would not say exactly what attempts have been made by international bodies to stop the project but he was unequivocal, the Nana Akufo-Addo government will ensure Ghanas private business men are empowered to get the project done.
For the best time in the history of this country, Ghanaian private business men are going to build the Takoradi multi-purpose terminal as he promised with a sum of $370 million.
This is a promise that the government has given. Whatever it takes, the president is going to support the Ghanaian private business man to put up this facility.
No intimidation from any international organization will stop him from going ahead with this project, he assured.
The Minister gave the assurance in Takoradi during the commissioning of the offices of Prime Meridian Docks, a local Ghanaian Maritime Company who was partnering with some international agencies to construct a $60million floating Dock facility for the maintenance and repair of ships and oil rigs in Ghana.
Director General of the Ghana Ports and Habours Authority, Paul Asare Ansah said when the multi-purpose terminal is completed it will reduce cost of servicing of the countrys vessels.
At the moment he said almost all of the oil related vessels are serviced in Las Palmas or in South Africa.
This is going to help us build the required capacity to support the oil and gas capacity, he stated.
Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com
The Managing Director of Graphic Communications Group Ghana Limited, Ken Ashigbey, has described the governments decision to leverage the countrys mineral resources, especially, its bauxite to the Chinese in exchange for US$19billion as a wrong move.
According to him, in building a country where the unemployment rate, especially, among the youth, is so high, leveraging your mineral resources to a different country or foreign investors will be detrimental.
What will be good for the country, he noted, is to leverage the mineral resources to Ghanaian businessmen and women who have the money and are ready to invest it any sector to ensure that the rate of unemployment is reduced.
Speaking Monday, July 10, 2017, on Kasapa FM, Mr. Ashigbey said the government led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will not be wrong if it goes to the Ghana Stock Exchange to raise the needed capital for its priority or developmental projects, bearing in mind that whatever it gives in return will stay in the country.
If we are talking about leveraging our mineral resources to a foreign investor, we should leverage it to our own Ghanaian businessmen. The reason why Johannesburg has developed is that when it came to raising funds, the government went to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to raise those funds.
"So, it will not be far-fetched if our government leverages our mineral resources to our own businessmen. Whatever amount we need, we should go to the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) to raise it. This is what will bring about the needed transformation to our country. We cannot continue to be slaves anymore, he noted.
Ashigbey, who is also the Convener, Media Coalition Against Galamsey, said it was about time Ghana adds value to about 80% of its raw materials that are exported to other parts of the world, believing that is the surest way the country could progress at a faster pace as being expected by all.
Former Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, (SEC), Dr Adu Anane Antwi, is backing decision by the Ghana Stock Exchange, GSE, to take action against companies who flout the rules of operations on the stock market.
The Ghana Stock Exchange, in recent times has suspended some companies from trading on the market due to failure to publish financial results, inability to hold Annual General Meetings for shareholders among others.
In an interview with JOYBUSINESS, Dr Adu Anane said this will instill confidence in the stock market and strengthen operations on the bourse.
He said, suspending the firms are the best options available.
Dr. Adu Anane spoke to JOYBUSINESS on the sidelines of a lecture in Accra under the theme The Securities Act of 2016; enhancing regulation for the development of an efficient capital market.
Meanwhile, Deputy Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, Ekow Afedzi has rejected assertions that the suspension of some companies from trading on the capital market will have a negative effect on the quest to attract more businesses to list on the Stock Exchange.
According to him, this should rather strengthen companies listed on the company.
The latest company that faced the wrath of the GSE is the Cocoa Processing Company, CPC.
The company has been suspended from trading due to inability to meet certain requirements of the burse.
02.09.2017 LISTEN
Government has finally agreed to extend the International Monetary Fund, IMF, program to December 2018. This is despite several denials that the program was not going to be extended.
JoyBusiness understands this was one of the critical requirements before the IMF board meets today to assess Ghanas program under the FUND.
For those who have been closely monitoring the program, Ghana will pass the IMF boards test and this will also pave the way for the release of about $116 million to support the countrys import and export needs.
For some, passing the boards test could give some stamp of approval to governments policies and its commitment to stabilizing the economy, a development that could consolidate investor confidence in the economy.
Analysts will also be looking forward to IMFs assessment on how the economy has been managed by this government and whether there are threats to the economy.
Ghana entered into the agreement with the IMF in 2015 for economic support of $918 million.
The agreement was to restore policy credibility, economic stability and maintain fiscal discipline.
Ghana has so far received about $464.6 million under three separate tranches.
The Cocoa Processing Company Limited (CPC) has been suspended from trading on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE).
A statement by GSE said the suspension takes effect from August 30, 2017.
According to GSE, the Company has repeatedly failed to submit its financial reports as directed.
It has also failed to conduct its Annual General Meeting, the statement has said.
The suspension of trading in CPC will be in force until September 13, 2017, which is the deadline for the company to rectify the anomalies, the statement said.
GSE has warned the failure of the Company to apply with its directives will attract further sanctions per the Listing Rules.
02.09.2017 LISTEN
HFC Bank's former Managing Director, Robert Le-Hunte has been sworn in as the Public Utilities Minister in The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago last week.
He took his oath at a ceremony attended by some government officials, family members and friends.
Before his appointment as the Minister, Mr Le-Hunte was the MD of HFC Bank soon to be branded Republic Bank for four years.
Board Chairman of the Bank, Charles William Zwennes commended Mr Le-Hunte for his works at the Bank.
The Bank is very pleased with Mr Le Huntes initiatives of re-tooling the Bank and the enthusiasm he brought to bear. We have no doubt about Mr Le Huntes future successes and we stand hopeful and excited for the next chapter of HFC Bank, he said.
The Bank's General Manager in charge of Risk Management, Anthony Jordan has been confirmed as the bank's new Managing Director.
Mr Jordan will oversee the administration of the bank with the total assets valued at $234.3 million, equivalent to GHS 435.3 million.
With his new role, Mr Le-Hunte will superintend over the utilities sector in his country.
Taking a giant leap to rethink customer service, OmniBank has rolled out an internal campaign dubbed Switch to Customer Delight.
This campaign is targeted at inspiring staff to go the extra mile to delight Customers through services and gestures that go beyond the ordinary or expectation of customers.
Over the years, many bank clients have consistently complained about the poor attitude of some bank employees, leading to poor customer service. But OmniBank wants to differentiate itself by preparing the employee to become customer service oriented and backing the service with effective systems and exceptional products.
The campaign was officially launched at the Banks mid-year review at Omni Academy (the Banks learning and development center) by the Managing Director of the Bank, Mr. Philip Oti-Mensah.
In an interview with the Customer Service Manager of the bank, Enyonam Nana Ama Kpe, she expressed satisfaction and optimism that the campaign which has been carefully planned by management will be the key game changer in the banking sector where products and services are similar.
OmniBank is a customer oriented bank which is evident in the recognitions it had gained in the past. However, we want to take customer service to another level by constantly sensitizing staff to offer exceptional services she said,
As part of the campaign, staff will receive awards on a monthly basis for exceptional customer experiences which they will have to show evidence through various client testimonial and the picture story.
Lawyer for Exton Cubic Limited, Reindorf Twumasi Ankrah, has served notice of a suit against the state over what he describes as the unlawful seizure of Ibrahim Mahamas Engineers and Planners (E&P) vehicles and mining equipment.
Vehicles and equipment belonging to Exton Cubics sub-contractor, Ibrahim Mahamas Engineers and Planners (E&P), were impounded in the Nyinahin township on orders from the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, following suspicions the mining company was operating illegally.
Mr. Ankrah believes the state wrongfully interfered with their clients right to prospect on the Nyinahin Bauxite Concession of Tano Offin forest reserve when their vehicles and equipment were seized.
He argued in a statement that the recent frustrations to halt its exploration of the concession which resulted in the seizure of trucks have caused their client financial loss.
We have been instructed by our client that the seizure and detention of the said trucks has not only adversely affected our clients business operations but has occasioned and continues to cause our client, financial loss.
In the light of the foregoing, our client has instructed us to serve you notice of its intention to institute legal proceedings against the State as a result of the wrongful interference by state officials with our clients right to prospect on its concession and also a breach of its right to administrative justice, the statement said.
The mining company had earlier served notice of suing the police and some authorities in the Ashanti Region over the seizure.
Equipment seizure costing us $40,000 daily Exton Cubic
A few days ago, the company had revealed that the seizure of their vehicles and mining equipment costing the company over $40,000 daily.
According to Exton Cubic, the losses started on August 20, when the vehicles were impounded in the Nyinahin township.
At a press conference on Thursday, the companys Public Relations Officer, Samuel Gyamfi, reiterated the companys assertion that the impounding and detaining of its officers was unlawful.
The company is losing over $40,000 a day due to this unlawful act and as we have told you, we are going through the legal process with our lawyers and very soon, the authorities concerned will be written to and we will make our position clear to them.
Mr. Gyamfi maintained that what they have done to us is not fair. What they have done to us is not allowed or permitted by law and expect that the right things will be done.
Businessman, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, has expressed concern about the loan repayment culture in Ghana following the collapse of two local banks, UT and Capital Bank.
He said industry players have to be "aggressive" in recovering loans because data on non-performing loan ratio in the banking industry is alarming.
The withdrawal of the license of the two banks by the Bank of Ghana is not surprising because there had been prior warnings from the central bank.
"They told everybody that look these are your difficulties you must solve. Don't think this happened all of a sudden. It has been coming.
"We have all had the warning signs; some have been able to deal with it some were not able to find the capital required".
Dr. Nduom, who owns the ISF Bank in Chicago said, in that jurisdiction, non-performing loans are not allowed to exceed 2% but in Ghana, the banking industry is grappling with more than 10%.
"We knew three years ago that there was a reckoning coming," he said, explaining industry regulators had forewarned banks of bad loans on books.
Dr. Nduom said the high indebtedness of banks is partly blamed government's failure to honour its financial obligations to banks on time.
Based on disturbing loan repayment data, Dr Nduom said his bank in Ghana, GN Bank began to address the issue by constituting a loan taskforce to ensure loan applications are properly vetted and loans recovered.
He said this effort paid off. "We are around 2.3 to 2.4. we want to bring it below 2%"
Urging bankers and industry players, the Chairman of Groupe Nduom said: " let's strengthen our controls; let us strengthen our loan making.... and recovery practices".
Sympathising with the shareholders of the two banks, the 2016 presidential candidate of the Progressive Peoples' Party (PPP) said "I feel for the owners... it's sad to consider what has happened to them".
He said the collapse is even sadder because the banks are Ghanaian-owned.
The Harvard Africa Alumni is hosting its inaugural action forum Re-Imagine Africa: A Call to Action in Accra.
It is the first of its kind organized on the continent of Africa, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the flagship international Mason Program at Harvard University, which coincides with Ghanas 60th year after independence.
The forum will convene all stakeholders in the rise of Africa: development practitioners, politicians, business leaders, alumni, students, friends of Harvard University and of the continent.
There will be a keynote address from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and high-profile speakers, including President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of the Republic of Liberia, the Minister of Health for Liberia, the governor for Kaduna State in Nigeria and other dignitaries.
Over the three days of the forum, there will be action tables featuring representatives from key development sectors across Africa
These include healthcare, youth employment, education, financial inclusion, entrepreneurship and industrialization, including Tullow Oil, AfriExim, WHO, Harvard University professors, Ford Foundation, among .
A Harvard Business School professor will be leading a Masterclass on Innovation; and, a recruiter from the Harvard JFK School of Public Policy Mason Program will also be present on the first day, August 24.
Re-imagine Africa will focus on initiating conversations, fostering partnerships and inter-trade across Africa and addressing challenges that affect key sectors of growth on the continent in order to inspire participants to re-imagine Africas future as a hub of accelerated development.
The Harvard Africa Alumni is a network dedicated to convening alumni, celebrating successes and making real impact on the continent of Africa.
On Nov. 1, Linn Benton Food Shares warehouse in Tangent received two truckloads of food and household supplies arranged by the local branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
There is rising anxiety among workers and even some management staff of Tigo and Airtel due to five months of waiting for the government to approve the merger deal between the two telcos.
The partnership deal between the two telcos was announced in March 2017 before it went to government for approval. However, it is still not clear whether the government has endorsed the deal for the actual merging process to begin.
There are grave concerns among top executives of the two telcos as to why authorities have kept so long in approving a partnership deal between two existing telcos, which are not new on the market.
As one executive put it, "it beats my mind why government will delay this long in approving a mere partnership between two telcos who will not become the dominant player even after merging - there is a dominant player who continues to deplete value - that should be of more concern to government, not this partnership".
Meanwhile, some persons close to the deal say the government has approved it but are "still trying a few bolts and nuts before the official announcement for processes to begin".
Double spectrum, double license
But it would appear that what is left to be done is more than just a few bolts and nuts to be tightened as there is still a huge back and forth over the issue of double spectrum, double microwave and double license being held by the two merging telcos.
Airtel and Tigo have separate licenses, which means they operate on separate spectra/frequencies which are not easy to merge without creating grave problems for consumers. More so, since they have separate licenses, the question has arisen as to whether, as a single entity, they will keep paying double licensing and spectrum fees.
Highly placed persons close to the deal have hinted that government's position is to apply international best practices by taking back one spectrum/license so that the merged entity can operate on only one, but it is still not clear which one they two will choose, whether that of Tigo or Airtel.
According to the source, if the government does not take one of the spectra/licenses from them, it would then be forced to calculate the accrued discount and refund some money to the other telcos from what they paid for their spectra.
"Moreover, the double spectrum for a telco commanding just about a quarter of the market is unthinkable - it does not happen anywhere because it threatens revenue, diluting effect for both government and industry," an expert said.
Furthermore, Joy News also reported recently that government is also concerned about how its 25% shares in Airtel, which was held by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), has depleted to less that 1% allegedly due to some heavy recapitalization by Airtrel that was converted into equity.
Workers worried
Meanwhile, workers of the two companies say they are sitting on the edge as no one is telling them anything about the deal; when the actual processes will begin and what their fate will be.
A number of rumors, however, seem to be gaining grounds among workers of both telcos about their fate and that is causing, even more, anxiety among them.
Job insecurity
One thing workers can confirm is that they have been made aware their jobs are not necessarily secured.
Some workers of Airtel told Adom News that just about two weeks ago they were told at a staff durbar that they should start preparing to reapply for their jobs if they want to stay. But they were never told when the opportunity will be opened for them to reapply.
Meanwhile, earlier, some managers of Tigo had also revealed to Adom News that there are no plans to sack any worker unfairly, but no one's job is secured because even the managers may have to reapply for their jobs.
Retrenchment package
Some workers and managers say they would love to take their retrenchment packages and run, but they are still not sure about the formula for calculating the packages, and the rumors about that are making them even more confused.
According to some Tigo workers, they have heard the formula would be basic salary multiplied by the number of years one has worked as a permanent staff, multiplied by three.
So if one's basic salary is GHC1,200 and the person has worked with Tigo for three years as a permanent staff, the package would be GHC10,800.
Meanwhile, some Airtel workers also claim the formula would be gross salary multiplied by the number of years as permanent staff, multiplied by three.
It is not clear what package contract workers will get, as the information making the rounds is all about permanent workers. In effect, contract workers are even more worried about their fate.
Some workers say their salaries are nothing to write home about and most of them were made permanent workers only three years ago, after working for their company for so many years as contract workers.
"It will be totally unfair if they use only the number of years of our permanent status because prior to that we had broken our backs for this company for many years for peanuts," a staff of Tigo said.
A worker of Airtel said, "I know most of my colleagues want to take the retrenchment package and leave but if this is the formula they will use to calculate the package then many hearts will be broken".
Airtel workers, in particular, seemed more worried about their fate because the named CEO of the merged company is the General Manager of Tigo Ghana, Roshi Motman, while it is still not clear what role the Managing Director of Airtel Ghana, Lucy Quist would be playing.
Labour Law
Labour Expert Kofi Davor told Adom News by law, retrenchment packages are meant to be negotiated and not imposed; so it should have either been pre-negotiated and included in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) or has to be negotiated as part of the merger process.
But as it is, both companies have banned workplace unionization so they do not have collective bargaining agreements. The only option left is for them to negotiate the packages as part of the merger process.
It however still remains unclear how that negotiation would go; whether on individual basis or affected workers would have to now come together and negotiation as a unit.
In the midst of all this anxiety and uncertainty, some have quickly jumped ship. Notable among them is former Head of Mobile at Tigo, Tara Squire, who has crossed over to Ecobank as Regional Head of Consumer Banking for West Africa.
Meanwhile, executives of the two telcos said they are unable to confirm or deny any of the rumors about how the retrenchment package will be computed until they know the deal has been approved and a license issued for them to begin the actual merging process.
Jubilee Fields operator, Tullow Oil, and its partner, Kosmos, have revised down the cost estimate for integrating the field with nearby discoveries into the Greater Jubilee to $1.9 billion.
The revision was captured in a new Plan of Development that the two companies hope the government will approve before the year ends.
The amount is needed to integrate the Teak, Hyedua and Mahogany discoveries into the Jubilee Fields production and floating vessel to help extend the fields lifespan and increase its commercial reserves.
Tullow Ghanas Director of Exploration and Development, Nana Appia Kyei, told the Graphic Business on August 18 that the revised Plan of Development was resubmitted last month after an earlier one, which pegged the cost of unitization at $2.3 billion, was rejected by the government for being too expensive.
The gas price quoted in that December 2015 PoD was also thought to be unfavourable to the national gas aggregator, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Nana Kyei added.
The government said we are not happy with the gas price, we are not happy with the cost of the development itself and then the rig you are going to use to develop is too expensive, he said.
As a result, the government requested the two companies to withdraw the PoD and take a second look at the costs, which, although investments, will be recouped as capital gains once full development is completed and commercial production commences.
A former Head of the Petroleum Unit at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Mr Dela Klorbi, said the push for cost reduction was necessary, to ensure that the country maximises earnings from the field when production starts.
Founder of Celltel Limited, now Kasapa Telecom Limited, Prince Kofi Kludjeson, has said he is in the process of taking over the dying company, rebranding it to Celltel and reviving it to take its place of pride in Ghana's telecom industry.
He was speaking on KofiTV, following a report by Adom News that the current operators of Kasapa Telecom under the brand name Expresso, Sudan Telecom (Sudatel), have announced that they owe zero per cent shares in the company.
Sudatel stated clearly on page nine of its 2016 Third Quarter Financial Report dated September 2016, and published November 2016 on its website that in 2015 its shares in Kasapa Telecoms was 82%, but shares held in 2016 was 0%.
The company had earlier reported that it sold 18% shares to an unknown buyer for $5million under a shares purchase agreement (SPA) in 2013, and the remaining 82 per cent shares had been transferred to an escrow agent pending the fulfillment of the conditions set out in the SPA for onward transfer to the mystery buyer.
But now the firm is reporting zero per cent shares, failing, however, to state if the mystery buyer had paid for the remaining 82% shares and how much was paid.
However, Prince Kofi Kludjeson said his checks showed that the company had not been sold to anyone but the 0% shares reported by Sudatel was just a strategy for them (Sudatel) to walk away for the "illegality" they had engaged in since July 2008.
"The only entity we know made an attempt to buy the company was the Jospong Group of Companies but I personally met Dr. Joseph Agyepong and he assured me he had backed out of the deal," he said.
He explained that there are no records at National Communications Authority (NCA) to show Sudatel owns Kasapa Telecom and there are no records at the Registrar General's Department to show there is any company called Sudatel or Expresso in Ghana.
Without mentioning any names, he said "this is all one big illegality some people here and abroad connived to engage in but all that is coming to an end because now the company is registered in its original name which is Celltel Limited and I am still the owner."
Kofi Kludjeson observed that since people conspired and used foul means to take the company away from him, things have not been well with them because "you cannot deny a company of its vision bearer and think the company will survive."
"I am not surprised at what is happening to Kasapa because companies thrive, first and foremost, on the spirit of the vision bearer before the right principles will work; but when the spirit of the founder is taken out of the company, the company dies a slow death," he maintains.
Indeed, since Sudatel took over the company, the Sudanese firm has not been able to recapitalize the company, and as a result, the company has declined into insignificance over the past nine years and that has been characterized by the frequent change of Managing Directors, consistent monthly decline in customers, huge and numerous debts and months of unpaid salaries.
Meanwhile, the company's long line of creditors, including real estate owners, devices dealers, vendors, utility service providers and others have been chasing the company for debts.
The sole CDMA player also continues to lose hold of its stake in the market as customers continue to abandon the network by the day due to bad service. As of April 2017, it subscriber level had declined to a paltry 23,264, from about 400,000 at the time Sudatel took over.
Recently, recharge card retailers likened Expresso Ghana to the embattled microfinance company DKM, because the retailers said they invested heavily into Expresso products and now it has become bad debts for them because no one is buying those products and Expresso has also refused to take them back and refund their moneys.
But Kludjeson said all that is about to change because he has engaged a number of renowned international partners and signed agreements that will see a rebranding of Kasapa/Expresso back to Celltel and a quick revival of the company beginning from next year.
"We have engaged Foxcom of Apple devices fame as our device partner; Cisco will be our network partner, Hughes will provide nationwide satellite network, Google will provide fibre and National Information Technology Agency (NITA) will host our data centre," he said.
He noted that the new Celltel will still operate the 028 prefix and use the affordable device strategy to spread prepaid affordable wifi across the country, beginning with district assemblies, government agencies and some private organizations, like the media, whose workers work regularly with handheld devices and data.
"We have signed agreements to build wifi networks in areas where there are schools (universities) and offices where data usage is key to their work and daily lives.
"The plan is to sign on at least one million people in the first year and give them all Celltel and KQ (Kludjeson Quality) branded affordable devices, which they will pay for in monthly installments for three years then they get to own the devices, but keep honoring the service contract," he said.
Regarding the liabilities of Kasapa Telecoms, Kludjeson said he has engaged a transactional advisor to assist on how to settle the workers and also deal with the liabilities of the company to clear their path for the new page.
He, however, stated that there is no plan to lay any worker off, but their salary arrears will be paid and they will be engaged to apply their skills at running the network which is now backed by the spirit of the vision bearer.
The Indian High Commissioner to Ghana, Birender Singh Yadav, has applauded the Akufo-Addo government for the 1-District 1-Dam project.
Speaking at the 2017 Namaskar conference - a 2-day event which hosted over 63 companies at the Accra International Conference Centre he spoke about Indian government's pride in assisting to build the Jubilee House which sits among the top 10 Presidential Offices in the world.
He also spoke about the collaboration between the two countries in working on the Tema-Akosombo Hydro project.
Mr Singh Yadaw commended the government's 1-District 1-Dam project which he believes will do well to assist in opening companies and creating jobs for the youth.
'Namaskar is a respectful salutation in India which is why the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the largest and oldest apex business organization in India, has titled the regional flagship programme as Namaskar Africa.
It is an event that which receives government officials and business delegations from India and West Africa.
The event, which started with an India-Central Africa Regional Business Forum in the Republic of Congo, is held in partnership with the government of India.
Considering the phenomenal response from African as well as the Indian industry and the demand for increasing the scale of the programme, the sessions have been expanded to include three components - two-day Exhibition as well as an International Business Conference.
This year's edition was being organized in partnership with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), the regional African body and bilateral chambers/business association.
The initiative rotates in various regions of Africa and successful regional shows have already been held in Central, Western and Southern regions of Africa.
Namaskar Africa 2017 in Ghana emphasized on the West Africa regional block with Ghana being the focus country with participation expected from neighbouring nations.
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) may have spent over 5 billion in supporting distress banks, JOYBUSINESS gathered after going through the Central Banks financial reports over the past three years.
This was contained in the Statistical Bulletins of by the Central Bank which highlights movements in the Assets and Liabilities of the Banking System.
These Statistical Bulletins are reported monthly and they provide full aggregated information on the Assets of the Commercial Banks and that of the Central Bank.
Although the aggregated information always presents difficulties in distilling key information, a close examination of the movement in the numbers presents an interesting development.
Using an average exchange rate for the two year period 2015-2016, over which the increase in liquidity support to the banks was observed, the amount injected by the Central Bank in supporting these banks was in excess of $1.3 billion.
Concerns about this arrangement
Analysts are beginning to ask why the Central Bank extended such huge money to these banks instead of using it to develop critical financial infrastructure for the entire financial system.
It is not clear for now whether these funds went to all the banks or only to those commercial banks said to be in financial distress.
The picture could be clear soon clear soon on this issue, after further engagement with these banks and a careful look at their balance sheets.
How did it start?
By definition the lender of last resort function always rests with an institution, usually a country's central bank, that offers loans to banks or other eligible institutions that are experiencing financial difficulty or are considered highly risky or near collapse.
The Central Bank under its lender of last resort function always carries out overnight lending to commercial banks.
These overnight lending are just for a day and in some cases, the maximum number of days could be for a period of two weeks.
While some analysts say this is not a big deal, others are of the view that for these lending to remain in perpetuity on the balance sheet of the commercial signals a big deal and should have raised red flags in the industry.
However, a key observation here is that the spike in the support to the banks which started in August 2014 lingered on for a two-year period before metamorphosing into a long-term loan facility from these banks.
The BoGs line item of claims by Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) showed a sharp increase from 487 million to over 1 billion in June 2015 and increased to 5.2 billion as at January 2017.
However, the May 2017 numbers showed that the amount has reduced to about 4.6 billion.
Challenges in recovering the funds
It is not yet clear also at this stage what informed the Central Bank to begin re-classifying these facilities as long term loans.
Attempts by the Central Bank to recover these facilities on many occasions have proved difficult and some analysts within the industry are saying these are already bad loans and monies gone down the drain.
'Distressed' banks benefited from support
JOYBUSINESS can confirm that UT and Capital Bank got a significant amount of these funds to help them in their daily operations.
Sources say another bank said to be in distress (name withheld), is also said to be on lifesupport.
JOYBUSINESS can also confirm that out of the initial nine banks mentioned in the Asset Quality Report of the Bank of Ghana as being undercapitalized, two of them were foreign owned financial institutions.
Categorization of the distressed banks
Banks in distress have been grouped under various levels of capitalization. Those that are insolvent and having negative capital adequacy ratios (UT and Capital Bank), those that are Significantly Under Capitalized and those that are Undercapitalized Banks (names being withheld for now).
Issues with how the support was disbursed
There are also questions about these loans were even extended to the banks by the Central Bank, as there are even speculations that some officials of the BoG might have been compromised in the review processes leading to the determination whether a particular bank qualified for Liquidity support.
As the stories unfold and officials of the affected banks begin to talk and provide critical evidence, more light will be thrown on what actually happened.
Initial responds from Bank of Ghana
According to officials of the Bank of Ghana, its operations of liquidity support is mandated under its lender of last resort function.
The practice where funds are given to banks as loans should not be seen as free cash and that these would ultimately be repaid back to the Central Bank.
On whether the loans extended to banks whose licenses were revoked this week, this is what a senior official at the Central Bank intimated: we would get the money that was extended to them, even if their assets may have to be sold .
The official also adds that the reduction in the numbers as at May 2017 showed that the bank is making progress in recovering these funds.
Reponse from some commercial banks
For some of the commercial banks in question, they were forced to borrow from the Central Bank because of its own regulatory requirements, which requires them to keep a fraction of deposits at the Central bank.
They have argued this practice should be seen as normal. Some of the distressed banks have told JOYBUSINESS that they are working hard to get off this liquidity support from the Bank of Ghana.
Story by Ghana| Myjoyonline | Joy Business
Government is beginning a process to redirect the focus of National Investment Bank (NIB) into an industrial development Bank.
This is to allow the bank support government's industrialization program.
This was disclosed by Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyeremanteng in Accra during the swearing in of board members of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI).
According to him, the bank will be used as a financing vehicle to promote local industries.
Having an industrial development bank will be a key tool for government to focus funds for industrial support and also to complement the work of the Exim Bank Ghana he said.
Alan Kyeremanteng also added challenges facing the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises are enormous but with the support of such an institution like the NBSSI, we can overcome and make Ghana a better place for business growth
He said the export diversification programme by the Akufo-Addo government is to enable Small and Medium Enterprises, (SMEs) increase exports of value added products to international markets.
This is to take advantage of the African Growth Opportunity, AGOA by the United States and ECOWAS to improve Ghanas foreign exchange earnings and balance of trade.
He, therefore, charged the Board to formulate the necessary strategies and to build effective partnerships with local and international development organisations for resource mobilization purposes.
The board is to be chaired by Ato Panford, Member of Parliament for Shama Constituency in the Western Region.
Members include Kosi Antwiwaa Yankey, Executive Director of the NBSSI, Seth Twum Akwaboah, Chief Executive of the Association of Ghana Industries.
Others include Ama Gyamfuah Abrefa, a Legal Practitioner, Nana Osei Bonsu, George Mireku Duker, Michael Darko Yakubu Yussif.
Currently, 70 percent of the Banks portfolio is made up of loans to the Ghanaian private sector. NIB is a major lender to the manufacturing, building and construction and agro processing sectors as well as the service industry.
NIB now operates as a universal bank focusing on development/commercial banking activities. The Bank has undergone management, institutional and financial restructuring, which has strengthened the organization and now, has 49 branches and three agencies nationwide.
NIB has in the past participated in foreign lines of credit, which were administered by Bank of Ghana to meet term loan and working capital needs of the Banks customers.
The bank is also one of the designated financial institutions, which sources funds from Export Trade, Agriculture and Industrial Development Fund (EDAIF) for on lending to exporters as Term and Working capital loans.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kyeremateng also inaugurated the Governing board of the Ghana Standards Authority chaired by Dr. Akwasi Acheampong. Members include Prof Alexander Nii Oto Dodoo, Kennedy Osei Nyarko, Iddrisu Abdulai, Mark Taylor and Dr. Alex Ampofo Donkor.
After the Governing Board of the GSA, were sworn in, Alan Kyeremanteng also inaugurated an Audit Committee of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
02.09.2017 LISTEN
General Manager in charge of Risk Management at HFC Bank, Anthony Jordan has been confirmed as the banks new Managing Director.
A statement by the Ghana Stock Exchange Thursday announced the appointment, first predicted by Joy Business.
Mr Jordan takes over from Robert Le-Hunte who resigned to take up a Ministerial appointment in Trinidad and Tobago.
Related Article: HFC Bank's Anthony Jordan set to be named new MD
Mr Le-Hunte served the bank for four years.
As the new MD, Mr Jordan will oversee the administration of the bank, which has a total assets valued at $234.3 million, equivalent to GHS 435.3 million.
Before joining HFC Bank, Mr Jordan was the Assistant General Manager in charge of Corporate and Investment banking at Republic Bank Limited in Trinidad and Tobago.
While at the Republic Bank, he was directly responsible for Business development in the areas of Corporate banking and the Capital markets.
Mr Jordan holds an Executive Masters of Business Administration, and a Bsc Management studies from the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago.
He is also an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in London, United Kingdom.
One of his main task as the new MD would be to oversee a smooth transition process from HFC bank to Republic Bank by the last quarter of this year.
He would also have to address some challenges relating to staff management at the bank.
02.09.2017 LISTEN
Government is seeking to attract an estimate of $10 billion, after considering cost of track and associate infrastructure, to revamp Ghanas dilapidated rail system and also create an economic corridor along the rail lines, according to the Minister of Railway Development, Joe Ghartey.
The Master Plan is a five phased rail development which will cover all regions and pass through various trade districts across Ghana.
He emphasized how this development will serve the industrial sector and further the cause of One District One Factory Policy by making transport of raw materials cheaper.
Mr. Ghartey said, "Some figures per a study I reviewed today stated that without rail transport by 2020, one may not be able to get around Accra."
He was speaking at the Railway Sector Investment Opportunity Meeting by the Ghana - Israel Business Chamber in Accra.
Advertising the Master Plan to prospective investors at a dinner held at the Israeli Embassy, Joe Ghartey highlighted the benefits to be accrued to both investors and Ghanaians.
He said, a project of this sort will enhance the activities of the agricultural, tourism and all other sectors that readily make use of long travels.
Mr. Ghrtey said government is commissioning feasibility studies to advise on the mapping of routes for the various railway lines.
He said, We are in the process of commissioning feasibility study for this plan. This is a proposal by engineers who did the master plan. It passes through Takyiman but the feasibility study can tell us for example that instead of teaching, we should divert so this is the proposal going onto the next stage.
He expressed concerns over the encroachment of the rail lines but was optimistic the projects will take off smoothly.
Over 200 local and foreign investors expressed interest in investing in the project, according to Mr. Ghartey.
The Ghana Psychological Association says employees who may lose their jobs following the collapse of two Ghanaian-owned banks, need psychological and unemployment insurance benefits.
In a statement to Myjoyonline.com, the Association said providing these insurance benefits to the displaced workers will help reduce the financial and psychological implications of the job loss.
Job insecurity among the staff of the two banks is growing following an admission by the central bank, that retrenchment is a possibility after it supervised the acquisition of the two struggling banks by GCB Bank.
Head of Banking Supervision at Bank of Ghana, Raymond Amanfo could only guarantee, the staff could keep their jobs for the first three months up to six months".
He said from then on, the decision to retain or relieve, rests with GCB Bank.
The Ghana Psychological Association said it is concerned that too much attention is being paid to the assets and liabilities of the collapsed banks.
The Association wants to see greater attention paid the human resource implications of crashes.
GPA highlighted some of the "rippling psycho-social effects" of job losses saying it can lead to anger, depression, high blood pressure, sleep disorders, chronic diseases in the liver and respiratory systems.
It could also lead to severe loss of self-esteem.
The psychologists are urging GCB Bank to provide outplacement services such as stress management and skills training to those to be affected by the losses.
Read full statement
REVOCATION OF BANKING LICENSE OF UT AND CAPITAL BANK PSYCHOSOCIAL CONCERNS
The Ghana Psychological Association (GPA) has taken notice of the recent happenings in the banking sector particularly the action by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to withdraw the license of two indigenous commercial banks (UT and Capital Bank) in the country.
We wish to commend the BoG for that bold step taken to safeguard the life savings of customers of these two banks and also to build investor/international confidence.
According to reports that have come in thus far, we understand that the two banks are financially distressed and incapable to meet their financial obligations, and nearly bankruptcy, hence the action.
While we commend the BoG and all parties involved for their prompt intervention, the GPA has observed with dissatisfaction the processes leading to the Purchase and Assumption (P & A) of the two banks and the responses of the key actors in the takeover process.
The failure to adequately create change readiness for all principal stakeholders ahead of the takeover is indeed a worry.
In our view, people are the most important asset of organizations. This is however not the case as more than usual attention is given to assets and liabilities without recourse to other principal actors revolving around the affected banks.
The GPA would like to draw the attention of the key actors that this can be psychologically devastating.
What is most perturbing is the rapidity with which the takeover process was effected when the news broke without adequate communication to all principal stakeholders (staff, customers, competitors, and relatives of the affected individuals) of the affected banks.
Information available from the BoG indicates that GCB Bank will retain all staff for about six (6) months and may subsequently lay some off. Granted GCB Bank may not be obliged to cater for employment engagement of the affected employees, it is equally of prime importance that the psycho-social health and wellbeing of all principal stakeholders should have been calculatedly factored into the imminent takeover process.
Even though the promptitude of BoG to salvage the two banks has been necessary, the hiked announcement, rapidity in changing organizational artefacts of the affected banks, unstructured communication ahead of the takeover process, coupled with the less engagement with principal stakeholders have arguably led to anxiety, panic and uneasiness among some staff, customers and family members of individuals working in UT and Capital Banks.
It is lucid to say that it is unfortunate to have largely discussed plans on the intended takeover in corporate boardrooms among possibly managerial-cohorts which largely tend to focus more on the asset (liabilities) transfer to the neglect of rippling psycho-social effects on the human component.
This situation has the tendency to undermine the achievement of the short- and medium-term financial objectives.
The failure to engage employees on change readiness, its implications, and possible exit strategies could fuel general underperformance among the employees who would now not be in the right frame of mind to work as they will be preoccupied with concerns of job security.
Given the current circumstance, job loss is imminent and its important that steps are taken to mitigate the foreseeable negative outcomes. The volatility in the employment environment in the last 2 decades suggests that the frequency of job loss around the world is not to abate any time soon.
Thus, we understand that job loss has become a fact of life event and workers must understand that its unlikely that a person will spend a lifetime with one organization.
However, psychological research, over the years, has shown that job loss is a very stressful event that can impair a persons economic, psychological, physiological, and social lives.
The most apparent adverse impact of job loss is the loss of income which can significantly affect ones standard of living and wellbeing. Job loss is negatively associated with mental health and positively related to anxiety, hostility, anger, and largely depression.
In some cases, displaced workers are confronted with embarrassing experiences and tend to evaluate themselves in negative terms. Besides, employees who lose their jobs are likely to show signs of higher blood pressure, sleeping disorders, lack of appetite, chronic diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, chronic liver diseases, and respiratory diseases.
These reported symptoms are as a result of the high-risk health behaviours that displaced workers tend to engage themselves in their quest to cope with the stress of job loss.
Studies indicate that job loss leads to some behavioral responses such as increased alcohol use and abuse as well as smoking. Socially, job loss is not an individual issue, but a household and societal concern, affecting spouses and families leading to diminished social support, less relationship satisfaction and the deterioration of parent-child relationships.
In recognition of the plethora of negative effects of job loss, the GPA suggests that adequate measures must be provided to effectively facilitate the coping by employees of the affected banks in this difficult situation.
To this end, the GPA is calling on relevant actors (BoG, GCB, and PwC) in the takeover process to effectively manage the ongoing process and its outcomes to reduce uncertainty and to boost morale as well as the self-esteem of employees in the affected banks.
Decisions concerning workers who will survive and non-survivors out of the takeover action must be properly managed through psychological interventions and the criteria for reaching such determination must be transparent in order to minimize anxiety, fear, and uneasiness.
The GPA is also urging the management of GCB bank to provide outplacement services such as stress management and skill development training to employees who will eventually lose their jobs.
Besides, other forms of outplacement services must be provided to workers who will eventually survive the takeover process.
As a country, its about time we begin to think of providing unemployment insurance as well as psychological insurance benefits to displaced workers to reduce the financial and psychosocial burdens of losing ones job.
We trust that all stakeholders involved will take appropriate actions to ensure confidence and security of service in the banking industry and the economy as a whole.
A fair and balanced treatment of employees and customers of UT and Capital Bank will adequately offset the creation psycho-social problems while we work towards finding solutions to financial problems on hand.
To any affected person(s) who is/are presently experiencing crisis as a result of the takeover process, we advise that you seek support and help from qualified mental health practitioners such as licensed psychologists and counsellors.
Signed
Mr. Richmond Acquah-Coleman
Public Relations Officer
Tel: 0207291183; 0244982242
Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com|[email protected]
Ghana is a very attractive destination for Indian businesses and a gateway to Africa in general and West Africa in particular, a senior business leader in India has stated.
Mr Susnato Sen, Head of the Africa Region and Senior Director of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), made the declaration when he led a group of FICCI members to meet the Vice President, H.E. Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, at the Flagstaff House on Wednesday. Amb. Michael A. N. N. Oquaye, Ghanas High Commissioner to India, accompanied the delegation.
The team is in Ghana as part of a three-day exposition dubbed Namaskar 2007 which aims to brand India as a leading economic player and partner of the West African region and boost two-way trade. It is being organised by the FICCI in collaboration with the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and the Ghana National Chamber of Industry and Commerce (GNCCI), with over 60 Indian companies in attendance.
According to Mr Sen, the expo will help facilitate Indian investments into Ghana and neighbouring West African countries, create awareness about the best Indian technologies and products in the region as well as explore opportunities offered by the region.
The events include a business forum as well as a two-day exhibition on agriculture and food processing, construction, power, technology and textiles, and education.
Ghana is a very attractive destination for us, because of your long history of stability and the business climate here. Stability is crucial for us, and we are happy to hold this expo here to interact with our Ghanaian counterparts and explore business opportunities, Mr Sen indicated.
Successful regional shows have already been held in the central and southern regions of Africa. Namaskar Africa in Ghana focuses on the West Africa regional bloc, Mr Sen said, adding Ghana is the focus country with participation expected from neighbouring countries like Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Cote dIvoire, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra-Leone and Togo.
Vice President Bawumia recalled the historic relationship between Ghana and India, and urged members of the delegation to take advantage of the pro-business agenda of the 7-month-old Nana Akufo-Addo government.
As we have stated from the very beginning, our government is pursuing an agenda of economic transformation based on strong private sector participation and anchored on sound economic fundamentals, Dr Bawumia said, adding there is space and opportunity for cooperation between Ghanaian and Indian businesses.
I will urge you to explore the many opportunities available in Ghana. Im sure members of the AGI and GNCCI will be ready to sit down with you and agree on mutually beneficial arrangements.
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry is an association of business organisations in India. Established in 1927, it is a non-government, not-for-profit organisation and draws its membership from the corporate sector, both private and public.
The chamber has an indirect membership of over 2,500,000 companies from various regional chambers of commerce.
Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) through its revenue mobilization task force embarked on a national exercise aimed at prosecuting all business entities who fail to issue tax invoices to clients.
Addressing a cross section of the media at its headquarters in Accra, Coordinator of the special task force, Henry Sam, revealed that based on investigations by the Bureau of National Investigation, test purchases were undertaken on 42 businesses suspected of wrongdoing but only three were vindicated of any infractions.
The 39 culprits identified were guilty of one or more of the following infractions; selective issuance of VAT invoices, issuance of own invoices without approval, suppression of sales and under declaration of VAT and other taxes.
The lawbreakers would be arraigned before the court and charged with the following offences; failure to issue VAT invoices, failure to pay tax and failure to comply with the tax law.
The GRA stormed the premises of these businesses for added information to establish the extent to which their offences impacts on revenue loss.
Henry Sam appealed to the public to request for the VAT invoices on all taxable goods and services and also report any infractions they notice in the businesses around them.
He warned all businesses evading taxes that, the long arm of the law will surely catchup with them.
Meanwhile, GRA hinted that an amount of GHC128.6 million was collected from 164 taxpayers since the beginning of the year to August 11.
Hundreds of potential and expectant business owners and workers are undergoing training in Kumasi to prepare them to set up 50 factories in the Ashanti Region.
It is the first phase of the Industrial Empowerment Summit targeting 350 factories nationwide over five years within the framework of governments One District, One Factory policy.
Local NGO, Constellar Institute for Creative Studies and Kumasi Technical University, are spearheading the summit in partnership with Multimedia Group, Kumasi.
Chiefs, business executives, academicians and artisans, among others, are being targeted under the programme.
Ideas from a five-day executive and non-executive session will form the framework for a business incubator programme to concretize the business entities.
Executive Director of Constellar Institute for Creative Studies, Professor Ramses Akosa, took the gathering through Ghanas industrialization history and the gaps.
It is misleading for us to think that we cannot set up factories because of money, the moment somebody says he will provide machinery he has contributed financially, he said.
Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, told the opening ceremony that private sector interest is key for successful implementation.
Private investors are expressing interest in the government agenda and this is good for the country, he said.
He wants Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies to take a critical interest in the initiative.
Education authorities believe governments investment in Technical Universities will help improve human resource development for One District One Factory.
Acting Vice- Chancellor of Kumasi Technical University, Prof. Asiamah Yeboah entreated government to invest heavily in infrastructural, human resource, and technological needs of technical universities and polytechnics.
General Manager at Multimedia Group, Kumasi, Jim Aglah, stated: If the media as the fourth estate of the realm cannot join hands with the private sector to develop private businesses and create jobs for the people then we are failing the country.
Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Nana Yaw Gyimah, Nhyira FM
Nairobi (AFP) - Seven teenage girls died in a fire at a Nairobi school dormitory on Saturday, and 10 others were injured, according to Kenya's education minister.
"We have lost seven students in this unfortunate incident," said Fred Matiangi on visiting Moi Girls High School, a prestigious government school in the capital.
"We have to get to the bottom of this matter. Police and other teams of investigators have already begun the probe and I can assure you stern action will be taken," said Matiangi, who is also acting interior minister.
The school, which has more than 1,000 students, will remain closed for two weeks while the investigation takes place.
Police are trying to establish if the blaze is linked to a wave of school fires in 2016 when over 100 schools countrywide were hit by arsonists in a period of three months.
Some 150 students and 10 teachers were charged over the fires, with a variety of motives pinpointed by authorities and the local press.
These included vengeance from a "cartel" linked to the country's former exam-setting body, which used to profit handsomely from selling papers and answers before being dismantled.
Other possible motives were student anger over changes to the school calendar as well as Matiangi's tough approach to reforms.
A Former Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah has asked educational institutions to make conscious efforts to tap into the rich expertise and experiences of their alumni in making career choices and counselling of students.
This, he said, would ensure that students make informed career choices in their academic progression to drastically reduce graduate unemployment and despondency among the youth.
Dr Spio-Gabrah was speaking at a youth colloquium organised by the Cape Coast Youth Development Association in collaboration with the Oguaa Traditional Council in Cape Coast.
It was on the theme: The falling standards of education in the Cape Coast metropolis, the role of stakeholders and the relevance of technical and vocational education.
The Former Minister said the lack of trained counselors equipped with the needed logistics and resources in schools to carry out their mandate had caused unemployment in the country.
As a country, we seem to have left the role of career choices and proper counselling of students to teachers, some of whom may not be professionally endowed with the right knowledge and skills to perform that task, he said.
Dr Spio Garbrah also urged parents to regularly visit their wards in school and encourage them to move to the zenith of their careers to enable them become responsible adults.
On August 8, millions of Kenyans formed long, orderly queues outside polling stations across the country to vote in presidential and local elections. Kenya is notorious for corruption, and virtually all previous elections had been marred by rigging.
This time, however, the US and Kenya's other donors had invested $24 million in an electronic vote-tallying system designed to prevent interference.
When Kenya's electoral commission announced on August 11 that President Uhuru Kenyatta had won another five-year term with over 54% of the vote, observer teams from the African Union, the European Union, Commonwealth Election Observer Group led by Ghana's former President John Dramani Mahama, as well as the highly respected US-based Carter Center, led by former Secretary of State John Kerry, unanimously gave the process a clean bill of health.
However, not everyone was happy. Raila Odinga, leader of the opposition National Super Alliance party, (NASA), declared the election a sham as soon as the results began coming in. In spite of the opposition's protests, Chairman of the Kenyan Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Wanyonyi Wafula Chebukati on August 11 declared for incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta to continue another 5-year term.
Mr. Odinga, 72, not satisfied, filed a petition at the Supreme Court on August 18, asking the court to annul the polls results and order a re-vote. The petition claims, among other things, that nearly half of all votes cast had been tampered with; that NASA's agents, who were entitled by law to observe the voting and counting, had been thrown out of polling stations in Kenyatta strongholds; and that secret, unofficial polling stations had transmitted fake votes. And that is what the court has done precisely. The results have been annulled a re-election ordered.
On August 29, the court registrar reported that some 5 million votes, enough to affect the outcome, were not verified.
Under the Kenyan constitution, no one is sworn in as President during the pendency of the petition. The petition was decided in 14 days and has to be decided by the full bench made up of only seven judges including the Chief Justice. Under the rules, unconstitutional means unconstitutional. Because a previous election (2007) plunged the country into civil war, Kenyans consider an election as a process not an event.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga and his NASA after providing incontrovertible evidence that the whole election was rigged has been able to get the Supreme Court to nullify the August 8 re-election of Uhuru Kenyatta. The court has ordered a re-run within 60 days.
The Kenyan Supreme Court agrees with the petitioner that the presidential election was not conducted in accordance with the constitution and that there were widespread irregularities.
We see the Kenyan Supreme Court's decision as a historic move that is going to be a guiding post for many countries in Africa when they face identical election rigging situations. Ghana got a similar chance in 2013 but for some strange reasons blew that chance to make Africa great. In fact that action by the Supreme Court appeared to have emboldened other African leaders who are in the habit of rigging elections using their respective electoral commissions. However, thankfully, the Kenyans have proven that a rigged election results can be overturned after all.
What Chief Justice Maraga of Kenya and his gallant colleagues have done has shown that International Observers do not always tell the full story. They have been caught pants down if you have followed the Kenyan example.
Also, we saw that ICT in elections presents severe risks and it is up to Election bodies to manage the ICT risks. Election bodies must include political parties and citizens throughout the whole process to avoid rigging with its negative consequences.
The development in Kenya signals that Africa is on the right trajectory. The efficiency with which Kenyas Supreme Court addressed the Presidential petition is admirable. The issues that the Justices had to resolve were complex and the evidence on hacking and troubled votes was dazzling. This is a courageous decision bound to inspire other countries and help purify the sanctity of the ballot in Africa.
The Supreme Court of Kenya yesterday nullified the August 8 re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta and ordered a re-run within 60 days.
In a 4-2 majority, the panel presided over by Chief Justice David Kenani Maraga upheld the opposition leader Raila Amolo Odinga's reliefs that there were widespread irregularities that affected the outcome of the results and that the whole election was not organised in accordance with the dictates of the Kenyan Constitution.
President Kenyatta had been declared winner by the Kenyan Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wanyonyi Wafula Chebukati on August 11 and was due to serve another five-year term, until Mr Odinga, leading the opposition National Super Alliance party (NASA), said the whole process was a sham and, therefore, filed a petition at the Supreme Court to challenge the declaration of the commission.
Panel Decision
In summary, Justices Prof Jackton Boma Ojwang and Njoki Susanna Ndungu dissented while the Chief Justice together with his deputy Justice Philomena Mbete Mwilu, Justice Dr Smokin Wanjala and Justice Isaac Lenaola upheld the petitioners' case, but a sixth judge Justice Mohammed Ibrahim, who fell ill on the second day of the case hearing, did not take part in the decision because he is still in hospital.
In what can be seen as a precedent in Africa, the judges, in a bold move, ordered the IEBC to conduct a fresh presidential election within strict confines of the law within 60 days.
The presidential election was not conducted in accordance with the constitution, rendering the declared results invalid null and void, Chief Justice Maraga said, adding, A decision is, hereby, issued that the elections held on August 8 were not conducted in accordance with the Constitution and the applicable law. The results are therefore invalid, null and void.
Election is not an event but an process. After considering the totality of the entire evidence, we are satisfied that the elections were not conducted in accordance to the dictates of the Constitution and the applicable principles.
The judgement is a slap in the faces of all the international observers who had said the election was credible, free, fair and transparent.
President's Protest
Lawyers who represented President Kenyatta and the IEBC protested the judgment and sought explanations and clarifications from the judges.
President Kenyatta, after the verdict, said he disagreed with the judges who said the results should be annulled but said he respected the ruling as much as it had been made.
Jubilant Odinga
Raila Odinga was jubilant as he welcomed what he called a precedent-setting ruling by the court, saying, For the first time in the history of African democratization, a ruling has been made by a court nullifying the election of a president. This, indeed, is a very historic day for the people of Kenya and by extension the people of the continent of Africa.
He condemned the IEBC for trying to steal the verdict for President Kenyatta had the court not overturned their decision, saying, We have no faith in the electoral commission as currently constituted.
They have committed criminal acts. Most of them actually belong in jail and therefore we are going to ask prosecution for all the electoral commission officials who have committed this monstrous crime against the people of Kenya.
Hot Arguments
The two Justices, Ojwang' and Ndungu, who sided with the IEBC, had said that Raila Odinga had failed to prove claims that the polls were rigged in favour of President Kenyatta.
NASA lawyers, led by James Orengo, were happy with the decision and thanked the court for agreeing with them that IEBC flouted electoral laws.
The decision is history. The first judgement in Africa that has upset a presidential election. Supreme Court has done Kenya proud and lived up to the principle and law regarding election, he said.
The decision by the court means well have new presidential election within 60 days. We hope this time around, they will not make the mistake of generating elections through computers.
What IEBC did was treasonable because they wanted to declare the presidency against the Constitution. I dont think IEBC will preside over the election.
At Stake
Kenyas Supreme Court completed two days of hearings on Tuesday during which the opposition alleged fraud it claims handed victory to President Uhuru Kenyatta in the August 8 poll.
The court had ruled on whether the election should be annulled and rerun, as Odinga and his NASA sought, or the vote and result should stand, as the election IEBC and President Kenyatta contended.
Acrimonious Campaign
The presidential election preceded by an acrimonious campaign and the murder of the IT manager at IEBC Chris Msando pitted incumbent President Kenyatta against Raila Odinga, 72, who had run unsuccessfully three times in the past.
The August 11 declaration of President Kenyattas victory with 54.27 percent of the votes, against 44.74 percent for Mr Odinga, was followed by two days of demonstrations and riots in the slums of Nairobi and in the western city of Kisumu, traditional opposition strongholds.
At least 21 people, including a baby and a nine-year-old girl, were killed on 11 and 12 August, mostly by police, according to an AFP tally.
Overwhelming Evidence
The court saw overwhelming evidence that contrary to IEBC IT Access Control and User Access Management Policy, user accounts were misused by both internal and external parties.
The election results were electronically transmitted and the IEBC server report provided by independent expert showed that strange IP addresses accessed the IEBC server!
Mahama Endorsement
We have followed the whole process and wish to congratulate all on the process thus far. It is my fervent hope and expectation that the positive, peaceful and orderly atmosphere that we all experienced on 8 August 2017 will continue to prevail as we await the conclusion of this electoral process, Ex-President Mahama, who was Chairman of the Commonwealth Election Observer Mission, had said after close of the August 8 ballot.
Our overall conclusion is that the opening, voting, closing and counting process at the polling stations on 8 August 2017 were credible, transparent and inclusive. We commend and congratulate Kenyan voters, the staff of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, political party agents, candidates' agents, the media and all security personnel for their commitment to the democratic process, he had added.
Compiled by William Yaw Owusu with additional files from agencies
The abortive mission of Exton Cubic Company Ltd., to mine bauxite at Nyinahin in the Atwima Kwanwoma District of the Ashanti Region seems to have rejuvenated the animosity between two top businessmen in the country.
From all indications, Bernard Antwi Boasiako aka 'Wontumi,' the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Ibrahim Mahama, a brother of ex-President John Mahama, two foes, are set to fiercely battle over the issue in the coming days.
Wontumi Fires Ibrahim
Already, Wontumi has fired the first salvo by sternly cautioning Ibrahim not to accuse him of influencing the relevant authorities to halt the operations of his company at Nyinahin.
He stated that nobody in the country, including himself (Wontumi) and Ibrahim, is above the laws of the country.
If Ibrahim has flouted the law and he is being restrained by the authorities, he should not blame me wrongly.
Wontumi indicated that he doesn't hold any political position in the current Akufo-Addo-led NPP government, adding that his claims were unfounded.
Ibrahim's Accusations
According to Wontumi, Ibrahim and his numerous spokespersons have been accusing him (Wontumi) of halting the mining operations of Exton Cubic at Nyinahin.
Ibrahim Mahama should not link me to his controversial and abortive bauxite mining or exploration mission at Nyinahin in the Ashanti Region, spokesperson for Wontumi, Opoku Mensah, told Ashh FM in Kumasi.
I am not a cabinet minister or DCE of Atwima Mponua therefore I don't have any powers to stop anybody from carrying out his or her operations at Nyinahin as is being speculated by Ibrahim and his people.
Ibrahim should solve his problem and leave me alone, because I don't have any interest in his operations anywhere in the country, including Nyinahin so he should allow the law to deal with him and stop accusing me, he declared.
It would be recalled that Ibrahim dragged Wontumi to a Kumasi High Court and filed for GHC2 million in damages for allegedly defaming him during a NPP rally at Obuasi in 2014.
Ibrahim, who is determined to ensure that Wontumi is punished for allegedly defaming him, attended virtually all the court sittings in Kumasi, but Wontumi is yet to personally visit the court which has not determined the case.
On the occasion of this years celebration of the Eid-Ul-Adha festival, Muslims in the country have welcomed the implementation of the Free SHS policy, which kick-starts on 13th of this month (September) to cover all junior high school students who gained admission into the various public senior high schools across the country.
The logo for the 'Free SHS programme was unveiled on Thursday by President Nana Akufo-Addo together with his vice, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, at a short but impressive ceremony at the Flagstaff House.
Leading the praises for the introduction of the policy was Alhaji Baba Musa, a member of the National Planning Committee for the celebration of this years Eid-Ul-Adha, which took place at the Black Star Square (Independence Square) yesterday.
He said the Free SHS policy would no doubt be very beneficial to the Zongo communities, as well as all Ghanaians.
The celebration of Eid-Ul-Adha, which saw a large number of Muslims offering prayers for the country and also sacrificing a big lamb at the Black Star Square, was graced by the President of the Republic, Nana Akufo-Addo.
He was accompanied by the Minister for Information, Mustapha Hamid; Minister for Business Development, Ibrahim Awal; Second Lady, Samira Bawumia and some other ministers of state and Members of Parliament (MPs).
The National Chief Iman, Nuhu Sharabutu, who is said to be on the holy pilgrimage to Mecca, was represented by the chairman of the National Planning Committee for the celebration, Alhaji Alhassan Abdullahi Sulley.
Alhaji Baba Musa also praised President Nana Akufo-Addo and his government for the introduction of the One District, One Factory policy which was recently launched at Ekumfi in the Central Region. He noted that that policy would help create employment to the teeming unemployed youth in the country, including many of those in the Zongo communities.
He also lauded the government for the establishment of the Zongo Development Fund, which has been solely created to help develop Zongo communities across the nation.
He said the NPP government has also been exceptional in the organisation of this years Hajj, expressing the happiness of the Muslim elders for the ability of the government to give opportunity to 400 other pilgrims who paid for last years pilgrimage but were unfortunately denied the opportunity to go to Saudi Arabia.
On his part, Alhaji Alhassan Sulley praised the government for all the positive policies and initiatives to help develop the country and stressed the significance of the celebration of the Eid-Ul-Adha in the Islamic calendar.
He asked Ghanaians, especially Muslim brothers and sisters, to always exhibit discipline and tolerance in their everyday dealings and also contribute their quota positively to the development of the nation.
In a short message to commemorate the occasion, President Akufo-Addo asked Muslims and all Ghanaians to pray for the Ghanaian pilgrims in Saudi Arabia because information had it that about four of the pilgrims had passed on in the Holy Land.
Lets pray for our brothers and sisters, countrymen and women who have gone on this years Hajj, especially our revered Chief Imam, so that the Almighty Allah sees them through the Hajj and all the rites and bring them back safely, he charged.
According to the president, the organisation of this years pilgrimage had largely been successful without problem.
He said his government is committed to maintaining the atmosphere that allows people of all religious persuasions to practise their religion without hindrances.
Muslim Parents
President Akufo-Addo encouraged Muslim parents to ensure their children, especially girls, who are enrolled to stay in school.
According to him, that would help to address challenges such as poverty and disease in their communities.
He said Muslim parents must take girl-child education seriously.
I cannot end my statement without urging the education of the Muslim girl or woman. We must take the education of the girl-child seriously. We shall be perpetuating ignorance, poverty and disease if the trainers of generations of Ghanaians remain uneducated.
While urging the Muslim community to embrace the government's 'Free Senior High School' education programme, President Akufo-Addo explained that Ghanaians would be in a better position to practise their religions if educated.
The Prophet Mohammed is reported to have said that 'knowledge is the last property of the believer, let him or her find it wherever he or she will. I believe the Muslim should embrace this policy because it allows the fulfillment of prophetic admonishment.
We are in a better place to practise our religion if we are educated. The 'Free Senior High School' policy eliminates one of the major barriers to seeking secondary education poverty. It is my fervent belief that it is an educated population that can accelerate the development of our country, he articulated.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr
The Wa Central MP, Rashid Pelpuo is unimpressed by attempts to commend the Akufo-Addo administration following the recent resignation of the immediate past Deputy Agriculture Minister, William Quaitoo.
That is an individual who decided to resign. What has that got to do with the government? Mr. Pelpuo quizzed on the Big Issue.
He [William Quaitoo] decided that he wanted to resign and he resigned and the government accepted his resignation. It has got nothing to do with an effort by the government, at least, on the face value.
Mr. Quaitoo, who is also the Member of Parliament for Akim Oda, faced the scorn of the public, the National Democratic Congress Minority, and some civil society groups, for making ethnocentric comments, after saying northern farmers could not be trusted in their assessment of the damage from the army worm.
William Quaitoo
Mr. Quaitoo also said the calls on government for compensation by the northern farmers were simply a ploy to fleece the state.
The resignation was welcomed by the public but Mr. Pelpuo was adamant that the government hasn't done anything heroic.
Under the Mahama Administration, he noted that the likes of the Transport Minister, Dzifa Attivor and Power Minister, Kwabena Donkor resigned for varying reasons.
Dzifa Attivor was embroiled in the SMARTTYS bus branding saga and Kwabena Donkors resignation was related to the countrys crippling power crisis.
Mr. Pelpuo further said the eventual course of events was the only way the government could have saved face.
It would be more embarrassing for the government if the President said 'I don't accept your resignation' and then the Minister insisted that he resign. It would have been more embarrassing, he said.
The presidency had indicated that William Quaitoo, resigned on his own volition .
On the question of possible sanctions for the former Deputy Minister, the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin explained that the President was engaged in other activities in some regions hence could not take an immediate decision.
Nairobi (AFP) - Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday lashed out at the judiciary for overturning his re-election, and refused opposition demands to replace the tarnished polls commission.
While repeating his assertion that he respected the Supreme Court decision, a bellicose Kenyatta set the stage for a bitter and tense re-run of the presidential election which must take place before October 31.
Chief Justice David Maraga on Friday declared Kenyatta's victory in August 8 polls "invalid, null and void", pointing to widespread irregularities in the electronic transmission of vote results.
"Every time we do something a judge comes out and places an injunction. It can't go on like this ... there is a problem and we must fix it," said Kenyatta.
"I think those robes they wear make them think that they are more clever than the rest of us Kenyans," Kenyatta said of the Supreme Court judges, taking specific aim at Maraga.
"Maraga thinks he can overturn the will of the people. We shall show you ... that the will of the people cannot be overturned by a few people."
On Friday he slammed the judges as "crooks" -- after weeks of urging the opposition to turn to the courts and "use whatever legal mechanisms that have been created via our wonderful constitution to express their dissatisfaction."
Law Society of Kenya president Isaac Okera condemned his remarks as "wholly inappropriate" and "ominous".
Fate of election officials
Meanwhile the fate of the electoral commission (IEBC) was shaping up as the next battle between Kenyatta and Odinga, heirs to a dynastic rivalry dating back to independence in 1963.
Maraga said the IEBC had failed to properly conduct the presidential election, and that there had been "irregularities and illegalities".
Odinga demanded the discredited commission be replaced, and IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said there would be some "internal changes" but refused to resign.
The previous commission -- tarnished by a corruption scandal and poor handling of 2013 polls -- was forced to stand down in October after widespread protests. The new commission, named in January had only seven months to organise the polls.
Kenyatta dismissed the option of a change at the IEBC, stating "we don't have time for any more reforms."
He accused Odinga of seeking to derail the election "to join the government through the back door" by forcing a coalition government.
"Let IEBC do their job, let them declare the date (of a new election) and Raila let us meet at the ballot."
'End of impunity'
It is the first time a presidential election result has been overturned in Africa. Similar court rulings have been seen in Austria, Haiti, Ukraine, Serbia and the Maldives.
Kenya's press hailed the ruling as a hard-fought victory for the rule of law, and sign of a maturing democracy.
An editorial in the Nation newspaper said the ruling "signalled the end of the era of impunity that has painfully assailed this country for too long."
"Kenyans have struggled for decades to institutionalise the rule of law. We have fought, shed blood, lost lives and property in search of constitutional order," the paper said.
The unexpected Supreme Court ruling in favour of Kenya's opposition leader Raila Odinga stunned the nation
The press also raised prickly questions about the weeks to come.
"How (the IEBC) will conduct the next elections in the next 60 days in unimaginable," said the Nation.
The Kenyan Supreme Court's decision branded President Uhuru Kenyatta's election victory "invalid, null and void"
"Already the NASA (opposition) leadership has declared war on the commission and with or without that, its credibility has been severely dented and the public has lost confidence in it."
The Standard said the IEBC must "clean up house".
"What Kenya needs most now is an election conducted in a legal, fair and transparent manner."
Toughest yet to come
The opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) cried foul after the August 8 poll over alleged hacking of the electronic system transmitting results from over 40,000 polling stations to the national tallying centre.
NASA argued that tallying forms meant to back up the electronic result were riddled with irregularities: unsigned, not stamped, illegible or lacking serial numbers or watermarks.
While Maraga cited "irregularities and illegalities", his full ruling has not yet been published.
Observers have warned that the new election could bring even more tension to a country where politics is largely divided along tribal lines.
"Kenya just had a difficult and controversial election, and this decision pushes it right back into another electoral campaign," said analyst Nic Cheeseman of the University of Birmingham.
"The outcome of the next election may be controversial again".
The Nation newspaper warned that there was still a long road ahead: "This is not the end. The toughest journey, campaigns and elections, is yet to begin."
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The UN Security Council will vote Tuesday on a draft resolution presented by France that would set up a sanctions regime for Mali, the council's Ethiopian presidency said Saturday.
The move is backed by Mali's government, which earlier told the council that repeated ceasefire violations by jihadists threatened to derail a 2015 peace agreement ending years of fighting with the insurgents in the north.
Islamist jihadists took over territory in northern Mali in 2012, but were driven out by a French-led military intervention in January 2013.
Mali's government signed a peace agreement with coalitions of armed groups in June 2015 to end the fighting, but insurgents remain active, including in central Mali.
France last month circulated the proposed resolution on establishing a committee tasked with setting up the UN sanctions blacklist, as fears grow that the West African country is sliding back into turmoil.
Russia, a veto-wielding council member, had expressed reservations about the proposal.
"We are always against the sanctions regime, especially in this particular situation, when one of the parties to the agreement on peace and reconciliation asks for sanctions against the other two parties," said Russian Deputy Ambassador Petr Iliichev on Friday.
"When one party asks for another (to be sanctioned), we can expect a collapse of this agreement," he added.
Mali sanctions blacklist
Ethiopia, which holds the council presidency this month, scheduled the vote for 10 am (1400 GMT) on Tuesday, at France's request.
Diplomats said they expected the measure to be adopted following talks with the Bamako government.
The resolution would set up a sanctions committee made up of all Security Council members to designate individuals and entities the United Nations would blacklist.
Those on the list would be subject to a global travel ban and an assets freeze.
No names have been submitted, but the draft text states that those who obstruct or delay the peace agreement implementation, block aid deliveries, or attack UN peacekeepers can be blacklisted.
Insurgents have repeatedly attacked the UN peacekeeping force in Mali, which is considered the world's most dangerous UN mission.
Four armed groups active in Mali are already on a separate UN sanctions blacklist for their ties to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Mali and four neighboring countries -- Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Niger -- are organizing a counterterrorism force to fight jihadists in the Sahel, a region France has warned could become a haven for extremists.
In the latest attack to shake the region, gunmen opened fire on a restaurant in the Burkina Faso capital of Ouagadougou on August 14, killing 19 people including several foreigners.
02.09.2017 LISTEN
Executive Secretary of the Ghana Free Zones Board, Mr. Michael Okyere Baafi, continues to show commitment in terms of support for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
He has therefore called on patriots of the great Elephant family to help safeguard the unity binding the NPP currently.
The Free Zones boss made this call when he made a donation to the NPP office of New Juaben South constituency of the Eastern region.
The items presented included a set of computer and a printer, bags of rice, bicycles and an undisclosed amount of money.
Receiving the donation, the Chairman of NPP New Juaben South, Michael Oteng Adu, urged all government appointees (Ministers of state, CEOs etc) to emulate the Executive Secretary of Ghana Free Zones Board, Mr Michael Okyere Baafi and support their various constituencies of origin.
"There ought to be regular interface between government appointees and the party at the various levels".
He recounted how Mr Baafi did not abandoned the constituency after resigning his position as the first vice chairman of the constituency, contested and lost the last parliamentary primaries.
"Even though he wasn't an executive member of the party in the constituency, his tremendously contributions to the 2016 campaign won constituency the highest votes in the Eastern Region."
"And even after his appointment as the Executive Secretary of the Free Zones Board, he still contributes greatly to the party at all levels", he added.
But according Mr Michael Okyere Baafi, the items and the undisclosed amount of money was part of his regular support to the party in the constituency because, he believes strengthening the party to become vibrant agents for implementation of government developmental policies is the way to go.
He also admonished the party hierarchy to safeguard the party unity to maintain political power.
With excitement, he also informed the party leadership of his commitment to offer his assistance to the party to build an ultramodern party headquarters.
Comic Nollywood actor, Dike Osinachi better known as Apama, has just bided farewell to bachelorhood as he finally walks down the aisle with his pretty long time lover, Ogechi Ogbonna.
The actor has been in happy mood all through the week knowing that he is about stepping into another institution where there is no suspension or ASUU strike.
The wedding is already ongoing at First Baptist Church, as reception is schedule to take place at the Imo State University.
Founder and the creative mind behind the top UK luxury brand, LuxuryByFeyi, Feyisola Adeyemi, set to unveil her clothing line to Nigerians come Sunday, 3rd, September, 2017.
Feyi, as she is simply known is a multiple award-winning fashion expert and top media personality behind the online fashion blog, SimplyGlamorousFashion; a cutting edge lifestyle that covers everything on fashion, beauty and glamour.
Her designs have graced some of the top UK runways and also features in some top fashion magazines like Vogue, Grazia, Schon and many more.
Feyi has also clothed top Nollywood and Hollywood celebrities amongst whom are Omoni Oboli, Annie Idibia, Susan Peters, American model/TV personality Draya Michele, Hollywood star Sarah Wayne Callies and a host of others.
She is here in Nigeria in deference to the demand of her teeming fans to launch her affordable diffusion line F E Y I by LBF.
This a luxe meet modest clothing line specially tailored for the Nigerian market. The launch is set to take place at the prestigious Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, and is strictly by invitation.
The launch will also be celebrating the gracious and evergreen fashion icon, Princess Abah Folawiyo, the founder of the famed fashion brand Labanela, who recently clocked 75.
The event also got the support from the Nigerian Export Promotions Council (NEPC) BOSS, Chief Executive Officer, Segun Awolowo, who will also be present.
On ground to officially host the event is beautiful, Charming, Fast rising presenter, Amira Ibrahim-Alfa of 53EXTRA.
These days, lots of lotto companies have seen the need for celebrity endorsement for their products and they have been making good use of the opportunity.
In months past, some Nigerian celebrities have been unveiled as various brand ambassadors for some of these lottery companies and now, Nollywood actress, Ibinabo Fiberesima, has joined the league.
The actress has not had it rosy for some time now was favoured by God as she was recently unveiled as the brand ambassador for Destiny Lotto.
'The big truck is still on ...
LEXINGTON - An announcement Tuesday evening at the Lexington Regional Health Center's Board of Directors meeting provided great news.
LRHC Chief Executive Officer Leslie Marsh will be honored with the Excellence in Service Award by the Nebraska Hospital Association during its annual meeting on October 25, said Jill Denker, Executive Director of Human Resources and Physician Liaison for LRHC.
The Excellence in Service award is the NHAs highest honor. This award is presented to a hospital/health system administrator or senior executive who has demonstrated outstanding administrative skills, professional performance, health care organization involvement and significant leadership.
Denker said the marketing committee would work with NHA on a video tribute for Marsh to highlight her leadership; the video will be presented at the annual meeting along with the award presentation.
"This is an opportunity to get our facility out there," Marsh said.
Another announcement provided some bad news. Dr. Francisca Acosta-Carlson said there were four confirmed cases of Influenza A in Lexington.
Carlson advises that people should wash their hands often, and go to the hospital if they experience flu-like symptoms.
Nursing Service - Chief Nursing Officer Nicole Thorell said LRHC has been selected as one of two hospitals nationwide to participate in a webinar to discuss procedures it uses to reduce patient readmission. LRHC has been able to reduce readmission by 82 percent she said.
Service Excellence - Chief Operating Officer Jim Hain said he continues to hear patients tell him they appreciate the compassionate care they receive.
"When the shift changes, nurses always communicate with the incoming nurses, and they keep family members involved in the discussion," Hain said. There is a high level of communication among staff, and we keep that line of communication open with patients and family members.
While talking with emergency room patients, Hain learned that people are happy LRHC has a highly responsive ER, right here in the community.
Quality and Compliance Report - Dana Steiner, Executive Director of Patient Services, said LRHC recently received its Patient Centered Medical Home certification for the Family Medicine Specialists and Elwood clinics.
LRHC compliance staff will continue to prepare for a DNV survey later this year to work toward ISO certification, she said.
Medical Staff - Dr. Francisca Acosta-Carlson said one medical resident, Dr. Anna Christiansen, recently completed her residency with LRHC.
Although Dr. Christiansen loves it here," Carlson said, she will be living in Omaha, where her husband is employed.
LRHC will not receive another medical resident until December, Carlson said.
Virtuous Organization - Denker said the August topic for LRHC leadership training with Lee Elliott, a human resources professional, was the psychology of good and evil.
Denker thanked the LRHC staff for their hard work, and praised the support from sponsors and the community for Leaving A Legacy 2017, which was held on Aug. 19. The event raised about $106,000.
LRHCs Board of Directors approved a funding request for a new piece of equipment for the operating room that is used for orthopedic and podiatry services, which will cost $81,400.
Wade Eschenbrenner, Chief Financial Officer for LRHC, gave his monthly financial report, which focused on the start of the 2018 fiscal year.
Eschenbrenner said gross revenues have been on a steady rise over the past few months, and the 2018 fiscal year was off to a good start.
"We continue to provide great service in the ER (emergency room) thanks to a caring staff. We will always continue to build on that.
Inpatient revenue has shown an increasing trend over the last four months. Outpatient revenue is steadily growing. Eschenbrenner stated that revenue for July 2017 was $3.4 million, another positive trend when comparing the same time frame from previous years.
The board accepted the financial report with a motion. No charity care cases were discussed.
LRHC Chief Information Officer Robb Hanna talked to the board about a new service offered to patients. The new service, ezVisit, allows patients to seek medical attention for several conditions by using a computer, cell phone, and other devices, from the comfort of their home.
The process requires a patient to complete an online assessment, with a response given by medical examiners within an hour. Depending on the medical assessment, ezVisit has the capability to offer solutions including prescriptions. Patients may also be referred to a local provider depending on the severity of symptoms. Local provider access and scheduling is easy and simple.
Typically, common ailments can be addressed directly online with ezVisit, Hanna said.
Hanna said the web site was designed to be easy to use and straightforward. If a patient is accepted for an online visit, the cost is $35 out-of-pocket. Patients can submit a manual claim to their insurance provider. If ezVisit directs the patient to seek attention from a medical provider, the $35 fee is waived.
Currently, an ezVisit app is available for Google phones, and the Apple Store app is in the final stages.
"We started looking at ezVisit about a year ago. Dr. Carlson helped test the program. It's been a long time in the making, and were happy to finally have the ability to offer virtual visits," Marsh said.
- Scores of worshippers who died from the St Philips Catholic Church shooting have been buried
- Gunmen had on Sunday August 6 killed some worshippers at Ozubulu church in Anambra state
- Residents of Ozubulu community had express fear that a gang war could further endanger their lives following the attack on the church
A cloud of gloom hangs over Ozobulu community as victims from the St Philips Catholic Church shooting were laid to rest.
The burial ceremony took place on Friday, September 1.
Tragedy struck the community on Sunday, August 6, where scores of worshippers were killed following an attack on the St Philips Catholic Church.
READ ALSO: Dangote turns down PDPs offer to run in 2019 presidential race
Worshippers who died from the St Philips Catholic Church, Ozubulu shooting were laid to rest on September 1 Photo credit: Facebook, Hope for Nigeria
Legit.ng gathered that no fewer than 13 persons were killed and 27 injured after the shooter opened fire at a crowd of worshippers attending the mornings Mass at the church.
The Nigerian Police Force had announced that the attack was the result of a dr*g war that has existed for about three years which reportedly started in South Africa.
See more photos below:
St. Philips Catholic Church,Ozubulu, Anambra state was attacked on Sunday, August 6 Photo credit: Facebook, Hope for Nigeria
Funeral service for victims of Ozubulu church shooting Photo credit: Facebook, Hope for Nigeria
Residents of Ozubulu community paying their last respects to the victims Photo credit: Facebook, Hope for Nigeria
Legit.ng previously reported that gunmen on Sunday August 13, allegedly struck at the Assemblies of God Church on the Oguta road Onitsha, Anambra state killing one policeman and a civilian.
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Punch reports that the incident happened seven days after gunmen attacked St Philips Catholic Church, Ozubulu and killed no fewer than 13 persons and injured 27.
Watch this Legit.ng video as family members of those attacked by the Badoo Cult group in Lagos speak:
Source: Legit.ng
- The October 1 quit notice issued by coalition of Niger Delta militants to northerners and Yorubas has been withdrawn
- Speaking on behalf of the militants, Mike Loyibo said the coalition withdrew the quit notice after they were told of the implications it would have on the region
- The Ijaw chief said the entire Niger Delta people are not in agreement with the quit notice issue
- He blamed the Arewa youths for causing tension in the polity and frowned on the way and manner the government treated them
The coalition of Niger Delta militants has withdrawn the October 1 quit notice they issued to northerners and Yoruba living in the region.
The Pan Niger Delta Peoples Congress (PNDPC) claimed they were given the mandate by the issuers of the quit notice to withdraw it, The Nation reports.
The coalition comprises the Reformed Niger Delta Avengers, Niger Delta Joint Revolutionary Crusaders Council, Niger Delta Supreme Egbesu Fighters, Niger Delta Red Scorpion Fighters, Niger Delta Youth Mandate for Justice, Niger Delta Peoples Liberation Force, Niger Delta Fighters for Resource Control, Niger Delta for Urhobo Resource Control, and Bakassi Peoples Liberation Force.
Chief Mike Loyibo who the coalition had named as its coordinator/convener confirmed that the coalition mandated the PNPDC to announce the withdrawal of the quit notice.
According to him, the youths were remorseful after a meeting with him and some members, adding that they had a change of mind after they were told of the implications the quit notice would have on the peace and development of the region.
READ ALSO: Boko Haram changes killing tactics, kills 18 youths with knives, abducts many at Banki IDP camp
Loyibo said: People should disregard the quit notice from our youths. I have spoken to many of them and they mandated me to withdraw it on their behalf.
They have called off the quit notice and discharged it. Everybody in the region in the west, east and north should go about their normal business. I can guarantee them of their safety.
The entire Niger Delta people are not in agreement with the quit notice issue. The boys that issued it are very remorseful. So, they have asked me, because they mandated me to speak for them and the region, to discharge the quit notice.
The Ijaw leader noted that the youths in the region still believed in the integrity of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and their ability to fulfill the promises they made to the region.
We believe that Nigeria will continue to remain as one under a peaceful situation. So, I hereby, use this medium to formally discharge that quit notice. It is of no effects and there is no element of seriousness and the people that did it are very remorseful after we met with them and scolded them, he said.
Loyibo expressed displeasure at the way the federal government was handling the Arewa youths who caused tension in the polity with its quit notice to Igbos living in the north.
He stated that nobody should be treated as a second class citizen and all must be held as equal stakeholders in the Nigerian project.
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Legit.ng reported months back that the Coalition of Northern Youth Groups (CNYG) gave Igbos living in the north till October 1 to vacate the region.
The coalition had said the quit notice, issued on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 in Kaduna, was in response to the breakaway agitation by Igbos under the auspices of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by Nnamdi Kanu. Read more:
This was trailed by controversy as some condemned it while others supported the youths.
After series of meetings with numerous stakeholders, the group withdrew the quit notice on Thursday, August 24.
However, the withdrawal of the October 1 quit notice issued to Igbos by Arewa youths, was rejected by Niger Delta agitators.
The agitators described the move as an attempt to deceive Nigerians, and laughed over the fact that the withdrawal occurred alongside plans by the federal government to re-arrest and prosecute the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Watch a Legit.ng TV video below of Nigerians talking about the issue of restructuring of the country:
Source: Legit.ng
- The Nigerian Air Force has said it drops bombs and rockets on some terrorists in Sambisa forest
- The operation, the Air Force said, killed many Boko Haram members
- The operation was carried out in Garin Malaoma, Sambisa forest
The Nigerian Air Force on Friday, September 1, neutralized hundreds of Boko Haram terrorists, the NAF director of public relation and information Olatokunbo Adesanya has said.
Adesanya said the terrorist were killed by troops in Garin Malaoma in the famous terrorists' hideout - Sambisa Forest.
He said a NAF intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (iSR) platform had earlier sighted the BHTs who were gathered under some trees.
"Consequently, a combination of NAF fighter aircraft namely the F7-Ni, Alpha Jet and L-39 ZA aircraft was detailed to carry out air interdiction on the BHT gathering.
The Alpha Jet aircraft acquired and attacked the target with bombs, neutralising many of the BHTs. Thereafter, the F-Ni aircraft immediately conducted a bomb attack, which resulted in the death of more BHTs," Adesanya said.
He also said the L-39ZA aircraft followed through by strafing fleeing terrorists with rockets, killing most of them in the process.
"After the attacks, a few BHT survivors were seen scampering from the location.
Meanwhile, the NAF has conveyed the Director General of the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) and other NEMA officials to Makurdi to give effect to the Presidential directive to assist flood victims in Makurdi. The NAF Beechcraft KingAir aircraft was used to convey the team," he added.
Legit.ng earlier reported that there was a severe operation against Boko Haram terrorists in Borno.
The operation, Legit.ng gathered killed five top commanders of the terrorist group.
The spokesperson of the Nigerian Army Sani Usman in a statement said the operation was carried out by both the Nigerian Army and the Air Force.
You can watch this Legit.ng video of survivors of Boko Haram insurgency recounting their ordeals:
Source: Legit.ng
Palliative care has increased in Africa over the past 12 years but only in a small subset of countries, according to a review published today in Lancet Oncology. This research was led by John Y. Rhee, a fourth-year medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS).
"We undertook this project with the hope of providing evidence for palliative care advocates on the ground in Africa," said Mr. Rhee. "Without benchmarks, it is difficult to measure progress and set goals for the future."
According to this literature review, palliative care has grown in Africa over the past twelve years but mainly in a small subset of countries (26 countries, 48 percent of African countries). The majority of palliative care services were concentrated in Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda, and 14 (26 percent of African countries) countries experienced a growth in palliative care services. The number of countries with policies and/or guidelines related to palliative care has grown; however, postgraduate educational opportunities in the field remain sparse (only available in Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Tanzania).
Opioid consumption and access has remained very low across the continent, which is a barrier to pain management, one of the most important components of palliative care. Information on palliative care is also unevenly distributed, with growth in a subset of African countries but minimal to no identified development in the majority of countries.
"We know that underserved populations are more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage illness and have worse health outcomes," said Prabhjot Singh, MD, PhD, Director, The Arnhold Institute for Global Health, and Chair, Department of Health System Design and Global Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Lack of access to quality palliative care leads to increased suffering for vulnerable populations. Globally, we face common challenges in delivering low-cost, high-quality health care at scale. John Rhee's research identifying gaps in access to palliative care in Africa is essential to addressing structural inequities in care delivery, and building healthier communities."
The authors suggest that African countries focus on decreasing barriers to opioids and increasing postgraduate educational opportunities, which may lead to increasing the number of trained professionals who may drive service provision and policies. Future research on professional activity and capacity building specific to the African context is also needed.
Using the findings from this scoping review, Mr. Rhee co-created the APCA Atlas of Palliative Care in Africa (APCA Atlas) which was released at the 15th World Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care in Madrid in May 2017. This was the first comprehensive publication on African palliative care to be published in more than 10 years.
Source: http://www.mountsinai.org/
Retiree Leslie Robinson-Stone and her husband enjoyed a weeklong, all-expenses-paid trip to a luxury resort all thanks to the county she worked for.
The couple also received more than a thousand dollars in spending money and a personal concierge, who attended to their every need. For Santa Barbara County, it was money well spent: Sending Robinson-Stone 250 miles away for knee replacement surgery near San Diego saved the government $30,000.
"The only difference between our two hospitals is one is expensive and the other is exorbitant," said Andreas Pyper, assistant director of human resources for Santa Barbara County, referring to the local options.
Frustration with sky-high hospital bills and a lack of local competition is common to many employers and consumers across the country after years of industry consolidation. Fed up with wildly different price tags for routine operations, some private employers are steering patients they insure to top-performing providers who offer bargain prices. Santa Barbara County, with about 4,000 employees, is among a handful of public entities to join them.
The county has saved nearly 50 percent on four surgery cases since starting its out-of-town program last year, officials said. The program is voluntary for covered employees.
This story also ran in the Los Angeles Times. It can be republished for free (details).
At a Scripps Health hospital in the San Diego area, the county paid $61,600 for a spinal fusion surgery that would have cost more than twice as much locally. It avoided two other operations altogether after patients went outside the area for second opinions.
Typically, employers are seeking deals through "bundled payments" in which one fixed price covers tests, physician fees and hospital charges. And if complications arise, providers are on the hook financially. Medicare began experimenting with this method during the Obama administration.
Santa Barbara County is among about 400 employers on the West Coast working with Carrum Health, a South San Francisco start-up that negotiates bundled prices and chooses surgeons based on data on complications and readmissions.
"Not all surgeons are equal. We don't want to give Scripps a blank check. That defeats the whole purpose," said Sachin Jain, Carrum's chief executive.
Santa Barbara officials try to persuade workers and their family members to participate in its program by waiving copays and deductibles. The county pays about $2,700 in travel costs and still comes out way ahead.
"If that doesn't speak to the inefficiencies in our health care system, I don't know what does," Pyper said. "It's almost like buying a Toyota Corolla for $50,000 and then going to San Diego to buy the same Corolla for $16,000. How long would the more expensive Toyota dealership last?"
Even as more employers and insurers embrace bundled payments, the Trump administration is applying the brakes. In August, Medicare officials proposed canceling mandatory bundled payments for certain surgeries and scaling back the program for knee and hip replacements. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, when he was still a member of Congress, accused Medicare of overstepping federal authority and interfering in the doctor-patient relationship. Hospital trade groups have voiced similar objections.
That leaves some health-policy experts dismayed.
"These bundled payments put pressure on medical providers and the savings are astonishing," said Bob Kocher, a former health official in the Obama administration and now a partner in the venture capital firm Venrock.
Santa Barbara County officials said they had no choice after seeing their medical costs soar by 15 percent in each of the past two years. Like many local governments, it has an older workforce prone to chronic illness, blocked arteries and bum knees.
But health costs run higher than the state average in this scenic coastal county of about 450,000 people, according to data from Oakland-based Integrated Healthcare Association. By one measure, the average health insurance premium in the individual market runs $660 a month in Santa Barbara, 27 percent higher than in Los Angeles.
Still, Maya Barraza, the county's manager for employee benefits and rewards, knew the program would be a hard sell to workers. "You don't want to be away from your family and what's familiar," she said.
Cottage Health, the county's largest health system, says it wants to keep patients in town for treatment and follow-up care.
Established in 1891, it's grown from a single hospital to more than 500 beds across three hospitals, and annual revenue hit $746 million last year.
Valet attendants greet visitors at two entrances outside the group's white, Spanish-style hospital in the city of Santa Barbara. In the main lobby, the names of wealthy donors are splashed across one wall, including billionaire investor and Donald Trump confidant Thomas Barrack.
"We are continually looking at reducing costs and improving quality," said Cottage Health spokeswoman Maria Zate. "Cottage Health has some of the top surgeons in California."
Sixty miles north in Santa Maria, the state's largest hospital chain, Dignity Health, offers another option: Marian Regional Medical Center.
Both Cottage and Dignity hospitals in Santa Barbara County have quality scores of fair to excellent for joint replacements, spinal procedures and coronary bypass surgeries, according to three years of Medicare data analyzed by research firm Mpirica Health.
Dignity Health didn't respond to requests for comment.
Carrum tries to help employers like Santa Barbara County find more affordable options. It has struck bundled price deals for various procedures with Scripps hospitals in the San Diego area, Stanford Health Care in the Bay Area and Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, part of the Providence Health chain.
Several other companies, such as Health Design Plus, are also assisting employers, insurers and patients with the logistics of surgery shopping. Boeing and other large employers are the most aggressive at pursuing bundled pricing and sending workers across the country for care.
Since 2014, more than 2,000 joint replacement and spinal surgeries have been performed for fixed prices through the Pacific Business Group on Health's "centers of excellence" program, which includes employers such as JetBlue and Lowe's. It added gastric bypass and other bariatric surgeries last year, and the employer group is working on bundled prices for cancer treatment.
Some companies have gone so far as to send patients overseas for cheaper care, but most employers favor a more regional approach, experts say. Workers still rely on local physicians for follow-up care.
Municipalities, school districts and other public employers have been slower to adopt some of these strategies, perhaps to avoid the political risk of antagonizing local providers, some researchers suggest.
For some hospitals, there are advantages in offering deep discounts: They get patients they otherwise would never see and are paid in full right after the patient is discharged, avoiding the onerous billing and collections process.
They also have the financial capacity to offer such sharply reduced prices.
Michael Bark, assistant vice president of payer relations at Scripps Health, said most hospitals significantly mark up their commercial rates for orthopedic procedures and cardiac surgeries to compensate for lower government reimbursements.
"There are immense profit margins built into those cases," Bark said.
Robinson-Stone, a former county sheriff's deputy and a computer support specialist, was initially wary of traveling for her surgery. But the 62-year-old Lompoc resident had ongoing pain that kept her from biking, walking her dogs and tending to her fruit trees. Medication and cortisone shots didn't work, and she had no ties to local surgeons. So she signed up online and was given a choice of six orthopedic surgeons at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla.
In June 2016, she and her husband, Frank Stone, checked in at the Estancia La Jolla Hotel and Spa.
Robinson-Stone met the surgeon on a Wednesday, had the operation the next day and returned to her hotel room by Saturday. She continued physical therapy at the hotel and returned to the hospital a few days later to have the staples removed.
She was back on her bike within two months and eventually lost about 20 pounds.
"I just celebrated one year from surgery," she said, "and I'm a happy camper."
Heidi DeMarco contributed to this story.
This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.
Captain America and the Winter Soldier Special #1 takes Marvel's secret history to a whole new level with a real world historical figure
If you know who Gavrilo Princip is, prepare to be shocked
The Honor 9's limited edition Robin Blue variant will make its UK debut later this month. An increase in RAM accompanies the phone's vibrant paint job, but the rest of the specs remain unchanged.
4 Reviews
There are black and white and gray smartphones, and then there's the Huawei Honor 9 in Robin Blue. The formerly Asian-exclusive variant immediately stands out due to its striking pastel-like finish. First launched in China last month, this limited-edition model is now headed to the UK and should arrive in just a few weeks.
You will be able to get your hands on the Robin Blue Honor 9 in mid-September. Aside from its unique color, the handset is identical to the standard versions of the Honor 9. The only difference is an increase in RAM, from 4 GB to 6 GB. Otherwise, it includes the same 5.15-inch 1080p screen, Kirin 960 processor, 64 GB of storage, and impressive 20-megapixel + 12-megapixel dual rear cameras.
The Robin Blue variant of the Honor 9 will be available for 459.99 (US$595). Huawei has not yet said whether the device will be sold in other regions, such as the US.
As politicians in Washington slash budgets and break promises, local governments are forced to pick up the pieces. New York Citys 51-member City Council is critical to this effort, trying as best it can to fill gaps in housing, education, welfare, immigration, the environment and other important matters.
But attending to big-ticket problems is only part of the job. Each council member represents the equivalent of a midsize city about 160,000 constituents. Calls come in constantly from people who need help fighting a dishonest landlord or muting a neighborhood bar or keeping the local deli from shutting its doors. Council members must also keep a hard eye on the citys powerful mayor and his $85 billion budget.
Sadly, New Yorkers as a whole do not give the City Council races the attention they deserve. Turnout in city primaries has been lamentably low given the importance of the jobs. In one district with nearly 50,000 registered Democrats, only about 7,000 are expected to show up at the polls to pick their candidate.
We can hope for better on Sept. 12, when Republicans and Democrats will be asked to choose their favorites in the 2017 primaries. Many incumbents have no real challengers, but here are five competitive races that we believe deserve special attention in the Democratic primary. In all five districts, the winning Democrat usually prevails in the general election in November.
The district, and the Council, will lose the talented Daniel Garodnick at the end of this year because of the citys regrettable term limits law, which New York voters have approved three times and which limits council members to two four-year terms. Fortunately, there are several worthy contenders for the seat. The top three are Keith Powers, a former aide to two respected Albany politicians and an ex-lobbyist from a large city firm; Bessie Schachter, also a veteran Albany aide and a community leader; and Marti Speranza, who ran Women Entrepreneurs NYC (WE NYC), which has helped women establish businesses across the city.
For all the talent in this field, Mr. Powers is the strongest candidate, with an impressive 22-point reform plan. He wants to improve the citys already excellent campaign finance law, in part by lowering the limit on individual campaign contributions. He would try to make Council voting records easily available online and to restrict lobbying by former city officials. Mr. Powerss own past as a lobbyist is not disqualifying; he pledges not to have any contacts with his old firm. He promises to also follow the Garodnick system of putting details of every meeting who, when and why on his website.
The incumbent, Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal, is facing a rematch with Mel Wymore, a community activist who nearly won the seat four years ago. The Times endorsed Mr. Wymore in 2013, and he has argued well for better constituent services and such improvements as a vacancy fee to limit the time allowed for empty storefronts.
Still, Ms. Rosenthal deserves another four years in office, if only for her courageous support for a new school desegregation plan in the district. She has also pushed to protect tenants being overrun by developers and unscrupulous landlords.
The areas departing council member, James Vacca, has enthusiastically endorsed Marjorie Velazquez as his replacement. Ms. Velazquez, who started her career in corporate finance, has been a community leader working on transportation issues, keeping housing affordable and helping small businesses.
A former State Senate aide, John Doyle, is also running, but Ms. Velazquezs main threat is from Mark Gjonaj, a member of the State Assembly. Mr. Gjonajs Albany record is modest, and he has too many connections to the old Bronx political machine. By far the most promising choice for this district would be Ms. Velazquez.
This one is easy. Assemblyman Francisco Moya deserves every primary vote in this district. His opponent is former State Senator Hiram Monserrate, who seems to be hoping that voters will not recall the video showing him dragging his girlfriend through an apartment lobby after he had just slashed her face with a piece of glass, that he was thrown out of the State Senate after being convicted of misdemeanor assault, and that he later pleaded guilty to misusing public funds and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Mr. Monserrate, who has shown little remorse, simply does not belong in public service. Mr. Moya, in contrast, has worked in Albany to increase the minimum wage, reform the criminal justice system and provide more protections for construction workers. He would be a credit to this district.
Councilman Carlos Menchaca, a Mexican-American, is fighting to stay on for another four years. He deserves that extra time to continue his work helping immigrants now under siege as they try to stay in the country. He has pushed the city to provide lawyers for tenants facing housing court, and he has held up waterfront developments, arguing that they need to serve the whole community, not just the hip and moneyed crowd. He has important endorsements from many public officials, including two prominent members of Congress, Nydia Velazquez and Jerrold Nadler.
As the government begins to assess the damage from Hurricane Harvey, it is clear that much of the damage occurred outside of the boundaries drawn on official flood maps.
Source: Building damage estimates from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, through Aug. 31
About 40 percent of the buildings estimated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to have been flooded in Harris County, Tex., are in areas considered to be of minimal flood hazard.
That finding, by a New York Times analysis of FEMAs data from Harris County, Tex., is similar to a report Friday by researchers at the University of California-Davis. They used satellite imagery to determine that half of the land that flooded in the county, whose seat is Houston, was outside of official flood zones.
The researchers, at the universitys Natural Hazards Research and Mitigation Group, said their finding points almost inescapably to local factors such as runaway development and lack of balanced hydrologic planning.
By some calculations, the current flooding represents the third 500-year flood in the Houston area in the past three years, they wrote, using a term to express a low likelihood of major flooding.
Heavy flooding outside the official flood zones means that many property owners in the county are unlikely to have insurance coverage, unless they happen to be large commercial establishments that could buy it from insurance companies. Insurers are generally unwilling to sell flood coverage to homeowners, so individuals who want it must get it from the National Flood Insurance Program.
But the federal programs rules and pricing come from FEMAs flood maps, and the designations on those maps are increasingly being called into question.
A study last year by researchers at Texas A&M University and Rice University found a growing disconnect between the 100-year flood plain and the location of the actual losses.
The study, published last month in Natural Hazards Review, looked at two portions of the Harris County watershed, to find out what was driving flooding outside the officially designated zones. It compared FEMAs mapping methods with newer hydrological models, and found the new models could greatly improve the understanding of flood risk, as well as help officials communicate the risk to people in harms way.
The researchers also found that some property owners in the Houston area did buy flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program, even though their homes were not in flood zones and they were not required to buy it.
Houston has urban storm water flooding, flooding due more to inadequate storm water drainage than conventional factors, said Chad Berginnis, executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, based in Madison, Wis. He was not involved in the Texas study.
He said that the risk of flooding from inadequate storm-water drainage was not usually picked up by the FEMA maps, because it could happen far from rivers and coasts, bodies of water that would be expected to flood.
Homes in this part of a neighborhood near the Barker Reservoir are outside official flood zones. Win Mcnamee/Getty Images
Unless FEMA is really pushed, usually by a very progressive community that is managing its storm water, they do not factor in local storm water drainage systems, he said. Even when they are pushed, I would characterize it as a minor consideration.
FEMA updates its flood maps in response to population growth or other local changes. It says it does take urban land use and infrastructure into account, as well as elevation and proximity to rivers and coasts.
Harris County had just received a new flood map in January, and experts said it did not pick up storm water drainage risks.
That type of flooding is not shown on the maps, said Carolyn Kousky, director of policy research at the Risk Management and Design Processes Center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. And its a problem nationwide.
She said that in President Trumps budget proposal this year, money for improving the flood maps had been cut, as was money for the Pre-Disaster Mitigation program, the only federal program for reducing flood risk before there is actually a flood. Congress has not yet acted on the administration proposal.
At least 150,000 properties in Texas have been affected by Hurricane Harvey, according to ongoing estimates by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Each dot is one building Destroyed Major damage Minor Some flooding Lake Conroe Conroe San Felipe Cleveland Houston Victoria Wharton TEXAS Port Lavaca Port Arthur Rockport Bridge City Galveston Freeport 20 miles Port Aransas Gulf of Mexico Bridge City Port Arthur Cleveland Conroe Galveston Lake Conroe Houston Freeport San Felipe Wharton TEXAS Gulf of Mexico Port Lavaca Victoria Rockport Port Aransas 20 miles Area of detail
Salt Lake Rockport 1 mile Guadalupe River Victoria 1 mile 1 mile Motiva oil refinery Port Arthur Sabine Lake Port Aransas 1 mile 2 miles Lake Conroe Conroe Bridge City 1 mile
Source: Federal Emergency Management Agency, data as of Aug. 31
Though most of the damage is in Houston and other parts of Harris County, at least 55,000 properties in other coastal towns were also affected by the storm.
Houston Rockport
Population: 10,645
Rockport was directly in the path of Harvey as the storm made landfall on August 25. Mayor Charles J. Wax described significant portions of the town as completely gone, a pile of sticks.
Darren Abate/European Pressphoto Agency
Houston Port Aransas
Population: 4,054
Damage to the island community of Port Aransas, in Nueces County, included extensive debris on roadways and 100 percent loss of a beachside trailer park, said Mayor Charles Bujan in a local news interview.
A liquor store was destroyed in Port Aransas, Tex. Christopher Lee for The New York Times
Houston Victoria
Population: 92,467
The storm tore through Victoria Countys largest city, disabling a weather-tracking station and smashing exhibits at the Texas Zoo. Animals were evacuated from the wreckage on Thursday, according to local news reports. The Guadalupe River, which runs through Victoria, flooded many homes.
Nancy Bram, 39, surveyed the damage in her front yard in Victoria, Tex. Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Lake Conroe Houston
Population of neighboring towns: 82,907
Despite a controlled release of Lake Conroe on Sunday night, water rushed into the neighboring towns of Montgomery and Conroe, and other parts of Montgomery County. We had no idea what to expect, where it was all going to go, said the Conroe fire chief, Ken Kreger.
Tharindu Nallaperuma/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Port Arthur Houston
Population: 55,427
In a video posted on Facebook, Mayor Derrick Freeman of Port Arthur walked through his house, submerged in knee-high water. He wrote in a message: Our whole city is underwater right now.
Evacuees after being rescued from flooding in Port Arthur, Tex. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Bridge City Houston
Population: 8,156
The storm dumped more than 20 inches of rain onto Bridge City on Tuesday and Wednesday, when it made its second landfall. Teddi Nezat Lampman captured the flooding on video as she rode with her husband through town on Wednesday. She described the scene as complete chaos.
From Counterpunch
(Image by Photo by The National Guard) Details DMCA
Hovering Hurricane Harvey, loaded and reloading with trillions of gallons of water raining down on the greater Houston region -- ironically the hub of the petroleum refining industry -- is an unfolding, off the charts tragedy for millions of people. Many of those most affected are minorities and low-income families with no homes, health care or jobs to look forward to once the waters recede.
Will this tragedy teach us the lessons that so many politicians and impulsive voters have been denying for so long?
The first lesson is that America must come home: we must end the Empire of Militarism and of playing the role of policeman of the planet. Both of these habitual roles are backfiring and depleting trillions of taxpayer dollars that could be better used toward rebuilding our country's infrastructure, strengthening our catastrophe-response networks and preparing for the coming megastorms like Hurricane Harvey. A projected trillion dollars being spent by Obama, and now Trump, just to upgrade nuclear weapons will only spur another arms race with Russia and China. This money could be more productively spent protecting Americans from immediate threats, such as natural disasters from man-made climate change.
Politicians must stop overstuffing a bloated military budget and leaving our country fiscally unprepared to handle mass epidemics and mass megastorms. In short, will they stop leaving our country defenseless against the prospects of huge levels of mortality and morbidity?
Second, Congressional and White House deniers of man-made climate disruption must renounce their dogmatic ignorance and confront the reality in the scientific warnings about the accelerating wrath of a provoked natural world.
Last month, I asked Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe -- who has called climate change a "hoax" -- what level of evidence would change his mind about climate change. He has not replied yet. But that is the question that should be asked of all Trumpsters, including the voters who share their disregard: Just what series of climate events -- what piles of scientific measurements and documentations now in the Arctic, the Andes, Antarctica, Greenland, the Maldives, etc. -- could change their minds?
Third, our elected officials must accept that continuing to waste trillions of dollars on corporate subsidies, bailouts, giveaways and lack of enforcement of costly crime -- crony capitalism -- further weakens our country's capacity to foresee and forestall omnicidal disasters.
Enough, also, of the Congressional Republicans starving the IRS budget so it cannot collect more of the many billions of dollars in uncollected global corporate taxes. These Republicans don't seem to connect the size of deficits, which they detest, with uncollected tax revenue, now estimated by the IRS to exceed $350 billion a year.
Maybe someone should finally write a book entitled "Listen, Voters." It could start by asking why enough voters keep electing politicians, who sweet talk them, only hook up with corporations and an ideology of corporatism that adversely affects the very voters who put them into office, along with many other Americans. If these voters, who so often vote against their own interests, do a little homework before Election Day, they can easily separate the fakers and the sell outs from the real candidates, who may not have silver tongues and corporate backing, but have a consistent record of being on the side of the people.
Voters need to be more demanding if they are to break the chains of a rigged electoral system that deprives them of choice, of voice and, most importantly, of the sovereign power they possess in our Constitution.
The August 29, 2017 Washington Post paused from its extensive coverage of the destruction in Houston to laud the "Flood of Courage" in its lead editorial. It wrote of the "massive -- and inspiring -- volunteer rescue response...With nothing more than their own courage, good people ventured into the rushing gullies and culverts, risking their lives to save others in the unrelenting rain."
While Trump tweets and hopefully reconsiders his earlier cruel budget cuts for FEMA and other life-saving federal agencies -- such as the Centers for Disease Control and the EPA -- the people are swinging into action on the ground. May they swing into wise and just action in the next elections -- both as new candidates and, high horizon, informed voters. For there is a much better America to be had.
TERRORIST ATTACKS, and the emotions they spawn, almost always prompt calls for fundamental legal rights to be curtailed in the name of preventing future attacks. The formula by now is routine: The victims of the horrific violence are held up as proof that there must be restrictions on advocating whatever ideology motivated the killer to act.
In 2006, after a series of attacks carried out by Muslims, Republican Newt Gingrich called for "a serious debate about the First Amendment" so that "those who would fight outside the rules of law, those who would use weapons of mass destruction, and those who would target civilians are, in fact, subject to a totally different set of rules."
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Of Islamic radicals, the former U.S. speaker of the House argued that they do not believe in the Constitution or free speech, and the U.S. should thus "use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the Internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us to stop them from recruiting people." In an essay defending his remarks, Gingrich argued that "free speech should not be an acceptable cover for people who are planning to kill other people who have inalienable rights of their own," adding that "the fact is not all speech is permitted under the Constitution."
The white nationalist violence at Charlottesville has led to similar arguments. While polling data and anecdotal evidence have long shown an erosion in the belief in free speech among younger Americans, including those who identify as liberals or leftists, Charlottesville has prompted a full-scale debate about the merits of preserving the right to express "hate speech," however that might be defined.
An excellent Guardian article on Monday by Julia Carrie Wong examines the implications of the growing liberal/left desire for "hate speech" to be restricted -- either by the state wielding the power of "hate speech" laws or by private tech executives prohibiting the use of their platforms to disseminate what they regard as "hateful ideas." As Wong correctly notes, "Many Americans increasingly favor European-style limitations on hate speech." Numerous op-eds and blogposts have been published recently explicitly calling for such restrictions. As a result, it is well worth examining how those "European-style limitations" operate in practice, and against whom they are applied.
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Laureates have grave concerns about Trump's anti-science agenda as well as his recent rhetoric on nuclear war
By Julia Conley, staff writer
Trump's brand of populism was named as a major threat to scientific advances in a survey of 50 Nobel Laureates.
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Along with nuclear war and climate change, President Donald Trump has made the list of what Nobel Laureates consider to be major risks to the world population.
In a survey of 50 Nobel Prize winners in the sciences, medicine, and economics, more than a third of the respondents said damage to the environment brought about by issues like over-population and climate change, was the biggest threat to mankind. Twenty-three percent said nuclear war was their top concern, while six percent said theirs was "the ignorance of political leaders" -- with two of the winners naming Trump specifically.
Peter Agre, winner of the chemistry Prize in 2003, told the Times Higher Education, which conducted the poll and released the results Thursday, that "Trump could play a villain in a Batman movie -- everything he does is wicked or selfish." He also called the president "extraordinarily uninformed."
The survey also found serious concerns among the respondents about the brand of populism pushed by Trump as well as right-wing European leaders. Forty percent of the Nobel winners called Trump-style populism, characterized by his distrust of climate science and the media, and political polarization "a grave threat to scientific progress, while 30 percent say that they are a serious threat."
"Today, facts seem to be questioned by many people who prefer to believe rumors rather than well-established scientific facts," said Jean-Pierre Sauvage, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year.
Another laureate added, "it is a disaster when people start believing things that are false and, even worse, when governments induce them to believe facts that are evidently wrong and ignore all evidence-based, scientifically proven data."
The Times Higher Education noted that "Agre is particularly worried by how Trump 'flaunts his ignorance' to appeal to a group of Americans who are happy to dismiss the opinions of scientists."
It's not the first time some of the world's top scientists and doctors have publicly expressed disapproval of the president. Earlier this year, 62 Nobel Laureates signed a petition denouncing Trump's executive order directing U.S. agencies to ban travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
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As everyone knows, hurricane Harvey struck Houston, the 4th largest city in the United States, last week. Apart from its obvious devastation, initial reports said Harvey had caused at least 12 deaths across an area that is home to more than 6 million people.
What most don't know is that on the other side of the world, in Bangladesh, India and Nepal people are currently experiencing 100 times the initially reported Houston death toll. There torrential rains have killed more than 1200 people and wreaked havoc in the lives of up to 40 million South Asians living in those countries. One third of Bangladesh is currently under water.
At the same time, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have recently published a warning that the parts of Asia just referenced (as well as Pakistan) will soon become uninhabitable for its 1.5 billion residents because of rising temperatures. Incessant heat waves will soon make it impossible for peasant farmers to work their fields. The predictable result will be famine and unimaginable loss of life.
Despite such climate events and dire warnings, there are three terms Americans will scarcely hear mentioned in media reporting of these disasters. The first two are "climate change" and "profit." The third is especially relevant to a Sunday homily like this. It is a person's name. The name is "Pope Francis." In fact, I'll wager that this Sunday you'll not hear him or his encyclical Laudato Si' (LS) mentioned in connection with Hurricane Harvey even in most Catholic Churches. And that sad fact (despite Pope Francis' brave efforts) simply underlines the irrelevance to which the church has been reduced.
Begin by considering the silence of our leaders and media about "climate change," "global warming," or "climate chaos." Even during non-stop TV coverage of Harvey, the terms hardly crossed the lips of commentators. That's because virtually alone in the world, the United States (and its media enablers) stand in aggressive denial of the obvious fact that the "American" economy and way of life remain the major causes of such disasters. (Even the Chinese contribution to climate chaos is largely induced by U.S. factories relocated there.)
In fact, far from admitting its criminal and willful ignorance, the Republican-controlled presidency and congress are moving in the exact opposite direction of that required to address super-hurricanes (like Katrina, Sandy, and now Harvey), as well as torrential flooding, disintegrating icebergs, rising sea levels, and soaring temperatures. Setting itself in opposition to the entire world, our country has withdrawn from the landmark Paris Climate Accord, and is doubling down on the production and use of the dirtiest fuels at human disposal (including coal) .
Additionally, hardly a day goes by without our president threatening nuclear war. As Jonathan Schell pointed out even before most of us were aware of climate change, that event would also have devastating effect on the earth's atmosphere aggravating the climate syndrome already so well under way.
So you don't hear much these days about climate chaos and the devastating effects of climate change denial. The reason? That brings me to the second culturally unpronounceable word: "profit." In fact, as Noam Chomsky points out, that word is so unspeakable that it must now be pronounced and spelled as j-o-b-s. Nevertheless, we all know, the real reason for climate denial isn't jobs, but capital accumulation. That is, corporations like Rex Tillerson's Exxon are willing to destroy the planet, rather than respond appropriately to the climate impacts of their products that their own research uncovered decades ago.
Pope Francis has recognized the deception and hypocrisy of it all. And that's why his name along with climate change and profit, is unmentionable in connection with Harvey. Yet, more than two years ago, Francis wrote an entire encyclical addressing the problem. (Encyclicals are the most solemn form of official teaching a pope can produce.) Still, his dire warnings remain largely ignored even by "devout Catholic leaders" such as Paul Ryan and his Republican cohorts. Even worse, the pope's words generally go unreferenced by pastors in their Sunday homilies.
Yet the pope's words are powerfully relevant to Harvey, Sandy, and Katrina -- to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. For instance, in section 161 of Laudato Si' Francis says,
"Doomsday predictions can no longer be met with irony or disdain. We may well be leaving to coming generations debris, desolation and filth. The pace of consumption, waste, and environmental change has so stretched the planet's capacity that our contemporary lifestyle, unsustainable as it is, can only precipitate catastrophes such as those which even now periodically occur in different areas of the world. The effects of the present imbalance can only be reduced by our decisive action here and now. We need to reflect on our accountability before those who will have to endure the dire consequences."
And what are the "here and now" "decisive actions" the pope called for? Chief among them is the necessity for all nations of the world to submit to international bodies with binding legislative powers to protect rainforests, oceans and endangered species, as well as to promote sustainable agriculture (LS 53, 173-175).
That, of course, is exactly what the Exxons of the world fear most. Such submission threatens jobs profits.
But realities much more important than jobs profits are at stake here. We're talking about the survival of human life as we know it.
This is a matter of faith. It is a matter of basic decency and common sense.
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Please forgive me for interrupting your busy day. I know you have more important matters to attend to than reading yet another desperate plea from an Eater, but I didn't know what else to do. You own so many of our politicians and media personalities that there's little point in appealing to them. Your lawyers and security goons have pretty well destroyed our labor unions, so they're too weak to provide much help. Your donations have bought the universities, the non-profits and the religious institutions, so they never speak on our behalf any more. There's little option but to appeal to you directly. So please, can you just take a moment from overseeing your research into your personal immortality or planning your escape to Mars from our overheating planet so that I can communicate to you as if we were members of the same species.
We're getting the distinct impression that you don't just despise us; you actually desire our demise. It's hard to believe that it's mere taxophobia that's behind your arranging things so that our life expectancy is actually falling. After all, this isn't 14th century Europe, and what's killing us isn't bubonic plague. With a modest guaranteed income, Medicare-for-all, and a $15 per hour minimum wage, the national humiliation of shrinking lifespans could be avoided. The impact on your vast fortunes would hardly be noticeable, but you continue to pull out all the stops to scramble the democratic process to prevent those humane, life-saving, civilized changes to our society from ever taking place.
That amounts to pure cruelty. When we see that augmented by your drug companies' complicity in pushing opioids down our throats and your never-ending war lust that kills thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of our sisters and brothers abroad year after year after year, it's impossible not to come to the conclusion that you'd just rather see us all dead.
Let me try both the carrot and the stick. First, the positive approach. Before you decide to continue imposing the status quo and putting us in the grave, here are some reasons to let us live that might appeal to you:
A small monthly stipend, an idea that was mainstream back in the days when Moynihan worked for Nixon, would allow people to quit low-paying, dead-end jobs that you want to automate anyway. It would free you to further eliminate the need for human labor in your businesses while allowing those workers to engage in some of that entrepreneurial activity you commend so highly. Who knows? There might be at least one of them who would open a hip new restaurant you could book in its entirety for a quiet dinner with your significant other. Maybe someone would develop a popular new clothing line that you could buy out and ship the jobs to Cambodia. Think of the possibilities!
Removing the financial barriers to receiving quality healthcare could benefit you as well. A child saved from a curable disease might grow up to dance in one of the ballet companies you fund or play point guard on one of your sports teams. And really, who wants to drive over dead bodies in the street on those rare occasions when you have to take ground transportation to a meeting or event?
I know the ethical principle that a worker is worth her wages is way past its due date as far as you're concerned, but a reasonable minimum wage could work to your advantage. What better excuse to offload work to customers? We have self-checkout now. Why not self-unloading stores that would require customers to empty your transport trucks to get the goods they need? All we do is complain about the low pay and back-breaking, mind-numbing work conditions at your warehouses and big box stores, right? So $15 bucks an hour is a good reason to eliminate those workers and force customers to do it for you for free. What else are they going to do? Where else are they going to go? You've already run the mom-and-pops, with all that customer service, right into bankruptcy.
Now for the stick. As my old buddies Brewer and Shipley used to sing:
I hate to bust your bubble, But there's gonna be some trouble" soon.
You know you're concerned that you're going to push us so far that the pitchforks will come out. Why else would security for billionaires and designing billionaire bugouts be such booming businesses? Can you really trust that pilot to get you to that old missile silo in North Dakota if TSHTF? It is just possible that as more and more people get the message that you're out to extinguish us and our children, they might get angry enough to look away from their smart phones and take action. Some flexibility, even compassion, on your part might avoid even more escalation on the social discord front.
That's it. That's all I wanted to say. Here's hoping that you're not all Bond villains. Surely some of you are capable of recognizing that you can use your nearly complete power over our society to make things a little better for your fellow human beings.
Then it might not be necessary to go to Mars.
Most sincerely,
Another Eater
(Article changed on September 3, 2017 at 10:06)
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University of Oxford Interviews Professor Franklin Lamb about the Future of Syria
Franklin Lamb is a Doctor of Philosophy in international law and is currently a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford, Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict, Oxford England. Oxford University is one of the leading universities in the world, with a history dating back 1,000 years.
Professor Lamb has many years of experience on the ground in the Middle East. For over the past 6 years he was in Syria dedicating himself to, among other activities, the grass roots human rights group Meals for Syrian Refugee Children, Lebanon,
Dr. Lamb's other major accomplishments have included his efforts to document and preserve for posterity Syrian endangered archeological sites and artifacts dating back over 7,000 years. His book on the subject is Syria's Endangered Heritage: An International Responsibility to Protect and Preserve
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During the Campaign for President, Donald Trump made a number of promises. The ones he emphasized most prominently were apparently "red meat" for his base. Remember, "I'll build a wall and Mexico will pay for it." and "I will issue a Muslim ban." and on and on it went. Now, as President, Trump places great value on keeping his promises -- even to the point of shutting down the government of the United States if Congress doesn't fund "the wall."
In view of Trump's irrational desire to fulfill his promises at any cost. In an effort to satisfy his base, Trump has an irrational desire to fulfill his promises at any cost. However, Trump's inability to keep his "promises" has grave significance for the country.
Trump promised "Jobs, jobs, jobs." I will "create thousands of new jobs..." He takes great pride in his own assessment as a job creator. However, six months into his position,Trump has failed to fill, or even nominate individuals to the approximately 400 jobs for which he is directly responsible. This failure has resulted in even more jobs in government being vacant. As a result of gross understaffing, the smooth wheels of the federal government are grinding exceedingly slow and thereby impeding and crippling many key functions of the Nation. Thus, given the opportunity to independently fulfill his jobs promise within his own circle, Trump comes up short.
Trump, trumpeted "I am the law and order candidate... My administration is determined...to restore law and order and justice for all Americans..." Dan Rather wrote this stinging response to the President's recent action, "The decision...to pardon former Sheriff Arpaio is a perversion of justice and demeans the prerogatives of the presidency." By granting this pardon prior to sentencing, prior to exercise of the Sheriff's right to appeal, prior to asking for and receiving a recommendation from the Justice Department, Trump has essentially "thumbed his nose" at the rule of law. This is not the first time he has engaged in such behavior. Based on racial grounds, Trump has said he does not trust a Federal judge to be impartial; after receiving and adverse ruling, Trump severely criticized the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as unfair; on numerous occasions, Trump has attempted to influence Federal Officials to drop investigations and/criminal criminal charges involving his personal friends. All these actions undermine the rule of law and the administration of justice.
Make no mistake, Joe Arpaio is a convicted criminal who, as an administrator of the law, chose to break the law. The signal has been sent: If you are a friend, relative, employee of Trump, you are likely to be pardoned for your criminal behavior. This comes close to destroying our system of law and justice.
The inevitable conclusion from these broken promises -- his assertion that, "I will be president for all people." -- is that the President is a hypocrite, not to be trusted, a person who acts primarily out of self interest. The Nation cannot long endure this type of behavior without a total corruption of its values.
THUS, CREATING A PATH TO CURB THE PRESIDENT IS URGENT!
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For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.
Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.
Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.
to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.
Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.
View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.
Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.
Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.
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-- Wellsoft Corporation, a Best in KLAS award-winning EHR provider for Emergency Departments, announces that St. Luke's Medical Center, the leading accredited healthcare institution providing world-class quality medical services in the Philippines, has selected Wellsoft EDIS (Emergency Department Information System).St. Luke's Medical Center (SLMC) cares for approximately 66,000 emergency room and trauma patients annually at two hospital locations Bonifacio Global City and Quezon City. Implementation and 'Go Live' is scheduled for October.SLMC selected Wellsoft EDIS for its comprehensive ED-specific electronic health record (EHR) that is fully customizable and able to integrate with its in-house Hospital Information System."In our goal to deliver state-of-the-art healthcare, we recognized the pressing need to move away from a paper-based manual system in the ED towards implementing an innovative, Best in KLAS EHRalong with a technology partner we felt could streamline our processes, help us achieve the highest quality of patient care, and support our continued growth," said Luis P. Sayo, Senior Vice President & Head, Information Technology Management Group at SLMC. "With the help of Wellsoft and its long-standing reputation in Emergency Departments, we believe SLMC is well-positioned for success."Dr. John Santmann, President of Wellsoft Corporation, commented, "As organizations look to update their systems to achieve the highest possible standards for medical care, we are confident that our solution meets the needs of hospitals like SLMC worldwide. Wellsoft is proud to partner with such a well-respected and recognized healthcare institution, and is excited to further expand our footprint in Asia."St. Luke's is a Joint Commission International (JCI)-accredited hospital since 2003. It is the first and only hospital in the Philippines to be accredited by JCI as an Academic Medical Center in 2016. Both St. Luke's hospitals in Quezon City and Global City,Taguig are accredited by Temos (Trust. Effective Medicine. Optimized Services.) for Quality in International Patient Care and Excellence in Medical Tourism. Likewise, St. Luke's is acknowledged by the Diplomatic Council of Europe, a Global Think Tank and Business Network that adheres to the charter of the United Nations, as two of the Best Hospitals Worldwide (2014) and a Preferred Partner Hospital (2016). It is the first hospital in the Philippines to be HACCP-certified for food safety and granted Gold certification by Investors in People for excellent people management. It is also the first in the country and second in Southeast Asia to become a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network of Mayo Clinic, acknowledged as the No.1 Hospital in the United States according to the 2017 US News and World Report. For more information, visit www.stlukes.com.ph Wellsoft Corporation, developer and provider of the industry-leading EDIS since 1988, offers comprehensive solutions for hospital Emergency Departments (enterprise-wide and single hospital implementations)and Freestanding Emergency Centers. Wellsoft EDIS is Best in KLAS and has ranked #1 in KLAS user surveys of EDIS time and again. Recognized for providing the most configurable and complete EDIS solution, Wellsoft works closely with each client to develop real-world EHR solutions for their Emergency Departments. For more information, please visit www.wellsoft.com
The Bible says Turkish Army targets Tell Rifaat then Damascus
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-- One year ago the Kurdish YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces gained control over the northwestern Syrian town of Tell Rifaat. So what right! So, Tell Rifaat is identified in the Bible by its ancient name of Arpad. In Jeremiah 49:23 the northwestern Syria towns of Hamah and Arpad (Tell Rifaat) hear reports about a coming invasion. According to Jeremiah; after Hamah and Tell Rifaat hear these reports then the residents of Damascus will flee and Damascus will be destroyed.One year ago Kurdish forces took Tel Rifaat amid heavy shelling from the Turkish Army. Tell Rifaat is located just 10 miles from the Turkish border. At that time Turkish President Erdogan vowed to defend the Syrian town of Azaz situated between Tell Rifaat and the Turkish border. Today the Turkish Army has entered northwestern Syria and has full control over Azaz. Turkey continues to send heavy weaponry and troops into Azaz with the stated goal of taking Tell Rifaat. Turkish President Erdogan said that the Turkish Army could attack Tell Rifaat at any moment. By the way, Erdogan also admitted in a public speech that the sole reason why the Turkish Army has entered Syria is to remove Syrian President Assad from power in Damascus. The battle for Tell Rifaat is drawing the Turkish Army into Syria in greater force. We no longer need to wonder. Bible prophecy is being fulfilled in Syria. The destruction of Damascus by the Turkish Army along with its partners the Al-Qaeda led Free Syrian Army is near!One year ago Turkey launched its first military foray inside of Syria called "Euphrates Shield". The Turkish Army along with Turkish supported Al-Qaeda rebels (Free Syrian Army) took control of the Syria border towns from Azaz (located just to the north of Aleppo) and eastward to Jarablus (located on the western side of the Euphrates River). The goal was to prevent a contiguous Kurdish State from being formed inside of Syria. One year latter Turkey now has plans to clear out the Kurds from the westward corridor beginning at Tell Riffat towards Afrin.Meanwhile back to Jeremiah chapter 49. Jeremiah identifies the Syrian city of Hamah as well as the city of Tell Rifaat. Jeremiah doesn't explicitly identify the nation (or nations) that attack these towns. The Turkish Army is mounting an attack on Tell Rifaat. That is clear to see. The Turkish Army is being helped by the Free Syrian Army. The Free Syrian Army is not Syrian. The Free Syrian Army is comprised of Sunni Muslim Al-Qaeda rebels from places like Libya and Sudan. The Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate Tahrir al-Sham (formerly known as Al-Nusra) is fighting against the Syrian Army in Hamah. The Iraqi Al-Qaeda affiliate known as ISIS is also fighting against the Syrian Army in Hamah. Right now the Syrian Army seems to have gained the upper hand but fighting has intensified during August 2017. Turkey is supporting the Sunni Muslim Al-Qaeda rebel groups in Syria. Expect Turkey together with Al-Qaeda to attack Hamah and Tell-Rifaat in force and probably simultaneously.Turkish President Erdogan said that Turkey would defend Azaz. Turkey now controls Azaz. Turkish President Erdogan said that the Turkish Army would take Tell Rifaat. Turkish heavy weapons and troops are now gathering in Azaz. The stated goal is the conquest of Tell Rifaat. Turkish President Erdogan said that the sole reason that the Turkish Army has entered Syria is to remove Syrian President Assad from power in Damascus. The Bible warns about an attack on Hamah and Tell Rifaat and also warns about the subsequent destruction of Damascus. The Bible is true. We should be on the lookout for these events. Turkish President Erdogan has proven to be a man of his word. We should believe him when he says that he intends to conquer Damascus.Craig C. White is a Bible prophecy teacher and author at High Time to Awake. You can read his articles online at hightimetoawake.com. ( https://hightimetoawake.com/
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4802262929 Elizabeth McClearyMcCleary PR Management4802262929
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-- Elizabeth McCleary M.E Collection 480-226-2929 pr@mfwdallas.com www.mahiritakai.comME COLLECTION PRESENTSTHE NEW YORK FASHION WEEK "GRAFFITI COLLECTION 2D Experience" DURING NYFW FALL/WINTER 17New York, NY 25 August 2017 Men's fashion designer Mahiri Takai will present his Fall/Winter 2017 collection titled "M.E COLLECTION" on Friday, September 15th from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at M Wild's Studio, 245 W. 29th St., New York, NY 10013Designer Mahiri Takai is collaborating with creative designer Alexis Arjona, a fashion house in New York whose work has graced clients from musical artists, to top billing celebrities. Arjona is leading his second season as Creative Director at the M.E Collection. With Arjona at the helm, the M.E Collection is on its way to the top.To make this event even more inviting, Takai and Arjona have joined forces with graffiti artist, Paolo Mascatelli. The one and only Paolo, is an international artist known for his flair for edgy illustrations that have been hand drawn onto fabric and formed into the most breathtaking fashion pieces. Together, they are creating a 2D experience which is sure to please and wow the guests!The M.E Collection addresses the today man's desire to take his wardrobe to the next level, by establishing a wide range of variety and flair to his collection. Men are tearing down barriers that have for too long defined their masculinity and are allowing themselves to be fashionable on their own terms. Mahiri is inspired by the love of clean lines and the understanding that there can be no grey areas in his relationships;it's simply black or white. The M.E Collection's unique designs have been influenced by his love of architecture, cultural Cree and obsession for black and white.The motto for the M.E collection is, "Style defined by no one. Style defined by ME!" This brand allows a man or woman to create their own style through the different layers of stylish looks from the collection.If you are a member of the media and would like to cover this event please RSVP to pr@mfwdallas.com
Contact
Janet Redwine
Communications Director
***@yacenter.org Janet RedwineCommunications Director
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-- Young entrepreneurs in Colorado have a new source of inspiration:Denver Startup Week's Youth Pass. For the first time, Denver Startup Week is partnering with Young Americans Center for Financial Education and Junior Achievement to provide two, specific opportunities for youth to engage in the week: YouthBiz Marketplace & Expo and Youth Early Access.Now in its sixth year, Denver Startup Week is the largest free entrepreneurial event of its kind in North America and celebration of the startup community. More than 13,000 people attended the event last year, and organizers expect to exceed that number as they welcome Downtown Denver's diverse community of entrepreneurs to participate in this year's event. Denver Startup Week kicks off on September 25.Denver Startup Week organizers are committed to creating opportunities for young people because the future of entrepreneurship in Colorado depends on this group. Organizers looked to local leaders in youth financial literacy to help: Young Americans Center for Financial Education and Junior Achievement Rocky Mountain. Aspiring and established business owners age 6-18 can sign up to participate in the YouthBiz Marketplace & Expo from 3:30-5:00 on September 26. There, they will have the opportunity to sell products or pitch a business idea. High school students will participate in Youth Early Access on September 28. In small groups, students will be guided by local entrepreneurs through two or three of Denver Startup Week's most popular sessions. Students will also attend special sessions designed just for them.Both events are free to attend, but registration is required at https://www.denverstartupweek.org/ program/youth "Our commitment to creating an economically powerful Downtown Denver is rooted in diversity of community, including cultivating opportunities for the future leaders and founders who will shape our economy and our city," said Tami Door, president and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership and co-founder of Denver Startup Week. "Denver Startup Week is a celebration of everything entrepreneurial in Denver, and we are excited to celebrate and support our youngest business owners and entrepreneurs through the Denver Startup Week Youth Pass."Denver Startup Week, founded in 2012, is a celebration of everything entrepreneurial in Denver. The weeklong event is intended to unite the entrepreneurial community in Denver and celebrate the great companies, innovation and ideas happening in the city and the people and inspiration behind them. The core programming is centered on the entrepreneurial community with an emphasis in technology, design, social entrepreneurship, manufacturing and business. Events throughout the week are organized by both the Denver Startup Week Organizing Committee and the community at-large and include sessions, presentations, panels, workshops, happy hours, social events, job fairs and more. Denver Startup Week Title Sponsors are Aging 2.0, Chase for Business, Comcast, Downtown Denver Partnership and WeWork.For more information, visit https://www.denverstartupweek.org Young Americans Center for Financial Education is a nonprofit organization committed to developing the financial literacy of young people, up to age 22, through real life experiences and hands-on programs. The Center fulfills its mission by offering programs that complement and reinforce each other to build life skills, work skills and financial self-sufficiency. These include Young AmeriTowne, International Towne, YouthBiz, Money Matters classes, summer camps, and more. In addition, Young Americans Center houses the only real bank in the world for young people, Young Americans Bank, which shares the same educational mission of teaching children to be financially responsible. Since 1987, more than 700,000 youth have participated in the programs or bank. For more information on the Young Americans Center for Financial Education, visit https://yacenter.org.Junior Achievement (JA) was founded nearly 100 years ago and has helped millions of students gain the skills and knowledge they need to own their economic futures. JA accomplishes its mission by partnering with business and community volunteers who implement programs that teach K-12th grade students to be financially responsible, career ready and entrepreneurial.For more than 66 years, Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain, Inc. (JA-Rocky Mountain) has shown young people in Colorado and Wyoming the joy and power of earned success. Our hands-on programs delivered by business professionals immerse students in real-world experiences that challenge low expectations, push comfort zones and awaken possibilities. During the 2016/17 school year, 126,000 local students from 540 schools participated in JA thanks to more than 6,100 volunteers.
Despite new challenges from Amazonwhich completed its purchase of Whole Foods last week and recently opened three more bricks-and-mortar bookstores, making a total of 11and other turbulence in the retail channel, including minimum wage and rent hikes, the executive directors of all nine regional bookselling associations remain optimistic about the future.
Its not that they are unaware of the potential impact that these changes could have. As one executive director, who asked not to be named, notes: Amazon bricks-and-mortar may not have affected sales, but its affected perception. It may not be the [Amazon] store that were looking at today thats the problem; its the store that they morph into. They have deep pockets. No one can pretend they wont have an impact.
Even so, many executive directors are buoyed by indie openings in their communities. Their membership numbers reflect continued growth, and established stores are adding second and third locations. In most cases, regionals store numbers dovetail with those cited by American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher at the annual meeting at BookExpo earlier this summer. While ABA membership dipped slightly for the first time since 2010, from a high of 1,775 to 1,757, the number of bookstore locations rose from 2,311 to 2,321.
Strength in Numbers
Our issues arent that books arent selling, people arent reading, or our bookstores arent having good years, says Steve Fischer, executive director of the New England Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA). Our issues are economichaving high rent that makes opening or expanding [difficult]. Its such a hot real estate market. That hasnt prevented new stores from opening, including high-profile ones like Print: A Bookstore in Portland, Maine.
At the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA), the overall numbers are up. This year the organization added 10 members, and longtime members are expanding. Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C., is about to add two new locations; Doylestown Bookshop in Doylestown, Pa., will add a second store in Peddlers Village later this month.
The news from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance is particularly strong. Last year we added 23 stores, assistant executive director Linda-Marie Barrett says, in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, with Avid Bookshop in Athens, Ga., and Books & Books in Coral Gables, Fla., each adding new locations.
We still feel like were riding a pretty decent wave of positivity, says Brian Juenemann, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA). The region continues to attract prospective booksellers and has seen the openings of new stores to replace closed ones, like Brick & Mortar Books at Redmond Town Center in Redmond, Wash., which was previously home to a popular Borders. Further down the coast, Andrea Vuleta, executive director of the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association (SCIBA), says that her area will have added three new bookstores between July and October: two nonprofits, Cafe Con Libros Press in Pomona and 1888 Center in Orange, and Now Serving, a cookbook store and restaurant in Los Angeles.
Carrie Obry, executive director of the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association (MIBA), is encouraged by the number of calls she receives from small-town mayors who want to revitalize their downtowns with bookstores. Shes also excited by stores like 10-year-old Tribeca GalleryCafe & Books in Watertown, Wisc., which will open a second location at Freshwater Plaza in Milwaukee. I think the narrative [about indies disappearing] is changing, says Deb Leonard, executive director of the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association (GLIBA). For the last few years we have gotten between 10 and 15 new members.
While the number of stores has been growing, sales for the first six months of 2017 have held steady, with preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau last month indicating a 0.2% rise from the same time period in 2016. We are up a little, says Calvin Crosby, executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA). We match that national average. In part, Crosby attributes flat sales to the growing political divide in the country. In Southern California, Vuleta notes, the states high minimum wage can be daunting and commercial rents are high. Plus, as many executive directors point out, there havent been any blockbuster titles this year.
Its very split in my territory, reports Laura Ayrey Burnett, executive director of Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association (MPIBA), which covers the largest geographical territory of any regional. Some stores are struggling and some are doing phenomenally. Older stores like Tattered Cover in Denver and newly opened ones like Interabang Books in Dallas are among those seeing strong sales growth. Nobodys talking doom and gloom, adds NAIBA executive director Eileen Dengler. But most of the people I talk to say that sales havent been knocking their socks off.
Publisher Support
As the indie revival continues to play out, many regionals are gaining increased support from publishers. I feel like its changing a little bit, says MIBAs Obry. In addition to publishers consulting with indies on jackets, shes seen an uptick of enthusiasm about the shows. The exhibit space at the Heartland Fall Forum, which is held jointly by MIBA and GLIBA, was nearly sold out by mid-August.
Were getting a lot of [publisher] support, says Wanda Jewell, executive director of SIBA, whose recent shows have consistently featured well over 100 authors. PNBA, which, at publishers request, began offering the option for one- or two-day exhibits, is seeing the balance shift back to two days.
We feel [the regionals are] a great way to connect our authors and their books to bookseller, says Mary Beth Thomas, v-p and deputy director of sales at HarperCollins. Its also a perfect opportunity for us to meet new bookstore owners and learn about their stores, as well as to connect with those we already know. So many great ideas come out of those face to face meetings.
Wendy Sheanin, v-p and director of marketing in the adult trade group at Simon & Schuster, also emphasized the regional meetings importance: The regional shows remain as valuable as ever to Simon & Schuster. Like Thomas, she brings a number of authors to the shows and values face-to-face conversations with booksellers. Nothing could ever replace that, she says.
Diversity and Other Concerns
Since the launch of We Need Diverse Books in 2014, the regionals have worked hard to promote a diverse roster of authors. But change in bookselling overall has been slow, and it wasnt until the Town Hall Forum at Winter Institute in Minneapolis earlier this year that the need for an inclusive ABA board and bookstore staff got marked attention. ABA responded by creating a diversity task force and holding a keynote at Childrens Institute on implicit bias with Ilsa Govan, cofounder of Cultures Connecting. It is sponsoring two daylong workshops with Govan and her business partner, Caprice Hollins, in New Orleans in conjunction with SIBA and in Denver for MPIBA. (For more on bookstore diversity, see Ilsa Govan on Making Bookstores Inclusive on p. 52).
In addition, many regionals have scheduled inclusive programming of their own. Heartland is kicking off its show with a Shelf-Talker Party: Diversity and Inclusivity, where attendees are encouraged to share in person and on Twitter their handwritten shelf-talkers for diverse titles. The party will also serve as a fund-raiser for We Need Diverse Books, which will present the roundtable We Need (to Sell!) Diverse Books: Strategies and Resources.
What weve been focusing on at a board level, is making sure we dont just have Band-Aids, PNBAs Juenemann says. Its not just a matter of putting out books that speak to our neighbors. We really want that awareness ingrained so that the store looks like the community. If booksellers want to discuss educational initiatives to do that, they will have an opportunity at a newly introduced event at the end of the day of education, Fifth Period: Relate, Create, Innovate.
Diversity is also woven into this years SIBA, which has more authors of color speaking in prime slots than in previous years, Jewell says. The regional is encouraging booksellers to create a welcoming space for customers looking to address social change through inventory activism. The inspiration for the session on that topic was the decision by Clevelands Loganberry Books to highlight the literary status quo during Womens History Month by turning books by male authors with spines in, pages facing out.
Both diversity and developing bookselling careers are two key initiatives of Indies Forward, a volunteer organization that was formed to help young booksellers who want to make bookselling a career, and to create networking opportunities. It had a soft launch at the PNBA and NAIBA regionals last year, followed by a hard launch at Winter Institute. For founding member Hannah Oliver Depp, operations director of Word Bookstores in Jersey City, N.J., and Brooklyn, including diversity in Indies Forwards mission was a no-brainer, if we were going to help indie booksellers succeed for the next 50 years. She notes: Indies Forward does not exist to push diversity, it exists to push the industry forward. Diversity is a tent pole. She sees diversity as a necessity for bookstores that want to succeed; otherwise, she says, they are leaving money on the table.
As far as pay is concerned, Depp says, historically bookstore jobs were a privilege. She adds: We all know rent is too damn high. A bookseller of color is less likely to have family help pay rent. Instead they are often giving financial help to their families. Another Indies Forward founding member, Kim Hooyboer, general manager of Third Place Books in Seward Park in Seattle, experienced firsthand how devastating a life transition can be, given that rent for shared rooms is now more than $1,000 in her area and other urban communities. To help booksellers, NAIBA is hosting a half-day session called Budgeting for a Bookselling Career, which will include a presentation by a financial planner and a discussion by Paz & Associates for those who want to eventually become bookstore owners.
To foster networking at the regionals, Indies Forward is planning to hold meet-ups at as many as possible. A schedule is available on its newly launched website.
SIBA Discovery Show
(Sept. 1517)
The Sheraton in New Orleans
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance will kick off the day before its official start date with an American Booksellers Association education session called Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Addressing Stereotypes and Creating a Welcoming Environment.
Diversity is woven into this years SIBA programming, which includes a session on inventory activism. This how-to panel is designed to help stores better serve their customers need for a social gathering place by stocking and displaying books about inclusion, the environment, and local issues.
Traditionally, SIBA hosts more authors than any other regional, and this year is no exception, with close to 120 authors set to attend. Several standout writers with recently released or forthcoming books will speak at the closing supper, including Robert Beatty (Serafina and the Splintered Heart, Disney), Kristin Hannah (The Great Alone, St. Martins), Eric Litwin (Groovy Joe, Orchard), and Jesmyn Ward (Sing, Unburied Sing, Scribner).
The First 180 Days Party gives booksellers a chance to meet and greet writers with books landing in the first half of 2018. Nearly two dozen authors will attend the event, including Tomi Adeyemi (Children of Blood and Bone, Holt), Xhenet Aliu (Brass, Random House), and Zachary Lazar (Vengeance, Catapult).
A session titled Independent Bookstores and Indie Authors: Creating a Match Made in Heaven focuses on how booksellers have built publishing programs through IngramSpark, a publish-on-demand service for writers.
The inaugural Conroy Legacy Award winner will also be announced at this years show. The award, created to honor the memory of Pat Conroy, celebrates the connections between independent bookstores and writers in their communities.
NEIBA Fall Conference
(Sept. 1820)
Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence
One of the oldest shows in the country, now in its 44th year, the New England Independent Booksellers Associations annual conference begins with a keynote featuring environmentalist Bill McKibben, author of the forthcoming debut novel Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance (Blue Rider), in conversation with former bookseller Linda Ramsdell, founder of the Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, Vt.
The show closes with a keynote luncheon featuring John Hodgman (Vacationland, Viking).
Booksellers will have plenty of opportunities throughout the three-day show to meet and hear authors, including John Irving, who will receive this years NEIBA Presidents Award. A total of 26 writers will sign books at the Author Reception, including Mira Bartok (The Wonderling, Candlewick), Deanna Cook (Baking Class, Storey), Anne Fadiman (Wine Lovers Daughter, FSG), Ivy Pochoda (Wonder Valley, Ecco), and Jared Yates Sexton (The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shores, Counterpoint).
Childrens programming is front and center thanks to NEIBAs childrens group, NECBA. It will host several sessions, including one on how new childrens books get launched and where bookstores fit in, From Signing to Signings: The Marketing Journey of Debut Authors. It will also host a childrens author breakfast with Holly Black (The Cruel Prince, Little, Brown), Justina Ireland (Dread Nation, HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray), and Matt de la Pena and Loren Long (Love, Putnam).
Some publishers are offering terms to indies specifically to promote backlist. Like all the regional shows, NEIBAs fall conference will include a presentation by ABA called Maximizing Backlist. The session will focus on ways to market, promote, and sell backlist titles, along with best practices for managing cash flow and ensuring return on investment.
Several NEIBA panels are designed to hone both bookseller and rep skills. In View from the Other Side, reps who were buyers discuss what makes a successful sales call and how to build relationships with store staff. Frontline booksellers and managers can benefit from Unlocking the Grid: Secrets and Best Practices of Events, on how to pitch events and manage shared expectations. In Unlocking the Grid, publicists from Grove Atlantic, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Penguin Random House will share their tips; moderated by Annie Philbrick, co-owner of Bank Square Books in Mystic, Ct., and Savoy Bookshop & Cafe in Westerly, R.I.
NAIBA Fall Conference
(Oct. 68)
Crowne Plaza Cherry Hill in Cherry Hill, N.J.
The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association is one of several regional groups to give booksellers a chance to enjoy a busmans holiday before the conference gets underway. Bookstore tours, sponsored by Baker & Taylor, will include a Philadelphia store and some suburban Pennsylvania stores. On Friday afternoon, NAIBA will host a continuation of its popular Owners Retreat with a meet-up to talk about hiring for diversity, among other topics. A Childrens Book Buyer Retreat, which was snowed out earlier this year, will also be held that afternoon with representatives from HarperCollins, Scholastic, Penguin Random House, and Hachette.
NAIBAs keynote, The Angles of Advocacy, focuses on being an advocate, whether its for e-tax fairness or better parking. The session will offer information on how booksellers can position their cause and approach those in power to enact change. Speakers include David Grogan, director of public policy and advocacy for ABA; Janice Kovach, mayor of Clinton, N.J.; and Tom Lowenburg, co-owner of Octavia Books in New Orleans.
Given industrywide concern about attracting and retaining frontline booksellers, NAIBA is devoting a morning to Budgeting for a Bookselling Career. A financial planner will discuss living on a booksellers salary and how to save for the future. Donna Paz Kaufman and Mark Kaufman of Paz & Associates will provide information for those who would like bookstore ownership to be part of that future.
Once again, docents will be on hand to guide booksellers around the show floor to make sure that they dont overlook any of the new childrens books on display. Their activity complements the childrens editor buzz panel that will be held earlier in the day.
As at all the conferences, authors will have a large presence at NAIBA, starting with the preview supper with emcee David Litt (Thanks, Obama: My Hopey Changey White House Years, Harper) and Elizabeth Acevedo (The Poet X, HarperTeen), Eileen Myles (Afterglow, Grove Atlantic), Peter Sis (Robinson, Scholastic), and illustrator Eric Velasquez (Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library, Candlewick). Other authors at the show include Richard Ford (Between Them: Remembering My Parents, Ecco), this years recipient of the Legacy Award, and Moveable Feast writers such as Jillian Medoff (This Could Hurt, Harper), Kelly Simmons (The Fifth of July, Sourcebooks), and Brianna Wolfson (Rosie Colored Glasses, Mira).
PNBA Tradeshow
(Oct. 810)
Red Lion Hotel on the River in Portland, Ore.
The fact that the official conference hotel was sold out nearly two months before the trade show is set to begin speaks to the importance of the annual Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association fall gathering. It opens with a day of education followed by a late afternoon reception intended to bring all 150-plus participants out of their afternoon sessions into a single brainstorming mixer, Fifth Period: Relate, Create, Innovate! It will feature eight Northwest authors.
The trade show has stayed steady the last few years with roughly 100110 authors in attendance. Twenty-six will be on hand to talk about their new books at the annual Nightcapper Autographing Party, which closes out the first night. Among those present will be writers whose work speaks specifically to the region, including Andrew Barton and Peter Schweitzer (The Myrtlewood Cookbook: Pacific Northwest Home Cooking, Sasquatch), Martha Brockenbrough and Lee White (Love, Santa, Scholastic/Levine), Molly Hashimoto (Colors of the West, Mountaineers), and Megan Watzke (Magnitude, Black Dog).
Other opportunities for booksellers to meet authors include the popular Feast of Authors, at which each writer speaks to six tables of booksellers. Among the 20 authors attending, all of whom have books out in 2017, are Richard Baker (Valiant Dust, Tor), David Biespiel (The Education of a Young Poet, Counterpoint), Sarah Schmidt (See What I Have Done, Atlantic Monthly), and Dashka Slater (The 57 Bus, FSG). The Coming-Up Author Showcase gives booksellers a chance to hear authors whose books are due out in early 2018, including Apricot Irving (The Gospel of Trees, S&S) and Matt Young (Eat the Apple, Bloomsbury).
Sales reps pick of the list events are standard at most regionals, but it is particularly popular in the Northwest. Reps for large houses like S&S and Penguin Random House, small houses, and rep groups like Book Travelers West, Orca Book Publishing, and University Press Associates present hot titles to booksellers who dont typically see sales reps. PNBA tries to turn these pitches into orders on the show floor.
Heartland Fall Forum
(Oct. 1113)
The Westin in Lombard, Ill.
This years show, a collaboration between the Great Lakes and Midwest Independent Booksellers Associations, returns to Chicago. The fall forum will make the most of this opportunity with a free shuttle and lunch visit at one of the areas largest indie publishers, Sourcebooks, followed by a visit to Andersons Bookshop in Naperville. The opening night reception that evening will feature authors from Chicagolands indie houses, including Sourcebooks and Agate Publishing. Featured authors will include Nancy Burke (Undergrowth, Gibson House), Cheryl Honigford (Homicide for the Holidays, Sourcebooks), and Courtney Yasmineh (A Girl Called Sydney, Gibson House).
The renamed adult author dinner, Tasting Notes, will offer booksellers a sampling of talks by six writers, including Hanif Abdurraquib (They Cant Kill Us Until They Kill Us, Two Dollar Radio), Chloe Benjamin (The Immortalists, Putnam), Tayari Jones (An American Marriage, Algonquin), and William Least Heat-Moon (Celestial Mechanics, Three Rooms). It will be followed by Heartlands annual literary trivia competition, Quiz Bowl.
This authorcentric show will feature 40 writers at the Moveable Feast, including Peter Bognanni (Things Im Seeing Without You, Dial), Francisco Cantu (The Line Becomes a River, Riverhead), and Celia C. Perez (The First Rule of Punk, Viking). The closing reception will feature 2030 writers, including Phyllis Good (Stock the Crock, Oxmoor House), Amariah Rauscher (Princess Truly in I Am Truly, Orchard), and Vidar Sundstl (The Devils Wedding Ring, Univ. of Minnesota).
What makes women buy is the subject of a presentation by Bridget Brennan, founder of Female Factor Strategic Consulting and author of Why She Buys (Crown Business). Suzy Takacs of the Book Cellar in Chicago will moderate.
Larry Law of Andersons Bookshop in Naperville will moderate a how-to session called Bridging the Technology Gap. Panelists John Christensen (Arcadia Books in Spring Green, Wisc.), Kevin Elliot (57th Street Books in Chicago), Matt Keihler (Subtext Books in St. Paul, Minn.), and Katharine Solheim (Unabridged Bookstore in Chicago) will share the tools that have worked best in their stores. They will also discuss the importance of closing the technology gap among staffers.
Heartland will hold the Shelf-Talker Party for booksellers to share their hand-written shelf-talkers for diverse titles, as well as an education session hosted by We Need Diverse Books, We Need (to Sell!) Diverse Books. Other roundtables will address returns, customer service, resort towns, events, and botheration (aka, the things currently driving staff crazy).
MPIBA Fall Discovery Show
(Oct. 1214)
Renaissance Denver Stapleton Hotel in Denver, Colo.
The Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association trade show will start the day before the official kickoff with an ABA-sponsored daylong diversity session. That evening MPIBA will hold a first-timer gathering as well as the Backlist Blind Book Swap. The shows real beginning is at 8 a.m. with the Childrens Author and Illustrator Breakfast featuring Shannon and Dean Hale (The Princess in Black and the Mysterious Playdate, Candlewick) and Peter Sis (Robinson, Scholastic).
Other breakfasts include one for buzz books with Peter Carey (A Long Way from Home, Knopf), Ann Leckie (Provence, Orbit), and David Philipps (Wild Horse Country, Norton). The Authors of Future Releases Breakfast features Sara Blaedel (The Undertakers Daughter, Grand Central), Tayari Jones (An American Marriage, Algonquin), and Willy Vlautin (Dont Skip Out on Me, Harper Perennial).
A standout panel geared specifically to childrens booksellers offers tips and tricks for successful book fairs. Meghan Goel (BookPeople Bookstore in Austin, Tex.), Sarah Hopkins (Bookworm of Edwards in Edwards, Colo.), and Margaret Neville (the Kings English Bookshop in Salt Lake City) will participate in Build a Better Book Fair.
Several education sessions are devoted to improving stores overall. Ron Kroll (Off the Beaten Path in Steamboat Springs, Colo.) and Nicole Magistro (Bookworm of Edwards in Edwards, Colo.) will talk about the most efficient way to manage back office operations. Eric Crouser, former CFO of Einstein Bagels, will provide an overview of what a successful store should look like in The Big Picture: Your Stores Finances. And in Publishers as Promotional Partners, moderator Heather Duncan (Tattered Cover in Denver) will join Vicki Burger (Wind City Books in Casper, Wyo.), Suzanne Gutierrez (Tattered Cover), and Abbey Paxton (BookBar in Denver) to show booksellers how to think beyond co-op to create valuable promotions.
NCIBA Fall Discovery Show
(Oct. 1820)
South San Francisco Conference Center in San Francisco
Childrens books will be highlighted throughout the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association annual fall show, starting with the opening night childrens dinner emceed by comic book, comic strip, and television writer Judd Winnick. Appearing with him will be Martha Brockenbrough (Love, Santa, Scholastic/Levine) and Nic Stone (Dear Martin, Crown). New this year is a Childrens Buzz Lunch, sponsored by the organizations childrens group, NCIBA, that will be held on the second day, as an alternative to the popular Buzz Brunch for adult authors.
Michael Andreasen (The Sea Beast Takes a Lover, Dutton), Ivy Pochoda (Wonder Valley, Ecco), and Thad Vogler (By the Smoke and the Smell, Ten Speed) will be among the authors at the Buzz Brunch. Isabel Allende (In the Midst of Winter, Atria) will make a rare appearance at a brunch on the last day of the show. Joining her will be Armistead Maupin (Logical Family: A Memoir, Harper) and emcee Robin Sloan (Sourdough, FSG), among others.
This year NCIBA changed things up by moving its keynote to the afternoon to insure a large audience for Yrsa Daley-Ward (Bone, Penguin Books), a poet of West Indian and West African heritage. She will be in conversation with John Evans (Diesel: A Bookstore in Larkspur and Brentwood, Calif.).
Authors will also be available for booksellers to meet at other sessions, like one on the state of speculative fiction. Panelists include Maggie Shen King (An Excess Male, Voyager), Kim Stanley Robinson (New York 2140, Orbit), and Andy Weir (Artemis, Crown).
During the show, booksellers can visit consultation stations a la Winter Institute to get help with different aspects of running their stores. ABA will offer assistance on IndieCommerce throughout the show. Other appointment-only sessions on social media basics and analyzing your stores complete online profile will take place on Thursday.
SCIBA Fall Trade Show
(Oct. 2728)
Sheraton Fairplex Hotel & Conference Center in Pomona, Calif.
The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association show is making several changes this year, including relocating to Pomona, home to one of the regions newest art and literary community spaces, Cafe Con Libros Press. The nonprofit evolved from the now-closed Cafe Con Libros Bookstore.
The Adult Awards Luncheon represents the diversity of Southern California with authors ranging from TV script writer and novelist Attica Locke (Bluebird, Bluebird, Mulholland) to Best First Novel Edgar Awardnominee Joe Ide (Righteous, Mulholland). Charles Phoenix (Addicted to Americana, Prospect Park) will emcee.
Childrens authors will be well represented at the show, including appearances by Marla Frazee (illustrator, It Takes a Village: Picture Book by Hillary Rodham Clinton, S&S/Wiseman) and Nigerian writer Nnedi Okorafor (Akata Warrior, Viking).
Education sessions will range from a how-to on managing large off-site events to a panel on biography and memoirs with adult and YA authors. This year, SCIBA will also offer space for appointments for booksellers to get help with business concerns, including IndieCommerce.
Because the SCIBA gathering is the shortest of the regionals, just one and a half days, the exhibits are open for three hours. It will have several new exhibitors and a newly introduced game, Bookseller Bingo, to keep booksellers visiting every one.
Body cameras for the Mooresville Police Department have arrived. Find out when they will be used.
Two weeks after 14-year-old Zoya Cherkassky-Nnadi and her family left Kyiv for a new life in Israel, the U.S.S.R collapsed. Recently, the artist drew on memories of her Soviet childhood in a series of paintings that have captivated the Russian-speaking Internet.
Working with oil on linen, Cherkassky-Nnadi used a deliberately naive style in her paintings of 1980s Soviet life. She told RFE/RL by phone: I started this series when I was pregnant with my first child so I was recalling my own childhood memories.
A dacha scene in rural Ukraine. The last two months [of the pregnancy], I was just staying in bed and drawing these memories. I think thats why the work is so warm, she told RFE/RL from her home in Tel-Aviv.
In this painting titled Mama, the artist captured her nightly ritual of waiting for her mother to return home from work. I lived on the seventh floor and there was a bus station near our apartment. Every night I would watch out of the window for my mum to come out of the bus.
Cherkassky-Nnadi, who adopted her Nigerian husbands name as a suffix, pictured in Kyiv in 1985. Since leaving Soviet Ukraine, the artist has worked in Berlin and Israel.
Cherkassky-Nnadi says people have been divided over her portrayal of Soviet life. Some of them still believe that the U.S.S.R was the entity of evil, and they think Im not showing enough the horrors of this system, other people idealize this period and say I show too much poverty and depression.
A girl pulling on her nylons before getting ready for school.
A cafeteria serving mashed potato and minced beef cutlets -- described by The New York Times in 1963 as "the cheapest, most-popular if not most-revered piece of meat a few kopecks can buy."
A feast laid out for May Day festivities. The spread includes a bottle of spicy Ukrainian spirits, and death caps -- deviled eggs topped with mayonnaise-spotted tomatoes made to resemble poisonous mushrooms.
A young dissident tuning into Radio Liberty, which is also the name of the painting. We believed in something that didnt exist, because no-one had been to the West, Cherkassky-Nnadi said. People thought that things were the same in the West, but somehow better. But now I have lived the majority of my life in the capitalist world and I have a lot of criticism towards this system.
Cherkassky-Nnadi is blunt when asked about her political leanings, saying that ideologically, Im a communist.
A summer scene with tomatoes and dill being prepared for pickling. As the granddaughter of a food-store manager, young Cherkassky-Nnadi enjoyed meals that many of her peers could only dream of.
A painting titled come eat something. Cherkassky-Nnadi explained the perks of her grandfathers job. Firstly, he could get [nice food] for my family and also, for example, if we needed a good doctor, [my grandfather] could get some good things for him and [the doctor] could do some good things for us.
Cherkassky-Nnadi said the simplistic style of the series is a result of the paintings being made from memories, but added that the memories are totally selective.
A schoolgirl wrapped up with her homework as her mother watches Projector of Perestroika, a news show which gripped the U.S.S.R. in the late 1980s with its critical reports on official corruption and the decaying Soviet system.
A scene outside an apartment block titled, She forgot her skirt.
A young rocker getting ready to leave a house where a wardrobe serves as a partition between rooms.
In a discussion on LiveJournal, a Russian-speaking commentator reacted to the paintings: Why do all these people nostalgic for the U.S.S.R. move to Berlin and Israel, and not to North Korea?
When millions of Iranian children flock back to school in September, thousands of Afghan schoolchildren living in the Islamic republic will remain at home.
Afghan refugees must produce residency papers and pay tuition to enroll in state schools in Iran, where up to 2 million undocumented Afghans live in legal limbo, according to the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR.
But a new online campaign is urging Iran's government to change such long-running practices toward Afghan nationals, many of whom are denied basic services, including access to health care, jobs, and even housing in Iran.
The campaign on Twitter was launched on August 27 by Iranian journalist Sadra Mohaghegh, an editor at the reformist Shargh daily, and has gained the backing of prominent Iranians, including the education minister.
Campaigners have used the #Don'tLeaveThemOutOfMehr hashtag to spread their message. Mehr translates to love or kindness in Persian and is also the name of the month the Iranian school year begins.
Twitter storm in support of Afghan children deprived of education, Mohaghegh posted on August 27.
Within hours, Iranian Education Minister Mohammad Bathaei had announced his support for the cause.
"Gaining knowledge is the right of all people in all situations. Im working so that no students, regardless of their nationality, are left out of 'mehr.'"
Habib Rezaei, a well-known Iranian actor and a campaign supporter, weighed in to say that boundaries do not matter and that depriving schoolchildren access to education is an injustice.
In 2015, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a decree ordering schools to admit all Afghan children.
"No Afghan child, not even immigrants who came to Iran illegally and without documents, must be kept from an education and all of them must be registered in Iranian schools, Khamenei said.
At the time, the government said over 350,000 Afghan schoolchildren were legally registered in Iranian schools, and approximately 500,000 were not attending school.
Human rights groups say the children of undocumented Afghan refugees still face major obstacles in receiving an education, with many children going uneducated or attending underground schools.
"International law ensures all children the same right to primary and secondary education, free from discrimination, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued in May, adding, But the reality is very far from this."
HRW has reported that, in response, Afghan refugees run unlicensed schools that tend to charge lower tuition fees and do not require residency permits. Iranian authorities have issued warnings to these schools and have sporadically closed them down.
Iranian children born to foreign fathers face similar obstacles to accessing education.
A long-standing law denies citizenship and certain rights to Iranian children born to Afghan fathers; under Iranian legislation, only Iranian men can pass their nationality to spouses or children.
To this point, such children are essentially stateless, although a group of lawmakers is working to scrap the law.
Many Afghans moved to Iran following the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal. Others sought refuge in Iran after the hard-line Taliban took power in Afghanistan. Many have taken on menial work that is of little appeal to Iranians, yet they are often blamed for insecurity and unemployment.
Tehran has expelled many Afghans and periodically threatens those who remain with mass expulsions.
Authorities in Kazakhstan's capital have closed off several streets after what police say was a brawl between construction workers from India and their Kazakh colleagues at a high-rise-tower project.
Riot police were mobilized in response to the violence, which the Interior Ministry said broke out at around 8:30 p.m. on September 2 in Astana at the Abu Dhabi Plaza construction site, located near several government buildings.
Ministry spokesman Almas Sadubaev told RFE/RL's Kazakh Service in written comments that the incident started when a worker from India who was drunk argued with a security guard who refused to let him out of the construction site.
The worker "then called his compatriots, and they beat up the security guard," Sadubaev said in written comments.
Sadubaev said that Kazakh workers came to the defense of the security guard, resulting in a brawl involving around 30 people. He said that India's ambassador to Kazakhstan arrived at the scene, as did representatives of local authorities.
He added that two people suffered minor injuries, but he did not indicate which country they were from.
"No one was killed or died," Sadubaev said.
Such incidents of public violence are rare in the capital of Kazakhstan, where authoritarian President Nursultan Nazarbaev has ruled for more than 25 years.
Videos and images of the scene showed riot police carrying batons and shields standing near a crowd of men. Numerous police vehicles were visible near the scene as well.
Authorities played down the incident. Sadubaev said it had been "fully resolved" and "was under the control of police."
He urged people "to refrain from provocations" and from "spreading false information and different kinds of rumors."
The Astana mayor's office on its website asked locals and visitors "to refrain from unnecessary comments."
Construction of the Abu Dhabi Plaza, which is to be Central Asia's tallest tower, began in 2010 and is slated for completion by 2017. The construction site has already been hit by several fires.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump by phone on September 1 and the two discussed mutual relations and regional affairs, the presidents' offices said.
The White House said Nazarbayev expressed support for Trump's recently announced South Asian strategy, which included fortifying the U.S. fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan and penalizing Pakistan for harboring anti-Afghanistan militants within its borders.
Trump "expressed appreciation for Kazakhstans regional and global leadership, including its upcoming tenure as chair of the United Nations Security Council in January, and congratulated President Nazarbaev on hosting the Astana Expo 2017," the White House said.
Nazarbaev's office said Trump invited the Kazakh president to make an official visit to Washington. The White House did not confirm that an invitation was extended.
Nazarbaev's office said he told Trump that he "hopes the Moscow-Washington dialogue will be normalized" and that the two leaders agreed to boost bilateral trade and economic ties.
Nazerbaev also informed Trump about the "important role of the launching of the Low-Enriched Uranium Bank in Kazakhstan on August 29 in terms of improving global security," the Kazakh presidential press service said.
With reporting by Interfax
The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the United Nations General Assembly later this month.
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was quoted by state media on September 2 as saying that the Russian leader does not intend to travel to New York for the General Assembly, which is set to convene September 12.
"No, this is not in the president's plans," Peskov told the state-run TASS news agency.
The general debate at the assembly is set to kick off on September 19, when U.S. President Donald Trump is slated to deliver his first address to the 193-member body.
Trump is scheduled to host an event at UN headquarters in New York a day earlier.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will lead Moscow's delegation to the General Assembly, which he is set to address on September 21, TASS reported.
Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, TASS, and RIA Novosti
U.S. authorities have taken control of three Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States after Russian staff complied with a 48-hour deadline to vacate the sites.
In an angry response, the Kremlin summoned a top U.S. diplomat in Moscow, handing over a note of protest and denouncing what it called an "unprecedented aggressive action" at one of the facilities.
The U.S. State Department had set a 2 p.m. September 2 deadline for the closure of the Russian Consulate in San Francisco, as well as two other diplomatic buildings in Washington, D.C., and New York that are used as trade representations.
The U.S. action came in retaliation for Moscow's move in August ordering the United States to cut its diplomatic personnel in Russia to 455 by September 1, which President Vladimir Putin said meant cutting 755 personnel.
Descriptions from the Russian and U.S. sides differed on what happened at one of the U.S. sites -- a Washington trade annex -- as the local deadline passed.
Moscow claimed U.S. officials had threatened to "break down the entrance door" and that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was "clearing the premises."
The State Department denied the allegations, saying U.S. officials had conducted walkthroughs jointly with Russian staff at all three sites to confirm that personnel had departed.
"These inspections were carried out to secure and protect the facilities and to confirm the Russian government had vacated the premises," a State Department official said in an e-mail statement.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Anthony Godfrey, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, to issue its protest.
The ministry claimed that the search of the Washington site could be used by U.S. special services for "anti-Russian provocations" by "planting compromised items."
Aleksandr Stadnik, the Russian trade representative in the U.S. capital, was quoted by the state-run TASS news agency as saying that U.S. authorities had taken control of the building in northwestern Washington as of 2 p.m. local time.
He accused Washington of "vandalism" and an illegal "attack on Russian property abroad."
U.S. security officers could be seen strolling around inside the complex, which is surrounded by wrought-iron fencing, in the afternoon on September 2.
U.S. authorities have not publicly confirmed that they intend to search the premises.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on September 1 that unnamed U.S. agencies planned to conduct a search of its San Francisco Consulate and some diplomatic residences the following day in what she called a "direct threat" to Russian citizens.
The ministry on September 2 published videos on its Facebook page that it said showed FBI officials searching the consulate.
"Looking at the footage of searches at Russian diplomatic missions, I realize that this was some kind of an infernal buffoonery -- foolish, illegal, and senseless," Zakharova said on September 3.
In an apparent response to complaints from Russian officials that they were given only 48 hours to vacate homes used by diplomats and their families in San Francisco, U.S. officials said they had made "separate arrangements" to give families "sufficient time" to pack belongings and vacate apartments on the consulate grounds.
The State Department said it will control all access to the properties and take responsibility for security and maintenance at the sites.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier in the week said his country would study the U.S. order to close the compounds and would decide later on its response.
Relations between Moscow and Washington are severely strained over Russia's aggression in Ukraine and its alleged meddling in the U.S. presidential election in 2016.
Those tensions raise questions about potential cooperation between the two sides to settle wars in eastern Ukraine and Syria and to pressure North Korea over its banned nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP
-- EDITOR'S NOTE: We have started a new Ukraine Live Blog as of September 3, 2018. You can find it here.
-- Tens of thousands of people gathered on September 2 in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine to mourn a top rebel leader who was recently killed in a bomb attack.
-- Prominent Ukrainian historian Mykola Shityuk has been found dead in his home city of Mykolaiv, police said on September 2.
-- Ukraine says it has imprisoned the man it accused of being recruited by Russias secret services to organize a murder plot against self-exiled Russian reporter and Kremlin critic Arkady Babchenko.
-- Ukraine and Russia are trading blame for the killing of a top separatist leader in eastern Ukraine.
-- Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the head of the head of the breakaway separatist entity known as the Donetsk Peoples Republic, was killed in an explosion at a cafe in Donetsk on August 31.
-- The United States is ready to widen arms supplies to Ukraine to help build up the country's naval and air defense forces in the face of continuing Russian support for eastern separatists, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine told The Guardian.
-- The spiritual head of the worldwide Orthodox Church in Istanbul has hosted Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill for talks on Ukraine's bid to split from the Russian church, a move strongly opposed by Moscow.
*Time stamps on the blog refer to local time in Ukraine
The brother of former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is facing deportation from Ukraine on allegations that he was in the country illegally, a move that comes amid a fierce standoff between the ex-head of state and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
A Ukrainian Interior Ministry spokesman told RFE/RL on September 2 that David Saakashvili was taken into custody earlier in the day because his residence permit had been canceled in March.
"It has now been decided that he should leave the territory of our country," spokesman Artem Shevchenko said.
David Saakasvili, who was released later in the day, will also be fined for violating migration laws, Shevchenko added.
His detention was the latest development in an escalating feud between the former Georgian president, who also previously served as governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, and Poroshenko.
Poroshenko stripped Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship on July 26, a move the former Georgian president condemned as an "illegal way to remove me from the political scene in Ukraine."
Saakashvili is currently in Poland, and he announced last month that he plans to return to Ukraine on September 10 by crossing the Polish-Ukrainian border in Ukraine's western region of Lviv.
In a Facebook post earlier on September 2, Saakashvili suggested that by detaining his brother, Ukrainian authorities are attempting to dissuade him from returning to the country.
Saakashvili was stripped of his Georgian citizenship in 2015 after he took Ukrainian citizenship in order to become Odesa's governor. He resigned from the post in November, saying that the government in Kyiv was sabotaging crucial reforms.
Poroshenko said on September 1 that he had been required to cancel Saakashvili's citizenship because his application for the passport contained "inaccurate or false information." Saakashvili disputes this, saying Poroshenko illegally stripped him of his citizenship.
Saakashvili, a pro-Western politician who rose to power in Tbilisi in the bloodless 2003 Rose Revolution, has been left essentially stateless.
Georgia is seeking his extradition to face charges related to the violent dispersal of protesters and a raid on a private television station. Saakashvili says the charges are politically motivated.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Interfax, and AFP
Eight children and four women -- originating from Russia and Kazakhstan -- who had been left behind in areas liberated from Islamic State (IS) militants have been flown out of Iraq and Syria and have arrived in Russia, Russian news agencies report.
A plane carrying the women and children arrived in Grozny, the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, on September 1.
Interfax news agency later reported from Grozny airport that Russia's children's ombudswoman Anna Kuznetsova and senior Chechen officials had met the plane carrying the evacuees.
It was the largest group to be flown to Chechnya from Iraq, and the first to include adults. Last month, seven children were flown back on a similar flight.
Iraqi officials have said that many of the foreign IS fighters who mounted a final stand in Mosul came from Russia, particularly Chechnya, and other former Soviet countries.
Mosul was liberated by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces in July.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed head of Chechnya, has vowed to bring back all the Chechen children in Iraq, saying that "the parents of almost all of them are dead."
Kadyrov said on Instagram that the latest flight included a woman from Chechnya with three children.
Kuznetsova has gathered a list of more than 350 children who were reportedly taken by their parents from Russia to Syria and Iraq.
RT state-controlled television reported in August that the Russian authorities were trying to return 48 such minors from Mosul.
Rights groups say Kadyrov rules Chechnya through fear and intimidation, using police and other armed forces under his control to impose order and crush dissent.
Based on reporting by AFP, TASS, and Interfax
Addressing the Press
Aubrey Gemignani/NASA
President Donald Trump's administration is working with NASA on new space exploration policies for the United States. See photos of President Trump and his administration as they work with NASA.
Here Trump, center, speaks before signing an Executive Order to reestablish the National Space Council, alongside members of the Congress, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Commercial Space Companies in the Roosevelt room of the White House in Washington, Friday, June 30, 2017. Vice President Mike Pence will chair the council. Also pictured are, Rep. Bill Posey, R-Florida, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Alabama, Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, R-California, Former Rep. Bob Walker, R-Pennsylvania, Sandy Magnus, executive director, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, David Melcher, executive director, Aerospace Industries Association, Tory Bruno, CEO, United Launch Alliance, Michal Riley, CEO, AMRO Fabricating Corporation, John Couch, president, Futuramic, Mike Cain, owner, Cain Tubular Products, Mary Lynne Dittmar, executive director, Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, Dennis Muilenburg, CEO Boeing Company, Marilyn Hewson, CEO, Lockheed Martin, Wes Bush, CEO, Northrop Grumman, retired NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin, NASA astronaut Alvin Drew, retired NASA astronaut David Wolf, Apollo 13 flight director, Gene Kranz, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Under Secretary of the Air Force Lisa Disbrow, and Acting Deputy Director of National Intelligence, Dawn Eilengerger.
Making It Reality
Aubrey Gemignani/NASA
President Donald Trump signs an Executive Order to reestablish the National Space Council, alongside members of the Congress, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and commercial space companies in the Roosevelt room of the White House on June 30, 2017. Also pictured are retired NASA astronaut David Wolf, left, NASA Astronaut Alvin Drew, second from right, and retired NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin, right.
Bringing Back the NSC
Aubrey Gemignani/NASA
Vice President Mike Pence speaks before introducing President Donald Trump to sign an Executive Order reestablishing the National Space Council, alongside members of the Congress, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Commercial Space Companies in the Roosevelt room of the White House in Washington on June 30, 2017. Pence will chair the council. Also pictured, are: NASA astronaut Alvin Drew, left, and retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin, right.
Back to Work
Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images
President Donald Trump signs an Executive Order to reestablish the National Space Council as Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin (R) looks on in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on June 30, 2017 in Washington, DC.
Trump to ISS
Bill Ingalls/NASA
President Donald Trump, joined by NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, left, and First Daughter Ivanka Trump, talks with NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer onboard the International Space Station on April 24, 2017 from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. The President congratulated Whitson for breaking the record for cumulative time spent in space by a U.S. astronaut.
Live Streaming
Bill Ingalls/NASA
NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer are seen onboard the International Space Station in a live video conference between with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on April 24, 2017 in Washington.
Congrats!
Bill Ingalls/NASA
President Donald Trump shakes hands with NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, as First Daughter Ivanka Trump looks on, during a video conference where President Donald Trump talked with NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer onboard the International Space Station on April 24, 2017 from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.
Appreciated Gesture
Alex Wong/Getty Images
U.S. President Donald Trump receives a NASA flight jacket from Chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA Chris Cassidy (left) during a bill signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House on March 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. President Trump signed S.442 - National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017 into law.
2017 Astronaut Class
Bill Ingalls/NASA
Vice President Mike Pence recognizes the newly introduced 12 new NASA astronaut candidates on June 7, 2017 at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. After completing two years of training, the new astronaut candidates could be assigned to missions performing research on the International Space Station, launching from American soil on spacecraft built by commercial companies, and launching on deep space missions on NASA's new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket.
Mission Control to Trump
Robert Markowitz/NASA
Flight Director Brian Smith, Capcom Astronaut Jessica Meir along with Astronaut Jeff Williams monitor activities in Mission Control as President Donald Trump, First Daughter Ivanka Trump and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins make a special Earth-to-space call on April 24, from the Oval Office to personally congratulate NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson for her record-breaking stay aboard the International Space Station. Photo Date: April 24, 2017. Location: Building 30 - FCR1.
Mission Control
Robert Markowitz/NASA
Flight Director Brian Smith, Capcom Astronaut Jessica Meir along with Astronaut Jeff Williams monitor activities in Mission Control as President Donald Trump, First Daughter Ivanka Trump and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins make a special Earth-to-space call on April 24, from the Oval Office to personally congratulate NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson for her record-breaking stay aboard the International Space Station. Photo Date: April 24, 2017. Location: Building 30 - FCR1.
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will wrap up her record-breaking mission to the International Space Station today (Sept. 2) as she and her Expedition 52 crewmates return to Earth in a Soyuz spacecraft. You can watch their departure, descent and landing in a live webcast here on Space.com.
Traveling with Whitson will be NASA astronaut Jack Fischer and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, who arrived at the space station together in April and will have spent 136 days in space during this mission. Whitson will have spent 288 consecutive days in space after completing an extended mission. During her stay, she set a new record for the most cumulative time in space by an American, with 665 days spent in orbit.
The journey home will begin at 2:40 p.m. EDT (1840 GMT), after the three crewmembers say goodbye to their Expedition 52/53 crewmates, climb inside the Russian Soyuz craft and close the hatch. At 9:22 p.m. EDT (0122 GMT on Sept. 3), the Soyuz will touch down in Kazakhstan. You can watch their entire journey home in a live webcast here on Space.com. Live coverage of the landing will begin at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT). [Space Station Photos: Expedition 52 Crew in Orbit]
After the crewmembers touch down on land, helicopter crews will meet them on the ground and help them out of their spacecraft. As with previous landings, the crew is expected to fly to the Karaganda airport in Kazakhstan for a traditional welcoming ceremony
Usually after this ceremony, NASA astronauts return to Johnson Space Center in Houston for postflight medical tests and physical rehabilitation. However, flooding from Hurricane Harvey has shut down much of Houston, and NASA has closed Johnson Space Center until Tuesday (Sept. 5).
The agency has yet to announce a contingency plan for the astronauts' arrival. "As a result of the impacts of Hurricane Harvey, NASA is reviewing return plans to Houston of Whitson, Fischer and the science samples landing in the Soyuz spacecraft," NASA officials said in a statement. In an email to Space.com Thursday evening (Aug. 31), NASA Press Secretary Stephanie Schierholz said, "That is the best info we have at the moment, as plans are still in work."
Regardless of where the astronauts hang out for now, Whitson and Fischer will stay busy for the first 45 days after the landing, as their job is not over yet.
"The first 45 days after we land from a long-duration spaceflight, we're doing rehabilitation, trying to get our bodies used to being on Earth again," Whitson said during an in-flight interview with Space.com. "There are many investigations on the human body that we've been doing up here in orbit, so we'll have to continue those studies as well during that first 45 days."
Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Sixty-six million years ago Earth underwent a cataclysmic change. Back then, our planet was dominated by dinosaurs, but a mass extinction event hastened the demise of these huge reptiles and paved the way for the mammalian takeover. Though there is some debate as to whether the extinction of the dinosaurs was triggered by an isolated disaster or a series of disasters, one event is clear Earth was hit by a massive comet or asteroid and its impact had global ramifications.
The leading theory is that a massive comet slammed into our planet, creating the vast Chicxulub Crater buried under the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, enshrouding the atmosphere in fine debris, blotting out the sun for years.
Although there is strong evidence of comet impacts on Earth, these deep space vagabonds are notoriously hard to track, let alone predict when or how often they may appear. All we know is that they are out there, there are more than we thought, they are known to hit planets in the solar system and they can wreak damage of apocalyptic proportions.
Now, using fresh observations from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, astronomer Coryn Bailer-Jones, who works at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Munich, Germany, has added an interesting component to our understanding of cometary behavior.
Stellar Traffic
Long-period comets are the most mysterious and troubling class of comet. They will often appear from nowhere, after falling from their distant gravitational perches, zoom through the inner solar system and disappear once more often to be never seen again. Or they hit something on their way through. These icy bodies are the pristine left-overs of our solar system's formation five billion years ago, hurled far beyond the orbits of the planets and into a region called the Oort Cloud.
In the Oort Cloud these ancient masses have remained in relative calm far from the gravitational instabilities close to the sun. But over the eons, countless close approaches by other stars in our galactic neighborhood have occurred, causing very slight gravitational nudges to the Oort Cloud. Astronomers believe that such stellar encounters are responsible for knocking comets from this region, sending them on a roller-coaster ride to the inner solar system.
The Gaia mission is a space telescope tasked with precisely mapping the distribution and motion of stars in our galaxy, so Bailer-Jones has investigated the rate of stellar encounters with our solar system. Using information in Gaia's first data release (DR1), Bailer-Jones has published the first systematic estimate of stellar encounters in other words, he's estimated the flow of stellar traffic in the solar system's neighborhood. And the traffic was found to be surprisingly heavy.
In his study, to be published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, Bailer-Jones estimates that, on average, between 490 and 600 stars will come within 16.3 light-years (5 parsecs) of our sun and 19-24 of them will come within 3.26 light-years (1 parsec) every million years.
According to a press release, all of these stars will have some gravitational effect on the solar system's Oort Cloud, though the closest encounters will have a greater influence.
This first Gaia data release is valid for five million years into the past and into the future, but astronomers hope the next data release (DR2) will be able to estimate stellar traffic up to 25 million years into the past and future. To begin studying the stellar traffic that may have been responsible for destabilizing the dinosaur-killing comet that hit Earth 66 million years ago will require a better understanding of the mass distribution of our galaxy (and how it influences the motion of stars) a long-term goal of the Gaia project.
An Early Warning?
Spinning this idea into the future, could this project be used to act as an early warning system? Or could it be used to predict when and where a long-period comet may appear in the sky?
In short: "No," Bailer-Jones told Astroengine via email. "Some close stellar encounters will for sure shake up the Oort cloud and fling comets into the inner solar system, but which comets on which orbits get flung in we cannot observe."
He argues that the probability of comets being gravitationally nudged can be modeled statistically, but this would require a lot of assumptions to be made about the Oort Cloud, a region of space that we know very little about.
Also, the Oort Cloud is located well beyond the sun's heliosphere and is thought to be between 50,000 and 200,000 AU (astronomical units, where 1 AU is the average distance between the sun and the Earth) away, so it would take a long time for comets to travel from this region, creating a long lag-time between stellar close approach and the comet making an appearance.
"Typically it takes a few million years for a comet to reach the inner solar system," he added, also pointing out that other factors can complicate calculations, such as Jupiter's enormous gravity that can deflect the passage of comets, or even fling them back out of the solar system again.
This is a fascinating study that goes to show that gravitational perturbations in the Oort Cloud are far from being rare events. A surprisingly strong flow of stellar traffic will constantly rattle otherwise inert comets, but how many are dislodged and sent on the long journey to the solar system's core remains a matter for statistics and probability.
Originally published on astroengine.com.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has wanted someone with a technical background and space experience to be his deputy, but the White House instead nominated a longtime Senate aide for the post.
WASHINGTON The White House nominated a veteran Senate aide with little space experience to be NASA's deputy administrator July 12, a month after the agency's administrator said he wanted someone with technical expertise for the job.
In a statement, the White House announced its intent to nominate James Morhard to be deputy administrator. The position, like that of administrator, requires confirmation by the Senate.
Morhard has been the deputy sergeant-at-arms for the Senate, handling various administrative issues for the body, since early 2015. He served in various other staff roles in the Senate from the early 1980s until 2005, including chief of staff of the Senate Appropriations Committee and staff director of what is now its commerce, justice and science subcommittee, whose jurisdiction includes NASA. [Presidential Visions for Space Exploration: From Ike to Trump]
Prior to working in the Senate, Morhard was an analyst in the Secretary of the Navy's Office of the Comptroller. He also worked as a lobbyist after leaving the Senate in the mid-2000s until his return in 2015. His education includes an M.B.A. from George Washington University and a law degree from Georgetown University.
Other than his appropriations experience, there's little in his background to suggest familiarity with NASA and its activities. His nomination appears to run counter to the wishes of Administrator Jim Bridenstine, who a month ago said he wanted someone with strong technical experience as his deputy.
"It needs to be somebody who has a lot of space experience, a space professional," he said in a June 12 appearance at a Space Transportation Association luncheon here, when asked about who he sought in a deputy administrator. "It needs to be somebody who has run large organizations, who understands the technology. A scientist would be great."
He reiterated that two days later. "We need a space professional, we need a scientist, we need somebody who has been involved at NASA for a very long time. It would be beneficial to me if that person was an astronaut," he said June 14 at a meeting of the Federal Aviation Administration's Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee.
In both cases, he mentioned one specific person: Janet Kavandi, a former astronaut who is currently director of NASA's Glenn Research Center. "Of course, the person I've been advocating for is Janet Kavandi," he said June 14, with Kavandi in the audience.
In a July 9 interview, though, Kavandi said she didn't have any updates regarding a potential deputy administrator nomination. "I'm honored to be considered," she said. "We'll see how it plays out. I'm sure there are other people that they're considering as well." A day later, the publication Quartz first reported Morhard was being considered for the job.
The White House announcement came as Bridenstine was out of the country on his first foreign trip as the head of NASA, meeting officials in Israel. "This administration is committed to American leadership in space, and I look forward to working with Mr. Morhard upon his confirmation," Bridenstine said in an agency statement issued late July 12.
This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
BURLEY Ronnie G. Kincaid Jr. has said the death of his wife two years ago was the result of a drunken sexual accident he wishes he could take back. But on Friday, a judge called Kincaid remorseless and sentenced him to spend at least 20 years in prison for one of the most brutal and shocking deaths south-central Idaho has seen in years.
Kincaid was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Melissa Kincaid, who was found dead in the couples bedroom after her husband called 911. Police later learned Kincaid viciously assaulted his intoxicated wife and tried to cover up evidence by placing her in the shower.
He was sentenced to life in prison Friday as he continued to deny murdering his wife.
Kincaid will serve at least 20 years in prison for second-degree murder in the death of Melissia Kincaid.
You say you dont deserve to go to prison, Cindy Cole, Melissias mother said during the hearing. Well Melissia didnt deserve death.
Cole told Kincaid to be a man and tell the family what really happened.
The paper Cole read from trembled in her hands as she said Melissia was the one person who loved Kincaid and did everything for him.
No one should have to bury their daughter, she said.
Kincaid gave his own statement saying he did not kill his wife.
Melissia was his best friend, his soul mate, Kincaid said, and the best wife a man could have.
Cole got up from her seat and left the courtroom as Kincaid continued his speech.
There were numerous nights where he was really intoxicated, he said, and if he had been sober that night maybe he would have called 911.
I wish with all my heart and soul that I could take it back but, I cant, he said sniffling.
After listening to Kincaids statement, District Judge John Butler gave a graphic description of Melissia Kincaids death.
A psychosexual evaluation said Ronnie Kincaid used his fist to cause her death, inflicting significant vaginal and rectal trauma.
The autopsy showed Melissia Kincaid bled to death.
Kincaid described the death as a drunken sexual accident, Butler said, but the behavior he engaged in was intentional.
Melissias blood-alcohol level was very high, the judge said.
I dont think she consented to anything, he said.
When he realized his wife was no longer responsive, Ronnie Kincaid took her to the shower to try to wake her up, Butler said, but he did not get help for her or call 911.
Butler said Kincaid killed his wife and shows no remorse.
I dont expect in the next 20 years that your remorse will improve or your behavior will change, Butler said.
Butler also ordered Kincaid to pay $20,000, which included civil penalties of $5,000 for each of two children.
Kincaid, convicted of third-degree rape in Klamath County, Ore., in 2001, also faces a probation violation for failing to register as a sex offender.
I still dont think its enough because of what he did to her, Cole told the Times-News after the hearing.
Melissias two boys who were at the house when their mother died now have to live their lives with that memory, she said.
Melissias aunt and uncle, Louise and Robert Vasquez Jr. said they felt previous concern that Melissia was in a violent marriage.
She was loved by everybody, Robert Vasquez said, and we worried about her.
A police officer is facing a possible criminal investigation after he handcuffed a nurse and dragged her screaming from a hospital when she refused to take blood from an unconscious patient.
Alex Wubbels and her lawyers released dramatic video of the arrest in Salt Lake City in the US on Friday.
The patient, a male lorry driver, had been brought in unconscious after being involved in a head-on collision with a driver who was fleeing police.
Medics sedated the truck driver, who was severely burned, and he arrived at the University Utah Hospital in a comatose state.
Police body camera footage: Nurse Alex Wubbels is arrested for refusing to take a patient's blood / AP
Detective Jeff Payne had been sent to collect blood from the patient and check for any illicit substances, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
A still image taken from video footage of Ms Wubbels being arrested / AP
But Ms Wubbels, , a former alpine skier who competed in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics, refused to take the blood sample as the police officer did not have a warrant and the truck driver was not awake to consent.
She said she adhered to her training and hospital protocols to protect the rights of a patient who could not speak for himself.
Police body-camera video showed Ms Wubbels, who works in the burns unit, calmly explaining that she could not take blood from the patient, citing a recent change in the law.
A 2016 US Supreme Court ruling said a blood sample cannot be taken without patient consent or a warrant.
Nurse Ms Wubbels is forcibly removed from a hospital after refusing to take a patient's blood for police / REUTERS
Ms Wubbels told Mr Payne that a patient had to allow a blood sample to determine intoxication or be under arrest. Otherwise, she said police needed a warrant.
The police did not have a warrant, but Mr Payne insisted and the dispute ended with him saying, "We're done, you're under arrest" and pulling her outside while she screamed and said: "I've done nothing wrong."
Mr Payne wrote in a police report that he grabbed the nurse and took her outside to avoid causing a "scene" in the emergency room.
He said his boss, a lieutenant whose actions also were being reviewed, told him to arrest Ms Wubbels if she kept interfering.
The detective left Ms Wubbels in a hot police car for 20 minutes, and she was not charged, said her lawyer, Karra Porter.
Ms Wubbels followed hospital policy and advice from her bosses when she told Salt Lake City police Detective Jeff Payne that he could not get a blood sample without a warrant or consent from the patient / AP
Prosecutors have called for a criminal investigation and Salt Lake City police put Mr Payne on paid leave on Friday.
Ms Wubbels said: "This cop bullied me. He bullied me to the utmost extreme. And nobody stood in his way."
The Salt Lake City police chief and mayor also apologised and changed department policies in line with the guidance Ms Wubbels was following in the July 26 incident.
"You can't just take blood if you don't have a legitimate concern for something to be tested," she said.
"It is the most personal property I think that we can have besides our skin and bones and organs."
Police Chief Mike Brown said he was alarmed by what he had seen in the video.
Ms Wubbels and her lawyers released the video they obtained through a public records request to call for change.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said the video was concerning and urged the police chief to ask for a criminal investigation.
Police spokeswoman Christina Judd said the department updated its blood-draw policy last week to mirror what the hospital uses, and officers have already received additional training.
The patient, William Gray, is a reserve police officer in Rigby, Idaho.
A former Labour frontbencher who was sacked after speaking out about sex crimes in the UK has warned the left risks failing vulnerable children due to fears of being perceived racist.
Labour MP Sarah Champion was forced to quit last month after facing backlash for writing a Sun column saying the UK has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls".
Following her resignation Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said his party would not "blame" or "demonise any particular group" and accused the paper of inciting Islamaphobia.
Ms Champion issued an apology for her "extremely poor choice of words" but, in an interview with The Times, warned the "floppy left" is afraid of speaking out on issues of sex grooming gangs for fear of being accused of racism.
Historic abuse: Ms Champion is the MP for Rotherham / PA Archive/PA Images
The former shadow women and equalities secretary said: "If I'm on the floppy left, to be accused of racism is probably the worst thing you can call me.
That fear will motivate me to step away from a lot of topics I'd maybe tackle head on if I didn't have that phobia."
Ms Champion, who is the MP Rotherham - the scene of a recent grooming scandal - told the newspaper there is a difference in attitude between people living in multicultural London and northern parts of the UK.
Her constituency is among several towns, including Rochdale, Oxford and Newcastle upon Tyne, where groups of men largely of Pakistani origin have been convicted of sex crimes against vulnerable white girls.
She said many Labour members and politicians based in London had "never been challenged by a reality that's different" from their largely "tolerant, multicultural world".
Rotherham abuse trial- Six guilty over child sex exploitation
"London is not representative of the UK and it's definitely not representative of the north of England in relation to race," she added. "Rotherham and many post-industrial towns are still segregated.
"[The] multicultural policies that I, through my working career, grew up with, and which Jeremy Corbyn grew up with, need a translation to come outside London"
Ms Champion stressed: "It's not that Yorkshire's racist, it's that Yorkshire is very blunt and doesn't sugar-coat anything.
"In Rotherham, people's frustration is that if they all knew what was going on, why didn't the people who were meant to protect them do anything about it?
I want us to be in government and I wanted to let people know we're taking this seriously. I wanted to reach out to people that we don't normally reach out to."
Ms Champion was strongly criticised last month when she called for more research into understanding why most convictions relating to gang-linked sexual exploitation were Pakistani men.
Rotherham abuse victim speaks
She acknowledged that most child sexual abuse took place within the family and most convicted child-sex offenders in Britain were white men.
But she added: "If, 15 years ago, we'd acknowledged there was a particular issue among a criminal subsection of men in the Pakistani community we could have addressed it, carried out the research and gained the understanding to challenge it, tackle it and eradicate it."
A Home Office employee has been suspended following claims of abuse and assaults against detainees at a G4S immigration centre near Gatwick Airport.
Private security firm G4S said on Friday that nine members of its staff had been suspended pending an investigation into BBC Panorama allegations of "chaos, incompetence and abuse" at the Brook House Immigration Removal Centre.
Sources have confirmed that a Home Office worker has also been suspended while allegations relating to his previous employment for G4S at the facility are investigated.
A Home Office spokesman said: "We condemn any actions that put the safety or dignity of immigration removal centre detainees at risk.
"We are clear that all detainees should be treated with dignity and respect and we expect G4S to carry out a thorough investigation into these allegations and that all appropriate action be taken."
Panorama claims to have undercover footage showing officers "mocking, abusing and even assaulting detainees" at the facility, where drugs are allegedly "rife".
G4S: A Home Office employee has been suspended over claims of abuse and assault at a G4S-run immigration centre / PA
Brook House is one of two immigration centres run by G4S in the UK and has capacity for 508 adult men.
Concerns were raised in the latest inspection, which revealed that some men had been held there for more than two years and highlighted issues with the "stark and impersonal" residential units and unsatisfactory sanitary facilities.
But overall, the report by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Peter Clarke in March said it was an "encouraging" inspection.
It is the latest in a number of scandals to hit the security company, which is also responsible for five prisons in England and Wales.
Panorama uncovered alleged abuse and mistreatment of youngsters at a G4S youth detention centre in Kent last year.
Medway Secure Training Centre was later judged inadequate by Ofsted inspectors, who found that young inmates were able to watch sexually explicit content on television.
Another G4S facility, HMP Birmingham, was hit by riots in December 2016, some of the worst in a UK jail in years.
The Panorama episode is due to air on BBC One at 9pm on Monday.
Additional reporting by Press Association.
D onald Trump has asked politicians for a 6.1 billion payment to help with recovery efforts after devastating flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana.
Officials said there would be further requests for funds from Congress when the full impact of the storm becomes clear.
The money (7.9 billion dollars) would be an initial down payment for relief and recovery efforts in the wake of the storm which has left at least 47 people dead and tens of thousands in shelters.
It came as the US President prepared to visit Texas for a second time on Saturday.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania visiting Texas (REUTERS) / Reuters
The White House said Mr Trump will meet with survivors of the storm in severely flooded Houston, which is home to 6.8 million people, before moving onto Lake Charles in Louisiana.
Harvey - one of the costliest storms ever to hit the US reached land last weekend as a category four hurricane before being downgraded to a tropical storm.
Smoke rises from a chemical plant in Crosby, near Houston, Texas / AP
In a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney warned that failure to raise the US debt ceiling could hinder recovery efforts.
The debt ceiling of 15.37 trillion is a cap on the total amount the US government can borrow and only congress can raise that limit.
House Speaker Mr Ryan said nothing would stop a Harvey aid bill from getting through Congress, and he did not foresee any problems with it passing, despite opposition to federal aid from some Republicans following Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
Devastating aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey in Texas 1 /22 Devastating aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey in Texas Water from Addicks Reservoir flows into neighbourhoods as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise AP Businesses and neighborhoods near Addicks Reservoir is flooded by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey AP A car dealership is covered by Tropical Storm Harvey floodwaters near Houston, Texas REUTERS Homes are surrounded by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey AP A lawn ornament is seen on a flooded street during the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey AFP/Getty Images President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk from Marine One across the South Lawn to the White House in Washington AP Evacuees escaping the floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rest at the George R. Brown Convention Center that has been set up as a shelter in Houston, Texas AP Flooded cars near the Addicks Reservoir are shown as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise AP Businesses and cars are flooded near the Addicks Reservoir as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise AP Young adults sit in front of relief supplies in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey in Houston, Texas EPA Rescue volunteers relax after clearing out all the evacuees from the Twin Oaks Estate in the Clodine district AFP/Getty Images Volunteers Brenda Tcoc, right, and Hugo Wilson help sort bags of donated clothes for victims of the flooding AP Airplanes sit at a flooded airport near the Addicks Reservoir as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise AP A man looks out on a flooded road during the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey AFP/Getty Images Beds are made ready at a shelter for volunteer rescue workers set up at the Fairfield Baptist Church student building on August 29, 2017 in Cypress, Texas AFP/Getty Images Evacuee Edward Jones, 11, holds his step-brother Mickel Duane Batts at the Lakewood Church in Houston AP Equipment and supplies to be used in the relief effort of Tropical Storm Harvey EPA
"It's going to take us time until we know the full scope of it," Mr Ryan said of the storm.
He said a storm the size of Harvey was unprecedented, and because of that it "deserves and requires federal response".
The request, expected to be swiftly approved by Congress, would add 5.7 billion (7.4 billion dollars) to rapidly dwindling Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster aid funds and 347 million (450 million dollars) to finance disaster loans for small businesses.
On Friday evening, thick black smoke and towering orange flames shot up once again from the flooded Houston chemical plant where highly unstable compounds blew up after losing refrigeration.
Donald Trump praises Texas' Emergency Services in wake of Hurricane Harvey
It was the second day that flames and smoke could be seen at the Arkema plant in Crosby.
Containers of organic peroxides also exploded and caught fire on Thursday morning, sending plumes of acrid smoke into the air.
Arkema said Harvey's floodwaters engulfed its backup generators and knocked out the refrigeration necessary to keep the compounds from degrading and catching fire.
The Environmental Protection Agency and local officials said an analysis of the smoke that came from the plant early on Thursday showed no reason for alarm.
No serious injuries were reported, but the authorities evacuated an area around the plant.
A week after the storm hit Texas, it has retained enough rain-making power to raise the risk of flooding as far north as Indiana.
In Houston, officials tried to safeguard parts of their devastated city by intentionally flooding others.
The mayor announced plans to release water from two reservoirs that could keep as many as 20,000 homes flooded for up to 15 days.
T he Indian Government has tried to block a petition in High Court to criminalise marital rape because it says it could put husbands at risk of harassment.
Indian penal law currently stipulates that sexual intercourse with a wife over the age of 15 cannot be classed as rape.
Several womens charities are contesting this and have launched a petition that is being heard at the Delhi High Court.
Campaigners have requested that marital rape is made illegal on the grounds that sexual violence violates human rights.
Protest: Activists from All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) during protest in New Delhi demanding a probe into rapes and sexual assaults / Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters
They argued that, in other countries, married women are still entitled to the full range of civil liberties and human rights and are not required to have sex at the will of their husband.
According to the Times of India, Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code has the exception clause sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age, is not rape".
Judges hearing the case asked the Government to detail its stance on the issue.
In their submission, the Government lawyers said: What may appear to be marital rape to an individual wife, it may not appear so to others.
As to what constitutes marital rape and what would constitute marital non-rape needs to be defined precisely before a view on its criminalisation is taken.
The submission goes on to say that, by criminalising marital rape, it could encourage it to become a phenomenon which may destabilize the institution of marriage and be an easy tool for harassing the husbands.
They added: That the fact that other countries, mostly western, have criminalised marital rape does not necessarily mean India should also follow them blindly.
The petition has also been opposed by several mens welfare charities who said it could lead to husbands being victimised.
A police officer who is battling cancer has helped to rescue hundreds of people from devastating flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in Houston.
Norbert Ramon, 55, is suffering from stage 4 metastatic colon cancer and has been with the Houston Police Departments Traffic Enforcement division for 24 years.
His wife Cindy Ramon said his cancer was the furthest thing from his mind and that he had been helping to rescue people affected by the flooding non-stop in the city since Sunday.
She told Fox News: By Sunday morning when he woke up, there was so much rain and standing water that he could not go to his regular duty in downtown Houston.
Mrs Ramon said her husband followed protocol and notified his sergeant before setting out to report to the nearest patrol unit Houston Lake Patrol.
Devastating aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey in Texas 1 /22 Devastating aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey in Texas Water from Addicks Reservoir flows into neighbourhoods as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise AP Businesses and neighborhoods near Addicks Reservoir is flooded by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey AP A car dealership is covered by Tropical Storm Harvey floodwaters near Houston, Texas REUTERS Homes are surrounded by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey AP A lawn ornament is seen on a flooded street during the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey AFP/Getty Images President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk from Marine One across the South Lawn to the White House in Washington AP Evacuees escaping the floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rest at the George R. Brown Convention Center that has been set up as a shelter in Houston, Texas AP Flooded cars near the Addicks Reservoir are shown as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise AP Businesses and cars are flooded near the Addicks Reservoir as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise AP Young adults sit in front of relief supplies in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey in Houston, Texas EPA Rescue volunteers relax after clearing out all the evacuees from the Twin Oaks Estate in the Clodine district AFP/Getty Images Volunteers Brenda Tcoc, right, and Hugo Wilson help sort bags of donated clothes for victims of the flooding AP Airplanes sit at a flooded airport near the Addicks Reservoir as floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey rise AP A man looks out on a flooded road during the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey AFP/Getty Images Beds are made ready at a shelter for volunteer rescue workers set up at the Fairfield Baptist Church student building on August 29, 2017 in Cypress, Texas AFP/Getty Images Evacuee Edward Jones, 11, holds his step-brother Mickel Duane Batts at the Lakewood Church in Houston AP Equipment and supplies to be used in the relief effort of Tropical Storm Harvey EPA
She added: From then it was a madhouse. They started going out rescuing people in all parts of Houston. Thats where it started from and its been non-stop.
Mrs Ramon said her husband was put on desk duty three weeks ago out of concern for his health but decided to go and help rescue 1,500 people from the floodwaters.
Hes been so caught up in the emotions and the excitement of trying to rescue people, he had no time to even think about it, she added.
You wouldnt even think he had cancer, hes plugging along like he doesnt.
Donald Trump praises Texas' Emergency Services in wake of Hurricane Harvey
He is receiving chemotherapy every two weeks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his wife said.
US President Donald Trump was due to visit Texas again on Saturday.
The White House said Mr Trump will meet with survivors of the storm in severely flooded Houston, which is home to 6.8 million people, before moving onto Lake Charles in Louisiana.
Harvey - one of the costliest storms ever to hit the US reached land last weekend as a category four hurricane before being downgraded to a tropical storm.
The storm has left at least 47 people dead and tens of thousands in shelters.
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In late July 2017 Iran announced the successful second test launch of the Simorgh SLV (satellite launch vehicle). Within a week American intelligence officials revealed that while the Simorgh took off and disappeared from view of people on the ground without visible problem, as it approached the point, outside the atmosphere, where it would inset a satellite, the Simorgh malfunctioned and fell back to earth without accomplishing anything. Moreover American, South Korean and UN ballistic missile experts agree that the Simorgh appears to be based on the North Korean Unha SLV/ballistic missile design. Why do so many different sets of experts agree on what Simorgh actually is and its origins. Thats because Iran and North Korea have been trading weapons and weapons tech since the 1980s. After 2001 that relationship, never really publicized by either party, tried to disappear from public view. Simorgh/Unha is a good example of why disappearing has not worked.
Simorgh itself is an 87 ton two-stage liquid fuel rocket that can put satellites of up to 350 kg (770 pounds) into a LEO (low earth orbit) of 500 kilometers. The first test was in early 2016 and it was not successful. Iran says it plans to use Simorgh to put surveillance satellites into orbit. That was supposed to happen earlier in 2017 but apparently another test launch was considered necessary and since the second test also failed more are apparently on the way. The Simorgh appears to be stuck at the same stage of development as the North Korean Unha it is based on.
So much is known about Unha because in early 2017 a team of UN technical experts issued a report agreeing with South Korean allegations that North Korea was using foreign components and manufacturing equipment to build the Unha. South Korea knew this because they had obtained many components of an Unha rocket that had been launched but failed. The details were not revealed until later. That was because the Unha revelations were made by another unpublicized equipment failure in the February 2016 launch of a three stage Unha rocket. At the time this was described as part of the North Korean space program to put satellites into orbit.
The Unha equipment failure had to do with the explosive charges in the first and second stages (which fall back to earth largely intact). Many of these explosives did not go off. South Korea knew that tests of three stage ballistic missiles (that can be used to reach North America or put a satellite into orbit) provide the most recoverable parts. For years South Korea has been recovering many components of the large rockets because the first two stages fall back to earth in the ocean way offshore in international waters. This 2016 explosive bolt failure left a lot more components largely intact and as South Korean investigators sought to identify how (or where) they were manufactured. They discovered that many of the previously unidentifiable components (because of the self-destruct charges working) were made using more advanced manufacturing technology than what North Korea was supposed to have access to. Further digging revealed that the manufacturing equipment was of European origins but was exported to China, via a contract that clearly stated none of it was to be exported to North Korea. The UN investigators not only confirmed the South Korean allegations but were able to uncover even more details. The Chinese government was forced to admit that certain Chinese firms were defying Chinese sanctions and smuggling the technology and some of the needed software and raw materials to North Korea.
Before 2016 South Korean engineers concluded that the construction of the missile components retrieved appeared to be sloppy and there were some foreign components in the rocket but there was not enough recoverable evidence of anything more. Thus until 2016 the South Koreans concluded that the North Korean components and construction techniques were crude but effective, if not as reliable and efficient as Western or Russian designs. This is what Iran has done, on a larger scale (because of their oil wealth and access to more capable smuggling networks).
South Korean missile experts also concluded that physical evidence indicated North Korea had not developed any new ballistic missile technology, or even manufactured many new missile parts since at least 2012. That was when South Korea began to recover components of North Korea multi-stage ballistic missiles and examine them. By 2012 South Korea had developed technology and techniques to retrieve a lot of these components and have South Korean and foreign experts closely examine them. Initially South Korean engineers and scientists concluded that most of the components appear to have been made in North Korea. Moreover the longest range rockets were based on much older (1960s and 70s) technology and the design of the rocket engine was almost identical to one built in Iran. Many of the imported components of the missile were items that are not covered by sanctions, as they have many other industrial uses. The Iranian connection was long known as was North Korean access to older Russian rocket technology.
North Korea had carried out an impressive deception scheme that was largely undone by the failure of the self-destruct system for missile stages known to fall back into international waters where they could be recovered, even from great depths. This required someone willing to devote enough time, effort, technology and money to the effort. South Korea had all of those resources and was willing to share what they could with UN investigators who were now paying attention.
Another assist came from China getting angry at North Korea for defying demands that they cease their nuclear weapons program (which was also getting illegal foreign tech) and freely exploiting the corruption inside China. The Chinese government tended to leave Chinese companies alone if their illegal dealings were discreet and the firm was bringing new revenue to China. That has changed, at least for Chinese firms that left enough clues behind for foreign investigators to collect and put in front of senior Chinese officials.
Cassia County
Felony sentencings
Christopher A. Phillips; felony possession of controlled substance, guilty, $535.50 costs, $100 restitution, two years determinate time, three years indeterminate time, 168 days credited, retained jurisdiction, penitentiary suspended;; misdemeanor drug paraphernaliause or possess with intent to use, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.
Michele Ann Savage; felony possession of controlled substance, guilty, $535.50 costs, three years probation, two years determinate time, two years indeterminate time, one day credited, penitentiary; misdemeanor drug paraphernaliause or possess with intent to use, dismissed by court.
Jacob Arness Quanstrom; felony forgeryfictitious bills, notes, passing or publishing, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.
Jacob Arness Quanstrom; felony possession of controlled substance, guilty, $535.50 costs, $247.17 restitution, one year determinate time, 22 days credited, retained jurisdiction.
Jeffrey A. Thueson; felony possession of controlled substance, guilty, $250 fine, $535.50 costs, 36 months probation, two years determinate time, three years indeterminate time, 91 days credited, penitentiary suspended.
Brytney Zamora; felony possession of controlled substance; dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor drug paraphernalia -use or possess with intent to use, use or possess with intent to use, guilty, $197.50 costs, 19 days jail, 19 days credited.
Felony dismissals
Jacob Arness Quanstrom; felony malicious injury to property, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.
Dennison Harry Durfee; felony possession of controlled substance, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; felony evidence destruction, alteration or concealment, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; felony burglary dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor possession of controlled substance, guilty, $300 fine, $197.50 costs, 12 months probation, 180 days jail, 174 days suspended, six days credited; misdemeanor driving without privileges, six days credited, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.
Jose Rios Mario Alvarado; felony attempted strangulation, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; felony correctional fictionalpossess or attempt to possess major contraband within, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor assault or battery against certain personnelenhancement; misdemeanor resisting or obstructing officers, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor battery dismissed on motion of prosecutor.
Driving under the influence sentencings
Anna L. Wyatt; misdemeanor driving under the influence, guilty, $200 fine, $202.50 costs, 90 days drivers license suspended, six months probation, 88 days suspended, one day credited time.
Darrin J. Minica; misdemeanor driving under the influenceexcessive, guilty, $400 fine, $202.50 costs, 365 days drivers license suspended, 18 months probation, 180 days jail, 170 days jail, one day credited, report 8/30/2017.
Minidoka County
Felony sentencings
Charles Thomas Pritt III; felony burglary, $245.50 costs, two years determinate time, three years indeterminate time, retained jurisdiction.
Leandro Alaniz Jr.; felony burglary, $5,000 fine, $245.50 costs, two years determinate time, 0 years indeterminate time, 121 days credited; dismissed burglary, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor false information provided on own identity or anothers amended misdemeanor theft by receiving, possessing or disposing of stolen property, etc. Dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor resisting or obstructing to an investing law enforcement officer, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; resisting or obstructing law enforcement officers.
Mario Rey Rendon; felony flee or attempt to elude a police officer in a motor vehicle; unlawful entry while being pursued, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.
Felony dismissal
Yvonne Ann Vega; felony grand theft, dismissed by court.
Venezuela condemns this event and maintains its principled position of absolute condemnation of terrorist acts, methods and practices. | Read More
Minidoka County
Felony sentencings
Leandro Alaniz Jr.; felony burglary, $5,000 fine, $245.50 costs, two years determinate time, 0 years indeterminate time, 121 days credited; dismissed burglary, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor false information provided on own identity or another's amended misdemeanor theft by receiving, possessing or disposing of stolen property, etc. Dismissed on motion of prosecutor; misdemeanor resisting or obstructing to an investing law enforcement officer, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; resisting or obstructing law enforcement officers.
CHERRY HILL, N.J., Sept. 1, 2017 --
Sales of the all-new 2018 Crosstrek propel Subaru to another record quarter
August 2017 marks best-ever sales month in company history
marks best-ever sales month in company history Record August - monthly sales increase 4.6 percent over August 2016
69 consecutive months of yearly month-over-month growth
Best August ever for Crosstrek, Impreza and Outback
Best month ever for Crosstrek
42 consecutive months of more than 10,000 Outbacks sold
49 consecutive months of more than 10,000 Foresters sold
-- Subaru of America, Inc. today reported 63,215 vehicle sales for August 2017, a 4.6 percent increase over August 2016 and marks the best-ever sales month in company history, breaking the previous record set in December 2016 (63,177). The automaker also reported year-to-date sales of 423,728 vehicles, an 8.1 percent gain over the same period in 2016.
August marked the 42nd consecutive month of 40,000+ vehicle sales for the company. Crosstrek, Impreza and Outback sales were notably strong as each model achieved its best August ever. BRZ also enjoyed strong gains over August 2016. Crosstrek sales for August 2017 increased 45.9 percent over the same month in 2016 and marked the first time that Crosstrek has topped 12,000 units in a month.
"Heartfelt congratulations to our retailers who delivered not only the best August sales month ever, but also the best sales month ever in the history of the Subaru franchise with sales of 63,215 vehicles, exceeding the previous record set in December 2016 of 63,177 vehicles," said Thomas J. Doll, president and chief operating officer, Subaru of America, Inc. "Given the overall auto industry conditions, these sales results point to the continued strength of the Subaru brand."
"It was our 69th consecutive month of yearly, month over month sales increases. Our retailers gave a truly exceptional effort and we are on pace for our 9th consecutive sales record," said Jeff Walters, senior vice president of sales, Subaru of America, Inc. "Crosstrek easily had its best month ever and we welcome the all-new 2018 model with the introduction of its advertising and marketing campaign in September that we know will resonate with customers."
Carline Aug-17 Aug-16 % Chg Aug-17 Aug-16 % Chg
MTD MTD MTD YTD YTD YTD Forester 15,528 19,658 -21.0% 118,768 114,769 3.5% Impreza 7,462 5,319 40.3% 58,265 40,284 44.6% WRX/STI 2,528 3,194 -20.9% 21,646 22,488 -3.7% Legacy 4,210 5,800 -27.4% 33,559 41,369 -18.9% Outback 20,327 17,358 17.1% 124,161 109,448 13.4% BRZ 337 302 11.6% 3,006 3,062 -1.8% Crosstrek 12,823 8,787 45.9% 64,323 60,549 6.2% TOTAL 63,215 60,418 4.6% 423,728 391,969 8.1%
About Subaru of America, Inc.
Subaru of America, Inc. (SOA) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Subaru Corporation of Japan. Headquartered at a zero-landfill office in Cherry Hill, N.J., the company markets and distributes Subaru vehicles, parts and accessories through a network of more than 620 retailers across the United States. All Subaru products are manufactured in zero-landfill production plants and Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Inc. is the only U.S. automobile production plant to be designated a backyard wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. SOA is guided by the Subaru Love Promise, which is the company's vision to show love and respect to everyone, and to support its communities and customers nationwide. Over the past 20 years, SOA has donated more than $120 million to causes the Subaru family cares about, and its employees have logged more than 40,000 volunteer hours. As a company, Subaru believes it is important to do its part in making a positive impact in the world because it is the right thing to do.
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OTTAWAJustin Trudeau says hes paying attention to the growing dissent over his governments controversial plan to eliminate tax incentives that he insists only benefit wealthy small business owners.
But the prime minister said Friday he will make no apologies for the Liberal governments commitment to helping the so-called middle class, even at the expense of the wealthiest Canadians.
Speaking to reporters in Saskatoon, Trudeau acknowledged the backlash over what the government calls proposals to inject more fairness in the tax system by closing loopholes used by a growing number of small businesses.
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Were doing more for the people who need it and doing less for the people who dont, Trudeau said.
Im hearing feedback from Canadians that want to make sure that this does help the middle class.... Im happy to have discussions and feedback from interested Canadians who want to make our tax code fairer and were going to take all of those reflections into account.
Entrepreneurs, major industry associations, tax experts and political rivals have warned the three-part plan would hurt the economy and small businesses, including many whose owners would be considered middle class.
The potential changes under scrutiny include ending a practice that allows business owners to lower their tax rate by sprinkling income to family members in lower brackets, even if those relatives are not active in the business.
Another proposal calls for limits on the use of private corporations as a way to gain tax advantages when making passive investments in things like stocks or real estate.
The third change would limit the conversion of a corporations regular income into capital gains that are typically taxed at a lower rate.
The government has launched a consultation on the proposed reforms that ends Oct. 2.
Trudeau characterized the changes as being in step with his oft-repeated promise to help the middle class, even if it requires Canadas wealthiest to pay a little more.
Were doing more for the people who need it, and less for the people who dont. Thats the commitment we made to Canadians and will continue to make to Canadians, he said.
I will make no apologies for this approach.
Opponents of the plans include a newly formed coalition of more than 40 industry associations.
The group argues that the incentives targeted by the Liberals are designed to recognize the greater risks faced by small business owners. Those include the use of their family homes as collateral against business loans and having no access to unemployment insurance.
The Conservatives have also demanded that the government allow more time for Canadians and experts to study the proposals.
The growing anger over the proposed changes has also created concerns in the Liberal caucus.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau held a conference call this week to ease the fears of Liberal backbenchers spooked after complaints over the proposals poured into their riding offices.
Morneau listened to the concerns of his colleagues and provided strategies to help them counter what he considers rampant misinformation about his plan. He also reassured them the government is open to tweaking the proposals to avoid any unintended consequences.
Many Liberals also expect the tax proposals to be a major theme at next weeks caucus retreat in Kelowna, B.C.
Follow @AndyBlatchford on Twitter
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OTTAWAWhen Ann Speers retired from her federal government job more than a year ago, she noticed something wrong with her bank account; she had been overpaid on her final paycheque.
Several months and countless emails and phone calls later, the 56-year-old Toronto resident thought the problem had been resolved.
But Speers, along with tens of thousands of other current and former civil servants, found out last week that their problems with the Phoenix pay system are far from over as the department that oversees the system grapples with an acute staff shortage.
Public Services and Procurement Canada revealed Monday that its backlog of problem pay files grew by 9,000 in August from the previous month. It blamed the increase on the recent ratification of several large civil service contracts. And it suggested the backlog may grow even bigger before winter sets in.
The department said it was mandated by legislation to recalculate the pay rates of government employees covered by the new contracts, adjust their paycheques accordingly and issue any retroactive pay owed to current and former staff within a certain time frame. So it diverted pay system employees who were dealing with the ongoing Phoenix pay problems to making the contract pay adjustments instead.
That diversion only served to highlight a lack of manpower in the system as regular pay changes to 237,000 files fell behind.
The government has since reached agreements with several civil service unions to attract and retain compensation advisers. By doing so, the government acknowledged that it doesnt have enough people to fix the system any time soon, said Robyn Benson, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
Although the government has tried to bring back former compensation staff, the pay centre in Miramichi and the satellite pay offices remain understaffed, she said in a statement.
We hope that these measures will bring in more compensation staff so that Phoenix-related problems are addressed more efficiently. All federal public service workers deserve to be paid on time and correctly.
For Speers, the debacle has been a source of endless frustration.
The problems started with the overpayment on May 28, 2016 when she retired from the former Industry Canada after 32 years of service, and continued in December when the government deposited what Speers called a random amount in her bank account.
For months she tried, unsuccessfully, to give the money back.
It took until January to even hear from them, despite trying to get it sorted, she said.
She then received two different calculations as to how much of the December amount was an overpayment.
Every time I spoke with someone between January and April or more by email because you cant talk to them I was quoted a different amount (that was owing), Speers said.
She finally got what she thought was the final amount, which was later confirmed it writing, and sent a cheque with the phrase In full and final satisfaction of all overpayments written on it. The government cashed the cheque.
Fast forward to Monday, Aug. 28, when Speers called the pay office about the retroactive pay she was expecting to receive as a result of the newly ratified, backdated civil service contracts.
Turns out that they still think I owe them money, said Speers, who said the government is now withholding her retroactive pay, despite providing her no records to back up the new claim that she still owed $2,000, nor any accounting of what the government was supposed to owe her in retro pay.
Speers said she expected the problems to haunt her well into next year, particularly as the pay changes affect the amount of pension she collects.
Its just never-ending, she said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau applauded pay system employees in Miramichi, N.B., for working creatively to help civil servants affected by the pay problems.
When the previous Conservative government adopted Phoenix, the goal was to streamline the pay system and save taxpayers about $70-million a year. But that plan quickly unravelled as more than 80,000 civil servants reported being underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all.
Ottawa has since earmarked around $400 million over two years to address problems emerging from the program.
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In the lead-up to a crucial vote during which city council flip-flopped on transit plans to approve a multibillion-dollar subway in Scarborough, Jennifer Keesmaat went on the warpath.
In July 2013, the progressive chief planner whose departure after five years at the helm was announced on Monday was trying to make it known to anyone who would listen that a seven-stop light-rail line the province had already agreed to pay for, and the city had already approved, was still the better option.
Hundreds of pages of emails obtained by the Star through freedom of information requests over the past two years show how Keesmaat became the subways strongest critic on staff and tried but ultimately failed to prevent what some have called the biggest boondoggle of Toronto transit politics.
The number of reasons why the three-stop subway was a bad idea added up, Keesmaat agreed in one such email, to an embarrassment of riches.
The push to build a subway in Scarborough was one of the most controversial projects advanced under Keesmaats tenure at city hall, one that has complicated her legacy as a progressive city-builder. A compromise plan she later moved under Mayor John Tory today continues to unravel.
This is the untold story of how she tried behind the scenes to prevent the subway from being approved in the first place.
By the first week of July 2013, the future of transit in Scarborough was in limbo.
A surprise and illegal motion from Scarborough councillor and subway backer Glenn De Baeremaeker at an earlier May meeting during a completely unrelated debate a move supported by then mayor Rob Ford saw council sending mixed messages. They had endorsed a subway while having a signed agreement with the provinces transit agency, Metrolinx, to build an LRT.
Metrolinx, unsurprisingly, demanded clarity, triggering another vote, which was scheduled for a July 16 council meeting.
City staff began preparing a report to help council decide how to proceed, meeting nightly at one point to meet the tight deadlines.
On July 2, Keesmaat emailed her superiors, then city manager Joe Pennachetti and deputy city manager John Livey.
She noted media reports that said TTC CEO Andy Byford was meeting Metrolinx officials to review the costs for proceeding with the subway following De Baeremaekers motion.
But Keesmaat was not convinced the subway should be built at all.
As we have discussed, there are different opinions as to the validity/relevance of these motions, Keesmaat wrote, referring to the re-opening of the debate.
I am well aware of the issues, Pennachetti responded, promising to convene a meeting of staff that day.
The next day, Keesmaat forwarded a proposed outline for the council report to Livey.
This is the outline we are working with, she wrote.
Importantly, the outline included an example of what the planning department believed should be recommended: For the reasons presented, subway is not the preferred technology to meet the future planning and transportation vision for this part of the city.
Several days later, Pennachetti asked a senior group of staff for further refinements to the draft report.
Keesmaat responded to that request to make a point: The subway option DOES NOT make the list of (ten) priority projects when compared with other projects across the city.
It was followed by a warning.
The quickness of the turn around has meant that we are struggling with a rationale, fair means of assessment, Keesmaat wrote.
Two days later, Keesmaat sent Byford an email with the subject line LRT/Subway URGENT.
It is my understanding that your support of a subway for Scarborough is based on the projected increase in ridership, she began. I would like a more fulsome understanding of (how) you attained this number.
I have not forecast more riders, Byford responded. We didnt reopen this debate so (its) up to councillors to say if funds are available.
The emails reference a ridership number that would soon appear in the final version of the July report.
Though earlier analysis estimated the number of subway rush-hour riders by 2031 would be 9,500. That number had suddenly grown to 14,000.
That number was rarely discussed in any emailed conversations obtained by the Star before that report was tabled.
But the increase came as a surprise to Keesmaat. She was unaware it had apparently come from her own planning department, not the TTC, as the final report would later state.
Keesmaat declined to comment for this story. When asked previously about this exchange, the chief planner admitted the analysis leading up to the July vote was both rushed and problematic.
Reached by the Star, Pennachetti said he was relying on Keesmaat, Byford and their teams to come up with the recommendations in the report. As for the ridership number, he said: I dont have an explanation for that number because it was a transportation planning key issue to determine.
By July 9, staff had a working draft of their report to council. A copy obtained by the Star shows that language warning against the perils of a switch to a subway was toned done significantly in the final report.
For example, a line that said: At present, there is insufficient information available at this early stage on the net cost of maintaining and operating a proposed extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway was removed entirely.
There were also several additions to the final report.
An entire section on ridership projections, focusing on the 14,000 figure, was added.
Importantly, this line was included in summary: TTC staff have identified that either an LRT or subway can effectively serve the Scarborough RT transit corridor. Each technology option offers distinct advantages.
On July 10, Keesmaat emailed Pennachetti with the subject Subway vs LRT to offer more evidence of the LRTs benefits.
Are you aware that the LRT travels through 3 priority neighbourhoods and the subway travels through one?
Are you aware that this will double the citys debt the cost is 3 billion?
Pennachetti appears to not have responded by email.
The next day, Keesmaat emailed Councillor Josh Matlows senior policy adviser, Andrew Athanasiu, who had asked for information to support an opinion piece he was drafting to send to the Star. Matlow had been strongly opposed to the push for a subway from the beginning.
Keesmaat told him they were still working on the report to council, due the next day, and that it had been a significant negotiation around the table. She wanted to know what kind of material he needed.
Athanasiu responded that the piece had already been submitted. Thats fine, he said. Theres an embarrassment of riches as to why this is a bad idea.
It is an embarrassment of riches, Keesmaat replied. It is a significant overbuilding of the needed infrastructure.
She also noted the cost for a subway, as spelled out in the report, would be mind boggling much higher than anticipated.
Has this changed Joe Ps mind at all? Athanasiu asked, inquiring about the city manager.
Keesmaat didnt answer that question in her subsequent email.
Emails also show that in July staff were monitoring Keesmaats tweets and printing them out for her superior, Livey, to see.
In an email this week, Livey said: Since I did not access Twitter regularly, I asked staff to print them for me. Staff regularly receive media and social media updates/clippings from strategic communications to help better inform us of the coverage on topics of high interest to the public.
When the report was finalized, the recommendations were not at all what Keesmaat had earlier envisioned.
Instead, it gave council a choice, presenting the subway and the LRT as potential equals, with some caveats. In doing so, staff told council to choose instead of making a firm recommendation as the original outline had done.
The 45-member council convened on July 16 to discuss the report and make a choice.
It wasnt even close. Council voted instead to build a subway, 28-16 (one councillor was absent).
The subway was again confirmed in a subsequent vote in October, which approved a tax increase to help cover the more than billion-dollar increase in costs. In the years that followed, Keesmaat worked to create a compromise that Mayor John Tory, who campaigned on building the subway, and his allies could support.
It involved reducing the number of stops from three to one and pitching that the savings could be used to build an extension of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT to the University of Torontos Scarborough campus.
In presenting the idea she argued an express subway a favoured term of Torys could be beneficial in the context of a network plan.
But since that plan was unveiled, mounting costs related to the subway have meant the funds already set aside may not even cover the cost of the subway, let alone the LRT.
And a recently published study on the subway estimates that in 2055, trains will still be two-thirds empty at rush hour which would mean steep costs for the city to operate it.
Announcing shell decamp from her post at the end of September this year, Keesmaat will be long gone before any of it is hashed out at council and construction green-lighted.
At that July debate, Matlow, fighting to keep the LRT plan in place, asked Keesmaat to address the bigger question directly, out in the open. Which would be better for the city?
Keesmaat, on her feet in the cavernous council chamber, tried to make it clear.
Based on the criteria that we have for great city-building, looking at economic development, supporting healthy neighbourhoods, affordability, choice in the system, the LRT option is, in fact, more desirable.
I just want to make sure that my colleagues heard that, Matlow said as his time to question ran out. So, youre saying that all of the evidence-based criteria that youre using, the LRT for this specific route is the preferred option for Scarborough and Toronto.
Thats correct, Keesmaat said.
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As Canadians, what is it about the image of a dying child that moves us so?
You may remember the harrowing pictures of Ethiopias starving children 30 years ago during their historic famine. Their plight spurred Canadians on to lead the world in famine relief.
Or how about the heartbreaking photo two years ago of the lifeless body of tiny Alan Kurdi on a Turkish beach? It encouraged Canada to become a world leader in welcoming Syrian refugees.
Yes, what is it about the image of a dying child that moves us as Canadians except, it seems, if these children come from Yemen, the scene of what the United Nations describes as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.
What else are we to conclude?
According to the UN, Yemen is on the brink of famine. Nearly two million Yemeni children are starving and many have died or have been seriously injured in bombing attacks by the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia.
Dramatic photos of these children finally became public this week and have gone viral around the world on social media in spite of sweeping Saudi efforts to block media coverage.
As Canadians, we should stare at these pictures and be ashamed. This time, unlike in Ethiopia and Syria, Canada is no innocent bystander. Our support of this criminal Saudi action may not be as direct as that of the United States and Britain. But our hands are as bloodied.
By becoming a major arms supplier to Saudi Arabia, one of the worlds worst violators of human rights, Canada is very much complicit in the war crimes being waged against Yemeni civilians by the Saudi military.
Like most everywhere in the Arab world, the story of this conflict is not a simple one and blame for what is happening should be widely shared.
In the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemens conflict began as a domestic struggle between Houthi rebels sympathetic to Iran and a government supported by Saudi Arabia. It soon turned into a proxy war between the regions two dominant rivals.
For the past two years, the Saudi-led military coalition has taken the fight to the rebels, bombing civilians and blockading the besieged rebel-held areas. The impact of the conflict on the Yemeni population has been horrific.
The death toll has surpassed 10,000 with many of them children and more than 40,000 people have been wounded. According to observers, most of the injuries and death can be traced to the Saudi coalition, and many of them come from direct Saudi airstrikes on civilians, which would constitute war crimes.
What fuels Saudi Arabias regional ambitions is a massive military buildup in recent years. Like feeding drugs to an addict, the U.S. and Britain have led the way in arms sales to the Saudi military, and they have also provided logistical support and intelligence to the Yemeni mission.
Canada is not officially a member of the Saudi coalition in Yemen but we have been an enthusiastic arms supplier to the Saudi military.
A government report in June indicated that the Saudi government purchased more than $142 million of Canadian arms in 2016, and this made Saudi Arabia the biggest recipient of Canadian arms other than the United States.
Although the government claims these sales impose restrictions on how the Saudis can use Canadian combat vehicles, there are indications that these limits are being ignored.
Recent video disclosed by The Globe and Mail and the CBC suggests that the Saudis may have deployed Canadian vehicles against Saudi citizens. And in 2016, it appeared that Canadian-made armoured vehicles were operating in Yemen.
Is this a surprise? Of course not. Only the naive and delusional would believe that Saudi Arabia would treat Canadas restrictions seriously.
So, if we look closely at the pictures of the Yemeni children being circulated this week, we have a choice as Canadians.
We can admit our complicity in these crimes, and move on.
Or we can remember what Ethiopia in 1985 and Syria in 2015 revealed about Canadians and conclude that we can do better.
A starting point would be to do what Amnesty international is urging of Canada: to call upon all states including Canada to stop supplying any weapons and military equipment to all the warring parties in Yemen.
I wonder what these Yemeni children would want us to do.
Tony Burman is former head of Al Jazeera English and CBC News. Reach him @TonyBurman or at tony.burman@gmail.com.
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WASHINGTONMysterious incidents affecting the health of U.S. diplomats in Cuba continued as recently as August, the United States said Friday, despite earlier U.S. assessments that the attacks had long stopped. The U.S. increased its tally of government personnel affected to 19.
The new U.S. disclosures came the same day that the union representing diplomats said mild traumatic brain injury was among the diagnoses given to diplomats victimized in the attacks. In the most detailed account of the symptoms to date, the American Foreign Service Association said permanent hearing loss was another diagnosis, and that additional symptoms had included brain swelling, severe headaches, loss of balance and cognitive disruption.
At the State Department, spokesperson Heather Nauert said the U.S. was continually revising its assessments of the scope of the attacks as new information was obtained. She said the investigation had not been completed.
We can confirm another incident which occurred last month and is now part of the investigation, Nauert said.
U.S. officials had previously said that the attacks, initially believed to be caused by a potential covert sonic device, had started in fall 2016 and continued until spring 2017. Last week, Nauert had said at least 16 Americans associated with the U.S. Embassy in Havana had been affected, but that the incidents were no longer occurring.
The evolving U.S. assessment indicated investigators were still far off from any thorough understanding of what transpired in the attacks, described by the U.S. as unprecedented. As the bizarre saga has unfolded, the U.S. has encouraged its diplomats to report any strange physical sensations. So its unclear whether some symptoms being attributed to the attacks might actually be unrelated.
Still, the fact there was an incident as recently as August suggested the attacks probably continued long after the U.S. government became aware of them and ostensibly raised the issue with the Cuban government, creating even more uncertainty about the timeline and who was responsible.
Notably, the U.S. has avoided accusing Cubas government of being behind the attacks. The U.S. did expel two Cuban diplomats, but the State Department emphasized that was in protest over the Cubans failure to protect the safety of U.S. diplomats while on their soil, not an indication the U.S. felt that Havana masterminded it.
U.S. investigators have been searching to identify a device that could have harmed the health of the diplomats, believed to have been attacked in their homes in Havana, but officials have said no device had been found.
One of the diplomats affected had arrived over the summer of 2017 to work at the U.S. Embassy and was later diagnosed with concussion-like symptoms, said a U.S. official, who declined to specify the symptoms that led the diplomat to report the situation.
And in Canada, a government official said that the Canadian government had first learned in March 2017 that one of its citizens was affected. Ottawa had previously confirmed that at least one Canadian diplomat was involved, but had not revealed any timeline for when it occurred or came to light.
Both the U.S. and Canadian officials demanded anonymity because they werent authorized to comment publicly.
Its unclear whether Canadians were intentionally targeted or whether there could have been collateral damage from an attack aimed at Americans, given that diplomats from various countries often live in the same areas of a foreign capital. U.S. officials have said the Americans were targeted in their homes in Havana, not in the Embassy.
Canadian officials have been actively working with U.S. and Cuban authorities to ascertain the cause. A Cuban attack deliberately targeting Canadians would be even more confounding, given that Canada unlike the U.S. has long had friendly ties to Cuba.
The American Foreign Service Association, in describing the damage to diplomats health, said it had met with or spoken to 10 diplomats affected, but did not specify how many of the 10 had been diagnosed with hearing loss or with mild traumatic brain injury, commonly called a concussion.
Yet the confirmation that at least some diplomats suffered brain injury suggested the attacks caused more serious damage than the hearing-related complaints that were initially reported.
We cant rule out new cases as medical professionals continue to evaluate members of the embassy community, Nauert said. She added that the embassy has a medical officer and has been consistently providing care to those who have reported incidents.
Asked for further details about what the U.S. had learned about the cause or culprit in the attacks, the State Department said it had no more information to share.
Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, typically results from a bump, jolt or other external force that disrupts normal brain functioning, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Short- and long-term effects can include changes to memory and reasoning, sight and balance, language abilities and emotions.
Not all traumatic brain injuries are the same. Doctors evaluate patients using various clinical metrics such as the Glasgow Coma Scale, in which a numerical score is used to classify TBIs as mild, moderate or severe.
AFSA strongly encourages the Department of State and the U.S. Government to do everything possible to provide appropriate care for those affected, and to work to ensure that these incidents cease and are not repeated, the union said in a statement.
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MINA, SAUDI ARABIAMuslims around the world are celebrating the Eid al-Adha holiday on Friday as some 2 million Muslim pilgrims carry out the final rites of the annual hajj in Saudi Arabia.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims made their way toward a massive multi-story complex in Mina after dawn on Friday to cast pebbles at three large columns. It is here where Muslims believe the devil tried to talk the Prophet Ibrahim out of submitting to Gods will.
Muslims believe Ibrahims faith was tested when God commanded him to sacrifice his only son Ismail. Ibrahim was prepared to submit to the command, but then God stayed his hand, sparing his son. In the Christian and Jewish version of the story, Abraham is ordered to kill his other son, Isaac.
The final days of hajj coincide with the Eid al-Adha holiday, or Feast of Sacrifice, to commemorate Ibrahims test of faith. For the holiday, Muslims slaughter livestock and distribute the meat to the poor.
For the final three days of hajj, pilgrims sleep in a large tent valley called Mina and for three days take part in a symbolic stoning of the devil. Mina is also where more than 2,400 people were killed two years ago in a stampede and a collision of two crowds that crushed people under the force.
The Saudi government has since widened some roads in Mina to try and improve the safety of the hajj. More than 100,000 security forces are managing the hajj this year, assisting pilgrims and directing the massive crowds that move from one location to another in the areas around Mecca for five days during the hajj. The Saudi government also offers all pilgrims free health care and access to hospitals during the hajj.
Most pilgrims will remain in Mina until Monday before completing the hajj. They will then circle the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca, Islams most sacred site, before departing. The Kaaba represents the metaphorical house of God and the oneness of God in Islam. Observant Muslims around the world face toward the Kaaba during the five daily prayers.
The five-day-long hajj is a series of rituals meant to cleanse the soul of sins and instil a sense of equality and brotherhood among Muslims. The pilgrimage is required of all Muslims with the means to perform once in a lifetime.
During the last three days of hajj, male pilgrims shave their heads and remove the terrycloth white garments worn during the hajj. Women cut off a small lock of hair in a sign of spiritual rebirth and renewal.
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BAGHDADAt least three attackers entered a power station in Samarra Saturday and blew themselves up, killing seven workers and wounding eight security forces, Iraqi authorities said.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool said two attackers disguised themselves as workers and a third wore a security forces uniform. Samarra is 125 kilometres north of Baghdad.
Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, claimed responsibility for the dawn attack in an online statement, saying 10 apostates had been killed and another 20 wounded.
Electricity Ministry spokesman Musaab al-Mudaris said seven employees were killed and eight security forces were wounded. He said there were four attackers.
Al-Mudaris said one attacker was shot dead and the others blew themselves up.
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WASHINGTONOne of former president Barack Obamas greatest foreign policy achievements is at risk, and it has nothing to do with his successor.
Burma, the Southeast Asian nation that Obama helped usher back to democracy, has been roiled by an explosion of violence between Rohingya Muslim insurgents and security forces. Four hundred have been killed in the past week. About 60,000 have arrived in neighbouring Bangladesh, including tens of thousands crossing by boat and on foot in the past day, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
The crisis has attracted unprecedented criticism of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmas civilian leader who once assumed an almost saintly status in Washington and other Western capitals. She met Obama several times and was long championed by Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. for her long, peaceful struggle against military rule that culminated in her rise to power 1 years ago.
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Violence engulfs Burmas Rakhine state as boats carrying minority Muslims capsize
Canada must stand up for suffering Rohingya
71 dead in Burma after militant attacks on police, border posts
The Rohingya militant attacks have in some ways empowered the military to assert themselves as saviours of the country, which is how they like to see themselves, said Derek Mitchell, who pushed for political change as Obamas ambassador to Burma. Thats not very helpful to the transition.
Burmas troubles involve many factors, but none involves President Donald Trump. While he has tried to erase much of Obamas overseas legacy, Trump has largely ignored Burma.
Trump has yet to pick up the phone to speak with Suu Kyi. That has opened the door for northern neighbour China to exert greater influence. Beijing had ceded much of its sway to Washington after Obama, who visited twice, helped coax Burmas generals to relinquish power.
David Mathieson, an independent analyst based in Burma, said Washington and other Western governments lost their leverage in the race to abandon economic penalties when the country started to open up. They did so although the military remained entrenched in business and politics, controlling key ministries responsible for security and retaining a guaranteed quota of one-quarter of parliamentary seats.
The military is now pushing for the president, who is subordinate to Suu Kyi, to convene a high-powered council with authority to grant it emergency powers to manage the crisis in western Rakhine state. Doing so raises further doubts about the countrys political direction.
Suu Kyi is taking diplomatic fire for failing to rein in security forces over which she has no formal control in her position as state counsellor. She is also being pressed internationally to do more to protect the Rohingya, who are accused by majority Buddhists in Burma of being in the country illegally even though many have lived there for generations. Those feelings have only intensified since some Rohingya took up arms.
A former political prisoner, Suu Kyi opposed a U.N. fact-finding mission to investigate violence in Rakhine state. The U.N. Security Council this past week discussed the instability in Rakhine, from where civilians have fled across rivers and muddy rice fields, some on makeshift stretchers.
Trumps U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, condemned recent co-ordinated attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts, but she pointedly said government forces have a responsibility to avoid abuses and allow in aid.
Katina Adams, a State Department spokesperson, said the U.S. was discussing the crisis with Burma at the highest levels.
Lawmakers are also paying attention in Washington as they consider an incremental expansion in military ties with Burma, long taboo because of human rights abuses.
Ultimately, the root cause of tensions and strife in the Rakhine state is poverty and the systemic disenfranchisement of the Rohingya, said Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the Senate Foreign Relations Committees top Democrat. He decried accusations from Burmas government that international aid groups have supported Rohingya militants, claims the U.N. human rights chief has branded irresponsible.
Still, U.S. officials past and present remain sympathetic to Suu Kyi. She faces a political dilemma, both in confronting the military and dealing with the turmoil that she inherited from the army-led administration that preceded her. Beyond the latest violence, Rakhines 320,000 Rohingya have been targeted in sectarian attacks by hard-line Buddhists for the past five years and live in squalid camps.
Most of the responsibility for the current situation lies with the previous government, said Mitchell. The current government could have done more, but its not an easy issue when 90 per cent of the people are pushing the other way.
Burma has faced ethnic rebellions in its border regions since winning independence from Britain nearly 70 years ago. Suu Kyis government also has struggled to peacefully end rebellions in the northern states of Kachin and Shan, targeted in military operations that have displaced tens of thousands.
While her failure to call out military abuses has damaged her reputation, Suu Kyi, 72, remains popular at home. Journalists have been periodically jailed, and Suu Kyi herself has acquired a reputation for being aloof and controlling of information. But the country is far more open now than it was before its democratic transition.
Its first free elections in a generation were won by Suu Kyis party in 2015. Hundreds of nongovernment groups involved in health, education and development have emerged. Young officials and economists are advocating changes.
Daniel Russel, former top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, said international disenchantment with Burmas civilian leadership would only hurt what he described as a reform process. In Rakhine state, isolating Suu Kyis government would make a difficult situation a lot worse.
Mitchells greatest fear is foreign extremists capitalizing on the turmoil and fanning a worse conflict, giving the military a pretext to assert more control.
Thats a recipe for ruin, he said.
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Millions of Muslims across the globe including in countries such as India, Indonesia, Turkey, Russia and Pakistan are celebrating Eid al-Adha, Islams most revered observance.
Known as the Feast of Sacrifice or big Eid, it is one of the two major religious festivals of Islam. The other, Eid al-Fitr, occurs at the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting.
In Pakistan, the faithful crowded into mosques and prayer grounds on Saturday to offer prayers and sacrifice goats and cows.
Security was tight, as religious extremists have carried out bombings across the country in recent years.
Today, we are here to offer Eid prayers, said Saleem Ahmed at a ceremony in Karachi, Pakistans largest city, Reuters reported. The security arrangements were very good. May Allah approve our prayers.
Eid al-Adha commemorates the Koranic tale of the Prophet Abrahams willingness to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, as an act of obedience to God. Before he could carry out the sacrifice, God provided a ram as an offering.
In the Christian and Jewish version of the story, Abraham is ordered to kill another son, Isaac.
Muslims celebrate the Adha, Arabic for sacrifice, by slaughtering domestic animals such as sheep and distributing the meat to the poor, as a symbol of Abrahams willingness to sacrifice his only son.
The result is a booming pre-holiday trade in goats, cows and sheep. In Pakistan, a country of about 208 million people, nearly 10 million animals, worth more than $3 billion (U.S.), are slaughtered during the two days of Eid al-Adha, according to the Pakistan Tanners Association.
Observers are also required to make donations to charities.
Eid al-Adha marks the climax of the hajj, the sacred journey to Mecca undertaken by about two million Muslims each year. It is one of the five Pillars of Islam and should be undertaken by every Muslim who can afford to do so.
In Afghanistan, Eid al-Adha is being celebrated amid apprehension in the capital, Kabul, where a string of suicide attacks has killed more than 200 people this year.
In his celebration address, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani called on the Taliban to accept peace, according to The Associated Press. The group has been fighting to drive out the international forces backing the Afghan government and restore strict Islamic rule to the country.
It is time for the armed opposition of Afghanistan to choose whether they are fed on the milk of the mothers of this country, and are inspired by this nation, or whether they are the tools for disunity, chaos, used by outsiders, he said.
The Taliban leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, said in an earlier speech that peace could come once foreign forces left Afghanistan.
Mohammad Dawood, one of the Afghans whose lives have been shaped by four decades of war, told The Associated Press: I want peace and security. We want a peaceful country.
For those who made the pilgrimage to Mecca, this is the most dangerous point in the journey, with thousands streaming back and forth between the pillars and the Kaaba. In previous years, many have been wounded or killed by stones thrown during the ritual.
The hajj comes full circle with pilgrims going to the Grand Mosque for final prayers before returning to their families and continuing to observe the remainder of Eid al-Adha. For the final three days of the hajj, pilgrims sleep in a large tent valley called Mina and for three days take part in a symbolic stoning of the devil.
Mina is also where more than 2,400 people were killed two years ago in a stampede and a collision of two crowds that crushed people under the force. The Saudi government has since widened some roads in Mina to try and improve the safety of the hajj. More than 100,000 security forces are managing the hajj this year.
During the last three days of the hajj, male pilgrims shave their heads and remove the white garments worn during the hajj. Women cut off a small lock of hair in a sign of spiritual rebirth and renewal.
This year, 2.35 million pilgrims from around the world are reported to have performed the hajj. The oldest pilgrim was Ibu Mariah Marghani Muhammad, 104, from Indonesia.
Returning worshippers are greeted with fanfare. They are congratulated by neighbours and their homes are usually decked out in festive lighting.
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HOUSTONA Texas city that lost its drinking water system to Harveys floodwaters struggled Saturday to restore service, and firefighters kept monitoring a crippled chemical plant that has twice been the scene of explosions and fires since the storm roared ashore and stalled over Texas more than a week ago.
Officials in Beaumont, population almost 120,000, worked to repair their water treatment plant, which failed Thursday after the swollen Neches River inundated the main intake system and backup pumps failed. The Army Corps of Engineers sent pumps, and an ExxonMobil team built and installed a temporary intake pipe in an effort to refill a city reservoir. Exxon has a refinery and chemical plants in Beaumont.
On Friday, people waited in a line that stretched for more than a mile to get bottled water.
In Crosby, outside of Houston, authorities continued to monitor the Arkema plant where three trailers of highly unstable compounds ignited in recent days, sending thick black smoke and tall flames into the air. A Harris County Fire Marshal spokesperson said Saturday that there were no active fires at the facility, but six more trailers were being watched.
The soggy and battered city of Houston began burying its dead and taking steps toward the long recovery ahead. The storm that is blamed for at least 43 deaths is believed to have damaged at least 156,000 dwellings in Harris County, which includes the nations fourth-largest city.
Kim Martinez, 28, waited Saturday for insurance adjusters to come to her Southbelt/Ellington neighbourhood, a devastated middle-class area of southeast Houston where fast-food restaurants, strip malls and churches line major streets.
The mother of two was hosting a watch party for the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight last Saturday when floodwaters forced about 15 people to the attic. They escaped the next day. Seven children were rescued by a neighbours boat. The women and a 115-pound German shepherd used inflatable swim toys, and the men swam or waded through shoulder-high water.
You can be prepared for anything but not a monster storm like Harvey, said her mother, Maria Martinez, 63.
Read more: Houston residents, heading home, find scent of mildew and death
Canada preparing to deliver relief supplies for Hurricane Harvey victims
Harvey now the second most destructive after Katrina with $80B U.S. in damages so far
Not everyone was able to think about rebuilding yet.
On Saturday, about 200 people waved signs and shouted as they rallied Saturday outside a still-flooded subdivision in the west Houston suburb of Katy, demanding answers about when they will be able to return home. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has warned residents that their homes could remain flooded for up to 15 days because of ongoing releases of water from two reservoirs protecting downtown.
The city said the releases were necessary to preserve the reservoirs' structural integrity, but many at the rally said their homes were being sacrificed to save others.
Homeowner Sheetal Parwal said her family now has less than what they had when they emigrated from India 10 years ago, and that their home is now a swamp.
Houston public schools officials said up to 12,000 students will have to be sent to different schools because of flood-damaged buildings. Twenty-two of the district's 245 schools had extensive damage that will keep them closed for months.
Superintendent Richard Carranza said the goal is to start the school year on Sept. 11, but that could change.
President Donald Trump arrived in Houston for his second visit to the devastated region. He and first lady Melania Trump met with Harvey evacuees taking shelter at the NRG Center in Houston, spending time in an area designated for children posing for photographs and shaking hands as they listened to peoples stories and helped to serve food. They also will visit Lake Charles, Louisiana, to survey damage.
Trump has asked lawmakers for a $7.9 billion down payment toward Harvey relief and recovery efforts a request expected to be swiftly approved by Congress, which returns to work Tuesday after its summer break.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump met with Harvey survivors living in a shelter.
National Guard troops at the centre shouted to Trump, were proud of you and youre doing a fantastic job.
Meanwhile, floodwaters have inundated at least five highly contaminated toxic waste sites near Houston and thats raising concerns the pollution there might spread.
The Associated Press has visited the sites some still only accessible by boat.
The Houston metro area has long been a centre of the U.S. petrochemical industry, and is home to more than a dozen Superfund sites.
The Environmental Protection Agency said Superfund sites are among the most contaminated places in the country.
An EPA spokeswoman said agency experts wont begin assessing the damage at the sites until the floodwaters recede.
Among the Superfund sites completely flooded are the San Jacinto River Waste Pits, the site of a 1960s paper mill. Soil there is contaminated with dioxins toxic chemicals linked to birth defects and cancer.
Friends and family gathered Friday evening to remember 42-year-old Benito Juarez Cavazos, one of 43 people whose deaths are attributed to Harvey. Cavazos came to Texas illegally from Mexico 28 years ago and was in the process of getting his green card.
Its very unfortunate that right when he finally had hopes of being able to maybe go to Mexico soon to go see his family, it all went downhill, his cousin, Maria Cavazos, said. Sadly, hes going back to Mexico, but in an unfortunate way.
Turner pleaded for more high-water vehicles and more search-and-rescue equipment as the city continued looking for any survivors or corpses that might have somehow escaped notice in flood-ravaged neighbourhoods.
Search teams quickly worked their way down streets, sometimes not even knocking on doors if there were obvious signs that all was well organized debris piles or full cans of trash on the curb, for instance, or neighbours confirming that the residents had evacuated.
Turner also asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide more workers to process applications from thousands of people seeking government help. The mayor said he will request a preliminary aid package of $75 million for debris removal alone.
The storm had lost most of its tropical characteristics but remained a source of heavy rain. National Weather Service meteorologists expect Harvey to break up and merge with other weather systems over the Ohio Valley late Saturday or Sunday.
Harvey initially came ashore Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane, then went back out to sea and lingered off the coast as a tropical storm for days. The storm brought five straight days of rain totalling close to 1.3 metres in one location, the heaviest tropical downpour ever recorded in the continental U.S.
Another storm was churning far out over the Atlantic. Hurricane Irma was following a course that could bring it near the eastern Caribbean Sea by early next week. The Category 2 storm was moving northwest at nearly 13 mph (20 kph). No coastal watches or warnings were in effect.
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MONTGOMERY, ALA.The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday temporarily paused the murder trial of a white police officer accused of killing a Black man as it considers a defence request to remove the judge because of a social media post in which the judge complained about being racially profiled by police.
Justices issued a temporary stay on all proceedings in the case, which is scheduled to go to trial in October, as it considers the matter. Justices asked for briefs to be filed quickly.
The defence is seeking the recusal of Montgomery County Circuit Judge Greg Griffin because of a past Facebook post in which Griffin complained about being stopped by police because he is Black. The defence appealed after Griffin declined to step aside following a contentious hearing.
Montgomery Police Officer Aaron Smith faces murder charges in the 2016 shooting of 58-year-old Greg Gunn. The white officer stopped Gunn, who is Black, as Gunn was walking late at night. Friends said Gunn was walking home from a weekly card game and was shot near the home he shared with his mother.
The defence has said Smith stopped Gunn because he thought he was acting suspiciously and that Gunn fought with the officer and swung something at him.
In a Facebook post before he was assigned the case, the judge wrote that he had been stopped during his morning walk by officers who claimed he matched the description of someone who had been reported in the area with a crowbar. Griffin wrote that he showed them his judicial badge.
The post, which did not mention Gunns death, said in part: It was aggravating to be detained when the only thing I was guilty of was being a black man walking down the street in his neighbourhood with a stick in his hand.
Defence attorney Roianne Conner argued in a May hearing that she wasnt claiming that Griffin was biased, only that judicial ethics rules require judges to avoid even appearances of impropriety.
The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals declined to force Griffins recusal.
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WASHINGTONAn upbeat Donald Trump landed Saturday morning in Houston to get a firsthand look at a flooded and mud-choked metropolis devastated by Hurricane Harveys record rainfall and storm surge, declaring himself very happy with rescue and recovery efforts.
The U.S. president was in an optimistic, nearly exuberant mood during a stop at the NRG Center, a convention building converted into a temporary shelter housing 1,200 children and adults displaced by the waters. Touring the facility with television cameras in tow, Trump threw his arms around storm survivors and they hugged him back while posing for selfies and hoisting one young girl in his arms.
Theres a lot of love. As tough as its been, its been a wonderful thing to watch, Trump said before heading into a room where he handed out cardboard boxes with hot dogs and potato chips to residents. Im going to do a little bit of help over here.
Trump, making his second trip to the region in the past week, also visited with emergency responders and others in Lake Charles, La., who helped during Harvey.
At a Louisiana guard armoury, Trump thanked the emergency responders for their efforts.
The trip to Houston and southwestern Louisiana, both of which were affected by Harvey, was part of an effort by the White House to highlight Trumps empathy and personal connection with people in the region, after he was criticized for not meeting with hurricane survivors during his visit Tuesday.
The president, wearing a broad smile and a blue windbreaker with the presidential seal Saturday, said shelter residents had given the recovery effort, and him, good reviews. Theyre really happy with whats going on, he told the reporters. Its something thats been very well received. Even by you guys, its been very well received.
He added, Have a good time, everybody!
Floodwaters are receding, and Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston declared his city, the fourth largest in the U.S., open for business.
Still, many Houston streets remain more than a metre underwater after being pelted by 125 centimetres of rain over the past week. An estimated 100,000 houses have been damaged or destroyed, with tens of thousands of displaced residents seeking shelter in local schools, in government buildings or on the couches of friends and neighbours lucky enough to live on higher ground.
The reaction inside the shelter to Trumps visit was mostly positive, with a quieter undercurrent of anxiety and skepticism.
Is he going to help? Can he help? asked Devin Harris, 37, a construction worker. I lost my home. My job is gone. My tools are gone. My car is gone. My life is gone. What is Trump going to do?
During his visit to Texas on Tuesday, the president met with emergency management officials in storm-brushed Corpus Christi and Austin, but he kept clear of nearby Rockport and other areas that bore the brunt of the storm, saying he did not want to interfere with early rescue and recovery efforts.
A few days later, by contrast, Vice-President Mike Pence met storm victims when he joined Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas in clearing fallen tree branches and other debris on the Gulf Coast.
On Saturday, Trump visited with families at the NRG Center, part of a complex that is home to the Houston Texans of the NFL. He chatted with parents and bent down to play with a few young children drawn to the president and his bustling entourage of Secret Service agents and camera-toting journalists.
Im a Democrat. It raises the morale, said Kevin Jason Hipolito, 37, an unemployed Houston resident who was rescued from the roof of his flooded Acura after fleeing his swamped first-floor apartment.
When he went to Corpus, I was like, Man, he just forgot about us. This shows a lot of support, Hipolito added.
A largely supportive crowd of about 100 people waving U.S. flags and pro-Trump signs gathered outside Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base on Saturday morning to watch Air Force One land.
But not everyone thought Trump should be making a visit much less a second one to an area still very much in disaster mode, where cities are still flooded, people are lining up for bottled water and homes are being evacuated.
This has taken a lot of resources from the emergency medical workers, said Connie Field, 62, a retired oil accounting worker from Sugar Land, a Houston suburb, who voted for Trump. We still need them out there.
Field, who waved a small U.S. flag at passing military vehicles, did not suffer any damage in the flood. She praised the flood response from local officials, especially Houstons mayor. She said Texas did not need Trump on the ground.
Be at your command post, she said. The police need to be out watching these neighbourhoods.
White House officials, acutely conscious of such criticism, greenlighted Saturdays trip after being given assurances by Texas officials that the visit would not disrupt recovery efforts, according to senior administration aides.
The trip came hours after the administration submitted its initial hurricane recovery funding request to Congress, a $14.5-billion plan that is expected to be a down payment on a much bigger package that could exceed $100 billion, according to estimates by state and local officials.
Trump was travelling to a region newly free of the storms clutches but still suffering in its wake. Flooding has knocked out the water systems of Beaumont, with a population of nearly 120,000, and local officials said they had no idea when service could be restored.
Late Friday, a chemical fire tore through a plant near Houston, sending a huge column of thick, black, noxious smoke into a sky finally clearing of clouds after days of rain.
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Nearly half a century ago, the Stars long campaign for a ban on hate speech collided with a famous hater.
It was at the beginning of the culture wars that bedevil our political discourse still. My fathers editorial in defence of Pierre Trudeaus new Hate Literature Act set off a legal battle that lasted nearly a decade. The Star won a pyrrhic victory in the end, a favourable judgment without full reimbursement of its huge costs, let alone damages.
A vicious newsletter attacking Trudeau was the trigger for the battle. It was the product of a partnership between two men, one a non-entity a plain vanilla white, racist anti-Semite the other a more memorable figure. In the decades since his defection to Canada as a Soviet spy, Igor Gouzenko had morphed from a defender of freedom to a hateful, homophobic Cold Warrior.
The editorial cited their latest pamphlet, which insinuated that Pierre Trudeau was a homosexual agent of the Soviet Union, as a good example of why hate speech was incompatible with democracy. Gouzenko sued the Star for what was, at the time, a large sum. The Stars ultimate legal victory, along with others, set the boundaries of acceptable speech for a generation: you may not broadcast, publish or bellow in the public square an incitement to violence or a call for genocide against any group.
Then came the internet.
The combination of an anonymous, free, universally accessible, globally distributed new communication tool brought the trolls out from their caves once more. In the early years of the net, from 1996-2007, the internets network owners those who moved the data traffic, like power utilities or phone companies successfully claimed they could not be held liable for the trash some people were pushing down their pipes.
By this decade, the time of the explosion of todays social media giants, Facebook, Twitter and Google, that claim became harder to defend. How was Facebook, which offered a curated news stream for its billion viewers, in any different role than a broadcaster or a newspaper publisher? Still the media giants resisted being held to account for the hate speech they gave increasing access and visibility to.
Then came the Obama presidency and all the racist birther and other attacks he was assaulted with. The Islamic State groups use of Twitter and dark net apps to sully the world with their gruesome videos of brutal torture and execution increased the pressure. Zuckerberg et al. were pushed, grudgingly, to the recognition that they needed to develop filters human and digital for obscenity and hate.
Then came Charlottesville.
American fascists rallied their supporters to attack on the net and used their many websites to celebrate the death of Heather Heyer and revel in Donald Trumps ambiguity about their essential evil.
Finally, internet pipeline companies and social media giants began to shut down the most egregious offenders digital access, forcing some fascists to Russian websites for protection. How painful that must be for the remaining veterans of the Soviet Unions loss of tens of millions of its own citizens in defeating fascism the first time.
The restraint of free speech is one of the most painful and delicate tasks for any democracy seeking to find the balance between incitement and acceptable political agitation. Matthew Prince, the CEO of Cloudflare, one of those who decided to dump very profitable racists from his network until then a home to many of the most offensive agonized in print about his decision. What gives him the right to decide the boundaries of free speech, when he is merely an internet company executive, he wondered?
Once again, it is time for a broad public debate about the boundaries of acceptable speech, this time in a digital age, to be followed by tough legislation and sanctions. Those who make billions moving the news and commentary on the internet cannot be absolved of responsibility for the death of courageous young activist women like Heather Heyer. Broadcasters and newspapers enjoy no such immunity. Why should Twitter?
It will be hard and divisive drawing a bright line between authoritarian censorship of free speech online and every democracys need to defend itself against incitement to racial hatred, violence and even genocide. This summers events make it clear that it is not a task about which we can any longer procrastinate.
Robin V. Sears, a principal at Earnscliffe Strategy Group, was an NDP strategist for 20 years.
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This story is part of the Stars trust initiative, where, every week, we take readers behind the scenes of our journalism. This week, we focus on how the Star handles and corrects mistakes.
In this era of the 24-hour, seven-days-a-week news cycle, its inevitable that the media will make mistakes and the Toronto Star is no exception. But its how those mistakes are handled that is a marker of a responsible, trustworthy organization.
An error published on thestar.com this week provides an opportunity to go behind the scenes and look at the steps the Star takes to address mistakes and correct them. The mistake in question appeared in a story posted online on Aug. 27 with the headline: A photo of a dog carrying a bag of food through Texas storm goes viral. Heres his story.
As the headline suggests, the piece tells of a resourceful German shepherd mix named Otis that ran away one night in a Texas town only to be found the next day walking down the street carrying a bag of dog food in his mouth. A photo of Otis carrying his food that was taken by a local resident went viral after it was posted to Facebook.
The story, written by a Washington Post reporter, reached the Star shortly after 4 p.m. Sunday. Like many news organizations, the Star pays a subscription fee to other outlets, such as the Washington Post, The Associated Press and the New York Times, for the rights to publish their stories. These stories, and any updates, are delivered electronically throughout the day on what is known in newsroom vocabulary as the wire.
The story incorrectly stated that Otis came from the Texas town of Stinton. A caption for a photo of Otis and his owners grandfather that accompanied the story noted the same. The name of the town is, in fact, Sinton.
Several residents of Sinton contacted the Star directly to alert the newsroom of the problem.
Im thrilled to see a story go viral about my hometown so I thought Id let yall know that the towns name is Sinton, not Stinton, wrote one reader to the Stars Public Editor Kathy English. The Star established its public editors office in 1972 to address issues of accuracy, fairness and ethics related to the newspapers journalism.
You misspelled sinton its not stinton! And were proud of our community so please fix this! wrote another.
The Star has an obligation to provide its readers with accurate information and when it errs, it must set the record straight, English said in an interview. We take seriously all reports of errors.
As with every error report, English or Associate Public Editor Maithily Panchalingam first set out to determine whether an error has indeed been made. In this case, English looked up the town on Google to determine its correct spelling. She also found other online versions of the story that correctly spelled the towns name.
I then made the call to go ahead and correct the online article, confident that readers information and my own research indicated the Star had published incorrect information, she said.
Errors are not always so easy to discern. English and Panchalingam often speak directly with reporters, editors, newsmakers and readers to determine whether a story is accurate, or whether it needs to be corrected at someones request. If they determine an error has been made, the Star corrects on any and all platforms on which the error was published as quickly as possible.
The Washington Post did not send a correction notice over the wire. The version of this story on its own website had the correct spelling of the towns name. The Star reached out to the Washington Post and received an automated response saying the inquiry had been received.
The Stars deputy foreign editor, Ed Tubb, said the Star usually trusts its wire services to check facts and issue corrections if necessary.
If this was a story from a Star reporter, Id be working with him or her to fact check the story for things like this before publishing and Id call him or her up to confirm an error if we missed one. Im not in a position to do that with a reporter whos working for an editor in Washington or New York, Tubb said.
The Sinton error was corrected on thestar.com on Aug. 28. As per the Stars policy, a correction was added to the bottom of the story to indicate it had been changed: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated the name of the Texas town. It is Sinton, not Stinton.
I loved the fact that this mattered to the residents of this town even in the midst of a hurricane major evidence that a mistake always matters to somebody, English said, noting that she believes being transparently accountable for mistakes and correcting them promptly is the foundation of reader trust.
Englishs office keeps a log of all corrections that she summarizes in a report to the publisher at the end of the year. This report includes how many corrections were made in each department, whether this represents an increase or decrease from the previous year, and key error types.
While no one likes to make a mistake, the culture at the Star is largely aligned with owning up to mistakes, English said. A correction is always a strong reminder of the importance of taking great care in our responsibilities to our readers.
Email your questions to trust@thestar.ca
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Honda Motor Co. (HMC) - Get Free Report plans to announce a $605 million economic loss settlement Friday, Sept. 1, in its ongoing reparations for selling cars with potentially faulty Takata airbags, sources told Reuters.
The settlement will cover the 11.4 million U.S. vehicles with Takata airbag inflators that can potentially rupture and cause serious injury or deaths.
Honda joins other major automakers that have agreed to help speed the recall repairs and pay total settlements worth about $650 million.
Honda stock traded up 0.6% to $28.27 early Friday afternoon.
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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. In addition, it provides internet banking, mobile banking, trust and wealth management, retail brokerage, mortgage services, and treasury management, as well as debit and credit cards. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated 273 full-service banking locations comprising 65 in the Houston area, including The Woodlands; 30 in the South Texas area including Corpus Christi and Victoria; 63 in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area; 22 in the East Texas area; 29 in the Central Texas area, including Austin and San Antonio; 34 in the West Texas area, including Lubbock, Midland-Odessa and Abilene; 16 in the Bryan/College Station area; 6 in the Central Oklahoma area; and 8 in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area doing business as LegacyTexas Bank. Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in Houston, Texas.
Xylem Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and servicing of engineered products and solutions for the water and wastewater applications in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Water Infrastructure, Applied Water, and Measurement & Control Solutions. The Water Infrastructure segment offers various products, including water, storm water, and wastewater pumps; controls and systems; filtration, disinfection, and biological treatment equipment; and mobile dewatering equipment under the Flygt, Godwin, Wedeco, Sanitaire, Leopold, Wedeco, and Xylem Vue brand names for the transportation and treatment of water. The Applied Water segment provides pumps, valves, heat exchangers, controls, and dispensing equipment systems under the Goulds Water Technology, Bell & Gossett, A-C Fire Pump, Standard Xchange, Lowara, Jabsco, Xylem Vue and Flojet brand names for residential and commercial building services, and industrial water applications. The Measurement & Control Solutions segment provides smart meters, networked communication devices, and measurement and control technologies, as well as critical infrastructure technologies. It also offers software and services, including cloud-based analytics, remote monitoring and data management, leak detection, condition assessment, asset management, and pressure monitoring solutions, as well as testing equipment and managed services. This segment sells its products under the Pure, Sensus, Smith Blair, WTW, Xylem Vue, and YSI brand names. The company markets and sells its products through a network of direct sales force, resellers, distributors, and value-added solution providers. Xylem Inc. was formerly known as ITT WCO, Inc. and changed its name to Xylem Inc. in May 2011. The company. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Rye Brook, New York.
Baxter International Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops and provides a portfolio of healthcare products worldwide. The company offers peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis, and additional dialysis therapies and services; intravenous therapies, infusion pumps, administration sets, and drug reconstitution devices; remixed and oncology drug platforms, inhaled anesthesia and critical care products and pharmacy compounding services; parenteral nutrition therapies and related products; biological products and medical devices used in surgical procedures for hemostasis, tissue sealing and adhesion prevention; and continuous renal replacement therapies and other organ support therapies focused in the intensive care unit. It also provides connected care solutions, including devices, software, communications, and integration technologies; integrated patient monitoring and diagnostic technologies to help diagnose, treat, and manage a various illness and diseases, including respiratory therapy, cardiology, vision screening, and physical assessment; surgical video technologies, tables, lights, pendants, precision positioning devices and other accessories. In addition, the company offers contracted services to various pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies. Its products are used in hospitals, kidney dialysis centers, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, doctors' offices, and patients at home under physician supervision. The company sells its products through direct sales force, as well as through independent distributors, drug wholesalers, and specialty pharmacy or other alternate site providers in approximately 100 countries. It has an agreement with Celerity Pharmaceutical, LLC to develop acute care generic injectable premix and oncolytic molecules. Baxter International Inc. was incorporated in 1931 and is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois.
Coeur Mining, Inc. explores for precious metals in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The company primarily explores for gold, silver, zinc, and lead properties. It holds 100% interests in the Palmarejo gold and silver mine covering an area of approximately 67,296 net acres located in the State of Chihuahua in Northern Mexico; the Rochester silver and gold mine that covers an area of approximately 43,441net acres situated in northwestern Nevada; the Kensington gold mine comprising 3,972 net acres located to the north of Juneau, Alaska; the Wharf gold mine covering an area of approximately 3,243 net acres situated in the northern Black Hills of western South Dakota; and the Silvertip silver-zinc-lead mine comprising 97,298 net acres located in northern British Columbia, Canada. In addition, the company owns interests in the Crown and Sterling projects located in southern Nevada; and the La Preciosa project located in Mexico. Further, it markets and sells its concentrates to third-party customers, smelters, under off-take agreements. The company was formerly known as Coeur d'Alene Mines Corporation and changed its name to Coeur Mining, Inc. in May 2013.Coeur Mining, Inc. was incorporated in 1928 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
jb9896
The waters in the area of the Majestic/Bahia/Riu/Iberostar resorts (Arena Gorda Beach) are relatively calm most of the time (seas from dead calm to 2 meters year around) , but not as calm as those resorts further to the south (Bavaro Beach) where the seas remain calm almost all year around and is the area where most of the post card photos of Punta Cana are taken and are certainly calmer than the resorts further to the north (Uvero Alto Beach), which also has severe undertows.
What makes for truly rough or calm conditions, is not whether the beach area is in the tropical Atlantic waters or in the waters of the Caribbean sea, but more so, it is dependent on the distance of the beach from the coral reefs off shore - that is what truly makes the difference.
Let me explain this further:
Starting in the north with Excellence and Dreams Punta Cana resorts for example (about 1 hour north of Punta Cana) in the area called Uvero Alto, are where the rougher waters are with a relatively strong under tow and the sand is more of a brown colour.
This area cannot be compared to the beaches in Punta Cana.
In order to have calm waters it depends simply on the distance of the protecting barrier reef to the beaches. In Uvero Alto and northern Bavaro, the reef is located very close to the beaches, so the high surf hits the shore line with higher waves.
When you get to Macao Beach and Arena Gorda Beach, the reef starts to be somewhat further from the shore line and the calmer waters start to take notice along with the whitening of the beach sand.
Continuing south to El Cortecito Beach, Bavaro Beach, Cabeza de Toro, basically all of Punta Cana, including Cap Cana the barrier reef is located far off from the beaches resulting in the high surf crossing the barrier reefs to run calm these beaches are calm basically all year around, plus they are the area where the beautiful post card photos of Punta Cana are usually taken.
This is where one sees the underwater flora which provides that turquoise shimmering colour which is so typical of the Caribbean Island waters, even though these waters are actually part of the Atlantic Ocean.
Further to the south is the area that is referred to as the Dominican south coast here one finds a bit of a rough coastline, but in the Bayahibe area it remains very calm - a beautiful small bay and stretch of beach that is nicely protected.
The calmest waters on a year around basis in Punta Cana are at the Now Larimar, Secrets Royal Beach (adults only), Paradisus Palma Real, Melia Caribe Tropical, IFA Village/Villas Bavaro, Barcelo Bavaro Beach Hotel (adults only), Barcelo Palace deLuxe, Natura Park, Dreams Palm Beach, Be Live Grand/Bavaro, Catalonia Bavaro, Catalonia Royal (adults only), Los Corales, Tortuga Bay, Punta Cana Resort & Club and the Sanctuary Cap Cana.
The small Bay in Bayahibe, which is further to the south, is also beautiful and calm, but certainly no calmer than the beaches at the above resorts in Punta Cana.
Hope this does assist you.
John
Brooklin (Bubba King)
Hello Friends,
Me and my wife are on our first visit to Australia. Need your help for making it a memorable one...
We are a young couple and love outdoors, long walks, drives, nature, urban landscape, hiking, architecture, new experiences, beach....and, Australia has all of it and much more.
Our flights lands in Sydney from KL on 19/09 morning and we fly out from Sydney on 27/09 afternoon.
1. Have initially thought of covering Sydney and Melbourne in these 9 Days. Is it good enough or do we have a better choice other than Melbourne?
Coz, I have hold on to booking Accommodation, can go as advised.
2. From Sydney, can we do a self drive loop of Blue Mountains or Canberra in 2 Days? Is it advisable?
Look forward to hear from you...Mates!
Maybe have alook at Australia.com for some research ideas.
If you dont drive, then compact places are idea and thoe with good publi transport- which usually means cities.
Cairns or Port Douglas are always nice but its the humid and rain season. You can be lucky with weater up there, but you are likely to get afternoon rain or storms. This doesnt stop you from doinng much though. You can get tours around - no public transport.
You could get a tour to Fraser island from Hervey Bay or Noosa is nice.
Tasmanis- you wont get to see much at all and you will need to base yourself in Hobart and get dat tours- but it could be doable.
Lady Elliot Island could be ok as well for you.
avoid the Gold coast if you dont like high rises and crowds
We were ok on S. Caribbean for 2 wks having less to do, less organized things to do, I mean. We were happy hiking in Cahuita NP more than once, walking on the beach here and there, etc.
While Cahuita NP has a reef fairly close, visibility and waves might make snorkelling impossible. In 2 wks, we could not do it once, in Manzanillo or in Cahuita park. The water was not calm clear blue, like ppl might imagine, but more brown, as it is rainy season. I could not see my own hand under water when swimming, so we never took the snorkelling equipment out of the luggage.
In order to snorkel inside the park, you have to hire a guide for about US$25-35 pp, and snorkel ftom a boat, not off shore. In Manzanillo, locals, mostly kids, snorkel near the shore close to the village, near Maxi's restaurant. But you have to leave someone with your stuff on the beach, so we did not want to take turns. That area gets busy on the wknds, as lots of local families park in between the palm trees by the water edge. The rest of the time the beach is pretty deserted, especially if you walk left, away from the village and the Gandoca-Manzanillo Reserve, toward Punta Uva. Manzanillo is a tiny village, with 1 restaurant, a couple of sodas, and not much else. So "touring" Manzanillo beach might not be what you imagine. However, we found the area good for relaxing and enjoying less touristy beaches and wildlife.
A hotel owner in Tortuguero told us not to do Tortuguero at the beginning of the trip, because if your international flight luggage gets delayed, the air Co won't be able to deliver it to you, as it was boat access only. I guess he had guests with these issues. However, it makes sense to do Tortuguero either on the way to S. Caribbean or on the way back to SJO. Either way, this would require a night closer to SJO.
You should be ok without a car there.
There are companies that take you from SJO to Tortuguero and at the end drop you off at your next location. In your case, in S. Caribbean. E.g.,
http://www.jungletomsafaris.com/our_new_connections.htm , http://www.willies-costarica-tours.com , https://www.adventure-inn.com/tours/ (the last link is to the tours page of a hotel close to SJO, located well for your trip to S. Caribbean. They pick you up at the airport, and the next day you can go to Tortuguero or to your beach hotel.).
You are saying No to Arenal. If you like beautiful landscapes, nature, birds and some animals, Arenal Observatory Lodge is a good place for enjoying the big property. You do not have to do much, do touristy things, etc.. They have own trails, a waterfall, we found the property beautiful (rooms so so, and only 1 restaurant), but if you get lucky to see the clear volcano, and happen to have a good room with a direct view, it is spectacular, as you are only about 2 km away from it. BTW, I am among those who call it "just a mountain", and it still seemed so pretty! :) very glad we went there.
The trip between Arenal and Cahuita by a shared shuttle is 7 hrs long and was quite long, on curvy, hilly Rds, but ok in terms of comfort and price - just in case you want to connect the 2 destinations in 1 day like we did. We took Interbus and we got lucky all during the trip - the entire duration, before and after a stop over they make and change shuttles, we travelled only 4 adults and 2 kids total instead of 10 that those vans can hold. Are glad we were not driving and could just relax.
Depending on which Station you will exchange your voucher (airport????) they may or may not allow you to reserve multiple days/routes. It all depends if they are extremely busy. They will allow you to reserve if needing shinkansen same day or early next morning. But to lay out all your reservation depends on how busy they are. At Narita, the JR office had a sign saying no advance reservation (this was during Cherry Blossom time). Line was out the door. It won't hurt to try if there's no visible sign. In any case, you can just drop by any other Station with JR ticket office and do rest of reservation if couldn't do it first go around. So, if you exchange and activate for same day/next day...get your first reservation. Once you arrive at next station with JR ticket office, make the rest of your reservations for your following days to each city.
Have your dates, times, name of shinkansen/train, start/end destination, etc. It makes it easier and faster for them. I just went to hyperdia dot com and screen shot my intended routes.
Hi,
Part of my coming Dec trip to Japan, I'll be going to Kawaguchiko on 25th Dec 2017 and spend a night there.
Any recommended activities or places to visit during that period in Kawaguchiko?
The next day I'll be heading to Matsumoto so I only have one day to explore.
Thank you in advance for your suggestions.
I have found a variety of restaurants in different neighborhoods so I'd not say that you will find only 1 kind of food in each spot.
There are certainly famous restaurants for various food types so maybe ask about recs for the types that interest you and then plan your evenings to be in the area for that particular restaurant.
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By Eli Lake
HERES a shocker. On Wednesday morning, Donald Trump tweeted something that was mostly true: The US has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!
Technically the US government stopped providing North Korea food aid and oil shipments in 2009. But other than that, Trump got this one right. The notion that the current standoff between North Korea and the US and its allies should end in another round of six-party talks recalls the old joke about the definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Remember North Korea has violated every agreement it has ever made with the international community. From the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to the 1994 Joint Framework Agreement, the Hermit Kingdom does not keep its word.
And yet, despite Trumps tweet, it seems like this is the direction America is headed. Kim Jong Uns ballistic tantrum in recent weeks seems likely to have the same outcome as his fathers past fits. He threatens to incinerate Guam. He keeps testing missiles. The latest one flew over Japan and has prompted yet another rebuke from the United Nations.
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Trump correctly stated that more words will not be sufficient. But his administration is already backpedalling. Secretary of Defense James Mattis told a pool reporter: Were never out of diplomatic solutions. We always look for more. Were never complacent.
Thats vague enough to leave the door open to something better than another round of summitry. But it doesnt look good. Already many non-proliferation experts are chiming in with shop worn policy recommendations to combine carrots and sticks with the aim of negotiating another agreement. Its quite possible that Trumps tweet will have the same staying power as his promise to release his tax returns.
Fortunately for Trump, he has other options. To start, he should take a sensible approach to North Korean diplomacy and abandon the fantasy that more talks will persuade the Kim regime to abandon its nuclear weapons. Instead, Trump should engage in what American Enterprise Institute scholar Nicholas Eberstadt has called threat reduction.
This does not mean abandoning diplomacy altogether. It would be useful to have a military hotline with the North Koreans to avoid catastrophic miscalculations.
But the US must prepare for more aggression from Pyongyang. In overlooked congressional testimony from January, Eberstadt recommends a policy of bolstering missile defense systems for South Korea, Japan and the US and encouraging South Korea to bolster its civilian defense capabilities. Eberstadt also recommends doubling down on counter-proliferation, interdicting North Korean ships on the high seas, targeting its illicit procurement network, and other steps past administrations have taken to make it harder for the regime to perfect its missiles and nuclear weapons.
I would add to this list: Covert operations aimed at sabotaging these programs similar to the Stuxnet virus deployed against Irans centrifuges in 2009 and 2010.
Eberstadt also warns that its important to understand that North Koreas nuclear program is not just an insurance policy for the survival of the regime, as most experts understand it. He says nuclear weapons are also a component of the countrys strategy to break the US alliance with South Korea. He points out that unification of the peninsula has been a consistent aim of the Kim family since the start of the Korean War. They have shown no sign of giving this up. This means the US must plan now for a response to a conventional military attack on South Korea.
Trump should also aim to delegitimize North Korea. This is distinct from isolating the regime, which is a mantra every president has said for the last 25 years. North Korea is already isolated. As I wrote recently, its important to continue to support quiet programs to break the information seal the regime tries to impose on its citizens. Ebertsadt elegantly put this principal as follows: The regime is deadly afraid of what it terms ideological and cultural poisoning, what we could call foreign media, international information, cultural exchanges, and the like. We should be saying, bring on the poisoning! The more external contact with that enslaved population, the better.
For now this means continuing to support efforts of North Korean defectors to get portable DVD players loaded up with South Korean television programs over the demilitarized zone through smuggling, drones and other means.
Another component of delegitimizing North Korea should be to awaken South Korean civil society to their responsibility to begin planning for how it will one day have to absorb a population that has lived under a Stalinist tyranny for nearly 70 years.
Greg Scarlatoiu, the executive director Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, has also recommended for the US to push for suspending North Koreas voting rights at the United Nations. This is a long shot because China to this day has acted most of the time as North Koreas protector at Turtle Bay. But the message it sends is important. North Korea is not part of the community of nations; its a criminal syndicate masquerading as a government.
Many experts have suggested another component should be getting tough with China, North Koreas benefactor and supplier of fuel and electricity. But even Trump has acknowledged that his initial effort to work with Beijing in this regard has so far failed.Its possible that ratcheting up pressure could get better results. But its also a risky strategy because it could spark a trade war or prompt China to become more aggressive in other areas such as the South China Sea, where it continues to build artificial islands as a military foothold.
For now the most important thing for Trump to do is to prepare for the worst, mitigate the North Korean military threat and lay the groundwork for the day when Koreans can liberate themselves. The one thing he shouldnt do is apply sanctions today in the hopes of negotiating at some point in the future. As Trump tweeted Wednesday, thats what the US has been doing for the last quarter-century. Lets hope he sticks to his guns this time and avoids the same mistake as predecessors.
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- KCPE and KCSE might be pushed forward after the recent court ruling on Uhuru Kenyatta's reelection
- The school calendar was already disrupted by the elections forcing students to lose almost four weeks
- Over 1.6 millions students will be affected
- KCPE examination will begin on October 31 and end on November 2 while KCSE examination will start on November 6 and end on November 29
Why Uhuru Kenyatta has a huge advantage in the repeat elections
The Supreme Court decision is political not legal-Uhuru's lawyer
Students seating for their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and The Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) will be greatly affected after the recent ruling by The Supreme Court that will see Kenyans head back to the ballot.
The school calendar was already disrupted by the elections forcing students to lose almost four weeks.
READ ALSO: The Supreme Court decision is political not legal-Uhuru's lawyer
The exams might be pushed according to Kuppet chairman Omboko Milemba. Photo: Courtesy
KCPE examination will begin on October 31 and end on November 2 while KCSE examination will start on November 6 and end on November 29.
The Supreme court ordered for fresh presidential election to be conducted after 60 days which will be on November when KCPE students will be having their Science, Kiswahili Lugha and Insha exams.
READ ALSO: Raila will still lose even if errors are corrected - Jubilee lawyer
A total of 1,003,556 candidates registered for the KCPE examinations and another 615,773 sitting for their KCSE exams will be affected.
The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), chaired by Prof George Magoha, are expected to meet on Saturday, September 2, 2017 to discuss the issue.
Wilson Sossion. Photo: Daily Nation
READ ALSO: Celebrations in Kisumu, Kibera as Raila Odinga wins presidential petition (photos)
TUKO.co.ke has also learnt that over 23,000 primary schools will be used as polling stations during the poll while several secondary schools will be used as tallying stations.
Another headache for KNEC, is that thousands of the 312,000 teachers will also be recruited as clerks, presiding and deputy presiding officers across the country.
According to Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary-general Wilson Sossion, the union will listen to its members first before meeting next week Tuesday to make the final decision.
The decision might see the exams pushed forward.
The national steering committee will meet on Tuesday to deliberate on the move so that they can take a position and advise the Ministry of Education accordingly, Sossion said.
READ ALSO: Journalist reveals why Moha Jicho Pevu cannot be bribed in Parliament
We cannot allow our candidates whom we have prepared for four years and eight years to be victims of an election process, Kenya Union Of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) chairman Omboko Milemba added.
We expect Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi to convene a stakeholders meeting with the intention of moving the examination after the polls.
Have anything to add to this article or suggestions?
Share with us on news@tuko.co.ke NASA wins presidential petition:
Source: TUKO.co.ke
- Deputy President William Ruto says attempts by Raila to disband the IEBC are tantamount to sabotaging the expected repeat of the presidential election
- Ruto has also told off Raila saying he will not get into a coalition government with the UhuRuto team
- Raila wants the IEBC team sent home after he won the presidential petition at the Supreme Court
- The court while annulling President Uhuru Kenyatta's win during the August 8 poll blamed the electoral commission for the irregularities and anomalies
Deputy President William Ruto has ruled out any plans by Raila Odinga and his NASA brigade to disband the IEBC.
He said fresh attempts by Raila to remove the current IEBC commissioners from office was a conspiracy to sabotage a fresh election in the hope of securing a coalition government but that will not prevail.
The DP ruled out any possibility of disbanding the IEBC saying the Opposition was the force behind the establishment of the current electoral commission.
Ruto: Our message to NASA is that there shall be no nusu mkate(coalition) government.Photo:Uhuru Kenyatta/Facebook.
READ ALSO: I'm ready for you-Uhuru bellows at Raila
Our message to NASA is that there shall be no nusu mkate(coalition) government..the Chief Justice has had his day but ours is coming, Ruto said on Saturday, September 2.
He spoke during a meeting at State House,Nairobi which brought together all Jubilee and affiliate parties MCA,MPs and governors.
The IEBC presided over the election of NASA elected leaders. If the opposition has a problem, they should ask their elected leaders to resign, the DP said.
READ ALSO: I'm ready for you-Uhuru bellows at Raila
The Supreme Court has ordered a repeat of the presidential election.Photo:Soft Kenya.
READ ALSO: 10 Things that Raila Odinga noted after his big win at the Supreme Court
Raila has demanded that the current IEBC be sent packing saying a ruling by the Supreme Court which annulled President Uhuru Kenyattas win was enough reason that the team was not capable of conducting a repeat of the election.
But the DP pointed out that Jubilee got massive support from Kenyans at all levels on the August 8 election and wondered how the party could win at all these levels and not sweep the presidency in elections held by the same agency.
We won fair and square. We got 800 elected MCAs (56 per cent) out of 1400, 27 Senators (58 per cent), 169 MPs (59 per cent), 29 governors (62 per cent), 31 Women Reps (66 per cent), Ruto said.
Democracy, Ruto said, is about the will of the people adding that Jubilee would not apologise for its victory in the August 8 poll.
READ ALSO: Raila lists IEBC officials who "helped Uhuru rig"
Raila has been told to forget 'nusu mkate' govt with Jubilee.Photo:Raila Odinga/Facebook.
We are unapologetic about our victory, and we wont succumb to intimidation from the courts, he added.
The meeting was also addressed by Uhuru, governors from Jubilee and affiliate parties, senators including Senate Majority leader Kipchumba Murkomen and Speaker Ken Lusaka, and members of National Assembly led by Majority leader Aden Duale.
Raila wins Supreme Court petition,his supporters erupt in joy
Source: TUKO.co.ke
Romulo Avelica Gonzalez was a taquero.
He worked at a modest Mexican restaurant near his home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Lincoln Heights in the citys Eastside.
Like most immigrants in the country illegally, Avelica Gonzalez kept his head down. He had his job making tacos, the love of his wife Norma and four daughters and not much else the outside world would probably care to know about.
Then he was arrested while taking his two youngest daughters to school. One of them recorded the encounter with her cellphone and that would make all the difference.
Taken to an immigrant detention facility, he remained there for six months until he walked out, Wednesday night, to a battery of TV cameras.
The cook had become an activist. Or at least that's what his lawyer called him.
Cellphone video of the arrest of Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez by immigration authorities taken by his 13-year-old daughter just after he had just dropped off his 12-year-old daughter at her school in Highland Park.
Avelica Gonzalez, 49, balks at the label, but not the burden.
BLOG: NO MEXICANS BELIEVE OUR
BORDERS, LAWS, OR ORDINANES APPLY
TO THEM. THESE ARE ALL A STUPID
GRINGO JOKE!
We have to do something to stop that the separation of families, he said Thursday to a supportive crowd. Because its not just us who suffer in there. Our kids also suffer. Theyre citizens.
Avelica Gonzalezs release comes during a week when President Trump is rumored to be considering ending an Obama-era policy that shields so-called Dreamers immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. when they were young from deportation, and after he pardoned former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio , who was convicted of criminal contempt in connection to racial profiling of Latinos during his crusade against illegal immigration.
He joins an often rhetorically brutal debate over illegal immigration in which warring factions reach for symbols whether it's a deported mother or, in the case of Trump, U.S. citizen victims of crimes by those in the country illegally.
In late February, Avelica Gonzalez was detained by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wearing jackets with the word POLICE on the back. His daughter Fatima, now 14, sobbed as she filmed the encounter. It went viral.
Lawyers settled Avelica-Gonzalezs decades-
old misdemeanor convictions for driving
under the influence and for receiving stolen
car tags that prompted the deportation
order that led to his arrest. He pleaded guilty
to lesser vehicle code violations, which would
ordinarily not make him deportable.
An immigration appeals court threw out Avelica Gonzalezs final deportation order last month. He is still in deportation proceedings but, because of massive backlogs, it could take years for his case to go back through the local immigration court process.
On Wednesday morning, an immigration judge ruled that he was eligible to post bond. That night he walked out of the Adelanto Detention Facility in San Bernardino County wearing the same green shirt and salsa-stained work pants he had on when he was arrested.
Driving back to L.A, the family first stopped at historic Mission San Conrado. Falling to their knees, they gave thanks to Jude the Apostle, the patron saint of desperate situations and lost causes.
Romulo Avelica Gonzalez hugs his niece, Diana Vargas, as he prays at a shrine to St. Jude the Apostle at Mission San Conrado after being released. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
He left detention with a list of more than 20 names and phone numbers of immigrants praying to get out just as he did even if their ultimate fate, like his, remains murky.
Its easy to give up in there, he said, pulling out and unfolding the list, handwritten on a scrap of paper, from his shirt pocket.
Avelica Gonzalez said that people he met while in detention inspired him to do more than go back to his old life.
Some were so poor they had no money even for a phone call, he said. A few got so depressed that theyd begin considering signing their deportation papers just so they could leave.
Some did, including one of his friends, a farmworker whose wife and children had lost their apartment without his income. The man had convictions for driving under the influence and illegal reentry, Avelica Gonzalez said. Desperate to work, he decided that going back to Mexico was better than waiting locked up in the U.S.
Everything I lived through in there, my experiences and especially the stories of my friends its really tough, he said. And even though my own heart was hurting, I tried to encourage them. Id tell them, You have to try, OK? Dont give up.
On Thursday, Avelica Gonzalez kept that man and the others on his list in mind as he addressed reporters in front of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department headquarters. He wore the braided white cross and the pendant with an image of his favorite patron saint that had been confiscated by guards as contraband immediately after The Times interviewed him last month.
He voiced his support for Senate Bill 54,
which would block local and state law
enforcement from using resources to help
federal immigration agents, and announced
that on Tuesday he will participate in a
caravan to Sacramento to rally in support of
the bill.
Commonly called the sanctuary state bill, it would limit the information that immigration agents receive about county jail inmates, including immigrants release dates, with the exception of those who have committed violent crimes. Sheriff Jim McDonnell has said the bill could hurt immigrants by forcing immigration agents to go deeper into communities to arrest people instead of going through the jail system. He said that could cause other immigrants to get caught up in the net.
Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said Avelica Gonzalez fights not just for his family but for all families of immigrants facing deportation.
Romulo Avelica Gonzalez, who was detained in late February while dropping his daughters off at school, is reunited with his family. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The importance of this victory, of this case, is that Mr. Romulo told Trump and all our adversaries, I dont have fear, Alvarado said.
Standing before a large banner that read #FREEROMULO, Avelica Gonzalez took a pair of pruning shears and sliced the slogan in half. He and his daughter Fatima held up the part of the banner that now read: #FREE.
Still, Avelica Gonzalez said he doesnt consider himself an activist, saying the word carries more responsibility and preparation than he has. But his experience gave him a platform, and he said hell use it to do what he can.
No Ukrainian serviceman has been killed or wounded as a result of hostilities in the area of the anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine over the past 24 hours.
Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzianyk said this at a briefing on Saturday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
"Our troops have sustained no losses as a result of hostilities over the past 24 hours. None of the Ukrainian servicemen has been killed or wounded," he said.
According to Motuzianyk, four cases of enemy shelling were reported in the Luhansk sector. Fourteen enemy provocations were recorded in the Donetsk sector and two cases of shelling in the Mariupol sector.
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The application period for Miss Ukrainian Canada 2018 has started and will last until November 15.
To participate in the competition, girls and women must be between the age 18 and 30, be of Ukrainian origin regardless of place of birth, reside in Canada and be able to communicate on either English or Ukrainian, Ukrinform learnt from the contest organizers.
After the applications are received, the professional jury and ordinary citizens will vote to select the finalists. Fifteen contestants will reach the finals to be held in July next year.
The contest tasks will include writing an essay about the Ukrainian traditional costume and its presentation on stage, showing creative talents, implementing social projects and participating in a public question and answer session.
The Winner of The Miss Ukrainian Canada contest will receive prizes, have a reign of 1 year, and will wear the official crown and sash for her title.
Each year the Organizing Committee determines a specific humanitarian goal of the Miss Ukrainian Canada. The winner will be an ambassador of goodwill representing the Miss Ukrainian Canada contest in various events and activities throughout Canada and Ukraine while contributing to the humanitarian goals of the contest.
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September 2, a new terminal of the Odesa international airport has welcomed the passengers of the Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800.
Director General of the Odesa International Airport Pavlo Prusak personally met the passengers who arrived from Istanbul, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
"Today we actually launch the operation of a new terminal for servicing the arrival of passengers which will boost the acceptance rate of Odessa airport," Prusak said.
According to the director general, the staff of 12 check-in counters of the terminal can service a thousand passengers per hour.
However, the passengers so far cannot depart from the new terminal as the finishing works in the neighboring premises are nearing completion.
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As the floodwaters recede, it has deposited sludge and, with it, contamination at everyone's doorstep. All across the flood-affected areas, the risk of disease outbreak is high.
"You might get infected with typhoid, jaundice, eczema, diarrhea, worm infection," says Ashok Jha, a UNICEF staff, explaining to locals in nearby Topa village how they should use the hygiene kit properly to avoid falling ill.
Topa was submerged under more than one metre of floodwater from the Khaando River for two days. Villagers spent Saturday and Sunday nights under makeshift tarpaulin tents on the raised roadside.
"All night I was kept awake by my baby daughter who kept crying for us to go home," says Sunita Devi Khang, 30, of Topa. "Now when I bring her home she keeps saying 'water' and urges me to take her away."
The flood waters swept away a sack of rice and a sack of wheat flour from her hut. Sunita's husband is in Kathmandu and they have not been able to make contact because the phones are dead. The flood has also damaged power lines and there has been no electricity for the last two days here.
A group of women have gathered around the relief team in Topa, some with their adolescent daughters in tow. Jha urges them to share items where possible, "If you don't need something from the kit for yourself, like the sanitary pads, give it to your neighbours and friends who need it."
KATHMANDU/NEW YORK, 2 September 2017 Weeks of torrential monsoon rains and catastrophic flooding in three countries of South Asia Nepal, India, and Bangladesh have devastated the lives of millions of children and families. UNICEF estimates that almost 16 million children and their families are in urgent need of life-saving support.
Millions of children have seen their lives swept away by these devastating floods, said Jean Gough, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia. Children have lost their homes, schools and even friends and loved ones. There is a danger the worst could still be to come as rains continue and flood waters move south, she added.
Since mid-August, there have been at least 1,288 reported deaths, with over 45 million people estimated to be affected.
Many areas remain inaccessible due to damage to roads, bridges, railways and airports. The most urgent needs for children are clean water, hygiene supplies to prevent the spread of disease, food supplies and safe places in evacuation centres for children to play.
UNICEF is on the ground working in close coordination with respective governments and humanitarian partners from three countries to scale up its responses and respond to immediate needs of affected children and their families.
Massive damage to school infrastructure and supplies also mean hundreds of thousands of children may miss weeks or months of school" said Gough. "Getting children back into school is absolutely critical in establishing a sense of stability for children during times of crisis and provides a sense of normality when everything else is being turned upside down.
In Bangladesh alone, more than 8 million people have been affected by flooding, including around 3 million children. An estimated 696,169 houses have been damaged or destroyed and 2,292 primary and community schools have been damaged by high water. There have already been more than 13,035 cases of water-borne diseases in the country.
In Nepal, 1.7 million people, including 680,000 children, have been affected with 352,738 displaced from their homes. More than 185,126 homes have been damaged or destroyed in addition to 1,958 schools, affecting the education of 253,605 children.
In India, four states in northern India have been extensively affected by the flooding, affecting over 31 million people including 12.33 million children. Some 805,183 houses are either partially or fully damaged and 15,455 schools have been damaged, disrupting the education of nearly one million students. Further heavy rains in Mumbai resulted in at least five deaths by drowning and three people including two children died due to house collapse.
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Notes for editors:
In Bangladesh, UNICEF is supporting the government in responding to approximately 1.5 million flood affected population by raising, repairing and disinfecting 40,000 tube-wells and providing 1 million water purification tablets, 837 hygiene kits, 6,400 jerry cans and 5,080 kg of bleaching powder. UNICEF is working with Bangladeshs district education authorities to prepare emergency education services in a protective environment to an initial 6,000 children immediately after water level goes down. UNICEF is also in the process of establishing temporary learning spaces and transitional schools with provision of education in emergencies kits to 800 children and is organizing boats for transportation of children and teachers for their commute to schools.
In Nepal, UNICEF is co-leading with the government line ministries and other partners to launch its immediate relief efforts and continue to scale them up. In September, an intensified immunization programme (measles, tetanus), integrated with nutrition and hygiene promotion, is being planned for five days in 16 affected districts. The programme aims to reach over 260,000 children under 5 as well as their caregivers. Of these children, 80,000 between ages 0 to 23 months will be immunized with measles vaccine. Urgent focus is ensuring that the already high pre-flood rates of Severe Acute Malnutrition in the affected districts do not get exacerbated in the post-flood scenario. Initial rapid nutrition screening conducted in 18 districts (9,000 children) has already revealed a Global Acute Malnutrition rate of 23.1 per cent. To date, UNICEF has dispatched over US$320,000 worth of pre-positioned contingency supplies for WASH, Health, Nutrition, Education and Child protection to respond to this emergency. Supplies distributed include 1,199,000 Aqua tabs, 21,620 water purifying chlorine tablets (35 mg), 8,365 buckets, over 20,000 long-lasting insecticide treated nets, over 8,000 hygiene kits, 6,840 tarpaulins, 3,350 ORS and Zinc tablets and education supplies in small amounts.
In the affected states in India the state governments, following rescue operations, are conducting relief, rehabilitation and recovery operations. UNICEF, at the request of the state governments, is providing multi-sectoral planning and coordination support in the three worst affected states of Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. For example, over 9.8 million people in Bihar have been reached with lifesaving information on topics such as safe drinking water and handwashing.
For more information, please contact:
Joe English, UNICEF New York, +1 917 893 0692 jenglish@unicef.org
Fungma Fudong, UNICEF South Asia Regional Office, 9802048256, ffudong@unicef.org
Almost every day until his death in 2012, King Father Norodom Sihanouk sat at his desk, drank a glass of his customary tea or water and read The Cambodia Daily.
Sometimes what he saw there pleased him; other times, it enraged him. Frequently, he would scribble notes and annotations in the margins of the paper, photocopy them and disseminate them in his weekly bulletins.
Just two blocks from the Royal Palace, but a world away from its rarified milieu, tuk-tuk driver Ek Kran had a similar routine. Mr. Ek Kran, now 43, has parked along the riverside soliciting customers every day for the past 13 years. To pass the time and learn more about the world, he read The Cambodia Daily, even improving his English by comparing the newspapers stories in Khmer and English.
The newspaper is independent, not taking sides. It gives constructive criticism, he said.
The Cambodia Daily, which faces imminent closure after being slapped with a $6 million tax bill by the government last month, has a relatively small circulation in absolute numbers, printing just 4,000 to 5,000 copies per day. But with a readership ranging from ambassadors to security guards, from professors to rural schoolchildren, it has long had a disproportionately large influence, both here and abroad.
Cambodian journalists trained at the Daily now report for the local bureaus of Reuters, the Associated Press, Deutsche Welle and Radio Free Asia, as well as the Phnom Penh Post, the Khmer Times and numerous other local media outlets. Daily alumni have also gone on to work at the Asia Foundation, the opposition CNRP and the governments Council of Ministers.
Outside of Cambodia, former Daily reporters work around the world at newspapers and wire services including the New York Times, the Associated Press, Agence-France Presse, the Washington Post and Bloomberg. The editor of Voice of Americas Khmer Service, Chris Decherd, is a former Cambodia Daily staffer, as are several members of VOAs team in Washington and Phnom Penh.
The newspapers founding co-editor, Robin McDowell, won a Pulitzer Prize last year for her Associated Press coverage of slave labor on fishing boats in Southeast Asia. Another ex-Daily journalist, Thet Sambath, turned years of reporting for the Daily into an award-winning documentary on the Khmer Rouge, Enemies of the People. Multiple Cambodian journalists at The Cambodia Daily earned scholarships to study journalism abroad.
Stories from the paper have informed the work of foreign journalists and human rights advocates based in the region, as well as prosecutors, judges and defense lawyers at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, whose filings are studded with footnotes citing The Cambodia Dailys reporting on the court.
Kingsley Abbott, a Bangkok-based legal adviser to the International Commission of Jurists who formerly worked as a lawyer at the Khmer Rouge tribunal, said the paper was essential to his understanding of Cambodia.
Reading The Cambodia Daily has been part of my morning routine for over 10 years, he said.
He added that he frequently cited the Dailys reporting in his work, most recently in July, when ICJ called upon the Cambodian government to create a formal commission of inquiry into the killing of Kem Ley.
I have many sources, but one mainstay over the years has been The Cambodia Daily and its journalists, Mr. Abbott said.
Sophal Ear, an associate professor of diplomacy and world affairs at Occidental College, agreed. Mr. Sophal Ear studies Cambodia but lives in California, from where he uses local media like the Daily to keep up with events in the country.
I used the papers articles in my books, in my own scholarly articles, he said.
I read the Daily every day as part of my routine. Reading it informs my work, and its closure makes me feel like the violinist on the Titanic who says, Gentlemen, it has been a privilege playing with you tonight.
Straight to the Top
The newspaper has also had a significant impact on the Cambodian government and the long-ruling Cambodian Peoples Party since it was founded in 1993 by American journalist and philanthropist Bernard Krisher.
Indeed, one of its most famous readers is Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been pictured more than once with a copy of the Daily. Although he frequently criticizes the newspaper and has accused it of opposing his rule, he and other government officials have also acted upon information revealed in its stories.
The government has also permitted the Daily to publish uncensored for nearly 25 years, despite its often critical reports on illegal logging, official corruption and land disputes. This may be partly because the newspaper is a useful source of objective information, said Kevin Doyle, who edited the Daily from 2004 to 2014.
King Norodom Sihanouk told Bernard Krisher that he considered the Daily as important as an intelligence serviceparticularly, he remarked, as no one would tell him what was really going on outside the palace, Doyle said. Now the government has Facebook.
Mr. Doyle said he recalled a number of times that the Dailys reporting directly affected government policy, most notably in a series of articles on Montagnard asylum-seekers who fled persecution in Vietnam by crossing into Cambodia along jungle pathways. At the time, the government claimed that there were no Montagnards hiding in Cambodia, but efforts by the Daily to find them and tell their stories made it clear that the refugees existed and were in desperate need of help, he said.
In fact, in the Cambodia Dailys 24-year history, that was probably our greatest impact on policy and peoples lives, he said. We actually saved many Montagnards from deportation, and who knows what other dangers from hiding for months on end in the border forests.
Kuch Naren, who worked at the Daily for 15 years, agreed that her most enduring memories were instances when articles printed in the Cambodia Daily made some positive change for the sake of public interest.
After Ms. Kuch Naren reported a series of stories about rural Cambodian women who were trafficked to South Korea and Taiwan for marriage, she said, the government put a moratorium on Cambodian women marrying foreigners and took steps to establish clearer legal procedures for such marriages.
This is one of the ways in which the media are crucial: exposing hidden information that has never been reported about, issues that government leaders need to work on, she said.
Cambodians and The Daily
It is not just the wealthy and well connected who read the paper. The Cambodia Daily has been a part of the education of two generations of Cambodians, including many who lack the resources for expensive schooling.
The Dailys English Weekly supplement is widely used in schools and among Cambodians who do not have access to English classes but wish to learn the language. Douglas Steele, the Dailys general manager, said an extra 500 copies of the supplement were printed every week, in addition to those appearing in the paper.
Every morning starting at 6 a.m., You Sony, an English teacher based in Kampong Cham, holds an optional English class at her house for students who want to enrich their language skills, using a curriculum based on articles in The Cambodia Daily.
Ms. You Sony, 47, says she has been teaching English using the paper for almost 20 years.
The students can learn a lot and they learn how to use vocabulary and gain much knowledge in writing, she said.
Noan Sereiboth says he began reading the paper as a 17-year-old high school student in Kampong Cham and credits it with educating him about the political and social world beyond his immediate community.
I really appreciate their work and reporting, which provides critical analysis and thinking and very in-depth insights, he said. It is like a library to search for the truth.
Now 27, he lives in the capital, where he works for an NGO and is an organizer of Politikoffee, a popular political discussion group for youth. He still reads the newspaper every day and relies on it to bolster his understanding of current events.
I felt bad when I heard it would be shut down, he said.
A Symbol of Freedom
Beyond its readership, The Cambodia Daily has been allowed to operate for 24 years largely unimpeded by government interference or censorship, becoming a symbol of press freedom in a country whose television stations and Khmer-language newspaper tend to be biased toward the ruling partyif not owned outright by the government or pro-CPP businessmen.
Its forced closure has coincided with increased pressure on other media outlets, including more than a dozen local radio stations airing content produced by VOA, RFA, and the opposition CNRP. Last month, the government also ordered the closure of the National Democratic Institute, an NGO funded by the US that carries out pro-democracy work, and ordered its foreign staff to leave the country.
Moeun Chhean Nariddh, director of the Cambodia Institute for Media Studies, said that although he sometimes disagreed with the tone of the Dailys coverage, finding it overly critical of the government, the fact that it was allowed to exist was important.
It dares to touch sensitive stories related to corruption, forest destruction and politics, he said.
George Edgar, ambassador of the European Union to Cambodia, said the Dailys existence had contributed to making Cambodia one of the best countries in the region for freedom of the press.
Cambodia has regularly been rated by organizations such as Reporters Without Borders as having one of the best records for media freedom in Southeast Asia, he said in an email.
That is partly a reflection of the work of the Cambodia Daily and other English-language newspapers, which have reported, often critically, on political and economic developments and have trained many young Cambodian journalists in investigative journalism.
Mr. Sophal Ear, the Occidental College professor, said the closure of the Daily would have a symbolic as well as practical impact, like a death sentence for freedom of the press in Cambodia.
The effect would be chilling, he said. Waking up to The Cambodia Daily every day, with its stories of official misdeeds, would be a thing of the past. Imagine that. In one fell swoop, one of the most consistent voices for justice in Cambodia, silenced.
(Additional reporting and editing by VOA Khmer contributor Julia Wallace, a former Cambodia Daily editor)
Speaking in Washington on Friday night after four days of testy and inconclusive talks in Brussels with EU negotiators, the British minister overseeing Brexit negotiations, David Davis, offered the admission that Britain is weighing whether to join the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
Such an arrangement could at least be temporary while Britain tries to negotiate a better deal for itself with the EU, the country's largest trading partner.
Joining the EFTA would allow Britain to secure access to the EUs Single Market and customs union, and avoid crippling tariffs and trade restrictions when it exits the EU in March 2019.
His open admission surprised some in the audience at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where in a speech, he also appeared to take aim at U.S. President Donald Trump and warned against the West turning its back on globalization and free trade. Without mentioning Trump directly, he said, It feels to me it is necessary to make the case once more for free trade and capitalism.
Hard Brexiters may bulk
It is Davis disclosure that Prime Minister Theresa May is considering the possibility of Britain applying for membership of the EFTA, however, thats likely to prove explosive when it comes to so-called hard Brexiters in the Conservative Party and populist nationalists, such as Nigel Farage, who want a clean break from the EU.
It is something weve thought about, Davis said in reply to a question from Icelands ambassador to the U.S., Geir Haarde, about whether Britain could opt for the so-called Norway option. But the British minister cautioned its not at the top of the list.
One drawback with the EFTA for the May government is that it would not offer the same kind of unrestricted access for the countrys lucrative banking and financial services sector as Britain currently enjoys with its EU membership. Also, EFTA membership would prevent Britain from imposing immigration controls on Europeans wanting to live and work in the country something May and hard Brexiters want to do.
The current members of the EFTA are Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. The group has free trade deals with various non-EU countries, including Canada and Mexico.
Joining the EFTA would allow Britain to apply for automatic membership of the European Economic Area, giving it full access to the EUs Single Market, as currently enjoyed by Norway and two other EFTA members. Some analysts describe the EFTA as backdoor EU membership.
Brussels talks stalled
Davis admission came after a torrid week of acrimonious Brexit negotiations, which saw the British minister and his EU counterpart Michel Barnier snipe at each other publicly at the end of what is the third round of formal exit discussions between London and Brussels. Officials from both sides concede the two sides are as far apart on key issues as they were before the third round started.
Europeans accuse the British of being unclear about what they want, while the British argue the EU negotiators insistence on agreeing on the terms of departure before negotiating a free trade deal is unhelpful. Remaining stumbling blocks include a reported $89 billion "divorce bill" Brussels is demanding to cover budget payments, and project and structural loans that Britain committed to before last years Brexit referendum.
On Thursday the EUs chief Brexit negotiator, Barnier, said progress was hampered by a lack of trust between the two sides. And at a joint press conference with Davis, he evoked the Brexiters oft-repeated slogan of Brexit means Brexit to ask his adversary whether Britain wasnt missing the bloc after all.
The British say the EU divorce sums dont add up, and on Friday in Washington, Davis called the Brexit negotiations probably the most complicated negotiation in history and our enemy is time it is getting a bit tense.
The EU wont even begin talks on a deal until there has been sufficient progress on the divorce terms.
More ripples ahead
With time running out before Britains exit, theres a growing movement within the Conservative Party and with the support even of some prominent figures who campaigned in last years referendum for Britain to exit the EU for an EFTA option.
The leaders of Iceland and Ireland have been urging Britain for weeks to apply for EFTA membership, and behind the scenes so have major British business leaders, who fear a hard Brexit would see Britain fall off an economic cliff.
This weeks bruising talks triggered in their wake another spasm in the war of words between Europeans and hard Brexiters. Liam Fox, Britains minister for international development, accused the EU of trying to extort London, saying Britain cant be blackmailed into paying a price.
And John Redwood, a senior Conservative, and onetime challenger for the party leadership, tweeted: Mr. Barnier wants the UK to set out its calculation of the exit bill. Thats easy. The bill is zero. Nothing. Zilch.
The British tabloids and European newspapers have been trading sharp barbs all week, as well. Switzerlands Der Bund newspaper accused Britain on its front page of being the Laughing Stock of Europe, and it described Brexit as comical.
Britains Sun newspaper headlined: Michel Barnier and his EU team truly do excel in being the most inflexible and arrogant bunch of people going.
In Washington Friday, Davis distanced himself from the blackmail comments of his cabinet colleague Fox, but he said, We are in a difficult, tough, complicated negotiation; it will be turbulent and what we are having is the first ripple, and there will be many more ripples along the way.
A convoy of Islamic State fighters and their families being evacuated into jihadist territory in east Syria remained in government-held areas of Syria on Friday, U.S.-led forces said.
"It has not managed to link up with any other ISIS elements in eastern Syria," said Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State.
There are about 300 fighters and about 300 civilians in the convoy, which the Syrian army and Lebanon's Hezbollah group granted safe passage after the jihadists surrendered their enclave on Syria's border with Lebanon.
But the coalition against Islamic State has used airstrikes to block the convoy from crossing into the group's main territory straddling Syria's eastern border with Iraq.
The Islamic State fighters in the border pocket accepted a truce and evacuation deal after simultaneous but separate offensives by the Lebanese army on one front and the Syrian army and Hezbollah on the other.
Coalition, Iraq opposed
It angered both the coalition, which does not want the fighters bussed to a battlefront in which it is active, and Iraq, which is fighting Islamic State across the border.
"We are continuing to monitor that convoy and will continue to disrupt its movement east to link up with any other ISIS element, and we will continue to strike any other ISIS elements that try to move towards it," Dillon said.
The coalition has asked Russia to tell the Syrian government that it will not allow the convoy to move further east to the Iraqi border, the coalition said in a statement.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gave prayers on Friday for Islam's Eid al-Adha festival in the town of Qara, near the enclave surrendered on Monday by the Islamic State fighters.
Confined to Damascus for long periods in the early part of Syria's six-year civil war, Assad has grown more confident in traveling around government-held areas as the army and its allies have won a series of victories.
Assad was shown on state television standing and kneeling on a green carpet in a packed mosque alongside Syrian religious leaders as he followed the imam giving prayers.
Syrian control
The departure of Islamic State and other groups from the Western Qalamoun district means the border with Lebanon is Syria's first to be controlled entirely by its army since early in the conflict.
Qara is only a few miles from the mountains delineating the frontier with Lebanon, in which Islamic State and other militant groups held territory until August.
Part of an agreed exchange under the truce went ahead on Thursday as wounded Islamic State fighters were swapped for the bodies of pro-government forces. But the fate of the main part of the convoy is uncertain.
"It was moving this morning and then they had stopped. ... I don't know if they stopped for a break or were trying to figure out what to do," Dillon said.
The front line between Syrian government forces and Islamic State in eastern Syria is active, as the army, aided by Russian jets and Iran-backed Shi'ite militias, presses an offensive to relieve its besieged enclave at Deir ez-Zor.
On Friday, a Syrian military source said the army and its allies had made an advance against Islamic State in that area and had also taken several villages in a jihadist enclave in central Syria.
Comedian Shelley Berman, who won gold records and appeared on top television shows in the 1950s and 1960s delivering wry monologues about the annoyances of everyday life, has died. He was 92.
Berman died Friday at his home in Bell Canyon, California, from complications from Alzheimer's disease, according to spokesman Glenn Schwartz.
Berman was a pioneer of a new brand of comedy that could evoke laughter from such matters as air travel discomforts and small children who answer the telephone. He helped pave the way for Bob Newhart, Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld and other standup comedians who fashioned their routines around the follies and frustrations of modern living.
Tributes came in Friday from Steve Martin, who tweeted that Berman "changed modern standup," and Richard Lewis, who said there was "no better wordsmith."
Late in his career, he played Nat David, father of Larry David, on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." With dialogue improvised by its cast, the comedy series gave Berman the opportunity to return to his improv roots and introduced him to a new generation of TV viewers.
"I'm not a standup comedian," Berman often insisted. "I work on a stool."
Comedy was not a childhood ambition for him. He trained as an actor, with the Goodman School of Drama in his native Chicago and with the prestigious actress-teacher Uta Hagen in New York.
"I had dreams of being an actor," he said in a 1960 interview. "For 10 years I tried, picking up small jobs in summer stock and TV. I had a hard time of it."
Nightclub routine
As a last resort, he put together a 20-minute routine and auditioned at the Chicago nightclub Mister Kelly's. He was given a job, and then he had to scramble to write more material for a half-hour show.
"I was always one of those life-of-the-party boys," he admitted, "though I never stooped to wearing women's hats or lampshades. I was always making people laugh, in school and later in life."
Berman's success in Chicago led to a booking in Las Vegas. He bombed. The gamblers didn't laugh, nor did they talk. Accustomed to slam-bang comics out of vaudeville and burlesque, they listened in amazement to the guy sitting on a stool and using big words with a routine that often consisted of one side of a make-believe phone call.
He continued on the saloon circuit, honing his craft and deciding on which direction to go. He didn't fit any category. He wasn't a joke teller nor a "sick" comedian. He figured he was a "humanist humorist."
Berman made the first of many appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1959. That year he issued his first album, Inside Shelley Berman. It won a gold record and received the first-ever Grammy Award for the spoken word. Two more albums achieved gold status.
Along with his busy schedule in nightclubs and auditoriums, he fulfilled his first ambition to be an actor. He appeared in a Broadway play, The Boys Against the Girls, in 1959 and a musical, A Family Affair, in 1962. His film debut came in 1964 with the adaptation of Gore Vidal's hit political stage drama, The Best Man, starring Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson.
"Not only an accomplished comedian, actor and author, Shelley was among the new breed of comedians who made a significant impact through recordings," The Recording Academy said in a statement. "Shelley will be deeply missed, but the influence he exerted on our creative community will remain forever."
Berman's comedy career stalled in 1963. He was performing his act before an audience for a documentary-style NBC show, Comedian Backstage, when a telephone ringing interrupted him; it was the second night it happened. He stormed backstage and ranted at everyone in sight. His outburst, edited to make him appear temperamental, was included in the telecast.
Back to acting
"Once you're known as being difficult, it becomes too hard to deal with management and even fellow artists," he remarked in 1986. The bookings fell off, and Berman returned to acting, with little luck. He and his wife, Sarah, were forced to file for bankruptcy, and he began a long struggle to pay off his taxes and creditors.
He found work in television series such as The Twilight Zone, Rawhide and Peter Gunn and occasional movies including Divorce American Style. He became active in regional theater and also worked his old routines before college and lecture audiences.
For more than 20 years he taught comedy at the University of Southern California.
In recent years, he landed guest roles on series including The King of Queens, Boston Legal and CSI: NY, and appeared in the film Meet the Fockers.
He retired from performing in 2014 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
Sheldon Leonard Berman was born in Chicago and attended public schools. After training as an actor, he joined an improvisational company in Chicago, Compass Players, the beginning of the famed Second City. Watching his fellow performers, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Berman said in 2000, "I learned more in two weeks than I did in four years at Goodman."
He married in 1947, and he credited Sarah with helping him to survive through his jobless period while trying to be a comedian, the bankruptcy, the rebuilding of his career and the loss of their son, Joshua. They also had a daughter, Rachel, who, along with his wife, survives him.
Berman said of his marriage: "The love we have and the way it has grown, that's what I'd like to be remembered for."
Japan is debating whether to develop a limited pre-emptive strike capability and buy cruise missiles ideas that were anathema in the pacifist country before the North Korea missile threat. With revisions to Japans defense plans underway, ruling party hawks are accelerating the moves, and some defense experts say Japan should at least consider them.
After being on the backburner in the ruling party for decades, a possibility of pre-emptive strike was formally proposed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by his partys missile defense panel in March, prompting parliamentary debate. But it somewhat lost steam as Abe seemed to avoid the divisive topic after seeing ratings for his scandal-laden government plunge.
North Koreas test-firing Tuesday of a missile, which flew over Japan and landed in the northern Pacific Ocean, has intensified fear and reignited the debate.
Should we possess pre-emptive strike capability? liberal-leaning Mainichi newspaper asked the following day. But isnt it too reckless to jump to discuss a get them before they get you approach?
Two-step missile defense
Japan has a two-step missile defense system. First, Standard Missile-3 interceptors on Aegis destroyers in the Sea of Japan would shoot down projectiles midflight and if that fails, surface-to-air PAC-3s would intercept them from within a 20-kilometer (12-mile) range. Technically, the setup can handle falling debris or missiles heading to Japan, but its not good enough for missiles on a high-lofted trajectory, those with multiple warheads or simultaneous multiple attacks, experts say.
A pre-emptive strike, by Japanese definition, is a step preceding the two-tier defense. Cruise missiles, such as Tomahawk, fired from Aegis destroyers or fighter jets would get the enemy missile clearly waiting to be fired, or just after blastoff from a North Korean launch site, before it approaches Japan.
Japans self-defense-only principle under the countrys war-renouncing constitution prohibits its military from making a first strike, and officials discussing a limited pre-emptive strike are calling it a strike-back instead. Whichever the language, it further loosens postwar Japans pacifist principle and could strain its relations with China, which is suspicious of Tokyos intentions. There are gray areas as to how far Japan can go and still justify minimum self-defense.
Some experts are skeptical about how it would work. North Koreas secretive, diversified and mobile launch system makes it extremely difficult to track down and incapacitate the weapons with Japans limited cruise missile attacks, security expert Ken Jimbo at Keio University said in a recent article. A pre-emptive strike capability would also require trillions of dollars to set up spy satellites, reconnaissance aircraft, cruise missiles, as well as training of special units, experts say.
North Koreas capabilities
North Korea flight-tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles in July and has threatened to send missiles near the U.S. territory of Guam, home to key military bases. The North has short-range missiles that cover Japan and possibly has achieved miniaturized nuclear warheads, the Defense Ministrys annual report says.
North Korea has demonstrated its capability to hit targets anywhere in Japan, said Narushige Michishita, a defense expert at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. It has become even more important for Japan to improve its missile and civil defense capabilities, and seriously think about acquiring limited but meaningful strike capabilities.
Abe called Tuesdays missile firing unprecedented, grave and serious threat. Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, an advocate of bolstering Japans missile and strike-back capability, said more provocations by the North are likely and Tokyo must quickly upgrade its missile arsenal.
The Defense Ministry announced Thursday a record 5.26 trillion yen ($48 billion) budget for fiscal 2018, which would cover purchase of upgraded missile defense systems such as land-based Aegis Ashore interceptors or the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, a mobile equipment Washington and Seoul have installed in South Korea. Beijing, which says THAADs powerful radar can reach deep into China and wants it removed, could react sharply if it is installed in Japan.
Abe, since taking office five years ago, has expanded Japans military role, allowing it to take on a greater task in international peacekeeping. In 2015, his government allowed Japan to fight for its allies when they come under enemy attack, a condition known as collective self-defense, by re-interpreting part of the constitution and railroading a new security legislation that sparked massive protests.
Pre-emptive strike, however, is an even more sensitive and divisive topic and the government may have to prioritize upgrading missile interceptors for now, says Tetsuo Kotani, senior research fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs. Polls show most Japanese fear North Koreas missile threat and support bolstering Japans intercepting capability, but in terms of pre-emptive strike, opponents overwhelmed supporters.
Prime Minister Abe seems to have turned hesitant about discussing pre-emptive strikes, Kotani said, suggesting Abes declining popularity is causing his reluctance to push the issue. Public debate of pre-emptive strikes may slow down.
The Kalashnikov corporation's recent unveiling of a fully armored anti-riot vehicle already has Russia's political opposition organizers up in arms.
Slated to go into service for Russia's newly formed National Guard less than a year before Russian presidential elections, the gargantuan armored tactical vehicle replete with water cannons, ballistic projectile loopholes and a 24-foot reinforced retractable shield capable of protecting up to 38 officers is technically not classified as a weapon.
Although the monstrously large "Shchit," or "Shield," is designed to disperse unauthorized rallies, Alexey Krivoruchko, Kalashnikov Concern's chief executive, told journalists the vehicle was not designed under Kremlin contract.
"This new special equipment was developed in the spirit of innovation," Krivoruchko said. "Besides the Shield, we're also working to introduce new design solutions for wheeled armored vehicles in the domestic market and for export deliveries."
According to the state-run RIA Novosti news outlet, Kalashnikov Concern, known for creating the iconic AK-47 assault rifle, routinely secures Russian defense industry contracts in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Andrei Pivovarov, coordinator of the St. Petersburg branch of the opposition Open Russia democratic alliance, told VOA's Russian service that the Shield represents an unprecedented step toward an increasingly hard-line approach to cracking down on political rallies in Russia.
'Monsters'
"I've never seen images of such monsters in any other countries," Pivovarov said, adding that the vehicle puts Russian security personnel in the global vanguard of militarized civilian police forces. "Even in countries where there is quite serious unrest Venezuela, for example police have individual shields. But this? This is a work of military art."
National Guard deployment of the Shield, he added, indicates the Kremlin anticipates robust street protests ahead of the presidential elections set for early 2018.
"Why else would the Internal Affairs Ministry buy something like this?" said Pivovarov, who has repeatedly been detained at anti-Kremlin protests. "It's not about investing in education, not health care. It's about preserving the current political system."
Russian officials have not issued a statement about the vehicle.
"Everything about this shows that the common people have a desire to take to the streets and express their displeasure," Pivovarov added. "And clearly the authorities are preparing for this."
Maxim Reznik of Russia's Party of Growth, which has representatives in several local legislatures, largely echoed that sentiment.
"The use of this armor will only pour more oil on the fire of conflict," Reznik told VOA. "Contact between society and the state is degrading so much that it's leading to an explosion."
An increasingly militaristic response to Russian street protests, he added, will only further alienate politically conscious youth.
"People will now be a bit more afraid to go to a protest rally, sure, but they will hate power even more," he said. "In general, the brave isn't the one who isn't afraid, but the one who overcomes his fear. In that regard, no amount [of] powerful cars will help."
Gennady Gudkov, a former State Duma deputy, told VOA that deployment of the Shield suggested the government of President Vladimir Putin was "preparing for war with their own people."
"We see this in the stiffness of actions of the riot police, who grab protesters for coming out with white ribbons, and of course the government won't follow any norms of humanity and law," he said.
"Look, it's armored to protect flanks of riot police ... and squeeze people from the rally," he added, claiming the vehicle is also capable of firing tear gas "or live ammunition."
Ports for weapons use
Although Russian police have not said they intend to equip the vehicle with munitions, the machine has ports in the shield for firing projectiles.
"It is clear that there will be injuries, fractures and so on, and everything will go unpunished and painless for those who will be inside these cars," Gudkov said.
Equipping guardsmen with such a formidable piece of equipment, he said, is a significant symbolic gesture by Putin.
"He wants to show that he is not as soft as Mikhail Gorbachev. No, he's cool, he's macho and will not let anyone down," Gudkov said. "The very fact of the publication of photographs of armored vehicles indicates that the Kremlin people are ready to fight the people of Russia with rather ruthless methods of punishment.
" ... You can safely predict that a protest [confronted by this vehicle] will be radicalized in the most rapid manner. And the huge experience of street fighting accumulated by our people, beginning with the revolution of 1905, and including the partisan struggle of the Second World War, should not be written off from accounts," he said.
"It won't frighten people who are ready for decisive steps," Gudkov added.
According to the Russia's TASS news agency, Kalashnikov's sales in 2016 reached RUB18.3 billion ($319 million), a 123 percent increase over 2015.
Kalashnikov's website claims it has already generated $57 million from government contracts in the first of half of 2017.
This report originated in VOA's Russian service.
Natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey are a threat not only to human life but also to telecommunication systems. When they go down, entire cities and communities are cut off from each other. Mesh networks, however, can get people connected again, and during emergencies they can be a crucial link to information.
"It really all boils down to the 'central point of failure' problem," said Daniela Perdomo. "If the central infrastructure goes down, everyone who plugs into it is also disconnected."
Perdomo would know. When Superstorm Sandy hit New York City in 2012, lower Manhattan was left in the dark, with no electricity or connectivity.
Unable to use cellular networks, the New Yorker and her brother eventually decided to do something about it. The two co-founded goTenna, a line of products that use low-frequency radio waves to send SMS text messages and GPS information.
Their latest product is the goTenna Mesh, a mesh networking device that works independently of traditional cellular networks.
Originally developed for military use, mesh networks spread connectivity over multiple nodes, or connection points, that communicate with each other.
Strength in numbers
"Any individual Wi-Fi device doesn't reach very far, but if you can chain many of them together, then you can provide access over a wider area," said Joshua King, lead developer at Commotion Wireless, an open-source software initiative for mesh networks.
If at least one node is connected to the internet, the signal can be shared and multiple users can connect as well. If there is no internet connection, a mesh network can still function as a hyperlocal server for emergency information and basic messaging, like texts.
In emergency situations like Hurricane Harvey, this basic network can mean the difference between life and death.
King said the advantage of mesh networks is that they are dynamically routed if one node goes down, others take its place. "A mesh network can potentially route around any kind of damage, if there is another path for the traffic to go," he said.
"The idea is to make telecommunication systems more modular, more distributed. So that even if centralized points fail, you would still have working telecommunications in different areas," said Greta Byrum, director of the Resilient Communities program at research institution New America.
Centralized systems' flaws
King and Byrum were at a recent Columbia University forum called Sneakercon to discuss the buildout of offline networks in local communities.
"I think it's important for thinking about the future of utilities and telecommunications, because we're finding more and more that centralized systems just don't make sense at scale," Byrum said.
Byrum and her colleagues teach communities how to build their own mesh networks using everyday, off-the-shelf equipment. In a workshop at Sneakercon, participants were learning to make their own "PNKs" or Portable Network Kits, using wireless routers and small portable computers like the Raspberry Pi.
"[It's] about community control, community power," said Byrum. "People start thinking about things like telecommunications sovereignty who controls the internet, who controls what we say online, who benefits from it, who gets the data?"
"Why can't we empower people to create their own connectivity?" said Perdomo, "And create more of a people-powered, bottom-up network as opposed to a heavy infrastructure top-down network?"
When it comes to weathering the storm, mesh networks are restoring power in more ways than one.
The U.S. State Department said Saturday that it had seized control of three diplomatic posts vacated by Russia at the request of the U.S. government.
In an email Saturday, a State Department official said the posts were inspected in walk-throughs with Russian officials, and not forcibly searched as implied in a statement by Russia's Foreign Ministry.
The Kremlin has accused Washington of bullying tactics and claimed that FBI officials threatened to break down the door to one of the facilities.
The emailed statement from the U.S. official said the inspections were meant only to "secure and protect the facilities and to confirm that the Russian government had vacated the premises."
The statement was sent to reporters on condition of anonymity.
Earlier Saturday, Russia's Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Anthony Godfrey, a deputy chief at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, over the planned "illegal inspection" of a Russian diplomatic building in Washington.
The Russians called the planned inspection an "unprecedented aggressive action" and said U.S. authorities might use it as an opportunity for "planting compromised items" in the Russian compound.
The compound in Washington was one of three that were shuttered as the U.S. and Russia have engaged in a diplomatic tit-for-tat over the past several months. The other two diplomatic buildings ordered closed are in San Francisco and New York.
A spokeswoman for the ministry, Maria Zakharova, said the searches would "create a direct threat to the security of Russian citizens."
Zakharova said in a statement Friday, "American special services intend on September 2 to carry out a search of the consulate in San Francisco, including of the apartments of employees who live in the building and have [diplomatic] immunity."
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that firefighters were called to the site of the consulate, but were not allowed to enter, after black smoke was seen billowing from a chimney. Firefighters determined that the fire was confined to a fireplace somewhere in the building.
A spokeswoman for the San Francisco Fire Department, Mindy Talmadge, told reporters she did not know what people inside the building would be burning on a day when the outdoor temperature was around 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).
According to a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, the smoke came as part of efforts to "preserve the building" at a time when officials were gearing up to leave.
The move to close the buildings came in response to a demand from Moscow that Washington reduce its diplomatic staff in Russia.
"In the spirit of parity invoked by the Russians, we are requiring the Russian government to close its Consulate General in San Francisco, a chancery annex in Washington, D.C., and a consular annex in New York City," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Thursday, adding that the deadline for the closures was September 2.
A U.S. drone strike reportedly has killed a key al-Shabab commander in southern Somalia, officials tell VOA.
Local sources said the strike on Friday targeted a vehicle in which several al-Shabab officials were traveling near Kunya Barrow village in the southern Somali region of Lower Shabelle.
"I can confirm that the airstrike happened on Friday. It was carried out by a suspected U.S. drone. The strike targeted al-Shabab officials. Our intelligence sources confirm that a top al-Shabab commander in charge of recruiting fighters for the militants was killed in the strike, said Aden Omar, the district commissioner of Barawe town in the Lower Shabelle region.
He identified the dead officer as Abu-Xudeyfi, but local sources put his name as Sheekh Abdirahman Xudeyfi.
The killed official was named Abu-Xudeyfi, probably his al-Shabab name; we are currently assessing if any other al-Shabab official was hit in the attack, and will provide additional information as appropriate," said Omar.
The news of the drone strike broke on Friday as Muslims across the world, including Somalis, were celebrating the festival of Eid al-Adha - Islams most revered observance.
Controversial raid
Last month, a controversial joint raid involving U.S. troops in Somalia killed at least 10 people including three children in the village of Bariire in Lower Shabelle.
The incident caused a rift between the U.S.-backed Somali government and leaders of a powerful clan that claimed innocent farmers of their own were massacred.
In July, the U.S. military in Africa killed one of the militants top jihadists, Ali Muhammad Hussein, known as Ali Jabal, in a successful kinetic strike. Jabal oversaw al-Shababs operations in the capital city of Mogadishu and led forces across two regions in southern Somalia.
The latest strike comes a day after the Somali government asked the United States to provide "immediate military assistance to prevent al-Shabab from transporting uranium to Iran.
A letter from Somali Foreign Minister Yusuf Garaad Omar to U.S. Ambassador to Somalia Stephen Schwartz, widely published by the Somali media on Friday, said the militant group had captured "critical surface exposed uranium deposits" in the central Somali region of Galmudug and intend to transport the uranium to Iran.
The authenticity of the letter was confirmed to VOA's Somali Service by the Somali ambassador to the U.S., Ahmed Isse Awad.
Months after U.S. President Donald Trump approved increased operations in Somalia, the U.S. military supporting special forces of the Somali National Army intensified its operations in the region. A U.S. Navy SEAL was killed in one of the operations in May.
Al-Shabab is waging war on the Western-backed Somali government in Mogadishu. Several dozen U.S. troops are deployed in Somalia in an advise-and-assist capacity, and U.S. security advisers regularly call in airstrikes on al-Shabab leaders and training camps.
Floodwaters are beginning to recede around Houston, and although Hurricane Harvey has dissipated, the health problems have not. In fact, some are just beginning.
Aerial views of Houston Friday showed that just about everything is under water. Its whats in and under that water that has public health workers concerned. More people could die after Harveys long gone than during the worst of the storm. Health officials are telling people to stay out of the water if possible, although its too late for many.
Downed power lines electrocuted at least two volunteer rescuers when their boat hit the power lines they couldnt see. And a young man, Andrew Pasek, died after he stepped into electrified water in his familys yard. Pasek and a friend went back to the family home to search for his sisters cat. Jodelle Pasek, his mother, said her sons last words were, Im dying, as he warned the friend not to follow him.
WATCH: As Texas Flooding Recedes, Health Hazards Likely to Emerge
Tens of thousands of residents of Houston, the fourth most populous city in the U.S., fled their homes as the water continued to rise, many at a moments notice. Virginia Rogers Grasso, an elderly woman who was taken to the citys convention center, which is now being used as a shelter, said she didnt want to leave her home, but authorities told her it was mandatory and that her house is fixing to be flooded.
Medicines left behind
People with diabetes didnt have time to collect lifesaving medications like insulin. Others left without blood pressure or cholesterol controlling drugs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, local hospitals and pharmacies are helping out. Doctors have volunteered to help with routine medical care.
Dr. Mehdi Ravazi, a cardiologist at Texas Heart Institute, told VOA that he went to the convention center to provide basic medical care. Ravazi said he didnt see anything out of the ordinary at the shelter.
Beyond flooding
But, with lots of water and daytime temperatures in the 30s (90s Fahrenheit), Dr. Samuel Dorevitch says Houston is a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and bacteria. Dorevitch is an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois in Chicago who specializes in waterborne illnesses.
The public health concerns following Hurricane Harvey go way beyond the immediate flooding and rainwater, Dorevitch said. The concerns extend to mosquitoes and the diseases they carry when standing water is available, especially in containers.
Dorevitch also said people exposed to floodwater can develop multidrug-resistant staph infections. Photos and video of Texans in the flood zone show hundreds of people walking in water. Any cut could lead to a serious infection. And then theres E.coli, bacteria that can also be deadly and is very likely in the floodwater.
If wastewater treatment facilities are overwhelmed, theres potential for sewage to get into the water, Dorevitch said. And then theres the drinking water that comes out of the tap, which is threatened, as well, by flooding thats limiting the activity at one of Houstons drinking water treatment plants right now.
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a statement saying it will test floodwater samples as well as drinking water and wastewater facilities. The agency is warning people not to drink or bathe with well water, which is commonly used in Texas. Even in homes, water that has flooded storage areas for pesticide or other products containing hazardous chemicals is not safe to walk in. People who waded through flood waters with open sores or wounds, or who were cut, scraped, or punctured by objects in the water, should ask their doctor if they need a tetanus shot.
Mental health concerns
As the water recedes, mold and respiratory problems caused by mold can increase. Mold can grow in water-soaked walls, insulation, furniture and carpeting, even in ceilings where roofs leaked or were damaged during the storm.
The CDC said its Emergency Operations Center is now activated to bring together CDC staff to respond to public health needs and to send resources and personnel if requested. It has set up medical stations in Louisiana and in Texas. Those in Texas are now operational.
And finally, Dorevitch says, mental health is also a concern. It can be overlooked in the haste to get Houston and other cities running again, but the tragedy of losing everything and those who lost family members or friends can suffer lasting trauma. Much of the video coming from Texas shows people, young and old, weeping for the homes, family photos and the former lives they have lost.
U.S. President Donald Trump spent a day visiting with hurricane victims, ending it with a short stop in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where he shook hands and posed for photographs with emergency response teams.
Trump made no public remarks during his short stop in Louisiana, but he met with storm victims and promised a speedy recovery from the ravages of Hurricane Harvey.
Harvey made landfall in Texas last weekend, devastating coastal communities and pouring record-setting amounts of rain on much of southeastern Texas and the neighboring state of Louisiana. On Saturday, Texas officials said the death toll from the storm had risen to 44.
'We have a long way to go'
Earlier Saturday, Trump spoke to a crowd of survivors in Houston at the First Church of Pearland.
We have a long way to go, but the water is disappearing, Trump said.
You look at the neighborhoods, he continued. Even yesterday they had water and today its all swept up and cleaned up. ... You got a lot of hardworking people, Ill tell you that.
The president was making his second visit to Texas in the space of a week, to show support for Texans coping with the massive flooding in the city of Houston. First lady Melania Trump accompanied him on the visit.
The Trumps visited the NRG Center, a shelter in Houston, where the first lady spend some of her time at the shelters Kids Zone donating books, crayons and games for the children.
The Trumps also visited a distribution center at the First Church of Pearland, where the first lady donated diapers, one of the items most requested from the church.
President Trump met with residents and volunteers, something he did not do during his initial visit to the area Tuesday, when he focused exclusively on the governments response to the storm and drew criticism for not showing more empathy in a crisis situation.
Also Saturday, the president increased the amount of federal aid contributed to cost-sharing for cleanup efforts, from 75 percent to 90 percent federal support for debris removal. The White House said in a statement that 100 percent of expenses for emergency protective measures will be covered by federal assistance.
Trumps request to Congress, considered just an initial Harvey relief package, includes $7.4 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agencys (FEMA) rapidly dwindling disaster aid fund for things like home repairs and $450 million for disaster loans to small-business owners. Congress is expected to swiftly approve the request.
Nearly 450,000 households in the region have registered for FEMA aid, according to the White House.
Search and rescue
Rescuers continued their search Saturday for survivors in Texas eight days after Harvey began sweeping through the region. Houston Mayor Turner warned some residents their homes may not dry out for weeks.
The storm has displaced more than 1 million people.
As floodwaters began to recede, some Texans began returning to their homes to begin the sobering task of assessing the damage inflicted by Harvey.
However, Turner called for more evacuations in western neighborhoods of the city that are near two overflowing reservoirs. The Army Corps of Engineers continues to intentionally flood those areas to prevent dam and levee failures. Turner said up to 20,000 homes will remain flooded for another two weeks.
Houston-area officials said Friday that 156,000 homes have been damaged in Harris County, which includes Houston, the countrys fourth most populous city.
Immigrants
In Harris County, which includes Houston, residents contemplated the daunting task of rebuilding their lives, with one group of people grappling with a special set of concerns. Immigrants who are in the country illegally are afraid that if they apply for help they will be arrested. Outreach workers have been deployed to reassure them that they will not be detained when they seek help.
Houston Mayor Turner had said earlier in the week he would personally represent anyone arrested on immigration violations after seeking help
Cesar Espinosa, executive director of Immigrant Families and Students in the Struggle, said Turners statement was a big deal for immigrants. When they hear it from an official, they say, OK, now we believe it, he added.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said it is not conducting immigration enforcement operations in the affected area.
Refineries
The storm shut about a fourth of U.S. refinery capacity, much of which is located along the Gulf Coast, and caused gasoline prices to spike ahead of the Labor Day holiday weekend.
Several refineries on the East Coast have run out of gasoline, raising fears that travelers will face fuel shortages during the three-day holiday weekend.
Concerns over supplies have led to the U.S. Energy Department authorizing the release of up to 4.5 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
WATCH: VOA's Celia Mendoze talks risky rescue with Texas National Guard pilot
U.S. President Donald Trumps attacks on the media are part of a global trend of hostility to freedom of speech and damage the U.S. public interest, a U.N. human rights expert said Friday.
David Kaye, the U.N. special rapporteur on the freedom of expression, said Trumps attacks, such as a Feb. 17 tweet listing news outlets that he considered the enemy of the American People, were not without purpose.
They have concrete aims: to intimidate reporters into certain kinds of coverage, or clarify for his favored outlets what coverage he desires, or plant the seeds of doubt about news stories (such as the Russia investigation led by Robert Mueller).
The presidents broadsides also serve to silence criticism of his policies and to undermine the publics right to know what the government was doing with their tax dollars, he said.
The primary victim of Trumps campaign against independent news is the American public. He may see it as valuable politically, but its wrong, and it risks doing long-term damage to a core value, Kaye wrote in an article published on the Just Security online forum.
When we tie together the jeremiads and rhetoric with what the Trump administration is doing in other governing spaces, the practice of attacking the press becomes clearer as policy than solely reckless rant, he wrote.
Kayes analysis of Trumps attacks on the media comes two days after U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein raised the question of whether Trumps remarks amounted to an incitement to attack journalists.
President Trumps statements are indeed reckless, but they are consistent with a troubling trend of hostility toward open and honest government, Kaye wrote. And sadly, from the global perspective, its part of a general trend of hostility to freedom of expression, online and off.
Freedom of the press existed, Kaye said, because the public had a right to information. He referred to an Aug. 4 press conference where Attorney General Jeff Sessions demanded that the culture of leaking must stop.
Sessions intent was not only to deter sources and whistleblowers but to deprive the public of stories of the highest public interest about the administration, Kaye said.
He said Trump was a regular purveyor of fake news, defined as intentionally fraudulent information given to the public, and his administration operated as if it had something to hide.
More than 2,600 houses have been burned down in Rohingya-majority areas of Myanmars northwest in the last week, the government said Saturday, in one of the deadliest bouts of violence involving the Muslim minority in decades.
About 58,600 Rohingya have fled into neighboring Bangladesh from Myanmar, according to U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, as aid workers there struggle to cope.
Myanmar officials blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for the burning of the homes. The group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on security posts last week that prompted clashes and a large army counter-offensive.
But Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh say a campaign of arson and killings by the Myanmar army is aimed at trying to force them out.
Challenge for Aung San Suu Kyi
The treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmars roughly 1.1 million Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for a minority that has long complained of persecution.
The clashes and army crackdown have killed nearly 400 people and more than 11,700 ethnic residents have been evacuated from the area, the government said, referring to the non-Muslim population of northern Rakhine.
It marks a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since October, when similar but much smaller Rohingya attacks on security posts prompted a brutal military response dogged by allegations of rights abuses.
A total of 2,625 houses from Kotankauk, Myinlut and Kyikanpyin villages and two wards in Maungtaw were burned down by the ARSA extremist terrorists, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said Saturday. The group has been declared a terrorist organization by Myanmar government.
Human Rights Watch blames military
But New York-based Human Rights Watch, which analyzed satellite imagery and accounts from Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, said the Myanmar security forces deliberately set the fires.
New satellite imagery shows the total destruction of a Muslim village, and prompts serious concerns that the level of devastation in northern Rakhine state may be far worse than originally thought, said the groups deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson.
Near the Naf River separating Myanmar and Bangladesh on Saturday, new arrivals in Bangladesh carrying their belongings in sacks were setting up crude shelters or trying to squeeze into available shelters or homes of local residents.
The existing camps are near full capacity and numbers are swelling fast. In the coming days there needs to be more space, said UNHCR regional spokeswoman Vivian Tan, adding that more refugees were expected. The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and regarded as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots that date back centuries. Bangladesh is also growing increasingly hostile to Rohingya, more than 400,000 of whom live in the poor South Asian country after fleeing Myanmar since the early 1990s.
Jalal Ahmed, 60, who arrived in Bangladesh on Friday with a group of about 3,000 after walking from Kyikanpyin for almost a week, said he believed the Rohingya were being pushed out of Myanmar.
The military came with 200 people to the village and started fires. ... All the houses in my village are already destroyed. If we go back there and the army sees us, they will shoot, he said.
Reuters could not independently verify these accounts as access for independent journalists to northern Rakhine has been restricted since security forces locked down the area.
When U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson returned to Earth on Saturday from the International Space Station, she will have spent more time in space than any other American.
Whitson logged 665 days in space over three separate missions, the equivalent of about one year and 10 months outside the Earth's atmosphere.
The world record belongs to Russian Astronaut Gennady Padalka, who spent 879 days in space.
Whitson landed Saturday night in Kazakhstan in a Russian Soyuz capsule. She next travels to Germany before heading home to Houston, which is still crippled from Hurricane Harvey.
Whitson said in an email to the Associated Press that her home was not damaged in the storm. However, she said the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston was temporarily closed except for essential personnel, such as those staffing Mission Control for the space station mission.
"Any trepidations I might have about returning in the aftermath of a hurricane are entirely eclipsed by the all those folks keeping our mission going," she said.
Whitson, a biochemist, began her third and latest mission on the International Space Station last November. During the mission, she performed a spacewalk and also become the first woman to command the space station twice.
She and the other crew members aboard the International Space Station also pursued hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science.
At 57, Whitson is the oldest woman to have been in space.
The astronaut has said she is unsure whether this most recent space mission will be her last.
NASA initially scheduled a press conference earlier this week with Whitson, to be broadcast from the space station, but said it would have to be rescheduled because of the impact of Hurricane Harvey in Houston.
Mysterious health attacks on the American diplomatic community in Cuba continued as recently as August, the United States said Friday, despite earlier U.S. assessments that the attacks had long stopped. The U.S. increased its tally of government personnel affected to 19.
The new U.S. disclosures came the same day that the union representing American diplomats said mild traumatic brain injury was among the diagnoses given to diplomats victimized in the attacks. In the most detailed account of the symptoms to date, the American Foreign Service Association said permanent hearing loss was another diagnosis, and that additional symptoms had included brain swelling, severe headaches, loss of balance and cognitive disruption.
Investigation continues
At the State Department, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. was continually revising its assessments of the scope of the attacks as new information was obtained. She said the investigation had not been completed.
We can confirm another incident which occurred last month and is now part of the investigation, Nauert said.
U.S. officials had previously said that the attacks, initially believed to be caused by a potential covert sonic device, had started in fall 2016 and continued until spring 2017. Last week, Nauert had said at least 16 Americans associated with the U.S. Embassy in Havana had been affected, but that the incidents were no longer occurring.
The evolving assessment from the U.S. government suggested that investigators were still far from any thorough understanding of what transpired in the attacks, which officials have described as unlike anything the U.S. has experienced.
Who is behind the attacks?
Moreover, the fact there was an incident as recently as August indicated the attacks continued long after the U.S. government became aware of them and ostensibly raised the issue with the Cuban government. That revelation created further uncertainty about the timeline of the attacks and who was responsible.
Notably, the U.S. has avoided accusing Cubas government of being behind the attacks. The U.S. did expel two Cuban diplomats, but the State Department emphasized that was in protest of the Cubans failure to protect the safety of American diplomats while on their soil, not an indication the U.S. felt that Havana masterminded it.
U.S. investigators have been searching for a device that could have harmed the health of the diplomats, believed to have been attacked in their homes in Havana, but officials have said no device had been found.
We cant rule out new cases as medical professionals continue to evaluate members of the embassy community, Nauert said. She added that the embassy has a medical officer and has been consistently providing care to those who have reported incidents.
Asked for further details about what the U.S. had learned about the cause or culprit in the attacks, the State Department said it had no more information to share.
Canadian affected as well
But in Canada, a government official said that the Canadian government had first learned in March 2017 that one of its citizens had been affected. Ottawa previously confirmed that at least one Canadian diplomat was involved, but had not revealed any timeline for when it occurred or came to light. The official wasnt authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.
Its unclear whether Canadians were intentionally targeted or whether there could have been collateral damage from an attack aimed at Americans, given that diplomats from various countries often live in the same areas of a foreign capital. U.S. officials have said the Americans were targeted in their homes in Havana, not in the Embassy.
Canadian officials have been actively working with U.S. and Cuban authorities to ascertain the cause. A Cuban attack deliberately targeting Canadians would be even more confounding, given that Canada, unlike the U.S., has long had friendly ties to Cuba.
Diplomats suffered brain injury
The American Foreign Service Association, in describing the damage to diplomats health, said it had met with or spoken to 10 diplomats affected, but did not specify how many of the 10 had been diagnosed with hearing loss or with mild traumatic brain injury, commonly called a concussion.
Yet the confirmation that at least diplomats suffered brain injury suggested the attacks caused more serious damage than the hearing-related complaints that were initially reported.
Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, typically results from a bump, jolt or other external force that disrupts normal brain functioning, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Short- and long-term effects can include changes to memory and reasoning, sight and balance, language abilities and emotions.
Not all traumatic brain injuries are the same. Doctors evaluate patients using various clinical metrics such as the Glasgow Coma Scale, in which a numerical score is used to classify TBIs as mild, moderate or severe.
AFSA strongly encourages the Department of State and the U.S. Government to do everything possible to provide appropriate care for those affected, and to work to ensure that these incidents cease and are not repeated, the union said in a statement.
A judge in Virginia heard arguments but didnt issue a final ruling Friday on whether a lawsuit over Charlottesvilles decision to remove the Confederate monument should proceed. A decision that helped spark a violent white nationalist rally.
The judge sided with Charlottesville on some points, removing them from further consideration. But he said he needed more time to study the main issue, the question of whether a state law on memorials for war veterans amended in the 1990s applies retroactively, protecting the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee.
White nationalists descended on Charlottesville last month, in part to protest the citys plan to take the statue out of a downtown park and sell it. Fights broke out before the rally got started, with attendees and counterprotesters brawling in the streets. After authorities forced the crowd to disperse, a car rammed into a group of people protesting the white nationalists, killing one woman and injuring many more.
Since then, Charlottesville has shrouded the monument, and one of Confederate Gen. Thomas Stonewall Jackson, with a black tarp as a symbol of mourning for 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
On Friday, the judge spent hours hearing from attorneys on both sides and asking them questions.
Deputy city attorney Lisa Robertson cited previous case law and an opinion from Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring in arguing that the war memorials law does not apply to those erected before 1997, when the statute was amended.
It must be applied prospectively only, she said.
But an attorney for the plaintiffs, who include area residents and the Virginia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said plain common sense shows it applies to the Lee statue.
They didnt pass this thinking, OK, next year were going to build some monument to the Revolutionary War, attorney Ralph Main said.
The violence in Charlottesville has fueled a re-evaluation of Confederate statues, symbols and namesakes in cities across the nation, accelerating their removal in much the same way that a 2015 mass shooting by a white supremacist in South Carolina renewed pressure to take down the Confederate flag from public property.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Sales of new cars, trucks drop in August
Hurricane Harvey took a toll on U.S. auto sales last month.
Sales of new cars and trucks fell two percent in August, Autodata reported Friday. The hurricane hurt demand in the Houston area the nations ninth-largest vehicle market cutting sales by an estimated 20,000 vehicles, forecasting firm LMC Automotive said.
Not everyone reported bad news Friday. General Motors said its sales rose 7.5 percent compared with last August. Toyotas were up 7 percent, and Volkswagens rose 9 percent. All three automakers reported strong sales of SUVs.
Hyundais sales, however, plummeted 25 percent. Nissans dropped 13 percent, and Fiat Chryslers were down 11 percent. Ford and Honda both saw sales drop 2 percent.
But sales will likely pick up soon as consumers replace damaged cars. Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for Cox Automotive, estimated that 300,000 to 500,000 vehicles will need to be replaced as a result of the storm.
Associated Press
CYBERSECURITY
Cable app records found unsecured
More than 4 million records of users of Time Warner Cables MyTWC app were found unsecured on an Amazon.com server last month, Kromtech Security Center said Friday.
The files containing sensitive data such as user names, transaction IDs, Mac addresses and account numbers were discovered Aug. 24, without a password, by Kromtech researchers, the company said.
Charter Communications, Time Warner Cables parent, said in an email that a vendor has notified us that certain nonfinancial information of legacy Time Warner Cable customers who used the MyTWC app became potentially visible by external sources.
The information was removed immediately after the discovery, Charter said, and the incident is being investigated. The breach, Charter said, was linked to BroadSoft, the communications firm whose unit developed the MyTWC app. (Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
Reuters
FEDERAL RESERVE
N.Y. Fed chief cleared of ethics violation
William Dudley, who heads the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, violated a code of conduct by failing to disclose that his sister was an employee at Wells Fargo, according to a probe into potential conflicts of interest.
But the investigation into Dudleys actions and correspondence, made public Friday, concluded that the omission did not violate ethics laws, had no bearing on the U.S. central bank and would not have required a waiver or recusal.
The May-July probe was conducted by an outside law firm and the conclusion accepted by the New York Fed ethics office and its board of directors.
Dudley, an influential rate-setter and close ally of Fed Chair Janet L. Yellen, said in a statement that the omission, dating back to 2007, was inadvertent.
Reuters
Also in Business
The Bureau of Land Management plans to allow oil and gas drilling on public land near Dinosaur National Monument in northeastern Utah. The federal agency said Friday that it plans to offer drilling rights on about 145 square miles in a December online auction. Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert (R) has expressed concern that drilling in the area could be disruptive for visitors to the 330-square-mile site. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance said that the leases could damage culturally significant land.
A South Carolina couple is suing online retailer Amazon.com over what they claim were faulty pairs of eclipse glasses that caused eye injuries, headaches and blurry vision. Thomas Corey Payne and Kayla Harris say in court papers filed this week that they suffered the symptoms after viewing the total solar eclipse Aug. 21 using glasses bought on Amazon. On Aug. 10, the retailer began notifying customers via email of a recall of eclipse glasses it couldn't verify as having been manufactured by reputable companies. (Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
U.S. construction spending fell 0.6 percent in July as strength in home construction was not enough to offset weakness in nonresidential building and government projects, the Commerce Department said Friday. Spending on home construction rose 0.8 percent as spending on single-family homes and remodeling offset a drop in apartment building. Spending on nonresidential projects declined 1.9 percent. Spending on government projects fell 1.4 percent.
From news reports
The consulting firm Veritas of Washington had been in business just over a year when it won a lucrative contract to salvage D.C.s only public hospital. Key members of its management team had led a New York hospital that filed for bankruptcy. The District would become its sole client.
After the administration of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) who received more than $35,000 in political donations from the firms founders, family and affiliated companies, campaign-finance records show authorized a no-bid contract for consultants to stanch financial losses at United Medical Center, Veritas began work for a fee of $300,000 per month.
A year and a half later, the hospital continues to face financial uncertainty and is coping with new medical crises including regulators closure of the obstetrics ward last month because of unsafe conditions. And public records reviewed by The Washington Post show Veritas has failed to meet a number of the citys standards for managing the hospital.
[Dangerous mistakes led to shut down of obstetrics ward]
A recent report on the Veritas contract by city officials states the firm, which has collected about $5 million in taxpayer dollars, has delivered about a tenth of the $9 million in extra revenue it projected it would generate for the hospital this fiscal year.
WASHINGTON, DC - AUGUST 31: United Medical Center is seen on Thursday, August 31, 2017, in Washington, D.C. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
Veritas is on track to meet its overarching mandate: District officials predict the hospital will end the year with a razor-thin profit margin after years of red ink and taxpayer subsidies. But records show that is largely because of billing improvements overseen by D.C. Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey S. DeWitt.
Meanwhile, the companys employees have billed tens of thousands of dollars in work-related expenses to the city.
The District is reimbursing two Veritas managers hospital chief executive Luis Hernandez and quality manager Diane Kelly an average of more than $7,400 a month to fly back and forth to D.C. from their homes in Florida and North Carolina. During the week, the District pays for them to rent apartments at National Harbor in Maryland, according to expense reports reviewed by The Post. Even their gas and electricity bills are reimbursed by taxpayers.
Such spending has continued as UMC remains in precarious financial shape and continues to generate complaints from its patients, many of whom come from the poorest and most violent neighborhoods in the nations capital.
Finiya Johnson, 20, gave birth at UMC in January before health regulators halted deliveries. She said only one doctor was attending to multiple women on the obstetrics ward and, as a result, nurses tried to delay her delivery. When her son was born, he was not breathing and needed to be resuscitated, she said.
Its just horrible, Johnson said, standing outside the hospital on a recent morning after a pediatric appointment for her son. I dont know where their money going.
[A man died a t the Districts only public hospital. It took a week for the family to find out.]
Veritas officials declined to provide details about their $3.6 million annual fee and refused to disclose the salaries of the three executives who work full-time at UMC, saying they are not subject to the Districts public-information laws because they are paid by Veritas rather than the hospital. Hernandez and Kelly declined to comment through a hospital spokeswoman.
Corbett Price, the companys executive chairman, said Veritas was doing its job: Steadying the hospitals financial situation so the District could find a private company to build a new hospital on the east side of the city.
But Price, who is married to Veritas owner Chrystie Boucree, cautioned against setting expectations too high for an institution that has struggled as long as UMC.
It has a historical pattern. No company can instantaneously come in to correct that, Price said. There will be no miracle turnaround, so to speak.
D.C. Health Care Finance Director Wayne Turnage, who recommended Veritas to the hospital board last year, said despite its shortcomings, the company was meeting its broad goal of stabilizing a beleaguered medical facility.
Can they do better? Absolutely, Turnage said. But you also have to think about the hospital theyre working in. Were not talking about a well-funded, state-of-the-art hospital.
Troubled histories
Since it opened 50 years ago, Southeast Washingtons only fullservice hospital has struggled to find an economically viable formula for providing care to the poor and mostly African American neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River.
The hospital, which sits at the Districts border with Maryland, went through bankruptcy about 20 years ago and, after a turbulent period of corporate management that included the loss of its accreditation, was taken over by the city in 2010.
The move came as many municipalities were abandoning public hospitals because of their financial challenges including the District, which closed D.C. General Hospital in 2001.
The city agreed in 2013 to a two-year, $12.8 million contract with Huron Consulting, a national firm specializing in hospital turnarounds. The company deployed dozens of its employees to the hospital and improved UMCs operating margins but was unable to find a long-term operator to take over the hospital when its contract expired.
[Troubled UMC may need taxpayer bailout again]
In 2015, the hospital required a $7 million subsidy from the District to meet its payroll; the next year, that rose to $10 million. In early 2016 the mayor decided the hospital board should invoke its emergency authority to select a new consultant. Turnage recommended Veritas.
At the center of the company is Price, who has built a lucrative career in the halls of struggling hospitals throughout the I-95 corridor. His constellation of consulting firms has thrived along the border between public and private health care, a field where business models collide with the reality of caring for societys sickest and poorest and success often means postponing failure.
He began his career at the for-profit Hospital Corporation of America in the 1980s. After that companys contract to run Prince Georges Hospital Center ended, he stayed on as hospital chief executive. But the hospitals board soon replaced him as it sought a speedier turnaround, said former Prince Georges County executive and longtime board member Winfield M. Kelly Jr.
It didnt work real well for us, Kelly recalled. He tried real hard, he tried to get it done, he didnt get it done. Competent guy, it just didnt work out.
In 1990, Price founded Kurron Shares of America, a consulting firm that soon took over the management of Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn. Two decades later, the companys stewardship ended after the hospital filed for bankruptcy.
An ombudsman appointed by the bankruptcy court found lapses in care at the facility particularly the emergency room, which he described in a report as more chaotic and disorganized than others he had seen. The ombudsman asserted Price, the chief restructuring officer, visited the hospital infrequently and should be more actively engaged in the day-to-day, on-site responsibilities of the hospital.
In a response to the report, lawyers for the hospital said the criticism stemmed from a misunderstanding of Prices role, which was not running the hospital on a day-to-day basis.
In the spring of 2013, the New York State Department of Health barred Kurron from continuing to manage the hospital. Spokeswoman Jill Montag said in a statement to The Post that regulators had concerns about the pay provisions in Kurrons contract, including those for open-ended reimbursement of expenses and bonuses to the companys executives.
Price blamed the hospitals financial failure on New York state cuts to Medicaid rates in 2011. He said Interfaith would have run aground much sooner without his firm. Kurron did an outstanding job, if I may say so myself, based on our longevity there. People forget that, he said.
Political interests
For two decades, Prices family and companies had contributed to New York politicians but written only a handful of checks to campaigns in the District, none of them to Bowser. That changed a little over a year after Kurron had been forced out of Interfaith Medical Center.
In 2014, Price, his relatives and his companies made $35,191 in political contributions to Bowser, records show, including $20,000 in contributions to Bowsers inaugural committee from Price and Mantium, a Bethesda-based corporation registered in his name.
Price said he met Bowser while she was campaigning and had no anticipation of future business dealings with the city.
I live in Washington. I believe in your responsibility as a citizen there, he said. Just because I give to someones campaign, I dont expect anything in return.
In 2015, Bowser appointed Price to the board of the regions public-transit system. She said in a recent interview she met Price through his in-laws, whom she had represented as a Ward 4 council member.
Prices financial support for her political career had nothing to do with his Metro board appointment or with the selection of Veritas to run UMC, the mayor said.
Everybody involved in our administration made decisions based on the best interests of the District of Columbia and UMC, she said. We had a situation where we could not make payroll at a hospital that serves a key part of the city, and we had no confidence that the people in place would be able to turn that around.
Turnage said it had been his idea to bring Veritas on at the hospital. He said he and Price met in 2015 and bonded over their shared alma mater, Ohio State University. Informal discussions about how to shore up UMC followed, Turnage said, and he ultimately recommended Prices company to the UMC board because he believed their fees were lower than better-known competitors.
He said an emergency contract was necessary because the normal competitive bidding process would have taken too long.
I can assure you that I had no discussions with anybody in the mayors office about these contracts, Turnage said.
Craig Holman of the nonprofit Public Citizen said the placement of campaign donors at the helm of a struggling public hospital could nevertheless raise questions about the Bowser administrations oversight of the facility.
Whether or not her actions were appropriate, its going to raise questions and red flags anytime someone who is a government contractor gets involved in making campaign contributions, Holman said.
Since 2014, Prices family and related companies have also given $6,000 to the campaign of council member Brandon T. Todd, Bowsers hand-picked successor for her Ward 4 D.C. Council seat, and $3,000 to former council member LaRuby May, a Bowser ally whom the mayor appointed chairwoman of the UMC board this year, according to campaign-finance records.
May declined to comment on her ability to oversee the Veritas contract in light of those donations. She said in a brief interview that the hospital has not provided the highest level of patient quality services but is headed in the right direction.
Performance has lagged
Even by the standards of struggling public hospitals, UMC has been buffeted this year by an extraordinary succession of bad news.
Medicare billing errors led to a 45 percent operating deficit in February that had city officials briefly worried about another taxpayer subsidy. That was followed by a $122,000 fine by the D.C. Department of Health in April for poor patient care at the hospitals nursing home.
City officials say they are now girding for legal claims over the problems that led regulators to shutter the nursery and delivery rooms, including what District health regulators said was a failure to take routine steps to prevent a newborn from contracting HIV. Just last week, a family came forward to complain they had not been notified of a loved ones death at the hospital until a week had passed.
UMC executive David Boucree, the third Veritas employee who works full-time at the hospital, said it would take time to reverse the hospitals history of dysfunction.
Boucree, who is the cousin of Prices wife, said his professional background was in information technology including work with health insurance companies and outsourcing.
He said Veritas had made improvements to the hospital that included hiring additional urology and gastroenterology doctors and refurbishing the behavioral-health unit and surgical suite.
Were advancing the ball, Boucree said. Theres still a lot of work thats left to be done. I dont think anyone expected it all to be done in six months, nine months, a year or two years.
Since December, Turnage and DeWitt have conducted monthly assessments of Veritas performance in categories such as patient admissions, baby deliveries and lab visits.
At the time of the most recent review, in July, the firms year-to-date record showed it falling short in 41 percent of its metrics, according to a report reviewed by The Post. DeWitt and Turnage noted Veritas had realized $1.07 million of the $9 million in revenue its executives had said they could generate by reforming hospital operations.
All agree that the performance for a myriad of reasons has lagged, Turnage wrote in August to city officials. (In an interview, Turnage said he was referring specifically to the consultants failure to generate new revenue, rather than their overall performance.) Still, the hospital is on course to end the year in the black, thanks to several million dollars generated by improvements to the billing process made by the citys chief financial officer, he said.
Without this surprise, Turnage wrote, the hospital would be underwater.
Although city officials said the firm was chosen in part because of its familiarity with the District, two of the three managers Veritas put in charge of the hospital live hundreds of miles away.
Hernandez, the chief executive who held the same role at Interfaith Medical Center under Prices contract in New York flies to D.C. for work from his home in Vero Beach, Fla. Kelly, the quality manager, commutes from Chapel Hill, N.C. During the week. they rent apartments in National Harbor at the Esplanade, a complex with a pool and bocce court where, according to the buildings website, Luxury flows to you. Veritas can bill the city for up to $700,000 over three years for work-related expenses under the terms of its contract.
D.C. Council member and health committee chairman Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7), who is widely believed to be considering a challenge to Bowser next year, said such spending is unacceptable.
For a hospital that is financially strapped, that is being supported by the District of Columbia taxpayers, this seems like an incredible waste of money, said Gray, who was mayor until 2015 and oversaw the citys previous hospital-management contract with the national firm Huron Consulting. Its shocking that money would be spent in these ways.
Turnage said the expenses are reasonable because qualified hospital-turnaround experts are rare and cant be expected to move to a new part of the country for a short-term contract.
He said Hurons incidental expenses were included in their base fee and so could not be directly compared to those of Veritas.
It is common for turnaround firms to bring in out-of-state consultants whose travel and lodging costs are billed to a client particularly if those experts have special skills, health-care industry analyst Paul Keckley said. The ultimate measure of whether their costs are justified, Keckley said, are their results.
Every one of them is going to kind of have their own approach, he said. Sometimes its smoke. Thats the thing: Consulting is often in the eye of the beholder.
Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Former Baltimore Ravens tackle Eugene Monroe, center, and other cannabis entrepreneurs participate in a ribbon cutting at Rise, a medical marijuana dispensary, in Silver Spring on Tuesday. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)
Medical marijuana is finally being sold in Maryland, after years of delays. Here's what you need to know:
Where can I get it?
So far, 22 out of 102 potential dispensaries are fully licensed. Seven of those are in Montgomery, Frederick and Howard counties, and there is one each in St. Mary's County, Allegany County and on the Eastern Shore. Their names and addresses are listed here, under "Licensed Dispensaries" (as of Dec. 14, the list included only the first 10 licensed dispensaries. Another 12 were approved that afternoon, and the list needs to be updated).
How can I get it?
First, you have to register as a patient with the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission. Then you need a certification from a doctor or other health-care provider registered with the state.
With a limited supply and a market, many dispensaries are limiting initial sales to patients who have already have registered with them. And several stores were sold out or low on certain products, so you may want to call before you head there.
Does medical marijuana need to be smoked?
In addition to the dried-leaf variety, companies have plans to process medical cannabis into a variety of other products including capsules, oils, creams, vaporizing pens and a peanut brittle-like substance called "shatter."
Maryland law does not allow edible medical marijuana products such as brownies, cookies and gummies which are popular in other states.
How do I find a doctor who will recommend marijuana?
Maryland doesnt want unscrupulous medical professionals handing out phony marijuana recommendations for anyone who pays. Providers need to meet with patients in person and have a bona fide relationship with them before issuing certifications (which arent called prescriptions, for legal reasons).
MedChi, a statewide association of physicians, is among several groups that are publicizing partial lists of health providers (doctors, dentists, nurses, podiatrists and midwives)who can recommend cannabis.
Green Leaf Medical CEO Philip Goldberg, second from right, and his brother and general counsel, Kevin Goldberg, right, inspect the marijuana plants at Green Leaf Medical, LLC in Frederick, Md. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
How much does medical marijuana cost?
Dispensaries have been warning patients to expect unusually high prices in the early stages of the program, from about $400 to as much as $680 for an ounce, which is about a one-month supply. Cannabis entrepreneurs say the price will drop as more marijuana becomes available from growers and more dispensaries open their doors.
Can patients from other states purchase marijuana?
The law allows nonresidents to participate if they are being treated in Maryland (such as cancer patients receiving chemotherapy). But the commission is not registering out-of-state patients while it reviews its policies. It is a federal offense to transport marijuana across state lines even to the District, Delaware and Pennsylvania, where the use of medical marijuana also is legal.
What conditions qualify for treatment with cannabis?
The law lists these conditions as treatable with medical cannabis: Cachexia or wasting syndrome, anorexia, severe pain, severe nausea, seizures, severe or persistent muscle spasms, glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain.
But the regulations also have a catchall provision that allows physicians and other providers to recommend cannabis for patients if they think doing so is in the patients best medical interests.
Chief executive Philip Goldberg shows one of the flower rooms, where marijuana plants will grow, during a tour of Green Leaf Medical in Frederick, Md. The room is lit by 1,000-watt Solis Tek bulbs to simulate sunlight. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
At long last, Marylands first legal marijuana crop is growing.
With 19 companies cleared to grow, process and sell the plant, the seeds of the medical marijuana program have literally been planted, four years after the state legalized cannabis for medical use.
In coming months, plants will flower in heavily secured facilities, and be harvested and taken to an independent laboratory for quality testing, with some processed into oils, creams and capsules. Theyll end up available for purchase on dispensary shelves around the start of the new year, according to industry officials.
This program is launched now, said Patrick Jameson, executive director of the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission. We have growers, processors and a dispensary, and we have a lab. The market will determine how this moves forward.
So far, only one dispensary or medical pot store has been licensed in Maryland, which because of bureaucratic missteps and legal disputes has been slower to launch its program than most of the other 27 states where medical cannabis is permitted. About 100 prospective dispensaries have received preliminary licenses and have until December to get set up, pass employee background checks and undergo final inspections.
[Some experts hired to grade Md. marijuana businesses had ties to them]
Jennifer Porcari is cautiously optimistic that shell soon get cannabis oil or a patch to ease her 10-year-old daughters epilepsy. Parents of children with epilepsy have long seen medical marijuana as a way to reduce seizures and improve quality of life; some have even moved to Colorado and other states so they can legally obtain the drug.
Jennifer Porcari, pictured in her Cheverly, Md., home in 2016, has immersed herself in information about nontraditional medication including marijuana to help treat her daughters epilepsy. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
But Porcari, who has spent years lobbying for legalization, said she wont celebrate until she has the cannabis in her hands.
[How to get medical marijuana in Maryland, and other FAQs]
When we are able to go to a dispensary anywhere and pick it up, we are all ready for it, the Cheverly resident said. They have spent so much time on it, its going to be a great system. We just need it to go, go, go.
Nearly 13,000 patients have signed up to be able to purchase marijuana, and 428 health-care providers have registered to certify the patients need for the drug, according to the commission. But hurdles remain.
Darrell Carrington, a lobbyist for marijuana companies, said some dispensaries are struggling to find landlords willing to lease to a type of business that is still considered illegal under federal law.
Razor and barbed wire secure the perimeter of Green Leaf Medical in Frederick, Md. (Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) )
And while cultivation and processing centers are generally in more secluded areas, dispensaries are in neighborhoods where they are more likely to face not in my back yard resistance opposition that marijuana businesses and advocates say is misplaced.
We are talking about places that are going to have less dangerous and toxic things than CVS and Walgreens, Carrington said. These are not like coffee shops in Amsterdam where people can go in and hang out for hours. They purchase their medicine and they go.
[Missing from Marylands legal pot growers? Black business leaders]
Carrington described the sole dispensary that has been fully licensed by the state so far Wellness Institute of Maryland, in Frederick County as an upscale doctors office. It will offer mobile delivery service in high-demand neighborhoods for patients too sick to leave their homes.
Josh Genderson, a District medical marijuana grower pictured in his D.C. facility, is among the dozen licensed growers set to operate in Maryland. (Photo by Linda Davidson/The Washington Post) )
But it and other cannabis companies still operate with a hint of intrigue. Wellness Institutes owner, for example, asked not to have his full name published in this article for fear of drawing unwelcome attention. He said the dispensary will screen out patients who seem to be gaming the system to get high instead of treating illnesses.
At least two of the dozen cultivators that Maryland has licensed currently have marijuana plants growing: ForwardGro, of Anne Arundel County, and Curio Wellness, of Baltimore County.
ForwardGro has been sharing photos of its plants on social media, but executives there declined to say when the company would be ready to sell product to dispensaries.
Curio Wellness, which says its primary focus is research and development, also has marijuana growing.
Chief executive Michael Bronfein said his goal is to have high-quality products that include tinctures alcohol-based cannabis extracts and vaporizing pens on the market by mid-December, ahead of any would-be competitors. Hes awaiting approval to open a dispensary that would not only have shelves stocked with cannabis products, but would also have acupuncture rooms and massage therapy rooms.
[Maryland House reprimands lawmaker for marijuana business ties]
Itll look more like a day spa, very high-end in terms of physical attraction, with a very heavy emphasis on patient education, physician education and product selection, Bronfein said.
In Frederick County, black privacy shrouds cover a barbed-wire fence surrounding the Green Leaf Medical center. Armed guards escort visitors into a hallway where a sign reminds employees, who must be drug-tested, No drugs at work.
Employee notices are seen on a wall during a tour of Green Leaf Medical in Frederick, Md. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
Except, of course, for the marijuana plants that soon will be growing by the hundreds in flower rooms just down the hall. Theyll develop in molten-rock cubes (instead of bug-friendly soil), on top of rows of gray benches connected to an irrigation system that delivers water and nutrients.
Chief executive Philip Goldberg wore sunglasses Friday as he walked into the flower room, which blazed with golden light emanating from about 100 lightbulbs of 1,000 watts each. He expects to have an annual power bill of about $500,000.
[Meet the big donors, ex-cops and clergy who want to grow Marylands pot]
We have a pharmaceutical-grade facility here, but this plant can grow outside in a ditch. Its like a weed, said Goldberg, who decided in 2014 to try to enter the legal cannabis industry. What we are doing in here is making sure it grows in the fastest, safest and most efficient way possible.
He said he started his last major company, creating websites and software for businesses, with $2,000 in seed money. He was drawing customers within two months, he said.
For this latest venture, he said, his company has raised $8.7 million in investment so far. And the business has not brought him a single dime of revenue.
Goldberg estimated that hell start by producing 320 pounds of marijuana a month. He has signed sales deals with 23 dispensaries.
We knew it was going to take time. Did we think it was going to take four years? No, Goldberg said. But it feels really good to finally be able to put seeds in the ground and start growing.
Isaac Fulwood Jr., the hard-charging, plain-spoken D.C. police veteran who led the department for three tumultuous years marked by eruptions of political scandal and unprecedented homicidal violence in the capital city, died Sept. 1 at a hospital in Washington. He was 77.
The former chief, who was known as Ike, had been ill with kidney failure, and during his later years, he found it difficult to leave his home in Southeast Washington. His death was confirmed by D.C. police chief Peter Newsham. No cause was given.
The crack cocaine epidemic and the citys homicide rate were rampant when Mayor Marion Barry appointed him chief in 1989, and Mr. Fulwood agonized over both the runaway violence and the decidedly negative side effects of aggressive law enforcement on the African American community, of which he was a member.
Complicating matters, Mr. Fulwood did not have the smoothest of relationships with Barry, the charismatic, dynamic and undeniably flawed political leader who came to symbolize the citys greatest hopes and disappointments.
It didnt help that just five months into the chiefs tenure, Barry was arrested on federal drug charges after being videotaped smoking crack in a downtown hotel, an especially sordid episode that deepened the gloom over the remainder of the chiefs 29 years as a member of the city police force.
Isaac Fulwood in 2010. (Mark Gail/The Washington Post)
He was considered very important to the Metropolitan Police Department, Newsham said Friday night. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.
When he stepped down in September 1992, the ever-accessible, always quotable Mr. Fulwood did not conceal his frustration over the state of affairs exemplified by a homicide rate that had made Washington the nations murder capital and over his inability to check the violence. And in a bitter personal footnote, two months after his departure, his brother, 43-year-old Theodore Fulwood, was gunned down in a drug-related killing that took police two years to solve.
Mr. Fulwood once proclaimed more in sorrow than in pride that he had put more people behind bars than any of his predecessors. But the number of homicide victims mounted nevertheless: The 482 killings recorded in 1991 were the most ever in the District. And a hiring spree that enlarged the crime-fighting force by 1,000 officers came back to haunt the department, as poorly vetted and trained recruits repeatedly ran afoul of the law, including some as recently as 2014.
In a 2010 interview with The Washington Post, Mr. Fulwood said accepting Barrys offer to become chief had been his smartest career move. But life after the police force did not want for other public-service opportunities and other honors, including his appointment to the U.S. Parole Commission in 2004 and his elevation to commission chairman in 2009.
After stepping down as chief, Mr. Fulwood worked on a youth initiative in the District and as an adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia, teaching community policing and ethics. He drew on his experience as a law-enforcement officer to address the effects of both crime and punishment on the African American population.
In an article in the New York Times, published shortly after he announced he was resigning as chief, Mr. Fulwood was described as despairing over the casual viciousness of young criminals and a D.C. per-capita arrest rate that was second to none. And in remarks to The Post soon after his resignation, Mr. Fulwood declared, It has become abundantly clear law enforcement alone could not cure the scourge of drugs and violence.
As a member of the Parole Commission, he took part in a process that freed prisoners, returning them to society instead of locking them up. And in 2013, he led a commission on racial profiling that, in hindsight, seems to have anticipated the outbursts of rage over police-involved killings of black men that have erupted since in Ferguson, Mo., New York, Baltimore and Chicago.
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Mr. Fulwood appeared to sense an inherent conflict in being, at once, African American and a police officer a tension captured in a 2005 article in The Post. Although the article was primarily about a case before the Parole Commission, he described the sympathy he had felt as police chief for people his officers were arresting, most of them black. At the same time, he noted that police were working to stop the carnage on the streets of the city where he grew up and that most of the victims were also black.
He did not go quietly when he retired from the Parole Commission in 2015. He said that after nearly six years as chairman, he had not met with President Barack Obama or had a one-on-one meeting with then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. He said it was an indication that the White House did not support sentencing reform in a substantive way.
Coming of age in D.C.
Isaac Fulwood Jr. was born in the District on April 28, 1940. He and his eight brothers and sisters grew up in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and he graduated from Eastern High School in 1959.
His father a carpenter, construction worker and handyman had moved to the District from South Carolina in the 1920s. A strict curfew and other rules set for his children were enforced by the belt.
In many ways, the family was the District in microcosm, engaged in a grim struggle with the hardships of poverty, drug abuse and crime. Theodore Fulwood, known as Teddy, was locked up, accused of selling cocaine on a District street, when his brother was named police chief. Theodores long police record ranged from assault to bank robbery. I loved him, Mr. Fulwood said, but hated his behavior.
And Mr. Fulwood, though rarely in trouble as a youth, recalled his fathers encounters with unhelpful police officers and his own unpleasant interactions with them. I had met very nasty policemen who would say anything to black people or do anything to them, he told The Post in 1991. Very rarely did you see black police officers.
He married his high school sweetheart, Ruth Johnson, when he was 23 and she was 20, and a few months later, apparently drawn to the $6,000 annual salary, he joined the Metropolitan Police Department, which was and still is the departments official name.
Besides his wife, survivors include two children, Gary and Angela.A complete list of survivors could not be obtained.
In the 2010 interview with The Post, he described walking a beat at the start of his career as the worst job of his life. It was 1964, 14 years before the department got its first black police chief, Burtell M. Jefferson. Black officers had few opportunities to advance and were not allowed to drive in patrol cars.
It was hard walking that beat in the winter, he recalled. We had to do traffic crossings, and sometimes they would put us in there and not come back to get us for seven or eight hours, when they were supposed to relieve us after an hour. That was due to racism.
Mr. Fulwood wasted no time making a reputation for himself as an aggressive rookie. On his first night on the street, he arrested a man who had beaten his mother; helped deliver a baby; and broke up several fights. And while still a beat cop, he demonstrated a knack for community policing, long before community policing was in vogue, setting up a program, Talk With Ike, to help neighborhood youngsters.
Mr. Fulwood had many jobs on his way up through the department, including community services officer and internal affairs detective. He commanded two police districts and, in 1986, became assistant chief of field operations, one of the departments most influential positions, in which he supervised day-to-day crime fighting and about 85 percent of the force.
The man made me chief
In 1977, Mr. Fulwood happened to be in the District Building as the John A. Wilson Building, the Districts city hall, was then called when Hanafi Muslims stormed in and started a 39-hour standoff that involved three buildings and nearly 150 hostages. Mr. Fulwood later recalled finding Barry, then a D.C. Council member, bleeding from a gunshot wound just above his heart.
I dont know whether I saved his life, Mr. Fulwood told WAMU-FM in 2014, adding that later, the man made me chief of police. He gave me an opportunity that I would not have had.
Another moment from the highlight reel of the Barry-Fulwood relationship came in January 1990. The chief, dressed in a T-shirt and windbreaker, was seen rushing to the eighth floor of the Vista International Hotel (now a Westin) near Thomas Circle shortly after a drug sting operation involving the FBI and D.C. police resulted in the mayors arrest.
It was never determined whether the FBI had informed Mr. Fulwood of the investigation, although D.C. detectives played an integral role and the chief insisted that his officers had kept him up to date. There were reports that federal authorities were worried about Mr. Fulwoods friendship though frequently strained with Barry, who served six months in federal prison before making a remarkable political comeback that included a fourth term as mayor.
Tensions over the crime rate as well as suspicions about Barry and drug use were among the irritants in the relationship before Barrys arrest. At one point, it was reported, the chief was refusing to return the mayors calls.
Among his accomplishments as chief, Mr. Fulwood was one of the first police officials to introduce what is known today as community policing, and he spoke out often about the importance of drug treatment and the inability of police alone to prevent crime.
Mr. Fulwood a young officer during the 1968 riots after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was also credited as chief in 1992 with keeping a lid on violence in the District during protests over the Rodney King police-beating verdict in Los Angeles that turned violent there and in other cities.
He also had 1,000 officers enforcing a curfew in 1991 after three days of riots by members of the Hispanic community in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood after a black officer shot and wounded a Salvadoran immigrant.
What haunted Mr. Fulwood most, he said in an interview after he resigned, was the record number of homicides, the record number of young, black men killed needlessly. He also called being police chief a taxing job that can leave you scarred.
In an interview Friday night, a retired D.C. police commander said that it was Fulwoods combination of toughness and heart t hat helped both the department and the District find their way through the difficulties of the crack epidemic.
Even though he left the agency, said Melvin Scott, the retired official,he never left t he city. A lot of people owe a lot to him.
Clarence Williams contributed to this report.
Step outside in September as the five fabulous visible planets jostle for evening and morning positions.
In the west-southwestern sky after sunset find Jupiter and its 2017 travel companion the star Spica hanging out low above the horizon. The giant planet is -1.7 magnitude (bright) and appears to scoot close to Spica toward the middle of the month. When September ends, Spica sets just before Jupiter all before 8 p.m.
The Cassini spacecraft reaches the end of its 38-year mission Sept. 15, when it will crash into Saturn as it has thoroughly examined the ringed planet's neighborhood for the past 13 years. Cassini's Grand Finale, as NASA calls it, will be similar to a blazing meteor. Cassini will dive into Saturn's atmosphere, send back data, then disintegrate and burn. Check out this video here: http://bit.ly/2n8OBm7.
From our earthly perspective, the Cassini crash will not be able to be seen with an unaided eye or a telescope. But the zero-magnitude (a bright pinpoint in the sky) planet Saturn itself can be seen in the evenings now in the south-southwest. The waxing moon scurries past Saturn on Sept. 26.
Our planetary neighbor Mars returns appearing to loiter with the sun from a summer hiatus. Early in September, find the Red Planet very low in the eastern sky, before sunrise. In the urban, pre-dawn heavens, Mars will be a little hard to spot at 1.8 magnitude. The Red Planet meets with the fleet planet Mercury before breakfast in early September. Mercury (zero magnitude, bright) and Mars meet Sept. 16 just above the eastern horizon, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory.
Behold Venus: Throughout the month, the dazzling planet at -3.9 magnitude (very bright) reigns over the eastern, morning sky.
For the Northern Hemisphere, summer says "so long" and turns into autumn on Sept. 22 at 4:02 p.m., according to the Naval Observatory. That's when the sun appears to cross the equator into the Southern Hemisphere. In June, Washington enjoyed about 15 hours of sunlight near the summer solstice. On the autumnal equinox, the capital city will see 12 hours and 9 minutes of daylight, and a few days later, on Sept. 25-26, this big town gets 12 hours of daylight give or take a minute.
Down-to-Earth events:
Sept. 5 Celebrate the 40th anniversary of NASA's Voyager mission launch with a scientific panel discussion. The twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and 2 explored the big worlds Jupiter and Saturn, and they still reach for the stars, as NASA remains in contact. 12:30 p.m. Moving Beyond Earth Gallery, National Air and Space Museum, on the Mall. airandspace.si.edu
Sept. 5 "Studying the Shape of the Universe," a talk by astrophysicist Tess Jaffe at the University of Maryland's Observatory, College Park. Afterward, enjoy the planets and stars through telescopes, weather permitting. 9 p.m. astro.umd.edu/openhouse
Sept. 9 "Stellar Winds and the Drama of Eta Carinae," a talk by Michael Corcoran, Catholic University researcher, at the National Capital Astronomers meeting held at the University of Maryland Observatory, College Park. 7:30 p.m. capitalastronomers.org
Sept. 10 Start the academic year with stars in your eyes. The Northern Virginia Astronomy Club holds its regular meeting, 163 Research Hall, George Mason University. 7 p.m. novac.com
Sept. 16 "Mayan Astronomy: Numbers and Calendars," at the Montgomery College planetarium, Takoma Park, 7 p.m. http://ow.ly/JEJ6V
Sept. 16 A late-summer look at the night sky via an urban location. "Exploring the Sky," hosted by the National Park Service and the National Capital Astronomers, at Rock Creek Park, near the Nature Center, in the field south of Military and Glover roads NW. 8 p.m. capitalastronomers.org
Sept. 20 "Black Holes, Black Holes Everywhere!" a talk by astronomer Cole Miller at the University of Maryland's Observatory. Heavenly views of the sky through telescopes after the talk, weather permitting. 9 p.m. astro.umd.edu/openhouse
Blaine Friedlander can be reached at skywatchpost@gmail.com
Contrary to the public display of goodwill for the media after a closed-door meeting last week, the regions top three elected officials clashed sharply over Metro funding, with Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) saying the transit agency would get no additional money from his state.
The lack of agreement among the leaders over how to meet Metros financial needs makes it increasingly unlikely the region will come up with the additional money that General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld says is necessary by next July to keep the system safe and reliable. The only other options, Wiedefeld told the meeting, are significant fare increases and service cuts beyond those customers have already experienced.
The summit discussion, according to people who attended or were briefed on it, was contentious and alarming to Metros supporters. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) was sufficiently concerned that he instructed the several dozen officials and staff attending that no one leak what was said to the media. If Hogans comments and other disagreements became public, McAuliffe warned, there would be no hope Virginias Republican-controlled legislature would support Metro with additional money as he desires.
At one point, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) warned Hogan that without additional money, Metro would have to reduce spending by an amount equal to the cost of running an entire Metro line. Hogan suggested a line might be privatized, officials said.
Hogan said Maryland could not afford to give Metro more money and flatly ruled out asking the legislature or counties to raise taxes to do so.
Wiedefeld was described as visibly disturbed by Hogans overall comments and the ensuing debate.
Hogan spokesman Doug Mayer declined to comment on what was said at the meeting, held Monday, and warned that such leaks hurt chances of having future regional summits.
[McAuliffe, Hogan, Bowser agree with LaHood that Metro board should shrink.]
It was a private meeting. It was a real discussion. It wasnt a made-for-TV news conference moment, which is the kind of conversations elected officials need to be having, Mayer said. The fact that the details have been leaked publicly make it very clear that the chances of a productive meeting ever happening again are about zero.
Spokesmen for McAuliffe and Bowser also expressed regret and surprise that details had become public.
It was a private meeting, and it would be unfortunate if others who were party to it are discussing its details, McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said.
Given the leaders differences, its difficult to see how the region can meet its deadline to agree on a long-term funding plan for Metro to present to the Maryland and Virginia general assemblies when they meet in January. That means Metro probably will have to wait until the 2019 legislative sessions or later for such a plan.
After the meeting, Wiedefeld asked Metro Chief Financial Officer Dennis Anosike to study the possible effect on service if no additional funding is received. He has said Metro needs an additional $500 million a year in dedicated funding for new equipment and maintenance.
The funding dispute overshadowed the recommendation by former U.S. transportation secretary Ray LaHood to the summit to temporarily shrink the Metro board from 16 members to five to implement an emergency reform plan.
[Virginia Gov. McAuliffe taps Ray LaHood to head panel to study Metro.]
McAuliffe, Hogan and Bowser said they liked the idea in principle, but it faces legal obstacles and resistance from some current board members.
LaHood was recruited by McAuliffe to lead a panel drafting a plan for restructuring and funding Metro.
Before the summit, Bowser and McAuliffe had hoped the meeting would narrow differences over funding at a critical time. Bowser favors quick adoption of a regionwide dedicated sales tax to fund Metro, while McAuliffe supports a new tax or other dedicated funding once Metro has shown improvement in governance, safety and reliability.
But Hogan spoiled his counterparts expectations. He has previously opposed giving more money to Metro but spoke so forcefully on Monday that an official who received briefings about the session likened the effect to throwing a bomb into the room.
Another official, who was present, said Hogan was very adamant that he was not going to use his political capital for Metro.
Like others interviewed for this story, the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the summit discussions were private.
[New dispute over cost of fixing Metro pits District against Virginia, Maryland.]
Hogan told the group only 2 percent of Maryland residents ride Metro, but the agency eats up 11 percent of the states capital budget for transportation.
Hogan also cast doubt on the idea that Montgomery and Prince Georges counties the Maryland suburbs served by Metro would raise taxes on their own to support the transit system. If referendums were held in the two counties, Hogan told the summit, residents would vote 70 percent to 30 percent against a new levy.
It's unclear where Hogan got the figures he cited. His forecast is at odds with a Washington Post -University of Maryland poll in March. The poll found 55 percent of Montgomery residents and 44 percent in Prince George's support a regional sales tax for Metro, although differences were within the survey's margin of sampling error.
However, both counties top elected officials who were not at the summit but were questioned about the issue discouraged expectations their jurisdictions would agree to provide more money for Metro.
Prince Georges County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D) said he opposes raising taxes just in his county and Montgomery for Metro. He said its the governors job to find state revenue for the agency.
The leadership has to come from the governors office, Baker said. The Metro system is not about just those two jurisdictions. Its about creating job opportunities for the entire state.
Baker, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to run against Hogan next year, said as governor, he would support increasing state funding for Metro.
Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), a longtime supporter of higher taxes for Metro, predicted no agreement would be reached in Maryland until after the 2018 election. The entire state legislature, as well as the governorship, will be on the ballot.
People do not want to take on this issue of [Metro] funding head-on at least until after the election in 2018, Leggett said.
Marylands lack of support for increased Metro funding is an ominous sign for the transit agencys supporters. They have generally assumed their biggest hurdle would be Virginia, where the GOP-dominated legislature is averse to raising taxes and critical of Metros governance, labor costs and efficiency.
Everybody thinks Virginia is the hardest nut to crack, but Maryland has its obstacles as well, said an official who was at the summit.
Hogans position springs from long-standing convictions and political considerations. A fiscal conservative, he campaigned in 2014 against higher taxes and in favor of shifting resources from transit to roads. His political base is in rural and outer suburban counties that are not directly served by rail transit.
In a major reversal, Hogan agreed in 2015 to support building the light-rail Purple Line linking Montgomery and Prince Georges counties. Now, he points to that project as evidence he is not anti-transit. He says he opposes more money for Metro because the transit system already gets more than its fair share from the state.
Hogan told the summit the federal government should contribute more for Metro. McAuliffe and Bowser readily endorsed that idea but warned they could not depend on it.
The Trump administration has proposed reducing federal spending on transit. It isnt clear the White House or Congress will support extending the $150 million federal subsidy Metro receives each year for capital expenses as part of a program set to expire in 2018.
LaHood told the group its only hope for increasing federal support for the transit agency is to get the regions congressional delegation to push it through Congress.
Hogan tried to lighten the mood by joking that McAuliffe who is widely thought to have presidential ambitions would increase Metro funding when he wins another office.
At the end of the summit, before stepping out to address the media, the three leaders agreed to avoid talking publicly about their disagreements. Instead, they focused on their common view that the Metro board needs restructuring, and they praised the importance of regional cooperation.
We had a great discussion, McAuliffe told the media. What all three of us have always agreed on, when we all work together, theres not a region in the globe that can compete with the national capital region.
White supremacists stand behind shields during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12. (Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post)
On June 3, 2014, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. restarted a long-dormant domestic terrorism task force created after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. A former Ku Klux Klan leader had just murdered three people near a Jewish Community Center in a Kansas City suburb and yelled "Heil Hitler" as police took him into custody.
For too long, Holder said, the federal government had narrowly focused on Islamist threats and had lost sight of the continued danger we face from violent far-right extremists.
But three years later, it is unclear what, if anything the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee has done, despite expectations that its reanimation would better focus efforts throughout the Justice Department to disrupt and detect plots in a more centralized way, as was already being done by the department and FBI when it came to hunting Islamist terrorists.
As President Trump continues to suffer political backlash for his response to the deadly Charlottesville protests led by white supremacists, analysts who follow far-right groups say generations of neglect by multiple administrations has allowed them to proliferate and strengthen.
"The federal government has taken their eye off the ball, and it has allowed the far right to fester and grow for decades," said Heidi Beirich, who leads the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project and runs its Hatewatch blog. "They are a real threat that has been underestimated."
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. attends his last staff meeting at the Department of Justice in Washington in 2015. (Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post)
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, the domestic terrorism task force was due to convene for a regular meeting. It never happened, and the group remained dormant for more than a decade.
The 9/11 attacks were transformative for the federal government, nowhere more so than at the Justice Department and the FBI. The agencies made counterterrorism their chief concern, pouring billions of dollars into the effort to sniff out terrorist plots before they could be executed.
The FBIs aggressive and preventive posture meant terrorism dominated the Justice Departments agenda, but when they talked about plots, officials were focused on those inspired by radical Islamist ideologies, not anti-government or hate groups.
But far-right violence remained a significant issue. Since 9/11, there have been 95 deaths in the United States linked to Islamist militant violence, while 68 people have died at the hands of the far right during the same time, according to the nonpartisan think tank New America.
Just months before 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed and 19 others were injured in Charlottesville, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint intelligence bulletin that said white supremacists "were responsible for 49 homicides in 26 attacks from 2000 to 2016 . . . more than any other domestic extremist movement."
Federal authorities are also dealing with an emerging problem from an increasingly confrontational and sometimes violent leftist extremist group known as antifa. Homeland Security officials said members of the loosely organized group are anti-fascist, anti-government extremists. And their membership and public demonstrations have spiked in recent months in response to activities organized by violent white supremacists, such as the Charlottesville rally.
However, most of the money and manpower to combat terrorism even under the Obama administration after Holder warned of the danger of far-right extremism has centered on preventing threats posed by Islamist extremists.
"They never really focused on neo-Nazis and the far right," said Seamus Hughes, a former lead staffer at the National Counterterrorism Center and deputy director at George Washington University's program on extremism. "The Obama administration was very good at messaging, but if you actually looked at their programs, it was always a secondary thought."
Vanita Gupta, who served as principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Departments civil rights division under Holder, was less critical, saying that while there were a number of efforts to confront violent extremism and white supremacy in the Obama administration, even then, more could have been done.
The issue also became ensnared in the countrys increasingly partisan politics.
In 2009, for instance, a senior analyst at the Department of Homeland Security wrote a report warning that the election of a black president, the financial crisis and the stock market crash were fueling a resurgence of right-wing extremist activities. But the report was heavily criticized as an attack on conservative ideologies. After 20 conservative groups sponsored ads calling for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's dismissal, she said it was disseminated without regular review and apologized to the American Legion for the report's warning that veterans could be targeted by militias for recruitment.
The six-person unit that tracked domestic terrorism groups was dissolved months later.
They took us off the organizational chart, said Daryl Johnson, who wrote the report. We were all reassigned to regional teams, looking at al-Qaeda threats and Islamic extremism.
Even after deadly white supremacist violence, the label of terrorist is more rhetorical than legal. When Frazier Glenn Cross, a 73-year-old former leader of the White Patriot Party, shot and killed a 14-year-old Eagle Scout and his grandfather in the parking lot at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City before gunning down a woman at the Village Shalom retirement community nearby, he was charged with capital murder, three counts of attempted murder, and assault and weapons charges.
Bringing Cross up on terrorism charges was not a real option. Federal statutes are generally written to prosecute violence inspired by international terrorist groups, not domestic extremists.
The Justice Departments National Security Division drafted legislation to change that after Holder reactivated the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee in the wake of Crosss actions. The committee endorsed the measure, two members said, but no members of Congress were identified to sponsor it. Under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, there has been no new move to resurrect the proposal.
Legal experts say the gap in the law presents a twofold problem: It perpetuates the uneven way the federal government treats terrorists based on their ideologies, and it allows violent criminals influenced by far-right ideologies to avoid the stigma of being labeled terrorists.
Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said criticism of the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee is not valid, despite its lack of work product, because it is an internal deliberative body, so its work is not public. Hornbuckle said the committee is a forum for information-sharing among DOJ components and other federal departments and agencies.
Some members of Congress are also expressing concern about the governments failure to address the rising violence coming from right-wing extremists. They, too, are having a difficult time getting answers.
For the fifth time in three years, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and other Democratic members of the House Homeland Security Committee have asked for a hearing exclusively focused on the terror threat posed by right-wing extremists. Each time, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), the Republican chairman of the committee, has turned them down.
There is a clear increase in activity by right-wing organizations in this country, said Thompson, who is the ranking Democrat on the committee. We are coming up on the 12th anniversary of doing annual hearings on terrorism since 9/11, but we only hear about Muslim terrorism in the country.
In response to Thompson and other Democrats requests, McCaul sent a letter, saying no special hearing will be scheduled but that a hearing about terror threats scheduled for Sept. 12 held annually since 9/11 could serve as a forum for any questions they want to ask about groups such as the ones that held the rally in Charlottesville.
I strongly encourage Members of both parties to engage the witnesses on the dangers posed by domestic terrorists and other extremist groups, McCaul wrote.
Transcripts from the last four annual 9/11 hearings show one brief mention of threats from white supremacist extremists, while more than 10 hours of testimony and questions focused on threats from Islamist militant groups.
The time to look at this is overdue, Thompson said. We need to move beyond this reluctance to look at right-wing threats in this country.
Julie Tate contributed to this report.
In an awful way, it all made perfect sense, Gail T. Wells remembers thinking as neurologist Thy Nguyen matter-of-factly explained that she was ordering tests to check for an underlying cancer.
Cancer would explain the worsening symptoms abdominal pain, incessant cough, weight loss and crushing fatigue that had plagued Wells, to the puzzlement of her doctors.
"I felt like I was dying," said Wells, a nurse practitioner, of her initial meeting in February 2016 with Nguyen, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. "I really wasn't surprised. It was more like a kind of resignation."
But it was a resignation punctuated by icy stabs of fear, as Wells quickly underwent a mammogram and other scans in an effort to pinpoint where a malignancy might be lurking. She broke the news to her husband and their four grown children, reviewed her funeral arrangements and tried to steel herself for what lay ahead.
Four days later, the neurologist called. Wellss bloodwork showed no sign of cancer. In fact, most tests were normal. But one revealed a long-standing problem Wells had never known about.
Now that her medical problem has been identified and treated, Gail Wells says she feels a renewed appreciation for life every waking hour. (Courtesy of Gail Wells) )
You could have told me I was pregnant, thats how astonished I was, recalled Wells, who was then 62.
The finding proved to be the key to her diagnosis and subsequent successful treatment. The possibility had been repeatedly overlooked because Wells had not shown the manifestations common to someone with her condition.
In 2005, after years of working in hospitals, Wells founded a primary-care clinic in Houston to treat people who were uninsured or underinsured.
She had long thrived on a pace others might consider grueling: 12-hour workdays during which she was often too busy to eat. To stay in shape, she ran and worked out regularly. Her only notable health problem was sporadic migraines.
About 15 years ago, after taking a powerful anti-seizure drug used to treat migraines, she developed numbness, or neuropathy, in her toes. The problem abated when she stopped the drug, but it never entirely disappeared.
In 2010, Wells developed heartburn and, later, a chronic cough, which she attributed to acid reflux.
In 2013, when her husband retired, Wells did, too. She sold her clinic, and the couple decided to spend more time traveling. Over the next two years, they visited Portugal, Spain, Italy and the Caribbean, trips that Wells found increasingly joyless and difficult. She noticed that normal activities, such as walking for exercise in her neighborhood, were becoming physically taxing.
Cameron Cottrill for The Washington Post)
She and her husband thought that she might be depressed. Wells had been busy for so many years that, once retired, she had relatively little with which to fill her days. To counter her malaise, she took a few graduate medical courses and registered with an agency for temporary nursing jobs.
Neither helped. Her fatigue worsened, and she found interacting with people increasingly exhausting. Some days, she didnt have the energy to get out of her pajamas.
Wells also developed an odd new problem. Once or twice a month, she would awaken from a sound sleep with intense abdominal cramps. Vomiting would sometimes relieve the pain, which typically disappeared after about eight hours, leaving her feeling wiped out.
Wells had also lost about 10 pounds between 2013 and 2015, which she attributed to better eating habits and the elimination of the two glasses of red wine she habitually drank after work. Because unintended weight loss can be a sign of underlying illness including cancer her primary-care doctor ordered tests to check her liver, kidneys and pancreas.
Everything looked normal. The doctor recommended that she see a gastroenterologist. Wells had never undergone a colonoscopy, which is recommended at age 50 for people at normal risk.
Im a big chicken, she said.
Blocks of ice
But in August 2015, before she made a gastroenterology appointment, Wells experienced an unnerving episode. Her left leg and lower lip suddenly went numb, and her tongue began tingling. Wells said she didn't think she was having a stroke because she could think clearly; the symptoms abated within hours. She saw a neurologist, who suspected multiple sclerosis or a vitamin B deficiency, both of which were soon ruled out. But a nerve conduction test, which uses electrodes attached to the skin to assess damage, showed decreased rates of nerve conduction in her left leg and both feet.
Because no underlying cause could be found, Wells was diagnosed with idiopathic degenerative neuropathy nerve deterioration for no apparent reason and advised to stay physically active to preserve muscle function.
That became increasingly difficult.
During Houstons mild winters, her feet felt constantly numb and cold, like blocks of ice. She wore wool socks around the clock and slept beneath an electric blanket and two comforters. Her cough worsened, and Wells periodically felt short of breath, even though a chest CT scan and a TB test were normal.
I felt like I was aging super-fast, she said. I thought, How do people manage in their 70s and 80s?
In February 2016, she consulted Nguyen for a second opinion.
I remember she was tearful, Nguyen said. She said, Ive been looking forward to retiring, and now I cant do anything. Her neurological exam, Nguyen added, was consistent with the weakness she described.
Nguyen decided to repeat the nerve conduction test, which showed a significant worsening. Things were going kind of fast, and thats very unusual, Nguyen said. At that point, you have to start thinking out of the box.
The neurologist ordered sophisticated blood tests. Among the most likely culprits, she thought, were a paraneoplastic syndrome (whose symptoms are caused by substances circulating in the blood in response to a cancer), elevated levels of vitamin B6 or Sjogren's syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that attacks mucous membranes and joints.
Four days later, Nguyen received the results of Wellss blood tests.
I was pretty surprised and I was nervous to call her to break the news, the neurologist recalled.
There was no sign of an underlying cancer. But Wells was clearly infected with hepatitis C, a potentially fatal disease that can cause liver cancer.
Gobsmacked by a blood test
For reasons that arent clear, hepatitis C is most common among the members of Wellss generation: baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964. It is also an occupational hazard for health-care workers, the result of accidental needlesticks or other contact with a patients infected blood. Before 2014, there were no oral medicines specifically approved to treat hepatitis C, which was discovered in 1989.
"I was gobsmacked" by Nguyen's news, Wells recalled. She knew, and had told all her doctors, that she had been exposed to another infection, hepatitis B, years earlier, most likely in 1983 while working in an emergency room on a drug dealer who was bleeding profusely after a machete attack. Days after the incident, she had tested positive for hepatitis B. Like 95 percent of adults, Wells cleared the virus from her system and then became immune to hepatitis B.
But most adults are unable to clear hepatitis C from their bodies and unknowingly go on to develop a serious, chronic infection that can fester for years, damaging their livers.
Wells suspects she was exposed to hepatitis C during the same incident because co-infections were common in those days.
But her liver function tests had always been normal.
So what exactly was the cause of her symptoms?
Wells turned out to have a rare disorder caused by hepatitis C known as Type 2 mixed cryoglobulinemia.
It occurs when cryoglobulins abnormal proteins in the blood thicken and clump together, restricting blood flow to surrounding organs and causing damage to blood vessels. Cryoglobulins often develop in response to hepatitis C or an autoimmune disorder; roughly half of those with a chronic hepatitis C infection are believed to have cryoglobulins circulating in their blood, but fewer than 30 percent of them develop symptoms. Those signs include fatigue, abdominal pain, weakness, neuropathy and Raynaud's disease, a reaction to cold temperatures or stress that can result in a narrowing of blood vessels. Cryoglobulinemia is three times as common in women as in men.Most cases have been reported in those between ages 40 and 60.
Its the most common manifestation of hep C outside the liver, Nguyen said. In Europe, its more commonly recognized.
The disorder was overlooked, Nguyen speculated, because Wellss symptoms abdominal pain, numbness, fatigue are common to many other diseases. And before Nguyen, no doctor had ever thought to screen Wells for hepatitis C.
Wells consulted a liver specialist, and in the summer of 2016 began a 12-week course of treatment with Harvoni, a medicine that costs about $92,000 and is considered to effectively cure hepatitis C. The cryoglobulin count in her blood steadily decreased, and by April of this year it was undetectable. (Although doctors didn't know at the time that Harvoni could reactivate her hepatitis B, Wells suffered no such complication.)
Nearly all of her symptoms, except the leg numbness, disappeared.
I was just so relieved to have a cause, she said, and so blown away that we actually had a cure. She is especially relieved that her family tested negative: Hepatitis C can sometimes be transmitted during childbirth and to those who live in the same house.
Wells says she feels a renewed appreciation for life every waking hour. Her energy level has rebounded, and she feels well enough to take week-long out-of-town work assignments.
She wonders how many other people might have simmering hepatitis C infections or cryoglobulinemia, without knowing it.
If I had not had hepatitis B, she said, would anybody have found this?
Submit your solved medical mystery to sandra.boodman@washpost.com. No unsolved cases, please. Read previous mysteries at wapo.st/medicalmysteries.
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Thumb surgery promised to be an easy fix. It turned out to be anything but.
Her muscles were as floppy as noodles. A lucky encounter explained why.
Doublebooked: how one surgeon operates on two patients at the same time.
Nationwide, state insurance commissioners are caught in the crossfire over the Affordable Care Act. Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, in his office during a February meeting, says the Trump administration is sabotaging progress made through the law. (Ted S. Warren/AP)
With insurance premiums rising amid congressional Republicans failed attack on the Affordable Care Act, a group of bureaucrats whom few Americans can identify hold considerable power over consumers health plans: state insurance commissioners.
Elected in 11 states, appointed in the others, they are central characters in the unfolding drama that is the nations health coverage.
Whats the worst job to have right now? Insurance commissioner, said Christopher Koller, a former Rhode Island commissioner who is president of the Milbank Memorial Fund, a foundation that works to improve health. Theyre trying to keep the market stable.
Most are wrestling with how to take on this task amid the ongoing political rancor in Washington, as insurers exit ACA marketplaces and the White House threatens to let the law collapse. Several commissioners are slated to testify Wednesday before the Senate Health Committee on the first of four days of hearings on how to best stabilize premiums and the individual insurance market.
[Whos who: Insurance commissioners by state]
Across the country, the majority of commissioners have the authority to reject or modify coverage rates they deem excessive. Even in states where they dont, the office can serve as a powerful bully pulpit. California Commissioner Dave Jones, for example, lacks the statutory muscle to override insurers rate increases, but he often uses his position to publicly call out their premium hikes.
Historically, insurance commissioners have seen themselves as civil servants more than politicians . . . and have kind of stayed out of political battles, said Tim Jost, emeritus professor at the Washington and Lee University School of Law, who also serves as a consumer advocate with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
The political pressures on many have rarely been more intense, however. When Tennessees commissioner, Julie Mix McPeak, persuaded Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee to return to areas of the state that it had left the previous year, some critics said I was going out of my way to prop up Obamacare, she recalled. But others said I wasnt doing enough because Im from a red state and that must mean we want Obamacare to fail. But I just want access to coverage.
[Bipartisan group of governors calls on Congress to shore up parts of the Affordable Care Act]
The individual insurance market, where about 12 million people enrolled in 2017 ACA health plans because they lacked employer-based coverage, is the focus for much of the drama.
Republicans calling for the repeal and replacement of the ACA say that this market is imploding. Democrats counter that conditions in most of the insurance exchanges created under the law are improving. The commissioners are caught in the middle.
Some had to scramble this summer negotiating, offering incentives or just downright pleading to get insurers to stay in their markets. At one point, more than 40 counties nationwide were at risk of having zero insurers selling ACA marketplace plans for next year. All "bare" counties were finally covered on Aug. 24, when CareSource agreed to provide coverage in Ohio's Paulding Country.
McPeak and other commissioners say cost issues need to be tackled, but they first must deal with the more immediate problems.
We cant get to affordability if I dont have a policy for people to buy, she said.
These efforts are being made more complicated by President Trump's repeated threats to eliminate billions of dollars in payments that effectively reduce deductibles and other expenses for lower-income Americans with ACA plans. The cost-sharing reductions, which are being paid to insurers on a month-to-month basis, probably will be a topic during the upcoming Senate hearings.
We would all like to know what the rules are. When there is uncertainty, its difficult to make short- or long-term decisions, said Al Redmer Jr., Marylands insurance commissioner.
[Trump officials slash advertising, grants to help Americans get Affordable Care Act insurance]
The commissioners reflect some of the partisan divide.
Trump and Congress are causing uncertainty that is "sabotaging the progress we've made," Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, a Democrat and former member of Congress, wrote in June.
But Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John Doak calls the law "this disastrous experiment." Doak, a Republican who previously worked for various insurance companies, blames ACA regulations for "so many insurers dropping out of exchanges or resorting to double-digit premium increases."
Commissioners regulatory powers vary by state. Some states have comprehensive protections for consumers . . . while others have limited protection, said Claire McAndrew, director of campaign strategy at the liberal consumer advocacy organization Families USA.
No matter the state, though, every commissioner can come up against the formidable strength of the insurance industry lobby as well as the industrys influence within a legislature.
J. Robert Hunter, director of insurance at the Consumer Federation of America, remembers when he took up his post as insurance commissioner in Texas. He met with lawmakers, some of whom were unabashed in their support of the industry. If he went too hard on insurers, they warned him, Well hurt your budget.
He didnt play ball, he maintains.
If insurers are always happy, something is wrong, Hunter said. Insurance commissioners jobs are to hold them to account.
Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit health newsroom whose stories appear in news outlets nationwide, is an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The White House announced Friday that President Trump will nominate two members of the House of Representatives to serve as the nations drug czar and administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The Trump administration said the president has tapped Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy and Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) to lead the nations space agency.
In Congress, Marino has worked to expand access to treatment for people battling opioid addiction. The 64-year-old Republican lives outside Williamsport, Pa., and is a former county prosecutor who served as U.S. attorney in Pennsylvanias Middle District under President George W. Bush.
Marino was one of the sponsors of a 2016 law that, according to critics, makes it more difficult for the Drug Enforcement Administration to pursue drug companies that ignore signs that their painkillers are being diverted to illegal use.
Marino was an early supporter of the president and the first Pennsylvania member of Congress to endorse Trump in the presidential primary contest. He had previously withdrawn his name from consideration in May, citing a family illness.
Bridenstine is a pilot in the U.S. Navy Reserve and a former executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium. He was elected to Congress in 2012 and serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee.
If confirmed by the Senate, Bridenstine would play a key role in Trumps plans to add human exploration of Mars to NASAs mission. NASA is aiming for astronauts on Mars sometime in the 2030s.
Lenny Bernstein contributed to this report.
The Los Angeles Fire Department has issued a mandatory evacuation order for residents of Burbank, Calif., as a raging brush fire threatens their homes. The La Tuna Canyon fire has burned nearly 6,000 acres and is said to be the largest in city history.
Sept. 4, 2017 A fire engine drives past a burned area in the Sunland-Tujunga neighborhood of Los Angeles. Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP
PENNSYLVANIA
Serious charges tossed in hazing-death case
A judge on Friday threw out the most serious charges of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault filed against 16 Pennsylvania State University fraternity members in the alcohol-fueled hazing death of a 19-year-old prospective member.
Twelve members of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity still face lesser charges in the death of Timothy Piazza, who died on Feb. 4 after playing a drinking game at the fraternity house on campus in State College, Pa.
The prosecutor failed to present enough evidence to support a trial for eight of the fraternity members on felony charges of aggravated assault and misdemeanor involuntary manslaughter, Centre County Magisterial District Judge Allen Sinclair found.
District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said she will refile the involuntary manslaughter charges against eight defendants, and possibly the aggravated assault charges against some of them.
Four people who faced single counts of tampering with evidence were dropped from the case as a result of Fridays ruling.
Piazza, a student from Lebanon, N.J., suffered fatal injuries after drunkenly falling several times, including twice down a flight of stairs.
Reuters
UTAH
Police make changes after nurse is detained
A Utah police department is making changes after an officer dragged a screaming nurse out of a hospital in handcuffs when she refused to allow blood to be drawn from an unconscious patient.
Nurse Alex Wubbels followed hospital policy and advice from her bosses when she told Salt Lake City police Detective Jeff Payne that he could not get the blood sample without a warrant or consent from the patient, said her lawyer, Karra Porter.
Police spokeswoman Christina Judd said the agency started an internal investigation within hours of the encounter on July 26 and that the assistant chief has apologized to University of Utah Hospital.
Police body-camera video shows Wubbels, who works in the burn unit, calmly explaining that Payne could not take blood from a patient who had been injured in a deadly car accident, citing a recent change in law. A 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirmed that a blood sample cannot be taken without patient consent or a warrant.
The detective left Wubbels in a hot police car for 20 minutes before realizing that blood had already been drawn as part of treatment, her attorney said. Wubbels was not booked or charged.
Associated Press
As a torrential rain poured from the sky last Sunday, Keri Henry sat in her snug West University Place living room nervously checking Facebook. Floodwaters were rising, emergency lines were jammed, and people were posting desperate pleas for help: "Two elderly people trapped in a one story on their kitchen counters since noon." "Seven people trapped in second floor."
Henry grabbed a notepad and began scratching down details, thinking she would connect the people in trouble with other Facebook users offering boats and high-water vehicles. Within hours, the 36-year-old freelance food stylist was running a one-woman command center from her sofa.
I see some people commenting on one post and other people commenting on another post, and it just clicked, Henry said. I had no idea what I was doing but no choice except to do it.
Henry was part of an unprecedented do-it-yourself relief effort that came to define Hurricane Harvey. After the storm blew into Houston, a remarkable network of boat owners with smartphones, worried neighbors with laptops and digital wizards with mapping software popped up to summon and support an army of Good Samaritans who motored, rowed and waded into dangerous waters to save family, friends and total strangers.
The We the People response seemed distinctly Texan, an outgrowth of the states almost genetic disinclination to rely on the government for anything and in some cases, resolute willingness to defy it. Just as some Texans defied mandatory evacuation orders ahead of the storm, many rescuers ignored repeated official warnings to stay off streets flooded with treacherous and fast-flowing waters.
[Why Houston didnt order an evacuation before Harvey]
Texas officials, in turn, repeatedly emphasized the importance of personal responsibility. They warned people not to call 911 unless their life was in immediate peril. The top elected official in Tyler County, northeast of Houston, told people not to expect a rescue if they defied evacuation orders. His subtle-as-buckshot words on Facebook: GET OUT OR DIE!
Across Southeast Texas, police, firefighters, the National Guard, the Coast Guard and other agencies responded with immense force. But in a storm of Harveys sheer monstrousness hundreds of miles across, lingering for days with bucketing rain that swallowed roads and initially kept rescue aircraft grounded no government response could ever have been enough.
So ordinary people took up the challenge.
The thing thats been completely different from anything Ive ever seen is the way the community has responded. I cant explain to you how awesome it has been, said Houston Police Capt. Yasar Bashir, who stood in a West Houston neighborhood last week watching a volunteer flotilla of boats rescuing victims.
Keri Henry decided to take action when she saw her Houston neighbors being inundated by flood waters last week. Sitting in her living room using her laptop, her iPhone and social media, Henry formed a one-woman command center that would go on to rescue hundreds of flood victims. (Courtesy of Vernon Henry) )
Police were working nonstop, but we cant do it all, Bashir said. Its because of the citizens that we were able to get everyone out.
The citizen rescue campaign was made possible by technology that didnt exist in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Then, people listened to AM radio for news and organized rescues by ham radio or by calling reporters, who posted their cries for help on local news blogs.
In 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone, accelerating the rise of social media. Today, more than three-quarters of Americans carry a smartphone in their pocket, according to the Pew Research Center. Harvey is the largest natural disaster to play out in the United States since the dawn of this hyper-connected era.
Because Harveys strongest winds hit the Texas coast far to the south, near Corpus Christi, Houston didnt suffer the blanket power outages that hit New Orleans during Katrina. As a result, in more places than not, cellphones worked, laptops stayed charged and people could log in to neighborhood Facebook groups and message boards, Twitter, Instagram, Nextdoor and Snapchat.
Rescuers also relied heavily on Zello, a free walkie-talkie app that has become popular among activists in conflict zones around the world. The app works on cellphone data plans or WiFi and was designed to operate in places where signals are weak, making it particularly useful in disaster areas. It allows victims and rescuers to post voice messages to specific channels, such as The Cajun Navy and Harvey Animal Rescue.
Bill Moore, chief executive of Zello, a start-up based in Austin, said the app has seen a 20-fold increase in usage in Houston since Harvey hit.
[A makeshift army, marching on adrenaline]
Houstonians also improvised their own digital tools as the floodwaters rose. Three buddies created the website Houston Harvey Rescue, according to the site, in under 3 hours, in a leaky office, with intermittent power, [and] a 2 GB server. The site allowed users to drop a pin on a Google map to alert rescuers to people in trouble. The color of the pin could be changed to indicate the degree of urgency, and the pin could be removed when the rescue was completed, giving rescuers a real-time view of needs across the city.
The site, which claims credit for over 7,600 active rescues, was no longer operational on Saturday. Long story short: We arent needed anymore, read a post from its three creators, Matthew Marchetti, Nate Larson, and Oliver Carter. Houston saved Houston by open sourcing its own rescue.
Even Texas National Guardsmen sometimes found their cellphones more useful than radios, which have limited range. During patrols this week, soldiers said Facebook became a vital tool for receiving civilian reports of people in need of rescue. Spc. Justin Snow said a responding unit found and rescued dozens of people trapped in a flooded building from a Facebook post.
Hats off to Google Maps and dropping pins on iPhone, Snow said.
There were the inevitable wild goose chases. In Port Arthur on Thursday, a Facebook post said a rescuer had been electrocuted in the Montrose subdivision. Firefighters rushed out but found no one one of dozens of false reports.
Social media has allowed us to process so much information. But its almost information overload, said Shawn Boudreaux, vice president of Cajun Navy Relief, a volunteer rescue operation, from the command post in Lake Charles, La. We have trolls. We have hoaxes.
The information overload also led at times to volunteer overload, and some would-be citizen rescuers were turned away from areas where there were already too many boats in the water. The Texas Department of Public Safety reported having to rescue some overeager but undertrained volunteers whose boats overturned in the swift current.
Still, for the most part, the improvisational effort was successful.
When Andrew Brenneise saw his West Houston neighborhood flooding at a ferocious pace last Saturday, his first thought was Facebook Live. He pulled out his smartphone in the punishing rain and pleaded for volunteers with boats.
Forty-five minutes later, the first truck arrived with a boat on a trailer. Then 10 more. Then 20. Then Brenneise had a flotilla of fishing boats, kayaks, canoes and flat-bottomed skiffs which, over the next six days, rescued hundreds of people and animals.
This is who we are, said Brenneise, 31, a business development manager at a chemical company. The police and firefighters cant be everywhere, so the community has to step in and take control.
[President Trump returns to Texas]
Tanner Montgomery, 39, a real estate agent, and two friends drove three hours from San Antonio with a canoe on a trailer to help in Brenneises neighborhood, known as Westchase, where tree-lined streets of elegant homes were threatened throughout the week by releases from nearby Barker Reservoir. Montgomery didnt hear Brenneises appeal but was alerted through posts on Facebook and Zello, as well as text messages from other volunteers.
Theres way too many people who need help for just the emergency services, Montgomery said. Theres only so many government employees, and theres a lot more of us.
Indeed, emergency services were stretched so thin that police didnt arrive to take control of the rescue operation in Westchase until Thursday. Even then, they had no boats, so they had to hitch rides with the citizen navy, including Montgomerys canoe.
In Memorial, one of Houstons older communities, Denver Courtney and Alex Clamon spent days using their personal boats to rescue stranded neighbors.
I was sitting there just chewing my fingers off, going, I cant watch this and not go help, said Clamon, 44, an insurance agent who drove 2 hours from Palestine, Tex.
Basically, as a Texan, you know, youre called to duty when something like this happens, added Courtney, 48, an interior designer from Houston. If youre a hunter and a fisherman and a redneck, man, then you got your boat out here. And if you dont, we dont claim you as a Texan.
Henry launched her personal rescue operation around lunchtime last Sunday from her cozy sectional in West University Place, an independent city near downtown Houston.
It turns out my Facebook addiction actually had a purpose, she said. With the water rising, she divided the pleas for help into three categories in her notebook: BABIES. Elderly. Families.
On Sunday night, she slept for barely two hours.
I dont know how many lives I couldve saved while I slept, she said. It was hard to make yourself sleep.
At first, she focused on linking boaters and victims in the closest neighborhoods Bellaire, Braeswood, Meyerland. But as word of her work spread online, she began receiving tags and private messages from strangers farther away in Memorial and Katy and, eventually, all over Houston.
Boaters arriving from as far away as Florida found their way to her on Facebook as well, seeking guidance about where to deploy. Then Henry linked up with a Houston lawyer, Thomas J. Holmes III, who was commanding his own fleet of boats.
Holmes had something else to offer: online emergency forms. Created through Google Docs, the forms allowed victims and volunteers to provide rescuers with crucial details about their location and health. That information was then uploaded to a master spreadsheet that let rescuers know whether to expect a large family, pets or a victim weighing more than 300 pounds.
So many random boaters were filling out my Google dispatch form that I realized they could be dispatched almost anywhere there were needs, Henry said. Our operation just kept growing.
From last Sunday through Thursday, she worked, aided at times by a friend who listened to Zello from her home in Hawaii. At the height of the effort, Henry estimates that she was helping to direct 39 teams of three or four boats each well over 100 good Samaritans saving an untold number of lives.
Once I got a few people rescued and things started gaining momentum, I couldnt just look away, she said. Who was I going to pass the torch to? The 911 dispatch? No way. That wasnt an option.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled Alex Clamons last name. The article has been updated.
Holley reported from Washington. Alex Horton and Arelis Hernandez in Houston contributed to this report.
Yes, wildfires and smoke are of concern.
But the Labor Day Rodeo will go on in Helmville, and with it one of the uplifting small-town stories of the year.
Upwards of 3,000 people are expected to converge Sunday and Monday on the Geary Brothers Ranch rodeo grounds north of town for the annual rodeo, which starts at 1 p.m. both days.
Most of them wont fit but all figure to be impressed with the centerpiece of the story a new look to a 400-seat grandstand that turns 90 years old this year.
It looks just like the old one, but its new, said Bill Baker, president of the Helmville Rodeo Club.
A year ago the future of the rodeo itself was in jeopardy due to the shaky condition of the stands and the liability issues it presented.
In a valley of maybe 300 people, a movement arose. Starting in November, donations, material and words of support poured in to save the grandstand.
A fundraising target of $80,000 has long since been surpassed, with considerably more than $100,000 raised, said Camille Coughlin, who helped spearhead the effort for the Community Club. A dinner and auction in late June netted more than $54,000 by itself.
The grandstand got a shakedown run last Sunday with the annual Helmville Fun Day. On Friday, John Quigley and Signature Builders of Elliston were putting the finishing touches on the grandstand, which was built with lumber donated by the Mannix Brothers Ranch next door.
Im very happy, Baker said. I think everybody is. I know Bob Geary is, and that means a lot to me.
Bob is the last Geary brother remaining on the ranch. Hes making preparations for another momentous occasion, a weekend celebration of the ranchs 150th birthday. Itll include relatives from across the pond in Ireland, where Bobs great-grandfather John Geary and Johns cousins Big Jim and Mike grew up. They arrived and established the ranch in 1867 and its remained in the Geary name ever since.
The log homestead cabin the Gearys built remains on the home ranch across the fields from the rodeo grounds.
One of the heftiest donations to the grandstand project came on behalf of a Geary descendant. The M-K Link Foundation of Las Vegas contributed $10,000 on behalf of Eric Holt, who died in October 2015 at age 48. Holt, a wildlife biologist in Utah, grew up in western Montana.
Another $10,000 gift came from the Town Pump Charitable Foundation. Based in Butte, Town Pump Inc. was founded in 1953 by Tom Kenneally, who spent his summers haying on Helmville ranches where his mother, Edna Geary, grew up.
Co Bank, a Denver-based cooperative bank, chipped in $15,000 by matching $5,000 grants from Blackfoot Communications, Missoula Electric Co-op and Energy Partners.
A matching grant of $15,500 came from the state tourism office.
I was absolutely amazed when the donations started rolling in, said Baker. It was like, holy moly, theyre coming from everywhere.
Steeped in tradition, the rodeo each day features such time-honored events as mutton busting for the young kids and wild cow milking for bigger ones. The action includes calcutta auctions for the top bareback riders (Sunday) and saddle bronc riders (Monday) on the Northern Rodeo Association circuit. The Lolo Creek Band plays a Sunday night dance at the Helmville Community Center starting at 9 p.m.
Admission to the rodeo is $7 for adults and $3 for kids over 6. Those under get in free.
The Helmville Labor Day Rodeo is just one in western Montana on the last weekend of the rodeo season. Saturday marks the second nights for both the Ravalli County Fair NRA Rodeo in Hamilton (7 p.m.) and the Sanders County PRCA Rodeo in Plains, starting at 8 p.m. The Dillon PRCA Jaycee Rodeo is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday.
MISSOURI
Two arrested in attack on St. Louis ofcers
Authorities have arrested two men suspected of wounding two St. Louis police officers in an attack that also left a 24-year-old woman in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head.
Acting Police Chief Lawrence OToole said Friday evening that the third victim was in her home directly behind the officers when they were attacked.
The womans mother identified her as Tamara Collier and said she was wounded when a bullet went through the residences back door and struck her as she was doing laundry.
A 35-year-old male officer and 32-year-old female officer were treated at a hospital for gunshot wounds to their legs and hands, as well as for facial wounds caused by shrapnel. They were in stable condition.
O'Toole said the suspects are
22 and 24 years old and have criminal records.
He said the officers were patrolling the area in their car and were ambushed by the suspects.
Associated Press
NASA
Astronauts return sets endurance record
Astronaut Peggy Whitson returned to Earth late Saturday, wrapping up a record-breaking flight that catapulted her to first place for U.S. space endurance.
Whitsons 665 days off the planet 288 days on this mission alone exceeds that of any other American and any other woman worldwide.
She checked out of the International Space Station just hours earlier, along with another American and a Russian. Their Soyuz capsule landed in Kazakhstan.
She set multiple other records while in orbit: worlds oldest spacewoman, at age 57, and most experienced female spacewalker, with 10.
Associated Press
GERMANY
Chancellor reacts to detentions by Turkey
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday said Germany should react decisively to Ankaras detention of two more German citizens, amid calls for Berlin to issue a formal travel warning for those headed to Turkey.
Twelve Germans are now in Turkish detention on political charges, four of them dual nationals. Among them is German Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel, who had been in detention 200 days as of Friday.
Merkel said she did not think it was appropriate to carry out further discussions with Ankara about its participation in a European Union customs union.
We must react decisively, Merkel said at a business event in Nuremberg, noting that Germany had already fundamentally revamped its relations with Ankara. Given the latest events, perhaps it is necessary to rethink them ever further, she said.
Many Europeans have been detained in Turkey over the past year, accused of involvement in last years coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom many accuse of purging opposition under the cover of a crackdown.
Reuters
SAUDI ARABIA
Hajj ritual performed under added security
Two million Muslim pilgrims performed a symbolic stoning of the devil Friday, a perilous part of the annual hajj pilgrimage in which hundreds were killed in a crush two years ago.
Saudi Arabia, which stakes its reputation on organizing the worlds largest annual Muslim gathering, has deployed more than 100,000 security personnel and medics as well as modern technology including drones to ensure a safe pilgrimage.
The 2015 incident killed nearly 800 people, according to Riyadh, when two large groups of pilgrims arrived together at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometers east of Mecca, on their way to performing the stoning ritual. Counts by countries of repatriated bodies, however, showed that more than 2,000 people may have died.
Reuters
U.S. says airstrike killed al-Shabab extremist: The U.S. military says it has conducted an airstrike in Somalia that killed one al-Shabab extremist and wounded another. The U.S. Africa Command says the strike was carried out Thursday near Barawe in southern Somalia. The U.S. military has carried out several airstrikes against fighters with the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab in the Horn of Africa nation since President Trump approved expanded military operations against the group.
Uzbekistan removes thousands from Muslim security list: Uzbekistan has removed about 16,000 people from a 17,000-person security blacklist of potential Muslim religious extremists, in what appears to be part of efforts to pursue more- liberal policies in the former Soviet republic. Western countries and rights groups have long criticized Tashkent's record on democracy and human rights and have accused it of using the blacklist indiscriminately to stifle political and religious dissent in the mainly Muslim nation of 32 million.
Ethiopia says rebel leader willingly surrendered: Ethiopia says a senior figure with the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front has willingly surrendered, days after the group accused neighboring Somalia's security forces of kidnapping and forcibly extraditing him. Ethiopia Foreign Ministry spokesman Meles Alem said Somalia
"played a facilitation role" in the surrender of Abdikarin Sheikh Muse.
From news services
Kenya's president vows judiciary system "fix": Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta, promised Saturday to "fix" the judicial system a day after the Supreme Court nullified his reelection. The court on Friday said the electoral commission had committed irregularities in the Aug. 8 vote and called for a new election. "We shall show you in 60 days that the will of the people cannot be overturned," Kenyatta said. "We will come back and revisit this issue Going forward, we must fix it."
Venezuelan activist is barred from travel: Lilian Tintori, a prominent anti-government activist, was barred from leaving Venezuela for planned meetings with European leaders, dealing a setback to opposition attempts to rally international pressure on President Nicolas Maduro. Tintori, wife of the nation's most prominent detained activist, Leopoldo Lopez, claims she had a meeting planned for Monday in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron and later with other European leaders. No explanation for the travel ban was given, but the move came a day after she was ordered to appear before a judge Tuesday to answer questions about a large sum of cash found in her vehicle.
Mexican president vows crackdown on violence: Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, in his annual State of the Union address, said security is his government's top priority, amid growing violence that is marring his fifth year in office and despite figures showing significant drops in crime-fighting results. Pena Nieto said there has been progress in education reform and infrastructure projects but acknowledged the bloodshed that's on pace to be the country's worst in many years. He said authorities had "neutralized 107 of the 127 most dangerous criminals" in Mexico, but added that all levels of government must redouble their efforts.
From news services
Sheryl Sandberg is chief operating officer of Facebook and founder of LeanIn.org. Rachel Thomas is president of LeanIn.org.
None of us should have to choose between the job we need and the family we love. Thats the concept behind paid family leave. It provides a safety net for when life happens when a baby arrives, a child falls ill, an aging parent needs extra care and we need to be there. And because it provides income during that time, its a game-changer for workers living paycheck to paycheck.
On Monday, Americans will celebrate Labor Day. It's a chance to recommit to supporting the workers who help make our country strong. One of the most important ways we can do this is by passing national paid family leave.
Right now, only about 6o percent of the U.S. workforce has access to unpaid leave thanks to the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. That was a breakthrough law, but it was just a first step. It leaves out millions of workers. It doesn't cover the range of family and medical issues that we all face in life. And it's unpaid, which means nearly half of workers who qualify say they can't afford to use it.
Furthermore, while a growing number of companies have stepped up to offer paid leave, the benefits overwhelmingly go to workers with professional degrees. The people who need paid leave the most are the least likely to get it those working minimum-wage jobs, those with high school degrees or less. This is unacceptable.
Some will say that paid leave hurts business. The data say otherwise. In California, which has had paid family leave since 2002, 91 percent of employers say the program has either boosted profits and performance or had no effect at all. And it's good for our economy as a whole. The Labor Department estimates that if American women participated in the workforce at the same levels they do in Canada and Germany which offer paid leave we would add $500 billion to our economy every year.
Some will say, let's leave this to the states and indeed, a handful of states have led the way. In the past 15 years, California, Rhode Island, Washington, New Jersey, New York, and the District of Columbia have enacted paid leave. But there are still 45 states left to go. At this rate, it will take more than a century to cover all workers. Some problems require a national solution. This is one of them.
Some will say paid leave benefits only women which is another way of saying it's not that important to everyone. It's true that women are often the ones who take care of children and aging parents, and they deserve time to do both. It's also true that the United States is the only developed country without paid maternity leave. American women aren't even guaranteed a single paid day off to give birth. Meanwhile, mothers are the sole or primary breadwinners in more than 40 percent of households. When their incomes drop or they lose their jobs, their families pay the price.
But paid leave benefits men, too. Since the introduction of paid leave in California, the number of men who have used it to care for their children has more than doubled. And 3 in 4 fathers say they want to spend more time with their kids. Men deserve the chance to care for the people who matter to them. We all do.
There's a national paid leave plan before the Congress right now the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, or Family Act, sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D.-Conn.). It provides for 12 weeks of paid time off to care for new children or seriously ill or injured family members, address one's own serious health condition, or help a military family adjust to a loved one's deployment. It applies to all workers nationwide, no matter their job or employer. It's sustainably and responsibly funded through payroll taxes. And it offers income reimbursement substantial enough that low-wage and middle-class workers can afford to use it.
One advocate told us that she realized just how important paid leave is when her son was hospitalized. She spent every minute by his side her workplace had a paid-leave program that allowed her to do that. In the next bed was a very sick 4-year-old boy who spent all day alone. His parents showed up after he was asleep, and could stay only a few hours. They both worked long shifts and neither could afford to take time off from work. Paid leave would have meant everything to that family and millions more.
Seventy percent of small businesses support the Family Act. And more than 70 percent of Democrats and Republicans support paid leave in general. They support it because it's good for workers and families. It's good for our economy. But more importantly, it says something powerful about who we are as a country that we look out for one another, that we're all in this together. That's what Labor Day is all about. It's time to get this done.
Activists and protesters with the National Center for Transgender Equality rally in front of the White House Feb. 22, 2017. (Andrew Harnik/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Karen Keys-Gamarra won the special election to the Fairfax County School Board on Tuesday overwhelmingly, boldly declaring support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.
I am president of FCPS Pride, an LGBT and allied organization for employees and parents in Fairfax County Public Schools. Parents of transgender students and the students themselves have talked in our meetings over the past year about their frustration with the lack of clarity in Fairfax County Public Schools regulations on social transition in schools, especially around the use of restrooms. The school board updated the nondiscrimination policy to include gender identity two years ago but suspended proposed regulations last summer; no action has been taken since.
The widely expressed need and robust support at the ballot box make it incumbent on the school board to move forward with drafting and implementing detailed regulations that will assist all transgender students in our schools, not just those with privilege.
Robert Rigby Jr., Arlington
I was quite surprised but extremely pleased to see Douglas Brinkley's Aug. 24 op-ed about former president Jimmy Carter ["What it takes to stand up to bigotry"]. It has taken a long time for the real Jimmy Carter to emerge as more than a one-dimensional person. It was always about "the failed presidency" with no analysis of the various parts of his presidency.
My family has known Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter for more than 40 years. We even spent time in the Georgia governors mansion with then-Gov. Carter reading Dylan Thomas poetry after dinner. My husband and I worked at the White House. I believe I know the Carters; they are people of high moral principles. In fact, Carters moral convictions so impressed us that we asked him to be a godfather to our son, who now is 40. Carter has been a wonderful role model.
Brinkleys op-ed showed the real Jimmy Carter.
Anne Mahoney Robbins, Rockville
A DRACONIAN Texas law mandating local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities, even to the extent of preventing police officers from speaking out against policies they disliked, was set take effect Friday. But after a federal judge ruled against the state in a lawsuit backed by several Texas cities, the statute has rightly been put on hold.
Much of Senate Bill 4, or SB 4, doesn't require law enforcement to cooperate with federal agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to identify and deport undocumented immigrants. Instead, it largely declares that police departments can't set policies constraining that cooperation. But U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia still held that SB 4's provisions compelling local police departments to allow officials to help ICE, even to assist in enforcing federal immigration law, were likely unconstitutional.
Mr. Garcia also ruled against a provision of SB 4 that would have prevented law enforcement from "endorsing" policies "materially limit[ing] the enforcement of immigration law" phrasing so broad that it could curtail the free-speech rights of local officials seeking to voice their views of immigration enforcement, even through a wink. And most significantly, the judge halted SB 4's requirement that police departments cooperate with federal requests to detain undocumented immigrants on behalf of ICE. Mr. Garcia made a persuasive case that this practice, which has come into legal question nationwide, violates detainees' constitutional rights against unreasonable confinement.
Texas will still be able to roll out provisions of the law requiring police departments to allow officers to ask about the immigration status of a person under arrest or detention and to share that information with ICE. But Mr. Garcia's ruling is a blow to Texas and to the Justice Department, which backed the state's case. Following another judge's finding of a Texas voter registration law to be racially discriminatory, it's the second recent case in which the state, even with the support of the Justice Department, has lost a bid to enforce harsh measures against its minority population.
Texas has already appealed Mr. Garcia's decision. It's hard not to view the ongoing battle in context of President Trump's executive order withholding federal grants from sanctuary cities, itself halted in part by a federal judge. Yet this comparison can be taken too far. Mr. Trump's order only vaguely defines what constitutes a sanctuary city and seems to limit itself to pushing for information sharing with ICE, rather than mandating local cooperation with ICE detention requests.
Nevertheless, as litigation over both SB 4 and Mr. Trumps executive order goes forward, the Trump administration would be wise to take Mr. Garcias ruling as a reminder of the constitutional limits on harsh immigration policies. Cities that take a reasonable approach to cooperating with federal agents allowing deportations of dangerous criminals, for example seek to enhance public safety by building trust between civilians and law enforcement. The Justice Department should work alongside these localities, not penalize them.
Ronald Klain, a Post contributing columnist, served as a senior White House aide to Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and was a senior adviser to Hillary Clintons 2016 campaign.
Theres energy in the Democratic Party around big ideas, such as single-payer health care or a universal basic income. But the most significant thing Democrats could do to help working families right now isnt designing a grand new program its getting in the trenches to fight for a simple old idea. Specifically, trying to stop the Trump administration from denying millions of workers the overtime pay they have earned.
The idea that employees should receive time-and-a-half for their work beyond 40 hours a week dates to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. But not all workers are entitled to overtime. The law allows employers to "exempt" workers who have salaried jobs performing "executive, administrative, or professional duties." The Labor Department, which administers the law, has also set a salary ceiling above which workers even in low-level supervisory roles are ineligible for overtime pay. Today, that limit is woefully outdated. In 2016, salaried workers making only $23,700 a year the equivalent of about $11 an hour could be classified as "executives" or "professionals" and thereby ineligible for overtime.
Who loses overtime pay when the cutoff is so low? Front-counter managers at fast-food outlets; head cashiers at big-box stores; crew chiefs on job sites; night-shift leads at convenience stores. These people toil a million miles from the C-suite, and struggle to get by on as little as $455 a week. But they are labeled exempt and can be required to work 60 or 70 hours a week without any compensation for extra hours: They are paid a flat salary and are ineligible for overtime pay. Many are single parents, paying dearly out of pocket for child care when they are forced to work extended shifts.
In his final year in office, President Barack Obama acted to fix this travesty. In May 2016, he raised the floor for overtime pay from $23,700 to $47,500 effective Dec. 1. Of course, that number is still low: someone making just $48,000 would still be ineligible for overtime under the new rule, even though he or she is hardly a quintessential "executive."
Before the rule took effect, a court froze its implementation, and a self-proclaimed champion for working people won the presidency. Observers wondered: Would Donald Trump take up Obamas fight for these hard-pressed, hard-working people (many of whom voted for Trump) and insist that they be paid overtime?
Nope. Rather than siding with his voters, President Trump caved to major employers. Last month, his Labor Department announced that it was considering "stakeholder" read: business concerns that the new rule's salary level was "too high." Attention MAGA red-hat wearers: The president believes if you are making $600 a week, you may be making too much to deserve overtime. The Lord of the Apprentice Boardroom, the King of Mar-a-Lago, the Master of Trump Tower thinks you making $15 an hour may be paid too much to get overtime. He believes your boss should be able to make you come to work at dawn, stay far into the night, and not pay you one dime more for the extra hours worked.
This is no minor issue. According to the Economic Policy Institute, which has been leading the fight for overtime reform, revoking the Obama rule could affect the paychecks of more than 12 million workers.
Keep in mind that making workers eligible for overtime pay does not require any employer to pay overtime. A company can simply hire more workers, and spare existing employees the burden of working extra hours. Standard Republican objections to pro-worker measures dont apply to the case against overtime. Enforcing overtime rules doesnt raise taxes. It doesnt destroy jobs if anything, it should create more. It doesnt give undeserving people handouts. It is simply fair pay for long hours.
Democrats should relish this fight. On Thursday, a federal district judge in Texas, in a lawsuit brought by business groups, struck down the Obama rule as contrary to a 1961 statute; Democrats should challenge Donald "Friend of the Working Class" Trump to appeal the decision.
Every billionaire member of the Trump economic team who testifies on Capitol Hill should be grilled over whether they agree that $47,000 a year is too high to receive overtime and asked how few hours they worked in the private sector to earn the same amount these workers make in an entire year. Democrats should try to attach amendments to legislation, updating the law the Texas court relied upon, and putting the Obama rule into effect. They should talk about overtime whenever they can, and challenge Republicans on it in every corner carryout, gas station, work site and suburban mega-store.
Overtime may not be a sexy issue; its not a new idea. But its hard to imagine a more worthy battle for a party wrestling with Trump over who really stands for working men and women.
Columnist
Nobody wants to pick on Texas, or especially Houston, after a 1,000-year weather event that for several days turned the city into a lake and dispossessed thousands of their homes, belongings and, in some cases, loved ones.
The ultimate effects of the storm blandly named Harvey are yet to be fully understood. What is known is that most of the homes destroyed were uninsured for flooding and that U.S. taxpayers will be doing much of the bailing.
Meanwhile, comparisons to Hurricane Katrina 12 years ago are intriguing, if one is fortunate enough to be hugging dry land. Chief among the obvious differences is the death toll. Katrina took close to 2,000 lives. As of Friday, Harveys toll was 46, and the figure wasnt expected to rise significantly.
Numbers matter little to those in mourning, but such comparisons can be instructive. In explaining differences between Katrina and Harvey, most experts naturally examine the weather itself and topography. During Katrina, New Orleans, which is shaped like a bowl, was hardest hit. Flooding from burst levees, as well as the colossal tidal surge driven by winds, essentially filled the bowl.
In Houston during Harvey, the main force of the storm came from the skies, which dropped 9 trillion gallons (nearly 50 inches) of water onto the city, the flat topography of which gave residents an obvious advantage over New Orleans. Although cataclysmic over time, Houston's flooding was less abrupt and gave people more time to find higher ground.
Setting aside weather factors and postponing for now a critique of human failure a couple of distinguishing psycho-techno-sociological factors also came into play. First, in 2005 when Katrina struck, there was no widespread use of smartphones the iPhone hadnt hit the market yet and social media was in its incipient stages. Facebook was only a year old and still restricted to college students. Just think: When George W. Bush was beginning his second term as president, no one was tweeting.
A second important factor affecting outcomes was the way people responded to the storm. Many New Orleans residents, given their historical distrust of public officials, disregarded warnings and failed to heed evacuation orders. In Houston, there was no call to evacuate.
And although many of the poor in both cities often had no means of personal transportation, nearly every household in sprawling Houston has at least one car, according to the Census Bureau. New Orleans in 2005, by contrast, had the fourth highest rate among 300 metropolitan areas of individuals without access to a household car.
Thus, the storms were very different, as were the people primarily affected. Reaction to the two storms also was initially different, although a common denominator seems to be the God factor. Recall that when Katrina hit New Orleans, some members of the cloth, including the Rev. Franklin Graham, Catholic priest Gerhard Wagner and televangelist John Hagee, opined that God was punishing the city for its legendary indulgences and supposed sins.
But where is the comparable condemnation of Houston given Harvey's Noah-esque proportions? How soon before some looney says Houston, the epicenter of America's energy and oil industry, bears responsibility for the flood? Already, one pastor is saying Harvey was retribution for Houston's leniency toward the LBGT community. And Ann Coulter suggested that Harvey was more likely God's punishment for Houston's former lesbian mayor than a result of climate change.
No matter what ones religious beliefs or commercial incentives, it is absurd to blame cities or their residents for natural disasters. When otherwise intelligent people engage in such hyperbolic rhetoric, they encourage the sort of dumbing down that gets people killed. The science behind weather events isnt that complicated to understand.
As a footnote, the Christian God doesnt single out the poor or the powerless for punishment. Rather, as Jesus said, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God, and also that the meek would inherit the Earth if they still want it.
But make no mistake: We are being warned. Storms of the Harvey variety will become not 1-in-1,000-year events but 1-in-100. And then, well, who knows beyond worse-is-coming? The least we can do is exercise our free will and our reasoning powers to mitigate the effects of human activities on global warming to the extent possible.
If we dont, Mr. President, were going to need a bigger ark.
Read more from Kathleen Parker's archive, follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook.
IN JANUARY, an investigation by the Justice Department found that the Chicago Police Department routinely used excessive force against the city's residents, often along racial lines and without accountability. That report recommended federal court oversight of the Chicago police to prevent further abuses. Now, almost nine months later, a federal judge is set to begin supervising the process of reforming Chicago's police.
But the city of Chicago won't be working with the Justice Department. Instead, it's Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan who is bringing the lawsuit to begin negotiations on a federal court decree for police oversight.
The state of Illinois is filling the hole left by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, under whose leadership the Justice Department pulled back from its agreement to negotiate with Chicago to find a mutually agreeable model for court supervision of the city's police. After months, nothing came of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's efforts to find a solution with the Justice Department outside the courts. Now, Mr. Emanuel who has been reluctant to embrace judicial oversight of Chicago police has pledged to partner with Ms. Madigan to achieve reform under the watchful eye of a judge.
Chicago is one of several cities left behind by Mr. Sessions's emphasis on fighting crime over working with unsettled police departments in need of reform as if protecting civil rights and public safety were somehow incompatible. Two months into his time as attorney general, Mr. Sessions issued a memorandum directing his deputies to review oversight agreements reached by the Obama administration with police departments found to have systematically violated civil rights. The Justice Department then tried to delay an agreement finalized by Obama officials from going into effect in Baltimore, over the objections of the police department itself only to be rebuked by the judge who gave the reform plan his approval. And recently, the department's Community Oriented Policing Services Office (COPS) has reportedly failed to provide assessments requested by at least seven local police departments that reached out for help with reform.
The ChicagoPolice Department is less eager for reform than those of Baltimore and the jurisdictions working with COPS. But the heavy reliance of Illinoiss court filing on the Justice Departments investigation emphasizes that Ms. Madigans office is playing the part of a federal government that has fallen silent.
Illinoiss lawsuit should be encouraging not only to the residents of Chicago whose police department may finally receive the oversight it so sorely needs but to other states also seeking to improve police departments in the absence of federal assistance. The road ahead is untested, and state attorneys general without the relatively broad authorities of Illinoiss highest law enforcement officer may find themselves relying on novel legal arguments to bring lawsuits pushing reform. It is heartening to see the Illinois attorney general step into the shoes of the Justice Department. But those shoes never should have been left empty in the first place.
Bilal Qureshi's description in his Aug. 27 Outlook essay, "Being a Pakistani in India as Hindu nationalism won," of some of the atrocities perpetrated by cow-slaughter opponents was overblown. These isolated incidents, though tragic and abhorrent, do not define the entire country, home to nearly 175 million Muslims, the second-largest Muslim population in the world. Mr. Qureshi referred to the pageantry seen at the India-Pakistan border as "the ugliest place I had seen in South Asia." Many American and British friends who have visited the Indo-Pak border at Wagha, Amritsar, in India, thought the ceremonial pageantry was quite fascinating. Wikipedia defines it as "a symbol of the two countries' rivalry, as well as brotherhood and cooperation between the two nations." Mr. Qureshi has put poisoned lenses on his eyes that color everything he looks at. But the more outrageous the story, the more readers will find it exciting.
Bageshwar Verma, Columbia
White nationalists carry torches on the grounds of the University of Virginia, on the eve of a planned Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, August 11, 2017. (Evelyn Hockstein/The Washington Post)
Columnist
Charlottesville. Berkeley. Houston. Three dots that lead to something urgent about our politics.
Lets connect them.
Wanna-be Nazis parading by torchlight through Charlottesville was a radical moment. Masked leftists marauding through Berkeley was another radical moment. Radical politics are the most dangerous kind, whether they arise from the right or the left. Around the world, the past 100 years have been an orgy of wars, genocides, famines and purges the bloody fruits of various radical ideologies. Americans ought to be on guard.
Houston, battered, sodden, unbowed, stands for the opposite. Radicals emphasize and inflame political differences, which they find everywhere because for radicals everything's political: what you wear, what you eat, what you enjoy. The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia murdered people for wearing eyeglasses. The Islamic State radicals of Raqqa lopped off the head of a teenager caught listening to Western music.
In Houston, politics ended at the water's edge. Within hours of the first raindrops, the highways of Trump Country filled with pickup trucks towing boats. This flat-bottomed flotilla rescued people by the thousands, black, brown and white, regardless of voting history, religious preference or passport status.
This affirmation of shared human dignity is the serum that largely inoculated Americans against the deadly lure of radicalism. But while this spirit is strong in times of disaster, it is sagging on the political front. Liberals and conservatives must come together to revive it.
Say what? Liberals and conservatives together?
You see, Charlottesville and Berkeley are rampaging reminders that the political spectrum is much broader than we Americans are used to acknowledging. The spectrum runs far beyond Republicans and Democrats, from fascism to communism and from tyranny to anarchy. Conservatives and liberals are actually shoulder to shoulder at the center of this range.
We can wage intense debates across the liberal-conservative divide precisely because we share common assumptions and principles. Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale, one a true conservative, the other a true liberal, vied for the presidency in 1984 while sharing the conviction that individuals are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That speech and conscience are free. That government is fettered by the rule of law and accountable to the people.
They argued over the best means to achieve these shared ideals. And because those were less radical times, it was easy to accentuate their differences while taking the ideals for granted.
Thomas Jefferson put this heritage succinctly in the wake of the bitterly polarized election of 1800 . Party does not come first. As Americans, he declared in the terms of his times, "we are all Republicans, we are all Federalists."
Todays parties are accustomed to placating their radical elements with gestures and dog-whistles. But converging forces including niche media, social networks and partisan gerrymandering have tipped power from the center to the extremes, where radicals will no longer be placated.
These forces gave us perhaps the most radical presidential election in American history last year. The ostensibly conservative Republican Party was taken over by a man who stands against core conservative values such as prudence, order, tradition and free markets. Meanwhile, the ostensibly liberal Democratic Party was nearly hijacked by a socialist.
The fascists who invaded Charlottesville and the anarchists rioting in Berkeley may appropriate some language of liberty and rights. But in their radicalism theres no room for the spirit of Houston. There is only division.
Principled liberals and conservatives need to wake up to this peril. The solid center that has defined American politics for generations is under assault by empowered radicals on both sides. The old game of stirring big battles over small differences only serves to drive more people to the extremes. While the parties continue to demonize each other in hopes of winning the next election, they are feeding beasts that could devour them both.
The center still holds in many of our local and state governments. Some centrists remain in both parties of Congress, while others inside the White House maneuver to tame the Oval Office radical. But on the whole, we see only politics as usual from party leaders, the same old wedge issues, empty slogans and personal attacks. As if the storm is sure to pass.
We need leaders who can read the clouds of Charlottesville and Berkeley for the genuine menace they pose. Who, in the spirit of Houston, can shelve their differences, climb into their boats, and begin collecting all the stranded Americans they can find. Our pragmatic, can-do, solution-seeking people, regardless of party, are marooned in the radical flood.
Theres no time to waste. The water is rising.
Read more from David Von Drehle's archive.
In 2001, I worked with two of my Montgomery Blair High School classmates and then-Del. (now state Comptroller) Peter Franchot (D) to introduce a bill calling for the repeal of "Maryland, My Maryland" as the state's official song. The lyrics, which refer to President Abraham Lincoln as a "despot" and "tyrant," are tinged with the complicated history of Maryland, a state that was on the dividing line between Union and Confederate forces.
The Aug. 29 Metro article "U-Md. band suspends playing state song" reported that the University of Maryland's marching band will no longer perform the song. I applaud that decision, and although I think that the larger national phenomenon of displacing monuments and distancing ourselves from our pro-Confederate past is a net good, it is important to keep that history alive in other ways, if only to teach our children about a difficult period in our past.
When I testified in the Maryland House of Delegates as a 16-year-old student, I could hear the snickers of lawmakers for whom the hearing was little more than a glorified photo op. Given how much has changed in the United States in the years since, I would strongly advocate the body reconsider a similar bill and treat it with the seriousness it deserves.
The Maryland state song should be taught in textbooks and its lyrics displayed in museums. However, given both the lyrics and the songwriter's intent, the song should cease to be sung at state events. It was offensive 16 years ago and remains so today.
Chris Biggs, Silver Spring
In this July 10, 1945, photograph, the USS Indianapolis is shown off the Mare Island Navy Yard in Northern California. The ship was torpedoed and sank just after midnight on July 30, 1945. (U.S. Navy via Associated Press)
The Aug. 21 news article WWII vet recalls sinking, sea survival, about finding the wreckage of the USS Indianapolis, left out a key player in its history. In the 1990s, Hunter Scott, a middle school student in Pensacola, Fla., presented a project on the USS Indianapolis at a history fair. That project and the questions it raised led him on a seven-year quest to investigate the full story of what had actually happened to the ship and its men.
In October 2000, after being presented with Hunters trove of research, Congress passed a resolution stating that Capt. Charles Butler McVay IIIs record should state that he is exonerated for the loss of the Indianapolis. President Bill Clinton signed the resolution, and, in July 2001, the secretary of the Navy ordered McVays record cleared of all wrongdoing. Although several hundred ships were lost during World War II, McVay had been the only commander court-martialed for the sinking of his ship.
Paul L. Newman, Merion Station, Pa.
A D.C. judge recently ruled that the website provider DreamHost must comply with the federal government's demand for information related to a website involved in organizing an Inauguration Day protest. The Aug. 25 editorial "Don't buy the hype" defended the government's assertion that the request was constitutionally reasonable and did not suggest a crackdown on dissent. A broad coalition of more than 70 privacy and civil-liberty organizations disagrees.
The coalition wrote the attorney general to express alarm that, while narrowed, the governments demand for information still constitutes government overreach. The website in question was used as a platform for providing and exchanging information about a range of activities planned for the week leading up to Inauguration Day, including a workshop on peaceful resistance held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The revised warrant still seeks all contents of email accounts of individuals associated with the website, regardless of their participation or involvement in the Jan. 20 protest. It would allow the government to identify individuals engaged in constitutionally protected speech, including members of the news media and the public who simply participated in meetings or communicated with organizers whose email accounts are affiliated with the website.
The public needs further assurance that our government is not attempting to gain access to information on individuals merely because they engage in dissent and political organizing, constitutionally protected activities fundamental to our democracy.
Lisa Rosenberg, Washington
The writer is executive director of
OpenTheGovernment.
Flowers, candles and other items serve as a tribute to Heather Heyer, who died when a white supremacist allegedly drove into a crowd of counterprotesters on Aug. 12 in Charlottesville. (Michael Reynolds/European Pressphoto Agency)
The Aug. 20 news graphic Deconstructing the symbols spotted in Charlottesville neglected to note that at least one counterprotester was photographed carrying the hammer-and-sickle flag of the Soviet Union. That protester was surrounded in the photo by numerous fellow counterprotesters carrying red flags that appeared to be versions of Communist or Workers World Party flags.
I find the carrying of the flag of the Soviet Union by counterprotesters to be offensive and a practice that ought to be condemned by all Americans.
Brian J. Morra, McLean
Work crews do soil borings on the Georgetown Branch of the Capital Crescent Trail near downtown Bethesda as part of pre-construction work on the light-rail Purple Line. ((Katherine Shaver/The Washington Post))
The Aug. 29 editorial "The Purple Line gets the green light" was over-the-top criticism of a federal court ruling that more study is needed for the massive Purple Line project. For years, a principal justification for this light-rail system in lieu of other options has been that only light rail could handle projected ridership, in large part based on travelers who also use Metro. Far from being "exceptionally obtuse," the District Court's ruling that, in view of declining ridership projections associated with Metro dysfunction, less environmentally destructive and less expensive alternatives (such as bus rapid transit, a more flexible and cost-effective option) warrant reconsideration, is entirely sensible.
Project opponents (not merely well-heeled suburban neighbors) believe that there are far better ways to spend taxpayer money than a project costing billions of dollars that will do nothing to lower greenhouse-gas emissions and little if anything to relieve traffic congestion but will have a host of adverse environmental impacts, including destroying at least 40 acres of woods in an urban area that sorely needs them. The projects proponents, including area developers who may in the end stand to benefit the most from the project, believe otherwise.
In any case, reasoned discourse on the merits of the project, as well as respect for the rule of law, would be better served through a more balanced presentation of these issues.
Eric R. Glitzenstein, Washington
The writer, an environmental lawyer,
is assisting with the representation of Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail in the pending litigation.
Thomas Toch is director of FutureEd at Georgetown Universitys McCourt School of Public Policy. Phyllis W. Jordan is FutureEds editorial director.
The Trump administration has made the District's federally mandated school voucher program Exhibit A in its campaign to allow public funds to flow to private schools. Vice President Pence has called the 13-year-old D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program a "case study in school choice success."
In truth, the performance of the D.C. voucher program calls into question the wisdom of spending upward of $200 million in federal tax money on private schooling in a city where students already have many educational choices. And its a cautionary tale of how badly crafted voucher initiatives can hurt the very students theyre designed to help.
Notwithstanding the vice presidents praise, significant numbers of D.C. families have turned down vouchers or have abandoned private schools. Many voucher students have struggled academically. And the program is beset by design flaws that point to the wrongheadedness of the Trump administrations advocacy of unregulated school choice.
The theory behind the initiative is to give D.C.'s low-income families more and better educational opportunities by supplying them with tax dollars to send their children to private schools. Fine. But voucher enrollment in the nation's capital dropped for four straight years, from 1,638 in the 2013-2014 school year to 1,154 in the 2016-2017 year. More striking, greater than half the new students offered vouchers last year didn't use them.
Voucher supporters say shifting political winds have undermined enrollment. A Republican-controlled Congress established the program in 2004, only to have funding for new voucher students eliminated in 2009, when Democrats seized Congress. Two years later, with Republicans back in control, money for new scholarships flowed again. This spring, Congress extended the programs legislative authorization and the Trump administration pumped $20 million more into the program.
Serving Our Children, the nonprofit that manages the program, predicts that the congressional affirmation and new funding will help double the program's size over the next two years. The organization says more voucher students are enrolling in private schools this fall than last.
But the political back-and-forth doesn't explain why enrollment dropped for four consecutive years well after Republicans revitalized the program. The answer likely lies in the program's design, the disappointing student achievement under the program and the substantial school choice that has emerged in the city's public school sector.
Because Congress didn't require any academic accountability for the private schools participating in the program, there's no way for parents to compare how students are doing from school to school, and there's no way for taxpayers to know the return on investment that individual schools are delivering.
Low-income parents unfamiliar with the private school landscape must navigate each schools admissions system separately. Students are awarded vouchers after many private schools have finished their admissions processes. And voucher winners must meet the admissions standards of the schools to which they apply. In this sense, the 47 schools participating in the program are choosing students, rather than the other way around.
In many instances, families must find a way to bridge the often considerable gap between voucher awards and schools tuitions; last year, vouchers topped out at $12,679 for high school students, while tuition at some of the citys elite private schools surpassed $40,000. Even when schools cover the gap, parents face extra costs for meals or other fees they wouldnt encounter in traditional public or charter schools.
And what we do know about student achievement in the program isnt encouraging.
While federal law lacks accountability for schools, it calls for independent assessments of student progress. Between 2012 and 2014, federal researchers tested three sample cohorts of D.C. students in the year after receiving vouchers. Those who won vouchers did worse in math in their first year than students who competed in the voucher lottery but did not receive them.
Perhaps that's not surprising, given that nearly half the students in the program attend private schools that sprung up to serve voucher students, sometimes in storefronts, according to a 2013 report by the federal government. About 3 percent were enrolled in independent schools such as Sidwell Friends and Georgetown Day. Most of the rest attended Catholic schools, though few went to the most competitive Catholic schools, such as St. Anselm's Abbey School.
Advocates stress that families told researchers that voucher schools were safer places to learn than public schools, and that the federal research found higher graduation rates among voucher students than their public school peers, though the study involved a relative handful of voucher graduates.
There are many more choices in the D.C. public-school sector, and they are easier to navigate. The traditional school system offers open enrollment to most of its 115 campuses, and the charter sector now has 120 schools, many of them more convenient to low-income families. A range of individual school-performance measures is available to parents. Both sectors are improving and offer some outstanding schools. Families can apply to nearly every school in both sectors through a common application system, and 67 percent of those who applied to at least three schools for the coming school year through the system got one of their choices.
The D.C. voucher program, as constituted, is not making a meaningful contribution to the education of disadvantaged students in the nations capital, regardless of what the vice president says. There is much Trump administration officials should learn from the programs considerable weaknesses as it promotes more school choice.
I consider myself fairly thick-skinned, and while I have recognized for years that Chris Browne, the cartoonist of Hagar the Horrible, has some old-fashioned ideas about human relationships, I continued to read his strip for the occasional chuckle. But the Aug. 21 edition went far enough into the Dark Ages that I had to write.
There is no place for laughter about women as the spoils of war in todays world. Yazidi women, Rohingya women, women of the Central African Republic and South Sudan, and women of other groups and nations are trafficked daily.
The Post should not support writers who use human trafficking to get a laugh.
Dana Best, Wheaton
While I have always been reluctant to reply to offensive comic strips, I could not ignore the Aug. 21 Hagar the Horrible.
What possessed The Post to print a strip that essentially encouraged rape? What other outcome could one envision for a comic about Viking warriors fighting for and taking women who werent their wives?
For a strip that is usually as base as Beetle Bailey when it comes to womens issues, this was a new low.
Every time The Post reviews the comic strips to make changes, it retains these tired and dated strips. Isnt enough enough?
Dennis A. Coyle, Arlington
By the time the rain from Hurricane Harvey stopped earlier this week, many of the doctors and nurses at the Woman's Hospital of Texas had worked three or four straight days without leaving the medical center.
They were eager to see their families and check on their homes. So when a bus full of nurses and other medical professionals pulled up at the hospital on Friday to relieve hospital staff, emotions ran high.
"They clapped and cried when we walked in," said Merilee Cole, a neonatal intensive care unit nurse from Billings Clinic who traveled down to Houston on Thursday to help in the relief effort.
Cole, a Billings resident, arrived in Houston on Friday. She decided to make her way down after seeing a post on Facebook on Wednesday.
The Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses had put out the call, saying that Houston-area hospitals "are in critical need of NICU registered nurses to help provide relief to those who have been working countless hours since Hurricane Harvey made landfall."
"They were in crisis," Cole said. "So I responded."
Last year, Cole traveled to Africa as part of a medical mission to help impoverished people get access to critical health care. That factored into her decision to leave Billings and head to Houston.
"I thought, 'If I can handle Africa, I can handle this,'" she said.
And that was it; 24 hours after seeing the Facebook post, Cole was on a plane south. The other nurses in her department volunteered to cover Cole's shifts in the NICU so that she could go.
Cole flew to Atlanta first, arriving Thursday. The city was being used as the staging ground for the the nurses called in by the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.
In all, more than 150 registered nurses showed up. They traveled by bus to Houston on Friday and spent the day getting security cards and identification badges and sitting through orientation.
Earlier in the week, before the floodwaters had begun to recede, a handful of nurses had been flown in by Black Hawk helicopter.
Driving into the city on Friday, Cole saw firsthand the devastation from the storm.
"You can definitely see where the water was," she said.
Detritus from the flood and garbage are strewn everywhere, she said. All around, damaged buildings show the high-water marks from the massive rainfall.
Cole will be in Houston for the next two weeks, spending nearly the whole time working. When she's not working, she'll sleep at the hospital, which has converted conference rooms and other office space into makeshift living quarters with cots.
It'll be taxing, but she's thankful she's there and able to help. The appreciation shown by the nurses at Woman's Hospital of Texas has been nearly overwhelming.
The Twitter Inc. logo is displayed on the screen of an Apple Inc. iPhone 6s in this photo taken in New York in 2016. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg)
Cara McDonough is a freelance writer living in New Haven, Conn.
When my father died in June from glioblastoma an aggressive brain cancer my mom, brother and I began the difficult but important task of passing on the news to loved ones.
Among the many people I wrote to was a man who goes by the Twitter handle TruckerBobS, an ultra-conservative whom my dad had encountered on the social media platform.
Theyd never met, but were against all odds good friends.
My father, Fred Rotondaro, was the kind of liberal who thought Hillary Clinton was too corporate to be our candidate. He chaired a progressive Catholic organization, served as a fellow at the Center for American Progress and lent his voice to many Democratic causes. He enjoyed watching MSNBC over coffee in bed where he would write emails to fellow activists who were because of his long career in D.C. well-connected and capable of influencing politicians.
But my father also thoroughly enjoyed engaging political adversaries in spirited discourse, especially on social media. Twitter was the perfect medium, which is funny because he was not a tech-savvy individual (as evidenced by his regular spelling mistakes). Despite this, he gained hundreds of followers and used conservative hashtags to discover what the enemy was talking about.
Thats how he came across Robert P. Smith, an avid President Trump supporter who lives in Missouri. Trucker Bob or just Trucker, as my dad called him is, indeed, a trucker. Hes also the type of voter whom the media has intensely analyzed since November.
My father and Trucker first began interacting on Twitter before the Trump circus had vehemently divided the nation. Even so, they had plenty to fight about: gun control, President Barack Obama and, of course, how stupid each others party was. They drew others into their tweetstorms, often devolving into name-calling. To be honest, I think my father was guiltier of the two in that regard.
At some point during the campaign, I took a deep breath and "followed" Trucker on Twitter. My liberal Twitter feed quickly became less pleasant with his earnest commentary on the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, Democratic politicians and Clinton's emails .
But I resisted dropping him. Forging connections was my dads thing, and I wanted to be more like him. After watching them engage for awhile, I realized Trucker had the same gift. The two inquired about each others families and interests, forming a long-distance friendship marked by yes aggressive language but also true affection.
In February 2016, Trucker had asked my dad about some harsh East Coast weather. My dad replied that my young children loved the snow, but they arent old farts like me. A few months later, my father forgot his password and locked himself out of Twitter. Trucker Bob wrote me to ask if my dad was okay.
Sometimes, unbelievably, they agreed on the issues.
I think our govt is for sale to whichever big business gives them the most money. Fix that = fix govt, Trucker wrote in January 2016. I think big business has hurt Americans far more than government ever has, my dad replied to him, with a follow up: What can I say? Yi@u (sic; I told you about the spelling) are right. A few live like kings and millions get screwed.
The tone of their relationship helped me look past the politics, noting the details we never dig deep enough to unearth in these surface relationships with our adversaries: I found Truckers adoration of his cocker spaniels, for example, endearing.
When I told Trucker my dad was sick earlier this year, he said he missed their daily banter and was praying for him and us. When I wrote, just a few months later, to tell him my father had died peacefully, surrounded by family, he told me how incredibly sad he was.
I never met Fred but grew to love him in a sort of adversarial sort of way, he said. You couldnt not like him. Truly.
Trucker and I have stayed in touch. Hes invited me to come meet his family in Missouri, and says theyll make me their specialty, Fettuccine Lemonada and Cajun Chicken. Id very much like to do that. I hope well keep the tradition of Twitter sparring alive, too, but Trucker says he wont be nearly as hard on me as he was on my dad, out of respect for him.
These friendships might be the key to fixing the political mess were in right now. I wonder how to make them happen more often.
Shortly after my fathers death, Trucker told me that John Podesta, former chairman of Clintons presidential campaign, had mentioned my dads passing on Twitter. I found Podestas tweet in question with a notification that would have been unthinkable on any other occasion: Robert P. Smith liked.
My heart swelled.
IN HER 2012 Nobel lecture, Burma's de-facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, made an impassioned appeal to the world not to forget those who are suffering "hunger, disease, displacement, joblessness, poverty, injustice, discrimination, prejudice, bigotry" and war. Aung San Suu Kyi declared, "Wherever suffering is ignored, there will be the seeds of conflict, for suffering degrades and embitters and enrages."
Today in Burma, also known as Myanmar, the truth of her words is becoming ever more apparent in the spiral of violence and suffering of the long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority. After years of being denigrated as outsiders by the Buddhist majority, denied basic rights, stuck in miserable camps and subjected to harsh military campaigns, the Rohingya are embittered, and some are enraged.
On Aug. 25, fighters from a small militant group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, staged surprise raids on 30 police stations and an army base in Rakhine State, where many Rohingya live. The attacks, in which 110 people died, including 10 policemen and many of the militants, triggered a crackdown by Burma's military. Witnesses said soldiers torched villages and sent thousands of Rohingya fleeing across the Naf River to neighboring Bangladesh, which is already home to about 400,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled Burma in recent years. Desperate to escape the retaliation, Rohingya took to flimsy vessels poorly equipped for rough waters. On Thursday, Bangladesh authorities said three boats capsized and that they recovered the bodies of 26 women and children.
This is a very difficult moment for Aung San Suu Kyi, who as state counsellor holds the power behind President Htin Kyaw. She is facing constant pressure from the powerful military, which controls a quarter of the seats in parliament and key ministries, and she also confronts the demands of Buddhist hard-liners for still harsher treatment of the Rohingya Muslims. These are not inconsequential forces in a nation still groping toward establishing democracy. Aung San Suu Kyi's ability to push back is not unlimited.
Still, this is a moment for her to fulfill her promise as a champion of human rights and democracy, for which she was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. Through long years of house arrest and isolation, she kept the flame burning. Is it too much to ask her to summon the inspiration to lead Burma away from the increasingly bitter and violent conflict with the Rohingya? Now would be a good time for action, including measures toward long-term reconciliation that embrace the Rohingya.
She might want to reread her Nobel text. Ultimately our aim should be to create a world free from the displaced, the homeless and the hopeless, she said, a world of which each and every corner is a true sanctuary where the inhabitants will have the freedom and the capacity to live in peace. This is not the world of the Rohingya in todays Burma.
BEFORE THE death of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, the Daily Stormer a neo-Nazi website involved in organizing the white supremacist rally that led to her killing was easy to find: all you had to do was type in the Web address. Now the site has all but vanished from the Internet. Thats due to the decision of a handful of Internet companies to reject the publication as a customer in the wake of Charlottesville a reasonable choice that nevertheless raises difficult questions about limiting speech online.
After the Daily Stormer published a post crowing over Ms. Heyer's death, the company hosting the website and providing it with a domain name withdrew its services, booting the site offline. The website bounced from service to service as each rejected it in turn. Then, Cloudflare a company that provides protection from cyberattacks pulled the plug as well. Without Cloudflare's support, hackers have knocked the website offline each time it's tried to reemerge. Currently, the site exists only on a hidden corner of the "dark web," off-limits to casual browsers.
While Cloudflare didn't block the website from the Internet per se, any site without the protections it offers is vulnerable to being kicked offline by vigilante hackers. And though users banned from social-media platforms can always migrate to a new service, the Web's infrastructure is made up of a relatively small number of companies such as Cloudflare. The fewer alternatives there are for services such as domain name registration and cyberattack protection, the more ability each provider has to decide which websites should be online.
As a space maintained by private enterprise, the Web is outside the scope of First Amendment protections. But freedom of expression has always been a key cultural, if not legal, value of the Internet and that free flow of information has made the Web into a vibrant forum central to democratic life.
Nevertheless, in recent years, the Internet has also begun to reckon with the danger posed by certain kinds of speech. Social-media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are working to limit harassment, calls to violence and disinformation across their platforms. Companies that make up the Webs infrastructure now face the option of taking a similar approach.
Businesses such as Cloudflare have no legal obligation to provide service to neo-Nazis. But the more power these companies have to determine unilaterally whose website gets to be online, the more carefully they should wield that power, weighing the value of free speech against its dangers. Developing clear, transparent standards for refusing a customer would be a valuable first step.
The U.S. government should hold back from weighing in on the scope of those standards. Government regulation defining which websites may be removed from the Internet would risk legitimizing the repressive tactics of governments like those of China and Russia, which censor the Web in the name of preventing harm. In the absence of government action, Internet companies should take care to be honest and open about their decision-making.
President Donald Trump and Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, pose for photos with members of a gospel choir during a commencement at the university on May 13 in Lynchburg, Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Contributing columnist
Gary Abernathy is publisher and editor of the (Hillsboro, Ohio) Times-Gazette.
Evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump in overwhelming numbers. Evangelical support for the president remains relatively firm; indeed, even as others criticized the president's remarks in the wake of Charlottesville, evangelical leaders rose to the president's defense. All of this gets under the skin of President Trump's critics, who cannot believe that men and women who think of themselves as godly can possibly stomach Trump's behavior. For such critics, the only possible explanation for evangelicals' continuing faith in Trump is some combination of ignorance and hypocrisy.
Conversations with actual evangelical Christians at a recent gathering here the Hillsboro Family Camp, where families have met annually since 1972 for four days of praise and worship suggest a different picture. These voters and almost all of them voted see Trump's flaws but perceive him as a fellow sinner willing to fight the forces of the establishment on their behalf.
Echoing the views of many present, one evangelist on hand told me Trump hasnt let him down. The barrage of negative press hardly rattled him or most of his colleagues, who see the mainstream media as anything but friendly to their opinions and their faith.
He has to fight all of them, said the preacher, referring to the Democrats and the media.
Another minister told me he appreciates that Trump has no hesitation taking on the reprobate left that considers the president an enemy of their established power system.
Evangelicals do not always fit stereotypes. Among those attending the family camp were everyone from farmers, plumbers and carpenters to real-estate agents, doctors and lawyers. In the Hillsboro area, many leaders of evangelical churches serve on community boards and commissions.
Part of the decision by many evangelicals to support Trump for president was attributable to long-standing differences with liberal candidates over social issues. Evangelicals tend to share conservative positions on abortion, gun rights, border security and the fight against radical Islamic terrorism, as they usually make sure to phrase it. But more than anything, Trumps specific pledges to the religious right got their attention.
So far, they think Trump has kept those promises. He has followed up with invitations to the White House, sought input on court appointments, stood firmly with Israel and signed an executive order expanding religious freedom in regard to political speech.
Another minister said he grows tired of hearing criticism of Trump on character issues. In the Bible and throughout history, God uses rulers who arent themselves godly, he said, pointing to the Old Testament example of David, a murderer and adulterer whom God later made king and eventually called a man after my own heart.
Aside from his more obvious outreach efforts to evangelicals, the president also sends more subtle messages on the subject of faith vs. science. For example, when Trump refuses to fully adopt the conclusion that climate change is due to man-made influences, he demonstrates an affinity with evangelical Christians who do not blindly accept every scientific theory.
Evangelicals tend to believe in biblical teachings on the origins of the universe and the advent and purpose of human life. They do not accept that their existence is nothing more than the result of a random cosmic accident, or that life is so meaningless that it ends in the grave. God created Adam and Eve, Noah built the ark, Jesus rose from the dead and heaven awaits believers. Evangelicals understand science as well as most lay people. They know many of their beliefs contradict scientific facts and theories.
They also know they are considered by many to be superstitious or ignorant for adhering to their beliefs. But they are guided by the Bibles reminder that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The things in which they place their faith are not demonstrable in any laboratory.
Most evangelical believers dont condemn Trump for the litany of words or deeds that so disturb others, even when they disapprove. Probably half the people in churches across the country defined as evangelicals were converted from lives that were even more unprincipled than the life Trump has led. Some experienced divorces, others used foul language, and many were addicted to drugs or alcohol.
In most cases, no immediate miracle happened with regard to their behavior at the moment of their confessions of faith or their emergence from the baptismal waters. The only miracle they were promised was the application of the grace of Jesus Christ, which, under New Testament doctrine, washed away their sins. They know Donald J. Trump is not worthy of the grace of God, because neither were they which, to them, is the mystery and beauty of this undeserved gift.
Michael Roth is president of Wesleyan University. His most recent books are Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters and Memory, Trauma and History: Essays on Living With the Past.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Harvard President Charles Eliot helped reshape America's idea of a modern research university. To serve the needs of the industrializing economy, Eliot led higher education away from memorization and a fixed curriculum and toward specialization and electives. Now, in the digital 21st century, our economy is vastly different, and we need another rethink within our universities . So argues Cathy N. Davidson in "The New Education."
Davidson argues that the digital revolution of the past few decades requires a revolution in higher education. She seems to see Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, as the Charles Eliot of our time. Crow wants to define the quality of his school not by how many applicants are rejected but by how many students are educated. And he is very willing to offer online programs to expand his universitys reach, while still supporting high-level research. His New University is hungry for market share and demands scale. Although Davidson would probably not put it this way, we could say Crow and his ilk, for better and for worse, are following a path laid down by Amazon.
[Americans love higher education, just not their universities]
Davidson, who for most of her career was a professor in literary studies, is one of the most thoughtful voices from within academia calling for a more student-centered university. The New Education is a welcome collection of stories detailing how professors, administrators and students are designing paths through higher education that are relevant to our changing culture and society. Many of her examples come from public higher education, which is, after all, where most college students are. She rightly emphasizes the damage done by policies that have defunded community colleges and public universities in the past decade. Forty-five states spent less per student in 2016 than they did before the Great Recession. The privatization of the state university and the rise of for-profit schools promising quick training for the newest jobs have had disastrous consequences for millions of students. As completion rates at these institutions have declined, student debt has soared. As student debt has increased, the range of choices that students have after graduation has decreased. But how these unhappy trends are related to the new, digital economy and culture celebrated by Davidson remains unclear in her account.
The New Education, by Cathy N. Davidson (Basic Books)
But by no means is Davidson merely a cheerleader for technology as a force for change in the economy and on campus. In two strong chapters, she makes the case against both technophobia and technophilia. She is critical of professors who refuse to let students use devices in the classroom that are ubiquitous outside of it, and she provides strong examples of how she has used technology to help her students work more effectively in groups. However, she is also critical of digital tools that make learners more passive, such as many of the highly hyped, and then much derided, MOOCs (massive open online courses). She does an excellent job of showing how her own MOOC created opportunities for active learning rather than just delivering video lectures to be passively watched by however many across the globe.
At its core, the new education Davidson envisions creates a platform for student-centered, active learning. Technology will be a part of that, but only if it enhances student agency. She cites approvingly the conclusion of Tressie McMillan Cottom, a sociologist of technology: If you believe technology is the answer to everything that plagues higher education, you probably dont understand technology or higher education.
The New Education provides strong examples of successful academic innovations. At the City University of New York, where Davidson leads the Graduate Centers Futures Initiative, the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) has more than doubled graduation rates at community colleges in New York City. Unlike most education reforms, Davidson writes, these treated students as full human beings with complex lives, not just test takers and statistics. Paying attention to the everyday experience of students living near the poverty line was key. We have your back. And your books. And your MetroCard is the slogan of ASAP, and it works. Lots of advising at ASAP works, too. Lessons from the program are now being applied in various parts of the country.
[The blessing and curse of fundraising for higher education]
There is nothing new economy about the success of ASAP, nothing high tech. The reforms that get results at community colleges, at large public universities or at small private liberal arts colleges are changes that put student learning as the highest priority. This means schools have to treat teachers fairly, too, attending to their work conditions and opportunities for continued learning, which means providing opportunities to do research. That, however, may not be the way to produce scale and market share its not an Amazon strategy or a new-economy approach.
Nineteenth-century educational reformers also argued for active learning, and in this regard they were building on Socratic traditions. In the early 20th century, as college enrollments increased, many innovators of the time called for more vocational paths through higher education, paths more attuned to the economy of that era. Others, such as W.E.B Du Bois and John Dewey, resisted the effort to turn a broad, liberal education into narrow training. Du Bois argued that education should lead to the empowerment of the whole person and not just a sharpening of skills with short-term value. Dewey, while acknowledging that education must be relevant to its time, rejected the specialization called for by educational reformers with the memorable line: The kind of vocational education in which I am interested is not one which will adapt workers to the existing industrial regime; I am not sufficiently in love with the regime for that.
At her best, Davidson writes in the tradition of Du Bois and Dewey, a pragmatist tradition that puts inquiry first and sees learning through the potential of the full, complex human beings students can become. If the new education is to be successful, whatever its use of technology, it will build on this tradition as teachers and students make it their own, adapting it to changing times.
Robert B. Stepto teaches at Yale and is the author of A Home Elsewhere: Reading African American Classics in the Age of Obama.
Chester B. Himes was born in 1909 into an educated, prospering black family living in Jefferson City, Mo., across Lafayette Street from the Lincoln Institute, the African American college where his parents taught. This places him in that generation of black Midwesterners including Langston Hughes, Aaron Douglas and Josephine Baker artists who would bring so much talent and creativity to Harlem, Paris and the New Negro Renaissance of the 1920s. But Himess early years did not follow that path.
As his family fell apart, Himes became derelict, delinquent and out of control. In 1928, he was arrested for breaking into the home of a wealthy Cleveland couple and robbing them. Himes pleaded guilty, seeking leniency. No doubt because he already had a record, the judge sentenced 19-year-old Himes to 20 years in prison. He entered the state prison in Columbus, where Ohio State University is also located and where Himes had briefly been a student.
In his vivid, engrossing biography, Lawrence Jackson, a professor at Johns Hopkins, gives us an in-depth portrait of Himes, an African American writer whose 20 published books stirred controversy with their depictions of sexuality, racism and social injustice. The writings were often more sensational than revered and raised questions as to Himes's place in modern literary history. Jackson takes on those questions in a biography that is a revisionist literary history accommodating and embracing a black author who wrote about black detectives, white women, labor struggles, Harlem streets and did so while living outrageously both here and abroad.
[Richard Wrights Autobiographical Black Boy Still Holds Its Power]
Chester B Himes, by Lawrence P. Jackson ( W. W. Norton & Company)
Himes also wrote about himself, fictively and otherwise. One of Jacksons most important projects is observing how Himes created autobiographical fictions, beginning while he was in prison. A prime example was the 1933 short story Prison Mass, which Jackson tells us drew its characters from [Himess] own life. Along with many other Himes stories, Prison Mass appeared in Abbotts Monthly, the Chicago black journal that also published in the 1930s Langston Hughes and the first work by Richard Wright. Himes was writing himself into the company of those writers, even before he left prison and met them. Prison Mass turned out to be the proving ground for Himess 1952 prison novel, Cast the First Stone.
Himes was paroled in 1936. He returned to Cleveland and soon met Hughes, who had traveled to the Soviet Union in 1932 to make a film with Himess cousin, Henry Lee Moon. Hughes was living in Cleveland while tightening his musical comedy, Little Ham, at Karamu House, Clevelands black experimental theater. Moon saw the promise of Himess writing and arranged for him to be in correspondence with the poet and Howard University professor Sterling Brown. Browns concerned suggestions struck Himes as the first clear, pointed and understandable criticism he had ever received.
The publication of Wrights Native Son in 1940 stunned and inspired Himes. Jackson tells us that for the rest of his life, Chester would admire Wright and his vision, at least partly because the characters from Native Son on oppressed black men cut off from their peers put onto paper so many dimensions of his life before Chester had reached middle age.
Everything changed for Himes with the publication of If He Hollers Let Him Go in 1945. In that novel, Himes boldly reversed the symbolic interaction between Wrights Bigger Thomas and Mary Dalton in Native Son and created a black hero [who] was middle-class and upwardly mobile, and . . . [a] white villain [who] was a dissipated cracker biddy. Jackson observes: By the end of the novel Jones [the black hero] has been arrested for the attempted rape of a washed-out blowsy white Mississippi welders helper, mainly because, in the published version . . . he refuses to have sex with her. All of Joness tangible symbols of success are gone: job, fiancee, car, and draft deferment. Clearly, he adds, Himes had deliberately speared conventional good taste even while taming the plot for its publication by Doubleday.
[Michael Dirda reviews: Chester Himes: A Life]
If He Hollers Let Him Go was praised in a review by no less than Wright. Himes and Wright were becoming men of shared vision in great part because both aspired, in Wrights words, to be a new kind of writing man, not a New Negro of the past era. Ralph Ellison was certainly part of this coterie as well. Later in 1945, the Chicago Defenders Earl Conrad wrote an article that corralled [Himes], Ralph Ellison, and Richard Wright into a blues school of writers who were trying to show what the inexplorable [sic] caste system can do to the human being. How these writers were there or not there for one another, professionally and personally, is a key component of the rest of Himess life story.
Jackson tells the story with remarkable insight and care, drawing in part on his research for books such as Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius and the Indignant Generation: A Narrative History of African American Writers and Critics, 1934-1960 (Himes was certainly of that generation). Jacksons research on his own family (published as My Fathers Name: A Black Virginia Family After the Civil War) doubtlessly prepared him for plunging into Himess genealogical history while seeking to understand Himess familys pronouncements about race and class. The genealogical research is pioneering, as is the material Jackson presents from the Himes archives and the publishing records of journals and publishing houses.
Himes may not have been part of the Parisian black expatriate community in the 1920s and 30s, but he certainly was present among this group in the post-World War II era. Its fascinating to learn how Himes interacted with black artists and writers including Ollie Harrington, William Gardner Smith and James Baldwin while he reconnected with Wright. They needed each other: Wright needed the company of another writer who was a black literary realist, especially after being castigated for that by Baldwin; Himes needed a guide to Paris, its writers and publishers, and the wonders of the cafes. Indeed, Jackson gives an astonishing account of Himes being present when Wright and Baldwin had their legendary public argument at the Deux Magots. Of this, Jackson writes that Himes had every reason to understand, however slowly, that he was not just a witness to the conflict, but Wrights codefendant, another writer whose work had been dismissed by Baldwin.
It was in this period that Himes completed several novels, including The Third Generation in 1954, which reproduced his life in consummate detail in its account of an African American family at the bottom of a caste system, and the dilemma of sexual desire in a male child growing up in such a family.
He also began to write the black detective stories featuring Harlem detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson (based on men he knew) that would win him awards and international acclaim. Jackson explains how the shift in American cultural space at the dawn of 1970 created a new era for Himes. Writing in the Chicago Tribune, Shane Stevens called him the best black American novelist writing today. Jackson contends that the proof of the new acceptance was in celluloid: The film version of Cotton Comes to Harlem was nearing completion, starring Godfrey Cambridge, directed by Ossie Davis, shot on location in Harlem.
In the 1960s Himes came to know Malcolm X (they were introduced by Harlem bookstore owner Lewis Michaux); LeRoi Jones, who said that Himes reminded him of his younger self and the reason he had gotten out of the United States; and John A. Williams, whose 1967 novel, The Man Who Cried I Am, drew from the stories Chester had bubbled with over the years about himself and his friendship with Richard Wright.
With his unfiltered disdain for established literary conventions and his immutable underdog credentials, Chester became the doyen of the black writers whose aesthetic values were formed in the maelstrom of the 1960s, Jackson declares. Among the writers Jackson lists are Ishmael Reed, Eldridge Cleaver, Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou and Addison Gayle.
Jackson is a fine biographer fully attentive to Himess personal history and to his place in literary history. He has indeed written the definitive biography that Himes who died in 1984 deserves.
Matthew Hutson is a science writer and the author of The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking.
Mention Freud and youll get some strong reactions. Hes known as a spelunker of the human soul, responsible for uncovering such veins of frisson as denial and projection, but also for questionable or damaging contributions such as penis envy and the Oedipus complex.
An informal poll of my peers I recently conducted on Facebook revealed his mixed reputation. One respondent said: Brilliant and interesting philosopher of mind. Another: Gut response, mostly wrong about everything. There was this accolade: I dont think you can look at the field of psychology without seeing him as a giant. And this attack: A horrible misogynist. . . . Oh, and this: Plus he was a real drug user, which is fun.
Freud, by Frederick Crews (Metropolitan Books)
[Book review: Becoming Freud: The Making of a Psychoanalyst, by Adam Phillips]
In a new biography, Freud: The Making of an Illusion, Frederick Crews depicts his subject as cruel, incurious, deceptive, and both fragile and vainglorious. Crews focuses on Freuds early career, from 1884 to 1900, and the picture that emerges is of a trumped-up blowhard.
Freuds life has been digested and redigested for decades, but Crews, an English professor and former psychoanalysis advocate, takes on this period because he says its been overlooked except by proselytizing partisans who distort the record. Plus, the complete set of Freuds letters from this period to his fiance, Martha Bernays, has recently been released.
The driving force of the narrative is Freuds yearning to become famous for anything. In school, he was keenest on philosophy and entered medicine not out of interest or aptitude but for a living. His first stab at notoriety came with a useless cell-staining method he overhyped in scientific papers Crews describes as crass propaganda.
Next he turned to cocaine, which he expounded as a cure-all (and habitually injected). Freud tried to treat his friends morphine addiction with cocaine, rendering him doubly addicted, then fraudulently championed the fiasco as a string of successes with multiple patients. He even sold fake data to a cocaine manufacturer and pseudonymously published an academic article praising his own work.
Freuds engagement with psychotherapy began in 1885 on an extended visit to a Parisian hospital. There he witnessed the treatment of hysteria, a grab bag of physical and psychological symptoms thought to be psychogenic and distinctly feminine and he took note of hypnosis as a method of inquiry. Essentially, the staff would knowingly or unknowingly induce women to act out, and punish them if they didnt, using sedatives or clitoral cauterization. Apparently, Freud liked what he saw. He returned to Vienna and opened up shop.
Far from a passive listener, he insisted that patients had been sexually abused as children, and if they failed to recall anything, he would describe the episodes in detail. Many patients went away fuming or laughing.
Freuds claims skirted falsifiability, the quality of being testable, a bedrock of the scientific method. Resistance to his lurid suggestions, he argued, meant only that he was onto something; heads I win, tails you really do want to fellate your father. He also conspired to excommunicate any analyst from the movement who dared to subject his ideas to critical scrutiny. As Freud wrote to a close colleague, he was only fantasizing, interpreting, and guessing toward bold but beautiful revelations. He claimed: I am actually not at all a man of science, not an observer, not an experimenter, not a thinker. I am by temperament nothing but a conquistador.
As a result, he made claims about humanity based not on the evidence his patients presented but on hunches about his own hang-ups. He was apparently ashamed of his bisexuality, his masturbation and his molestation of his sister.
His ideas about sex and gender curdled his marriage to Martha. In letters, he called her unskilled, unpretty and deficient in personality. She asked for a little respect. He wrote, If I have become unbearable recently, just ask yourself what made me so. He tried to turn her against her mother, brother and friends his rivals. After she bore him six children, he invited her sister to move in. Crews says Freud and his sister-in-law became secret lovers (she nearly died aborting his child), and he treated his wife as a maid and nanny.
Freud was not only a misogynist but also a misanthrope. He wrote a colleague: I have found little that is good about human beings on the whole. In my experience, most of them are trash. He especially looked down on his patients. He told one colleague: Patients only serve to provide us with a livelihood and material to learn from. We certainly cannot help them. He surprised another colleague with this about his patients: I could throttle every one of them. The families of his (usually rich) clients called him a con man.
So Freud failed to help people, but his ideas have lasted, right? Turns out, for the most part they werent even his. He took the words the unconscious and psychoanalysis from his rival Pierre Janets subconscious and psychological analysis, describing ideas that go back much further. Throughout his career, Freud reliably rode his mentors coattails, then stabbed them in the back when they could carry him no further, publicly deriding them or erasing them from history.
One might wonder, then, about the origin of his appeal. His reputation comes not despite his profligate scholarship but because of it. He trumpeted his failures as successes, turned wild speculation into sweeping proclamation and, starting with 1899s The Interpretation of Dreams, produced what Crews calls detective fiction rather than clinical reports. Crews writes: Freud would truly be breaking new ground in the Interpretation, not as a scientist but as a literary artist. Freud was a fan of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, and Crews notes that a later case study provided an invitation to the reader to share in forensic work that was both intellectually and sexually thrilling.
In spreading word about the unconscious, despite offering some harmful ideas about it calling gays perverts, masturbators evil and women conniving did Freud incidentally help humanity? Crews doesnt spend much time on legacy, except to suggest that Freuds distraction from real scientific and therapeutic work set psychology and neuroscience back by decades.
[Enormous Sigmund Freud collection available online for the first time]
The book can be rough going in some places, through no fault of the dedicated author. Rather the source material eschews penetrability and plausibility; Freuds accounts became so tangled over the years as he avoided admitting error that I fear theres no untangling them. Even so, Freud is a surprisingly fun read, as Crews gets in plenty of sharp jabs. He seems to find the most damning way to spin any admission or incident, leaving one to wonder about his own interpretive filters. Still, given the facts presented, its hard to imagine additional disclosures that would completely reverse the overall impression.
The notion of Freud as a great explorer, albeit with a wonky compass, persists. Hes shorthand for buried memories and impulses. Perhaps wed be better off if his own buried treasure had stayed buried. Sometimes a fallacy is just a fallacy.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and other Republicans on Friday urged President Trump not to rescind an Obama-era program that allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants to stay in the country legally, reflecting fears among some GOP leaders that his decision could be politically damaging for the party.
The entreaties came as Trump neared a decision on whether to dismantle the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which has provided two-year work permits to nearly 800,000 immigrants known as dreamers who have been in the country illegally since they were children.
White House officials said Trump would make an announcement Tuesday, the deadline set by Texas and several other states to pursue a legal challenge of DACA if Trump does not terminate it. But in another sign of how politically charged the issue has become, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III announced Friday that the state was withdrawing support for the case, citing the "human" costs and calling on Congress to work out a legislative solution.
Speculation has mounted among immigrant rights groups that Trump will begin to unwind the program, which President Barack Obama created in 2012 through executive action. But the late-stage opposition from some top Republicans as well as from hundreds of major corporations such as Facebook, Google and Apple has raised the pressure on Trump to preserve it.
Asked on a radio program whether the president should end DACA, Ryan said: I actually dont think he should do that.
I believe that this is something that Congress has to fix, Ryan told WCLO, a station in his home town of Janesville, Wis. He said GOP leaders have been clear that Obama lacked the legislative authority to create the program.
The speaker emphasized, however, that DACA recipients are people who are in limbo. These are kids who know no other country, who were brought here by their parents and dont know another home. And so I really do believe that there needs to be a legislative solution.
During a brief appearance in the Oval Office, Trump responded to shouted questions from reporters by saying he would decide the issue soon. During his campaign, Trump had repeatedly referred to DACA as an unconstitutional executive amnesty and had pledged to end it on his first day in office.
Instead, the Department of Homeland Security has issued an estimated 200,000 new work permits or renewals since Trump took office. The president has wavered between his desire to appear tough on immigration enforcement and his personal empathy for the dreamers, according to aides.
We love the dreamers, Trump told reporters Friday. We think the dreamers are terrific.
Trump made immigration enforcement a centerpiece of his campaign, but his equivocations over the fate of the dreamers has reflected the political predicament for Republicans. The party has struggled for years over a sharp split between immigration hard-liners and moderates who have supported legal status for some undocumented immigrants.
Polls show broad public support for the dreamers, and Democrats and immigrant rights groups have promised to wage a fierce political effort against the White House, and Republicans, if Trump chooses to end DACA.
Milton Flores, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals DACA) program recipient, stands with supporters during a rally outside the Federal Building in Los Angeles on Friday. (Kyle Grillot/Reuters)
At the same time, conservative Republicans and talk show hosts have grown impatient for Trump to make good on his campaign promise. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was an immigration hard-liner while serving as a Republican senator from Alabama, has said publicly that the Justice Department might not be able to defend DACA in court.
Texas led a coalition of 26 states that successfully won a federal court injunction that stopped a larger deferred action program Obama announced in 2014 that would have provided work permits to undocumented immigrant parents of U.S. citizens.
The office of Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who opposes DACA, said in a statement Friday that the programs legal future is in jeopardy.
Trump is considering a plan that would instruct DHS to stop issuing new work permits or renewing existing ones, while those enrolled in the program would be allowed to continue until their work permits expire. That would result in more than 1,000 people per day losing their jobs through 2018, according to a recent study by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, and FWD.us, a high-tech group that promotes immigration.
In addition to Ryan, several other leading Republicans, including Sens. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.), also lobbied the president not to kill DACA.
In a statement, Hatch said Congress must provide "a workable, permanent solution for individuals who entered the country unlawfully as children through no fault of their own and who have built their lives here." Flake, in a tweet, said lawmakers must "take immediate action to protect #DACA kids."
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), a longtime Trump backer, weighed in with a statement, as well: "These kids must be allowed to pursue the American Dream, and Congress must act on this immediately."
Legislative action, however, is viewed as a long shot. Three major efforts on immigration reform under Presidents George W. Bush and Obama failed on Capitol Hill, including the Dream Act in 2010 that would have offered the immigrants a path to citizenship.
A small group of congressional Republicans is pitching a conservative Dream Act that would reimagine the legislation in a way that could be more palatable for the GOP.
Another bipartisan proposal, called the Bridge Act, would extend DACA protections for three years to give Congress time to enact a permanent fix for the dreamers. In his letter Friday, Slatery, the Tennessee attorney general, said the Bridge Act would be a very good start.
Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), who represents a Denver swing district, said Thursday that if Trump ends DACA, he would use procedural maneuvers to force a vote on the Bridge Act an encouraging sign for Democrats, who have long said that they need just a handful of Republicans to join with them to force a vote on such legislation.
Most House Republicans, however, oppose DACA and legal status for undocumented immigrants.
The uncertainty has led employers to warn of potential costs for their businesses and consumers if Trump ends the program without a legislative alternative in place.
The end of DACA would require forcing employers to police their workforce and fire those immigrants whose work permits have expired, said David Bier, an immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute. That would impose a massive cost, estimated at $6.3 billion, because of worker turnover, Bier concluded in an analysis posted Friday using government data.
Companies would have to fire nearly 7,000 employees every week for the next two years, at a cost of $61 million a week for recruiting, hiring and training 720,000 new hires.
Thats a really substantial hit that youre forcing employers to incur as a result of ending DACA, Bier said in an interview. But it would be American consumers who will pay the ultimate cost, he added, because a contracting workforce would translate into higher prices.
Tracy Jan and David Weigel contributed to this report.
He came to Texas with hugs and smiles. At an evacuation shelter, he hoisted a little girl above his shoulders, got into a scrum with a young boy wielding a plastic sword and pulled on disposable gloves to serve hot dogs. At a church, he called on people to pray and loaded care packages into pickup trucks and minivans.
Its good exercise, he quipped as he lifted boxes of supplies, slapping the side of a truck.
If President Trumps first visit on Tuesday to flood-ravaged Southeast Texas was all about projecting competence, then his Saturday return was about showing compassion albeit with a dose of self-congratulation.
The president got to work acting like, well, a president. In a full day of visits with storm survivors and emergency management officials, the president tried to convey empathy and a personal commitment to the long-term recovery of Americas fourth-largest city after the devastation of Hurricane Harvey.
They say two years, three years, but I think that because this is Texas youll probably do it in six months! Trump said as he delivered a pep talk of sorts to volunteers at a church in the Houston suburb of Pearland.
Trumps optimism seemed to belie the far more complicated reality of rebuilding lives here, however. After talking with families who had lost their homes to Harveys floodwaters, Trump said he was struck by how happy they were.
We saw a lot of happiness, Trump said after he and his wife, Melania, toured the NRG Center, a cavernous convention hall transformed into an evacuation center. The first lady, who donned a custom baseball cap that read TEXAS on the front and FLOTUS on the back, handed out books to displaced children.
Theyre really happy with whats going on, the president said of the evacuees.
Making his second visit to the region since Harvey came ashore Aug. 25, Trump toured Houston as well as Lake Charles, La. On his first trip to Texas, Trump focused almost exclusively on the governments response and stayed out of the disaster zone, in part because the presidential entourage could have interfered with rescue efforts.
In both Houston and Lake Charles, fans lined streets wearing Make America Great Again caps and Trump-branded T-shirts, holding up signs. Texans love stilettos, read one handmade sign, an apparent message of encouragement to the first lady, who set social media abuzz when she departed Washington for Texas on Tuesday wearing black high heels.
At times, the crowds that showed up to see the first couple felt more like those that assemble at Trumps political rallies. As the presidential motorcade pulled up to the Louisiana Air National Guard Armory in Lake Charles, some Trump supporters yelled at the press vans, Fake news!
Earlier Saturday, inside the Pearland church, Elaine Ybarra, 41, lifted her 10-year-old son Chris to see Trump. He brings us prayers from around the world, she said of the power of a presidential visit.
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When Trump visited a middle-class neighborhood in the Houston area, where rotted mattresses, drywall and other debris sat piled up on the lawns of ranch houses, Trump told the residents, These are people that have done a fantastic job holding it together.
Talking to them in a cul-de-sac, Trump spotted a man in a red Trump is my president T-shirt and invited him to come forward for a photo. Youre going to be famous now, he told the man.
Alice Stewart, a Republican political consultant, watched Trumps visit unfold on television and said she thought he genuinely filled the role of consoler-in-chief.
Seeing the president and the first lady serving food, taking selfies, loading vehicles and offering hugs really demonstrated their compassion for those impacted by the storm, Stewart said. The optics of the visit are just as important as his actions on relief funds.
Trumps assessment of the recovery progress sounded at least slightly out of tune with the news reports coming out of the region. He boasted about floodwaters quickly receding the waters disappearing, he said yet many neighborhoods remain uninhabitable.
He touted the $7.9 billion in disaster relief his administration is seeking Its going through a very quick process, he said even though it could cost more than $100 billion to rebuild.
The budget Trump proposed, months before Harvey struck, would slash spending across the federal government, including for programs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other departments that are designed to help communities such as those Trump visited on Saturday prepare for natural disasters.
And a couple of weeks before this hurricane, Trump reversed an Obama-era regulation that was designed to make federally funded infrastructure projects in coastal communities less vulnerable to flooding.
Presidential historian Michael Beschloss said Trumps past anti-government rhetoric makes it difficult for him to come across as authentic after Harvey.
It is very hard for a president who has so often treated the federal government as his enemy, and who boasts of deliberately failing to fill high-level federal jobs, to suddenly go to suffering people in Texas and assure them that the federal government can effectively help them and he will make sure that it does, Beschloss said.
Accompanying the Trumps on Saturday were four Cabinet members Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and acting homeland security secretary Elaine Duke who also mingled with storm victims and relief workers.
Jennifer Palmieri, a longtime Democratic strategist who advised President Barack Obama as he responded to natural disasters, said she does not think Trump fully grasps all of the dimensions at play in the Harvey recovery.
Palmieri mentioned Trumps looming decision about the status of undocumented immigrants who are brought to the United States as children; the president is planning to announce by Tuesday whether the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will be terminated.
You cant be dispensing hugs on Saturday and then rescind DACA for 124,000 Texans on Tuesday, Palmieri said. You cant talk about how happy everyone is in shelters and how well the federal efforts are going when the true federal effort in the form of FEMA recovery assistance hasnt even begun.
The brief encounters Trump had with storm victims seemed to consist of exchanging pleasantries, smiling for photos and sharing presidential words of encouragement. Trump also talked of his electoral victory, as he often does.
When Trump shook hands with a few uniformed military members at the evacuee shelter in Houston, one of the men told him, We voted for you.
You better, Trump said playfully. Who didnt in your world? Who didnt?
An influential Republican senator is trying to sow seeds of doubt about a program suspending deportation for certain illegal immigrants, even as Republicans elsewhere in Congress have lined up to implore President Trump not to cancel it.
The office of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) released data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Friday afternoon showing that thousands of beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program had managed to exploit an immigration law loophole to obtain green cards with the Obama administrations permission. And for some, the senators office says, that loophole has already led to citizenship.
The DACA program was never intended to provide a pathway to citizenship, Grassleys office wrote, noting that the programs legal future is in jeopardy.
Grassleys data drop comes as Washington is waiting for an expected Tuesday announcement from Trump about the future of the Obama-instituted DACA program.
The program, enacted in June 2012, has given about 800,000 undocumented immigrants a chance to live, study and work in the United States without fear of deportation, following an application and screening process.
Most Republicans who spoke about the DACA program Friday including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) opposed dismantling it. Speaking on WCLO, a radio station in his home town, Ryan said that Trump should leave DACA alone, though he added that it is something that Congress has to fix.
[GOP congressional leaders urge Trump not to terminate DACA]
Grassleys office struck a different tone, focusing on the 1,056 DACA beneficiaries who it says managed to turn their deferred status into citizenship.
The loophole that Grassleys office points to involves a feature of the program known as advance parole that allows DACA recipients to travel back to their home country and then return to the United States. That permission is granted only in limited circumstances: for humanitarian, education or employment-related purposes. According to the USCIS figures Grassleys office cited, 45,447 DACA recipients have been approved for advance parole.
But Grassleys office says a DACA recipient who has been awarded advance parole is technically entering the country legally when they return from their approved overseas travel. That opens up the possibility for some to apply for adjusted legal status, such as the lawful permanent residency that gets them green card status.
Grassleys office says the USCIS data indicates 59,778 DACA recipients applied for green card status, and that 39,514 were approved.
Green card recipients are eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship after five years, but citizenship is not guaranteed.
Grassleys committee and the House Judiciary Committee acquired the data after making inquiries to USCIS. The data covers a period from the inception of the DACA program through Aug. 21 of this year.
DACA allows immigrants who entered the United States illegally as minors to avoid deportation for two years and be allowed to apply for work permits. After two years, someone granted DACA can apply for renewal. President Barack Obama announced DACA on June 15, 2012, and the USCIS began accepting applications two months later.
As a candidate, Donald Trump promised to end the program, though recent reports suggest the president may opt to phase it out instead. But since taking office, the president has adopted softer rhetoric toward beneficiaries of the program, saying he wants to treat them with heart and that he thinks the dreamers are terrific.
Read more at PowerPost
Democrats facing reelection next year in states President Trump won are seizing on trade at this early stage as a crucial issue and a Republican vulnerability.
But rather than jeer Trumps protectionist positions, Democrats are echoing them and amplifying them, arguing that Trump has failed to fulfill his dramatic campaign promise to rip apart trade deals.
When we say renegotiating NAFTA, we mean a transformation, something substantial, not just going through the motions, Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) told union leaders recently, referring to the administrations talks over the North American Free Trade Agreement.
For Democrats, Caseys pitch signals a wholehearted revival of their labor roots and a sharp departure from the free-trade tilt of the past two Democratic presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
The change may also be necessary. While progressive activists are highly motivated against Trump and some suburban voters are increasingly uneasy about Trumps disposition, many working-class voters remain resentful of globalization and have lingering appreciation for Trumps populist appeals.
Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. D-Pa.), center, meets with Sheet Metal Workers Local 44 during a trade forum in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Aug. 14. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
To win them back, Casey is making regular visits to Rust Belt cities, including Wilkes-Barre, which sits in Luzerne County in northeastern Pennsylvania. Both Luzerne and Pennsylvania went for Trump in the 2016 presidential election after more than two decades as Democratic strongholds.
When China cheats, Pennsylvania loses jobs, Casey told the group all white men at Local 44, a sheet-metal workers outpost. We have to be much tougher in going after the cheaters of the world.
Casey is following a playbook laid out by Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). As Schumer stares down a difficult 2018 election map for Democrats and tries to upend Republicans 52-seat control of the Senate, he has urged his colleagues to bring trade to the fore.
Nothing, nothing is more central, Schumer said last month at a news conference announcing proposals that included creating a trade prosecutor to supplement the work of the U.S. trade representative and a bevy of measures to stifle foreign competition and block overseas investments.
Schumer added, The problem is President Trump has talked a good game and done virtually nothing on trade but study it. . . . We need action.
As Schumer called China a rapacious trade partner, standing alongside the New Yorker were several Democratic senators running next year in states Trump carried: Casey, Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), and Debbie Stabenow (Mich.).
House Democrats, who see a chance to take back control of their chamber if Trumps approval rating sinks, are also on board. Last month their leadership and Schumer jointly unveiled a Better Deal agenda that pledged to crack down on trade practices.
The effort has been countered by Republicans. Donnelly, in particular, has been targeted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee as Mexico Joe over his past work for a family-run business that manufactured products in that country. (Donnelly has since sold his stock in the company.)
Donnelly met late last month with steelworkers in Indiana, a state Trump won by 19 percentage points, to assure them he was on their side. I voted against every bad trade deal thats come along, he said.
But the GOP response beyond opposition research and allegations of hypocrisy has been scattered. Republican congressional leaders remain leery of Trumps eagerness to impose tariffs and continue to embrace free trade.
Im a little concerned about some of the trade rhetoric, not only by the president, who succeeded, but by the people who were running against him, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said last month at the Kentucky State Fair. We still have a selling job to most Americans that trade is a winner for America. Weve been a great trading nation going back to the founding of the country.
Democrats push comes as Trump struggles to follow through on his ambitions to overhaul trade policy.
Early moves by the administration withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership in January and appointing Robert E. Lighthizer, who has a protectionist bent, as U.S. trade representative have been followed by a string of fits and starts.
Trump authorized Lighthizer last month to consider investigating Chinas trade policies on intellectual property, but it could take a year for a decision on a formal probe to be made. Proposed steel tariffs have stalled amid squabbles, and Trumps manufacturing council was disbanded in the wake of an uproar over the presidents equivocal response to violence during rallies by white supremacists in Charlottesville.
Inside the White House, there is tumult over the direction of policy.
Stephen K. Bannon, who was the administrations ardent advocate for nationalist trade policies, has left his position as Trumps chief strategist. National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, a former president of Goldman Sachs, has become a powerful force in the West Wing but has expressed disapproval of the presidents hard-line instincts on trade, according to administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
Trump has also fumed about the slow pace on trade and complained to aides that U.S. trade rivals have taken notice of how one of his signature issues has become mired by deliberation, the officials said.
Meanwhile, the outcome of the ongoing NAFTA negotiations with Mexico and Canada, which began their second round Friday after months of turbulence, is unclear. Trump tweeted last week: both being very difficult, may have to terminate?
Democrats see the murky future of Trumps trade planks as an opportunity to reclaim the issue as their own.
Casey, 57, who has a gentle cadence and has long kept a low profile in the Senate, may be showing the way.
As Casey prepares to run for a third term, he has stepped out on Twitter with scathing messages about Trump that have given him fame of sorts with younger voters and with the Democratic base. His town halls have drawn big crowds of college students, and well-educated Trump critics like him.
Casey, however, is not counting on riding the Trump resistance alone to reelection. Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.), a Trump supporter who has built a national following because of his deeply conservative views on immigration, announced a Senate run late last month, probably counting on Trumps enthusiastic support should he win the Republican nomination.
So when he is not in Washington, Casey and his staffers can be found riding around Pennsylvania to huddle with union leaders and meet with elderly voters many of them retired union members. On one recent weekday, he hustled from a packed forum on aging to the Wilkes-Barre union hall and then to a tour of infrastructure projects at Scrantons airport, followed by handshakes at a happy hour.
A lot of the votes that Trump got were from Democratic voters, Casey said in an interview. You had to ask yourself, Why is that? Why did that happen? You just get ready to get to places where you may not be on a regular basis. Weve been going to a lot of small-town and rural areas over the last seven, eight months.
It is not a campaign yet, but it has the feel of a summer test run.
And after years of delicately commenting on trade during the Obama presidency as the president pursued trade deals he was a reliable Obama ally Casey is back to being what he was at the start of his career and what his late father, the former governor Robert P. Casey Sr., was before him: an unabashed champion of labor.
I know its been awfully difficult. If there is one group of Americans the right has targeted for years, its the men and women of organized labor, Casey told the men at Local 44. Weve got a long way to go fighting back against those forces and at the same time raising wages, and all of that is undermined by bad trade deals.
Left mostly unmentioned during Caseys stops throughout the day and in his small talks with voters were the federal investigations into Russian interference in last years election. The culture wars were dormant. Casey is a Roman Catholic who opposes abortion, and that issue has roiled his past races, but no one brought it up.
The reception at the union gathering for Casey, lanky and clad in a blazer and loafers among burly men in T-shirts and jeans, spanned from polite to warm. He listened intently, never raised his voice and said what they wanted to hear.
Im getting tired of these promises from Trump, Joe Padavan of the United Steelworkers told a nodding Casey. Were losing health care, were losing pensions, and all products should be made in America.
There was a flash of awkwardness. When Warren Faust, who works in construction, mentioned an ethnic slur that some workers use to describe metal made in China, Casey did not correct him.
Later, at lunch nearby, Casey said he wished he had spoken up.
Its difficult, he said. We all have to be vigilant about that. Maybe I should have said something to him.
The moment was nonetheless telling. As Democrats go all in on trade, they also are navigating minefields of grievance that have only expanded since Trump took office, and grievance can be ugly.
But mine they must.
Read more at PowerPost
When it comes to legislative sagas, the annual ritual of increasing the U.S. debt limit is the equivalent of a nuclear standoff. Every sane lawmaker agrees that not raising the Treasurys authority to finance the national debt would lead to a U.S. default and a fallout that could tank global financial markets and risk a recession.
In reality, these debt-limit showdowns have created the opposite effect of mutual assured destruction. Back then, U.S. and Soviet leaders knew the easiest answer was to do nothing not firing the missiles avoided nuclear holocaust.
On Capitol Hill, thats not an option. Lawmakers must affirmatively cast a risky political vote or else chance a financial holocaust.
But its time for Congress to retire one of the most dangerous weapons in its arsenal. Once considered a perfunctory nuisance vote, the debt ceiling has now become the most toxic fiscal vote on Capitol Hill after more than six years of standoffs. Republicans fired the first shots, bringing the nation within hours of default in the summer 2011 showdown with President Barack Obama that ended with $2 trillion in savings.
Now Republicans, with full control of Congress and the White House, face a borrowing deadline on the nations nearly $20 trillion debt of mid-October, at the latest. Some conservatives are balking at calls from President Trumps advisers to simply increase the limit without spending reforms, and Democrats are happily awaiting the inevitable call from House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) begging for votes.
Theres a small but growing collection of lawmakers who want to eliminate the debt vote as a political weapon. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) brought up the idea in an unrelated interview with The Washington Posts Ed OKeefe, saying the issue has been used by Republicans and allied groups to confuse voters.
People think that raising the debt ceiling is allowing the government to borrow more money next year. Its not, King said. In reality, it simply allows the government to pay the bills its already incurred to fund the spending thats already been voted on.
Origins of the debt showdown
A long shot given the tumultuous political environment, the chance at a bipartisan debt-limit deal might still be possible. Trump campaigned as a populist who wants to protect Social Security and Medicare, not cut it the way Ryan once proposed. That eliminates most of the possible trade-offs that conservatives have demanded in exchange for raising the debt limit.
No president has ever had as much personal experience with debt as the real estate developer now sitting in the Oval Office.
For now, some senior GOP aides want to wrap a clean debt increase into a broader, must-pass bill including initial recovery funds for Texas in Harveys aftermath and a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown.
Leaders of the House Freedom Caucus have resisted that proposal, believing the separate debt vote forces lawmakers to take responsibility for their spending decisions. But the conservative caucus has not offered a proposal that can win passage in the House and Senate, with Trumps support.
If Republicans allow a clean debt increase to pass on their watch, as now seems certain, that should increase their desire for a longer-term deal to avoid future such votes.
King, who caucuses with Democrats, recommended that Congress reinstate a version of the "Gephardt rule." In the late 1970s, Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), the future House minority leader, won approval of a rule that eliminated actual House votes to raise the borrowing limit. Instead, the increase was tucked inside the annual budget resolution, and once that passed, the debt limit was sent to the Senate as a separate bill.
Senators, with their six-year terms, generally had the political courage to approve the must-pass measure, sometimes slightly amending it and requiring the House to actually vote on it. In 2009, fiscally conservative Democrats held out their votes until Obama agreed to create the Bowles-Simpson commission studying the federal debt.
Washington dysfunction fuels uncertainty for businesses
That relative detente ended with the 2010 midterm elections, when Republicans swept into the House majority and the new speaker, John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), ditched the Gephardt rule. Boehner essentially claimed the debt limit as a hostage, demanding a dollar in spending cuts for every dollar that the borrowing limit was increased.
In early August 2011, within a day or two of fiscal zero hour, Congress passed the Budget Control Act and imposed spending caps that carved out $2 trillion from federal agency budgets over the next decade.
Obamas top advisers believed that many Republicans were reckless enough to actually go into default. But in an interview afterward, McConnell admitted he never intended to take a chance at shooting the hostage.
Its a hostage thats worth ransoming, McConnell told The Post.
From that point on, McConnell began every negotiation by calming the financial markets with a guarantee the debt legislation would pass, which it did with bipartisan majorities.
This falls debt showdown began in similar fashion. We will pay our debts and we will make the debt limit, Ryan told CNBC in a late August interview.
Those reassurances have rendered the ensuing few weeks almost pointless. Trump opposes the most far-reaching changes proposed by GOP fiscal hawks, such as Social Security cuts, and Democrats will never agree to conservative legislation that is unrelated to fiscal policy.
The tool was only effective if that leverage was proportional and rational, said Michael Steel, a senior adviser to Boehner during the 2011 showdown. A rational person believes you shouldnt increase the debt without cutting the spending that led to the debt. No rational person believed we should threaten to crash the global economy to force President Obama to sign a repeal of Obamacare.
Escalating feud, Trump blames McConnell and Ryan for upcoming mess on debt ceiling
The longer-term risk is that a different set of congressional leaders will be paralyzed by the politics of the moment and find that doing nothing will be easier than doing something, allowing a default that could be a financial catastrophe.
Fear of backlash has made the debt vote such anathema for House Republicans that fewer than 30 voted for it in 2014. Yet almost all those Republicans privately acknowledge they dont want a default.
McConnell and Ryan can continue to put their members through this politically debilitating exercise every two years, or they can push Trump the king of real estate debt to get behind a deal to come up with new Gephardt rule.
Either way, Democrats have grown tired of seeing Republican colleagues at local grant announcements while publicly voting against more federal borrowing.
You cant be there for the ribbon-cutting at the airport but then not want to pay for the asphalt on the runway, King said.
Read more from Paul Kane's archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
South Sudanese refugees line up to receive a lunch of maize mash and beans at the Imvepi reception center on June 6 in Northern Uganda. (Ben Curtis/AP)
The top U.S. official for humanitarian aid has delivered a stern warning to South Sudan's president that the Trump administration is reexamining its policy toward one of the world's poorest and most dangerous countries as the African nation slides into lawlessness.
Mark Green, the administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, met Friday with President Salva Kiir. Green said he raised U.S. concerns over the dangers humanitarian aid workers face in delivering food and medicine in the country as well as a pervasive climate of criminal activity by government forces, criminal gangs and opposition forces.
Since civil war erupted almost four years ago, a third of South Sudans population has become internally displaced or fled the country in Africas worst refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
I told him we are, in the next few weeks, undertaking a complete review of our policy toward South Sudan, Green said in an interview immediately after the meeting on Friday, which was embargoed for security reasons until he left the country the next day.
USAID officials said the policy review will be comprehensive, though not as formal as reviews conducted over such troubled nations as Afghanistan.
Although Green said he did not mention specific consequences if U.S. concerns are not addressed, like sanctions or an arms embargo, he considered the message clear.
Green called South Sudan a very dangerous place in which were seeing atrocities occur all the time. And while it is true that we support the people of South Sudan, it is just as true that the situation has deteriorated to the point where a serious reexamination of U.S. policy is appropriate.
[South Sudans people are starving, and fighters are blocking aid]
Alarm has been growing over deteriorating conditions in South Sudan, the worlds newest country after it declared independence in 2011. A civil war has devastated the country since it started in December 2013, following a dispute between Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar, political rivals who head the Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups. Government troops have won back much territory over opposition forces, but fighting involving many splinter groups continues. That has made it more difficult for aid workers who often negotiate with a dozen or more groups, some of dubious authority to deliver truckloads of food and supplies overland.
In the chaos, a senior U.N. official warned last month that South Sudan is on the precipice of an impending abyss.
The war has bankrupted the government, despite revenue from its oil fields and fertile land that once made this a breadbasket for the Horn of Africa. It lacks salaries to pay its soldiers and civil employees. Unpaid soldiers and criminal gangs own the night in the capital of Juba, looting homes. In rural areas, soldiers have reportedly stolen crops from farmers. Checkpoints are manned by armed men who demand a tax to pass. Humanitarian groups are frequently held up by bandits.
Everyone seems to be suffering but the political and military elite. A report last year by a George Clooney-funded project, the Sentry, said South Sudan is run by a kleptocracy that has enriched itself by profiteering.
Human rights groups, U.N. humanitarian aid officials and many governments blame both the government and opposition forces for preying on civilians.
All sides are guilty of human rights abuses, said an aid worker with long experience in the country. The fabric of society is broken. You cant imagine it will keep going down, and then it goes further down.
With no bottom in sight, international organizations and donor nations recently have dispatched officials to South Sudan to urge that it take part in the High Level Revitalization Forum, a regional peace initiative that aims to revive a stalled 2015 peace agreement.
[Europe is trying to cut the flow of migrants from Africa. It wont be easy.]
The international community is in a difficult situation, said David Shearer, head of the U.N. Mission in South Sudan. Because on the one hand, there doesnt seem to be an immediate end to the fighting and the conflict. On the other hand, there are millions of people who need aid. And to just pull that aid will mean thousands of people will die.
As head of USAID, Green embodies U.S. humanitarian aid to South Sudan. This fiscal year, the United States spent more than $500 million getting emergency aid to the 2 million internally displaced South Sudanese. Counting aid to another 2 million refugees in neighboring countries, this year the United States spent almost $730 million, making it by far the biggest donor.
U.S. efforts to push an arms embargo on South Sudan have failed at the Security Council. But Washingtons leverage on the government in Juba is limited by its unwillingness to walk away from the 6 million Sudanese more than half the 10 million left in the country who are considered food insecure.
During their Friday meeting, Green said he sought to impress on Kiir the impatience and broad frustration Washington is feeling over his handling of the conflict and the now-normal level of violence.
Part of what I wanted to do is to make sure the government of South Sudan appreciates, yes, theres a new administration, he said. But this is not a partisan issue. This is an issue in which everybody I know from the U.S. government and the U.S. political scene is on the same page.
But Green said Kiir disputed every concern he raised. According to Green, Kiir insisted that there is no systemic insecurity in the country, that lies are spread by the opposition, which he blames for cease-fire violations, and that humanitarian access is unfettered.
He would say its either the oppositions fault, or he would say that the situation isnt as bad as Ive heard, Green recalled. And I said, I respectfully disagree, because I have heard from so many people. And I said, as the leader of Americas largest aid agency, we have people in the field and partners in the field. Their security is of paramount concern.
Green spent Saturday in Wau, South Sudans second-largest city, where he was struck by the disconnect between Kiirs dismissal of U.S. concerns and what he observed. A United Nations compound in this once-quiet city is encircled by a makeshift camp filled with 32,000 frightened civilians who prefer sleeping on rainy-season mud floors under peacekeeper protection than going home to neighborhoods where the sound of shooting ricochets through the night.
He also visited the citys Catholic cathedral, one of four churches in Wau where thousands more civilians have sought refuge. Humanitarian workers at the two sites said the residents are overwhelmingly ethnic minorities with homes nearby and are considered supporters of opposition groups. Their fears are of government forces, not the rebels who have a front about five miles outside town, the aid workers said.
A schoolteacher named James, who has been elected as a leader in the U.N. compound, expressed despair when Green asked him why people dont go home.
Where would we go? he told Green. We will be killed. We would really like to go back where we were. But we are scared.
After departing Wau, Green said that what he observed and heard in Wau contradicted every denial Kiir made.
Read more
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Opinion: In South Sudan, mock trials are more legitimate than real ones
Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
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This frame grab from video released on Monday and provided by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, shows buses gathering before a planned evacuation of Islamic State group militants, in the mountainous region of Qalamoun, Syria. (Uncredited/AP)
The Lebanese Hezbollah movement on Saturday accused the United States of putting at risk the lives of women and children stranded on a convoy of Islamic State fighters that has been stuck in the Syrian desert for the past three days.
The accusation was the latest salvo in an escalating public relations battle between Hezbollah and the U.S. military over the fate of around 600 Islamic State fighters and their families who were permitted under a Hezbollah-brokered deal to leave an area in western Syria, near the Lebanese border, for an Islamic State-controlled town in eastern Syria.
Instead, the U.S. military on Wednesday intervened, having the road bombed ahead of the convoy, preventing it from reaching its destination, the town of Bukamal, near the Iraqi border.
The convoy of buses has since been stranded in the desert in Syrian government-held territory and is being monitored by the U.S. military, which has pledged to make sure it doesnt reach Islamic State-held territory.
In a statement on Saturday, Hezbollah said the women, children, elderly, sick and wounded on board the bus are at risk of dying because U.S. warplanes are circling overhead, preventing the supply of food and water. It called on the international community to intervene to prevent a terrible massacre.
If the people in the convoy die because of bombing or lack of food, full responsibility lies with the Americans, Hezbollah said.
The U.S. military, however, has said it will not interfere if the government sends supplies to the convoy, and that the convoy has already received one delivery of food and water.
U.S. warplanes watched someone from the Syrian government side resupply the convoy with water and food two days ago and did not intervene, Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the commander of the U.S.-led coalition, told reporters on Thursday.
Weve observed that. We didnt try to interfere with that, he said. We have not tried to interfere with all approaches to the buses. And the pro-regime forces have done that and resupplied them.
Still, Col. Ryan Dillon, serving as a spokesman, said the U.S. military intends to prevent the convoy from reaching Islamic State territory and will bomb any Islamic State vehicles that attempt to link up with it. But theconvoy itself wont be bombed because of the presence of civilians, Dillon said.
Hezbollah has defended the deal to relocate the fighters from near the Lebanese border as necessary to save the lives of combatants and to secure the bodies of captured Lebanese army soldiers, Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian military adviser. The swap ended a week-long battle to eject the Islamic State from a remote stretch of territory spanning the Lebanese-Syrian border north of the Lebanese town of Ras Baalbek.
But the evacuation of the fighters to a location right on the Iraqi border triggered outrage in Iraq, which is preparing an offensive of its own to reclaim territory in the area. It has also been criticized in Lebanon, where opinion is polarized over Hezbollah's increasingly assertive role in directing the policies of the state. The smiling fighters, with automatic rifles slung over their shoulders, were seen sitting on the buses as they set out on the journey across Syria in photographs widely circulated on social media.
Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Read more
Syrias war created millions of refugees. Some might be forced to return home.
Cooperation with Russia becomes central to Trump strategy in Syria
David Ignatius: Trumps big decision in Syria
Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Suzan Haidmous in Washington and Heba Habib in Stockholm contributed to this report.
It was nearly two years ago when Iran and Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties, worsening an already tense rivalry that has fueled conflicts across the Middle East. But this year, a rare bright spot in their relations has stirred hope of a possible detente.
More than 80,000 Iranian pilgrims are now in Saudi Arabia to perform the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites, after they were barred last year from making the trip. The hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is obligatory for all able-bodied Muslims, and sees roughly 2 million worshipers descend on Mecca and Medina each year.
The return of Iranian pilgrims followed painstaking negotiations between officials from the two countries, after relations deteriorated sharply over the past two years.
Those discussions probably helped ease some initial tension, said Reza H. Akbari, who researches Iranian politics at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
This week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that if all goes smoothly, the pilgrimage could set the stage for further talks. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also said last month that Iran and Saudi Arabia were preparing to exchange diplomatic visits.
Muslim worshippers are silhouetted against the sunrise during the hajj pilgrimage on Mount Arafat near Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Aug. 31, 2017. Around 2.6 million Muslims are expected to attend this years hajj. (Mast Irham/Epa-Efe)
The visas have been issued for both sides to make this trip, he told a local news outlet.
The friendlier cooperation comes even as the two countries fight proxy wars in Yemen and Syria, and continue to compete for influence from Afghanistan to Bahrain.
While the rivalry is geopolitical, it also is colored by the battle between competing branches of Islam.
For Iran, the strict version of Sunni Islam promoted by Saudi rulers has helped inspire Islamist militants around the globe. Saudi Arabia, in turn, has viewed Iran as a threat since the Islamic revolution in 1979. The Saudi government has encouraged anti-Shiite rhetoric both at home and abroad.
[Qatar restores diplomatic ties with Iran despite demands by Arab neighbors]
Tensions rose this spring when President Trump, speaking from Saudi Arabia, called on Muslim nations to isolate Iran. Later, Iran blamed Saudi Arabia for an attack on the nations parliament by Islamic State militants. The attackers, all of whom were killed, were identified by Iran as local ethnic Kurds, the majority of whom are Sunni.
But as the worlds largest gathering of Muslims, the hajj also has served as a battleground for the archrivals, which both claim to lead the global community of Muslims.
In 2015, Iran openly challenged Saudi control of Muslim holy sites after a stampede in Mecca killed more than 2,400 people, including at least 464 Iranians, according to a count from the Associated Press. Throngs of worshipers crowd the holy sites to reenact steps taken by the prophet Muhammad.
Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused the Saudi leadership of murder and urged Muslims to fundamentally reconsider allowing Saudi Arabia to continue to oversee the hajj.
Several months after the stampede, in January 2016, Saudi Arabia executed a Shiite dissident cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, and Iranian protesters attacked its embassy in Tehran. Saudi Arabia and several other countries then severed ties with Iran, and the spat spilled over into negotiations over the hajj, leaving Iranians unable to attend the pilgrimage.
Iran has consistently tried to undermine the Saudis by questioning their ability to ensure the safety and security of pilgrims, Akbari said.
But the hajj has been used as a political lever by both sides to exert or ease tensions as needed, he said. It is a powerful tool that sends a clear signal to the entire region about Saudi Arabia and Irans relationship status.
This year, Khamenei refrained from condemning the Saudis, instead calling on Muslims to focus on enemies such as Israel and the United States.
But others warned against viewing the pilgrimage as a sign of thawing relations between the two sides.
In the past, the two powers have hurtled insults at each other, engaged in diplomatic footsie and then repeated this cycle, said Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
Muslim unity during the hajj season is a potent religious symbol, he said. But it does not do away with the other factors driving their competition for Muslim hearts, minds and battlefields across the Middle East.
Read more
Power struggle escalates between Irans president and hard-liners
Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
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FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, known as Timochenko, shakes hands with another former rebel, Ivan Marquez, on Aug. 27, 2017, at the opening of their groups convention, aimed at forming a political party. (Raul Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images)
Colombia's largest guerrilla movement sowed a half-century of fear through kidnappings, bombings, extortion and killings. But in a new era of peace, the battled-scarred leftists are launching a charm offensive trading their guns and fatigues for the soft-lit ads and sport coats of 21st-century politics.
The former fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, decommissioned the last of their weapons in recent weeks, under a historic accord ending Latin America's longest-running guerrilla war. Now the Marxist-Leninist guerrillas are taking a page from corporate playbooks and trying to rebrand themselves.
Near soaring bank towers and a busy Starbucks, fighters-turned-delegates gathered this week for what is effectively their first modern political convention. On the events inaugural day, a hip electronic beat pulsed through a vast hall before the introduction of two emcees one of them a young man in a power suit with a telenovela smile.
The ensuing speeches touched on wealth distribution and inequality, but also health care, public housing, womens rights, the fight against global warming, even the scourge of urban drug use. In the wings, ex-fighters took selfies and ogled stands selling mugs and key chains bearing a new FARC logo two hands clasped in the shape of a heart.
[After peace deal, Colombias rebels not sure what to do with their fake names]
There remain two camps within the FARC one seeking a broader coalition of the left, the other more rooted in the groups revolutionary past. In a nod to its roots, the FARC this week announced that rather than pick a substantially different name for its new political party, it will still be known by the acronym FARC although it will now stand for Alternative Communal Revolutionary Force.
Yet there is no doubt the group is trying to carve out a new image. On Friday, for instance, a panel of blazer-wearing FARC leaders arrived at a news conference clutching red roses a flower they hoped to convert into a symbol of their new party.
When [people] see a red rose, we want them to think of the FARC, said Ivan Marquez, the groups chief negotiator during the peace process.
Former leftist guerrillas in other Latin American countries including Brazil and Uruguay have gone on to reach the highest offices in the land. Yet Colombias guerrilla wars were longer and far more violent, claiming an estimated 218,000 lives.
The FARC, though, may be making some political inroads. A recent Gallup poll showed the group with 15 percent support, compared with 10 percent in June of last year. The latest numbers were only a few percentage points lower than the approval rating of Colombia's congress.
That is precisely what is alarming the FARCs many opponents here.
Under the peace deal, the FARC is guaranteed 10 seats in the 268-member congress but it can get more in national elections next March. Most observers say that any serious political gains by the FARC are still likely to be years away.
[Plan Colombia: How Washington learned to love Latin American intervention again]
Nevertheless, many Bogota residents called the scenes of former guerrillas openly politicking in the heart of Colombian capitalism this past week a jarring sign of the groups emergence as a political force.
"You definitely feel a threat. We feel they are taking big, animal steps, like they are coming into our game," said Francisco Cabal, a Bogota lawyer who voted against the peace deal in a national referendum last year.
The FARC has brought on a team of political consultants and is taking advice from some who helped rehabilitate the left in Brazil where ex-president Dilma Rousseff was once a member of the Marxist urban guerrillas who challenged a military dictatorship. In April, the former Colombian rebels placed political ads on the Internet, some punched with humor, others more serious. Rather than dealing with longtime issues of the FARC such as rural land redistribution the ads revolved around the problems of Colombian urbanites.
In one dramatic clip, an ambulance with a critically ill patient is rejected from hospital after hospital in a jab at the governments shortcomings in delivering effective health care.
"They put out some sweeping commercials, very much classic political marketing, playing on themes such as health and corruption rather than speaking in dogmatic terms about the oligarchy," said Alex Fattal, a professor of media studies at Penn State University who has studied the FARC. "They are clearly looking for a national political platform."
The FARC's conversion to a political party is occurring as the peace process itself remains exceedingly delicate. The last time the FARC attempted a political transition, in the 1980s, paramilitary assassins carried out large-scale killings of FARC-aligned leaders and politicians. In recent months, there has been an echo of that era, with dozens of leftist community organizers slain, allegedly by successor right-wing paramilitary groups and mercenaries hired by large landowners.
[The frightening issue that could destroy Colombias peace deal]
The process of reintegrating ex-combatants into society through training and education is moving exceedingly slowly. Some candidates for next years presidential election including Sen. Ivan Duque of former president Alvaro Uribes Democratic Center Party have denounced the fact that the FARC is selecting its candidates for the national elections before the launch of a tribunal set to probe war crimes.
The tribunals will advance by next year, but these people could be elected before then, Duque said. No one accused of crimes against humanity should be allowed to run for office.
Yet in other key ways, the peace process is moving forward. In August, FARC fighters participating in the peace deal finished handing over their weapons. In exchange, they've received government-issued Visa debit cards with initial payments worth $600. Those will be followed up with monthly stipends worth $200.
This past week, the FARC's political convention offered a sometimes-awkward window into its transformation.
The convention was a study in contrasts and freshman snafus. The sport coats its leaders wore clashed with the Che Guevara beards and occasional pair of combat boots worn by the rank and file.
With FARC logo mugs going for the equivalent of $6 each more than four hours' work at Colombia's minimum wage more foreign journalists than ex-fighters appeared to be scooping them up. The FARC's newness to the world of political conventions showed, with pregnant pauses as organizers sought to find speakers in the crowd.
But they also put on a show, with big digital screens and folk music bands that led delegates to break into impromptu jigs. Some ex-fighters fought back tears as they considered a simple remembrance to their fallen comrades, flowers planted in a series of rubber boots.
The FARC pledged to integrate women and minorities into its senior party structure, though it was still struggling to select a list of candidates for next year's election.
Diogenes Oquendo Londono, a 38-year-old former combatant, said he was last in the capital at age 14. He marveled at the modern skyscrapers, calling them a testament to Colombias poor distribution of wealth.
Wearing stylish jeans and a white dress shirt that covered his Che chest tattoo and his scars from bullet wounds, he said the conference had left him determined to fight for peaceful change.
His hope now: to become a grass-roots organizer for the FARCs new party.
To take off the clothes of warriors is what weve always wanted, he said. Weve been demonized, but were here to make the people understand that we are also about so much more.
Wesley Tomaselli contributed to this report.
Read more:
A side effect of peace in Colombia? A cocaine boom in the U.S.
A Colombian rebel discovers soft beds and iPhones after 20 years in the jungle
Colombias war has displaced 7 million. With peace, will they go home?
Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
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Saturday, Sept. 2
DILLON RODEO
Montanas Biggest Weekend, the Labor Day Rodeo in Dillon, runs through Monday. Details: 406-683-5771.
SILENT FILM
Montana State Parks will host a movie night featuring Charlie Chaplins 1925 The Gold Rush at 6:30 p.m. at Bannack State Park southwest of Dillon. The silent-classic features a lone prospector who ventures into Alaska looking for gold. Classic cartoons begin at 6:30 p.m. and the feature film will start at 7. Details: 406-834-3413.
RUMMAGE SALE
The Cottonwood Commons Transition Home Community Rummage Sale is 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Deer Lodge Fairgrounds (in the exhibit building). For more details, call Rhonda at 406-846-1312.
CLUBS
Butte Copper City Lions meets the first Saturday of each month at 11 a.m. at Shorty's/Little Nevada Casino, 1800 Meadowlark Ln. Details: Charlene at 406-565-0906 or Wanda at 406-221-6476.
An anxiety and depression support group meets at 1:30 p.m. at 721 S. Utah St.
Adult Children of Alcoholics meets at 10 a.m. in the Atherton Apartments community center room, 4500 Continental Drive. Details: 406-396-4112.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/09/2017 (1899 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Late Friday afternoon, Minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr issued the federal governments most forceful public statement yet directed at the operator of the northern rail line.
Shortly after Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister called out the federal government over its inaction on addressing the Churchill file, Carrs statement said Omnitrax is legally obliged to fix the flood damaged line that has been out of service since May.
To this end, we have formally demanded the Hudson Bay Rail Company (now known as Omnitrax Inc.) that it must repair the rail line in line with the terms of its 2008 contribution agreement with the Government of Canada, which requires the company to operate, maintain and repair the entire Hudson Bay Railway Line in a diligent and timely manner until March 31, 2029.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr (Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press files)
A source in the federal government said Transport Canada recently sent a letter to Omnitrax noting its legal obligation under the 2008 agreement with respect to its requirement to fix the line.
In the statement it said the government is willing to look at all options, including exploring the possibility of working with a new owner to repair the rail line.
Negotiations have allegedly been going on for more than a year with a group that was led by Arlen Dumas, newly elected grand chief of Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, to acquire the rail line from Omnitrax. There has been no indication any progress has been made in those talks. Another coalition of Northern Manitoba First Nations and communities has also been working on tabling a proposal.
Carr said in the statement, The government shares the concerns of the citizens of Churchill, and northern Manitoba, where the loss of the rail link has had significant impacts to businesses and families. We remain committed to the people of northern Manitoba and are currently exploring ways in which we can speed up the repairs of the rail line, while keeping in mind the immediate needs of the communities.
While the statement continues to be unclear as to what action will be taken, it concludes by saying that the Trudeau government will continue to look at all options including enforcing its rights under its agreement to seek repayment of the $18.8 million contributed to the Hudson Bay Railway Line in 2008.
martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/09/2017 (1899 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA A gay MP who recently travelled to Ghana said hes hoping to meet the Winnipeg LGBTTQ* refugees pushing for human rights in their home country.
Im looking forward to meeting them, Rob Oliphant said in an interview Friday, a day after returning from West Africa. I think I now have a good sense of the country that theyre coming from.
As co-chair of the Canada-Africa Parliamentary Association, the Liberal MP was among six parliamentarians who spoke with government officials, activists and civil society groups in both Ghana and Gambia.
JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Members of the Ghana Pavilion L to R Fuseini Umar, Saalu Usman, Ziyawa Mohammed, Sulemana Abdulai and Baba Issaka are LGBTTQ* refugee claimants from Ghana that collected petition signatures outside Folklorama pavilions calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality back in Ghana.
Oliphants visit came as eight Ghanaians living in Winnipeg made headlines back home.
Clad in pink shirts, they collected more than 5,200 signatures at Folklorama, calling on Canada to push Ghana to protect LGBTTQ* people. Specifically, the group wants Ghana to repeal Section 104 of its criminal code outlawing Unnatural Carnal Knowledge which makes same-sex activity a serious crime punishable by up to 25 years in prison.
All eight crossed near Emerson, making an illegal entry to Canada in order to claim asylum, which shields them from prosecution. Some of the group have secured refugee status, while others are waiting for their asylum hearing.
Oliphant heard about the group while on the ground in Ghana. Last week, a Ghanaian politician accused them of trying undermine societal values, and even the countrys constitution.
John Ntim Fordjour, a Ghanian MP who is a pastor, reportedly told a television show: There is no culture, there is no tribe, there is no religion in whose doctrines glorify homosexuality, lesbianism and bestiality.
But Oliphant is a United Church minister. Im not sure we glorify homosexuality, but we certainly accept it as part of nature and part of our reality, said Oliphant, who plans to reach out to Fordjour.
I want to make friends with people and help them perhaps see a different way of looking at the world.
Oliphant met with gay activists as part of a roundtable on human rights at Canadas high commission in the capital, Accra, and spent time with them that evening. They took him to an underground club popular with gay men, lesbians and transgender people.
The MP learned that while Ghanian police dont often prosecute people under anti-gay laws, they frequently threaten and extort gay men in particular, and dont investigate when theyre attacked.
Oliphant says his government is walking a fine line of respecting a country where gay activists quickly point out that anti-gay laws are a colonial legacy of the British Empire, but the vast majority 96 per cent according to a 2013 Pew Research poll believe society should not accept homosexuality.
He says LGBTTQ* rights in Africa require a mix of activism, lawsuits, media campaigns and role models, a long process he witnessed when Canada mostly decriminalized homosexuality in 1967, when Oliphant was 12 years old. Its not ancient history, he said.
Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press files Liberal MP Rob Oliphant
At a closed-door meeting on peace and security, groups discussed myriad issues like disabilities and womens rights, but Oliphant got pushback when he raised gay rights, with one activist saying no one is pushing for those rights.
At that point I said, if its illegal to be that person, its going to be very hard for them to organize openly. So I dont really buy the argument.
He said Canadas role should be to welcome asylum-seekers while supporting activists on the ground.
We have to provide safe havens for people who are persecuted. At same time, we have to slowly but continually persist on helping a country which is extremely religious, and perhaps needing to find a way to move on.
Oliphant says hes aware of pushback against people crossing near Emerson. But hes confident the security agencies are screening everyone who enters, and that those who make a claim get a fair hearing.
We have a system where people are allowed to make a claim for asylum, and I will fight to protect that right, he said. A country will be judged on how we apply our rights to everyone, not just on the people we may agree with, or know.
Data obtained through freedom-of-information laws show that the Immigration and Refugee Board accepted 85 of the 147 asylum cases from Ghana based on sexual orientation and gender identity between 2011 and 2015.
dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/09/2017 (1899 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The provincial government is looking to cut and possibly offload its costs in the annual icebreaking program.
The province has notified the three municipalities north of Winnipeg helped most by the icebreaking program that it wants to renegotiate its agreement with them.
It wants to talk about the future, and it wants to talk about the finances, said Selkirk Mayor Larry Johannson.
Melissa Tait / Winnipeg Free Press Files An Amphibex icebreaker pulls itself up out of the water, and onto the ice. The province is looking to restructure the Amphibex funding agreement it has with three municipalities north of Winnipeg.
Specifically, the province is reviewing Amphibex Corporation that operates the provinces three icebreakers, as well as a fourth that serves as a backup. Amphibex Corp. is run by an arms-length management agency comprised of the City of Selkirk and RMs St. Andrews and St. Clements.
We run the whole show. We run the corporations machines and we take care of the corporations machines, said Johannson, Amphibex chairman.
However, Amphibex is almost completely funded by the province to the tune of over $1 million annually. The three municipalities contribute $16,000 each per year.
The municipalities maintain the funding agreement is fair because the flush of water from the Winnipeg floodway exacerbates the ice jams downstream.
The three municipalities also paid for one-third of the cost of one Amphibex machine when the corporation was formed in 2006. It cost $1.2 million but was purchased as used equipment and now serves as a backup icebreaker.
Ottawa and the province were to pay a third of the cost each but the newly elected Stephen Harper-led Conservative government backed out. The province ended up paying two-thirds of the cost, and has since purchased three more icebreakers on its own.
Amphibex not only breaks up a 28-kilometre stretch of ice on the Red River north of Winnipeg but also breaks up ice at the Portage Diversion, Icelandic River, and some rivers impacting indigenous communities. We go where the province sends us, said Johannson.
Another possibility is that the province may want to run the icebreaker program out of one of its own departments.
As you know, every government entity is on the table right now, said Johannson, referring to the provinces attempts to rein in government spending.
A government spokesman said, The province looks forward to meeting with (Amphibex Corp.) in the near future to discuss the program. Operation of this program is being reviewed as part of the governments efforts to ensure value for taxpayer dollars.
Darrell Kupchik, director of Amphibex Corp, said many of its operations have been streamlined.
Were breaking more ice in less time, he said. Weve developed and refined ice breaking and ice cutting techniques, and been able to reduce manpower and the equipment requirement.
Johannson added: Do you have to break ice on the Red every year? Maybe not. Thats something weve looked at for the last while. The Amphibex Corp. keeps statistics on river ice and flood scenarios, he said.
Amphibex Corp. has also performed post-flood cleanup of floating bogs at Caddy Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park, and has started dredging. Falcon Lake wants the Amphibex machines to perform a months worth of dredging there.
We dredged the whole of Lake St. Martin channel. I think dredging is where these machines are really going to shine, said Johannson. They are more environmentally friendly as they dont stir up the bottom as much as regular dredging equipment.
The mouth of the Red has become silted in, making it difficult for big boats to navigate through the channel into Lake Winnipeg. Your motor digs into the silt and it can become dangerous, Johannson said. Bigger boats are avoiding the channel and setting up in Gimli and Hecla instead of Selkirk, he said.
If the feds ever have money for dredging, and want to start dredging the channel where the Red empties into Lake Winnipeg, these are the machines that can do it and do it efficiently, he said. The dredgers previously used by the federal government have been sold and are no longer on the river.
The three mayors are expected to meet with a representative for the province later this month.
bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion
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This article was published 02/09/2017 (1898 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
White nationalists and neo-Nazis are having their moment. Former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke is back, yet again, in the media spotlight, while newer figures such as white supremacist Richard Spencer and Christopher Cantwell are broadcasting their views via social media feeds and niche internet channels.
Many Americans are wondering whether this resurgent movement should be ignored, feared or fought. What, exactly, is the best antidote for neo-Nazism?
What about laughter?
United Artists With works such as The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin combated fascism with humour.
While the Aug. 12 violence in Charlottesville, Va., was no joke, the images of armour-clad, tiki-torch-wielding white nationalists did give fodder to late-night talk show hosts and editorial cartoonists.
In a different age, another ascendant white supremacist Adolf Hitler used a combination of garbled ideas, stagy phrasing and arch gestures to bewitch much of his nation, even as the rest of the world looked on in disbelief and terror.
While many anti-fascists offered serious and potent arguments against Hitler, comedians like Charlie Chaplin responded to the mortal threat that the Nazis posed in a different way: they used humour to highlight the absurdity and hypocrisy of both the message and its notorious messenger.
Chaplin homes in on his target
In late 1940, producer-director-star Charlie Chaplin released The Great Dictator. Often considered Chaplins last great film, The Great Dictator is the tale of a little Jewish barber in the mythical (but obviously German) nation of Tomania. The barber is mistaken for a dictator modelled after Adolf Hitler named Adenoid Hynkel, and the barber is forced to carry out his impersonation of the German warlord to save his own life.
The idea of a film satirizing Hitler was one Chaplin had been working on for years. Chaplin was a dedicated antifascist, and was alarmed at Hitlers ability to captivate the German people. He warned members of the Hollywood community not to underestimate Hitler merely because they found him comical, an effect magnified by Hitlers unfathomable decision to apparently borrow the most famous mustache in the world Chaplins little black toothbrush as his own trademark.
Chaplin regarded Hitler as one of the finest actors he had ever seen. (Hitler carefully monitored his public persona, studying photographs and film of his speeches, and taking lessons in public presentation.) Nonetheless, Chaplin, whose international success was based on little people challenging and defeating powerful institutions and individuals, recognized that comedy could be used against Hitler.
It is paradoxical that tragedy stimulates the spirit of ridicule, he wrote in his autobiography. Ridicule, I suppose, is an attitude of defiance.
Chaplin was warned in 1939 that the film might be refused release in England and face censorship in the United States. Political factions in both nations were anxious to placate the unpredictable, angry Hitler, and The Great Dictator could be calculated to enrage the Nazis, who reviled Chaplin as a Jewish acrobat.
But Chaplin was a partner in the distribution company United Artists; simply put, he was his own producer, and answerable primarily to himself when it came to risky investments. Due to Chaplins perfectionism, all of his films were expensive. The Great Dictator was no different: It cost US$2 million to produce, an enormous sum at the time. That perfectionism delayed the films distribution until the height of the English Blitz, by which time audiences in the U.S. and England were ready for Chaplins humour of defiance. In 1940, the year of its release, The Great Dictator was the third highest-grossing film in the U.S.
Exposing a fraud
Much of the comedy of The Great Dictator comes from a merciless indictment of those who would follow such a patently idiotic character. The satire mocks Hitlers absurdity, solipsism and overweening vanity, while also highlighting Germanys psychological captivity to a political fraud.
All the techniques of the tyrant are on view: the arbitrary demonizing of identity groups, the insistence on mindless loyalty from his followers, the unpredictable behaviour toward foreign leaders that ranges from mere abuse to deceit, even the hostility toward science in favour of dogma. (A series of inventors die while demonstrating the patently impossible military technology Hynkel demands, like a bulletproof suit and a parachute hat.) Hynkel is also a casual sexual harasser and grossly overestimates attendance at official functions.
Hynkel bloviates mindlessly and unintelligibly. U.S. and English audiences were already quite familiar with Hitlers untranslated radio speeches, and Chaplin took advantage of this, making Hynkels speeches an amalgamation of gibberish, non sequiturs and vaudeville German dialect humor, as when he shouts, Der Wienerschnitzel mit da lagerbieren, und das Sauerkraut! (The wienerschnitzel with the beer and the sauerkraut!)
Would Hitler laugh at himself?
The success of The Great Dictator spawned a cottage industry of Hitler satire. Some of this work was relentlessly lowbrow, such as the Three Stooges short You Nazty Spy! (1940), Hal Roach Studios short feature That Nazty Nuisance (1943), and the Warner Bros. animated shorts The Duckators (1942), Der Fuehrers Face (1942) and Daffy The Commando (1943).
The artistic peak of this cinematic effort was the mordant Ernst Lubitsch comedy To Be or Not to Be (1942), in which Hitler is explicitly compared to a ham actor-manager who embarks upon a vanity production of what else? Hamlet.
Hitler was a huge movie fan, and after the war, novelist and screenwriter Budd Schulberg found proof that Hitler had actually seen The Great Dictator. More intriguingly, Hitler ordered the film to be screened for him a second time. (Of course, ordinary Germans werent allowed to watch it.)
Interviewed for a 2001 documentary, Reinhard Spitzy, an intimate of Hitler, said he could easily imagine Hitler laughing privately at Chaplins burlesque of him.
The image of Hitler watching The Great Dictator a second time admiring the work of the only public figure whose sheer charisma before the cameras could rival his own is a compelling one.
Chaplin later said that had he known the extent of the Nazis barbarity, he would not have burlesqued them; their crimes were simply too immense for comedy, however trenchant. But perhaps The Great Dictator still reminds us of political comedys golden mean: the more political movements strive to be taken seriously, the more ripe a subject for satire they become.
Kevin Hagopian is a senior lecturer of media studies (cinema studies) at Pennsylvania State University.
This article was first published at The Conversation Canada (theconversation.com/ca).
Opinion
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This article was published 02/09/2017 (1898 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Canadas unions are proud that weve negotiated health insurance coverage for many of our members. But we believe anyone with a health card should have coverage for the medicines they need. Thats why this Labour Day, we are launching a campaign to win a universal prescription drug plan for all Canadians, regardless of their income, age or where they work or live.
A national pharmacare plan is badly needed and long overdue. Today, 3.5 million Canadians cant afford to fill their prescriptions. A 2015 Angus Reid poll found that 19 per cent of Manitobans said they or someone else in their household hadnt taken medication as prescribed because they couldnt afford to.
Some are chronically ill and worry about how theyll pay for the medication they need now and for years to come. Some are students who will lose coverage through their parents as soon as they graduate. Many, stuck in part-time, low-wage jobs, worry theyll never find a job that provides health benefits.
PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
The only place where prescriptions are covered for all Canadians is in the hospital. The federal government covers the cost of prescription drugs for members of the Armed Forces and the RCMP, veterans and Indigenous people. But the vast majority of Canadians receive no public assistance to cope with the costs of prescriptions they fill at pharmacies.
Today, every provincial and territorial government provides different coverage. Most subsidize the cost of medications for vulnerable Canadians, such as those more than 65 years old and recipients of social assistance and disability benefits. Many also provide catastrophic coverage for only for those facing the most astronomical prescription costs.
But we need a pharmacare plan that covers all Canadians.
Just think about what that would mean for the one in five people paying out of pocket for their medication today, either because they dont have a prescription drug plan or because they have a plan that doesnt cover the full cost of the medications they need.
I remember one worker who really brought this issue home for me. He had been hospitalized when his employer went bankrupt. Lying in his hospital bed, he was told his health benefits would be terminated in 30 days. His life was instantly turned upside down and he could no longer afford the medications he would need for years to come.
That workers story is the same for too many across the country. An estimated 8.4 million working Canadians dont have prescription drug coverage. Even those lucky enough to have prescription drug plans at work are paying more out of pocket because of ever-increasing co-payments and deductibles.
In Manitoba, an estimated one in three, or 212,066 of the provinces workers, dont have private health insurance that gives them prescription drug coverage. That includes about 91,125 who work part time and many of the provinces 85,700 self-employed workers.
Canada is the only developed country in the world with a universal health care program that doesnt include a universal prescription drug plan.
We have the second-highest prescription drug costs in the world, next to the United States. Canadians have wildly varying prescription drug coverage and uneven access to prescription drugs, and often pay different rates for the same medications depending on where they live.
We arent benefiting from the current system, but pharmaceutical and private insurance companies are.
Pharmaceutical companies can charge higher prices for commonly used drugs because they are selling to so many buyers. Private insurance companies benefit by charging employers, unions and employees to administer private drug insurance plans.
In New Zealand, where a public authority negotiates on behalf of the entire country, a years supply of the cholesterol-busting drug Lipitor for one patient costs just $15 a year, compared to $811 in Canada.
Thats why Canada needs to combine the purchasing power of all Canadians under one plan. An annual investment of $1 billion by the federal government will mean Canadians save $7.3 billion a year on the medications they need.
Its time for Canada to catch up to our international peers. Its time to complete the unfinished business of our medicare system with a universal prescription drug plan that will save money through bulk purchasing power.
Back in 2015, Angus Reid polled Canadians on the issue, and 91 per cent of Canadians including 92 per cent of Manitobans said they believe our public health care system should include a universal prescription drug plan. Its time for national policy to catch up to the needs and demands of Canadians.
Nobody should have to choose between buying groceries or paying for the medication they need. There is a strong consensus on this issue. All we need now is the political will. Its time for a plan for everyone.
Hassan Yussuff is the president of the Canadian Labour Congress.
Opinion
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This article was published 02/09/2017 (1898 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Like any country seeking to honour its past, Canada is grappling with how that is done and when to look at past icons in a new light.
Recently, Mikmaq activists in Nova Scotia protested a statue of Edward Cornwallis, founder of Halifax. On July 1, Canadas 150th anniversary, Mikmaq protesters and their supporters decried Cornwallis as a perpetrator of genocide against Indigenous peoples.
The action has sparked debate over what such statues mean in Canada, part of a discussion on national symbols already underway as the federal government moved to remove the name of Hector-Louis Langevin, a Father of Confederation and architect of the residential school system, from the building that houses the Prime Ministers Office.
National Archive of Canada Canadas first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald
More recently, the discussion has included the question of whether Canada should rename buildings honouring the countrys first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, also a Father of Confederation and a proponent of residential schools. The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario has called for the removal of Macdonalds name from schools.
Some argue that these statues, buildings and monuments are part of our history, and its wrong to take them down or rename them.
Others argue such artifacts serve to educate, so they continue to have value.
However, they dont really educate anyone; monuments assert a narrative. Those who champion these monuments as teaching tools often seem the least interested in learning from them. We might ask ourselves who benefits from maintaining the status quo when it comes to whom we put on a pedestal. For example, statues honouring Confederate heroes were erected long after the U.S. Civil War, mass produced and made available by the efforts of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, an organization that was intent on asserting a particular narrative of the war, namely that the Souths pro-slavery philosophy was justified.
There are those who say were wasting time tearing down the past when we should be working on building the future. Its true that you do not have to destroy one history to tell another, but continuing to publicly venerate figures whose legacy is problematic at best and deeply painful at worst does not lead to healing.
Sen. Murray Sinclair, a former chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has said the point is not to remove Macdonalds name from buildings, but to look at ways to put Indigenous names on buildings. Tearing things down almost smacks of revenge, he observed.
His advice mirrors the approach the University of Regina is taking in renaming streets on its campus with words drawn from Nakoda, Salteaux, Michif and Cree, as well as French and English.
Perhaps, going forward, we could look for ways to honour ideals that we, as Canadians, are proud of. On Memorial Boulevard, Winnipeg honours many people collectively, such as the women of the Armed Forces and the soldiers who fought and died in the First World War. We could look for ways to be less literal in what we depict and opt for a more illuminating approach to public monuments.
Monuments are not designed to have implied asterisks beside them. Putting a plaque at Cornwalliss feet detailing the bounty he put out on Mikmaq scalps doesnt change the conquering colonial narrative; he still towers over those he subjugated.
Perhaps our history does not need to be told through bronze statues of powerful people, especially when they invariably turn out to have feet of clay.
Amid mounting military and diplomatic tensions between the US and Russia, the German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung reported Friday that the American Congress has taken the first steps toward Washingtons annulling of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
The INF, or Washington Treaty on Mid-range Nuclear Systems, is a bilateral agreement reached between the United States and the Soviet Union on the decommissioning of short- and mid-range missiles (with a range of between 500 and 5,500 miles), and the banning of their production.
The treaty, signed on 8 December 1987 by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, led to a significant reduction of US nuclear weapons in Europe. The nuclear-armed mid-range Pershing II missiles, whose stationing in Western Europe five years earlier had triggered the largest peace demonstrations to that point in history, were withdrawn.
The danger now is that the US will construct new missiles and station them in Europe, warned the Suddeutsche Zeitung. A major shift would be set into motion and Europe would stand on the brink of a new nuclear era nuclear mid-range missiles were the horror of the Cold War thirty years on, the spectre has returned.
The reason for the potential ending of the treaty, according to the newspaper, is the deep freeze in US-Russia relations and announcements by both sides of intentions to comprehensively modernise their nuclear arsenals.
Characteristically, the explosive reports by the German press have been totally ignored by the US print and broadcast media.
The report came amid a hysterical campaign being mounted by the US and NATO over military exercises planned by the Russian military in western Russia, Belarus and Russias exclave of Kaliningrad later this month, with Washington and its allies suggesting that they could be used as a Trojan horse to pre-position weapons stockpiles and prepare an invasion of the Baltic states.
The Pentagon has deployed seven US F-15C fighter planes to a base in Lithuania along with an additional 600 US airborne troops to the Baltics in advance of the war games.
This military build-up has been carried out in conjunction with a major US diplomatic provocation as the Trump administration has retaliated against Russias expulsion of US embassy personnel from Russia (itself a tit-for-tat response to earlier expulsions of Russians from the US) by ordering the shutdown of three Russian diplomatic facilities in Washington, New York and San Francisco. Moscow has charged that the action, which it said was accompanied by FBI searches of the San Francisco consulate and the residences of Russian diplomatic personnel, constituted a violation of international law.
The increasingly dangerous friction between the worlds two largest nuclear powers is unfolding in the context of growing war dangers internationally, particularly on the Korean peninsula. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Friday that the increasingly bellicose confrontation between the US and North Korea had left the region balanced on the verge of a large-scale conflict.
It is in this context that the reported threats of an escalation of nuclear brinksmanship on the continent of Europe pose such an imminent danger.
A NATO document classified as secret, which was obtained by a joint research group made up of the Suddeutsche Zeitung and public regional broadcasters NDR and WDR, contains 39 proposals on how NATO can take action against Russia. According to diplomats, formal consultations within NATO could take place in the autumn at the initiative of the US. The paper was a compendium of all options available carefully divided up into the categories conceivable, currently to be avoided and not advisable.
Even the more than a dozen conceivable options, which NATO believes would be compatible with the INF agreement, would exacerbate already tense relations, according to the Suddeutsche Zeitung. Proposals include increased rotation of B-2 and B-52 bombers from the US to Europe, an expansion of early warning systems and missile or submarine defence, and the strengthening of military and civilian infrastructure against attacks. The increased readiness and capability for a nuclear retaliatory strike, nuclear signalling, is seen as conceivable.
Two proposals are especially provocative: to expand the so-called nuclear targeting planning i.e. identifying and confirming the targets for nuclear weapons, and to increase the operational readiness of those air bases that would drop these bombs in case of war. On this, NATO also advises caution, the Suddeutsche noted. The confirmation of targets, i.e., the concrete planning of a nuclear assault, could rapidly provoke a nuclear war with Russia, which could potentially wipe out humanity.
According to the Suddeutsche Zeitung, if the US abandons the INF treaty, measures currently found in the not advisable category [would be] conceivable: Construction, testing and stationing of a new class of missiles a further step into a new Cold War.
The German ruling class is extremely concerned by Washingtons increasingly aggressive war drive against Russia. Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (Social Democrats, SPD) warned in an interview on Thursday against repeating the worst mistakes of the Cold War. We are on our way to a Cold War 2.0. All of the good treaties on disarmament and arms controls from Gorbachev and Reagan are in acute peril. Europe is threatened once again with becoming a military training ground for nuclear weapons.
He continued: It is wrong for Mrs. Merkel to remain silent on this. Germany of all countries must raise its voice against this. We have to stick to being a power for peace and oppose an arms spiral. In that context, I found the statement by [SPD Chancellor candidate] Martin Schulz that we must focus on finally ridding our country of nuclear weapons to be correct.
Schulz and Gabriel are in the midst of an election campaign, and are well aware that the vast majority of Germanys populationlike that of the rest of the planetopposes military rearmament and war, and would welcome the withdrawal of the US nuclear weapons still stationed in Germany.
The two Social Democratic politicians are by no means committed to peace, but are rather leading representatives of German imperialism. They oppose the US plans for nuclear rearmament because a return to the conditions of the Cold War would endanger Germanys own plans for global power and increase Berlins dependence on the US. It would undermine Germanys economic and geopolitical interests, which are ever more at odds with those of Washington.
In July, Gabriel strongly criticised the latest US sanctions against Russia. Although Europe and the US had jointly and in close consultation answered Russias illegal annexation of Crimea and Russias actions in eastern Ukraine, it was not possible to accept the threat of unlawful extraterritorial sanctions against European companies participating in the expansion of European energy supplies! The supply of energy to Europe was a European affair and not one for the United States of America!
Following the latest threats from the US, the Social Democrats are leading the way in attempting to transform the widespread opposition to Donald Trumps right-wing, militarist policies into support for German militarism. Asked whether he thought the fear of many Germans that Trump could overreact and incite a war is justified, Gabriel answered, I am concerned that the US will be forever lost to the West. Some of the people around Donald Trump want to replace the rule of law with the law of the strongest. We must assert ourselves against this.
Papers published by think tanks and the major political parties give a sense of the methods German imperialism intends to use to assert its interests. In Principles for a Social Democratic Security and Defence Policy, the SPD writes, To be equal to the increased demands for international deployments to tackle crises, cyber defence, and the defence of our own population, we need a modern armed forces capable of action. We need an army in which [] troops capable of deploying are ready for crisis situations. For this we have to better equip the army with personnel and material.
The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP) is the only party participating in Germanys federal election campaign that opposes the US build-up of nuclear weapons from the standpoint of the international working class, and fights for a socialist strategy to combat social inequality, militarism and war. To the capitalist warmongers on both sides of the Atlantic, we counterpose the unity of the international working class. Under conditions of the mounting danger of nuclear war, this perspective assumes enormous urgency.
Des Moines, IA - An Iowa preschool teacher convicted of being drunk at work appeared in court Thursday -- intoxicated again, court records showed.
Angela Hircock, 43, from Winterset, was arrested in March after co-workers told authorities they thought she was drunk at her preschool teaching job at "Lil Scholars Too Day Care Center" in West Des Moines.
Cops said a breathalyzer test showed Hircocks blood alcohol content was 0.37 -- nearly five times the legal limit to drive and high enough to possibly warrant hospitalization. She was immediately fired from the preschool and charged with child endangerment and public intoxication, pleading guilty in July. Her expected sentence was two years probation.
But during her sentencing Thursday, Hircock showed up drunk again, this time blowing a .178 BAC, according to court documents. She was placed in jail, awaiting a pending substance abuse evaluation.
On the day she was initially arrested at work, Hircock allegedly admitted to police she had been drinking throughout the day using her water bottle to hide the alcohol, The Des Moines Register reported. Hircock also told co-workers her intoxication may have been related to her diabetes condition, according to a police report.
Authorities said at the time of her arrest, she had bloodshot eyes, was unable to stand on her own and swayed in her seat.
Lil Scholars Too director Marci Johnston told KCCI Hircock went to lunch for a while and, when she returned, staff members found her in the break room.
That day, Hircock had been supervising young children but reportedly didnt interact with any students after drinking.
As soon as we had any clue there was something going on with her we immediately called her into the office," Johnston said.
Hircock is scheduled for a new court hearing Sept. 8.
Instagram beauty trends are endless from wavy lips to Dunkin Donuts hair dye and even to fake wounds. But bruises? Not so common. One social media influencer star from the United Arab Emirates just went there, though, and for good reason.
HOW WOULD YOU REACT IF THIS WAS NOT MAKEUP???, Diala Makki wrote under a photo of herself and another woman with huge bruises under their eyes, which were apparently created using makeup, thanks to the handiwork of the other woman in the photo, Samira Olfat, who is a makeup artist.
So why did these women want fake bruises instead of contouring? To raise awareness of domestic violence.
I will dedicate this entire week for women, Makki, a journalist, host, and contributing editor of Marie Claire Arabia, wrote. Each and every one of us has a story dont be ashamed to share it, it might inspire or help others. She used the hashtags #saynotoviolence and #speakupforthevoiceless.
Her followers were impressed by and grateful for the bold post. This is a great job! @dialamakki because you are putting the light on this important subject, one person commented. Such an important message, thank you for sharing awareness! said another.
It inspired some women to share their stories: I chose not to hide mine. Was tired of protecting him, one woman bravely explained.
Story continues
This isnt the first time that beauty has been used to shed light on an important topic. Last April, YouTuber Amy Geliebter made a depression makeup tutorial to help people understand this common condition. For 2014s Domestic Violence Awareness Month (October), the Womens Resource Center of Beckley, W.Va., launched a project that had community members creating black eyes with makeup, and then tagging a selfie with #herblackeyeisOURblackeye to create a conversation about domestic violence. And in 2016, a makeup artist sent a truly impactful message to her depression by writing f*** you beautifully on her eyelid with eyeliner.
While makeup is meant to make you look a certain way, it can also say a lot.
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Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.
A 16-year-old has now been arrested for allegedly murdering a 14-year-old Texas girl with a hammer during a drug deal, police said.
Cops later found Kaytlynn Cargills body in a landfill just 10 miles away from her home in Bedford, Texas, days after she went missing on June 19.
Read: Woman Gets Life Sentence for Murder Witnessed by Pet Parrot
After an almost three-month search, the 16-year-old was arrested Friday at O.D. Wyatt High School in Fort Worth and charged with murder.
Police allegedly found a hammer in the suspects home with Cargills blood on it along with other DNA evidence and cell phone records reportedly linking him to the crime.
Court documents alleged that the 14-year-old girl was involved in a drug deal that night, and planned to obtain concentrated doses of cannabis for $300 from the suspect.
Cargill was reported missing after she failed to return from walking her dog near the familys apartment.
Her family searched for the girl before notifying police.
Read: Killer Who Was Granted Parole in 1995 'Jenny Jones Show' Murder Walks Free
Medical examiners ruled the cause of death as homicidal violence, Fox News reported.
The suspect, who was reportedly an acquaintance of Cargill, was being held at the Tarrant County Juvenile Detention Facility in Fort Worth on $250,000 bond, police said.
Watch: Teens Charged With Murder After Killing Man Who Responded To Craigslist Ad: Cops
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Almost a month after passengers faced a harrowing time aboard two grounded Air Transat planes at the Ottawa International Airport, hearings were heard Wednesday and Thursday in Ottawa, Canada, over the incident.
Canadian Transportation Agency in a statement Aug. 9 said it would be holding hearings against the airlines' actions after the passengers were struck for hours in the two planes.
The two flights from Brussels (flight TS157) and Rome (flight TS507), both bound for Montreal, were diverted July 31 amid bad weather to Ottawa. One of the passengers also rang emergency services to complain about the situation, reports said.
Passengers in the planes said they were stranded in the "oppressive" heat of cabins smelling of vomit without air-conditioning, beverages or food. The ground crews for the flights were not instructed to bring snacks or even water for the passengers, members of a federal inquiry into the ordeal were told Thursday, Global News Canada reported.
Three passengers aboard flight TS507 testified in public hearing Thursday they felt they were treated like a "luggage" by the airlines. Alan and Patricia Abraham from Rome said they were initially informed the delay in Ottawa would last for 45 minutes for refueling purposes, but they ended up spending five hours there, Evening Standard reported quoting the passengers' statement to the agency.
The Abrahams also said the bathroom in the plane ran out of toilet paper; a young boy who was trying to make his way to the bathroom as he was feeling nauseous ended up vomiting in the aisle and over several passengers. "The stench was unbearable," they said.
The agency heard four passengers from flight TS157, including Marc Jette, who had called up 911.
He wanted to call first responders to the aircraft to distribute bottled water and ventilate the interior by opening the doors, a report said.
"It was like being trapped in an elevator," he said.
Story continues
Meanwhile, Air Transat blamed circumstances that were out of its control for the passengers' ordeal. These experiences of the passengers was a "matter of perception," Global News reported quoting Matthew Jackson, the director of flight safety for Air Transat, when he was asked whether pilots were aware of how the passengers were feeling.
If Im managing a delay and Im talking to a passenger whos a very nervous flyer, a 15-minute delay may be a terrible thing for that passenger, Jackson told the hearing. Their perception is different than the frequent flyer whos used to delays.
The airline and the airport have also squabbled over who is to be blamed for the passengers' ordeal.
Ottawa International Airport Authority CEO Mark Laroche told the inquiry Tuesday that Air Transat was misleading when it said that airport was responsible for not bringing stairs and fuels to the planes, according to CBC News. He added the airport authority was not in charge of many of the problems faced by the passengers and that are being investigated.
The CEO pointed out those responsibilities was part of an agreement between the airline and its ground contractors.
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In an outlandish twist to an armed robbery, two masked men stormed into a pub in Baltimore, Maryland, on Tuesday, only to find it filled with police officers.
Joseph McInnis III, 21, and 22-year-old Tyree McCoy entered the take-out portion of Monaghans Pub in Woodlawn a little before 5:30 p.m, holding up an employee at gunpoint before running off with an undisclosed amount of cash, according to WBAL-TV.
However, what they did not know was a group of police officers was attending the retirement party of one of their colleagues in the same pub.
And it was not long before the off-duty officers ran out of the pub and apprehended the duo.
Baltimore County Police Officer Jennifer Peach said about the incident: "At that time, the person who had been behind the counter knew that there was a retirement party for a police officer happening, so they went into the other portion and alerted the officers to the fact that they had just been involved in an armed robbery."
He added: "I'm sure that they weren't planning on there being a large room filled with police officers,"
The owner of pub, Jack Milani, told Baltimore Sun that it was odd the robbers would chose to rob a place that was located right across a police station.
"Its kind of odd you would even attempt it, he said. Officers are always in here. There was a decent amount of them.
The crooks were charged with armed robbery and possession of a handgun and were being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center, reported the New York Post.
However, this bizarre instance isn't the only time when a robbery attempt was made to rob a place filled with security personnel.
In France last year, armed robbers held up a McDonalds in Besancon, firing in the air with a shotgun, and threatening the staff to open the cash till. Unluckily for them, among the customers were 11 off-duty members of the French paramilitary special forces, Groupe dIntervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale, who pounced on the robbers and stopped them from getting away.
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In another such incident, surveillance video of a bar in Beloit, Wisconsin, caught an 18-year-old running into a bar filled with off-duty police officers, in an attempt to rob it. The officers from the city of Eau Claire managed to foil the robbery by taking him down.
Another video of a similar foiled robbery that occurred in Brazil in June showed a would-be robber entering a LiveLeak store with his gun drawn, only to find himself surrounded by four off-duty officers in plain clothes. The officers standing in line to check out acted immediately, drawing their guns and one of the officers shot at the would-be robber.
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Montreal (AFP) - Canada expects migrants to continue border jumping from the United States for many more months, and officials said Friday they are readying temporary accommodation to deal with the surge through winter.
A harsh winter is around the corner, and the government launched an urgent call for the winterized mobile homes.
Many of the more than 7,000 migrants who crossed on foot from the US state of New York into Canada's Quebec province since July 1 have been housed in tent cities near the border set up by the military.
Others were put up at Montreal's Olympic stadium and other venues until better accommodations could be found.
"These tents do have heaters, but we also have a very, a very cold winter in this country," said Transportation Minister Marc Garneau, who is also chairing an emergency task force to deal with the surge in asylum seekers.
"And so we are, as a precautionary measure, looking at the possibility of trailers... which have a more robust capability to be able to house people in colder conditions."
Temperatures in eastern Canada dropped to 6 degrees Celsius (43 Fahrenheit) at night at the end of August and could fall further in the coming weeks.
The tendering documents say the trailers must be "comfortable in all seasons" and ready within six weeks of the awarding of the contract. Bids close on September 5.
The mobile homes would be needed to house 200 people in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Montreal.
Most of the recent arrivals are Haitians who face expulsion from the United States when their temporary asylum permit -- granted after the devastating 2010 earthquake -- expires at the end of the year.
The wave of migrants started after Donald Trump was elected president last year, with thousands crossing into central Manitoba province in the dead of winter.
One woman died in the cold before reaching the border, while two men lost their fingers to frostbite during the treacherous journey across snow-covered fields and backwoods.
(LOS ANGELES) A woman once under the spell of Charles Manson testified Thursday that the violent and manipulative cult leader threatened to have her die a painful death if she left the ranch where they lived.
Catherine Share told a Los Angeles Superior Court judge that Manson once severely beat her and got a male cult member to vow that if she ever fled the man would hunt her down and drag her back behind a car.
The unusual testimony nearly 50 years after Mansons followers terrorized Los Angeles during two nights of bloody rampages that killed seven people, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, was to support a parole bid by fellow family member Leslie Van Houten.
Van Houtens lawyer wants to show a state parole board that his client was under the sway of the twisted leader and more likely to make bad choices at the age of 19.
Some people could not leave. I was one of them that could not leave, said Share, who said she later regretted enticing Van Houten to join the cult. I dont think (Van Houten) felt like she was free to leave.
Share acknowledged in her testimony that she didnt know for a fact that Van Houten had been prohibited from leaving the cult, or hadnt actually left at some point. She also acknowledged that others had left the Manson clan without being harmed.
A recent change in California law enables those who committed crimes when they were younger than 23 to seek a hearing on the role their youth may have played. The issues can later be introduced at a parole hearing to evaluate whether a prisoner is fit for release.
Everyone is confused about how could someone who grew up like she did end up there, attorney Rich Pfeiffer said.
Van Houten, 68, and serving up to a life sentence for the deaths, did not attend the hearing in part because she recently broke her knee cap, Pfeiffer said.
Van Houten was 19 when she and fellow cult members stabbed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca to death in 1969. The killings took place a day after other so-called Manson family members murdered Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski, and four others in crimes that shocked the world.
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Share was not involved in the killings, but served prison time later for armed robberies. Police said she also was involved in a plot to break Manson and other family members out of prison, though Share denied that. She said the plan was to help a boyfriends brother get out of jail.
Last year, a parole panel recommended Van Houten be released after she had completed college degrees and been commended for her behavior as a model prisoner. But Gov. Jerry Brown denied her parole, saying she failed to explain how she transformed from an upstanding teen to a killer.
Pfeiffer asked Judge William Ryan to compel prosecutors to turn over decades-old recordings of a conversation between former cult member Charles Tex Watson and his attorney in the hopes they may benefit Van Houten and help secure her release.
Prosecutors, who have vigorously fought Van Houtens release, objected to giving up the tapes. The judge began reading some 300 pages of transcripts of the recordings to see if there was information relevant to Van Houtens case.
Ryan said there were at least eight references to Van Houten in the 85 pages he had a chance to read before the hearing.
Authorities had once asserted the tapes included evidence of other killings and their release could jeopardize those investigations, Pfeiffer said. But Ryan said a detective acknowledged during a meeting in his chambers that there are no active investigations related to them at this time.
Van Houten was the youngest Manson follower to take part in the killings after joining the cult in the 1960s.
During her parole hearing last year, she said the murders were the start of what Manson believed was a coming race war that he dubbed Helter Skelter, after a Beatles song, and that he had the group prepare to fight and learn to can food so they could go underground and live in a hole in the desert.
Van Houtens parole hearing is scheduled Wednesday. She was convicted in 1978 of two counts of murder and conspiracy after an earlier conviction was overturned on appeal.
Manson, 82, and other followers involved in the killings are still jailed. Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel have each been denied parole multiple times, while fellow defendant Susan Atkins died in prison in 2009.
Family member Bruce Davis also was recommended for parole, but Brown blocked his release.
Debra Tate, the only surviving member of her family, attended the hearing as shes done for decades at all Manson-related parole bids. Even though Van Houtens case did not involve her sisters killing, she said she was asked to also represent the LaBianca family.
She does not think Van Houten or any of the Manson cult should ever go free.
It was particularly vicious, Tate said outside court. This was an act of domestic terrorism, in my opinion. And there was group collusion with a much larger agenda and for that reason I dont think any of these people should be paroled.
The Los Angeles Dodgers got their ace back Friday night, and for the first time all season thats what they truly needed Clayton Kershaw to be.
Not surprisingly, Kershaw answered the call.
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With the Dodgers on a season-high five-game losing streak, the Hall of Fame bound left-hander returned to the hill for the first time since July 23 and pitched six scoreless innings in the Dodgers 1-0 win against the Padres.
It was like he never missed a beat despite battling a back ailment that many were concerned could ruin his season.
Kershaw carved through San Diegos lineup allowing just a pair of infield singles and nothing else. In fact, San Diego would never hit a ball to a Dodgers outfielder for the entire game, including against relievers Brandon Morrow, Tony Watson and Kenley Jansen.
As you can see from the final score, the Dodgers needed all of those zeros from Kershaw and the bullpen to get the win. Padres rookie starter Dinelson Lamet was every bit as good, allowing one run on six hits while striking out 10, and so was the Padres bullpen.
Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw throws during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Padres in San Diego. (AP)
Its the type of game Kershaw thrives on. Over the last two seasons the Dodgers have scored exactly one run for Kershaw five times, and theyve gone on to win four of those games. That he was able to turn in that type of effort here though just highlights how important he is, and why the Dodgers need him at full strength. Not that anyone was questioning either point.
Overall, Los Angeles has now won each of Kershaws last 16 starts. He has a personal 12-game winning streak during that stretch, a 1.70 ERA, and 131 strikeouts over 106 innings.
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This is what brilliance looks like, folks. Admire it. Embrace it even if youre not a Dodgers fan. But above all just hope his back problems are kept at bay for the foreseeable future.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
(MADISON, Wis.) Outspoken Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, who built a following among conservatives nationally with his provocative social media presence and strong support of Donald Trump, resigned on Thursday.
Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said he received a resignation letter from Clarke, but the letter did not say why the sheriff was leaving office more than a year before his term is up.
Clarkes office referred questions to an email address that he had provided. He did not immediately respond to an email seeking his reasons for leaving or what he planned to do next.
Clarkes most recent Twitter post from Thursday afternoon showed him posing with law enforcement officers at the National Fraternal Order of Police convention in Nashville.
Some Wisconsin conservatives had encouraged Clarke to challenge U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat, but he repeatedly rejected their overtures.
Clarke announced in May that he had taken a job at the Department of Homeland Security, but the agency never confirmed it. He later said he withdrew his name. He recently published a memoir, Cop Under Fire.
The tough-talking, cowboy hat-wearing firebrand made himself a darling of the political right through his brash social media presence, his staunch support for Trumps crackdown on illegal immigration and his support for patrolling Muslim neighborhoods.
Clarke was one of the few African-Americans to speak at the Republican National Convention last year. He has been vocal about gun rights and critical of what he called the hateful ideology of the Black Lives Matters movement, saying at times, Stop trying to fix the police. Fix the ghetto.
Clark has been sheriff of Milwaukee County since 2002 and spent more than two decades before that with the citys police department.
A lengthy inquest into the dehydration death of a Milwaukee County Jail inmate earlier this year raised troubling questions about how Clarke managed the jail just as the White House was said to be considering him. Despite that investigation, Clarke remained popular with many conservatives.
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The frequent Fox News guest earned more than $105,000 last year in speaking fees almost as much as his sheriffs salary at more than three dozen events across the country.
Republican Gov. Scott Walker would be responsible for appointing someone to serve the remainder of Clarkes term, which runs through 2018. Walkers spokesman Tom Evenson said once he receives official notification of his resignation, the process of finding a replacement will begin.
Evenson did not immediately respond to an email seeking reaction from the governor to Clarkes decision to resign.
(SPRINGFIELD, Mo.) President Donald Trump launched his fall push to overhaul the nations tax system by pledging Wednesday that the details-to-come plan would bring back Main Street by reducing the crushing tax burden on middle-class Americans, making a populist appeal for a proposal expected to heavily benefit corporate America.
Trump said his vision for re-writing the tax system, a key campaign pledge, would unlock stronger economic growth and benefit companies and workers alike. He promised it would be pro-growth, pro-jobs, pro-worker and pro-American.
True to form for the president, Trump dangled the prospect of the biggest ever tax cut and warned that without it, jobs in our country cannot take off the way they should. And it could be much worse than that.
Trump, who rarely travels to promote his policy agenda, chose to debut his tax overhaul pitch before employees at a manufacturing plant in Springfield, Missouri, a community known as the birthplace of Route 66, one of the nations original highways, and one known as Americas Main Street.
This is where Americas Main Street will begin its big, beautiful comeback, the president declared.
After eight months without any major legislative victories and after a significant defeat on health care, Trump and Republican congressional leaders face mounting pressure to notch some significant achievements before next years midterm elections. But the tax overhaul effort already is facing political headwinds.
The White House and Republican lawmakers have not finalized details of the plan, and the push comes as Congress returns to face an intense September workload filled with must-do items such as raising the debt limit, funding the government and providing assistance for the Harvey recovery effort.
While the White House has been designing a tax plan aimed at appealing to Republicans, Trump sought to cast the effort in bipartisan terms. He called on members of both parties to work with him on a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver real tax reform for everyday hard-working Americans.
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I am fully committed to working with Congress to get this job done and I dont want to be disappointed by Congress, do you understand? Trump said. Do you understand? Congress. I think Congress is going to make a comeback.
The president used the official White House event to inject an overtly political message aimed at Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, a top Republican target in next years midterm elections.
We must lower our taxes, and your senator, Claire McCaskill, she must do this for you. And if she doesnt do it for you, you have got to vote her out of office, Trump said, drawing out each of the last five words for emphasis.
Even before Trump took the stage, Democrats eagerly laid down their own markers for what the tax plan should look like.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer outlined a series of conditions, telling reporters the tax cuts should not go to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. He added that the plan should not increase the budget deficit and should be written by both parties not just Republicans like the GOPs failed health care effort.
If the president wants to use populism to sell his tax plan, he ought to consider actually putting his money where his mouth is and cut taxes for the middle class, not the richest Americans, Schumer said.
The Trump administration released a one-page set of goals in April for its tax overhaul, followed by a joint statement in July with congressional leaders.
In an interview with the Financial Times last week, Gary Cohn, a top Trump economic adviser, said the White House and Republican leaders had agreed on a good skeleton for the plan, and said the tax-writing committee in the House would be drafting legislation while the White House tries to sell it.
Cohn, who recently publicly denounced the presidents response to the racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, traveled to Missouri with the president and was standing to the side of the stage. But he was not among a number of administration officials whom Trump publicly thanked in his opening remarks.
The White House played down the omission, saying White House staff members typically arent recognized in prepared remarks, only Cabinet members.
Trump said he would like to see the top corporate tax rate drop from 35 percent to 15 percent. But its not clear that the top rate will go that low in the plan or what kind of tax break a typical taxpayer would see.
With his promises to the middle class, Trump is essentially betting that the benefits of tax cuts for businesses will flow directly to workers, rather than ending up in the pockets of top executives and wealthy investors.
His administration has asserted that high corporate tax rates primarily hurt workers, since companies can stash their money overseas in countries with lower tax rates.
Trumps Treasury Department cited a 2006 Congressional Budget Office study to back the claim that workers mostly bear the brunt from corporate taxes, as well as research by Kevin Hassett, the economist picked to lead the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
But Treasury officials concluded in a separate 2012 analysis that only 18 percent of corporate taxes costs fell on labor. This would suggest that Trumps plan is more likely to bolster stock prices and CEO pay than trickle down to workers salaries.
Wheeling from one crisis to another, President Donald Trump has unleashed his temper within the confines of the White House on cabinet members and top aidesand may be on a collision course with his Chief of Staff, John Kelly.
Insiders say that Trump is reeling from the recovery in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, the fallout from the deadly clashes in Charlottesville and what he sees as a media onslaught and has taken to lashing out because he feels he is not getting the credit he deserves.
Hes having a very hard time, one friend told the Washington Post. He doesnt like the way the medias handling him. He doesnt like how Kellys handling him. Hes turning on people that are very close to him.
Trumps ire was directed at National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn after he criticized Trumps ambiguous response to the August 12 demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia. Cohn reportedly drafted a resignation letter in response to Trump's controversial comments that both sides were to blame for the violence in which counter-protester Heather Heyer died.
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REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
I believe this administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups and do everything we can to heal the deep divisions that exist in our communities, Cohn told the Financial Times.
The president has reportedly been fuming over Cohns lack of loyalty, but has not dismissed him because he is leading Trumps tax-cutting strategy alongside Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
The president has also grown increasingly prickly towards Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The pair have disagreed on troop levels in Afghanistan, the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar and U.S. policy in Cuba. One top diplomat said Tillersons approach to foreign policy had been dismissed by the presidents associates as totally establishment.
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After the Secretary of States comments that the president speaks for himself over his Charlottesville statements, several people close to Trump said they would be surprised if Tillerson stays for longer than a year. He has said in private that he is unhappy with the recent string of controversies to hit the White House.
More generally, Trump is said to resent the new structure in the White House imposed by Kelly, who is referred to by Trump loyalists as the church lady because of his inflexible enforcement of the rules and moral superiority.
Previously Trumps friends used to be able to call the White House and get through to the president directly. Now Kelly acts as gatekeeper with all calls routed through him. Similarly there are no more drop ins and visitors must have an appointment.
Donald Trump resists being handled, said Roger Stone, a former Trump adviser told the Post. General Kelly is trying to treat the president like a mushroom. Keeping him in the dark [...] is not going to work. Donald Trump is a free spirit.
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Los Angeles just became the latest city to adopt Indigenous Peoples Day in favor of Columbus Day. The holiday has been gaining support across the country as Seattle, Minneapolis and Berkeley, Calif. have already made the alternative to Columbus Day official.
Heres everything you need to know about Indigenous Peoples Day, how its different from Columbus Day and why more cities are celebrating it.
What is Indigenous Peoples Day?
Indigenous Peoples Day celebrates Native Americans and challenges the idea that Christopher Columbus discovered America. Berkeley was the first city, and South Dakota the first state, in the United States to recognize the holiday in 1992.
The idea of a Columbus Day alternative actually traces back to the 1970s, and the United Nations declared August 9 as International Day of the Worlds Indigenous People in 1994.
What cities have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day?
Along with Berkeley and South Dakota, a number of cities and states have adopted Indigenous Peoples Day, including Denver, Phoenix, Albuquerque, N.M., Portland.
States like Alaska, Vermont, have also replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. Oberlin, Ohio and Bangor, Maine abolished Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day along with Los Angeles this month.
What is Columbus Day?
Columbus Day honors Christopher Columbus and his arrival in the Americas in 1492.
When did Columbus Day start?
Columbus Day was first recognized in 1937 when then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt made it a federal holiday. Lobbying by Italian-American community groups led to its creation as a holiday starting in the early 1900s.
Why do people want to replace Columbus Day?
Columbus Day has been criticized for celebrating the discovery of a place that was already inhabited and because Columbus himself is considered responsible for the rape and murder of those indigenous people.
One of the biggest misconceptions about Columbus is that he was righteous, Leo Killsback, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation and assistant professor of American Indian Studies at Arizona State University, told CNN. Killsback also noted that Columbus never actually landed in what in the now the United States.
Berkeley Loni Hancock, who was the Mayor of Berkeley in 1992, told TIME Magazine in 2014 that they opted for the alternative to Columbus Day because the existing celebrations were Eurocentric and [have] ignored the brutal realities of the colonization of indigenous peoples.
A federal judge on Wednesday put a temporary halt to key provisions in a proposed Texas state law that would allow for fines and jail time for local officials who didnt enforce state-mandated immigration-related policies.
In his 94-page ruling, Judge Orlando Garcia of the United States District Court Western District of Texas San Antonio Division said that parts of Senate Bill 4, a sweeping law meant to punish sanctuary cities, would likely fail in court if challenged on federal constitutional grounds.
The court cannot and does not second guess the Legislature. However, the state may not exercise its authority in a manner that violates the United States Constitution, Garcia concluded.
Among the bills provisions that Garcia cited as problematic is a provision for penalties for local law enforcement officials who didnt honor voluntary federal immigration requests to detain suspected illegal immigrants for a 48-hour period.
The Court therefore concludes that Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that the provisions of SB 4 that require local entities to fulfill all ICE detainer requests facially violate the Fourth Amendment, Garcia said.
Judge Garcia did allow the bills provision to allow local law enforcement officers to ask people detained for traffic stops and minor offenses about their immigration status, but he also those powers couldnt be abused as an excuse to detain suspects.
The Fourth Amendment does not permit SB 4 to authorize, and SB 4 does not require local entities to allow, officers to prolong the seizure in order to further investigate the individual's immigration status or to hold them for federal authorities, Garcia said. Rather, at the expiration of the time reasonably required to carry out the purposes of the initial stop, the officer is required to release the individual, regardless of whether he suspects or even knows that the individual is undocumented.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement on Wednesday night that he would appeal the temporary injunctions, which block parts of the law from taking effect on Friday.
Texas has the sovereign authority and responsibility to protect the safety and welfare of its citizens, Paxton said.
This story was originally published by the International Business Times
The French company that says its Houston-area chemical plant is spewing "noxious" smokeand may explodesuccessfully pressed federal regulators to delay new regulations designed to improve safety procedures at chemical plants, according to federal records reviewed by International Business Times.The rules, which were set to go into effect this year, were halted by the Trump administration after a furious lobbying campaign by plant owner Arkema and its affiliated trade association, the American Chemistry Council, which represents a chemical industry that has poured tens of millions of dollars into federal elections.
The effort to stop the chemical plant safety rules was backed by top Texas Republican lawmakers, who have received big campaign donations from chemical industry donors.
Representatives from Arkema Americas and the American Chemistry Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In 2013, a West, Texas, chemical plant explosion killed 15 people, prompting the Obama administration to try to raise chemical plant safety standards (investigators later found the explosion was caused deliberately). In an executive order that year, President Obama proposed an overhaul of the Environmental Protection Agencys Risk Management Program with the goal of increasing safety and transparency at chemical plants by strengthening existing regulations.The EPA said the enhanced rules would seek to improve chemical process safety, assist local emergency authorities in planning for and responding to accidents, and improve public awareness of chemical hazards at regulated source.
Arkema has six production plants in Texas and has received more than $8.7 million worth of taxpayer subsidies from the state. Arkemas Crosby plantwhich OSHA fined more than $90,000 for ten serious violations earlier this year and has spewed smoke in Crosbyappears to be covered under the existing EPA rules because of the kinds of chemicals it uses. While Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has given chemical companies legal cover to hide the locations of their EPA-regulated chemicals, the Associated Press reports that the imperiled Arkema facility houses large amounts of toxic sulfur dioxide and flammable methylpropen, which required Arkema to submit a risk management plan to the agencyand which would have subjected the company to the strengthened safety rules.
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However, those ruleswhich would have taken effect on March 14were blocked by EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, who as Oklahoma Attorney General demanded the rule be withdrawn. The move was a big win for the chemical industry that has spent more than $100 million supporting federal lawmakers since 2008. Among those who have received more than $100,000 from the industry are powerful Texas lawmakers including Sen. John Cornyn (R), Rep. Joe Barton (R), Rep. Pete Olson (R), Rep. Gene Green (D), Rep. Pete Sessions (R) and Rep. Kevin Brady (R).
Will Likely Add Significant New Costs
Documents reviewed by IBT show that Pruitts announcement followed a lobbying campaign by Arkema and its colleagues in the chemical industry.
In May 2016, Arkema sent a letter to the EPA criticizing the proposed rule. One part of the letter said the rules requirement of independent risk management audits will likely add significant new costs and burdens to the corporate audit process. The company also took issue with the rules Safer Technology and Alternatives Analysis (STAA) requirements.
Those provisions would have required that companies consider using inherently safer technology that would encourage companies to substitute less hazardous substances and encourage firms to simplify covered processes in order to make accidental releases less likely or the impacts of such releases less severe.
The additional requirement for STAA would be burdensome because there is no consensus methodology, definitions or standards for STAA, the company told the agency. Knowledge of inherently safer technologies can vary greatly depending on the process being examined and the knowledge and expertise of the team performing the analysis. As a result, implementation of STAA would likely be inconsistent across companies.
Related: Texas chemical plant explodes after Hurricane Harvey
Federal records reviewed by IBT show that Arkema specifically lobbied on the chemical safety rules. In the first quarter of 2017, as the Trump administration was reviewing the rule, federal records show the company was lobbying on EPA chemical regulations, including Significant New Use Rules and the Significant New Alternatives Policy program and EPA Risk Management Program regulations. The records show the company directly lobbied the EPA and the White House on the issue. In the second quarter, federal records show Arkema lobbying the EPA and the National Economic Council on EPA risk management program regulations.
Of Arkemas six production plants in Texas, five, including the Crosby plant, are near the coast and in the Houston area, raising the prospect of explosions due to flooding. The town of Beaumont, where there is a taxpayer-subsidized Arkema plant, has experienced severe flooding. Another plant is located in Houston, and two more, in nearby Pasadena, sit right on the Trinity Bay; one of these plants took in nearly $5 million in subsidies.
Arkema Push To Stop Rules Gets Boost From Its Lobbying Group & From Texas Republicans
In its letter to the EPA, Arkema noted that it is a member of the American Chemistry Councila powerful lobbying group that has delivered $1.6 million of campaign donations to federal lawmakers since 2010. That Arkema-backed group helped spearhead the effort to block the EPAs chemical plant safety rule. In January, the council was one of 21 groups that sent a letter to congressional leaders asserting that the new rules costs were not worth the alleged safety benefits.
The lack of identifiable and quantifiable benefits stands in stark contrast to the clear costs associated with this rule, said the letter. Whether it be the requirement of third-party auditor participation that will reduce the pool of qualified auditors, changing well-established audit procedures already designed to maximize safety effectiveness, or imposing ineffective requirements to consider inherently safer technology/design, the final rule includes a litany of costly changes that have not been shown to increase safety.
The American Chemistry Council praised Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton for co-authoring a letter slamming the chemical plant safety rule. The letter chastised the EPA for proposing to require chemical plants to more expansively disclose castatrophic releases of hazardous chemicals and berated regulators for requiring independent audits of facilities' safety procedures.
"To complicate matters further, EPA is demanding that the auditors have no relationship with the audited entity for three years prior to the audit and three years subsequent," wrote Paxton and Louisiana Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry. "EPA is demanding that a professional engineer be part of the auditing team, that attorney client privilege cannot apply to the audits, and finding and reports be released to the public. It is difficult to fathom how this collection of burdensome, costly, bureaucratic regulatory requirements does anything to enhance accidental chemical release prevention...This unauthorized expansion of the program does not make facilities safer, but it does subject facilities to even more burdensome, duplicative and needless regulation."
Paxton received $106,000 from chemical industry donors during his 2014 run for attorney general. His letter was backed by then-Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt and then-Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange (now a senator), who argued that disclosing details of chemical accidents would imperil national security.
The push to persuade the Trump administration to block the chemical plant safety rules was further bolstered by an American Chemistry Council-backed resolution introduced on February1 by Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.
Among the 65 co-sponsors of the measure to block the rules were 10 members of the Texas Congressional delegation, including five who represent Houston area districts: Brian Babin (TX-36), whose district encompasses Crosby, where the Arkema plant lies; Michael McCaul (R-10), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, whose district sits northwest of Houston; John Culberson (R-7), whose district covers part of Houston; Randy Weber (R-14), who represents a coastal district just outside of Houston; Blake Farenthold (R-27), a representative whose coastal district lies southwest of Houston. Other co-sponsors include Louie Gohmert (R-1), vice chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, and Lamar Smith (R-21), chair of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology who has challenged climate science. Weber and Babin are also members of that committee.
The Texas lawmakers who sponsored Mullins bill to block the chemical plant safety regulations have received more than $652,000 from the chemical industry, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Federal contribution data show the American Chemistry Council specifically has delivered more than $160,000 to the entire Texas congressional delegation since 2008, with top recipients including Green ($20,288), Olson ($18,999), McCaul, who co-sponsored the Mullin bill ($13,500), and Barton ($16,500). Babin and Weber, who also co-sponsored the bill, each received $3,000 from Arkema.
Also this year, Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn were two of 16 co-sponsors of a companion resolution in the Senate. Cornyn has taken more than $408,000 from the chemical industry over the course of his career, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Cruz has recieved $234,000 from the industry. The National Institute on Money In State Politics reports that the American Chemistry Council has given more to federal lawmakers in Texas than legislators in any other state.
ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical, Koch Industries and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), a Saudi government-owned firm with multiple locations in the Houston area, including its North American headquarters, all lobbied on the legislation, which set the stage for Trump's administration to block the rules.
In the lead-up to that administration decision, the American Chemistry Council took its lobbying efforts directly to the EPAalong with the U.S. House and Senate, the Department of the Interior, the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Agricultureon both the legislation and the EPA rule on behalf of Arkema and its many other corporate sponsors. In a May 2017 letter to the EPA, the American Chemistry Council advocated that the implementation of the safety rule be delayed for at least eighteen monthsuntil February 19, 2019, arguing that the current rule would be too expensive for its members such as Arkema to implement.
The Final Rule raises significant security concerns and compliance issues that will harm ACC members and others in the regulated community, the trade association wrote to the EPA. Certain provisions, such as the requirement to audit each covered process in a facilitys compliance audit, impose costly and burdensome obligations on facilities.
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HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's first lady Grace Mugabe hit the campaign trail with her husband Robert on Friday, urging discipline in his party two weeks after she faced assault charges in South Africa. Grace, who is seen as a possible successor to her 93-year-old husband, was accused of assaulting a model at an upmarket Johannesburg hotel, but flew home after a minister granted her immunity. The first lady did not refer to the incident in her first speech since returning, instead telling a ZANU-PF party rally that supporters should stand behind Africa's oldest leader in the build-up to next year's elections. "We have a very unique position in Zimbabwe where we have our president who will soon be 94 years because that is what God decreed. No man of flesh can stop that," Grace said in the speech broadcast on state television. South Africa's main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party is challenging the international relations minister's decision to give her immunity - a move that could in theory affect any future plans to travel to the country. Twenty-year-old model Gabriella Engels accused Grace Mugabe of whipping her with an electric extension cable as she waited with two friends in a luxury hotel suite to meet one of the Mugabes' adult sons. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by James Macharia and Andrew Heavens)
Photo credit: Ballachulish Hotel
From Delish
Harry Potter fans have, at one point or another, most certainly thought about what it would be like to ride the Hogwarts Express. While there aren't any magical food carts or dementors on board (phew), there is an actual train ride you can take on the train, and it includes a few stops important to Potter fans.
The Jacobite (the train's "official" name, whatever), travels across 84 miles of railway in the United Kingdom, bringing fans on the ultimate Harry Potter experience. National Rail detailed the trip you can take for just 30 from April to October, onboard the train shown in the films.
The train boards in Fort William, near the highest mountain in Britain, and ends in Malaig. You'll want to check out nearby Glencoe before hopping on board it's where Hagrid's hut was filmed, and is home to the bridge leading to Hogwarts.
Photo credit: National Rail
Once you're onboard the Jacobite, you'll cross that bridge the Glenfinnan viaduct so you can pretend you're on your way to school before getting off to stretch your legs at Glenfinnan. The train then goes to Mallaig, a fishing port that's got plenty of restaurants and shops to explore (just pretend you're in Gringott's Alley).
If you find yourself in Scotland, you might as well also head to Goathland Train Station, which is used as Hogsmeade Station in the movies, and Edinburgh, where J.K. Rowling wrote many of the books. She's known to have frequented restaurants like The Elephant House and Spoon, and stayed at the Balmoral Hotel.
Need some more magical adventures? You could head to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, of course, or this Bed and Breakfast. Last year, Barnes & Noble hosted Yule Balls, so here's hoping round two is coming this winter. For less of a trek, try out these exploding bon bons. They're *almost* as good as getting a letter from Hogwarts in the mail.
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Hurricane Harvey posed a difficult challenge for the operators of the Arkema Group chemical plant just outside Houston. The flooding had cut off the power supply, meaning chemicals could not be stored at the appropriate temperatures. And then, when even the backup generators failed, the site erupted in flames with two explosions Thursday, exposing the area to noxious fumes.
The explosion is not expected to have any long-term environmental impact, officials said, but the episode is just a taste of the environmental toll Harvey could leave on the region. Any mass flooding event brings with it public health concerns about the spread of contaminants through the water, but Houstons industrial sector heavy on oil, gas and chemicals has experts particularly worried that extreme flooding has created conditions that could lead to environmental disaster.
Houston has over 500 industrial sites and in every home weve got some mix of solvents pesticides, oil, Barbara Sattler, a professor of public health at the University of San Francisco, told reporters on a conference call. Those are all part of this huge contamination pond that is Houston.
Ranking high on the list of environmental concerns in Houston are the areas myriad oil refineries and other chemical plants, which have temporarily shuttered in response to the storm. More than 30 leaks have been reported to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) at such sites since the storm made landfall, according to E&E News. Those include everything from Chevron Phillips Cedar Bayou chemical plant, which is expected to release 766,000 pounds of chemicals, to a Dow Chemical plant that has released 34,000 pounds of chemicals like benzene, toluene and carbon monoxide, E&E reports.
The vast network of oil pipelines that end in the area also threatens environmental health, according to Bruce Bodson of the Bayou City Waterkeeper, a group that advocates for clean water in Texas. Flooding shifts the position of oil pipelines, leaving them vulnerable to rupture or, at the very least, leaks.
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Houstons Harris County is also home to more than 20 Superfund sites, which the federal government has identified as home to unsafe levels of toxic waste. In some places, fear has spread that toxic material may have already escaped from the secure sites as contaminated soil mixes with floodwater, according to a Bloomberg BNA report. The TCEQ said its workers have tried to secure Superfund sites, and the EPA will be leading an effort to inspect them when flooding subsides.
More immediately, people in Houston face the simple but still significant threat of water contaminated with bacteria, and the release of material from sewage facilities. At least a dozen sewage overflows have occurred in the Houston area, mixing with flood water, according to analysis from Environment Texas, an advocacy group. And thats on top of the the normal mix of contaminants in local waterways. Nearly 200,000 people now live in areas with orders to boil water thanks to that contamination, according to a report from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Even in the best case scenario, the long-term environmental health consequences of Harvey will be dire.
Virtually all the waterways in Houston are impaired with bacteria, and thats on a good day, Bodson said. Instead of staying politely in the stream channels, these impaired waters are now in everybodys house and backyard.
Mapped: How could we sustain the world's largest cities by solar energy?
The world's fossil fuel resources are only becoming more limited. With our increasingly large global footprint, the need for renewable energy is amplifying.
But the impact of renewables might be less than once thought - with new research from RS Components revealing how little land is needed to power some of the world's major cities.
Of the world's largest 100 cities, 80 would need less than 10 per cent of their land area to be converted into solar panels to sustain their energy usage, according to the research.
Many of these are concentrated around the equator, receiving more sunshine hours per year.
Which cities would need the most solar panels to meet demand?
The US Department of energy states that more power from the sun hits the Earth in a single hour than humanity uses in an entire year.
But there are some cities that are more equipped to grasp this opportunity than others.
According to the data, Paris is the most power-hungry city. Nearly half - some 44.2 per cent - of Paris' land space needs to be accommodated by solar panels to harness the sheer amount of energy needed to run the city.
This is significantly higher than cities such as Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Nairobi (Kenya), Khartoum (Sudan) and Harbin (China), which would each require less than one in 500 square metres of their land space to be covered in solar panels.
The easiest and hardest cities to power with solar
London, by contrast, would require 8.8 per cent of its land area to have solar panels in order to sustain it. It would need 138km2 of solar panels to provide energy for its nine million inhabitants.
The UK's capital city places ninth in the list for cities requiring the most space to be set aside for solar panels.
Moscow, Russia and New York City, United States also take spots in the top 10, at 6th and 7th respectively.
The top five cities with the smallest areas of solar panels needed to power them are:
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Kuwait (City size: 200 km2, solar panel size: 1 km2) Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (City size: 1,590 km2, solar panel size: 1 km2) Nairobi, Kenya (City size: 696 km2, solar panel size: 1 km2) Accra, Ghana (City size: 173 km2, solar panel size: 2 km2) Khartoum, Sudan (City size: 932 km2, solar panel size: 2 km2)
While these five cities would require the largest areas of solar panels:
Chongqing, China, Asia (City size: 82,403 km2, solar panel size: 684 km2) Tokyo, Japan (City size: 2,188 km2, solar panel size: 284 km2) Shanghai, China (City size: 6,340 km2, solar panel size: 267 km2) Seoul, South Korea (City size: 605 km2, solar panel size: 254 km2) Chengdu, China (City size: 14,378 km2, solar panel size: 242 km2)
Asia tops the list for the continent that would need to designate the largest space to power its biggest cities by solar. Cities in Asia claim seven of the top 10 spaces where the largest amount of space is required.
How the world's biggest cities could be funded by solar
Electricity consumption is estimated using the population of the city and per capita consumption of the country where that city is located. Number of sunshine hours taken from weather and climate and statistics sites. Land Art Generator Initiatives estimate of solar power potential at 0.2 kW per square meter was used to estimate the total area of solar panels needed.
This weekend, the BRICS countriesBrazil, Russia, India, China and South Africawill convene in the Chinese city of Xiamen for their annual summit. It wasnt long ago that the BRICS were heralded as the future of the globalized economy. Then, for a variety of reasons, the group lost a bit of its luster. Nows the time to check back in with them.
1. BRICS straddle one quarter of the world
The story of the BRICSor technically, BRIC countries (South Africa joined in 2010)begins with Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim ONeill, who wrote a paper in 2001 arguing that these were the emerging superstars most likely to dominate the 21st century globalized economy. Taken together, these five countries cover 40 percent of the worlds population and more than 25 percent of the worlds land. The sky seemed the limit.
They delivered on some of that promisebetween 1990 to 2014, these countries went from accounting for 11 percent of the worlds GDP to almost 30 percent. Yet, the global financial crisis inflicted lasting damage, and Goldman Sachs shut down its BRIC investment fund in late 2015 after its assets plunged in value by 88 percent from their 2010 highpoint. But the group continues to meet and to talk up an ambitious common agenda.
Roughly speaking, the BRICS can be broken into two groupsthose that took advantage of globalizations march to integrate themselves into global supply chains (primarily China and India) and those that took advantage of globalization to sell their abundant natural resources (primarily Brazil, Russia and South Africa).
2. China and Indias middle classes are surging
Lets start with global supply chains, and their biggest success story: China is now the second-largest economy in the world by GDP and poised to overtake the US for #1 over the next few years. In 1990, China produced less than 3 percent of the worlds manufacturing output when measured by value; by 2015, it produced roughly 25 percent. And as went Chinas manufacturing prowess, so went Chinas middle class. In 1990, China made up zero percent of the global middle class; by 2015 it comprised 16 percent, and another 350 million Chinese people are expected to join by 2030.
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India is a similar story, but instead of focusing on manufacturing, it went the services route instead. Today, services account for roughly 61 percent of its GDP, with a particular emphasis on ITat $108 billion, India is one of the worlds leading IT services exporters. And the rise of Indias middle class resembles that of Chinas; Indians went from 1 percent of the global middle class in 1990 to 8 percent in 2015, with another 380 million Indians expected to join by 2030.
3. The collapse in commodity prices has threatened the other BRICS nations
The picture is decidely mixed, meanwhile, with the other BRICS countries, who rose mainly on the back of their vast natural wealth. Brazil sells commodities like soybeans, iron ore, and crude oil on global markets. Combining that financial windfall with innovative social programs helped lift 29 million Brazilians from poverty between 2003 and 2014. As a group, Brazils poor are arguably the largest beneficiaries of globalization in the Western hemisphere.
South Africa also used its natural wealthin this case rare gems and metals like gold, diamonds and platinumto help get its economy on track following apartheid. In 1990, the country exported $27 billion worth of goods; by 2011, that number had increased nearly five-fold. And then theres Russia, which spent the 1990s rebuilding itself from the rubble of the Soviet Union. Thankfully, the country is blessed with abundant energy sourcescrude oil, natural gas, metals and mineralsthat helped it find its footing. In 2000, 29 percent of Russians lived below the poverty line; by 2012, just 11 percent did.
But the fall in commodity prices of recent years has done significant damage in all three countries where Brazils 3-year average GDP growth between 2005-2007 was 4.41 percent, the last three years have seen an average growth of -2.29 percent. Over the same time periods, South Africas growth rate has fallen from 5.41 percent to 1.09 percent; Russias from 7.69 percent to -0.77 percent.
4. Corruption is still endemic within the BRICS
All of these five countries have been held back by corruption, in varying ways, but their rising importance to the global economic system ensures the spotlight now shines brighter than ever. Yet some of the BRICS countries have handled it better than others.
Brazils spiraling corruption investigations have already felled former president Dilma Rousseff and threaten the current administration of President Michel Temer. On the bright side, these same corruption investigations have made Brazil the gold standard of judicial independence and rule-of-law in Latin America. In South Africa, corruption allegations continue to pile up against the ruling ANC party and the countrys president Jacob Zuma, who is awaiting a supreme court hearing in September to see if 783 criminal charges against him will be reinstated. Thanks in part to a campaign by opposition activist Alexei Navalny, 47 percent of Russians now believe corruption has significantly taken hold in the Russian government. Dont expect much change there, however, even after the 2018 presidential election.
India and China have made bolder attempts to combat corruption. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indias government decided to do away with 500 and 1000 rupee notes (86 percent of the currency in circulation at the time) in a bid to clamp down on tax evasion and the black market. And while early returns havent been great, Modi has gotten even more ambitious with the introduction of a biometric ID system, intended to bypass corruption and fraud by distributing public subsidies and unemployment benefits directly. Despite privacy concerns, more than a billion people have signed up.
Chinas President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, is using a massive multiyear anti-corruption drive (nearly 300,000 Communist Party officials were punished for corruption offenses in 2015) both to consolidate power ahead of a major leadership transition around Xi this fall and to restore the ruling partys image as defender of the Chinese people.
5. The winners remain at risk
It would be easy to label India and China as the clear winners among the BRICS, but its not that simple. Yes, India and China have the fastest growth rates of any major economies in the world, and citizens of these countries remain optimistic about the future. But nearly 50 percent of Indians remain vulnerable to a slide back into poverty, and Chinas economy has slowed as higher wages make manufacturing more expensive. Both countries are especially vulnerable to technological changes that bring automation into the workplace on a larger scale. The World Bank estimates that 68 percent of all existing jobs in India are at risk from automation. In China, the figure is 77 percent.
Even the sturdiest of BRICS isnt as strong as it used to be.
Reuters
LONDON (Reuters) -Russia's Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said on Sunday that a former mercenary who was filmed being executed by a sledgehammer blow to the head after changing sides in the Ukraine war was a traitor. Prigozhin, a Russian businessman who founded the Wagner private military group, was responding to an unverified video distributed on Telegram that showed a man identified as a former Wagner mercenary being executed after admitting that he had changed sides in September to "fight against the Russians". In the footage, the man, who gave his name as Yevgenny Nuzhin, 55, was shown with his head taped to a brick wall.
A bizarre object found off the shore of Westerly, Rhode Island, is making a big splash because of its murky origins.
People first noticed the object which looks a little like a giant metal starfish with eight legs several weeks ago. It was embedded in the sand about six feet underwater.
On Thursday, curiosity finally got the better of locals, who hired an excavator to dig up the object, according to The Westerly Sun.
A view of the strange object found off a beach in Westerly, Rhode Island. (Photo: WBZ Boston)
The excavator wasnt able to dig up the object in one piece, but was able to show that it has a circular base with metal poles leading to a single point at the top, according to WPRI-TV.
The station asked Peter Brockmann, president of the East Beach Association, which paid for the excavation, if he knew what the object was.
Not a clue. We havent solved anything here today, Brockmann replied. Hopefully, the experts in this field will take a look at it, now that we have it out, and be able to identify it.
One 12-year-old boy who witnessed the excavation told The Westerly Sun that it might be a UFO.
Other theories were a little less fanciful. Some people suggested it could be a buoy for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or a device to monitor currents and sediment flow.
Archaeologist Stephen Carini had his own theory.
Well, its not that mysterious. Its been here forever, you know, Carini told WFSB-TV. Its been marked by a buoy for the past several years. Its a big piece of concrete and metal that they used, probably as a buoy, for rescue rafts when there were shipwrecks here back when.
It may be a while before the public discovers what the object really is.
After the excavation, workers loaded the pieces onto a truck and took them to an undisclosed location, presumably for further examination.
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(COXS BAZAR, Bangladesh) Nearly 400 people have died in fighting that has rocked Myanmars northwest for a week, new official data show, making it probably the deadliest bout of violence to engulf the countrys Rohingya Muslim minority in decades.
Around 38,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar, United Nations sources said, a week after Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army base in Rakhine state, prompting clashes and a military counteroffensive.
As of August 31, 38,000 people are estimated to have crossed the border into Bangladesh, the officials said on Friday, in their latest estimate.
The army says it is conducting clearance operations against extremist terrorists and security forces have been told to protect civilians. But Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh say a campaign of arson and killings aims to force them out.
The treatment of Myanmars roughly 1.1 million Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing national leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by some Western critics of not speaking out for a minority that has long complained of persecution.
The clashes and ensuing army crackdown have killed about 370 Rohingya insurgents, but also 13 security forces, two government officials and 14 civilians, the Myanmar military said on Thursday.
By comparison, communal violence in 2012 in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine, led to the killing of nearly 200 people and the displacement of about 140,000, most of them Rohingya.
The fighting is a dramatic escalation of a conflict that has simmered since October, when similar but much smaller Rohingya attacks on security posts prompted a brutal military response dogged by allegations of rights abuses.
Myanmar evacuated more than 11,700 ethnic residents from the area affected by fighting, the army said, referring to the non-Muslim population of northern Rakhine.
More than 150 Rohingya insurgents staged fresh attacks on security forces on Thursday near villages occupied by Hindus, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said, adding that about 700 members of such families had been evacuated.
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Four of the terrorists were arrested, including one 13-year-old boy, it said, adding that security forces had arrested two more men near a Maungdaw police outpost on suspicion of involvement in the attacks.
About 20,000 more Rohingya trying to flee are stuck in no mans land at the border, the U.N. sources said, as aid workers in Bangladesh struggle to alleviate the sufferings of a sudden influx of thousands of hungry and traumatised people.
While some Rohingya try to cross by land, others attempt a perilous boat journey across the Naf River separating the two countries.
Bangladesh border guards found the bodies of 15 Rohingya Muslims, 11 children among them, floating in the river on Friday, area commander Lt. Col. Ariful Islam told Reuters.
That takes to about 40 the total of Rohingya known to have died by drowning.
Documents that emerged this week offer insight into Robert Muellers investigation of the Trump campaigns ties to Russia, legal experts say
Robert Mueller departs Capitol Hill following a closed-door meeting in Washington. He reportedly possesses a draft letter explaining Trumps rationale for firing James Comey. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP
Two of the most intriguing questions in US national political discourse what does the special counsel Robert Mueller have on Donald Trump, and what more is he looking for? were filled in at a remarkable pace this week, as details of highly sensitive documents and internal Trump Organization emails became public for the first time.
Taken together, the documents could indicate that the special counsel is looking seriously at whether Trump committed an obstruction of justice on potentially various fronts, legal experts say.
Certain additional documents whose existence was revealed for the first time meeting notes taken by the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and a letter of intent reportedly signed by Trump to build a tower in Moscow seemed to undercut previous statements by the president, his son and others about relationships now under the scrutiny of Muellers team.
Mueller is charged with investigating alleged ties between the Trump presidential campaign and Russian operatives, and he is believed to be examining the past financial relationships of Trump, Manafort and others.
Obstruction?
The Wall Street Journal revealed this week that Trump lawyers had submitted memos to Mueller arguing that the president did not obstruct justice by firing the former FBI director James Comey. Those memos were probably not written in a vacuum, said Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor and legal commentator.
One important implication that you can draw from the fact that they sent the memo is that they believe that Mueller is seriously looking at obstruction, Mariotti said. They would not send that memo otherwise.
In any obstruction of justice case against Trump, Mueller might also review reports from this week that Trump had directly contacted the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee after it was announced that Trumps son, Donald Trump Jr, was scheduled to speak with the committee, said Mariotti.
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Mueller might additionally review this weeks report that before pardoning the Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, Trump asked the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, whether it would be possible to drop federal criminal charges against Arpaio.
I think that all goes into the same bucket of things that could be used by Mueller if hes looking at obstruction of justice, said Mariotti.
Draft letter
The documents were still flowing on Friday afternoon, with a New York Times report that Mueller was in possession of a draft letter explaining Trumps rationale for firing Comey. The draft was reportedly written by Trump and an aide, Stephen Miller, but rejected by the White House counsel, on unknown grounds.
Trump has said he fired Comey while experiencing frustration at the FBI investigation of his campaigns alleged Russia ties and at Comeys refusal to publicly exculpate Trump. The firing ironically hastened the appointment of a special counsel, under whom the investigation has expanded.
Former US attorneys judged the draft letter and its possession by Mueller as significant. Logical assumption: If WH Counsel wouldnt let him send it, [Trump] had improper if not illegal motives for firing FBI Director Comey, wrote Joyce Vance, a former federal prosecutor in Birmingham, Alabama, and now a University of Alabama law professor.
Hard to assess significance without knowing the actual contents of the draft firing letter and why WH counsel vetoed it. But cant be good, wrote Preet Bharara, the former US attorney for the southern district of New York and now a professor at New York Universitys law school.
Ryan Goodman, a former special counsel at the defense department, tweeted that a big implication of the draft letters existence was that Miller, the aide who helped Trump draft the letter, is perhaps implicated in conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Other documents revealed a changing narrative in Trump campaign contacts with Russian agents. The Washington Post reported Monday that during the campaign, Trumps lawyer Michael Cohen wrote an email to an aide to Russias president, Vladimir Putin, asking for help with a real estate deal.
It was further revealed that early on in the presidential campaign, Trump signed a non-binding letter of intent to build a tower in Moscow, Cohen confirmed in a statement to ABC News. Trump claimed during the campaign that he knows nothing about Russia and had no loans and no deals there.
In a separate incident, Manafort took notes, since obtained by Mueller, about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower arranged by Trump Jr, who expressed eagerness to receive damaging information about Hillary Clinton, NBC News reported on Friday.
Manaforts notes reportedly referred to political contributions and to the RNC, or Republican National Committee. The president personally dictated a statement released by Trump Jr saying the meeting primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children, the Washington Post reported in July.
The details of any Trump deal or debt with a Russian connection, if any exist, are not publicly known but yet another headline this week indicated that Mueller may have gained insight on the subject. According to a Daily Beast report on Thursday, the special counsel has enlisted the help of agents from the criminal investigation unit of the Internal Revenue Service.
I think he got everybodys tax returns, said Mariotti, now a defense attorney at Thompson Coburn in Chicago. I have no professional, personal knowledge of it, but when youre looking at someone for something unrelated to taxes, still to get tax return information is very valuable information that tells you a lot of valuable things: who owes them money, who they owe money to, and where they keep their money.
The police officer seen in a viral video arresting a nurse in Salt Lake City is now under criminal investigation, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill ordered a criminal investigation Friday into the actions of Detective Jeff Payne who aggressively arrested nurse Alex Wubbels on July 26 for refusing to draw blood from a severely injured patient.
Payne has been placed on administrative leave, The Associated Press reported. The Salt Lake City Police Department also said Friday that two of its employees have been placed on administrative leave while the investigation is underway. It is unclear if Payne is one of the employees mentioned in the agencys statement.
UPDATE: Two employees are on administrative leave pending the results of an investigation. https://t.co/0DlNi5p3OS SLC Police Dept. (@slcpd) September 2, 2017
As seen in the above video, taken by Paynes body camera, Wubbels, the head nurse of the University of Utah Hospitals burn unit, remains calm as she explains policy after Payne insists on collecting the blood sample of an unconscious patient.
Wubbels explains she is simply trying to her job, telling the detective three things that allow us to [give blood samples] are if you have an electronic warrant, patient consent or patient under arrest, and neither of those things the patient cant consent. He told me repeatedly that he doesnt have a warrant and the patient is not under arrest.
The footage of the arrest shows Payne interrupting Wubbels as she continues to explain the policy to him before placing her in handcuffs, which causes a brief scuffle between the two.
The video, made public Friday, sparked a wave of criticism over Paynes confrontation with a nurse who appears to be following hospital protocol.
Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski and Police Chief Mike Brown apologized for Paynes actions and promised investigations from Internal Affairs and the Civilian Review Board.
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I was alarmed by what I saw in the video with our officer and Wubbels, Brown said in a joint statement. I am sad at the rift this has caused between law-enforcement and the nurses we work so closely with. I want to be clear, we take this very seriously.
What I saw on the video last night is completely unacceptable. @ChiefMikeBrown & I apologize for these actions. https://t.co/N62TtQlHdr Mayor J. Biskupski (@slcmayor) September 1, 2017
After Payne placed Wubbels in handcuffs, the nurse was released without being charged for anything. In fact, a 2016 Supreme Court ruling suggests that the nurse was right to not allow Payne to obtain a blood alcohol test without a warrant.
According Paynes report obtained by the Tribune, the detective said he was advised by his watch commander, Lt. James Tracy, to arrest Wubbels for interfering with a police investigation. He also said he needed the blood sample to protect, not punish, the patient.
After seeing the video, National Nurses United, which is currently sponsoring a campaign to raise awareness of hospital workplace violence, publicly denounced Payne and the Salt Lake City Police Department.
As the videos and news accounts make clear, there is no excuse for this assault, or her arrest, which sends a chilling message about the safety of nurses and the rights of patients, said Jean Ross, the organizations co-president.
Police spokeswoman Christina Judd told AP that the police department initiated an internal investigation within hours of the July 26 confrontation. Since the arrest, Payne has been suspended from the departments blood draw unit.
After the video made rounds online late Friday morning, District Attorney Gill asked Brown to find an outside agency to look into the investigation, the Tribune reported. Later on Friday, the mayors office announced that the Unified Police Department would be conducting the criminal investigation.
Wubbels said at a news conference Thursday that she felt betrayed, angry and confused, and warned that she may consider taking legal action over the confrontation.
However, in a statement to the press released Friday, Wubbels said she had accepted the sincere apologies of Police Chief Brown and Mayor Biskupski, according to Utahs ABC 4 News.
I look forward to working with both of them to help promote further civil dialogue and education, she said. The common goal of all public service professionals should be to provide the best care to our fellow citizens.
The University of Utah Hospital stands by Wubbels decision to protect the patient, saying she followed procedures and protocols, according to the New York Post.
Judd, the spokeswoman for the police, told AP on Friday that the police department recently updated its blood-draw policy to align it with the hospitals policy, adding that officers have received additional training on the matter.
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"As a doula and birth photographer I always want the best care for my clients. Nurses can play a huge role in a women's birthing experience. Sarah Deitrich, an R.N. at Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center in Santa Cruz Ca, goes above and beyond with every patient she cares for her. Her kindness and expertise is like no other in her field. I know when my birthing mamas are in her care they will feel loved, supported, and respected. It is always a privilege when I get to work alongside her."
"And she turned around presenting the most beautiful creature they had ever laid eyes on!"
"Student midwife Kathy labored for over twenty hours, and L&D nurse Jen stayed by her side for hours. During the course of labor, they chatted and found out they were actually neighbors and are now great friends. What a wonderful way to start to a friendship!"
"Mom was having a difficult time effectively pushing. The midwife and L&D nurse decided that the towel pull technique would be the best thing to try. This nurse was amazing! She not only stabilized the mom's foot, she also pulled with the incredible strength, helping her successfully deliver her nine pound, five ounce son."
"This was actually the nurse's step grandson. Her husband passed away a couple of years prior to the birth, so it was very emotional."
"This amazing mama welcomed two sweet boys. Each with a their own nurse."
"This image shows a nurse comforting a mother after the sudden loss of her baby. Its a sad story but sheds light on a very caring nurse, who is shown here gifting this mom with a silver heart charm (in her hand)."
"This mama had a great birth team. Here, the nurse is attaching a mobile fetal monitor so the mama could move around. She welcomed her second baby boy to the world shortly after this photo was taken."
"This tiny baby was born via C-section at 25 weeks, and cared for diligently by her amazing team of nurses. You can tell they love their job!"
"Mom had been in prodromal labor for two days, but this nurse managed to reassure her that everything was fine. She had such a loving way to talk and add a bit of humor to her presence. And she she spoke, mom started to cry healing cathartic tears."
"The midwife in the image was so calm and centered on KS at all times. She calmed her when it was all getting too much and bought her back to a calm and focused state."
"Knowing that their baby would be born very sick, this family's nurse stayed with them and supported them through the entire labor and delivery. She rejoiced with them as their baby was born and cried with them as he passed. This family will never forget her kindness and support on their hardest day."
"The support they shared for the infants, parents and doctors was invaluable."
"Walking the L&D ward accompanied by a loving, emphatic and supportive nurse."
"This mom had not one but two amazing nurses who stood by her at every step, making sure she could be as comfortable as possible despite her long labor."
"For a labor and delivery nurse, the extraordinary miracle of birth can become ordinary. Even after a decade supporting babies, Sarah still radiates joy as she stands next to a miracle being born."
"As the laboring mother struggled to figure out the most effective way to push, this nurse decided to get creative and grab a bed sheet. She made a knot at one end then held the other and told the mother to just pull like a game tug of war. She cared for both parents throughout the labor and delivery and celebrated with them as they welcomed their first son into the world."
"After a C-section, this nurse helped this stunned dad understand that it was time for him to take the scissors and cut the cord."
"Nurse Katrina was amazing! Mama had a little girl who was sunny side up. Nurse Katrina was there for all 4 HOURS of pushing to make sure that both mom and baby were ok."
"Danielle is a longtime L&D nurse and a personal friend of Heather, the mama in this image. Danielle ended up not being on shift for the births of Heather's first two children.The two were thrilled when Heather's third labor and Danielle's scheduled shift aligned for Cohen's birth and Danielle was able to support and care for her friend through her all-natural labor and delivery."
"Tristan (RN) introduces Keilan to his mother Danielle for the first time in the ICU, almost 48 hours after his birth via crash C-section. Danielle narrowly survived HELLP syndrome, which caused her liver to rupture in early labor. This image was taken just after she first regained consciousness after the C-section and surgery to repair her liver and was able to meet her baby (and learn it was a boy). There was not a dry eye on that entire floor."
"This nurse made an effort to be in the room with this mama as much as she needed but still giving her the freedom she wanted, even though there were about 6 other mamas giving birth that day! She was always so sweet every time she came in, and let mama labor the way she wanted to!"
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
A Utah police officer who roughly placed a nurse under arrest in a disturbing video has been placed on administrative leave, according to authorities.
Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski said there will be a criminal investigation by the police department and the district attorney into what transpired on July 26 when nurse Alex Wubbels was taken into custody after a police detective said she refused to let him take a patient's blood sample.
Read: Man Allegedly Tries Opening Plane Exit Door Mid-Flight: 'It Was a Nightmare'
Wubbels, who works at University of Utah Medical Center, stood her ground, saying what the officer wanted her to do was against hospital policy.
Detective Jeff Payne wanted to take a blood sample to determine whether the motorist had any illicit substances in his system, but the nurse said blood could not be taken from a patient unless he was under arrest, gave consent or there was a warrant.
In the police bodycam footage shot of the moment, the nurse is on the phone with her supervisors, double checking, just to make certain she was following hospital policy.
"This is something that you guys agreed to with this hospital, Wubbles told the cop. Her supervisor said on speaker phone. "Youre making a huge mistake because you're threatening a nurse.
That's when the detective apparently had enough and placed Wubbels under arrest and hauled her out of the hospital. Two hospital workers tried to intervene, but backed off when they were also threatened with arrest.
Wubbles screamed for help as she was pulled into the back of the cop car where she sat for 20 minutes until her release. No charges were filed.
"I feel betrayed, I feel angry, I feel a lot of things, Wubbels told Inside Edition.
Read: The Bride Wore Wine: Woman Accuses Flight Attendant of Pouring Wine on Wedding Dress
The officer involved initially remained on duty and was removed from the blood draw program, but since the criminal investigation was announced Friday, hes been placed on leave.
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The University of Utah said in a statement that Wubbels had "followed procedures and protocols in this matter and was acting in her patient's best interest," KUTV reported.
Watch: Police Arrest 7 People For Serving Food To The Homeless In Public Park
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Vice President Mike Pence hugs a woman during a trip to survey the damage from Hurricane Harvey in Rockport, Texas, on Aug. 31. (Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON What do you do when your boss either doesnt enjoy or isnt capable of some of the demands of the job?
If youre a senior Trump administration official, it increasingly means you simply do it for him.
At the United Nations and around the world, its been U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley advocating for human rights and democratic values, not President Donald Trump. On TV screens across the country this week, it was White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert telling Americans how to contribute to Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts.
And then there was Vice President Mike Pence, providing the language and imagery traditionally reserved for a president following a natural disaster drawing a contrast that could not have been more stark.
When Trump visited Corpus Christi and Austin on Tuesday, he met exclusively with emergency managers and state and federal political leaders. The only time he addressed everyday residents was when he delivered an impromptu campaign-style speech to supporters who had gathered outside the fire station where he had staged his meeting.
Two days later, Pence spent hours touring actual damage from a helicopter, visiting a damaged church and speaking with and embracing storm victims. He even donned work gloves and helped clear broken tree limbs from a front yard in Rockport under the blazing sun.
Its almost as if Trump didnt want to get dirty or like he didnt want to catch a virus like he didnt want to touch any actual storm victims, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at storm-damaged Rice University in Houston. It wasnt Clinton after the Oklahoma City bombing or Obama singing Amazing Grace after Charleston or Reagan after Challenger. There was no Trump moment.
Rick Tyler, a Republican political consultant who supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruzs presidential bid last year, said Trump simply lacks empathy. He doesnt seem to understand other peoples suffering because he has a hard time relating to anything that doesnt affect himself, he said.
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White House officials insist that the administration has a coordinated plan, all of it directed by Trump himself. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders at Thursdays press briefing said that Pence was in Texas at Trumps request a point reinforced by Pence himself. Speaking to reporters at the Corpus Christi airport following the visit, Pence mentioned Trump 11 times in his brief opening remarks.
And Sanders pointed out Friday that Trump is heading back to Texas on Saturday, to flooding epicenter Houston, followed by a visit to Lake Charles, Louisiana, on the way back to the White House, to visit with storm survivors and tell them personally that the federal government is here to help in any way that we can.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said who went where and when ultimately wont matter much so long as the federal government manages the storm competently. The reality is that Trump being there and Pence being there accomplishes nothing. This is all symbolism, she said.
She added that a far more interesting phenomenon is the pattern of top administration officials presenting messages at variance or even in direct opposition to what Trump has been saying.
In recent weeks, Defense Secretary James Mattis has said the military will let transgender service members remain in place pending a formal review, notwithstanding Trumps wish to ban them entirely. Top economic adviser Gary Cohn publicly criticized Trumps equating neo-Nazi demonstrators chanting anti-Semitic slogans with the counter-protesters opposing them in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Jamieson said previous presidents have given their top officials high-profile responsibilities Dwight Eisenhower let Secretary of State John Foster Dulles address the nation. Whats unprecedented is having so many different voices, she said.
Haley, for example, has continued to speak out for human rights as a U.S. priority, even criticizing ally Saudi Arabia, while Trump specifically delivered a speech there downplaying human rights and has cozied up to authoritarian leaders in Turkey and the Philippines.
For the first months of the administration, these divergent messages were accompanied by open, at times over-the-top flattery of Trump himself.
On the Air Force One flight back to Washington following Trumps July European trip, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster praised Trumps powerful speech and leadership before explaining that Trumps America First slogan doesnt mean America alone an interpretation that does not necessarily square with statements Trump himself has given before or since.
At a May 27 press briefing at the G-7 meeting in Sicily, Cohn described Trumps earlier visit to Saudi Arabia this way: The president was able to make some of the most amazing deals that have ever been made by an administration, ever. He then proceeded to describe the negotiations regarding U.S. participation in a climate change agreement as a complicated matter when Trump had previously called it a bad deal and climate change itself a hoax.
That pattern, though, appears to have been broken with the violence in Charlottesville, where a woman was killed and nearly two dozen injured when a neo-Nazi drove a car into a crowd. Cohn gave an interview in which he admitted he had considered resigning over Trumps subsequent remarks that blamed people on both sides for the violence. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, meanwhile, told Fox News that Trump was not speaking for all Americans with those statements, but only for himself.
Trump was reportedly angered by both men but so far has not moved to dismiss either of them.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
A detective may face criminal charges after he arrested a nurse who refused to take a blood sample from an unconscious patient during a stand-off that lasted several minutes, prosecutors say.
Alex Wubbels told police officer Jeff Payne she could not comply with his order to take blood from the victim of a crash because he could not consent, and the officer failed to produce a warrant.
Footage from Mr Paynes body camera shows him threaten Ms Wubbels with jail unless she gives into his demand, despite her bosses having confirmed the policy while he listened in.
But Detective Payne cited a now-outdated implied consent law, it was said, which he believed gave him the right to order the nurse to take the blood sample.
Ms Wubbels, a former Winter Olympian, stood her ground and the video moments later shows her being dragged from the hospital to a police car, screaming: Somebody help me! Stop! I did nothing wrong! This is crazy. This is crazy. Why is he so angry?
She added: I did nothing wrong! This is unnecessary. Ms Wubbels was held in the car for 20 minutes in the stand-off on 26 July but later released without charge.
The video of the fracas in University of Utah Medical Centre, in Salt Lake City, triggered public outrage. Prosecutors called for a criminal investigation and Detective Payne was put on paid leave.
Detective Payne had demanded that Ms Wubbels take a blood sample from the patient after he was injured by the driver of a vehicle being pursued by Utah Highway Patrol.
The video shows Ms Wubbels phone her superiors who confirm the policy that she could not comply with the officers orders because the patient was unconscious and the officer had no court order.
Ms Wubbels, a former alpine skiier who competed in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics, has insisted she will not press charges against Detective Payne but released the video of her wrongful arrest in the hope it will change how police officers act in future.
She said: This cop bullied me. He bullied me to the utmost extreme. And nobody stood in his way.
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Salt Lake City police chief Mike Brown apologised to Ms Wubbels and said changes had been made to police blood policies and officer training.
He also supported district attorney Sam Gills calls for a criminal investigation into Detective Paynes actions.
He said: We will do what is necessary to fully investigate the issue, uphold the integrity of the Salt Lake City Police Department, and strengthen the trust with our community.
Mayor Jackie Biskupski said: When I learned of this unacceptable incident I was outraged and will ensure it is fully and independently investigated so our community can heal.
District Attorney Gill called for the criminal investigation into Detective Paynes actions but did not comment on his behaviour over the arrest of Ms Wubbels.
On the face of the evidence, there is concern that is raised about this officers conduct, Mr Gill said, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. But the whole point of an investigation is to gather the information about this situation.
Mr Payne said in a statement his superior, Lt James Tracy, ordered him to arrest Ms Wubbels if she refused to give him a blood sample, reports say. He has not publicly commented on the arrest.
Detective Payne turned up at Utah Medical Centre demanding Ms Wubbels take a blood sample from William Gray, 43, as he lay burned and unconscious from injuries suffered in a road accident.
Marcos Torres, 26, ploughed into his truck head-on in a pick up while being pursued by the Utah Highway Patrol, reports say. He died at the scene from injuries suffered in the crash.
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis called on a delegation of South Korean religious leaders to promote reconciliation and spurn violence and fear on Saturday, amid a tense standoff on their home peninsula. Representatives of several religions met the Argentine pontiff at the Vatican and listened to an address in which he said their work must begin by "rolling up our sleeves". "Religious leaders are ... called upon to initiate, promote and accompany processes for the welfare and reconciliation of all people," Francis told the 20-strong delegation. "We are called to be heralds of peace, proclaiming and embodying a non-violent style, a style of peace, with words clearly different from the narrative of fear, and with gestures opposed to the rhetoric of hatred." Wealthy, democratic South Korea is technically at war with its poor, reclusive northern neighbour, which regularly threatens to destroy the South and its main ally, the United States. North Korea ratcheted up tensions in the region last week with the launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific. In response, the United States and South Korea agreed to revise a treaty limiting development of ballistic missiles, which the South wants to use to boost its defences. The delegation visiting the Vatican was made up of members of the Korean Council of Religious Leaders, which includes Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, Won Buddhists, Confucians, and representatives of the Chondogyo and native Korean religions. (Reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by Ros Russell)
Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed students back to class by imparting his wisdom on the future of war, the importance of cutting edge technology and surviving on Mars.
Putin began his address to a hall of students in Yaroslavl with a pep talk for the youngsters, urging them to take the next step in Russias futurea point in a vibrant, millennia-old continuum.
If we continue to exist for over a thousand years and we are actively developing, becoming stronger, then it means that there is something that makes this happen, he declared on Friday, in an event broadcast nationwide by the Kremlin, Russia's state media and Kremlin youth movements. This something is the internal nuclear reactor of our people.
Not dwelling on the past for too long Putin quickly gave his thoughts on where Russia and the worlds future lay.
Artificial intelligence is the future not only of Russia but the future of humankind, Putin said. Here there are colossal possibilities and threats that are hard to predict today. Whomever becomes a leader in this sphere will be the master of the world and I would very much like it that there is no monopoly of this in any specific pair of hands.
Putin vowed that if Russia were to attain this enviable position of supremacy over AI we would share these technology with the whole world, as we share atomic and nuclear technology today.
Another area for development where Russia cannot claim leadership yet, Putin said, is unmanned vehicles.
And it is one of the most important directions (for development) that is important to us in all fieldsin economics and in defense, Putin stressed.
Russia is still working on developing a viable military drone programme beyond handheld, reconnaissance drones and increasing automation is a crucial goal in its military modernization strategy before 2020.
Many countries have flying drones with quite large loading abilities. We are still working on this, Putin said. Russian arms makers this year unveiled plans for a five tonne Russian drone though this is not in production.
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If the future went as defense experts are now predicting, Putin said, one day wars will be concluded when all the drones on one side are destroyed by the drones of another.
Putin touched on the topic of space technologies, hoping that space travel technology could one day be used in passenger travel, though not necessarily for journeys into outer space. He described the slashing of flight time from Russias westernmost major city, Kaliningrad, to its easternmost, Vladivostok, as a dream.
As far as space travel is concerned, Putin told students that there is hope for life on other planets in our Solar System.
The flight to Mars would take no less than half a year, maybe even more, Putin said. If you fly to Mars and buried yourself somewhere in there, then you could exist for some period of time. But you have to dig yourself in because cells simply die on the surface, he warned pupils.
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With Adam Rawnsley
Troops to Afghanistan. Defense Secretary James Mattis finally confirmed hes sending more troops to Afghanistan. But he wont say how many, or where theyre going.
I have signed orders, but it is not complete, Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday. In other words, I have signed some of the troops that will go and we are identifying the specific ones.
Trump administration officials have yet to fully explain how the new plan to send several thousand advisors to bolster the 11,000 U.S. troops already there will be effective in beating back the Taliban. Despite years of training the Afghan army, spending over $76 billion on building and equipping that force, and the prior deployment of over 100,000 U.S. troops in previous years had all failed to defeat the Taliban or force it to the negotiating table for a political solution.
SecDef and the press. Mattis also expressed frustration over how his recent remarks concerning social upheaval at home, and comments on how the U.S. still has time for diplomacy with North Korea despite president Trumps tweet that the time for talking is over, have been reported as breaks with the president.
He insisted that he was just restating Trumps views, in different terms. If I say 6 and the President says half a dozen, theyre going to say I disagree with him. Lets just get over that.
The secretarys comments came during one of the informal Q&A sessions he regularly holds with reporters at the Pentagon. He has been known to pop in unexpectedly in the press room there, taking questions from the reporters who happen to be at their desks as press officers scramble in once word spreads hes next door. He said he prefers that format to the more formal televised briefings behind the podium in the press room.
Asked if he had ever considered resigning because of policy differences with the president, Mattis said he just wants to serve. I dont care if its Republican or Democrat, we all have an obligation to serve, Mattis said. Thats all there is to it.
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I mean, the first time I met with President Trump, we disagreed on three things in my first 40 minutes with him on NATO, on torture and something else and he hired me, he added. This is not a man whos immune to being persuaded if he thinks youve got an argument.
General in Iraq prefers Trump approach. The outgoing commander of the U.S. effort in Iraq and Syria slammed the way former president Barack Obama handled the war effort there on Thursday, saying that the hands-off approach the Trump administration is taking is much appreciated.
The current administration has pushed decision-making down into the military chain of command, Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend told reporters at the Pentagon. And I dont know of a commander in our armed forces that doesnt appreciate that.
Since January, we dont get second-guessed a lot, he added. Our judgment here on the battlefield in the forward areas is trusted. And we dont get 20 questions with every action that happens on the battlefield and every action that we take.
Some might call that civilian control of the military. But mileage may vary.
Sticking around? Townsend said he hopes the U.S. government works out an arrangement for a long-term military presence in Iraq to help guard against the resurgence of the Islamic State. And he said talks are under way.
We all saw what happened in 2011 when we parted ways completely, he said, referring to the pullout of U.S. troops under Obama. My personal view is I wouldnt want to repeat that, Townsend said. So I think that our governments will work out something that will work for the future.
What U.S. presence looks like on the ground. A report in Stars and Stripes gives us a little better picture of what some of the thousands of U.S. troops are doing in Iraq, an operation that sees little on the ground press coverage. Stripes spent some time with a crew of a Paladin mobile howitzer system, who described how the fast pace of the Iraqi armys operations in Tal Afar kept them on the move, and firing on the run.
Compliance. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran is in compliance with the terms of the nuclear agreement agreed to by the U.S. and five other countries. President Trump has hinted that he may not certify that Iran is abiding by the deal as U.S. law requires him to do every 90 days. Iranian officials have pushed back on calls to allow inspections of military sites they say are unrelated to the nuclear program, calling the prospect a dream. In a statement issued after the IAEAs report, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said that If inspections of Iranian military sites are merely a dream, then Iranian compliance with the JCPOA is also a dream.
Moscow and Washington wage real estate war. On Thursday, the State Department said its ordered Russia to shutter three diplomatic sites in the United States in the spirit of parity, including the Russian consulate in San Francisco. Its the latest round in the two countries tit-for-tat expulsions and property closures. FPs Robbie Gramer and Emily Tamkin have more:
In July, Moscow ordered the United States to slash 755 of its own staff in Russia, in response to last Decembers decision to expel 35 diplomats and seize two diplomatic compounds, which Russia maintains was a violation of U.S. and international law. But this week, the State Department instructed Russia to shutter its consulate in San Francisco, a chancery annex in Washington, and a consular annex in New York, all by Sept. 2. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson informed Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a call early on Thursday, a senior administration official told reporters in a background briefing call.
Welcome to SitRep. As always, please send any tips, thoughts or national security events to paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or via Twitter: @paulmcleary.
Vacation, all I ever wanted. The end of American tourism is North Korea is nigh, with the ban on U.S. citizens traveling there, put in place after the death of University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier, taking effect on Friday. The State Department says reporters and those working for humanitarian organizations can apply for exemptions to the ban, but some aid workers worry that the regulations could interfere with their work.
Unfavorable reviews. North Korea sentenced authors James Pearson and Daniel Tudor and their publisher to death for their book North Korea Confidential about life in Stalinist dictatorship after finding their work in poor taste. The authors are, fortunately, not in North Korea and the sentence was issued in absentia, but the court found that the book viciously slandered the reality of the DPRK.
Japan. Nothing gooses a defense budget through the legislature quite like a ballistic missile flying overhead. In the wake of North Koreas missile launch over Japanese territory, the Japanese defense ministry is asking for an additional 2.5 percent of its budget or $160 million in extra funding to go towards its missile defenses and purchases of F-35 stealth fighters and V-22 Ospreys.
Receipts. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is probing whether meeting notes made by former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort referencing donations and the Republican National Committee contain evidence of illegal foreign donations to the campaign and the Republican National Committee. Manafort wrote the notes on his Blackberry during a meeting with a Russian lobbyist allegedly offering electoral help for the Trump campaign on behalf of the Russian government.
Infomercial. Russia has been using its war in Syria as a showroom for its latest weapons and now its reaping the reward in the form of export contracts. Customers have started queuing up for the weapons that have proven themselves in Syria, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said.
Yemen. The New York Times runs a painful photo essay on the cost of the war in Yemen on the countrys children where two million children are now malnourished as a result of the conflict. Nicholas Kristof, author of the article accompanying the photos, has been trying to report from Yemen for over a year only to be repeatedly denied entry into the country by Saudi authorities.
Fine print. The Trump administration is giving Pakistan $255 million in military aid despite President Trump giving the country a browbeating for its support of extremists in his Afghanistan speech. The aid, however, comes with caveats. The U.S. will put the aid in an escrow account, allowing officials to turn off the taps if they feel Pakistan is supporting militants in Afghanistan or failing to crack down on them in Pakistani territory.
Photo Credit: JONATHAN ERNST/AFP/Getty Images
ORANGE, Texas Harveys floodwaters are receding in Houston, but the swath of Texas from the city toward the Gulf of Mexico remained largely under water and in dire straits Friday, a week after the storm first made landfall.
In Orange, near the border with Louisiana, floodwater was still rising on Thursday after authorities released water from the Toledo Bend reservoir and ordered a mandatory evacuation of nearby low-lying areas.
Rescuers from the National Guard gathered Friday at the Orange County Emergency Services building on Highway 90, preparing to set out in tactical vehicles to reach people stranded in their homes. Five National Guard trucks, two large boats and two inflatable Zodiac watercraft were ready to deploy, as were members of volunteer rescue teams and state wildlife officials. Teams were preparing to head into small towns across the coastal region places like Bridge City and Rose City.
Marines return to a launch point in Port Arthur, Texas, near the Louisiana border. (Photo: Joseph Rushmore for HuffPost)
Rose City is flooded, the citys mayor, Hernando Ramos, told HuffPost. Its flooded everywhere. That was about all he had to say on the subject, but Ken Bost, the citys deputy marshal, elaborated.
Weve been at this since probably Friday, pulling people out of the water, Bost said. We tried to get out in this interstate [I-10] today. Its impassable... Theres pretty strong rapids... The city of Rose City... due to the flooding in high water, all of the city is under water. Its going to be more than likely its a total loss. Till this water recedes, theres no way to get in it to recon it.
Harvey is probably 10 times worse than Ike, Gary Lamare, who lives in Rose City, said of the 2008 hurricane. Ive been here most of my life. I moved here when I was about 7 years old. Ive never seen nothing like this. Its devastating... I got family in Lake View. His house is 15 feet off the ground and theyre saying it has water... Were going to survive it. The good Lord blessed us with our lives.
Members of the 551st Engineers Division of National Guard drove through streets flooded up to car windows, past half-submerged vehicles. Their mission was to rescue anyone still trapped who wanted to leave but to leave behind anyone who wanted to stay.
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Theyd been warned to beware of snakes and alligators, since the area they were heading into was laced with bayous.
Floodwaters overtake vehicles in southeast Texas. (Photo: David Lohr/HuffPost)
The guardsmen said colleagues had found at least two bodies the day before but hadnt been able to recover them. They wouldnt talk about details, and it was unclear if those bodies could be recovered Friday, either.
Beth Dougherty and her 2-year-old daughter, Natalee, are staying at the Orange County Emergency Services building in Orange, Texas. Their home was surrounded by floodwaters. (Photo: David Lohr/HuffPost)
In nearby Port Arthur, many roads were still swamped with waist-deep water. Beaumont was without running water, and flooded roads made it difficult for relief teams to get through.
Donna Porstne, media relations director for the health-focused relief organization Americares, told HuffPost the group got a team into Beaumont on Friday to transport a man in urgent need of dialysis treatment.
Flooding has made transportation difficult if not impossible for many patients, Porstne said. Some treatment facilities have closed, and Americares is helping to get patients to facilities that are open and able to provide care. We are working closely with partner organizations that have the capability to transport patients by boat or helicopter if needed.
Back at the Orange County Emergency Services building, residents were stocking up on much-needed supplies bottled water, diapers, toiletries.
Morgan Peterson, 29, evacuated here from her home in Vidor, Texas, with her dogs Duke and Cookie after the water began to rise at her house.
Beth Dougherty, 35, and her 2-year-old daughter, Natalee, were also at the emergency services building. Although their house hadnt flooded, it was surrounded by water, stranding them for days. Dougherty said she was able to get to the fire station and back to her house. But that was about it.
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A man rides a horse through flooded streets.
The view of Beaumont, Texas, as seen from I-10, looking over the city's flooding port.
Troops about to drive down the flooded road in Rose City to check the current to make sure their vehicles can make it.
The National Guard convoy drives past a man waiting for pick up from the next boat in a flooded town in East Texas on Friday.
Troops get ready to unload their Zodiac boat to attempt to make it to the flooded town of Rose City.
Boats make their way through the floodwaters.
A dog swims in a flooded roadway in East Texas as a National Guard vehicle comes to pick it up. They got the dog out of the water and to safety.
National Guard vehicles stop on Route 10 in Rose City.
Flooded streets of Beaumont.
Flooding in far Eastern, Texas on Friday.
Inside Marie's Seafood Market.
Hanh Nguyen, owner of Marie's Seafood Market, attempts to salvage goods from her store with the help of her family.
A large truck transporting rescue crews drives through the flooded streets of Port Arthur.
Volunteer rescuer Ryan Wilkenfeld, 32, from Houston, wears a gun vest in Port Arthur.
Wilkenfeld, a volunteer medic, takes a break in Port Arthur.
A helicopter transports a man who had been waiting two days to be rescued in Port Arthur.
U.S. Marines arrive from Galveston Island in amphibious assault vehicles at the Central Mall in Port Arthur.
Jared Clark, 19, and Charles Clark, 50, from Port Arthur, walk out of the flood zone with their dog, Tia, after being rescued from their flooded home.
Marines arrive from Galveston Island in amphibious vehicles at the Central Mall in Port Arthur.
Morgan Peterson, of Vidor, sits with her dogs Fluffy and Cookie. Peterson took refuge at the Orange County firehouse when water began rising at her house.
A homemade high-rise vehicle.
Memorial Drive in Port Arthur on Thursday morning.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
On September 1 of every year in J. K. Rowlings beloved Harry Potter novels, several hundred British teenagers board the Hogwarts Express to travel to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Once they arrive, those entering the school for their first year undergo the venerable ritual of being sorted into one of the schools four Houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin.
Last June, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the first Harry Potter book, we invited readers to take a scientific-based quiz on which of the four Houses they would have been assigned had they received an owl-borne acceptance letter to Hogwarts. Over 1 million people accepted the challenge, and more than 600,000 opted to anonymously contribute their responses and a small amount of demographic information to future research of the geographic distribution of personality. (The respondents do not represent a statistical sample of people, but this research is not a poll.)
That gives us a treasure trove of data on how different types of people are drawn to the different Houses in Rowlings universe. Based on the nearly 500,000 U.S.-based responses to our quiz, here are five things we learned:
America is a nation of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs
While plenty of respondents were sorted into Gryffindor (Harry Potters House) or Slytherin (home to many of the books budding villains), a majority were in either Ravenclaw (home to the studious and industrious) or Hufflepuff (the House of humility and diversity). This is not surprising. Gryffindor and Slytherin generally play host to the books most extreme fictional characters, while we found that Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were closer to the average, non-magically-embroidered personality.
Men gravitate to Slytherin and Gryffindor
While Gryffindor and Slytherin were generally less common than Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, they attracted significantly more men than women, once the data is adjusted for the fact that more women than men took the survey as a whole. For Gryffindor, this is generally because men were more likely to profess a willingness to court danger, which correlates with that House.
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Slytherin is for the young
We found that the only House where personality fit varied based on age was Slytherin and as you can see, it varied a lot. This could be a function of maturity. While Hufflepuffs tended to reject the notion that some people are more entitled to respect than others, Slytherins were the opposite.
Midwesterners are just as humble as we thought
A state-by-state map shows that Hufflepuff is prevalent in the middle of America, while Slytherin gravitates to the South, Gryffindor to the Southwest, and Ravenclaw to upper New England.
..while there are pockets of Houses across the country
Slytherin may be most prevalent in the South on a state level, but there are also enclaves around the Boston region, as well as clusters of Gryffindors in Colorado. The size of the dots in this chart is proportional to the degree of affinity for the House, not the population.
Design by Robin Muccari
Special counsel Robert Mueller has teamed up with an investigative unit of the IRS, the US tax authority, in the Trump-Russia investigation: Alex Wong/Getty Images
The special prosecutor assigned to investigate any alleged ties between Donald Trumps campaign team and Russian officials has teamed up with the Internal Revenue Service, the US tax authority.
Robert Mueller has enlisted the help of the IRS Criminal Investigative Unit, what The Daily Beast called one of the federal governments most tight-knit, specialised, and secretive investigative entities.
The 2,500 member unit focuses on crimes like money laundering, tax evasion, and other financial crimes.
The unit also has access to the tax returns of Mr Trump, who has thus far refused to make them public as every other presidential candidate has in the past.
He cited the reasons for his refusal as being under audit by the IRS and that tax returns do not give any kind of accurate picture of his financial life.
Martin Sheil, a retired IRS Criminal Investigations agent, told the Daily Beast that the FBI has been so focused on counterterrorism work since September 11th that the IRS units specialised expertise is important in Mr Muellers investigation.
Mr Mueller is also teaming up with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who has long been a rival of Mr Trump since the Presidents early days as a New York City real estate mogul.
One of the targets of particular importance to the IRS units recruitment into the overall investigation is former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
On 26 July, the FBI reportedly conducted an early-morning raid and search Mr Manafort's home in connection with the investigation.
The FBI came to his home after Mr Manafort had voluntarily met with the Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors the day prior.
He was there to discuss a meeting he attended in June 2016 with Donald Trump Jr, White House aide and Ivanka Trump's husband Jared Kushner, and a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin, Natalia Veselnitskaya.
Mr Mueller worked with the FBI on the wide-ranging search warrant obtained prior to the search.
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As former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa pointed out on Twitter, to get the search warrant the FBI had to present evidence to a federal judge showing they had probable cause that Mr Manafort committed a crime and that evidence of it could be in his home.
Mr Manafort has been turning over records, some of which are reportedly notes from the June 2016 meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York.
IRS investigators are reportedly looking into Mr Manaforts tax forms to see whether he checked a box indicating he has money in foreign bank accounts.
To not do so if he does have money in any accounts would constitute a felony crime, the seemingly small technically likely to be investigated by the new team.
For Mr Mueller to bring charges on Mr Manafort or any other Trump campaign officials, he needs approval from the US Department of Justices Tax Division.
Currently, Mr Trump has not appointed anyone to the lead the division, which is a position that needs to be Senate-confirmed.
A former prosecutor told he Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity that Mr Trump should be worried at his lack of appointment because he and his campaign associates have no one to keep Mueller and his Brooklyn team honest. They should be concerned about that.
Get ready, Star Wars fans.
LEGOs just-announced Ultimate Collector Series Millennium Falcon will be the largest and most expensive set the company has ever sold.
The new Millennium Falcon LEGO set includes a whopping 7,541 pieces, and comes with a price tag to match: $799.99. Fans can buy it in stores starting Oct. 1.
The updated Falcon set surpasses LEGOs other massive models, including items like the Taj Mahal, the Tower Bridge and the Death Star, according to USA Today. It also comes 10 years after LEGO first released its Ultimate Collector Series Millennium Falcon in 2007. That model had 5,195 pieces, making it the biggest set released at the time.
The updated version of Han Solos smuggling ship stands at 33 inches long, 22 inches wide and 8 inches tall. It can be built to look like the Millennium Falcon from the original Star Wars movies or from the more recent The Force Awakens.
The Falcon also comes with a set of minifigures from different eras of the Star Wars saga that fans can place at various locations on the model.
LEGO has been touting the new set on its social media, while the LEGO Star Wars design team released a video explaining all the new features.
TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - Suicide bombers struck a state-run power station north of Baghdad early on Saturday, killing seven people and forcing the facility to shut down in an attack claimed by Islamic State, police and army sources said. At least three gunmen wearing explosive vests attacked the power station around 3 a.m. local time, near the northern city of Samarra, about 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad. They used grenades to enter the facility. "I was on my night shift and suddenly heard shooting and blasts. A few minutes later I saw one attacker wearing a military uniform and throwing grenades through the windows," said Raied Khalid, a worker who was injured by shrapnel. Security sources said the three gunmen briefly took control of the station, but police managed to regain control after three hours. Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement. Four policemen and three workers were killed in the assault, in which 13 were wounded, police and medical sources from a nearby hospital said. One of the attackers, who was cornered by security forces, detonated his suicide vest near one the power generators, causing a fire. The two other gunmen were killed, security sources said, either by blowing themselves up or in clashes with the security forces. Operations at the facility were expected to be suspended briefly, while repairs were under way, electricity officials said. (Reporting by Ghazwan Hassan; Writing by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Ros Russell and Helen Popper)
Brian Foster found an unexpected intruder when he returned to his flood-hit Texas home on Friday.
While surveying the flood damage that Hurricane Harvey had caused to his property in Humble, he spotted a 9-foot-long alligator hiding underneath his dining room table, reports KTRK.
Constable Deputies met by alligator in a flooded home near Lake Houston. He will be delivered back into this natural habitat soon. #Harvey pic.twitter.com/y0E0sfB6at Precinct 4 Constable (@pct4constable) September 1, 2017
Foster summoned police officers and wildlife officials to help remove the animal from his house, which is near Lake Houston.
They trapped the reptile, taped its snout shut and bundled it into the back of pickup truck.
The Harris County Precinct 4 Constables Office revealed on Twitter that it would be delivered back into his natural habitat soon.
9 foot #gator pulled from home in Humble. Be careful when returning to flooded homes. There may be unwanted visitors. @abc13houston pic.twitter.com/1X5ZGxz57w Chris Nocera (@13ProducerChris) September 1, 2017
Texas Parks and Wildlife officials warned on Tuesday that alligators may be found in areas where they arent normally observed following the storm.
Alligators are wary of people but keep your distance, the service added. Never approach, harass or feed an alligator. When water levels recede, the alligator will likely disappear as well.
Here are some other precautions to take if you are returning to a flooded home.
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Submerged Houston neighborhoods near Interstate 10 in the wake of Tropical Storm Harvey on Aug. 29, 2017.
Recreational vehicles lie on their sides in the floodwaters.
People survey the flooded areas near their homes.
Vehicles sit on a flooded portion of Interstate 10.
People walk through flooded neighborhoods.
A truck navigates through floodwaters in a residential neighborhood west of Houston.
The water levels are high at the Addicks Reservoir.
Portions of Interstate 10 are completely underwater.
An aerial view of downtown Houston under dark clouds.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Mina (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) - Two million Muslims pilgrims from around the world took part Friday in the symbolic stoning of the devil in Saudi Arabia, with tight security measures in place two years after a deadly stampede.
The ritual at the Jamarat Bridge in Mina near Mecca marks the final major rite of the hajj, a five-day pilgrimage which all Muslims must perform at least once if physically and financially able.
The stampede in Mina in 2015 claimed the lives of 2,300 people -- the worst disaster in the history of the hajj.
Saudi Arabia says it has deployed more than 100,000 security personnel to keep pilgrims safe this year.
The huge crowds took part in the stoning rite under strict surveillance, with police tape guiding the flow of pilgrims, cameras installed everywhere and helicopters hovering overhead.
Traditionally, seven pebbles are thrown at a post representing the devil, emulating the actions of Abraham.
Since 2004, it has been replaced by walls to accommodate the rising numbers of pilgrims.
Security forces misted pilgrims with water as they made their way to the Jamarat Bridge under the hot sun.
By 8:00 am, pilgrims were already reaching for their umbrellas as temperatures rose above 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit).
"Two pilgrims fainted in front of me this morning," said Almas Khattak, a Pakistani volunteer in Mina.
The shadow of the 2015 stampede still looms large over the ritual.
Iran, which reported the largest number of victims in the disaster, did not send its pilgrims to hajj last year, as political tension between Tehran and rival Riyadh was on the rise and authorities in the two countries failed to agree on logistics.
Iranian authorities say more than 86,000 Iranian pilgrims are taking part this year, each equipped with an identity bracelet in case of any accident.
The stoning ritual marks the first day of the Eid al-Adha feast, or the feast of sacrifice, which commemorates the prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son.
The holiday is marked by the sacrifice of a lamb instead by Muslim communities around the world.
While I support President Donald Trumps decision last week to recommit the United States to the war in Afghanistan, its not hard to understand why 16 years on people are cynical that the addition of several thousand more U.S. and NATO troops will have much of an impact on the conflicts trajectory.
But to the cynics, Id say two things. First, even if youre right, even if all the Trump administration is doing is just enough not to lose, theres still great value to U.S. national security in preventing the collapse of the Afghan state and the countrys restoration as a safe haven for terrorists determined to attack U.S. interests. Even more so knowing that the impact of a the Taliban and Al Qaeda victory over the Americans would like the mujahideens defeat of the Soviet Union a generation ago be pouring jet fuel on the fires of a global jihadist insurgency that is already burning out of control. Rather than being the leader who put radical Islamic terrorism on the path to defeat, Trump would be guaranteeing his legacy as the man who supercharged the threat exponentially, not just in Afghanistan but worldwide.
The second argument that Id offer the skeptics is that some of the changes to U.S. strategy that the president announced last week if fully implemented could have a disproportionate positive effect on the battlefields dynamics. Contrary to the view of the cynics, these changes in fact represent major shifts from President Barack Obamas approach to the war, not just minor adjustments. As such, they could prove positive surprises in terms of their impact over time in halting the conflicts rapidly deteriorating trend lines. Three in particular merit special attention.
The end of artificial timelines
One of the most important of the changes was Trumps declaration that U.S. strategy in Afghanistan would no longer be guided by artificial timelines, but by conditions on the ground. The significance of this change has been widely highlighted in post-speech commentaries, for good reason. Youd be hard pressed to find a military expert who doesnt believe that telling the enemy when youre going to draw down your forces or stop fighting is nuts completely self-defeating. And yet thats exactly what the Obama administration did, repeatedly.
The litany of Obama-era messages communicating to friend and foe alike that our heart really wasnt in this fight still makes for depressing and dumbfounding reading. Even when he was announcing a surge of U.S. troops in December 2009, Obama found a way to convey a lack of resolve declaring in the very next sentence that those troops would begin withdrawing in 18 months. Anyone with a calendar and half a brain knew that line with all its ramifications for the wars future course had been crafted not with an eye to defeating the enemy, but to the presidents 2012 reelection campaign and the need to cater to a war-weary public. As was his wont, Vice President Joe Biden piled on a few days after Obamas speech, driving home the point in case anyone had been too thick to miss it: Weve got to make it clear, we have, to the Afghans. Youre about to have control of your country. Lots of luck in your senior year. Cue Taliban high-fiving.
In May 2014, safely reelected and focused like a laser on consolidating his legacy as the man who got America out of President George W. Bushs wars, Obama doubled down on his timeline-driven strategy. With barely a reference to the situation on the ground, the president pledged that the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan would cease seven months hence at the end of 2014 save for what he called the narrow missions of advising the Afghan army and conducting strikes against Al Qaeda. Simultaneously, the relentless withdrawal of U.S. troops would continue apace from 32,000 at the time of his speech, to 9,800 at the end of 2014, to 5,500 at the end of 2015, to more or less zero by late 2016 and the end of his presidency.
Alas, as it turned out, not even Obamas best-laid plans could survive contact with the ever-worsening battlefield reality triggered by his precipitous shrinking of the U.S. role. When faced with the prospect that rather than bringing the war to a responsible conclusion, his presidency could instead end with the catastrophic collapse of the Afghan state, Obama pulled up short at first slowing the troop withdrawals and, in 2016, freezing them at the current force level of 8,400. Fresh in his mind no doubt was the disaster wrought by his 2011 rush to the exits in Iraq. Having the rise of the Islamic State forever linked to your historical legacy was bad enough. Adding the phrase Taliban takeover to the record wasnt something, thankfully, that Obama was prepared to risk.
Its of course impossible to predict with any precision the strategic effects that might flow from Trumps rejection of an approach driven by timelines concocted by political operatives in Washington. But it seems equally impossible to suggest that it will have no effect at all. To the extent that war is in no small measure a test of competing wills, the reliability of a superpowers resolve to stay in the fight still matters. The handoff from Obama, who for years already had one foot out the Afghan door, to Secretary of Defense James Mattis, empowered with an open-ended mandate to pursue U.S. objectives, will make a difference. The only question is how much and at what cost.
Waging war against the Taliban, again
A second potentially important change announced by Trump was his commitment that U.S. forces in Afghanistan will have the necessary tools and rules of engagement to make this strategy work, and work effectively and work quickly. The president noted, I have already lifted restrictions the previous administration placed on our war fighters that prevented the secretary of defense and our commanders in the field from fully and swiftly waging battle against the enemy. He pledged an end to micromanagement from Washington and promised to further expand authority for American troops.
The key question here, I think, is whether Trumps true intention is to once again make the war against the Taliban a top priority for U.S. forces. That would be a big deal. The truth is that, incredible as it seems, ever since Obama announced the end of combat operations in 2014, the U.S. has been largely absent from Afghanistans most important battlefield the one against the Taliban. While U.S. commanders were still permitted to strike the Taliban when it posed a direct threat to U.S. forces or when Afghan troops were in grave danger of being overrun, any offensive operations against the very forces that posed the greatest threat to the Afghan state were for much of that time off limits.
As described by Ronald Neuman, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, we are no longer at war with the Taliban was the nonsensical mantra repeatedly heard from Obamas National Security Council, a policy that left the Taliban free, except in the most extreme circumstances, to reinforce, maneuver and mass for attacks. The drawdown of U.S. advisors consistently outpaced the readiness of Afghan units to take over. Most importantly, according to Neuman, from January 2014 to November 2016, U.S. air support for Afghan security forces was effectively withdrawn. Writing in 2016, the former U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, seconded Neumans point, warning that the Taliban has learned that it can mass for attack in many places without fear of NATO airstrikes.
With that as context, who could possibly be surprised that the Taliban has managed to make alarming gains over the past few years, now controlling or contesting as much as 50 percent of the country? If Trump and Mattis were to reverse course and throw the U.S. military back into the anti-Taliban fight in a significant way, unleashing U.S. air power and pushing a larger contingent of U.S. and allied advisors and special forces closer to the front, it stands to reason that the impact on the war could in time be significant. You dont need a doctorate in military affairs to figure out that if the most powerful military in the world goes from treating the Taliban as an important partner in a peaceful Afghan-led reconciliation process that should not be actively targeted by airstrikes to a hostile insurgency that must be relentlessly attacked, the outcomes on the battlefield might be decidedly different.
As Trump noted in his speech, even prior to deciding on his Afghan strategy, he had already loosened the rules of engagement for U.S. forces. During the first six months of his presidency, the amount of U.S. munitions dropped in Afghanistan tripled from the same period in 2016, much of it against Taliban targets. But that was before Trump had settled the all-important question of whether he planned to abandon Afghanistan or stay and fight. Now that he has recommitted America to the war, and U.S. commanders have a clear strategic direction from the new commander in chief, the room for a sustained intensification of U.S. military effort against the Taliban could be substantial.
Even now, bombs dropped in Afghanistan remain a tiny fraction in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 percent of those used to target the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq in 2016. And as my colleague at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Bill Roggio, has reported, until now the Taliban remain able to conduct easily identifiable, easily targetable day-long raids on Afghan government targets without interference by U.S. or allied air assets. Putting a stop to those operations, which have underpinned much of the Talibans recent success, would be a good start to shifting the tide of the war.
Stopping Pakistans double game
The third potentially game-changing element of Trumps speech was his focus on the problem of Pakistan and its systematic support or tolerance for many of the most deadly forces arrayed against the United States in Afghanistan. Its a threat that bedeviled both of Trumps predecessors, neither of whom proved willing to bear the considerable risks of pursuing a sustained pressure campaign against a putative ally that is overflowing with radical Islamists and may have the worlds fastest growing stockpile of nuclear weapons.
Trumps harsh rhetoric certainly suggested that he is prepared to take a much different and tougher course to compel a change in Pakistani behavior. His willingness to call out Pakistans double game on terrorism was largely unprecedented. What remains in question is whether hes really willing to go where no president has gone before in actually lowering the boom on Islamabad. If necessary, is he ready to sanction high-level military and intelligence officials? Cut off aid? Systematically attack Taliban and Al Qaeda safehavens inside Pakistan? Designate Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism? Of course, even if he is, theres no guarantee it would work. The unintended consequences could be severe. But if Trump does succeed, if hes as good a negotiator as he says he is, the positive implications for the war in Afghanistan would be far-reaching, even revolutionary.
Its difficult to say whether Trumps Afghan strategy will actually achieve the victory that he promised even if victory is narrowly defined. After so many years of sacrifice and frustration, who truly dares to be hopeful? But what shouldnt be hard is rejecting the contention, made by some of Trumps critics, that his speech was simply old wine in new bottles, Obama 2.0 dressed up in a lot of tough-guy rhetoric. After years of accelerating withdrawals and phony declarations about ending combat operations, Trumps renewed commitment to stay the course, add additional resources, take the fight to the enemy, and end Pakistans double game represents a qualitative shift of potentially great importance. If implemented aggressively, adjusted as necessary, and sustained over time, the chances that it eventually will get us to where we need to be in Afghanistan the establishment of a professional army that is largely capable of containing the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and the Islamic State with minimal U.S. combat support have almost certainly improved considerably.
Photo credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images
President Donald Trump, a billionaire who while campaigning bragged that he was "really rich," announced Thursday that he would donate $1 million to relief efforts after Hurricane Harvey slammed Texas and Louisiana this week. But according to Tony Schwartz, the man who ghost-wrote Trump's 1987 book, The Art of the Deal, that's not going to happen.
Schwartz tweeted Friday morning that there was "no way" Trump would send storm victims $1 million of his own money.
"He only promises to give," Schwartz wrote. "Never actually does."
Skepticism around Trump's intended donation has been mounting ever since White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders revealed the president planned to "join in the efforts that a lot of the people that we've seen across this country do" in the wake of the deadly storm. Details are scarceSanders couldn't provide reporters with information on when Trump would donate the money, who he would donate it to or where it was coming from, according to The New York Times.
Later that day, first son Eric Trump tweeted that he bet CNN and the mainstream media wouldn't cover his dad's "incredible generosity." His post came three hours after the network published a story about it, according to The Hill.
This isn't the first time the president's charitable giving, or lack thereof, has made headlines.
Last year, Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold won a Pulitzer Prize for investigating Trump's philanthropy. Fahrenthold began by looking into Trump's January 2016 claim that he'd given $6 million to veterans' groups, and then the journalist broadened his probe. Ultimately, Fahrenthold found $7.8 million in charitable giving from Trump's personal accounts since the '80s, even though he bragged about donating "tens of millions of dollars...to charitable causes."
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Trump also has had a brush before with hurricane aid. In July 2016, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said that his wife, Mary Pat Christie, got money from Trump for a relief fund she ran after Hurricane Sandy devastated the state in 2012. But the Associated Press couldn't find a record of his donation, and the governor later backtracked.
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Madrid (AFP) - US President Donald Trump and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will hold their first one-on-one talks on September 26 at the White House, Spain's government announced Friday.
The two leaders have already met at a G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany and a NATO summit in Brussels, but this will be their first scheduled head-to-head talks.
Rajoy "will meet with Trump on September 26" a Spanish government spokesman told AFP.
Last month Trump called Rajoy to present his condolences after terror attacks in Catalonia left a total of 16 people dead and 120 injured.
The first phone conversation between the two leaders was in February when Trump assured Rajoy that the United States remains committed to NATO, despite his past criticism of the transatlantic military alliance.
Trump and Rajoy then agreed "to continue close security, economic and counterterrorism cooperation".
Rajoy, in power since 2011, visited the White House in January 2014 when Trump's predecessor Barack Obama was in office.
Obama made an official visit to Spain in July 2016.
Trump visits Harvey-damaged Texas and Louisiana President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Chennault International Airport in Lake Charles, La., following a visit with those helping with the impacted of Hurricane Harvey, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. (Photo: Susan Walsh/AP)
President Donald Trump headed to Texas and Louisiana on Saturday to meet rescuers and survivors of Hurricane Harvey, one week after the powerful storm blasted the region and unleashed historic flooding.
The trip comes after the White House asked Congress for $7.85 billion for Harvey-related response and initial recovery efforts, calling it a down payment on the long-term cost of recovering from the catastrophic flooding.
Trump and his wife Melania departed from Andrews Air Force Base outside the US capital just before 10 am (1400 GMT) enroute to Houston.
The president is returning to Texas for his second visit since the megastorm hit, and will also visit neighboring Louisiana. (AFP)
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Folks online have given a much-needed history lesson to Infowars editor-at-large Paul Joseph Watson.
The British-based conspiracy theorist tweeted Wednesday that author George Orwell rolls in his grave at the idea of antifa the far-left anti-fascist movement confronting hate groups at public protests like the one in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month holding signs that say no hate.
Under a photograph of antifa activists, Watson described them as the most hateful group in America.
The most hateful group in America.
Orwell rolls in his grave. pic.twitter.com/vgmxXSnZTK Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) August 28, 2017
Watson appeared to forget (or didnt realize) that Orwell himself actually fought fascists in the Spanish Civil War, and even wrote Homage to Catalonia about his experience.
Historical researcher Mike Stuchbery, who teaches the history of the 1936-1939 conflict to children in schools, was quick to remind Watson that Orwell was as Antifa as it gets.
Paul. Orwell volunteered to fight fascists in Spain. Essentially, Orwell is as 'Antifa' as it gets. You dumb motherfucker. https://t.co/84jJ0v08ie Mike Stuchbery (@MikeStuchbery_) August 30, 2017
Paul, again, Orwell signed up to fight with the militia of a Spanish Marxist party, via the ILP. That's how much he despised fascists. https://t.co/biu3n4aLnJ Mike Stuchbery (@MikeStuchbery_) September 1, 2017
Again, read a fuckin' book. Mike Stuchbery (@MikeStuchbery_) September 1, 2017
Other tweeters agreed:
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You know absolutely nothing about Orwell, do you? Jack Hancock (@1983Jackhancock) August 30, 2017
Yet again little Paul shows his ignorance of history. Do you ever get tired of looking like an angry tit? Mark (@MarkMobile68) August 30, 2017
@PrisonPlanet you have no idea who Orwell was Alan Owen (@thebrownhat) August 30, 2017
Dope. Orwell fought fascism. Have you read his books? pic.twitter.com/zkqEjB2xae Caro (@carogonza) August 31, 2017
Orwell was an anarchist. Wrote a book about killing fascists in Spain. How can you be this uninformed, really? #Antifapist (@comradeofswadia) August 31, 2017
They named a square in Barcelona after him for fighting fascists, you numb skull. pic.twitter.com/BxYRqhJAr3 Aaron Barndollar (@barndollar) August 31, 2017
Do you even Google, bro? Aman Gill (@amangill1984) August 30, 2017
Try reading Orwell's book Catalonia about his time fighting fascists in Spain you numpty KS (@ks_1968) August 31, 2017
Have... have you read Orwell? Seth Maloney (@Seth_Maloney) August 31, 2017
ha ha you know NOTHING about Orwell.
Literally NOTHING. Arrows of Love (@arrowsoflove) August 30, 2017
Orwell was literally an anti-fascist democratic socialist Hayden Goes West (@HaydenSilb) August 30, 2017
Why did Twitter verify you? Ive never seen you not saying something idiotic peepants longway MFD (@gucci_jumpsuit) August 31, 2017
Have you...do you know who Orwell was? Ardie Collins (@ardiecollins) August 30, 2017
George Orwell: "If you had asked me why I had joined the militia I should have answered: To fight against Fascism.." (1938)#antifascists Tim Fenton (@PompeyTim69) August 30, 2017
George Orwell actually went to Spain during the Spanish Civil War to fight against fascists with socialists. He wrote a book about it too. Kharn (@LeninMarxEngel) August 30, 2017
He literally supported an antifascist militia Nika (@Nikafur) August 30, 2017
I doubt he wanted a repeat of "Homage to Catalonia" seeing as it involves him taking a bullet to the neck while he fought fascists in Spain. Money Snake (@SvizraLion) August 30, 2017
Read HOMAGE TO CATALONIA Andy Elijah (@andrewmelijah) August 30, 2017
Orwell fought fascist in Spain, he wrote a book about it Jeremy Wein (@thismyshow) August 30, 2017
LOL Orwell fought fascists in Spain. He WAS ANTIFA! You are very poorly read. Did you go to school anywhere? Alexandra Halaby (@iskandrah) August 31, 2017
Obviously you do not know Orwell. He fought as an anti-fascist alongside communists in an anarchist militia and wrote a whole book about it. Q Mart (@quickiemart) August 30, 2017
When you get owned in the comments pic.twitter.com/1GM68Sr1H3 SansaSnark (@_SunEyedGirl__) August 30, 2017
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By Steve Holland and Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan urged President Donald Trump on Friday not to rescind an Obama-era programme that protects immigrants who entered the United States illegally as children, as more Republicans lined up against the move. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump will announce on Tuesday whether he will end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, programme, which protects nearly 800,000 young men and women from deportation. It also makes those covered, so-called Dreamers, eligible for work permits. "We love the 'Dreamers,'" the Republican president, already facing calls from leading business figures and Democrats to preserve the programme, told reporters in the Oval Office, without tipping his hand on the decision. Ryan and Senator Orrin Hatch on Friday joined a small but growing number of lawmakers from the party that controls Congress and the White House to speak out against killing DACA, created in 2012 by Democratic former President Barack Obama and long the target of conservative immigration hard-liners. "I actually don't think he should do that, and I believe that this is something Congress has to fix," Ryan said in an interview with WCLO radio in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin. Ryan said he believes Obama exceeded his authority in creating DACA by executive order, bypassing Congress, but there now are "people who are in limbo." "These are kids who know no other country, who were brought here by their parents and don't know another home. And so I really do believe that there needs to be a legislative solution. That's one that we're working on. And I think we want to give people peace of mind," Ryan added. Nancy Pelosi, the top House Democrat, said she was "heartened" by Ryan's comments and asked him to meet with Democratic lawmakers next week to discuss a "comprehensive legislative solution." Hatch said in a statement rescinding the programme would further complicate a U.S. immigration system sorely in need of legislative reform. "Like the president, I've long advocated for tougher enforcement of our existing immigration laws. But we also need a workable, permanent solution for individuals who entered our country unlawfully as children through no fault of their own and who have built their lives here. And that solution must come from Congress," the longest-serving Republican senator added. Tennessee's Republican attorney general, Herbert Slatery, said his office will not participate in a lawsuit challenging DACA that is expected to be filed by a group of Republican state attorneys general next week, and urged Congress to pursue a legislative fix. "Many of the DACA recipients, some of whose records I reviewed, have outstanding accomplishments and laudable ambitions, which if achieved, will be of great benefit and service to our country," Slatery wrote in a letter to Tennessee's two Republican U.S. senators. Republican former Florida governor Jeb Bush said in a statement it would be "unconscionable to repeal DACA without ensuring Congress provides a legislative solution." Trump made a crackdown on illegal immigrants a centrepiece of his 2016 election campaign and has stepped up deportations since taking office in January. But business leaders say immigrants make important economic contributions and that ending the programme would hit economic growth and tax revenue. Leading business figures including Facebook Inc CEO Mark Zuckerberg have rallied in defence of the programme and the Dreamers. Congress under presidents of both parties has been unable to pass comprehensive immigration reform. 'TUG OF WAR' Spokeswoman Sanders said Trump, who previously has called DACA illegal, is not taking the decision lightly. "The president's priorities on immigration are to create a system that encourages legal immigration and benefits our economy and American workers," Sanders told a news briefing. Most of the Dreamer immigrants came from Mexico and other Latin American countries. More than 200,000 live in California, while 100,000 are in Texas. New York, Illinois and Florida also have large numbers. What to do about Dreamers has been actively debated within the White House and Trump administration. One senior administration official described the debate as a "tug of war" between factions in favour and against the move. DACA supporters argue that the people it protects grew up and were educated in the United States and were integrated into American society, with little connection to the countries in which they are citizens. Opponents of the programme argue that illegal immigrants take jobs from U.S. citizens. There are deep divisions in the United States over the fate of roughly 11 million illegal immigrants, most of them Hispanics. Trump as a candidate promised to deport all of them. Undoing DACA could have political consequences for Trump and his fellow Republicans, further alienating Hispanics, a growing voting bloc in the United States. Trump's pardon for an Arizona sheriff who critics accused of targeting Hispanics, his planned wall along the U.S.-Mexican border and his comments about Mexico sending "rapists" and drug dealers into the United States already had antagonized many Hispanic Americans. (Reporting by Steve Holland and Jeff Mason; Additional reporting by David Alexander, David Morgan and Susan Heavey in Washington and Dan Levine in San Francisco; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Grant McCool)
Moscow (AFP) - Russia on Saturday summoned the top US envoy in Moscow to protest a search by American officials of a diplomatic facility in Washington, due to be shuttered in the latest twist of the two countries' diplomatic tit-for-tat.
The foreign ministry said it called in acting US mission head Anthony Godfrey and handed him a "note of protest over the intention of the American authorities to conduct a search" at a Russian trade representation.
The search -- which RIA-Novosti reported began after 1800 GMT in the presence of Russian officials -- "could be used by the US intelligence services to organise an anti-Russian provocation involving planting compromising materials," a statement said.
The trade facility in Washington is one of three diplomatic buildings -- including the consulate in San Francisco and an office in New York -- that the US has ordered Moscow to vacate by Saturday.
Russia's foreign ministry said Friday that US intelligence was also planning to search the consulate in San Francisco.
Black smoke was seen rising from a chimney at the consulate on Friday, as firefighters confirmed its occupants were burning unidentified objects.
A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry insisted the smoke was due to measures to "preserve the building" at a time when officials were gearing up to leave.
- Diplomatic saga -
Washington issued an order Thursday for the closure of the Russian compounds in retaliation for Moscow ordering the US to slash its diplomatic mission by 755 personnel by September 1.
The number of US diplomatic staff will now be capped at 455, the same number that Russia has in the United States.
The spike in tensions between the two nuclear-armed powers is another blow to US President Donald Trump, who said at the start of his presidency in January that he would try and improve relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ties slumped to their lowest point since the Cold War following the Kremlin's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
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The West slapped punishing sanctions on Russia over its meddling in its ex-Soviet neighbour, sparking a revenge embargo from Moscow against agricultural products.
Last year, tensions again escalated after the US intelligence community accused Putin of masterminding a hacking and influence campaign to tip the presidential vote in favour of Trump.
And in the waning days of his tenure, former president Barack Obama hit out at Russia over the allegations by turfing out 35 diplomats and closing Russian diplomatic compounds in New York and Maryland.
Moscow initially held off from retaliating but when Congress passed new sanctions tying up Trump's hands, the Kremlin decided to belatedly strike back and ordered the US staff cut.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday Moscow is studying the latest US order to shutter the compounds and would then decide how to react.
A Utah police detective who violently detained a nurse in Salt Lake City after she refused to draw blood from an unconscious patient was placed on administrative leave on Friday.
Mayor Jackie Biskupski tweeted the news, saying she supported the decision to place Detective Jeff Payne on leave.
We support the DAs independent investigation into unacceptable actions at the UofU, she tweeted. We have placed SLCPD officer involved on leave. #utpol.
We support the DA's independent investigation into unacceptable actions at the UofU. We have placed SLCPD officer involved on leave. #utpol Mayor J. Biskupski (@slcmayor) September 1, 2017
I just feel betrayed, I feel angry Im a health care worker. The only job I have is to keep my patients safe, Wubbels said, according to the site. A blood draw, it just gets thrown around there like its some simple thing. But blood is your blood. Thats your property. And when a patient comes in a critical state, that blood is extremely important and I dont take it lightly.
The situation unfolded after a collision in northern Utah left one driver dead and another badly injured, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. Footage of the encounter showed Wubbels, Det. Payne and a pair of hospital security officers in the lobby as the head nurse explained to the men that hospital policy forbids her from taking blood from the unconscious patient without a warrant or the patients consent.
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After confirming the mandate with hospital officials and providing documented proof of the policy to the officer, Wubbel declared Im just trying to do what Im supposed to do. Thats all. A supervisor on Wubbels speakerphone told Payne, Sir, youre making a huge mistake right now.
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Payne is then shown grabbing Wubbels and, as the woman screamed, pulling her through the hospital doors before slamming her against a wall.
Youre assaulting me! Stop! Ive done nothing wrong! Wubbels yelled. What is happening? This is crazy! Why is he so angry?
Payne is soon shown handcuffing the woman and placing her in the front seat of a police car. She was later released and was not charged with a crime, according to the Washington Post.
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Officials have launched an internal investigation.
In a written report, Payne alleged that he had been ordered by Salt Lake police Lt. James Tracy to arrest Wubbels for interfering with a police investigation, the Tribune reports. He said he wanted the blood sample to determine whether the injured truck driver had illicit substances in his system at the time of the crash.
There have been no claims or lawsuits filed in the case. However, Wubbels and her attorney Karra Porter have urged police officials to educate officers.
Neither Salt Lake Police Department officials nor Porter immediately responded to a request for comment from PEOPLE.
Caracas (AFP) - The wife of one of Venezuela's top jailed opposition figures said airport agents on Saturday stopped her from traveling to meet the leaders of France, Germany, Spain and Britain.
Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez's wife said on Twitter that immigration officials confiscated her passport on orders from the chief prosecutor's office.
Lilian Tintori was set to hold meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and British Prime Minister Theresa May to discuss the political crisis in Venezuela.
International powers accuse President Nicolas Maduro of dismantling democracy by taking over state institutions in order to resist opposition pressure for him to quit, amid an economic crisis that has caused shortages of food and medicine.
Tintori posted a picture on Twitter showing her at the airport with the ambassadors of Spain, Germany and Italy, who she said were "witnesses to this outrage by the dictatorship."
"They just stopped me from leaving the country. The dictatorship wants to prevent us from making a very important international tour," Tintori said.
"I was ready to report that there are human rights violations in Venezuela; that it is a dictatorship, that there are 590 political prisoners; and that 53 percent of our children are malnourished." she stressed.
Julio Borges, head of opposition-led National Assembly, earlier tweeted that he would be traveling to meet the same foreign leaders.
It was unclear if Borges had already left the country. Tintori and Borges, however, are scheduled on Rajoy's agenda for a Tuesday meeting.
"We condemn the timing of this decision," a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said, adding that it hopes Tintori would be permitted to travel soon.
"It is the responsibility of the Venezuelan government to avoid further steps that increase tension and take Venezuela away from democracy," she added.
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French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that he was waiting to meet Tintori in Europe. "The Venezuelan opposition must remain free," he added.
Tintori's husband was sentenced in 2015 to nearly 14 years in prison on charges of inciting deadly violence in street protests.
In July, Lopez was moved to his home and placed under house arrest after spending nearly 3.5 years in a military prison.
Venezuela is suffering an economic crisis that has caused food and medicine shortages.
Prosecutors say some 130 people were killed this year in four months of anti-government protests.
Maduro says the crisis is a US-backed conspiracy. He has vowed to request an Interpol notice for Ortega's arrest.
The premiere of American Horror Story: Cult is less than a week away and while there are still plenty of questions regarding the storyline that fans will have to wait to get answers for, showrunner Ryan Murphy recently shared some spoilers about one the characters on the show and the actress who portrays her.
During a Q&A in Los Angeles, Murphy revealed that Emma Roberts, who will be appearing in American Horror Story Season 7, only returned because of their close relationship. She did it as a favor, he said, as reported by Digital Spy.
The Glee creator revealed that the actress had to change her schedule in order to come back to the show. She carved it out in her movie schedule. But its really fun to work with people that way. And we really encourage all of the people on our show, like, once youre in that world, like, okay, if you want to go off and do something else, thats great, but come back, he explained.
Although he runs a professional production, Murphy revealed that there is a super friendly atmosphere on set that allows for strong bonds to be formed. The funny thing about this group of people that we have on the show, they really are like a family, and Ive created that within my company, the producer explained.
Murphy said many of the actors he casts, like Roberts, tend to move around from show to show. Emma was on American Horror Story, and then, she went to Scream Queens, and now shes back on American Horror Story.
The screenwriter also hinted that Roberts character may stir up some trouble during her short stint on the series. She plays a Michigan newscaster named Serina Belinda who is promoted above Adina Porters character simply because shes much more superficial and willing to do what it takes to survive. So, she is here for one episode, he explained.
Serina is considered to be one of Roberts dream roles in Murphys eyes. Its just a very fluid way of working to have a group of people that you love that you can bring back and forth. And the other thing I like to do is to say, What have you always wanted to play? to people.
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The director revealed that the actress shared her thoughts with him and he assisted her in pursuing her goal. That was something that Emma and I had always made a joke about, her being a newscaster. So, her dream finally came true! he revealed.
Roberts actually has quite a history with Murphy, aside from Scream Queens. The actress teamed up with the showrunner for American Horror Story Seasons 4 and 5. In Coven, the star played Madison Montgomery, a superficial teen actress who happened to be a witch.
The actress later returned to the franchise for Freak Show, where she played Maggie Esmerelda, a con artist who initially tried to scam the circus family, but eventually saw the light and changed her ways.
However, Roberts new character and short time on the series seems to be hinting towards an abrupt and brutal end for Serina.
American Horror Story: Cult will premiere on Tuesday, Sept. 5 on FX.
Emma Roberts
Photo: Getty Images
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When her dog started bringing dead rats to her backdoor, Barbara Manning grew concerned. Shes lived in her Westwood neighborhood for 45 years, but shes never noticed a problem with rats until this summer.
Its gross, she said. The rats in her yard arent what shes upset about, though, its that she suspects theyve been poisoned.
Mannings 8-year-old Yorkie started bringing rat corpses to her toward the end of July. After that, Manning and her husband continued to find dead rats in the yard. They didnt have any injuries and they didnt look sick, she said.
Not only does she think poisoning the rats is inhumane, shes worried that her dog and other animals or even children are being exposed to secondary poisoning.
Its sad if somebody loses their pet, she said. Id be devastated.
Manning said she doesnt blame her neighbors for wanting to get rid of the rats, but says poisoning isnt the way. Her husband has been using an electronic rat trap, she said.
Its much more humane just to zap em its just a shock and theyre dead.
Napa resident Rusty Cohn advocates using these traps, too. Although he hasnt seen any dead rats around like Manning, he said that he gets some rats in his house every few years.
You just have to catch em, he said. I caught one so far.
Cohn recently posted some information about electronic rat traps on the social media site Nextdoor.
If you are hearing that oh no sound in your walls or attic dont panic just get a electronic rat zapor, Cohn says in his post. No poisons to worry about your pets or poisoning wildlife, no worry about rats going to die in places where you cant find them but can smell them.
Cohn said he posted the information in order to steer people away from using poisoned bait traps, which can lead to poisoned wildlife, including owls.
Many rodenticides, including some d-CON mouse and rat control products, have been taken off the market in order to prevent secondary poisoning, said Justin Hovan, owner of Hovan Pest Control in Napa.
Homeowners tend to not use products correctly, Hovan said, leaving them out where animals and children can access it. People would just scatter it everywhere and a neighborhood cat could easily jump over the fence and get at it, he said.
If pets or wild animals eat poisoned rodents, then those animals will also be poisoned, according to the California Department of Fish & Wildlife website.
A dozen d-CON products were canceled in 2014 for not meeting U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards, according to the Environmental Protection Agency website. Production stopped in December 2014 and distribution stopped in March 2015.
All 12 products were sold without protective bait stations, which are required for consumer products in order to protect children and pets from contact with the bait pellets. Eight of the cancelled products also contained second generation anticoagulant pesticides that posed risks to non-target wildlife.
It used to be anyone could get any kind of rat bait, but now you have to be licensed to get certain ones, Hovan said.
When hes called out to a rat problem at a home, he chooses the best method depending on the situation, he said. Hell use bait stations, snap traps, and live traps in addition to doing exclusion work in order to prevent rats from getting into the house. For a dog to get sick from the bait he uses, he said, it would have to eat a lot of rats.
The Napa County Mosquito Abatement District, which provides residents with rodent inspection, advice, and disease surveillance, encourages people not to use bait for rodents, said Director Wes Maffei.
Its not illegal, though, so if youre going to use baiting, Maffei says you need to do surveillance and pick up the dead animals so other animals dont eat them.
Maffei said that one of the best ways to prevent rodent infestations is to keep things clean.
If theres nothing available for them (to eat) theyll go somewhere else, he said. Good sanitation goes a long way to minimize rodent problems.
The recent release of the epic movie "Dunkirk" has been highly acclaimed for its vast scale and attention to detail. We Americans love a good underdog story. Anytime we can see the poor little island of Britain fighting off the Nazis and beating them at their own game, we want to give them a big Hip, Hip Hurrah!"
The truth is Britain is every bit to blame for the mess they put themselves in on that French port back in 1940. Britain could have very well have avoided World War II altogether had they not been so arrogant to punish the German people after the War to end all Wars, World War I.
The reparations required of Germany put such a huge burden on the country it nearly went bankrupt. The German people were thrust into depression and political chaos. When a demagogue such as Hitler came along, they were thirsty -- dying -- for change. They jumped to his attention and swagger.
Like any bully, Hitler could force his way into power, take over Germany, and then trample most of Europe.
The British tried to negotiate peace with the bully in 1938. Remember Chamberlains "Peace in our Time?" Rubbish.
The British could have stopped Hitler but appeasement was their game and they lost. Because of their bungling, almost 400,000 British troops were left to die on an isolated French beach after getting run off the continent.
All the hot spots in this world today are leftovers from the British Empire's incompetence. Pakistan and India, Palestine and Israel, Syria, Iraq and Isis are all products of the British legacy. We all should have learned not to allow bullies to rule our world. They could have and should have, but they didnt.
So, don't feel sorry for the British. They made their bed, they should sleep in it.
Chris d. Craiker
Napa
The long war between American forces and Moro rebels in the Philippines made the soon-to-be-legendary Gen. John J. Pershing an accomplished master of anti-guerrilla strategy and tactics.
An aging U.S. Army career officer, age 38, Then Capt. Pershing seemed at first eager for more combat experience when assigned to Manila, in the northern Philippines on Aug. 17, 1899.
Pershings job was to pacify the militant faction of the so-called Moro Rebellion after other American forces had subdued the Filipinos Insurrection in the northern islands. Fanatically independent, the Islamic Moros in the south refused infidel rule by outsiders including the Spanish, the Filipinos, and now the Americans.
To Pershing, the Moro people were savage, yet he comprehended the key to peace with them was that one must first win their confidence. Jealous of their own religion, most of the Moros he met regarded themselves as good Mohammedan[s].
Initially, an army bureaucrat in 1902, Capt. Pershing accompanied Colonel Frank Baldwin on a punitive military field expedition to Lake Lanao, a hotbed of Moro resistance to U.S. occupation. Ordering a direct assault against a Moro cotta (fort), 50 U.S. casualties were incurred.
Dismayed at this inordinate loss of American lives, department commander Gen. Adna Chaffee had Baldwin promoted upstairs, effectively maneuvering him out of the Philippines and back to Washington, D.C. The new field commander was Pershing, whose indirect approach to dissident Moros was in first conducting negotiations and later if necessary, dealing with their cottas by implementing semi-circular sieges, which left a rear escape opening for them so as to avoid mutual bloodshed.
A captured abandoned cotta was destroyed, which deprived the Moros of a fort and was also a coup against their proud morale.
In early 1903, Lake Lanao became the site of Pershings high noon with the local Moro tribe. At Bayan village, the imam, Sajiduciman, told his subjects that since the Americans ate pork (in their canned army beans), to associate with them or be neighbors, much less become friends, would mean an eternal banishment to hell.
Friendly messages from Pershing to Sajiduciman were rebuffed until his final one of peace or war. Escorted by his troops, Pershing met Datu (Chief) Sajiduciman at the latters Bayan cotta. The two leaders presented their full forces to each other.
Pershing was given a tour of the cottas defensive features, and in response, had his horse artillery fire a demonstration salvo into Lake Lanao. Both egos satisfied that each commanded great pride and strength, the two powwowed around a careworn vintage copy of the Koran in the presence of several other attending Moro datus.
A surprised Pershing was informed that they decided to make him an honorary datu. Pershing made a succinct talk for peace and friendship, with the datus in agreement, all pledging upon the Koran that they would always be friends with each other. (To the Moros, each of whose datus personified Moroland, Pershing was therefore the in-the-flesh virtual personification of the United States of America.)
Other Moro tribes were still resistant. At the Bacolod Moro cotta, Pershing resorted to an attack supported by artillery, pounding the cotta and giving its people a chance to escape; thus when he finally assaulted, there remained in the fort a few desperate characters determined to die fighting.
Bacolod left only three U.S. casualties compared to 60 Moro.
Conducting as few battles as possible was his style. Intimidating other isolated Moro tribes into peacefulness, Pershing had his command march around Lake Lanao from May 2-10, 1903. This feat, unmatched by the earlier Spanish colonizers, truly amazed one datu who watched Pershings march while seated on the wall of his cotta. Feasting rather than fighting ensued, and Pershings higher-up in the Philippines wrote, I hope Capt. Pershing will be selected for brigadier general.
Meantime, Pershing was transferred away six years.
Returning again as governor-general of Moro Province on Nov. 11, 1909, Pershing was chagrined to find deteriorated relations between the 325,000 Moros and the American garrisons. Violent feuds in the form of terrorist strikes and U.S. reprisals replaced the fairly stable relations he had earlier labored to bring about.
Juramentados [Christian-killing oath takers) would suddenly spring up in village centers, slashing with their krises (20-inch, double serrated notched swords) any infidels present, fleeing or fighting-until they were riddled with bulletssending them to heaven. (An amuck Moro secularly slayed non-Christians, even his kin.)
Gen. Franklin Bell, supreme commander in the Philippines, told Pershing to feel free to pursue the British armys anti-Muslim tactic in India by burying a piga detested, impure animal to Islam In a mass grave of Islamic Moro terrorists. Bell promised him support if this would cause a humanitarian outcry from the States.
Pershing noted, The Juramentado attacks were materially reduced by a practice the army had already adopted; [their dead] bodies were publicly buried in the same grave with a dead pig which the Mohammedans held in abhorrence the prospect of going to hell instead of [to] heaven sometimes deterred the would-be assassins.
Broadly he realized that total Moro disarmament was the answer if all of Moroland was to become truly pacified.
On Sept. 8, 1911, he issued Executive Order No. 24, making it illegal for any person to have firearms or edged weapons (longer than 15 inches). The Moros turned in some weapons (while caching others), but when U.S army camps on Jolo were attacked, leaving one dead soldier and three wounded, Pershing launched a military expedition against the Taglibi Moro cotta on their sacred volcanic peak, Bud (Mount) Dajo, stating his resolve I shall lose as few men and kill as few Moros as possible. (Pershing thought of Moros as his children.)
Three hundred yards from the summit, Pershing established an encircling siege line, while he stealthily deployed a unit of allied Moro Scouts to seize the crater, isolating the Taglibi cotta just below. The isolated Moros surrendered, including their rifles and slashing weapons. Pershings was a bloodlessly masterful victory.
In 1913, a sequel was fought against final Moro resistance on Bud Bagsak volcano. Dodging arrows and spears, Pershing inspired his combined U.S.-Moro (Scouts) force, taking a Moro cotta 1,990 feet above sea level. Of 500 Moros killed, 450 were Lati Ward Moro warriors, the rest women and children.
Farming replaced fighting. Pershing continued the construction of 500 miles of roads, 200 miles of telephone lines, and 37 dispersed at cost medical stations for the Mindanao and Jolo Moros.
His fond memories of being quartered with his family at Zamboanga over, Pershing, now replaced by a civilian leader, sailed for San Francisco on Dec. 15, 1913. He went on to become famous leading an American expedition against Pancho Villa in Mexico in 1916 and commanding U.S. forces in Europe during the Great War.
In 1944, a Jolo sultan greeted arriving U.S. officers in the Philippines, claiming to have acquiesced to Pershing when he was a young warrior in 1905. Steadfastly loyal to America, he had fought Japanese aggression.
To the Moros, Gen. Pershing was also Datu Pershing.
Editor's Note: This item was modified from its original name to correct the name of Col. Frank Baldwin and to correct the spelling of Bacolod.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 01:33:05|Editor: yan
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ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian President Mulatu Teshome on Friday called on Ethiopians to ensure the country's renaissance during a New Year message delivered to the nation.
The president made the remark while announcing the launch of 10-day events to usher in the upcoming Ethiopian New Year, which starts on September 11, 2017.
The events include Love Day, Mothers' and Children's Day, Elders' Day, Peace Day, Reading Day, Green Development Day, Respect Day, National Feelings Day, Unity Day and Ethiopia Day.
President Teshome said the various events will be used to highlight the East African nation's significant gains in the socio-economic and political sectors over the past decade.
However, he admitted poverty, unemployment and El Nino-induced drought were some of the challenges that the nation faced in the past and will continue to face in the New Year.
Ethiopia has a unique calendar deriving from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church traditions whereby the country counts its annual year seven to eight years behind the internationally used Gregorian calendar. Based on this, the Ethiopian New Year that falls on September 11, 2017 will be 2010.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 02:08:21|Editor: yan
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DAR ES SALAAM, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The government of Tanzania said on Friday it has already verified 2,363 out of 8,500 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and announced an extension of authentication for another two weeks.
Last month the Tanzanian government announced a 14-day verification of the NGOs and suspension of registration of new NGOs until November 30.
Sihaba Nkinga, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, told a meeting of representatives of NGOs and the media in the political capital Dodoma that a lot of success had been achieved in the process.
"The turn-out for verification is very huge and the government has seen it wise to extend the September 4 deadline to September 20 to allow more time for the exercise," she said, adding that after the new deadline there would be no further extension.
Nkinga said any NGO that failed to comply or did not cooperate in the exercise would be deregistered, insisting that the aim was to know where the NGOs were and what they were doing.
The NGOs were required to submit original and photocopies of the registration certificate, receipts of annual membership fees or bank slips of the same payment since registration of the organization.
They were also required to submit a letter from the regional, district or municipal development officers confirming the existence of the organization and a copy of the NGO's constitution, certified by the registrar of NGOs.
Nkinga said registration of NGOs under the NGOs Act number 24 of 2002 started in 2005 and up to July 2017, there were 8,316 such institutions registered in different parts of the country.
Their duties cut across different issues and groups of people, such as health, education, environment, gender, agriculture, good governance and human rights, said Nkinga.
Ismail Suleiman, the Secretary of the National Council of NGOs (NACONGO), said his organization fully supported the ongoing verification aimed at improving their operations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 02:48:32|Editor: yan
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and U.S. researchers said Friday they designed a new form of electronic devices that can degrade and physically disappear when they absorb moisture in the air.
Such devices, known as transient electronics, could have a wide range of applications, from eco-friendly disposable electronics and sensors to weapons and explosives that function only temporarily, according to their study published in the U.S. journal Science Advances.
"Most of the transient processes reported so far only occur in aqueous solutions or biofluids," co-corresponding author Hangxun Xu, professor of the University of Science and Technology of China, told Xinhua. "The degradation of our transient electronics is triggered by water molecules in the environment, which is more controllable."
The trick in creating moisture-triggered transient devices was in integrating electronic components onto a film made of the degradable polymer polyanhydride, Xu said.
The devices can maintain stable operation until moisture in the air initiated a process called hydrolysis, which activated corrosive organic acids to digest all electronic elements, including metal electrodes, metal oxide dielectrics and semiconductors, he said.
What's more important, the lifetime of the devices can be precisely controlled by varying humidity levels in the surrounding environment or by changing their compositions, said Xu.
"The transience time scale can be tuned from a few days to several weeks, or longer, if needed," he said.
In order to illustrate the concept and verify the feasibility of this design strategy, various transient devices, ranging from passive electronics such as antenna, resistor and capacitor to active electronics such as transistor, diodes, optoelectronics and memories have been developed.
"We expect that this triggered transient mode can be applicable for temporal medical implants, disposable environmental sensors, data-secure hardware systems and moisture detection devices in the future," Xu said.
The study was jointly led by Assistant Professor Cunjiang Yu of the University of Houston, and also included Professor Xue Feng of Tsinghua University in China.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 03:13:41|Editor: Song Lifang
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by Xinhua writers Gu Zhenqiu, Gui Tao
LONDON, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May has already stirred up new concerns as she headed for home on Friday, wrapping up her three-day Japan tour.
At the time when Downing Street needed to reassure East Asia post-Brexit certainty, it was instead signalling uncertainty.
On her trip to Japan, she agreed with her Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, to the deployment of HMS Argyll to the region next year as well as joint training exercises between troops of the two countries.
In her speech Thursday in Tokyo, May said, "We have highlighted our opposition to any actions on the South and East China Seas likely to increase tension."
People can not help but wondering: how come sending an aircraft carrier by an outsider to the region does not count as an action which "increases tension"?
The latest promise the British government made to Japan would end up further complicating the situation in the already troubled region and also inviting uncertainty to the country's relations with China.
The British government's latest decision could be viewed as another expression of its stubborn determination to meddle in disputes involving China.
Earlier, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson claimed Britain would send its new aircraft carriers "on a freedom of navigation operation" in the South China Sea. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon echoed that London "won't be constrained by China from sailing through the region."
The way the May cabinet woos Japan has created an awkward situation. While it was attempting to demonstrate its closeness to Japan, a major investor in Britain, UK irritated China, an equally and increasingly more important partner.
In the name of security cooperation, Tokyo and London are joining hands. But their cooperation will only lead to some insecurity in the region, simply because this kind of collaboration is not constructive at all.
By doing so, Japan is inviting an outside military force to intervene in the region, which is more of a provocation than cooperation.
In essence, the bilateral cooperation should not be at the cost of sacrificing the security of a third country, in this case China. Otherwise, it can only backfire.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 03:18:43|Editor: yan
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by Maria Spiliopoulou
ATHENS, Sept. 1 (Xinhua)-- More than 18,500 refugees have been relocated from Greece to other EU members from October 2015 to August 27, 2017, Greek national news agency AMNA reported on Friday, citing data by the Greek Asylum Service.
At least 27,378 relocation requests have been submitted by refugees to the service in this period. The 24,749 bids have already been forwarded to other European countries and 22,288 have been accepted, 1,164 have been rejected, while the rest are pending, the data showed.
Most asylum seekers have been accepted in Germany (4,175), France (3,770), the Netherlands (1,595) and Sweden (1,231), while Austria, Hungary and Poland have not accepted any application for relocation, AMNA said citing the Greek Asylum Service.
Greece has been at the forefront of the refugee crisis since early 2015. More than one million refugees and migrants have landed on the country's shores in the past two years, seeking safety and a better future in central and northern Europe.
After the closure of borders along the Balkan corridor in winter 2016, more than 60,000 refugees and migrants have been stranded in Greece.
In autumn 2015, European counterparts pledged to ease the burden from Greece and Italy, but due to a series of obstacles, the targets of the relocation program have still not been met.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 03:18:44|Editor: yan
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UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday expressed deep concern over reports of excessive use of force during operations conducted by Myanmar's security forces in Rakhine State and urged restraint and calm to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe.
The Myanmar crackdown came after last week's attacks on Myanmar security forces by Rohingyas, a Muslim ethnic minority living in the western coast of the Buddhist nation.
"The secretary-general underlines the responsibility of the government of Myanmar to provide security and assistance to all those in need and to enable the United Nations and its partners to extend the humanitarian support they are ready to provide," said a statement issued by Guterres' associate spokesperson, Eri Kaneko.
He also urged the Myanmar government to implement the recommendations of a report by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Anna, which warned of the danger of inter-communal violence in Rakhine right before the Aug. 25 attacks.
"The current situation underlines the urgency of seeking holistic approaches to addressing the complex root causes of violence," said Guterres. In earlier statements, he mentioned the issue of citizenship for Rohingyas. The Myanmar government regards Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.
Guterres appreciated the efforts of the Bangladeshi authorities and communities to meet the dire needs of Rohinya refugees from Myanmar. He encouraged the Bangladeshi government to ensure that the refugees have access to support of the United Nations.
A journalist films inside a so called experimenting hut (Experimentier-Huette) prior to the official inauguration ceremony of the XFEL international research facility in Schenefeld near Hamburg on Sept. 1, 2017. (AFP PHOTO/TOBIAS SCHWARZ)
BERLIN, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- The world's largest and most powerful X-ray laser, European XFEL (X-Ray free-electron laser), was officially inaugurated on Friday in northern German city of Hamburg.
The 3.4km-long European XFEL generates extremely intense X-ray flashes to be used by researchers from all over the world, promising breakthroughs in medicine, biology, chemistry, energy and information technology, according to its official website.
The flashes are produced in underground tunnels, and will allow scientists to map atomic details of viruses, film chemical reactions, and study the processes in the interior of planets.
The European XFEL produces extremely bright and ultra-short light pulses. The facility will generate up to 27,000 pulses per second which is 200 times more than other X-ray lasers.
With the help of specialised instruments, these X-rays enable completely new insights into the atomic details and extremely fast processes of the nano world.
Scientists will use these X-ray flashes to, for example, map the three-dimensional structure of biomolecules and other biological particles, and do so faster and with greater details than has ever been possible, the website said.
Furthermore, single snapshots of particles produced with the X-ray laser can be drawn together to create "molecular movies" to study the progress of biochemical and chemical reactions.
Other applications include material science with the development of new materials and substances, and optimisation of storage media for computers, among other fields.
Researchers from around the world can apply for access to experiments at the facility, and the first user experiments at the facility will begin in mid-September.
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin speaks during their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / SPUTNIK / Mikhail KLIMENTIEV)
By Matthew Rusling
WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Thursday's closure of the Russian Consulate in the U.S. city of San Francisco is the latest event in the ongoing sour relationship between the United States and Russia.
On Thursday the U.S. ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco, as well as diplomatic annexes in New York and Washington, in retaliation for Russia's order that the United States slash staff at its Moscow embassy.
These instances are the latest in a string of jabs between the two countries, whose relationship is at a low perhaps not seen since the Cold War, according to analysts. While ties between the two countries have certainly not worsened to the level they were before the fall of the Berlin Wall, they are not expected to improve anytime soon.
Poor relations are the result of ongoing disagreements involving the war in Syria, the conflict in Ukraine, and U.S. accusations that the Kremlin meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, a charge Russia strongly denies.
While Russia's response to Thursday's closure was measured, the situation could escalate going forward, if each side continues to shift the blame toward the other, analysts said.
"The consulate closing will chill U.S.-Russia relations. Each side will continue to retaliate and blame the other for starting the problem," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.
"The situation could escalate and become problematic for both countries. If we are lucky, cooler heads will prevail and keep the escalations to a minimum," West said.
The United States slapped a new round of sanctions on Russia last month, worsening a relationship that had already been tense. The new U.S. sanctions, passed with bipartisan, veto-proof majorities in Congress, underscore that lawmakers believe the U.S. cannot work with Russia, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's hopes several months ago that the two could partner on a number of issues, analysts said.
Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation, told Xinhua that relations, currently poor, are set to get even worse, adding that he believes that U.S. policy on Russia is heading only in one direction, and that is an increasing toughening of the U.S. position.
It had been President Trump's hope that Russia would work with the United States on defeating terror group Islamic State, which had overrun vast swathes in the Middle East, although the radicals are now on the defensive.
The New York billionaire had previously wanted to work with the Kremlin in a bid to end the conflict in Syria, and had vowed during his campaign to improve ties with Moscow.
The worsening of ties could lead to even more sanctions in the future, as well as closer U.S. relations with other nations in the region, analysts said, which could manifest itself in sending defensive weaponry to the Ukraine, some analysts said.
Some analysts also believe worsening U.S.-Russia ties will lead to an increased U.S. military presence in Eastern Europe, such as the Baltic States and Poland, as well as further deployment of U.S. strategic bombers to Europe, especially to the UK, as a warning to Moscow.
"With such provocative actions, the U.S. continues to burden the already difficult atmosphere of the bilateral dialogue, undermining opportunities for cooperation, including in the interests of solving pressing international problems," Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 07:20:03|Editor: An
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SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Researchers at two U.S. universities have found that bacteria can act as an aphrodisiac for one-celled marine organisms notable for being the closest living relatives of all animals.
The organisms, protists called choanoflagellates, or choanos, eat bacteria and serve as a source of food for small ocean animals like krill.
Detailed in a paper pubilished this week in the journal Cell, the discovery was the first known example of bacteria triggering mating in a eukaryote, a group that includes all plants and animals.
Five years ago, the lab of Nicole King, a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, discovered that marine bacterium Algoriphagus machipongonensis makes the choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta, or S. rosetta, form colonies reminiscent of an animal embryo.
The multicellular colonies do not involve mating, but could help the organism more efficiently harvest bacterial food from the environment.
In the new study, by researchers at King's lab and those at the lab of Jon Clardy at Harvard Medical School, the bioluminescent marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri triggers the S. rosetta to swarm and mate.
Results from the study show that Vibrio bacteria elicit a rapid response, with large percentages of cells mating within hours.
The researchers was able to track down the trigger - a protein constantly secreted by the bacteria, which they dubbed EroS, and found that EroS is a chondroitinase, an enzyme that degrades a specific type of sulfated molecule found in the extracellular matrix of S. rosetta that was previously thought to be exclusive to animals.
In addition, they found that if this enzymatic function was inhibited, swarming did not occur, and that chondroitinases from other aquatic bacteria reproduced the aphrodisiacal effects.
"Choanoflagellates have a lot of flexibility in their life history. They can go on and on being asexual, but now we've found that they can also be sexual, and that the switch to sexuality is induced by a bacterial cue within an hour after exposure," King was quoted as explaining in a news release from UC Berkeley on Friday.
The discovery suggests that other creatures, including some that have been difficult to study in the lab because they fail to mate, may need a little bacterial aphrodisiac to get it on. "One possibility is that these animals need particular cues from environmental bacteria that are not being provided in the lab," King said.
As for implications for animals like humans and their bacterial partners, the so-called microbiome, she noted, adding "we hope that by studying choanos, which are really simple, that we can identify key molecules and then go into the more complex environment of the gut microbiome, for instance, and see whether some of these molecules matter in that context as well."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 07:39:38|Editor: An
A car is damaged during the collapse of a garbage landfill in suburb of New Delhi, India on Sept. 1, 2017. A landfill in Indian capital city of New Delhi caved on Friday, killing two and trapping several others, officials said. (Xinhua/Stringer)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 11:20:44|Editor: Mengjie
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VIENTIANE, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Lao Minister of Public Works and Transport Bounchanh Sinthavong has witnessed "Chinese speed" at the construction of the China-Laos railway during a recent inspection visit.
The project management department of China Railway No. 5 Group Co. Ltd told Xinhua on Saturday that it has been the second visit by Bounchanh to the site of the construction.
During his visit last Wednesday, the minister learned about the construction situation of railway tunnels as well as the compensation for land acquisition and difficulties faced during the construction process.
Minister Bounchanh expressed his satisfaction over the quality, progress and safety of the project.
Talking with project manager Zhou Xiaoxia, the minister said: "At my first visit here, the section I construction site of China Railway No. 5 Group Co. Ltd, a cave was just being digged for tunnel construction. But only five months after that, as many as 5,000 meters of the tunnel have been completed. I have witnessed the real 'Chinese speed,' while site management is also really good. You are so great!"
The minister said that the Lao government attaches great importance to the construction of the railway and will create favorable conditions for the construction so as to boost interconnectivity between the two countries.
The China-Laos railway has a total length of 414.332 kilometers with over 62.7 percent being bridges and tunnels, linking Mohan-Boten border gate in northern Laos and capital Vientiane.
Operating speed on the route is designed at 160 km per hour.
The construction of the project is scheduled for five years with an investment of some 40 billion Chinese yuan (5.8 billion U.S. dollars), 70 percent of which comes from Chinese investment and the rest from the Lao side.
The China-Laos railway is the first overseas route connecting with the railway system in China, using Chinese technology, equipment and investment.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 13:20:59|Editor: Mengjie
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by Lidia Moise, Lin Huifen
BUCHAREST, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries attracted last year almost 4 million Chinese tourists, a boost due to the countries' abundant natural resources, special cultural flavor and high security level.
Experts say the Chinese tourists absorbed by the CEE countries are generally interested in Europe, but are reluctant to go to Western Europe because of recent terror attacks there.
It may be the case, but new visa policies, deepened tourism cooperation with China and better promoting campaigns also contribute to its success.
MORE CHINESE TOURISTS IN ROMANIA
Last year, Romania attracted 24.4 percent more Chinese tourists than in 2015, but the number is still far lower than the country's potential, Romanian Tourism Minister Mircea Titus Dobre told Xinhua.
"We simplified visa application procedures after we signed a protocol to enable Chinese tourists to get tourist group visas in two weeks," said the minister.
But a lack of direct flights between China and Romania and scant budgets for promoting Romanian tourism could explain why only 26,000 Chinese tourists visited the country in 2016, a figure accounting for only some 1.1 percent of the total number of international visitors.
Simplified visa procedures for organized Chinese groups could be an incentive to stimulate their trips to Romania, but it still may not be enough, so free visa application seems to be the next step.
A study of the Chinese travel services provider Ctrip noted that "an increasing number of Chinese choose their travel destinations at the last minute."
The trend has prompted around 60 countries to adopt a visa-free policy toward China, whereas other countries like the Unites States allow for a 10-year visitor visa, said the study.
SERBIA'S FREE-VISA POLICY ATTRACTS CHINESE VISITORS
Serbia was the first CEE country to waive visa application requirements for Chinese tourists. A visa-free deal between Serbia and China came into force in January, just in time to benefit from the Chinese New Year travel spree.
According to European Travel Commission (ETC), based on data of February, Serbia was the destination for the largest growing number of Chinese tourists with a 104.8-percent boost.
CHINESE SPENDING FOUR TIMES MORE MONEY THAN OTHERS IN POLAND
The ETC report revealed that the Chinese market is the world's leading outbound market, and that Chinese tourists spend more when travelling than the average tourists from the rest of the world.
According to the World Tourism Organization, Chinese spent 12 percent more on tourism abroad in 2016 than in the previous year.
According to Polish authorities, Chinese tourists spend over four times more money than the average amount.
Polish Radio quoted Karolina Dawidziuk, spokeswoman for Poland's Central Statistical Office (GUS), as saying that last year average Chinese tourists spend more than 7,800 zloty (2,175 U.S. dollars) in Poland. On average, "every foreign tourist spends 1,800 zloty (502 U.S. dollars) in this country," she added.
CHINESE TOURISTS INCREASE IN HUNGARY
Last year, Hungary received more than 170,000 Chinese tourists, a 35.7-percent rise compared to that in 2015, according to the Hungarian Tourism Agency.
Chinese visitors account for as much as 3.3 percent of last year's total international arrivals, which stood at 5.3 million.
The China-CEE Tourism Coordination Center (TCC), established in May 2014 in Budapest, played an important role in luring more Chinese tourists to Hungary.
MORE CHINESE VISITORS IN CZECH REPUBLIC
Last year, Czech hotels attracted 354,700 Chinese tourists, a 52.9-percent increase than in 2015, according to the country's statistic institute.
Lying in the heart of Europe, the country attracted 7.1 million foreign tourists last year, almost 5 percent of whom came from China.
The Bohemian city of Prague attracted the majority of the Chinese visitors.
SLOVAKIA ATTRACTING MORE CHINESE VISITORS
Although Slovakia is a small country, its castles, towns and mountains saw a rebound in tourism arrivals last year, to a record of over 5 million. Extensive international media coverage of the country's presiding of the EU Council in the second half of 2016 could be part of the reason why the number of tourists soared.
Foreign visitors rose by 17.8 percent in 2016 from the previous year to 2.02 million, and the number of Chinese tourists rose by 46.8 percent to over 41,300 visitors from 28,100, according to stakeholders' statistics.
GOOD POLICIES HELPING CEE ATTRACT MORE CHINESE TOURISTS
The European Travel Commission's latest report suggests that the number of Chinese tourists will grow from 3.9 million tourists in 2016 at an annual rate of 7.9 percent in the next five years.
"China's economic growth is expected to remain stable, as it continues to adopt proactive fiscal policies," said the ETC report.
Apart from simplifying visa application procedures and establishing direct flights with Chinese cities to reduce travel fees, CEE countries should also enhance the region's attraction for Chinese tourists, including opening up the tourism industry to Chinese investment, said Romania's tourism minister.
"Romania's Ministry of Tourism will continue to develop good relations with China. We will also encourage further cooperation with Chinese partners in tourism investments, as our country has inestimable opportunities to capitalize on the tourism potential," he added
The regional countries' participation in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative helps them lure more Chinese tourists. Experts say more Chinese-tailored tourism products need to be developed to attract an increasing number of Chinese tourists.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 13:21:00|Editor: Yamei
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MEXICO CITY, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Representatives from Mexico, Canada and the United States met on Friday to begin the second round of negotiations to revise the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The closed-door meeting at the Hyatt Regency Hotel of Mexico City was expected to tackle such issues as rules of origin, the opening up of markets, environment, e-commerce, transparency and corruption, among others, according to sources close to the talks.
Salvador Behar Lavalle, Mexico's deputy chief negotiator, told reporters he couldn't say how long the negotiations would last.
Sources told Xinhua that parallel to the closed-door gathering, Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo will be meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland to issue a joint statement.
Mexico has a lot riding on the talks and leaders of its different business and productive sectors are serving as advisers to the government negotiating team.
"The private sector is united and organized, which allows us to discuss any topic with the negotiating team efficiently and allows Mexico to react as a country firmly and swiftly," said Juan Pablo Castanon, president of the Business Coordinating Council.
The negotiations are expected to run till at least the end of this year, though there are always possibilities the United States may withdraw from the talks if it feels it is not getting what it wants.
U.S. President Donald Trump insisted the agreement be renegotiated, claiming it unfairly benefited Mexico at the expense of U.S. industries and jobs.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 13:26:03|Editor: An
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KATHMANDU, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Nepalese government on Friday signed the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) for 2018-2022, which lays out the development strategy for the next five years.
The agreement was signed here between the government's planning body National Planning Commission and the UN country team in Nepal.
In a statement, the UN country team in Nepal said the 635-million-U.S.-dollar package involving 26 individual UN agencies is aimed at assisting Nepal in four areas.
The areas include inclusive economic growth, social development, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
Nepal has expressed high hope that the assistance framework will contribute to achieving Agenda 2030 for sustainable development.
"We are pleased to be signing this framework with the United Nations in Nepal. It is broadly aligned with our national priorities as envisioned by the government of Nepal," Chairman of the National Planning Commission Swarnim Wagle said in the statement.
At the signing ceremony, United Nations Resident Coordinator Valerie Julliand said the UNDAF shows what the UN can achieve when it works together across agencies and mandates.
"The strong alignment of the UNDAF with the national plans, international conventions, and the constitution of Nepal provide the foundation to support the government of Nepal's efforts in ensuring that 'no one is left behind' as laid out in the Sustainable Development Goals," Julliand said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 13:35:26|Editor: Yang Yi
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(Source: Xinhua)
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Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 14:26:11|Editor: An
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NEW DELHI, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Switzerland has committed support to India's fight against black money through exchange of information.
"India is a good friend. In these seven decades, we have listened to each other, given advice, and learned from each other. This is the foundation on which a relationship stands today," visiting Swiss President Doris Leuthard said.
"Switzerland is committed to supporting India's fight against black money through exchange of related information and this year we await the approval in our Parliament," she said, while speaking at a function in the Swiss embassy in the Indian capital Friday night.
The Swiss president, who is on a four-day state visit to India, had earlier met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a wide range of bilateral and global issues.
India wants information from Switzerland about black money stashed away by Indians in Swiss banks.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 14:41:13|Editor: Mengjie
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GENEVA, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- For the five members of BRICS, if the first 10 years were about cooperation, the next decade will be about deepening those ties and shaping their direction, Arancha Gonzalez, executive director of the International Trade Centre (ITC), has said.
In an interview with Xinhua before the ninth BRICS Summit to be held in the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen on Sept. 3-5 with a theme of "Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future," Gonzalez said BRICS' success lies in its ability to foster cooperation between its members -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
"The most important achievement of BRICS is that they have been able to build the coalition of countries, develop it and keep it together," she said.
The initial work was centered on learning to work together, focusing on boosting the economy, and building consensuses among the five countries that account for 40 percent of the world's population and 23 percent of its gross domestic product, Gonzalez said.
"The first years were about setting the foundations," said the ITC head. "The next 10 years have to be about deepening the foundation, and they have to deepen this cooperation in two different directions."
During the first 10 years, "the potential that exists within the BRICS group" was fully explored, she said.
"If we look at trade, the potential is enormous, but the trade figures are rather low and the investment figures are low, too. They need to deepen their own intra-BRICS relationship in trade, in investment, in innovation and in development," said Gonzalez.
In the second 10 years, they will throw "their weight to build a greater consensus internally on issues that matter," she said.
Gonzalez noted that BRICS countries are heterogeneous in their economies, saying they will "need to drill into very specific areas."
In 2001, China's GDP was equal to all the other members of BRICS combined and today it is two thirds of their GDP, she said.
Despite the difference, BRICS countries "have a desire to have a say in international affairs," she said, adding that all BRICS members need to overcome their weaknesses in economy to ensure a healthy economic growth in the bloc.
According to her, BRICS countries need to focus on domestic development as well as cooperation among themselves.
The role of BRICS in global governance is important as the group has both "economic and political clout," Gonzalez said.
This will especially be the case if the BRICS nations manage to do things together in areas of super-national dimensions, she added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 14:46:15|Editor: An
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump plans to nominate House Representative Jim Bridenstine to head the country's space agency NASA, the White House said Friday.
Bridenstine was elected to Congress in 2012, serving on the House Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee.
Bridenstine was also a former Navy pilot flying the E-2C Hawkeye off the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, and it was there that he flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bridenstine, a Trump supporter, reportedly emerged as a favorite for NASA administrator immediately after Trump won the presidential election last November.
The Oklahoma congressman has called for a human return to the Moon before NASA embarks on a mission to Mars.
Currently, NASA is led by its acting administrator, Robert Lightfoot, who has been in that position for more than seven months, the longest time the space agency has been led by an acting chief in its history.
"I am pleased to have Rep. Bridenstine nominated to lead our team," Lightfoot said in a statement.
"Of course, the nomination must go through the Senate confirmation process, but I look forward to ensuring a smooth transition and sharing the great work the NASA team is doing," he added.
Scott Holt(HOUSTON) -- A girl in Texas had a heartfelt reminder for her police officer father who was headed to help those affected by Hurricane Harvey.
"Dear Daddy," Makenna Holt's letter began, "I hope you don't get hurt, but I hope you help other people that need it more than you do. I hope no one gets hurt more. I hope everyone gets away the hurricane. I love you!"
Scott Holt, who's been an officer for 22 years, told ABC News he saw his daughter's note Monday morning in their kitchen as he was headed to work.
The Waco Police Department commander admitted that he didn't have a chance to read the note until about an hour after hed left for work.
"This is something that she often does, so I just grabbed it and took it with me," he said of the note.
Scott Holt
When Commander Holt did eventually read the letter he recalled telling himself, "Typical Makenna!" He added that his daughter has a "huge heart."
"In her 12 years of life, we've been through a lot, so she's getting to the age where she has her own level of understanding," he said, noting that the police department recently said goodbye to a fellow officer who was killed on duty.
Holt said he still has his daughter's note, which was shared on the police department's Facebook page.
Sgt. Patrick Swanton added in a caption: "As our off-duty officers head into harms way to help with Hurricane Harvey rescues, we thought we'd share with you one of their family members thoughts."
Copyright 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 15:01:20|Editor: ying
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TALUQAN, Afghanistan, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Security forces repulsed Taliban attacks on Yangi Qala district in the northern Afghan province of Takhar, forcing militants to flee after leaving six bodies behind on Saturday, police said.
A group of Taliban militants stormed checkpoints in the outskirts of Yangi Qala district in the wee hours of Saturday to overrun the district headquarters, but they were beaten due to the quick response of the police forces stationed around, police spokesman in the province Abdul Khalil Asir said.
The militants fled after leaving six bodies behind, he said.
Taliban militants are yet to make comment.
The relatively volatile Takhar province has Taluqan as its capital, which is located 245 km north of Kabul.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 15:26:27|Editor: ying
Local Chinese fishing club members finish the rescue in Houston, the United States, Aug. 31, 2017. When the most powerful hurricane in decades slammed southeast Texas and brought heavy flooding to the area, 47-year-old Gao Mingjiang and his friends in a local Chinese fishing club found a better way to use their boat -- rescuing people who were trapped in waters. (Xinhua/Liu Liwei)
by Li Ming, Gao Lu
HOUSTON, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- When the most powerful hurricane in decades slammed southeast Texas and brought heavy flooding to the area, 47-year-old Gao Mingjiang and his friends in a local Chinese fishing club found a better way to use their boat -- rescuing people who were trapped in waters.
Four days after Hurricane Harvey made landfall on costal Texas in southeast Unites States on Aug. 25, the hurricane downgraded to tropical storm and dumped nearly 50 inches (127 cm) of rain in and around Houston in southeast Texas.
It was then that Gao and his neighbors in Sugar Land, a small city 20 miles (32 km) from downtown Houston, were asked for a mandatory evacuation from their homes by local authorities.
As a semi-pro fisherman, Gao quickly removed his family away from their flooded house in a boat with the help of his friend Zhao Kai, a 29-year-old man who also belongs to the local Chinese fishing club called Sugar Land fishing group.
The minute Gao and Zhao settled their families down together in a friend's house, they made a decision to form a rescue team and use their boat to save more people.
After publishing their address and contact information online, Gao and Zhao received dozens of anxious calls from people in the same area who were stranded at flooded homes.
"It was getting dark, we told them to stay on the second floor and promised to get them early in the morning," Gao recalled.
The two friends set off in dawn and heavy rain on Aug. 30. After using a pickup to carry the boat to the edge of the water, they jumped into the muddy flood waters and pushed the boat into a deeper region. They climbed back to the boat and began their search.
"You have to be very careful. Everything was under water, roads, trees, fire hydrants. The boat could easily bump into an object and break the engine," Zhao told Xinhua, saying it took them hours to find a targeted house.
After nine hours' non-stop work, they managed to evacuate nearly 40 people that day.
Gao and Zhao are among many local Chinese who have taken actions to help rescue others in the hurricane.
According to Shi Xiangmi, a volunteer who helped to publish rescue information, there were more than 1,000 Chinese rescue volunteers in Sugar Land alone.
In online groups called "Houston Rescue" and "Sugar Land Chinese," thousands of people were exchanging rescue information and offering help in ways of providing boat, pickup, labor or money.h "Altogether we rescued thousands of evacuees in the water," Shi said.
The rescue teams of local Chinese community played a major role in saving people before the police and U.S. military showed up for help a day after, according to Shi.
When asked if they only rescue Chinese, Gao shook his head firmly, adding that "regardless Chinese or American, Indian or Mexican, we would save whoever needed help."
After evacuating an old white lady into a safe spot, they got a hug from the lady, with tears in her eyes, Gao recalled.
"At that moment, I felt all the efforts paid off," Gao said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 15:26:28|Editor: ying
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YANGON, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- About 11,720 ethnic people from villages affected by terrorist attacks have been evacuated to safer places in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state, the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Saturday.
From Aug. 25 to 31, more than 52 terrorist attacks were launched by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) extremist terrorists, leaving 13 security forces members killed and 15 injured, the report said.
A total of 370 dead bodies of terrorists were also claimed.
Over 2,625 houses from Kotankauk, Myinlut and Kyikanpyi villages and two wards in Maungtaw were also burnt down by the extremist terrorists.
A total of 14 civilians including seven Hindu people were also killed while fleeing the attacks.
About 38,000 Muslims from Rakhine state have fled toward the Bangladesh border, the report said.
Myanmar government announced Thursday that an investigation will be made after aid was discovered from international non-governmental organizations to the hideouts of ARSA extremist terrorists.
Extremist terrorists launched renewed attacks on 30 police outposts in Rakhine State on Aug. 25. At present, the Myanmar military is carrying out clearance operations against ARSA extremists terrorists in the region.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 17:01:54|Editor: Yamei
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Photo taken on Aug. 31, 2017 show a logo sculpture of the 9th BRICS Summit at Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province. The 9th BRICS Summit will be held in Xiamen on Sept. 3-5. (Xinhua/Wei Peiquan)
XIAMEN, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Entering its second decade, the BRICS emerging-market bloc is shining even more brightly as its five members have been cementing cooperation, building mutual trust and seeking mutual benefits.
The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will meet at the ninth BRICS summit, scheduled for Sept. 3-5 in China's southeastern city of Xiamen, Fujian Province.
As the five countries are in similar stages of development and confronted with similar challenges, effective exchanges have proven to be a strong boost to their economic and social development.
Since the mechanism came into being in 2006, they have improved macroeconomic policy coordination, promoted structural reform, infrastructure and taxation cooperation, and pushed forward progress in fiscal and financial domains.
The BRICS nations are now key players in the world economy and in global governance. Together, the five accounted for 23 percent of the 2016 global economy, almost double their share in 2006.
These countries have shown no fear of the lackluster world economy but demonstrated to the world what they can achieve more by staying united.
BRICS economies contributed more than half of world economic growth in the past 10 years, becoming the strongest engines of the global economy.
Although the mechanism has seen ups and downs over the past years and each member faces its own set of challenges, they are like five fingers: short and long when extended, but a powerful fist when clenched together.
The grouping, based neither on ideology nor geopolitics, is seen as a new and perhaps better form of global governance in which emerging markets play key roles.
China has also contributed "BRICS Plus" to the Xiamen summit, which will help strengthen cooperation between BRICS and other emerging markets and developing countries, bringing benefits to all.
Leaders from five other emerging markets and developing countries -- Egypt, Guinea, Mexico, Tajikistan and Thailand -- will attend the Dialogue of Emerging Markets and Developing Countries during the summit and engage in dialogue with the BRICS members.
As a multilateral cooperation mechanism without any developed countries, BRICS is bringing the almost silent developing nations into the center stage of global governance.
Coined by former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill in 2001, the term "BRIC" referred to Brazil, Russia, India and China, four emerging markets with fast growth and great potential. In 2010, South Africa joined the group, and the acronym was changed to BRICS.
In Chinese, BRICS is translated into four characters meaning "gold brick countries," partly to convey the meaning of their promising future.
In the second decade of BRICS, the "golden content" will continue to rise as long as the five economies enhance pragmatic cooperation to resolve differences, improve mutual trust and boost confidence under the mechanism.
With 44 percent of world population, BRICS members enjoy abundant natural and human resources, vast markets, huge growth potential and bright prospects from their policy coordination.
As leading forces of developing countries, they should continue to improve coordination and allow emerging-market economies and developing countries to play bigger roles in international affairs and contribute to building a robust and more balanced global economy.
Amid a sluggish global economic recovery and setbacks in globalization, the Xiamen summit is expected to put a new shine on emerging markets and developing countries and usher in its new golden decade.
Pessimists who predict a "fading shine" of BRICS will be disappointed again as "true gold fears no fire."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 18:17:15|Editor: Liangyu
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by Xinhua writers Wang Bowen, Liu Xue
JERUSALEM, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- China's initiatives aimed at breaking the protracted Israeli-Palestinian peace stalemate fuel hopes for a breakthrough, Israel's former Ambassador to China Matan Vilnai told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Vilnai was referring to China's interest in taking a bigger role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, with Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiling a four-point plan to push forward the peace talks deadlocked since 2014.
"It is good because it will be the first time that the Chinese (step in). It is good to have some new initiatives and new ideas," said Vilnai, who joined the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) after completing a four-year term as Israel's ambassador to China (2012-2016).
Vilnai, head of the INSS research program on Israel-China relations, said the mistrust between Israel and Palestine is too big a hurdle to leap over for the time being.
In his view, the lack of unified governance inside the Palestinian National Authority, the belief by some Arabs that Israel has no right to exist, and the ongoing attacks on Israelis, are among many issues that have increased the mistrust that dims the light of peace.
However, the initiatives by China, which has maintained friendly ties with both Israelis and Palestinians, fuel hopes for a possible breakthrough in the search for peace between the two sides, Vilnai said.
At a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Beijing in July, President Xi put forward a four-point plan for settling the Palestinian issue.
Xi said that China firmly advocates a political settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute based on the two-state solution, further coordinating the efforts of the international community and enhancing synergy of the peace efforts, and taking integrated measures to promote peace via development.
Specifically, the Chinese leader proposed hosting a peace symposium this year to be attended by both Israeli and Palestinian peace activists to contribute their wisdom to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Xi also proposed launching a tripartite dialogue mechanism among China, Palestine and Israel to promote major development projects of assisting the Palestinians.
Vilnai said he welcomes Xi's proposal to hold a symposium of peace activists from both Palestine and Israel to discuss how to solve the issue.
Gathering Israeli and Palestinian peace activists for a symposium can not only help China and the world at large know the complexity of the conflict, but also bring closer the two conflicting parties, Vilnai said.
Due to China's previous low-key profile on this issue, "the seminar is very important to show China's involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Vilnai pointed out.
"Public opinion is very important on this issue in Israel," he said, adding that China has to convince the Israelis that it can be a broker between Israelis and Palestinians.
While saying that mediating between the two sides can be unexpectedly challenging, Vilnai stressed that the symposium could be the first step in the long way to broker a peace deal based on the two-state solution.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 18:22:17|Editor: Yamei
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BEIJING, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- The 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress is expected to open on Oct. 18, where the new leadership for the next five-year term will be elected.
The congress is an important meeting to be held when China is striving towards achieving a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, and at a critical time in the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
The 19th CPC National Congress will analyze the present international and domestic situations, and draw out guidelines and policies that respond to the call of the times.
"Whether we can raise comprehensive, strategic and foresighted guidelines [at the congress] concerns the development of the causes of the Party and the nation, the destiny of socialism with Chinese characteristics as well as the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people," said President Xi Jinping, at a high-profile workshop in late July, which was regarded as setting the tone for the congress.
The CPC must explicitly declare "what banner to hold, what road to take, in what state of mind, what historic mission to shoulder and what target to achieve," said Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.
The answer was given at the tone-setting meeting. The Party will hold high the banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and have firm confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics to ensure the causes of the CPC and the nation are always advanced in the right direction.
At the congress, the Party's work over the past five years will also be reviewed.
Xi has hailed "the historic changes" in development over the past five "extraordinary" years, saying China's development is standing at a new historical starting point, and socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new development stage.
There is every reason to be confident about the country's growth. Last year, China contributed about 15 percent of global GDP, and GDP per capita reached 53,980 yuan (8,011 U.S. dollars).
Remarkable progress has been made in deepening reforms, enhancing the rule of law, improving the environment and building a strong army. The fight against corruption has also gained crushing momentum.
Such major achievements mean that after experiencing tribulations and hardships since modern times, China has made a historic leap from standing-up to becoming better-off to getting stronger.
Despite progress made in the past five years, the president repeatedly warned the Party against resting on its laurels, as the country still faces many daunting challenges, ranging from corruption to poverty and pollution.
China has set 2020 as the target year to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society, which requires the eradication of poverty.
To achieve this goal, it needs to lift more than 10 million people out of poverty every year.
However, it is the CPC's solemn promise to the people, and that promise must be kept, as it has been over the past decades.
Nigerian soldiers participate in an operation in Nigeria's northeastern state of Borno, March 16, 2016. (Xinhua/Wale Salau)
LAGOS, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Despite attacks on soft targets by Boko Haram militants in the restive northeast region, the Nigerian military has said its main thrust now is the decapitation of all the remaining terrorists' factions.
In a statement made available to Xinhua in Lagos Friday, the nation's economic hub, Nigeria's Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, lauded troops for neutralizing five top commanders of the Boko Haram terrorists.
"With this feat achieved, the relevance of Abubakar Shekau, self-styled leader of the Boko Haram sect is no longer of any consequence," Buratai said.
He expressed satisfaction with the zeal and determination of troops to capture the Boko Haram terrorists' factional leader, Abubakar Shekau, dead or alive, in line with his directive which is yet to be achieved.
The army chief, on July 21, gave the Theater Commander, Maj.-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, 40 days deadline to capture the terrorists' leader.
The deadline expired on Aug. 30.
Buratai said the five key leaders of the insurgents recently eliminated by the troops were the closest associates and right hand men of the terrorists' group leader.
"Within the same period, 82 of the Boko Haram terrorists were eliminated," he added, noting that the commander (of theater command) was very close to achieving the directive.
The army chief said the theater commander has asked for the extension of the deadline and it was granted.
"Given deadlines and extensions are strategic means of focusing troops' efforts in the theater," Buratai said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 18:47:30|Editor: Yamei
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Supporters of the opposition presidential candidate Raila Odinga celebrate after Supreme Court declared the Aug. 8 presidential election null and void, in Nairobi, Kenya, Sept. 1, 2017. Kenya's Supreme Court on Friday declared the Aug. 8 presidential election null and void and ordered a repeat of similar exercise within 60 days. Chief Justice and President of Supreme Court David Maraga said the election where the incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner had gross irregularities which affected the integrity of elections. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)
ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) has urged the people of Kenya to respect the judgment of the Supreme Court.
The Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, has taken note of the Judgment of Supreme Court of Kenya delivered on 1 Sept. 2017 nullifying the result of the presidential election held on 8 Aug. 2017 in the East African country.
The chairperson has further taken note of the order by the Supreme Court to hold fresh presidential election within a period of 60 days as per the Constitution, according to a statement of the Pan-African bloc on later Friday.
He has expressed his satisfaction that the candidates opted for legal recourse to the dispute arising from the election.
He recognizes that the judgment advances a culture of democracy and peace, constitutionalism and rule of law in Kenya and Africa in general as enshrined in the 2000 AU Constitutive Act and the 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.
The chairperson has called on all the people of Kenya to fully respect the decision of the Supreme Court and to maintain peace among themselves and, therefore, repeat what they did so admirably prior to, during and in the immediate aftermath of the elections of Aug. 8.
He has implored all candidates, political parties and coalitions to exercise their leadership to encourage their supporters and population as a whole to fully accept the judgment of the Supreme Court.
The chairperson has further urged all the stakeholders to cooperatively take all necessary measures with a view to ensuring the successful conduct of the fresh election.
The AU Commission, in collaboration with regional economic communities/regional mechanisms, will continue to closely monitor the electoral process with a view to ensuring that the will of the Kenyan people is fully respected, the statement read.
Source: Xinhuanet| 2017-09-02 19:13:12|Editor: Liangyu
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BEIJING, Sept. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- Themed event "Focus on China" was officially launched at the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Thursday, becoming one of the highlights of the festival.
As part of the official program of the film festival, the event aims to build the Belt and Road cultural exchange platform and to further international promotion of Chinese film industry.
Guided by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism, the Film Bureau of State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television of China and Electronic Information Department of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the event was co-launched by Xinhuanet and Italian Film Audiovisual and Multimedia Industries Association.
This year's event mainly consists of four parts: "Young filmmakers training program", "China Europe virtual reality technology forum", "China's most beautiful shooting locations" and "Sino-Foreign cooperation project roadshow".
By forums, roadshows, screenings and experience exchange, Chinese film talents, latest technology, shooting resources and concrete projects will be presented to the world participants.
The event will remarkably promote the influence of Chinese culture, strengthen China-Europe cultural exchange and build a China-Italy Belt and Road cultural exchange platform based on film industry culture.
The magazine Movie View, cooperative partner of this year's event, organized several exchange activities for filmmakers, including a master class on film making cooperation and a workshop on China's audiovisual market.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 19:27:40|Editor: ying
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BEAUMONT, Texas, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- "I only have what I have now," 61-year-old Dond Collins Sr., wearing a T-shirt, khakis pants and rubber roots, told Xinhua, pointing at his half-swamped house in suburban Port Arthur, an eastern Texas city bordering the state of Louisiana.
A week after Hurricane Harvey came ashore in southeast Texas, catastrophic flooding caused by record amount of rain is receding slowly in bordering areas between the two southern states.
Severe economic losses and tremendous mental trauma are nearly irreparable.
Collins Sr. broke the moment floodwaters pumped into his home, which was just renovated not long ago with his pension, but was not insured. His was one of hundreds of houses flooded Tuesday night in the neighborhood near a number of oil refineries.
"I have only 250 bucks for food, fuel and a place to stay in," said the retiree, concerned that he would probably have to sleep in his truck when the night falls.
Though the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers financial support to evacuees and others in need, Collins Sr. said the assistance requires an application first, but with his house in several feet of water, he has no computer to file the document.
"I wish there would somebody reach out to help," he said.
The meteorological disaster was weakened to a tropical depression the second time it made landfall Wednesday, but still brought about massive rain that led to catastrophic flooding, keeping most of the Beaumont-Port Arthur metropolitan area in rapid water flows for a time.
Despite that the heavily-clouded sky cleared up for the first time in a week, large swaths of highways cutting through the area were still covered by water, almost unpassable for small and even mid-sized vehicles.
Plastic bottles, trash, broken bushes, pieces of clothes and shoes were floating around water-buried communities. Cars parked in front of houses were only seen by their roofs and windows.
To locate those in need of evacuation or rescue, military and civilian helicopters were flying over the Beaumont-Port Arthur area while motor boats, steered by state police and volunteers, were whizzing on watercourses in flooded neighborhood.
However, due to the size of the affected areas and lack of systematic coordination between military and civilian assistance, there is considerable possibility that those who need help could not be seen, located, or reached out to in time.
Jeremy Augustine, a volunteer from Louisiana, told Xinhua that the situation in floodwaters is complicated in light of backwash, swirls, underwater barriers, floating objects, and many other unpredictable factors.
"The flooding is not receding but rising in Neches River in Beaumont," Augustine said. "It's hard to tell how things will be going in coming days."
Storm Harvey has so far displaced over 1 million people, killed at least 40, and damaged or destroyed over 100,000 homes, with an estimated 80 billion U.S. dollars in damage.
White House said Friday President Donald Trump has asked the Congress to approve a 7.9-billion-dollar request for initial payment for Harvey relief and recovery efforts.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott previously estimated that the lone star state could need more than 125 billion dollars from the federal government as it recovers from the devastating storm.
About 1,000 evacuees were temporarily relocated to Civic Center shelter in Lake Charles, a much less-affected Louisiana city about one-hour drive east of Beaumont.
The shelter provides three meals a day. Evacuees, still in distress, sleep in folding beds.
Kevin Richard, a volunteer, told Xinhua that most of the evacuees here came from southeast Texas and surrounding areas affected by flooding, and more are expected to arrive.
Recalling aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which almost destroyed New Orleans, Louisiana 12 years ago, Richard said residents displaced by Harvey could also ended up without a home to go back or a life to return to.
"I don't think their life would ever be back to normal after experiencing this," he said.
An Internally Displaced Person (IDP) carries a sack of maize flour donated by humanitarian organizations at Mahad Camp in central Juba, South Sudan, March 9, 2017. (Xinhua/Gale Julius)
ENTEBBE, Uganda, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization Jose Graziano da Silva has warned that there is increasing hunger in Africa due to factors including prolonged drought, floods and conflicts.
Graziano da Silva said this on Thursday while concluding a three day visit to Uganda where he held discussions with the government about advancing sustainable agriculture and strengthening collaboration and strategic partnership for a hunger-free country.
He told reporters here, 40 km south of the capital Kampala, that over the last three years hunger has increased in Africa and yet it is decreasing in other parts of the world.
He said the agency would in about two weeks announce new figures of the hunger situation.
Graziano da Silva was speaking after meeting Uganda's Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Vincent Bamulangaki Sempijja.
Sempijja said that although Uganda is not yet facing a food crisis, it faced a shock after it was invaded by the Fall Army Worms which destroyed crops, especially maize.
He said the attack came shortly after the country had undergone a prolonged dry spell which reduced production.
Sempijja added that the influx of South Sudan refugees into the country exerted more pressure on the food situation.
"We would be having a lot of food but we now have over 1.5 million refugees. This is a big challenge of top of challenges like drought," he said.
Since fighting broke out in South Sudan in late 2013, more than 1 million refugees have crossed into Uganda. Other refugees are from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi among others.
FAO earlier this year announced that in Africa, famine had broken out in Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan.
Last month, FAO and the World Food Program in a food security report said the rising violence and displacement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was pushing the country to near famine levels.
Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis said 7.7 million Congolese face acute hunger - a 30 percent increase over the last year.
To relieve the pressure on Uganda regarding the refugees, FAO said in the last several years it has implemented more than 3 million U.S. dollars' worth of projects to support the refugees in Uganda.
Some of the support includes providing them with locally-adapted and diversified seeds to grow quick-maturing, high-nutrient foods as well as with kits for livestock treatment, poultry production and micro-irrigation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 19:42:44|Editor: ying
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DUBAI, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced Saturday the arrest of two suspects and seizing of 4.2 million captagon tablets, state news agency WAM reported.
Abu Dhabi Police said the suspects, "both from Arab countries," were arrested while attempting to smuggle the drugs, which were hidden under seedlings on a farm.
The arrest took place upon information about the existence of the suspects, who were trying to promote captogon tablets for trafficking and selling, Taher Gharib Al-Dhaheri, director of the Police Anti-Narcotics Department.
WAM quoted Major General Maktoum Ali Al-Sharifi, director-general of Abu Dhabi Police, who lauded the efforts of anti-narcotics officers.
Al-Sharifi said that the result was "a painful blow to drug smugglers and dealers."
The two individuals were monitored until further investigations confirmed their intention to distribute the narcotics, Al-Dhaheri said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 20:28:00|Editor: ying
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ISLAMABAD, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Saturday welcomed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's statement that his country is ready for comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan.
President Ghani, in his message on the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Azha, said that peace with Pakistan is on his country's national agenda.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif hailed the Afghan president's remarks in a statement, saying that his country is willing to hold talks with Afghanistan in line with a bilateral mechanism.
"Pakistan's position in the context of Afghanistan is very clear. We want to see peace and stability in Afghanistan and for that Pakistan will contribute and play its due role in all the initiatives taken to that end," the foreign minister said in a statement.
He also said Pakistan and Afghanistan have already had bilateral, trilateral, quadrilateral and multilateral mechanisms for dialogue and interaction in place.
"Those mechanisms should be utilized to their full potential," he said.
Asif said that during previous interactions, both sides recognized the need for political to political, military to military and intelligence to intelligence cooperation.
Finland's biggest chain of department stores Stockmann agreed on Friday to install China's Alipay as one of its digital payment methods. Alipay was first introduced to the Nordic country in 2016. (Xinhua/Li Jizhi)
HELSINKI, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- Finland's biggest chain of department stores Stockmann agreed on Friday to install China's Alipay as one of its payment methods.
The move was considered a milestone for the Chinese mobile payment platform to be recognized in Europe.
The first sale ever done through Alipay at a Stockmann cashier desk was operated on Friday morning by the giant retailer's chief commercial officer Anna Salmi, who sold a pair of glass mugs to Yin Wei, chief financial officer of Finnish mobile payment company ePassi, Alipay's partner in Finland.
Yin spent a few seconds in scanning the barcode and confirming the payment before he took over the parcel from Salmi. "I hope this represents the future of payment method in Finland," he said.
Stockmann chief commercial officer Anna Salmi (right) shook hand with Risto Virkkala (left), CEO of Finnish mobile payment company ePassi, Finland's biggest mobile payment operator and Alipay's partner in Finland, on September 1, 2017. Alipay was first introduced to the Nordic country in 2016. (Xinhua/Li Jizhi)
As Yin explained, the money will be transferred in the background from the customer's Alipay account to ePassi and further to Stockmann.
Salmi said she was not surprised by the speed of the transaction, as she had seen it on internet before. What made her most excited was the fact that Alipay is much more than a payment method.
"For us it is part of the deal to help the customers with pre-know -- what's here, what we offer, what services that we have, hopefully at some stages even open a dialogue box where customers can get service," Salmi told Xinhua.
"It is about also managing the expectations, and getting those from the right level. (We) hopefully get some feedback as well through that channel. That will help us to develop our services to be more suitable for the Chinese tourists," she added.
The Chinese tourists have been the second biggest national group at Stockmann, following Finland's neighboring country Russia.
"With the speed that it has been growing, I think it's very meaningful for us, as Alipay is the key payment method for the Chinese tourists," said Salmi.
View of the Stockmann flagship department store in central Helsinki on September 1, 2017. Finland's biggest chain of department stores Stockmann agreed on Friday to install China's Alipay as one of its payment methods. The move was considered a milestone for the Chinese mobile payment platform to be recognized in Europe. (Xinhua/Li Jizhi)
Now that the new system is in place, an internal training for the employees to adapt to the payment method will be carried out soon. Salmi predicted the overall launch of Alipay in the flagship department store in central Helsinki would start in the middle of September.
An effort to expand the use of Alipay more widely to other Stockmann shops in Finland and in the Baltics is optional, according to Salmi.
In a country where bankcards have been available since 1980s, Finnish citizens have been relying on bank cards and the banks are backing this traditional payment heavily. The situation seems challenging for emerging mobile payment players.
"Only lately the mobile payment has become a general payment thanks to our cooperation with Alipay," said Risto Virkkala, CEO of ePassi, noting that the cooperation has had its merchant network expanded rapidly as well.
While the Western Europe is still relying on the old legacy, Chinese mobile payment ecosystem has been developed from scratch to become quite mature.
"China is way more advanced in mobile payments," said Virkkala. He told Xinhua that he believed "the approach is now coming to Europe."
With some 600,000 customers and 30 percent market share, ePassi has become the biggest mobile payment operator in Finland with a vision to expand to the whole Nordic area as well.
In collaboration with ePassi, Alipay was first introduced to Finland last year, and the business was highlighted by a launching ceremony of the Single's Day global online shopping festival in Rovaniemi, an arctic tourist destination in northern Finland.
Early this year, Finland's national carrier Finnair activated Alipay on its flight from Shanghai to Helsinki, becoming the first airline to offer the online payment system onboard.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 20:53:07|Editor: ying
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HELSINKI, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said on Saturday that Finland's security does not depend on the United States coming to rescue.
Niinisto made the remarks in an interview on national television Yle.
At a press conference on Tuesday in Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump in a response to a question described the closeness of the relationship between Finland and the United States and used the word protection.
Finland is not a member of NATO, but is one of the partners in enhanced cooperation with the alliance.
Niinisto said that that the same view of not relying on the U.S. is common elsewhere in Western Europe. "It looks like also in Europe the idea that security comes from NATO and the U.S. is being gradually given up, and Europe itself has to do something".
He said that Finland has luckily done a lot on its own.
Niinisto said an actual defense input from the European Union is "far ahead", but noted the importance of cooperation in the EU for purchase of equipment. He said European defense requires a lot of changes in attitudes and will proceed in small steps.
Niinisto said there is growing outside interest in the work of the Arctic Council. Niinisto said he has himself tried to instigate outside interest and mentioned China and Japan as countries keenly following the work.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 22:11:04|Editor: Liangyu
Women chop newly harvested chili peppers as they take part in a competition in the annual Chili Pepper Festival in Mahai Village of Longji Town, Multinational Autonomous County of Longsheng of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Sept. 2, 2017. The village celebrates chili pepper harvest in this time of the year by organizing games like pepper plucking, pepper chopping, chicken chasing and fishing etc.. (Xinhua/Wu Shengbin)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 22:03:26|Editor: ying
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TEHRAN, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Iran is taking initiatives to classify internet censorship under "age" and "occupation" within the next two to three months, Tehran Times daily reported on Saturday.
Currently, all users ranging from students to university professors, and journalists to doctors, are subjected to the same internet access restrictions, Iran's Information and Communications Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi was quoted as saying.
It is necessary to classify internet censorship in terms of age and job, the minister noted.
He elaborated further by saying that "once we block a news website for journalists we are actually persuading them to use VPNs to circumvent the bans."
Now that everyone is entitled to the same regulations, some perfectly legitimate requests, using some website depending on their jobs, of people are being ignored, he said.
The situation must be handled discreetly, and both Information and Communications Technology Ministry and the judiciary must take steps to classify the access based on each group's needs, he added.
"We have made some positive improvements so far and we hope to implement the new regulations within the next two to three months," he was quoted as saying.
Iran's Internet restrictions include blocking access to particular websites and services.
Besides, some official voices have called for the creation of a separate "Halal Internet," which would allow the contents devoid of offensive Islamic law, although the governments have faced problems to cope up with their ambitions to segregate Iranian users from those of the world.
High ranking officials have actively encouraged adoption of domestic sites for applications like blogging, email, and social media, however, many young people have preferred the use of similar services hosted abroad, which are more difficult to supervise.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 22:03:27|Editor: Liangyu
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BERLIN, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- IFA 2017, the world's leading trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances, lasts from Sept. 1 to 6 in the German capital city of Berlin, attracting more than 600 Chinese exhibitors.
At the same time, 2017 IFA China Brand Public Pavilion also opens its door since the first day of IFA, gathering in Haier, Hisense, Changhong, TCL, Gree, Midea, Galanz and many other China's top electronic home appliance brand.
The pavilion has been hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, and organized by its foreign trade development bureau and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME), aiming at promoting the overall image of China's electronic home appliances, displaying China's intelligent, environmentally friendly and innovative design products, so that more European consumers could learn more about Chinese brands.
Wang Guiqing, vice president of CCCME, said that after 30 years of efforts and development, China's electronics industry has been the world's largest electronics and home appliance manufacturing power for more than ten years.
China's electronics industry owns a strong manufacturing capacity and complete industrial chain and a high level of standardization, according to Wang.
A large number of Chinese companies have taken part in IFA 2017 with their latest product highlights and services. IFA has witnessed a fast growth of Chinese participants these years and Chinese brands have always been one of the most important elements at IFA, according to Jens Heithecker, IFA's Executive Director.
Sheng Sen, CBO of Chinese educational robot company Abilix, told Xinhua that his company has brought with products of high quality and technology to IFA. Abilix is confident to show European consumers China's educational robots and the strength of China's artificial intelligence brand.
"The European educational robot market oversee is maturer and the competition is very intense, but Abilix as a Chinese company is ready for challenges and ready to an eye-opener for European consumers," Sheng said.
German journalist Orleff said that the industry in China develops unbelievably quickly in last years, overtaking Japan. "Chinese products are very promising."
As one of the oldest industrial exhibitions in Germany since 1924, it has attracted 1,805 exhibitors from all over the world this year to the Berlin Exhibition Grounds.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 22:58:50|Editor: Song Lifang
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ADDIS ABABA, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- During a forum on youth innovation and creativity, which was held Tuesday in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, three young innovators, all aged 17, came to the podium and spoke to the audience that they aspire to put Ethiopia on the map of "technology countries".
As they spoke at the forum, they showcased some 30 inventions, which won applause and admire of the participants at the UN Conference Center in Addis Ababa.
The three young men, namely Nur Jemal, Anwar Wudu, and Fikir Legesse, who are from Kombolcha, Wollo, in the Amhara Regional State of the East African country, told Xinhua that they aspire to make Ethiopia known for its technological innovations.
The "Kombolcha Trio" has invented robots for various purposes, censors of different types, solar water pump, FM broadcaster, mobile application, and a helmet with a fan, among others.
The self-taught innovators said that they started it at early ages by looking around to identify challenges facing the local community, and look for the solutions, for which they browse internet to learn what have already been carried out in the rest of the world.
They said they have taught themselves on the internet, to have created the gadgets with resources at minimum costs.
"We have had different inventions, for example water pump, FM broadcaster, and others. We are going to participate, first, in the competition here in the country in November, and then in the robotics competition to be held in the United States next April, and we will go there representing our country," said Nur Jemal, a grade 9 student, while speaking to Xinhua.
Ethiopia, one of the fastest economies of the world, has been implementing its five-year growth and transformation plan (GTP), heading to achieve a middle income status by 2025, with due attention to industrialization and manufacturing sector.
And the country has been taking various measures and implementing strategic programs in industrial and manufacturing development endeavor, attaching great importance to science and technology.
With a view of encouraging and promoting scientific and technological innovations in the country, the Ministry of Science and Technology organizes the annual competition to recognize and award outstanding achievements and contributions in the area.
Stating that young innovators need more space and resources to innovate and harness their potential to provide local solutions to the challenges facing the world, the United Nations has hailed the creativity and energy of the young innovators.
Speaking at the forum, Ahunna Eziakonwa-Onochie, UNDP Resident Representative in Ethiopia, said the UN development system recognizes innovation as a gateway for engaging the youth and harnessing their potential.
She noted that the UN is working in earnest to unleash the potential of the youth to take the lead at local, national, and global levels as change-makers.
Eleni Gabre-Madhin is a CEO and founder of BlueMoon, which is Ethiopia's first youth agribusiness incubator and seed investing platform, with which the three self-taught young innovators are now working on some projects.
Stating that there are thousands of such innovators in Ethiopia, Gabre-Madhin told Xinhua that support is necessary to help them realize their full potential and contribute to Ethiopia's future.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 23:13:56|Editor: Mengjie
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BEIJING, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- More than 80 percent of China's registered enterprises were small and micro-businesses by the end of July, said a senior official on Saturday.
The number of small and micro-sized businesses stood at 73.28 million at the end of July, among which 23.28 million were enterprises and 50 million were individual businesses, said Zhang Mao, head of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.
Small and micro-businesses have become a major force in Chinese market, contributing greatly to employment, said Zhang, adding authorities will provide a business-directory for small and micro-businesses.
Meanwhile, authorities will improve information services for these businesses to sharpen their competitive edge and cultivate their own brands, said Zhang.
The government will introduce reform measures to create a better environment for innovation and development, according to a decision at a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang Wednesday.
The decision was made after pilot reforms have seen some progress in improving both institutional and market environments for entrepreneurship and innovation, and participants to the meeting agreed that it is time to introduce them nationwide.
To encourage innovation, support will increase for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, especially to help them get financing, said a statement issued after the meeting.
Stronger protection will be given to intellectual property rights (IPR) through the establishment of one-stop IPR service centers, it said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 23:23:58|Editor: yan
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TEHRAN, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Iran's top military official on Saturday disclosed a plan by the Iranian military to boost the country's air defense capabilities, Arabic language satellite TV channel Alalam reported.
Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces said that significant progress in the air defense, over the past years, has turned Iran's airspace into one of the safest in the troubled Middle East region.
Such a high level of security has encouraged many countries to fly their planes through the Iranian airspace, Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri said on Saturday.
Iran has carried out extensive work on the research and production of advanced air defense systems to counter the threats, Baqeri told reporters on the sidelines of a military exhibition in Tehran.
Building up air defense capabilities has been the main priority for the Iranian Armed Forces since a couple of years ago, he added.
On Aug. 29, Iran's new Defense Minister, Brigadier General Amir Hatami, also stressed the need for a boost of the country's air defense capabilities.
Iran needs to strengthen its air defense power in terms of quality and quantity at the low, medium and high altitudes, Hatami said.
According to the minister, all the S-300 surface-to-air missile defense systems Iran purchased from Russia have been installed and are covering sensitive sites in the country.
The domestically-built Bavar-373 air defense system would also be used alongside the S-300 to protect Iran's air space, he said.
The United States has imposed new sanctions on Iran in response to what it has called Tehran's "continued provocative actions" of ballistic missile tests.
In response, Iran's parliament voted on Aug. 13 to allocate 520 million U.S. dollars to develop its missile program to fight the U.S. "adventurism" and sanctions.
Iranian officials unanimously called the missile tests "inalienable right" of the country to boost deterrent power.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 23:29:04|Editor: yan
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TEHRAN, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Majlis (parliament) speaker said here Saturday that Iran welcomes expansion of comprehensive ties with South Africa.
Ali Larijani made the remarks at a joint press conference with Baleka Mbete, the visiting Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa, according to the Arabic Satellite TV channel Alalam.
"The visit has created great opportunities for development of bilateral cooperation," Larijani said, adding that "various venues were reviewed for mutual investments and ways were sought to achieve the expected level of bilateral trade."
Iran could make investments in South Africa, especially in the field of electricity generation, and it welcomes South Africa's engagement in the Iranian oil, gas and petrochemicals industries, Larijani said.
"The meeting also touched upon development of transport between the two countries, as well as cooperation in the fight against terrorism and exchange of relevant information," he said.
As for the regional issues, Larijani appreciated what he called the stance taken by South Africa on defending rights of the people of Palestine.
Larijani hoped that the visit by the South African parliamentary delegation would pave the way for promotion of trade relations between the two sides.
For his part, Mbete said parliaments could play a major role in improving ties between two nations.
She also said South Africa acknowledges Iran's achievements in the field of education and expressed hope that Larijani will make a visit to her country by the end of year.
South African telecommunication MTN company has reached a preliminary agreement with Iran to invest over 295 million U.S. dollars in Iran's broadband network.
Earlier this year, MTN invested in Iran Internet Group, which runs a car-hailing app called Snapp.ir.
MTN also said it is considering an investment of 40 million U.S. dollars to buy a 49 percent stake in the Iranian Net company and to invest 3.4 billion rand in both equity and loans to help the Iranian company develop a fiber network over the next five years.
In the meantime, Iran's Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that Iran is ready to purchase shares of the refineries in South Africa, aiming at guaranteeing long-term oil exports to the country.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 23:34:08|Editor: yan
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KATHMANDU, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Himalaya Airlines, a Nepal-China joint venture airline, started its inaugural flight from Kathmandu to the city of Dammam in Saudi Arabia on Friday night, the airline said on Saturday.
The maiden flight H9 559, bound for Dammam, departed from Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu at 22:30 local time on Friday, according to the airline.
The company said in a press statement that it is the first and only Nepali airline to operate direct flights between both cities meeting the strong demand from air travellers, especially Nepali migrant workers. The airline will be operating a daily flight on this route.
The airline's Vice President (Administration) Vijay Shrestha said "We are very happy to be the first and only airline to connect Dammam with Kathmandu directly. With this new route, Himalaya Airlines would be able to carter over 500,000 Nepalis staying in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, enabling many of them to rejoice with their families during this festival season."
Nepal is celebrating the two biggest festivals - Dashain and Tihar in September and October when millions of Nepalis travel back to their home towns for celebration.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 23:34:09|Editor: Song Lifang
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KATHMANDU, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Nepali business leaders have hoped that trade and tourism between Nepal and China would be boosted after the Rasuwagadi-Kerung (Geelong Port) border crossing was recently upgraded into an international border point.
Following the upgrading, the border has been opened for international visitors besides Nepali and Chinese.
Following the closure of Tatopani-Khasa (Zhangmu) border point since the deadly earthquake in Nepal in April 2015, Geelong Port is the only operating trade point between the two countries.
"We are very much exited from the Chinese decision (to upgrade the border point) because we can now sell combined tourism package of Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the international visitors," Suman Pandey, chairman of Nepal Chapter of Pacific Asia Travel Association, told Xinhua recently.
While China is expected to expand its railway network to bordering Geelong Port within the next few years, Nepal has also planned to develop a railway from capital Kathmandu to Rasuwagadi, a border town near Geelong Port.
"I hope both countries will prioritize infrastructure building in the border point following the upgrading," Rajesh Kaji Shrestha, president of Nepal-China Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Xinhua on Friday.
According to the traders, improved connectivity through the border point will contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China in 2013.
Nepal and China signed a Memorandum of Understanding on bilateral cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative in May this year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-02 23:39:11|Editor: Mengjie
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Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang speaks during the closing ceremony of a seminar on investment and business opportunities in Brazil held in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 2, 2017. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)
BEIJING, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- China encourages businesses to invest in Brazil and participate in infrastructure development there, Vice Premier Wang Yang said on Saturday.
Wang made the remarks when addressing a seminar on investment and business opportunities in Brazil, an event held during Brazilian President Michel Temer's state visit to China.
"China encourages businesses to set up factories or industrial parks in Brazil. Both sides can explore partnerships in the production, purchase, storage, shipment, trade and processing of agricultural produce," Wang said.
China supports enterprises to engage in infrastructure development and operation in engergy, railway, road, port and telecommunication, Wang said.
He backed the China-Brazil Fund, launched in May with a total of 20 billion U.S. dollars, to finance major bilateral cooperation projects.
Wang said China respects Brazil's concerns for optimizing trade structure and will continue to import various kinds of products from Brazail.
China hopes Brazil will make it easier for Chinese exports to Brazil and welcomes more Brazilian investment in China, he said.
China-Brazail comprehensive strategic partnership is at an all-time high, particularly in trade and investment, Temer said in his speech.
Expressing optimistism about the development of the two countries, Temer said Brazil welcomes Chinese investment and will be committed to improving its business environment.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-03 00:04:16|Editor: Mengjie
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NEW DELHI, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that he was looking forward to "productive discussions" at the BRICS summit to be held in Xiamen, China from Sunday to Tuesday.
Modi also said his country "attaches high importance" to the summit.
"India had the privilege of hosting the previous summit in Goa in October last year. I look forward to building upon the results and outcomes of the Goa Summit," Modi said in a statement posed on his Facebook page.
"I also look forward to productive discussions and positive outcomes that will support the agenda of a stronger BRICS partnership under the chairmanship of China," he said, adding that he will also have bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit.
"We will also interact with the BRICS Business Council represented by captains of industry from all five countries. In addition, I look forward to engaging with leaders of nine other countries, including BRICS partners in an Emerging Markets and Developing Countries Dialogue..." Modi said.
Alongside the Facebook post, Modi, who is expected to leave for the summit on Sunday, also tweeted "India attaches high importance to BRICS, which has begun a 2nd decade of its partnership for progress and peace."
Coined by former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill in 2001, the term "BRIC" referred to Brazil, Russia, India and China, four emerging markets with fast growth and great potential. In 2010, South Africa joined the group, and the acronym was changed to BRICS.
Together, the five countries now represent 44 percent of the world's population and 23 percent of global GDP, up from 12 percent a decade ago.
After attending the summit, Modi will travel to Myanmar for a visit from Tuesday to Thursday. He said he was looking forward to meeting Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We will also look at strengthening our existing cooperation on security and counter-terrorism, trade and investment, skill development, infrastructure and energy, and culture," he said.
"I am confident that the visit will open a bright new chapter in India-Myanmar relations and will help in charting a roadmap for closer cooperation between our governments, our business communities and at the people to people level," Modi added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-03 00:04:18|Editor: yan
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ANCHORAGE, the United States, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- It's been almost five months since Chinese President Xi Jinping made a refueling stop in Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska, and the long-lasting effects of the brief stopover are being felt, Governor Bill Walker told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Walker, who hosted Xi at that time, said the relationship has grown significantly between the state of Alaska and China since then.
"Many opportunities have been confirmed, so we have continued to work on those opportunities," said Walker, adding that he is looking forward to visiting China in late September, his first trip to China as governor.
Xi met Walker while the plane of the Chinese delegation made a refueling stop in Anchorage on April 7 on his way back home after he met with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
During the meeting, the Chinese president said Alaskan industries are complementary to those in China. He noted that while steady progress has been made in mutual cooperation, there's more potential to exploit.
"My goal (of the China trip) is to talk about opportunities that Alaska has with China and China has with Alaska," the governor said.
"It's really unlimited what we can do in our relationship with China," he said.
Trade and business opportunities are tremendously important to Alaska, whose revenue relies heavily on resources. Walker pointed out that China is Alaska's biggest trading partner with seafood as its top export to the Asian giant.
As the largest U.S. state in area with a tiny population of 750,000, Alaska enjoyed a trade surplus of 700 million U.S. dollars with China in 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Alaska is one of eight U.S. states that holds a trade surplus with the world's second largest economy.
"We are looking forward to having more opportunities to export more resources to China," Walker said.
Elected in 2014, the governor has made energy a key part of his administration's agenda. What he made a strong pitch for during his short meeting with President Xi is a liquefied natural gas export project, which is aimed at shipping the natural gas developed in the Alaskan North Slop to the Asia Pacific market, the Chinese market in particular.
According to Keith Meyer, president of Alaska Gasline Development Corp., which is in charge of developing the project, high-level meetings with potential Chinese partners began shortly after Xi's stopover, and the talks are progressing smoothly.
Walker said he is also looking for more opportunities in tourism and mining with China, two other areas with great potential. He mentioned that the number of Chinese travellers to Alaska has grown since Xi's visit.
"I want to bring back a sense of opportunity that Alaska has with the relationship with China," he said. "Doing business with 1.4 billion people is really an opportunity for us."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-03 00:04:19|Editor: Liu
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RIYADH, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia said Saturday that Qatar can end the Gulf crisis if it abides by its previous pledges, local media reported.
Former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al Faisal asserted Saturday that Qatar must stop its support for terrorism to settle the current crisis with its neighboring countries.
In statements reported by Sky News, al Faisal said Doha should meet the anti-terror countries' demands including non-interference in other states' internal affairs.
"Qatar can end the crisis if it abides by its previous pledges," he said.
"The ball is in Qatar's court and they have to address this," he added.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani speaks during a press conference in Doha on August 2, 2017. (AFP Photo)
RIYADH, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia said Saturday that Qatar can end the Gulf crisis if it abides by its previous pledges, local media reported.
Former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al Faisal asserted Saturday that Qatar must stop its support for terrorism to settle the current crisis with its neighboring countries.
In statements reported by Sky News, al Faisal said Doha should meet the anti-terror countries' demands including non-interference in other states' internal affairs.
"Qatar can end the crisis if it abides by its previous pledges," he said.
"The ball is in Qatar's court and they have to address this," he added.
Photo taken on April 27, 2016 shows the Big Ben in central London, Britain. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
LONDON, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- London Mayor Sadiq Khan has launched a bold new vision to accelerate the capital's status as a world-class tourist destination.
The Tourism Vision for London, a research report backed by more than 100 industry partners and supported by the Mayor of London, projects that tourism numbers in London will rise sharply, with more than 40 million people expected to visit the city by 2025, an increase of 30 percent on the 31.2 million visitors who came to the capital in 2016.
It also projects visitor spending to grow by almost 50 percent to 22 billion pounds (29 billion U.S. dollars) a year, up from 14.9 billion pounds in 2016. The surge in visitor numbers could be bolstered in the short-term by currency fluctuations. Around two thirds of international visitors say they're more likely to visit London given more favourable currency rates, according to separate research from promotional company London & Partners.
According to the vision, the fastest growing markets for visitors to London by 2025 is China, with 103 percent growth. This will be followed by India, with 90 percent growth, and the United States and United Arab Emirates (UAE) both with 43 percent rises.
Justine Simons, deputy mayor for culture and the creative industries, told Xinhua that China was "a really important market" for the city's tourism industry. "We project quite a lot of growth in tourism in London over the next ten or so years and what we want to do is plan for that growth in a positive way," she added.
London's tourism industry is worth 11.6 percent of the capital's gross domestic product (GDP) and 9.0 percent across the UK as a whole, providing 700,000 jobs in London.
According to Google, London leads worldwide searches for city and short breaks ahead of Barcelona, Rome, Paris and Amsterdam, with the overall number of searches up by 17 percent year-on-year. London also tops Google's search rankings for global cities to fly to.
The Tourism Vision for London and this year's Autumn Season, a campaign to promote London to tourists around the world, were launched Thursday night by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan at an event at the Natural History Museum.
The mayor promised in his speech that despite the uncertainty caused by Brexit, "London is still open to the world."
"London's Autumn Season will show visitors what it is like to explore the city like a Londoner, whether that's finding the capital's secret treasures or visiting its world-leading exhibitions and shows," he said.
Culture, arts, history and heritage are the number one reason visitors come to London. This year's Autumn Season will highlight events such as the British Library's event Harry Potter: A History of Magic, the Museums at Night festival, the Broadway show Hamilton An American Musical, and a Ferrari exhibition at London Design Museum.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-03 03:19:46|Editor: Song Lifang
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PHNOM PENH, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Kem Sokha, president of main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was arrested early Sunday for allegedly attempting to overthrow the legitimate Cambodian government, according to a government statement.
"The government would like to inform the public that on September 3, 2017 at 00:35 a.m. (local time), Kem Sokha was caught red-handed by justice police in conformity with the Criminal Code of the Kingdom of Cambodia," the statement said.
The arrest was made just hours after an old video clip broadcast by Australia-based CBN (Cambodian Broadcasting Network) was posted on Facebook showing Kem Sokha told his supporters in Australia on Dec. 8, 2013 that he followed the order of the United States to prepare plans to overthrow the legitimate Cambodian government, taking the model of movement that overthrew the governments of Yugoslavia and Serbia.
"The government would like to inform that, through the video clip broadcast by Australia-based CBN (Cambodian Broadcasting Network) and other evidence collected by authorities, they clearly show the secret plan of the collusion between Kem Sokha and his group with foreigners that affects the Kingdom of Cambodia," the statement said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-03 03:24:48|Editor: yan
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MOSCOW, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Syrian government forces backed by Russian warplanes have eliminated the last major resistance center of the Islamic State (IS) in the Western-central province of Hama, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday.
With the support of the Russian air force, the Syrian government troops launched an offensive against IS terrorists at the strategically important town of Akerbat in the eastern part of Hama and liberated the town, the ministry said in a statement.
Russian aircraft destroyed the terrorists' strong points, armored vehicles, artillery fire positions, control posts and communication centers, according to the defense ministry.
Russia has been participating in operations against the IS and other terrorist groups in Syria since September 2015 at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-03 04:04:54|Editor: yan
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TEHRAN, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Iranian senior officials on Saturday called for enhancing comprehensive ties with South Africa.
Speaking at a meeting with Baleka Mbete, visiting Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani described the relations between the two countries as "cordial and growing," Tasnim news agency reported.
Rouhani stressed the Iran's support for South Africa's past anti-apartheid struggle led by Nelson Mandela, and hailed the development of the mutual ties after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran is willing to strengthen relations with African countries, especially South Africa, in all areas," he was quoted as saying.
For her part, Mbete said South Africa is also resolved to boost relations with Iran in all spheres, particularly on the parliamentary levels.
Expansion of relations with African nations in all political, economic and cultural fields is high on the agenda of Iran's foreign policy.
Rouhani, who was re-elected Iran's president in May, has repeatedly stressed his government's interest in boosting relations with African states.
Earlier in the day, Iranian Majlis (parliament) speaker also said Iran welcomes expansion of comprehensive ties with South Africa.
Ali Larijani made the remarks at a joint press conference with Mbete, the Arabic Satellite TV channel Alalam reported.
"The visit has created great opportunities for development of bilateral cooperation," Larijani said, adding that "various venues were reviewed for mutual investments and ways were sought to achieve the expected level of bilateral trade."
Iran could make investments in South Africa, especially in the field of electricity generation, and it welcomes South Africa's engagement in the Iranian oil, gas and petrochemicals industries, Larijani said.
"The meeting also touched upon development of transport between the two countries, as well as cooperation in the fight against terrorism and exchange of relevant information," he said.
As for the regional issues, Larijani appreciated what he called the stance taken by South Africa on defending rights of the people of Palestine.
Larijani hoped that the visit by the South African parliamentary delegation would pave the way for promotion of trade relations between the two sides.
Mbete, meanwhile, said parliaments could play a major role in improving ties between the two nations.
She said South Africa acknowledges Iran's achievements in the field of education and expressed hope that Larijani will make a visit to her country by the end of year.
Mbete also said her country supports Iran's bid to join the BRICS group, which currently includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, according to Tasnim.
The National Assembly of South Africa supports Iran's membership because the country can play a positive role in the further development of the BRICS countries, she said.
Taken together, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, cover 40 percent of the world's population and more than 25 percent of the world's land.
South African telecommunication MTN company has reached a preliminary agreement with Iran to invest over 295 million U.S. dollars in Iran's broadband network.
Earlier this year, MTN invested in Iran Internet Group, which runs a car-hailing app called Snapp.ir.
MTN also said it is considering an investment of 40 million dollars to buy a 49-percent stake in the Iranian Net company and to invest 3.4 billion rands (263 million U.S. dollars) in both equity and loans to help the Iranian company develop a fiber network over the next five years.
In the meantime, Iran's Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Iran is ready to purchase shares of the refineries in South Africa, aiming at guaranteeing long-term oil exports to the country.
This file photo taken on December 29, 2016 shows people walking past the Consulate-General of Russia in San Francisco, California, United States. (AFP PHOTO)
MOSCOW, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy Anthony Godfrey Saturday and protested U.S. intentions to search a Russian diplomatic property in Washington.
The Russian ministry said U.S. authorities sought to search the Russian trade representative compound, which was closed on Saturday, in addition to the Russian Consulate General in San Francisco and a consular office in New York City.
"We consider the planned illegitimate search of the Russian diplomatic facility without the presence of Russian officials and a threat to break down its front door as an unprecedented, aggressive action," said the ministry in a statement.
The ministry also expressed worries that U.S. intelligence agents during the search may plant items in the Russian compound and organize an anti-Russian provocation.
It urged the United States to stop the "gross violations" of international law and the encroachment on the immunity of Russia's diplomatic institutions.
The U.S. security services also intend to search Russia's Consulate General in San Francisco, which the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday will directly threaten the safety of Russian citizens and worsen already difficult bilateral relations.
The U.S. State Department on Thursday ordered Russia to close the three facilities by Saturday in retaliation for the Russian decision in July to cut the number of U.S. diplomatic staff by 755 people and seize two U.S. properties in Moscow.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-03 04:50:00|Editor: Song Lifang
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PHNOM PENH, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Kem Sokha, president of main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was arrested early Sunday for allegedly attempting to overthrow the legitimate Cambodian government, according to a government statement.
"The government would like to inform the public that on September 3, 2017 at 00:35 a.m. (local time), Kem Sokha was caught red-handed by justice police in conformity with the Criminal Code of the Kingdom of Cambodia," the statement said.
The arrest was made just hours after an old video clip broadcast by Australia-based CBN (Cambodian Broadcasting Network) was posted on Facebook showing Kem Sokha told his supporters in Australia on Dec. 8, 2013 that he followed the order of the United States to prepare plans to overthrow the legitimate Cambodian government, taking the model of movement that overthrew the governments of Yugoslavia and Serbia.
"The government would like to inform that, through the video clip broadcast by Australia-based CBN (Cambodian Broadcasting Network) and other evidence collected by authorities, they clearly show the secret plan of the collusion between Kem Sokha and his group with foreigners that affects the Kingdom of Cambodia," the statement said.
"The act of above-mentioned secret collusion is the act of treason," it added.
According to the statement, Kem Sokha is facing the charges of treason and espionage under the article 443 of the kingdom's Criminal Code.
The article states that the act of entering into secret agreement with a foreign state or with its agents in order to create hostilities or aggression against Cambodia is punishable by imprisonment from 15 years to 30 years.
The statement also called on the public to keep calm and let the court to proceed with this case.
According to government-aligned media Fresh News, Kem Sokha, who is also a member of parliament, was arrested at his home in Phnom Penh and sent to the Phnom Penh Municipal Police Station for questioning.
Kem Sokha, 64, became the president of the CNRP in March 2017, replacing his long-serving predecessor, Sam Rainsy, who resigned in February. Sam Rainsy, 68, has been living in self-exile in France since November 2015 to avoid at least eight-year-prison sentence for defamation and incitement cases.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-03 05:15:08|Editor: Song Lifang
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BAGHDAD, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi forces killed over 2,000 Islamic State (IS) militants and more than 50 suicide bombers during a major offensive to free Tal Afar area in west of Mosul, the Iraqi military said on Saturday.
"The IS total casualties in the blitzkrieg during the period from Aug. 20 to 31 were more than 2,000 terrorists and over 50 suicide bombers, along with destroying and detonating of 77 car bombs, 71 booby-trapped buildings and 990 roadside bombs," Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said at a televised press conference.
More than 40,000 Iraqi fighters from the Iraqi army, federal police and its commandos known as Rapid Response forces and Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) forces, in addition to ten brigades of the paramilitary Hashd Shaabi fighters, participated in the offensive, which was supported by Iraqi and international coalition aircraft, Yarallah said.
Yarallah also said that the Iraqi forces sustained 115 martyrs and 679 wounded during the 12-day battles to liberate Tal Afar and its surrounding areas, including the towns of Mahalabiyah and Ayadhiyah.
"Those who take a look at this figure (Iraqi forces casualties) will realize that fierce battles took place in Tal Afar area," Yarallah said.
The troops evacuated a total of 40,758 people from the city of Tal Afar and surrounding areas before and during the offensive, 18,822 before Aug. 20 and 21,936 others during the 12-day offensive, Yarallah said.
The Tal Afar area is about 3,206 square km, which consists of the city of Tal Afar and three towns: Zummar, which is under control of the Kurdish security forces, Mahalabiyah and Ayadhiyah, which were freed from IS militants during the offensive.
The whole Tal Afar area consists of 47 villages scattered around the city and its three towns.
The majority of the population in the Tal Afar area are Sunni and Shiite Turkomans, in addition to the Kurds and other minorities.
On Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared full liberation of the city of Tal Afar and surrounding areas from the extremist IS militants.
"I declare to you that Tal Afar has joined the liberated Mosul and returned to the homeland," Abadi said in a statement issued by his office.
"The joy of victory has been completed and the entire province of Nineveh has become in the hands of our heroic forces," Abadi said.
The PM also vowed to defeat IS group all over Iraq, saying "wherever you (IS militants) are, we are coming for liberation, and you have no choice but to die or surrender".
On Aug. 20, Abadi, also the Commander-in-Chief of Iraqi forces, declared the start of an operation to dislodge IS militants from Tal Afar area, including Ayadhiyah, which is the last IS redoubt in the province of Nineveh.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-03 05:20:10|Editor: yan
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DAMASCUS, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian forces captured on Saturday a strategic highland region on the administrative borders of Deir al-Zour besieged by the Islamic State (IS), a military source told Xinhua.
The capture of Mount Bishri has made the army and allied forces become 30 km from breaking the IS siege on the eastern city home to 100,000 civilians, the source said on condition of anonymity.
The strategic significance of the mountain rests with its location as it links the southern countryside of Raqqa, the de-facto capital of IS, with the western countryside of Deir al-Zour and the areas the army has recently taken in the remote desert in the eastern countryside of Homs province in central Syria.
It's worth mentioning that the Syrian army has captured large swathes of the southern countryside of Raqqa, which makes the mountain a hub for the army to move freely between areas it has taken recently.
The military operation to break the IS siege on Deir al-Zour has been dragging on for a few months in the desert of Homs and the southern countryside of Raqqa.
A day earlier, the Syrian army said it had reached the administrative borders of Deir al-Zour, an oil-rich province near Iraq.
The province has largely fallen into IS except a few areas in the capital city which are still under the government control but have been besieged by IS since 2015.
Deir al-Zour is expected to be the last IS stronghold in Syria, as many IS militants are fleeing to the province with the advances of U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in Raqqa.
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Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Sen. John McCain is wrapping up the summer congressional recess in northern Italy, where he is attending the Ambrosetti Forum, along with the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., at a panel focused on the United States.
McCain, who is in Italy with his wife, Cindy McCain, is slated to speak at the gathering on Saturday.
Great to be at the Ambrosetti Forum in lovely Lake Como #Italy - look forward to discussing the need for strong American leadership tomorrow pic.twitter.com/EnuRvKn8DH John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) September 1, 2017
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain's office said that at the forum he will thank the Italian government for its contribution to global security, as well as Italy's role in the fight against ISIS.
McCain, who recently completed his first round of radiation and chemotherapy treatments for brain cancer at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, tweeted a photo of himself with Graham.
McCain's office said the 81-year-old will return to Washington next week. He's expected to shepherd the annual defense policy bill.
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Were one of the Trump elimination programs, says Bob Gillett, director of the Michigan Advocacy Program. Board member Charlie Borgsdorf says that if Congress accepts the presidents request, 3,000 people MAP currently helps would lose legal services.
Gillett is one of many Ann Arborites keeping a worried eye on this months budget debate in Washington. Ellen Rabinowitz, health officer of Washtenaw County Public Health, emails that two programs vital to the poor, the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and food stamps (SNAP), are up for renewal. The presidents budget also targets many federal grants to social service nonprofits. The impacts would be mostly on the poorest and most marginalized communities, she writes, and in some cases could mean the difference between life and death.
Trump isnt sparing MDs and PhDs: his proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health would cost the U-M $92 million. In 2016, we had 1,386 projects funded by the NIH, says Jack Hu, VP for research. If Congress passes the presidents budget, thousands of people will lose their jobs. Science supporters around the country rallied after the budget was released, and the version approved in committee doesnt currently include the cuts. But, says Hu, the worst could still happen.
Its unlikely that the Trump budget will pass as submitted, says Gillett. But who thought Trump was gonna get elected?
Couple charged with drug trafficking, arms and ammo
Rennie Siew and Naruba Roodal were arrested and charged on Tuesday after a raid at their home at Union Village, Couva. Police said, at about 5.30 pm members of the Central Division Task Force executed a search warrant at the couples home where they allegedly found one Glock pistol, one 9 mm pistol and 28 rounds of 9 mm ammunition.
They also allegedly found 13 packets of marijuana with a street value of $58,000. PC Anand Kumar laid the charges. Siew and Roodal were expected to appear before a magistrate in the Couva court yesterday.
Teen charged with murder of 42-year-old man
He was found with multiple stab wounds to the head and was identified by relatives by the letters RRS he had tattooed on his left arm.
Sookoo lived at St Croix Road, Princes Town.
On the advice of Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Joan Honore-Paul, Cpl Sunil Deo of the Homicide Bureau Region Three laid the charge against the teenager.
He was expected to appear before a magistrate in the Princes Town Court yesterday
Woman jailed for attempting to mail cocaine to Nigeria
Melinda Raquel Wiltshire, 45, of Pierre Lane, Lendore Village, Chaguanas, had been at the Womens Prison since her arrest at the Coffee Street office of TTPOST in March 2015, unable to secure the $2.5 million bail granted to her.
She pleaded guilty yesterday before Magistrate Alicia Chankar after Senior State Attorney (Customs & Excise) Harricharan Cassie advised the court that the matter should be heard summarily.
Customs officers brought the cocaine into the courtroom, 1.5 kilogrammes of which was in an auto spare part.
Harricharan told Chankar that on February 20, 2015, Wiltshire went to TTPOSTs Coffee Street outlet and posted an auto part to Nigeria in the name of Melissa Ali, of Nelson Street, Freeport. It was marked Toyota Genuine Part. On March 16, she went to TTPOST and posted four wall plaques, which contained cocaine, in Alis name bound for Nigeria. Three days later, she again went to TTPOST and attempted to post a yellow plastic bag which contained cocaine.
Harricharan said Customs officers at Piarco, while examining the first and second packages, found there was a white powdery substance in them. The Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit (OCNU) was notified.
They observed a small hole in the disc of the spare part. They found the substance lodged in the hole. There was also the same substance in pieces of newspapers wrapped around the four plaques. The substance was examined and determined to be cocaine.
On March 19, 2015, OCNU and Customs members staked out at TTPOST and saw when Wiltshire entered, Cassie said.
They kept her under observation and when she attempted to post a yellow bag after filling out the prescribed TTPOST declaration form, they arrested her.
When Wiltshire first appeared in court, she was granted $2.2 million bail with a surety, but she could not secure it and remained in custody.
Moonilal must answer too
Roodal Moonilal for comments which, Rowley said, were meant as a dog whistle to certain people suggesting that the government was using its power to persecute people of East Indian descent.
Rowley delivered the rebuke during a 6.30am news conference at Piarco International Airport before leaving the country for a medical checkup in the US. He is scheduled to return by the end of next week and Minister of Finance Colm Imbert will act as prime minister during his absence.
Rowley said Moonilal, in commenting on Tuesdays arrest of former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, alleged the move was oppression by the government.
He said Moonilal was implying that it is executive action by the Cabinet and this party, not actions of an independent police under the guidance of an independent Director of Public Prosecutions ,where the requirements are for information to be converted into evidence and for evidence to be acted upon under the guidance and watchful eye of the DPP, a place where the Cabinet has no presence or involvement. Rowley continued, He is saying that this arrest of his former colleague is political action on the part of the government and he went further to say it is action against persons of East Indian background and he named a number of East Indians who had been through the court process and attaches this recent development to it and is indicating to the country that the law enforcement in this country is based on your racial complexion. He said Moonilal, however, neglected to tell the country that he, himself, was under investigation by the police in connection with the alleged mishandling of more than $400 million at the Estate Management and Business Development Company Limited (EMBD) in August 2015, just before the last election.
Rowley said the Attorney Generals office and a State enterprise had gone to court to complain about eight or ten people, including Moonilal, who were named in connection with that matter.
Furthermore, Rowley said the course of events which led to Ramlogans arrest had its genesis in the previous administration.
Let me remind the national community (that) under the last government, one day we woke up and the news that came out of the government was that Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had fired the attorney general and also fired the minister of national security of that government for allegations of wrongdoing that would have taken place on the part of persons in that government.
That took place before the last general election under the instruction and the hand of Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
The police, under the instructions of acting Commissioner (Stephen) Williams, opened an investigation into these matters and that investigation has been going on and has gone on continuously to the point where, a few days ago, former attorney general Anand Ramlogan was arrested with respect to charges levelled against him. Reached for comment yesterday, Moonilal told Newsday he is considering suing Rowley for slander and intends to send a letter, upon his return, asking for particulars of the accusation made against him and the police investigation into the EMBD and whatever possible involvement I have had in that. He also issued a statement in which he accused Rowley of executing an early morning hit and run attack against him and other members of the Opposition.
Moonilal told Newsday Rowley gave information which suggested that he had intimate and personal knowledge of an ongoing police investigation and he has also come to a conclusion saying when I am in court as if he is certain that I will be charged. Asking how Rowley would know this, Moonilal recalled the prime minister once expressed no confidence in the Police Service to curb crime in TT. He said he had written to Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams who had not yet responded.
He said he was not aware he was the subject of any investigation and he had never been questioned or spoken to about it. Moonilal said Rowleys statement was reckless and constituted misbehaviour in public office for which he would also consider reporting Rowley to the Integrity Commission.
He claimed the prime ministers latest comments suggest he has done a 180 degree turn on the issue. Moonilal also alleged this raises the question as to whether there is, collusion between elements of the police service and the political directorate. Vowing that neither the Opposition nor himself will be silenced, Moonilal said it was unfortunate Rowley chose to, sow the seeds of division in our nation. He regretted that Rowley did not use the briefing to comfort the people of Tobago that transportation problems on the seabridge would be resolved soon or address lingering concerns over the re-appointment of Robert Le Hunte as Public Utilities minister. Le Hunte was sworn in, for a second time, on Thursday (Independence Day).
Le Hunte ready to get down to work
Speaking to reporters after being sworn-in, for the second time, at Presidents House, St Anns, on Thursday night, Le Hunte said there was much work to be done in the ministry..
I always said that my whole idea of coming back and moving from the private sector to the public sector was about giving service, he said..
I am still very much enthused to do that I think there is a lot of work to be done in the ministry in providing water and electricity to the people of Trinidad and Tobago..
This ministry touches the people where it matters and I am anxious to put this behind me and move on to the work at hand which is serving the people of Trinidad and Tobago and trying to provide them with efficient utility services. Asked about the negativity which surrounded the revocation of his appointment after news surfaced he was also a Ghanaian citizen, Le Hunte said: This is not how I would have liked my first week in office to be at all. Le Hunte, who apologised to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and the people of TT for the communication glitch, said based on the professional advice and information provided to him when he was first appointed, one week ago, the concept of dual citizenship was not an issue..
However, Le Hunte said over the weekend, he recognised there was an issue and brought it to the attention of the Office of the Prime Minster and Rowley..
He said he took immediate steps on Monday to rectify the situation..
Those steps included flying to Ghana, revoking my citizenship which has now been done and I am back here with all matters being cleared up with nothing preventing me from assuming this position, Le Hunte said..
Le Hunte said when he accepted citizenship in Ghana on December 28, 2016, I always remained a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago..
I never at any time renounced my Trinidad and Tobago citizenship. He said the renouncing of his Ghanaian citizenship should not affect his future prospects in the African country..
At this point in time I am here. This is where I am and I am sure the relationship between Ghana and Trinidad will continue and I am sure I can travel back to Ghana. My wife is also a Ghanaian, so I think I have rights to be able to go back there. Looking ahead, Le Hunte warned that a plan of action for two major State entities - the Water and Sewerage Authority and T&T Electricity Commission, - must fit within the framework of dwindling revenue. The revenue that we get as a country is now less and we have to find ways to make these utilities as efficient as possible, he said. We have to find ways of making people do more with less because we do have less as a country. Le Hunte said the problems in the operations of public utilities need to be tackled head on.
Fisherman found iguanas on floating mass of land
Cedros councillor Shankar Teelucksingh said concerns are mounting that the vast acreage of the floating mass is perilously close to active oil wells in the Gulf of Paria. Speaking with Newsday yesterday, Teelucksingh said the piece of land was seen near the south west Soldado rock. He wants the authorities to place markers or issue a bulletin to seafarers.
We are fortunate that it didnt pass through the south west oil field because it would have caused some devastation to those active wells, Teelucksingh said.
The last report we got is that it was heading towards one of the Venezuelan oil rigs. It is moving very slow under strong current and poses a threat to marine vessels. He said he was aware Petrotrin (Trinmar operations) is monitoring the movement of the island which, Teelucksingh said, was spotted on Thursday about two miles off Icacos.
He said one fisherman who visited the island reportedly caught three iguanas. We know what is on top (island) as there is healthy vegetation. From what I have been told, the plant life including the trees are very healthy. We are also being told it could be more than the two to three acres we believe it to be. Teelucksingh, a resident in the Cedros community and also employed with Trinmar further told Newsday formations which appeared in the sea in the past have been different to what is now being seen.
Newsday also spoke to Dr Glen Ramadharsingh, chairman of the Siparia Regional Corporation who said he and a team will visit the area tomorrow to get a first hand look and be better informed. It is something we are monitoring as we are being told it can affect oil and gas exploration, he said.
This needs a proper investigation.
Call made for industry to be regulated
The issue was raised yesterday by president of the Co-operative Credit Union League Joseph Remy at the funeral for hiker Richard Baird who fell to his death while returning from a hike to the Aripo waterfall on August 19. His body was found at the bottom of a precipice three days later. An autopsy revealed the father of six, of Rousillac, sustained a broken neck.
The funeral for 55-year-old Baird, a computer technician at Petrotrin, was held at the St Benedicts RC Church in La Romaine.
He was also the treasurer on the Leagues board of directors and served on various committees at the level of the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions.
Remy told the large gathering that the regulatory framework guiding hiking organisations should include registration and operating licences, evidence of expertise and establishment of medical, safety and security systems.
And in the event of incidents, mandatory investigations must be conducted to ascertain liability, Remy said.
Remy questioned whether Bairds death would be the catalyst for advocacy by his peers for State-sanctioned regulations for such events or if his death would be just another statistic to be ignored.
He said as president of the national umbrella body for credit unions in the country, he and the organisation will be failing if they leave issues like this one unattended.
While we consider Richard to be a victim on this occasion, and sadly so, we pledge in the interest of those of us who are left behind, to pursue with our countrys leaders, the issue of legislation and practices to govern hiking with appropriate safeguards and attendant consequences for non-conformance. Remy said Baird was more than a friend or colleague; he was a brother, mentor, leader and a man who spent all his years looking out for everyone.
To the Baird family, Remy said: Rest in the comfort that Richard certainly did his duty for his country and his people. We want to thank you for the privilege of sharing such a great life with us. He was a true co-operator and a friend. We will surely miss him and his vast contribution to the co-operative credit union movement and the quest for equity and economic and social justice. Many friends, colleagues and relatives paid tributes to Baird and thanked him for his contributions which, they said, enriched their lives in different ways.
Deacon Harold Woodroffe, who officiated at the funeral, recalled fond moments with his friend Baird.
The body was taken to the RC Cemetery at South Oropouche for burial
New Petrotrin board announced
to be headed by businessman Wilfred Espinet with Reynold Adjodhasingh as vice chairman, was chosen for its business experience as well as deep knowledge of Petrotrin. In addition to Espinet and Adjodhasingh.
the board comprises Nigel Edwards; Anthony Chan Tack; Eustace Nancis; Joel Harding; Linda Rajpaul; Randhir Rampersad and Selwyn Lashley, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs. Rowley said that Petrotrin had run up huge debts which it was unable to pay and which had to be met by the Minister of Finance at a time when the minister was struggling to meet the other expenses which he had to deal with. He said the first of these debts comes due in 2019 - U.S $850 million in one payment - and another smaller payment due shortly afterwards. He said Petrotrins oil production has been falling considerably and its ageing infrastructure carries the risk of safety and the possibility of leaks polluting the Gulf of Paria and the Venezuelan coastline which he said would have huge consequences. He said the companys dated refinery is refining crude at a loss at the current level of oil prices and that because of the companys serious financial situation.
the Minister of Finance has been forced to pay for imports of crude oil to keep the refinery operating while it is losing money on each barrel of oil that it produces.
47 summoned to seabridge enquiry
Among those scheduled to appear during the course of three hearings scheduled by the JSC are Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan; Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles; former transport minister Stephen Cadiz; Bridgemans Services Group vice-president Andrew Purdey and THA Minority Leader Watson Duke. Two of the hearings will take place on September 4 and 5 at Tower D of the Portof- Spain International Waterfront Centre.
Both of these hearings begin at 1 pm The third hearing will take place at the Victor E Bruce Financial Complex in Scarborough on September 6. In the case of this hearing, the discussions on the seabridge start at 1 pm. At 9 am on September 6, the JSC will hold an enquiry on the state of agriculture and fisheries in Tobago at the complex.
All of these hearings take place before the resumption of Parliament with a sitting of the House of Representatives scheduled for September 8. The sitting will not be a ceremonial one as the Parliament is returning from its mid-year recess. According to a statement issued yesterday by the Parliament, 36 people are scheduled to appear before the JSC at Tower D on September 4 and 5.
The Parliament said on September 4 the JSC would see Permanent Secretary from the Works and Transport Ministry Sonia Francis-Yearwood and other ministry officials; Port Authority chairman Alison Lewis and the authoritys current board; former Port chairman Christine Sahadeo and members of the former port board; and TV6 reporter Mark Bassant.
On September 5, the JSC will interview Sinanan; Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs Fitzgerald Hinds; Cadiz; Purdey; Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union president Michael Annisette; Intercontinental Shipping Limited managing director John Powell; representatives of the TT Inter-Island Transport Company; Ken Shipping and Marine Services Limited managing director Lester Kenny; marine consultant Alfred McMillan and attorney Nyree Alfonso.
Charles and Duke will feature among the 11 people to appear before the JSC in Scarborough.
On Monday, Duke swam for about an hour in the waters between Tobago and Toco to protest the problems on the seabridge.
Former Tobago Chamber of Commerce president Dianne Hadad; members of the Inter-Isle Truckers and Traders Association and members of the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association are also scheduled to appear before the JSC in Scarborough on September 6.
After these hearings, the JSC will compile a report which will be sent to the House for debate. Sinanan will have a certain time period within which to accept or reject the recommendations of the JSC which is chaired by Independent Senator Stephen Creese.
Credo Foundation seeks help from volunteers
The appeal came from Credo Drop-in centre Coordinator Carlene Donald yesterday after receiving stationery supplies from The Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries.
Donald said, Credo welcomes persons who are interested in volunteering and giving back to the community in any way: time, stationary items, snacks/ drinks, transport assistance or monthly donations.
The aim of our centres is to get the young people away from the streets and other abusive situations and to provide them with the various personal, social and educational skills they need to become productive citizens and responsible adults in the future. Donald expressed disbelief that the majority of citizens in TT did not know about the Credo Foundation for Justice.
She said the foundation was founded in 1993 and was a non-profit, non-governmental organisation affiliated with the Holy Faith Sisters in collaboration with other stakeholders. Also, the foundation identifies and responds to social injustice faced by the most vulnerable and marginalised in society and currently provides accommodation for 32 young people.
The youths are housed at two of the foundations residential development centres for socially displaced youth at Credo Drop-In and Development Centre for boys, and Sophia House, an empowerment centre for young girls at risk.
On September 4, a delegation from Armenia, and led by Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan, will travel to Beijing on an official visit, and at the invitation of the minister of defense of China.
September 2, 2017, 14:17 Armenia defense minister to pay official visit to China
STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 2, ARTSAKHPRESS: Within the framework of this official trip, the delegation is scheduled to hold talks with Chang Wanquan, the Minister of Defense and State Councilor of the Peoples Republic of China, and several other senior Chinese officials, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia informed.
As Japan's schools reopened Friday after summer holidays, a day when suicides among young people spike, celebrities reached out to at-risk children and one Tokyo zoo offered refuge to nervous pupils in a bid to tackle the mental health crisis.
For some children, the thought of returning to school sends their stress levels soaring, as they battle fears ranging from schoolyard bullies to doing poorly on exams.
"Going back to school creates anxiety," said Kuniyasu Hiraiwa, representative director of AfterSchool, a non-profit that helps parents detect early warning signs in kids.
Japan -- which places huge emphasis on academic success -- has the highest suicide rate among the Group of Seven (G7) industrialised nations, with more than 20,000 people taking their own lives annually.
While the overall suicide rate has been falling since it peaked in 2003, that is not the case among young adults starting their first jobs or schoolchildren.
Some 500 Japanese under 20 years of age kill themselves each year. The teen suicide rate on September 1 tends to be around three times higher than any other day of the year.
Japan, the United States, South Korea and seven other economies agreed on Friday to introduce a new rule of changing catch quotas for bluefin tuna in the western Pacific, including waters around Japan, depending on the degree of stock recovery.
The agreement was reached on the final day of a five-day meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission's Northern Committee in Busan, South Korea. The new rule is roughly based on the Japanese government's proposal that called for allowing increases in catch quotas on the assumption that tuna stock will recover to a certain level.
During the meeting, participants discussed how to increase the stock of the popular fish for sushi, given data that the amount of bluefin tuna capable of reproducing in the Pacific stood at 17,000 tons in 2014, one-tenth of the peak level in the early 1960s. The WCPFC has set a target of increasing the figure to about 41,000 tons by 2024.
At the meeting, Japan proposed that tighter regulations, such as reductions in catch quotas, be put into place if the probability of achieving the target is 60 pct or lower while the quotas be raised if the figure is 65 pct or higher. Eventually, the 10 member economies decided to introduce the new rule after agreeing that the quotas will be increased if the possibility of attaining the stock recovery target is 75 pct or higher.
A former 40 year Atheist analyzes Atheism, without resorting to theism, deism, or fantasy.
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If You Don't Value Truth, Then What DO You Value?
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If we say that the sane can be coaxed and persuaded to rationality, and we say that rationality presupposes logic, then what can we say of those who actively reject logic?
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Atheists have an obligation to give reasons in the form of logic and evidence for rejecting Theist theories.
What to Expect from MWC Americas 2017 NextGen Voice Featured Article What to Expect from MWC Americas 2017 By Special Guest
Arnold Kim, COO, ADRF, By Special Guest
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Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) Americas is taking place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco in September. The event, hosted by the GSMA and CTIA, will be one of the premier technology events in North America, gathering together thought leaders in telecommunications, AR/VR, Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile commerce. Keynote speakers include Marcelo Claure, CEO of Sprint, Ajit Pai, Chairman of the FCC, and Robert Scoble, who famously showered while wearing a first generation Google (News - Alert) Glass unit.
Connectivity and 5G will be among the key topics discussed at the event, as vendors highlight new hardware and software. This includes: The rise of smart cities- From self-driving cars through self-healing utilities, many of the most common elements of life in the US are about to change dramatically. At the show, a number of well known vendors, ranging from Samsung (News - Alert) to Mastercard will be on site highlighting new technology. Service providers like Verizon and AT&T are expected to show smart connected cities using their network and new equipment, such as small cells, Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS), and backhaul.
From self-driving cars through self-healing utilities, many of the most common elements of life in the US are about to change dramatically. At the show, a number of well known vendors, ranging from Samsung (News - Alert) to Mastercard will be on site highlighting new technology. Service providers like Verizon and AT&T are expected to show smart connected cities using their network and new equipment, such as small cells, Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS), and backhaul. New Hardware- For fans of new hardware, MWC events have historically been the place where companies debut product lines, or updates to flagship devices. For instance, earlier this year at the European iteration of the show, Blackberry debuted its new KEYone, Nokia (News - Alert) bought back its iconic 3310 (along with the game Snake) and Samsung offered its new Galaxy tablets. Huawei debuted its 4G smartwatch to great reception. Many of this new hardware is expected to support LTE (News - Alert) network with improved processors.
For fans of new hardware, MWC events have historically been the place where companies debut product lines, or updates to flagship devices. For instance, earlier this year at the European iteration of the show, Blackberry debuted its new KEYone, Nokia (News - Alert) bought back its iconic 3310 (along with the game Snake) and Samsung offered its new Galaxy tablets. Huawei debuted its 4G smartwatch to great reception. Many of this new hardware is expected to support LTE (News - Alert) network with improved processors. The Plumbing- CTIA, the predecessor to this iteration of MWC, was historically B2B focused. In partnering with MWC, the show hasnt lost its roots. Many of the companies that provide the plumbing will get a chance to highlight their new tech. In some cases, this means software providers who allow networks to operate more efficiently through network function virtualization (NFV) will demo their new coding. Others might offer small cell or DAS technology with demo units on site. In these instances, companies will often show off a box that looks like a high school science project, with wires and metal boxes connected in strange ways. However, it is many of these solutions that will actually provide the backbone of 5G technology when it eventually becomes a standard.
CTIA, the predecessor to this iteration of MWC, was historically B2B focused. In partnering with MWC, the show hasnt lost its roots. Many of the companies that provide the plumbing will get a chance to highlight their new tech. In some cases, this means software providers who allow networks to operate more efficiently through network function virtualization (NFV) will demo their new coding. Others might offer small cell or DAS technology with demo units on site. In these instances, companies will often show off a box that looks like a high school science project, with wires and metal boxes connected in strange ways. However, it is many of these solutions that will actually provide the backbone of 5G technology when it eventually becomes a standard. The Industrial IoT- This more industrial approach is not limited to makers of telecom equipment. A wide range of IoT hardware and software providers will also be on site to highlight new offers. These range from sensors to make manufacturing jobs safer through the new uses of the recently revived Google Glass. Each year, telco companies and suppliers gather together for events like Mobile World Congress that become a showcase of products and technology with far reaching consequences for how consumers are connected in their daily lives. With 5G on the horizon, smart cities and autonomous vehicles following shortly thereafter, this years show is expected to impress and were excited to be part of the remarkable event.
Edited by Erik Linask
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A suicide bomber loyal to the Islamic State perpetrated an attack on a police station in Tiaret in Western Algeria claiming the lives of two policemen.
IS claimed on its Amaq news agency the attack that brings back to the fore the threat of residual terrorism in Algeria.
The media reported that the suicide bomber tried to enter the police headquarters in Tiaret, 350km southwest of Algiers, but was blocked by the officers prompting him to detonate the bomb on the spot killing two policeman and himself.
This is the second IS attack registered in Algeria this year. In February, a policeman foiled a suicide attack on a police station in the eastern city of Constantine by opening fire on the approaching assailant and triggering the explosives belt he was wearing.
Ever since the end of the Algerian civil at the end of the 1990s, residual terrorism has been a pressing issue that puts Algerian security services on permanent alert.
Algeria continues to struggle with its residual terrorism as numerous militant groups have emerged since the 1990s and evolved according to geopolitical trends with the Islamic State being the latest group to gain presence in the country.
The terrorist groups operating today in Algeria include notably: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM); the Mali-based Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO); al-Murabitoun, which was responsible for the 2013 attack on the In Amenas gas facility in southern Algeria and Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate), which has declared its allegiance to ISIS.
Morocco has vehemently denounced as reprehensible the cover published by Jeune Afrique magazine in its latest issue associating between Morocco and terrorism.
By putting photos of the terrorists involved in the Catalonia attack with the big title: Terrorism born in Morocco, the magazine chose to ride on the anti-Moroccan tide that has been launched by far-rightist groups on social media looking for a scapegoat to explain failed migration policies and lack of oversight over radicalization factors.
The Spokesperson for the Moroccan government, Mustapha El Khalfi condemned this unprofessional choice of a cover that associates Morocco as a nation, people and institution with a bunch of terrorists who have been born in Morocco but have been radicalized in Spain.
He said, at a press briefing following the weekly cabinet meeting, that such a cover is part of a heinous campaign that seeks to create stereotypes and take Morocco as a scapegoat to explain terrorism.
Khalfi explained that raising the Moroccan origins of the perpetrators of the Catalonia terrorist attacks leads the debate over terrorism astray from the deep causes of extremism in Europe.
The Spokesperson added that on the ground, Morocco remains one of the most insulated countries from terrorism in the MENA region and that its multilayered antiterrorism strategy includes security, social, economic and religious dimensions.
Moroccos steadfast commitment to international cooperation against terrorism is praised and its counterterrorism experience is wanted by many countries, he underscored.
Spreading stereotypes stigmatizing Morocco for being the birth place of a bunch of youth who were radicalized in Europe is thus an unjust campaign that is contradicted with the success of Morocco in combating terrorism at home and abroad.
The unbearable living conditions imposed on the population held against their will in the Polisario-run Tindouf camps (southwestern Algeria) are pushing thousands of young Sahrawis to flee from the prevailing despair and atrocious conditions
A leaked letter sent by the so-called ambassador of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Republic in Cuba reflects the increasing number of young graduates who decided never to return to the Tindouf inferno.
In the letter, the Polisario was requesting Cuban authorities not to deliver degrees to graduating Sahraouis until they have returned to Tindouf camps, in a move to keep them held under a military siege.
Any attempt to flee the harsh living conditions prevailing in the Tindouf camps may lead to death. Last March, the Algerian army has shot dead a Sahraoui as he attempted to leave the Polisario-administered Tindouf camps on board a car.
In January 2014, two Sahraouis, Mohamed Alyine Bih and Khadri Hamadha Khandoud, were shot dead by the Algerian army near the borders with Mauritania.
Any protest by the population held in abject conditions in Tindouf camps against the military siege imposed by the Polisario leadership and its mentor Algeria has been met by deadly use of force.
International rights watchdogs, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have on multiple reports drew attention to the plight of the population held against their will in Tindouf where the Algerian state has relegated the destiny of thousands of Sahraouis to the mercy of a separatist militia that trades in their suffering.
From humanitarian aid embezzlement by the Polisario officials to slavery and forced disappearances in the Tinfoud camps, Algeria has abdicated its responsibilities and forsaken a civilian population to the mercy of a separatist militia.
UN Security Council resolution 2351 has once more reiterated the call on Algeria to uphold its responsibility to allow a census of the population held in the camps.
Algerias obstinacy to allow a head-count of the population of the Polisario-run camps prompted the EU to reduce aid sent to these camps in a bid to curb humanitarian aid diversion.
The decision was taken following a report by the EU anti-fraud office (OLAF) denouncing the embezzlement of humanitarian aid by the Polisario leadership and Algerian officials.
Therefore, the European Commission decided to cut aid commensurately with the estimated number of 90,000 people instead of the inflated 165,000 people put forward by the Polisario and Algeria in an attempt to sell the idea of the existence of a Sahraoui People with a republic in exile.
Carrying out a head-count of the population held in Tindouf will enable international aid agencies to assess the needs of the population and will also pave the way for the camps dwellers to obtain the refugee status. This will grant them the right to return to their homeland Morocco or at least the right to choose freely their country of asylum. Such options that Algeria and the Polisario dread the most as they continue to trade in the suffering of Sahraouis living in abject conditions.
A serious man. Photo: Pool/Getty Images
Again and again, Donald Trump has proven himself to be a figure outside the norms of politics, diplomacy, and human decency. Yet, certain members of the press keep trying to convince us that he has the capacity to transform himself into a conventional public figure.
During the 2016 primaries, there was a popular notion in circulation that Trump would eventually pivot to some approximation of normalcy of course, no pivot ever occurred. And now, every few days, some journalist or other will proclaim, despite all evidence to the contrary, that Trump is evolving, that hes turned over a new leaf, that he is, at last, a real president.
Will this speculative-fiction madness ever end?
We here at Daily Intelligencer stumbled on a portal to 2018 and discovered an article that may hold the answer.
June 19, 2018
Laredo, TX
Donald Trumps Tuesday visit to a prison operated by the new Undocumented Immigrant Crime Highlighting Office showed a softer, more merciful side of the president, one rarely seen during his increasingly frequent, rage-fueled tweetstorms and rallies. And it put on display the kind of focus and deft human touch that might yet salvage Trumps presidency.
Escorted by Deputy Immigrant Crime Punisher David Clarke, a clearly awed Trump was treated to a grand tour of the facility, which included the mess hall, the exercise yard, and whats known as the Lights Always on Room, where immigrants are dispatched when they commit infractions, which can range from reading to inquiring about the timing of their oft-delayed trials.
For the most part, Trump adopted a sober countenance throughout his trip. But he did seem to delight in the sights and sounds of the place, at one point playfully running a wardens baton across several inmates prison bars for about ten seconds as the assembled staff broke out in laughter and spontaneous applause.
In a brief address to the inmates, President Trump praised the huge, and I do mean huge crowd there to see him and remarked, What you did was very, very bad. But maybe something good can come from it. Very, very good. He then launched into an anecdote connecting what he called the scourge of immigrant crime with an incident in which Rosie ODonnell snubbed him at New Yorks 21 Club in 1997.
Other than that, though, the president shied away from discursiveness, exhibiting a laserlike focus that recalled the finest moments of past presidential heavyweights like Abraham Lincoln and FDR. The issue of immigrant crime clearly animates Trump; at times, as he listened to officers description of their jobs, he nodded repeatedly and followed up with incisive, thoughtful questions like, Whats that? and Why?
With his approval rating holding steady at 29 percent, Trump is looking for a respite after a rough spring that saw the intensification of Robert Muellers investigation; persistent rumblings of impeachment if Democrats take the House in November; and a damaging, ongoing public feud with the estate of Harriet Tubman. The controversial plan to open a prison for undocumented immigrants who have been suspected of crimes, put forth by Trump advisor Stephen Miller, was an attempt to appease Trumps restive base. But, as evidenced by his visit, it also offers a chance for Trump to heal the divisions that have come to define everyday American life.
Some of Trumps few remaining allies said they liked what they saw on Tuesday.
This is a new Trump, said Newt Gingrich. Look, the guys only been on the job for 17 months. Understandably, theres going to be a learning curve.
Donald Trump loves all Americans, said Don King. Hes always been very nice to me.
Tuesday may well be the first sign that Trump is finally growing into the office.
On Wednesday morning, though, the president may have undermined his newfound sense of decorum, tweeting at Harriet Tubmans great-great granddaughter that her ancestor was a loser who bearly rescued anyone.
The Korean Peoples Army launches rockets during a target-strike exercise in an undated photo released by North Korea on August 26, 2017. Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images
[Update: In an escalation of this dangerous dynamic, North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful test of a nuclear bomb on Sunday morning, claiming it had not only successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb, but that it was a bomb which could be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile.]
The crisis in the Korean Peninsula continues to escalate in the wake of provocative ballistic-missile tests by North Korea. On Thursday, U.S. and South Korean jets including four American F-35 stealth fighters, two B-1 bombers, and four South Korean F-15 fighters carried out a joint exercise in a show of force that U.S. and South Korean military officials said was in response to those provocations.
The U.S. bombers launched from Guam, which North Korea has been cryptically threatening to attack, while the stealth fighters took off from a U.S. Marine Corps base in Japan, which the isolated nation had overshot with a long-range ballistic missile on Monday, days after reportedly testing three shorter-range missiles, one of which failed to launch.
Thursdays exercise, held over the Pilsung training range in South Koreas eastern Gangwon Province, simulated a surgical strike on enemy facilities. The inclusion of the F-35s was significant as these next-generation stealth fighters would play an integral role in a preemptive strike on North Korea if the situation were to deteriorate into active war.
This weeks ballistic-missile tests were themselves a predictable response to the regularly scheduled, large-scale joint military exercises Washington and Seoul have been conducting over the past two weeks; the North Korean regime sees these as rehearsals of an invasion and routinely responds to them with bellicose gestures.
China, North Koreas key trade partner and benefactor, has repeatedly urged the U.S. and South Korea to consider freezing these exercises as a means of coaxing Kim Jong-un to the negotiating table, where he might agree to suspend or even shut down his nuclear-weapons program. Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs appeared to reference the U.S. and South Korea in a statement on Thursday pointing out that the situation in the region is not like a movie script or computer game.
Indeed, the power to halt these exercises appears to be the main lever we have available to influence North Koreas behavior, but neither the Trump administration nor the South Korean government is eager to offer them up for negotiation. This weeks escalations fit an all-too-familiar pattern of Korean-American exercises provoking North Korean missile launches that in turn prompt U.S. flyovers of the peninsula and more threats from Pyongyang.
At this point, however, the North Korean regime has clearly signaled that it is unmoved by American shows of force, because it knows that the costs of an actual war are unacceptable to the U.S. and its allies. The only thing that can possibly come from this saber-rattling involves hundreds of thousands of dead Koreans on both sides of the demilitarized zone. De-escalating the tensions is a prerequisite for any kind of meaningful diplomatic breakthrough, but its not clear that the U.S. is interested in either de-escalation or diplomacy at this time.
Part of what makes the current situation uniquely volatile is that the communications coming from the White House are completely unpredictable and beyond the control of anyone other than Trump himself. Every time the president tweets, as he did on Wednesday, that talking is not the answer to North Korea, there is a chance that Kim will interpret Trumps bluster as an actual shift in U.S. policy from jaw-jaw to war-war.
That Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has to deny rumors that he and the president disagree on how to approach North Korea is a suggestive sign that there is some daylight between the White House and the Pentagon on this matter. Even if these differences are not about policy but rather about how to communicate policy, as some observers suggest, in this case, such a difference is significant in itself. After all, Mattis likely understands much better than the president the dangers of promulgating a foreign-policy doctrine 140 shouty characters at a time.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump meet people affected by Hurricane Harvey during a visit to the NRG Center in Houston. Photo: Susan Walsh/AP
President Trump returned to Texas on Saturday, appearing at a Houston shelter housing residents who were forced from their flooded homes by Hurricane Harvey. It was Trumps second visit to the state since the storm deposited as much as 50 inches of rainfall, leading to catastrophic flooding. His previous visit, on Tuesday, elicited criticism since Trump did not meet with any victims of the unfolding disaster or express direct empathy for them. Saturdays return seemed designed, in part, to counteract that criticism and demonstrate that Trump was capable of showing basic human emotions in response to tragedy. (Notably, the president did not wear a $40 hat being sold by his reelection campaign on this trip.)
On Friday, the White House announced that it was seeking an initial $7.9 billion relief package from Congress to assist with the recovery efforts.
On Saturday, the president, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, Texas governor Greg Abbott, FEMA director Brock Long, and several other members of the presidents cabinet, paid a 45-minute visit to the NRG Center in Houston, which has served as an evacuation center and shelter for those displaced by the storm and floodwaters. It was Trumps first appearance in the actual disaster zone, and he spoke with victims, served meals with the Red Cross, and posed for photos.
President Trump meeting with some young Hurricane Harvey evacuees at NRG Stadium in Houston pic.twitter.com/OI84wgo2kQ Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) September 2, 2017
WATCH: Pres. Trump hands out food at a shelter in Houston, Texas https://t.co/SFsm2tbj12 pic.twitter.com/IIHJvMQOx2 CBS News (@CBSNews) September 2, 2017
Of course, Trump being Trump, his visit also featured plenty of odd moments. As he did on Tuesday, Trump seemed focused on promoting how well the government had responded to the disaster, telling reporters at the NRG Center that the governments efforts have been very well received even by you guys and that victims had told him they were really happy with whats going on.
We saw a lot of happiness [among the families]. Its been really nice. Its been a wonderful thing. As tough as this was, its been a wonderful thing, I think even for the country to watch, and for the world to watch. Its been beautiful. Trump said to the press.
Trump also joked about how the food-service gloves he tried to put on didnt fit because my hands are too big:
As he puts on plastic gloves to serve food at NRG Stadium...President Trump turns to press and says: "My hands are too big!" pic.twitter.com/WIUTLOS4XD Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) September 2, 2017
The president autographed the wall of the Houston shelter, for some reason, too:
Trump signed his signature directly on the bare wall at the NRG center after meeting with storm victims (next to a "We Love Houston" poster) pic.twitter.com/KjdLw4U951 Toluse Olorunnipa (@ToluseO) September 2, 2017
Afterward, he toured one of the neighborhoods that had been flooded during the storm:
"You just became famous," Trump tells supporter in Houston neighborhood that had been hit by flooding pic.twitter.com/LVv0ml1y5A Toluse Olorunnipa (@ToluseO) September 2, 2017
The president also stopped by a church in Pearland, Texas, which was being used as a distribution center. There, he praised relief workers, helped load supplies into cars, and made some remarks from a stage, insisting that the government would help Texas rebuild. Introducing some of his cabinet members, he included characteristic digressions about Education Secretary Betsy DeVoss media coverage and the administrations handling of veterans health care.
President Trump hands out supply's at first church in Pearland Texas #trumpintx pic.twitter.com/8V9XG3gVyb courtney sacco (@Caller_Courtney) September 2, 2017
WATCH: @POTUS's full remarks at a church in Pearland, Texas, used as a distribution center. #Harvey pic.twitter.com/SUROcAtzeQ Fox News (@FoxNews) September 2, 2017
Trump was scheduled to visit southwestern Louisiana later in the day, as well.
Karen Hill wasn't surprised when Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wouldn't commit to putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. But the possibility that the American icon won't appear on paper money after all left her feeling disappointed.
The executive director of the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn is hopeful that Mnuchin will follow through on the plan initiated by his predecessor, Jack Lew, to include Tubman's likeness on the redesigned $20 bill.
"What we are championing in having her on the $20 bill is freedom and that's what this country stands for is freedom and democracy," Hill said in a phone interview Friday. "And Tubman is the epitome of that."
Mnuchin was asked during an interview with CNBC Thursday if he supports making Tubman the face of the $20 bill. He said Treasury "will be looking at this issue" and emphasized that security is the top priority for any change to paper currency.
After Lew announced that Tubman would grace the new $20 bill, Hill said Treasury officials visited the Harriet Tubman Home to learn more about the abolitionist.
Tubman was born in Maryland and escaped slavery. She helped others escape and went on to serve as a spy for the Union during the Civil War.
The latter part of her life was spent in Auburn, where she died in 1913. The brick house she lived in and the Home for the Aged she founded are part of the newly established Harriet Tubman National Historical Park in Auburn.
Hill said she was encouraged to hear President Donald Trump praise Tubman in separate speeches over the last several months. Trump is a noted admirer of former President Andrew Jackson the current face of the $20 bill.
In February, Trump visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. After his tour, he said the site was a tribute to "so many American heroes." He mentioned some of those honored at the museum, including Tubman.
During a speech in March at a women's empowerment panel, Trump lauded Tubman's work to free others from slavery and her tenure as a spy for the Union.
"The president certainly seems to have Tubman on his mind in the most positive light and I would hope that he would support her being on the $20 bill," Hill said.
With uncertainty after Mnuchin's comments, Hill said they will utilize different methods of communication to urge the Treasury secretary to move forward with plans to put Tubman on the $20 bill. One option is to align with New York's U.S. senators, Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, and U.S. Rep. John Katko, whose district includes all of Cayuga County.
Katko, R-Camillus, sent a letter to Mnuchin Friday reiterating his support for putting Tubman on the $20 bill. Schumer, D-N.Y., released a statement calling on the Treasury to "get back on track" and advance plans for making Tubman the new face of the $20 note.
Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said she was "very concerned" about Mnuchin's remarks and hinted that congressional action is an option if Treasury reverses course.
Hill acknowledged the importance of the Tubman $20 bill to the new national parks in Auburn and Maryland that bear the abolitionist's name. But she said the effects of the currency will go far beyond central New York. Putting Tubman on the $20 bill is a "global phenomena," she said, because the money will be circulated internationally.
"It says so many good things about America to have Tubman on the face of the $20 bill," she said.
The cleanup begins. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
A week after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, the storm is finally gone. Residents are now returning home to calm neighborhood streets, once again passable without a kayak. The roads are back to normal, but signs of the devastation caused by the endless rains and subsequent flooding are sitting right alongside them, as the water that once surrounded thousands of Houston homes is replaced by all the trash it created on the inside.
Theres a practical reason to move quickly with this cleanup drying out homes as quickly as possible reduces the risk of mold and a psychological one. The sooner the remnants of this catastrophe are out of eyesight, the sooner people can begin to put it behind them. It sucks, but what do you do? You clean up and move forward, Jerry Shannon, whose home flooded, told NBC News.
Of course, those who can clean up are the lucky ones. At least theyre alive, unlike the 46 people believe to have been killed by the storm. And at least they have a place to clean up, unlike the residents of the up to 40,000 homes that were totally destroyed. But given the amount of work in front of them, itd be hard to blame these lucky ones for not feeling very lucky at all.
Theyll have to begin by stripping their homes of damaged and contaminated materials, including drywall, insulation, and flooring. Carpets, mattresses, and upholstered furniture will have to go, too. Sure, some of it can be restored, but its hardly worth the cost. Books, stuffed animals, and toys can be brought back to life with enough effort, but thats only if the chemicals and sewage contaminating the flood waters dont persuade parents to toss them out.
A Houston familys pile of ruined belongings. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Appliances can sometimes be salvaged, but they must be sanitized and cleaned of gritty deposits first. Small, but vital, electrical components may need to be replaced, a job thats more difficult, stressful, and time-consuming than driving to Home Depot and buying a new microwave.
Losses at businesses affected by the floods are similar. Walls, floors, and furniture have to be thrown out, along with industrial equipment worth six figures. Then theres the tangled mess left behind by collapsed bridges and roadways.
Its impossible at this point to know how much debris the storm will produce, but experts can look at the precedent set by similar superstorms. Hurricane Sandy produced 12 million cubic yards of waste and Hurricane Katrina more than quadrupled that with 55 million cubic yards. Given the size of Houston and the duration of the flooding, theres every reason to believe Harvey created a bigger mess than any storm that came before it.
Cleaning it up will require time years in the words of FEMA administrator Brock Long and patience with the giant mounds of trash that will soon begin popping up around the city. To clean up after Sandy, staging areas were created at Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways and other areas near the worst of the destruction. The junk was hauled to Staten Island and then taken by barge and eventually truck to landfills upstate. The New York Times described the effort as a a 24-hour-a-day, military-scale operation.
Houstons Solid Waste Management Department began its own operation on Thursday, sending trucks back out to collect household trash and storm debris. On Friday, Mayor Sylvester Turner told CBS News hes desperate for money to help with the clean up.
What we are needing from FEMA is an advanced payment on debris removal, he said. I would tell you my request is $75 million, as an advance payment just on debris removal. Just for the city of Houston alone could be anywhere from $250-$300 million.
Two men help remove a refrigerator and other ruined items from a friends home in Dickinson, Texas. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
In an interview with Bloomberg, Jim Fish, CEO of the trash company Waste Management, said, [E]very single house on these streets must have 40 yards of trash, debris sitting in the front yard. He stressed the difficulty of coordinating the pickup of household trash with the hauling off of storm debris, which could literally fill up an entire truck with one house.
Its unclear where all this junk will go (calls to Houstons Solid Waste Management office were not returned), but the area appears well-equipped to handle it. As Bloomberg BNA notes, the Houston-Galveston region has 27 landfills, with a total of 34 years of capacity under normal disposal rates.
If local officials take a lesson from the post-Katrina cleanup, theyll create temporary landfills to conserve space at the facilities equipped to handle more toxic trash. In New Orleans, sticks and bricks sites were set up to gather woody demolition debris in areas that did not protect the groundwater as well as landfills.
A burnt-out house and cars in Corpus Christi, Texas. Photo: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images
Temporary staging areas will also be needed for all the cars, about a million of which have been destroyed by the water. Some of them will be restored and resold, and some will be scrapped for parts, but all of them have to be hauled off the streets and taken somewhere until those decisions are made. After Sandy, that somewhere was a little-used airport on Long Island where 15,000 water-damaged vehicles lined the runway until they could be properly dealt with.
Environmentalists know the hazard this junk poses as its carted around the state and stored in makeshift dumps while rules are waived to expedite the cleanup. In New Jersey, regulations limiting operating hours of landfills and incinerators were temporarily eased after Sandy. When residents near one landfill began falling ill, they blamed the junk trucked over from the areas hit worst by the storm.
In Texas, we were concerned about the lack of regulations before this hurricane and certainly now after, says Cyrus Reed, conservation director at the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. The lax regulatory structure in the state already puts it at risk, he told Daily Intelligencer, and relaxing those rules even further make Texas especially vulnerable in the aftermath of a disaster such as Harvey.
As eager as everyone is to get the garbage out of their homes, off of their yards, and out of their lives, its worth remembering that it has to go somewhere.
Having witnessed the translocation of the Uganda kob from Murchison Falls national park to Kidepo Valley national park in May this year, my journey to Ugandas largest national park for the translocation of giraffes, this time, was one filled with imaginations of how these beasts are chased, captured and loaded onto trucks.
One of the giraffes being captured
Throughout the seven-hour journey, I was eager to witness the capture, especially knowing that these were no kobs that were chased with high speed cars into a boma, with rangers even capturing some of the fast, goat-like animals with bare hands; with a giraffes sharp eyesight and renowned powerful kicks that can knock out the fearsome big cats in the wild, it would not be an easy task.
The boma, which had been constructed at Tangi near Pakwach, already had 10 giraffes that had been earlier captured, but none of Uganda Wildlife Authoritys (UWA) veterinarians and rangers could describe how these beasts had been captured.
Wait until tomorrow and witness by yourself, is all Simplicious Gessa, UWAs public relations officer, would say, every time he heard me asking the UWA field staff.
The captured giraffes inside the boma
On a given day, one or two giraffes are captured since a single capture can take several hours.
As early as 7am, the team was already on the ground where the giraffes had been spotted. From a given herd, the team identified a particular giraffe that everyone had to keep their eyes on, before it was shot down with a dart gun.
Instead of a bullet, we use a dart that has an anaesthetic drug, which brings it down. But we have to be very fast to get it so that it does not fall badly because then, it may break its neck and that would be a loss, said UWAs deputy director for planning, Edgar Bhuhanga.
The giraffes on the translocation truck
And for these elegantly tall beasts, there is certainly a lot of neck to break if they fell suddenly from their great height!
Once the drug begins weakening the giraffe, the assigned people run to put ropes around it. The ropes help in safely bringing it down, before veterinarians take over, to carry out necessary tests before it loading it onto a tractor-drawn crate to the holding boma.
#Giraffes can't swim & with #oil activities in Murchison Falls NP, they had to be translocated from one sector to the other. No easy task! pic.twitter.com/u642xhBRcq The Observer (@observerug) August 24, 2017
BACKGROUND
This exercise was a result of a three-year study by Michael Brown, a PhD student at Dartmouth College, a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States.
Browns study was basically around the behaviour, and how best the giraffes in Murchison Falls national park can be managed.
He was attracted to this particular park by the fact that it has nearly 75 per cent of the worlds population of the Rothschild giraffe species.
For three years, he has been studying each giraffe individually, photographing each of them and creating a bio-data for each of them using the patterns; each has its own distinctive pattern, it is like fingerprints, Dr Julian Fennessy, the director of Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF), told The Observer.
Fennessy and Brown were part of a team of experts from UWA, Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC), Makerere Universitys College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Bio-Security (COVAB), GCF and Cheyenne Mountain Zoo of Colorado, USA, who took part in the two-week exercise of translocating giraffes from the northern sector to the southern sector of Murchison Falls national park.
The two sectors are separated by the river Nile, and connected by ferry service. The northern sector has for long enjoyed a far bigger animal population than the southern.
The translocation was based on Browns discovery that there were 1,250 giraffes in Murchison Falls national park, 500 more than UWAs earlier estimate of 750 giraffes.
These beasts, according to Browns study, are being threatened by the upcoming development projects such oil explorations and construction of power dams such as the 840MW Ayago hydropower dam.
The range of development projects in the northern sector can impact negatively on the giraffes stock. Being that this park is separated by the Nile, and giraffes, unlike other animals like elephants, etc, cant swim across the river to go to the other part of the park, they are concentrated in the northern sector; that is why we have to help them cross that natural barrier, Patrick Atimnedi, UWAs manager for veterinary services, said.
The first translocation was in 2015 when 19 giraffes were moved from the northern sector to the southern sector.
Apart from one giraffe that was killed and eaten by locals in Buliisa, the rest adapted so well, giving UWA reason to move more of the worlds tallest animals.
At least 20 giraffes were moved to the Bunyoro side of the park and two others were taken to UWEC in Entebbe.
THE DRIVE
Loading the giraffes onto the translocation truck is not as hard and as delicate as capturing and transporting them. It took less than five minutes to get five giraffes onto the truck, but it took about two and half hours to drive them on a journey of 43km from Tangi to a grassland in the newly opened honeymoon trail inside Budongo forest.
On the first day of the translocation, one of the giraffes collapsed within three minutes of set-off from Tangi. Veterinarians laboured in vain to get it up and then painfully resolved to first offload it. For several minutes, they tried to resuscitate it, to no avail.
It only showed signs of normalising after cold water was poured over it. The scene was similar to one in a hospital ward where medics pace up and down in a dash to save a life, only that this time we were in the middle of a jungle road as veterinarians struggled to save the giraffes life.
A GCF vet ran to one of the last vehicles in the long convoy to pick an oxygen cylinder that was applied for the giraffe to fully recover.
They congratulated themselves as it finally got up and went back to the wilderness to graze, reducing the translocating giraffes by one.
Apart from creating a deficit in the numbers, the particular giraffe was the one that had been fitted with a tracking device on its horn, implying that without it, the conservationists cannot keep track of that herd of four.
And the animals do not take the transportation lying down, either. One of the rangers is still nursing a broken arm, after one of the giraffes head-butted him inside the truck.
He is lucky the blow was not to his head, or chest!
Still, the team was happy the southern bank had more giraffes, a boost to tourism in the popular park, seeing as that side of the river has several budget safari lodges whose guests usually cross to the northern bank to see many of the animals.
Paraa and Chobe safari lodges, both high-class facilities ran by Marasa Investments, dominate the northern sector.
sadabkk@observer.ug
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Harold Hamm, Chairman of Continental Resources (ticker: CLR) sees attractive long-term growth prospects in global gas demand, the Financial Times reported in a recent story about Hamm.
Hamm expects U.S. LNG exports to rise from about 3.5 Bcf/day in 2017 to 10 Bcf-11 Bcf per day by 2019, just from the export plants now under construction. The EIA came out with a report that tops thatputting U.S. exports of natural gas at 13.5 Bcf/day.
As further liquefaction projects are approved and completed, he expects this to rise to 30 Bcf-35 Bcf per day in the longer term. At that rate, the US would be exporting about 42 per cent of this years total gas production, FT calculated.
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There is no doubt U.S. LNG exports are on the rise, thanks to the first-mover status of Cheniere Energy (ticker: LNG) which completed its Train 1 liquefaction facility at Sabine Pass and started exporting LNG in early 2016. With six major projects in progress including capacity expansions at Sabine Pass, the U.S. isnt slowing down. These six projects will give U.S. a major presence in not only the regional gas market, but the global gas trade. Here is a recap of where the U.S. stands in the race to export natural gas.
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Sabine Pass: exporting now, adding more trains
Currently, Cheniere Energys (ticker: LNG) Sabine Pass is the only active LNG exporting facility in the U.S.
The Sabine Pass facility is partially complete, with three of a total of five trains operational. The fourth train of Sabine Pass is nearly complete, and was 99% constructed at the time of Chenieres second quarter conference call earlier in August. Cheniere reports that Train 4 will be completed in October. The fifth train is not as far along, and current plans suggest it will come online in August 2019. Cheniere is currently in the process of obtaining commercial contracts and financing for a sixth train, which would be the final one at Sabine Pass.
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Each train at Sabine Pass is designed to process 4.5 million tons of LNG per year, giving the facility current production of 13.5 MTPA and eventual total capacity of 27 MTPA.
Next up: Cove Point targets in-service date for Q4 2017
The next facility to come online will most likely be Dominion Energys (ticker: D) Cove Point facility in Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Cove Point is currently an LNG import facility, but the rise of unconventional production from the Marcellus has pushed the facility to be retooled to export gas.
Dominion released an update in July which stated that the project was 92% complete, with an in-service date in Q4 2017. All of the major equipment has been set in place, now the focus is on commissioning activities. Cove Point LNG will have a total capacity of about 5.7 MTPA when operational.
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Cove Point LNG
Next is Cameron LNG: estimates first operations early 2018
After Cove Point begins operations, the first train of Sempra Energys (ticker: SRE) Cameron LNG is scheduled to come online. Located along the Calcasieu Channel in Louisiana, Cameron LNG has three trains currently under construction. The projects website estimates that Train 1 will begin operations in early 2018, while Train 2 and 3 will start up around mid- and end of 2018, respectively.
In addition, Cameron LNG is currently in the permitting stage of constructing an expansion to the facility, which would add a fourth and fifth train. Project completion for the expansion is expected sometime in 2019. The first three trains represent just under 15 MTPA of LNG capacity, while the expansion adding an additional 10 MTPA of production.
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Cameron LNG
Elba Island: small-scale export plant targets mid-2018 to begin operations
Soon after the first train of Cameron LNG begins production, Kinder Morgans (ticker: KMI) Elba Island LNG will begin operation. Located just north of Savannah, Georgia, Elba Island is currently a regasification plant for imports of LNG. Kinder Morgan is currently constructing liquefaction and export facilities at the site of existing operations. The project will use a total of ten of Shells small-scale liquefaction units, constructed in two phases. The first phase will begin service in mid-2018, while the second will come online in early 2019. Elba Island will be a relatively small facility, with about 2.7 MTPA of export capacity.
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Elba Island LNG
Freeport LNG: targeting first operations between Q4 18 and Q3 19
Related: Can Mexico Capitalize On This Golden Oil Opportunity?
Like Sabine Pass, Freeport LNG was originally envisioned as an LNG import facility, but the profound change in the U.S. natural gas supply picture which the shale phenomenon caused means it is now an export facility. Located near Galveston, Freeport will be one of the larger LNG facilities in the U.S. Currently, the facility is constructing three trains for a total capacity of 15 MTPA, but a fourth train is under development. This would add another 5 MTPA of LNG, for a grand total of 20 MTPA of production. The three trains currently under construction will begin operations between Q4 2018 and Q3 2019.
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Freeport LNG
Corpus Christi: targeting 1H 2019 to begin operations
The sixth and final facility currently under construction is also a Cheniere project Corpus Christi LNG. This project will have a total of five trains when complete. According to the projects website, construction on Train 1 and 2 began in May 2015, and Train 1 is on schedule to begin operations in the first half of 2019. Like at Sabine Pass, each train in Corpus Christi will have 4.5 MTPA of capacity, giving the overall facility 22.5 MTPA of LNG production.
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The total planned capacity at these six projects represent a total of over 100 MTPA, or 13.5 Bcf/d of LNG production, once all trains are operational and exporting LNG.
And then theres Australia
86 MTPA from Australia will be operational by 2018
The U.S. is already behind in the global LNG export race. All this planned LNG and the global marketing of Marcellus gas will have to compete with another rising LNG producer that started before the U.S.Australia.
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Source: APPEA
According to BP (ticker: BP) Vice President for Upstream in Australia Claire Fitzpatrick, Australia is on track to overtake Qatar as the largest LNG exporter in the world. Many massive projects are currently either operating or under construction. The massive Gorgon LNG is chief among them, which will produce about 15.6 MTPA for a cost of $54 billion.
BPs North West Shelf (NWS) project is the producing asset in the BP Australia upstream portfolio, Fitzpatrick said in an interview for BP Magazine. It is a long-standing position, where we are one of six equal partners. We began producing domestic gas in 1984, with the first shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) five years later. Since it was sanctioned more than three decades ago, we have doubled the resource base and today it delivers about a third of Western Australias domestic gas supply, as well as supplying LNG for export, condensate and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), Fitzpatrick said.
BPs North West Shelf project is four offshore platforms and more than 50 wells, with trunk lines connecting back to onshore facilities at Karratha. About 1,500 kilometres north of Perth, there are five LNG trains (with an annual export capacity of 16.9 million tonnes) and a domestic gas plant (630 terajoules per day). The venture also owns seven LNG carriers and the vessels are managed individually by those partners with shipping businesses, including BP Shipping, Fitzpatrick said.
The domestic gas stream supplies Western Australia (WA) directly, while the LNG goes for export, mainly to Japan, but also to customers in China and Korea. The project is a huge driver for the economy, both in employment terms and through tax revenues, Fitzpatrick said in the interview.
Australia is set to be worlds largest LNG exporter by 2020: BP
Australia looks set to become the largest LNG exporter in the world by 2020 and the North West Shelf will play its part in that, alongside several new LNG projects around the country, Fitzpatrick said.
Australias LNG projects are expensive: $250 billion
The Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association lists seven currently operating LNG projects including North West Shelf, with another three under development. These projects represent a total of nearly 86 MTPA of LNG capacity, all projected to be operational by 2018. The expense of these projects is significant, however, totaling more than $250 billion.
It remains to be seen how large-scale production of LNG from the U.S. will compete with the more established Australian supply.
Project North West Shelf Venture Darwin Pluto Queenland Curtis Gladstone Production (MTPA) 16.3 3.7 4.3 8.5 7.8 Estimated Cost ($ billion) 50+ 1.5 15.3 23.7 21.6 Production Start 1989 2005 2012 2014 2015 Project Australia Pacific Wheatstone Gorgon Prelude Ichthys Production (MTPA) 9 8.9 15.4 3.5 8.4 Estimated Cost ($ billion) 24.7 34 54 13 49.5 Production Start 2015 2016 2016 2018 2018
Global LNG prices falling as buyers push for better terms
LNG prices are falling, as several different forces push prices lower. Increasing supply from Australian operations has naturally driven down prices. In addition, many LNG contracts price the product as a percentage of the oil price, meaning prices would fall in concert with the oil price downturn.
Source: Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
(Click to enlarge)
Furthermore, the largest LNG purchasers are moving to change contract prices and terms. Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS), Japans JERA and China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), which collectively represent about one-third of the worlds LNG purchases, formed an LNG buyers club to work together to lobby for flexible contracts. Related: Russias Comeback In The LNG Race
Companies like Petronas have begun advertising increasing flexibility in their LNG contracts, as buyers begin to look for who has the best deal. These trends flared up in May, when Qatar pushed back against Japans efforts for changing contract terms. According to Reuters, Qatar threatened to force Japanese companies out of their stakes in Qatari projects if Japan pushed too hard on terms or switched to different suppliers.
More recently, the Japan Fair Trade Commission outlawed certain restrictions on LNG contracts in July. While this ruling is limited in scope and will not fundamentally change the companys LNG markets, it does represent a significant win for LNG buyers.
(Click to enlarge)
By Oil and Gas 360
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CITs recommended freezing of Sharif family members assets
LAHORE: The National Accountability Bureaus combined investigation teams (CITs) on Friday recommended freezing of the assets of Sharif family members in the references to be filed in an accountability court next week.
The CITs of Lahore and Rawalpindi have recommended to NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry to freeze the assets of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his children Hussain, Hasan and Maryam son-in-law retired Capt Safdar and relative Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the four references to be filed in the accountability court, Rawalpindi, next week, a senior NAB official told Dawn on Friday. He said the CITs had also recommended freezing of bank accounts of Mr Sharif, his children, his son-in-law and Mr Dar.
Both the Lahore and Rawalpindi CITs of the bureau have submitted their recommendations in this regard to the chairman who is authorised either to include or reject this recommendation (freezing of assets) in the references against the Sharif family members, the official said. Mr Chaudhry will chair a meeting of the executive board in Islamabad in a few days to give authorisation of filing the four references against the Sharif family.
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said all the cases reopened against the Sharif family had already been decided by the courts and nothing proved against the former premier. The PML-N said Mr Sharif and his children would return to the country to face these cases. Mian Sahib never evaded accountability in the past and he will not do so in this case too. He will soon return to the country to face the NAB references, PML-N leader from Punjab Mohammad Mehdi told reprters.
Mr Mehdi said Mr Sharif had been acquitted in all the cases being probed by NAB today. Even the NAB chairman had told the Supreme Court that nothing had been established against Mr Sharif and his family members in these cases and there was no point in reopening them, he said.
Mr Sharif, along with his sons, has been in London to see his ailing wife Begum Kulsoom, who underwent successful throat cancer surgery. Maryam Nawaz is busy running the campaign of her mother in the NA-120 Lahore by-poll, which is scheduled for Sept 17.
NAB has been given six weeks from the date of the Supreme Courts order (July 28) in the Panama Papers case to file references in the accountability court against the Sharif family members.
According to NAB, the references would also contain findings of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted by the SC to probe the Sharif familys offshore holdings.
Wajid Zia, the JIT head, who is also Federal Investigation Agencys additional director, has already recorded his statement before the Lahore and Rawalpindi CITs regarding its investigation into offshore companies of the Sharifs and money-laundering allegations against them.
The CITs have also discussed Volume-10 of the JIT report that dealt with the mutual legal business agreements between the Sharif family and different foreign governments. Some part of it may also be included in the references, a source said.
The four references will be related to the Avenfield Properties (London), Azizia Steel Mills, Hill Metal Company and the other companies of the Sharif family that include Flagship Investments, Hartstone Properties, Que Holdings, Quint Eaton Place 2, Quint Saloane, Quaint, Flagship Securities, Quint Gloucester Place, Quint Paddington, Flagship Developments, Alanna Services (BVI), Lankin SA (BVI), Chadron, Ansbacher, Coomber and Capital FZE, Dubai.
Mr Dar would face a reference for possessing assets beyond his known sources of income. According to the JIT, Mr Dar invested 5.5m British pounds in Baraq Holdings in the UAE, but sources of these funds were not disclosed.
The JIT has also disclosed that Maryam Nawaz was a beneficial owner of Avenfield Properties as well as offshore companies of Nescoll & Nielsen. The JIT report has also charged Ms Maryam with submitting fake / falsified documents to the JIT which is a criminal offence.
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Chavez Cuanto te queremos!
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Algun dia Colombia volvera a la ideologia de Bolivar
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LOS REVOLUCIONARIOS NO TOMAN CACA-COLA No se trata solamente de un capricho, sino de una sana actitud en todos los sentidos. Desde la solidaridad con el pueblo colombiano donde la empresa Caca-Cola ha cometido los mas grandes abusos contra sus trabajadores incluyendo el presunto secuestro y asesinato de los dirigentes del sindicato, hasta la proteccion de la salud de nuestros hijos, enviciados por ese jarabe de cola y azucar, que les produce obesidad prematura. Pensemos tambien los revolucionarios, que ese dinero que gastamos en los refrescos es utilizado por esas empresas para financiar el terrorismo en nuestro pais. Es cierto, no se trata solo de la Caca-Cola, sino tambien de la cerveza, de los cigarrillos y todos esos articulos innecesarios y mas que eso, daninos para nuestra salud. Podriamos incluso pensar en un dia de parada para cada uno de ellos. Es cuestion de irnos organizando. Pero para empezar, que tal si dejamos de comprar Caca-Cola y sus similares?
Cuando lo extraordinario se vuelve cotidiano...
Discurso del Acto de Grado en Barinas en 12 de Febrero del 2005 Queridos Graduandos:
Mas que un discurso, quiero dirigirles algunas palabras que escribi anoche, despues de visitar en las clinicas, a los estudiantes heridos, a consecuencia de los enfrentamientos con la policia de hace apenas dos dias.
Me ha tocado por razones del destino, ser la persona que les otorgue el titulo que bien merecieron con sus estudios. Y me siento sumamente orgulloso de serlo. Me consta que la Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, a pesar de lo dicho por los enemigos de esta universidad, es una universidad de primera.
No tendremos la mejor planta fisica, en los salones hace calor. En el comedor hace calor. Pero no es en lo material que las cosas deben valorarse. El mayor capital es el ser humano. Y en eso, nuestra UNELLEZ, lo digo con conocimiento de causa, esta sobrada. Los llaneros venezolanos son nobles, valientes, de coraje.
En la UNELLEZ hacen vida, en este momento, aproximadamente 67000 personas. El 97% de ellas son estudiantes. Jovenes que, como Ustedes hasta el dia de hoy, buscan ese titulo, que constata los anos de dedicacion y de estudio.
Los jovenes son el rio de la vida, ustedes graduados deben ser los capitanes de esos barcos que naveguen por el rio de la vida.
Nuestra Patria atraviesa momentos muy dificiles porque decidio dejar de ser esa matrona de edad vetusta y complaciente, para ser joven, rebelde y altanera. Nuestra imagen ya no es la de una acaudalada ricachona mayamera. En nuestro rostro brilla ahora la sonrisa del Che Guevara, con su diente delantero torcido, su pelo largo y su boina con la estrella.
Entender esto, a mi me ha tomado practicamente toda la vida. Tengo 53 anos, y ya perdi mi oportunidad de derramar sangre joven a causa de un ideal.
Ustedes son jovenes, estan en la flor de la vida. No cometan por favor el error de renunciar a su instinto de rebelion. El Che Guevara fue Ministro de a Economia en Cuba. Los billetes y las monedas se adornaban con su rostro. Nada de eso le importo. Primero fue a Angola donde paso un penoso ano de combate. Despues se fue a Bolivia, donde encontro la muerte. El Che era el ultimo que comia, el que cargaba la mochila mas pesada. Siempre se sacrificaba por los demas en un estoicismo que mas parecia fervor religioso que ideologia marxista.
Si quieren un modelo de vida. Ahi lo tienen.
Dije hace unos momentos que el 97% de la poblacion de la UNELLEZ es estudiante. Se imaginan Ustedes la Universidad que podriamos tener si todos los estudiantes tuvieran la abnegacion, la combatividad del Che?
Los momentos que se avecinan van a requerir de una gran unidad del pueblo venezolano. La alternativa de continuar siendo libres o regresar a la pobreza se nos planteara en los proximos dias de forma enmascarada, o quizas peor, desenmascarada, vestida con uniforme de soldado del Imperio.
Por nuestra parte podemos esperar lo mejor. La macroeconomia no podria ir mejor, la justicia social ha mejorado notablemente. Las misiones ocupan un papel muy importante en el pago de dicha justicia social. Aqui en Barinas ya hemos cumplido con dos de las misiones, la mision Robinson y la mision Sucre. No hay analfabetismo y no hay exclusion en la educacion superior, en estas tierras de Zamora.
Pero ay malhaya! Son precisamente estos exitos los que nos hacen mas antipaticos al Imperio. Para ellos, somos inclusive un mal ejemplo que se esta contagiando al resto del continente y cuidado sino al resto del mundo.
Nunca venceremos al Imperio. Estara siempre ahi, acechando. Por lo menos hasta que el mismo no se autodestruya. Porque, sepanlo senores, el neoliberalismo es canibal. Cuando le ataque el hambre, se devorara a si mismo.
Ustedes, queridos graduandos, a partir de hoy pasan a conformar la elite profesional que debe sostener este pais en los proximos cuarenta o cincuenta anos. Anos decisivos para el logro de nuestra libertad y del rescate de nuestra Soberania.
No se dejen comprar. No se dejen corromper. No se dejen gritar. No se dejen pisar. Que nadie les diga que comer, o que vestirse, o que leer. Sean siempre autenticos, rebeldes, contestatarios. Pero eso si, profundamente patriotas, dignos de ser hijos de Bolivar.
Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga.
Alguna duda?
Medio siglo de Holocausto Palestino
Oscar Zanartu Nacio en Caracas en 1960. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en las galerias Minotauro, Clave y San Francisco, y en salas de Coro, estado Falcon, y Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolivar. En Paris su obra ha sido exhibida en el Centro Cultural Tanagra, en la Exposicion Cite Internationale des Arts, en las galerias De Mars y Arver Space, al igual que en la Galeria Municipal Levallois, en Levallois Perret (Francia). En muestras colectivas, su obra se ha expuesto en Belgica, Francia, Estados Unidos y Venezuela; en Caracas intervino en la exposicion "Del genesis a la memoria", 1995, organizada por la Fundacion La Previsora. En 1982 obtuvo el Premio Nacional Critven y en 1990 la Mencion de Honor Jose Antonio Paez, en la Embajada de Venezuela en Paris. En 1991 se le concedio el primer premio de Pintura Itinerante, en Levallois Perret, Francia.
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Homenaje a Jason Galarraga
La Victoria de Samotracia
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Mas fotos de la nevada del pasado agosto 2008
La Sierra Nevada de Merida
Nuestro precioso Churum Meru
Homenaje a Picasso
Autoretrato
Sabes lo que bebes en una Coca-Cola?
La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.
Mi profesion?
Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.
Sal en la Coca Cola?
A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.
De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:
Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gusto
Acido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)
azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)
Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantas
Mucha Cafeina
Conservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o Potasio
Dioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebe
Sal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracion
El uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.
Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.
Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.
En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).
Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.
La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.
Bebidas Light?
Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el
Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.
Publicado por loretahur
En realidad, la formula secreta de la Coca-Cola se puede detallar en 18 segundos en cualquier espectrometro optico, y basicamente la conocen hasta los perros. Lo que ocurre es que no se puede fabricar igual, a no ser que uno disponga de unos cuantos millones de dolares para ganarle la demanda que te metera la Coca-Cola ante la justicia (ellos no perderian).La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gustoAcido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantasMucha CafeinaConservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o PotasioDioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebeSal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracionEl uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el aspartamo , despues de tres semanas mojado, pasa a tener gusto de trapo viejo sucio.Para evitar eso, se agregan una infinidad de otros productos quimicos, uno para alargar la vida del aspartamo, otro para neutralizar el color, otro para mantener el tercer quimico en suspension porque sino el fondo de la gaseosa quedaria oscuro, otro para evitar la cristalizacion del aspartamo, otro para realzar el sabor, dar mas intensidad al acido citrico o fosforito que perderia su sabor por el efecto de los cuatro productos quimicos iniciales... y asi sucesivamente.Un consejo final !!Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.Publicado por loretahur
MARGARINA o MANTEQUILLA La margarina fue producida originalmente para engordar a los pavos; cuandolo que hizo en realidad fue matarlos.Las personas que habian puesto el dinero para la investigacion quisieronrecobrarlo asi que empezaron a pensar en una forma de hacerlo.Tenian una sustancia blanca, que no tenia ningun atractivo como comestible,asi que le anadieron el color amarillo, para venderselo a lagente en lugar de la mantequilla.Que tal esa?... Ahora han sacado algunos nuevos sabores para vender mas alos incautos como usted y yo.CONOCE USTED la diferencia entre la margarina y la mantequilla?Siga leyendo hasta el final... porque se pone bastante interesante!Comparacion entre mantequilla y margarina:
1.- Ambas tienen la misma cantidad de calorias.
2.- La mantequilla es ligeramente mas alta en grasas saturadas: 8 gramos,comparada con los 5 gramos que tiene la margarina.
3.- Comer margarina en vez de mantequilla puede aumentar en 53% el riesgo deenfermedades coronarias en las mujeres, de acuerdo con un estudiomedico reciente de la Universidad de Harvard.
4.- Comer mantequilla aumenta la absorcion de gran cantidad de nutrientesque se encuentran en otros alimentos.
5.- La mantequilla provee beneficios nutricionales propios mientras lamargarina tiene solo los que le hayan sido anadidos al fabricarla.
6.- La mantequilla sabe mucho mejor que la margarina y mejora el sabor deotros alimentos.7.- La mantequilla ha existido durante siglos mientras que la margarinatiene menos de 100 anos.
Ahora... sobre la margarina:
1.- Es muy alta en acidos grasos trans. (Si, esos que recien ahora loscientificos descubrieron que son malisimos y los gobiernoscomenzaron a prohibirlos) .
2.- Triple riesgo de enfermedades coronarias.
3.- Aumenta el colesterol total y el LDL (el colesterol malo) y disminuye elHDL (el colesterol bueno).
4.- Aumenta en cinco veces el riesgo de cancer.
5.- Disminuye la calidad de la leche materna.
6.- Disminuye la reaccion inmunologica del organismo.
7.- Disminuye la reaccion a la insulina.
Y he aqui el factor mas inquietante (AQUI ESTA LA PARTE MAS INTERESANTE! ):A la margarina le falta UNA MOLECULA para ser PLASTICO...!!Solo este hecho es suficiente para evitar el uso de la margarina de porvida, y de cualquier otra cosa que sea hidrogenada (esto significaque se le anade hidrogeno, lo cual cambia la estructura molecular de lassubstancias).Usted puede ensayar lo siguiente:Compre un poco de margarina y dejela en el garaje o en un sitio sombreado.Dentro de unos dias notara dos cosas:
* No habra moscas; ni siquiera esos molestos bichos se le acercaran (esto yale debe decir a usted algo).
* No se pudre ni huele mal o diferente porque no tiene valor nutritivo; nadacrece en ella. Ni siquiera los diminutos microorganismos puedencrecer en ella.Por que? Porque es casi plastico!!
No a la guerra, Si a la Paz
Misterios de la ciencia...
Los costos de la guerra
medicos y capitalismo...
Capitalismo...
medicos (2)
Quien educa a nuestros hijos?
Los Medios...
Sin Palabras...
Chistes feministas
- Cual es el problema, Eva?
- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz...
- Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.
- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...
- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.
- Que es un hombre?
- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.
- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.
- Cual es el truco?.
- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.
- Cual?
- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.
Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas? Porque todos son unos cerdos
Un dia, en el Paraiso, Eva llamo a Dios: Tengo un problema.- Cual es el problema, Eva?- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.- Que es un hombre?- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.- Cual es el truco?.- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.- Cual?- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas? Porque todos son unos cerdos
Ellas...
Ellas (2)...
Tres venganzas femeninas VENGANZA NUMERO 1
Hoy mi hija cumple 21 anos y estoy muy contento porque es el ultimo pago de pension alimenticia que le doy, asi que llame a mi hijita para que viniera a mi casa y cuando llego le dije:
-Hijita, quiero que lleves este cheque a casa de tu mama y que le digas que: Este es el ultimo maldito cheque que va recibir de mi en todo lo que le queda de su puta vida!!! Quiero que me digas la expresion que pone en su rostro.
Asi que mi hija fue a entregar el cheque. Yo estaba ansioso por saber lo que la bruja tenia que decir y que cara pondria.
Cuando mi hijita entro, le pregunte inmediatamente: -Que fue lo que te dijo tu madre?
-Me dijo que justamente estaba esperando este dia para decirte que no eres mi papa!
VENGANZA NUMERO 2
Un hombre que siempre molestaba a su mujer, paso un dia por la casa de unos amigos para que lo acompanaran al aeropuerto a dejar a su esposa que viajaba a Paris.
A la salida de inmigracion, frente a todo el mundo, el le desea buen viaje y en tono burlon le grita:
- Amor, no te olvides de traerme una hermosa francesita Ja ja ja!!
Ella bajo la cabeza y se embarco muy molesta.
La mujer paso quince dias en Francia.
El marido otra vez pidio a sus amigos que lo acompanasen al aeropuerto a recibirla.
Al verla llegar, lo primero que le grita a toda voz es:
- Y amor me trajiste mi francesita??
- Hice todo lo posible, - contesta ella - ahora solo tenemos que rezar para que nazca nina.
VENGANZA NUMERO 3
El marido, en su lecho de muerte, llama a su mujer. Con voz ronca y ya debil, le dice: - Muy bien, llego mi hora, pero antes quiero hacerte una confesion.
- No, no, tranquilo, tu no debes hacer ningun esfuerzo.
- Pero, mujer, es preciso - insiste el marido - Es preciso morir en paz.
Te quiero confesar algo.
- Esta bien, esta bien. Habla!
- He tenido relaciones con tu hermana, tu mama y tu mejor amiga.
- Lo se, lo se Por eso te envenene, hijo de puta!!!
machismo y cibernetica
Chiste machista La NASA ha enviado al espacio una mision experimental tripulada por dos monos y una mujer.Apenas abandona la atmosfera, se establece comunicacion con Houston.
-Atencion, simio 1, verifique sistemas hidraulicos, controle adecuada presion de los propulsores de arranque. A 60.000 pies disminuya un 25% la velocidad.
El simio hace la sena de OK.
-Atencion, simio 2, nivele al cruzar la estratosfera y active sistemas anticongelantes. No olvide monitorear sistemas de comunicacion e indicadores de presion. Comprendido?.
El simio hace la sena de OK.
-Atencion, Houston llamando a mujer: no se olvide.
-Mujer: Si, si, ya se! -interrumpe enojada- que no me olvide darles de comer a estos monos de mierda y que no se me vaya a ocurrir tocar nada!.
.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.
Un abogado mantiene un romance con su secretaria.Al poco tiempo, esta queda embarazada y el abogado, que no quiere que su esposa se entere, le da a la secretaria una buena suma de dinero y le pide que se vaya a parir a Italia.Esta pregunta: Y como voy a hacerte saber cuando nazca el bebe ? El abogado responde: Para que mi mujer no se entere, tan solo enviame una postal y escribe por detras: Spaghetti. Y no te preocupes mas, que yo me encargare de todos los gastos.
Pasan los meses y una manana la esposa del abogado lo llama al bufete, algo exaltada: Querido, acabo de recibir el correo y hay una postal muy extrana viene desde Italia. La verdad, no entiendo que significa.El abogado, tratando de ocultar sus nervios, contesta:Espera a que llegue a casa, a ver si yo entiendoCuando el hombre llega a casa y lee la postal, cae al suelo fulminado por un infarto.Llega una ambulancia y se lo lleva. Ya en el hospital, el jefe de cardiologia se queda consolando a la esposa y le pregunta cual ha sido el evento que precipito tan masivo ataque cardiaco.
Entonces la esposa saca la postal y se la muestra diciendole: No me explico, doctor; el solamente leyo esta postal. Vea usted mismo lo que trae escrito.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti."Tres con salchicha y albondigas y dos con almejas
Gol !!!!
Chistes de Borrachos Entra un borracho a su casa todo manchado con lapiz labial por todos lados hecho un desastre, y la mujer le pregunta:-Hombre que te paso?Y el borracho le responde:-No me vas a creer, me pelee con un payaso!
Este es un borracho que entra en un bar y le dice al camarero:-Me da cinco copas de whisky?Al rato:-Me da cuatro?Al rato:-Me da tres copas?Despues:-Me da dos copas?Luego le dice:-Me da una copa?Y le dice al camarero:-Ves? Cuanto menos bebo, mas borracho estoy!
This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
MOREAU A GoFundMe page has been established to assist the family of a teenager killed in an accident in Moreau with funeral expenses.
Zachery Brown, 16, of Moreau, was killed in a one-car crash that occurred at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday on Bluebird Road. The 2007 Chevrolet Malibu he was a passenger in, driven by an 18-year-old, was traveling west when it crossed the travel lane, struck several trees and came to rest in the front yard of a residence.
The driver was treated and released from Glens Falls Hospital and a 14-year-old male passenger was transported to Albany Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.
A statement on the page set up by a cousin of the family reads as follows:
God gained another angel this morning Zachery was 16 years old and passed unexpectedly this morning were trying to get enough funds for funeral expenses and so the family can take some time to be with each other and not worry about bills.
To make a donation, visit https://www.gofundme.com/4czg97s.
Brown was a student at South Glens Falls Central School and attended BOCES. He was to start his sophomore year next week.
The district set up counseling services Friday morning at the school, or a counselor may be reached by calling 518-792-9987.
State Police continue to investigate the crash after spending several hours reconstructing the scene on Thursday.
Police spokesman Mark Cepiel said Friday that he had no new details in the investigation.
Its going to take months before any definitive conclusion, he said, citing the large case load of the Collision Reconstruction Unit.
Police are not releasing the names of the driver and the other passenger in the vehicle. Although no charges have been filed yet, Cepiel said they are possible. The agency has a policy regarding publication of the names of youths who may have committed crimes.
We dont release names below (age) 19, if theyre eligible for youthful offender status, he said.
QUEENSBURY SUNY Adirondack students will return next week to spacious and modern science laboratories as the community college opens its new $17 million Adirondack Hall.
The 26,500-square-foot facility contains more comfortable furniture in classrooms that can be modified to accommodate different seating arrangements, more storage space and new technology.
Members of the SUNY Adirondack board of trustees got a sneak peak on Thursday as workers put the finishing touches on the project.
This is a long time coming for our faculty and this college. I get chills when I think about walking in, said President Kristine Duffy. We really did it. Its what our faculty and students deserve.
Ann Marie Somma, the colleges vice president for administrative services, said faculty had a lot of input into the design and layout of the spaces.
The first floor contains five laboratories for biology, geology and physics, and additional preparation and storage space. There is also a large greenhouse.
On the first floor, there will be a large built-in saltwater fish tank, according to Somma.
We have a couple of really talented students that basically designed this fish tank, she said.
The second floor houses four more laboratories for chemistry, microbiology, and anatomy and physiology, and two large multi-purpose classrooms.
One of the large classrooms is being used as temporary offices for the faculty while space in the existing building is renovated.
Throughout the building there are built-in nooks for study space and space for soft seating areas.
This is impressive, said Trustee John Morabito.
Trustee Alan Redeker called the new space a world apart from the old facilities.
It seems like a university, he said.
Board of trustees Chairwoman Patricia Pietropaolo said the new building will be a real asset to the college, as science and technology are in the forefront of education.
Its good for our faculty to have some modern facilities to be teaching in and helping our students learn on up-to-date equipment, she said.
Half of the cost of the science building is being covered by the state, and the other half by Warren and Washington counties. Warren County is responsible for about $5.76 million and Washington County $2.74 million.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new facility will be held at 4:15 p.m. Sept. 8 in the science center.
Work will continue on renovating the current science building for nursing simulation labs and classrooms on the first floor and faculty offices and additional classrooms.
At the north end of the building is a one-story, 16,000-square-foot addition for the Adirondack Regional Workforce Readiness Center. The $9.7 million facility will include Business Central, which has been described as a one-stop shop for students looking for internships and jobs, and an entrepreneurship center. The facility would contain a large meeting space that could accommodate 280 people.
That project is being funded by a SUNY grant and should be completed by December.
The only place, with direct access from the eastbound lane of the New York State Thruway, that celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal is the new Port Byron Old Erie Canal Heritage Park. Many local people, from historical societies to canal enthusiasts and town historians, are volunteering their time at the park to greet visitors and promote, educate and preserve the history of Lock 52 at this site, which served our area. This is the first year that the Old Erie Canal Heritage Park is open from May to the end of October, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, including Saturday and Sunday.
We in the town of Victory can celebrate this historic park, as Victory and many surrounding towns in Cayuga County are on the edge of this canalway and we all had ancestors and townspeople who worked on the digging of the original canal in the early 1800s as our towns were being established.
During my times as a volunteer, I have met people from New York state, the United States and all over the world. One can sign the visitor book and put a pin in a United States map or world map showing their homeland. Some people do not speak English, but they understand the models, the displays and the pictures, and pick up many area brochures to take home. Many visitors live near the canal in other parts of New York state and tell of the renovation of the canal into a park or interpretive center to preserve the history for future generations. Everyone seems to be very aware, especially now, of how important saving our history is so that our predecessors can understand the times in which our ancestors lived in the 1800s.
A quote from the book Images of the Erie Canal: The Erie Canal Museum" by Martin Morganstein and Joan H. Cregg, 2001, may explain the building of the canal by immigrants, unskilled workers, and laborers the best: "The ability of human beings, with only rudimentary tools, and little knowledge of civil engineering to create structures built of stone, wood, and metal that would take the canal over natural bodies of water and other obstacles. The structures these people built were not only useful but also aesthetically pleasing. Many of these stone structures are as solid today as they were when they were built in the early 1800s.
Come and learn about the Erie Canal and find out the answers to the following questions:
How many miles was the original Erie Canal?
Why were mules used to tow the canal boats?
What is a bullhead? (Hint: It is not a fish.)
How much did the original single lock cost?
What is the heel path, berm path and towpath?
What is the significance of the Syracuse Weighlock Building?
For what reason was an aqueduct designed?
What is a bascule bridge, a change bridge, a lift bridge?
What is a hogee?
How many original locks, aqueducts and bridges?
What was the future name of the 1871 Onondaga Pottery Co. built on the Erie Canal?
What was bottoming out?
Where did the giant limestone rocks come from for Lock 52?
What did the Life Saving Corp. do?
When was Buffalo the 10th largest city in the United States?
Hope to see you at the Old Erie Canal Heritage Park soon. Its right in your backyard!
FORT EDWARD Before hackers strike, Washington County may take a long look at its vulnerabilities and even hire someone to try to steal its records.
Despite the potential price tag, a risk assessment must be done to make the county more secure, said IT Director Karen Pratt.
She asked GreyCastle Security, a Troy-based cybersecurity firm, to explain the dangers of hacking to the Board of Supervisors.
The answer wasnt reassuring. GreyCastle recently helped a hospital get its computer system back after hackers locked doctors out of everything, leaving them unable to even look up a patients blood type during an operation.
Others have had their data held for ransom, and some countries even help hackers to break into American computers, said GreyCastle Chief Business Development Officer Mike Stamas.
You cant be 100 percent secure unless you throw out your computers and unplug everything from the internet, he said.
Short of that, he advised constant investment in cybersecurity as in, a regular budget item rather than a one-time capital project expense.
Technologys moving so fast and things change so rapidly, he explained.
The problem isnt that Washington County would need to buy better equipment each year to secure its data. Its that hackers keep finding better ways to get into the equipment, so employees have to adapt. They have to learn not to fall for ever-evolving tricks.
Youd be surprised how much responsibility we all have, Stamas said.
Many hacks are caused by user error, he added.
His company studies computer systems for weaknesses, trains the staff and then runs tests to see if they can break in.
We see if we can steal your stuff, he said.
If they cant sneak in electronically, theyll even send someone to try to slip into the building and access computers from there.
Washington County is aware of security concerns. Employees are told not to give their credentials such as name, title, address and phone number to strangers in emails that might be a fishing attempt to steal someones identity. They all wear key fobs to access locked areas of the county. But Pratt said employees regularly relax their guard, not convinced that anyone is really trying to break into Washington County, of all places.
Shes hoping training or the tests to get into the system will open employees eyes.
Maybe they will say, Oh, so thats why you have a policy for web browsing. Thats why you dont have administrative privileges on your PC. You dont want to be downloading files, she said. Department heads will say, Oh, now I get it.
And persuading them is key, Stamas said.
Absolutely, people are often the biggest problem, he said.
Supervisors were convinced after a lengthy presentation. But the big question is how to pay for it.
The risk assessment will cost at least $16,000 and includes finding the countys vulnerabilities, training staff and then testing the new security. But any expenses for fixing vulnerabilities that are found could add up.
If we start down this road and they come back with a litany of recommendations, as we dont have the money to do it, in six months its outdated, said Easton Supervisor Dan Shaw.
The county has about $159,000 in a capital project fund for IT. But only part of that was budgeted for the risk assessment. The rest is budgeted for other items.
The county could reprioritize to pay for security if absolutely necessary, rather than new software and hardware in the capital project fund, Pratt said. But she doesnt want to use the fund for that.
Instead, the county should put cybersecurity funds in the regular budget every year, she said.
That will be debated when the budget is completed this fall.
The Town Board in Moreau does not appear to be in favor of adopting a paid family leave program.
When one councilman was asked if there were any benefits to the program, he replied, I got nothing.
Well, hold on there cowboy.
We think the new law deserves a little more vetting than it got in Moreau, where the insurance carrier misrepresented some of the ways employees can use paid leave no, you cant use it to babysit your teen and neglected to point out any of its benefits.
If you havent heard, all private employers in New York will be required to allow employees paid family leave escalating from 8 weeks in 2018 to 12 weeks in 2021 to bond with a new child or care for a close relative with a serious health condition.
The program will be implemented in stages, with eight weeks at 50 percent salary in 2018, 10 weeks at 55 percent salary in 2019, 10 weeks at 60 percent salary in 2020 and 12 weeks at 67 percent salary in 2021.
The program builds on the federal governments Family Medical Leave Act, which has been on the books since 1993, but is unpaid. While municipalities are subject to FMLA, they are not mandated to adopt New Yorks paid program. They can opt in if they choose. We believe other town and village boards will be having this discussion as well, if they have not already.
The concern expressed during the Moreau meeting was that if a person with unique responsibilities such as an assessor were to utilize the program, it would shut down a vital service the town provides and lead to added expenses when temporary workers are needed.
While this is probably accurate and private companies would face the same problems lets look at it from a different perspective.
Say you have a good tax assessor. The person has experience in the job and with the community. We believe that an experienced tax assessor is something to be valued.
So, faced with a temporary family crisis a parents broken hip or a spouses battle with cancer the assessor is left in a difficult position that might hurt his job performance or cause him to look for other work. The town is left with a vacant position while it searches for a replacement who may need training while learning the intricacies of the community.
This will also cost the town money, especially if mistakes are made in assessments.
Over the years, many studies have been done that show turnover costs companies money. There is down time, training, reduced production and the mistakes that come with someone learning a new job.
Most good companies consider retention important for employees, and some provide benefits above and beyond what competitors provide to reduce turnover, including paid family leave. In recent years, many employers have provided working mothers and fathers flexibility for when they work in order to keep valuable employees happy and engaged.
Its sad we dont see more of this thinking in the business world where employees often seem to be undervalued and replaceable.
Consider that the only countries in the civilized world that do not mandate paid maternity leave are Lesotho, Swaziland, Papua New Guinea and the United States.
We bet most of you would have a hard time finding the first three on a map.
Consider how some other countries address paid family leave:
In Sweden, parents are given 480 paid leave days per child, which can be used between mom or dad.
Spain offers 112 paid days.
The United Kingdom offers 280 days with 90 percent pay.
France offers 112 paid days.
Italy offers 140 days with 80 percent pay.
Even Russia offers 140 paid days.
Studies suggest that low-wage workers are more likely to return to work when they receive paid leave and that it may often boost productivity and morale in the workplace.
None of this came up during the Moreau meeting.
Weve heard a lot over the years about why elderly parents are shoved into nursing homes because the children are too busy working? or whether latchkey kids encounter more problems than children with a parent at home?
We believe that happy workers are productive workers. And workers are grateful for employers who will work with them during a crisis.
Properly policed and paid family leave must be approved according to the agreed-upon state criteria this is an opportunity for private companies and public municipalities to take a step forward for their employees.
Its worth a longer and more in-depth discussion than it got in Moreau.
Dear President Donald Trump,
While we write this letter, the trees are still bending in near gale-force winds and floodwaters are rushing out of bayous into our homes and neighborhoods. But you should know that the bayous are what attracted the Allen Brothers two ambitious developers from New York, not unlike yourself to found Houston in the first place.
In the 19th century, the bayous were a byway for cotton traders. But now they converge at the Houston Ship Channel, the core of our national oil and gas industry.
Hurricane Harvey made first landfall near Corpus Christi, and Houston is still enduring the worst of this ongoing disaster, so it is only appropriate that youre visiting our sister city to the south today (Monday) for your speech. Were glad youre there, and they need your help, too.
But before you leave, Mr. President, and move on to your next speech in Missouri, please take some time to learn about Houston. Schedule a helicopter tour or a flyover in Air Force One so that you can grasp the full range of destruction that has beset our neighborhoods, businesses and, importantly, refineries. The sheer scale of our city, and its role in the international energy economy, can only be seen from a birds-eye view.
Houston is no flyover country. Were the energy capital of the world and responsible for a quarter of U.S. petroleum refining and more than half of all jet fuel. In fact, you have an expert on the topic in your cabinet Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former CEO of ExxonMobil.
Were the Fort Knox of oil and gas, and you risk losing untold wealth if the federal government doesnt muster the resources necessary to help our city repair, rebuild and ensure resilience against the next inevitable storm.
Our city has been pushed to the brink, and the crisis still isnt over. Homes continue to fill with floodwaters, and thousands seek shelter from a storm of biblical proportions. The number of deaths continues to inch higher, and countless families are finding themselves homeless, their neighborhoods lost to the rising waters.
While millions hunker down, other fellow Houstonians are putting their bodies and souls to the ultimate test.
Think of the doctors and nurses working without rest, the sheriffs deputies and rescue workers venturing into neighborhoods overwhelmed by waist-high waters, the volunteers who bring comfort to shelters and weekend warriors whose kayaks became a lifeline for stranded families.
As hours without rest turn to days without sleep, these heroes find within themselves a drive a compassion that they never knew existed.
Mr. President, these men and women are the soul of our sprawling and diverse Houston. When you speak this morning (Monday) in Corpus Christi, you have the opportunity to help empower their last reserves of energy so they can endure until the final raindrop falls and the bayous return to their banks.
Ronald Reagan once joked that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: Im from the government, and Im here to help.
That isnt a joke you hear during a storm.
Now, more than ever, we need help from the government. We need to know that our politicians in Washington, D.C. are working just as hard as our first responders.
Youve never hesitated before to use the power of your bully pulpit to rally for your cause, nor were you ever one to mince words when promising to fight for the coal miners of West Virginia or steelworkers of Pennsylvania now you can harness that passion to fight for Houston.
Even for a man prone to hyperbole we all have our rhetorical tics it is hard to overstate the massive scale of the ongoing disaster.
A nation is waiting to hear an impassioned plea on behalf of the charities that will help our families in need, like the Houston Food Bank, the Texas Diaper Bank and the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, which Mayor Sylvester Turner established as a central clearinghouse.
Youve already told reporters that we can expect rapid action on relief funding, and Democrats and Republicans alike will no doubt agree that an unprecedented storm like Harvey will require a major effort. Calls to offset this emergency spending with cuts elsewhere must be cast aside. Deficits are a debate for another day, and bluster about shutting down the government must end.
Now we have to help a great American city, an economic engine, get back on its feet.
But it cant end with relief and rebuilding. Houston also needs the resources to harden ourselves against the next inevitable storm.
This means funding for new flood infrastructure Mike Talbott, former executive director of the Harris County Flood Control District, estimated the cost at $26 billion.
Coastal storm surge protection also has to be part of any plan. Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, a major backer of your presidential campaign, knows all about that.
Our city still lives in the shadows of great politicians like U.S. Reps. Tom Ball and Albert Thomas, who built the flood and bayou infrastructure that transformed Houston from a swampy town into a 20th century energy metropolis. Were still waiting for a politician with the strength and dedication to build the sustainable cityscape that brings us into the 21st century and that includes an honest recognition of global warming. We have no doubt that you can be that man if you choose to be.
Mr. President, our worry is that this attention from the White House will recede along with the floodwaters. Several of your tweets during the storm promoting a friends book? left us concerned that youre easily distracted from the task at hand. And all too many of your speeches have revealed a startling gap between what appears on the teleprompter and what lies in your heart. Last week we saw a tempered address on Afghanistan erased by a hateful tirade in Phoenix. How long until reassuring rhetoric from Corpus Christi gives way to a less inspiring tone?
We will get through this. We will come out stronger. And believe me, we will be bigger, better, stronger than ever before. The rebuilding will begin, and in the end, it will be something very special, you told reporters on Monday.
If we truly want to come back stronger than ever, then the federal government has to step up with funding and leadership, and the buck stops with one man: President Donald J. Trump.
The Houston Chronicle published this open letter to President Trump on Aug. 28.
Elizabeth Finch's letter regarding hate in Charlottesville (Aug. 26) encouraged me to write one also. I cringed while watching a replay of the march with its hateful chants and was amazed that President Trump didn't openly condemn the man who, when interviewed by a reporter, calmly explained that he could no longer vote for Mr. Trump, who had allowed his beautiful daughter to marry a Jew.
After two primaries and a spring and summer filled with court battles about redistricting and voting laws, Election Day has arrived in New Yor
Finding Peace of Mind: Discover These Five Places in Europe to Unwind
It is difficult to talk about the 20th anniversary of the John Deere Pavilion without talking about the resurgence and development of downtown Moline.
Those are the thoughts of some who had a hand in developing the destination spot that features John Deere equipment, and has become a popular tourism spot for the entire Quad-Cities.
We love being a place where guests come to learn how we are all linked to the land, how food gets to our tables, how roads are built and forests are managed, said Brigitte Tapscott, manager of John Deere Attractions.
For two decades, weve had the great honor of welcoming visitors of all ages to the Quad-Cities and we look forward to doing more of the same for years to come.
Located along the shores of the Mississippi River near the company's original Moline plow factory, the facility has attracted almost 3.8 million guests from around the world since it opened in 1997, averaging between 200,000 to 215,000 visitors a year, she said.
The 14,000-square-foot, glass- and steel-enclosed structure features a variety of fun and informative hands-on exhibits about Deere & Co.'s global businesses and products, its history and heritage, and its work to meet the challenges of a growing global population.
The facility spurred growth of new commercial, retail and residential development in the entire downtown area, said Bill Ratzburg, economic development global director for Deere, and a board member of Renew Moline.
Renew Moline is a nonprofit economic development organization devoted to working with the city of Moline on riverfront and other development.
I think the pavilion has been very significant, he said. Primarily the iWireless Center instantly became a destination, but we needed something else. And John Deere Pavilion has become a destination center from all over the world.
And it really has had an impact on Moline as a whole. It has been an anchor property."
Dan McConaghy, retired global director facility engineer for Deere, worked on the design of the pavilion and other designs downtown. He also is a 1969 graduate of Moline High School.
This is my favorite all-time project I worked on, he said.
He credits the entire concept of John Deere Commons, an area from 13th to 15th streets on River Drive, to the late Hans Becherer, then-chairman of Deere & Co.
Deere gave the land for The Mark which was the start of the downtown development, he said. The Mark of the Quad-Cities was the name of the civic center before it became known as the iWireless Center.
Hans Becherer sponsored The Mark development. Hans Becherer was the driver behind all that and all the things that resulted because of that. This area of Moline was underutilized and had no vision. The whole idea was to create a private-public enterprise.
McConaghy, who remains on the Moline Plan Commission, said a historic warehouse was torn down where the pavilion is located. There was talk of tearing down another building to the west that now houses Johnny's Italian Steakhouse restaurant, along with other businesses. But it was decided to keep the historic preservation there and renovate instead.
The impact of that planning and the pavilion is evident beyond just the number of visitors there.
The John Deere Pavilion has played a significant role in advancing tourism these last 20 years," said Joe Taylor, president and CEO of the Quad-Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau.
There have been millions of visitors and the venue has solidly anchored downtown Moline as a destination point. With the Farm Progress Show now alternating between Boone, Iowa, and Decatur, Illinois, the pavilion is in a perfect location for agri-tourism visits.
It has grown in the number in attendance and we try each year to add more bigger and interactive things, Tapscott said.
She said there have been some renovations over the years. In 2012, there was a complete renovation of the building with new exhibits added. In 2015, a new exhibit for children was added called John Deere Discovery Zone.
She said the pavilion partners with the visitors bureau on tours many tourists are current Deere employees or retirees, or farmers who tend to have a deep-felt attraction to the facility.
I like them to leave and have an emotional connection with our brand, she said. It is making the Quad-Cities a destination. Downtown Moline has had great growth over the last 20 years. It is a great place to bring families.
She said it is great to meet all visitors, but especially those who come from other countries. She said there was one family from South Africa, for example, who made Moline their vacation spot because the son wanted to visit the home of John Deere.
The man who perhaps feels the closest to the pavilion may be Paul Knedler, a retired manager of guest services for Deere who helped shape the origins of the facility and then spent several years overseeing it.
You can almost say I gave birth to it, he said. I am absolutely proud of it. It is all about education and agriculture. It is a good, education place to visit.
When people come from all over the world, they love to see the Mississippi River when they get here. That pavilion has just been great. It has brought in hundreds of thousands of visitors. It has been great for the cities.
The lively music, the colorful outfits, the aroma of food and the hearty smiles of young and old let you know right away you were at Viva Quad-Cities Fiesta.
The annual event to promote Hispanic culture was held Saturday on River Drive in downtown Moline near the iWireless Center.
Luis Moreno of East Moline, president of the Viva Quad-Cities board, said the event has a twofold objective.
The main purpose is to raise money for college scholarships for local students, he said. We want to raise funds for scholarships for people of all races and ages through our Hispanic heritage. Our niche is families.
He added that while it is a Hispanic event, Moreno wants to see more non-Hispanic people attend.
Last year, we had 1,400 people and this year our goal is 2,000, he added.
The Moline and Davenport chapters of the League of United Latino American Citizens, or LULAC, recently presented a total of $41,800 in college scholarships to 58 local high students.
Viva Quad-Cities Fiesta and the Mexico's Independence Day Fiesta Parade on Sept. 17 are the main fundraisers.
Saturday, people were enjoying the food, fun, music and dancing, in addition to visiting with family and friends. Among them was Karen Heaton of Moline.
I used to volunteer for this and one year I was secretary of the board, she said, while enjoying her meal. I am a teacher at John Deere Middle School in Moline and I really like how they raise funds for scholarships.
And I think the cultural music is wonderful and positive. I think it keeps it alive. And I love the diversity.
Miguel Miranda of East Moline was enjoying the festivities with his daughter, Shanti, 12.
I volunteer every year. It is a nice festival, he said. It is good to bring all the Hispanic people together once a year.
I like the music and all the people, and the food, Shanti Miranda said. I like the tacos and seeing all my friends.
It is incredible with all the scholarship raising, said longtime volunteer Vovobeida Lutenberg of East Moline. It promotes our culture in the Quad-Cities. It is just a beautiful event in the Quad-Cities.
Anna Guzman of East Moline was a busy parent at one time, along with many other parents, getting children ready to perform the traditional folkorico dances. She was helping her three children, Tatiana, 12, Emilio, 10, and Viviana, 7.
It is definitely like a second family, Anna Guzman said of the dance troupe. The kids grow up getting to learn different states in Mexico. And the dance team performs all year long.
I like to dance. I get nervous sometimes, but I like it. I like to have fun, Viviana Guzman said.
A new riverfront
Davenport officials have, for decades, planned and replanned what they want the riverfront to look like via the RiverVision development guide.
Gone are ideas for a land-based riverfront casino and hotel that was present in 2004 RiverVision, which was a bistate plan at the time.
Gone is Todd Raufeisen's plan to redevelop the former Dock Restaurant, which was demolished in 2015. Raufeisen's proposal was part of the RiverVision 2014 update.
Now, the former Rhythm City Casino barge is ready to head downstream, setting the stage for a return to Main Street Landing and another tweaking of RiverVision.
Reporter Devan Patel takes us through what could come next on the changing face of the riverfront.
Bye-bye barge
Theyre unique to the new Interstate 74 bridge, the Y-shaped piers that will be the foundation of the Mississippi River span.
As such, Iowa Department of Transportation officials say, their construction is a bit out of the ordinary.
That was evident Friday, as about a dozen people gathered in downtown Bettendorf to witness construction workers pour 136,000 pounds of concrete into a mock pier, built for the purpose of testing the procedures and materials to be used for the real piers.
Ed Tibbetts reports from the scene.
Traffic
In celebration of its own first 100 years, the YWCA Quad-Cities will host Dr. Jill Biden as its honors 100 individuals and organizations past and present who have shared its mission of building strong communities.
The honorees will be celebrated at a Nov. 3 anniversary luncheon, themed "100 Years, 100 Honored." Biden, former second lady of the United States, lifelong educator and military mom, will be the keynote speaker at the noon luncheon at Rhythm City Casino Resort, Davenport.
Julie Larson, the YWCA's chief executive officer, said Biden will discuss her work and advocacy for education, "which really fits with the mission of YWCA."
Since leaving the Obama administration, Biden has continued her work in areas that impact women, military families and community colleges. She and her husband, former Vice President Joe Biden, launched the Biden Foundation earlier this year. Additionally, she continues to teach as a full-time English professor in Northern Virginia.
"Her big push is young children, keeping children in school and equality," Larson said, adding that those have long been goals of the YWCA.
Located at 229 16th St., Rock Island, since 1952, the YWCA was founded by Suzanne Denkmann-Hauberg in 1917. It works to build strong communities that eliminate racism, empower women and promote peace, justice and dignity for all.
The member-based organization is open to all ages, women and men and offers a pool and gym. Larson said its programming emphasizes youth development.
The YWCA operates a child care center and a drop-in center known as theplace2b for at-risk, homeless and displaced youth. Since 1991, it has operated the Teen Parent and Education Center at Rock Island High School. The day care allows teenager parents to finish high school as well as gain life and parenting skills.
"We don't believe in duplicating services," Larson said, adding the YWCA also works with many community partners. "If there are gaps in services and it's something we feel we have the resources and the right people for, then it's something we would do."
She said the "100 Years, 100 Honored" theme was the idea of a planning committee. "At first, 100 nominations seemed overwhelming, but living in our community there are so many deserving people and unsung heroes that it was not hard to come up with 100."
According to Larson, nominations closed Thursday, and the YWCA received more than 200. The honorees will be announced soon.
The public is invited to the anniversary celebration. Tickets are $50 and tables of 10 are $475. To purchase tickets, visit ywcaqc.org or call the YWCA at 309-788-3479.
Royal Neighbors of America is the event's presenting sponsor.
After months of speculation, Iowas agriculture secretary has been nominated for a post with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
President Donald Trump has selected Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey to serve as undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation with the federal agency, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Friday night. The position requires confirmation from the U.S. Senate.
I am honored to be nominated by the President, and I so appreciate the support and encouragement from Secretary Perdue. I look forward to serving, if confirmed, Northey said in an emailed statement.
The FPAC undersecretary oversees three USDA agencies: the Farm Service Agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Risk Management Agency, according to a news release.
Bill Northey will continue his honorable record of public service in leading FPAC, Perdue said in a statement.
Having served the people of Iowa for the last 10 years as their Secretary of Agriculture, and as a fourth-generation corn and soybean farmer, Bill has a unique understanding of issues facing farmers across the nation. He will be an invaluable member of the team, he said.
Northey, a Republican, is in his third term as Iowas agriculture secretary. He was among the agriculture advisers for President Donald Trump during his presidential campaign.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will be able to appoint a replacement to serve the rest of Northeys term, once he resigns. The post is up for election in 2018.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, praised Northeys selection on Twitter, posting The Voice of IA Ag will now be Voice of American Ag.
Northey is an Iowa farmer with dirt under his fingernails who knows firsthand what goes into running a family farm, Grassley said in a statement Friday night.
I look forward to working with Bill in his new role. Ive no doubt he will be an asset to the farmers who utilize USDA programs to ensure the most affordable, safest food supply in the world is available every year for all Americans, Grassley said.
Northey, 58, was first elected secretary of agriculture in November 2006 and re-elected in 2010 and 2014.
On his farm near Spirit Lake, Northey uses reduced tillage, GPS, grid soil sampling. Besides raising corn and soybeans, the Northey farm has grown alfalfa and raised hogs and cattle through the years, according to his biography on the Iowa Department of Agriculture website.
Northey has been a leader of farm groups, serving as president of the National Corn Growers Association from 1995-96 and chairman of the group in 1996-97. He has led a number of committees for the association as well.
Northey also has been active in the Iowa Farm Bureau, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, E. Howard Hill, who was Iowa Farm Bureau president from 1947 to 1963.
He was named a Friend of Agriculture by the Iowa Farm Bureau Political Action Committee in 2006 and 2010 and has served in a number of Farm Bureau offices at the county and state level, including president, vice president and committee chairman of the Dickinson County Farm Bureau.
He graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in agricultural business and received a masters in business administration from Southwest Minnesota State University in 2004. He and his wife, Cindy, have three children.
August 30, 2017
In his first televised interview since being inaugurated for a second term, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed his American counterparts effort to kill the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
In response to a question about his assessment of US President Donald Trump, Rouhani, whose government reached a deal on Irans nuclear program with the six world powers in 2015, said Aug. 29, This is a hard question. Americans themselves and their politicians cannot answer that. Even Mr. Trumps fellow Republicans cannot answer that. Noting shaky US government policy, Rouhani added, This can be in our interest in that the US is experiencing the hardest time in building a consensus against Iran.
While the US president is reportedly pressuring the intelligence community to find Tehran in violation of the nuclear agreement so he can consequently abrogate the JCPOA, Iranian officials are in talks with the Europeans and hope that they will stand up to Trump. In this regard, Rouhani cited French President Emmanuel Macrons opposition to reviewing the deal, noting, During the past decades, whenever the US wanted to form [a] consensus against us, it has been able to do something against Iran with the help of the European Union and its friends and allies. But today, this is not possible for the US. Thus, we can say that America is experiencing the hardest time, and Iran is experiencing the best conditions.
In reaction to a recent trip to Vienna by Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the United Nations, for a meeting with Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rouhani stated, We made promises regarding NPT [Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons] Safeguards, the Additional Protocol and the JCPOA, and we have no other commitment. It is regulations that determine our relations with the IAEA, not US pressure. I dont think that the IAEA does anything under US pressure, but if, hypothetically, this happens, we will not accept anything by force.
In a signal to Saudi Arabia on possibly improving bilateral relations, Rouhani said, We believe that [the resumption of Iranians making] the hajj is a good sign to see how we can resolve issues with Saudi Arabia. If our pilgrims come back satisfied and Saudi Arabia acts within the framework of religious and international regulations, I believe we would have better conditions for settling any issue.
Riyadh cut ties with Tehran in early 2016 after Iranian protesters, furious over the execution of dissident Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, stormed Saudi diplomatic facilities. In the months prior to the rift, tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia had been running high because of their opposing positions on regional issues, including the Yemeni conflict and the Syrian war.
Also on Aug. 29, a short video was released of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's response to a road map devised by John Bolton, former US ambassador to the United Nations, for Trump to use to abrogate the nuclear deal. Zarif stated, Lack of wisdom and radicalism have a relationship to each other, and these two are considered the outstanding examples of irrational policies, whose failure has been proven.
Zarif further stated, I have read Boltons plan, which apparently failed to reach the White House directly. This plan would definitely be a great defeat for the US and would lead to more isolation of America on the international stage. He added, This is not the first time that Bolton has appeared on the scene. Boltons policy was previously pursued in the early 2000s, and the Americans witnessed its outcome.
Zarif emphasized, If his policy had been successful, America wouldnt have needed to come to the negotiating table 10 years after pursuing [Boltons policy] and reach an agreement with Iran. He then clarified, Bolton founded the policy of rejecting Irans [uranium] enrichment [plan], and pursued it for 10 years, and the outcome was that the number of Irans centrifuges rose to 20,000 from 200. Boltons achievement was 19,800 centrifuges, and it was this that made Americans come to the negotiating table.
Sixty-five new students will be learning in Skaneateles Central School District classrooms this school year, a situation far different from when the district was pondering whether to shut down a building a few years ago.
Superintendent Ken Slentz said that in 2013-2014, the district's previous administration was facing some "financial distress" and looked at projections that were predicting decreasing enrollment by 5 to 7 percent per year. As a result, the district considered moving the fifth grade to the middle school and shuttering Waterman Primary School.
Slentz proudly said Friday that idea is no longer on the table for the foreseeable future, due to the district's use of building space, steady finances and the boosted enrollment.
After years of diminishing enrollment in the district, that number of 65 fresh-faced pupils exceeded the district's 2016 number of 46 new students, Slentz said. This beat the district's projections, at a time when enrollment overall has been trending downward in upstate New York.
We are genuinely excited to see the increase in enrollment and the addition of new families to our district," Slentz said in a press release. We hope that our commitment to providing the best possible learning opportunities and experiences in safe and welcoming school buildings is a key driver in the decision of these families to choose Skaneateles.
The district's overall enrollment is currently at 1,361 students, up from 1,354 last year, the press release said.
In a phone interview Friday, Slentz said if the uptick in students reaches into next year, that will indicate a "trend" the excitement noticeable in his voice as he said the word.
Additionally, the district's main office has been moved to 45 E. Elizabeth St. its previous location as a way to provide an extra kindergarten class.
As the U.S.-led coalition accelerates its campaign to destroy the Islamic State's remaining strongholds in Syria, the Trump administration faces a big decision about the future: Does it want to keep some U.S. troops inside the country to help stabilize Syria after the jihadists are defeated, or does it want to pack up and come home?
The dilemma is eerily like what President Obama faced in Iraq in 2011, and the risks and benefits are similar. President Trump, like his predecessor, has expressed skepticism about permanent U.S. wars in the Middle East. But he also knows that pulling out U.S. troops from bases east of the Euphrates could create a vacuum that might trigger ethnic slaughter, regional proxy wars and a new wave of jihadist violence.
The military and civilian officials who have been closest to U.S.-Syria policy appear convinced that America should maintain a residual presence, probably something under 1,000 Special Operations Forces that could continue to train and advise -- and also, restrain -- the Syrian Kurdish militia that has been America's key partner against the Islamic State. But this alliance with the Kurds is controversial, inside Syria and out.
The political map of Syria, for now, looks like a patchwork quilt, with different bands controlled by rival groups and their patrons. The U.S. and its Kurdish partners dominate east of the Euphrates. The Syrian regime with its Russian and Iranian allies control the vast center of the country; Turkish-backed forces control a strip along the northern border; and a Jordanian-Russian "deconfliction" agreement has pacified the southwest.
Few analysts expect that Syria can be reunified by President Bashar Assad. So, for the foreseeable future, the country will be divided into these zones of influence -- awaiting a political transition process that can re-establish the legitimacy and authority of a new central government in Damascus.
The U.S. piece of this puzzle is the area east of the Euphrates. The Syrian Kurdish militia known as the YPG, advised by elite American forces and backed by U.S. air power, has swept across this area over the past three years, and in about six weeks is expected to seize the Islamic State's capital of Raqqa. As they advanced, the Kurds recruited Sunni Arab allies into a broader coalition known as the Syrian Democratic Forces.
The ad hoc military alliance that produced the SDF has many critics. The Sunni-dominated Syrian opposition fears that the Kurdish fighters want to create an independent state, and neighboring Turkey sees them as terrorists. But battlefield success generates its own political momentum, and as the U.S. and the SDF have advanced, something of a bandwagon effect has developed. Sunni opposition groups now seem eager to fight alongside the Kurdish-led forces, under overall U.S. command.
This new willingness to work in tandem with the Kurds was voiced by Riad Hijab, the head of the Syrian opposition coalition known as the High Negotiations Committee. He said in a recent interview that his supporters want "to fight ISIS and other terrorist groups, alongside with the SDF, as long as we fight independently in separate fronts."
Hijab claimed that up to 5,000 Sunni opposition forces would be ready to join the U.S. and the SDF in liberating Deir el-Zour, the next big town in the Euphrates Valley southeast of Raqqa. The Sunni opposition groups apparently prefer allying with Kurds to Assad's regime.
American officials are pleased that Hijab and other opposition leaders want to join the fight in the Euphrates Valley. But they say the new recruits aren't ready for heavy fighting, and that Deir el-Zour will almost certainly be taken by 10,000 Syrian regime troops that are already in the town, joined by regime forces now moving east, with Russian and Iranian backing. The Iranian presence worries some U.S. officials, but they say regime control of Deir-el-Zour is probably inevitable.
U.S. commanders say the real strategic prize is further south. They say as soon as Raqqa is secure, SDF troops (joined by whatever other Arab forces are ready), will advance toward the lower Euphrates Valley, south of Deir el-Zour. The U.S. hopes that Iraqi forces across the border will help check Iranian power in the area.
What happens next? That depends in part on whether U.S. military advisers stay in eastern Syria. If they remain, say U.S. officials, they can curb the Kurds' ambitions for independence, deter the Turks from intervening, and encourage the Sunni opposition to work with all sides. A future U.S. presence "will be essential," says Hijab.
And if they leave quickly? We've seen this movie before.
It occurred to me that if what politicians say about their opponents is true, then none of them should be elected to office.
The school board election on Sept. 12 provides all citizens within Bettendorf Community School District an opportunity to make a change for the better. There are three openings to be filled on the school board and there are several excellent candidates.
Issues and problems will always arise for the board and how they deal with those problems is important. But most importantly, the board should not create its own problems. The voice of the community was heard loudly and clearly by way of the recent board survey results and comments. There is, without doubt, a need for change.
I will vote for the candidates who understand the role of the school board in working with the students, community, educators and administrators to carry out the vision and mission of the Bettendorf Community School District.
We need a school board that will concentrate on the future of the district, not dwell on conflicts of the past. Thats why I will vote for Richard Lynch, Andrew Champion and Adam Holland.
Bob Zeller
Bettendorf
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Catholic authorities in Myanmar and the Vatican announced Monday that Pope Francis will visit Myanmar and Bangladesh starting at the end of November.
The announcement by the Vatican's press office said the pope will visit the cities of Yangon and Naypyitaw, the capital, during his Nov. 27-30 trip to Myanmar, and Dhaka during his Nov. 30-Dec. 2 visit to Bangladesh.
It will be the first trip by a pope to Myanmar, which is predominantly Buddhist. Pope John Paul II in 1986 visited Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim country.
The pope's visit to Myanmar comes at a delicate time, with communal tensions between the Buddhist majority and the Muslim Rohingya ethnic majority flaring last week with clashes between the army and Rohingya insurgents. Advocates from the Rohingya say the army is attacking Rohingya villages and driving thousands to flee.
Prejudice against the Rohingya is widespread and longstanding, and has been behind previous large-scale violence. There are about 1 million Rohingya in the western state of Rakhine, but they are treated as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denied citizenship.
On Sunday, Pope Francis decried persecution of the Rohingya and prayed that they receive "full rights." He referred to "sad news about the persecution of the religious minority of our Rohingya brothers" and asked the faithful in St. Peter's Square to pray that God "saves them" and they receive help.
He has expressed his concern for the Rohingya on several previous occasions.
The pope is likely to receive criticism from several sides for his plan to visit Myanmar. Advocates for the Rohingya may feel his visit lends legitimacy to a government some believe is committing genocide, while the vocal Buddhist nationalist community that feels the Rohingya don't belong in the country will be unhappy with his sympathy for them.
The announcement of the visit by the Catholic bishops of Myanmar said the government there "has extended a warm welcome with the invitation to the Holy Father, hoping his presence will further peace and harmony of all people." It said he will meet government leaders along with youth, civil society and religious leaders, in addition to discharging pastoral duties for the local Catholic community.
The Vatican and Myanmar in May agreed to establish diplomatic relations, making the announcement on the same day that the pope met with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's top civilian leader.
The Vatican in its announcement said the motto of the pope's trip to Myanmar is love and peace, reflecting the pope's intention to promote both during his visit.
"The common ground of Christianity and Buddhism is love," the Vatican said. "It is this concept that creates mutual respect and acceptance between the Christians and the Buddhists."
The theme of the visit to Bangladesh will be peace and harmony "among religions, cultures, peoples, society, history, heritage and traditions," the Vatican said.
The peace part of the motto refers to "peace experienced, as well as aspired in future with a vision of integrated human and spiritual development in Bangladesh," it said.
Bangladesh has been troubled by political instability and a nascent jihadist movement.
There are about 600,000 Catholics in Myanmar, roughly 1 percent of the 58 million population, while Bangladesh's Catholic community numbers about 280,000, less than a quarter of one percent of a population estimated to be as much as 150 million.
National Park to Church Sunday
Faith Temple Church in Rapid City will hold two Back to Church Sunday, events as part of a national movement of churches across America, on Sunday, Sept. 17 on 10 a.m. and 6 p,m.
For the event, Faith Temple Church will have a special service that features lively music, welcoming and friendly people and good food.
Bishop Troy M. Carr, Pastor feels the day is a great opportunity for Faith Temple Church to connect to the Black Hills Community with the loving gospel message of Jesus Christ.
Black Hawk Community Church produce sale
Black Hawk Community Church on Mill Road will host a produce sale Saturday, Sept. 9, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The sale will include Woonsocket melons, local produce, baked goods, sloppy Joes, hot dogs and drinks.
Diocese collection donations for Harvey
The Catholic Diocese of Rapid City will accept donations in West River parishes, Saturday and Sunday, for the Hurricane Harvey Collection.
The diocese will submit the total collected by all of parishes to Catholic Charities USA for hurricane relief efforts in the many dioceses of Texas and neighboring states that will be affected.
Please contact the closest Catholic Church to contribute.
Prayerful painting at St. Martin
A prayerful painting class will be held Saturday, Sept. 16 from 9:15 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at St. Martin Monastery on City Springs Road in Rapid City. Cost is $20 and includes lunch.
To register call Sr. Therese Marie at 605-343-8011
Speaker at First Baptist in Deadwood
Rev. Arthur J. Campbell will be the Sunday morning worship service guest speaker at First Baptist Church of the Northern Hills, in Deadwood, Sept. 3, at 9:30 a.m.
Rev. Campbell is joining with the congregation in the celebration of the historic 100th anniversary of the laying of the church's cornerstone.
Rev. Campbell grew up and received his ordination in this church in June 1974 when both the Lead and Deadwood Baptist churches were merging.
In 43 years he has served seven American Baptist Churches. He and his wife, Karen, are semi-retired and live in Topeka, Kan.
Rev. Campbell's grandparents, Arthur and Laura Welf, and Alvah and Karin Campbell, were long-standing members of both the Deadwood and Lead Baptist Churches and were undoubtedly present at the ceremonious laying of the original cornerstone in September 1917. All are welcome to attend.
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. | The Ellsworth Diversity Council hosted a luncheon and discussion panel at Ellsworth Air Force Base in honor of Womens Equality Day, on Aug. 23, 2017.
Womens Equality Day commemorates the addition of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. It states, The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
To honor the day, which marked a turning point for womens equality, numerous influential women from Ellsworth and Rapid City attended the social in order to share their journeys, insight and tips to becoming empowered.
Its important so we wont forget society moves so quick its easy, said Staff Sgt. Rachael Maass, the non-commissioned officer in charge of personnel and administration assigned to the 28th Medical Support Squadron. Its our way of honoring all the women that came before us.
Attendees were divided among six tables where at least one female leader shared their personal struggles with discrimination and overcoming adversity. These women included Col. Jessica Nichol, commander of the 28th Mission Support Group, Lt. Col. Lisa Scott, commander of the 28th Comptroller Squadron, and Maj. Heather McDaniel, commander of the 28th Logistics Readiness Squadron, just to name a few. Each leader focused on the continued efforts toward gaining equality for all women.
When were given a seat at the table, thats when our voices are most heard, McDaniel said, encouraging everybody in the room to go for what they want.
Women serve in various roles around the Air Force, and are essential to a diverse force. Through decades of struggles and determination, women have made great strides.
Stay motivated, said Airman 1st Class Terri Green an electric environmental maintenance journeyman assigned to the 28th Maintenance Squadron. Its easy to complain, its not easy to make footsteps.
In addition to the social, the Ellsworth Diversity Council showed the movie Hidden Figures, in the Base Theater Aug. 25 in observance of Womens Equality Day.
A woman accused of participating in a killing at a Pine Ridge youth center in October is set to plead guilty on Wednesday. Her plea documents unveil new details about the murder.
As part of a deal with federal prosecutors, Tiffanee Garnier would plead guilty to being an accessory after the fact in the fatal shooting of 29-year-old Vincent Brewer III, according to court records. The offense carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
Garnier, 31, was initially charged with a much graver crime: first-degree murder, which carries a penalty of life in prison.
The Pine Ridge reservations Oglala Sioux tribal authorities earlier said Brewer, known as Vinny, was shot dead by several people. They said the incident happened in broad daylight in the parking lot of a youth center. Garnier and the victim were both from Pine Ridge.
Last week, in accordance with Garniers plea deal, she signed a statement of facts that provides previously unpublicized details on Brewers killing:
Around 3 p.m. on Oct. 16, two vehicles occupied by Garnier and at least six other people went to the SuAnne Big Crow Youth Development Center. Several occupants of the vehicle were looking for Brewer, who was in the parking lot of the youth center with several other people.
Multiple people exited the two vehicles holding firearms, and several of them were wearing masks, the statement reads. Brewer appeared to know several of the people and the reason the assailants were present. After a brief physical assault, several people shot Vinny Brewer multiples times.
Brewer immediately died from his gunshot wounds.
The attackers got back in their vehicles and left, with Garnier driving one of the vehicles. She accompanied the group back to Colorado, and "thereby assisted the offenders in preventing their apprehension."
The other attackers were not named in the statement, nor the reason for Brewers shooting. But at least one other person has been charged in the incident.
Myles Tuttle, 24, of South Dakota, faces counts of first-degree murder and accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty and is set to go on trial in January. Tuttle and Garnier, also known as Tiffanee Alford, are both detained at the Pennington County Jail.
Federal authorities have said that Brewers killing might be linked to another deadly Pine Ridge shooting September 2016, in which 34-year-old Anni Colhoff was killed. Three people face charges in that case.
Garnier's original charges of first-degree murder and misprision of a felony, or concealing Brewer's shooting from authorities, will be dismissed under her plea deal.
BISMARCK, N.D. | The Bureau of Land Management is considering including a parcel bordering Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota in a federal oil and gas lease sale.
Conservationists are urging the federal agency not to include the 120-acre parcel that borders the North Unit of the park in the lease sale, raising concerns about oil development on the boundary of the park.
This small parcel is not going to make or break the lease sale, but it could make or break the park as it relates to the visitor experience, said Valerie Naylor, former superintendent of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and a consultant for the National Parks Conservation Association.
The ark spans more than 100 square miles in western North Dakota, approximately 200 miles straight north of the Black Hills.
The BLM received an expression of interest to lease the federal minerals, and the agency is taking public comment on whether to include it in a sale scheduled in March, said Al Nash, a spokesman for the BLM Montana/Dakotas office.
Park Superintendent Wendy Ross wrote in comments to the BLM that the National Park Service is concerned about the potential for oil activity in that area to diminish the visitor experience and affect wildlife habitat.
The parks exceptional dark night skies, scenic beauty, natural sound and abundant wildlife offer visitors similar experiences to Theodore Roosevelts adventures in the Little Missouri River badlands during the 1880s, Ross wrote.
The Badlands Conservation Alliance has protested leasing the parcel. Executive Director Jan Swenson said the land is immediately next to the Theodore Roosevelt Wilderness in the North Unit, about three miles north of the Caprock Coulee trailhead.
Here the park is named for a guy thats known for his conservation and protection of public land, creation of public land, Swenson said. And were making no room for concession to that fact.
The North Unit in McKenzie County is in the heart of the Bakken Formation, with other oil and gas development bordering the national park. Naylor cautioned about cumulative effects of additional oil development that can be seen and heard from the park.
Just because theres some doesnt mean there should be more, she said. The more there is, the more it is a detriment to the national park.
The BLM is taking comments during what is known as a scoping period. An environmental assessment would be available for a 30-day public review beginning Sept. 30 if analysis is warranted, the BLM said in a letter to interested parties.
The North Dakota Department of Trust Lands manages the surface of that parcel, and the state Common Schools Trust Fund owns minerals in a tract adjacent to the federal minerals, said Land Commissioner Lance Gaebe.
Any operator who seeks to develop the oil and gas minerals using the trust land surface would need an easement from the Board of University and School Lands.
Comments can be emailed to BLM_MT_North_DakotaFO_Lease_EA@blm.gov or mailed to North Dakota Field Office, Attention: Oil and Gas Lease Sale, 99 23rd Ave. W., Suite A Dickinson, N.D. 58601.
WASHINGTON | Just so there's no confusion: Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer emailed Vladimir Putin's personal spokesman? Seeking help from the Kremlin on a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow? During the presidential campaign?
Yes, this really happened. While most attention was rightly focused on the devastating flood in Houston, there was quite a bit of news on the Russia front all of it, from Trump's perspective, quite bad.
The revelations begin with a Trump business associate named Felix Sater. A Russian emigre who bragged about his Kremlin connections, Sater was a principal figure in development of the Trump Soho hotel and condominium project in lower Manhattan. Sater wrote a series of emails to Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, touting the Moscow Trump Tower project as a way to help Trump win the presidency.
In November 2015 five months after Trump had entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination Sater wrote to Cohen that he had "arranged" for Trump's daughter Ivanka, during a 2006 visit to Moscow, "to sit in Putins private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin."
The email went on, "I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected. We both know no one else knows how to pull this off without stupidity or greed getting in the way. I know how to play it and we will get this done. Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this."
Could Sater be just a blowhard who exaggerated his influence with the Russian president? Perhaps. But Ivanka Trump did tell The New York Times that she took a "brief tour of Red Square and the Kremlin" during that 2006 visit. The Times reported she said that "it is possible she sat in Mr. Putin's chair during that tour but she did not recall it."
There is no evidence that Cohen, one of Trump's closest associates, found anything improper in Sater's pledge to get Putin "on this program." Nor did Cohen or anyone in the Trump Organization bother to disclose the emails or the Trump firm's effort, even during the campaign, to profitably emblazon the Trump name on the Moscow skyline until the correspondence was turned over to the House Intelligence Committee on Monday.
And there's more: In January 2016, with the Moscow project apparently stalled, Cohen went straight to the top to get it back on track or at least tried to. He sent an email to Dmitry Peskov, Putin's longtime personal spokesman, "hereby requesting your assistance."
Russian officials confirmed that the email was received but denied that it came to Peskov's attention or that Putin knew anything about the proposed project.
So Trump was lying when he tweeted, shortly before his inauguration, that "I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!" The truth is that in October 2015, on the same day he participated in a GOP candidates' debate, he signed a letter of intent for the Moscow Trump Tower project.
That is a "deal," and Trump's hunger to keep it alive may explain his reluctance to say anything critical about Putin. Or it may tell just part of the story.
The other part involves the whole question of collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign to meddle with the election and boost Trump's chances. Sater's boasts, by themselves, are hardly definitive. But of course there is the larger context, which includes the infamous meeting that Donald Trump Jr. convened in New York at which he hoped to receive dirt, courtesy of the Russian government, on Hillary Clinton.
Thus far we have the president's son, his son-in-law Jared Kushner (who was at that meeting), his then-campaign manager Paul Manafort (also at the meeting), and now his personal lawyer all seemingly eager for Russian help in the election. Who in the campaign wasn't willing to collude?
All of this is under scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller and the various congressional committees that are conducting investigations. Some have suggested that Trump's pardon of Joe Arpaio, the unrepentant "birther" and racial profiler, might have been a message to Trump associates facing heat from prosecutors: Hang tough and don't worry, you'll get pardons.
But there was more bad news for the president: Politico reported that Mueller is now cooperating and sharing information with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Presidents can only issue pardons for federal offenses, not state crimes. Uh-oh.
A new environmental stewardship project has organized monthly awareness campaigns to highlight the little steps people can take to lighten their impacts on the earth.
Small Things Matter Montana is a group of friends who came together to empower others to change their daily habits. The group has seven members and they meet at least once a month to come up with ideas and assign tasks. Hillery Daily, an organizer for the group, said they plan to perform one campaign a month for the next year.
We dont want to ask people to change the world, Daily said. None of us are capable of that or have a large enough presence in the world to change it. The idea is to do one small thing for a month and hope it becomes a habit.
For their first monthly campaign, in August, Small Lives Matter Montana organized local businesses to give a 25- to 50-cent discount to customers who bring their own coffee mugs.
Daily said that when it comes to environmental consciousness, she had her awakening moment in high school.
I was a junior in high school in the early 1970s, Daily said. The study of ecology was just getting started. It was a new elective and I took it. It just blew me away how connected everything was.
Local businesses in the Hamilton area have been receptive to the campaigns, according to Daily. The signs advertising the campaign can be seen in local grocery stores and coffee shops.
Haeli Kieran works at Big Creek Coffee, and said that between one-quarter to one-third of the customers she sees bring their own mug.
Definitely our regular customers do. Kieran said. We like to encourage that so we always do a 25-cent discount. But weve advertised more since the campaign started.
In September, the campaign will focus on persuading people to bring reusable bags when they shop. Daily said local grocery stores have been encouraged to place signs at the door reminding people to bring their own bags.
Americans use 60,000 plastic bags every five minutes, Daily said. Single-use plastic bags are a wasteful use of a valuable and limited natural resource - petroleum. Why not save petroleum for more important uses?
In addition to the bring your own bag campaign, Small Things Matter Montana will host two screenings of the movie Bag It, a documentary exposing the impacts of single-use plastic bags and other plastic consumer merchandise has on ecosystems and the human body.
The screenings will be held on Sept. 7 and Sept. 14 at 5:30 p.m. in the meeting room of the Bitterroot Public Library in Hamilton. Bitterroot Public Library is not a sponsor of the events.
The National Weather Service out of Missoula said to expect hot and dry weather to continue through this Labor Day weekend with some breezy afternoons.
Temperatures are forecast for the low 90s in the valleys, and slightly cooler weather in the high country. The haze of smoke from wildfires will remain on Saturday and Sunday, but a cold front from Canada may blow it out on Monday and cool temperatures into the low 80s.
Smoke in the morning will be trapped in the valleys, but once we get to the afternoon even the higher elevations will be smoky," said NWS Meteorologist Genki Kino. "With all the fires around us its hard to get away with it.
Tod McKay, the public affairs officer for the Bitterroot National Forest, said before people decide to camp, they should check the fire maps and learn about closures.
He noted that the Bass Creek Recreation Area is closed due to the Lolo Peak fire, and the Martin Creek campground near Sula also is closed due to the Meyers fire.
McKay said the smoke levels will vary depending on where you go.
Areas on the Montana side of the Idaho fires in the wilderness places like Bear Creek and Fred Burr, and Blodgett have fires just right over the border from us, he said. In the afternoons when it heats up - and it looks like were going to be in for some pretty hot days and maybe even afternoon winds - those canyons are likely to fill with smoke again.
He added that the Schumaker Campground up Lost Horse has been impacted by the Moose fire.
Its good to look at those fire maps and see in proximity where the fires are to where youd like to go," McKay said. "Understand that if they are to the west of us the prevailing winds are pushing that smoke to the east. We could be in for smoky days ahead.
McKay said there is no weather relief in sight.
Even looking out several weeks its not looking like well have help from rain or much cooler temperatures, he said. Its going to be real hot and real dry. There is no season ending event in the near future at all, which is not good news.
Guwahati, September 2 : The Gauhati High Court has ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the multi-crore rupees Louis Berger scam.
According to the reports, the court has ordered CBI to probe the scam after the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Assam police failed to file charge sheet of the scam before the court.
Following the court directive, the Assam government is likely to hand over the multi-crore rupees scam to CBI in next 2-3 days.
A high level source of the state government said that, Dispur will write to CBI in next 2-3 days asking for a probe into the scam.
Earlier, CID of Assam police had investigated the scam and received various crucial papers of the scam which surfaced in 2005.
CID had already submitted some documents before the court but failed to submit charge sheet of the scam.
Meanwhile, the state government has also received some crucial documents from the CID and the personnel and administration department will send the papers to the country's premier investigation agency.
The source said that, the secret documents of the scam may be invited trouble to some bureaucrates and political leaders, who accepted crore if rupees bribe from the New Jerasy based company to award of contracts for big water supply project in Guwahati.
It is to be mentioned that, two organisations of Assam had moved to the Gauhati High Court seeking its intervention to make a proper investigation into the scam.
The court had earlier slammed the CID for their negligence.
Recently, former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi demanded a CBI probe into the alleged role of the present finance and education minister of the BJP-led Assam government into the scam.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
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Education Reporter
Mathew Burciaga is a Santa Maria Times reporter who covers education, agriculture and public safety. Prior to joining the Times, Mathew ran a 114-year-old community newspaper in Wyoming. He owns more than 40 pairs of crazy socks from across the globe.
Two interesting and critical takes on AG Jeff Sessions' repeated statements about rising crime | Main | Ohio Gov delays multiple executions while denying clemency for double murderer slated to die later this month
September 2, 2017
Anyone want to talk about Judge Richard Posner's sentencing legacy on his retirement day?
As reported here by the Chicago Tribune, one of the most prominent and best-known federal circuit judges suddenly decided to retire from the Seventh Circuit: "Judge Richard A. Posner, one of the nation's leading appellate judges, whose acerbic wit attracted an almost cultlike following within legal circles, is retiring after more than three decades with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago." Here is more:
Posner, 78, is stepping down effective Saturday, according to a news release Friday afternoon from the 7th Circuit. He was appointed to the court by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and served as its chief judge from 1993 to 2000. Posner said in a statement he has written more than 3,300 opinions in his time on the bench and is "proud to have promoted a pragmatic approach to judging." He said he spent his career applying his view that "judicial opinions should be easy to understand and that judges should focus on the right and wrong in every case." Posner's biting and often brilliant written opinions as well as his unrelenting questioning from the bench have made him an icon of the court for years. Known as a conservative at the time of his appointment, Posner's views skewed more libertarian through the years, and he often came down in favor of more liberal issues such as gay marriage and abortion rights.
I consider sentencing another arena in which (now former) Judge Posner came to be more liberal over time. And, in the sentencing universe, I will always think first of Judge Posner sparring with Judge Easterbrook over the impact of the Supreme Court's Blakely decision for the federal sentencing system in US v. Booker when that case was before the Seventh Circuit (that opinion is available at this link).
I suspect some other sentencing fans might have other thoughts about (now former) Judge Posner, especially practitioners within the Seventh Circuit. I would love to hear those thoughts in the comments.
September 2, 2017 at 05:11 PM | Permalink
Comments
I entered Federal prison in July 2000, and began using my U.Va. law degree and experience writing briefs involving Blakely and Booker. I have long followed Judge Posner's opinions and have enjoyed his deep thought and judicial philosophy. I wonder why he took full retirement instead of becoming a Senior Circuit Judge? Somehow, I doubt that we have head the last of him. At the least, I see him serving as an adjunct professor at the Univ. of Chicago Law School. Who knows, maybe Special Counsel Muller will call upon him for help too.
Posted by: Jim Gormley | Sep 2, 2017 5:36:04 PM
He mentioned the Rent Seeking Theory toward the end of his book on Law and Economics. I was impressed.
He did support judicial review to have judges update the meaning of 50 year old laws, rather than waiting for their revision by an accountable legislature.
Smart but really stupid, like all Harvard Law grads, when it comes to enlarging the tyranny of government. When we say, government does nothing well, there is a simple explanation. It is run by Ivy indoctrinated morons, like Judge Posner.
Posted by: David Behar | Sep 2, 2017 7:27:58 PM
Judge: I hope you read this blog and today's comments. Retirement will be good for you. Off the bench you can write another book for the rest of us. Move to the beach or to a waterside place like New Bern, NC. Enjoy life to the fullest.
Meanwhile, I am going to go read one of your books which is on my shelf here in my retirement boat.
Posted by: Liberty1st | Sep 2, 2017 10:19:04 PM
Watching Justice Kagan's interview at the left leaning Aspen Institute. She was counsel for Obama, Dean of Harvard Law, and a Justice of the Supreme Court.
What trivial, ignorant, and stupid person she is. Posner should have been on the Supreme Court.
Posted by: David Behar | Sep 3, 2017 1:43:42 AM
One of my favorite quotes from Judge Posner: [We should have a realistic conception of the composition of the prison and jail population before deciding that they are scum entitled to nothing better than what a vengeful populace and resource-starved penal system choose to give them. We must not exaggerate the distance between us, the lawful ones, the respectable ones, and the prison and jail population; for such exaggeration will make it too easy for us to deny that population the rudiments of humane consideration. Johnson v. Phelan, 69 F.3d 144, 152 (7th Cir. 1995) (Posner, C.J., dissenting)
Posted by: Dave Sidhu | Sep 3, 2017 11:43:04 AM
I have never understood the public fawning that is given to Posner. Nothing I have ever read by him has ever stuck me as particularly insightful or brilliant. I recently came across a cartoon that I thought was amusing. It was titled "Nightmare Quiz for Computer Programmers" and the quiz had one question--name a poem. That is my take on Posner. He is brilliant and deep and insightful for the narrow-minded crowd that can't name a poem.
This isn't to say that I always disagreed with him or thought his opinions were poorly reasoned. It is just that I never understood why anyone ever thought him worthy of /special/ note. He was a judge. He wrote opinions. He served for a long time. Thanks for your service...
Posted by: Daniel | Sep 3, 2017 12:21:52 PM
Mr. Behar, of Elana Kagan you write, "What trivial, ignorant, and stupid person she is"
Well, let's see. Kagan attended Princeton University, where she earned an A.B., summa cum laude in history in 1981. Did you attend Princeton or the equivalent? Did you earn you degree summa cum laude? As an undergraduate, Kagan also served as editorial chair of The Daily Princetonian. Have you ever served as the editorial chair of a college newspaper?
In 1980, Kagan received Princeton's Daniel M. Sachs Class of 1960 Graduating Scholarship, one of the highest general awards conferred by the university, which enabled her to study at Worcester College, Oxford. What awards have you received? Have you studied at Oxford? At Oxford, Kagan earned a Master of Philosophy in Politics 1983. Do you have a masters degree from Oxford?
In 1986 Kagan received her law degree from Harvard. Did you go to Harvard?
She received her degree magna cum laude in 1986. Did you receive your degree with honors? At Harvard she was the supervisory editor of the Harvard Law Review. Were you the supervisory editor of any law review?
Kagan was a law clerk for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1987 and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988. Whose law clerk were you?
Kagan entered private practice as an associate at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Williams & Connolly. What law firm did you work for?
Kagan joined the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School as an assistant professor in 1991 and became a tenured professor of law in 1995. Where were you a professor?
While at the University of Chicago, Kagan published a law review article on the regulation of First Amendment hate speech in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling in R.A.V. v. City of St. P What arteicles have you written?
Elana Kagan may be many things, but "trivial, ignorant, and stupid" she is not. How about you?
Posted by: anon12 | Sep 3, 2017 7:22:05 PM
Hi, Anon12. Try to understand this. My high school education is preserved. Hers was eradicated by the criminal cult enterprise indoctrination of law school, making her one of the stupidest people in this country.
Watch the C-SPAN interview at the Aspen Institute. See if you can sit through it without wanting to bash your head on the wall from the trivial and stupid talk of this moron. Listening to her a short time made want to cleanse my mind with a legal analysis by Joe. It was that bad. He is actually less of a weasel than she is.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?430592-2/conversation-justice-elena-kagan
All those achievements, indicated book learning intelligence, a worthless and actually toxic form. It also took place before attending law school. Harvard destroyed all her native book learning intelligence. It made her among the stupidest people in this country. Don't worry about my intelligence. Worry about the intelligence of Life Skills students learning to eat food with a spoon. Their intellect would be superior to hers.
She believes in supernatural doctrines, mind reading, future forecasting, and that standards of conduct should be set by a fictitious character. She is nuts. Why fictitious? So the standards may objective, of course. Not even a person with intellectual disability would believe that Mickey Mouse, an extra careful, prudent and always anxious, fictitious character, should set the standards of the conduct of a nation.
She is a Jew. She, along with the Muslim, Protestant, and Bhuddist Harvard law students, was so stupid, she stupidly accepted idiotic, delusional, psychotic, legal doctrines plagiarized from the Catechism, not inspired, not suggested, just copied, straight. The Church is honest. They claim these are according to their faith, and I have no criticism of the church. They knew those beliefs required faith in 1300 AD.
Problem, Anon12. This is a secular nation, where religious doctrine cannot be Established by the government.
Then, again, this Jew, this moron, accepts an invitation from an institute that compares Israel to Nazi Germany, and supports BDS. This moron, this idiot, attends an event at the Aspen Institute, a front organization funded by George Soros, a notorious, Nazi Jew hunter, for money, of course. In your teens, you may have delivered newspapers. He delivered hiding Jews to the Nazis, for money.
Kagan, one of the highest government officials attends a major event at this anti-Semitic, hate group.
Posted by: David Behar | Sep 3, 2017 8:16:01 PM
Posner criticized the legal profession, but for missing a deadline, not for the inanity and stupidity of its of substantive content. He was oblivious to the self evident. He also criticized pro se litigants. Hey, Posner, show more respect for the owner of the law, and the person who pays your salary. You are the servant, not the litigant. Bow your head, and do not stare when addressing your employer. And judges be forced to rise when a litigant a court. Taser and beat whim with batons, if he does not do that quickly enough.
Back to the lawyer who missed a deadline, this moron did understand it was unfair to punish the client for the mistake or laziness of his lawyer. He just could not make the leap to the next step, that the remedy is not to dismiss the matter. It is to impose fines on the lawyer and on its supervisors. That money should come from personal funds and not from law firm accounts, again punishing the client. Is there anything stupider than a Harvard Law grad? Even a Life Skills student, learning to eat with a spoon, would know better than the stupidest people in our country.
He is also Jewish, yet got high grades on exams of the plagiarized content of the Catechism in law school. I cannot stand this stupidity. He never criticized this violation of the constitution, even after leaving law school, and in less danger of getting a B.
Here is one nice thing about the Posner retirement, outside of getting rid of a Harvard moron.
Trump will name his replacement, and it will be confirmed as soon as possible by the Republican controlled Senate.
Posted by: David Behar | Sep 4, 2017 2:56:55 PM
Anon, there is nothing to be gained by engaging Supremacy Claus in discussion. He should be ignored.
Doug, "She is a Jew." Please get rid of S.C.
Bruce
Posted by: bruce cunningham | Sep 4, 2017 4:26:05 PM
Last time I checked, Behar is a Jewish name.
Posted by: Fat Bastard | Sep 4, 2017 10:27:48 PM
Bruce. Explain how the sentence, "She is a Jew." is a problem.
I think, the problem is with Jewish law students accepting lawless, Catechism based, legal doctrines to get high grades. They should be rejected these are unlawful in our secular nation, atavistic, being from 13th Century jurisprudence, and psychotic in their supernatural nature.
The Deans of the law schools are on the Arrest List. They indoctrinate students into the criminal cult enterprise.
Then, the Jew, Kagan, betrays her religion, and the memory of what happened to it, by attending an event in an institute that is rabidly anti-Semitic, funded by a Nazi Jew hunter, and seeking the destruction of Israel.
Shunning is cult technique. Your legal education will never stand up to my preserved high school education. Your lawyer, supernatural beliefs are cuckoo.
Posted by: David Behar | Sep 4, 2017 11:17:37 PM
Fat. Last time I checked, so is, Fat.
Posted by: David Behar | Sep 4, 2017 11:18:07 PM
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Tom Cruise is destined to run and jump in every film he's in.
Why else would he do it in something like "The Mummy," a frightening reboot that unraveled this summer.
Quickly pulled into the world of Ahmanet, an Egyptian princess who has been awakened from a curse, Cruise has to deal with plenty of Walking Dead characters and an odd museum curator (Russell Crowe) who has his own reasons for wanting the reign of terror to heat up.
Director Alex Kurtzman makes plenty of this seem like a much deeper story but, really, its just a lot of running and broken glass.
Cruise and Jake Johnson play soldiers of fortune who discover Ahmanets tomb, then tell a friend (Annabelle Wallis), who happens to be an expert on these things. She alerts her boss and, before we know it, the sarcophagus is on a plane headed to London. There, more dead folks turn up. The goal, of course, is to unite parts of both to create this uber world of evil.
While Crowe looks suspicious from the start, he doesnt give The Mummy anything more than Anthony Hopkins would. He has a secret, too, but its so dumb you dont really care if the spiders or rats get him.
Sofia Boutellas Ahmanet is fairly feral, clawing and scratching her way to a dagger and a stone. (And Crowe chains her up at one point, making this look like some 1950s thriller.)
Johnson gets plenty of funny lines and some makeup that looks like the makeup artists spent too much time writing numbers on Boutella to really care.
When Cruise gets a tour of Crowes secret museum, jars of other creatures come into focus, suggesting a future for more classy Universal horror films. Kurtzman doesnt dwell too long there or anywhere, for that matter but does give it enough screen time to lay tracks.
The Mummy moves well no one stays put for too long but its action is so unmotivated (and disjointed) it looks like it was edited by committee. Theres a hint of Da Vinci Code plotting to this but it never gets traction.
Instead, scenes are designed to show what Cruise has done in dozens of other, better action films. He emerges unscathed, but its unlikely hed want to get too wrapped up in this.
SIOUX CITY | A Sioux City woman has pleaded not guilty to stabbing a man while they sat inside a vehicle.
Brittany Lapora, 24, entered her written plea Thursday in Woodbury County District Court to one count of willful injury.
According to court documents, Lapora was sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle at 1373 Pierce St. on Aug. 14 when she stabbed William Bauerly, 75, of Sioux City, in the side. The injuries were not life-threatening.
Republicans took control of every U.S. House seat in Iowa as state Sen. Zach Nunn edged out incumbent Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne. Nunn held a narrow lead late Tuesday, but The Associated Press didnt call the race until Wednesday because the race was so close. Republicans swept Iowas three other House seats on Election Day. During the campaign, Nunn emphasized his lifelong ties to the district that includes Des Moines and its suburbs. The 43-year-old from Bondurant stressed his conservative positions and his military combat experience with the U.S. Air Force in Iraq and Afghanistan as he appealed to voters.
When this Apple fell off the tree and landed in Iowa, it started a political debate about tax incentives.
Apple, the technology giant, recently announced its intention to build a $1.3 billion data center in suburban Des Moines.
Apple was lured to Iowa, in part, by more than $200 million in tax incentives. The state chipped in, agreeing to forfeit $20 million in future tax revenue from the site.
Gov. Kim Reynolds celebrated the announcement, calling it a significant investment in Iowa.
This announcement further solidifies Iowa as a hub where innovation and technology flourish and demonstrates this is a place where world-class companies can thrive, Reynolds said in a statement announcing Apples project.
Central Iowa business leaders were similarly pleased with the announcement.
But not everyone was OK with the millions of dollars Reynolds administration agreed to forfeit in order to get Apple to Iowa.
Critics of the states contribution to the tax incentives noted the forfeiture of future tax revenue comes at a time when the state is dealing with a budget shortfall that is at nearly $250 million and rising, and may require a special legislative session to finally resolve.
No future revenue from the Apple project would help the states current fiscal situation. But critics say the states willingness to forego future tax dollars shows misplaced budget priorities.
And critics note the project is expected to create only 50 long-term jobs at the plant. The project also is expected to create 500 short-term construction jobs.
Critics also question giving tax breaks to large, profitable companies. Apple had net revenue of nearly $45.7 billion in 2016, according to Market Watch.
Apple is just the latest company to fleece Iowa, crippling our ability to invest in schools, workers, and health care in the future, Matt Sinovic, executive director of the liberal advocacy group Progress Iowa, said in a statement. The Reynolds budget crisis was created because of fiscally irresponsible tax giveaways. How will we ever recover when the governor keeps letting companies take bigger bites of our future revenue?
Some of the most vocal critics, unsurprisingly, were the many Democrats hoping to become their partys nominee for governor in the 2018 election.
But some Republicans --- and not just Reynolds gubernatorial GOP primary opponents --- also questioned the wisdom of the Apple deal.
Iowa Rep. Pat Grassley, who leads the Iowa Houses budget committee, said in social media posts that he is not convinced the incentives package awarded to Apple is good value for Iowa taxpayers. Grassley said the key to bringing more high-quality jobs to Iowa is tax reform, which should include an examination of tax credits.
It seems a safe assumption that tax incentive programs will be a recurring issue for gubernatorial candidates on the campaign trail, and will be a topic of debate during next years legislative session.
2020 watch
U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, and Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota, were in Iowa this week.
Both are potential Democratic candidates for president in 2020.
Both were in Iowa on Thursday: Klobuchar gave a lecture on women and leadership at Iowa State University, and Sanders was at a book-signing event in Iowa City.
And former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley is making yet another trek to Iowa. OMalley has planned to help fundraise for Democratic state senators next weekend in Davenport, Maquoketa and North Liberty.
President Trump's pardon of Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, has drawn predictable responses. The left, which long ago exceeded its sell-by date when it comes to ideas that work, denounced the decision as racist (that's all they have) and a perversion of justice. Some moderates, like Sen. John McCain and Sen. Jeff Flake, both Arizona Republicans, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, joined the critics.
Arpaio, who is 85, was convicted of disobeying a 2011 federal court order to halt traffic patrols that targeted immigrants. He faced up to six months in prison.
The White House issued a list of reasons for the president's decision, which included Arpaio's age, his service to the country, including enlistment in the military at the start of the Korean War, and his work as a police officer and special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Arpaio's defenders say he was trying to help the federal government identify people in the country illegally. His opponents say he profiled Hispanics only, and thus engaged in racism. Given that Mexicans, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, make up the largest group of unauthorized immigrants, it made sense to focus on this group. That the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico has been decreasing, matters little, as the number of immigrants from Central America and Asia has increased.
Even critics must acknowledge that any president has sole discretionary authority under the Constitution to pardon anyone for almost anything, except offenses against the United States and curtailing the impeachment process.
It is instructive to review some of the hundreds of pardons delivered by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama when they were president. Many were granted to people whose resumes do not come close to the services rendered to the nation by Sheriff Arpaio.
President Obama issued 70 pardons during his two terms as president. He pardoned minor drug offenders, bank embezzlers, military deserters, and, according to the Chicago Tribune, a young sailor court-martialed and demoted for taking four pounds of butter from his Navy base in 1947.
Bill Clinton's pardon list contained names of people who committed crimes a little more consequential, some even a little suspect. His most notorious pardon was granted to Marc Rich, a major donor to the Clinton campaign. The Rich pardon came during Clinton's last hours in office and was condemned by leading Democrats, including former President Jimmy Carter.
For those with short memories, Rich was indicted in the United States on federal charges of tax evasion and making controversial oil deals with Iran during the Iran hostage crisis. Rich, who fled to Switzerland when he was indicted, never returned to the U.S., and died there in 2013.
Clinton later said he regretted the Rich pardon. Without a hint of irony, he said, "It wasn't worth the damage to my reputation." Most of Clinton's other pardons were far less controversial. They included convictions for bank fraud and "odometer rollback."
The president's pardon of Arpaio is a far cry from those granted by Clinton and Obama. He was correct in sighting Arpaio's age and service to the country among his reasons for granting it. His conviction had political overtones and it is perfectly fitting that the pardon addressed his conviction partially on a political level.
Arpaio reached the same conclusion when he tweeted: "Thank you @realdonaldtrump for seeing my conviction for what it is: a political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama Justice Department."
WASHINGTON -- One of the barriers to sensible politics is the opportunism that so often infects our debates about what government is there for, where we want it to be energetic, and how we can keep it from violating the basic rights of citizens.
The muddled nature of our discussions of these matters has been brought home by two unfortunate events: The mass suffering unleashed by Harvey and President Trump's pardon of former sheriff Joe Arpaio.
In the case of the vicious storm, we are reminded that some politicians think government is great when it helps their own constituents and wasteful if it helps anyone else.
We also regularly assert that government is better when it prevents problems than when it focuses primarily on cleaning up after the fact. But when environmentalists suggest that development can be carried out in more sustainable ways or that climate change is worth dealing with, they are mocked as "anti-business" or "crisis-mongers." Then a crisis comes, and we wonder why the politicians were so short-sighted.
As for the Arpaio pardon, it is seen as technically legal because presidential authority in this area is almost unlimited. But it may be the most dangerous act of Trump's presidency. The occupant of the White House has claimed the power to permit government agents to violate the constitutional rights of Americans and to override the courts if he doesn't like what they're doing. This is the largest single step toward autocracy Trump has taken.
What we hear all the time is that conservatives are for "small government" and liberals are for "big government." But this is very misleading shorthand.
Yes, liberals typically favor more social insurance programs, including expanded guarantees of health care, and more government regulation of business in what they insist is the public interest. Conservatives are often critical of some or all of these initiatives.
But liberals (often joined by libertarians) are among the first to stand up against government violations of the civil rights of individuals. Many conservatives -- most certainly including Trump -- use the "law and order" battle cry to accuse liberals concerned about civil liberties of being "soft on crime." (In the case of the Arpaio pardon, Trump seems to be for his version of "order" but indifferent to the "law" part.)
So who is really for big government and who is against it? Which is more threatening to our liberties: higher taxes to pay for new benefits, or an expansive view of police powers and presidential prerogatives?
The conversation about disaster relief helps clarify another issue. The conservative critique of government aid is that it is on some level unjust because it takes money from one group of people and gives it to another. Applying this logic to natural disasters, why should parts of the country that will almost never experience hurricanes help the hurricane-prone areas? After all, people don't have to live in places subject to hurricanes.
Well, it's also true that some places get tornadoes and others don't. Some experience earthquakes and others don't. Some people live near rivers that overflow their banks and others don't.
Disaster relief is premised on an old-fashioned "there but for the grace of God go I" solidarity. We are happy to see government give a hand to our fellow citizens facing sudden catastrophe today and assume that they will help us if we face comparable challenges tomorrow.
This is why it is entirely appropriate to call out the hypocrisy of Texas conservatives who voted against assistance for the victims of Superstorm Sandy in New York and New Jersey but are now asking for federal help on behalf of their folks. They broke this basic rule of solidarity in the name of an ideology that, when the chips are down, they don't really believe in. Of course we should help all the areas devastated by Harvey. I'd just appreciate hearing our Texas conservative friends, beginning with Sen. Ted Cruz, admit they were wrong.
Call me a liberal (I won't mind) but I do believe in using government's taxing powers reasonably to direct help toward people who really need it, and in regulations to protect the environment and prevent catastrophe. But I also believe it is vital to stand firm when government officials violate constitutional rights, which is what Sheriff Arpaio was found to have done with Latinos in Arizona and why pardoning him is so dangerous.
We can certainly debate where government compassion becomes overreach. Unfortunately, we're not anywhere close to such a measured and civilized dialogue.
Job Action at Toronto Pearson Airport Shows Why Little Strikes Matter
Labour September 2, 2017 Steven Tufts
As Labour Day approaches, we are often reminded of the large strikes that defined Canadas labour movement. The 30,000 workers in the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike or 11,000 autoworkers in the Windsor Ford strike of 1945 that established formal industrial relations in Canada. But little strikes also matter.
Teamsters Local 419 represents 700 workers employed by Swissport, a multinational company subcontracted to handle baggage for several airlines at Torontos Pearson International Airport (YYZ). The workers have been on strike since July 27. The demands are modest wage increases that will be only slightly above the proposed increases to the Ontario minimum wage and the maintenance of benefits for part-time workers.
The workers have overwhelmingly voted down two proposed contracts as the employer insists upon concessions. The protracted strike will soon create greater problems for the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA) as the strike has larger ramifications for airport industrial relations and its 50,000 workers.
Three Developments Need to be put in Perspective
First, the Swissport dispute is the first battle in an escalating war to maintain or increase profits by operating airports as low-wage employers. The trajectory began in the 1970s as air travel was de-regulated globally. The so-called democratization of air travel with low-cost models generates profits based on low margins and high volume. Keeping the wages low for airport services such as baggage handling is central to this strategy.
Second, airports are increasingly financialized entities. In the case of Pearson, the ownership has been shifted to a non-share corporation (the GTAA) which has the ground lease to operate the airport. The GTAA must deliver 13% of its revenues to the government and generate a significant surplus for airport expansion and development. The financial potential of the GTAA creates the conditions for privatization as investors seek the monopoly rents generated by airport authorities. The GTAA is under financial pressure to maintain a low-wage, high surplus model in order to attract capital as it explores financialized models of ownership and expansion.
Third, there are moral, safety, security, and economic contradictions in the low wage strategy that the GTAA and its tenants have been unable to resolve. In a large global city such as Toronto, the current minimum wage is a poverty wage. Airport companies paying low wages find it difficult to retain workers who circulate through the low-wage sectors of the economy. There are extra costs to high turnover at airports as workers require security clearance and a minimum amount of health and safety training.
Wages and Benefits
At the same time, there are social movements pressuring governments for living wages. The Fight for $15 movement has had recent success in Ontario. In some cases, the proposed increase of the minimum wage to $15 per hour will outpace those in existing collective agreements. Contractors working in competitive sectors with low-margins are challenged to absorb the increases related to higher minimum wages as is the case with several airport service companies. The GTAA and the airlines are unlikely to revisit its contract terms with companies such as Swissport. In order to cover mandated and negotiated wage increases, Swissport is demanding cuts to benefits for part-time workers, those working less than 30 hours per week and the majority of its employees.
These developments are unfolding at Pearson with the current strike. Unfortunately, the GTAA is enabling a protracted and harmful strike by licensing other contractors to perform the work of the striking baggage handlers with replacement workers. The GTAA appears to be doubling down on a low wage strategy and it has chosen this strike to set the tone for future negotiations throughout Pearson. Calls to create a $15 per hour minimum wage for the airport dating back to 2012 were dismissed.
Toronto Airport Workers Council
The airport is a key economic driver of the regional economy. It cant afford ongoing labour disruptions and it definitely cant afford to be shut down. Community solidarity with Local 419 is crucial as labour sends the GTAA and private capital a message that low-wage models are unsustainable and have a high cost. In Toronto, community solidarity with suburban workers is difficult. The local labour movements ability to build solidarity with a small group of suburban airport workers will be tested.
Fortunately, labour unions through the Toronto Airport Workers Council have decided to take this strike seriously. Rallies are much easier to organize for city hall or Queens Park (downtown Toronto) than at Pearson (in the suburbs), but there is a solidarity rally called for Sunday, September 3rd, at 1pm at the departures level of Terminal 3. While Swissports entire operation has not been shut down through solidarity actions, it may now come to that. Failure to exert pressure will embolden the GTAA and its contractors to attack larger unions and groups of workers leading to greater conflict at Pearson in the near future.
These little strikes matter.
Le Collectif Cheikh Yassine a organise un certain nombre dactivites et de festivites pour les enfants de Gaza sous le theme La joie des enfants de Gaza pour lAid . Ces activites ont commence le premier jour de lAid et continue jusquau 4eme jour de lAid dans la bande de Gaza.
Plusieurs activites, ont ete organisees parmi lesquelles : des competitions recompensees par des prix, des jeux, des animations et des chants presentes par un groupe ainsi que des distributions de cadeaux et daides financieres.
Black Hole NASA
Soon after the Big Bang, the universe went completely dark.
The intense, seminal event that created the cosmos churned up so much hot, thick gas that light was completely trapped. Much laterperhaps as many as one billion years after the Big Bangthe universe expanded, became more transparent, and eventually filled up with galaxies, planets, stars, and other objects that give off visible light. Thats the universe we know today.
How it emerged from the cosmic dark ages to a clearer, light-filled state remains a mystery.
In a new study, researchers at the University of Iowa offer a theory of how that happened. They think black holes that dwell in the center of galaxies fling out matter so violently that the ejected material pierces its cloudy surroundings, allowing light to escape. The researchers arrived at their theory after observing a nearby galaxy from which ultraviolet light is escaping.
The observations show the presence of very bright X-ray sources that are likely accreting black holes, says Philip Kaaret, professor in the UI Department of Physics and Astronomy and corresponding author on the study. Its possible the black hole is creating winds that help the ionizing radiation from the stars escape. Thus, black holes may have helped make the universe transparent.
Kaaret and his team focused on a galaxy called Tol 1247-232, located some 600 million light years from Earth, one of only three nearby galaxies from which ultraviolet light has been found to escape. In May 2016, using an Earth-orbiting telescope called Chandra, the researchers saw a single X-ray source whose brightness waxed and waned and was located within a vigorous star-forming region of Tol 1247-232.
The team determined it was something other than a star.
Stars dont have changes in brightness, Kaaret says. Our sun is a good example of that.
To change in brightness, you have to be a small object, and that really narrows it down to a black hole, he says.
But how would a black hole, whose intense gravitational pull sucks in everything around it, also eject matter?
The quick answer is no one knows for sure. Black holes, after all, are hard to study, in part because their immense gravitational pull allows no light to escape and because theyre embedded deep within galaxies. Recently, however, astronomers have offered an explanation: The jets of escaping matter are tapping into the accelerated rotational energy of the black hole itself.
Imagine a figure skater twirling with outstretched arms. As the skater folds her arms closer to her body, she spins faster. Black holes operate much the same way: As gravity pulls matter inward toward a black hole, the black hole likewise spins faster. As the black holes gravitational pull increases, the speed also creates energy.
As matter falls into a black hole, it starts to spin and the rapid rotation pushes some fraction of the matter out, Kaaret says. Theyre producing these strong winds that could be opening an escape route for ultraviolet light. That could be what happened with the early galaxies.
Kaaret plans to study Tol 1247-232 more closely and find other nearby galaxies that are leaking ultraviolet light, which would help corroborate his theory.
The paper, Resolving the X-ray emission from the Lyman continuum emitting galaxy Tol 1247-232, was published online Aug. 2 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Contributing author Liza Casella, an Iowa City native studying at Northwestern University, helped with the research while in high school through the UIs Secondary Student Training Program. Matthew Brorby, a postdoctoral researcher in physics and astronomy at the UI, and Andrea Prestwich, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, are the other contributing authors.
NASA funded the research through an award from the Chandra X-ray Observatory Center.
The track standard of 1:53.2 for two-year-old pacing geldings was lowered substantially on Friday night (Sept. 1) when Hitman Hill (American Ideal-Fox Valley Shaker) torched the Genesee County oval in 1:52.4 during New York Sire Stakes action at Batavia Downs.
Leaving from post one in his $53,500 division, Hitman Hill (Brett Miller) shot right to the lead and dictated fractions that would put him in the record books.
After stopping the clock at :27.3, :56.1 and 1:25.1, the only threat of the race came at the three-quarters when pocket-sitting Casual Cool (Drew Monti) pulled and advanced to within a neck. But Miller tapped the gas and Hitman Hill responded by pacing home in :27.3 to win by four lengths in 1:52.4 to set the new track record.
The previous mark was held by Pointomygranson (Marcus Miller), who paced in 1:53.2 last year.
"This colt, from the first time I sat behind him, I told [trainer] Chris Oakes that he could be one of the best colts I've ever sat behind," said driver Brett Miller. "And I still feel that way."
Hitman Hill ($2.40) is now a perfect four-for-four this year and has earned $79,383 for his owners Tom Hill and Northfork Racing Stable.
In the second $52,500 division, Jersey Jim (Artiscape-Jersey Pearl) matched his lifetime best clocking to score his third win of the year, two of which were in NYSS action.
Jersey Jim (Jim Devaux) got away last as the heavily favoured Paprike Blue Chip (Jim Morrill Jr.) led the way. But after Silver Arrow (John MacDonald) pushed the issue in the third quarter, Jersey Jim made a bold three-wide, three-quarter move and drew alongside Paprike Blue Chip at the head of the lane. From there, he out-muscled the pacesetter to the wire to win by a length in 1:54.1.
Jersey Jim ($5.80) has now banked $62,933 in 2017 for owners Robert and Gail Sanders and trainer Perry Simser.
There were also two $15,000 Excalsior A series contests on the card.
In the first split, Real Rayenbow (So Surreal-R Reva Raye) won in 1:58.4 for Chuck Connor Jr. Real Rayenbow ($23.40) is owned by Janice Connor, Arden Homestead Stable and Crawford Farms Racing, and is trained by Chuck Connor Jr.
In the second leg, Major Sugar Rush (Art Major-Sugarcoated) registered a 1:56.2 victory for Ray Schnittker. Major Sugar Rush ($7.90) is owned by trainer Ray Schnittker and Steve Arnold.
(With files from Batavia Downs)
Returning to the scene of her 2016 Peaceful Stakes victory on Friday night at Mohawk Racetrack, Ariana G overcame a trailing tier start to win the $166,872 Simcoe Stakes for three-year-old trotting fillies and cap off a big night of Grand Circuit action for owners and breeders Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld.
Katz and Libfeld were also part of the ownership group on two-year-old trotting colt You Know You Do, who won a $93,880 division of the Champlain Stakes, and the duo bred the other Champlain winner Night Rhythm with Sam Goldband.
Driven by Yannick Gingras in the Simcoe, their champion trotting filly Ariana G got away third from post 11 and swept past early leavers Feed Your Head (Louis-Philippe Roy) and Dream Together (Sylvain Filion) following a :27.1 first quarter. The Jimmy Takter trainee advanced to the lead on the way to the half in :56.1 and raced by three-quarters in 1:25.1 while keeping first-over challenger Southwind Tesla (Phil Hudon) at bay to win by two and three-quarter lengths in 1:53.1, a Canadian season's record for trotting fillies. Ariana G's stablemate Feed Your Head edged out Southwind Tesla for the runner-up role.
"She's easy going and it doesn't matter to her, anything you want to do, she's a professional and she showed it again tonight," said Gingras of Ariana G's first trailing tier start. "She felt really good. Down the stretch, I was just taking it easy on her. The [ear] plugs were still in and [I was] just measuring them off and trying to save some for the future."
The homebred Muscle Hill-Cantab It All filly, who is undefeated in four races on Canadian soil, earned her 16th career win from 20 starts and boosted her bankroll over $1.43 million.
Ariana G paid $2.90 to win.
Peter Haughton champion You Know You Do added another Grand Circuit stakes victory to his resume with a 1:55.1 Canadian season's record mile in rein to Gingras.
Trotting out from post five, You Know You Do worked his way to the lead through a :29 opening quarter. The 4-5 favourite then headed to the half in :58.2 and took off, widening his lead to four lengths by three-quarters in 1:27. You Know You Do wrapped up his blowout win with his rivals chasing six and three-quarter lengths behind. Alarm Detector (Trevor Henry) came on from the backfield to secure second-place honours and Embolden (Rick Zeron) finished third.
Takter trains the Muscle Hill-You Want Me colt, who was a $350,000 Harrisburg yearling purchase by Howard Taylor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Order By Stable of Boras, Sweden, Bud Hatfield of Columbus, Ohio, and the Toronto-based Mkatz Alibfeld Sgoldband partnership. He was bred by Valley High Stable of Freehold, New Jersey.
"He was exceptional tonight. This is a really top-end colt and we're thrilled and proud of him," said co-owner Marvin Katz, who noted the colt was recommended to him and his partners by Perry Soderberg.
You Know You Do is now four-for-six with almost $254,000 banked in purse earnings.
He paid $3.60 to win.
The Frank Antonacci stable swept the top two spots in the second division, with Night Rhythm and Kinda Lucky Lindy swarming race leader Cruising In Style in the final eighth of the mile ending in a photo finish.
Cruising In Style (Anthony MacDonald) was first off the gate and had a five-length advantage on his foes after early pocket rider Sweet Talkin Hall (James MacDonald) broke stride past the :29 quarter mark. Cruising In Style continued to lead the field through middle splits of :58.4 and 1:27.3 with Levitation (Doug McNair) in pursuit, but drifting across the track in the stretch. However, the Antonacci colts kicked into action down the lane. Night Rhythm closed inside for driver Scott Zeron while Kinda Lucky Lindy trotted up on the outside for Rick Zeron, with the former nosing out the latter in the win photo while Cruising In Style settled for third a half-length back.
Night Rhythm's 1:57.2 victory was his first win in three starts after picking up a pair of cheques in the Pennsylvania Stallion Series stateside. He is owned by Lindy Farms Of Conn of Enfield, Connecticut and Robert Rudolph of Vineland, New Jersey.
"I think they chose to race him in the Stallion Series just to keep him brave, not to chase a lot of hard speed," said Scott Zeron. "They did the right thing, it panned out today. I had to nurse him a little bit in the last turn, but it turned into a sprint down the lane.
"All the respect to the horse that finished second of Frank's. He's just as nice of a horse too. It's exciting heading forward and they're both really nice horses."
Bred by Libfeld, Katz and Goldband, the Muscle Hill-Tail Of Night colt was a $160,000 yearling purchase at the Lexington Selected Sale.
"I am really excited about Night Rhythm and I want to congratulate Frank Antonacci and the Antonacci family," said Katz. "I'm thrilled for them. We bred that horse and it's just a testament to the program that Al and I built over all these years and the great people that help us."
Night Rhythm paid $6.30 to win.
Friday's program also featured Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots for two-year-old pacing fillies. The three $19,500 divisions were won by the Jack Darling homebred Neon Moon (Sportswriter-Beach Of A Time) in 1:54.1, equalling her lifetime mark with Jody Jamieson driving; Shower Play (Shadow Play-Alice Emil) in a career-best 1:53 for driver Sylvain Filion and trainer/co-owner Rene Dion; and Azure Seelster (Shadow Play-Winbak Alice) in 1:54.4 with Louis-Philippe Roy aboard for trainer Jacques Dupont.
For complete recaps and replays of the Grassroots divisions, click here.
To view Friday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Friday Results - Mohawk Racetrack.
In this week's edition of Rewind Robert Smith takes a look back to the decade of the 1950s and surveys some of the action taking place at various tracks and even a few sales results from that period in time.
1952 - Michigan's Top Free For Aller Has Canadian Driver
Royal Blackstone leads the field en route to victory for driver Harold Wellwood. Take note of the sheepskin-lined hopples the horse is wearing (Harness Horse) Royal Blackstone leads the field en route to victory for driver Harold Wellwood. Take note of the sheepskin-lined hopples the horse is wearing (Harness Horse)
In 1952, Northville's most prestigious race was called The Michigan Pacing Derby. It offered a then large purse of $10,000. On the evening of Friday, August 1, 1952 the race was held in front of a standing room-only crowd and attracted a total of seven starters. A Michigan-owned horse, ROYAL BLACKSTONE won the race, taking both heats. He was driven by then 46- year-old Canadian horseman Harold Wellwood, whose talents attracted several U.S. owners who hired him as a catch driver. This top flight horse was at the peak of his career at the age of six and during this season he won 12 of 19 starts, all in Free-For-All competition. His season's earnings amounted to $16,875, boosting him to a lifetime bank account of just north of $100,000. The mile times were 2:05.3 and 2:06.1. Royal Blackstone, who sported a lifetime mark of 1:58.3 taken at age five, was owned by Brown Stables of Detroit, Michigan and Mr. Brown was a Ford automobile dealer for many years.
Mr. Brown was so pleased with the driving job done by Harold that he promised to give him (as in FREE) a foal sired by Royal Blackstone when one became available. True to his word, he gave him a beautiful black filly named Royal Aileen, a foal of 1952 out of his mare Gay Isle. This gift horse turned out to be an outstanding race mare and later in her career provided many highly successful colts including Aileens Tour, the first horse to record a sub-2:00 mile in O.S.S. history when Harold Jr. "Buddy" scored the miracle mile in 1977 at Rideau Carleton. Anything else? Yes! Wm. Wellwood's first ever driving win came behind Royal Aileen in 1959. She remained a part of the Wellwood family forever.
Royal Blackstone is in the center of the Northville Downs winners circle following a 1952 victory. From left: Orlo Owen, Publicity Mgr., Mrs. Wm. Brown; driver Harold Wellwood; Wm. Brown owner; and John Carlo of Northville management. [Harness Horse] Royal Blackstone is in the center of the Northville Downs winners circle following a 1952 victory. From left: Orlo Owen, Publicity Mgr., Mrs. Wm. Brown; driver Harold Wellwood; Wm. Brown owner; and John Carlo of Northville management. [Harness Horse]
1955 - Sackville Downs Season Closes
Nov. 9, 1955 - With the chill of a late fall day in the air harness racing fans bid adieu to the 1955 season at Lower Sackville. On the final day of racing eight heats were presented to the audience. Leading the way in victories was driver Frank G. Daniels, who was home first four times.
The feature of the day a Free For All Pace for a purse of $450.00 was taken in two straight heats by Josedale Clansman owned and driven by Donald Turner of Dartmouth, N.S. These two wins topped off a tremendous season that saw this six-year-old horse win 42 heats in 98 trips to the post along with 17 seconds and nine thirds. A number of his starts were on the ice going a distance of three-eighths of a mile. He banked $5,912 for his owner as he took a new lifetime mark of 2:07.1.
A partial list of drivers competing at this meet would include (in alphabetical order) these names: Ruffin Barrieau, Wm. Burt, Bertram Cruikshank, Roy Creamer, Harley Harrison, Jos. MacDonald, Clayton MacLeod, Len O'Meara, Archie Llewelyn, Donald C. Rankin, Don Ratchford, Gord Robinson, Elwood Shaw, Cyril Smith, Don Turner, Geo. Turner, Lloyd and Samuel Walker.
1955 - News From Quebec
A short item from Nov 30, 1955 Harness Horse:
Albert Boucher scored the best driving average at the Blue Bonnets meeting, although both Keith Waples and Percy Robillard appeared in the winner's circle at the Canadian oval on more occasions. The regular Montreal season ended October 20. The United Horsemen Association voted Real Bardier as the most gentlemanly driver during the meeting.
1956 - Highlights of Toronto Standardbred Sale
Monday, Nov. 19, 1956 - With a near capacity crowd on hand at the C.N.E. Coliseum a total of 53 horses went through the auction ring in a mixed sale organized by Mr. J.W. Brown of New Liskeard, Ont. The total gross sales amounted to $14,390 for an average of $272 per head. Leading the sale was an Adios filly named Pollyanna that was knocked down to J.E. and C.E. Armstrong of Brampton for $2,500, far outdistancing all other entrants. The next highest sale was $1,050 paid by Harry Ingles of Brighton for the aged trotting mare Ann Elgin who was part of the Wesley Litt consignment. She had been a Futurity winner as both a two- and three-year-old. It is interesting to note that bids in increments of $2.50 were accepted.
The sale contained a varied array of consignments with the majority being aged racing stock and a number of young prospects. Listed below are a few sales that may be of interest to Rewind readers:
MacDuff's Lassie - Sold to Mrs. Allan Walker, Owen Sound - $ 150.00
Will's Boy - Barry McManus, Stratford - $165.00
Richard Van - George E. Duncan, Dundalk - $ 150.00
Patsy Riddell - George Bennett, Mossley - $ 325.00
Marsha Lee - Brethour Bros., Blackwater - $680.00
Dora Hal M. - Jim Moore, Sarnia - $ 425.00
Herbert Carter - Norm Hardy, Lucan - $ 162.50
Wee Willie - Frank Conlin, Oshawa - $90.00
Belle S Chips - Harold Hooey, Orono Ont. - $ 87.50
Jane Riddell - Allan Walker, RR # 5 Owen Sound - $285.00
Miss Vera Bars *- Murray Mackey, Parkhill Ont. - $ 115.00
* - Note Miss Vera Bars won the 1940 Canadian Pacing Derby and at this time was 21 years old.
1956 - Prized Horse Humanely Destroyed After Racing Accident
Nov. 10, 1956 - In Saturday night's tenth and final race at Montreal's Richelieu Park, a serious accident disrupted the finish as a total of five horses were unable to finish. In a pile up which caused confusion and chaos among trailing horses, one horse suffered a fatal injury. Hal Grattan Patch, a nine-year-old gelding owned and driven by Jack Gordon of Cold Springs Ont., suffered a broken neck and had to be euthanized by the track veterinarian. Undoubtedly most of the fans had left the premises without knowing the seriousness of the accident.
The son of Hal Grattan Jr. had been co-owned throughout the early part of his racing career by Mr. Gordon and his partner Cliff Hie and currently Gordon was the sole owner. This horse and his full brother Thor Grattan (who was one year older) had been solid performers for the Hie and Gordon partnership for many years. They were originally purchased from John R. Ball of Baltimore Ont. and raced extensively both in their home area as well as at Toronto and Montreal tracks. During the current season Hal Grattan Patch had won three races and added $2,100 to his lifetime bank account which had passed the $11,000 mark. Earlier on the same program Jack Gordon had visited the winner's circle following a victory behind Country Lad in the fifth race but this created a sad ending to the evening and the loss of this horse was a severe blow.
1958 - Aurora Downs In Chicago Set To Reopen
The horses approach the start as Chicago's Aurora Downs resumes harness racing in 1959 The horses approach the start as Chicago's Aurora Downs resumes harness racing in 1959
The sport of harness racing in the Midwest received some good news that will provide a major racing venue for the coming 1959 season. The venerable old Aurora Downs in Chicago that dates back to the 1890's will once again host the pacers and trotters. This will be the first meeting since 1951 when an era that saw many great races came to an end. A reported half million dollars has been spent to update and refurbish this once beautiful racing plant to its former glory.
Happy Birthday Dr. John
I do not routinely recognize birthdays (maybe the odd exception for those 90 and over) but a special salute goes out to Dr. John S. Findley who is about to turn 93 having first seen the light of day at Braeside Ont. on Sept. 2, 1924. He is living proof of the old saying "Old age is like everything else in life; to make a success of it, you've got to start young."
Dr. Findley at age 34 is shown with his great trotting mare Dalyce Blue at Richelieu Park in Montreal. He is receiving a silver tray from Georges Giguere in recognition of her fine performance as a two-year-old in 1958. She was Findley's all-time favourite and was the first Canadian bred filly to record a sub-2:10 mile at two and sub-2:05 at age three. Dalyce Blue is a Hall of Fame member along with her owner. Dr. Findley at age 34 is shown with his great trotting mare Dalyce Blue at Richelieu Park in Montreal. He is receiving a silver tray from Georges Giguere in recognition of her fine performance as a two-year-old in 1958. She was Findley's all-time favourite and was the first Canadian bred filly to record a sub-2:10 mile at two and sub-2:05 at age three. Dalyce Blue is a Hall of Fame member along with her owner.
Who Is It?
Can you identify this gentleman who appears in a very nice pose. The correct answer will appear during the coming week.
The Flagstaff International Relief Effort is organizing a sale of traditional Mongolian yurts to help fund its humanitarian mission. The traditional Mongolian ger is a handmade, felt-covered, wooden frame structure used by nomadic cultures in Mongolia and other parts of Central Asia. The ger is known as a "yurt" in Turkic languages.
One God -- One Day -- One Africa (1GDA) World's Largest Continent Wide Gospel Outreach
Contact: (ST) Rev. Siegfried Tomazsewski, C.E.D., One God One Day One Africa, Inc., (ST) +1 321 682 5196, info@1GDA.org CORONA DEL MAR, Calif., Sept. 2, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- Renowned evangelist and author, Jennifer Wilde, heard God saying "Now is the time" to act upon a vision she received 37 years ago. One God One Day One Africa (1GDA) was born as a ministry to fulfill God's desire to reach out to every possible country in Africa in May 2019 and every church and ministry can be part of this.Ministries like Christ For All Nations, Iris Global, King Ministries and Global Outreach Day have already signed up to partner with 1GDA to accomplish this mega task.1GDA are now inviting every church and ministry to join as prayer warriors, hosts, supporters and partners.1GDA is calling all ministries and churches across Africa and internationally to rise up and stand together, that multiple millions will be reached for the Kingdom of God at this time!Dr Heidi Baker, CEO of Iris Global, said, "Jennifer Wilde is a woman of passion, integrity, and vision. Even as her name, she is wild for God and will do anything to see His Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven. One God One Day One Africa is an evangelistic event focused on unity, mobilization, and lasting fruit."Every Christian is invited to come and join in, spreading the Gospel and building Christ's Kingdom all over Africa in May 2019.Former Christ for all Nations European Director Pastor Siegfried Tomazsewski (President of Calling Ministry), who has been working alongside Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke for over 18 years, is spearheading the operation. He has experience working on mass-crusades for may years along with a team under the professional leadership of Russell Abbot. Russel is the African director, based in Rwanda, that is organizing Gospel campaigns in Africa for Evangelist Jennifer Wilde.The first stage outreach of 1GDA will start in May 2018 in 3 African countries simultaneously. For more details, join by signing up on www.1gda.org/join . You could also visit and like the Facebook Page fb.me/1GDA.org For Further information, please contact:(ST) Rev. Siegfried Tomazsewski, C.E.D.One God One Day One Africa, Inc.Contact Number: (ST) +1 321 682 5196E-mail: info@1GDA.org
The essential component of totalitarian propaganda is artifice (het toepassen van kunstgrepen. svh) . The ruling elites, like celebritie...
Beacon Unitarian Universalist Congregation: 510 N. Leroux. Running is a call to play, as well as a call to suffer and to explore our perceived limitations. Mark James shares his exploration of the places that running can take us. 779-4492. beaconuu.com/.
Calvary Bible Church: 6555 Townsend-Winona Road. Sunday Bible teaching by Wayne Hampton. Adult Bible study followed by worship service. No evening service. No Awana on Labor Day. Wednesday night prayer and Bible study is studying Job. calvarybiblechurchflagstaff.com.
Christ's Church of Flagstaff: 3475 E. Soliere Ave. Our sermon series will address "Life's Tough Questions." ccof.church/.
Christian Science Society of Flagstaff: 619 W. Birch Ave. The subject of this week's sermon is "Man." from Gen 1:27-28. We also have Wednesday testimony meetings. Our Christian Science Reading Room, a quiet place for prayer and study, is open from 4-5:30 on Wednesdays and 10-noon on Saturdays or by appointment. 556-0510.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon): Sunday services held at four Flagstaff locations: 4165 S. Lake Mary Road, 625 E. Cherry Ave., 2401 E. Linda Vista Dr. and, for young single adults, 239 E. Saunders Dr. Meetings are also held in Williams at 1111 Stockmens Road and at the Shrine of the Ages on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Check azdailysun.com or "Locations and Schedules" at LDS.org for meeting times by ward/branch. Sunday services consist of Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School and special instruction for various age and interest groups (Priesthood Meeting for men, Relief Society for women, Young Men/Young Women for youth and Primary for children).
Church of the Resurrection: 740 W. University Heights Drive South. It's Communion Sunday and Pastor Bob Norton preaches on "Servants of Christ" based on Philippians 2:19-30, the fifth in the series "Jesus our Joy." Pioneer Club start Sept. 12 on Tuesday afternoons. Each week kids ages K - 5 learn memory verses, play fun games, do skits and creative craft projects, and learn bible stories. One Sunday a month we will be packing the van for the People's Pantry! Drop off food donations weekly at church. Mark your calendars for a "How to Share your Faith" workshop coming Saturday, Sept. 30 based on the principles of Evangelism Explosion. The cost is $20 and includes lunch. 699-2715. cor-pca.org.
Congregation Lev Shalom: 2609 N. Patterson Blvd. Rabbi Mindie Snyder will lead Erev Shabbat Services on Friday at 7 p.m. at the synagogue. 527-8747. levshalomaz.org.
Episcopal Church of the Epiphany: 423 N. Beaver St. Priest Marianna Gronek preaches and celebrates at all services this weekend.If you are looking for a way to help victims of Hurricane Harvey, consider donating through Episcopal Relief and Development: http://www.episcopalrelief.org/. 774-2911. epiphanyaz.org.
Faith Fellowship: Meeting in Knoles Elementary, 4055 E. Butler Ave. Nondenominational. Kids Church available for ages 1-12. This Sunday in our morning service we will be serving communion and be speaking on "Pillars of Our Faith." In our evening service, we are speaking on "The Power of God." faithfellowshipflagstaff.com.
First Congregational Church of Flagstaff, United Church of Christ: 740 N. Turquoise Dr. Rev. Dr. Bill Lyons will preach on "Which life will you choose to lose?" based on Exodus 3: 1-15 and Matthew 16: 21-28. In other church news: Sept. 5 (Tuesday), Prayer Circle at noon; Sept. 6 (Wednesday) evening, 7 p.m. Spiritual meditation discussion and exercise. 774-0890. fccflagstaff.org.
Flagstaff Christian Fellowship: 123 S. Beaver St. Our guest speaker for Sunday will be Bill Haney. Nursery is available for both services. Sunday School classes. College Group will meet for dinner, worship and a message; Tuesday: Women's fall Bible Study on Timothy Keller's book "The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith" and looking deeper into the story of the prodigal son. Sept. 10 baby dedications. 774-3603. fcfonline.org.
Flagstaff Federated Community Church: 400 W. Aspen Ave. We will gather for a Communion Service and then engage in service as an expression of worship. For this Service Worship experience, we will build winter care packages for the 45 students of the Federated Head Start program. You are invited to help us collect jackets, hats, and gloves for these children, ages 3-5, and join us Sunday to package them for each child. There are no scheduled Sunday School classes for this day. 774-7383. flagstafffederatedchurch.org.
Flagstaff Unity Church: 417 W. Santa Fe Ave. Rev. Charlie Tupper is our speaker. Her message is titled "Living at the Edge of Infinite Possibility." Children's program is available. Fellowship time follows the service. 526-8893. unityofflagstaff.org.
Greenlaw Baptist Church: 3400 E. Lockett Road. Sunday School classes for all ages. Pastor Barry Hall will bring the message, "Field Workers Changing Lives" from Matt. 13:36-43. Our monthly potluck will take place after the morning service. Thursday worship service followed by dinner and breakout groups, including our Celebrate Recovery program. If you have an addiction, we can help you in this program. This is a non-judgmental, caring approach to your problem. 526-4939.
Holy Cross Orthodox Church: 6134 Black Bill Road. Divine Liturgy with Father Basil Fr. '9th Hour Morning prayer' with Father Basil 480-991-3009. holycrossflagstaff.org/.
Hope Community Church: 3700 N. Fanning Dr. Discipleship series: Sermon - "God's 'Big Story." Study from 2 Timothy 3:10-17. 526-0677. hopeflagstaff.com.
Living Christ Lutheran Church: 6401 N. US Highway 89. We gather weekly on Sundays to worship through music, teaching, prayer and sacraments. Fellowship time after service. Pastor Kurt Fangmeier will be leading worship. 526-8595. livingchristflagstaff.org.
Peace Lutheran Church: 3430 N. Fourth St. This Sunday Pastor Pape will be speaking "Take up your cross and follow me" from Matthew 16:21-28, Holy Communion will be served at the first service. Fellowship and bible class will follow. 526-9578. peacelutheranflagstaff.org.
Refuge: A Flagstaff Community Church: 14000 Cummings St. Non-denominational church meets weekly to enjoy God's word, fellowship and worship. Sunday school available for children. 607-5728. facebook.com/refugeinflagstaff/.
The Religious Society of Friends (Quaker): Flagstaff Friends Meeting House, 402 S. Beaver St. At our unprogrammed meeting we meet in silence of expectant listening, letting go of the inner disturbances of daily life. A meeting may be completely silent, or, as more often happens, someone will feel moved to speak, to share something which may be of help or guidance to others. 779-3517. flagstaffquakers.org/.
San Francisco de Asis: 1600 E. Route 66. Fr. Dan and Fr. Clement will preach the Gospel of Matthew 16:21-27. 779-1341. sfdaparish.org.
Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church: In the Word Bible Study Tuesday, 10 a.m. On Sunday Pastor Adam will be preaching on Power Struggles. Fellowship between Sunday morning services. Rally Day on Sunday, Sept. 10. Following worship, we will have a luau to kickoff our fall programming. 774-4832. sothflagstaff.org.
Trinity Heights United Methodist Church: 3600 N. Fourth St. Sunday traditional service or casual communion worship service. Children's Sunday School is offered for kids through 5th grade and nursery care is available at both services. We also have an Adult Sunday School class. 526-1397. thumc.com.
A local chain of coffee houses has launched an effort to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Kelso-based Red Leaf Coffee started a drive to collect money and recovery supplies Friday called Fill the Truck. According to General Manager Ann Lucas, the effort involves trying to fill a large truck trailer with supplies before Sept. 13.
Once filled, Red Leaf owner Ray Vandervalk will drive the trailer to Houston, where he and another Red Leaf employee will personally hand out and purchase recovery items for flood victims, Lucas said. Vandervalk will also livestream his drive down and his gift-giving on social media, she said.
According to Lucas, Vandervalk became inspired on Friday morning and instantly took action.
Ray came up with the idea, called me this morning and said, Are you ready to get your wheels spinning? We really need to give back and help the people in Texas, Lucas said. We like to do philanthropic work and help the (local) community, but its great to do something bigger as well.
Red Leaf is encouraging locals to donate all sorts of non-perishable items, specifically mattresses, pillows, coolers, fans, socks, towels, disposable diapers, toiletries and cleaning supplies. All items must be new, not used. Red Leaf also will accept monetary donations in cash, check or card form.
According to Lucas, anyone who donates $50 worth of supplies or money will receive a $15 Red Leaf gift card. $100 will earn the donor a $30 gift card, while $500 will earn a shoutout on social media.
Lucas stressed that donations can be given to all three Red Leaf locations in Kelso, Woodland and Longview. She said as of 4 p.m. Friday, the chain had already received around $4,850 in items or donations.
Although many businesses might simply donate money to charity, Lucas said Red Leaf opted to take things into their own hands.
Red Cross does a great job of getting donations, but theres a lot of things that we just want to be a part of, she said. The owners are very philanthropic and we want to be a part of developing the results. I think thats why Ray wanted to be a part of it.
Even if you can only donate a small item or amount of money, Lucas said every little contribution counts.
Come in and donate and help us reach our goal. Were glad to be helping in any way we can, even if its a small part.
Editors note: Todays editorial originally appeared in The Wenatchee World. Editorial content from other publications is provided to give readers a sampling of regional and national opinion and does not necessarily reflect positions endorsed by the Editorial Board of The Daily News.
Theres a lovely Fred Rogers quote that seems to make the social media rounds after every natural disaster or act of terrorism.
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mothers words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers so many caring people in this world.
I remember that quote whenever Im driving in the car with my small children and they catch snippets of terribly depressing NPR reports and ask me questions. Yes, this bad thing has happened, and now many kind people will help make it better, I say.
Yesterday, the kids and I watched a video clip of a seemingly endless procession of pickup trucks hauling boats along a drenched highway, rolling into Houston. The helpers are on their way.
Here in North Central Washington we are good at helping. We have experience. After wildfires, we fill plastic tubs with cans of food. We lace up our boots and sift through the ashes, side by side. We give to the American Red Cross, the United Way, and the Community Foundation of North Central Washington.
Former World reporter Michelle McNiel covered countless wildfires in her more than 25 years at the newspaper. She shared a fire season memory yesterday, brought to mind by the images coming out of Texas:
I was covering the Carlton Complex fire the night that it burned through Pateros and Alta Lake. An emergency shelter was set up in Chelan, and before fire refugees even got there volunteers from the community started showing up by the carload, helping to push aside desks and convert classrooms into sleeping areas. Vehicle after vehicle showed up to drop off bedding, clothes, water and food. Many people came to invite people to stay in their homes, and teachers stayed late into the night to watch over their displaced students. Amid such destruction, I was inspired by the generosity, compassion and goodwill of the community.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall more than 2,000 miles away from us, and yet a lot of people around here feel called to help. But how? The answer, according to humanitarian aid experts, is to donate money. From the Center for International Disaster Information, about why cash is best:
Most importantly, cash can be used immediately in response to a crisis, and allows disaster relief organizations to purchase exactly what is needed, when its needed. Cash gives relief organizations the means to procure supplies near the affected area, which cuts down on transportation time and cost. Monetary contributions also support local economies and ensure that businesses can operate when relief supplies diminish.
Driving a container of donated items from Wenatchee to Houston may cost more than the value of the items. And, at least for now, hurricane victims have no place to put a box of hand-me-down winter coats. These people are sleeping on cots in school gymnasiums. Some have no home to return to. Even the Texas Diaper Bank says it would prefer monetary donations right now. So where exactly should we send our checks? Many people have grown weary about donating to the Red Cross. The organization came under fire for a lack of accountability after the Haiti earthquake, followed by a series of public relations failures after Hurricanes Sandy and Isaac. But the Red Cross is still a widely trusted relief agency with the infrastructure in place to deliver help quickly. CharityNavigator.org also recommends giving to Houston SPCA, Houston Humane Society, Houston Food Bank, Food Bank of Corpus Christi, or San Antonio Humane Society.
It is hard to tell people that their well-intentioned shipment of clothes or toys isnt as wanted as cold, hard cash. Money doesnt seem personal.
Entering a credit card number into an online form doesnt feel the same as attaching a hand-written note to a teddy bear and sticking it in the mail. But this is not about how donating feels for us, the helpers. Giving financially in the aftermath of faraway disasters is the most compassionate thing we can do.
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Australia is host this week to an emissary from the ancient origins of Western civilisation itself, from the earliest reaches of human civilisation, and from the modern cauldron of the Middle East.
Pope Tawadros II, leader of the worlds Coptic Christians, is among us.
He will see the Prime Minister, Governor-General, Opposition Leader and a slew of state leaders. But more important, he will encourage and minister to the 120,000 or so Copts in Australia.
Our most notable Copt, Peter Khalil, the federal Labor member for Wills, ranks the Pope a man of immense significance for the worlds 15 million or more Copts.
And its not just the spiritual leadership you might associate with the office of Pope.
Says Khalil: Over the centuries, the popes have become in some ways the political leaders of the Copts as well, given the persecution the Copts have faced.
So who are the Copts, how did they sit so centrally at the fountainhead of civilisation and what is their significance today?
The Coptic Orthodox Church is one of the oldest Christian churches. The story is that it was founded by Mark the evangelist not long after the death of Christ. Whether that is strictly true, there is clear evidence of Christianity in Egypt during the first century.
Over time, most Egyptians became Christians. They suffered intermittent persecution under the Roman Empire. The earliest great councils of the church, which determined the contents of belief, the statements of the creed, the books of the Bible, were often led and always heavily influenced by the Copts and the see of Alexandria.
So the Coptic inheritance affects everything that happens in every Christian church every Sunday. The Copts broke with Rome in the fifth century, at the Council of Chalcedon, over a dispute about Christs divinity a divine and human nature in one person, or one nature that fused the divine and the human?
Fifteen centuries later, Pope Tawadros has rather a droll and ecumenical take on this: The divisions happened for three reasons. First were political reasons. Second were terminology reasons, differences in translation. And third were the egos between the churches.
The Copts also represent the living link with the ancient Egypt of the pharaohs. The Coptic alphabet uses some of the ancient symbols from the hieroglyphics of the Pharaonic age. More generally the Coptic language is a transliteration into Greek letters of the ancient Egyptian spoken language.
And what of today?
By a vast distance the Copts are the biggest remaining Christian community in the Middle East and North Africa.
A century ago, something like one in seven people in the Middle East were Christians. Today it is fewer than one in 25 and dwindling.
This is a vast historic tragedy.
Partly because of the growing anti-Christian bias in the Western media, it is the most severely under-covered, big story in the world today.
The Christians have been chased out of Iraq and Syria and face severe persecution and discrimination wherever Islamists are powerful. They endure a degree of official repression from most Middle East governments as well.
Khalil says Islamic State has made the Copts their No 1 target in Egypt. The rollcall of recent atrocities is ghastly. In May a busload of Christian pilgrims heading to a monastery in Egypt was slaughtered, with women and children killed, by an Islamic State-affiliated group. The month before, an Islamic State group bombed two Egyptian Christian churches, killing 45 people.
There are reports, too, of Coptic women and girls being kidnapped and sold into forced marriages and forced religious conversions.
The Copts have suffered on and off official repression. Times were good under Gamal Abdel Nasser, bad under Anwar Sadat, but never worse than the year when Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was president from mid-2012, with a wave of sectarian attacks on the Copts in 2013.
Pope Tawadros speaks of all these terrible things with a certain softness, which befits his position, and also perhaps betokens a certain caution, also fitting, in a leader whose words can lead to reactions with unpredictable consequences.
The Copts are considered a national minority in Egypt, he says. If you read Egyptian history youll know that for the first seven centuries Egypt was completely Christian. Then, when Islam came, Christians and Muslims lived together for 14 centuries.
All Egyptians love their religions, but they dont accept a regime ruled by religion.
His Holiness cites episodes in modern Egyptian history where Copts have felt threatened and left in large numbers. One such wave was under the revolution that Nasser led in 1952. Copts left in large numbers during the 1967 and 1973 Arab wars with Israel. They left again when Sadat was assassinated in 1981.
The worst period by far was the Muslim Brotherhood ascendancy and its immediate aftermath.
Says the Pope: The situation was bad not only for Copts but for all Egyptians during that year, we feared our country was being stolen by that group.
By the Muslim Brotherhood?
Yes.
At the end of Dr Morsis rule in 2013 there were big attacks against Coptic churches. About 100 Christian sites around the country were attacked.
Perhaps diplomatically, he adds: These attacks were not carried out by Egyptian Muslims but by a third group of terrorists.
These were groups affiliated with Islamic State, he says, or Daesh as Arabs call Islamic State.
Although the Pope is diplomatic and avoids making political statements, the Copts are undoubtedly mightily relieved to have Abdel Fattah el-Sisi heading the government. Although some terrorist attacks on Copts have continued, the President makes a serious effort to include the Copts in the nation, going so far as to attend Christmas Eve mass, something no previous president has done.
The Pope sees positive signs now: There is a special law now for building churches. Now we can build churches through discussion with local authorities. Before you needed permission from the president. This sometimes took more than 20 years to obtain and was very difficult.
There are 39 Coptic members of the parliament (nearly 10 per cent of the total) that was elected two years ago. After the previous election there was only one.
According to the new constitution there is complete equality. Practically, this is not applied 100 per cent. But I think our society is changing towards this equality.
The Pope is distressed by the exodus of so many Christians from the Middle East.
We are a very old church, he says. We are the mother of all the churches with respect to history. We keep many of the traditions of the original Christians.
The Middle East is the land of Christianity. Christianity started in Palestine and spread to all the other areas of the Middle East. We are deeply rooted in the Middle East. The eviction of Christians from the Middle East is very dangerous for the peaceful situation of the whole world.
The Pope is grateful to Australia for the welcome the nation has given to he Copts. As well as expressing that thanks, the Pope has a kind of geo-strategic message he will take to Malcolm Turnbull when they meet in Canberra next week. We are trying to build a new Egypt, he says.
After the election of the President and the new parliament, with the Egyptian government all our work together is for the Egypt of the future. Now the major project is to solve the economic problem.
We ask countries that are friends of Egypt, like Australia, to help us. The stability of Egypt will affect the stability of the Middle East. Egypt is considered the heart of the world and the safety of that heart will ensure the safety of the world.
The Popes English is pretty good and in our wide-ranging conversation there is only one question I ask that perplexes him.
Has there ever been a time in his life, I impertinently ask, when he has doubted his faith, when he has been tempted to believe there is no God, that perhaps atheism is the true religion?
He asks me to repeat the question several times and finally gets a colleague to translate it.
When this is done his response is a broad but gentle guffaw.
No, no, he says, I renew my faith through the inner experience of Christ.
But perhaps I could discern in his eyes a glimmer that might be translated: weird people, these Australians.
Jerusalem Post
R ussia's President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo. (photo credit:REUTERS)
The latest move of the American administration canceling part of its assistance to Egypt and suspending another part due to a lack of progress on human rights has left Cairo stunned and angry.
Throughout his electoral campaign, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump reiterated that he would not interfere in the internal policy of foreign countries, especially allied countries. This was in stark contrast to his predecessor, who ostracized President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi the man who ousted the regime of the Muslim Brotherhood led by Mohamed Morsi.
Former president Barak Obama froze part of the assistance package, and turned a deaf ear to Egyptian pleas for greater financial aid and expert military training in guerrilla warfare to defeat Islamic terrorism in the Sinai Peninsula. It had had the effect of pushing Egypt into the embrace of Russia, which was only too happy to help. New links were forged that eased Moscows return to the Middle East after a long hiatus.
Egypt has aligned itself with Russian foreign policy in relation to the Syrian crisis and even voted for a Russian draft resolution on Syria in the Security Council in October 2016.
Trumps election had appeared to herald a new era. President Sisi was invited to Washington a scant three months after the inauguration; warmly received in the White House, he was hailed as a trusted strategic ally.
And then on August 22, the State Department announced that it was cutting $95 million of the annual aid package to Egypt and suspending a further $195m. Following outcry in Egypt, President Trump called Sisi the following day to reaffirm "the strong bonds of friendship between Egypt and the United States. After all, Egypt has received more than $60 billion in American aid since 1977.
The episode left many unanswered questions. Apparently, Egypt had received no warning and only learned about the decision when it was made public so it could not even try to prevent it. The State Department claimed to have informed Sameh Shukry in advance. The Egyptian foreign minister denied this, and said that he only received a call from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the 22nd, when the decision was already cut and dry.
In an effort to defuse the situation, a State Department representative stressed in a press conference that Egypt was a strategic ally and would receive more than a billion dollars for the current year. The amount withheld was partly the result of a recent decision by the Egyptian parliament to limit the activities of civil society NGOs, in spite of American opposition.
At the same time, a so called leak mentioned that close links between Egypt and North Korea were a matter of concern in Washington as well.
The two countries have engaged each other diplomatically for decades. The issue is raised periodically by Washington with no result so far. Egypt does have a troubling record on human rights, but one must remember that it has been a Muslim country for some 1,400 years and the clear majority of the population wants to live according to Sharia, as was demonstrated by surveys carried out in recent years. The new constitution voted on during the Sisi presidency designates Sharia as the main source of legislation. A similar situation is to be found in all Arab countries, and there is no great likelihood that they will become Western democracies anytime soon.
What, then, triggered the US move? Was it a decision taken at a lower level by someone at the State Department with no thought at to its strategic implications? Had the White House been consulted or even informed of a move running contrary to the presidents policy? It is true that the so-called Leahy Law of 2008 mandates the suspension of all or part of American military aid to countries guilty of gross human rights abuses. However, it is up to the secretary of state to decide when to invoke the law, and so far, it has been done sparingly. Did someone decide to embarrass the president by going against his policy? Is it one more indication of a dysfunctional White House staff?
Egypt is the most populous and most influential Arab state, with the largest Arab army. It has been at peace with Israel for nearly four decades, and is the leader of the Sunni coalition against Iran and Islamic terrorism. It was also a staunch ally of America's. This did not prevent Obama from ostracizing Cairo, seeking to appease Tehran and concluding a nuclear agreement that was perceived as a stab in the back by many Arab countries.
President Trump has been trying to undo the damage but with little success so far.
What is clear is that the Egyptian president, embroiled in a bitter fight against Islamic terrorism and with a state of Islamic insurgency in Sinai which also threatens Israel needs American assistance more than ever. He has undertaken sweeping economic reforms much needed, highly unpopular measures that could threaten the regime. Furthermore, he is trying to eliminate extremist trends in the teaching of Islam. These important steps should have been considered by the State Department.
Egypt feels itself insulted and betrayed once again. There have been vociferous protests from political parties, members of parliament and commentators. President Sisi did not add his voice to that concert and told president Trump that he saw in American a strategic partner. Later he welcomed the American delegation led by Jared Kushner, ignoring calls to cancel the meeting. Nevertheless, there is a feeling that despite the protests of goodwill by the new president, America cannot be trusted and that closer links with Russia are needed.
Coincidentally, the head of Russias Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation came to Cairo to finalize an agreement to build four nuclear plants on the Mediterranean coast west of Alexandria for a staggering $27b. The project will be financed by a long-term Russian loan at low interest. Military cooperation and sales of military equipment launched during the Obama years are ongoing, with joint exercises; there are plans to set up a duty-free zone near Port Said on the Suez Canal.
As mentioned above it comes at a price: Egypt is aligning itself with Moscows positions on Syria and helping Russias renewed penetration in Libya. It is also developing links with China, which, like Russia, is making an all-out effort to distance Cairo from Washington.
Meanwhile, the new US administration does not seem to know what it wants, as the latest episode shows. This is not good news for the Sunni coalition or for Israel, who is increasingly worried by Americans lack of response to Iranians encroachment.
The writer, a fellow of The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, is a former ambassador to Romania, Egypt and Sweden.
In Wag the Dog, a 1997 movie, a war is fabricated to cover up a presidents sex scandal. It is a perfect example of how easy it is to work up a hysteria over a non-existing cause.
Imagine something similar happening in Egypt. Imagine a scenario that is farfetched and definitely preposterous. Imagine the western world suddenly ganging up on Egypt and deciding, amongst itself, that, for one bizarre reason or another, Egypt erred big time and deserves intense retribution.
It then attacks Egypt.
Stop for a moment. Didnt the western world attack and destroy Iraq over fake, fabricated causes in 2003?
So, play along. It gets better.
As the western world bombs Egypts infrastructure, army facilities along its, until then, tightly secured borders, and strategic bridges and thoroughfares in Cairo, the world at large, in particular the western one, watches unperturbed. Even more freaky, while some nations ignore the attack altogether, others deem it necessary and deserving.
The reason behind such a ludicrous reaction would be what western media at large, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, too, have paved the way for in their reports on Egypt for the last six years. These publications, by virtue of their misleading tactics, wouldve convinced the world that the attack is due process.
You see, if you are a layperson who doesnt know much about the goings and comings in Egypt, but is an avid reader of western publications, you would, most certainly, believe that Egypt is under a repressive dictatorship and that soon Egypt will implode upon itself; hence, the West must intervene.
You will have heard of death penalties but not why these criminals received such drastic sentences; you will have heard of limitations on freedom of speech, but you wouldnt have been exposed to the incitement, including death-wish lists, flagrantly bellowed on social media, and you will have been told that the traitors, aka Egypts leaders, are giving away their land to the highest bidder, and you will accept it all as a given. Who would think otherwise? Does western media lie, twist facts, or mislead? Heavens, no!
You will have read of a Qatar embargo and severe sanctions inflicted on a ganged-upon, minuscule emirate but not why there is a embargo: ruthless interference in other countries affairs and becoming an open playground for terrorists.
You will have been told that the poor are getting poorer, that prices are skyrocketing, and that the subsidies on fuel and power are being removed; you would have never perused an article discussing the efforts to create power, to build an expansive road network and better homes to replace the shacks many live in, to cure millions of the debilitating disease, Hepatitis C, and to support those in need by providing extensive subsidies.
According to western media, Egypt will have deserved this powerful reaction by virtue of the image projected prior to the fictitious attack. According to that image, Egypt may well be deserving a retribution equivalent to blatant attacks such as those that hit Libya, Syria, and Iraq.
Lets consider what the media of the democratic world tells the world.
It didnt take western media long to decide that June 30th was a coup that went against the legitimately elected Brotherhood regime disregarding the millions that called for its downfall and neglecting the euphoria that swept Egypt immediately afterwards.
Since then, western media exerts every effort to downplay accomplishments and overstate defeats. Every issue on Egypt in western media is presented with headlines and content that twists facts, alludes to failures, and scrutinizes even the biggest of successes.
After June 30th, the headlines of western media read, Morsi is the Arab Worlds Mandela, Does Egypt even matter? and The military coup is a cancer eating away at Egypt.
According to The Telegraph, El Sisi plotted a military takeover even while Hosni Mubarak was still in power. This is so bizarre it is mind boggling. By the way, Egyptians had not heard of El Sisi before 2012, and for him to predict Mubaraks downfall and scheme a take over when it occurs is ludicrous.
And yet, a Google search proves that, in 2014, Egypts most capturing story was not even mentioned. In confidence with the new leadership, in eight days, Egyptians came up with the 64 billion Egyptian pounds needed to build the Suez Canal Extension. Nothing appeared on this issue in western media.
And so in another opinion piece in The Guardian, Egypts new masters are wrecking its long tradition of religious freedom was mystifying. The sub headline says, Sisi is trying to remake the peoples identity by exploiting division.
Both concepts, remaking peoples identity and exploiting division are erroneous to the core. El Sisi cannot remake peoples identity even if he tried, and in no way is he exploiting division.
The Financial Times is no better. Dark days for Egypts amateur vice squad draws its off-the-wall conclusions from speaking to one single Egyptiana bawab, or doorman. It builds a dismal portrait of a country in disarray from the views of this single person.
The subheading reads, Egyptians used to laugh and smile, but not any more, and I beg to differ; Egyptians laugh and smile more now than they used to while ex-President Morsi was in power. And, because it is in their nature, they will continue to laugh, smile, and enjoy what life gives them because it is innate in them, despite what The Financial Times alludes to.
In March, as President El Sisi was about to head to Washington, Human Rights published an article titled, Sisis Egypt is a Poor Partner for the United States in the Fight Against Terrorism. It warns President Trump against amending ties with Egypt, concluding that Hosting Egypts repressive president sends the wrong message to the world on how to overcome the scourge of violent extremism and terrorism. And today the same explicit notions continue as Forbes headline reads, Washington should dump Egypts new pharaoh: Dictator Al Sisi turns country into open-air prison.
My two cents: either these journalists are absolute imbeciles who have no clue what they are writing about or, the other extreme, they have a clear goal and are out to accomplish it: ruin Egypt.
Now, after all this, if you were a westerner, wouldnt you say that Egypt deserved the heavy handed retaliation?
Need I say more?